- K \ sJs "-. NONTi L-||\ ON A-W I: IA / "i r l OV" 4ft, ", 'l,, "I I I ' rl,-e . I I 1'11111 1, II I I,, I I HISTORY OF 1IAk AND MONTCALM COUNTIES MICHIGAN, WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF THEIR PROMINENT MEN AND PIONEERS. BY JOH N S. SC EN CK. PHIILADELPRIA: D. W. ENSIGN & CO. 1881. PRESS OF J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., PHILADELPHIA. P R EFAC E. IN the compilation of this volume the object steadily kept in view has been to prepare an impartial history of the counties of Ionia and Montcalm, to give due prominence to the most important events that have transpired within their borders, or that have had a near relationship thereto, and to collate and arrange the same in a manner convenient for reference and preservation, rather than the endeavor to cumber its pages with well-rounded periods, or of giving place to the narration of traditions and incidents, amusing, perhaps, yet of doubtful credence. For convenience of arrangement, therefore, the work has been divided into three parts. Part First treats of matters general in their character, yet of equal interest to residents of both counties, embracing, as it does, a brief rtsume of affairs existing in the territory now designated the State of Michigan during the Indian, French, and English domination, matters relating to Indian treaties and cessions of lands, the Indians and Indian traders of pioneer days, internal improvements, and extended sketches of the various military organizations wherein the brave men representing the two counties served during the war of the Rebellion. Part Second is devoted to Ionia County, its city and townships, where will be found detailed at considerable length its pioneer, agricultural, manufacturing, civil, educational, professional, and religious history; while Part Third, similar in its arrangement to Part Second, finds subject-matter in the county of Montcalm and its twenty townships. To compass this work neither labor nor expense has been spared, the preparation of the manuscript alone having involved an expenditure of time equivalent to the work of one person for nearly two years. Something has been gathered from published works, more by diligent researches among Federal, State, county, and township archives, and still more from surviving pioneers and the best-informed people of these counties. Hence, to all and each of these persons our most sincere thanks are returned. Especial acknowledgments are also due to the editors and publishers of newspapers, to the pastors of churches, and to county, city, village, and township officials, the officers of public institutions, and the members of various secret orders, all of whom have responded promptly and most courteously to requests for data. As completed, the work is now presented to its patrons. That some errors will be found in the spelling of proper names is not improbable. That such can be avoided, however, is equally as impossible, from the fact that the persons mentioned by name in this work aggregate many thousands, traces of whom (for the most part) have been obtained from written records, prepared very frequently by those who, if they could do so, were not very particular whether they wrote legibly, or spelled their neighbor's name correctly or not. Yet, firmly believing that the History of Ionia and Montcalm Counties will stand the test of perusal and investigation, it is without further remark or apology respectfully submitted. J. S. S. PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 1, 1881. 3 CONTENTS. EI I S T O RT I Oa IL. PAERT FIErST. GENERAL HISTORY OF THE TWO COUNTIES. CHAPTER PAGE I.-Descriptive......... 9 II.-Early Explorations....... 10 III.-The French and their Indian Allies, from 1671 to 1707 12 IV.-Michigan Indians in 1707. 14 V.-The Indians, French, English, and Americans, from 1707 to 1815........ 15 VI.-Indian Treaties and Cessions of Lands.,. 21 VII.-Indian Traders, the Indians in Pioneer Days, and Cursory Remarks.... 27 VIII.-Internal Improvements...... 31 IX.-Military Record of Ionia and Montcalm... 42 X.-Third Infantry....... 45 XI.-Eighth and Ninth Infantry..... 49 XII.-Fifteenth and Sixteenth Infantry. 55 XIII.-Twenty-first Infantry....... 60 XIV.-Twenty-fifth and Twenty-seventh Infantry.. 78 XV.-First Engineers and Mechanics and First United States Sharpshooters (Berdan's).. 83 XVI.-First, Second, and Third Cavalry. 88 XVII.-Sixth Cavalry...... 94 XVIII.-Tenth Cavalry..... 97 XIX.-Other Soldiers from Ionia and Montcalm Counties. 100 IA.LRT SECO02TD. HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY. Campbell Township. Danby it Easton 4 Keene i. Lyons " North Plains " Otisco "' Orange " Orleans " Odessa " Portland " Ronald " Sebewa " PAoR.. 209.. 215.. 223.. 230. 237. 265. 278..295..306.. 314.. 321.. 339.. 350 P.iA-T THCIERD. HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY. CHAPTER I.-Location-Topography-First Correction-Line IL.-Civil Changes-Organization, Etc. III.-Courts and Attorneys IV.-County Sites and County Property. V.-Civil List-Agricultural Societies. VI.-The Press-Post-Offices and Postmasters PAGE. 356. 357. 361. 363. 365. 368 CHAPTER I.-Location, Topography, and Mineral Resources. II.-Civil Changes III.-Original Surveys-Early Settlements IV.-The County-Seat V.-Organization, Etc. VI.-Courts and Attorneys. VII.-County Property and Buildings. VIII.-Ionia County Civil List IX.-The Press X.-Post-Offices and Postmasters XI.-County Societies, Insurance, Agricultural. XII.-Statistical CITY OF IONIA.... PAGE. 104. 107. 109. 111.,115. 116. 119. 120. 123. 125. 127. 130. 137 VII.-Statistical CITY OF GREENVILLE. Eureka Township Bel videre " Bushnell " Bloomer " Crystal ' Cato " Douglass " Day " Evergreen " Fair Plains " Ferris " Home " Montcalm " Maple Valley Township Pierson " Pine " Reynolds is Richland i Stanton Village Sidney Township Winfield " 11 q I. 370. 374. 396. 404. 406.416. 431. 436.441.444. 446. 451..461.468.472.477..480. 483. 487..490. 492. 496.500 Ionia Township. Berlin " Boston " ~ ~ ~ ~ c ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ C.175, 180. 192 B I0 0- GR A-:P H 0 A IL. PACqE PAGE Erastus Yeomans..... faoing 148 Dan T. Fargo,.,,... 162 Richard Dye..... " 150 A. J. Webber.....163 Sanford A. Yeomans..... 159 W. B. Wells.....163 George W. Webber..... 159 Allen B. Morse... 164 Archibald F. Carr. 160 Benjamin Harter..... 165 Osmond Tower...... 160 Isaac H. Thayer.....165 Amasa Sessions...... 162 Erastus H. Stanton..... 165 5 6 CONTENTS. 6 CONTENTS.:BIOG E]EICAAi. William Sessions George L. Taft Stephen M. Bayard, M.D.. Lyman Simmons John B. Welch John C. Blanchard Sylvester Taylor Oscar Talcott C. Waterbury Frederick Hall Alonzo Sessions Lerand Benedict William C. Reed George Hosford B. W. Backus John H1. English Edson English Amasa F. and Arcbelaus C.' Becket Chapman Isaiah G. Frost William Hixson. James Bowen Mathew Brown Aaron B. Pratt Nathaniel Searing Samuel W. Webber John R. Dougherty Stephen H. Kimball Lewis Willey Oliver S. Kimball. Josiah E. Just Adam L. Roof Joseph Townsend N. B. Hayes A. M. Willett A. Y. Sessions Rufus R. Cook John M. Brown. James Moon George Cooley Erastus S. Jenks Edmund Ingalls Clark L. Demorest George C. Spencer M. R. Weter D. B. Hoppough Edwin R. Williams Israel M. Wolverton M. V. Olmatead. Eli A. Coleman Abram Hunt A. K. Ha~ll Daniel Hoyt Esteven Russell. P. R. Howe Harvey Bartow Tristram Freeman Alvason Hopkins Lee PAGE 167 167 168 168 169 170 171 171 173 173 188 189 189 190 207 208 between 208, 209 " 208, 209 221 222 facing 232 235 facing 236 259 260 260 261 261 262 262 263 between 264, 265 275 276 276 289 289 29,0 290 291 292 292 293 294 294 301 302 302 303 304 305 313 319 335 336 338 between 338, 339 Sylvester K. 'Welch Mathew Van Vleck Lorand J. Mosher William M. Steere George Pray, M.D. Joseph P. Powell D. W. Goddard John Friend Andrew M. Ralston H. M. Fuller John Avery, M.D. Charles M. Martin, M.D. Joseph J. Shearer Joel W. Clark David G. Slawson James Taylor Henry Vanallen. Samuel Monroe A. Gleason. William M. Thomas William Castel Robert W. Hoy Charles R. Dickinson. Thomas R. La Due Joel A. Proctor George W. Palmer J. Tennant, M.D. Harley Bump Charles Cross John H. Savage. Truman J. Turrill Paul Murray E. C. Cummings. Chauncey Case Allen Macomber Albert S. French B. B. Crawford J. P. Shoemaker John D. Fargo Lester R. Miller Lyman H. Pratt James Greffeth Andrew J. Russell Henry C. Ferris Orville F. Mason Mioajah Dougrlass N. B. Scott Samuel Shaffer Christopher Hare E. B. Moore Alonzo M. Wolaver W. S. Nelson Henry Watson Ambrose Atwood James W. Willett H. H. Hinds Isaac Gilleo PAGM between 338, 339 facing 344.~346.347 348.~349.~354.~354.~355.~392.~393.~393.~394.~401.~402.~402.~402.~403.~411.~413.~414.~414.~422.~423.~424.~425.~425.~426.~426.~427.~428.~428.~429.~435.~439.~440.~456.~457.~458.~458.~458.~459.~460.~463.~464.~464.~465.~466.~466.~470.~470 facing- 471.~476.~485 facing 493.~495.~502 I CONTENTS. 7 ILTC TYST s rr A, 1. -TI0IT ~S PAGE Capitol Building, Lansing.... Frontispiece Outline Map of Ionia and Montcalm Counties. facing 9 Geological Map..... " 106 View of Ionia County Jail.." 119 1OSTI-A- COIUT JT rYZIONIA. Portraits of Erastus Yeomans and Wife... facing 148 Portrait of Sanford A. Yeomans.. " 149 " Richard Dye and Wife.. " 150 " George W. Webber.... " 158 Residence of George W. Webber... between 158,159 Portrait of A. F. Carr.. " 160,161 Residence of A. F. Carr..... " 160, 161 " Osmond Tower... " 160, 161 Portrait of Osmond Tower.. " 160, 161 Residence of Amasa Sessions, with Portrait. " 162, 163 " Dan T. Fargo, with Portrait. " 162, 163 " A. J. Webber.... " 162, 163 " W. B. Wells... " 162, 163 Portrait of W. B. Wells..... " 162, 163 Residence of A. B. Morse... facing 164 " Benjamin Harter. between 164, 165 " I. H. Thayer... " 164, 165 Portrait of Erastus H. Stanton....... 166 " William Sessions.....167 " George L. Taft. 167 it Stephen M. Bayard, M.D... 168 " Lyman Simmons.... 168 " Sylvester Taylor.... 171 " Oscar Talcott...... 171 " C. Waterbury...... 171 Residence of J. B. Welch, with Portraits...facing 175 Portraits of Nathaniel Searing and Wife Portrait of S. W. Webber. Residence of S. W. Webber " John R. Dougherty " Lewis Willey, with Portraits " Stephen H. Kimball Portraits of Stephen H. Kimball and Wife " Oliver S. Kimball and Wife Portrait of Josiah E. Just. PAGg. 259 between 260, 261 " 260, 261 " 260, 261 '" 260, 26i facing 261. 261. 262. 262. 263 between 264, 265 " 264, 265 " Adam L. Roof. Residence of Joseph Townsend Portraits of Joseph Townsend and Wife NORTH PLAIN Residence of N. B. Hayes. Portrait of J. Olmsted, Sr. " A. M. Willett. Residence of A. M. Willett " A. Y. Sessions, with Portraits OTISCO. Portrait of R. R. Cook " Mrs. C. W. Cook Residence of Mrs. R. R. Cook Portraits of James Moon and Wife " Erastus S. Jenks and Wife Residence of George Cooley " Clark L. Demorest S. between 274, 275. 275. 276 facing 276 " 277 between 288, 289 " 288, 289 facing 289.290.291 facing 292 " 292. 293 between 294, 295 " 294, 295 " 294, 295 Portraits of George C. Spencer and Wife. Residence of M. R. Weter. " Sarah Hovey. " D. B. Hoppough BERLIN. Portrait of Alonso Sessions Residence of Alonzo Sessions c" Lorand Benedict, with Portraits " William C. Reed, with Portraits " George Hosford Portrait of B. W. Backus.. facing 188 between 188, 189 facing 189 " 190 " 191. 191 ORANGE. Residence of Edwin R. Williams Portraits of Edwin R. Williams and Wife. Portrait of Israel M. Wolverton. " M. V. Olmstead Portraits of Eli A. Coleman and Wife " Abram Hunt and Wife Portrait of A. K. Hall facing 301. 301. 302. 302.303. 304. 305 BOSTON. Residence of Henry Frace. View of South Boston Grange-Hall Portrait of John H. English " Edson English. Portraits of Amasa F. and Archelaus C. Lee " Becket Chapman and Wife ORLEANS. Residence of Daniel Hoyt, with Portraits. facing 312 facing 201 " 201 " 206. 208 between 208, 209 " 208, 209 ODESSA. Portrait of Esteven Russell. 320 DANBY. Portraits of Isaiah G. Frost and Wife " William Hixson and Wife. 221. 222 PORTLAND. Residence of Laban H. Smith Portrait of P. R. Howe " H. Bartow " Tristram Freeman Portraits of Alvason Hopkins and Wife " Sylvester K. Welch and Wife. facing 321. 336 facing 337. 338 between 338, 339 " 338, 339 KEENE. Portraits of James Bowen and Wife. Portrait of Mathew Brown Portraits of Aaron B. Pratt and Wife facing 232.235 facing 236 RONALD. Portraits of Mathew Van Vleck and Wife. Residence of L. J. Mosher, with Portraits. Portraits of William M. Steere and Wife. " George Pray and Wife. Residence of George Pray. " Joseph P. Powell, with Portraits. LYONS. Portrait of W. H. Woodworth. Residence of Nathaniel Searing facing 344 " 346. 347. 348 facing 348 " 349 facing 246 a' 259 __ ___I 8 CONTENTS. 8 CONTENTS. IL Ti-TSTR-A TIO:3SS SEBEWA. PAGE Residence of John Friend, with Portraits. facing 352 D. W. Goddard, with Portraits.. " 354 " Andrew M. Ralston, with Portraits. " 355 2OITC.&rOLMaI COfTTNTrY. Montcalm County Court-House.. facing 364 CRYSTAL. Chauncey Case. CATO. Residence of Allen Macomber, with Portraits " Albert S. French, with Portraits PAGE facing 431 facing 438 4' 440 CITY OF GREENVILLE. First Congregational Church Portrait of H. M. Fuller John Avery, M.D. Charles M. Martin, M.D.. Joseph J. Shearer EUREKA. Residence of M. A. Berridge Portrait of Joel W. Clark Residence of James Taylor " David G. Slawson, with Portrait " Henry Vanallen, with Portraits " Samuel Monroe, with Portraits facing 389 " 392. 393.394. 394 FAIR PLAINS. Residence of B. B. Crawford, with Portraits Portraits of J. P. Shoemaker and Wife Residence of J. D. Fargo, with Portraits " Lester R. Miller, with Portraits " James Greffeth, with Portraits Portraits of Lyman H. Pratt and Wife " Andrew J. Russell and Wife FERRIS. Residence of H. C. Ferris, with Portraits. Portrait of Orville F. Mason Residence of Micajah Douglass, with Portraits. " David Eschliman Portraits of N. B. Scott and Wife Residence of Samuel Shaffer "t Christopher Hare, with Portraits HOME. facing 456.457 between 458, 459 " 458, 459 facing 459.459. 460 facing 463. 464. 464 facing 465. 465 facing 466 ~ 467 facing 400. 401 facing 402 between 402, 403 " 402, 403 facing 403 BUSHNELL. Residence of A. Gleason, with Portraits Portraits of William M. Thomas and Wife Portrait of William Castel.. " Robert W. Hoy facing 410.413.414.414 Portraits of E. B. Moore and Wife and M. B. Moore. Portrait of W. S. Nelson. Portraits of A. M. Wolaver and Wife facing 470 " 471. 471 BLOOMER. Portrait of Thomas R. La Due. " Joel A. Proctor Residence of G. W. Palmer " J. Tennant, M.D.. " Harley Bump, with Portraits Portrait of John H. Savage Portraits of Truman J. Turrill and Wife Residence of Paul Murray. C. R. Dickinson " E.. C.ummings " Charles Cross.423.424 facing 424 " 425 " 426.427.428 facing 428 " 428 " 429 " 431 MONTCALM. Residence of Henry Watson, with Portraits PINE. Portrait of Ambrose Atwood STANTON VILLAGE. Portrait of H. H. Hinds Portraits of James W. Willett and Wife Buildings of John W. S. Pierson WINFIELD. Residence of Isaac Gilleo, with Portraits. facing 476. 485 facing 492 " 493 "4 494 facing 502 - I L - - - hA cF r ra c T A r r I C! 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E A T 0 N c O. LIIIIIIIL =. H ISTORY IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICIGAN. JONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. P A T Z FI RST. GENERAL HISTORY OF THE TWO COUNTIES. BY JOHN S. SCHENCK. CHAPTER I. DESCRIPTIVE. Relative Position of the Two Counties-Natural Features Fifty Years ago-Trees of the Forest-Animals-Birds-Human Occupants. Two distinct yet adjoining civil divisions of the State of Michigan lying northwest from Lansing, the capital, and southwest from the township of Coe, Isabella Co., the supposed geographical centre of the mainland of the Lower Peninsula, comprise territory affording subject-matter for consideration in the following pages. As established in 1831* these divisions formed a parallellogram forty-eight miles long due north and south, and twenty-four miles wide from east to west, whose southeast corner rested equidistant (twenty-four miles) from the base- and principal meridianlines, as fixed by the United States survey. Together they now form the Twenty-Fourth State Senatorial District, and separately are known as the counties of Ionia and Montcalm. Fifty years ago the region now embraced by the sixteen townships of Ionia and the twenty townships of Montcalm was noted only as a district of wild, unsurveyed, government lands, of which but a small portion had as yet been acquired by treaty with the Indians, and all of it was still occupied by small bands of the Ottawa and Chippewa tribes according to treaty stipulations.t Its natural features were similar in all respects to those which have characterized the State. In brief, a tract of country containing about one thousand two hundred and ninety-six square miles, whose greatest altitude-the northern part of Montcalm County-reached a height of three hundred and fifty feet above the level of Lake Michigan, and, thence trending gradually towards its principal watercourses and to the westward, its undulating surface formed successive ranges of rolling uplands, bluffs, plains, and low meadows. The Grand River and its tributaries and the pellucid waters of numerous small lakes assisted to diversify the landscape, while other depressions were occupied by willow, maple, ash, tamarack, and cranberry swamps. Generally, it was heavily timbered with beech, maple, red, white, black, and burr oak, linn, poplar, white-wood, iron-wood, cherry, elm, ash, hickory, pine, butternut, blackwalnut, tamarack, sycamore, cedar, thorn, plum, hackberry, spruce, birch, alder, boxwood, and other varieties; and in many places were dense thickets of briers, willows, prickly ash, sassafras, and hazel. Yet oak-openings and small prairies were not infrequent, and a considerable portion of the timbered lands were so free from underbrush that the startled deer could be seen bounding between the treetrunks hundreds of yards away. Here, at night,,was heard the howling of innumerable wolves, always 4p|rently hungry and seeking with ill success for food, thi'principal reliance being some superannuated or crippleideer which they were able to overtake. Quite frequently a b bear rolled his unwieldy form beneath the trees, and at stilF wider intervals the shrill scream of the panther, fiercest of American beasts, was heard afar in the forests, making all other animals tremble with fear and startling even the Indian brave with the prospect of more than ordinary danger. Raccoons, foxes, squirrels, beaver, mink, muskrat, and other small animals abounded; wild turkeys trooped noisily through the undergrowth; wild geese and ducks in the spring and autumn seasons often covered the surface of the lakes and the quiet waters of the streams; while amid the forests and openings flitted thousands of the smaller birds, of varied song and plumage. Its human occupants, the Ottawas and Chippewas, and possibly a few Pottawattomies,-remnants of three of the 9 * Montcalm contained but sixteen townships when formed by act approved March 2, 1831. t See chapter on Indian treaties. 2 10 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. I most powerful and warlike tribes known in what at an early day was designated the Northwest Territory,-were mostly to be found along the valleys of the Grand, the Flat, the Maple, and the Looking-Glass Rivers, especially along the former stream, where they had several small villages. They and their forefathers had occupied this region for many years, yet it was traditionary among them that the Sauks, a powerful and sanguinary people (whose principal village was at or near the present site of Saginaw City), had preceded them here, and in their might not only felt entirely able to keep their own, but were often in the habit of making bloody forays into the territory of other tribes, who consequently hated them and longed to exterminate or at least to expel the Sauks from a country regarded as an Indian paradise, teeming as it did with fish and game of almost every kind. At last the Ottawas and Chippewas combined their forces for a general attack upon their common enemy, the Sauks, and moved in two columns, the northern Ottawas and Chippewas via Mackinac, Lake Huron, and Saginaw Bay, thence up the Saginaw River, while the southern Ottawas marched northward until a junction was effected with their allies. The Sauks were surprised and defeated in successive battles; their villages were given over to destruction, and, completely overthrown,-ay, almost exterminated,-a miserable remnant of them only escaped by fleeing rapidly down the Grand River valley to Lake Michigan, thence to the western shores of that lake. However, as the territory embraced in the two counties under consideration forms part of the great commonwealth of Michigan, so long dominated by the French and their Indian allies, and by the English, too, for a few years preceding, during, and after the war for American independence, it is deemed pertinent to briefly outline, in chapters immediately succeeding, some of the most important events that occurred and were connected with that occupancy. CHAPTER II. EARLY EXPLORATIONS. The Discoveries of Cartier-Of Champlain-English and Dutch Settlements-The Jesuits-The Iroquois-Marquette founding Missions-St. Lusson taking Possession of Michigan. COMMANDING a French exploring expedition, George Cartier sailed up the river St. Lawrence to Montreal in 1535, and formally took possession of all the country in its vicinity in the name of King Francis I., styling the new possessions New France. He made some attempts to establish settlements, but all were abandoned in 1543, and for more than half a century the disturbed condition of affairs in the mother-country entirely prevented the French people from utilizing the important discoveries made by Cartier. During the year 1603, Samuel de Champlain, the cele brated French mariner and discoverer, led an expedition to Quebec, made a permanent settlement there, and, in fact, founded the colony of Canada. From Quebec and from Montreal, which was soon after permanently established, the adventurous Frenchmen, comprising explorers, furtraders, and missionaries, pushed rapidly westward, and as early as 1615 Champlain himself visited the Hurons on the shores of Lake Manitouline, while, almost as early, priests of the Franciscan order set up missions in the same locality. The French began a system of dealing with the Indians which at once gained their confidence and respect. They assimilated themselves to Indian habits, treated them as equals, took wives from among their daughters, and, with the exception of the Iroquois, from that time until the decline of French power on this continent the Indian tribes bordering on the St. Lawrence and Great Lakes were their faithful friends and allies. The English, meanwhile, had settled in Virginia in 1606, and three years later a vessel, bearing the Dutch flag, yet commanded by the English sailor Capt, Henry Hudson, sailed into the beautiful river which still bears the captain's name. These events were followed in 1620 by the landing of the Pilgrims from the " Mayflower," and in 1623 by the commencement of permanent Dutch settlements at New Amsterdam. Thus three distinct streams of emigration, with three attendant claims of sovereignty, began to make their way westward from the Atlantic coast, and, to all appearances, the French, having such ample water communication with the interior by means of the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes, had decidedly the advantage in the race for empire,-at least, so far as Michigan was concerned. In 1625 a few Jesuits, the vanguard of those fiery champions of the Cross, arrived on the shores of the St. Lawrence, and, destined to crowd aside the more peaceful or more inert Franciscans, soon appropriated that missionary field to themselves. Their course was generally across Canada by land to Lake Manitouline, and thence in canoes through Lakes Huron, Superior, and Michigan; for the more convenient route by way of the Niagara River and Lake Erie was guarded by the ferocious Iroquois, whom Champlain, by an ill-advised attack, had made the implacable enemies of the French. Those terrible confederates, the Iroquois, already far famed for their valor and ferocity, about the year 1650 became more redoubtable than ever. Having destroyed the Kahquahs and Eries on the shores of Lake Erie, they (about 1659) attacked the Hurons or Wyandots located on the eastern shore of the lake which bears their name, inflicting such terrible defeat that numbers of the conquered nation are said to have sought shelter on the frozen borders of Hudson's Bay. The greater portion, however, fled to the Ojibway* hunting-grounds, on the southern shore of Lake Superior, as did also the Ottawawas, or Ottawas, who had been located in the vicinity of the Ottawa River, in Canada. The implacable Iroquois followed the fugitives to their new haunts, but the latter, by the help of the Chippewas, were at length enabled to repulse their arrogant enemies, who thenceforth seldom sought a war-path which led so far to the northward. The celebrated Father Marquette, accompanied by Father Claude Dablon, visited the friendly Chippewas in 1668, and, * The original name of those Indians now known as Chippewas. EARLY EXPLORATIONS. 11 finding them in possession at the Saut Sainte Marie, established there the mission of Sainte Marie du Saut, and soon afterwards founded that of St. Esprit among the Ottawas, near the western extremity of Lake Superior. But about 1670 the Ottawas, finding that they were no longer molested by the terrible Iroquois, established their principal village on the island of Michilimackinac,-since variously known as Mackinac or Mackinaw,-and there Marquette founded the mission of St. Ignace in 1671. From this point the Ottawas spread southward, especially along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, which was of easy access by means of their famous Mackinaw boats, and, thence paddling up the Grand River, they doubtless first visited the hunting-grounds of the Sauks, including those within the confines of Ionia and Montcalm Counties during the last quarter of the seventeenth century. These hunting, fishing, and predatory incursions of the Ottawas and Chippewas into the Sauk country finally resulted in a series of sanguinary conflicts, which only ended, as before mentioned, by the surviving Sauks fleeing, terror-stricken, from the graves and hunting-grounds of their fathers. At this time (1671) the Pottawattomies were located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, from Green Bay to the site of Chicago, while the Miamis dwelt and hunted on the eastern shore, from the head of the lake to nearly the mouth of Grand River. During the same year that Marquette established the mission of St. Ignace on the island of Michilimackinac, another scene was enacted at the Saut du Sainte Marie which was of great significance to the French participants, of awe and wonder on the part of the assembled crowds of savages, and is of historical interest to those who occupy the land to-day. We refer to the taking possession of the present State of Michigan and of adjacent lands by St. Lusson in the name of Louis XIV., King of France. It was the first declaration respecting the sovereignty of the territory embracing these two counties, and as such will be alluded to at some length. Daumont de St. Lusson, a French officer, had been sent out in the year 1670 by the intendant of Canada to search for minerals in the Lake Superior region. Returning to the straits, he had determined to signalize his expedition by an important and imposing ceremony. For this purpose he had called together all the tribes of the lake-country, and the savages, already favorably disposed towards the French and generally fond of councils, speeches, and ceremonies, had promptly responded to the call, there being no less than fourteen tribal organizations represented in the grand assemblage. Conspicuous among these numerous children of the forest were a score of Frenchmen almost as varied in appearance as their red brethren, the majority of these being voyageurs,-a wild and hardy race whose lives were spent on the streams and in the forests of the wilderness, and who, with French versatility, had become half-Indian in garb, manner, and appearance. The most prominent was Nicholas Perrott, the historian and interpreter of the expedition. Louis Joliet, the distinguished explorer, whose name is now borne by a city in Illinois, was present, also four Jesuits from the mission close by,-viz., Claude Dablon, superior of the missions I of the lakes, Gabriel Druillettes, Claude Allouez,* and Louis Andre. But the great man of the assemblage, in the eyes of both whites and Indians, was St. Lusson. He caused a large wooden cross to be prepared, also a cedar post, to which was attached a metal plate graven with the arms of France. When all was in readiness the commander, attended by the four priests, led forward his fourteen followers, fully armed and equipped. The Indian warriors gazed with curious and half-suspicious eyes on the unwonted scene. Dablon blessed the cross, and it was then raised erect and planted in the ground, while with uncovered heads the Frenchmen sang the " Vexilla Regis." The post bearing the royal arms was then placed beside the cross, accompanied by the singing of the " Exaudiat" and by a prayer for the French king on the part of one of the Jesuits. Holding his drawn sword in his right, St. Lusson then raised a sod of earth with his left, and in a loud voice made this proclamation in the French language: "In the name of the Most High, Mighty, and Redoubted Monarch, Louis, fourteenth of that name, Most Christian King of France and of Navarre, I take possession of this place, Sainte Marie du Saut, as also of Lakes Huron and Superior, the island of Manitouline, and all countries, rivers, lakes, and streams contiguous and adjacent thereto, both those which have been discovered and those which may be discovered hereafter, in all their length and breadth, bounded on the one side by the seas of the North and of the West, and on the other by the South Sea; declaring to the natives thereof that from this time forth they are vassals of His Majesty, bound to obey his laws and follow his customs; promising them, on his part, all succor and protection against the incursions and invasions of their enemies; declaring to all other potentates, princes, sovereigns, states, and republics, to them and their subjects, that they cannot and are not to seize or settle upon any of the parts of the aforesaid countries save under the good pleasure of His Most Christian Majesty, and of him who will govern in his behalf, and this on pain of incurring his resentment and the efforts of his arms. Long live the king!" " Long live the king!" repeated the Frenchmen present, and the thousands of savages collected around yelled in unison. Perhaps the sons of the forest and prairie would not have assisted in the assumption of sovereignty over the country they had so long called their own, by an unknown potentate beyond the seas, but for the fact that all the tribes of this region were in great fear of the terrible Iroquois, who occupied the central and western portions of the present State of New York, and whose native valor was made still more dangerous to their enemies by the muskets and ammunition received from their friends, the Dutch of New Amsterdam. The upper lake-tribes, therefore, were glad to receive the promise of assistance from the French against these dreaded foes, and felt that the acquisition of a few French muskets and some powder and lead would 7 I * Father Allouez first visited the Lake Superior regions in 1666, and on his return reported the discovery of copper-ore in large quantities. 12 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. tend materially to put them on an equality with their enemies. Probably they meant no more than this when they responded with shouts to St. Lusson's proclamation. But St. Lusson and his superiors had other objects in view. They were quietly working for the possession of all the territory visited by their trading, exploring, or proselyting parties, and this, in later years, became a station on the line of French occupation, which extended from the mouth of the St. Lawrence, thence tia that river, the Great Lakes, the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, to the mouth of the latter stream. The ceremony of taking possession was finally concluded by a harangue from Father Claude Allouez, addressed to the Indians, wherein he extolled the great knowledge and power of the French king, and then followed the drawing up and signing of the proces-verbal, or official statement of the whole transaction. Such a statement, made on the spot, was the almost invariable accompaniment of any important act done by a French officer, it being written, signed, and sealed by a notary if one was present; if not, then by the commander. Thus, by the action of Daumont de St. Lusson, France was formally invested with the sovereignty of the present State of Michigan, and of many adjacent lands. True, the proclamation and the proces-verbal did not give possession of the territory in question, but, like the execution of a deed, it gave a legal title in the eyes of the French, and, as it was afterwards made good by the erection of forts and trading-posts throughout the Northwest, by alliances formed with and the protection afforded to their Indian " vassals," none disputed their right to the country except their ancient enemies, the Dutch and English. CHAPTER III. THE FRENCH AND THEIR INDIAN ALLIES FROM 1671 TO 1707. French Enterprise-Marquette and Joliet discover the MississippiMarquette's Mission to the Illinois-His Return-His DeathLa Salle-His various Explorations-His subsequent Career and Death-French Dominion-Erecting Forts-Denonville's Expedition-Founding Detroit-Cadillac-Various Matters respecting the Miamis, Ottawas, and Pottawattomies. THE French pushed forward rapidly after 1671 in many directions and under various leaders to make good their possession of the lands over which they had so loudly proclaimed their sovereignty. Inspired by zeal for his religion, the Jesuit Father Jaques Marquette was one of the foremost of these bold explorers of the Northwest. In 1672, in company with the trader Louis Joliet, he went up Green Bay into the present State of Wisconsin, and the following spring up Fox River and down the Wisconsin to Prairie du Chien, where lie first viewed the Mississippi, June 17, 1673; thence he explored it for a long distance southward. Returning to Green Bay, he remained there until the next autumn, when he set out to found a mission among the Indians of the Illinois tribe. He was detained by sickness near the site of Chicago through the succeeding win ter, but in the spring of 1675 he reached the Illinois, located on the river of the same name, and preached to them with all his wonted zeal. Finding that his health was rapidly failing, he set out for Miehilimackinac, making his way with two or three companions, in a small boat, along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. They landed the 19th of May, and that same night he died. The place of his death is described as being " at the mouth of a small river, some distance south of Sleeping Bear Point." For many years it was supposed to have been at the mouth of the Pere Marquette River, on the site of the present town of Ludington, which was also long known as Pere Marquette, but the place of his death and burial is now believed to have been farther north. However, a greater explorer than Marquette was about to traverse the lakes and lands of the great Northwest, though, unlike Marquette, he did not subordinate all other objects to the spread of religion. In the month of August, 1679, the wonder-stricken savages on the shores of the Detroit River saw what seemed to them a huge canoe with immense wings stemming the strong current without the aid of oars or paddles, and swiftly traversing the placid sheet of water now known as Lake St. Clair. This was the "Griffin," a schooner of sixty tons burden, built the preceding winter and spring on the shore of the Niagara River, just above the great cataract, and which, on the 7th of August, had set forth on the first voyage ever made by a sail-vessel over the waters of the upper lakes. Its commander was Robert Cavelier de la Salle, the most hardy and adventurous of all the gallant Frenchmen who explored the wilds of North America, and the one whose discoveries did the most to extend the dominions of his royal master. He was a handsome, blue-eyed cavalier, with blond ringlets, apparently better fitted for the salons of Paris than the forests of America; but a thousand evidences show not only the courage, but the extraordinary vigor and hardihood, of this remarkable man. He was accompanied by Tonty, a gallant Italian, who was his second in command; by Father Hennepin, a Franciscan monk, who became the historian of the expedition; and by about thirty sailors,-hunters, voyageurs, etc. Passing on over the waters of Lake Huron, the " Griffin" stayed a brief period at the post of Mackinaw, where Tonty stopped with some of the men, and then proceeded to the mission at the head of Green Bay. Thence it was sent back with a part of its crew and a cargo of furs, while the intrepid La Salle, with a score of men, remained to explore the vast region which lay spread before him. He and his comrades coasted around the western shore and the head of Lake Michigan in birch-bark canoes, and in the month of October reached the mouth of the St. Joseph River. To this stream he gave the name of River of the Miamis, from the Miami Indians whom he found in that vicinity, and on the site of the village of St. Joseph he built a fortified trading-post, which he called the Fort of the Miamis. This was the first post built on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, and its erection, together with the appearance of a French vessel in the upper lakes, was another important step in the work of subjecting the great THE FRENCH AND THEIR INDIAN ALLIES FROM 1671 TO 1707. 13 Northwest, and especially the western part of Michigan, to French rule. After several weary weeks of waiting at the Fort of the Miamis by La Salle and his companions for the return of the " Griffn," and also for the arrival of Tonty from Mackinaw, their eyes were at length gladdened by the sight of the gallant Italian, who with ten men had made his way in canoes along the eastern shores of Lake Michigan, having left others to supply the common larder by hunting a little farther north. Tonty joined his chief at the fort about the 20th of November, and was soon followed by the hunters left behind. But the " Griffin," the pioneer vessel of Lake Michigan, was never heard from after leaving Green Bay. Probably it went to the bottom in a storm with all on board, but it might have been captured at anchor by jealous savages, its crew butchered, and the vessel itself destroyed. Giving up all hope of the return of his vessel, La Salle then went with the greater portion of his men to a point on the Illinois River, where he built a fort, to which he gave the name of Fort Crevecoeur,-" broken heart." His courage was by no means exhausted, however, and in order to obtain reinforcements and supplies he and three companions performed the remarkable feat of returning from Crevecoeur to Fort Frontenac (the site of Kingston, Ontario) on foot, depending on their guns for support. Having once more made his way to the West, he was met with new disappointments, for both the Fort of the Miamis and Fort Crevecoeur had been destroyed, and all his men save Tonty and a few others had deserted to join the savages or the scarcely less lawless voyageurs. The intrepid explorer, nevertheless, again re-established his posts, passing in the autumn of 1680 along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan to Mackinaw, where he obtained twelve men, with whom he returned by the same route to the fort on the Illinois. La Salle's subsequent career was not especially connected with the history of this region, and will be dismissed in a few words. After many other exploits and hardships, he descended the Mississippi to the sea in 1682, being the first to traverse the lower part of that stream and to prove that it emptied into the Gulf of Mexico. He took possession of the country in the name of King Louis XIV., and called it Louisiana. Returning to France, he astonished and gratified the court of that monarch with the story of his discoveries, and in 1684 was furnished with a fleet and several hundred men to colonize the new domain. The fleet, however, through the blunders of the naval commander, landed in the country now known as Texas instead of in Louisiana, and after innumerable misfortunes the indomitable La Salle set out for Canada in 1687 on foot to seek assistance, but was assassinated while still in Texas by two of his own men. But, notwithstanding the unfortunate end of the great discoverer, his achievements had extended the dominion of France more widely than those of any of his compatriots, and from that time the Bourbon kings maintained an ascendency more or less complete throughout all the vast region extending from Quebec to New Orleans, until compelled to resign it, nearly a century later, by the prowess of the British. French vessels circled around the Great I Lakes on the track of the ill-fated " Griffin," French forts and trading-posts were erected in the wilderness, and French missionaries bore the cross among the heathen with redoubled zeal. French adroitness succeeded in establishing and continuing friendly relations with nearly all the Indians of the Northwest, and members of a large majority of these tribes found their way to Fort Frontenac, and to Montreal even, with packages of furs to sell to the children of their Great Father across the sea. Busily engaged in building up a powerful but compact empire along the coast, the English scarcely attempted to rival their Gallic competitors in gaining control over the immense interior. The Indians would doubtless have rejected with scorn the idea of French ownership in the lands which they had so long occupied, but, as between the English and the French, it was substantially understood that the dominion of the former extended from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to that of the Mississippi, the only question being where the boundary-line should be drawn between the two domains. Fort St. Joseph was erected near the site of the city of Port Huron in 1686 to aid in the maintenance of French dominion over the Northwest, and soon after a post called Fort Detroit was established near the site of Detroit. Fort St. Joseph, however, was destroyed by the French themselves two years after its erection, and about the same time a fort bearing the same name was erected at the mouth of the St. Joseph River, on the site of La Salle's Fort of the Miamis. In 1687 volunteers were obtained from almost all the Indian tribes of the Northwest to join the expedition of the Marquis de Denonville, governor-general of Canada, against those fierce confederates the Iroquois. Tonty led one band of about two hundred from Illinois to Detroit, while the main body, consisting of Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawattomies, and others, assembled at Mackinaw. Their conduct was somewhat doubtful, but La Durantaye, their French commander, waylaid and captured some English boats which were on their way with goods to be traded with the savages, distributed their contents among the latter, gained their zealous friendship and adherence, and led them to Detroit. Thence they all proceeded to the southern shore of Lake Ontario, where they assisted Denonville to defeat the Senecas in battle, but without materially diminishing their power or that of the confederated Iroquois nation. A few prisoners were captured by Denonville's Indian allies, and he wrote of the atrocities committed upon them by " our rascally Ottawas," whom he also accused of cowardice in the fight. The French soon after abandoned Fort Detroit, and for many years their only posts in Michigan were those at Saut Sainte Marie, Mackinaw, and at the mouth of the St. Joseph River. In 1701, La Motte Cadillac, who had been for several years the commandant at Mackinaw, established a permanent post on the detroit, or strait, between Lakes Erie and St. Clair, which was first known as Fort Pontchartrain,* but soon received the appellation of Detroit, which, as post, vilage and city, it has retained to this day.; A name derived from Count Pontchartrain, the prime minister of Louis XIV. 14 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. Cadillac immediately made strenuous efforts to induce all the various tribes of the Northwest who were friendly to the French to locate themselves around Fort Pontchartrain, desirous, evidently, to have them well in hand, so that he could lead them on warlike expeditions against the English and Iroquois. A portion of the Ottawas accepted his invitation, while the remainder continued to keep their headquarters at Mackinaw, and to occupy their hunting-grounds on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, including the valley of Grand River and the territory now embraced in the counties of Ionia and Montcalm. About 1707 the Miamis who were located on the St. Joseph River removed to Detroit. Their place was supplied almost immediately by the warlike Pottawattomies, who established their chief seats along the lower St. Joseph River, and whose hunting-parties roamed northward until they met those of their friends and allies the Ottawas. The boundary between their respective possessions was not strictly defined,-as, indeed, boundaries seldom were among the Indians,-and the hunting-parties of both tribes roamed at will over the territory in question. As, however, the two nations were during a period of one hundred and thirty years bound closely together by the ties of friendship and alliance, no ill results were caused by their joint ownership. CHAPTER IV. MICHIGAN INDIANS IN 1707. Their Location-Affinity-The Algonquin Race-Its Extent-The Iroquois in its Midst-League of the Ottawas, Chippewas, and Pottawattomies-Their Characteristics-Their Numbers-Enmity towards the Miamis. THE Ottawas, as early as 1707, became the owners, by right of occupation, of all the country drained by the lower Grand River and its tributaries, going southward as far, perhaps, as the Kalamazoo. From thence their domain extended northward along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan -and to a considerable distance inland-to the Straits of Mackinaw.* The Pottawattomies, recent emigrants from the western shore of Lake Michigan, where they had been found by the earliest French explorers, came in, as before mentioned, and occupied the country of the Miamis along the St. Joseph River, while the Chippewas, besides occupying much of the Upper Peninsula, had possession of the greater part of the eastern half of the Lower Peninsula. These tribes were all members of the great Algonquin race, and spoke dialects so similar that they could understand each other without the aid of interpreters. According to those who have made a special study of Indian races and their history, the Algonquins were a great race, comprising nearly all the tribes residing south of Hudson's Bay, east of the Mississippi, and north of the present State of Tennessee,-nearly all, for in their midst were the five confederated nations of Iroquois, a separate race, who occupied the greater part of the present State of * Variously written, in Michigan Territorial and State papers, Michilimackinac, Mackinac, and Mackinaw, and whether used in either form means the same. New York. The Wyandots, or Hurons, were an outlying branch of the Iroquois, but hostile to that great confederacy, while the Tuscaroras were a friendly offshoot in the south, who about that time became the sixth of the Six Nations. Among other tribes of the Algonquins were the Abenaquis, in Canada; the Pequots and Narragansetts, in New England; the Delawares, in Pennsylvania; the Shawnees, in Ohio; the Miamis, in Ohio and Indiana; the Illinois, in the Territory of the State which still bears their name; and the Sauks, Foxes, and Menomonees, in the country west of Lake Michigan. All these tribes, though so widely scattered, and though often warring desperately among themselves, belonged, as has been said, to one great stock, and spoke various dialects of one language. They, together, outnumbered the confederate nations of Iroquois more than ten to one, yet such was the sagacity and valor of those confederates that they had been able to defeat their disunited foes one after the other, until the terror of the Iroquois' name had spread over half the continent of North America. Even the Hurons, though of the same race, and almost equal in number, lacked the ferocious energy of the Five Nations, and had been driven in utter rout before them. The Ottawas, Chippewas, and Pottawattomies, who, after the removal of the latter tribe to the St. Joseph valley, occupied the present State of Michigan and some adjoining territory, were united in a rude confederacy somewhat similar to the celebrated league of the Iroquois, but far less thorough and less potent. But whether it was formed before or after the removal of the Pottawattomies to the eastern shore of Lake Michigan we are unable to say, though its origin was certainly not much later than that event, and it could hardly have been much earlier, on account of the previous wide separation of the three tribes. After the coming of the French, who furnished them with arms, ammunition, and leadership, these tribes had become less afraid of the Iroquois, and consequently more willing to locate themselves in positions farther east than they would previously have dared to occupy. And, as we have seen, La Motte Cadillac urged his policy of concentration with so much success that already, in 1707, a considerable number of the Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawattomies, Hurons, and Miamis had located themselves under the protecting walls of Fort Pontchartrain. The main body of the Ottawas, however, remained in the western part of the Lower Peninsula, the Pottawattomies held the lower portion of the same, while the Chippewas still kept possession of the country occupied by them for many generations. These predominating tribes of the territory now known as the State of Michigan had the usual characteristics of the Indians of the Algonquin race. Less terrible in battle, less sagacious in council, than the men of the Six Nations, they were, nevertheless, like the rest of their red brethren, brave, hardy, and skillful warriors, astute managers so far as their knowledge extended, generally faithful friends, and invariably most implacable enemies; their time was devoted to war, the chase, or to idleness, abandoning to the women all the labors which could be imposed upon their weary shoulders. They lived in the utmost freedom which it is possi THE INDIANS, FRENCH, ENGLISH, AND AMERICANS, FROM 1707 TO 1815. 15 ble to imagine consistent with any civil or military organization whatever. Their sachems exercised little authority save to declare war or make peace, to determine on the migrations of the tribes, and to give wise counsels, allaying any ill feeling which might exist among them. There was no positive law compelling obedience. In war even there was no way by which the braves could be forced to take the war-path. Any chieftain could drive a stake into the ground, dance the war-dance around it, strike his tomahawk into it with a yell of defiance, and call for volunteers to go forth against the foe. If his courage or capacity was doubted, he obtained but few followers; if he was of approved valor and skill, a larger number would grasp their tomahawks in response to his appeal; while if he was a chieftain distinguished far and wide for deeds of blood and craft, the whole nation would spring to arms, and its villages would resound with the terrific notes of the warsong, chanted by hundreds of frenzied braves. Yet even after they had taken the field against their enemies they could not be compelled to fight, except by the fear of being called a " squaw," which to the Indian mind was a terrible punishment. The average American mind is pretty well acquainted with the Indian mode of warfare, so that a detailed description is not needed here. Foi few have not read how their warriors went forth against their foes clad chiefly in hideous paint, but armed with tomahawks and scalping-knives, and those who had been sufficiently successful in fur-catching carrying also the coveted muskets of the white man; how they made their way with the utmost secrecy through the forest until they reached the vicinity of their enemies, whether white or red; how, when their unsuspecting victims were wrapped in slumber, the whole crowd of painted demons would burst in among them, using musket, knife, and tomahawk with the most furious zeal; and how, when the torch had been applied, men, women, and children were stricken down in indiscriminate slaughter by the lurid light of their blazing homes. It is well known, too, that those who escaped immediate death were often reserved for a still more horrible doom; that the fearful sport of running the gauntlet, when scores of weapons were flung by malignant foes at the naked fugitive, was but the preliminary amusement before the awful burning at the stake, accompapied by all the torment which a baleful savage ingenuity could invent, yet supported with unsurpassable fortitude by the victim, who, if an Indian warrior, often shrieked his defiant death-song amid the last convulsions of his tortured frame. Their religion was what might have been expected from their practices,-a mass of senseless and brutal superstition. Marquette, the most zealous of missionaries, after several years' labor on the upper lakes, could only say that the Hurons "retained a little Christianity," but that the Ottawas were " addicted above all other tribes to the foulest incantations, and to sacrifices to evil spirits." The efforts of both Catholic and Protestant missionaries made very little improvement among them in regard to religion. The term " nation," when speaking of Indians, is generally used as synonymous with " tribe," and to the civilized ear the word carries the idea of large numbers, con firmed by the immense range of Indian operations and by the terror which they have always inspired on our frontiers. Yet the celebrated Five Nations in the height of their power numbered altogether but two or three thousand warriors; the Wyandot branch of the Iroquois had about the same number, and the various tribes of Algonquin lineage were proportionately small. As nearly as can be ascertained, the Pottawattomies, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, numbered, all told, about eight hundred warriors, the Ottawas about twelve hundred, and the Chippewas-with whom those two tribes were linked in a loose confederacywere supposed to number more than both of them. At the time the Pottawattomies settled in the valley of the St. Joseph both that tribe and the Ottawas were at enmity with the Miamis, and it is probable that it was the joint hostility of the first two tribes which compelled the Miamis to leave that locality and establish themselves farther southward. Yet all three tribes were under the influence of the French, who were able to produce at least partial harmony among them, and to unite them for hostile purposes against the Iroquois and the English. In the following chapter will be found a brief account of the subsequent history of the tribes forming the Michigan league. CHAPTER V. THE INDIANS, FRENCH, ENGLISH, AND AMERICANS, FROM 1707 TO 1815, The Michigan League-The Fox and Mascoutin Indians attack Fort Pontchartrain-Their Rout and Massacre-Thirty Years of PeaceThe War of 1744-The Old French-and-Indian War-Braddock's Defeat-Fall of Quebec-Surrender of Canada to the EnglishPontiac's Conspiracy-Bradstreet's Expedition-Croghan's TreatyThe Michigan Indians join the British during the War of the Revolution-England holds Michigan after the Revolution-Indians still Hostile to the United States-Their Defeat by Gen. WayneTreaty of Greenville, 1795-British Relinquish Possession of Western Posts-Michigan Territory organized-Treaty at Detroit, 1807 -Battle of Tippecanoe-War of 1812-14-Treaty at Springwells, 1815-Close of the Independent Career of the Michigan Indians. AFTER the year 1707 the Indians composing the Michigan league-viz., the Ottawas, Chippewas, and Pottawattomies-usually acted together in their numerous warlike expeditions. Of the conflicts which they waged with other savages there is seldom any record unless they fought in connection with the French, and in such cases the accounts are few and meagre. The Michigan Indians were almost continually at war with their old enemies the Iroquois, and, notwithstanding the acknowledged valor and sagacity of the Six Nations, the former, having the support, and sometimes the active assistance, of the French, were able, after the year last named, to hold their ground, remaining in possession of the peninsula throughout the century. Early in May, 1712, when the warriors at Cadillac's settlement at Fort Pontchartrain were nearly all absent hunt ing, a large body of Outagamie (Fox) and Mascoutin Indians, supposed to be in league with the Iroquois, suddenly appeared before the fort, erected a breast-work, and 16 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. made their preparations for an assault. Du Buisson, the commandant, who had only about twenty men with him, sent out runners to call in the hunting-parties, and then awaited the assault of his foes. It was made on the 13th of May, and, though temporarily repulsed, there was every prospect that it would be successful, on account of the comparatively larger numbers of the assailants. While the battle was raging, however, the Indian allies of the French returned from the hunt and immediately attacked the assailants. The latter were immediately driven into their own defenses; those defenses were assaulted by the French and their allies, and these were in turn repulsed by the Foxes and Mascoutins. The conflict thus continued with varying fortunes for no less than nineteen days, when the invaders fled. Several miles north of the fort (Pontchartrain) they halted and built a rude fortification, but the French and their allies attacked them with two small pieces of artillery, and routed them after three days more of fighting, when the Ottawas, Pottawattomies, and Wyandots massacred eight hundred men, women, and children. In fact, the losses suffered by the Fox nation were so great that it was reported as completely destroyed; this was not, however, the case. Some of its warriors joined the Iroquois, but the main body fled to the west side of Lake Michigan, where they were long distinguished for their especial hatred against the French. Four years afterwards (1716) an expedition was sent against them by the Governor of Canada, which defeated them near Green Bay and compelled them to assume an attitude of comparative peacefulness. On the other hand, the friendship then cemented between the French and the Ottawas, Pottawattomies, and Wyandots endured through more than half a century of varied fortunes, and was scarcely severed when throughout Canada and the Northwest the Gallic flag went down in hopeless defeat before the conquering AngloSaxons. For thirty years succeeding 1713 France and England were at peace, and in consequence the acts of the Michigan Indians were not prominent, although they were continually at war with the Iroquois of New York and the tribes residing west of Lake Michigan. However, in 1744, when war again broke out between those old enemies the French and English, numerous bands from all the Northwestern tribes sought the service of the former. Some of them assailed the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia, while others made their way to Montreal, where, furnished with arms and ammunition, they were sent forth against the settlers of New York and New England. After the close of that war, in 1748, there was comparative quiet among the red men of the Northwest until the beginning of the great conflict known in Europe as the Seven Years' war, but in America called the "1 Old French-and-Indian war." This contest was commenced in America in 1754 by an engagement between a body of Virginia rangers under Maj. George Washington and a force of French troops sent out from Fort Duquesne (now Pittsburgh). The next year desperate exertions were made on both sides; numerous bands of Northwestern Indians again joined the French, while the Iroquois, as usual, acted with the English. The latter fitted out three expeditions, the most celebrated of which was the one under command of Gen. Braddock. Early in June, 1755, that brave but conceited officer marched with an army of two thousand men, composed of British regulars and American riflemen, against Fort Duquesne. After a part of the distance had been traversed he advanced with twelve hundred men and some light artillery, and on the 8th of July encamped within a few miles of the fort. The French, meanwhile, had made the most earnest efforts to strengthen their meagre force with all the Indians they could induce to repair to the fort. The red men, however, are much averse to being shut up in forts, and, according to Sargent's," History of Braddock's Expedition," there were but six hundred and thirty-seven warriors at Fort Duquesne when the English approached that post. Among these were Abenaquis and Caughnawagas from Canada, Shawnees from Ohio, Ottawas, Chippewas, and Pottawattomies from Michigan, and smaller bands from other sections. There were also two or three hundred French regulars and Canadian militia. Capt. Beaujeu, the second in command at the fort, proposed to attack the English on their march, and the French commander-in-chief reluctantly consented. But the Indians were much alarmed at the reported numbers of Braddock's army, and at first refused to make the effort. Beaujeu, who had great influence over them, then harangued them ardently, and finally threatened to go alone against the enemy if they would not accompany him. They yielded, and soon were as eager for the fray as he was himself. The next morning, July 9th, that officer led forth about eight hundred white and red warriors and fiercely attacked the English, a little after noon, while passing among deep ravines about nine miles from the fort. Beaujeu was killed early in the engagement, but the next officer in rank rallied the wavering French and Indians and posted them advantageously in the ravines, from whence they kept up a merciless fire on the demoralized British, who were extremely frightened at seeing the volleys come out of the ground at their feet. The British officers endeavored in vain to encourage their soldiers; in vain did Braddock himself ride into the thickest of the fight, where five horses were successively shot under him; in vain did his aide-de-camp, young Col. George Washington, second the efforts of his chief, having two horses killed and his clothing riddled with bullets; it was in vain that the few Virginia riflemen fought the enemy with good effect from behind trees, for the regulars were completely demoralized, and after three hours' fighting, during which the general in command was mortally wounded, while nearly three-fourths of the officers and more than half the men were killed and wounded, the whole command fled in utter rout, and hardly halted till it reached the settlements of Pennsylvania. Braddock's defeat encouraged the most of the Western warriors to take up arms for the French, and nearly every Ottawa and Pottawattomie who could wield a tomahawk, together with many Chippewas, went forth upon the warpath against the hapless white inhabitants of the Pennsyl vania and Virginia frontiers. Nearly a thousand of them joined the army of the Marquis de Montcalm in 1757, and took an active part in his campaigns. The Ottawas were THE INDIANS, FRENCH, ENGLISH, AND AMERICANS, FROM 1707 TO 1815. 17 particularly mentioned in the accounts of that period for their activity and valor. A letter written by Montcalm described the destruction visited by them, in July, 1757, on a regiment of three hundred and fifty New Jerseymen, who were crossing Lake George (New York) in barges, of whom one hundred and fifty-one were killed and about one hundred and sixty taken prisoners. Three hundred and thirty-seven Ottawas were also engaged in the siege of Fort William Henry the same season, and in the ferocious massacre which followed its capture. The Michigan Indians were again summoned to assist in the defense of Fort Duquesne in 1758, then threatened by another English army, under Gen. Forbes, but such was their inveterate dislike to the task of either defending or attacking fortified positions that less than a thousand were brought together. These, however, supported by a few French and Canadians, attacked and almost utterly destroyed a force under Maj. Grant sent forward to reconnoitre the post. But the approach of the main army compelled the French and their savage allies to abandon Fort Duquesne and retreat northward. During the summer of 1759 an English and American force attacked Fort Niagara, at the mouth of Niagara River, and once more the French summoned their Ottawa, Chippewa, Pottowattomie, and Shawnee allies to aid them. D'Aubry, the commander at Venango, succeeded in gathering about six hundred Indians, and with these and a somewhat larger force of French and Canadians proceeded down Lake Erie and the Niagara River to relieve the fort. Sir William Johnspn, however, who commanded the besiegers, attacked D'Aubry just below the Falls of Niagara, defeated, wounded, and captured him, and also slew and took prisoners a large part of his command. Fort Niagara soon surrendered, and a little later the death of Montcalm and the fall of Quebec (at which a large body of Western Indians was present) virtually decided the fate of Canada and the Northwest. The red men began to lose faith in the omnipotence of their French friends, and most of them returned to their homes on the shores of the great lakes and rivers of the West, and gloomily awaited the result. The next year three British armies were concentrated against Montreal, and the governor-general was compelled to surrender Canada, which included the whole Northwest, to the English. Maj. Robert Rogers, a celebrated New Hampshire partisan, was immediately sent with a body of his rangers to take possession of Detroit, and the following year (1761) Mackinaw and St. Joseph were surrendered to the English, the three posts being considered as carrying with them authority over the whole peninsula of Michigan. It was not, however, until February, 1763, that the final treaty of peace between France and England was signed, by which Canada, including territory in the Northwest as far as the Mississippi River, was formally transferred to the latter power. The news of this event did not reach Detroit until the following summer, and meanwhile the newly-established power of the British in the Northwest was almost overthrown by a few despised bands of savages. At the close of the " Old French-and-Indian war" the 3 celebrated Pontiac was the principal chief of the Ottawas. Tradition declares that he led the warriors of that tribe at the time of the destruction of Braddock's army, but there is no direct evidence on this point; yet the truth of the statement is quite probable, for he could hardly have become head-chief of the Ottawas without displaying his valor on many a stricken field. In the " Pontiac Manuscript," written soon after Pontiac's war and now in the possession of the Michigan State Historical Society, he is described as "Pondiac, great chief of all the Ottawas, Chippewas, and Pottawattomies, and of all the nations of the lakes and rivers of the North;" yet he seems to have had no power over any but the three tribes named, save the natural influence of a commanding mind, their temporary adhesion to him being entirely voluntary. Pontiac had long been the friend of the French, and he as well as all the Indians of the Northwest who had come in contact with the English after the conquest of Canada had been much exasperated by the rudeness and arrogance of the latter. He therefore laid a plan for capturing all their forts in the West, including Fort Niagara and Fort Pitt (formerly Fort Duquesne), and in the fall of 1762 sent his emissaries to all the tribes of the Northwest asking their assistance. All assented. Each post had its destined captors assigned to it. The Chippewas were intrusted with the destruction of Mackinaw; the Pottawattomies of the St. Joseph promised to massacre the garrison of the little fort at the mouth of that river; while Pontiac himself, with his Ottawas, the Hurons, and a part of the Pottawattomies, being Indians who lived in that portion of the peninsula, undertook the capture of Detroit. That post was then defended by a hundred and twenty soldiers under Maj. Gladwyn, of the British army, and also contained forty or fifty employees and fur-traders, who might assist in its defense. On the 7th of May, 1763, Pontiac, with a large number of his chiefs, obtained admission under pretence of holding a council, his intention being to massacre the unprepared officers while assembled at the council, and then, after letting in his horde of followers outside, to destroy the remainder of the garrison. But Gladwyn had in some way been notified of the plan (tradition says by a Chippewa damsel who lived among the Pottawattomies and had become the mistress of the English commander), and when Pontiac entered at the head of his chiefs he found the whole garrison under arms. Baffled, the wily conspirators withdrew, and spent two or three more days in attempts to circumvent the English, but in vain. On the 9th of May the conspirators were reinforced by a band of Chippewas, and the next morning they assaulted the fort with great energy, for half a day keeping up a furious fire, which was steadily returned by the garrison. But, though they numbered ten times as many as their opponents, the Indians dared not charge the walls, and finally suspended the attack. Pontiac then attempted to starve out the garrison by a siege, and actually maintained one throughout the whole summer and a part of the autumn,-a remarkable manifestation of steadiness for Indians to make, which shows the extraordinary influence of Pontiac over those brave but unstable warriors. 18 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. Meantime, all the other British posts doomed by Pontiac, except Forts Pitt and Niagara, were captured by the Indians, and their garrisons wholly or partially massacred. Fort St. Joseph was garrisoned by an ensign and fourteen men. On the 25th of May a number of Pottawattomies, apparently friendly, strolled into the fort. They were speedily followed by others. Then the savage war-cry was raised, the sentinel tomahawked, and in less than two minutes all the garrison was butchered except the ensign and three soldiers, who were seized and bound hand and foot. Afterwards these men were exchanged for Pottawattomie prisoners in the possession of Maj. Gladwyn at Detroit. Mackinaw was the scene of a still more terrible massacre. On the 4th of June, the anniversary of the king's birthday, the Chippewas played a game of ball close beside the fort, the officers and soldiers watching them with unsuspicious minds and open gates. At length the ball was thrown, apparently by accident, inside the wall; several Indians ran in after it; squaws already inside gave them tomahawks; the work of murder immediately began, and in a moment the whole horde of furious demons was engaged in the attack on the hated English. Seventeen were killed, and as many more were captured. The most of the prisoners, including the commander, were released by a body of Ottawas from L'Arbre Croche (Little Traverse) under Charles de Langlade, a half breed officer, and were subsequently allowed to go to Montreal. British authority in Michigan was now confined to the walls of the fort at Detroit, and the most strenuous efforts were put forth by the colonial authorities to relieve the beleaguered garrison. On the 29th of July, Capt. Dalzell, of the British army, and Maj. Rogers, the renowned New Hampshire partisan, arrived with two hundred and eighty soldiers, and brought with them large quantities of ammunition and provisions. But this aid was almost neutralized by the imprudence of Dalzell, who, at two o'clock in the morning of the 1st of August, led out his command to attack Pontiac in his camp,-an enterprise to which Gladwyn had reluctantly given his consent. The chieftain had heard of the threatened onslaught through some of the French-Canadians who resided in the vicinity, and, instead of waiting to be attacked in his camp, he stationed his warriors on the north side of Parent's Creek (since called Bloody Run), about a mile and a half above the fort, and assailed the approaching column with a tremendous fire, made more terrible by the darkness of the night. Half the advance-guard was killed or wounded at the first fire, and after several fruitless charges on the elusive foe Capt. Dalzell was compelled to order a retreat. The assailants in front were Ottawas and Chippewas, the Pottawattomies and Wyandots having made a treaty of peace with Gladwyn only a short time before. But when Dalzell retreated the treacherous warriors of the last-named tribes assaulted the flanks of his column. Dalzell was killed, and it was only by the most desperate exertions that his successor, Capt. Grant, with the aid of Maj. Rogers and his American rangers, was able to make good his retreat to the fort, after one-fourth of all the men engaged were killed or wounded. Hearing of this victory, new bands of warriors from St. Joseph, Mackinaw, and the intervening country has tened to the aid of their brethren, but still the Ottawa chieftain was unable to capture the fort. With the coming of autumn the warriors were obliged to seek their huntinggrounds to obtain food for the coming season. The Pottawattomies, Wyandots, and Chippewas made treaties of peace (which they doubtless intended to keep or break, as suited their future convenience), and then scattered in pursuit of game. Pontiac and his Ottawas, however, continued the unavailing contest, firing on every Englishman who showed himself outside the fort, until the last of October, when a messenger came from the commandant of Fort Chartres, the principal French post on the Upper Mississippi, warning the chieftain that the French and English were at peace, and that he could expect no help from the former. Pontiac had paid no attention to previous notifications of peace, but he now sent word to Maj. Gladwyn that he should advise all the Indians to bury the hatchet, and he soon quietly withdrew from the vicinity. In the summer of 1764, Gen. Bradstreet came to Detroit with a considerable force of English, Americans, and Iroquois, the appearance of whom doubtless tended to impress the power of England on the minds of Michigan's savages. Gen. Bradstreet sent troops to re-establish the posts at Mackinaw and Green Bay, and then returned East. The one at the mouth of the St. Joseph River does not seem to have been reoccupied by the British. In August, 1765, George Croghan, deputy superintendent of Indian affairs under the celebrated Sir William Johnson, held a grand council at Detroit with the Ottawas, Chippewas, and Pottawattomies. They had become thoroughly humbled, and were sincerely desirous of peace and the reopening of the fur-trade. After the treaty then made all these tribes remained steadfast friends of the English so long as that nation had any need of their services. Pontiac himself gave in his submission at another council, held the same month. He was murdered near St. Louis, in 1769, by an Illinois Indian, and, in consequence, the Ottawas and other tribes who had followed his lead so long sprang to arms to avenge the murder, and almost exterminated the Illinois. The Michigan Indians remained at peace with the whites until the outbreak of the Revolution. The British, to their everlasting shame, then invoked their aid to fight the American colonists, and in the summer of 1777 several hundred Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawattomies, with some Winnebagoes and others from west of Lake MiI4gan, all under Langlade and another French officer, oined the army of Gen. Burgoyne. They accompanied him in his invasion of New York, but accomplished little exgpt to burn some houses and slaughter a few defenseless lies. The murder of Miss Jane McCrea was attributA to the Pottawattomies. Burgoyne made some efforts to restrain their ferocity, which so disgusted them that nearly all returned to their old haunts before his surrender to Gen. Gates. They also complained that Burgoyne did not take good care of them, and that over a hundred of their number were needlessly sacrificed at Bennington, Vt. Although the Iroquois were kept employed by the English in ravaging the American frontier, few or none of the Michigan Indians were taken East after 1777. But when THE INDIANS, FRENCH, ENGLISH, AND AMERICANS, FROM 1707 TO 1815. 19 the American general George Rogers Clark took possession of Southern Indiana and Illinois, these tribes were again called together by British agents, and met at L'Arbre Croche (Little Traverse Bay) in the winter of 1778-79. Many were opposed to taking any further part in the contest, but after much debate a large force of Indians set out from that place early in the spring of 1779 to reinforce the English commander, Governor Hamilton, and fight against Clark. They went up Lake Michigan in canoes to the mouth of the St. Joseph, where their leaders learned that Hamilton himself had surrendered to Clark, and the expedition was consequently abandoned. In the summer of 1780 the British officer Col. Byrd led a force of some six hundred Michigan ludians into Kentucky, capturing quite a number of stockades and many prisoners. Occasional bands also made murderous raids against the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia. The treaty of peace at the close of the Revolution gave Michigan to the United States, but England continued to hold Detroit and other posts in the Northwest, and the Indians of this section were still under its influence. In 1789 the Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawattomies, and other tribes were represented by their principal chiefs in a great council held by Gen. St. Clair, Governor of the Northwestern Territory, on the Muskingum River, in the present State of Ohio, where they made a treaty of peace with the United States. Nevertheless, they still hated the Americans, who were moving westward in a resistless column of emigration, and were encouraged in this feeling by the British officials, and when, a little later, two American armies, under Gens. Harmar and St. Clair, were successively defeated by the tribes of Ohio, those of Michigan were eager to take part in the fray. Accordingly, when Gen. Wayne led his army into Western Ohio in 1794, and the Shawnees and Miamis gathered on the Maumee to oppose him, they were soon joined by numerous bands of the dominating tribes of Michigan, equipped with guns and ammunition obtained at the British post at Detroit. But " Mad Anthony" was a different kind of general from those who had previously commanded in the West, and when the hostile forces of red men and white men met a few miles south of the rapids of the Maumee, the Indians, after a hot contest, were completely routed, and fled with the utmost precipitation from the field. After their terrible defeat at the Maumee the Western Indians were much impressed both by Wayne's vigor and the strength displayed by the United States, and when that general summoned them to council at Greenville, Ohio, in 1795, they all promptly responded. A treaty was then made by which the Shawnees and others ceded a large part of their land in Ohio to the government. The Michigan Indians, however, only ceded " the post of Detroit and all the lands to the north, the west, and the south of it of which the Indian title has been extinguished by gifts or grants to the French or English governments, and so much more land to be annexed to the district of Detroit as shall be comprehended between the river Rosine (Raisin) on the south, Lake St. Clair on the north, and a line the general course of which shall be six miles distant from the west end of Lake Erie and Detroit River," with several other tracts, among which were the post of Michilimackinac and lands adjacent, and the island of Bois Blanc, mentioned as being an extra and voluntary gift of the Chippewa nation. This treaty of Greenville, therefore, still left all Michigan in possession of the Indians except the tracts and posts just described. They agreed, however, to remain at peace with the United States, and on the part of the government it was expressly stipulated " that the Indian tribes who have a right to those lands are quietly to enjoy them, hunting, planting, and dwelling thereon so long as they please, without any molestation from the United States; but when these tribes, or any of them, shall be disposed to sell their lands, or any part of them, they are to be sold only to the United States, and until such sale the United States will protect the said Indian tribes in the quiet enjoyment of their lands against all citizens of the United States, and against all other white persons who intrude upon the same." The following year (1796) the British surrendered Detroit and the other posts in the West to the United States, and then, and not till then, did our government obtain any real power over the territory now comprising the State of Michigan. In 1805 (January 11th) the Territory of Michigan was organized. Detroit was made the seat of government, and the ordinances of 1787 and 1789 were adopted as the charter of the new Territory. Gen. Hull, the first Governor of the Territory, made several treaties with the Indians between 1805 and 1810, but none were of much importance except the one made at Detroit on the 17th of November, 1807. By that agreement the chiefs of the Ottawa, Chippewa, Wyandot, and Pottawattomie tribes ceded to the United States all their land in Michigan east of what is now known as the principal meridian, and southward of a line drawn from the centre of the west border of Shiawassee County to White Rock, on Lake Huron. In 1810-11 another disturber of the public peace appeared upon the scene in the person of the celebrated Shawnee chieftain Tecumseh, who was endeavoring to unite all the Indians from the Gulf of Mexico to Lake Superior in a league against the advancing Americans. In person or by eloquent messengers he visited all the tribes, reawaking all their ancient hatred of the Yankees, and promising the assistance of their father the King of Great Britain, a war between that potentate and the United States being constantly expected. On the 7th of November, 1811, Tecumseh's brother, "The Prophet," at the head of a large force of Indians of various tribes, including three hundred Pottawattomies and a considerable number of Ottawas, attacked the army of Gen. Harrison on the field of " Tippecanoe." After a hotly-contested battle of two or three hours' duration the Indians gave way defeated at all points. Gen. Harrison then destroyed the villages of the Shawnees, which were not far distant from the battle-field, but the more fortunate Chippewa, Ottawa, and Pottawattomie survivors fled to their homes in the forests of Michigan, whither the Americans were in no situation to follow them. War against Great Britain was declared by the United 20 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. States in June, 1812. At first there seems to have been some doubt what part the Michigan Indians would take, for the British and Americans both sent agents to them to influence their action. The British agent, Jean Chaudonais, attempted to capture his half-breed nephew, Jean Baptiste Chaudonais, one of the American agents, but was instantly killed by the latter. If the Ottawas, Chippewas, and Pottawattomies had any doubts as to the course they were to pursue, they were dispelled by the messengers of Tecumseh, who speedily summoned the warriors of those tribes to take up the tomahawk in behalf of the British. Many of the braves promptly responded to the call, and on the 5th of August they participated with Tecumseh and his Shawnees in the defeat of Maj. Van Horn's command, on Brownstone Creek, in the northern part of the present county of Monroe. The same warriors, with a body of British soldiers, also attacked Col. Miller at a point twelve miles below Detroit, a few days later, but were defeated and compelled to flee to Canada. A large force of the Pottawattomies and some Ottawas attacked the fleeing garrison of Fort Dearborn (site of Chicago) on the 15th of August, a short distance from that fort, as it was endeavoring to retreat to Fort Wayne, Ind., killing two-thirds of the soldiers and a large number of the women and children accompanying them, and capturing the remainder. However, Topenabee, the principal chief of the Pottawattomies, and two or three other chiefs friendly to the Americans, saved the prisoners from being murdered. The cowardly surrender of Detroit by Hull on the 16th of August, 1812, preceded as it had been by the capture of Mackinaw and other posts by the British, carried with it the control of the whole of Michigan, which for the next year became practically British territory. The Indians, of course, became still more favorable to the English after this manifestation of their power, and still more warriors flocked to the British standard. The next battle in which these Indians were engaged was the celebrated conflict on the river Raisin, in which, in conjunction with the British troops under Gen. Proctor, they defeated and captured the American general Winchester with his whole force. The sick and wounded Americans were abandoned to the tender mercies of these miserable savages, who butchered nearly all of them. The Ottawas and Pottawattomies were also largely represented in the force which Proctor led against Fort Meigs, at the rapids of the Maumee, on the 28th of April, 1813, full half of the thousand Indians under Tecumseh belonging to these tribes. Gen. Harrison, who was in command of the Americans, succeeded in repelling his assailants, but during the siege, which lasted till the 9th of May, Col. Dudley, with eight hundred Kentuckians, was lured too far in pursuit of the enemy after a temporary success, fell into an ambuscade devised by Tecumseh, and was slain, nearly all of his command being killed or captured. The enemy were again repulsed in an attack upon Fort Meigs in July, 1813. On the 31st of July, Proctor appeared before Fort Stephenson, at Lower Sandusky, with a thousand British soldiers and fifteen hundred Indians, of whom, as before, about half were Ottawas and Pottawattomies. These surrounded the fort and fired at every soldier seen, while on the 2d of August a column of British attempted to carry it by storm. The assailants were repulsed with heavy loss by the garrison of one hundred and sixty Americans under Maj. Croghan, and Proctor soon retired with disgust. After the defeat of the British fleet on Lake Erie by Com. Perry, Gen. Harrison at once advanced into Canada. He took possession of Detroit on the 29th of September, and Michigan once more passed under American sway. On the 5th of October, 1813, he came up with the enemy at the Moravian towns on the river Thames, where Proctor, with his British and Canadians, and Tecumseh, with his Shawnees, Ottawas, and Pottawattomies, had determined to make a final stand. The Americans gallantly charged the hostile lines. Proctor fled almost at the first fire. Tecumseh was slain while fighting desperately at the head of his braves, and the whole force of British and Indians was either killed, captured, or sent flying in utter rout before the victors. This battle extinguished the hopes of victory entertained by the Indians of the Northwest. The Michigan Indians and other tribes at once sent delegations to offer peace, and, on the 16th of October, Gen. Harrison granted an armistice. Sullen and dejected, the warriors returned to their respective villages and took no further part in the war, which closed a little more than a year afterwards. The government inflicted no punishment on them (a leniency they scarcely expected), and by a treaty concluded at Springwells, near Detroit, on the 8th of September, 1815, it was stipulated that " The United States give peace to the Chippewa, Ottawa, and Pottawattomie tribes. They also agree to restore to the said Chippewa, Ottawa, and Pottawattomie tribes all the possessions, rights, and privileges which they enjoyed or were entitled to in the year 1811, prior to the commencement of the late war with Great Britain, and the said tribes, upon their part, agree to place themselves under the protection of the United States, and of no other power whatsoever." Thus closed the warlike career of the great league which for more than a hundred years had exercised an important influence over the destinies of the whole Northwest. Those who had hitherto been known as great war-chiefs became as ordinary persons. Their followers, disorganized and practically subjugated, wandered aimlessly in small bands over the peninsula. By social intercourse and intermarriage tribal distinctions became in a great measure obliterated, and at the time the English-speaking whites began to settle in the interior of Michigan Territory it was no unusual thing to find the Ottawa, Pottawattomie, and Chippewa tribes represented by members of one small band. Although more will be said regarding the Indians found occupying Ionia and Montcalm Counties when first settled by the whites, such and other matters to follow will be treated as separate topics, not chronologically. INDIAN TREATIES AND CESSIONS OF LANDS. 21 I I CHAPTER VI. INDIAN TREATIES AND CESSIONS OF LANDS. Treaty of Greenville, 1795-Treaty of Detroit (1807), and Cession of Lands east of the Principal Meridian-Treaty of Springwells, 1815 -Treaty of Saginaw (1819), and Cession of Lands west of the Meridian-Treaty of Chicago, 1821-Bounds of the CessionTreaty of Chicago, 1833-Treaty of Washington (1836), and Final Extinguishment of Indian Title to Lands in the Lower Peninsula, except Various Reservations. TREATY OF GREENVILLE, 1795. FROM the formation of the general government to the present time it has been an established principle, recognized by all its authorities, that the Indians were the owners of all the lands occupied by them at the close of the Revolution, but that their lands could pass from them only to the government, and that the transfer must be their own voluntary act, done in public council, and held by accredited agents or commissioners of the United States and the chiefs and head-men of the tribes interested. Therefore, when Gen. Wayne (as alluded to in the previous chapter) summoned the Shawnees, Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawattomies, and other tribes to meet him in council at Greenville, Ohio, and there concluded the treaty of Aug. 3, 1795, he but acted upon a course of dealing with the savage tribes of the Northwest which was just being put into practice. TREATY OF DETROIT, 1807. The next treaty of importance (also already briefly mentioned) was concluded at Detroit, Nov. 17, 1807, by Gen. William Hull, "Governor of the Territory of Michigan, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and sole Commissioner of the United States to conclude and sign a treaty or treaties with the several nations of Indians northwest of the river Ohio, on the one part, and the sachems, chiefs, and warriors of the Ottoway, Chippeway, Wyandotte, and Pottawattomie nations of Indians, on the other part." The territory then ceded was described in the text of the treaty as " beginning at the mouth of the Miami River of the Lakes (the Maumee), and running thence up the middle thereof to the mouth of the great Auglaize River; thence due north until it intersects a parallel of latitude to be drawn from the outlet of Lake Huron, which forms the river Sinclair; thence running northeast on the course that may be found will lead in a direct line to White Rock, in Lake Huron; thence due east until it intersects the boundary-line between the United States and Upper Canada, in said lake; then southwardly, following the said boundaryline down said lake, through the river Sinclair, Lake St. Clair, and the river Detroit, into Lake Erie, to a point due east of the aforesaid Miami River; thence west to the place of beginning." In payment for this immense tract of land the Indians were to receive from the government, in money, goods, agricultural implements, or domestic animals, at the discretion of Gen. Hull, the sum of three thousand three hundred and thirty-three dollars and thirty-three cents each to the Chippewa and Ottawa tribes, and one-half that sum each to the Wyandots and Pottawattomies, with an annuity of two thousand dollars each to the Chippewas and Ottawas, and one thousand dollars each to the other tribes. The Chippewas and Ottawas were also to be furnished each with a blacksmith for the period of ten years, the former to reside at Saginaw and the latter at the Indian settlement on the Maumee, " to do such work for the said nations as shall be most useful to them." Over all the ceded territory, until sold to settlers, the Indians had the right reserved to hunt and fish at will during good behavior. The line forming the western boundary of the tract ceded by this treaty-viz., the line from the mouth of the Great Auglaize River, and running " thence due north until it intersects a parallel of latitude to be drawn from the outlet Lake Huron"-was known for many years after as the " Indian Boundary-Line," and this, prolonged northward to the east end of Bois Blanc Island, in the Straits of Mackinac, was identical, or very nearly so, with the line afterwards adopted by the United States surveyors as the principal meridian of the Lower Peninsula. TREATY OF SPRINGWELLS, 1815. The treaty held at Springwells (also mentioned in Chapter V.), Sept. 8, 1815, by Gen. Wm. H. Harrison, Gen. Duncan McArthur, and John Graham, on behalf of the government, with the chiefs of the Ottawa, Chippewa, and Pottawottamie tribes, was for purposes of conciliation. No lands were ceded, but previous treaties and cessions were confirmed and ratified. TREATY OF SAGINAW, 1819. Soon after the close of the war of 1812 the attention of emigrants from the old States began to be strongly directed towards Michigan Territory, and it became evident to the clear mind of Gen. Cass, then Governor of the Territory, and ex-officio Indian commissioner, that, broad as was the domain acquired by the treaties of 1795 and 1807, it would soon be found too narrow to receive the immigration, which was already spreading west, north, and south from Detroit. Therefore he at once set about the task of securing further cessions from the dominant tribes, and, having laid his plans before the general government and received its sanction, with authority to proceed in the matter, he convened the chiefs of the Chippewas in council at Saginaw in September, 1819. As this was the first cession of lands the limits of which embraced any portion of the territory now included in the counties of Ionia and Montcalm, matters and incidents connected with that meeting and treaty will here be described at some length. Accompanied by quite a numerous retinue, composed of his secretaries, Robert A. Forsyth (who was also acting commissioner), John L. Lieb, and D. G. Whitney, with several other persons, Gen. Cass set out on horseback from Detroit, September 7th, and arrived at Saginaw on September 10th. Two small vessels, which had left Detroit a few days before, had already arrived, and lay moored in the river. They were laden with subsistence stores, silver coin to be used'in payment for the lands expected to be ceded, and goods intended for Indian presents; and they brought also a company of the Third United States Infantry, under command of Capt. C. L. Cass (a brother of the Governor), who had disembarked his command and encamped it on the 22 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. bank of the stream. The presence of these troops was thought to be necessary, in view of the possibility of an attempt at violence by some of the bands. On his arrival Gen. Cass found a large number of Indians assembled, but yet the attendance was not so numerous as he had expected. Having found, upon inquiry, that a number of the more remote bands were unrepresented, he dispatched runners to the villages in the interior to give further notification to the chiefs, and to urge them to come in and join in the council. This pressing invitation had the desired effect, and nearly all the absentee chiefs and warriors, with their squaws and pappooses, made haste to join their red brethren at the rendezvous. When all the preparations were complete the council was opened in a large bower, which, by direction of Gen. Cass, had been built by Louis Campau, the trader, on the banks of the Saginaw. All around this structure, and crowding closely up to the line, which they were not allowed to cross, were squaws and pappooses from every band of the Saginaw Chippewa tribe, eager to look upon the ceremonies which were to them little less than mysterious. Next in their front, and inside the "(leafy councilhouse," were the young men and warriors, while within their circle, seated on the trunks of trees which had been placed there for that purpose, were the chiefs and sagamores, those of high rank being clustered round a low platform of hewn logs, on which were seated Gen. Cass, his secretaries, Forsyth, Leib, and Whitney, Capt. Cass, and Lieut. John Peacock, of the Third Infantry, Capt. Chester Root, of the United States Artillery, Whitmore Knaggs, Indian trader, sub-agent, and principal interpreter, and some others. Other interpreters present were Louis Beaufait, John Hurson, William Tuckey, and Henry Connor, who was known among the Indians as Wabaskindebay, or "White Hair." Among the Indian traders who were conspicuous on the occasion were Louis Campau, Antoine Campau, Jacob Smith, and Archibald Lyons. Gen. Cass opened the council by an address to the Indians, delivered through his interpreters. He told them that the Great Father (the President) earnestly desired to preserve and perpetuate the peace which had been established between their tribes and the government, and that he had the welfare of his red children at heart and wished to see them gradually change their mode of life by depending more on the pursuits of agriculture and less on hunting and fishing, which would grow more and more precarious year by year, because the advance of white immigration was moving resistlessly towards them, and in a little time their streams would become less prolific and their game would be driven to more remote hunting-grounds. He explained to them that the government, wishing to purchase their lands for the use of white settlers, would pay them a generous price, and that other lands, ample in extent and as fertile as these, would be set apart for the perpetual use of themselves and their children. The original object of Gen. Cass was not only to induce the Chippewas to cede their lands, but also to obtain from them an agreement to remove from the peninsula and locate themselves on tracts to be selected for them west of Lake Michigan, or perhaps beyond the Mississippi. This object was made apparent by the tenor of his opening speech, and it roused the opposition and resentment of the chiefs to such a degree as to threaten a suspension of all negotiations. The first Indian who spoke in reply to the Governor was Kishkawko,* the principal chief of the Saginaws. He spoke in a violent and angry manner against the cession of any of their lands, and advised the breaking up of the council. He was, however, considerably under the influence of liquor at the time, and on this account his harangue had less effect than that of Ogemawkeketo (a name meaning " chief speaker"), who immediately followed Kishkawko in a speech which was far less violent, but quite as uncompromising in its opposition to the objects of Gen. Cass. Mishenanonequet and other chiefs spoke in nearly the same vein, and when the council was ended for the day the prospect of the conclusion of a treaty was far from favorable. At the close Gen. Cass, after having told the chiefs in a friendly manner to go to their wigwams " and smoke and talk the matter over together," retired with his secretaries to their quarters in a state of disappointment and great anxiety in view of the not improbable failure of the negotiations. There was one favorable circumstance, however: the chief Kishkawko had reached a state of helpless intoxication, and he remained in that condition for the following eight or ten days, not again making his appearance until all the terms of the treaty had been agreed on. The Indians had retired sullen and almost rebellious, and no other session of the council was held for several days. But during that time powerful influences in favor of the treaty had been brought to bear on them by Jacob Smith and other traders, who wished, for private reasons of their own, to see the sale consummated. The trader Smith, in particular, was high in favor with old Neome and a great number of the other chiefs, and his influence over them: Kishkawko was not a Chippewa, but a member of one of the Canadian tribes, who came to Saginaw and by some means was enabled to usurp the power and place of principal chief. He was described as "a miserable tyrant and a villainous coward." Mr. Truman B. Fox, in his mention of Kishkawko, says: "The early settlers of Oakland County were very much annoyed by this villain and his cowardly band as they passed through that section of the country on their way to Malden to receive their annual presents from the British government. Kishkawko was in the habit of traveling with thirty or forty scoundrels whom he called his warriors, and, taking advantage of the sparseness of the settlements, would levy contributions upon the poor settlers. If his demands were not readily complied with, he would take what he wanted by force, such as cattle, hogs, etc., thus subjecting the poor settlers to great suffering and continual fear. Upon one occasion, after his arrival at Detroit, which happened a few days before payment, his men being very hungry, he applied to some of the authorities for food; ' for,' said he, ' unless my young men get something to eat it will be impossible for me to restrain them from robbing the settlers along the route.'-' Sir,' returned Gen. Cass, 'if your young men commit any depredations upon the settlers, I will send my young men to punish them.' Notwithstanding this intimation, depredations were occasionally committed upon the settlers with impunity. Kishkawko at length came to his end in a manner strikingly in keeping with his wicked and cowardly career. One day, while encamped at a place a little above Detroit, known as Chaine Farm, he got into a drunken row and killed an Indian. He was arrested by the proper authorities and imprisoned in the old Detroit jail, where he remained several months. Feeling assured from his past conduct that he need expect no mercy or lenity from the hands of those he had so often outraged, and that his death was certain, he anticipated the law by taking poison, supposed to have been provided him by his squaws." INDIAN TREATIES AND CESSIONS OF LANDS. 23 was great. He was favorable to the cession, because in it he expected to (and eventually did) secure a number of choice reservations of land for his children. Archibald Lyons was another who expected (and received) a similar favor for his half-breed daughter Elizabeth. Several other traders (among whom a principal one was Louis Campau) stood well in the confidence of the Chippewas, and all these exerted their powers of persuasion to induce the Indians to make the threaty, in the hope of receiving certain arrearages due them out of the silver coin which would be paid in consideration of the cession. Gen. Cass, although he was Governor of Michigan and commissioner of Indian affairs and was backed by the military force of the United States, did not wield one-half the power over the savages which was exercised by these traders; but the latter used theirs so effectually that at the end of a few days they had nearly overcome the opposition. Having accomplished this result, they notified Gen. Cass (who had all the while been aware of the means that were being employed), and he thereupon reconvened the chiefs and warriors in the council-house. At this second council there was still a considerable amount of discussion among the chiefs, but, as the principal difficulty had already been surmounted by the arguments and persuasion of the traders, the scenes of the previous meeting were not re-enacted here. All the circumstances were now favorable for the conclusion of a treaty. The most determined opponent, Kishkawko, was absent (not having yet recovered from his debauch), and the chief speaker, Ogemawkeketo, had been won over by the traders. Gen. Cass, having found that the Indians were bitterly hostile to the plan for removing them beyond Lake Michigan, and that if the measure was insisted on it would most probably result in the failure of the treaty, had ceased to press the proposition, and substituted for it the plan of granting tribal and individual reservations within the tract to be ceded. These circumstances had wrought such a favorable change in the feelings of the chiefs that the parties had little difficulty in agreeing on the terms of a treaty, which was virtually concluded at this sitting, all that remained to be done being to engross it in due form and to affix to it the signatures of the commissioner, the chiefs, and the witnesses. On the following day (September 24th) the third and last session of the council was held, and the treaty was formally signed. The Indian attendance was much larger at this than at either of the previous councils, being estimated at fully two thousand chiefs and warriors; while a still greater number of women and children were crowded together on the outskirts of the assemblage. The ceremony of signing the treaty was made as imposing as possible. The first name written upon the document was, of course, that of Lewis Cass, United States Indian commissioner, and this was followed by the totems of one hundred and fourteen Chippewa and Ottawa* chiefs. Old Kishkawko I had finally come out of his prolonged trance, and was present-somewhat sullen, but very quiet and dignifiedand affixed his mark to the instrument with those of the other chiefs. The execution of the treaty was witnessed by Acting Commissioner R. A. Forsyth; the Governor's secretaries, Lieb and Whitney; Capts. Cass and Root and Lieut. Peacock; Gabriel Godfroy, sub-agent; the interpreters, Knaggs, Beaufait, Hurson, and Tuckey; John Hill, army contractor; Henry I. Hunt, Barney Campau, William Keith, V. S. Ryley, J. Whipple, A. E. Lacock, John Smyth, B. Head, Richard Smyth, Louis Dequindre, and Conrad Ten Eyck. After the signing a large table was placed before the commissioner, and on this table were spread great piles of silver half-dollars, which, under the direction of Gen. Cass, were to be paid out to the representatives of the several bands. This part of the ceremony was watched with great interest by both chiefs and traders, but for somewhat different, reasons. Many of the chiefs were indebted in considerable sums to the trader Louis Campau, who had' received their promise that when the payment was made to them his claim should be liquidated,-at least, to the' amount of fifteen hundred dollars. He had already notified Gen. Cass of this agreement, and was now anxiously waiting, hoping to receive the money from the commissioner without having it pass through Indian hands at all. But three of the other traders present were not pleased at the prospect of having so considerable a part of the Indians' money appropriated to the payment of old debts, and one of these three was Jacob Smith, who at once set about the task of persuading the wily and treacherous Kishkawko and some of the other chiefs to demand that the entire sum due them should be paid to the Indians, to be applied by them as they saw fit. This diplomacy was so entirely successful that when the commissioner explained to the chiefs that Campau was expecting to receive his dues, and asked if they consented to the arrangement, they replied that they were his children, under his protection, and expected that he would pay the money into their hands. The general could not disregard their expressed wishes in this particular, and he therefore directed that the money be paid to them, which was accordingly done by the secretaries, much to the disgust of Campau, who, seeing that his money was lost and rightfully believing Smith to be the cause of his discomfiture, leaped from the platform where he had been standing and struck the latter in the face. Quick as lightning Smith turned on his assailant, but Henry Connor and Louis Beaufait interposed between the belligerents and stopped the fight. After the payments had been made Gen. Cass ordered that five barrels of government whisky be opened and their contents dealt out to the Indians. Upon seeing this, Campau, still filled with wrath at the treatment he had received, and blaming the general almost as much as Smith, ordered up ten barrels of his own whisky, knocked in the heads, and posted two men with dippers to supply the Indians as they came up. The scene of intoxication and tur moil that ensued was indescribable. At about ten o'clock the Governor, having become thoroughly alarmed at the infernal orgies that surrounded the trading-post in which he * Only a very few Ottawas, however, were included among the chiefs who signed the Saginaw treaty. The Ottawas were regarded as the owners of a small part (the southwestern portion) of the lands ceded by this treaty, but they had no proprietorship in the eastern part, which was embraced in the domain of the Chippewas. 24 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. I was quartered, sent his private secretary, Forsyth, with orders to Campau to shut off the supply of liquor; but the trader only deigned the grim reply, " Gen. Cass commenced it himself." Then a platoon of Capt. Cass' company was marched up to guard the store-house. Soon after they had been posted a new arrival of Indians demanded whisky, and, upon being refused and held at bay, rushed on the guard to force an entrance, during which attempt one of them received a bayonet wound in the leg. In an instant the war-whoop was sounded, and in a few minutes more swarms of savages, infuriated with liquor and tomahawk in hand, came rushing towards the store. "Stop the liquor, Louis!" shouted the Governor as he stood in the door of his quarters with his night-cap on his head. "We shall all be murdered! Stop the liquor, I say!"'"Certainement, mon general," replied Campau; " but you begun it, and you allowed Smith to rob me. I'll keep you safe, but remember you commenced it, mon general." He appeared to think that the satisfaction of thoroughly frightening Gen. Cass for having allowed Jacob Smith to rob him, as he said, was cheaply enough purchased by the expenditure of ten barrels of whisky. "I lost my whisky and my money," he afterwards remarked, " but I have good revenge on Cass." By the combined efforts of the interpreters and traders present the Indians were at length pacified, and they retired to their wigwams to sleep off the effects of their intoxication. After they had entirely recovered from their carousal they became perfectly friendly and tractable, and even after the general and his staff of assistants had departed for Detroit they sent the orator-chief, Washmenondequet, to overtake him and express to him their pleasure and satisfaction at the result of the council. By the terms of this treaty the Indians ceded to the United States an area of territory estimated at about six millions of acres, in consideration of which the government agreed to pay to the Chippewa nation annually forever the sum of one thousand dollars in silver coin, and also that all annuities to be paid them in pursuance of the stipulations of previous treaties should thereafter be paid in silver. The terms of the treaty of Greenville (in 1795), giving the Indians the right to hunt and fish at will upon the ceded lands so long as they remained the property of the United States, were applied to this treaty. They were also to be permitted to make sugar wherever they chose upon the same lands and during the same period, but without any unnecessary waste of trees. The boundaries of the cession, as described in the treaty, were as follows: " Beginning at a point in the present Indian boundary-line (identical with the principal meridian of the State), which runs due north from the mouth of the Great Auglaize River, six miles south of the place where the base-line, so called, intersects the same; thence west sixty miles; thence in a direct line to the head of Thunder Bay River; thence down the same, following the courses thereof, to the mouth; thence northeast to the boundaryline between the United States and the British province of Upper Canada; thence with the same to the line established by the treaty of Detroit in the year 1807; and thence with said line to the place of beginning." In other words, the boundary-line of this great tract commenced at the southwest corner of the township of Henrietta, in Jackson County, and ran thence due west sixty miles to the southwest corner of the township of Richland, in Kalamazoo County,-a point about three miles northeast of the village of Kalamazoo. From this place the western boundary of the cession was an unsurveyed line extending northeasterly through the present counties of Kalamazoo, Barry,-lonia, Montcalm, Isabella, Clare, Roscommon, Crawford, and perhaps Oscoda, to Montmorency, in which are the head-waters of Thunder Bay River, thus embracing all the country between the diagonal line mentioned and Lake Huron which had not been covered by the cession of 1807. We say an unsurveyed line,* and therefore cannot determine with certainty just where this line crossed the counties of Ionia and Montcalm; for the one who drew up the treaty left a point unsettled when he spoke of " the head of Thunder Bay River." But it is very probable that this line entered the county of Ionia near the southwest corner of Campbell, and thence continued in a northeasterly course across the townships of Campbell, Boston, Berlin, Easton, and Orleans to near the northeast corner of the latter township. Following the same line directly across Montcalm County, it would intersect the townships of Bushnell, Evergreen, Ferris, and Richland, or would pass from near the southwest corner of Bushnell to the northeast corner of Richland. Therefore, according to the treaty of Saginaw, all.the lands in the counties of Ionia and Montcalm lying east of the line we have endeavored to describe became the property of the United States. By the same treaty a number of tribal and individual land reservations were made, but none of them touched the limits of these counties. TREATY OF CHICAGO, 1821. On the 29th of August, 1821, another important treaty was concluded at Chicago between Gen. Lewis Cass and Hon. Solomon Sibley, commissioners, representing the United States, and the chiefs of the Ottawa, Chippewa, and Pottawattomie nations. These tribes then ceded to the general government all that portion of the Lower Peninsula (except some small reservations) described in the text of the treaty as follows: "Beginning at a point on the south bank of the river St. Joseph of Lake Michigan, near the Parc aux Vaches [a few miles south of Niles, Berrien Co.], due north from Rum's Village, and running thence south to a line drawn due east from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan; thence with the said line east to the tract ceded by the Pottawattomies to the United States by the treaty of Fort Meigs in 1817, if the said line should strike the said tract; but if the said line should pass north of the said tract [as was actually the case], then such line shall be continued until it strikes the western boundary of - It is quite evident that the surveyors who ran the township- and section-lines of Ionia County townships knew about where this line siould run; for, while Campbell, Boston, Berlin, Easton, and Ronald were surveyed in 1830-31, Keene, Otisco, and Orleans, being considered Indian lands, were not surveyed until the spring of 1837, or one year after the treaty of Chicago. INDIAN TREATIES AND CESSIONS OF LANDS. 25 the tract ceded to the United States by the treaty of Detroit in 1807 [the principal meridian], and from the termi. nation of the said line, following the boundaries of former cessions, to the main branch of the Grand River of Lake Michigan, should any of the said lines cross the said river; but if none of the sa:d lines should cross the said river, then to a point due east of the source of the said main branch of the said river, and from such point due west to the source of said principal branch, and from the crossing of said river, or from the source thereof, as the case may be, down the said river, on the north bank thereof, to the mouth; thence, following the shore of Lake Michigan, to the south bank of the said river St. Joseph, at the mouth thereof; and thence with the said south bank to the place of beginning." As the principal meridian crosses Grand River in Ingham County, that river comprised the whole northern boundary of the tract in question. The reader will also observe that this cession included within its boundaries a considerable portion of the tract ceded by the Chippewas at Saginaw in 1819. Doubtless the last-named tribe made large claims, and it was thought best, in 1819, to buy all they claimed; after that the rights of the true owners, covering a part of the same ground, were purchased, for all authorities show that the Ottawas and Pottawattomies occupied the country to the south of Grand River, and that the Chippewas did not,-in any force, at least. From this cession there were reserved for the use of the Indians the following-mentioned tracts: "Mangachqua village, on the river Peble," six miles square; village of Notawasepe, four miles square; village of Prairie Ronde, three miles square; and the village of Matcheebeenashewish, at the head of the Kekalamazoo River, three miles square. These were all designed for the Pottawattomies and the Ottawas mingled with them, as the main body of the Ottawas, who occupied the north part of the ceded tract, still retained an ample territory north of Grand River. There were also several small individual reservations near the St. Joseph River for the benefit of favored families of the Pottawattomies,-those who proved to be friends during the war of 1812. In consideration of this cession the United States agreed to pay the Ottawas one thousand dollars a year forever, besides fifteen hundred dollars a year for fifteen years to support a blacksmith, a teacher, and a farmer. To the Pottawattomies the government agreed to pay five thousand dollars annually for twenty years, besides a thousand dollars a year to support a blacksmith and a teacher; and it was further stipulated that, as in the treaty of Greenville, the Indians were to have the right to hunt, fish, and occupy the lands ceded while owned by the United States. Such was the treaty which gave to the United States the ownership of that part (the southwest corner) of Ionia County south of the Grand River which was not covered by the treaty of Saginaw. The chiefs and warriors who signed or affixed their mark to this treaty were, on the part of the Chippewas, Mettayyaw and Michel; on the part of the Ottawas, Keewagoushcum, Nockawgeegum, Keeotoawbee, Ketchemee, Eppee4 sausee, Kayneewee, Moaputte, and Matcheebeenashewish;* and on the part of the Pottawattomies, Topenabee, Meteay, Chebonsee, Loinson, Weesaw, Keepotaw, Schayauk, Keebee, Schomang, Wawemickemack, Nayouchemon, Kongee, Sheeshawgau, Ayscham, Meeksaymauk, Metenway, Shawwenuemetary, Francois, Mauksee, Waymego, Mandauming, Quayquee, Aapenhawbee, Matchaweeyaas, Matchapoggish, Mongan, Puggagans, Sescobennish, Cheegwackgwago, Wawsebban, Peecheco, Quonquoitaw, Rannish, Wynemaig, Onmuckemeck, Kawaysin, Ameckose, Oseemeek, Shawkoto, Noshaweequat, Meegun, Macshekeetenmore, Keenotoge, Wabawnesheu, Shawwawnaysee, Atchweemuckquee, Pishsheebaugay, Wawbassay, Meggeessesee, Saygawkoonick, Shawwayno, Sheeshawgun, Totomee, Ashkuwee, Shayaukkeebee, and Awbetonee. Certainly a title sanctioned by such a list of names ought never be disputed. A curious incident in connection with this council is narrated in Smith's " Life of Cass," derived from the general himself. While the latter was watching some peculiar ceremonies of the Indians in the early part of the proceedings, he observed a Chippewa looking very grave and keeping apart from his fellows. Governor Cass inquired the reason, and learned that the man in a fit of passion had killed a Pottawattomie in the early part of the same season. The Pottawattomies had demanded the surrender of the murderer, and as the Chippewas, and in fact the homicide himself, admitted the justice of the claim, it was expected that the friends of the slain man would inflict the penalty of death. But the murderer was owing some traders for goods received, and he was anxious to pay them before he died. Accordingly, he solicited and obtained the postponement of his execution until he could, by hunting, procure the means of satisfying his creditors. He had hunted successfully through the season, had obtained furs enough to pay his debts, and had come to the council prepared to suffer death at the hands of the friends of his victim. The Governor was touched by the stolid honesty of the doomed man, and by liberal presents to his intended executioners persuaded them to let him go free. Very likely a good supply of whisky was the principal consideration which induced them to forego their revenge, for that has ever been the most potent agent to reach the ' The last signer for the Ottawas, Matcheebeenashewish, was the chief of the band at Kalamazoo, and the reservation there was named after him. Yet that reservation, like all the others in Michigan south of the Grand River, is generally said to have been occupied by Pottawattomies. Doubtless they formed a decided majority, but there were some Ottawas mingled with the Pottawattomie bands, as has been frequently observed, and it was no uncommon thing for a member of one tribe to become a chief in another, even where the relations of the two tribes were much less close than those of the Ottawas and Pottawattomies. The chieftain and the region in which he flourished are thus mentioned in a quaint old song of the pioneer days, reprinted in the "Centennial Record of Michigan." After glorifying various Michigan localities, the poet says: "But of all the darndest countries Beneath the shining sun, Old Kalamazoo can take the rag When all the rest are done. There, in the burr-oak openings, Big Matcheebeenashewilh Raised double crops of corn and beans, And ate them with his fish." 26 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. Indian's heart. It is related that even Topenabee, the principal chief of the Pottawattomies, the octogenarian warrior who had signed the treaty with Gen. Wayne in 1795, and had vainly endeavored to save the doomed garrison of Chicago in 1812, was more anxious about obtaining a supply of whisky than anything else. When Gen. Cass urged him to keep sober so as to make a good bargain for himself and his people, he replied: " Father, we not care for the land, nor the money, nor the goods. What we want is whisky; give us whisky." The old chief was a sad drunkard himself; still, it is possible that he spoke sarcastically, in view of the manifest anxiety of the Indians for their deadliest bane. TREATY OF CHICAGO, 1833. By a treaty known as the supplementary treaty of Chicago, made at the latter place Sept. 27, 1833, the Ottawa, Chippewa, and Pottawattomie Indians ceded to the United States all their reserves lying south of Grand River,-viz., the reservation at the village of Notawasepe, the ninetynine sections mentioned in the treaty of St. Joseph (concluded Sept. 19, 1827), and also a tract on the St. Joseph River opposite Niles, on which were situated the villages of the bands controlled by the chiefs Topenabee and Pokagon; for which the government agreed to pay the sum of one hundred thousand dollars, the Indians, on their part, agreeing to remove in three years, and not to interfere with the survey or sale of lands heretofore owned by them. TREATY OF WASHINGTON, 1836. But a treaty more important in its results than either of those already mentioned-a compact which extinguished the Indian title to much of the Upper and a large part of the Lower Peninsula, which invested the general government with the ownership of Keene, Otisco, and Orleans townships, in Ionia County, and of at least four-fifths of the present county of Montcalm-was concluded at Washington, D. C., March 28, 1836, between Hon. Henry R. Schoolcraft, on the part of the United States, and the chiefs of the Ottawa and Chippewa nations. The boundaries of the vast tract then ceded were described in the treaty as follows: " Beginning at the mouth of the Grand River of Lake Michigan, on the north bank thereof, and following up the same to the line called for in the first article of the treaty of Chicago of the 29th of August, 1821; thence in a direct line to the head of Thunder Bay River; thence with the line established by the treaty of Saginaw of the 24th of September, 1819, to the mouth of said river; thence northeast to the boundaryline in Lake Huron between the United States and the British province of Upper Canada; thence northwestwardly, following the said line, as established by the commissioners acting under the treaty of Ghent, through the Straits and river St. Mary's to a point in Lake Superior north of the mouth of Gitchey Sebing (or Chocolate River); thence south to the mouth of said river, and up its channel to the source thereof; thence in a direct line to the head of the Skonawba (Escanaba) River of Green Bay; thence down the south bank of said river to its mouth; thence in a direct line through the ship-channel into Green Bay to the, outer part thereof; thence south to a point in Lake Mich igan west of the north cape or entrance of Grand River; and thence east to the place of beginning, at the cape aforesaid, comprehending all the lands and islands within these limits not hereinafter reserved." The tribes reserved for their own use one tract of fifty thousand acres on Little Traverse Bay; one of twenty thousand acres on the north shore of Grand Traverse Bay; one of seven thousand acres north of the Pere Marquette River; one of one thousand acres at Chingassamo, or the Big Sail, on the Cheboygan; one of one thousand acres, to be located by Mujeekewis on the Thunder Bay River; and also several small reservations forthe Chippewas living north of the straits. In consideration the United States agreed to pay to the Ottawas and Chippewas, the following sums, etc.: 1st. An annuity of thirty thousand dollars per annum in specie for twenty years, of which eighteen thousand dollars was to be paid to the Indians living between Grand River and the Cheboygan; three thousand six hundred dollars to the Indians on the Huron shore between the Cheboygan and Thunder Bay River; seven thousand four hundred dollars to the Chippewas north of the straits as far as the cession runs; and the remaining one thousand dollars to be invested in stocks by the Treasury Department, and not to be sold until the expiration of twenty-one years. 2d. Five thousand dollars per annum for purposes of education, to be continued for twenty years, and as long thereafter as Congress may appropriate for that object. 3d. Three thousand dollars for missions, subject to various conditions. 4th. Ten thousand dollars for agricultural implements, cattle, tools, etc. 5th. Three hundred dollars per annum for medicines, physicians, etc., while the Indians remained upon the reservations. 6th. Provisions to the amount of two thousand dollars, six thousand five hundred pounds of tobacco, one hundred barrels of salt, and five hundred barrels of fish, annually for twenty years. 7th. One hundred and fifty thousand dollars in goods, provisions, etc., on the ratification of this treaty, to be delivered at Michilimackinac. Other liberal concessions were made to some old chiefs who had been friendly to the government during the war of 1812, also to the half-breed children of white fathers, in lieu of reservations. These tribes, by the terms of the treaty, were also allowed the right to occupy the lands ceded until they were wanted for settlement. The treaty was then signed by Henry R. Schoolcraft for the United States, and by the following chiefs: Oroun Aishkum, Wassangazo, Osawya, of Maskigo; Wabi Windego, Megiss Ininee, Nabun Ageezhig, Winnimissagee, Mukutaysee, of Grand River; Ainse, Chabowaywa, of Michilimackinac; Jawba Wadick, Waub Ogeeg, Kawgayosh (by Maidosagee), of Sault Ste. Marie; Apawkozigun, Keminitchagun, Tawaganee, Kinoshamaig, Naganigobowa, Oniasino, Mukuday Benais, Chingassamo, of L'Arbre Croche; Aishquagonabee, Akosa, Oshawun Epenaysee, of Grand Traverse. At the conclusion of the treaty-making ceremonies the following-named witnesses attached their signatures: John Hulbert, secretary; Lucius Lyon; R. P. Parrott, captain United States army; W. P. Zantzinger, purser United States navy; Josiah F. Polk, John Holiday, John A. INDIAN TRADERS. 27 Drew, Rix Robinson, Leonard Slater, Louis Moran, Augustin Hamlin, Jr., Henry A. Levake, William Lasley, George W. Woodward, and C. O. Ermatinger. Thus have we followed and reviewed the various treaties which led to the gradual extinguishment of Indian titles (except the reservations mentioned, and a portion of the Upper Peninsula) to lands in the State of Michigan, and in doing so have found that none of the reservations named encroached upon or extended within the limits of either Ionia or Montcalm County. True, many Indians were still here when the first white settlers came, but, according to treaty stipulations, they had a right to be here until the lands occupied by them were wanted for actual settlement or had passed from the ownership of the general government to individuals. When the whites came as settlers, therefore, the Indians, as they had agreed in their treaties, retired readily, yet mournfully, from their old haunts, their cultivated patches, and their villages to still deeper wilds in the great Northern wilderness. CHAPTER VII. INDIAN TRADERS, THE INDIANS IN PIONEER DAYS, AND CURSORY REMARKS. The Indian Traders in Michigan under various Governments-Endeavors of the United States Authorities to Exercise a Strict Supervision-Instructing the Traders-Indian Manner of Accepting or Rejecting the Traders-Traders Increase the Confidence of the Indians by taking Indian Wives-Their Success-How they Evaded the Spirit of their " Instructions"-Style of their Trading-Posts, and the Kind of Goods usually in Stock-Braves always Thirsty, and "Fire-Water" Plentiful-Traders' Manner of bringing in their Goods-Indian Articles of Barter-The Courelrs-des-bois- The Fur-Bearing Animals, and those covered only with " Skins"-Traders' Mode of Collecting-The Indian Traders of Ionia County: Genereau, Hunt, Belcher, Brown, Lasley, Fraro, and Others-Their Disappearance with their Customers-Indians in Pioneer DaysTheir Docility after War of 1812-Their Habits-Their Numbers, Villages, and other Locations in 1830-Names of Principal ChiefsUsefulness of the Indians at an Early Day-Final Retirement to Reservations-Remarks regarding former Occupants other than those termed the "Aborigines"-Ancient Fortifications and Mounds in Lyons. INDIAN TRADERS. AFTER its occupation by the French the territory embraced by the present State of Michigan contained a widelyscattered class of inhabitants denominated Indian traders. They were generally natives of France or of French descent, and their ostensible business was buying furs and peltries from the Indians. Their position was a peculiar one. They were the friends and benefactors of the Indians, and yet they could not stay among them unless they had their confidence. They pervaded this Territory while it was under French, English, and American domination, during all the years from the latter part of the seventeenth century until 1836, when, by the consummation of the treaty of Washington, their trade was ruined. While carrying on their operations, however, they were governed by certain rules issued by the respective governments that had controlled this region. Our government exercised a strict supervision over them, and would permit no one to do business as a trader without I I - giving bonds to follow the rules laid down by the proper authorities. The trader was also required to have a license from the superintendent of Indian affairs, which was liable to be revoked on complaint of the Indians, or of anybody else. All of them were well aware of the fact that the government would protect no unlicensed traders, and no licensed traders unless they complied with the rules promulgated for their guidance. The "' Instructions" usually given to each trader were about as follows: " 1. Your trade will be confined to the place to which you are licensed. " 2. Your transactions with the Indians will be confined to fair and friendly trade. " 3. You will attend no councils held by the Indians, nor send them any talk or speech accompanied by wampum. "4. You are forbidden to take any spirituous liquors of any kind into the Indian country, or to give, sell, or dispose of any to the Indians. " 5. Should any person attempt to trade in the Indian country without a license, or should any licensed traders carry any spirituous liquors into the Indian country, or give, sell, or dispose of any to the Indians, the Indians are authorized to seize and take to their own use the goods of such traders; and the owner shall have no claim on the Indians or the United States for the same. " 6. Should you learn that there is any person in the Indian country trading without a license, you will immediately report the name of such person, and the place where he is trading, to some Indian agent. " 7. The substance of the fifth regulation you will communicate to the Indians. " 8. You will take all proper occasions to inculcate upon the Indians the necessity of peace, and to state to them that it is the wish of their Great Father the President to live in harmony with them, and that they must shut their ears to any wild stories there may be in circulation." With these instructions, his license, and his goods the trader would then repair to the place where he was authorized to do business. On his arrival a council of Indians would decide whether he might remain and be their trader. If displeased, they drove him away; if they chose to have him remain, they gave him substantial tokens of their good will, and would stand by him, expecting, likewise, that he would stand by them. Many of the traders, to increase the confidence of the Indians, would take an Indian wife, and thus seal the proof of their kindly sympathy. Indeed, the Indians frequently demanded this proof. The alliances thus formed were generally for one hundred moons, when, according to the Ottawa usage, the wife might be let go. As a general thing, mutual confidence and respect existed between the French traders and the Indians. The former were very successful in their dealings with the sons of the forest, because they treated them as fellow-men; but it was woe to the poor Indians when the English and American traders met them in indiscriminate barter. The clause wherein the traders were " forbidden to take spirituous liquors of any kind into the Indian country" was never strictly observed, for by the sale of whisky the traders reaped the most of their gains. They had a way of avoiding the license by supplying trusty Indians or squaws with goods to be sold to their bands. Goods to the value of one thousand dollars were frequently intrusted to an Indian, to be sold on credit, and paid for on the return of successful hunting- and trapping-expeditions. The houses used by the traders were of various sizes, being in some places mere huts, in others quite commodious. 28 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. f They were built of logs, and were usually covered with black-ash bark. Here the traders sold ammunition, tobacco, steel traps, fish-hooks, and a few hats, caps, boots, and shoes, besides beads, calicoes, and some other cloths of those gay colors in which both Indians and squaws greatly delighted. They also sold a few shot-guns and rifles. Immense numbers of brooches, ear-rings, and other articles of adornment were likewise disposed of. These articles of "jewelry" were made of a material called " silver," but, in fact, it was only a cheap white metal. But, above all other articles, whisky and other ardent spirits formed the most profitable, if not the most extensive, portion of the trader's outfit. As we have before stated, the sale of strong liquors to the Indians was strictly forbidden by law, but the profits were enormous, the braves were always thirsty, and the traders were avaricious; and doubtless all of them sold all the " fire-water" they could. Their goods were either brought across the peninsula from Detroit on Indian ponies, or, as was much more commonly the case, were transported from Detroit, Mackinaw, and sometimes from Montreal, on large open boats known as Montreal barges, or bateaux, which would carry from six to ten tons each in smooth water. When these boats came all the way from Montreal, they passed from Lake Ontario to Lake Huron, through the streams and lakes of Upper Canada, several portages being made on the way. A quite common way was for the American Fur Company or large traders like Louis Campau to bring the goods to Mackinaw in sail-vessels, which were there unloaded. They were then furnished to small traders, and were brought in their individual barges up Lake Michigan, and then up the principal rivers to various trading-posts. The Indians paid for the articles they bought principally with furs, deer-skins, and maple-sugar. The latter commodity was not much sought for by traders, as it could not be exchanged for goods in the Eastern markets, yet, to please their dusky customers, they did receive large quantities of it, which they shipped East and sold as best they could. All the larger traders kept runners among the Indian camps through the winter. These were usually French half-breeds, termed coureurs-des-bois; they carried their goods on their backs, and brought back in the same way the furs they received. Once there had been beavers and beaver-dams in this region, and there may have been a few of these animals here as late as 1830, but they were all hunted out before the arrival of the white settlers. The greater part of the furs sold the traders were those of the marten, mink, muskrat, and coon. The marten-skins were the most valuable, and for them the traders usually allowed the Indians a dollar apiece, or what they called a dollar, for all furs were paid for in goods, to which the traders affixed their own prices. Cheap calicoes sold at twenty-five cents a yard, and a better article at fifty cents. Good mink-skins were estimated at fifty cents each, raccoon-skins at the same price, and muskrat-skins at twenty-five cents. Besides these, which were called by the general name of " furs," there were those known in distinction as "skins," —viz., deer- and bear-skins. After the treaty of Chicago, in 1821, the Ottawas re ceived a yearly payment from the general government. Nearly the whole of the money thus received went into the hands of the traders. If an Indian had neither money nor furs to offer and wanted to purchase on credit, it was generally given him, unless he was known to be dishonest; and it is said that on the average they paid quite as promptly as white men do at the present day. The traders always attended the payments made by the United States agent, and generally received the money due them from the Indians. Occasionally, however, a dispute would arise about the amount, and at such times, if allowed, the trader would take the law into his own hands and seize the money claimed by him as his due. Of the Indian traders who had established their posts in this portion of the Grand River valley prior to its settlement by the English-speaking whites, the Frenchman Louis Genereau was the earliest, and probably at a time contemporaneously with that of Rix Robinson at the mouth of the Thornapple, and of Louis Campau at Grand Rapids. It is said that Rix Robinson's post was established in 1825, and Louis Campau's, at " the Grand Rapids," two years later. Some early settlers of Ionia County have asserted that Genereau did not establish his post on the Grand, below the mouth of the Maple, or about one mile west of the present village of Lyons, until 1830 or thereabouts, and then only as an agent for Antoine Campau & Co. But we have every reason to believe, from conversations held with Dr. W. B. Lincoln and County Surveyor Thomas Cornell,-gentlemen who knew Genereau as early as the summer of 1833,-that the latter came to the mouth of the Maple in 1826 or 1827 and was himself the principal, and that the business of this post did not pass into the hands of Campau & Co. until after the removal of Genereau. Again, according to the recollections of Messrs. Lincoln and Cornell, the buildings and immediate surroundings of Genereau had the appearance, in 1833, of having been occupied " some seven or eight years." He was quite successful as an Indian trader. He owned a large bateau, with which his goods and peltries were transferred up and down the Grand, and he also rejoiced in the companionship of an Indian wife. That he had passed many years among the Indians is evident from the fact that at the time our informants first knew him his half-breed son, Louis, Jr., had arrived at years verging upon manhood. He was a wild youth, and soon after brought great sorrow upon the head of his father by killing or roasting to death an Indian, for which offense he was convicted and sent to prison for a long term of years. Soon after this event the elder Genereau removed from the locality long known as Genereauville. About 1830, William Hunt came from the State of New York and established an Indian trading-post near the site of the present village of Lyons, and not far away from Genereau's. He had as partners at various periods his brother-in-law, Elisha Belcher, and one named Brown. After the business of Indian trading ceased to be profitable Hunt turned his attention to other pursuits, remaining a resident of the vicinity until his death. Belcher was a lawyer by profession, and an active citizen while here. He INDIANS IN THE PIONEER DAYS. 29 removed to Kalamazoo in 1834. (See chapter entitled;" Courts and Attorneys," Part Second.) Prior to the settlement of Samuel Dexter and his associates, in May, 1833, there were other traders in Ionia County, all in the east part. Among them, and their employees, were Samuel Lasley, Matthew McGulpin, Isedore Nantais, Joseph Pyatt, Francis Fraro, Matar Parce, and Francis Bailey, the latter of whom was happy in the possession of two Indian wives. A majority of these men, however, vanished from these regions long before the total disappearance of their tawny customers, for, rough and uncultured as many of them were, and closely connected by ties of blood with the red men, their most natural place was on the extreme border of civilization. They could no more bear with the customs and influences of what is termed civilized life than their nearest friends, the intractable nomads of the forest. We have not learned that Indian traders ever located in Montealm County, though its many lakes and streams and its extensive pine-forests afforded fine trapping- and huntinggrounds for those Indians who sold their skins and furs to Genereau, Robinson, and Campau. INDIANS IN THE PIONEER DAYS. Of the Indians who occupied the territory comprised in the counties of Ionia and Montcalm in pioneer days not much more can be said than has already been related in preceding chapters. They were generally Ottawas, among whom mingled a few Chippewas, and now and then a Pottawattomie. There were among them also many who had served with the British against the Americans until the (to them) disastrous battle of the Thames (in 1813) and the death of Tecumseh, but these old warriors and their young men, at the time to which we refer (1830 to 1840), had sadly degenerated from that type of true, warlike North American Indians so often described by early writers. Their total defeat in the battle mentioned annihilated all possibility of successful resistance to the government of the United States, and all hope of holding their huntinggrounds against the advance of settlement and civilization; so the Ottawas, like other Michigan Indians, sued for peace, gave hostages for th'eir future good conduct, received a pardon (which they scarcely expected or deserved) for their past offenses, and retired to their villages and huntinggrounds,-morose, dejected, subjugated,-never again to make war against the whites. In 1832, Black Hawk, the Wisconsin chief, endeavored to incite them to renewed hostilities against the white men, but his efforts failed. Hence, with no excitement other than that attendant upon the chase, these once fierce warriors had gradually become (in the years succeeding 1813) peaceful and inoffensive wards of the general government,-mere hunters and trappers. For many years large numbers of the Ottawas had been in the habit of making annual visits to Mackinaw, and usually started soon after the close of the sugar-making sea son. At such times large fleets of Mackinaw boats (each bearing a family and its supplies) would assemble at the mouth of the Grand, and when all were ready (after a riotous jubilee and the roasting of the " white dog") the I fleet would sweep rapidly away to the northward. The return, in October, was made in company in the same manner. But we believe that those of them who inhabited the region in which our readers are most interested remained here throughout the year; and why should they not? The rich open bottoms of the Grand afforded them ample facilities for raising corn, pumpkins, beans, etc., while the forests, lakes, and streams teemed with fish and game. It has been stated that in 1830 the Indians who then made their rendezvous in the village at the mouth of the Maple numbered eight hundred, their principal chief being Moctiquaquash or Cocoosh (Old Hog),* while Makatoquet (Black Cloud) was second in command. This was the chief Indian village in Ionia County, and, with a natural opening of several hundred acres lying immediately around them, the Indians had ample grounds for pasturage and planting. In Danbyt was the Indian village of Peshimnecon (" apple place"). About one hundred and fifty Indians were gathered there, and their principal chief was Daomac. The names of several other Indians of this band remembered by early settlers were Manukquah, Nacquit, Onewanda, Negumwatin, Sishebee, Nikenashwa, Whiskemuk, Pashik, Squagun, and his sons Thargee and Chedskunk. These Indians remained in Danby until within recent years (about 1855), when they were removed to reservations (we believe) in Isabella County. Among citizens of lonia City mention is frequently made of an Indian village which had an existence there at the time Judge Dexter and his friends settled. But it seems that this village consisted only of some five or six huts, which stood in the near vicinity of the present railroad shops. It is true that many Indians encamped there, but only at such times as they were engaged in hunting, fishing, and sugar-making. Their chief was Cobmosa, an Inlian of much dignity and manliness, who was second in command of the Flat River bands, and their general encampment was at the mouth of that river. Keewacoosheum (Long Nose), principal chief of all the Flat River Indians, was one of the chiefs who attended at the treaty of Chicago, in 1821, and with the Pottawattomies signed the instrument by which the United States acquired possession of the large tract heretofore described. The Ottawas never forgave him for this act, and, when an old man, he finally met his death at the hands of Wasogenaw. He was buried in the township of Plainfield, Kent Co., near the grave of Wabesis (White Swan), another victim of a hatred which grew out of signing treaties and ceding Indian lands. Wabesis was a half-breed and chief of a band of Ottawas who frequented Kent and Montcalm Counties. It is related that as one of the Ottawa delegations he visited Wash a Cocoosh was also the name of the village. Early residents relate that Cocoosh was a negro; that during the war of 1812, when about twelve years of age, he was taken prisoner and adopted in the band, of which he afterwards became the leading chief. t See History of Danby for a detailed account of these Indians. T His name does not appear in the list of those who signed the treaty of Washington, but perhaps that of Wabi Windego was intended for him. To speak an Indian's name is easy enough, but to write it is most difficult. Consequently, the clerks and secretaries 30 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. ington in 1836 and signed the treaty by which the United States government obtained title to the northwestern part of the Lower Peninsula, including Keene, Otisco, and Orleans townships, in Ionia County, and the major portion of Montcalm. The Indians were very angry with all who participated in making this treaty, and Wabesis was also accused of keeping an undue proportion of the money paid for the purchase. As a punishment he was, according to Indian law, restricted to certain limits at Wabesis Lake, to go beyond which was death. There, with his family, he lived for several years, or until, in supposed safety, he visited a "green-corn dance" held in the present township o Plainfield, Kent Co. He was deceived, however, for he was there killed with a club by Neogamah. Besides the Indians and their chiefs already named, there were others in large numbers who usually encamped at " the Grand Rapids" and lower down on the Grand, but frequently visited the country of which we speak (lonia and Montcalm Counties). These bands had as their chieftains Nonoquaezich (Noon-Day), his son Mixicinny, Macottiooskee (Black Skin), and Onamontapay (Old Rock). These chiefs, it is said, controlled all the Indians in the lower Grand River valley in 1830. During the war of 1812 they were active as allies of the British, and it was the frequent boast of old Black Skin that he applied the torch to Buffalo. He died in 1868, extremely old. Noon-Day removed with the Slater Indians to the vicinity of Prairieville, Barry Co., in 1836-37, where he died about 1840, at the age of one hundred years. Old Makatoquet, so well remembered by the earliest residents along the Maple River, was last seen in the valley of the Grand in 1846. His death occurred soon after. The remnants of all the bands mentioned, except the Slater Indians and those at the village of Peshimnecon, finally retired to reservations in Oceana County. Before removing, however, and while still haunting their old hunting-grounds, they were of considerable service to the early settlers, for they brought to their doors many cheap " saddles" of venison and large quantities of maple-sugar, which (neatly packed in "mokoks") was offered for sale equally as low-priced. They also rendered these counties important service in assisting to rid them of wolves and other noxious wild animals. For proof of the latter assertion the reader is referred to the list of wolf-hunters, to be found in Part Third of this volume. With another paragraph or two we complete our remarks concerning events which transpired in the territory comprising the counties of Ionia and Montcalm prior to its occupation by the present inhabitants and their progenitors. From time immemorial the beautiful country immediately surrounding the present villages of Lyons and Muir seems to have been attractive to human occupants. Here, at the confluence of the Grand and Maple, was a broad, open, fertile valley whose margins of bold, high, thickly-wooded bluffs, separating it from the higher rolling surface beyond, com pleted a picture beauteous in the extreme, and one seldom witnessed in the Lower Peninsula, this land of monotonous superficies. The soil of this valley yielded readily to cultivation, even by people who, doubtless, practiced the most crude system of agriculture, while the natural greensward afforded an abundance of pasturage for such domestic animals as they possessed. Therefore, with a region in their possession where the beauties and bounties of nature had been so lavishly strewn about, it is not strange that it was a favorite abiding-place of a race of whom we have, nor ever can have, but little knowledge, or that the settlers of 1833 d.eemed it the most suitable and attractive situation (in the county) for the location of the county-seat. It was so naturally, but the militating features against it, however, in the estimation of the Governor and his deputed commissioners, arose from the fact that it was too far away from the geographical centre. When the first white settlers came to Lyons, several earthen mounds and an earth-work were plainly discernible of which the old men of Cocoosh's band could give no account other than that they were made by a people who occupied this region many years before themselves. It was also traditionary among them that in this immediate vicin. ity had been fought a severe battle between the people who lived here and a large invading party who came from the Ohio River, that the home-forces were sheltered by their fortifications on the bluffs, and that the invaders were defeated. As if to give plausibility to this tradition, there was found on the crest of the eminence known as " Arthursburg Hill" the ruins of a circular earth-work similar in appearance to modern " breast-works," of which the trench and embankment were about six hundred feet in circumference. The mounds mentioned (the largest being fully eight rods in diameter) were undoubtedly the burial-places* of the people who threw up the earth-work. Who these people were, however, or at what time they occupied this locality, as well as other portions of the peninsula (for the same traces of them are found in many parts of the State), are questions which (we believe) have never been satisfactorily answered, although many, indeed, have indulged in speculations and freely recorded their opinions. It cannot be expected, therefore, that the compiler of a work of this character (a cyclopaedia, in fact, of the county affording subject-matter), where so many topics are considered, and but few of them fully exhausted, can do otherwise than speculate, be these cogitations right or wrong; for the ascertained facts are few and trivial, so far as this section is concerned, while the theories which have been built upon them are so extensive as to tend to overawe any one who has not made the subject a special study. We find that similar works are found all along the shores of the Great Lakes as far east as the foot of Lake Ontario. As we go southward the works become more extensive and elaborate, and in the vicinity of the Ohio River they are of such magnitude as to have attracted the who signed for the Indians, wrote the names to suit themselves, and this mode of procedure seems to have been followed by all subsequent scribes. '' Our modern Indians, the Ottawas, also buried their dead in the vicinity, or at a point on the west bank of the river, at Lyons, between the school-house and bridge, where silver ornaments and stone implements are occasionally brought to view. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 31 most earnest attention of scientific men. It has long been a matter of general belief that these were built by some race who antedated and were far superior to the North American Indians, to whom, for lack of any other name, has been given the appellation of " Mound-Builders." Many, too, believe that the slighter mounds and fortifications erected in the lake-country were the productions of the same people, but of this there is considerable doubt. In fact, the generally trivial character of the works in the lakeregion, compared with those on and near the Ohio, naturally raises the presumption that the former were not built by the same race as the latter. Moreover, the northern structures are certainly such as could have been erected by the Indians, whether they were or not. It is true the Indians were not in the habit of building earthen fortifications when the whites first settled in America, but they did build elaborate and substantial palisades of logs, cut with their stone axes, and this required much more labor and skill than the construction of small earthen forts. Again, while the fortifications and mounds throughout the lake-region are so unimportant and could easily have been constructed by a barbarous race, yet within a hundred miles of Lake Erie, in Ohio, works are found giving evidence that men partly civilized, at least, designed and built them. It does not seem improbable, therefore, that a half-civilized race did once occupy the valley of the Ohio and build the mighty works found there, while, at the same time, the shores of the Great Lakes and the peninsula which lies between two of them were held by the ancestors of our modern Indians, or, in the latter section, by the Sauks,-a people (so says tradition) who were the predecessors of the Ottawas and Chippewas in portions and perhaps all of Michigan, yet having very nearly the same manners and customs. With such formidable neighbors as undoubtedly were the Mound-Builders of the Ohio River valley, the Northern Indians would very naturally imitate them, and build works to protect themselves against their hostile incursions. When the Mound-Builders (for some unknown reason) disappeared from the Ohio valley, and the ancestors of the Indians of our day spread all over this portion of the continent, the latter ceased to build works intended as a means of defense, and during a time of war contented themselves (in the use of their murderous war-clubs, tomahawks, and scalping-knives) by stealthily creeping in upon their unsuspecting enemies or silently awaiting them in leafy coverts,-the deadly ambush. With us, therefore, the most reasonable conclusion arrived at is that the works found on the hill already mentioned are very probably the remaining traces of a stockade fort, which was once surrounded with palisades set deep in the ground, and the earth from the ditch outside, while serving to hold the palisades more firmly in their places, was also used to make an elevated walk on the inside high enough to give the defenders of the fort command of the surface beyond, and to spring their arrows over its top; for, after making due allowance for the leveling processes of the centuries past, these earthen walls could never have been high enough to be of much use for shelter alone. Further, that the wooden palisades disappeared by decay many generations ago, and that the whole was the work of I Ij (possibly) the Sauks or their immediate ancestors,-at least a race who by the construction of this earth-work performed no greater feat than has been accomplished by the modern North American Indians.* CHAPTER VIII. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. Pioneering-Indian Trails-Early Territorial and State RoadsPlank Roads-Maple River Navigation Projects-Navigating and Improving the Grand-Improving Flat River and the Lower Black Creek and Six Lakes-Northern Railroad and Northern WagonRoad-Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee Railway-Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad-Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad-Other Proposed Railroads. PIONEERING. HERE, as in all other wild timbered regions, the first labor devolving upon the pioneers was the opening of routes of travel sufficient to admit the passage of vehicles to the points chosen for their future homes. When those places had been reached, however,-when by cutting away fallen timber and underbrush a pathway had been opened; when by dint of much shouting and whipping the patiently-toiling ox-teams had hauled the scanty household effects of their masters to rude cabins in the forest or to the places where they were yet to be erected,-the work of roadmaking, the initial movement of all internal improvements, had but just commenced, and from that time until in years quite recent a continued war upon Nature was made in the effort to render passable the routes designated by State and township authorities as public highways. Trees had to be felled, bridges built, and miles of causeways constructed across swamps and almost bottomless morasses ere the work was half completed, and a casual survey of early township records will show that in the prosecution of plans connected with pioneer road-making a large proportion of the funds collected directly from the people were expended. INDIAN TRAILS. Before the advent of the English-speaking white settlers, however, the people who occupied this region-the Indians -used as avenues of travel Nature's water-ways and paths through the forest known as " trails." These were amply sufficient for their purpose, and for the French Indian traders too, who (prior to the coming of those who, with their posterity, still occupy the land) were omnipresent throughout the southern half of the Lower Peninsula. Several of these trails traversed the territory of Ionia and Montcalm Counties, the principal ones following the valleys of the Grand, the Maple, the Looking-Glass, and the Flat Rivers. There were others also of less importance, which crossed the country in various directions and connected the broader ones, but all of them converged towards the villages of the red men and their crossings of the large streams. The Indians displayed considerable engineering ability in the ' The Creeks, Choctaws, and other Southern Indians built breastworks at Talladega, Horse-Shoe Bend, and elsewhere to protect themselves from the American riflemen. 32 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. I choice of ground for their routes of travel, for, though rugged surfaces, swamps, lakes, and overflowed bottom-lands were avoided, still their courses were pretty direct, and the crossings of creeks and rivers were made at the most favorable places. The first settlers in the various counties of Michigan soon learned these facts, and many of their early highways were so laid as to follow the routes taken by the trails. Maps made by the United States deputy surveyors in 1830-31 show that at that date the principal Indian settlement and point where all the trails in Ionia County converged was the village of Cocoosh (Old Hog), or Moctiquaquash, near the mouth of Maple River, or the vicinity of the present villages of Lyons and Muir. From that place the " broad Indian trail to Detroit" passed eastward across sections 20, 21, 22, 23, and 24 in Lyons township. The same trail in its course westward crossed the Grand River at Genereau's trading-post, and thence continued along the valley and on the north side of that stream, through the present townships of Ionia, Easton, Keene, and Boston, into Kent County, the route now pursued very nearly by the wagon-road. Another trail ran parallel with Grand River on its left bank, but from Lyons westward it was not used so much as the one on the opposite side of the stream. From Cocoosh's village this trail passed up the left bank of the same river to near the southeast corner of section 8 in Danby township. Here it crossed the river and led on southeasterly via the Indian village of Peshimnecon (" apple-tree place") towards Detroit. The surveyors in their field-notes mentioned this as the " trail to Chigamaskin" (" soft maple place"), which was an Indian village near Shiawasseetown, in Shiawassee County. The Saginaw and Grand River trail left the latter stream at Genereau's trading-post, and, thence passing up the valley of Maple River to the great bend in Gratiot County, crossed to the head-waters of Bad River and followed down its course and that of Saginaw River to the great Chippewa camping-ground at Saginaw. Besides those already mentioned, two trails converging at Cocoosh's village bore off to the northwest, through Ionia and Ronald townships, into Montcalm County. Another left the Grand River trail on the site of the city of Ionia, and, taking a northwest course across the townships of Easton and Orleans, intersected, in the vicinity of Kiddville, the main Flat River trail, which followed the course of that stream from its mouth away northward into the pine-forests of Montcalm. EARLY TERRITORIAL AND STATE ROADS. The first, and the principal one, of all the early roads which traversed the territory under consideration was that known as the Pontiac and Grand River road. It ran from Pontiac northwestward through Oakland County, and passed "Hillman's Tavern," in the township of Tyrone, Livingston Co., whence its route was by way of Argentine, in Genesee County, Byron, Burns, Fremont, Hartwellville, and Laingsburg, in Shiawassee County, De Witt and Wa cousta, in Clinton County, to Portland, Lyons, and Ionia County-Seat, in Ionia County; thence to the city of Grand Rapids. The pioneer travelers over this road (or at least that part of it from the Shiawassee River to Ionia County-Seat) were members of a party of colonists who came from the State of New York with Judge Samuel Dexter* to settle on lands in Ionia County. They traveled by the usual route from Detroit through Oakland County, and arrived at the Grand Saline, where Antoine Beaubien had a trading-post, about the middle of May, 1833. Their leader (Judge Dexter) asked Beaubien to pilot and assist them to their destination on the Grand River, but, as he refused to undertake it. the judge then applied to Benjamin O. Williams, of the trading firm located below on the Shiawassee River. Mr. Williams was then engaged in his spring farming, and was unwilling to leave it, but finally acceded to Judge Dexter's proposal and started out to guide the party on their way through the wilderness from the Shiawassee to the Grand River. Mr. Williams is still an honored resident of the city of Owosso, and the account which he gives of that journey is as follows: " Having in vain tried to get Beaubien to pilot them, Messrs. Dexter, Yeomans, and Winsor came to us for help. I left our planting, taking my blankets and a small tent, and in six days landed them at Ionia, looking out the route, and directing where the road was to be. This was the first real colonizing-party we had ever seen, myself never having been farther west than De Witt (the Indian village). I then induced Macketapenace (Blackbird), a son of Kishkawko, the usurping chief of all the Saginaws, to pilot us past Muskrat Creek, and from there proceeded with the party. At that point a son of Mr. and Mrs. Dexter, a child of about two years old, died of scarlet fever. We buried the child by torch- and candle-light in a box improvised by the party.... The road we opened was next year followed by other immigrants, and was substantially the present Grand River road, through Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, and was traveled for many years after." In saying that the route traveled by him with the party of Ionia colonists was nearly the same as that of the Pontiac and Grand River road, east of De Witt, Mr. Williams is correct; but west of that place it was entirely different, as it ran thence northwestwardly through the present townships of Riley, Bengal, and Dallas, in Clinton County, and down the south side of Stony Creek to Lyons, in Ionia County. It was on the farm of Cortland Hill, section 31 of Bengal township, that the child of Judge Dexter was buried, as narrated by Mr. Williams. The route opened by this party between De Witt and Lyons became known as the (" Dexter road" or " trail," and was cut out and traveled for a number of years, but a large part of it was afterwards closed and taken into the farms through which it passed. On the 9th of March, 1844, the Governor approved " an act to establish and improve the Pontiac and Grand River road," over the route which has already been described. In 1845 an amendatory act was passed (approved March 12th), which provided "that Philip S. Frisbee, Elkanah Parker, and Daniel Donelson be, and they are hereby, ap* See History of Ionia City. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 33 I pointed commissioners to examine any part of the Pontiac and Grand River road, and to make alterations of route according to their judgment;" and by the same act, Robert Toan, of the county of Ionia, Loyal Palmer, of Clinton, Jonathan M. Hartwell, of Shiawassee, Samuel N. Warren, of Genesee, and Archibald Phillips, of Oakland County, were " appointed special commissioners, each for the county in which he resides, whose duty it shall be to direct and superintend the performance of all labor which by the provisions of this act, or the act to which this is amendatory, are to be performed on said road, and to expend all moneys which may accrue to said road by the provisions of said acts." Under the provisions of these and acts passed in subsequent years appropriating non-resident taxes, and by labor applied by the highway officers of the several townships traversed by it, the road was gradually worked and made passable in its entire length. It has been an important thoroughfare to these two counties (though much less so now than formerly), and it is still known and mentioned by its ancient name,-the Pontiac and Grand River road. The Detroit and Grand River road-more generally known in the counties through which it passes as the "Grand River turnpike"-was established by act of Congress, passed on the 4th of July, 1832 (Michigan being then a Territory), directing the President to appoint three commissioners "to lay out a road from Detroit, through Shiawassee County,* to the mouth of the Grand River," for military and other purposes. The road was accordingly " laid out," and the sum of two thousand five hundred dollars was expended by the government in the years 1833 and 1834 in working the eastern part of the road ten miles out from Detroit. A further appropriation of twenty-five thousand dollars was made by Congress, March 3, 1835, and this amount was expended in 1835-36 in clearing the road one hundred feet wide through the timbered land, and in constructing bridges on its line across the Rush, Huron, Shiawassee (south branch), and Cedar Rivers. This was the last work done on the Grand River road by the general government, as Michigan had ceased to be a Territory and became a sovereign State. A grant of five thousand acres of land was, however, obtained from the United States for the benefit of the Grand River and Saginaw roads, of which grant this road received its proportion. After the United States ceased making appropriations for the Grand River road very little was done on it for a time. The State, however, took up the work soon after, and the construction of the road was continued by State appropriations from time to time, one of these being made by an act approved April 2, 1841, which provided that five thousand dollars be expended on the construction of this road, under the direction of the Board of Internal Improvement, this sum being taken from the sixty thousand dollars whih remained unexpended of the appropriations previously granted for the Northern wagon-road,t' which * Shiawassee County at that time extended south as far as the centre of the present county of Livingston. t The Northern wagon-road, for which the Legislature made an appropriation of thirty thousand dollars in 1841, will be found mentioned in succeeding pages in connection with the account of the old "Northern Railroad." 5 project had at that time been virtually abandoned. By these appropriations, and by the expenditure of local highway taxes upon it, the Grand River turnpike was finally made an excellent road, and for many years accommodated a vast amount of travel. So great was the traffic upon it at one period prior to the opening of the railroads through the section tributary to it that the vehicles passing over it -heavy wagons, light carriages, and stage-coaches-formed an almost continuous procession. With the opening of the Detroit and Milwaukee and Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroads this great travel suddenly ceased, and the former glory of the Grand River turnpike departed. As early as February, 1835,t the residents of Ionia County-Seat had cut out a road for a distance of eight miles from the county-seat on a direct line southward, which they proposed to extend to Marshall, in Calhoun County. The first Legislature of the State of Michigan, at its session of 1835-36, provided for the laying out and establishment of sixty State roads. Among them were two of which the routes were partially within the limits of Ionia County. These were authorized by an act approved March 26, 1836, as follows: A State road "from the village of Pontiac, in the county of Oakland, by the most direct and eligible route, to terminate at the county-seat of Ionia." The commissioners appointed to lay out and establish this road were Alfred L. Williams, William Terry, and Erastus Yeomans. A State road from Pontiac, in Oakland County, to be laid out " on the most direct and eligible route until it intersects the Grand River at the mouth of the LookingGlass River, passing the White Lake (Oakland County) settlement, Alfred L. Williams', on the Shiawassee River, and the county-seat of Clinton County." Alfred L. Williams, Jonathan F. Stratton, and David Scott were the commissioners appointed to lay out and establish this road. It was also provided by this act, and in all subsequent acts, "that in laying out and establishing the roads, or any of the roads named, the State shall not be liable for the expenses or damages incurred thereby," and that this act was to be void in all respects unless the roads described were laid and established prior to Jan. 1, 1840. Therefore, as the laying out of these roads brought no expense to the State, it was the policy of the Legislature to grant such as were asked for by interested parties, though without any expectation that all would be built. The second Legislature of the State, at its regular session in 1837, passed an act, approved February 16th, which authorized the laying out of a State road " from Dexter, in the county of Washtenaw, to the county-seat of Ingham County, and from thence by the most direct and eligible route to the village of Lyons, at the mouth of the Maple, and that Solomon Southerland, of Unadilla, Edward Lyon, and A. Crossman, of Dexter, be, and they are hereby, appointed commissioners for that purpose." By an act approved March 17th of the same year several other State roads were provided for, as follows: " A State road from Jacksonburg, in the county of Jackson, to the mouth of Maple River, in the county of Ionia;: See history of proceedings relative to the location of Ionia countyseat. 34 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. and William E. Perrine, Tina Lloyd, and Philander R. How be, and they are hereby, appointed commissioners for that purpose." A road "from Byron, in the county of Shiawassee, to Shiawasseetown, so called, in town six north of range three east, and from thence to Leach's Place, in section ten of town six north of range one east, and from thence by the most direct and eligible route to the village of Lyons, in the county of Ionia." The commissioners appointed to lay out this road were Francis J. Prevost, Archibald Purdy, and Henry Leach. A road " commencing at the village of Marshall, in the county of Calhoun, and running from thence on the most direct and eligible route to the county-seat of Ionia County," with Orin Dickinson, John B. Crary, and Cyrus Hewitt as commissioners to lay out the same. A State road " from the village of Pontiac, in the county of Oakland, by the most direct and eligible route, to the village of Lyons, in the county of Ionia." The commissioners appointed were Truman H. Lyon, Alexander F. Bell, and John McKelvey. A road " from De Witt, in Clinton County, to Peshimnecon, in the county of Ionia. Said road shall be run on the most direct and eligible route, and Sylvester Scott, Alexander Chapel, and Philander R. How are hereby appointed commissionersfor that purpose." In 1838, by an act approved February 28th, a State road was established to extend from the county-seat of Kalamazoo County to the county-seat of Ionia County, with Lawson S. Warner, of Ionia, Albert E. Bull, of Barry, and Asa Jones, of Kalamazoo County, named as commissioners. By an act approved March 9, 1838, the Legislature anthorized the establishment of a State road "from the Rochester Colony, in Clinton County, thence on the most direct and eligible route to the county-seat of Ionia," and appointed Lyman Webster, Lockwood Yates, and Cyrus Lovell commissioners for that purpose. Also a road from Gull Prairie to the county-seat of Ionia County, with Albert E. Bull, John E. Morrison, and Asa Spencer as commissioners. Ephraim Follett, Walter S. Fairfield, Thomas Cornell, and M. S. Brocket were, by an act approved March 4, 1840, appointed commissioners to lay out a State road from Marshall, Calhoun Co., to the county-seat of lonia. On the 1st of April of the same year Thomas Cornell, Rix Robinson, and John Alomy were appointed commissioners to lay out and establish a State road from the county-seat of Ionia to the village of Grand Rapids. A road " commencing at or near the fifty-seventh milepost on the Grand River turnpike, thence on the most eligible route along the valley of Cedar River until it intersects said turnpike at the meridian-line, thence to or near the mouth of Shimenacon Creek, in Ionia County, thence by the villages of Portland, Lyons, Ionia, Saranac, Vcrgennes, and Ada to the Grand Rapids, in Kent County," was authorized by an act approved April 13, 1841, and J. H. Kilborne, of Ingham, Elijah Grant, of Livingston, and Martin Randall, of Livingston, were appointed commissioners. Also, by the same act, a road "commencing at some point on the Grand River road in Clinton County, thence to Grand Rapids, in Kent County, via the village of Portland, in Ionia County, and the township of Boston, in the latter county," of which Abraham S. Wadsworth, James S. Hoag, and John Ball were appointed commissioners to lay out the same. By an act of the State Legislature approved March 9, 1843, a road was authorized to extend from Byron, in Shiawassee County, to Lyons, in Ionia County, with Henry Buell, James M. Blood, and William W. Upton named as commissioners. A road from Lyons to Millport, in Otisco township, with Charles Broas, Zenas G. Winsor, and Samuel Demarest as commissioners, was established by an act approved Jan. 29, 1844. In March, 1845, Lawson S. Warner, Albert E. Bull, and Asa Jones were again appointed commissioners to establish a road from Kalamazoo to Ionia County-Seat, and by the same act Amos B. Hubbell, Timothy White, and Cyprian S. Hooker were appointed commissioners to lay out a road " from Lyons, in Ionia County, to Ada, in Kent County, via the residence of John E. Morrison and the village of Saranac." Timothy White, Oliver Hess, and Daniel S. T. Weller were appointed- commissioners to lay out and establish a State road from a point on the south line of section 20, in Boston township, to the village of Grand Rapids, by an act approved April 23, 1846. An act of the Legislature approved May 16, 1846, authorized the supervisors of Ionia County to build a bridge across the Grand River at Lyons, and two thousand acres of land in the Lower Peninsula were appropriated for the purpose of building such bridge. An act approved the same day also empowered supervisors to " lay out, establish, alter, or discontinue all State roads now laid out or to be laid through their counties." At about this time (1846) the popular excitement in the direction of State roads had in a great measure expended itself in Ionia County, for but few of the roads authorized by the Legislature in years preceding had been built, or even located. Railroad schemes, too, had already begun to attract general attention, and a few years later projects for the construction of plank roads became so popular that many persons believed that this kind of highway was destined to come into universal use, and to supersede the common road. Therefore these and other causes had the effect of diverting attention from the opening of new State roads, and thereafter but few were authorized. On the other hand, we find, by scanning the supervisors' journal, that the inhabitants owning lands along the routes already mentioned yearly petitioned the honorable board of supervisors, asking that certain State roads " be taken up" or that their routes "be changed," and with so muck effect that at this time many of the "routes" are only matters of tradition with a majority of the inhabitants who live in their vicinity. By an act of the State Legislature, however, approved March 27, 1848, the first State road was authorized in the county of Montcalm. Its route was to extend from the north line of section 17, of township 9 north, range 8 west (Eureka), thence to the village of Grand Rapids, INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 35. I via' Parker's Ferry, in the township of Plainfield, Kent Co., and Thomas Addison, George Miller, and Ethan Satterlee were appointed commissioners. On the 3d of April, 1848, George Gibson, Rufus K. Moore, and George Loucks were chosen commissioners to lay out and establish a State road from " the quarter-post on the north line of section 17, in township 9 north, of range 8 west, thence to Mathew Van Vleck's, in Ronald, Ionia Co." A State road from Hastings, Barry Co., via Tupper's Mill, to the village of Ionia, was established by an act approved March 25, 1850, and J. W. T. Orr, John B. Welch, and George Richmond were appointed commissioners. An act approved Feb. 10, 1857, named Rosekrans K. Divine, of Montcalm County, Abner Wright, of Ionia County, and Ephraim J. Booth, of Kent County, commissioners, to lay out a State road from Greenville, via Brosse's Rapids, to Lowell, Kent Co. A State road from St. Louis, Gratiot Co., via Alma and the geographical centre of Montcalm County, to the Greenville and Big Rapids road, was authorized by an act approved Feb. 15, 1859. An act of March 13, 1861, ordered a State road established from Ionia to Houghton Lake, in Roscommon County. Two days later an act was approved providing for the establishment of a road from Big Rapids, in Mecosta County, southerly to intersect a road from Greenville to Grand Rapids, known as the Big Rapids and Grand Rapids road, also the Greenville and Big Rapids road and a road from Ionia to Vermontville, provided that no appropriation be made on the first eight miles south from Ionia. A road from the east centre line of Bloomer township, via Follett's and Shoemaker's Mill, in Fair Plains, to the village of Greenville, in Montcalm County, was established by an act approved March 18, 1863. On the 20th of the same month George Davenport was appointed a commissioner to superintend the laying out of a road from the village of Portland, in Ionia County, to the Grand River road, in Clinton County. The lonia and Smyrna State road was established by an act approved Feb. 5, 1864, and to aid in its construction four sections of swamp-lands were granted. Roger W. Griswold and Joseph M. Babcock were appointed commissioners of the Bellevue and Ionia State road by an act approved March 10, 1865. The Montcalm and Gratiot road, from Hubbardston north on the line of Montcalm and Gratiot Counties to the north line of said counties, was established by an act approved March 18, 1865. The Eaton, Ionia, and Clinton road, from a line between Roxana and Oneida to the township of Portland, was established by act of March 18, 1865, and S. W. Moyer, David Taylor, and Benjamin Seldon were named as commissioners. By the same act a road was established whose route extended from the geographical centre of Montcalm County (Stanton) to the southwest corner of township 11 north, range 10 west (Pierson), and Hiram Rossman was appointed commissioner. I I I I In 1867 a large extent of State swamp-lands was granted to aid in the construction of roads already mentioned. The last State road established in the county of Montcalm is the one known as the Greenville and Bloomer road, the provisions for its construction having been approved May 23, 1879. PLANK ROADS. Projects for the construction of plank roads began to come into general favor in Michigan about the year 1847, and it was in that year that the first company whose proposed route lay across any portion of these counties was formed. The company was known as the Portland and Shiawassee Plank Road Company, and was incorporated by an act approved March 17, 1847. This company was authorized " to survey and lay out on the line of any existing highway or elsewhere a road commencing at the village of Portland and running thence easterly to some eligible point on the Pontiac and Corunna Plank Road." Peter Laing, David Sturgis, and Harvey Hunter were appointed commissioners, and capital to the amount of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars was authorized to be employed. This company was to connect with the Pontiac and Corunna company, which was incorporated at the same time, and the object was to have a continuous line from Portland to Pontiac. After 1847, and before the enactment of the general plank-road law, the Legislature incorporated several companies, among which was the Portland and Michigan Plank Road Company. This company was incorporated by an act approved April 3, 1848, and proposed to build a plank road from Portland, Ionia Co., to the town of Michigan (now Lansing), Ingham Co. William F. Jennison, Almeron Newman, and Hezekiah Smith were named as commissioners, and the company was empowered to employ capital to the amount of fifty thousand dollars. An amendatory act, approved March 8, 1851, authorized this company to enter upon and use the Detroit and Grand River turnpike, between Portland and Lansing. The Grand River Plank Road Company was incorporated by act of March 20, 1850. Its route was to extend from Grand Rapids to Portland,-a continuation of the proposed road from Pontiac westward. An act of the same date incorporated the Marshall and Ionia Plank Road Company. As its name implied, its course was to extend from Marshall, Calhoun Co., to Ionia, in Ionia County, and Isaac E. Crary, Horatio J. Lawrence, John C. Ball, James M. Kidd, and William Babcock were appointed commissioners. None of the above-mentioned companies built their proposed roads, or any part of them, within lonia County, and the only reason why they have been noticed here is to show how general was the plank-road mania, what were the several projects of the kind in this region, and who were the originators. MAPLE RIVER NAVIGATION PROJECTS. In the first half of the present century, before the days of railroad communication, the people of Michigan, like 36 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. those of other States, were disposed to place an extravagantly high estimate on the importance and value of their rivers for purposes of navigation, and to favor bold and often visionary projects for the improvement of streams, in the expectation (which was seldom if ever realized) of securing great advantages from the utilization of those water-ways. Such projects were conceived and their prosecution commenced with regard to the principal rivers of Michigan. The Grand and Maple were embraced in the internal improvement system which was adopted by the State authorities in 1837, and of such we will speak in succeeding paragraphs. In that year an act was passed (appirved March 20th) which provided: " SECTION 5. That the sum of twenty thousand dollars be, and the same is hereby, appropriated out of any moneys which shall come into the treasury to the credit of the internal improvement fund, for the following surveys, to be made under the direction of the board of commissioners: For the survey of a canal or for a canal part of the way and railroad the balance of the route, commencing at or near Mount Clemens, on the Clinton River, to terminate at or near the mouth of Kalamazoo River; and for the survey of a canal route to unite the waters of the Saginaw River with the navigable waters of the Maple or Grand River, and for the purchase of surveyors' and other instruments; and for the survey of the St. Joseph, Kalamazoo, and Grand Rivers, with a view to the improvement of the same by slack-water navigation." Section 7 of the same act provided: " That the sum of fifteen thousand dollars be, and the same is hereby, appropriated out of any moneys which shall come into the treasury to the credit of the said internal improvement fund, to be applied to the construction of a canal to unite the waters of the Saginaw with the navigable waters of the Grand or Maple River, if said board of commissioners shall decide that it is practicable to construct a canal on said route." Under the authority conferred by this act the Board of Internal Improvement caused a survey to be made by Tracy McCracken, Esq., chief engineer of the Saginaw and Maple Rivers Canal, and this survey resulted in the location and adoption of a route running from the forks of the Bad River (a navigable tributary of the Saginaw), in Saginaw County, westward to the Maple River, at its "' Big Bend," in Gratiot County. The report of the survey was regarded as exceedingly favorable, showing the existence of a remarkable valley of depression, extending westward from the waters of the Saginaw to those of the Maple; that these waters, flowing in opposite directions, were only three miles distant from each other at one point, and that between them the highest elevation necessary to be crossed was only seventy-two feet above Lake Michigan. It was along this valley and across this low summit that the engineer located the route of the canal, which, with certain slack-water improvements to be made to the east and west of it, on the Bad, the Maple, and the Grand Rivers, was to open a line of uninterrupted navigation between Lake Michigan and Saginaw Bay, and to bring prosperity to all the country contiguous to it. Contracts were let for the grubbing and clearing of the route and for the excavations upon a five-mile section on the most difficult portion of it, the last-named contract being taken by Norman Little, of Saginaw. Another part of this work was taken by Alpheus Williams. Work was commenced in 1838, and was continued with more or less vigor until July of the following year, when it was suspended. The immediate cause of the suspension is made apparent by the following extract from the official report of Rix Robinson, president of the State Board of Internal Improvement, dated Nov. 30, 1839. He says: "' Early in the season Norman Little, Esq., the principal contractor on this work, expressed to me his incapacity to proceed with the work in case the State should fail to pay his estimate for labor monthly and punctually according to.the tenor of his contract. There being no possible means for me to obtain sufficient funds for that purpose, the work has accordingly been abandoned by him." The chief engineer, Mr. McCracken, in his report of 1839, said: "It was not to be expected that the contractor for this work, which, from its position, is one of the most difficult to execute, would be able or willing to prosecute it without prompt payment on the part of the State, which, failing to meet its engagement in the payment of the monthly estimates, was averred by the contractor as the cause of the work being abandoned. This occurred some time in June last [1839]; since then nothing has been done towards the construction of the work..... Most of the work required upon one section of the canal, together with the greater part of the clearing and grubbing of the line under contract, has been - completed. There is now upon the line several thousand feet of plank and timber intended for the locks and dams. A great portion of the timber is framed, and will, from its present exposed condition, decay very rapidly." The suspension of work by the contractors in July, 1839, proved to be a final abandonment of the construction of the canal as a State work. The timbers mentioned by the chief engineer as having been intended for the construction of locks and dams remained to rot on the ground, and the remnants of some of them have been visible in recent years in the town of Chapin, Saginaw Co., having been left to decay in the place where they were framed more than forty years ago. The sums expended on the Saginaw and Maple River Canal (and which were, of course, a total loss to the State) were as follows: In the year 1838, six thousand two hundred and seventy-one dollars and twelve cents; in the year 1839, fifteen thousand nine hundred and eighty-five dollars and sixty-nine cents; total, twenty-two thousand two hundred and fifty-six dollars and eighty-one cents. Ten years after the abandonment of this canal project by the State the Legislature of Michigan (by act approved March 30, 1849) incorporated Gardner D. Williams, James Frazier, and D. J. Johnson, of Saginaw City, Adam L. Roof, of Ionia County, Rix Robinson, of Kent, D. H. Fitzhugh, John F. Mackie, and Charles Yates, of New York City, as the " Saginaw and Grand River Canal Company," with authority " to enter upon the canal commenced by the State, as their property, at the forks of the Bad River, and upon lands on either side and through which the said canal may pass, to the bend of Maple River, a tributary of Grand River, and as far on that river as may be thought INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 37 7 proper; to construct a tow-path, and concentrate the water for canal use, and to dig, construct, or excavate the earth; to erect or set up any dams, locks, waste-weirs, sluices, feeders, or any other device whatsoever to render the same navigable with boats, barges, or other craft." The company was also empowered to make such improvements on the Bad, Maple, and Grand Rivers as might be necessary to carry out the objects for which it was incorporated. The capital stock of the company was placed at two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and its charter was to continue for a term of sixty years. The revival of the project reawakened hopes that the Maple River was at last to become part of a navigable water-way between Lakes Michigan and Huron, but no work on the canal was ever done by the company, and the enterprise was finally abandoned, perhaps to be again revived at no very distant day,-a time when it will be indispensable to the dense population that will ultimately people its proposed route, or when the constantlyincreasing trade of inland cities and commerce of the Great Lakes shall demand a nearer water-route than is now afforded by doubling the northern point of the Lower Peninsula. At the present time a small steamboat named the " May Queen" is running on the river from Maple Rapids, Clinton Co., to Bridgeville, Gratiot Co.,-a distance of some ten miles,-this part of the stream being similar to a long lake or bayou in appearance, and navigable for steam or sailingcraft of small size. NAVIGATING AND IMPROVING THE GRAND. Besides floating the birchen canoes and the Mackinaw boats of the Ottawas, the Grand did considerable other service before the advent of Samuel Dexter and his associates by bearing upon its surface the heavily-laden bateaux of the Indian traders which plied from Lake Michigan to various posts in the interior. Those of the very earliest pioneers of Ionia County who still survive well remember the appearance of the large and serviceable craft used by Louis Genereau, Rix Robinson, and Louis Campau as early as 1833. These vessels were staunchly built, were furnished with mast and sails, and sailed very handsomely on the placid waters of Grand River and the great lake, though of course they would hardly weather a severe storm. The supplies of these traders were usually brought around the lakes in more thorough sea-going vessels, thence transferred to the bateaux at the mouth of the river, from whence a hardy crew of French and French-and-Indian half-breeds worked them slowly up the river by means of sails, poles, and paddles. The Grand Rapids was a source of much labor, vexation, and delay, but its difficulties were not insurmountable, for a portage and " carry" were made, after which, by relaunching and reloading, the voyageurs again pursued their way unimpeded during the remainder of the river's course through Kent and lonia Counties. Thus did the Grand, in common with other large streams, afford ample facilities for the operations of the traders, and it is not to be supposed that the question of improving it for the accommodation of larger craft occupied much of their attention. But with the coming of those who proposed to make the Grand River valley their home the site of mills, manufac i tories, towns, and cities, the Grand, in their estimation, ranked as one of the most important of the navigable streams of Michigan. Theirs, in 1837, was one of the most isolated settlements in the State. As the roads ran they were about one hundred and fifty miles distant from Detroit, the intervening space being for the most part unsettled, and the roads for the whole distance terrible during the greater portion of the year, to say nothing of the innumerable swollen streams that were yet unbridged. It is no wonder, then, that the pioneers of this region looked upon the broad stream that silently pursued its way down the valley as the avenue by which access was to be had to the outer world, the ready means of shipping their produce to market, and of obtaining in return supplies and manufactures from the East. In following out this line of thought the representatives sent to the State Legislature from the Grand River region worked with such effect that during the session of 1837 a bill was passed authorizing the survey, as before mentioned, " of a canal route to unite the waters of the Saginaw River with the navigable waters of the Maple or Grand River," also appropriating money for the survey of the St. Joseph, the Kalamazoo, and the Grand Rivers, with a view to the improvement of the same by slack-water navigation. This was the condition of affairs when, during a winter freshet, the "Governor Mason" * steamed up to Ionia, Dec. 1, 1837, thence on to Lyons, whence, after but a short delay, she returned to the lake, never to return to the upper Grand. The " Mason" was a side-wheel lake-boat, and it is supposed that the voyage was made more for the purpose of seeing what could be done than with the idea of making the trip profitable, although she did land some goods at Ionia for John Lloyd, the merchant, steaming directly over the low meadows which lie to the southward of the city. We next hear of the Grand River improvements in the halls of the State Legislature in the winter of 1838-39, when, by an act approved April 20, 1839, twenty-five thousand dollars were appropriated from the fund of internal improvements for the purpose of " constructing a canal around the rapids at Grand River." Meantime, transportation was continued on the river by means of the traders' bateaux and the "pole-boats" of the early settlers until 1847, when a more determined effort was mad? by the State officials to render the river navigable for small vessels at all seasons of the year. By an act approved February 20th of that year, the supervisors of Kent County were empowered to go forward and construct a canal and locks around the rapids of Grand River, at Grand Rapids, and large grants of State lands were made to enable them to complete the work. Considerable more legislation, which aimed to improve navigation on this river, followed in the three or four succeeding years, and as a result of the improvements accomplished several small steamers were put into commission for the purpose of plying upon the river and towing barges between Lyons and Grand Rapids. Among these boats were the " John Almy,"t which, on its first trip, sunk at the mouth of Flat River, its crew wading * The "Governor Mason" was built by Richard Godfry in 1836, and was wrecked off the mouth of the Muskegon River in 1838. t It is stated that the "John Almy" was built by John Lloyd at Grand Rapids in 1837. 38 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. -- -1 ashore; the "Humming-Bird," a boat having a double hull, with one wheel between, or in the centre; the " J. W. Porter," and the " Knawbeck." Prominent among the river-men were Daniel Ball,* Robert S. Parks, and Vine Welch. These, with others, continued to navigate the Grand with various kinds of vessels (see History of Ionia City) until 1858, when, in consequence of the completion of the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad, and the facilities which it offered for the shipment of produce, goods, etc., boating on the Grand River was abandoned. IMPROVING FLAT RIVER AND THE LOWER BLACK CREEK AND SIX LAKES. In more recent years efforts have been made for the improvement of other water-ways in these counties,-more for floating logs and rafts to mills and markets than for boating purposes, however. By an act approved Feb. 12, 1857, five hundred acres of land were appropriated for improving Flat River in its course through the counties of Montcalm, Ionia, and Kent, and on Feb. 16, 1878, the Lower Black Creek and Six Lakes Improvement Company was incorporated, the company being authorized to employ capital to the amount of ten thousand dollars, and to operate in the counties of Montcalm and Mecosta, with its place of business at Belvidere, in Montcalm County. NORTHERN RAILROAD AND NORTHERN WAGONROAD. Very soon after Michigan emerged from the condition of a Territory to assume that of a sovereign State, and even before its admission as a member of the Federal Union, measures were originated having for their object the adoption by the State of a comprehensive system of public improvements; and in pursuance of this plan the Legislature, at the session of 1837, passed an act (approved March 20th in that year) " to provide for the construction of certain works of internal improvement, and for other purposes," by which the Board of Commissioners of Internal Improvements in the State was authorized and directed, " as soon as may be, to cause surveys to be made for three several railroad routes across the peninsula of Michigan, the first of said routes to commence at Detroit, in the county of Wayne, and to terminate at the mouth of the St. Joseph River, in the county of Berrien, to be denominated the Central Railroad; the second of said routes to commence at the navigable waters of the river Raisin, passing through the village of Monroe, in the county of Monroe, to terminate at New Buffalo, in Berrien County, and to be denominated the Southern Railroad; the third of said routes to commence at Palmer, or at or near the mouth of Black River, in the county of St. Clair, and to terminate at the navigable waters of the Grand River, in the county of Kent, or on Lake Michigan, in the county of Ottawa, to be denominated the Northern Railroad; which roads r I shall be located on the most eligible and direct routes between the termini above mentioned." It was provided by the same act "that the sum of five hundred and fifty thousand dollars be, and the same is hereby, appropriated, to be taken from any moneys which shall hereafter come into the treasury of this State to the credit of the fund for internal improvement, for the survey and making of the three railroads mentioned in the first section of this act, as follows: For the Southern Railroad, the sum of one hundred thousand dollars; for the Central Railroad, the sum of four hundred thousand dollars; and for the Northern Railroad, the sum of fifty thousand dollars." The State Board of Internal Improvement, acting under the provisions of this act, caused the surveys to be made without unnecessary delay. The routes thus surveyed for the Central Railroad and the Southern Railroad were (excepting the western portion) substantially the same as those of the Michigan Central and Michigan Southern roads of the present. The Northern Railroad route was surveyed and located to run from the St. Clair River, by way of Lapeer and Flint River village (now Flint City), nearly due west, to the Big Rapids of the Shiawassee (now the city of Owosso); thence through Owosso and Middlebury townships, in Shiawassee County, and westwardly in the same tier of townships through Clinton County (passing through the southern part of the present corporation limits of St. John's) to Lyons, in Ionia County, and from there westward to Lake Michigan, at the mouth of Grand River, a distance of two hundred and one miles. This was, of course, the first survey made for railroad purposes through Ionia County. The work was done by Tracy McCracken, chief engineer of the road, and his assistants, under supervision of Commissioner James B. Hunt, who had been placed in charge of the survey by the Board of Internal Improvement. In 1838 contracts were let for clearing and grubbing that portion of the line between its eastern terminus and Lyons, Ionia Co., a distance of about one hundred and thirty miles. The contract for the section extending from Lyons to the line between ranges 2 and 3 east (near the centre of Shiawassee County) was awarded to A. L. and B. 0. Williams, of Owosso. The section joining this, and extending eastward across the remainder of Shiawassee County, was taken by A. H. Beach & Co., of Flint. The next section eastward was awarded to Gen. Charles C. Hascall, of Flint. Twenty miles of the section east of Lyons was sublet by the Williams brothers to Messrs. Moore & Kipp at about two hundred and fifty dollars per mile. The specifications required the grubbing of a central strip twenty feet wide, and the clearing of a breadth of twenty feet on either side of this strip. Outside these clearings, on both sides, " slashings " were to be made, each twenty feet in width, making a total breadth of one hundred feet. The work of clearing the route was commenced in the fall of 1838, and by the 1st of September following it was completed in all the sections between Lyons and Port Huron, except about three miles in Shiawassee County east of Owosso, and seventeen miles east of Lapeer. Contracts for grading some parts of the line were made in the fall of 1838, among these being that of a ten-mile ^ Daniel Ball, prior to coming to Michigan, had been engaged in boating on the Genesee River, in New York. In 1836 he came to Owosso, Mich., where he purchased one-third of the village-plat, the water-power, and was one of the foremost in the endeavor to make navigable the Shiawassee River. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 39 section eastward from Lyons, to B. O. Williams and Daniel Ball, of Owosso. The work of grading was commenced on the contracted sections in January, 1839, and was prosecuted till the following July. " The contractors then stated," said the chief engineer, in his report dated Dec. 7, 1839, "that unless they were paid punctually they could not proceed with their work. I then informed them, in accordance with my instructions, that if they continued the work their estimates would, as usual, be made monthly, but that it was probable that they would only be paid in treasury orders, which would be payable out of any moneys received into the treasury to the credit of the internal improvement fund. The contracts for grading were then abandoned immediately, but those for clearing and grubbing, which were not then finished, have since been completed." In regard to these contracts for grubbing and clearing the chief engineer said: "It may not be improper for me to state that it is probable that many of the contracts upon this road were let to those who considered that they were to be benefited by its speedy completion, and, in consequence, bid so low that they have lost money in the prosecution of the works assigned them." This remark of the engineer was probably as applicable to the grading contracts as to those made for clearing the line. It is certain, at all events, that those who took the latter class of contracts found them to be decidedly unprofitable. The last of the appropriations by the Legislature for the construction of the Northern Railroad was one of forty thousand dollars, made by act approved April 20, 1839, making the total amount appropriated for the enterprise one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Of this there was expended upon the line in surveys, clearing, and construction the following amounts,-viz.: In 1837................................................ $8,226.25 In 1838................................................ 12 772.44 In 1839.................................. 31,122.09 Total............................................... $60,120.78 The figures* given above show that at the close of operations in 1839 there remained, of the amount of appropriations made for this northern line of railroads, an unexpended balance of eighty-nine thousand eight hundred and seventynine dollars and twenty-two cents. In view of this fact, it might be regarded at first as strange that, with this large balance remaining, the work should have so suddenly been brought to a close; but it must be remembered that the figures indicating the unexpended balance did not represent a corresponding amount of ready cash on hand and immediately available. The extracts already given from the chief engineer's report fully explain the reason why the contractors abandoned their jobs in the summer of 1839, and it only remains to say that the construction of the Northern Railroad, being suspended at that time, was never resumed. Soon after this the financial embarrassments of the State caused a feeling to spring up among the people and their representatives that the adoption of so extensive a plan of I internal improvements had been premature, to say the least; and the result of this growing sentiment was the restriction of appropriations to such works as returned, or could easily be made to return, the interest on their cost. Accordingly, further aid was withheld, except to the Central and Southern lines (then in partial operation), and finally, in 1841, all idea of the construction of the Northern Railroad as a State work was abandoned, and the Legislature passed " an act relative to the appropriation upon the Northern Railroad" (approved April 2d in that year) which recited in its preamble that " it is thought impolitic, under the present embarrassments of the State, to make at present further expenditures on said road for the purpose of a railroad;" that " a large amount has been expended in chopping, grubbing, and clearing said road, which, if left in its present condition, can be of no interest to the people of the north;" and that " it is the united wish and request of the people in the vicinity of said road that the same should for the present be converted into a turnpike or wagon - road, and thus open an important thoroughfare through the centre of the tier of counties through which the said road passes, and thereby render the money heretofore expended on said road available to the best interests (under existing circumstances) of the people in the northern section of the State." It was therefore enacted that the commissioners of internal improvements be directed to expend thirty thousand dollars of the unexpended balance of the moneys which had been appropriated for the Northern Railroad "for bridging, clearing, and grading said road, or so much of it as the said commissioners shall judge will be most beneficial to the inhabitants and public in the section of country through which the same passes, so as to make a good passable wagon-road." On the 9th of March, 1843, an act was approved "to authorize the construction of a wagon-road on the line of the Northern Railroad," and ordering the application and appropriation for that purpose of all the non-resident highway taxes for a distance of three miles on either side of the line,'to be expended under the superintendence of a special commissioner to be appointed for each of the counties of St. Clair, Lapeer, Genesee, Shiawassee, Clinton, and Ionia. The act was repealed in 1846, but in the following year another act was passed (approved April 3, 1848) " to provide for the construction and improvement of the Northern wagon-road from Port Huron, in the county of St. Clair, through the counties of Lapeer and Genesee, to Corunna, in the county of Shiawassee," and appropriating " twenty thousand acres of internal improvement lands" for the purpose. To carry its provisions into effect the Governor of the State was authorized to appoint a special commissioner, and he did so appoint to that position the Hon. Alvin N. Hart, of Lapeer. Still another act was passed, in 1849, appointing Lewis S. Tyler, Albert Miller, and Henry Hunt as commissioners, "with power to relocate, upon the most eligible ground, the Northern wagon-road from the village of Flint, in the county of Genesee, to the village of Corunna, in the County of Shiawassee." The result of all the laws passed and appropriations made * From the official report of Rix Robinson, L. S. Humphrey, and William R. Thompson (the Board of Commissioners of Internal Improvements) to the State Legislature, dated Dec. 1, 1839. 40 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. for the construction of the Northern Railroad and Northern wagon-road was the clearing of the route of the former, as before mentioned, and the grading, or partial grading, of parts of the route into an indifferent wagon-road, which never proved to be of much practical advantage to the country west of the western borders of Shiawassee County. DETROIT, GRAND HAVEN AND MILWAUKEE RAILWAY. The line now known as the Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee Railway was the first which was built and completed to any point within the boundaries of Ionia County, and it was also over the eastern link of this line (the old Detroit and Pontiac road, which was in operation many years before the locomotive reached the waters of the Grand River) that the inhabitants of Western Michigan enjoyed. their earliest railway facilities, by means of stage-lines which ran from Lyons, by way of De Witt, Laingsburg, and other points in Shiawassee, Genesee, and Oakland Counties, eastward to the successive termini of the railroad,-first at Royal Oak, then at Birmingham, and finally at Pontiac. For this reason it seems proper to make brief mention here of the building and opening of the Pontiac road, for, though it was purely an Oakland County enterprise, yet it was one in which the people of Ionia and Montcalm Counties were interested,-first, because its connecting stage-lines gave them communication over it, and afterwards because by its extension it became a part of the grand through-line which traverses this region to Grand Haven and Milwaukee. The Detroit and Pontiac Railroad project was agitated in Oakland as early as the spring of 1830, and an act incorporating the Pontiac and Detroit Railway Company was passed by the Legislative Council of the Territory, and ap. proved by Governor Cass, on the 31st of July in the year named, this being the first railway company ever chartered in Michigan. The corporators were John P. Helfenstein, Gideon 0. Whittemore, William F. Mosely, Wm. Thompson, Hervey Parke, " and such other persons as shall associate for the purpose of making a good and sufficient railway from Pontiac to the city of Detroit," the stock of the company to consist of one thousand shares, at one hundred dollars each. This company, however, found the project to be too heavy for the means which they could command, and their charter became void by reason of their failure to comply with its conditions. A second company was formed, and an act granting a new charter was passed by the Territorial Legislature, and approved by the Governor, March 7, 1834. Under this act William Draper, Daniel Le Roy, David Stanard, Johnson Niles, Seneca Newberry, Elisha Beach, Benj. Phelps, Joseph Niles, Jr., and Augustus C. Stevens were appointed commissioners to receive subscriptions to the stock of the Detroit and Pontiac Railroad Company, the amount of which was fixed at fifty thousand dollars. The work was to be commenced within two years from the passage of the act and completed within six years, the charter to be forfeited by failure to comply with these conditions. The principal stockholders were Alfred Williams and Sherman Stevens, of Pontiac, who were also managers of the affairs of the company. Operations were soon commenced, but very slow progress was made in the construction of the road, and it was not until the fall of 1838 that a track (which even then was composed of wooden rails for a part of the distance) was completed as far as Royal Oak, and trains made up of cars of the most inferior description were run from Detroit to that point by horse-power. In the fall of 1839 the road was extended, so that the trains ran to Birmingham, and steam was introduced as a motive-power for their propulsion. At that time (September, 1839) the Pontiac papers contained the advertisement of Henry J. Buckley, agent and conductor, informing the public that the trains were then running two trips a day between Detroit and Birmingham, and making connection at the latter place with a daily line of " post-coaches" for Pontiac and Flint, and a semiweekly line for Lyons, on the Grand River, by way of Byron, De Witt, and other points. In 1840, the company being heavily in debt, and without means of payment, the road was sold at sheriff's sale and passed into the hands of Dean Richmond, of Buffalo, and other capitalists of the State of New York. Then followed another period of delay and discouragement, but finally, in September, 1844, the road was opened to Pontiac, which for more than ten years continued to be the western terminus, and the point of connection with the stage-lines running to Flint, Saginaw, and the Grand River. In the earlier years of its operation this road was made the subject of unmeasured ridicule on account of the poverty of the company, the rough and superficial manner in which the line was constructed, the poor quality of its carriages and machinery, and the exceedingly slow and irregular time made by the trains between Pontiac and Detroit. From an article which appeared in the Detroit Post a few years since, containing some reminiscences of pioneer railway travel, the following, having reference to the Pontiac line, is extracted: " The trains would frequently stop between way-stations at a signal from some farmer who wished to ask a few questions or to take passage. An old lady denizen of a farm-house, with spectacles of a primitive manufacture placed high upon her forehead, came running out to the train waving her bandanna. Her signal being heeded, the train was brought to a stop, and her inquiry of the conductor was, if a certain lawyer named Drake was on board. After receiving a negative answer, a short conversation was kept up before the train started on its journey. It was no uncommon occurrence for the engineer, who kept his shot-gun with him, to bring down game from his engine, shut off steam, and send his fireman after the fruits of his marksmanship. The road being laid with strap-rail, one of the duties of the conductor was to keep a hammer for the purpose of spiking down 'snake-heads' whenever they were seen from the cab of the engineer." After a few years of operation with the primitive and unsafe " strap-rail," the line was leased for ten years to Gurdon Williams, but the lease was purchased or relinquished before its expiration, and the road came into the possession of a company of which H. N. Walker, Esq., was made the president. Under his administration a sufficient amount of V INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 41 money was raised on the bonds of the road to re-lay the track with solid T-rails, and to make other improvements necessary to put the road in condition for business. Immediately after the completion of the road from Detroit to Pontiac a project was formed to build a railroad from that village westward, through Shiawassee, Clinton, Ionia, Kent, and Ottawa Counties, to the mouth of Grand River, to connect at that point with steamers for Milwaukee and other lake-ports. This resulted in the formation of the Oakland and Ottawa Railroad Company, and its incorporation by an act of the State Legislature approved April 3, 1848. The persons appointed as commissioners to receive subscriptions to the capital stock (which was fixed at two million five hundred thousand dollars) were Gurdon Williams, Edward A. Brush, H. C. Thurber, Alfred Williams, Bowman W. Dennis, John Hamilton, C. P. Bush, W. A. Richmond, and Charles Shepard. The company was empowered by the act " to construct a railroad with a double or single track from the village of Pontiac, in the county of Oakland, to Lake Michigan, in the county of Ottawa, passing it through the most desirable and eligible route, by the way of Fentonville," and was required to begin its construction within five years and to complete it within fifteen years from the passage of the act. In 1850 an act was passed (approved March 20th) providing " that the Detroit and Pontiac Railroad Company be, and they are hereby, authorized to extend said railroad so as to connect with the Oakland and Ottawa Railroad when constructed, thus forming a continuous line of railroad through the village of Pontiac." The construction of the Oakland and Ottawa road was commenced in 1852, and in the following year H. N. Walker (who was a leading spirit in this as well as in the Pontiac road) purchased in England twenty-six hundred tons of iron, which was estimated to be sufficient to lay the track through to Fentonville. On the 13th of February, 1855, the Governor approved " an act to authorize the consolidation of the Detroit and Pontiac and the Oakland and Ottawa Railroad Companies, so as to form a continuous line from Detroit to Lake Michigan, under the name of the Detroit and Milwaukee Railway Company."* By the same act the name of the Detroit and Pontiac was changed to that of " The Detroit and Milwaukee Railway Company," which was empowered to increase its capital stock to an amount not exceeding ten millions of dollars; and it was further provided that "the said company is hereby authorized, for the purpose of forming a continuous line, to purchase all the property, rights, and franchises of the Oakland and Ottawa Railroad Company upon such terms as shall be mutually agreed upon and the stockholders of the said Oakland and Ottawa Railroad Company shall, in case of sale, become stockholders of the said Detroit and Milwaukee Railway Company, in such proportions as may be agreed upon in the terms of sale; and the said Oakland and Ottawa Railroad Company shall thereupon become merged in the said Detroit and Milwaukee Railway Company." _ _ _, _ _ - _ - ' ' 7 Under the authority so conferred the two companies were consolidated, and the Oakland and Ottawa became the Detroit and Milwaukee line. The work of construction west of Pontiac had proceeded but slowly during the three years succeeding its commencement, but, as the new company had negotiated a loan in Europe to the amount of one million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, it was now pushed more vigorously; so that in October, 1855, the road was opened to Fentonville, where stage connections were made for points on the Grand River and for Flint and Saginaw. In the following spring the locomotive entered Shiawassee County for the first time, and July 1, 1856, the road was formally opened to Owosso, where the arrival of the pioneer train was hailed with demonstrations of almost unbounded delight and exultation. The same enthusiasm greeted the opening of the road to St. John's, Clinton Co., on the 16th of January following. Between St. John's and Ionia the work was prosecuted with vigor, and the road was completed to the county-seat of Ionia County in September, 1857. Finally, on the 22d of November, 1858, the line was opened to its terminus, at Grand Haven, and the locomotive traversed the entire peninsula from the Detroit River to Lake Michigan. Well might the people along its route congratulate themselves as they saw the first trains speeding along, for their coming was an event which lifted the ban of isolation from these counties and more than doubled the value of their domain. This road, although of great benefit to the country through which its course leads, proved a bad investment for its original stockholders. The foreclosure of the bondholders' mortgage in 1860 placed it in the hands of a receiver, and it remained in this condition until Oct. 19,1878, when it became the Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee Railway by passing into the possession of a company of that name, organized in the interest of the Great Western Railway of Canada. It is still owned and controlled by that company. The road enters Ionia County in the township of Lyons, and thence pursues a southwest course through the central part of the county, or the townships of Lyons, Ionia, Easton, Berlin, and Boston, the stations on its line within Ionia County being Pewamo, Muir, Ionia, and Saranac. DETROIT, LANSING AND NORTHERN RAILROAD. This railroad-line, now known as the Detroit, Lansing and Northern, was formed by a consolidation of the Detroit and Howell, the Howell and Lansing, and the Ionia and Lansing Railroads. The last-named road was completed and opened for travel between Ionia and Lansing in December, 1869. The Detroit and Howell and the Howell and Lansing Companies (the titles of which indicate their respective routes) were consolidated in April, 1870. In September next following the consolidation the franchises were conveyed to James F. Joy and other capitalists composing the Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad Company, to whom the Ionia and Lansing Railroad was soon after sold. The road between Detroit and Lansing was completed about Aug. 10,1871, and on the 22d of the same month the officers of the company opened the line from Detroit to its (then) northern terminus,-a point about * The name was changed to Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad Company in 1860. 6 42 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. five miles northwest of Greenville, Montcalm Co., the road having been finished from Ionia to the last-named place in September, 1870. In August, 1871, it was completed to Howard City, where it connects with the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad. This point continued to be its most northern terminus for several years. The Stanton branch, extending from Ionia to Stanton, the county-seat of Montcalm County, was completed April 25, 1873. In 1877 the name was changed from Detroit, Lansing and Lake Michigan to Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad, as it is as present. During recent years its line has been extended from Stanton to Big Rapids, in Mecosta County, and it was opened for traffic to the last-named point in May, 1880. The machine-shops of this road are established at Ionia (see History of Ionia City), and it may be considered the most important railroad passing through the counties of Ionia and Montcalm. On the main line the stations are Danby, Portland, Stebbinsville, Lyons, lonia, Stanton Junction, Palmer's, Chadwick's, and Kiddville,* in Ionia County, and Greenville, Gowen, Dickson, Trufant, Colwell, Maple Valley, Coral, and Howard City, in Montcalm County. The stations on the Stanton branch are Ionia, Stanton Junction, Wood's Corners, and Shiloh, in Ionia County; Fenwick's, Sheridan, Wagar's, Colby's, Stanton, Wood's Mill, McBride's, Edmore, and Averyville, in Montcalm. GRAND RAPIDS AND INDIANA RAILROAD. This important line extends from Fort Wayne, Ind., north nearly the entire length of the southern peninsula of Michigan to Petoskey, on Little Traverse Bay of Lake Michigan, or within about twenty-five miles of the Straits of Mackinac. Its total length, including fifty-one and sixtenths miles in Indiana, is three hundred and thirty-two and one-tenth miles. Its connections extend directly to Cincinnati, and trains go through from the Ohio River to Lake Michigan. The line was opened in various sections as follows: From Fort Wayne to Sturgis, June 22, 1870; to Kalamazoo, September, 1870; to Grand Rapids, October, 1870; from Grand Rapids to Cedar Springs, Dec. 23, 1867; to Morley, June 21, 1869; to Paris, Aug. 12, 1870; to Clam Lake (Cadillac Post-office), December, 1871; to Fife Lake, September, 1872; to Petoskey, May, 1874. The cost of constructing the road and its branches was $9,877,363.99; that of equipment, buildings, etc., $1,214,721.47. The total expenses of operating the road in 1878 were $958,170.80; the total earnings for the same time, $1,200,629.19. There were then in use on the road seventeen locomotives weighing over thirty tons each, twenty weighing over twenty tons each, and one which weighed over ten tons. There were also ten twelve-wheel and eleven eight-wheel passenger-cars, ten express- and baggage-cars, three hundred and forty-seven box freight-cars, seven hundred and thirty-six platform-cars, and twenty-one conductor's way-cars. Of this number, thirteen locomotives and thirty-two passenger-cars were equipped with the Westinghouse air-brake. In its course northward, the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad crosses the townships of Pierson and Reynolds, in Montcalm County, the stations being Pierson, Wood Lake, Maple Hill, Howard City, and Conger. OTHER PROPOSED RAILROADS. Among proposed railroads whose surveyed lines pass through these counties are those entitled the Jonesville, Marshall and Northern, and the Grand Rapids, Greenville, and Alpena. The course of the first named lies through the eastern tier of townships of Ionia County, while the route of the latter runs from Greenville northeasterly across Montcalm County. CHAPTER IX. MILITARY RECORD OF IONIA AND MONTCALM. The Military History of the two Counties commences with the War of the Rebellion-Not represented in the "i Sauk" and Toledo WarsA few Representatives in the Mexican War-Plan of the Sketches regarding the Services of Soldiers from the two Counties during War of 1861-65-Some of the First Volunteers-Total Number of Men furnished-Explanatory Note-Words of Praise from Adjt.-Gen. Robertson-Battles of Michigan Soldiers, 1861-62-The Second Infantry-Formation-At First Bull Run-In Kentucky-In Mississippi-In Tennessee-At Knoxville under Burnside-Re-enlistment-To Virginia again-Fighting triumphantly from the Wilderness to Appomattox-Muster-out-Members from Ionia County -Members from Montcalm County. THE real military history of these counties begins with the war of the Rebellion, 1861-65, for the " Sauk war" of 1832 antedates the settlement of those who came here for the purpose of remaining permanently. The theatre of Governor Mason's " Toledo war" in 1835 was too far distant for men separated from the metropolis of the Territory by forests and openings one hundred and fifty miles in extent, and there struggling for the commonest necessaries of life, to care for the pomp and circumstance of war, or to be much interested in what might occur on the Michigan and Ohio line; and though a few sons of Ionia (as members of the First Michigan and Fifteenth United States Infantry Regiments) nobly represented their section in 1847-48 in the land of the Muntezumas, their services, however commendable individually, are dwarfed to a mere nothingness when compared with what was performed by those who participated in that mighty struggle the desolating war of the Rebellion, which opened some thirteen years later. It is to tell the story, therefore, of the valor, dangers, sufferings, and final triumph of the brave men who during a period of more than four years of constant warfare were seen struggling on nearly every battle-field, and with their colors flaunting ever in the van, that the chapters immediately succeeding are devoted. It is intended that the sketches of the various regiments shall bear some proportion as to length to the number of men in them from these two counties. In their preparation, also, great care has been taken to make them, though necessarily brief, as correct and interesting as possible. * A horse-car line to Belding connects with all trains at Kiddville. MILITARY RECORD OF IONIA AND MONTCALM. 43 __ __I The State adjutant-general's reports and other written authorities have been closely examined, surviving soldiers of the various regiments have been consulted, and in many cases items have been added derived from the personal knowledge of the writer, who, as an officer of more than four years' service (in an Illinois regiment), passed the major portion of that time side by side with several of the Michigan regiments whose exploits are here narrated. From the published reports furnished in the fall of 1862 we find that Daniel Argersinger and Peter C. Chase, of Ionia County, and George W. Yaner, of Montcalm, were the first volunteers to enroll their names from these counties during the war of the Rebellion, they having enlisted in Company B of the Second Michigan Infantry, April 25, 1861. Col. Ambrose A. Stevens, Surg. Zenas E. Bliss, Capts. Moses B. Houghton and Abram T. Whiting, Lieuts. Daniel S. Root, Solomon P. Turney, David C. Crawford, Peter V. Granger, George W. Phillips, Byron E. Hess, and Theodore Hetz, Sergt.-Maj. Daniel G. Converse, and many non-commissioned officers and privates from both Ionia and Montcalm, became members of the afterwards famed Third Regiment of Michigan Infantry, May 13, 1861. Other gallant officers and brave men enlisted in the First, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Sixteenth Infantry, the First Engineers and Mechanics, the First, Second, and Third Cavalry Regiments, De Golyer's Battery, and Duesler's and Willett's companies of sharpshooters, during the same year (1861). But the regiment upon which the citizens of Ionia and Montcalm Counties did most pride themselves was the Twenty-first. It rendezvoused at the village of Ionia in the summer of 1862, and to swell its ranks Ionia County alone contributed at that time three hundred men good and true, Montcalm supplementing with one hundred and eighteen. The Twenty-fifth Infantry and the Sixth Cavalry Regiments, at the time of organizing, in 1862, also made room for a large number of volunteers from these counties, and to Dec. 1, 1862, lonia County had sent into the field (not including recruits who joined old regiments subsequent to July 1, 1862) eleven hundred and eighty-one officers and men,* while for the same time, ' From the beginning to the close of the war, lonia County received credit for two thousand four hundred and sixty-four men, and Montcalm for six hundred and forty, or a total for the two counties of three thousand one hundred and four. This is more than can be found in the reports of the State adjutant-general, but the discrepancy can be partially explained by the facts that re-enlisting veterans were credited to their counties twice, while their names appeared in the reports but once, and that drafted men, who in the first months of the draft were allowed to pay three hundred dollars each in lieu of personal service, helped to swell the total of credits, though never in the service. A few names were also doubtless omitted from the reports, in spite of the energy and fidelity of Adjt.-Gen. Robertson, on account of the apathy and forgetfulness of company commanders. By a joint resolution of the State legislative bodies (passed in January, 1862) the adjutant-general of the State was directed, "on or before the 1st day of October, to make and transmit to the county clerk of each county in this State a correct list of the persons mustered into the service of the United States or of this State from such county, giving, so far as practicable, the name, date of enlistment, company, regiment, whether married or unmarried, also the number that have died in battle or from sickness or wounds in battle, and the and under the same conditions, Montcalm received credit for two hundred and seventy-two volunteers. These men were then all at the front. Other counties had done equally well, and a more magnificent body of troops than the Michigan volunteers of 1861-62 never donned the national uniform. Well aware of this, it is not strange, then, that Gen. Robertson, in his report to Governor Blair of date Dec. 24, 1862, should say: "The quality of the men, physically, mentally, and morally, who form the material of these regiments, has never been, and never can be, excelled in the armies of any State or nation on earth, and it may well be questioned if it was ever equaled outside of the limits of this Union." Again, in the same report, he said: "Taken from the most peaceful avocations of civil life, these men of the plow, the workshops, the counter, and the schools are converted, during the vicissitudes of a single campaign, into heroes. No nation has ever witnessed in its armies, even after years of the training which war brings with it, a more marvelous development of soldierly qualities than have already characterized our own troops. Patient in discipline, indefatigable on the march, enduring under privation, fer& tile in expedient, untiring in the trenches, and ingenious in construction, they have added to all these merits the highest glory which can be won by undaunted valor in the field. There has been scarcely a fortification erected, a bridge built, or a road opened for the use of the national armies, since the war commenced, towards which aid has not been rendered by Michigan volunteers; while every important action has illustrated their heroism, and almost every battle-field is consecrated by their blood. "They were at Bull Run and at Ball's Bluff, at Rich Mountain, at Lexington and at Donelson, at Pittsburg Landing, at New Madrid, at New Orleans, at Hilton Head, at Wilmington Island, at James Island, at Fort Pulaski, at Baton Rouge, at New Bridge, at Williamsburg, at Fair names of those that have been discharged or have deserted, and that additional lists shall annually, at the time aforesaid, be transmitted, giving the mustering of the current year, together with the deaths, discharges, or desertions, as the case may be." The duty of procuring, collating, and perfecting the lists called for in the resolution was one involving many months of continuous and devoted labor. The ordinary records of enlistment furnished no information of the residence of the volunteers, and it became necessary to procure it, as regarded those already in service, from the regiments in the field. Gen. Robertson was aware how, from various causes, inaccuracies may have occurred, for in his report he said: "It can hardly be expected that these lists are perfectly accurate. In the case of the old regiments the casualties of months or a year of active service had taken from the ranks hundreds of men whose names were on the rolls, and whose residence it was sought to determine. In the cases of all of them a trifling carelessness on the part of the officers intrusted with the duty, or any one of a score of accidents which are peculiar to military service, might occasion an erroneous return which it was out of the power of this department to correct." Therefore, regarding the lists of officers and men given in these pages, it is proper to say that great care has been taken in transcribing them from the rolls in the adjutant-general's office, and in verifying them, when possible, by surviving members of the organizations to which they have reference. Doubtless some errors and omissions will be found, notwithstanding our efforts. Should there be, such must be attributed to the neglect of officers whose duty it was to return full and complete records of every person ever belonging to their organizations. 44 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. Oaks, at Hanover Court-house, at the Chickahominy, at Gaines' Mills, at Malvern Hill, at Winchester, at Manassas, at Cedar Mountain, at Corinth, at Iuka, at Perryville, at South Mountain, at Antietam, and at Fredericksburg. They have signalized their devotion to the country's service in Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina, Georgia, and Maryland, and their reputation is cherished at the hearthstones of every loyal State in the Union. Their services are eagerly sought by all our best generals, whether to construct a defense, to lead a forlorn hope, or to storm a battery. The history of these times will be an imperishable monument to the bravery and patriotism of all the States which in this hour of-trial have enlisted their sons in the conflict, and the honor of one will at all times be among the precious possessions of the others. But it will be for Michigan to cherish with peculiar pride and tenderness the recollections and the fame of the gallant band of patriots who in the fiercest struggles of modern warfare, and among comrades of equal worth, while vindicating the integrity of the nation at large, have reflected undying lustre upon her own escutcheon." Further remarks, however, having reference to the services performed by the various organizations wherein Ionia and Montcalm Counties were represented by any considerable number of soldiers, showing also the names of such officers and enlisted men as belonged to each, will be found under the titles of their respective regiments, batteries, and companies. SECOND INFANTRY. The Second Regiment of Michigan Volunteer Infantrythe first three years' regiment to take the field from the State-rendezvoused at Detroit, and was mustered into the United States service May 25, 1861. With an aggregate force on its muster-rolls of one thousand and thirteen officers and enlisted men, and commanded by the gallant Col. Israel B. Richardson,* it left Detroit June 5th, and at once proceeded to the seat of war on the Potomac. It participated in the first battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861, and was one of the very few regiments that did not become thoroughly demoralized as a result of that engagement. (See history of the Third Infantry.) From that time until March, 1863, it shared in all the victories and defeats of the Union arms in Virginia. It was then transferred to Kentucky, where it remained until June, when, with Gen. Parke's division of the Ninth Army Corps, it reinforced Gen. Grant's army before Vicksburg. With Gen. Sherman at Jackson, Miss., it lost heavily. From Mississippi it returned to Kentucky, and in September, 1863, marched, via Cumberland Gap, to Knoxville, Tenn., where, as part of the forces operating in that region under Gen. Burnside, it took an active part in all the severe fighting incident to the siege of Knoxville, losing one-half its effective strength. A large number of its surviving members re-enlisted in December, 1863, and returned home on furlough. From Mount Clemens, Mich., the regiment again returned to Virginia in May, 1864, arriving in time to plunge into the Wilderness and bear its share on that ensanguined, hotlycontested field. Thereafter, at Spottsylvania, Bethesda Church, Petersburg, Weldon Railroad, and in all the other principal engagements which culminated at Appomattox, the Second Michigan Infantry was an active participant. It was mustered out of service at Delaney House, D. C., July 28, 1865, and arrived at Detroit, Mich., for final pay and disbandment August 1st of that year, after four years and a quarter of honorable service. OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE SECOND INFANTRY FROM IONIA COUNTY. FIELD AND STAFF. Asst. Surg. Jerome Robbins, Matherton; cor. March 11, 1865; res. March 12, 1866. COMPANY A. Porter, Foreman S., must. out June 2,1865. Rider, D., died of disease in Michigan June, 1864. Robbins, Martin, died of disease in Michigan June, 1864. COMPANY B. Argersinger, Daniel, disch. at end of service May 25,1864. Church, Peter C., disch. at end of service July 12, 1864. Green, William G., died of wounds July 18,1864. COMPANY C. First Lieut. Benjamin Vosper, Saranac; enl. sergeant Co. I April 1,1864; disch. for disability May 31, 1864. Benedict, Lafayette, must. out July 28,1865. Cornell, Lorenzo L., must. out July 28, 1865. Casey, Thomas, must. out July 28,1865. Davids, Philander, must. out July 15, 1865. Green, William D., must. out July 28,1865. Peck, Russell S., must. out Aug. 5,1865. Rider, Stephen V., must. out Aug. 5, 1865. COMPANY E. Baldwin, Abner A., disch. for disability May 15,1865. Baldwin, George W., must. out May 11, 1865. Travis, Charles, must. out July 28,1865. Vosper, Mason, died of wounds received near Petersburg, Va., Aug. 19,1864. COMPANY F. Jones, Reuben, must. out June 12,1865. Lampman, Peter, died of disease in New York Dec. 14,1864. Petrie, John R., must. out. June 15,1865. Steers, Samuel, disch. for disability April 12, 1865. COMPANY G. Second Lieut. James L. Manning, Lyons: enl. April 1, 1864, private Sixth Cavalry; res. Oct. 14,1864. Hinds, Charles, died of wounds June 22,1864. Hilton, Levi N., died in action near Petersburg, Va., June 17,1864. Parmelee, Truman, missing in action June 17, 1864. Robinson, Corydon, died of disease at Washington, D. C. COMPANY H. First Lieut. John P. Anderson, Saranac; corn. April 1, 1864; must. out July 28, 1865. Hulse, Clear, died in action near Petersburg, Va., June 17, 1864. Osborn, William H., must. out May 15, 1865. Ranger, Nathaniel W., must. out July 28, 1865. Wheeler, Emmett J., must. out July 28,1865. COMPANY K. Coffin, John, died of wounds Aug. 22, 1864. Fish, Alexander, disch. for disability Sept. 26, 1862. Merchant, Willard, must. out July 28,1865. Mapes, Peter, died of wounds June 18, 1864. Owen, Warren M., died of disease at Philadelphia, Pa., June 4,1865. Smith, Devine B., disch. for disability May 6, 1865. Showerman, Jacob, disch. for disability Dec. 25, 1864. SOLDIERS OF THE SECOND INFANTRY FROM MONTCALM COUNTY. COMPANY B. Yaner, George W., must. out at expiration of service June 6, 1864. * Col. Richardson was a native of Vermont, and a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. He served in the Mexican war, and attained the rank of major. He was made brigadier-general of volunteers in September, 1861, promoted to the rank of major-general soon after, and while commanding a division was killed at the battle of Antietam, Sept. 17, 1862. MILITARY RECORD OF IONIA AND MONTCALM. 45 COMPANY C. Converse, Daniel B., must. out July 28, 1865. Phillips, Andrew S., must. out June 12,1865. COMPANY K. Isham, Alfred R., disch, by order May 3,1865. CHAPTER X. THIRD INFANTRY. The Counties from which Recruited-Its Representation from Ionia and Montcalm Counties-Some of its first Officers-Proceeds to Washington, D. C.-Assigned to Richardson's Brigade-Engaged at First Bull Run-Steadiness of its Brigade-Praise of the New York Tribune and Gen. McDowell-Other Duties-Winter Quarters-Gallantry at Williamsburg-At Fair Oaks-Prince de Joinville's Encomium-Through the Seven Days' Fight-Second Bull Run-At Chancellorsville-At Gettysburg-Sent to New YorkBack to Virginia-The Mine Run Campaign —Re-enlistment of Veterans-In the Wilderness and Subsequent Fights-Non-Veterans sent Home-Veterans and Recruits formed into a BattalionConsolidated with the Fifth Michigan Infantry-The New Third Infantry Organized, Col. Moses B. Houghton Commander-It goes to Tennessee and Alabama-Assigned to Fourth Army Corps-Goes to East Tennessee-To Texas in June, 1865-Stays there till May, 1866-Mustered Out-Lists of Officers and Soldiers from both Counties. THE Third Michigan Infantry was recruited during the month of May, 1861, mainly from the counties of Allegan, Barry, Clinton, Eaton, Gratiot, Ionia, Kent, Muskegon, Mecosta, Montcalm, Newaygo, and Ottawa, and rendezvoused at Grand Rapids. It was the first regiment organized in the western part of the State, the second mustered for three years, and the third to take the field from Michigan. When first mustered its rolls included one hundred and seventy-five officers and men from Ionia County and thirteen from Montcalm, who were distributed among all its companies except A. The greatest number of them, however, were in Companies D and E, which were almost exclusively composed of men from Ionia and Montcalm. Among its first commissioned officers from these counties were Lieut.-Col. Ambrose A. Stevens, Surg. Zenas E. Bliss, Capts. Moses B. Houghton and Abraham T. Whiting, Lieuts. Theodore Hetz, Peter Z. Granger, George W. Phillips, Byron E. Hess, Solomon P. Turney, David C. Crawford, and Daniel S. Root. The regiment was mustered into the United States service, with one thousand and forty officers and men, on the 10th of June, 1861, Col. D. McConnell commanding. Three days later it left Grand Rapids and proceeded to Washington, D. C., where it arrived on Sunday, the 16th, and thence marched to the Chain Bridge, where it encamped at " Camp McConnell." It was soon after assigned to the brigade commanded by Col. Israel B. Richardson, and first met the enemy at Blackburn's Ford, Va., on the 18th of July. On the 21st the regiment, with its brigade, was engaged in that famous conflict the first battle of Bull Run. In the disasters of that day the Michigan regiments (Second and Third) proved themselves to be among the bravest and most steadfast of the troops engaged. The army commander, Gen. McDowell, said in his report that "Richardson's troops were the last to leave the field," and the correspondent of the. I New York Tribune, in his account of the battle, said: " I was told that a few regiments besides the three faithful ones of Blenker's brigade had come in in fair order, and that they were the Second and Third Michigan and the Massachusetts First, of Richardson's brigade." When the defeated and disorganized Union army fell back on Washington, this brigade served as rear-guard. It maintained its position at Centreville Heights until the morning of July 22d, and when all detachments and stragglers had passed to the rear it deliberately took up the line of march to Washington, where it arrived in good order. Immediately afterwards the brigade was assigned to the duty of guarding the position at Bailey's Crossroads, and picketing other highways leading to Alexandria and Washington from the South. After assisting in the construction of the defenses of Washington, the Third went into winter quarters near Alexandria, Va., and remained there until March, 1862, when it moved with McClellan's army to the Peninsula. At the battle of Williamsburg, fought on the 5th of May, 1862, Berry's brigade,* of Kearney's division, moved to the front through mud and rain at double-quick, formed line under fire, and, immediately charging a superior force of the enemy, recaptured a lost position and artillery, and did not stop until the enemy was dislodged and beaten back from his own position. In regard to this fight a l-ibune correspondent said: " By confessions of rebel prisoners, eight hundred of Berry's men, mostly of Michigan regiments, drove back sixteen hundred of the enemy." At Fair Oaks, on the 31st of May, the Third particularly distinguished itself, losing thirty men killed, one hundred and twenty-four wounded, and fifteen missing. Among the wounded was Col. Stephen G. Champlin, its commander. The Prince de Joinville, an eye-witness of this battle, said: " As at Williamsburg, Kearney comes to re-establish the fight. Berry's brigade, of this division, composed of Michigan regiments and an Irish battalion, advances firm as a wall into the midst of the disordered mass which wanders over the battle-field, and does more by its example than the most powerful reinforcements." The Third was also engaged at Savage Station and Peach Orchard, June 29, 1862; Glendale (or Charles City Crossroads), June 30th; Malvern Hill, July 1st; and Groveton (or Second Bull Run), Aug. 29, 1862. In the latter battle it lost twenty men killed, besides a large number wounded and missing. Proceeding from Edward's Ferry, Md., via Warrenton and Falmouth, Va., to Fredericksburg, Va., the regiment was engaged at the latter place Dec. 13, 1862, losing nine men wounded. At Chancellorsville, on the 1st, 2d, and 3d of May, 1863, it sustained a loss of sixty-three men, killed, wounded, and missing. On the 11th of June the regiment began a toilsome march, via Centreville, Va., Edward's Ferry, and Frederick City, Md., to Gettysburg, Pa. The roads were dusty, the heat was intense, and the men suffered terribly. At Gettysburg, on the 2d and 3d of July, 1863, the gallant Third again dealt staggering blows to the cohorts of treason, sustaining a loss on its-side of forty-one men, killed, wounded, and -i The Second, Third, and Fifth Michigan and Thirty-Seventh New York Infantry Regiments. 46 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. missing. Having followed the enemy to Williamsport, it marched thence to Harper's Ferry, crossed the Potomac at that point, and moved forward to Manassas Gap. On the 17th of August, 1863, the regiment proceeded to Alexandria, Va., and from there to New York City, whither it had been ordered to aid in the preservation of the public peace and in keeping down mobs during the then pending draft. Remaining there some days, it proceeded up the Hudson to Troy, N. Y., where it was stationed (in anticipation of the same trouble) two weeks. It then returned to its brigade in the Army of the Potomac, arriving at Culpeper, Va., Sept. 17, 1863. The regiment took part in the Mine Run campaign in November, 1863, and was engaged at Locust Grove on the 27th and at Mine Run on the 30th of the same month. With the army it returned to Brandy Station, December 2d, having lost during the movement thirty-one men in killed, wounded, and missing. One hundred and eighty members of the regiment re-enlisted as veterans Dec. 23, 1863. They received a thirty days' furlough, and at the expiration of that time returned to their command. From December, 1863, until the beginning of May, 1864, a season of inactivity prevailed. On the 4th of the latter month, however, the Third crossed the Rapidan at Ely's Ford, advanced to Chancellorsville, and during the three following days was in the midst of the terrific battle of the Wilderness, sustaining heavy losses. It was also engaged at Todd's Tavern on the 8th, and on the 12th at Spottsylvania, where it participated in the successful charge made by the Second Army Corps. At the North Anna River it again encountered the enemy, May 23d and 24th. The Pamunkey River was crossed on the 27th, and the advance continued towards Cold Harbor. During this month of continuous fighting the regiment had met with a loss of thirty-one men killed, one hundred and nineteen wounded, and twenty-nine missing. At Cold Harbor, on the 9th of June, 1864, the regiment, with the exception of the re-enlisted men and such as had joined its ranks since the original organization, and certain designated officers, was ordered home for the purpose of being honorably discharged. The remaining officers and men, some three hundred and fifty in number, were formed into a battalion of four companies and attached to the Fifth Michigan Infantry. The order consolidating these regiments was confirmed by the War Department, June 13th, and on the 20th of June, 1864, the staunch old Third, which had been one of the first in the Union to take the field in defense of our imperiled government, was formally mustered out of the United States service. THE NEW THIRD INFANTRY. In addition to the many thousands gone before, on the 18th of July, 1864, the President issued his proclamation calling upon the loyal States for five hundred thousand more men. Volunteers for the several States were to be accepted for one, two, and three years, as they elected. Michigan's quota under this call was more than eighteen thousand, of which twelve thousand had to be recruited or drafted. Governor Blair determined to raise six new regi ments of infantry,-viz., the Third, Fourth, Twenty-eighth, Twenty-ninth, Thirtieth, and Thirty-first, or one in each congressional district,-and in pursuance of this plan issued his proclamation on the 21st of July, 1864. On the 29th of the same month orders were issued to reorganize the Third Infantry, and to Col. Moses B. Houghton (formerly lieutenant-colonel of tile old organization) was intrusted the charge of raising the new regiment. Grand Rapids was named as its place of rendezvous, and the Fourth District its field for recruiting. The exigencies of the service did not permit the complete organization of all these regiments before the enforcement of the impending draft (Sept. 5, 1864), and seven companies, which had been raised for the Thirtieth at Pontiac, were distributed between the Third and Fourth, four companies going to the former and three to the latter, and the organization of the Thirtieth was abandoned. The Third, thus reinforced, completed its organization at once (October 15th), and, being mustered in with eight hundred and seventy-nine officers and men, left camp for Nashville, Tenn., Oct. 20, 1864, going thence to Decatur, Ala. It remained at Decatur-having meanwhile a skirmish with the enemy at that point-until November 25th, when it was transferred to Murfreesboro', Tenn., and ordered to duty at Fort Rosecrans. On the 7th of December, while Gen. Milroy was engaged at the Cedars with the principal part of Forrest's rebel command, Faulkner's rebel brigade of mounted infantry made a dash on the picket-line at Murfreesboro', drove in the guard, and gained possession of the town. After a spirited engagement of an hour's duration, four companies of the Third, together with an equal number of companies of the One Hundred and Eighty-first Ohio, with a section of artillery, repulsed the rebels and pursued them two miles. The regiment remained at Murfreesboro' and its vicinity until Jan. 16, 1865, when it was moved to Huntsville, Ala., and assigned to the Fourth Army Corps. On the 31st of January it was ordered to Eastport, Miss., and proceeded as far as Nashville, Tenn., when, the order being countermanded, it returned to Huntsville, remaining there until the middle of March. With its brigade it then marched to East Tennessee, occupying successively positions at New Market, Bull Gap, and Jonesboro', where it was employed in pursuing, capturing, and driving off the numerous guerrilla bands infesting that region. The Third was ordered to Nashville, Tenn., on the 20th of March, arrived there the 28th, and on the 15th of June, 1865, with its corps, proceeded by rail from Nashville to Johnsville, Tenn., thence by steamers down the Tennessee, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans, arriving on the 5th of July. After a short delay the regiment proceeded in vessels to Indianola, Texas, and thence it marched to Green Lake. On the 12th of September it started out for Western Texas, and, after a fatiguing march of fourteen days' duration, it reached San Antonio. During the following winter two companies were on duty at Gonzales. Early in the spring of 1866 the entire regiment was ordered to Victoria, Texas, and was there mustered out of the service, May 26, 1866. Marching to Indianola, it took steamers to New Orleans, going thence via the Mississippi River to Cairo, Ill., whence MILITARY RECORD OF IONIA AND MONTCALM. 47 it was transported by railway to Detroit, Mich. It arrived there June 10, 1866, and was soon after paid off and discharged. IONIA COUNTY OFFICERS AND ENLISTED MEN WHO SERVED IN THE THIRD INFANTRY (FIRST TERM). FIELD AND STAFF. Col. Moses B. Houghton, Saranac; corn. July 29,1864; appointed colonel new Third Infantry Oct. 15. 1864. Lieut.-Col. Ambrose A. Stevens, Saranac; corn. May 13, 1861; colonel TwentyFirst Infantry July 25,1862. Lieut.-Col. Edwin S. Pierce, Lyons; corn. Jan. 1, 1863; wounded in action at Chancellorsville, Va.; disch. Jan. 20, 1864. Lieut.-Col. Moses B. Houghton, Saranac; corn. Jan. 20, 1864; pro. to major Sept. 1, 1862; pro. to colonel. Surg. Zenas E. Bliss, Ionia; corn. Oct. 15, 1861; assistant surgeon June 1, 1861; appointed surgeon regular army Sept. 24, 1862. NON-COMMISSIONED STAFF. Sergt.-Maj. Daniel G. Converse, Saranac; pro. to first lieutenant Co. H March 15, 1864. Hosp. Steward George P. Taylor, disch. at end of service June 20, 1864. COMPANY A. Lyons, Ira W., disch. for disability May 8, 1863. COMPANY B. Estes, William C., died in action at Fair Oaks May 31, 1862. Turner, Ira G., died of disease Nov. 28,1861. COMPANY C. Second Lieut. Theodore Hetz, corn. June 10, 1861. Hawley, Clare, disch. for disability Nov. 22, 1862. Fehely, Joseph, must. out July 5, 1865. Ferris, Squire H., enl. Feb. 14,1862. Mason, Burdett, must. out July 5,1865. Moe, Elam, disch. for disability June 17,1862. Moe, Daniel, disch. for disability Aug. 3,1863. Osborn, William H., disch. for disability March 13,1863. Olds, Willard, must. out June 24, 1865. Snell, Sylvanus, disch. for disability July 27,1861. Schmidt, August, died of disease at Washington Dec. 1, 1862. Wilson, Daniel, enl. Feb. 22,1862. Wright, John, enl. Feb. 22, 1862. COMPANY D. Capt. Moses B. Houghton, Saranac; corn. June 10, 1861; pro. to major Sept. 1, 1862. Capt. Daniel G. Converse, Saranac; corn. June 13, 1864; must. out July 5, 1865. First Lieut. Peter Z. Granger, Saranac; corn. June 10, 1861; res. Sept. 20, 1862. First Lieut. Byron E. Hess, Saranac; corn. Jan. 1,1863; second lieutenant Aug. 1, 1861; sergeant; wounded and prisoner Aug. 29, 1862; paroled; disch. May 30,1863. Second Lieut. George W. Phillips, Saranac; corn. May 13, 1861; res. July 29, 1861. Sergt. Byron E. Hess, pro. to second lieutenant. Sergt. Zera L. Cotton, disch. to enlist in regular army Dec. 6,1861. Sergt. Henry S. Mather, must. out July 5, 1865. Sergt. Oscar Woodmansee, disch. for disability Jan. 15, 1865. Sergt. Hial P. Clark, died in action at Chancellorsville, Va., May 3,1863. Sergt. John Benson, pro. March, 1863. Corp. Sylvanus Staring, disch. for disability June 7, 1862. Corp. Richard E. Arthur. Corp. William Hunt, disch. for disability Nov. 30, 1862. Wagoner Thomas Thompson, disch. at end of service June 20, 1864. Arthur, Edmond B. Alspaugh, Benjamin F., disch. for disability Dec. 21, 1861. Alderson, -, must. out July 5,1865. Barber, Samuel B., must. out July 5, 1865. Barber, Martin, disch. for disability April 4, 1863. Benton, Daniel, disch. for disability Dec. 19,1861. Baker, Philetus, disch. for disability Dec. 24, 1861. Briggs, Solomon D., disch. for disability Jan. 5, 1863. Barber, Andrew. Burton, Rufus. Clyse, Martin F., died of disease at Alexandria. Cole, Benjamin F., disch. for disability Feb. 11, 1863. Corby, Squire G., disch. for disability Oct. 26,1862. Converse, Daniel G., vet. Feb. 26, 1864. Dickerman, Edward H., disch. for disability Oct. 14,1861. Dillenbeck, Charles H., disch. for disability July 29, 1862. Disbrow, Newton, disch. at end of service June 20, 1864. Ellison, Hiram G. Fish, William H., disch. for disability March 1,1862. Frisbie, Henry M., disch. for disability Dec. 20,1861. Foulks, John, disch. at end of service Feb. 14,1865. Fargo, Henry S., disch. for minority Dec. 8,1864. Fargo, George F., died in Virginia March 15, 1864. Grummond, Nelson G., killed by accident Jan. 6, 1863. Grooms, Price, disch. for disability Jan. 12,1863. Gardner, John, must. out July 5,1865. Griffith, William H. Granger, Munson, died of disease. Hines, Willis G., disch. for disability Sept. 30, 1861. Harrington, Oscar L. Keeler, George H. Locke, Dennis, disch. for disability Dec. 20,1862. Lewis, Royal P., disch. to enl. in regular army Dec 6, 1861. Lennington, John, must. out May 29,1865. Lennington, Hiram, must. out May 30,1865. Moore, Alonzo E. McLean, Robert, vet. Feb. 18,1864. Marlett, William H., disch. for disability Aug. 19, 1861. Moreton, Alexander. Mange, Henry, disch. at end of service June 20, 1864. Nietz, Philip, disch. for disability Nov. 16,1861. Nicholas, John, missing at Bull Run July 21, 1862. Newland, James F., disch. to enlist in regular army Jan. 18, 1863. Olmsted, King R., disch. at end of service March 8, 1865. Post, George C., disch. for disability Oct. 5, 1862. Petit, Louis, must. out July 5, 1865. Robins, Moses M., died at Philadelphia of wounds April 2, 1863. Renwick, James, disch. for disability April 1,1863. Renwick, William, disch. at end of service Feb. 14,1865. Slocum, George, disch. for disability Nov. 1,1861. Smith, Harding, disch. for disability July 26, 1861. Smith, Jonathan R., disch. for disability Feb. 24, 1863. Story, Urias. Travis, Leonard, disch. for disability Feb. 5, 1863. Thompson, Sylvester, disch. for disability Dec. 20, 1862. Tuttle, Andrew P., disch. to enlist in regular army Dec. 6, 1861. Tompkins, John A., died in prison. West, Charles H., died in New York Sept. 23,1862. Weaver, Jacob B., must. out July 5,1865. Woodruff, William E., disch. for disability Oct. 5, 1862. Woodruff, Charles, enl. March 16, 1863. Wright, William, enl. Jan. 6, 1863. Wade, Imri D., died at Gettysburg, Pa., July 3,1863. Wilsey, Calvin. West, John. Woodruff, Charles. COMPANY E. Capt. Edwin S. Pierce, Lyons; corn. May 13,1861; pro. to lieutenant-colonel. First Lieut. Solomon P. Turney, Muir; corn. May 13, 1861; res. Aug. 5, 1862. First Lieut. David C. Crawford, Lyons; corn. Sept. 22, 1862; pro. to captain Co. G. Second Lieut. David C. Crawford, Lyons; corn. July 19, 1861; pro. to first lieutenant. Sergt. David C. Crawford, Lyons; corn. June 10, 1861; pro. to second lieutenant. Sergt. James M. Ferris, vet. Dec. 23, 1863; transferred to Fifth Regiment Michigan Infantry June 10, 1864. Sergt. Alfred M. Burns, disch. for disability July 29,1861. Sergt. Charles M. Finch, vet. Dec. 23,1863; transferred to Fifth Regiment Infantry. Sergt. James M. Lewis, enl. May 13,1861. Sergt. Ernest Synold, vet. Dec. 23, 1863; sergeant; transferred to Fifth Infantry June 10, 1864. Corp. Robert R. Swart, disch. for disability Dec. 5, 1862. Corp. Herbert S. Taft, disch. for disability Feb. 7, 1863. Corp. Duane Tousley, disch. for disability Sept. 15, 1862. Corp. George S. Clay, transferred. Corp. Vincent Taylor, disch. July 1,1862. Corp. Eli W. Brown, vet. March 19, 1864; transferred to Fifth Infantry June 10, 1864. Corp. Royal S. Dunham. Musician Amos Stockwell, vet. Dec. 23, 1864; transferred to Fifth Infantry June 10, 1864. Musician Alfred A. Garlock, disch. for disability Jan. 13,1863. Wagoner Samuel Jason, vet. Dec. 23, 1863; must. out July 5, 1865. Austin, Byron G., disch. for disability July 28, 1861. Ames, George, vet. June 10,1864; must. out July 5, 1865. Burns, Alfred M., disch. for disability July 18,1861. Barnum, Andrew P., disch. for disability Aug. 29, 1862. Bennett, Wm., must. out July 5,1865. Collins, Burnett C., disch. for disability Sept. 30, 1862. Crapo, Jesse I., died at Fair Oaks. Call, John M., enl. May 13,1861. Densmore, Andrew F., disch. for disability April 4, 1863. Dennis, John, vet. Feb. 18,1864: must. out July 5, 1865. Drake, James F., died at Washington, D. C., of wounds, Sept. 13,1862. Dalrymple, Sylvester, transferred to V-teran Reserve Corps Nov. 26,1863. Ferguson, James, disch. for minority. 48 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. Foreman, Horace, disch. for disability Sept. 5, 1862. Ferris, James M., must. out July 5, 1865. Finch, Charles M., must. out July 5,1865. Foreman, Francis M., must. out July 5, 1865. Fritts, Franklin B., enl. May 13, 1861. Greely, Elmon, died in action at Fredericksburg May 31, 1862. Guernsey, Ezra, disch. for disability Jan. 27, 1863. Guernsey, Dennis, transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps Jan. 15, 1864. Gallup, Wm. S., transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps Nov. 26, 1863. Graham, Wm., disch. for disability Nov. 17,1863. Howe, Charles, died of disease at Yorktown. Horton, Daniel M., died of disease June 15, 1862. Hempstead, Robert, disch. for disability. Heth, L., disch. for disability Jan. 31, 1863. Howe, Ransom, vet. Dec. 23,1863; must. out July 5, 1865. Houseman, Daniel, vet. Dec. 23, 1863; must. out July 5, 1865. Houseman, George, vet. Dec. 23, 1863; must. out July 5, 1865. Hoard, Edwin, must. out July 5, 1865. Loverin, Charles B., disch. for disability Nov. 21,1862. Lamb, Almon F., disch. for disability April 23, 1863. Lewis, Oliver, vet. Dec. 23, 1863. Lewis, Edwin, disch. at end of service June 20, 1864. Lindsay, Arad E., disch. for promotion in U. S. C. T. Dec. 8,1863. Mosher, Joseph, disch. for disability. Maltby, Delvin, disch. for disability Dec. 27, ]1862. Moore, William H. H., disch. for disability Jan. 22, 1863. Merritt, Nathan D., disch. for disability March 14, 1863. Mills, George W., vet. Dec. 23, 1863; must. out July 5,1865. Mann, Chester L., vet. Dec. 23, 1864; disch. for disability March 12, 1865. Munson, Homer, must. out July 5, 1865. Mnusgrove, Robert. Moe, Robert, disch. for disability July 29,1861. March, George H, died in action at Groveton Aug. 29, 1862. Owen, Isaac A., died in action at Fair Oaks May 31,1862. Osborn, Sylvester, disch. at end of service Nov. 10,1863. Pierce, Nathan, Jr., disch. for disability. Perkins, Lewis, disch. for disability March 4, 1863. Rhodes, Charles H., died in action at Fredericksburg, Va., May 31, 1862. Sickles, Anson, enl. March 13,1862. Swartman, Charles W. Sinkey, Othaniel, enl. May 13, 1861. Salter, James W., disch. for disability Nov. 8, 1862. Scott, Job, disch. to enlist in regular army Feb. 16, 1863. Tulley, Lewis M., disch. for disability July 10, 1862. Tabor, James A., vet. Dec. 23,1863. Ward, Lemuel, disch. for disability Sept. 24,1862. Wiselogle, George H., disch. at end of service July 1, 1864. Wales, Prescott, vet. Dec. 23, 1863; must. out. July 5, 1865. COMPANY F. Wilson, Daniel, missing at Spottsylvania May 6,1864. Bryant, George S., enl. Feb. 20, 1862. COMPANY G. Capt. Abram T. Whiting; com. June 10, 1861; res. Sept. 26, 1862. Capt. David G. Crawford, Lyons; com. Nov. 1, 1863; must. out at end of service June 20, 1864. Gardner, Oliver, died in action June 16, 1864. Ketchum, Abram, must out May 31, 1865. Morrison, George, disch. for disability June 18, 1862. Regling, Christopher, disch. for disability Sept. 16, 1864. Tyler, Charles S., must. out June 5, 1865. Sayles, John, enl. May 13,1861. COMPANY H. Purtle, Austin, disch. for disability Feb. 9,1863. Sayles, Lyman A., disch. for disability June 28, 1863. Smolk, Judson A., disch. for disability Nov. 5, 1862. COMPANY I. Clay, Henry, must. out July 5, 1865. Horton, Daniel M., died of disease June 15, 1862. Sparks, James H. COMPANY K. Second Lieut. Daniel S. Root; com. June 10, 1861. Anderson, Charles B., must. out July 5, 1865. Fish, Sanford, disch. for disability Aug. 13,1861. Herrington, George, disch. for disability May 29,1862. Monroe, William, died of disease at Washington May 8,1863. Tower, Reuben, died at Gettysburg July 2, 1863. Haywood, George. MONTCALM COUNTY MEMBERS OF THE THIRD INFANTRY (FIRST TERM). COMPANY A. Fisher, James K., disch. at end of service June 10,1864. COMPANY C. Weaver, Jacob, vet Dec. 23, 1863; must. out July 5, 1865. COMPANY D. Stuart, Ezra, disch. at end of service June 16,1864. COMPANY E. Butterworth, George, vet. Dec. 23, 1863; must. out July 5, 1865. Towsley, Dwight, vet. Dec. 23,1863. Towsley, Buel, disch. for disability. Van Wert, Edwin, dropped from rolls while prisoner of war. Wheaton, Stephen G., must. out Aug. 4, 1865. COMPANY F. Blair, Edwin M., disch. for disability July 30,1861. Lacy, John J., disch. for disability July 30, 1861. Olcott, Cong on, transferred to Fifth Infantry. COMPANY K. Fox, Sidney, died of disease at Fortress Monroe Oct. 20,1862. MEMBERS OF NEW THIRD INFANTRY FROM IONIA COUNTY. FIELD AND STAFF. Col. Moses B. Houghton, Saranac; com. Oct. 15,1864; brevet brigadier-general U. S. Vols. March 13,1865, for gallant and meritorious services during the war; must. out May 25,1866. First Lieut. and Adjt. Edgar M. Marble, Ionia; com. July 29, 1864; res. June 16, 1865. Surg. Harrison H. Powers, Saranac; com. July 29, 1864; res. May 22, 1865. Asst. Surg. Ira Winegar, Saranac; com. July 29, 1864; res. March 6, 1865. Chaplain Ingersoll M. Smith, Saranac; corn. July 30,1864; res. June 16, 1865. COMPANY A. Second Lieut. Emery P. Moon, Otisco; com. July 29, 1864; pro. to first lieutenant Co. B. COMPANY B. Capt. Seth M. Moon, Otisco; com. July 29, 1864. First Lieut. Emery P. Moon, Otisco; com. Nov. 15, 1864; pro. captain Co. G. Second Lieut. Erastus T. Yeomans. Ionia; com. Nov. 16, 1864, sergeant-major; res. March 19, 1865. Musician August Bentley, Boston. COMPANY C. Capt. Carlos B. King, Otisco; com. July 29, 1864; res. March 12, 1866. First Lieut. Elijah Fuller, Ionia; corn. July 29, 1864; pro. captain Co. D. Second Lieut. William J. Just, Ionia; com. Jan. 1, 1865; res. July 7, 1865. Sergt. William J. Just, Ionia; enl. Sept. 21, 1864; pro. second lieutenant. Sergt. Levi M. Tully, Lyons; enl. Aug. 4, 1864; disch. by order June 30, 1865. Corp. Edward Mallory, Orleans; enl. Aug. 27, 1864; died of disease Dec. 28, 1864. Corp. Luther J. Bisbee, Lyons; died of disease July 24, 1865. Wagoner John H. Chamberlain, Ionia; must. out May 17,1865. Brooks, Morris, died of disease at Murfreesboro', Tenn., Jan. 2, 1865. Briggs, Morris M., must. out May 25,1865. Brown, Hiram P., disch. by order March 28, 1865. Church, Robert 0.. disch. by order May 18, 1865. Elliott, Jason A., died of disease at San Antonio Dec. 13, 1865. Griswold, Emory S., must. out Aug. 3,1865. Hicks, William Henry, must. out May 25, 1866. Hall, Charles, must. out May 25, 1866. Morrison, George, died of disease at Nashville March 30, 1865. M&dre, Hiram, must. out May 26, 1865. Purcell, John C., died of disease at Huntsville, Ala., Feb. 28, 1865. Reed, Nelson, must. out June 3,1865. Roberts, Samuel C., must. out May 25, 1866. Soper, Edward F., must. out Feb. 27,1866. Smith, Alfred M., must. out May 25, 1866. Teed, James, must. out May 25,1866. Trowbridge, James, must. out Sept. 2, 1865. Turrell, John, must. out May 25, 1866. Wheeler, Isaac, must. out Aug. 9, 1865. Worden, George J., must. out July 17,1866. COMPANY D. Capt. Elijah Fuller, Ionia; com. March 12, 1865; must. out May 25, 1865. First Lieut. Gerrit Smith, Ionia; com. March 12,1865; must. out June 11, 1866. Burt, Nathaniel, died of disease at Nashville, Tenn., Feb. 8,1865. Bigelow, Cornelius J.. must. out May 25, 1866. Curtis, Joseph, must. out Feb. 12, 1866. Eckert, Martin, died of disease at Murfreesboro' Jan. 4, 1865. Sergt. James A. Knickerbocker, must. out March 1, 1866. Ryan, William J., must. out Sept. 8,1865. Van Dusen, George D., must. out Sept. 26, 1865. COMPANY E. Second Lieut. William Boyden, Muir; com. July 29, 1864; res. Jan. 8, 1865. Drently, Sylvenius R, died of disease at Murfreesboro' March 10,1865. Mills, James P., must. out May 5, 1865. Orser, Wm. J., must. out Feb. 28,1866. Yeomans, Erastus T., pro. to sergeant-major Oct. 15,1864. MILITARY RECORD OF IONIA AND MONTCALM. 49 I COMPANY F. First Lieut. Charles Wickham, Muir; corn. July 29.1864; res. Jan. 8,1865. Second Lielt. Gerrit Smith, Ionia; cor. July 29,1864; must. out June 11, 1866. Second Lieut. James W. Bigelow, Ionia; com. March 12, 1865; res. Dec. 18, 1865. Sergt. James W. Bigelow, Ionia; enl. Sept. 22, 1864; pro. to second lieutenant. Goff, Edward L, must. out from Veteran Reserve Corps Nov. 12, 1865. Mason, Easel C., must. out July 26,1865. WVickham, Wm. H., must. out May 25, 1866. COMPANY G. Capt. Emery P. Moon, Otisco; com. Jan. 1, 1865; brevet major March 13,1865, for gallant and meritorious ser ices duiing the war; must. out May 25, 1865. MEMBERS FROM MONTCALMI COUNTY WHO SERVED IN THE NEW THIRD INFANTRY.. COMIPANY B. Buchanan, Robert S., must. out May 19, 1865. Chamberlain, James, disch. at end of service Feb. 23, 1866. Hodge, Ripley, must. out Aug. 16, 1865. Main, Andrew W., must. out Aug. 25,1865. Main, Willian N., must. out May 25, 1866. Peck, John, must. out May 25,1866. COMPANY C. Aldrich, Schnyler, died of disease at Victoria, Texas, May 17,1866. Bell, Smith C., must. out Feb. 27,1866. Davis, Thomas D., must. out May 25, 1866. Everest, Benjamin S., must. out Sept. 5, 1865. COMPANY D. Verder, George, must. out May 25, 1866. COMPANY F. Arntz, Henry, must. out July 31, 1865. Dickerson, Silas, must. out May 25, 1866. Turrell, Hiram, must. out June 18, 1865. CHAPTER XI. EIGHTH AND NINTH INFANTRY. Eighth Infantry Organized at Camp Anderson-Departure for the Seat of War-Battles in four different States-Terrible Conflict at James Island, or Secessionville-Its Casualties-After serving in South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, and Maryland, it proceeds to Kentucky-To Mississippi-Back to Kentucky-Through Cumberland Gap to East Tennessee-Siege of Knoxville-Re-enlistment-Off to Virginia-Services in the Campaign of 1864-Brilliant closing Services-Muster-out-Lists of Officers and Men from the two Counties who served in the Eighth-The Ninth Infantry organized-The first Michigan Regiment to take the Field in the Southwest-Services in Kentucky —Battle and Disasterat Murfreesboro'-Gen. Thomas' Opinion of the Ninth-The Regiment assigned to Duty at Army Headquarters-Re-enlistment-The Regiment on Duty at Atlanta, Chattanooga, and Nashville-Muster-out-Names of Officers and Soldiers from the two Counties. EIGHTH INFANTRY. THE Eighth Regiment of Michigan Infantry was recruited during the summer and fill of 1861 by Col. William M. Fenton, who became its commander and led it bravely on many bloody fields. During the period of its service it comprised among its members some eighty or more men from the counties of Ionia and Montcalm. These were distributed among all its companies except I and K. The regiment was rendezvoused at " Camp Anderson," Grand Rapids, on the 21st of August. There it remained, drilling, organizing, and filling its ranks to the maximum Z)) ZD r ) 11 number, until the 18th of September, when it moved to Detroit and thence to Fort Wayne (below the city), where, on the 23d of the latter month (nine hundred strong), it 7 was mustered into the United States service for three years by Capt. H. R. Mizner, U.S.A. Its field-officers, besides Col. Fenton, were Lieut.-Col. Frank Graves and Maj. Amasa B. Watson. Orders for the departure of the regiment were received on the 26th of September, and on Friday (the 27th) it embarked on the steamers " Ocean" and " May Queen," and, via the Detroit River and Lake Eric, arrived at Cleveland the following morning. Thence by railroad it proceeded through Pittsbulgh, Harrisburg, and Baltimore to Washington, D. C., where it arrived on tlhe 30th and encamped on Meridian Hill, its camp being designated "Camp Williams." In due time the men received arms and equipments, and on the 9th of October the regiment moved to Annapolis, Md., and there occupied the grounds of the Naval Academy. At Annapolis, on the 19th of October, 1861, it embarked as part of the expedition which, under Gen. T. W. Sherman, was to operate against the enemy along the South Atlantic coast. From this time until the termination of the Antietam campaign the regiment was very actively engaged, participating in nine battles, occurring in four different States,-viz., Hilton Head, S. C., Nov. 7,1861; Port Royal Ferry, S. C., Jan. 1, 1862; Fort Pulaski, Ga., April 14, 1862; Wilmington Island, Ga., April 16, 1862; James Island, S. C., June 16, 1862; Bull Run, Va., Aug. 29 and 30, 1862; Chantilly, Va., Sept. 1, 1862; South Mountain, Md., Sept. 14, 1862; and Antietam, Md., Sept. 17, 1862. Its casualties at Wilmington Island were fourteen killed and thirty wounded; at James Island one hundred and forty-seven were reported killed or wounded and thirtyseven missing. In the battle of James Island (or Secessionville, as it is frequently called) the Eighth Michigan bore a prominent part, and suffered more severely than any other regiment engaged. Its losses, taking everything into consideration, were more terrible than it sustained on any other field during its long and honorable career in arms. Secessionville, the scene of the battle, was described by Dr. J. C. Wilson, surgeon of the Eighth, as "a village composed of a few houses whose owners have seceded from them, situated on a narrow neck of land jutting into the stream on the east side of James Island, skirted by tidal marshes and swamps on either side, and difficult of approach except from the westward, where is a rebel fort which commands this entrance." The fort was a formidable affair,-an earth-work with a parapet nine feet in height, surrounded by a broad ditch seven feet deep, and protected beyond by a broad and almost impenetrable abatis. The neck of dry land over which (alone) it was approachable was barely two hundred yards wide, and every inch of it could be swept at close range by canister from six heavy guns of the fort and by musketry from its defenders. And it was over such ground, and to the assault of such a work, that the troops of Stevens' division moved forward at four o'clock in the morning of that bloody and eventful 1Gth of June, 1862. Col. Fenton's and Col. Lcasure's brigades composed the attacking column. The former consisted of the Eighth Michigan, Seventh Connecticut, and Twenty-eighth Massachusetts Regiments, and the latter of the Forty-sixth 50 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. and Seventy-ninth New York and One Hundredth Pennsylvania, with four batteries of artillery,-in all three thousand three hundred and thirty-seven men. A correspondent of the New York Tribune in his account of that battle said: "The advanced regiments were the Eighth Michigan, the Seventy-ninth New York, and the Seventh Connecticut. There is some confusion as to the order in which these regiments came up to the fort; it seems, however, from the best information within reach, that the glorious but unfortunate Eighth Michigan was the first there, led by its gallant lieutenant-colonel, Graves. The immediate assault upon the fort was not successful, and the cause of its failure, as is usual in such cases, is difficult to determine.... It appears, from the statements of some of the officers and men in these regiments, that about one-half mile from the fort there was a narrow pass through a hedge, and the men were compelled to pass through a very few abreast, thus delaying the advance. The Eighth Michigan got through and pushed on with great vigor up to the fort, which they assaulted with a shout. They were met with a murderous fire from the fort in front, and from flanking batteries. A few of these brave men overcame all dangers and difficulties, and, rushing over the dead bodies of their slaughtered comrades, actually climbed into the fort; but it was impossible for them to maintain their ground there against the fearful odds which opposed them, the men who should have supported them being delayed in passing through the hedge. "The Eighth was obliged to fall back, as the Seventyninth New York came up, led by the brave Col. Morrison, who mounted the walls of the fort and discharged all the barrels of his revolver in the very faces of the enemy. Wounded in the head and unsupported, he was obliged to retreat. About as far behind the Seventy-ninth as that regiment was behind the Eighth Michigan came the Seventh Connecticut, which made a spasmodic and almost independent effort against the fort, but was obliged to fall back. Thus the brave regiments which were intended to act in concert as the advance went into the fight one at a time, one repulsed and falling back as the other came up, thus creating confusion and rendering abortive the charge on the fort at this time. "The Eighth Michigan has been most unfortunate. Foremost in every skirmish and battle, always in the advance, it has lost a considerable number of its officers, and can now scarcely number three hundred men. All these regiments fought well and piled their dead around the fort, but it was a terrible sacrifice, and a vain one. " The first, as has been said, to reach the fort were the Michigan Eighth and New York Seventy-ninth. This was not the natural order, but the Seventy-ninth, hearing the cheers of the Eighth, ran past the other regiments and joined the Eighth as it reached the works. Both regiments suffered terribly from the fire of the enemy as they approached,-the Eighth from grape and canister, the Seventyninth from musketry, as the nature of their wounds show. Badly shattered, and wholly exhausted from three-fourths of a mile on the double-quick, many fell powerless on reaching the works; while a few, in sufficiently good condition, mounted the parapet, from which the enemy had been driven by our sharp and effective fire, and called upon the others to follow them. ' At about nine o'clock, which seemed to be the crisis of the battle, and when the generals seemed to be consulting whether they should again advance upon the fort or retire, the gunboats decided the question by opening a heavy cannonade in our rear, which, instead of telling upon the rebels, threw their shot and shell into our own ranks. This must have resulted from ignorance on their part as to our precise position, owing to the rapid changes upon the field and in the intervening timber. The shells fell and burst in the very midst of our men, several exploding near the commanding general and his staff. The effect of this unfortunate mistake was an order for the troops to retire, which they did in perfect order, taking position on the old picket-line." In the Scottish-American (a newspaper of New York) there appeared, a few days after the battle, a communication from an officer of the Seventy-ninth New York (Highlanders), in which the gallantry of the Eighth Michigan at Secessionville was thus noticed: " I should mention that the Eighth Michigan, small in number, but every man a hero, had been repulsed from the fort with terrible loss just as we advanced. The Michigan men could not have numbered four hundred when they advanced; when they retired they had one hundred and ninety killed and wounded. The ordeal through which they had passed the Seventyninth were now experiencing. Shot down by unseen enemies, and without having an opportunity of returning the fire with any effect, the men got discouraged, but remained stubbornly on the ground until the order was given to retire,-an order, let me say, which was only rendered necessary by the shameful fact that, notwithstanding the strong force within supporting distance, no support came. The fort was ours had we received assistance, but it is a fact that cannot be gainsaid that every man who fell around its ramparts belonged to the Eighth Michigan and Seventyninth New York, the two weakest regiments in point of numbers in the whole force under command of Gen. Benham." The alterations in the Eighth, from the time of its enlistment to Nov. 1, 1862, show the following astonishing results: Number of men discharged, two hundred and sixty;* died of disease, fifty-five; killed in battle or died of wounds received in action, eighty-nine; wounded in action, two hundred and forty-three; deserted, ten; taken prisoners, forty-eight; joined by enlistment, two hundred and seventy-three; commissioned officers resigned, twenty-one. In March, 1863 it proceeded with the Ninth Army Corps to Kentucky, and in June following to Vicksburg, Miss.; thence, in August, it moved, via Cairo, Cincinnati, and Nicholasville, to Crab Orchard, Ky., and on the 10th of September it marched, via Cumberland Gap, to Knoxville, Tenn., where, with the Ninth Army Corps, under Gen. Burnside, it participated in the stirring scenes there enacted during the fall of 1863. During the siege of Knoxville by the rebels under Longstreet the Eighth oc - One hundred of these were discharged because of their enlistment in the regular army. MILITARY RECORD OF IONIA AND MONTCALM. 51 ___- _ __- __ __ _ _t ___ _ cupied the front line of works, and assisted to repel the fierce assault on Fort Sanders, Nov. 29, 1863. The regiment during this period endured many hardships and privations from want of sufficient food and clothing. The enemy were finally compelled to retire, and were pursued by the Eighth as far as Rutledge. The regiment then re-enlisted as veteran volunteers, and on the 8th of January commenced its march across the mountains via Cumberland Gap. Nicholasville, Ky., was reached January 19th, a march of two hundred miles, through icy passes and over rough mountain-roads, having been performed in ten days. Arriving home, a large number of recruits was obtained, and on the 9th of March, 1864, the regiment left its rendezvous at Flint, and again proceeded to join the Ninth Army Corps in Virginia. Thenceforth its history was identified with that of the Army of the Potomac. In the battle of the Wilderness it lost ninety-nine men, killed, wounded and missing; at Spottsylvania, forty-nine; at Bethesda Church, fifty-two; at Petersburg, June 17th and 18th, forty-nine men. At the Crater, Weldon Railroad, Ream's Station, Poplar Grove Church, Pegram Farm, Boydton Road, and Hatcher's Run it was also engaged, losing heavily in killed, wounded, and missing. During the year ending Nov. 1, 1864, it had lost in killed, or died of wounds received in action, eightysix men; died of disease, forty; wounded in action, two hundred and eighty-seven; missing in action, twenty-nine; taken prisoners, thirty-seven; while it had gained by reenlistment of veterans two hundred and ninety-nine, and by the joining of recruits five hundred and forty-two. In the final campaign in Virginia the Eighth bore a distinguished part. It assisted to repulse the enemy when he assaulted Fort Steadman, March 25, 1865, and on the 2d of April was engaged in the attack on his position at Fort Mahon, when it carried the works in its front and was the first regiment to place its colors on that rebel stronghold. It occupied Petersburg, April 3d, and soon after marched to City Point, whence it embarked on transports to Alexandria, Va. It was mustered out of service at Delaney House, D. C., July 30, 1865, and, arriving in Detroit, Mich., Aug. 3, 1865, was paid in full, disbanded, and the surviving members of the " Wandering Regiment of Michigan" returned to their homes. During its existence the regiment had moved more than seven thousand miles by land and by sea; more than nineteen hundred men had marched in its ranks, and it had been engaged in thirty-seven battles and skirmishes in seven different States of the (so-called) Confederate States of America. OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE EIGHTH INFANTRY FROM IONIA COUNTY. COMPANY A. Beach, James D., must. out July 30, 1865. Duff, Nathan, must. out July 30,1865. Hewitt, John, sent to hospital, wounded. COMPANY B. Cooper, Martin, disch. by order Aug. 8,1865. Carter, Irwin, must. out July 30,1865. Chase, Wilson, died in action at Petersburg, Va., July 4, 1864. Dougherty, John, vet.; pro. first lieutenant Co. H April 25, 1865. Gee, William, died in action at Petersburg, Va., April 2, 1865. Green, Munson P., died in battle at Spottsylvania, Va., May 12,1864. Griffith, Robert B., vet.; disch. for disability July 19,1864. Hunt, Charles A., disch. for disability Sept. 4, 1864. Hosford, Edgar H., disch. for disability March 27, 1863. Holmes, Eugene, disch. by order May 3, 1865. Halstead, Wallace, corporal, vet.; disch. by order June 1, 1865. Houghtaling, Hiram, vet.; absent, wounded. Maxstead, John, disch. by order May 3,1865. Mosier, Daniel, disch. for disability Feb. 2,1865. McBride, Thomas, corporal; died of disease at Milldale, Miss., July 29, 1863. Raymond, Hiram, died of disease at Grand Rapids, Mich., Sept. 21,1861. Robertson, Alexander, died of wounds at Petersburg, Va., July 5,1864. Russell, William, disch. by order July 27, 1863. Russell, Albert M., disch. by order June 3, 1865. Sears, Jacob, disch. for disability Dec. 27, 1862. Tramer, Lawson C., sergeant, vet.; must. out July 30, 1865. COMPANY C. Cramer, Ezekiel, disch. for disability Oct. 3,1862. COMPANY D. Bellows, Thos., died of disease at Falmouth Dec. 9, 1862. Conley, John, died in action at James Island, S. C., June 16, 1862. Peek, Franklin D., disch. for disability Oct. 10,1862. COMPANY E. Case, Ephraim, disch. for disability Jan. 6, 1863. Hill, Alvah, disch. for disability Jan. 2, 1863. COMPANY G. Faulkner, Henry, corporal; must. out July 30, 1865. COMPANY H. First Lieut. John Dougherty, Lyons; must. out July 30,1865. MEMBERS OF THE EIGHTH INFANTRY FROM MONTCALM COUNTY. COMPANY C. Schlappi, Constantine, must. out July 30,1865. COMPANY D. Egbert, John, must. out July 30, 1865. COMPANY E. Grow, Dias H., disch. for disability July 22, 1862. Hubbs, Charles, disch. for wounds May 18, 1865. Holcomb, John R., died of disease near Petersburg, Va., July 2,1864. Hubbs, Samuel, must. out July 30, 1865. Judd, William, disch. at end. of service Sept. 22, 1864. Light, George W., vet. Jan. 15,1864. Peck, Henry H., died in action at Petersburg, Va., July 8,1864. Shawl, Aaron, died in action at Cold Harbor, Va., June 3, 1864. Smith, Henry C., died of disease at Washington July 31,1864. Spencer, Charles D., disch. at end of service Oct. 27, 1862. COMPANY F. Harvey, Charles C., died near Petersburg, Va., June 23,1864. Q.-M. Sergt. Noble, Gilmore H., must. out July 30,1865. COMPANY G. First Lieut. Geo. A. Wells, Greenville; com. June 17,1864; second lieutenant Co. A Aug. 15, 1863; must. out Oct. 5, 1864. COMPANY H. First Lieut. Austin W. Green, Greenville; enI. sergeant Sept. 1, 1862; second lieutenant Jan. 1,1863; pro. captain Co. F June, 3, 1864; res. July 25, 1864. Sergt. Decatur O. Blake, disch. Oct. 24, 1862. Sergt. Wm. R. Collier, disch. at end of service Sept. 27, 1864. Sergt. Marsena A. Newbury, vet. Dec. 29, 1863; must. out July 30, 1865. Sergt. Joshua H. Noah, disch. Oct. 24, 1862. Byswater, Wm. E., disch. at end of service Sept. 22,1864. Bouer, Robt. B., transferred to Co. I Oct. 1,1861. Barton, Wm. E., died of wounds at Alexandria Sept. 16, 1862. Barton, James H., died in action at Wllmington Island, Ga., April 16,1862. Cross, Nelson, died at New York of wounds July 14,1862. Cross, Charles, disch. for disability Oct. 24, 1862. Douglas, John, disch. at end of service Sept. 22,1864. Davis, John, vet. Jan. 15,1864. Dryer, Henry, died of wounds at Washington, D. C., June 11, 1864. Fisher, Elijah H., Pisch. to enlist in regular service Dec. 31, 1862. Lampman, William, disch. for disability Dec. 28,1861. McOmber, Andrew J., disch. for disability Nov. 27, 1862. Meginley, George, disch. at end of service Sept. 22, 1864. Noah, Orange P., disch. for disability Oct. 24,1862. Parkill, James, disch. for disability Oct. 11, 1862. Rossman, Herman, vet. Feb. 17, 1864; must. out July 30, 1865. Rolla, Albert, vet. Dec. 29, 1863; died of wounds at Fredericksburg, Va., May 12,1864. Skey, Octavius, disch. for disability March 27, 1862. 62 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. Smith, Reuben D., disch. for disability Oct. 24,1862. Shields, William, ditch. for disability July 9,1862. Smith, Asa, must. out July 30,18(;5. Vaness, Richard W., disch. for disability Oct. 24,1862. Wilcox, Charles P., died of disease at Camp Denison, Ohio, Oct. 10,1863. Zimmerman, John, disch. by order June 1,1865. NINTH INFANTRY. The Ninth Infantry Regiment of Michigan was recruited during the summer and early autumn of 1861. Its rendezvous was at Fort Wayne, near Detroit, where its organization was perfected under the following field and staff officers: William W. Duffield, colonel; John G. Parkhurst, lieutenant-colonel; Dorus MI. Fox, major; Ennis Church, surgeon; Cyrus Smith, assistant surgeon; James G. Portman, chaplain; Henry M. Duffield, adjutant; Charles H. Irwin, quartermaster. During its service the Ninth included among its members nearly two hundred men from Ionia County and a few from Montcalm. Company D, of which Capt. John E. Smith, of Lyons, was the first commander, was an Ionia County company to an entirety almost, while the same county also had representatives in every other company of the regiment. Having been armed with weapons of an inferior class, the regiment was mustered into the United States service for three years by Capt. H. R. Mizner, U.S.A., Oct. 15, 1861, and ten days later left Detroit for the seat of war in the Southwest, being the first regiment from Michigan to enter upon active service in the field west of tie Alleghanies. It reached Jeffersonville, Ind., on the 27th, and on the 'following day was moved by steamers to Salt River, Ky. Soon after it constructed a defensive work on Muldraugh's Hill, a point on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, where it remained during the winter of 1861-62. During their stay at that place tie men of the Ninth were terribly afflicted with measles and other disorders, as many as four hundred* having been on the sick-list at one time. Immediately after the fall of Fort Donelson the regiment was moved by transports to Nashville, Tenn., where it remained for some weeks; thence it marched to MIurfreesboro', and was posted there from April to July as one of the chain of detachments which were placed to guard the rear and communications of Gen. O. M. Mitchell in his advance on Huntsville, Ala. During that time, however, it formed part of the force with which Gen. Negley made a demonstration against Chattanooga, reaching the north bank of the Tennessee River, opposite the town. After that expedition it was again stationed at Murfreesboro', four companies, under command of Maj. D. M. Fox, having been meanwhile detached temporarily and stationed at Tullahoma. On the 13th of July the six companies at Murfreesboro' were attacked by a body of the enemy's cavalry, three thousand five hundred strong, under Gen. N. B. Forrest. Of this battalion of the Ninth one company (B), forty-two strong, under First Lieut. Wright, was quartered in the court-house, and five companies were encamped in a body in the northeastern outskirts of the village, on the Liberty " pike," all under command of Lieut.-Col. Parkhurst. Col. * The regiment took the field with a force of nine hundred and thirteen officers and enlisted men, and seventy-three were added prior to July 1, 1862. Duffield was present, but not on duty, he having arrived in the evening of the 11th, in company with Gen. Crittenden, on business connected with the formation of a new brigade, of which Col. Duffield was to have the command. At the same time the Third Minnesota Infantry, four hundred and fifty strong (nine companies), was encamped on the bank of Stone River, less than two miles away, to the northwest of the village, and with it was Hewett's (First Kentucky) battery of four guns. Forrest's attack on the camp of Lieut.-Col. Parkhurst's battalion was made at four o'clock in the morning (Sunday). He had evidently expected that it would be a surprise, but such did not prove to be the case. Col. Parkhurst had been warned of their approach, for the noise made by the hoofs of so many horses striking on the hard macadamized road was so great that the alarm was given, and the men of Michigan were already in line of battle before the head of the rebel column reached the picketline; so that, although the rebel horsemen came in at full speed, the Union force was prepared to give them a warm reception. The result was that the first attack was successfully repelled, with considerable loss to the enemy, who then withdrew and proceeded to attack the company occupying the court-house. Upon the withdrawal of the enemy from his front, Col. Parkhurst at once dispatched a messenger to the colonel of the Third Minnesota, informing him of the situation and asking him to come to his (Parkhurst's) assistance. With this request the officer in question, for what doubtless seemed to him good reasons, declined to comply. It was believed, nevertheless, that he might have done so with good prospects of success, he having a comparatively large force, including an efficient battery. Certainly, any attempt of Col. Parkhurst, with his little force of less than three hundred men, including the company in the court-house,_ and with no artillery, to effect a junction with the Minnesotians in the face of such an overwhelming body of the enemy would have been almost foolhardy. At the court-house the attacking-party was warmly received by the defending garrison, who held it at bay for two long hours, and only yielded when they found such a course inevitable, the enemy having gained possession of the lower story of the building and set fire to it to compel a surrender. Immediately after their capture they were sent to the rear, in the direction of McMinnville; for the rebel commander believed that his work might at any moment be interrupted by Union reinforcements, who were posted at various points in the vicinity,-a very natural supposition which might easily have been verified. From the successful siege of the court-house the enemy returned to the attack of Col. Parkhurst's position, which, during the brief cessation of hostilities in his front, had been strengthened by such slight defenses as the men had been able to construct in the short time and with the insufficient means and material at their command. Slight as they were, however, they afforded some protection to the defending force, who, though outnumbered by more than ten to one, fought with the most determined and persistent bravery until past noon, when, as it became evident that they need no longer look for succor, and that further re MILITARY RECORD OF IONIA AND MONTCALM. - -- -- I -- I sistance was useless, their leader submitted to the inevitable and surrendered. During the eight hours through which they had stood at bay their loss had been thirteen killed and eighty-seven wounded. The enemy admitted that his own loss in killed alone had been thirty-five, and there is little doubt that it was much beyond this figure. Among the captured officers were Lieut.-Col. Parkhurst and Capt. Mansfield. The first was marched away by the victorious rebels. Capt. Mansfield, being unable to march, was paroled and left behind, as was also Col. Duffield, who had been severely wounded during the fight. His companion in his unfortunate visit to the fort, Gen. Crittenden, had also been taken prisoner at the hotel in the village, and was taken away with the other prisoners, to whose numbers was also added the Minnesota regiment before mentioned and the officers and men of Hewett's Battery. At McMinnville, Forrest paroled the enlisted men whom he had captured, and they returned to Nashville, whence they were sent to Camp Chase; he retained the officers, however, and took them to Knoxville. From there they were sent to Atlanta, then to Madison, Ga., where they remained for a considerable time, then to Columbia, S. C., to Salisbury, N. C., and finally to Libby Prison, at Richmond, where they were eventually paroled. Col. Parkhurst was exchanged in December, 1862. Meantime, that portion of the regiment which had escaped capture at Murfreesboro' had been engaged against the enemy at Tyree Springs, Tenn., and at Munfordsville, Ky., about the time of Gen. Buell's advance from Louisville to Perryville and Bowling Green. On the 24th of December, 1862, Lieut.-Col. Parkhurst, then in command of the Ninth (Col. Duffield was permanently disabled by the wounds received at Murfreesboro', and resigned less than two months after that time), reported at the headquarters of Gen. Thomas, near Nashville, and was assigned to duty as provost-marshal, his regiment (reorganized and with ranks refilled by the exchanged prisoners) being detailed as provost-guard of the Fourteenth Army Corps. Gen. Thomas remarked, on the issuance of the order, that he had fully acquainted himself with the conduct of the regiment in its defense of Murfreesboro', and that he needed just such a regiment for duty at his headquarters. The duty to which the Ninth was thus assigned was performed by the regiment from that time until the expiration of its term of service. For the efficient manner in which it performed the duties devolving upon it at the battles of Stone River and Chickamauga (particularly the former) Col. Parkhurst and the regiment were warmly complimented by Gen. Thomas. When that gallant officer assumed the chief command of the Army of the Cumberland, after Chickamauga, Col. Parkhurst (who was promoted to the colonelcy of the regiment Feb. 6, 1863) was made provostmarshal-general of the department, and the Ninth became provost-guard at army headquarters. In December, 1863, two hundred and twenty-nine of the regiment re-enlisted as veterans, and returned to Michigan on furlough. In the latter part of February, 1864, they again appeared at Chattanooga, with their numbers in creased to about five hundred men. The regiment was again ordered to act as provost-guard of the Army of the Cumberland, and during the summer and autumn participated in all the movements of that army in Georgia and Tennessee. It entered Atlanta on its evacuation by the enemy, and was there engaged in provost-duty until that city was abandoned by the Union forces, when it returned to Chattanooga. It was largely recruited during the season, and, notwithstanding the muster-out of nonveterans whose terms had expired, had eight hundred and ninety-seven enlisted men on the first of November, 1864. It remained in Chattanooga until the 28th of March, 1865, when it was moved to Nashville. There it stayed on duty at headquarters and as guard at the military prison until the 15th of September, when it was mustered out of service. The following day it set out for Michigan, arriving at Jackson on the 19th, and on the 26th day of September, 1865, the Ninth Michigan Infantry was paid off and disbanded. IONIA COUNTY SOLDIERS IN THE NINTH INFANTRY. FIELD AND STAFF. Maj. Dorus M. Fox, Lyons; cor. Sept. 10, 1861; pro. to colonel Twenty-seventh Infantry. Chaplain Rev. James G. Portman, Lyons; cor. Oct. 12,1861; res. Feb. 17,1862. NON-COMMISSIONED STAFF. Com.-Sergt. Alfred S. Bunnell. Lyons; pro. to second lieutenant Co. C. Com.-Sergt. Alexander Goodell, Ionia; pro. to second lieutenant Co. G. Com.-Sergt. Alonzo Barrett, Portland; pro. to second lieutenant Co. C. COMPANY A. Bentley, Green S., must. out Sept. 15,1865. COMPANY B. Bennett, Jerome P., must. out Sept. 15, 1865. Converse, Wm. H., disch. by order Sept. 19, 1865. COMPANY C. Second Lieut. Alfred S. Bunnell, Lyons; cor. Nov. 16, 1864; pro. to first lieutenant Co. E. Second Lieut. Alonzo Barrett, Portland; corn. March 14, 1865; must. out Sept. 15, 1865. COMPANY D. Capt. John E. Smith, Lyons; cor. Sept. 5, 1861; res. July 12,1862. Capt. Daniel C. Moore, Lyons; cor. Sept. 22, 1862; res. May 14, 1863. First Lieut. Daniel C. Moore, Lyons; cor. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. to captain Co. D. Second Lieut. James N. Wallace, Lyons; com. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. to first lieutenant Co. K. Sergt. Reynolds H. Scofield, Lyons; pro. to second lieutenant Co. F. Sergt. Thomas J. Hitchcock, disch. for disability Oct. 13,1862. Sergt. B. H. Stevens, vet. Dec. 7, 1863; pro. to second lieutenant Co. F. Sergt. Horace C. Glines, sent to hospital. Sergt. Monroe D. Halladay. Sergt. Alonzo H. Fowle, sent to hospital. Corp. Jesse Bachelor, disch. at end of service Oct. 14, 1864. Corp. Henry G. Cooley, vet. Dec. 7, 1863. Corp. Joseph E. Morrison, disch. for disability Dec. 15, 1863. Corp. Wm. P. Shay, disch. for disability April 9,1863. Corp. Thomas D. Scofield, sent to hospital. Corp. Alfred S. Bunnell, vet. Dec. 7, 1863; pro. to commissary-sergeant Oct. 28, 1864. Corp. Alonzo Barrett, vet. Dec. 7,1863; pro. to commissary-sergeant Feb. 5,1865. Musician, William Wilson, died of disease at West Point, Ky., Feb. 17,1862. Musician, Josiah C Clark, disch. at end of service Oct. 14, 1864. Wagoner, Caleb T. Smith, vet. Dec. 7, 1863; must. out Sept. 15, 1865. Abbott, William, enl. Sept. 5, 1861. Ames, James, disch. for disability Dec. 11,1862. Ames, William. Aldgate, George, vet. Dec. 7,1863; must. out Sept. 15, 1865. Bingham, Samuel, vet. Dec. 7,1863; must. out Sept. 15,1865. Boyden, Daniel, vet. Dec. 7,1863; must. out Sept. 28, 1865. Braman, Ransom, vet. Dec. 7, 1863; must. out Sept. 15, 1865. Bunker, William, vet. Dec. 7, 1863; must. out Sept. 15, 1865. Bacon, Joseph H. Bailey, Milton D. Barrett, Ebenezer, disch. for disability. Boyden, Daniel (no record). Borden, Alonzo J., disch. for disability. 54 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. Barnard, William W., disch. at end of service Oct. 14, 1864. Bogard, Richard, disch. at end of service Oct. 14,1864. Bunker, Alexander M.. disch. for disability Dec. 11, 1862. Bunker, Zement, disch. for disability Dec. 10, 1862. Covey, Charles, disch. for disability. Caton, Welcome, enl. Sept. 5, 1861. Carpenter, Elkanah, disch. for disability March 3,1863. Carpenter, Jonah H., vet. Dec. 7, 1863; must. out Sept. 15, 1865. Calkin, Edwin D., vet. Dec. 7,1863; must. out Sept. 15, 1865. Dean, Fayette M., must. out Sept. 15, 1865. Dalzell, John A., disch. for disability April 28,1863. Darling, Cyrus, disch. at end of service Oct. 14,1864. Davison, Martin D., died of disease at Murfreesboro', Tenn., April 9, 1862. Evans, Christopher, disch. by order July 1,1863. Faxon, Albert S., died of disease at Murfreesboro', Tenn., Jan. 20, 1863. Giiffin, Willis R., died of disease at Murfreesboro', Tenn., July 2,1862. Gibbs, George R., disch. at end of service Oct. 14,1864. Goodenough, Edwin W., vet. Dec. 7, 1863; must. out Sept. 15, 1865. Goodenough, Selah A., must. out Sept. 15,1865. Hanchett, Joseph, vet. Dec. 7,1863; must. out Sept. 15,1865. Hassett, William, vet. Dec. 7,1863; must. out Sept. 15,1865. Howell, Michael S., vet. Dec. 7, 1863; must. out Sept. 15, 1865. Houston, Archibald, vet. Dec. 7, 1863; must. out Sept. 15,1865. Hodge. John, disch. for disability March 3, 1863. Hammond, Charles H., disch. for disability March 3, 1863. Husted, Hiram, disch. for disability Jan. 26, 1864. Horner, Hezial, disch. for disability. Hunt, Abram. Houseman, Jacob M., died of disease at Murfreesboro', Tenn., June 4, 1862. Hensker, George, died of disease at West Point, Ky., Nov. 16,1862. Irish, Welcome M., disch. at end of service Oct. 14, 1864. Jourdan, James, disch. at end of service Oct. 14, 1864. Kinney, Amos B., disch. at end of service Oct. 14,1864. Klotz, John W., vet. Dec. 7, 1863; must. out Sept. 15, 1865. Lasher, Randolph, vet. Dec. 7, 1863; must. out Sept. 15, 1865. Lyons, Ressega, disch. for disability. Miner, William G., vet. Dec. 7, 1862; must. oufSept. 15, 1865. Maynard, James E., must. out Sept. 15, 1865. Mapes, Burton, disch. for disability Oct. 13, 1862. Mills, William H.,'disch. for disability. McCansey, David, disch. for disability. McCoy, Daniel, disch. for disability Dec. 10, 1862. Morrow, Joseph E., disch. for disability Dec. 10,1862. Miner, Anderson A., disch. for disability Dec. 10,1862. Manning, Perry, disch. for disability April 9,1863. Mills, John, enl. Sept. 5, 1861. Mills, Jason, died of disease at West Point, Ky., Dec. 9, 1861. Newman, Edgar, enl. Sept. 5,1861. Olmstead, Geo., et. Dec. 7, 1863; must. out Sept. 17, 1865. Pettit, Ethan, disch. for disability. Page, Wm. B., enl. Sept. 5, 1861. Postel, Geo., disch. for disability Dec. 10,1862. Peck, Russell S, enl. Sept. 5, 1861. Powell, Jonathan, disch. for disability July 7, 1862. Plant, Wm. L., died of disease at West Point, Ky., Nov. 23, 1861. Rice, Henry C., died of disease at Shelbyville, Tenn., June 7, 1862. Sutton, Johnson, died of disease at Elizabethtown, Ky., Feb. 27, 1862. Southwick, Albert, enl. Sept. 5, 1861. Stains, Nelson R., disch. for disability Dec. 10, 1862. Spicer, John W., disch. for disability April 27, 1862. Saxton, Danl. F., disch. for disability Dec. 23, 1863. Smith, Gerrett, disch. by order Oct. 7, 1864. Smith, Alvin T., enl. Sept. 5, 1861. Smith, Ebenezer F., Jr., died of disease at Portland, Mich., Sept. 29, 1862. Smith, Asahel K., vet. Dec. 7, 1863; must. out Sept 15, 1865. Stimpson, Theron H., enl. Sept. 5, 1861. Sessions, Nathan C., died of disease at Chattanooga, Tenn., Feb. 12, 1864. Utter, Jackson, disch. at end of service Oct. 14,1862. Van Horn, John, disch. for disability Jan. 17, 1863. Varnum, Phineas T., vet. Dec. 7, 1863; must. out Sept. 15, 1865. Varnum, George, died of disease at Elizabethtown, Ky., March 17, 1862. Winters, James, died of disease at West Point, Ky., Nov. 13,1861. Wilson, Wm., died of disease at West Point, Ky., Feb. 17, 1862. Woodruff, Morris, enl. Sept. 5, 1861. Welley, Orville B., disch. for disability. Wooden, Amos, disch. for disability Dec. 11, 1862. Wallace, Harmon N., disch. for disability Dec. 25, 1862. Youngs, Jefferson, enl. Sept. 5, 1861. Yager, Christian J., vet. Dec. 7, 1863; must. out Sept. 15, 1865. COMPANY E. Arris, Jonathan, disch. for disability Dec. 10, 1862. Bush, Geo. W., disch. by order June 20, 1865. Corey, Francis, vet. Dec. 10, 1863; must. out Sept. 15, 1865. Gregg, Geo., vet. Nov. 11, 1863; must. out Sept 15, 1865. Gregg, Chas. E., vet. Dec. 10, 1863. Hoysington, Wm., disch. for disability Dec. 10,1 2. Jones, Lorenzo, disch. for disability Dec. 10,1862. Wooden, Byron, enl. Aug. 20,1861. COMPANY F. Second Lieut. Reynolds H. Scofield, Lyons; corn. April 21, 1862; pro. first lienutenant Co. H Jan. 17, 1863. Second Lieut. Benevolent Stevens, lonia; corn. April 25, 1863; pro. first lieutenant Co. B Aug. 1, 1864. Krigger, Parley S., must. out Sept. 15, 1865. Rodgers, David, vet. Dec. 7, 1863; must. out Sept. 15, 1865. Coleman, Hiram I., enl. March 14,1862. COMPANY G. Second Lieut. Alex. Goodell, Ionia; com. Nov. 25, 1864, must. out Sept. 15,1865. Reilly, James, must. out Sept. 15, 1865. COMPANY H. First Lieut. Reynolds H. Scofield, Lyons; com. Jan. 17, 1863; pro. captain in Twenty-seventh Infantry Second Lieut. Charles T. Fox, Lyons; com. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. first lieutenant Co. I April 4, 1862. Ackley, Jonas, vet. Dec. 7, 1863; must. out Sept. 15, 1865. Buxton, James, must. out Sept. 15, 1865. Brokaw, William, discharged. Byres, John K., died of disease at West Point, Ky. Dean, Josiah, died of disease at Chattanooga March 6, 1864. Dean, Joseph, died of disease at Chattanooga March 6, 1864. Davis, Lafayette, vet. Dec. 7, 1863; must. out Sept. 15, 1865. Douglass, Nathan, vet. Dec. 7, 1863; must. out Sept. 15, 1865. Erwin, James H., vet. March 26, 1864; must. out Sept. 15, 1865. Erwin, William H., vet. March 26, 1864; must. out Sept. 15, 1865. Faxon, Marcellus, enl. Aug. 14, 1861. Goodall, Alex., vet. Dec. 7, 1863; must. out Sept. 15, 1865. Hunt, Hiram S., vet. Dec. 7, 1863; died of disease at Chattanooga March 6,1864. Heller, Christian, disch. by order Sept. 28, 1865. Haskins, Freeman, disch. by order Sept. 28, 1865. Haskins, William V., enl. Aug. 14, 1861. Hedden, Luther C., disch. by order Sept. 26, 1865. Leet, Ashley, died of disease at West Point, Ky. McNeil, Samuel, disch. for disability Sept. 1, 1862. Packer, Charles, disch. by order Aug. 1, 1863. Perry, James A., disch. by order May 18, 1865. Pinckney, L., enl. Aug. 16,1861. Peck, Norman, disch. for disability Aug. 6,1865. Russell, Joseph A., enl. Aug. 16, 1861. Sweet, John, died of disease at West Point, Ky. Sweet, Charles, died of disease at West Point, Ky. Sexton, Charles, died of disease at Murfreesboro', Tenn. Stimson, John, disch. for disability Dec. 11,1863. Smith, Joseph, vet. Dec. 7, 1863; must. out Sept. 15, 1865. Sickles, Charles, must. out Sept. 15, 1865. Tracy, William W., vet. Dec. 7, 1863; must. out Sept. 15, 1865. Tracy, Nathan, vet. Dec. 7,1863; must. out Sept. 15, 1865. Tupper, Charles, must. out Sept. 15,1865. White, Philo, disch. for disability June 5, 1865. Wright, Charles, died of disease at West Point, Ky. Wheeler, Ira, died of disease at West Point, Ky. Waterhouse, William, eul. March 3,1862. COMPANY I. Capt. Benevolent Stevens, Ionia; corn. March 14,1865; must. out Sept. 15,1865. First Lieut. Charles T. Fox, Lyons; corn. April 4, 1862; killed in action at Mumfordsville, Ky., Sept. 22,1862. COMPANY K. First Lieut. James N. Wallace, Lyons; corn. July 28, 1862; pro. U. S. C. T. Oct. 26, 1863. Banner, Zeron D., must. out Sept. 15, 1865. Smith, Ozano M., must. out Sept. 15, 1865. SOLDIERS OF THE NINTH INFANTRY FROM MONTCALM COUNTY. COMPANY D. Bacon, Melvin C., died of disease at Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 27, 1862. Bennett, Alexander M., must. out Sept. 15, 1865. Edwards, George, died of disease at Nashville, Tenn., May 21,1865. Olmstead, George, must. out Sept. 15,1865. Smith, George W., must. out Sept. 15, 1865. MILITARY RECORD OF IONIA AND MONTCALM. 55 - CHAPTER XII. FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH INFANTRY. Organization of the Fifteenth-A Scattering Representation-Conspicuous Officers-From Parade-Ground to Battle-Field-At Pittsburg Landing-Battle of Corinth-At Vicksburg-Attached to the Sixteenth Corps-To the Ninth Corps, and Finally to the Fifteenth Army Corps-The March from Memphis to Chattanooga-Re-enlistment-Through the Atlanta Campaign-Pursuit of Hood-The March to the Sea-Through the Carolinas and Virginia-Review at Washington, D. C.-Ordered to Louisville, Ky.-To Little Rock, Ark.-Muster-out-Officers and Soldiers from the two CountiesSixteenth Infantry, or "Stockton's Independent Regiment"-Organized at "Camp Backus," Detroit-Off for Virginia-Brigade Assignment-Peninsula Campaign-Siege of Yorktown-Battles of Hanover Court-House, Gaines' Mill, and Malvern. Hill-To Harrison's Landing-Battles of Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg-Re-enlistment-The Wilderness Campaign-In Front of Petersburg-Closing Campaign of 1865-Muster-out and Return to Michigan-Lists of Officers and Soldiers from Ionia and Montcalm Counties. FIFTEENTH INFANTRY. HAVING its rendezvous at Monroe, Mich., and under the command of Col. John M. Oliver, the Fifteenth Regiment of Infantry was recruited during the autumn of 1861 and the winter following. In its ranks were some fifty or more men from Ionia and Montcalm Counties, scattered among all its companies except K; and of the large number of commissioned officers who at various periods served with it so well, none were more conspicuous for soldierly bearing, gallant conduct, and meritorious services than Col. Frederick S. Hutchinson and Lieuts. Dresser and Smith, of Lyons. According to the adjutant-general's report, the first enlistment for the regiment (in Company C) took place Oct. 16, 1861, while the ranks of Company K did not attain to a minimum number until March 7, 1862. The regiment was mustered into the United States service for three years March 20, 1862, and seven days later began a movement by which it was transferred as speedily as possible from the peaceful parade-ground at Monroe to the storm of battle at Pittsburg Landing, Tenn. It arrived at the latter place on the evening of April 5th; the next day the battle opened. The Fifteenth was hurried to the front, and its gallant participation in the battle fought on the 6th and 7th of April, 1862, cost the regiment a loss of two officers and thirty-one men killed, one officer and sixty-three enlisted men wounded, and seven men missing. Of those who fell on that terrible first day-the day when the rebel general Beauregard vowed that he would "water his horse in the Tennessee River in the evening, or in hell;" but he didn't do either -was First Lieut. Melvin W. Dresser, of Lyons, also Private T. J. Hoffman, of Ionia County. The regiment served through the siege of Corinth, and was on duty in the vicinity until that place was attacked by the rebel generals Price and Van Dorn on the 3d of October, 1862. It was then on outpost duty, ten miles northwest of Corinth, and was assailed by the whole rebel force (over forty thousand in number). It fell back, contesting the ground inch by inch, and with some other regiments held the enemy in check during the whole of that day, giving ample time for Gen. Rosecrans (with his eighteen thousand men) to prepare for the next day's conflict, in I which he won a complete victory over the hungry rebel hosts.* The casualties of the Fifteenth in these actions were thirteen killed, thirty-two wounded, and five missing. The Fifteenth remained on duty in Northern Mississippi until June, 1863, when, with the Sixteenth Army Corps (to which it was attached), it was ordered to Vicksburg. Arriving at the mouth of the Yazoo, June 11th, the regiment proceeded up that river and disembarked at Hayne's Bluff. It was then attached temporarily to the Ninth Army Corps, and participated in the advance on Jackson. The Big Black was crossed on rafts and by swimming, the Fifteenth leading. It continued to operate with the Ninth Corps until the enemy was driven across the Pearl River, on the 17th of July, when it returned to the Big Black and was there attached to a brigade in the Fifteenth Army Corps,-a corps with which it served until the close of the war. Remaining in Central 'Mississippi during the summer, in October, 1863, the regiment, with the Fifteenth Corps (Gen. W. T. Sherman commanding), was ordered to the reinforcement of the Army of the Cumberland at Chattanooga. Then began a long march eastward, yet by easy stages. The regiment arrived at Memphis, Tenn., October 8th, Corinth, Miss., October 17th, and at Iuka the next day, where it remained until the 25th, reaching Florence, Ala., November 1st. Leaving Florence on the 2d, it proceeded, via Fayetteville and Winchester, Tenn., to Bridgeport, Ala., thence on the 16th to Stevenson, and to Scottsboro', Ala., November 17th. It remained at the latter place until March, 1864, when, a large number of its members having re-enlisted as veterans, the regiment was sent home on furlough, returning to Chattanooga, May 4th, in time to take part in the beginning of Gen. Sherman's Georgia campaign. After unnumbered wearisome marches and the constant skirmishes and battles of that campaign, the Fifteenth, on the 21st of July, found itself in front of the enemy near Decatur, Ga. The rebels drove back the Seventeenth Corps, which was on the left of Logan's Fifteenth. The Fifteenth Michigan and other Union regiments were then ordered to take possession of an exposed position some distance in their front. On arriving at the point indicated the position was found occupied by the enemy. The Michigan men did not hesitate, however, but moved gallantly forward, and after a brief but sharp conflict captured it, together with two stands of colors and one hundred and seventy-six prisoners. The loss of the Fifteenth was only four men killed and six wounded. On the 28th of July, 1864, in front of Atlanta, the regiment won another victory over an assailing force of the I.. a V The rebel dead, wounded, and prisoners taken on that field were found with only raw fat pork and dry corn (in the ear) in their haversacks. The millions of dollars' worth of government supplies stored at Corinth at that time, including quartermaster's, ordnance, and those of the commissariat, were glittering prizes for men so poorly clothed and fed as the rebels then were, but though wrought to desperation by their needs and the effects of copious draughts of whisky, and (it is said) gunpowder mixed with it, and though outnumbering the Northern troops by more than two to one, they were signally defeated, Oct. 4, 1862, by the volunteers from Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri, who calmly stood in the open fields (on the outskirts of the village) awaiting them. 66 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. 7 enemy, who were driven off with heavy loss, leaving their dead and wounded on the field. Still another triumph was gained, near Jonesboro', Ga., on the 31st of August, when Hood's forces attacked the fortified camp of the Fifteenth and was most decisively defeated. After the capture of Atlanta (Sept. 2, 1864) the regiment remained at East Point, Ga., until October 4th, when, in pursuit of Hood, who was then moving northward, it marched via Marietta, Altoona, Kingston, Rome, Calhoun, Resaca, Snake Creek Gap, Lafayette, and Summersville, Ga., and Gaylesville, Little River, King's Hill, Cedar Bluff, and Cave Springs, Ala., but returned to Atlanta in time to "march to the sea" and through the Carolinas and Virginia with Sherman. (See history of the Twentyfirst Infantry.) It participated in the grand review at Washington, D. C., May 24, 1865, and remained in the vicinity of Washington until June 1st, when, in pursuance of orders, it moved to Louisville, Ky., via the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and Ohio River. On the 28th of the same month it embarked on transports bound for Little Rock, Ark., arriving there July 7th. It was mustered out at the latter place August 13th, and, starting homeward on the 21st, reached Detroit Sept. 1, 1865, where its members received final pay and discharge papers. MEMBERS OF THE FIFTEENTH INFANTRY FROM IONIA. FIELD AND STAFF. Col. Fred. S. Hutchinson, Lyons; cor. Jan. 14, 1865; lieutenant-colonel June 7, 1864; major May31,1863; corn. first lieutenant and adjutant May 1,1862; brevet brigadier-general May 24,1865, for gallant and meritorious services during the war; must. out Aug. 13, 1865. NON-COMMISSIONED STAFF. Sergt.-Maj. Edward A. Hawley, died June 23, 1865. Com.-Sergt. Cyrus M. Smith, Lyons; pro. first lieutenant Co. F. COMPANY A. Borden, George D., must. out Aug. 13, 1865. Beckwith, Leroy, must. out Aug. 13, 1865. Brown, Leonard, died of disease at Little Rock, Ark., Aug. 15,1865. Evans, Alonzo, enl. Jan. 12,1862. Mattis, Thomas, enl. Dec. 8,1861. Sanburn, Benjamin T., enl. Feb. 10,1862. West, Peter, enl. Dec. 12,1861. COMPANY B. Anderson, James, must. out Aug. 13,1865. COMPANY C. Shepard, Andrew, must. out Aug. 13,1865. COMPANY D. Burgess, William C., disch. for disability Jan. 12, 1863. Gifford, Henry, disch. for disability Feb. 10, 1862. Hoffman, T. J., died in battle at Shiloh, April 6, 1862. Kellogg, John W., died of disease at Corinth, Jan. 7, 1862. Simmons, Amos, disch. by order Jan. 7,1865. COMPANY E. English, William, died of disease at Corinth June 17, 1862. Knowles, William, must. out Aug. 13,1865. Newland, Daniel M., disch. by order May 30, 1865. COMPANY F. First Lieut. Melvin W. Dresser, Lyons; cor. Jan. 1, 1862; killed in action at Shiloh April 6, 1862. First Lieut. Cyrus M. Smith, Lyons; corn. June 6,1865; must. out Aug. 13, 1865. Sergt. Frederick K. Hutchinson, enl. Nov. 12,1861. Sergt. George Leonard, disch. from Veteran Reserve Corps at end of service Jan. 30,1865. Corp. Rufus Wright, died of disease at St. Louis May 15, 1862. Musician. Hiram D. Parker, vet. Jan. 25, 1864. Burch, Eli, disch. for disability July 12, 1862. Bradley, Henry, disch. for disability Dec. 6, 182. Bowen, Isaac, died of disease at Corinth Oct. 3; 1862. Cummings, William, died of disease June 18,1862. r Mathews, Thomas, disch. for disability Jan. 9,1863. Stimpson, George, disch. for disability July 28, 1862. Snyder, Harrison, died of disease April 18, 1862. West, Peter, died of disease at St. Louis June 11, 1862. Trowbridge, -, enl. Dec. 11, 1861. COMPANY H. Kroutz, Edmund C., must. out Aug. 13, 1865. COMPANY I. Brownell, Hiram, died of disease at Cincinnati, Ohio, May 18,1862. Sherman, Jesse, eul. Jan. 30, 1862. MEMBERS OF THE FIFTEENTH INFANTRY FROM MONTCALM COUNTY. COMPANY C. Allen, Samuel W., must. out Aug. 13,1865. COMlPANY B. Peters, George H., disch. by order May 30, 1865. COMPANY F. Barber, John, disch. by order July 5, 1865. Blake, Fordice L., must. out Aug. 13,1865. Depue, Reuben, died of disease at Evansville Ind., June 7, 1862. Hesseng, Emanuel, disch. by order June 29, 1865. COMPANY G. Beard, Jacob, disch. by order May 30, 1865. Eldridge, James, disch. by order May 30, 1865. Wilber, Benjamin I., must. out July 28, 1865. SIXTEENTH INFANTRY. The Sixteenth Regiment of Michigan Infantry, recruited during the summer of 1861, rendezvoused at "Camp Backus," Detroit, and for more than eight months after its muster into the United States service was known as " Stockton's Independent Regiment," because raised under authority given for that purpose by the War Department to Col. Thomas B. W. Stockton,* of the city of Flint. Of the officers and enlisted men from these counties who served in the Sixteenth Infantry, the greatest number by far were members of Company B, which indeed might be termed an Ionia County organization. This company was officered at the beginning by captain, Henry H. Sibley; first lieutenant, Guy W. Fuller; second lieutenant, Morris B. Wells. The first enlistments-viz., those of Henry H. Sibley, Guy W. Fuller, Morris B. Wells, Allen B. Morse, and James W. Bigelow-took place July 30, 1861, and on the 7th of August the ranks of Company B had attained a minimum number. It proceeded to the regimental rendezvous soon after, and on the 8th of September the regiment was mustered into the United States service for three years by Lieut.-Col. E. Backus, U.S.A. On the 16th of September, 1861, the regiment, numbering seven hundred and sixty-one officers and enlisted men, embarked at Detroit on the steamers " City of Cleveland" and "May Queen," bound for Cleveland. It arrived in that city the following morning, and proceeded thence by rail, via Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, and Baltimore, to Washington, D. C., which city was reached on Thursday, September 19th. There the regiment remained in camp until the 28th, when it crossed the Potomac into Virginia and marched to Fort Corcoran. After a three days' stay at that place it was moved to Hall's Hill, Va., where it was assigned to the Third (Butterfield's) Brigade in Gen. Fitz John Porter's "; Col. Stockton still resides in the city of Flint. lHe is a graduate of West Point, and served over ten years in the regular army. He also commanded the First Michigan Infantry during the war with Mexico. MILITARY RECORD OF IONIA AND MONTCALM. 57 division, the other regiments of the brigade being the Eighty-third Pennsylvania, Seventeenth New York, and the Forty-fourth New York. Here the regiment remained in winter quarters until March 10, 1862. The regiment with its brigade then marched to Alexandria, Va., where it embarked on steamers March 21st, thence, via Fortress Monroe, to a camp in the vicinity of Hampton. This was a Virginia village which had recently been destroyed by fire by order of the rebel general Magruder,-a place which Nature had made beautiful, which its inhabitants had embellished and embowered with roses and woodbine, but which was now only a waste of bare chimneys and blackened walls. Here the command remained for a few days, meanwhile participating in a reconnoissance in force, moving as far up the Peninsula as Big Bethel, but, encountering no serious opposition, returned to Hampton. The Army of the Potomac, more than one hundred thousand strong, began a forward movement April 4th, and, in the afternoon of the 5th, Stockton's regiment with its brigade stood before the enemy's intrenchments at Yorktown. Soon after, the strength of the regiment was augmented to one thousand men by enlistments and by the arrival of two new companies from Detroit, and, although other regiments suffered severely from sickness, the health of Stockton's command remained good in consequence of the strict enforcement of sanitary rules by Col. Stockton. The enemy evacuated Yorktown May 4th, and the grand army slowly followed in pursuit. At about this time the regiment was designated the Sixteenth Michigan Infantry, and was included in the Fifth Provisional Army Corps, Gen. Fitz-John Porter commanding. From the 8th to the 26th of May the regiment marched, via West Point, Cumberland, White House, and Tunstall's Station, to Gaines' Mill, or a distance of forty miles in eighteen days. Before daybreak on the 27th of May, Morell's division (of which the Sixteenth formed part) marched rapidly from Gaines' Mill through mud and rain towards Hanover Court-house for the purpose of destroying the railroad at that point. A portion of the force under Gen. Martindale was left by the way to hold an important position, while the remainder pushed forward and successfully accomplished the object of the movement,-viz., the destruction of the station and portions of the railway. Meanwhile, Martindale had been fiercely assailed by the rebel forces under Gen. Branch. Gen. Butterfield, who with his brigade (including the Sixteenth Michigan) was with the advance, moved at once to the point of attack in the rear, or Martindale's position. Capt. Powers, of the Sixteenth, in speaking of this action, has said: " Few of the Sixteenth who were present will ever forget that march in line of battle across wheat-fields, through swamps and ravines, cheering as they advanced, impetuous to strike their first great blow for freedom. The enemy, seeing that to remain was to be captured or killed, fled in dismay, leaving their dead, wounded, and many prisoners on our hands. The day's work was a complete triumph, and that night we bivouacked for the first time on the field we had won.... Here for the first time the regiment had a taste of living on the enemy. Through some strange 8 freak the commanding officers winked at it. Beef, pork, dried fruits, and preserves-in fact, everything that an epicure could crave-were procured in abundance and indulged in with apparent emotions of pleasure. That day was never forgotten by the Sixteenth during its entire service thereafter; its members ever after repeated the operation whenever the country afforded the material." The division returned to its camp on the north side of the Chickahominy on the 29th of May. At about 1 P.M. of the 31st the crash of artillery and the incessant roar of musketry were heard coming from the woods and thickets on the opposite side of the river, and the infernal uproar continued during most of the afternoon. It was the battle of Fair Oaks. The men of the Sixteenth stood in line, ready to cross the stream to the assistance of their comrades, but they were not ordered forward on this or the following day, when the fight was renewed. With but one change of camp, the Sixteenth remained near Gaines' Mill until the first of the Seven Days' battles, June 26th, when it was moved in haste towards Mechanicsville to support the Union right against the assault of Stonewall Jackson, but was not actively engaged. On the following morning it retired with other regiments to Gaines' Mill, where a line of battle was formed, with Butterfield's brigade on the extreme left, Sykes' division of regulars on the right, and McCall's Pennsylvania Reserve division in the second line. Approaching them were the rebel commands of Gens. A. P. Hill, Longstreet, D. H. Hill, and the dreaded Jackson, in all more than fifty thousand men against half that number on the Union side. The battle was opened by a furious attack on Porter's right. The enemy were at first repulsed, but, renewing the assault, the Union right was turned, the whole line gave way, and in the disorder of a retreat in the face of an overpowering and victorious enemy Col. Stockton, with many others, was made prisoner. The retreating Unionists were finally rallied, and the Sixteenth, under Maj. Welch, with other troops charged on the defiant foe, but only to be decimated and hurled back in utter rout, leaving their dead and wounded on the crimson field. This closed the disasters of the day; and a disastrous and bloody one it had been for this regiment. Its losses had been forty-nine killed, one hundred and sixteen wounded, and fifty-five missing. During the four days succeeding the battle of Gaines' Mill the men of the Sixteenth took part in the daily fight, skirmish, and march, which brought them, on Tuesday, July 1, to the heights of Malvern. On that field the regiment lost thirty-nine killed and wounded and three missing, but it held the position assigned it, repulsing the repeated attacks of the enemy with unsurpassed bravery and strewing the ground thickly with his dead and wounded. When the battle-which began at 4 A.M. and raged unintermittingly until darkness set in-had ended, the men of the North laid themselves down (victors, they believed) to rest on the blood-stained field. But about one o'clock in the morning of July 2d orders were given to " fall in," and the regiment moved silently down the hill and away on the road to Berkley (or Harrison's Landing), leaving their dead and wounded behind. 58 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. Those who never served as soldiers cannot realize the bitterness of humiliation and despair that pervaded the rank and file of the army as they turned their backs upon a victorious field and marched away in the gloom of night, through the mud and rain of the succeeding morning, to seek the protection of the gunboats against a beaten foe, who at the same time was retreating in an opposite direction. But the wearied and dispirited men struggled on, some in sullen silence, some cursing, and some actually weeping in the agony of their shame, until at last they rested on the banks of the James, under the friendly guns of the Union fleet. With other troops of McClellan's army, the Sixteenth remained in the vicinity of Harrison's Landing until the night of Aug. 14, 1862, when with its corps it marched to Hampton, reaching that place after three days' and one night's march. There was a striking contrast between the appearance of the haggard and tattered remnant of the Sixteenth Michigan who now returned to Hampton and that of Stockton's Independent Regiment of well-fed and healthy men as they had marched away from the same place a little more than four months before; but their hopes and courage were still high, and none were doubtful of ultimate triumph. On the 19th they moved in transports to Acquia Creek, then by rail to Fredericksburg. After that, by marching to Kelly's Ford and to Bealton Station, a junction was effected with Gen. Pope's Army of Virginia at Groveton, August 29th. Here, Porter's troops stood in line of battle, but did not engage. The results of his inaction, as to the forces under Gen. Pope and to himself, are well known to the reader who keeps himself posted in current events. On the 30th of August the brigade lay for hours under a heavy artillery-fire until about the middle of the afternoon, when the regiments of the Third Brigade were formed in column by division, and ordered to advance. The infantry of the enemy occupied a deep cut in the railroad, and a large number of their guns were posted in rear on higher ground. The Third Brigade essayed a charge, but while the movement was in progress the enemy executed a well-planned flank attack, which resulted in the Union column being hurled from the field broken and in the utmost disorder. "Some one had blundered." The loss of the Sixteenth in this encounter was seventy-nine killed and wounded (among whom were three color-bearers) and seventeen missing. Without particularizing all of its subsequent skirmishes and battles, we add that during the following year the regiment participated in all the general movements of the Army of the Potomac. Col. Stockton returned from his captivity in the early part of September and assumed command of the brigade, and on the 12th the Fifth Corps moved forward on the Maryland campaign, which culminated in the bloody battle of Antietam, September 17th. On that day the Fifth Corps was in reserve. At Fredericksburg the regiment had twenty-three men killed and wounded, and at Chancellorsville but one killed and six wounded. At Middleburg, on the 21st of June, 1863, the regiment captured a piece of artillery with nineteen officers and men, itself having nine men wounded. It was hotly engaged at Gettysburg, having sixty officers and men killed and wounded and two missing. The Third Brigade reached Gettysburg on the morning of July 2d, when the great conflict had already commenced. About 3 P.M. it was detached from the division and posted on the Little Round Top, forming the extreme left of the Union line, the order of the brigade formation being as follows: On the left the Twentieth Maine, Col. Chamberlain; next the Twenty-third Pennsylvania, Captain Woodward; next the Forty-fourth New York, Col. Rice; and on the right the Sixteenth Michigan, Col. Welch, the brigade being under command of Col. Vincent, who on that day fell mortally wounded. In this position the brigade was soon attacked by Hood's division of Longstreet's corps. The enemy came on impetuously and with great confidence on account of superiority in numbers (being a division against a single brigade), but his repeated assaults were successfully repelled. His last attack was made simultaneously on the front and left flank of the brigade, so that the Maine regiment was compelled to change front to repel the flanking column; but the movement was neatly and quickly executed, and then, when ammunition was wellnigh exhausted and no reinforcements near, Col. Rice (who succeeded Col. Vincent in the command of the brigade) sent word to each of the regimental commanders to fix bayonets, and at a signal from him to charge. The enemy stood firm at first, then wavered, rallied, wavered again, and at last broke in confusion, with a loss of five hundred prisoners and over one thousand stand of arms. The brigade pressed on through the valley, and halted with its left resting on Big Round Top, on which its line was soon after established. The fighting at Little Round Top was nearly all in which the Sixteenth took an active part at Gettysburg, and where its losses already mentioned occurred, for it was relieved on the morning of the 3d, taking position in rear of the main line. The next battle of the Sixteenth (which meanwhile had reorganized as a veteran regiment) was at the Wilderness, where, on the 7th of May, 1864, it was sharply and gallantly engaged, having thirty-five officers and men killed and wounded. The evening of the 8th the rebels attacked the regiment while on the march, but were repulsed, and a rebel colonel and a large number of men were captured. On the 22d of May the Sixteenth defeated the enemy's rear-guard and made another large capture of prisoners. After numerous skirmishes and two or three serious conflicts, it reached the lines in front of Petersburg on the 17th of June. On the 30th of September it was part of the force which stormed and carried the enemy's works near Poplar Grove Church, in which desperate assault the Sixteenth lost fifty-two killed and wounded, among the former being its commander (Col. Welch), who died on the parapet. For more than two months after this battle the regiment lay most of the time in the trenches at Poplar Grove Church. In December it accompanied the corps on a raid to Bellefield, Va., when about sixteen miles of railroad was destroyed. It was in the trenches before Petersburg during January, 1865, and on the 6th and 7th of February took part in the battle of Dabney's Mills, losing heavily. It MILITARY RECORD OF IONIA AND MONTCALM. 59 fought at Hatcher's Run, March 25th; at White Oak Road, March 29th; at Quaker Road, March 31st; at Five Forks, April 1st; at Amelia Court-house, April 5th; and at High Bridge, April 6th. After Lee's surrender it marched to Sutherland Station, where it was stationed until early in May, when it marched to Washington, D. C., arriving there on the 12th, and taking part in the grand review of the Army of the Potomac, May 23d. On the 16th of June it moved under orders for Louisville, Ky., arriving there on the 21st. Thence it crossed to Jeffersonville, Ind., and was there mustered out of service, July 8th. It arrived at Jackson, Mich., on the 12th, and there, on the 25th of July, 1865, its members rceeived their final pay and were disbanded. MEMBERS OF THE SIXTEENTH INFANTRY FROM IONIA COUNTY. COMPANY A. Cornell, Albert, must. out July 8, 1865. COMPANY B. Capt. Henry H. Sibley, Ionia; corn. Aug. 9, 1861; res. Sept. 27, 1862. Capt. Guy W. Fuller, Ionia; corn. Sept. 28,1862; disch. at end of service Sept. 17,1864. First Lieut. Guy W. Fuller, Ionia; corn. July 30, 1861; pro. to captain. Second Lieut. Morris B. Wells, Ionia; com. Aug. 9, 1861; pro. to first lieutenant and adjutant Twenty-first Infantry July 26, 1862. Second Lieut. John W. Ward, Ionia; pro. to first lieutenant Co. G. Sergt. Allen B. Morse, Ionia; disch. for disability Oct. 26, 1862. Sergt. Henry H. Tiff, Ionia; transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps. Sergt. William Il. Borden, Ionia; pro. to second lieutenant Co. F. Sergt. Chas. B. King, vet. Dec. 22, 1863; pro. to captain Co. C. Sergt. Hubbard H. Barrett, killed in action at Gettysburg, Pa., July 2,1863. Sergt. Augustus C. Savage, vet. Dec. 22, 1863.; pro. to hospital steward.] Corp. Adelbert D. Williams, vet. Dec. 22, 1863; must. out July 8, 1865. Corp. James W. Bigelow, disch. at end of service Sept. 7,1864. Corp. Adoniram J. Cole, disch. for disability Jan. 27, 1863. Corp. Myron B. Evans, enl. Aug. 7, 1861. Corp. Edward P. Strong, enl. Aug. 6,1861. Corp. Doctor B. Bradley, died in action at Bull Run Aug. 30, 1862. Musician Vine E. Welch, disch. for disability Sept. 1, 1862. Wagoner John Ward, vet. Dec. 22,1863; pro. to second lieutenant Co. B. Belding, Edward E., died of disease in Virginia July 18,1862. Bradford, James M., vet. Dec. 22, 1863; died of wounds in Maryland Feb. 17, 1865. Brown, Wm. D., disch. for disability. Bigelow, Jonathan, disch. for disability Feb. 24, 1863. Bishop, Richard, disch. for disability April 16, 1864. Barrett, Oliver, vet. Dec. 22, 1863; must. out July 8, 1865. Benton, Eli, vet. Dec. 22,1863; missing in action at Weldon Railroad Aug. 24, 1864. Carpenter, George, vet. Dec. 22, 1863; transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps. Corkins, Daniel A., vet. Dec. 22, 1863; must. out July 8, 1865. Cranson, Asa F., vet. Dec. 22, 1863; must. out July 8, 1865. Comstock, Rowland S., transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps March 16, 1864. Comstock, Benjamin, disch. by order Jan. 20, 1863. Cross, Joseph B., disch. for disability July 28, 1862. Cross, Joseph, disch. for disability Dec. 19, 1861. Clark, Peter, disch. by order Jan. 12, 1863. Clark, Charles, died of disease at Detroit Jan. 12, 1862. Cooper, Wm. W., died in action at Gaines' Mill June 27, 1862. Chillson, Gilbert, enl. Aug. 5,1861. Davis, Miles, disch at end of service Sept. 7, 1864. Doran, Dennis M., vet. Dec. 22, 1863; must. out July 8, 1865. Eitelbus, George, vet. Dec. 22, 1863; must. out July 8, 1865. Everest, Stephen E., disch. for disability May 1,1862. Evans, Joseph M., disch. at end of service Sept. 7, 1864. Fish, George B., disch. by order Dec. 27, 1862. Freehouse, Samuel, died of disease Oct. 18, 1862. Goddard, Rufus, disch. for disability. Gordon, James S., disch. for disability Nov. 20, 1862. Green, Andrew, disch. by order Dec. 3, 1862. Greenhoe, Matthew, disch. at end of service Sept. 7,1864. Gelick, Martin F., transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps Aug. 1,1863. Greenhoe, Andrew J., vet. Dec. 22,1863; must. out July 8,1865. Green, Stephen J., vet. Dec. 22, 1863; must. out July 8, 1865. Heydluff, Gotlieb J., vet. Dec. 22, 1863; must. out July 8,1865. Huckleberry, John, disch. by order Jan. 12,1863. Hatters, William, disch. by order March 28,1863. Hoyt, Samuel, disch. by order Aug. 22, 1864. Heald, Warren E, disch. for disability Nov. 17, 1862. Hodge, John M., disch. for disability July 26, 1862. King, Carlos B., vet. Dec. 22, 1863; must. out July 8, 1865. Kellogg, Rodney, vet. Dec. 22, 1863; must. out July 8, 1865. Kennett, Edward, died of disease in Virginia (Hall's Hill) Nov. 5,1861. Luscomb, Lyman W., disch. at end of service Sept. 7, 1864. Lowrey, Ebenezer, vet. Dec. 22, 1863; must. out July 8, 1865. Mills, Alson M., missing in action Dec. 26,1862. McCann, James, disch. for disability Sept. 16, 1862. Pond, Darius A., disch. for disability Jan. 31, 1863. Rider, Stephen V., disch. for disability April, 1862. Rathbone, Oscar, disch. for disability Nov. 29, 1862. Rowley, George, disch. by order Nov. 14,1862. Ranger, Wm. H. H., vet. Dec 22, 1863; must. out July 8, 1865. Ranger, M. S., vet. Dec. 22, 1863; died at North Anna, Va., May 26, 1864. Sayles, Cyrus C., vet. Dec. 22, 1863; must. out July 8, 1865. Streaver or Streeter, Wm. H., vet. Dec. 22, 1863; must. out July 8, 1865. Savage, Augustus C., vet. Dec. 22, 1863; must. out July 8, 1865. Strong, Edwal d, transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps Aug. 5, 1863. Synold, Charles F., disch. for disability August, 1862. Sloan, Wm., disch. for disability Dec. 2, 1862. Streeter, Lloyd G., must. out July 8, 1865. Steele, Osmer G., must. out July 8, 1865. Tanner, Marshall, disch. for disability Oct. 21, 1862. Turner, Joseph N., disch. for disability March 3, 1862. Tuttle, Emery, died at Gettysburg, Pa., July 2, 1863. Thompson, Eugene, vet. Dec. 22, 1863, died at Wilderness May 6, 1864. Town, Richard M., died of disease at Fortress Monroe, Va., Sept. 13,1862. Vincent, Robert E., transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps. Whitfield, Charles, disch. for disability April, 1862. Whitfield, Nathaniel, disch. for disability Dec. 18, 1862. Waterman, Solomon H., vet. Dec. 22, 1863; must. out July 8, 1865. Wickman, Wm., vet. Dec. 22, 1863; must. out July 8,1865. Whitbeck, Clark, vet. Dec. 22, 1863; must. out July 8,1865. Williams, Albert D., enl. Aug. 8, 1861. Wilson, Frank, vet. Dec. 22,1863; must. out July 8, 1865. Wright, Wm., died in action at Gaines' Mill June 27, 1862. Young, Peter, disch. at end of service Sept. 7, 1864. COMPANY C. Bradish, William L., died of disease at Beverly Ford, Va., Sept. 16, 1862. Northwood, John, disch. for disability Sept. 16, 1862. Wait, B. F.. died of disease at City Point, Va., Sept. 16,1865. Bradish, Reuben, enl. Dec. 11, 1861. COMPANY D. Bretz, Charles E., must. out July 8, 1865. Haskins, Francis, must. out July 8,1865. Postle, George, disch. by order Nov. 18,1865. Shellbarger, Nicholas, must. out July 8,1865. COMPANY E. Van Wyck, John, disch. by order June 16,1865. COMPANY F. Second Lieut. William H. Borden, Ionia; corn. Nov. 8,1862; killed in action at Gettysburg July 2, 1863. Colsher, William, enl. Dec. 20,1861. Van Dusen, James, disch. by order June 26,1865. COMPANY H. Hosford, Edgar, disch. for disability June 13, 1862. Messer, Samuel E., died in action at Gaines' Mill June 27, 1862. Nelson, Adna, died in action at Gaines' Mill June 27, 1862. Norwood, W. R., disch. at end of service Sept. 7, 1864. Owen, John A., vet. Dec. 24, 1863; died in action near Petersburg June 20,1864. Sinkey, Henry, died of disease at Harrison's Landing July 28, 1862. Terrill, Reuben, enl. Aug. 18,1861. Young, Allen A., vet. Dec. 24, 1863; must. out July 8, 1865. COMPANY K. Bird, John W., died in the field June 11, 1865. Boice, Andrew J., vet. Dec. 22, 1863; must. out July 8, 1865. Haynes, James B., disch. by order June 15, 1865. MONTCALM COUNTY SOLDIERS WHO SERVED IN THE SIXTEENTH INFANTRY. COMPANY B. Barrett, Sylvester, died near Petersburg, Va., June 19, 1864. Chittock, Michael, died in action at Bull Run, Va., Aug. 30,1862. Dickenson, Cyrus W., vet. Dec. 22, 1863; must. out July 8,1865. Howarth, John W., transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps Jan. 15, 1864. Patterson, Thomas, vet. Dec. 22, 1863; disch. for disabilty Jan. 19,1865. Simonson, George, vet. Dec. 22, 1863; disch. by order June 29, 1865. St. Clair, Wallace N., must. out July 8,1865. Ward, William B., died of wounds at Washington, D. C., June 7,1864. 60 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. I COMPANY D. Cowden, Albert S., must. out July 8,1865. Winters, John, must. out July 8,1865. COMPANY E. Brown, John, must. out July 8, 1865. Frost, Pulaski, died of disease in Virginia June 10, 1865. COMPANY H. Deland, Charles, must. out July 8,1865. Decker, Henry, died of disease at Washington, D. C, Sept. 30, 1861. Overton, Nathaniel B., died in action at Gaines' Mill June 27,1862. COMPANY I. Davis, William, disch. by order May 30, 1865. Kleis, Peter, must. out July 8,1865. CHAPTER XIII. TWENTY-FIRST INFANTRY. The Big District which sent out the Twenty-First Infantry-Ionia the Rendezvous-Large Representation from Ionia and Montcalm Counties-The Regiment joins Buell-Battle of Perryville-The March to Nashville-Battle of Stone River-Gallantry of Sheridan's Division-The Advance through Tennessee-Into GeorgiaBattle of Chickamauga-Death of Col. Wells-Engineer Duty at Chattanooga-In Pursuit of the Rebel Forrest-Joins the Fourteenth Army Corps-The March to Atlanta-Through Georgia to Savannah-Method of the March-Narration of Various Incidents -Gen. Sherman's Field Orders-Through the Carolinas-The great Difficulties encountered-Battle of Averysboro'-Of BentonvilleHard Fight-A vastly superior Force of the Enemy defeated-Arrival at Goldsboro'-The March to Raleigh and Haywood-Johnston Surrenders-On to Richmond-A great marching Feat-To Washington, D. C.-The Grand Review-Muster-out-Homeward Bound-Arrival at Detroit-Disbandment-Large Lists of Officers and Men from Ionia and Montcalm Counties. THIS gallant command, which during the war for the Union gained an enviable reputation for brilliant services performed on many hard-fought fields, was recruited in the summer of 1862 from the Fourth Congressional District, a very large one (in extent), comprising the counties of Barry, Ionia, Montcalm, Kent, Ottawa, Muskegon, Oceana, Newaygo, Mecosta, Mason, Manistee, Grand Traverse, Leelanaw, Manitou, Osceola, Emmet, Mackinac, Delta, and Cheboygan. It rendezvoused at the village of Ionia, and until the regiment was fully organized J. B. Welch, Esq., of Ionia County, by appointment of the Governor, served as post commandant. During its term of service about three hundred and fifty residents of Ionia County participated in the movements and shared in the glory won by the Twenty-first, while Montcalm's representation (its largest in any organization during the war) amounted to about one hundred and fifty men. The field and staff officers were mainly from Ionia, also Companies A, D, I, and K. Company F was a Montcalm County organization, besides which the latter county had numerous representatives in Companies A, D, and K. After the usual experiences incident to the beginning of camp-life, such as marching into camp, frequently eluding the vigilance of the camp-guard while there, participating in distasteful drills and dress-parades, first attempts at cooking, etc., the members of the regiment were mustered into the United States service for three years Sept. 4, 1862. Eight days later, with one thousand and eight officers and enlisted men, under the command of Col. Ambrose A. Stevens* (formerlyt lieutenant-colonel of the Third Infantry), the Twenty-first moved from Ionia with orders to report at Cincinnati. It was immediately pushed forward into Kentucky, and, there joining Gen. Buell's forces, was assigned to the division commanded by Gen. Sheridan. Marching from Louisville, October 1st, it first met the enemy at Perryville, where it was warmly engaged on the 8th, suffering a loss of twenty-seven men killed, wounded, and missing. With Buell, and soon after with Rosecrans, in command of the army, it moved forward in pursuit of Bragg's retreating rebel forces, via Shepardsville, Bardstown, Springfield, Danville, and Lancaster, to Crab Orchard Springs, Ky., thence back through Lancaster, Danville, and New Market to Bear Wallow, near Cave City, Ky., where a halt of two or three days' duration was made. Again resuming the march, the Union forces proceeded, via Bell's Tavern, to Bowling Green (where Gen. Rosecrans took command), thence, via Franklin, Ky., Mitchellsville, and Magnolia, Tenn., to Edgefield (opposite Nashville, Tenn.), where Sheridan's division arrived November 10th. After a few days' rest this division, with the major portion of the army, crossed the Cumberland at Nashville and passed on to Mill Creek, on the Nolansville Pike, where it remained until December 26th. On the date last mentioned began the movement which culminated in the battle of Stone River, or Murfreesboro'. As part of Sill's brigade, of Sheridan's division, the Twentyfirst marched forward with Rosecrans' army to attack the rebel forces under Bragg, then lying in front of Murfreesboro'. It encountered the enemy's advanced pickets at Lavergne and at Stewart's Creek, and in the great battle of three days' duration which ensued on the banks of Stone River, during the last days of December, 1862, and the 1st and 2d of January, 1863, the regiment covered itself with glory, suffering a loss, however, of one hundred and thirty-nine brave men, killed, wounded, and missing. In the terrific engagement fought on the morning of December 31st, which was commenced by Cheatham's, Cleburn's, and McGown's rebel divisions of Hardee's corps falling unexpectedly on McCook (who commanded the right wing of the national forces), first Johnson's and then Davis' division were driven back in inextricable disorder. Their defeat was almost simultaneous with the attack, and upon Sheridan's division of McCook's corps-composed of Sill's, Roberts', and Shaefer's brigades-devolved the task of checking the impetuous onset of the victorious foe. This single division, outflanked and surrounded by panic-stricken fugitives, must give battle to three divisions of a triumphant and exultant enemy, and must at least hold them in check until the general in command could make dispositions to meet the terrible emergency. Most nobly did Gen. Sheridan and his division fulfill their task. Four times they repulsed the rebel host. Sur- The other field and staff officers of the regiment when it first took the field were lieutenant-colonel, William L. Whipple; major, Isaac Hunting; surgeon, William B. Thomas; assistant surgeon, John Avery; second assistant surgeon, Charles B. Perry; adjutant, Morris B. Wells; quartermaster, Martin P. Follett; chaplain, Theodore Pillsbury. t Col. Wells and Adjt. Morse had also seen service (before joining the Twenty-first) in the Sixteenth Michigan Infantry. MILITARY RECORD OF IONIA AND MONTCALM. 61 - -— I rounded, outflanked, outnumbered, in danger of utter destruction, and pressed back into the cedar thickets in their rear, they fought on till one-fourth of their number lay bleeding and dying upon the field, till two out of three of their brigade commanders were killed, till every gun and cartridge-box was empty; and then they retired slowly, steadily, and in good order. As they passed Gen. Rosecrans while deliberately falling back to make way for reinforcements, Gen. Sheridan was heard to say to his commanding general, with touching pathos, " Here is all that is left of us, general." His men were even then clamoring for ammunition, and an hour later were again in line of battle. His division consisted of six thousand four hundred and ninety-five men. They lost in that fearful conflict among the cedars seventeen hundred in killed, wounded, and missing, including seventy officers, two of whom were brigadiers, and the only remaining brigadier fell before nightfall. After the defeat of Bragg at Stone River the Twentyfirst and its companion regiments remained in the vicinity of Murfreesboro', employed on picket-duty and as guard for forage-trains, until June 24, 1863, when, commanded by Col. William B. McCreery (Col. Stevens having resigned Feb. 3, 1863), it advanced with Gen. Rosecrans on Tullahoma. During July it was stationed at Cowan and Anderson, on the line of the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad. Subsequently it occupied Bridgeport, Ala., under Gen. Lytle, who succeeded to the command of the brigade after the death of the lamented Sill at Stone River. On the 2d of September the command crossed the Tennessee River and advanced with the corps of Maj.-Gen. McCook to Trenton, Ga., from whence it crossed the mountains to Alpine, Ga. (the farthest point reached on that march), thence by a forced march over mountain ranges, via Valley Head, valley of Lookout Creek, Hoover's Gap, Pond Springs, Crawfish Springs, and Lee's and Gordon's Mills, to the field of Chickamauga, where, on the afternoon of Saturday, September 19th, the regiments of Lytle's brigade formed their battle-lines and again confronted their old enemy, Bragg. During the forenoon of the succeeding day the Twentyfirst, with other regiments of Sheridan's division, bravely, stubbornly, and successfully contested the rebel advance; but about noon McCook was overwhelmed,-shattered; and, while gallantly attempting to stem the torrent of disaster and the rebel host which swept irresistibly upon and around them, Gen. Lytle and Lieut.-Col. Wells were killed, and Col. McCreery was wounded and taken prisoner. Leaving one hundred and seven officers and men in killed, wounded, and missing on the field, the Twenty-first then retreated from its position, and with other regiments, under the command of Gen. Sheridan, formed part of the force with which that general reported to Gen. Thomas on the centre. The enemy was then held in check until after dark, when a further retreat was made to Rossville, and the following night the Union forces retreated precipitately to Chattanooga, leaving their pickets to be captured. To Nov. 1, 1863 (after a little more than one year's service in the field), the alterations and casualties in the regiment showed as follows: Died in action or of wounds, fifty-five; died of disease, one hundred and sixty-six; discharged, one hundred and seventy; resigned, forty-three; deserted, twenty-five; transferred, eighteen. Present and absent Nov. 1, 1863, five hundred and twenty-five. On the 5th of November the Twenty-first, together with the Thirteenth and Twenty-second Michigan Infantry and the Eighteenth Ohio Infantry, was organized as a brigade of engineers under Gen. Smith (chief engineer Army of the Cumberland) and assigned to duty at Chattanooga, Tenn. It was present at the battles of Mission Ridge and Lookout Mountain, but not seriously engaged. From that time (November, 1863) until June 11, 1864, it was stationed on the north side of the Tennessee River, near Chattanooga, and was employed in building a bridge over the river and in the erection of store-houses in Chattanooga. Then, until September 20th (when it was relieved from further duty with the Engineer Corps), it was stationed on Lookout Mountain, engaged in building hospitals, running mills, and in the performance of picket-duty. The regiment left Lookout Mountain September 27th for Tullahoma; thence it proceeded to Nashville, where, joining the forces under Gen. Rousseau, it participated in the pursuit of the enemy under Forrest beyond Florence, Ala., returning to Florence October 11th, and to Chattanooga on the 14th of the same month. Four days later it moved to Dalton, Ga., and there performed garrison-duty until October 30th, when it was relieved and ordered to join the Second Brigade, First Division, Fourteenth Army Corps, at Kingston, Ga. As the Fourteenth and other corps were then retracing their steps southward towards Atlanta (after having pursued Hood far into Northern Alabama), and were preparing to cut loose from all communications northward or in any other direction for a while, the villages on the route of march, the bridges, telegraph-lines, depots, and railwaytracks, were all destroyed. And when the Fourteenth Corps marched into Atlanta, on the afternoon of November 15th, the city was already in flames. Indeed, so zealous were Slocum's men of the Twentieth Corps (who had remained in the city while the remainder of the army had followed in pursuit of Hood) to make early and sure work of firing the city that the building wherein were stored clothing and other supplies for the Fourteenth Corps was also blazing, but by the rapid tumbling out of bales and boxes by many willing hands enough was saved to amply supply the wants of men who carried all of their personal effects on their backs, besides a musket, forty to sixty rounds of cartridges, boxes, belts, bayonet-scabbard, canteen, haversack, "dog-tent," and the inseparables the frying-pan and the coffee-pot,* and last, though not least of the soldier's equipments in this campaign, a hatchet, of which nearly every soldier carried one in his waist-belt (tomahawk fashion), and with them trees were felled, when occasion demanded, which far exceeded in size the famous cherry cut by the immortal George. As we have said, Atlanta was blazing before the arrival I The latter utensil usually had first done service as a package to contain canned meats or fruits, but when emptied holes were made near the top on opposite sides, a small wire inserted in them for a handle, and then the article was considered complete. 62 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. of the Fourteenth Corps, and huge columns of black smoke hung over the railroad depots, the foundries, the Trout House, and many other large buildings. When night closed in the whole heavens were illuminated by the glare of the conflagration and the innumerable camp-fires of the Union hosts, which lay on the hillsides encircling the conquered city, busy with their final preparations for the storied L "March to the Sea." The troops were busily employed during the greater part of the night drawing clothing and rations and making preparations for a final departure from this base, and in doing so all worn-out animals were killed. Quartermaster, commissary, and ordnance stores not needed were destroyed, including many cannon captured from the rebels. "All the troops," said Gen. Sherman, in his report of this campaign, " were provided with good wagon-trains loaded with ammunition and supplies approximating twenty days' bread, forty days' sugar and coffee, a double allowance of salt for forty days, and beef-cattle equal to forty days' supplies. The wagons were also supplied with about three days' forage in grain. All were instructed, by a judicious system of foraging, to maintain this order of things as long as possible, living chiefly, if not solely, upon the country, which I knew to abound in corn, sweet potatoes, and meats."* Prior to the return of Gen. Sherman's troops to Atlanta, however (the movement last noted), he issued a special field order, of which the following is a copy, partially informing his command of his determination and purpose: " HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MiSSISSIPPI. "IN THE FIELD, KINGSTON, GA., Nov. 8, 1864. "_Special Field Order "No. 119. "The general commanding deems it proper at this time to inform the officers and men of the Fourteenth, Fifteenth, Seventeenth, and Twentieth Corps that he has organized them into an army for a special purpose well known to the War Department and to Gen. Grant. It is sufficient for you to know that it involves a departure from our present base and a long and difficult march to a new one. All the chances of war have been considered and provided for, as far as human sagacity can. All he asks of you is to maintain that discipline, patience, and courage which have characterized you in the past, and he hopes, through you, to strike a blow at our enemy that will have a material effect in producing, what we all so much desire, his complete overthrow. "Of all things, the most important is that the men during march and in camp keep their places, and not scatter about as stragglers or foragers, to be picked up by a hostile people in detail. It is also of < It is true that the country did abound in sweet potatoes and meats, but if such quantities of supplies-especially bread, sugar, and coffee-were stored in the supply-trains, the Fourteenth Corps at least did not obtain much benefit from them; the " order of things " was maintained too long, for the writer has distinct recollections of having subsisted for several days (in the swamps back of Savannah) on a diet prepared from tough beef (from cattle that had also made the march with the troops), limited quantities of unhulled rice, and water from the Ogeechee Canal,-nothing else; and during the whole march from Atlanta to Savannah but two or three days' rations were issued. While the troops kept moving, and while passing through Central Georgia, the men had an abundance of such things as a good but sparsely inhabited country afforded; but when sixty thousand men closed in around Savannah, and occupied a district of low swamp-lands covered with forests, the whole country in their rear already devastated, there was much hunger, want, and sickness in the camps preceding the capture of Fort McAllister, and the consequent opening of communications with the " cracker-line " or the fleet. the utmost importance that onet wagon should not be loaded with anything but provisions and ammunition. All surplus servants, noncombatants, and refugees should now go to the rear, and none should be encouraged to encumber us on the march. At some future time we will be enabled to provide for the poor whites and blacks who seek to escape the bondage under which they are now suffering. With these few simple cautions in your minds, he hopes to lead you to achievements equal in importance to those of the past. " By order of " MAJ.-GEN. W. T. SHERMAN, "(Signed) L. M. DAYTON, "A ide-de- Cato p. "The above order will be read to each regiment upon its reaching Atlanta. "By order of "BVT. MAJ.-GEN. J. C. DAVIs. "(Signed) A. C. MCCLURG, "A. A. G. and Chief of Staff, 14th A. C." As we have thus seen, with all preparations duly made, the great armyI under Gen. Sherman (some sixty thousand t Each regiment had but one wagon on this march, as had been the case also during the preceding (Atlanta) campaign. i Of the forces under the immediate command of Gen. Sherman in his march through Georgia and the Carolinas, the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Army Corps, under Gen. Howard, composed the right wing, or "Army of the Tennessee;" the Fourteenth and Twentieth Corps, under Gen. Slocum, the left wing, or "Army of Georgia;" while Kilpatrick's division of cavalry moved on the front, flanks, and rear of either. The men were veterans, all of them, the flower of the whole Western army. During the Atlanta campaign of 1864 the Fourth, Fourteenth, and Twentieth Corps had formed the Army of the Cumberland, Gen. George H. Thomas commanding, but, just before the "March to the Sea" commenced, Gen. Thomas, with the Fourth Corps and other commands, proceeded towards Nashville to attend to Hood. Thereupon the name "Army of Georgia" was applied to Sherman's left wing, or the Fourteenth and Twentieth Corps, for the purpose of making a distinction between the forces commanded by Gens. Slocum and Thomas, the latter of whom still retained command of the Army and Department of the Cumberland. The corps that marched with Sherman contained three divisions each, except the Fifteenth, which had four divisions. Each corps had its own artillery-, ammunition-, ambulance-, pontoon-, and supply-trains, and was a separate and well-equipped army in itself. When no enemy appeared they were moved on parallel roads from ten to fifteen miles distant from each other, but when fighting was apprehended, or wide rivers were to be crossed, the two corps forming a wing were massed upon one road,-a movement which did not occur but once or twice during the march through Georgia. The Fourteenth Corps, under Gen. Jefferson C. Davis, and the major portion of the cavalry, under Gen. Kilpatrick, were usually to be found on the extreme left flank of the armies. Gens. Carlin, James D. Morgan, and Baird were the division commanders of the Fourteenth Corps, and their movements were made in the following order: Carlin, with the First Division, would take the advance for three days; from two to five miles in rear of him followed Morgan, with the Second; while in the rear was Baird's Third, encumbered and struggling to bring forward over swamps, creeks, and rivers the corps trains of several hundred wagons. On the morning of the fourth day Carlin would fall in in the rear, taking Baird's position as rear-guard, and, for the time being, the onerous task of bringing forward the trains, Baird would move up to the centre, while Morgan took the advance; and thus the divisions alternated at the beginning of each fourth day. Meanwhile, foraging-parties of from fifty to sixty men from each regiment daily scoured the country in front and on the flanks for provisions. Indeed, so anxious were these foragers to "strike a fresh plantation" before those of other commands that they frequently left camp as early as two o'clock in the morning, and throughout the day would keep in advance of the main column of troops a distance of from five to ten miles, very often being found in advance of Kilpatrick's cavalry. And while on this duty, whether on foot, on mules, MILITARY RECORD OF IONIA AND MONTCALM. 63 strong) was at last prepared to seek the new base promised in his order. The right wing was the first to move out (afternoon of the 15th); then came the Twentieth Corps, and lastly the Fourteenth, and with this corps the Twentyfirst Regiment marched away on the morning of Wednesday, November 16th. A distance of some twelve miles was made the first day. The village of Decatur was passed, and at night the corps bivouacked in the vicinity of Stone Mountain, a roundtopped knob of solid limestone, about one mile in diameter at the base and rising bare and gray from the level plain to a height of about thirteen hundred feet. On the 17th a march of twenty miles was made, which carried the corps into a region of plenty, or a district that had not been already devastated by the Union and rebel armies in their operations around Atlanta, the route leading to the village of Conyers, where the troops encamped. Friday, the 18th, Gen. Davis' command was engaged marching and tearing up the track of the Georgia Railroad. It passed through a country abounding in things necessary for the sustenance of man and beast, crossed Yellow River (a tributary of the Ocmulgee) on pontoons, and at night its weary members lighted their bivouac-fires in the vicinity of Covington, the seat of justice of Newton County. Thus far, about forty-five miles of the Georgia Railroad had been most thoroughly destroyed, but at the point last named the command left the railroad, and, marching in a southeasterly direction on the morning of the 19th, the evening of the same day found a majority of the Fourteenth Corps twenty miles from Covington and about twice that distance from each of the towns of Macon and Milledgeville. It was here learned (through rebel sources) that Lincoln was re-elected President. The evening of the 20th saw Davis' command encamped near Eatonton and twenty-five miles from Milledgeville. The march of the 21st was made in a drenching rainstorm, and the advance of the corps bivouacked for the night at Muddy Creek, thirteen miles from Milledgeville. Here the dull boom of artillery was heard to the right and front,-the first sounds indicating hostilities since leaving Atlanta. On the 22d the Twenty-first with its division marched into Milledgeville (the capital of the " Empire State of the South"), but found it already occupied by commands of the Twentieth Corps. To this time Gen. Sherman, his staff, and escort had or mounted on Southern thoroughbreds, jolting along in plantationcarts, or driving into camp seated in a planter's sumptuous barouche (all these mounted animals and vehicles, meanwhile, as well as scores of stout "contrabands," being loaded with poultry, flour, corn-meal, sweet potatoes, hams, shoulders, bacon, honey, syrup, etc.), the foragers of the Fourteenth Corps and of the others cared little for Wheeler's, Butler's, or Hampton's rebel cavalry, and when attacked by them the men of different regiments and States fraternized at once, rapidly organized their skirmish-line and reserve, and with officers for these occasions only (who were most generally wide-awake privates) advanced and cleared their way. Thus did Sherman's armies bowl down to the sea, and after the proud and defiant city of Savannah was within their grasp the same scenes were re-enacted in the march northward through the Carolinas, except that a much heavier hand was laid upon the pestiferous Palmetto State than anywhere else. moved with the Fourteenth Corps, and here he issued his circular giving liberty to his troops to forage on the country and to appropriate anything necessary for the sustenance of themselves and their animals. "These orders" (said a letter written by an officer of the corps) "were generally lived up to, and often exceeded. The citizens, on hearing of our approach, took everything of value to the woods and swamps and covered them with brush or buried them in the ground. But the 'Yanks' were not long in discovering this, and but little is presumed to have escaped their notice. Sweet potatoes, meal, flour, various kinds of liquor, tobacco, silk, and even coin, were thus unearthed from their hiding-places, and many a frolic was had by the Bluecoats at the Confederates' expense. "It was truly amusing to go ahead of the army proper and see the foragers' proceedings. They were as good as skirmishers and advance.guards, and often were the only ones we had. They never failed to rout the rebels whenever and wherever found. Citizens could tell our approach long before the army came along by the popping of guns, squealing of hogs, and the noises of various farm-fowls. Nothing escaped the foragers' notice, and but little that was serviceable to us eluded their grasp. When they came to a plantation they generally separated into small squads, each squad hunting for some special thing. As if taught by instinct that we meant them harm, all animals and fowls tried to secrete themselves or get out of reach. Hogs, sheep, and cattle would take to the woods, fowls to the outbuildings, and turkeys to the trees and house-tops. But it was all of no avail. The enterprising and persistent Yankees, prompted by hunger and the thoughts of a savory dish, were sure to hunt them out and bring them to. We had orders not to fire our guns to procure food, but that order was only partially lived up to. Any animal which we could not corner and catch we shot; and when the fowls took to the trees or the tops of the buildings the Springfield and Enfield rifles were sure to bring them down. Often would the fat turkeys take shelter in the trees and cry ' Quit! qutit ' but there was no quit. " Occasionally the foragers would find a lot of tobacco, honey, or molasses. Then there was a rush and scramble. To many, a swarm of bees was no more an impediment to the getting of the honey than if they had been so many blue flies. A crowd of soldiers might be seen around a barrel of molasses, the head knocked in, and they with their cups filling their canteens, coffee-pots, little pails, and every available kind of vessel that would hold the sweet fluid." It was also laughable to notice the various contrivances resorted to for the means of transporting their supplies to camp. Some could be seen with splendid horses attached to heavy silver-mounted family carriages, driving in in style aristocratic, as the result of their adventures; some with mules, to which were attached buggies and other light vehicles, driving like fast young men; others, not so fortunate as to secure horses or mules, got ropes and thereby attached steers, and even cows, to buggies and carts. Others still, made pack-animals of the same, and some, with an ingenuity and perseverance not to be thwarted for want of horses, mules, or steers, impressed into service robust negroes, and on the plea of military necessity compelled 64 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. them (according to Southern phraseology) to " tote" their stuff to camp. There were many other incidents of daily occurrence on the " March to the Sea"-and the same were common experiences with all the commands-the tithe of which never have been, and never will be, told. In this connection, therefore, we give place for a few of them (under appropriate headings) before proceeding to the further narration of the movements of the Twenty-first, and in doing so quote occasionally from the journal of a private soldier. DESTRUCTION OF ATLANTA AND BEGINNING OF THE MARCH. "This being the day appointed to bid a final adieu to the Gate City, and knowing the length of time it takes a large army to straighten itself in proper line of march, we were not permitted to enjoy an overdose of sleep, and as early as 4 A.M. a conglomeration of music was heard in every direction of our immense army, and where darkness previously existed a thousand brilliant lights could be seen looming up beautifully bright, forming a contrast with the surrounding desolation, like so many stars issuing from the shroud of a darkening storm-cloud. All parts of the camp exhibited signs of thrift and bustle. This is an important day to the army commanded by the brave and gallant Sherman. This is the last day for those who are to join our army from the North to do so, or they will be left amid the gloomy and general desolation. "For several days preparations have been making in the city for its overthrow. The once proud Gate City, which a few short months since was filled with rebel troops, and whose streets were teeming with thousands of citizens, the heart of the Confederacy, whose pulsations beat high with hope, through whose iron channel troops and munitions of war were constantly passing and repassing; whose shops and foundries were unceasingly moulding the missiles of destruction; over whose heads tons and tons of molten lead and iron were hurled for the space of forty-six days as so many harbingers of its fate; where the sound of mirth and the drapery of mourning could be heard and seen in direful contrast,-that city with its miles of encircling works, offensive and defensive, and its massive forts, whose surroundings furnished graves for thousands both of loyal and disloyal victims of this most sanguinary struggle; the city that had long fed the Confederate army with the fruits of its treason from numerous outlets for many months; that city, made historic by the bloody conflict on the extreme left flank on that memorable day of July 22d, when that brave and gallant hero Gen. McPherson fell mortally wounded, as also the conflict of July 28th on the extreme right, and other signal engagements during its siege; that city, with its splendid depot and other important buildings, and its machine-shops, evidences of former industry and wealth, " whose clustering merchants raised the busy hum and planned the schemes of commerce,"-is soon to feel the withering blights and the scourge of war, the sorry fruits of rebellion and treason. " The besom of destruction is soon to be signally displayed. Already can be heard in the distance the thunders of explosion; the ministers of its wrath are hurrying on the work of its destruction. Destruction it dealt out for many a day, and now it is reaping the result; and double measure is repaid in all its stern reality. The public avenues that led to the highways and brought in the development of its resources were previously closed; the iron horse no longer gives forth its accustomed signal; a death-like silence already pervades the public and private workshops; the merry chiming of bells no longer evinces the happiness and prosperity of its inmates. Desolation already sits enthroned within its precincts, but the final retribution it has invited is reserved till now, when preparing to take our final farewell. " At break of day the assembly sounded, and regiments could be seen rapidly forming and taking up their line of march for another field of operations. The acres of tents which had just now overspread the surface like the sails of a ship when a storm threatens are hurriedly reefed and assigned to the knapsack. The long lines of muskets in well-arranged stacks, that just now stood in harmless silence on the color-line, can now be seen gracefully reclining on the shoulders of the brave who know how to wield them, and now assume a more threatening aspect. The immense park of wagon-trains that a short time since were motionless can be distinctly seen forming gradually into a long line of march. Orderlies, swiftly riding and passing each other at every angle, can be seen as the bearers of dispatches to commanders in the different camps. All are sufficiently apprised of the order of the day, and, cast your eyes where you will, all is bustle and activity. " Gradually each army corps takes up the line of march assigned it by the prime mover and commander of an army thoroughly inured to the hardships and difficulties of active service, the order of march being thus: The Fourteenth Corps occupies the extreme left; to its right is established the line of the Twentieth Corps, and next in order is the Seventeenth Army Corps, while on the extreme right can be seen the Fifteenth Corps, with its superb fighting material. Each corps has its own line of march separate and distinct, while all act in combination to secure the same end. " Fairly under way, many an eye is turned to look back towards the city whose destruction is inevitably secured. Explosion after explosion has been heard during the hours it has taken to form and disappear, each in their respective lines of march, but the backward look, as it views the dense volumes of smoke ascending as so much incense to atone for the crime it involved itself in in time past, is not the look of sympathy or pity, but rather of approving justice in the measure of atonement required; for the last three and a half years of hard service, with all its wearisome marches, its numerous conflicts and incessant exposure to the inclemency of alternate heat and cold and the various diseases incident to camp-life, has enstamped upon the brows of these veterans the indelible work of stern justice; and now, as they look, their lips inaudibly express the justice of the measure. 1" Not that they admire the infliction of the stroke, but, like a merciful yet stern judge, they think it necessary for the honor of the law, and as a measure best calculated to shorten the heated contest of civil strife. And, yet further, MILITARY RECORD OF IONIA AND MONTCALM. -65 the vigorous siege, with all its bloody scenes and associations, is still fresh in their memories. The conflicts of the 20th, 22d, and 28th of July are not yet erased from their minds, for here brothers, uncles, cousins, nephews, father and son, and sons and fathers, were mournfully separated from each other; old and valued friendships and acquaintances were rent in twain, ne'er to match themselves again with the wily and treacherous foe on the gory battle-field. The tedious days and nights spent in the water-soaked trenches under the constant crackling of musketry, and the hoarse and savage shrieks of those iron monsters as they belched forth from a hundred cannon, loomed up fresh in their minds; the many victims of deliberate aim on the skirmish-line are not forgotten; the iron and leaden hail that issued from its centre and sent so many thousands of our brave comrades to untimely graves during the summer months brings up the sad reminiscences connected with it. "The day is cloudy; the sun refuses to shine; the sky has clothed itself with its drapery of mourning,-habiliments well befitting the solemn occasion. No longer the Gate City, throbbing with high life, but an isolated centre,-fit emblem of the widowhood that is to follow. Its suburban shades, soaked with the blood of our brave, and now containing the mouldering remains of their lifeless forms, calls to high Heaven to be summarily avenged, and their cries are heard. The Destroying Angel is abroad, and while the work of destruction is being executed, and the vast sheets of flame purify the atmosphere tainted with the blood of the innocent, the darkening clouds veil the solemn sight from the bright and blue sky, and like so many pall-bearers kindly attend the purification of the city and shut in the sorrowful scene from the outer world, and now and then shed its tears over the scene in the form of light sprinkling showers; for be it remembered that while it is solemn work and the act one ofretributivejustice, yet it excites compassion in the minds of many brave men as they recede from view, but consider it expedient for an example and warning, and as a necessary sacrifice, ' that the whole nation perish not.'" ARGUMENTS BY THE WAYSIDE. "No sooner were we fairly under way than conjectures were fairly rife among the boys-as they are at all times when in the execution of a new move or the commencement of a new campaign-as to our probable destination and the result to be accomplished thereby; and, amusing as are the decisions of some in reference to the next most important position to be gained, others display such acuteness in their chain of logical acumen that many commanders might profit by their plain and convincing arguments. "As we are bustling along the road thoughts arrest the attention of some as to the real condition of affairs. Having severed the link of communication that connected us with the North, they look back to see the effects of to-day's work, and as the burning city sends up alternately volumes of flame and smoke, making the atmosphere murky with its presence, expressions varied in their nature and meaning escape their lips, and, finally to solve the mystery of the scene in the wide-spread surrounding desolation, exclaim, with an approving nod, ' The just fruits of treason and rebellion.' But suddenly some scene of a comic nature turns 9 up, and the whole line reverberates with the echoes of a hearty yell, the evidence that something good has been relished by them. Thus alternately reason and amusement find room for exercise as we pursue our onward course. " And here let me remark that there are but few questions of present or future policy that concern the interest of our country but what are overhauled and made to pass in scathing review in their arguments with each other, but for the present they consider the all-absorbing attention of the nation should be the speedy suppression and overthrow of this causeless rebellion, and thus they suffer much to accomplish the same, making their actions speak louder than their words." DUTIES OF PROVOST-GUARD. "To-day our company has been assigned to the duty of rear- and provost-guard, whose province it is to pick up all stragglers from their respective commands, unless provided with proper documents to show that they are so authorized. This sometimes proves to be a disagreeable task, for, in the case of a large army like ours, it must be that some, from accident, sickness, or otherwise, will be fbund far in the rear of their respective commands. In consequence, our duty necessitates us to urge them on faster than their physical strength will ofttimes permit them, although provision is made for such cases in the supply of division ambulance-trains; but in order to secure transportation in the same they need a passport from the regimental surgeon, which cannot always be secured by the unfortunate applicant for various reasons, some of which I will try to enumerate. " In the first place it seems to be taken for granted by regimental surgeons and others that every regiment contains certain members who design to 'play 'possum,' or, in common military phrase, ' to play off on the surgeon' for a sick man, when in reality they are sound and healthy. Thus confusion often ensues in the exercise of judgment in the case of the would-be patient. Second, it is often the case that a soldier really sick makes application, stating fully and truthfully his condition, but from an apparent healthy-looking countenance is refused the privilege of riding, while another, with a more pallid and bleached appearance, is admitted, although more than a match in physical strength and endurance. Third, it is of no use to cloak the fact that favoritism finds a free and easy channel to manifest itself in military as well as in civil and political life; for some can always secure the requisite documents, while others, really sick, experience the cold shoulder, and often, after exhausting all their energy and strength in the prosecution of part of their journey, drop down by the wayside in utter helplessness. " But they are not all such cases, those we meet straggling to the rear, for there are some refractory ones who feel very huffy and insolent at being compelled to walk under guard, and plainly indicate their disapprobation ot such treatment, but, philosophically concluding that a trapped bird that can walk and won't walk, in military tactics, is made to walk, they reluctantly move ahead. And thus during the day we are continually adding recruits to our numbers, and some from a class generally found in that par 66 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. - -- -I ticular province. Reaching camp, we turn our trust over to the provost-marshal, who examines into the nature of their several cases, renders his decision, and disposes of them in accordance with his instructions." It must not be supposed, however, that, with all this precaution, every straggler was picked up, or that none escaped detection and arrest by the provost-guard, for the troops often seemed determined, if possible, to outdo their commanders in ingenuity, and the tighter the screw was turned on the more they set their wits to work to counteract its effects. There were those in the army who, like the fabled phoenix, were seldom seen, and the greater the attempt to prevent their egress from the ranks the more anxious they were to escape; like the slippery eel, they easily eluded the grasp. Others taxed their ingenuity to the utmost in framing statements to account for absence from the ranks; again, some, with a dexterity of action that became natural and easy, distorted their countenances in various ways, presenting the appearance of genuine convalescents, to avoid an official inquiry, and it must be confessed that they often succeeded in their object. But, with all the cunning and curious manoeuvres resorted to by the rank and file to escape from the main column for the time being and forage for themselves, very few outrages were committed by them. SWARTHY RECRUITS AND THEIR PERFORMANCES. "Our band and martial music elicited much admiration and surprise among the negroes. Numbers of them could be seen keeping time to the tunes and airs that were played, and, look in what direction you please, scores of them are seen skulking off from their recent owners to join the Yanks, all loaded with unwieldy bundles of clothes on their heads,-a mode of carrying peculiar to the South,some with their little piccaninnies in shawls and strapped to their backs; some with kettles, others with beds; some laden with the rich plunder of their recent masters, now fugitives from home. All of them evince a clear instinct of self-preservation, and come to us fully prepared with everything but eatables for their exodus from bondage and their supposed exit from future labor, thinking to be shortly introduced to the 'promised land flowing with milk and honey.' But they do not follow the army far before they have to go through the process of mental investigation in a thousand and one questions that are put to them by the curious and inquisitive of the ranks. Others, with much alacrity, perform their dancing jigs as evidence of their satisfaction for the new state of thing, while some stand by the roadside politely saluting everything that comes along that is owned by the Yanks, as they call us, and producing roars of laughter all along the lines by their peculiar manoeuvres and curious antics." The negro boys who, as servants, were scattered among the companies of the various regiments also afforded an unfailing source of amusement in the evening, at the conclusion of a hard day's march; for it was no uncommon occurrence to see large groups of the soldiers form a circle, with negro performers hemmed in in the centre, going through their comical movements and dances, while one of their number, to supply the want of music, repeated in constant and correct measure (at the same time slapping his thighs, breast, top of his head, and the soles of his feet) a ditty in some such words as the following: "As my sweetheart goes 'roun' an' 'roun', De hollow ob her foot makes a hole in de groun'." Or in another, which commenced: "Sally went down de new-cut road, An' I went down de lane." Before reaching Milledgeville the roads in the immediate rear of the Fourteenth Corps, as well as the fields on its flanks, contained thousands of these people fleeing from bondage and from the plantations of their fugitive masters. Depending as we did upon the country for our daily subsistence, we had already, in crossing wide stretches of uncultivated tracts, found considerable difficulty in readily obtaining adequate supplies for the men and animals of the army proper. The almost countless numbers of blacks, many of them driving or leading horses and mules, increased the trouble, as far as food was concerned, besides assisting to block up the roads in our vicinity should they be needed for rapid military movements. Self-preservation demanded that they should be kept back somehow; for, although the advice contained in Gen. Sherman's Order No. 119 was carried out as far as it was possible to do, and the white and black refugees were not "encouraged to encumber us on the march," the latter class, of all conditions, ages, and sex, filled every by-path. Therefore, on reaching the Oconee River, at a point a short distance southeast from Milledgeville, an opportunity was afforded Gen. Davis to head them off and leave them where their surroundings were much better than following in the wake of the army. Here the rebels, in their frantic efforts to stay and impede the march of Sherman's hosts, had recently burned a costly bridge. After but two or three hours' delay a pontoon-bridge* was thrown across the stream, and the march was resumed. But before any of the blacks crossed a guard was stationed at the western extremity of the bridge with orders to allow none of color to cross unless serving in the capacity of servantst in the various commands of the corps. As a result, thousands of the colored population were stayed in their further progress (towards " de happy land ob Canaan") on the right bank of the Oconee. But a few days elapsed, however, before as many-ay, even more-were again following the corps as its members tramped steadily on towards the coast: nothing could stay or stop the spontaneous flight of the friendly creatures from their lowly cabins to follow the army except impassable water-courses. And as Gen. Davis neared Savannah, and knowing that a siege of unknown duration awaited him and his troops, during which it was possible that great want * While the troops were crossing this bridge three or four elderly women (" to the manner born") occupied an elevated position near the roadway, and where they could obtain a good view of what seemed to them, doubtless, the supernatural proceedings on the part of the terrible Yankees. As the writer sauntered past the group, one of them exclaimed: "Oh, dear! what will we'uns do? Our horse-soldiers come along and burned the bridge so you Yanks couldn't cross; but here you'uns come; you walk right over the river, then take up your bridge and leave we'uns without any." t There were no colored soldiers in this army. MILITARY RECORD OF IONIA AND MONTCALM. 67 - might ensue for lack of provisions, the negroes were again halted at Ebenezer Creek in the same manner as at the Oconee. Disaster awaited them there, though, for the rebel Wheeler and his troopers, exasperated by the ill success which had uniformly attended them in their numerous encounters with Kilpatrick and his Northern riders, as well as with the foragers from the Yankee infantry columns, charged down upon the unarmed, defenseless blacks with drawn sabres, and those who escaped only did so by fleeing to the dark recesses of the swamps or by swimming the narrow but deep Ebenezer. SCENES BY THE WAYSIDE AND GOING INTO CAMP. "During the afternoon we halted near by quite a large mill. While the pioneers were fixing a foot-bridge for the infantry to cross the stream, the boys, taking advantage of the halt, could be seen wending their way down the bluff and across the same, and in a few minutes returning with their haversacks full of meal, and for some time a constant crowd of soldiers could be seen going and coming loaded with the spoils, many of them bearing the appearance of self-constituted millers; for in the pursuit of supplies for the haversack they allow no common obstacle to arrest their attention or hinder their progress. " At 5 P.M. (Sunday, November 20th) we reached camp, and the boys, having an unusual supply of rations, are congratulating themselves on a hearty repast. To one unaccustomed to the arrangements of troops in the field it would be surprising to witness the activity and the numerous manoeuvres of the men on reaching camp. Fancy a large and well-cultivated plantation, surrounded and divided off with well-constructed rail fences, extending a mile or two in either direction, in the brief space of five minutes cleared of everything except the growing trees, presenting, at the end of that time, the appearance of a vast unfenced, uncultivated plain; yet such is the fact, for as soon as each regiment ascertains the whereabouts of its color-line two or three soldiers from each company rush in wild haste to the fences and commence placing the rails in piles for their respective companies, and as soon as the company has stacked arms each man puts off for his share of fire-wood. As soon as fuel is secured the next race is with kettles and canteens, in pursuit of water; and, while some start the fires, others are plucking dried grass and weeds or coming in with armfuls of straw on which to repose for the night; and this is generally all done in less time than it takes to relate the same. After these things are secured, should any one not familiar with the shifts and turns of soldiers pass through the different camps, and see the various modes of cooking by the different messes, according to their ideas of the same, they would acknowledge that it was a picturesque scene. And to visitors from the refined walks of life the various dishes, as they are served up, might not appear very inviting, but to these hardy sons of Mars they are delicious, and are devoured with much avidity. "In raiding-life the dishes are composed of a greater variety than in garrison, and we are necessitated to take the raw material as we find it and convert it into palatable I i dishes as the limits of cooking-utensils or time or circumstances will permit, our principal supplies consisting of corn-meal, sweet potatoes, and fresh pork, with occasionally molasses and honey as luxuries. Should the lover of puns, jokes, and unique sayings be present during the process of cooking and the period of its consummation, he would here find a rich feast and a variety to suit the numerous tastes of individuals; for here nature shows itself in all its freshness and presents all its peculiar freaks, there being no restraint to its generous outflow, and in consequence it flows spontaneously from all its inner depths, presenting genuine, homespun humor without fear or favor. "But this evening, ere some have cooked their supper, the windows of heaven seemed to be opened, and the rain pours down as only it can beneath a Southern sky, compelling the boys to retire within their shelter-tents in order to do justice to their prepared repast. And during the whole night the rain continues to pour down with unabated vigor, converting the plain into a temporary swamp, sweeping and blowing in under everything in the shape of shelter, completely saturating the blankets of the boys, making it very uncomfortable for repose, and rendering it almost impossible to sleep. But the thought of stemming the elements as well as the Rebellion on the plea of military necessity renders them, after some gruff mutterings, willing to bow in submission to Nature's stroke. The Third Division of our corps, being in the rear, did not reach camp until morning, the roads being so excessively miry, causing slow progress to the train, depriving the boys of rest and exposing them to the severe storms of the night." SALUTARY REGULATIONS. "I would here state that the salutary regulations governing an army in its line of march are wisely ordered, for various reasons. '" First. In the line of march of a corps it is necessary that each division should take its turn at the front, for the roads get cut up so badly by the advance-trains and artillery that it would soon kill the horses and mules in the rear to keep up; and the same effect would work its way also on troops, as the rear would enjoy but little sleep on account of not reaching camp until midnight, and sometimes not at all. Consequently the divisions alternate from front to rear and gradually work up again. The same order is also maintained in brigades and regiments; besides, the regiments are marched one day right in front and the next day left in front, thus giving all parts of the rank and file an equal chance. "Second. Were these regulations not maintained, the advance division of the corps would secure daily an unequal share of the forage, while the rear would be scantily supplied; and this is quite an object where a large army like ours depends principally on the country for supplies. " Third. It is also necessary in case of meeting with much opposition from the foe, and in the capture of horses and mules to supply the places of those worn out. But there is another feature in our line of march consequent upon such campaigns as the present, and that is to give the trains the full benefit of the road, while the army proper marches through the plantations on either the right or the -I 68 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. - I left side of the road, thus gaining a threefold advantage,viz., expediting the progress of the train, forming a strong guard to the same, and, third, thwarting the effects of a sudden cavalry dash from the enemy, which might otherwise occur; for, being cut off from communications, it is necessary to preserve the trains and the scanty supplies they contain, as we know not what awaits us at the coast." REAR-GUARD EXPERIENCES. "After a good night's soaking, one would think that we ought to be well limbered up for another day's advance; but such is not exactly the case, and in turning out from our watery recesses the first thought and action is to secure a good fire and dry our clothes and blankets, that feel unreasonably heavy from their baptism. " It was at break of day when we issued from our hidingplaces. The rain was still pouring down in all its fury, as if determined to check our march, but the orders to advance were imperative; so, hastily making way with our morning meal under very disagreeable circumstances, we attempted to steam out the subtle contents that had taken shelter in our dry goods-or rather wet goods-as best we could. But the Third Division taking the advance, and occupying some time to string out in line of march on the road, and our regiment having to take the extreme rear of our division as rear train-guard, we did not move out from camp until eleven o'clock in the morning. "Nature and the general appearance of things look gloomy this morning, but still the army is not entirely without its enjoyments; for while the boys are pulling out in line of march, feeling somewhat huffy at the unkind treatment of the elements, some refractory cows and steers, loaded with blankets, tents, knapsacks, and cooking-utensils, could be seen scampering across the fields strongly protesting against being used as pack-mules, and by vigorous kicks and plunges to avoid capture had scattered broadcast over the plain the contents of their unwieldy burdens, holding high their heads as evidences of their triumph, thereby causing uproarious laughter and prolonged cheers as the result. Their example seemed contagious, for the pack-mules, witnessing their stubborn freaks, in turn played a trick,-true to the nature of an army-mule,-and refused to go forward, as much as to say that unless the others were brought back in the harness they would not go; and in consequence there ensued an animated contest between their negro drivers and themselves for the victory. Thus much merriment was created, which went far to make up for the otherwise dismal state of affairs. " We made very slow progress to-day, on account of very miry roads, and the country was also much broken. Towards evening the rain ceased, and a strong wind took its place, cold and cutting in its nature, proving to our entire satisfaction that our clothing was too scanty to prevent its chilling effects; but shortly before dark the clouds, clearing away in the west, disclosed the blue sky, with white fleecy clouds slightly fringed with black, beautifully reflecting the last rays of the setting sun, which, together with zn 0 1 zn~V ~~y U~Y~l an extensive and romantic view of hills and valleys in the distance, presented an enchanting scene never to be forgotten. But the western sky betokened a cold and cheerless night for us, which was fully realized, for in ascending the rising bluffs in this section of the country the train scarcely moved. In fact, every wagon had to be assisted by the troops up the hills and out of the deep ruts made by the advance. At such times the teamsters did not spare their lungs, and the principal music of the occasion consisted in the sharp crackling of the whip and the voice of the teamsters, hoarse with constant and vigorous exercise. As one listened it seemed to be a contest for supremacy between them and the cold wind, whose boisterous waves rolled over the tree-tops with great fury, searching every nook and corner unprepared for its reception. "( All along the line of road, numerous fires-in fact, long lines of fence-could be seen rolling out brilliant flames by the violence of the wind, and groups of soldiers huddling in close proximity to each other, endeavoring to absorb the heat in its rapid escape as a temporary offset for the want of clothes. After crossing several steep and rugged bluffs in this sluggish and disagreeable manner, we reached the valley and soon made camp, it being three o'clock in the morning and intensely cold. Without any ceremony we spread our blankets and rolled in for a few hours' rest, having traveled only eight miles in all. Thus closed one of the most disagreeable days and nights of the campaign." MANNER OF DESTROYING THE RAILROADS. To those unacquainted with railroad-burning, it may not be amiss to explain how we did it. In the first place, a regiment, brigade, or division formed in line alongside the track, stacked arms, each company taking its own length or a distance according to the number of its men. This being done, some with axes broke off the heads of the spikes that fastened the rails to the ties; others secured poles for levers, and with them lifted the rails from their places. At the same time some were getting rails and dry wood to start the fires, while others still were busily engaged prying up the ties. All these things being quickly accomplished, the ties were laid upon the road-bed, in transverse layers of three, four, or five, as seemed most convenient, making five or six layers in all; then, placing two close together on the top, the irons were laid on the same, so as to balance; then, in like manner, a tie or two were placed on top of the rails. The stack being thus com pleted, dry wood filled the interstices, and the torch was applied. It did not take long for the heat to cause the ponderous iron to yield to its influences, and ere many minutes the opposite ends gradually and gracefully touched the ground in humble submission. But in order to completely disable them for future use short levers were meanwhile fastened, by means of telegraph wire, to the ends; then one or two soldiers stationed at each end would twist in opposite directions, and soon the centre of the rail was twisted in the form of a screw. Others, while the rails were hot, folded them around trees and telegraph-poles, but, whatever mode was adopted, in the pleasant rivalry of twisting the rails in the most inconceivable forms they were all most thoroughly rendered unfit for use. While the fires were burning, some of the men, in order to take time by the forelock, roasted meat, others made coffee, so as to enjoy more rest when camp was reached, while others gravely dis MILITARY RECORD OF IONIA AND MONTCALM. 69 cussed the past history of this railroad and its probable future. THE PLEASURES OF A NIGHT-MARCH THROUGH THE SWAMPS. "About dusk (December 7th), after several hours of slow marching, we stumbled upon one of our usual swamps, the whole train being brought to a halt to allow the pioneers to repair the road for their passage. We stacked arms in an open field to the right of the road, and prepared our suppers, having up to this time made only eight miles, and in receiving timely orders to prepare supper we have concluded that there is some night-work in store for us. And it literally proved true, it turhing out a more severe task than we felt we had bargained for. But, not being in the habit of allowing small obstacles to impede our progress or to compel us to back out, we nerved ourselves for what was in store. "Shortly after our meal had been disposed of we resumed our journey, and undertook the task of navigating our frail barks across an extensive morass in near proximity, supposing we would then meet with no further impediments to a rapid advance. But subsequent experience soon taught us the contrary; and, instead of finding a smooth and favorable pathway to our desired haven, we experienced a continuous and uninterrupted chain of swamps and morasses, together with some pretty large flat sheets of water in attendance. " For some time the boys studiously endeavored to avoid wading, to prevent wetting their feet, by confining themselves to those narrow foot-bridges by the roadside which consist of narrow square logs resting upon short piles set firmly in the ground. They succeeded for some time in their object, but, some of the logs having been removed by some ruthless hand, they were finally necessitated to come down from their elevated position and try the realities of a night-bath by plunging into the watery element. That once done, no further fears are entertained, and, come what may, water deep or shallow, mud deep or miry, quagmires or quicksands, roots or stumps, alligators or what not, they heedlessly pushed their way through these well-watered but not very attractive regions, which are peculiar to this special latitude. "Previous to the necessity of wading, while in the act of crossing the elevated pathways already alluded to, many of the boys, from accident or otherwise, would stumble and fall into dark, deep, stagnant pools of water, going through a not very pleasant baptismal process of introduction, and enjoying in the mean time a favorable opportunity of testing the hydropathic system of treatment. I sometimes fear the hydropathic system will not meet with much favor among the boys, from the frequent and unfavorable circumstances of its introduction, and during the season of the year, too, most disagreeable. But it is hard to determine which of the three systems of practice in use will meet with the warmest support of the troops in the future. They have had a good opportunity of testing the practice of allopathy for the past four years, but the frequent and enormous doses of quinine, powders, and pills administered to the numerous daily applicants for various imaginary ailments and diseases, together with the immense doses of castor-oil, have created such a dislike and disgust for the remedial agencies of this time-honored system that there may possibly exist an undue amount of prejudice against its practice. "In reference to the system of hydropathy, I am inclined to think that, while the boys are sometimes fond of laving the body at favorable seasons after going through an unusual steaming process, the result of traveling at what the boys call 'lightning speed,' yet they are not sufficiently amphibious in their nature and taste to resort very frequently to the aqueous element in all the numerous forms of hydropathic application. As to homoeopathy they acknowledge it pleasant, but the apparent simplicity of the practice causes it to lose all its charms to them, if any charms there be. " Returning to our journey. It was intensely disagreeable, laborious, and difficult to accomplish; but the constant and uninterrupted music of the occasion, caused by the ringing screams of the boys, the sharp crackling of the teamsters' whips, and the urgent appeals to the discouraged mules placed under their charge, as they earnestly endeavored to prompt them to more energetic action in order to extricate the unwieldy army-wagons as they sank deeply in the quicksands or india-rubber bottoms, strongly enlivened the scene, and acted as a spur to the moment. And wherever or whenever you hear prolonged screams, yells, or roars of laughter in front, you are apprised by unmistakable evidence of what is in store in the form of some ghastly swamp or impassable mud-hole, eliciting the quaint and general exclamations, 'No bottom!' ' No bottom!' ' Six feet!' ' Quarter twain!' ' Half twain!' Quarter less twain!' and others, thus imitating the log-heavers on our Western river-steamboats. "After several hours of difficult night explorations through these dreaded and gloomy shades, in a continuous line of swamps of about five miles in length, we emerged from the uncomfortable forest-depths and went into camp in a grove of lonely pines about one o'clock P.M., the advance of the corps having reached the same several hours previous; and you may rest assured we were an unsightlylooking set of mortals, for after passing the most watery portion of this most inferior district, just previous to reaching camp, we stumbled through a slimy strip of road (made so by the passage of the advance trains), which completely besmeared our entire persons with its wellmixed contents. So, building our camp-fires and wringing an unusual amount of water from our drawers, pants, and socks, we surrounded our pitch-pine fires and tried by the application of heat to restore a healthy and proper equilibrium of things. "Having performed our nightly task, the near approach of morning warned us of the necessity of a little rest; so, spreading our blankets on the ground underneath the swaying pines, we compose ourselves for a brief sleep ere the uproar of the reveille at daybreak arouses us from muchneeded slumbers." THE REAL " BUMMERS." Many who read this may not understand the meaning of this peculiar term as applied by army-men, therefore a brief 70 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. I explanation is attempted here. Those known as " bummers" in Sherman's army were composed of a class found in large numbers at the various headquarters, from those of the general commanding down to regimental. Although, as enlisted men, they all belonged to various regiments, they were a class who preferred detached service or positions that had to be filled by somebody in preference to active service in the ranks of their own commands. Filling such positions, they could more easily than others secure passes so as to branch out on either flank for the ostensible purpose of foraging. Once clear of the main line of march, however, and out of sight and reach of the guards, they commenced to develop their plundering and pilfering propensities on a scale commensurate with their wants, and but little escaped their detection. The more securely anything was placed under lock and key the more determined they were to sound its contents. The variety of eatables found, whether in large or small quantities, was not what they were always after, and when after a thorough search through every nook and corner of a house, and after breaking open everything under lock and key, they did not find what they believed was somewhere concealed, they would then threaten violence to the half-affrighted negroes if they did not make known the place of concealment. Finally, believing that their threats would be carried into execution, the negroes, if they knew, usually pointed out the place of secret deposit. The articles mostly sought for by the " bummers" were gold and silver coin, watches, jewelry, gold- and silver-ware, pistols, fancy cutlery, fowling-pieces, etc. On their return to camp, however, they brought with them the necessary amount of forage for the officers they served, and it was always of the best the country afforded. The trains also furnished a large percentage of "bummers" from the hangers-on around them, as they had a good supply of mules, and could more conveniently carry the results of their plundering expeditions. It was astonishing, and often amusing, to see the various tricks resorted to for the success of their schemes. The negroes were the ones upon whom they tried their skill with wonderful success, for they most commonly knew where their masters had secreted their treasures,-at least the second or black overseers of the plantations did,-and, knowing the nature of their dupes, the bummers, as well as the regularly-detailed foragers, easily compelled them, generally by threats, to reveal the hiding-places. Others, by holding a rod in their hands similar to the practice of water-witches, claimed to be able to tell where the place of concealment was, and by this simple movement made the uututored negroes believe that they were possessed of the powers of divination,-a manoeuvre which was usually followed by the negroes hastily divulging the whereabouts of the hidden treasures. But some, more bold and daring, would enter the houses unceremoniously, search them from top to bottom, and, in case of non-success, loud and continuous vociferations could be heard, followed by the smashing of some articles of vertu. To show to what an extent these " bummers" sometimes carried their searches a single instance is related. A matronly lady, hearing that her provisions would be taken from her at the approach of our army, secreted them be tween the folds of her bed, and, to better secure them and prevent their being taken, assumed the attitude of a helpless invalid, and in fancied security reclined thereon, not harboring the least suspicion that her person would be molested while in that position. After a while a number of "bummers" came rushing up in hot haste, each anxious to precede the others, and abruptly introduced themselves to an inside view of the humble mansion. The peculiar order of things was soon made manifest to them, and in their usual manner they at once commenced an unceremonious and hasty search; but, not succeeding according to their expectations, they bethought themselves that possibly they might find the objects of their search in the bed whereon the lady reclined. So, banishing all modest pretensions, they announced to the now blushing matron that they were under the necessity of disturbing her rest, as they wished to ascertain the contents of such a mammoth couch; and, to her great chagrin, they found an abundance of good things, of which the bed was at once relieved, and the wit and cunning of the good lady completely thwarted. But this was only one of the many occurrences of like nature that might be adduced to prove the futility of attempting to secrete anything from these army-poachers. The citizens of the South of that day and region will doubtless acknowledge the almost utter impossibility of hiding things from the search of the persistent Yankees, and it would be surprising, if known, what a vast amount of stuff hidden in the woods, swamps, and in the ground, besides the thousands of horses, mules, cattle, and swine, was captured in the march through Georgia. But it was during the march through the Carolinas that the " bummers" met with unbounded success. Did any one wish to discover the " bummers' trail," that one had only to step out on either side of the road, when he would find that the woods were completely ramified with the same, and whenever the troops discovered paths diverging from the main line of march they were jocularly spoken of and recognized as the "bummers' trail." They were not always pleasant to follow, however, as they often led through swamps, bogs, and quagmires. Another stratagem practiced by those who aimed to be successful was to change their appearance by doffing the blue and donning the homespun jeans and butternuts of the South, which, with an old "plug hat" or a broadbrimmed felt, completed their costume; then, in genuine guerrilla style, they would ply their profession with varied success, staying out of camp days at a time, yet always taking care to be within easy reach of the Union columns should an armed body of rebels interrupt their nefarious proceedings. THE MARCH OF THE TWENTY-FIRST RESUMED. Refraining from further mention of incidents which occurred on the march through Georgia (incidents, as before stated, which were common experiences to all, and will be recognized by all who participated in the great march now celebrated in song and story), we return to the Twentyfirst Regiment, and will briefly trace its further course from the capital of Georgia to Savannah, thence through the Carolinas and Virginia to Washington, D. C., and home in June, 1865. MILITARY RECORD OF IONIA AND MONTCALM. 71 I Leaving Milledgeville on the 23d of November, the regiment with its division passed on to the crossing of the Oconee, thence by the most direct route to Sandersville, the county-seat of Washington County, where it arrived on the 26th, and where numerous encounters took place between the skirmishers and foragers of the Fourteenth Corps and Wheeler's division of rebel cavalry. The marches of the 27th and 28th brought the regiment to the vicinity of Louisville, the county-seat of Jefferson (after having crossed the headwaters of the Cannouchee and Ogeechee Rivers), where a halt of two or three days was made, the men meanwhile obtaining plentiful supplies from a good country and skirmishing with the enemy's cavalry. December 1st the march was resumed in a southeasterly direction, via Alexandria and Sylvania in Burke County, and on the night of the 5th the major portion of the corps encamped on the banks of Brier Creek, about sixty miles from Savannah. Here the first rice-fields and cypress-swamps were encountered, which indicated that the men of the Fourteenth Corps had now entered the low marshy country lying along the right bank of the Savannah River. On the 6th the line of march was taken along the main wagon-road connecting the cities of Augusta and Savannah, and, though continually impeded by timber felled across the road and bridges destroyed by the enemy, good progress was made, and the evening of the 7th found the corps on the north bank of Ebenezer Creek. On the 8th a rebel gunboat shelled the advance of the corps as it moved on the " old river-road" parallel to, and but a short distance from, the Savannah, and on the 9th the advance again found its way disputed by a rebel battery posted near the fourteen-mile post of the Savannah and Charleston Railroad. The Second Illinois Battery moved rapidly to the front and soon cleared the road, but with the loss of its gallant commander, Lieut. Coe, who was instantly killed while getting his guns into position. The rebel battery on its retreat encountered the Twentieth Army Corps and was captured. The Twenty-first Regiment, with Carlin's First Division, arrived in front of the enemy's works at Savannah on the 10th, and there relieved a part of the Twentieth Army Corps, which occupied a position in the Union line of investment on the south side of the Ogeechee Canal, being one of the most exposed positions on the whole line. There the men, being obliged to lay in the trenches, without comfortable tents and lightly clad, few of them having blankets (they having thrown them away on the march from Atlanta), suffered extremely from cold and also from hunger, as their rations consisted only of the filthy fresh beef, unhulled rice, and swamp water, as before mentioned. The regiment continued to hold the position described until the 18th, when it moved back north of the canal, and remained there until the evacuation of Savannah by the rebels on the night of December 20th-21st, and then went into camp about threefourths of a mile from the city. Meanwhile, Fort McAllister had been captured by an assault of Hazen's division of the Fifteenth Corps, December 13th. The first mails received in six weeks came on the 17th, and on the 19th full rations of coffee, "hard-tack," and "sow-belly" gladdened the veterans, who had received but two and one-half days' rations from the government supplies since leaving Atlanta, November 16th. On the 8th of January, 1865, Gen. Sherman congratu lated his victorious armies in the following words: " HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI, " IN THE FIELD, SAVANNAH, GA., Jan. 8, 1865. "Special Field Order " No. 6. "The general commanding 'announces to the troops composing the Military Division of the Mississippi that he has received from the President of the United States and from Lieut.-Gen. Grant letters conveying the high sense and appreciation of the campaign just closed, resulting in the capture of Savannah and the defeat of Hood's army in Tennessee. " In order that all may understand the importance of events, it is proper to revert to the situation of affairs in September last. We held Atlanta, a city of little value to us, but so important to the enemy that Mr. Davis, the head of the Rebellion faction in the South, visited his army near Palmetto and commanded them to regain it, as well as to ruin and destroy us by a series of measures which he thought would be effectual. "That army, by a rapid march, first gained our railroad near Big Shanty, and afterwards about Dalton. "We pursued, but it marched so rapidly that we could not overtake it, and Gen. Hood led his army successfully far towards Mississippi in hopes to decoy us out of Georgia. But we were not then to be led away by him, and purposed to control and lead events ourselves. Gens. Thomas and Schofield, commanding the departments to our rear, returned to their posts and prepared to decoy Gen. Hood into their meshes, whilst we came on to complete our original journey. "We quietly and deliberately destroyed Atlanta and all the railroad which the enemy had used to carry on war against us, occupied his State capital, and then captured his commercial capital, which had been so strongly fortified from the sea as to defy approach from that quarter. "Almost at the moment of our victorious entry into Savannah came the welcome and expected news that our comrades in Tennessee had also fulfilled nobly and well their part,-had decoyed Gen. Hood to Nashville and then turned on him, defeating his army thoroughly, capturing all his artillery, great numbers of prisoners, and were still pursuing the fragments down into Alabama. So complete a success in military operations extending over half a continent is an achievement entitled to a place in the military history of the world. " The armies serving in Georgia and Tennessee, as well as the local garrisons of Decatur, Bridgeport, Chattanooga, and Murfreesboro', are alike entitled to the common honor, and each regiment may inscribe on its colors at pleasure the word Savannah or Nashville. "The general commanding embraces in the same general success the operations of the cavalry column, under Gens. Stoneman, Burbridge, and Gillem, that penetrated into Southwest Virginia and paralyzed the efforts of the enemy to disturb the peace and safety of East Tennessee. Instead of being put on the defensive, we have at all points assumed the bold offensive and completely thwarted the designs of the enemies of our country. "By order of " MAJ.-GEN. W. T. SHERMAN. "(Signed) L. M. DAYTON, " Aide-de- Camp." After remaining at Savannah until January 20th, engaged in fortifying the city (so that it could be held by a small force) and in making preparations for the Carolina campaign, the regiment with its corps marched up the right bank of the Savannah River to Sister's Ferry. But, in consequence of continuous rains and the terrible condition of the roads, that point (but forty miles distant from Savannah) was not reached until the afternoon of the 28th. A crossing was made into South Carolina on the 5th of February, and, marching thence, via Brighton Post-office, Mathew's Bluffs, Barnwell Court-house, Williston, Kitchen's Mill, and Lexington, to within two or three miles of 72 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. — I Columbia (February 16th), the corps then changed its direction towards the northwest, crossed the Saluda River on pontoons, and continued up the right bank of the Broad River to Frost's Mills or the vicinity of Alston, where another crossing was made; thence, via Kincaid's Bridge, on Little River, and Winnsboro', to Rocky Mount, on the Catawaba, where four or five days were spent in effecting the crossing of the Fourteenth Corps. In fact, the difficulties attending that crossing, the continuous rains, the swollen streams, the red clay, which clung to everything, and the famished condition of both men and animals before clearing the obstacles encountered, were events which will always be remembered by the surviving members of the old " Acorn" corps. At last, on Tuesday, February 28th, by using wagonboxes (covered with tent-flies and canvas) for pontoons (the high water having carried away the first pontoon-bridge), the First Division succeeded in getting over the entire corps-trains, when the march was resumed towards the northeast, the Twentieth Corps at that time being twentyfive miles in advance of the Fourteenth, and a large force of the enemy rapidly concentrating at Charlotte, N. C. Considerable skirmishing occurred at Rocky Mount between the rear-guard of the corps (which was the brigade to which the Twenty-first was attached) and the enemy's cavalry. The latter, however, were easily brushed aside. By forced marches the Great Pedee was reached at a point near Sneedsboro', or the line dividing North and South Carolina, on the afternoon of Saturday, March 4th, passing on the way ' Hanging Rock" and other points made memorable during the war of the Revolution. Some two or three days' delay occurred here in crossing the broad stream, which was finally effected by the entire corps and trains on the 7th, and then the hated soil of South Carolina was left in the rear,-to many, forever. The march through the latter State was conducted in the same manner as through Georgia, but the track of the various army corps was marked by a far more general destruction of property than in Georgia, nearly all the buildings being burned, and only the tall, naked, chimney-stacks being left standing, while all along the western and northwestern horizon great columns of smoke by day, and the red glow of conflagration by night, told how the cavalry of Kilpatrick's division and the foragers of Gen. Jeff C. Davis' Fourteenth Army Corps were wreaking their treasured vengeance against the Palmetto State. From the Great Pedee to Fayettville, N. C. (which latter place was reached on Saturday, March 11th), the line of march led through the tar, rosin, and turpentine regions of the old North State. Considerable Union sentiment was manifested by the inhabitants, and usually they were kindly treated by the Union armies, but the armed forces of the enemy, who were constantly increasing in numbers in front, kept the foragers and skirmishers pretty active. Hardee, with a large rebel force, was driven out of Fayetteville on the 11th by the Fourteenth and Seventeenth Army Corps. The evening of the following day Vandever's First Brigade of the Second Division, Fourteenth Corps, was the first command of Sherman's army to cross to the north side of Cape Fear River, and on the 13th the Twenty-first Michigan with the First Division of the same corps followed. While here several Union steamers ascended the river, and an opportunity was afforded the men to send out mail, but none was received. Resuming the march, the enemy, in heavy force, under Hardee, was again encountered at Averysboro', March 16th. A sharp engagement ensued, which resulted in the total defeat of the rebels at the hands of portions of the Fourteenth and Twentieth Corps and Kilpatrick's Cavalry. The enemy lost heavily in killed and wounded, besides many prisoners, among the latter being Col. Rhett and his famous regiment of South Carolinians. The Union forces operating in this field were those of the Fourteenth and Twentieth Army Corps, commanded by Gen. Slocum, the Army of the Tennessee, or right wing, being some twenty-five or thirty miles to the eastward, moving on Goldsboro'. One division of the Fourteenth Corps and one of the Twentieth were guarding their respective corps-trains, leaving but four small divisions-at the most not more than twenty thousand men, and onethird of those shoeless-to engage such numbers as might oppose them. From Averysboro' the Fourteenth Corps took the advance, Morgan's Second Division leading, and Carlin's First coming next. Baird was guarding the train, while the two divisions of the Twentieth Corps were in the rear of Carlin. During the 17th and 18th of March, Morgan's skirmishers had several encounters with the enemy, but the latter rapidly retired whenever his columns were seen advancing, until late in the afternoon of the 18th, when the Confederates disputed his further progress with artillery, supported by infantry and cavalry. Vandever's First Brigade (of Morgan's Second Division), composed of the Tenth and Fourteenth Michigan Infantry, Sixteenth and Sixtieth Illinois Infantry, and Seventeenth New York Infantry, being in the advance, immediately formed line of battle and moved forward, when the enemy again retired. The regiments of this brigade stacked arms on their color-lines and encamped for the night. Gen. Sherman, with his staff and escort, also established his headquarters in the midst of this brigade the same evening. Early on the morning of the 19th the general commanding set out to join the right wing, and Carlin's First Division of the Fourteenth Corps moved to the front to take the advance for the three succeeding days. By this time Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, one of the best officers in the Confederate service, had collected all the available rebel troops in Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, and was prepared with more than forty thousand men to make one desperate effort to stop Sherman's advance towards Richmond, or at least to defeat his left wing. He accordingly took up a strong position near the little village of Bentonville, which gave its name to the battle which followed. Johnston's presence was unknown to the Union troops in his front, and when Carlin's troops moved out on the morning of the 19th to lead the corps, they did so with buoyant spirits and the long, swinging stride so character istic of this army. Johnston's army and line of earthworks were scarcely five miles distant from the place where Morgan encamped on the night of the 18th. Therefore, MILITARY RECORD OF IONIA AND MONTCALM. 73 Carlin had hardly given room for Morgan to place his command on the road when his (Carlin's) advance struck the enemy,* and at once became hotly engaged. Morgan's troops hurried forward on the double-quick and took position, by orders of Gen. Davis, on Carlin's right, while the two divisions of the Twentieth Corps came up with all possible speed and went into line on his left. At the beginning of the battle the First Division advanced with confident steps to what they expected would be but a repetition of their former easy victories of recent campaigns, and at one time the Twenty-first with its brigade gained a position within six rods of the enemy's intrenchments, but the storm of lead and iron was too severe to be withstood. The brave Col. Willard G. Eaton, commanding the Thirteenth Michigan, of the same brigade, was shot dead at the head of his men, and at length the whole division was compelled to fall back to the shelter of a low acclivity, yet within easy musket-range of the enemy's. works. The battle raged with wavering fortunes all the rest of the day. Johnston, in the hopes of destroying, before reinforcements could come up, a force much less than his own, forced the fight, but the men who here represented the Union arms were the surviving heroes of Donelson, Shiloh, Island No. 10, Corinth, Perryville, Stone River, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, and Lookout Mountain, besides the score of battles fought during the Atlanta campaign; while the Eastern troops of the Twentieth Corps had breasted the leaden storm on the Peninsula, at Chantilly, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg before joining the Army of the Cumberland. They were men who had been out two months from Savannah, receiving during that time no mails, letters, or tidings from home, and they did not propose to be balked in their onward march now or to assist in filling rebel prison-pens, and the oft-repeated assaults of the enemy were met by a withering fire and counter-charges which sent them hurrying to the shelter of the woods. While Carlin's division and the Twentieth Corps were so warmly engaged on the open ground, Morgan was equally busy in the pines on the right, and his First Brigade, under Gen. Vandever, composed of the Michigan, Illinois, and New York Regiments previously mentioned, had the best fortune of any of the troops in the battle of that day. This brigade was stationed on the extreme right, and its right flank was guarded by an impenetrable swamp. During the intervals between the charges of the enemy, Vandever's brigade was enabled to erect log breast-works, the trees being felled and cut into the required lengths with hatchets, nearly every man carrying one in his waist-belt. Late in the afternoon, during a desperate charge on Morgan's left, one of his brigades gave way, and a column of the enemy passed through the gap. Wheeling to the left, they moved down in rear of Vandever's brigade, making it necessary for his troops to occupy the front side of their own works, from before which their immediate oppo nents in front had just been driven. Here a short sharp * The rebels occupied low, swampy ground. Their position was screened by a dense pine forest, and was approached by the Union forces over cleared fields. 10 battle of a few moments' duration was ended by Vandever's men leaping forward in a charge, engaging their enemy hand to hand, and compelling the surrender of several hundred rebels. In this (its last) battle the Twenty-first Michigan lost six commissioned officers and eighty-six enlisted men, killed and wounded, out of a total force present for duty of two hundred.and thirty. During the long night of the 19th-20th, Gen. Sherman was marching the Army of the Tennessee to the reinforcement of the almost overwhelmed, but not defeated, Army of Georgia. He arrived at daylight of the 20th, after a night-march of thirty miles; the fight was then forced upon Johnston, and a day or so later he was driven from the field. From that point the march was resumed on the 22d; the Neuse River was crossed, and on the 23d the Twenty-first marched into Goldsboro'. Thus was completed a campaign of sixty-three days' duration, during which time only twelve days' rations had been issued to the regiment, the main supply having been obtained by foraging in the country on the lines of march. The conclusion of the campaign was announced in an order of which the following is a copy: "HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION MISSISSIPPI. " IN THE FIELD, N. 0., March 22, 1865. "Special Field Order "No. 35. "The general commanding announces to this army that yesterday it beat on its own chosen ground the concentrated armies of our enemy, who has fled in disorder, leaving his dead, wounded, and prisoners in our hands, and burning his bridges on his retreat. " On the same day Maj.-Gen. Schofield, from Newbern, entered and occupied Goldsboro', and Maj.-Gen. Terry, from Wilmington, secured Cox's Bridge-crossing, and laid a pontoon-bridge across Neuse River; so that our campaign has resulted in a glorious success. After a march of the most extraordinary character, near five hundred miles, over swamps and rivers deemed impassable to others, at the most inclement season of the year, and drawing our chief supplies from a poor and wasted country, we reach our destination in good health and condition. "I thank the army, and assure it that our government and people honor them for this new display of the physical and moral qualities which reflect honor upon the whole nation. "You shall now have rest and all the supplies that can be brought from the rich granaries and store-houses of our magnificent country before embarking again on new and untried dangers. " W. T. SHERMAN, "Major-General Commanding." The Twenty-first remained in camp near Goldsboro' until April 10th, when it joined in the combined movement of the armies of the Tennessee, Georgia, and Ohio against Raleigh and the rebel forces under Gen. Johnston. It received, amid great rejoicing, the news of Lee's surrender, on the 12th, and entered the capital of North Carolina on the 13th. On the following morning it- began a rapid march of two days' duration to Haywood, on Cape Fear River,-a movement of the Fourteenth Corps which was intended to prevent Johnston's retreat to the southwest. Here, on Tuesday, April 18th, the sad announcement was made of the assassination of President Lincoln, and here the regiment remained until the surrender of Johnston, on the 26th. May 1st the regiment with its division and corps began the march towards Richmond, Va. The Fourteenth and Twentieth Corps, being destined for the same - - 74 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. point (as well as the Army of the Tennessee), entered on a friendly race, which resulted in the First Division of the Fourteenth Corps reaching Manchester, opposite Richmond, ahead of any other troops,* having marched one hundred and eighty miles in about seven days. The line of march led through Oxford, N. C., Boydton, Lunenburg Courthouse, Nottoway Court-house, and Dennisville, Va., and the rivers crossed were the Neuse, Tar, Roanoke, Maharen, Nottoway, and Appomattox. Resting at Manchester until the 11th, the corps then crossed the James and passed in review through the city of Richmond, and the same evening encamped near Hanover Court-house. The Richmond papers of that date-viz., the Whig, Times, Republic, and Bulletin-complimented Sherman's veterans most highly. It was conceded that in personal appearance and apparent discipline they were the superiors of those who composed the Army of the Potomac, also that the men looked " as though they had marched hard, lived hard, and fought hard." From Hanover Court-house the march was continued day by day, via Childsburg, Raccoon Ford, Kelly's Ford, Culpeper Court-house, Stevensburg, Manassas Junction, and Fairfax Court-house, to the vicinity of Alexandria, Va., where the regiment arrived about the 20th of May. Four days later it participated in the grand review of Gen. Sherman's army at the national capital, and on the 30th was read to its members his farewell order. It was a rapid rgsumd of the most important events transpiring under his immediate command the preceding year, and, at the risk of being considered tedious in this respect,-i.e., the insertion of orders,-a copy of the same is appended: " HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI, " IN THE FIELD, WASHINGTON, D. C., May 30, 1865. " Special Field Order "No. 76. "The general commanding announces to the Armies of the Tennessee and Georgia that the time has come for us to part. Our work is done, and armed enemies no longer defy us; yet some of you will be retained in service until further orders. "And now that we are about to separate to mingle with the civil world, it becomes a pleasing duty to recall to mind the situation of national affairs when, but little more than a year ago, we were gathered about the towering cliffs of Lookout Mountain, and all the future was wrapped in doubt and uncertainty. " Three armies had come together from distant fields with separate histories, yet bound by one common cause,-the union of our country and the perpetuation of the government of our inheritance. " There is no need to recall to your memories Tunnel Hill with Rocky Face Mountain, and Buzzard Roost Gap with the ugly forts of Dalton behind. We were in earnest, and paused not for danger and difficulty, but dashed through Snake Creek Gap and fell on Resa a, then on to the Etowah, to Dallas, Kenesaw, and the heats of summer found us on the banks of the Chattahoochie, far from home and dependent on a single road for supplies. Again we were not to be held back by any obstacle, and crossed over and fought four heavy battles for the possession of the citadel,-Atlanta. That was the crisis of our history; a doubt still clouded our future, but we solved the problem and destroyed Atlanta, struck boldly across the State of Georgia, severed all the main arteries of life to our enemies, and Christmas found us at Savannah. "Halting there only long enough to fill our wagons, we again began a march which, for perils, labor, and results, will compare with any ever made by an organized army. The floods of the Savannah, the swamps of the Combahee and Edisto, the high hills and rocks of the Santee, the flat quagmires of the Pedee and Cape Fear Rivers, were all passed in mid-winter with its floods and rains, in the face of an accumulating enemy, and after the battles of Averysboro' and Bentonville we once more came out of the wilderness to meet our friends at Goldsboro'. Even there we paused only long enough to get new clothing, to reload our wagons, and again pushed on to Raleigh and beyond until we met our enemy suing for peace instead of war and offering to submit to the enjoined laws of his and our country. As long as the enemy was defiant, nor mountains, nor rivers, nor swamps, nor hunger, nor cold had checked us; but when he who had fought us hard and persistently offered submission, your general thought it wrong to pursue him farther, and negotiations followed which resulted, as you all know, in his surrender. How far the operations of this army have contributed to the final overthrow of the Confederacy and the peace which now dawns on us must be judged by others, not by us; but that you have done all that men could do has been admitted by those in authority, and we have a right to join in the universal joy that fills our land because the war is over, and our government stands vindicated before the world by the just action of the volunteer armies of the United States. "To such as remain in the military service your general need only remind you that successes in the past were due to hard work and discipline, and that the same work and discipline are equally important in the future. To such as go home he will only say that our favored country is so grand, so extensive, so diversified in climate, soil, and productions, that every man may find a home and occupation suited to his taste, and none should yield to the natural impatience sure to result from our past life of excitement and adventure. You will be invited to seek new adventure abroad, but do not yield to the temptation, for it will lead only to death and disappointment. " Your general now bids you all farewell with the full belief that, as in war you have been good soldiers, so in peace you will make good citizens; and if, unfortunately, a new war should arise in our country, Sherman's army will be the first to buckle on its old armor and come forth to defend and maintain the government of our inheritance and choice. "By order of "MAJ.-GEN. W. T. SHERMAN. "(Signed) L. M. DAYTON, "Assistant A djutant-General." On the 8th of June, at Washington, D. C., the Twentyfirst Michigan was mustered out of the service. It soon after bade farewell to its companion regiments, and, starting homeward on June 13th, arrived in Detroit, where, on the 22d of June, 1865, its surviving members were paid in full and disbanded. OFFICERS AND SOLDIERS OF THE TWENTY-FIRST FROM IONIA COUNTY. FIELD AND STAFF. Col. Ambrose A. Stevens, Boston; cormn. July 25,1862; res. for disability Feb. 3, 1863. Lieut.-Col. Morris B. Wells, Ionia; cornm. Feb. 3, 1863; killed at Chickamauga Sept. 20, 1863. Adjt. Morris B. Wells, Ionia; cornm. July 26, 1862; pro. to lieutenant-colonel. Adjt. Allen B. Morse, Ionia; cornm. Dec. 16, 1862; res. Sept. 1, 1864. Q.-M. John W. Dye, Ionia; cornm. March 1, 1864; must. out June 8,1865. Surg. William B. Thomas, Ionia; cornm. July 26, 1862; res. Dec. 15, 1862. Surg. Francis G. Lee, Poitland; cornm. Dec. 15, 1862; res. Jan. 2, 1863. Surg. John Avery, Otisco; com. Jan. 2, 1863; must. out June 8,1865. Chaplain Lewis W. Earl, must. out June 8, 1865. NON-COMMISSIONED STAFF. Sergt.-Major Andrew Heydlauff, Ionia; enl. Oct. 29, 1864. Com.-Sergt. John W. Dye, Ionia; enl. Aug. 9, 1862; pro. to first lieutenant and regimental quartermaster March 1, 1864. COMPANY A. Capt. Francis P. Minier, Ionia; corn. Aug. 12, 1862; res. April 6, 1863. Capt. John Morton, Ionia; com. Jan. 15, 1863; res. Sept. 24, 1863. First Lieut. Allyn W. Kimball, lonia; corn. Aug. 12, 1862; res. Dec. 17, 1862. First Lieut. John Morton, Ionia; com. Dec. 17, 1862; pro. to captain. * The other divisions of the Fourteenth Corps made equally as good time, but started from Morrisville, N. C., in rear of the First Division. In fact, the rear division of the Fourteenth Corps (the Second) beat the advance of the Twentieth Corps into Manchester seventeen hours. MILITARY RECORD OF IONIA AND MONTCALM. 75 -f I Second Lieut. John Morton, Ionia; corn. Aug. 12, 1862; pro. to first lieutenant. Second Lieut. Thomas G. Stevenson, Ionia; cor. Jan. 15, 1863; pro. to first lieutenant Co. D. Second Lieut. Judson Clark, Ionia; cor. Sept. 24, 1863; must. out June 8, 1865. Sergt. William T. Anniba, Ionia; enl. Aug. 1, 1862; disch. for disability Jan. 25, 1863. Sergt. Thomas Rhead, Ionia; enl. Aug. 4, 1862; disch. for disability Dec. 12,1862. Sergt. Benjamin F. Bartlett, Orange: enl, Aug. 6, 1862; died at Louisville, Ky., Feb. 2, 1863. Sergt. Carlos D. Loring, Fair Plains; enl. Aug. 5,1862; must. out June 8, 1865. Corp. Judson Clark, Ionia; enl. Aug. 7, 1862; pro. to second lieutenant. Corp. William Kibbey, Odessa; enl. July 19, 1862; died of disease at Murfreesboro' April 16, 1863. Corp. John L. Wood, Odessa; enl. Aug. 4, 1862; died at Bowling Green, Ky., Nov. 26, 1862. Corp. Franklin Maranville, Ionia; enl. Aug. 4, 1862; must. out June 28, 1865. Corp. James W. Swigart, Odessa; enl. Aug. 6, 1862; died at Murfreesboro' of wounds Feb. 13, 1863. Corp. Charles J. Everest, North Plains; enl. Aug. 5, 1862; died at Louisville of disease Feb. 4, 1863. Corp. Elias H. Minier, Ronald; enl. Aug. 12, 1862; must. out June 14, 1865. Corp. John Moore, Danby; enl. Aug. 8, 1862; died at Nashville Jan. 3, 1863. Musician Friend W. Cogswell, Ionia; enl. Aug. 10, 1862; disch. for disability Feb. 1, 1863. Musician Nelson Ferguson, Ronald; enl. Aug. 12, 1862; disch. for disability Dec. 24, 1862. Wagoner Frank Burgess, Easton; enl. Aug. 4,1862; must. out June 8,1865. Abel, John, died of disease at Nashville, Tenn. Anniba, Wm. H., disch. for disability Jan. 25, 1863. Alger, Cyrus H. Atherton, J. F., must. out June 8, 1865. Bush, George, trans. to Fourteenth Infantry June 8, 1865. Buck, Hiram C., disch. for disability March 8,1863. Bennett, Jefferson, trans. to Veteran Reserve Corps April 10,1864. Bond, Edgar E., trans. to Fourteenth Michigan Infantry June 8, 1865. Bond, Wm. T., disch. for disability Miarch 15, 1864. Bishop, Richard J., died of disease at Mill Creek, Tenn., Dec. 7, 1862. Barnes, L., enl. Aug. 7,1862. Bartlett, Hazard D., must. out June 8,1865. Berry, John S., must. out June 8, 1865. Bretz, Valentine, must. out June 8,1865. Bliss, Albert J. L., must. out July 18, 1865. Bartlett, James H., must. out July 8, 1865. Cate, George W., must. out July 8, 1865. Clark, Cyrus W., must. out June 8,1865. Cramer, Emanuel, must. out June 8, 1865. Clark, Lauren, died of disease at Nashville, Tenn., Jan. 31,1863. Champlin, George W., enl. Aug. 11,1862. Chase, Ebenezer, died of disease at Murfreesboro' Nov. 8,1863. Chapman, John W., killed in action at Chapel Hill Oct. 8,1863. Cheney, Alphonso, killed in action at Chickamauga Sept. 20,1863. Dillenbeck, Albert W., must. out June 8,1865. Doty, Nelson, died at Perryville of wounds Oct. 14,1862. Downer, Ephraim, died at Louisville Oct. 20,1862. Eddy, Orrin, died of disease at Murfreesboro' May 10, 1863. Fricke, Isaac, died at Louisville, Ky., Nov. 27,1862. Gunn, Jacob, must. out June 8,1862. Gunn, David H., disch. by order. Godfrey, Charles H., died Oct. 20,1863. Hubbs, Warren P., disch. for disability March 5,1864. lubbs, Henry C., died of disease at Murfreesboro' Feb. 4, 1863. Hogle, Josiah, must. out June 24,1865. Haight, Haivey A., died at Louisville Nov. 27,1862. Hill, William, enl. Aug. 12, 1862. Houseman, Geo. W., absent on sick furlough from September, 1864. Hodges, William, disch. for disability March 5,1864. Holcomb, James B., trans. to Fourteenth Infantry June 8, 1865. Inman, Dorus H., died at Nashville Jan. 3, 1863. Kremer, Mitchell, disch. for disability March 30, 1864. King, Alex. H., accidentally shot at Cowan, Tenn., July 21,1863. Little, John, Jr., must. out June 8, 1865. Lee, Solomon, disch. for disability April 15, 1863. Minier, James W., trans. to Invalid Corps Jan. 15, 1864. Minier, Hiram, must. out May 29,1865. Merrill, Nelson G., killed in action at Stone River Dec. 31, 1862. Munn, William, disch. for disability April 15, 1863. Morse, Myron, disch. for pro. in U. S. C. T. Martin, Henry L., disch. for disability May 4, 1863. Miller, Lennis, died at Louisville Nov. 21, 1862. Mauman, Jas., disch. by order. Munger, Merritt A., transferred to Fourteenth Michigan Infantry June 8, 1865. Parmenter, Russell B., died of disease at Nashville, Tenn., Jan. 2,1863. Parsons, Cyrus, died at Louisville, Ky., Jan. 6, 1863. Pike, Murray L., disuh. for disability Dec. 12, 1863. Plant, Sanll. W., disch. by order. Patrick, John, enl. Aug. 9, 1862. Ransom, Melvin H., must. out June 8,1865. Sprague, Austin, must. out June 8, 1865. Shafer, John, must. out June 8, 1865. Smith, David H., absent on detached service. Smith, Richard M., disch. for disability Feb. 22,1863. Stocoum, Hiram, must. out June 8, 1865. Sabine, Melvin P., disch. for disability Jan. 8, 1863. Steel, Thos. L., killed in action at Bqntonville, N. C., March 19, 1865. Standen, Wm., transferred to Fourteenth Michigan Infantry June 8,1865. Snow, Montraville, enl. Aug. 11, 1862. Snow, Simon P., enl. Aug. 12,1862. Snow, Edward P., enl. Aug. 12, 1862. Tefft, Enoch, must. out June 8, 1865. Towner, Wm, disch. by order July 2,1865. Tuttle, Almon, disch. for disability April 21, 1863. Taber, And J., absent on detached service. Van Dyke, Erastus E., died of disease at Louisville, Ky., Dec. 22, 1862. Wade, Alex., disch. for disability Oct. 21, 1862. Wimple, Andrew, disch. for disability July 27,1863. Westbrook, John W., disch. by order July 5, 1865. Wade, Cornelius M., died at Louisville, Ky., Nov. 21, 1862. White, John, must. out June 8, 1865. COMPANY B. Converse, James, enI. Aug. 11, 1862. Cook, Samuel, enl. Aug. 11,1862. Hopkins, Geo. W., enl. Aug. 11, 1862. Hopkins, Joseph H., enl. Aug. 11,1862. Jackson, Albert, enl. Aug. 6, 1862. Sayles, Sidney, enl. Aug. 9,1862. Wooley, Wm. J., enl. Aug. 11, 1862. Whitefield, Henry A., enl. Aug. 6,1862. COMPANY D. Capt. Jacob Ferris, Ionia; com. July 26, 1862; res. Jan. 15, 1863. Capt. Thos. G. Stevenson, Ionia; com. Jan. 13, 1863; must. out June 8, 1865; brevet major U. S. Vols. March 13, 1865. First Lieut. Jas. B. Roberts, Ionia; cor. July 30, 1862; res. April 6, 1863. First Lieut. Thos. G. Stevenson, Ionia; cor. Jan. 15,1863; pro. to captain. First Lieut. Oliver C. Townsend, North Plains; must. out June 8, 1865. Second Lieut. Horace Perkins, Muir; com. Feb. 13, 1863; must. out June 8,1865. Sergt. Robt. Courter, Ionia; died of disease at Nashville June 10, 1863. Sergt. Geo. F. Cooper, Ionia; disch. for disability July 29, 1863. Sergt. Fred. H. Isham, Lyons. Sergt. George Shaffer. Sergt. Horace Perkins, Ionia. Corp. A Barton Carter, Pewamo. Corp. Wm. S. Price. Corp. Truman D. Brown, North Plains. Corp. Jos. B. Cross, Ionia. Corp. Geo. Kingston, lonia. Corp. Jos. Barber, Orleans. Corp. Wm. Starkey, Ionia. Corp. Jas. Henderson, Easton. Musician Jas. W. Edmister, Ionia. Musician John York, Jr., Ionia. Wagoner, Peter S. Van Dusen, Ionia. Avery, Frederick K., enl. Aug. 9,1862. Ashley, John, Jr., must out June 8, 1865. Aulls, Joseph, must. out June 8,1865. Bennett, William H., must. out June 8,1865. Ball, George N., must. out June 8,1865. Bennett, Noah E., must. out June 8,1865. Bewk, Edward, must. out June 8, 1865. Brown, Truman, must. out June 12, 1865. Bibbins, Milo P., must. out June 8, 1865. Bailey, Frank, must. out June 19,1865. Blodgett, Alonzo, died of disease at Lookout Mountain, Tenn., Aug. 25, 1864. Barber, Joseph, died of disease at Louisville, Ky., Nov. 28, 1862. Badder, Abram, died of disease at Louisville, Ky., March 10,1863. Chubb, Hector, died of disease at Louisville, Ky., Jan. 21,1863. Courter, Robert W., died of disease at Nashville, Tenn., June 10,1863. Crawford, Walter, enl. Aug. 11, 1862. Carter, Barton A., disch. for disability March 16, 1863. Cooper, George F., disch. for disability July 29, 1863. Cross, Joseph B., died in action at Chickamauga, Tenn., Sept. 20, 1863. Cross, John, must. out July 8,1865. Clifford, James, must. out June 20, 1865. Clifford, Walter, must. out June 8, 1865. Clay, Wilson S., must out June 5, 1865. Crippen, Albert, enl. Aug. 15,1862. Cross, John H., enl. Aug. 4,1862. Cross, Samuel H., died of disease at Bowling Green, Ky., Nov. 25, 1862. Davis, William V., died in Nashville Dec. 27, 1862. Dietz, Amos H, enl. Aug. 6, 1862. Errett, James I., must. out June 8, 1865. Emery, Abram, sergeant; must. out June 8, 1865. Evans, Harrison, trans. to Fourteenth Michigan Infantry June 8, 1865. Frost, Francis D., trans. to Invalid Corps Sept. 1, 1863. Fitch, Osceola B., must. out June 8, 1865. 76 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. Frost, Lyman A., killed in action at Stone River Dec. 31, 1862. Gibbs, Albert, died at Nashville Dec. 15,1862. Greenough, Christopher, died at Murfreesboro' March 27, 1863. Greenough, George M., must. out June 8,1865. Greenough, Henry, died of disease at Murfreesboro' June 5, 1863. Guernsey, Alvin, must. out June 8,1865. Guernsey, Marvin, must. out June 28,1865. Galloup, Austin P., must. out June 8, 1865. Gould, John M., died of wounds at Newbern, N. C., April 6,1865. Hall, Sylvanus, died at Nashville Dec. 15, 1862. Hall, Frank, died at Nashville Nov. 30, 1862. Hall, Major, died of disease at New Albany, Ind., Aug. 10,1863. Henderson, Robert, died of disease at Nashville Nov. 15, 1862. Hoyt, John R., taken prisoner at Chickamauga Sept. 20, 1863. Heaton, Lucien J., must. out June 26, 1865. Hall, William J., must out June 16, 1865. Harrington, Clark, must. out June 5, 1865. Howe, Elmer J., must. out May 20,1865. Holcomb, Jesse, must. out June 8,1865. Johnson, Edward, must. out June 8, 1865. Johnson, William W., died of wounds at Chattanooga Oct. 12,1863. Joslin, William, died of disease at Clear Lake, Mich., Feb. 22,1865. Jason, Daniel, left sick at Nashville. Jewell, Nathaniel, must. out May 20,1865. Kuhn, Philetus, must. out June 8,1865. Long, Ensign, must. out June 8,1865. Long, Samuel, transferred to Fourteenth Michigan Infantry June 8,1865. Lomax, John A., must. out June 26,1865. Macy, Andrew D., must. out June 8,1865. Niedhardt, Fred., died of disease at Chattanooga April 16, 1864. Olmsted, Ervin, disch. for disability May 12,1863. Osman, Morris, must. out June 8,1865. Pattengill, James, died of disease at Edgefield, Tenn., Nov. 16,1862. Preston, George F., died at Bowling Green Nov. 15, 1862. Padden, Daniel E., disch. by order Oct. 9,1863. Phillips, George W., must. out June 8, 1865. Powell, Wm. J., killed in action at Chickamauga Sept. 20,1863. Ransom, Ives, died at Nashville Dec. 3, 1862. Randall, Asa, must. out June 8,1865. Sweet, Wnm. H., must. out June 8,1865. Sanborn, Columbus, must. out June 8, 1865. Stinson, J., died of disease in Ohio Dec. 29,1864. Sprague, Wm. G., died at Nashville Nov. 16,1863. Sprague, Wm. H. H., transferred to Invalid Corps Dec. 15,1863. Smith, Wm. H., must. out June 8, 1865. Spicer, Thomas, disch. for disability Feb. 26,1863. Tanner, Lewis. transferred to Invalid Corps Jan. 24,1864. Vanderhough, Peter S., died at Nashville Dec. 26, 1862. Wright, Wm. J., sergeant; must. out June 8, 1865. Whipple, Win., transferred to Invalid Corps Feb. 19,1864. West, Daniel J., sergeant; must. out June 18, 1865. York, Oliver, died of disease at Bowling Green Nov. 15,1862. COMPANY F. Shepard, James H., enl. Aug. 15,1862. COMPANY I. Capt. John A. Ellsworth, Saranac; cor. July 30, 1862; res. Nov. 20,1862. Capt. James H. Truax, Saranac; com. Dec. 16, 1862; res. Aug. 24, 1863. Capt. George Wiemer, Saranac; com. Aug. 24, 1863; must. out June 8, 1865. First Lieut. Herman Hunt, Saranac; died of disease at Nashville, Tenn., Dec. 16,1862. First Lieut. Allen B. Morse, Otisco; com. Dec. 13, 1862; pro. to first lieutenant and adjutant Feb. 3,1863; wounded in action at Mission Ridge Nov. 25, 1863, while on duty as acting assistant adjutant-general; res. Sept. 1, 1864. First Lieut. George Wiemer, Saranac; com. Feb. 3, 1863; pro. to captain Aug. 23, 1863. Second Lieut. James H. Truax, Saranac; com. Aug. 19, 1862; pro. to captain Dec. 16,1862. Second Lieut. George Wiemer, Saranac; com. Dec. 16, 1862; pro. to first lieutenant Feb. 3, 1863. Second Lieut. David B. English, Saranac; com. Sept. 1, 1864; must. out June 8, 1865. Sergt Sherburne H. Tidd, Saranac; died at Gallatin, Tenn., June 17, 1863. Sergt. Abijah A. Alcott, Saranac; pro. to second lieutenant Co. A. Sergt Joseph C. Ball, Saranac; disch. by order Feb. 16, 1863. Sergt. David B. English, Saranac; pro. to second lieutenant Sept. 1, 1864. Sergt Benjamin Vosper, Saranac; disch. by order March 30, 1864. Corp. Samuel Woolridge, Easton; transferred to Invalid Corps Jan. 15, 1864. Corp. George Wiemer, Saranac; pro. to second lieutenant Dec. 16, 1862. Corp. James M. Rogers, Saranac; transferred to Fourteenth Michigan Infantry. Corp. John D. Bradford, Easton; disch. Nov. 29, 1862. Corp. S. W. Mathews, Saranac; absent, sick, at muster out Corp. Charles A. Mooney, Saranac; died of disease at Lebanon, Ky., Oct. 26, 1862. Musician James H. Kellogg, Saranac; absent, sick, at muster out. Musician George B. Wilson, Saranac; disch. to join gunboat" St. Louis." Aldrich, Rufus W., died of disease at Lebanon, Ky. Oct. 15, 1862. I j I Anway, Edwin, died of disease at Nashville, Tenn., Jan. 9, 1863. Adams, Charles H., died of disease at Nashville, Tenn., Dec. 30, 1862. Allen, Robert J., disch. for disability Jan. 1,1863. Adams, Silas W., died of disease at Bowling Green, Ky., Dec. 29, 1862. Aldrich, James E., died of disease at Bowling Green, Ky., Nov. 20,1862. Bement, Henry P., must. out May 18,1865. Bishop, Hiram H., must. out Aug. 8,1865. Burns, Malachi, enl. Aug. 11. 1862. Brockway, Abner, died of disease at Savannah, Ga., Dec. 23, 1864. Case, John B., disch. for disability Jan. 10, 1863. Conklin, Charles S., disch. for disability May 11, 1864. Chappel, John G., must. out June 8,1865. Crane, Marrion. disch. for disability Feb. 21. 1863. Curtis, Charles H., must. out of Veteran Reserve Corps June 30,1865. Childs. Darius, died of disease at Nashville, Tenn., Dec. 17, 1862. Elsworth, Daniel H., died of disease at Bowling Green, Ky., 1863. Fisher, James, disch. to enter marine service. German, William, died of wounds at Nashville Feb. 11, 1863. Humphreys, James, enl. Aug. 22,1862. Hines, Benjamin F., disch. Oct. 14,1862. Henry, John L., transferred to Invalid Corps July 1,1863. Hinderleider, William, must. out June 9, 1865. Hinderleider, Henry F., absent, sick. King, George D., disch. for wounds May 13, 1863. Lowry, Archibald, died at Nashville May 21, 1863. Lowry, Tracy, must. out June 8, 1865. Lewis, Edgar S., died at Nashville Dec. 20,1862. Latta, Hector H., disch. for disability March 1, 1863. Lillie, Elias, enl. Aug. 14,1862. McLaughlin, Joseph, absent, sick. McWithey, Bates, died of disease in Kentucky Nov. 16, 1862. Matther, Francis M., died of disease at Detroit Oct. 17, 1862. Mowry, Oliver, died of disease in Kentucky Nov. 3,1862. Morse, Robert, killed in action at Stone River, Tenn., Dec. 31,1862. McOmber, Alfred, disch. by order May 25, 1865. Miller, John F., enl. Aug. 11, 1862. Parker, Luther, disch. for disability. Patrick, John R., must. out June 8, 1865. Perkins, Richard, disch. for disability Jan. 12, 1863. Rhodes, Cornelius C., disch. for disability April 22, 1863. Rogers, Joseph, must. out June 8, 1865. Rogers, John H., must. out June 8, 1865. Smith, Oliver, must. out June 8, 1865. Simmons, Leonard F., must. out June 8,1865. Sinclair, Duncan, sergeant; must. out June 8, 1865. Scarr, William T., killed in action at Stone River, Tenn., Dec. 31, 1862. Shute, Major, died of disease at Nashville, Tenn., Dec. 2,1862. Smith, Thomas R., must. out June 8,1865. Sanborn, William, trans. to Fourteenth Michigan Infantry June 8,1865. Train, Edson H., disch. for disability Feb. 10, 1863. Taylor, Philip, disch. for disability May 23, 1863. Van Orman, Harrison, must. out June 8, 1865. Wheelock, Alfred E., must. out June 8,1865. White, Sanford, transferred to Invalid Corps; must. out July 8,1865. Winters, George W., died of disease at Louisville Oct. 4,1863. York, Orrin W., disch. for disability Dec. 28,1862. COMPANY K. Capt. Herman Baroth, Ionia; com. July 26, 1862; res. Jan. 13, 1863. Capt. John C. Taylor, Ionia; com. Oct. 16, 1863; must. out June 8, 1865. First Lieut. Albert G. Russell, Hubbardston; com. Aug. 16, 1862; res. Jan. 13, 1863. First Lieut. Eli E. Burritt, Ionia; com. Jan. 13, 1863; res. Oct. 15,1863. First Lieut. Oliver C. Townsend, North Plains; must. out June 8, 1865. Second Lieut. Eli E. Burritt, Ionia; com. Aug. 16, 1862; pro. first lieutenant. Second Lieut. John C. Taylor, Ionia; com. Jan. 13, 1863; pro. captain. Second Lieut. Daniel 0. Cuff, North Plains; com. Nov. 12, 1863; must. out June 8,1865. Sergt. John C. Taylor, Ionia; pro. second lieutenant. Sergt. And. Heydlauff, Muir; pro. sergeant-nlajor May 1, 1864. Sergt. Samuel P. Buck, Easton; disch. for disability Aug. 13, 1863. Sergt. Daniel C. Cuff, pro. second lieutenant. Sergt. Erastus B. Potter, Ionia; disch. for disability May 12, 1865.,Corp. Charles R. Dickenson, North Plains; sergeant; must. out June 8, 1865. Corp. Oliver C. Townsend, North Plains; pro. first lieutenant Co. D. Corp. Edward C. Reed, North Plains; must. out June 8, 1865. Corp. Charles L. Stuck, North Plains; disch. for disability April 18, 1863. Corp. Fletcher Ransom, Easton; sergeant; must. out June 8, 1865. Corp. John W. Brown, Ionia; disch. for disability Feb. 28,1863. Corp. William Mattison, North Plains; disch. for disability April 18, 1863. Musician Porter N. Carver, North Plains; died of disease. Musician John Dick, Easton; disch. for disability March 8, 1863. Wagoner, John W. Dye, Ionia; pro. commissary sergeant Dec. 16, 1862. Bowser, William R., enl. Aug. 12,1862. Babcock, Jerome, died of disease at Danville, Ky., Nov. 28,1862. Babcock, Albert, died of disease at Nashville, Tenn., July 20, 1863. Bowerman, De Forest A., died of disease at Nashville Dec. 28, 1863. MILITARY RECORD OF IONIA AND MONTOALM. 77 Barry, Thomas L., died of disease at Nashville Dec. 2,1862. Burt, William, died of disease at Murfreesboro' May 16,1863. Bellows, John, wounded and taken prisoner at Chickamauga Sept. 20,1863. Carpenter, Jason, must. out June 8,1865. Conner, Virgil G., must. out June 8,1865. Callahan, John S., must. out June 5,1865. Colby, Jabez, must. out June 8,1865. Case, William, must. out, absent on detached service, June 8, 1865. Colby, Wilson C., disch. for disability Jan. 23, 1863. Clark, David, died of disease at Louisville Nov. 24, 1863. Crane, Daniel H., trans. to Fourteenth Michigan Infantry June 8, 1865. Entrican, George W., disch. for disability March 1, 1865. Entrican, Albert L., disch. for disability March 25, 1863. Fish, Alexander, disch. for disability Sept. 26, 1863. Glassbrook, George W., enl. Aug. 15,1862. Guernsey, Seth W., died of disease at Nashville, Tenn., Feb. 17,1863. Govethrite, Philander E., must. out June 8, 1865. Huckleberry, Thomas, must. out June 8, 1865. Hess, Chauncey, enl. Aug. 9, 1862. Hines, Artemas, died of disease at Murfreesboro' Nov. 16, 1863. Howell, James R., died of disease at Horse Cave, Ky., Nov. 16,1862. Hoxie, Clark, died of disease at Detroit April 15, 1865. Hayes, Edward, must. out June 30,1865. Holbrook, Henry E., disch. for appointment in U. S. army July 21, 1863. Howell, Erastus M., enl. Aug. 15, 1862. Lewis, Elmer, must. out June 8,1865. Lowe, John, must. out June 8,1865. Lamoreaux, John, died of disease at Nashville, Tenn., Jan. 25, 1863. Pfuster, John U., must. out of Invalid Corps June 30,1865. James, Chester, enl. Aug. 8, 1862. Porter, Seymour, absent, sick, at muster out. Rider, David G., died of disease. Reed, Orrin H., died of disease at Murfreesboro' Jan. 31,1863. Rihem, John, died of disease at Rolling Fork, Ky., Oct. 24, 1862. Rock, Charles, flied of disease at Nashville Feb. 28,1863. Ryan, Richard, enl. Aug. 11, 1862. Reinhardt, Nicholas, sergeant; must. out June 8,1865. Shearer, Henry, must. out June 8, 1865. Smith, Wheeler J., died of disease at Nashville, Tenn., Nov. 18,1862. Salyer, John V., must. out June 8,1865. Stuck, Albert H., wounded in action; disch. Jan. 2, 1863. Sanborn, Columbus, enl. Aug. 11,1862. Tiernan, Patrick, corporal; must. out June 8, 1865. Town, Elisha M., transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps March 18, 1865. Town, Andrew J., transferred to Invalid Corps Jan. 15,1864. Tillotson, Charles H., disch. for disability Aug. 15, 1863. Van Netter, Isaiah, disch. for disability Jan. 9, 1863. Van Alstine, Holland P., killed in action at Chickamauga Sept. 20,1863. Ward, Lucien H., must. out June 8, 1865. Williams, Hiram S., disch. for disability Jan. 8, 1863. Wright, James R., died of disease at New York Feb. 1,1865. MEMBERS OF THE TWENTY-FIRST FROM MONTCALM COUNTY. FIELD AND STAFF. First Lieut. and Q.-M. Martin P. Follett, Fair Plains; com. July 29,1862; res. Dec. 14,1863. COMPANY A. Carter, George W., must. out July 18,1865. Hall, Thomas J., died of disease at Naval School Hospital, Annapolis, Md., Feb. 21, 1863. Hodges, William, disch. for disability May 15,1864. Lunn, William P., must. out June 8,1865. Lunn, Jacob, must. out June 8, 1865. Little, John, Jr., must. out June 8,1865. Loring, Carlos D., sergeant; must. out June 8, 1865. Noyes, Harvey, died of disease at Gallatin, Tenn., Feb. 15, 1863. Noyes, Samuel J., disch. for disability Feb. 15,1863. Tyler, George B., disch. for disability March 19, 1863. COMPANY C. Second Lieut. Newell J. Pratt, Greenville; com. June 11,1864; must. out June 8, 1865. Second Lieut. James A. Knight, Greenville; com. Aug. 14,1862; res. Feb. 13,1863. COMPANY D. Abbott, Cyrus, died of disease at Savannah, Ga., Feb. 4, 1865. Conant, George W., died of disease at Murfreesboro', Tenn., April 7, 1863. Carr, Elijah, disch. for disability April 24,1863. Crutsley, Reuben, must. out June 24,1865. Decker, Ira, died of disease at Nashville, Tenn., Dec. 21,1862. Ferns, Henry M., must. out June 8,1865. Fuller, Lewis P., disch. for disability May 4, 1864. Griffith, Lucius E., trans. to Veteran Reserve Corps. Hale, Asahel, disch. for disability March 25, 1863. Joslin, William, died of disease near Clear Lake, Mich., Feb. 22,1865. Kuhn, Philetus, disch. for disability Aug. 22,1863. Lampman, Theodore, must. out June 14,1865. McCabe, Michael, must. out May 29,1865. Miller, John H., disch. for disability Jan. 5, 1863. Noah, William, must. out June 8, 1865. Osman, Morie, must. out June 8,1865. Reynolds, Theodore, died of disease at Chattanooga, Tenn., Jan. 16,1865. Swigar, George W., died of disease at Louisville, Ky., Nov. 10,1862. Sanderson, Emanuel, must. out June 15, 1865. Smith, William H., must. out June 15, 1865. Stewart, Ira, vet. Jan. 16, 1864. Tripp, Henry B., must. out June 8, 1865. Worden, Henry C., disch. for disability Feb. 26, 1863. COMPANY F. Capt. Elijah H. Crowell, Greenville; com. July 18, 1862; pro. to colonel Nov. 14, 1864; must. out as captain June 8, 1865. First Lieut. Robert Mooney, Greenville; com. July 30, 1862; res. Dec. 1, 1862. First Lieut. Eben R. Ellenwood, Winfield; com. Dec. 1, 1862; res. Jan. 31, 1863. Second Lieut. Eben R. Ellenwood, Winfield; com. July 30,1862; pro. to first lieutenant. Second Lieut. John F. Loase, Eureka; com. Dec. 1,1863; must. out June 21, 1865. Sergt. Enoch R. Wilcox, Eureka; disch. for disability Feb. 28, 1863. Sergt. Leonard Rossman, Winfield; must. out June 8, 1865. Sergt. Thomas J. Potter, Eureka; must. out June 8, 1865. Sergt. Newell J. Pratt, Greenville; pro. to commissary sergeant May 1, 1864. Sergt. Wm. H. Kent, Fair Plains; killed in action in North Carolina May 19, 1865. Corp. John B. Woodworth, Eureka; died at Nashville in 1862. Corp. John F. Loase, Eureka; pro. to second lieutenant. Corp. John H. French, Cato; died at Detroit May 30,1865. Corp. Byron W. Moore, Eureka; must. out July 8, 1865. Corp. Reuben W. Smead, Winfield; killed on Mississippi River. Musician Phineas Swift, Fair Plains; disch. for disability April 9, 1863. Allen, William J., must. out July 18,1865. Briggs, James R., must. out May 22, 1865. Brant, Frederick, must. out July 6, 1865. Brimmer, John G., must. out June 8,1865. Butler, John S., died of disease at Nashville, Tenn., Dec. 9,1862. Borden, Francis, trans. to Veteran Reserve Corps Jan. 15, 1864; must. out July 5,1865. Barden, Henry, trans. to Veteran Reserve Corps Aug. 12,1864. Cole, George W., trans. to Veteran Reserve Corps May 1, 1864. Crawford, George, disch. for disability Jan. 3,1863. Crane, George A., disch. by order March 11,1863. Cole, Leander T., must. out July 18, 1865. Chandler, George S., must. out July 18, 1865. Cowden, Reuben S., must. out June 8,1865. Davis, Jacob, must. out June 8,1865. Darland, Francis, must. out June 8, 1865. De Bree, Johannas, disch. for disability Feb. 9,1863. Foskett, Lafayette, trans. to Veteran Reserve Corps. Flake, George, must. out July 18, 1865. Fordyce, Benjamin, must. out June 27, 1865. Goble, Enos H., disch. for disability Feb. 14, 1863. Gibson, Richard H., disch. for wounds April 6,1864. Giles, Jasper E., trans. to Veteran Reserve Corps Jan. 15, 1864. Gristwood, David, must. out July 18,1865. Gibson, Hiram, must. out June 16, 1865. Hall, George, must. out July 18, 1865. Hunter, John, must. out July 18, 1865. House, John, must. out June 5,1865. Herrick, Henry, died of disease at Nashville, Tenn., Noy. 14,1862. Hamilton, Henry H., died in action at Chickamauga, Tenn., Sept. 20,1863. Harris, John A., trans. to Veteran Reserve Corps Jan. 15, 1864. Holinder, George 0., disch. for disability Dec. 4, 1863. Johnson, Christenson, died in action at Stone River, Tenn., Dec. 31,1862. Jenks, Dallas, must. out July 18, 1865. Johnson, C. C., must. out July 18,1865. Judd, Daniel, must. out June 8, 1865. Kenosen, Jesse, died of disease at Andersonville, Ga., Oct. 1,1864. Keeler, George W., disch. by order May 11, 1865. Lamberton, George, died in action at Bentonville, N. C., March 19,1865. Lamberton, William, must. out July 18, 1865. Lampman, William, must. out Aug. 9, 1865. Miles, Oliver, Jr., must. out July 14, 1865. Meil, Charles H., must. out June 8, 1865. McOmber. Levi M., died of disease at Louisville, Ky., Dec. 6,1862. Mead, George, killed by explosion of steamer " Sultana" April 28, 1865. McDonald, Martin, disch. for disability Jan. 22,1863. Peck, Chauncey H., died of wounds at Chattanooga, Tenn., Sept. 29,1863. Pratt, Nathaniel, died of disease at Chattanooga, Tenn., Nov. 18,1864. Powell, James N., must. out July 18, 1865. Rust, Daniel B., disch. by order April 10, 1863. Ruch, Lewis, disch. for disability Jan. 1, 1863. Smith, Seth B., disch. for disability March 15, 1863. Smith, Ellsworth, disch. for disability Feb. 10,1863, 78 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. T Skinner, Ritner, disch. for wounds April 6, 1864. Skinner, Renselaer W., died of disease at Gallatin, Tenn., Feb. 9, 1863. Squires, James R., must. out July 18,1865. Strope, Henry, must. out July 18, 1865. Swift, Andrew, must. out July 18,1865. Severy, Daniel S., must. out June 8, 1865. Swartwout, -, must. out June 8, 1865. Straley, Edward, must, out June 8, 1865. Swift, William, must. out June 5, 1865. Thompson, John B., must. out June 8, 1865. Towsley, Buel, disch. for disability Dec. 29, 1863. Tuttle, Charles M., disch. for disability Nov. 11,1862. Van Allen, Garrett T., discharged. Van Stee, Anthony, died of wounds at Goldsboro', N. C., March 28, 1865. Van Wormer, Jeptha, must. out July 18,1865. Wakeman, Theodore, must. out July 18, 1865. Wolverton, John C., must. out June 8,1865. Weed, Oscar, must. out June 5, 1865. Wilcox, Enoch R., disch. for disability Feb. 28, 1863. COMPANY H. Foote, William R., disch. for disability May 1, 1863. COMPANY I. Bevard, John M., must. out July 10,1865. Carpenter, James, trans. to Veteran Reserve Corps. Koop, Burton, died of wounds at Newbern, N. C., April 24,1865. COMPANY K. Andrews, Samuel, disch. by order July 23,1863. Andrews, Samuel, Jr., trans. to Veteran Reserve Corps Jan. 15,1864; must. out July 8,1865. Barrett, Julius T., corporal; died in action at Stone River, Tenn., Dec. 31, 1862. Barrett, Hiram, disch. May 18,1863. Carpenter, L. M., must. out June 6, 1865. Carpenter, James, must. out July 18, 1865. Everest, William H., disch. for disability May 13,1865. Gregory, George W., died of disease at Murfreesboro', Tenn., Dec. 20,1863. Himes, Sanford, died of disease at Lookout Mountain, Tenn., June 27,1864. Hunt, Corydon L., disch. for disability May 11, 1865. Proctor, J. M., trans. to Veteran Reserve Corps April 30, 1864; must. out June 30,1865. Proctor, Simeon, must. out June 16, 1865. Shay, Ebenezer B., died of disease at Nashville, Tenn., Nov. 6,1862. Ward, Nathaniel, died of diease at Nashville, Tenn., Nov. 20,1862. CHAPTER XIV. TWENTY-FIFTH AND TWENTY-SEVENTH INFANTRY. The Twenty-fifth organized from Surplus Companies-Captain Demarest's Company-Regiment goes to Kentucky-Encamped at Munfordsville and Bowling Green, Winter 1862-63-Pursues PegramThe Fight at Tibbs' Bend, July 4th-The "Green River Boys"Their Valor appreciated-Regiment joins the Twenty-third Corps and marches to East Tennessee-Gallant Services during the Atlanta Campaign, 1864-Returns to Tennessee-Within the Rebel Lines-At Nashville with "Pap" Thomas-Pursues Hood-Proceeds to North Carolina with Gen. Schofield-In at the DeathMuster-out-Returns to Michigan-List of Officers and Men from Ionia County-The Twenty-seventh Infantry-Organized at Port Huron and Ypsilanti-Services in Kentucky and Mississippi-In East Tennessee-Battles at Huff's Ferry and Campbell's StationTransfer to the Army of the Potomac-The Wilderness Campaign -Operations at Petersburg-Assault and Capture of Fort Mahon -Close of Service-Members from the two Counties. TWENTY-FIFTH INFANTRY. DURING the general uprising of the people of the North which followed McClellan's disasters on the Virginian peninsula in the summer of 1862, six regiments of infantry were raised from the several congressional districts of Michigan. Upon the organization of these there was still found a surplus of companies composed of the patriotic young men of the State, and the Twenty-fifth Infantry was organized from that surplus. One of its companies (B), under I the command of Capt. Samuel L. Demarest, was mostly made up of men from Otisco, Ionia Co. The first enlistments in the company took place August 5th, and seven days later its ranks contained a minimum, or sufficient number to muster. Proceeding to Kalamazoo, the regimental rendezvous, soon after, the company with its regiment was mustered into the United States service September 22d, and on the 29th of the same month the regiment left that place for Louisville, Ky. It moved thence to Munfordsville, Ky., on the 8th of December, 1862, where it remained until the 8th of January, 1863. Bowling Green, Ky., was next occupied by the regiment until March 20th, when it was moved to Lebanon, Ky., and with Gen. Manson's forces took part in the pursuit of the rebels under Gen. Pegram. From April 3d to June 10th it was stationed at Louisville on provostduty. Five companies, under Col. Orlando H. Moore, were then (June 10th) ordered to Green River. He took post at Tibbs' Bend, near Columbia, Ky.,-a place where that river makes a circuit, inclosing a peninsula united by a narrow neck to the mainland. Many details had been made from the five companies, so that there were only about two hundred men of the regiment present for duty. There were also about twenty bridge-builders,-soldiers detailed from other regiments. No artillery. On the 2d of July, Col. Moore learned that the celebrated partisan general John H. Morgan was approaching with his division of rebel horsemen, variously estimated from three to four thousand strong. A breast-work was immediately built across the neck before mentioned, and there the little band quietly awaited results. About three o'clock in the morning of the 4th of July, 1863, just as the first flush of dawn was beginning to tinge the sky in the eastern horizon, the long column of the enemy appeared and formed a line of battle in front of Col. Moore's command. The Confederates opened on the Unionists with a section of guns, doubtless for the purpose of letting them know that the former had artillery, for immediately afterwards several horsemen rode up with a flag of truce, and presented a demand from Gen. Morgan for an immediate and unconditional surrender. To this peremptory summons Col. Moore, who was an officer of the regular army, returned the following reply: "Present my compliments to Gen. Morgan, and say to him that, this being the Fourth of July, I cannot entertain the proposition to surrender." The rebel general's chief of staff, who bore the flag, then said: " Col. Moore, I hope you will not consider me as dictatorial on this occasion; I will be frank. You see the breach we have made upon the work with our battery; you cannot expect to repulse Gen. Morgan's whole division with your little command; you have resisted us gallantly, and deserve credit for it; and now I hope you will save useless bloodshed by reconsidering your reply to Gen. Morgan." Col. Morgan replied: " Sir, when you assume to know my strength, you assume too much. I have a duty to per form to my country, and therefore cannot reconsider my reply to Gen. Morgan." The rebel officer simply extended his hand, and, with much feeling, said: "Good-by, Col. Moore I God only knows which of us may fall first." MILITARY RECORD OF IONIA AND MONTCALM. 79 Ir The two officers galloped to their respective commands, and instantly the conflict was renewed. The moment the rebel guns opened fire Col. Moore ordered a line of men to stand up and pick off the gunners, and a close and deadly discharge silenced the battery. A strong force, under the rebel colonel Johnson, then charged the work, which the advance force instantly abandoned and fell back to the main line. The rebels rode into it, but were soon compelled to abandon it under the deadly fire which Col. Moore concentrated upon them. The enemy then made several successive charges, accompanied with the well-known rebel yell, but were each time driven back with severe loss. While this fierce work was going on in front, the enemy was engaged in cutting out a road which led along the steep bluff towards the river-bottom. They at length effected an entrance into the Union position, and a rebel regiment, commanded by Col. Chevault, opened fire upon Col. Moore's command. It was a critical moment, but the Union commander was equal to the emergency. One company of his force had been held in reserve, and this was now deployed towards the enemy as skirmishers, while the shrill notes of the bugle announced to the enemy the approach of a heavy reinforcement. They were deceived by the skillful strategy, and easily driven back through the gorge where they had entered. Their colonel was killed in the retreat. Up to this time eight determined charges had been made upon the front of the position and defeated with great loss. Disheartened by the desperate defense and serious loss, after a four hours' conflict the enemy fell back beyond range with a loss of fifty killed, among them thirteen officers, and two hundred wounded, including a number of officers. It was the plan of the rebel general to capture Louisville, but this obstinate fight of the Twenty-fifth Michigan deranged all his plans and saved the city at least from assault, and probably capture. The enemy were granted the privilege of burying their dead under a flag of truce. The Union loss was about eight killed and twenty wounded. Morgan moved forward from Tibbs' Bend, and captured without difficulty two or three other bodies of troops, each much larger than the one which defended that post. In fact, the Confederate chieftain, who seems to have had a spice of humor in his composition, was so much impressed with the extraordinary character of the defense that he sent back a communication to Col. Moore breveting him a brigadier-general in the United States army. The Legislature of Kentucky unanimously passed a resolution thanking Col. Moore and his men for their gallant defense, and Gen. Hartsuff, the commander of the department, ordered that a flag should be erected on the field of battle, which should fly as long as there was a tatter left, in commemoration of Michigan valor. The 4th of July, 1863, was distinguished as the day of the surrender of Vicksburg, and also as witnessing the retirement of the beaten foe from the field of Gettysburg; but the battle of Green River, though less important, was certainly no less honorable to those engaged. Its fame spread throughout the Army of the Cumberland, and thenceforth the Twenty fifth Michigan Infantry was known almost universally by the name of the " Green River Boys." The five companies which had remained at Louisville joined the rest of the regiment at Lebanon on the 19th of August, and on the same day the regiment began its march with the Twenty-third Corps (being in the First Brigade, Second Division) over the Cumberland Mountains into East Tennessee. After various movements back and forth through the valley of the Tennessee it was stationed at Kingston, a few miles from Knoxville, on the 9th of November, to aid in defending the latter town, then threatened by the enemy. It remained at Kingston during the celebrated siege of Knoxville, and on the 26th of November aided in repulsing a sharp attack by the Confederates under Gens. Wheeler and Armstrong. Leaving Kingston on the 4th of December, it was occupied during the winter of 1863-64 in numerous tedious marches up and down the valley of the Tennessee, being stationed for brief periods at Mossy Creek, Knoxville, Morristown, and other places, again camping at Mossy Creek on the 12th of March, 1864. It remained there until the 26th of April, preparing for the summer campaign, and then moved into Georgia, where it joined Gen. Sherman's army in its advance on Atlanta. At Rocky Face Ridge the regiment was ordered forward against an almost impregnable position. It advanced with great gallantry, and two companies, extended in skirmishline, dashed forward, drove the rebels from their rifle-pits, and occupied them, themselves. The troops on both flanks of the Twenty-fifth, however, fell back, and the regiment was ordered to lie down. Capt. Lansing, finding himself the ranking officer of the force thus circumstanced, moved it back without loss to the shelter of the woods. The division to which it belonged then climbed a portion of the ridge and reinforced Gen. Harker. The next day Gen. Harker's division carried the main position of the enemy by assault, losing six hundred men killed, among whom was its gallant commander. Skirmishing all the way, the regiment advanced with the army to Resaca. There Gen. Judah ordered the brigade to which it belonged to charge one of the enemy's forts with the bayonet. The brigade did so, but the Twentyfifth was the only regiment which reached the foot of the intrenchments, having many of its men killed and wounded on the way. Alone, and decimated every moment by the fire of the well-protected foe, it could go no farther, and was obliged to seek shelter in the bed of a creek, where the men remained, half under water, until night, when they returned to their comrades. At Lost Mountain the enemy, as usual, had the choice of position, and was heavily intrenched. After his skirmishers had been driven back to his main line a Union battery, which was supported by Gen. Cooper's brigade, to which the regiment belonged, opened on the foe, principally to ascertain his strength. The cannon-balls and shells, however, were pitched with such rapidity and accuracy into the rebel breast-works that the occupants swarmed out en masse and scampered up the hill in the rear. Gen. Cooper saw that it was the time to strike, and immediately ordered his brigade to advance. The men went swiftly forward; the Confeder 80 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. -1 ates continued to retreat; a gap was opened in their lines, into which the brigade entered; the news of the break spread right and left among the Union commanders; brigade after brigade, division after division, swept forward to the attack; the Confederates gave way at every point, and were pursued eleven miles. The regiment was also engaged, though less prominently, at Pine Mountain, June 15, 1864; at Gulp's Farm, June 22d; and at Nickajack Creek, July 1st. On the 9th of July it crossed the Chattahoochie, and on the 22d appeared before Atlanta. It took an active part in the siege of that place, and on the 6th of August it aided in carrying, by a gallant charge, the enemy's works near East Point. It also participated in the flank movement to the rear of Atlanta at Jonesboro' which resulted in the evacuation of the former place. During the campaign it had been under fire fifty-eight days. After a short stay at Decatur, Ga., the Twenty-fifth moved north with its corps in pursuit of Gen. Hood. Reaching Johnsonville, Tenn., on the 5th of November, it remained there until the 14th, when it marched with its brigade to Centreville, where it was engaged in guarding important fords across Duck River. Still moving northward, it was engaged, though not very severely, at the battle of Franklin, on the 30th of November, 1864. Soon after, it was ordered with its brigade to Nashville, but, as Gen. Hood had invested that city and lay directly in front of the command in question, the latter was obliged to make a long circuit by way of Clarksville, during which it was at one time entirely within the rebel lines. Under cover of a dark night, however, it made its way out, reaching Nashville on the 8th of December, and on the 15th and 16th was slightly engaged in the battle before that city, having eight men killed and wounded. The regiment then marched with the Twenty-third Corps in pursuit of Hood. With that corps it was afterwards transported from Columbia, Tenn., over a circuit of thousands of miles, by way of Washington, D. C., to North Carolina, where it took part with Gen. Schofield's army in extinguishing the last remnants of life in the expiring hydra of treason. After the surrender of the Confederate army commanded by Gen. Johnston, the regiment remained at Salisbury, N. C., until the 24th of June, 1865, when it was mustered out of service and set out for Michigan. On the 2d of July, 1865, it arrived at Jackson, where it was paid off and discharged. Although the Twenty-fifth had a most enviable record, and had seen a great amount of active service, it seemed to be one of the " lucky" regiments, as the boys were wont to designate them, and never suffered severe loss either by battle or disease. Its battle with Morgan gave it a wonderful reputation. IONIA COUNTY MEMBERS OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH INFANTRY. COMPANY B. Capt. Samuel L. Demarest, Otisco; corn. Aug. 10, 1862; must. out Aug. 15, 1865. First Lieut. Frank R. Chase, Otisco; com. Aug. 10, 1862; res. Nov. 13, 1863. First Lieut James A. Sage, Otisco; cor. April 7,1864; disch. for wounds Nov. 30, 1864. First Lieut. Henry Hill, Otisco; corn. March 21, 1865; com. second lieutenant Jan. 1,1865; must. out June 24,1865. Sergt James A. Sage, Otisco; pro. to first lieutenant April 7,1864. 1 I Sergt. Henry Hill, Otisco; pro. to second lieutenant Jan. 1,1865. Sergt. Hallock G. Bentley, Otisco; transferred to Invalid Corps Feb. 15, 1864. Sergt. Seth M. Morse, Otisco; transferred to Invalid Corps Jan. 15, 1864. Sergt. Warren F. Houghton, Keene; disch. for disability May 14,1863. Sergt. Thomas Murray, Otisco; must. out June 24, 1865. Sergt. Frank C. Antcliff, Otisco; must. out June 24,1865. Corp. Charles W. Haight, Ionia; transferred to Invalid Corps July 19,1863. Corp. Mortimer L. Green, Otisco; died of disease at Bowling Green May 15, 1863. Corp. Albert C. Moore, Otisco; must. out May 13, 1865. Corp. Jonathan C. Baker, Otisco; must. out June 24,1865. Corp. William J. Just, Otisco; disch. for disability Jan. 16,1863. Musician Zadock S. Howe, Otisco; must. out June 19,1865. Musician George Hart, Otisco; must. out June 30,1865. Antcliff, Joseph, died Oct. 15,1864, of wounds received July 1,1864. Benton, Charles M., died of disease at Louisville, Ky., Dec. 1, 1862. Benton, George, must. out June 24, 1865. Berry, Edgar, must. out June 24,1865. Berry, Edwin R., must. out June 24,1865. Berry, Leander, must. out June 24,1865. Bennett, George C., must. out June 24,1865. Blanchard, Edwin W., must. out June 24,1865. Bentley, Judson C., transferred to Invalid Corps Feb. 15,1864. Blatt, Joseph, disch. for disability July 9,1864. Currier, William H., disch. for disability Jan. 15,1863. Capen, William L., died of disease at Munfordsville, Ky., Jan. 30, 1863. Choate, David, must. out June 24,1865. Choate, Washington, must. out June 24,1865. Demoran, William, must. out June 24,1865. Day, Oscar A., must. out June 24,1865. Damon, Frank, disch. by order June 7,1865. Davis, James R., disch. for disability March 24,1863. Dibble, Arga, died of disease at Evansville, Ind., April 13, 1863. Eldridge, Myron A., must. out of Invalid Corps Nov. 15, 1865. Fish, Sanford, must. out June 30, 1865. Fish, L. M., must. out June 24, 1865. Heart, Charles, must. out May 30,1865. Hanks, George A., must. out June 24,1865. Haight, Frederick G., transferred to Invalid Corps July 19, 1863. Hauser, George, drowned at Loudon, Tenn., Oct. 27,1863. Ingalls, John P., accidentally shot at Bowling Green, Ky., March 19, 1863. Joslin, Americ, died of disease at Louisville, Ky., Nov. 14, 1862. Joles, Hiram H., must. out June 24,1865. King, Marshall, died of disease at Nashville, Tenn., May 30, 1864. Knee, Wesley H., must. out of Invalid Corps July 8,1865. Lowndes, Frederick, must. out June 24, 1865. Lovell, Isaac, killed in action at Atlanta, Ga., Aug. 6, 1864. McLean, Edward, died of disease in Georgia May 6, 1864. Moore, Harmon W., died of disease in Georgia Aug. 1, 1864. Moe, Irving W., disch. for disability March 9, 1863. Murray, William J., must. out May 3,1865. Northway, Aaron H., must. out May 31,1865. Northway, Dura, must. out June 24,1865. Pond, Warren, must. out June 24,1865. Porter, Alvin D., must. out June 24, 1865. Purdey, George W., must. out June 24,1865. Randall, David F., must. out June 24,1865. Ring, Armon, must. out June 24,1865. Smith, Newton N., sergeant, must. out June 24, 1865. Thornton, George D., transferred to Invalid Corps Jan. 15, 1864. Van Houghton, Thomas, must. out June 24,1865. Winchell, Calvin, must. out May 13,1865. Williams, George E., transferred to Invalid Corps Jan. 15,1864. Wright, John A., died of disease at Bowling Green, Ky., March 4,1863. Rickard, William H., enl. Aug. 12,1862. COMPANY E. Sergt. Aaron W. Jenkins, Boston; must. out June 24,1865. Button, Aaron, disch. for disability April 20,1863. Dupee, Samuel, died of disease at Louisville, Ky., Jan. 23,1863. Sible, William 0., must. out July 12,1865. Strong, Hudson, must. out June 24,1865. Young, Alanson, must. out July 5, 1865. Hood, William S., enl. Aug. 11,1862. TWENTY-SEVENTH INFANTRY. Recruiting for the Twenty-seventh Michigan Infantry was commenced in 1862, and its first rendezvous was established at Port Huron. Another regiment, to be designated the Twenty-eighth, was commenced at about the same time, with headquarters at Ypsilanti. Both of these organizations filled very slowly, and at last the exigencies of the service demanded their consolidation. Accordingly, an order MILITARY RECORD OF IONIA AND MONTCALM. 81 was issued directing the nucleus at Port Huron to break camp and proceed to the rendezvous of the Twenty-eighth at Ypsilanti, where the two commands were consolidated as the Twenty-seventh Infantry, Col. Dorus M. Fox,* of Lyons, Ionia Co., commanding, the other field-officers of the regiment being Lieut.-Col. John H. Richardson and Maj. William B. Wright. Ionia County had numerous representatives in the Twentyseventh, scattered among Companies A, B, C, D, E, G, H, and I, also in the First and Second Independent Companies of Sharpshooters (which companies were attached to this regiment), while Montcalm barely escaped non-recognition in the ranks of the regiment by the presence of Privates Hall and A. R. and L. N. Isham. On the 12th of April, 1863, the regiment, then composed of only eight companies, left Ypsilanti and proceeded, via Cincinnati, to Kentucky, where it became a part of the Ninth Army Corps. In the following June it was moved to Mississippi, and took part in the advance on Jackson as well as in some of the other movements in the Vicksburg campaign. In August, 1863, it returned with the Ninth Corps to Kentucky, and on the 10th of September received orders to move with that corps to Cumberland Gap, where it arrived about ten days later. Thence it moved to Knoxville, which place was reached on the 26th. Lenoir Station was next occupied for several weeks. November 14th it marched with its division to Huff's Ferry, Tenn., where the advance of Longstreet's army was encountered, and a brisk fight ensued. From this place it fell back through Lenoir on the retreat to Knoxville. At Campbell's Station the Union column was overtaken by the enemy, who attacked vigorously, and a battle of several hours' duration was fought, in which the Twentyseventh lost eleven men killed and wounded and ten missing. After this engagement the retreat was continued, and the regiment reached Knoxville on the following day. Then followed the siege of Knoxville by Longstreet, during which the regiment occupied a position at Fort Saunders and participated in the repulse of the enemy's furious assault on that work on the 29th of November. It marched with other troops in pursuit of Longstreet when that general withdrew from Knoxville, and was afterwards encamped successively at Rutledge, Blain's Cross-roads, and Mossy Creek. During the period following the 14th of November the suffering and hardships of the regiment were very severe, particularly in the retreat to Knoxville and the siege of that place, from want of rest and an insufficient supply of food and clothing. At Mossy Creek, in March, 1864, the regiment was joined by two new companies (I and K), besides a larger number of recruits for other companies, numbering in all three hundred and sixty-two men. Immediately after this accession to its ranks the Twenty-seventh and its corps received orders to proceed to the reinforcement of the Army of the Potomac. Leaving Mossy Creek on the 17th of March, it moved, via Knoxville, Hall's Gap, and Camp Dick Robinson, to Nicholasville, Ky., making the march -- * Col. Fox had previously served as major of the Ninth Infantry. (See history of that regiment.) 11 i over horrible roads and through the ice and snow of the mountains in fourteen days, or an average of nearly seventeen miles per day. From Nicholasville it was moved by railroad to Annapolis, Md., arriving there on the 5th of April, and at that place it was joined by the two companies of sharpshooters. From Annapolis the regiment moved, on the 23d of April, to Washington, D. C., and thence to Warrenton Junction, Va., where it took its place in the Army of the Potomac as part of the First Brigade, Third Division, of the Ninth Army Corps. On the 5th of May it crossed the Rapidan and dashed into the Wilderness, where, on the following day, it sustained a loss of eighty-nine killed and wounded. At Spottsylvania, May 12th, the regiment was again engaged and fought most gallantly, charging up a hill to the assault of a strong earth-work. The attack failed, but the regiment unflinchingly held its ground, though almost entirely unsupported on the left and exposed to a raking fire of musketry from this direction, as well as to the storm of shell and canister from the fort. While in this desperate position the regiment joining it on the right was withdrawn, thus leaving both flanks exposed to the fire of the enemy. But the orders given to its commanding officer were not to fall back an inch, and these orders were obeyed even after the last round of ammunition had been used and until the friendly shadows of night ended the work of death. In this battle the loss of the Twenty-seventh was twenty-seven killed, one hundred and forty-eight wounded, and twelve missing. In the movement from Spottsylvania to the North Anna River the regiment was engaged (though not heavily) on the 24th and 25th of May. On the 3d of June it took part in the battle at Bethesda Church, losing seventy-six in killed and wounded, among the latter being the heroic Maj. Moody, whose wound proved fatal. The regiment was present at the battle of Cold Harbor, but sustained no considerable loss. From this place it moved rapidly to the James River, which it crossed at Wilcox's Landing. It arrived in front of Petersburg on the 16th of June, and charged with its brigade on the enemy's works on the following day, sustaining heavy loss. The loss of the regiment during the month of June, exclusive of that at Bethesda Church on the 3d, was ninety-four killed and wounded. From this time the Twenty-seventh was on duty in the investing-lines around Petersburg until its final evacuation by the forces of Lee, but its changes of position were too numerous to mention in detail. It took part in the operations at the springing of the mine on the 30th of July and lost severely, among its wounded being the commanding officer, Col. Wright. During the month of July the regiment lost one hundred and twelve in killed and wounded. It fought in the engagements at the Weldon Railroad, on the 19th and 20th of August, with a loss of seventeen killed and wounded, and thirty-seven missing. Again, on the 30th of September, it took part in the fight at Poplar Grove Church, with a loss of one killed and nine wounded. During the last days of October, 1864, it took part in the movement against the South Side Railroad, but was not 82 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. engaged in any fighting. Its alterations and casualties, however, for the year ending Nov. 1, 1864, showed the following astonishing results: Died in action or of wounds, one hundred and fifty-six; died of disease, fiftyseven; discharged for disability, sixteen; discharged by order, etc., sixteen; transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps, twenty-three; deserted, thirty-four; wounded in action, five hundred and eleven; missing in action, ninety-eight; taken prisoners, thirty-eight; joined the regiment, seven hundred and sixty-one. After passing the winter in the trenches in front of Petersburg the regiment, on the 2d of April, 1865, advanced to the attack of Fort Mahon, which was one of the strongest of the defenses of Petersburg. The assault was successful. The men of the Twenty-seventh charged on the doublequick, passed the ditch, mounted the parapet, and planted the regimental colors upon it. The fortification thus taken, however, was not the entire work which was known as Fort Mahon, but its eastern wing. The number of men of the regiment who made this assault was only one hundred and twenty-three, but they took one hundred and fifty-nine prisoners, with six pieces of artillery. The handful of Michigan men held the captured work during the remainder of the day against repeated attempts of the enemy to retake it. Petersburg was evacuated by the forces of Lee during the succeeding night, and the Twentyseventh entered the city at three o'clock in the morning of the 3d. The assault and capture of Fort Mahon was perhaps the most brilliant exploit in all the bright record of the Twentyseventh, as it was also nearly the last of its war experiences. It moved in the pursuit of the retreating columns of Lee, but the surrender at Appomattox followed a few day later, and the Army of the Potomac had no longer an armed foe to oppose it. The regiment soon after marched to Washington, D. C., where it took part in the grand review, May 23d. It was then encamped at Tenallytown, D. C., until July 26, 1865, when the muster out of service took place. Three days later it arrived in Detroit, from whence its members dispersed to their homes. IONIA COUNTY MEN IN THE TWENTY-SEVENTH. FIELD AND STAFF. Col. Dorus M. Fox, Lyons; corn. Oct. 13, 1862; wounded in action near Petersburg June 17,1864; res. Oct. 3,1864. Asst.-Surg. Harvey H. Powers, pro. surgeon Third Infantry Aug. 22, 1864. Q.-M. John Benson, Portland; corn. April 20,1864; must. out July 26,1865. NON-COMMISSIONED STAFF. Sergt-Maj. John Benson, Portland, Jan. 15, 1863; pro. second lieutenant Co. E April 30,1863. Qm.-Sergt Norman T. Sanborn, Portland, Jan. 4, 1864; must. out July 26,1865. Principal Musician Milton Sawyer, Portland, Nov. 20, 1862; disch. for disability July 4, 1863. J. F. Isham, Portland, Dec. 29, 1863; must. out July 26, 1865. COMPANY A. Second Lieut. William A. Pratt, Boston; corn. April 20,1864; disch. Dec. 1, 1864. Dwyer, Antony, disch. for disability Dec. 20, 1864. Heath, Milton A., must. out July 26,1865. Brown, Charles, died of wounds at Petersburg, Va., June 18,1864. COMPANY B. Musician Emory C. Fox, Lyons; enl. Dec. 3, 1862; disch. by order Sept. 27,1863. COMPANY C. Bennett, Charles W., corporal; must. out July 26, 1865. Crothers, William H., died of wounds at Spottsylvania, Va., May 13, 1864. Doremus, Jacob, died of disease at Philadelphia, Pa., June 16,1864. Davis, Charles, absent sick at Washington. Morton, Hurdon, must. out July 26,1865. Smith, Allen W., musician; must. out July 26, 1865. Train, Rufus E., must. out July 26.1865. Taylor, Henry M., transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps Feb. 2,1865. Carey, Franklin J., died of wounds received at Bethesda Church, Va., June 3, 1864. COMPANY D. Cladding, Oscar F., transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps May 4,1865. COMPANY E. Second Lieut. John Benson, Portland; corn. April 30, 1863; pro. first lieutenant Co. I March 1, 1864. Second Lieut. Mason Vosper, Boston; corn. April 20,1864; killed in action near Weldon Railroad Aug. 19,1864. Sergt. Alfred Towne, Portland; must. out July 26, 1865. Corp. Charles Hinman, Danby; must. out July 26,1865. Burhans, Frederick R., must. out July 27, 1865. Chamberlain, Franklin R., killed in battle at Spottsylvania May 12,1864. Clark, Solomon D., died of disease at Portland, Mich., June 12, 1865. Durkee, Morgan, killed in battle at Spottsylvania May 12, 1864. Dinsmore, Wm., Jr., died of wounds in New York Harbor (David's Island) Sept. 14,1864. Green, Henry F., must. out July 26, 1865. Gladding, Wm. H., absent, sick, at muster out. Heaton, Joseph, killed in action at North Anna River, Va., May 24, 1864. Heath, Milton A., killed in action at North Anna River, Va., May 24, 1864. Jenkins, Loren F., must. out July 26,1865. Kinney, Sylvester, died at City Point Hospital of wounds July 30, 1864. Lunges, John, disch. for disability Feb. 5, 1865. Murtaugh, Michael, died at Annapolis, Md., Oct. 13,1864. Mapes, Jesse, must. out of Veteran Reserve Corps Aug. 24,1865. Madison, George D., must. out July 26,1865. Mabie, Wm. 0., absent, wounded, at must. out July 26,1865. Morgan, Mark, must. out July 26,1865. Rich, Daniel K., killed in batttle at Spottsylvania May 12, 1864. Smith, Thomas, died in hospital near Petersburg of disease Feb. 2, 1865. Schenk, Wm. C. killed in action near Petersburg July 7, 1864. Tubbs, Farley, must. out July 26, 1865. COMPANY G. First Lieut. Oscar F. Fox, Lyons; corn. Oct. 10, 1862; died of disease on steamer " Sallie List," on Mississippi River, June 17,1863. Cramer, Silas, must. out July 26, 1865. Hines, Willis G., must. out May 18,1865. Sherman, James A., disch. for disability Feb. 16, 1865. Udell, Charles, must. out July 26,1865. COMPANY H. Bisbee, James A., transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps Nov. 12,1864. Bolton Wallace, must. out July 26,1865. Cronkhite, Francis, absent wounded. Erwin, Charles, must. out July 26, 1865. Fox, Emory C., must. out July 26,1865. Hubbard, Nathan, must. out July 26,1865. Hicks, Charles H., absent sick. Horton, Hiram A., transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps Oct. 11,1864. Lockwood, Edgar, disch. for disability Jan. 10,1865. Lambert, Wmin. D., must. out July 26,1865. Lambert, James C., must. out July 17,1865. Marks, George L., must. out July 26,1865. McCarty, Nelson, must. out July 26,1865. Mott, Adelbert, absent sick. Post, Thomas, absent sick. Pinckney, Wm. H.. must. out July 26, 1865. Smith, Wallace, killed in action at Spottsylvania May 12, 1864. Stewart, George A., killed in action at Petersburg June 18, 1864. Train, Albert, must. out July 11, 1865. Westbrook, Franklin, must. out July 26,1865. COMPANY I. First Lieut. John Benson, Portland; appointed regimental quartermaster April 20, 1864. Nichols, Charles A., must. out July 26,1865. FIRST INDEPENDENT COMPANY SHARPSHOOTERS ATTACHED TO TWENTY-SEVENTH INFANTRY. First Lieut. Thomas D. Scofield, Portland; corn. Feb. 27,1864; taken prisoner near Petersburg, Va., June 30, 1864; paroled March, 1865; honorably discharged May 15,1865. Second Lieut. Charles W. Ingalls, Danby; corn. Feb. 27, 1864; pro. to captain Co. K, Second Michigan Infantry, April 1,1864. Second Lieut. Harvey D. Mason, Portland; com. April 1, 1864 (sergeant); res. Oct. 8, 1864. Sergt. Jasper Davis, Portland; died of disease at Washington June 10, 1864. Sergt. John 8. Megaral, Portland; died of wounds near Petersburg June 19, 1864. Belden, Daniel W., must. out June 26,1865. MILITARY RECORD OF IONIA AND MONTCALM. 83 Collingham, Jacob, must. out June 26,1865. Carpenter, Elkanah, must. out June 26,1865. Colby, James S., died June 26,1864, of wounds received at Spottsylvania May 12,1864. Derby, Rollin D., must. out of Veteran Reserve Corps Aug. 1, 1865. Duras, Frank, must. out June 26, 1865. Dickson, George T., must. out June 26,1865. Decker, James S., must. out June 26,1865. Ellis, William B., absent sick. Ford, Charles, must. out June 26, 1865. Gates, Samuel K., absent sick. Goff, Erastus S., died of disease at Washington, D. C., July 22, 1864. Howland, Henry H., died of disease at Petersburg, Va., Sept. 24,1864. Howland, Franklin B., must. out June 26,1865. Kuley, Hiram, must. out June 26, 1865. Lowry, Emory W., must. out June 26,1865. Lewis, Hiram, must. out June 26,1865. Lindley, Leonard, must. out June 5,1865. Mosly, Charles R., killed in battle of Spottsylvania May 12,1864. Marcy, Newcomb, died of disease at Washington June 13,1864. Mann, William, died of wounds Oct. 4,1864, received May 12, 1864. Sanborn, Edward, disch. for disability Jan. 21,1865. Thornbee, John, died of disease at David's Island, N. Y., July 18, 1864. Whitney, George, must. out May 23,1865. Way, Nathan C., must. out June 9,1865. SECOND INDEPENDENT COMPANY SHARPSHOOTERS ATTACHED TO TWENTY-SEVENTH INFANTRY. Capt. Reynolds H. Scofield, Portland; com. April 1,1864 (sergeant); wounded in action near Petersburg July 30, 1864; disch. for disability Oct. 17, 1864. Sergt. Geo. F. Anderson, Boston; killed in action near Petersburg, Va., July 30, 1864. Sergt. Wm. A. Pratt, Boston; pro. to second lieutenant Co. A, Twenty-seventh Infantry, April 20,1864. Sergt. John P. Anderson, Boston; pro. to first lieutenant Co. H, Second Infantry, April 1, 1864. Briggs, Solomon D., died of disease at Washington March 3,1865. Brown, Francis M., died of disease at Hillsboro' May 12,1864. Benedict, Ledru R., must. out July 26,1865. Cooper, Chas., missing in action at Spottsylvania May 12,1864. Davis, Virgil F., missing in action before Petersburg; taken prisoner July 30, 1864. Davis, Ozial, killed in action before Petersburg June 17,1864. Davis, James R., died of disease at Annapolis, Md., Nov. 3,1864. Davis, Samuel, must. out July 26,1865. Fish, Geo. B., must. out July 26, 1865. Hines, Wm., must. out July 26,1865. Hughson, Eli K., absent in hospital sick. Kidd, Wm. L., must. out July 26,1865. Lane, Geo., must. out July 26,1865. Lane, Andrew, disch. for disability May 17, 1865. McLaughlin, Jas., taken prisoner before Petersburg July 30, 1864. Pike, Murry L., disch. for disability Oct. 16,1864. Ryder, Benj., died of disease at Annapolis Sept. 9, 1864. Shavely, Peter, absent wounded. Shavely, Daniel, absent sick. Shaw, Geo. W., died of disease at Annapolis April 21,1864. Sprague, Wm., must. out July 26, 1865. Vandacan, Wm., died of wounds received at Petersburg Jan. 22, 1865. Wiers, Marshall A., absent wounded. Williams, Isaac, died of disease at Danville, Va., Dec. 21, 1864. MONTCALM COUNTY MEN IN THE TWENTY-SEVENTH. COMPANY A. Hall, William F., must. out July 26, 1865. COMPANY E. Isham, Alfred R., must. out July 26,1865. COMPANY F. Isham, Lamson N., must. out July 26,1865. i I I I CHAPTER XV. FIRST ENGINEERS AND MECHANICS, AND FiIRST UNITED STATES SHARPSHOOTERS (BERDAN'S). The Michigan Engineers and Mechanics-Rendezvous at MarshallIts varied Services in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama-Fight at Lavergne-Services in Georgia-The March to the Sea and through the Carolinas-Through Virginia to Washington, D. C.-Again to Kentucky and Tennessee-Closing Services-Muster-out and Disbandment-First United States SharpshootersCapt. Willett's Company (I), made up largely from Ionia and Montcalm-Serves Gallantly in Virginia-Meagre Reports-Imperfect List of Members given-Reasons therefor. FIRST ENGINEERS AND MECHANICS. THE Michigan Regiment of Engineers and Mechanics was recruited and organized by Col. William P. Innes* (its first commanding officer) in the summer and autumn of 1861. It was the intention, in raising this regiment, that it should be largely composed of men skilled in mechanical trades, and that upon entering the field they should be principally employed in the work with which they were acquainted, a great amount of which is always required in the operations and movements of large armies. This implied promise, made to the men at the time of enlistment, was measurably carried out, though they were always expected to enact the part of fighting-men upon occasion; and for this purpose they were regularly armed and accoutred as infantry. It can be said of them, with truth, that they always proved themselves brave and steadfast in battle as they were skillful and efficient in their own peculiar field of labor, though it was in the latter that their services were by far the more valuable to the government. The organization was composed of men from almost every county in the central and southern part of the Lower Peninsula, the counties of Ionia and Montcalm being represented in nearly all its companies, but most numerously in Company E, which was considered an Ionia County organization. Marshall was the regimental rendezvous, and the regiment was there mustered into the service of the United States by Capt. H. R. Mizner, U. S. A., Oct. 29, 1861. On the 21st of December following, with one thousand and thirty-two officers and enlisted men, the command left Marshall and proceeded to Louisville, Ky. On account of the peculiar nature of the service required of them they were employed in detachments, and for this reason it would be impracticable to trace them through all their numerous marchings and labors. One of these detachments was with Gen. O. M. Mitchell in his advance on Bowling Green, and among the first of the Union troops to enter that town after its evacuation by the enemy. After the capture of Fort Donelson opened Tennessee to the Union forces the Engineers and Mechanics were speedily at work in that State repairing bridges and railroads and opening lines of communication. For eight weeks immediately succeeding the battle of Pittsburg Landing, or Shiloh, they were engaged at that point in the construction of steamboat-landings, wharves, etc., with but one day's * Col. Innes continued in command of the regiment to the expiration of his term, when he was honorably discharged, Oct. 26, 1864. Maj. John B. Yates, of Ionia (who entered the service as captain of Company A in September, 1861), was then promoted to the colonelcy. 84 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. intermission; and during the summer of 1862 they were chiefly engaged in the repair and reopening of the railroads between Nashville and Chattanooga, Nashville and Columbia, Corinth and Decatur, Huntsville and Stevenson, and Memphis and Corinth, and twice assisted in reopening the road between Louisville and Nashville. In the month of June, 1862, alone it built seven bridges on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, each from eighty-four to three hundred and forty feet in length,-in the aggregate nearly three thousand feet,-and from twelve to sixty feet in height. Serious difficulties existed in the regiment during the first months of service owing to a misunderstanding as to the pay the men were to receive, it having been found after their organization that there was no law by which they could receive the pay expected. This trouble was finally remedied by an act of Congress, which act also proposed to increase the regiment's strength from ten to twelve companies of one hundred and fifty men each, forming three battalions, each commanded by a major. Half the men, as artificers, drew seventeen dollars per month, and the others thirteen dollars per month. On the 1st of November, 1862, the regiment was encamped at Edgefield, Tenn., when the alterations and casualties to that date aggregated as follows: Died of disease, seventy-five; died of wounds received in action, two; killed in action, one; wounded in action, seventeen; discharged, one hundred and twenty-four; taken prisoners, fifteen; deserted, twenty; recruits received, sixty-seven. Until June 29, 1863, the regiment was stationed at Edgefield and Mill Creek, near Nashville, at Lavergne, Murfreesboro', and Smyrna, and at a point near Nashville, on the Tennessee and Alabama Railroad. During this time the regiment built nine bridges, besides a number of magazines and buildings for commissary, quartermaster, and ordnance stores, and also repaired and relaid a large amount of railroad-track. At Lavergne, Tenn., on the 1st of January, 1863, it was attacked by the rebel generals Wheeler and Wharton, who, with a force of over three thousand cavalry and two pieces of artillery, were compelled to retire with loss, the regiment in this action having but one man killed and six wounded. On the 29th of June, 1863, the regiment moved south from Murfreesboro', and during the two succeeding months was engaged repairing and opening the railroad from Murfreesboro', Tenn., to Bridgeport, Ala. Of five bridges completed in July, the one over Elk River was four hundred and sixty feet in length; that over Duck River, three hundred and fifty feet. During September and October detached companies were employed in building an immense bridge over the Tennessee River at Bridgeport, Ala., constructing commissary-buildings at Stevenson, Ala., and building and repairing bridges, etc., on the lines of the Nashville and Chattanooga and the Nashville and Northwestern Railroads, the headquarters of the regiment being at Elk River Bridge, Tenn. The alterations and casualties for the year, to Nov. 1, 1863, were: Died in action or of wounds, six; died of disease, fifty-eight; discharged for disability, one hundred and eighty-nine; discharged for other causes, fourteen; deserted, twenty-seven; officers resigned, ten; joined as recruits, three hundred and seventy-two; aggregate strength, nine hundred and sixty-five. In the months of November and December, 1863, and January and February, 1864, a detachment of the regiment was engaged in building trestle-work and bridges on the line of the Nashville and Northwestern Railroad, and in the construction of store-houses and other buildings at Chattanooga, Tenn., and at Bridgeport, Ala., for the quartermaster, ordnance, and other departments of the army. At the same time one battalion was engaged in refitting saw-mills at Chattanooga, where it continued during the months of March, April, and May, employed in running saw-mills, getting out railroad-ties, building hospital accommodations, and working on the defenses. Detachments from the other battalions were engaged erecting block-houses on the lines of the Tennessee and Alabama, the Nashville and Chattanooga, and the Memphis and Charleston Railroads; two companies were at Bridgeport, Ala., building artillery block-houses; two companies were at Stevenson, Ala., completing its defenses; while another battalion was stationed on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, building block-houses at various points between Decatur and Stevenson. The major portion of the regiment was finally concentrated upon the line of the Atlantic and Western Railroad during the summer months of 1864, where it built and repaired railroads, block-houses, etc. The task allotted to this regiment during the fierce campaign of Sherman's army, in 1864, was one of great magnitude, and most nobly did its members fulfill their duty. But for such men as composed the Michigan Engineers and Mechanics, and the rapidity with which they repaired the rlr railroad right up to t nm rmh the enemys skirmish-line the more than one hundred thousand Union soldiers " in front" would many times have been compelled to go without their rations. At the close of the Atlanta campaign headquarters of the regiment were established in the latter city. The alterations and casualties for the year were reported as follows: Died of disease, one hundred and twelve; transferred, thirty-six; discharged for disability, etc., fifty; re-enlisted as veterans, one hundred and forty-eight. On the 31st of October, 1864, the original term of the regiment expired, and such officers as desired to leave the service were mustered out, as were also the enlisted men -whose terms had expired. The re-enlisted veterans, together with the recruits who had joined the regiment, enabled it ^ As Johnston's army fell back from one chosen position to another before the fierce attacks and flank movements of Sherman's veterans the railroad was invariably destroyed by the enemy, and in a manner, too, that would seem to require days to repair it. It must therefore have been a matter of great surprise and chagrin to the "Johnnies" when, as was often the case, in the course of a very few hours after the destruction of a road, a locomotive bearing the legend " United States Military Railroad," and driven by a greasy Northern mechanic, would dash up almost in their very midst, saluting them with several short, sharp whistles, and then a prolonged scream of defiance. The salute, however, as well as the cheers from the '"Yanks," usually, and very quickly too, received a response in the shape of shells from a rebel battery. MILITARY RECORD OF IONIA AND MONTCALM. 85 to maintain its organization entire and at nearly its full strength. From the 1st to 15th of November, 1864, the regiment, with the exception of Companies L and M, was stationed at Atlanta, Ga., being employed in constructing defenses, destroying rebel works, depots, rolling-mills, foundries, gas-works, and other rebel property, and in tearing up and rendering useless the various railroad-tracks in the vicinity. After the complete destruction of Atlanta,* the regiment set out on the morning of November 16th, with the Fourteenth Army Corps, as part of the engineer force of Gen. Sherman's army, going to Sandersville, Ga., with that corps, thence with the Twentieth Army Corps to Horse Creek, where it received orders to join the Seventeenth Army Corps, with which it continued on to Savannah, Ga, reaching there Dec. 10, 1864. During this march the regiment was required to keep pace with the movements of the army, traveling over twenty miles a day, and meanwhile was engaged tearing up railroad-tracks, twisting rails, destroying bridges, repairing and making roads, building and repairing wagon-bridges, etc. On the 10th and 11th of December the regiment built a dam across the Ogechee Canal under the fire of rebel batteries. From that time until after the evacuation of Savannah by the enemy the regiment was constantly at work tearing up railroad-track and destroying the rails of the several railroads leading out of the city, and in constructing long stretches of corduroy road for the passage of army-trains. On the 23d of December it moved into the city, and five days later commenced work on the fortifications laid out by direction of Gen. Sherman. These works, constructed by and under the supervision of this regiment, were over two miles in length, and included several strong battery-positions and lunettes. The regiment was again put in motion on the 3d of January, 1865, marching to Pooler Station, converting the railroad into a wagon-road, and then returning to Savannah. It embarked on board transports for Beaufort, S. C., Jan. 26, 1865, and on the 31st started with the victorious army on its march to Goldsboro', N. C. It moved with the Fifteenth Army Corps to Banbury, S. C., thence with the Twentieth Army Corps to Columbia, S. C., thence with the Seventeenth Corps to Fayetteville, N. C:, and thence with the Twentieth Army Corps to Goldsboro', N. C., where it arrived March 23, 1865. It is estimated that during this campaign, besides making and repairing a great distance of corduroy road, the regiment destroyed and twisted the rails of thirty miles of railroad-track and built eight or ten important bridges and crossings. At Edisto the bridge was constructed under fire from the enemy's sharpshooters. At Hughes Creek and at Little and Big Lynch Creeks the bridges and approaches were built at night. At the lastnamed stream the men worked in water waist-deep. A footcrossing nearly a mile in length was made there in one night, and the next day the space was corduroyed for the heavy army-trains and artillery to pass over. The regiment destroyed factories and rebel army supplies at Columbia, rebel ordnance and stores at Cheraw, and the old United States arsenal at Fayetteville, N. C. Companies L and M, which had been detached from the regiment early in the summer of 1864 and placed upon the defenses at Stevenson, Ala., having completed those works, which consisted of a system of eight block-houses, were retained in the Army of the Cumberland. They assisted to fortify and defend the line of the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad for some weeks, and on the 28th of November, 1864, were moved to Elk River Bridge. For some time after that, when not interrupted by Hood's rebel army, they were engaged in building block-houses between that bridge and Murfreesboro', Tenn. During the most of the month of December a portion of the Engineers and Mechanics were engaged in completing and repairing Fort Rosecrans, Murfreesboro', Tenn., while the rebels, under Hood, were investing Nashville. A detachment consisting of Company L of this regiment and several companies of an Illinois regiment whichhad been sent out to bring through from Stevenson, Ala., a railroad-train of supplies, was captured Dec. 15, 1864, after several hours' hard fighting. On the 1st of March, 1865, Companies L and M left Murfreesboro', Tenn., to join their regiment, and, proceeding by rail, via Louisville, Indianapolis, Crestline, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia, to New York, they there took steamer to Beaufort, N. C., thence by rail to Newbern, and finally joined their comrades at Goldsboro', N. C., March 25, 1865. Gen. Sherman's army began its last campaign April 10, 1865. By breaking camp at Goldsboro' and moving rapidly to the northwestward, Johnston's fleeing forces were pursued to, through, and beyond Raleigh. The Engineers and Mechanics marched with the Twentieth Army Corps, but proceeded no farther than Raleigh, where they remained until after Johnston's surrender.t On the 30th of April the regiment moved out on its homeward march with the Seventeenth Army Corps. It crossed the Roanoke River at Monroe, and, passing through the cities of Petersburg, Richmond, and Alexandria, Va., arrived at Washington, D. C., during the latter part of May, 1865. It participated in the grand review of two hundred thousand veteran soldiers at the national capital, May 24, 1865, and then went into camp near Georgetown, D. C. Early in June the regiment was ordered to Louisville, Ky., thence to Nashville, Tenn., where it was employed upon the defenses until September 22d, when it was mustered out of service. It arrived at Jackson, Mich., September 25th, and Oct. 1, 1865, was paid and disbanded. The battles and skirmishes which by general orders it was entitled to have inscribed upon its colors were those of Mill Springs, Ky., Jan. 19, 1862; Farmington, Miss., May 9, 1862; siege of Corinth, Miss., May 10 to 31, 1862; Perryville, Ky., Oct. 8. 1862; Lavergne, Tenn., Jan. 1, 1863; Chattanooga, Tenn., Oct. 6, 1863; siege of Atlanta, Ga., July 22 to Sept. 2, 1864; Savannah, Ga., Dec. 11 to 23, 1864; Bentonville, N. C., March 19, 1865. t April 26, 1865. * Afternoon and night of Nov. 15, 1864. 86 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. IONIA COUNTY MEN WHO SERVED IN THE FIRST ENGINEERS AND MECHANICS. FIELD AND S1AFF. Col. John B. Yates, Ionia; corn. Nov. 3,1864; major May 28, 1863; captain Co. A Sept. 12,1861; must. out Sept. 22,1865. COMPANY A. Capt. John B. Yates, Ionia; com. Sept. 12,1861; pro. major May 28,1863. Sergt Rodney Mann, Ionia; enl. Sept. 17, 1861; pro. second lieutenant Co. E Sept. 12, 1862. Burnett, Martin J., enI. Aug. 20, 1864; disch. by order June 6, 1865. COMPANY B. Cahoon, George H., disch. by order June 24,1865. Ingalls, Edward B., must. out Sept. 22,1865. Shekils, Joseph B., must. out Sept. 22, 1865. COMPANY C. First Lieut. William Titus, Ionia; com. Jan. 1, 1864; must. out at end of service Oct. 26, 1864. First Lieut. Elias A. York, Ionia; corn. Aug. 27, 1864; must. out Sept. 22,1865. Brown, Daniel, must. out Sept, 22,1865. Brown, George F., must. out Sept. 22,1865. Belgrave, Sylvester, must. out Sept. 22, 1865. Cushing, Wallace H., must. out Sept. 22, 1865. Church, Eustace, must. out Sept. 22,1865. Coats, Minor B., must. out Sept. 22, 1865. Drake, Abram, must. out Sept. 22,1865. Fisk, Charles R., must. out Sept. 22,1865. Gould, John, must out Sept. 22,1865. Gage, Jasper S., must. out Sept 22,1865. Gage, Charles 0., died of disease at Chattanooga March 15, 1864. Hurlburt, Thaddeus W., disch. by order June 6, 1865. Jenks, Albert, must out Sept. 22, 1865. Luce, James H., must. out Sept. 22, 1865. Luscomb, Charles E., vet. Jan. 1, 1864; must. out Sept. 22,1865. Merritt, Mathew F., must. out Sept. 22,1865. Minor, Hiram W., must. out Sept. 22,1865. Morse, Joseph B., must. out Sept. 22, 1865. Sherman, John H., disch. by order June 24, 1864. Tower, Benjamin, must. out Sept. 22,1865. Tower, Benedict, must out Sept. 22,1865. Williams, Charles H., must. out Sept. 22, 1865. Waldron, William W., must. out Sept. 22, 1865. COMPANY D. First Lieut. Benjamin A. Cotton, Saranac; com. Jan. 1, 1864; sergeant Co. E; must out Sept. 22, 1865. Abbott, Isaac, disch. by order June 6, 1865. Bedell, Pierce, must. out Sept. 22,1865. Benson, Arba J., must. out Sept. 22,1865. Godfrey, James H., must. out Sept 22,1865. Loudon, Thomas L., must. out Sept. 22,1865. Morrison, James L., must. out Sept. 22, 1865. Stirling, Daniel L., must. out Sept 22,1865. COMPANY E. Capt Silas E. Canfield, Ionia; corn. Sept. 12, 1861; res. July 14, 1862. Capt Lucius F. Mills, Ionia; corn. July 14, 1862; must. out at end of service Oct. 26, 1864. First Lieut. Lucius F. Mills, Ionia; corn. Sept. 12, 1861; pro. to captain. First Lieut Albert B. Culver, Ionia; corn. July 14,1862; res. Jan. 8, 1864. Second Lieut. Rodney Mann, Ionia; corn. Jan. 1, 1864; disch. at end of service Oct 26,1864. Second Lieut Albert B. Culver, Ionia; com. Sept. 12,1861; pro. to first lieutenant. Second Lieut. Rodney Mann, Ionia: corn. Sept. 12,1862; sergeant Co. A; pro. to first lieutenant. Sergt. Theo. S. Currier, Saranac; enl. Sept. 9,1861; disch. at end of service. Sergt. Benjamin A. Cotton, Saranac; enl. Sept. 16, 1861; pro. to first lieutenant Co. D. Sergt. William Titus, Ionia; enl. Sept. 17, 1861; pro. to first lieutenant Co. C. Sergt. David A. Jewell, Ionia; enl. Sept 14, 1861; pro. to second lieutenant Co. M. Corp. Byron Borden, Ionia; vet. Jan. 1,1864; pro. to first lieutenant Co. K. Corp. Martin Canfield, Ionia; vet Jau. 1, 1864; pro. to first lieutenant Co. H. Corp. Charles Granger, Ionia; enl. Sept. 17, 1861; disch. at end of service Oct. 31,1864. Corp. William F. Johnson, Ionia; enl. Sept. 23, 1861; disch. at end of service Oct 31,1861. Corp. Ansel G. Smith, Ionia; enl. Sept. 6,1861; disch. at end of service Oct. 31, 1864. Musician Frederick Tuttle, Ionia; enl. Sept. 16, 1861; disch. by order May 18, 1863. Musician Marcus Jones, enl. Sept. 26,1861. Wagoner Noah Bishop, Ionia; enl. Sept. 9,1861; trans. to Yet. Res Corps Jan. 15, 1864. Aniba, Charles E., must. out Sept 22,1865. Aniba, James N, must. out Sept. 22,1865. Aniba, William E., disch. by order June 6, 1865. Armbruster, Jacob, disch. by order June 6, 1865. Anderson, David K., must. out Sept. 22,1865. Brink, Eli, died of disease March 3, 1862. Barr, Willard I., disch. for disability March 3,1863. Bellamy, Henry, died of disease June 4,1862. Brink, Gerard S., disch. at end of service Oct. 31,1864. Brink, Chauncey E., disch. at end of service Oct. 31, 1864. Bishop, Devile, must. out Sept. 22,1865. Brown, John M., must. out Sept. 22,1865. Brown, William L., must. out Sept. 22,1865. Baxter, Oscar M., must. out Sept. 22, 1865. Bigelow, George, must. out Sept. 22, 1865. Brodbeck, Augustus, must. out Sept. 22,1865. Bostwick, Alfred H., disch. by order June 6, 1865. Benton, Daniel, disch. by order June 6, 1865. Backus, Samuel W., disch. by order July 26,1865. Connor, William H., disch. by order June 6, 1865. Connor, George W., disch. by order June 24,1865. Cain, James C., disch. by order June 6, 1865. Cobb, George H., disch. by order May 16,1865. Coot, William, disch. at end of service Oct. 31,1864. Currier, Myron M., disch. at end of service Oct. 31,1864. Currier, Theodore S., enl. Sept. 9,1861. Cushman, Milo H., enl. Sept. 16, 1861. Converse, Josiah, died of disease at New Albany, Ind., Nov. 7, 1862. Cornell, Thomas L., died of disease at Bridgeport, Ala., June 4, 1864. Coe, Samuel H., died of disease at Bridgeport, Ala., June 11, 1864. Cuykendall, Henry G., disch. for disability. Cooper, Ashley, disch. by order June 6, 1865. Covert, Benjamin R., disch. by order June 6,1865. Chipman, George W., must. out Sept. 22,1865. Compton, Eber, must. out Sept. 22,1865. Dye, Bloomfield, must. out. Sept. 22, 1865. Dick, John, must. out Sept. 22, 1864. Dolphin, Louis, died of disease Jan. 25, 1864. Dunham, Eldin W., died of disease Jan. 15, 1865. Dunham, Edwin R., disch. by order June 6,1865. Daniels, Irving, disch. at end of service Oct. 31, 1864. Frye, William, disch. at end of service Nov. 7,1864. Granger. Charles, disch. at end of service Oct. 31, 1864. Guernsey, Aaron, disch. at end of service Oct. 31,1864. Goodwin, Jarvis, disch. by order June 6,1865. Gardner, Hiram, disch. by order June 6, 1865. Griffin, Ashbel G., must. out Sept. 22,1865. Graves, Joseph S., must. out Sept. 22,1865. Gates, Erastus M., must. out Sept. 22, 1865. Henderlider, George, died of disease at Nashville, Tenn., Jan. 10, 1864. Hall, Ransom, disch. for disability June 21, 1862. Hall, Andrew J., disch. at end of service Oct. 31, 1864. Hines, Jay, disch. at end of service Nov. 7,1864. Hines. Herbert, must. out Sept. 22,1865. Hitchcock, John H., disch. at end of service Oct. 31, 1864. Holcomb, George W., must. out Sept. 22, 1865. Honig, William G., must. out Sept. 22,1865. Howard, Joseph S., disch. by order June 6, 1865. Houseman, Henry, disch. by order June 6, 1865. Karmsen, William, disch. by order June 6,1865. Kanouse, Francis, must. out Sept. 22,1865. Loverin, Charles B., must. out Sept. 22, 1865. Lumbard, Orrin W., must. out Sept. 22,1865. Ladow, Jacob, _disch. for disability May 26, 1865. Mays, Walter A., disch. for disability May 22, 1865. Mann, Calvin L., disch. by order June 12, 1865. Mills, Samuel J., disch. by order June 6,1865. Milligan, William, disch. by order June 6, 1865. McClintock, John S., must. out Sept. 22,1865. Norris, Albert F., must. out Sept. 22,1865. North, Orville, must. out Sept. 22,1865. Neal, William, must. out Sept. 22,1865. North, Elisha, died of disease in Alabama-July 2, 1864. Norris, Oliver, disch. by order June 6,1865. Norris, James, disch. by order June 6, 1865. Porter, Aaron R., disch. by order June 6, 1865. Porter, Chauncey C., disch. by order June 6,1865. Philips, Walter S., disch. by order Oct. 12,1865. Powlinson, John V., must. out Sept 22,1865. Pennington, George D., must. out Sept. 22, 1865. Pattengill, George, must. out Sept. 22,1865. Prankard, George, disch. at end of service Oct. 31, 1864. Rhodes, LewiA D., disch. for disability June 10, 1863. Roth, Paul, disch. by order June 6,1865. Rector, George, disch. by order June 6, 1865. Rector, Simeon, must. out Sept. 22,1865. Rogers, Charles W., must. out Sept. 22, 1865. Royal, Austin W.,must. out Sept. 22, 1865. Risley, James E., disch. by order June 6,1865. Sawyer, Milton (drum-major), disch. for disability Feb. 10, 1862. Sisson, George A., disch. by order July 3,1866. MILITARY RECORD OF IONIA AND MONTCALM. 87 I Stewart, Edgar, disch. by order June 6 1865. Schneider, John, disch. by order June 6, 1865. Schnaffle, George, disch. by order June 6,1865. Sheldon, William E., disch. by order June 6, 1865. Smith, Homer J., disch. at end of service Oct. 31, 1864. Sumner, Asa F., disch. at end of service Oct. 31,1864. Stanboro, Ransom, must. out Sept. 22,1865. Shaw, Franklin, must. out Sept. 22,1865. Tower, George W., must. out Sept. 22, 1865. Thomas, Samuel, disch. for disability March 26,1862. Tolbert, Julius, disch. by order June 12, 1865. Vincent, Charles D., disch. for disability Nov. 2, 1864. Van Doom, Edmond, disch. by order June 6,1865. Williston, Scott, enl. Sept. 14,1861. Willson, William H., disch. for disability May 9,1862. Wilcox, Lemuel, disch. for disability Dec. 4, 1862. Wiers, John M., disch. for disability March 6,1863. Williams, Pliny, disch. by order June 6,1865. Wiser, Levi, disch. at end of service Oct. 31, 1864. COMPANY F. Burleigh, Anson S., must. out Sept. 22,1865. Call, Leander T., disch. by order July 10,1865. Currie, George, disch. by order June 6,1865. Freeman, Horace S., disch. by order June 6,1865. Martin, Andrew M., disch. by order, June 6,1865. Miller, Nelson J., disch. at end of service Aug. 24, 1864. Miles, James M., disch. for promotion in navy Sept. 17, 1864. Mott, John, died of disease at Detroit June 11,1864. McPherson, Frank, must. out Sept. 22, 1865. Priest, Joshua R., must. out Sept. 22,1865. Russell, Alfred W., must. out Sept. 22, 1865. Rexford, Benjamin, disch. by order June 6, 1865. Rexford, Cornelius, disch. by order June 6, 1865. Rexford, Nathaniel, disch. by order June 6,1865. Sweegles, Henry, must. out Sept. 22,1865. Whitefield, Alfred J., disch. by order June 6,1865. Whitefleld, Henry A., disch. by order June 6,1865. Yarrington, Marvin, must. out Sept. 22,1865. COMPANY G. Blakely, Andrew, disch. for disability July 25,1865. Ganol, John P., disch. for disability May 12,1865. Hall, James H., died of disease at Ringgold, Ga., July 7, 1864. COMPANY H. First Lieut. Martin Canfield, Ionia; cor. Nov. 3, 1864, sergeant Co. E; must. out Sept. 22,1865. McCarthy, Charles, disch. by order July 13, 1865. COMPANY I. Carver, Justus M., died of disease in New York March 15, 1865. Dunsmore, John W., disch. by order June 6, 1865. Jones, Lemuel P., disch. by order June 6, 1865. Russell, Clinton, disch. by order June 6,1865. Youngs, Wi. M., must. out. Sept. 22,1865. COMPANY K. First Lieut. Lorenzo D. Mason, Boston; com. Sept. 12,1861; res. July 30,1862. First Lieut. Byron J. Borden, Ionia; cor. Nov. 3,1864; must. out Sept. 22,1865. Sergt. Mark D. Mason, Ionia; enl. Nov. 1,1861; disch. by order Jan. 21,1863. Sergt. Jesse Newsom, Ionia; enl. Oct. 23,1861; disch. for disability Aug. 21,1863. Sergt. Azel Carpenter, Ionia; enl. Nov. 21, 1861; disch. by order June 3, 1862. Blodget, Henry, disch. at end of service Oct. 31,1864. Cahoon, John T., disch. for disability. Coon, Samuel, died of disease at Chattanooga, Tenn., April 20,1864. Coleman, Eli A., must. out Sept. 22,1865. Frederik, John, died of disease at Ringgold, Ga., July 16,1864. Green, Charles K., died of disease at Chattanooga June 13,1864. Gallup, Joseph, disch. by order May 20,1865. Hiar, Royal J., disch. for disability Jan. 18, 1863. Hiar, George H., vet. Dec. 31,1863. Hall, Wm., died of disease at Alexandria May 20,1865. Hall, John, must. out Sept. 22,1865. Johnson, Samuel W., must. out Sept. 22,1865. Monroe, James, disch. March 8,1863. Pierce, Joseph, disch.; date unknown. Peck, Austin W., disch. by order June 10, 1865. Reed, Wm. H., disch. Aug. 2,1862. Rodegib, Henry, disch. at end of service Oct. 31, 1864. Robertson, Duncan, disch. by order July 13,1865. Smith, Hiel W., disch. at end of service Oct. 31,1864. Smith, Garrett J. F., must. out Sept. 22, 1865. Van Doorn, Isaac, must. out Sept. 22,1865. White, John A., must. out Sept. 22,1865. Wandel, John, must. out Sept. 22,1865. Whiting, Jas. R., must. out Sept. 22,1865. Wade, Alexander, disch. by order June 6,1865. COMPANY M. Second Lieut. Elias A. York, Ionia; com. Jan. 1,1864; must. out Sept. 22, 1865. Second Lieut. David A. Jewell, Ionia; cor. March 11, 1864; must. out at end of service Oct. 26,1864. Second Lieut. Isaac Sigler, Berlin; com. Nov. 3, 1864; must. out Sept. 22, 1865. Amadan, Aaron, must. out Sept. 22,1865. McLaren, Alfred P., must. out Sept. 22, 1865. Stillwell, Nelson G., disch. by order May 18, 1865. Slaght, Spencer G., disch. by order June 6,1865. Whaling, John, disch. by order June 6,1865. MEMBERS OF THE FIRST ENGINEERS AND MECHANICS FROM MONTCALM COUNTY. COMPANY A. Burnett, Moses, disch. by order June 6, 1865. Davis, Bradford C., disch. by order June 6, 1865. Elsworth, Ira D., disch. by order June 6, 1865. Goodsell, Boughton, disch. for disability May 11, 1865. Kent, Henry, disch. by order June 6, 1865. Lobdell, Albert W., disch. by order June 21, 1865. McIntosh, Nelson J., disch. by order June 6, 1865. Phillips, Wesley G., died of disease at Duncan's Bridge, S. C., Feb. 16,1865. Robertham, Elisha, disch. by order June 6, 1865. Swartout, Jacob M., disch. by order June 6, 1865. Soule, Azariah, disch. by order July 21,1865. Terry, Arnold W., must. out Sept. 22, 1865. Vanstee, Cornelius, disch. by order June 6,1865. COMPANY B. Barnes, Alien, disch. by order June 6, 1865. Coffren, Augustus, died of disease at Savannah, Ga., Jan. 28,1865. Solon, Saterlee, died of disease at Chattanooga, Tenn., Feb. 29,1864. Slawson, Newell, disch. at end of service Oct. 31, 1864. Sanford, Henry S., disch. by order July 7, 1865. Underwood, Isaac, disch. for disability June 20,1865. COMPANY D. Macomber, Charles, disch. at end of service Oct. 31,1864. COMPANY E. Sergt. Samuel M. Waters, Montcalm; disch. at end of service Oct. 31,1864. Feagle, Martin V., disch. at end of service Oct. 31, 1864. Nichols, John, disch. for disability July 28, 1862. Roemyk, Frederick, disch. at end of service Oct. 31, 1864. Spencer, Daniel F., disch. at end of service Oct. 31,1864. Voorhie, John V., disch. at end of service Oct. 31, 1864. Waters, Samuel M., disch. at end of service Oct. 31, 1864. Westover, Jason, disch. at end of service Oct. 31,1864. Wells, Sylvester, disch. at end of service Oct. 31, 1864. COMPANY F. Comstock, William, must. out Sept. 22,1865. Comstock,'Elijah, must. out Sept. 22,1865. Hosmer, James, must. out Sept. 22,1865. Owen, Samuel E., disch. by order May 9, 1865. Ransome, Lewis H., died of disease at Savannah, Ga., Jan. 11,1865. COMPANY G. Grovenberg, Frederick, disch. by order June 19, 1865. COMPANY K. Williams, Robert F., must. out Sept. 22,1865. COMPANY L. Brown, Freeman, disch. by order May 23,1865. Rosecrans, Leander, disch. by order May 18, 1865. Smith, Richard, disch. by order June 6, 1865. Sinclair, Asa, disch. by order Aug. 4, 1865. Watson, Alvin S., disch. by order June 6, 1865. Young, Robert G., disch. by order June 6,1865. COMPANY M. Wiggins, William, died of disease at Bridgeport, Ala., March 10,1864. FIRST UNITED STATES SHARPSHOOTERS (BERDAN 'S). It is to be regretted that we can furnish no more satisfactory account of the operations of this command than is found in the brief sketch herewith appended. But it seems that, although Companies C, I, and K of this regiment were composed of Michigan men, and their officers were commissioned by the Governor of this State, their reports to the State adjutant-general were meagre, infrequent, and incomplete, and such reports do not show when these 88 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. companies left the State for the seat of war, or when they were disbanded. The organization designated Company I of the First United States Sharpshooters was recruited by Capt. A. Milan Willett, of Ionia County, in the autumn of 1861 and the succeeding winter, and in the early months of its career was popularly known as " Willett's Fifth Company of Sharpshooters," being one of the six companies of sharpshooters organized in the State at about that period. Of its one hundred and eleven first members, Ionia County received credit for forty-eight; Montcalm, thirty; Washtenaw, eleven; Eaton, seven; Clinton, four; Ingham, one; Monroe, two; St. Clair, one; St. Joseph, three; Wayne, one; unknown localities, three. Company I rendezvoused at Detroit, and was there mustered into the service for three years March 4, 1862. It is believed the company soon after joined its regiment in Virginia, for the adjutant-general, in his report of 1862, says: " The State has six companies of sharpshooters in the service, of which three [Companies C, I, and K] bebelong to the First Regiment United States Sharpshooters, Col. Berdan. They were in action at Hanover Court-house, in the Seven Days' fighting before Richmond, and in the more recent battles near Washington [meaning Gen. Pope's campaign], and have done a large amount of duty on outposts and as skirmishers. Their regiment is in Hooker's grand division of the Army of the Potomac." In December, 1863, the. only information imparted in the reports concerning this command was as follows: " The three Michigan companies in the First United States Sharpshooters continue to recruit in this State, and their officers are appointed by the Governor. Their returns, however, are irregular and incomplete. The regiment is yet in the Army of the Potomac." One year later (December, 1864) the strength of the company was reported as: On duty with the regiment, twenty-two; absent, sick, twelve; aggregate, present and absent, thirty-four. Probably the company was mustered out in the field about March 1, 1865. MEMBERS OF THE FIRST UNITED STATES SHARPSHOOTERS FROM IONIA COUNTY. COMPANY I. Capt. A. Milan Willett; corn. Oct. 12,1861; must. in March 4,1862; res. Nov. 8, 1862. First Lieut. James F. Covel; enl. Oct. 28, 1861; cor. March 5, 1862; pro. to captain, vice Willett, resigned, and soon after honorably discharged, but the dates are not given in adjutant-general's reports. Second Lieut. Jonathan A. Sprague; cor. Dec. 10,1861; must. in with company; res. Nov. 18,1862. Atwell, Abijah, enl. Dec. 30,1861. Atwell, Levi, enl. Dec. 1, 1861. Albro, Jonathan, enl. Feb. 18, 1862. Bemis, Luther, enl. Dec. 10,1861. Barnes, Erastus, enl. Dec. 30, 1861. Brandon, Jeremiah, eul. Feb. 19, 1862; disch. for disability April 2, 1864. Bratt, Sanford C., enl. Feb. 20,1862. Burns, James H., enl. Feb. 15,1862. Clark, John W., enl. Dec. 6,1861. Clark, Charles, enl. Feb. 13, 1862. Cramer, James, enl. Dec. 6,1861. Coleman, Nelson, enl. Nov. 20,1861. Cornell, Leonard, enl. Jan. 1,1862. Cornell, Charles, onl. Dec. 25, 1861. Danner, Simon, enl. Oct. 25, 1861. Dakin, Daniel L., enl. Dec. 30, 1861. Edlin, William, enl. Feb. 22, 1862. Fox, George W, enl. Nov. 18,1861. Finch, Albert N., enl. Nov. 10,1861; died of wounds received in the Wilderness May 5,1864. Fifield, Jasper, enl. Feb. 20, 1862. Fisher, William H., enl. Jan. 25,1862. Galloway, Barney D., enl. Dec. 20,1861. Galloway, Jerome B., enl. Dec. 20,1861. Galloway, James H., enl. Dec. 20, 1861. Gardner, William, enl. Nov. 3,1861. Gladden, Willis, enl. Nov. 14, 1861. Gray, Webster S., enl. Feb. 24, 1862. Hamlin, Edward S., enl. Nov. 20,1861; died of disease at Falmouth, Va., Jan. 27, 1863. Hayes, Demetrius J., enl. Nov. 9,1861. Hinman, Delos, enl. Feb. 17,1862. Kouts, Israel J., enl. Dec. 26,1861. Mann, Calvin C., enl. Jan. 1, 1862. Palmer, David, enl. Dec. 8,1861. Pruden, Geo. W., enl. Dec. 9,1861. Sutton, Lorenzo A., enl. Oct. 22, 1861. Sutton, Edwin 0., enl. Nov. 27,1861. Sessions, Nathaniel, enl. Nov. 24,1861. Stone, Allen, enl. Nov. 20,1861. Simpson, John F., enl. Dec. 17,1861. Scott, James, enl. Nov. 23,1861. Talcott, Chauncey, enl. Dec. 17, 1861. Warren, Daniel C., enl. Dec. 25, 1861; disch. for disability Dec. 15,1862. Willett, Janus W., enl. Oct. 28,1861. Yerrington, William, enl. Nov. 20,1861. Yeomans, George, enl. Feb. 20,1862. MEMBERS OF THE FIRST UNITED STATES SHARPSHOOTERS FROM MONTCALM COUNTY. COMPANY C. Smith, Alvin, died in action at Chancellorsville, Va., Mlay 2,1863. COMPANY I. Bogert, Joshua, died of disease at Washington, D. C. Knapp, Orrin, died of disease at Washington, D. C., March 25, 1862. Smith, Lorenzo 0., died of disease at Washington, D. C., March 11, 1862. CHAPTER XVI. FIRST, SECOND, AND THIRD CAVALRY. The First Cavalry goes to Virginia in September, 1861-Winters in Maryland-Its battles in 1862-Assigned to the "Michigan Brigade"-Defeats Hampton's Legion-The New Battalion-In the Wilderness-At Trevillian-At Front Royal, Winchester, and Cedar Creek-In at the Death of the Rebellion-Ordered to the Rocky Mountains-Disbanded in March, 1866-Soldiers from Ionia and Montcalm who served in the First Cavalry-The Second Cavalry goes to St. Louis-Operates on the Mississippi-Services around Corinth-Philip H. Sheridan its Colonel-Ordered to Kentucky-A March to East Tennessee, then to Middle Tennessee-A Fight with Forrest-More Fighting in Middle and East Tennessee-Re-enlistment-Resisting Hood's Advance in the Fall of 1864-Closing Services-Men from Ionia and Montcalm who served in the SecondThe Third Cavalry —Operations on the Mississippi and around Corinth-A Gallant Achievement-Battle of luka-Fights in the Winter of 1862-63-Fighting Guerrillas in 1863-Description of that Kind of Warfare-Re-enlistment-Subsequent Services-Ordered to Texas-Mustered Out-Lists of Officers and Men from the Two Counties. FIRST CAVALRY. THE First Regiment of Michigan Cavalry was organized during the summer of 1861 by Col. Thornton F. Brodhead, and left its rendezvous at Detroit (eleven hundred and forty-four strong) for the seat of war in Virginia September 29th of that year. Among its original members were thirty from Ionia County, and before the close of the war some fifty or more men had joined its ranks from the counties of Ionia and Montcalm. The regiment passed the winter of 1861-62 in camp near Frederick, Md., and in the following spring entered upon active service on the Upper Potomac, in the Shenandoah MILITARY RECORD OF IONIA AND MONTCALM. 89 Valley, and near the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge. It was in battle at Winchester, Va., March 23, 1862; at Middletown, Va., March 25th; at Strasburg, March 27th; at Harrisonburg, April 22d; at Winchester again, May 24th; at Orange Court-house, July 16th; at Cedar Mountain, August 9th; and at the second battle of Bull Run, Aug. 30, 1862. In the last-named battle its commanding officer, Col. Brodhead, was mortally wounded, and the losses of the regiment in that battle were twenty killed and wounded, seven taken prisoners, and one hundred and six reported missing. From that time until Nov. 1, 1862, ten more had died of wounds received in action and sixty of disease. During the winter of 1862-63 the First, as part of the famous "Michigan Cavalry Brigade,"* was employed in grand guard-duty along the line of the Potomac River from Edward's Ferry to the mouth of Occoquan Creek. This duty, besides being of the most arduous and laborious kind, was one which required the exercise of constant and almost sleepless vigilance in guarding against the inroads and attacks of the bold, enterprising guerrilla bands of Mosby and Stuart; but so well did the men of the First Michigan keep their guard against surprises that, though two cavalry regiments of other States lost each about two hundred men while engaged in the same duty during the same time, this regiment lost only about thirty men. When Gen. Lee invaded Maryland and Pennsylvania in June, 1863, and the Army of the Potomac marched northward to meet him, the First Michigan moved with the other cavalry regiments (June 27th) on the Gettysburg campaign, and during fifteen days fought in sixteen battles and skirmishes, being almost constantly in the saddle. At Gettysburg, on the 3d of July, it met and charged three regiments of Confederate cavalry, composing the renowned " Hampton Legion," and in six minutes put the rebel force to flight; but it lost in this engagement eleven officers and eighty enlisted men out of three hundred who went into the fight. Gen. Custer, in his report of the operations of the cavalry at Gettysburg, said of this fight: " Arriving within a few yards of the enemy's column, a charge was ordered, and with a yell that spread terror before them the First Michigan Cavalry, led by Col. Town, rode upon the front rank of the enemy, sabring all who came within reach. For a moment, but only a moment, that long heavy column stood its ground; then, unable to withstand the impetuosity of the attack, it gave way into a disorderly rout, leaving vast numbers of their dead and wounded in our possession, while the First, being masters of the field, had the proud satisfaction of seeing the much-vaunted chivalry, led by their favorite commander, seek safety in headlong flight. I cannot find language to express my high appreciation of the gallantry and daring displayed by the officers and men of the First Michigan Cavalry. They advanced to the charge of a vastly superior force with as much order and precision as if going upon parade; and I challenge the annals of warfare X This celebrated body of Union horsemen was composed of the First, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Michigan Cavalry. It was organized in the early part of 1863, and continued in service as a brigade until the close of the war, being commanded successively by Gens. Kilpatrick and Custer, and gaining, whether rightly or wrongly, the highest reputation of any cavalry brigade in the service. 12 to produce a more brilliant or successful charge of cavalry than the one just recounted." On the following day the regiment was again engaged, at Fairfield Gap. The following extract is from the report of that fight made by Col. Chas. H. Town, commanding the regiment: " We moved early on the morning of the 4th of July to Emmettsburg, thence to Monterey. Before reaching the latter place the enemy was discovered in force upon the hills to the right of the road. The regiment, being in advance of the column, was sent on a road leading to Fairfield Gap. The enemy having possession of the gap, a charge was made by one squadron, which, with the remainder of the regiment deployed as skirmishers, was successful in driving the enemy from the Gap. The regiment held this position until the entire column had passed, though the enemy made desperate efforts, with superior numbers, to drive us out." During the pursuit of the enemy from Gettysburg to the Potomac the men of the First were almost constantly in the saddle and frequently engaged. On the 6th of July it supported a battery under a heavy fire, but fortunately sustained no loss. It took part in the actions at Boonsboro', Hagerstown, and Williamsport, and at Falling Waters, Va. On the 14th of July it was heavily engaged, capturing five hundred prisoners and the colors of the Fortieth and Fortyseventh Virginia Infantry. In September, 1863, the War Department authorized the consolidation of the twelve companies of the regiment into eight and the raising of a new battalion of four companies. These new companies were speedily recruited, and were mustered into service at Mount Clemens, Mich., in December, 1863. This battalion then proceeded to Camp Stoneman, near Washington, D. C., soon after, and remained there until the spring of 1864. Meanwhile, the two old battalions re-enlisted, came home on veteran furlough, and joined the new recruits at Camp Stoneman. The three battalions went to the front together, and in the latter part of March, 1864, joined Gen. Sheridan's cavalry corps at Culpeper, Va., being still a part of the Michigan Cavalry Brigade. The regiment did excellent service in the arduous campaigns of May and June, 1864, one of its most brilliant engagements being that at Yellow Tavern, Va., on the 11th of May. The splendid charge made by the regiment on that occasion was reverted to by Gen. Custer, in his report, as follows: " From a personal examination of the ground I discovered that a successful charge might be made upon the battery of the enemy by keeping well to the right. With this intention, I formed the First Michigan Cavalry in column of squadrons under cover of the woods. At the same time I directed Col. Alger and Maj. Kidd to move the Fifth and Sixth Michigan Cavalry forward and occupy the attention of the enemy on the left, Heaton's battery to engage them in the front, while the First charged the battery on the flank. The bugle sounded the advance, and the three regiments moved forward. As soon as the First Michigan moved from the cover of the woods the enemy divined our inten tion, and opened a brisk fire from his artillery with shell and canister. Before the battery of the enemy could be reached there were five fences to be opened and-a bridge to 90 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. I cross, over which it was impossible to pass more than three at one time, the intervening ground being within close range of the enemy's battery. Yet, notwithstanding these obstacles, the First Michigan, Lieut.-Col. Stagg commanding, advanced boldly to the charge, and when within two hundred yards of the battery charged it with a yell which spread terror before them. Two pieces of cannon, two limbers filled with ammunition, and a large number of prisoners were among the results of this charge.... Lieut.-Col. Stagg, who commanded the First Michigan in the charge, with the officers and men of his command, deserves great credit for the daring manner in which the rebel battery was taken." The regiment was engaged at Hanovertown on the 27th of May, and on the 28th at Hawes' Shop, where fifteen of its members were killed and wounded, and on the 30th at Old Church, where it again lost fifteen. On the 31st of May and 1st of June it was engaged, together with other cavalry regiments, at Cold Harbor, where it fought dismounted in advance of the infantry, having eighteen men killed and wounded.. It shared the fortunes of the brigade throughout the summer, having fifty-one men killed and wounded at Trevillian Station (where six commissioned officers were killed), eleven killed and wounded at Front Royal in the Shenandoah Valley, thirty-two at Manchester, and twenty-seven at Cedar Creek. During the six months ending Nov. 1, 1864, the regiment had sustained a loss of eighty-two killed or mortally wounded in action, and one hundred and two less seriously wounded, while thirty-three died of disease. After being in quarters with the brigade near Winchester through the winter of 1864-65 the regiment, in March, 1865, moved forward with Sheridan, and took an active part in the closing scenes of the Rebellion. A most gallant charge made by the regiment at Five Forks is thus mentioned: " The next morning we moved forward, passing over the ground from which we had been driven the day before. Our brigade being in advance we soon came upon the enemy strongly posted behind a large swamp, through which it was impossible to penetrate. Moving to the right the enemy's cavalry appeared in our front, and was driven to his main line of works occupied by Kershaw's division. In the afternoon the regiment participated in the final charge and capture of these works, taking many prisoners and pursuing the flying enemy until long after dark." This battle was immediately followed by the surrender of the Confederate army under Gen. Lee, and soon after this the regiment moved into the edge of North Carolina, then returned to Washington, and immediately after the review of the Army of the Potomac, on the 23d of May, 1865, was sent by rail and steamer to Fort Leavenworth, Kan., whence it was ordered across the Plains. There was much dissatisfaction, but most of the regiment set out on the march, reaching Camp Collins, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, on the 26th of July. Its headquarters remained there until about the 1st of November, when it was moved to Fort Bridger. There it was consolidated with those men of the Sixth and Seventh Michigan Cavalry who had the longest time to serve, forming an organization known as the First Michigan Veteran Cavalry. After the consolidation eight companies were sent to Camp Douglas, near Salt Lake City, while four remained at Fort Bridger. The regiment garrisoned those two stations until the 10th of March, 1866, when it was mustered out, paid off, and disbanded. The men were given their choice,to be disbanded in Utah then, or to remain till June and then be marched to Fort Leavenworth, without horses or tents. All but about seventy made the former choice. The commutation paid them in lieu of transportation, however, was not enough to carry them home, and, on representation of the injustice to Congress, that body voted three hundred and twenty-five dollars to each member of the regiment, minus the amount already paid as commutation money. This gave each member about two hundred and ten dollars extra, which was duly paid them by the government. MEMBERS OF THE FIRST CAVALRY FROM IONIA COUNTY. COMPANY C. Norwood, Edx in I., missing at Gettysburg, Pa., July 3, 1863. COMPANY D. Mapes, David, vet. Dec. 21, 1863; disch. by order June 28, 1865. COMPANY E. Millard, Hendryx, must. out July 6, 1866. COMPANY F. First Lieut. William H. Freeman; comr. Aug. 20,1861; disch. for disability Sept. 11, 1862. Butler, Abner K., died at MIiddleville, Va., of - ounds, March 24, 1862. Bower, Henly, died of disease at Washington, D. C., Aug. 26, 1862. Bird, Samuel S., enl. Aug. 20,1861. Brown, Edward, disch. by order Aug. 22,1864. Cook, Chailes, disch. for disability. Crossett, Reuben G., disch. at end of service Aug. 20,1864. Caslet, Francis N., vet. Dec. 21, 1863. Everest, Charles H., vet. Dec. 21, 1863. Elliott, George, vet. Dec. 21, 1863. Flower, Consider E., vet. Dec. 21, 1863. Gallinger, Henry, disch. at end of ser vice Aug. 22, 1864. Jenks, Horatio N., disch. at end of service Sept. 27, 1864. Jennings, James C, disch. at end of service Aug. 22,1864. James, Morgan, enl. Aug. 19,1861. Jenks, Luther J., dlsch. for disability. Lamb, Lyman, must. out May 6,1866. MIills, Samuel, disch. at end of service Aug. 22, 1864. Orcutt, George, died of disease at Frederick City Jan. 30, 1862. Pool, George S., disch. at end of service Aug. 22,1864. Phillips, Hiram W., enl. Aug. 19, 1861. Richardson, Pennel, disch. for disability Oct. 1, 1862. Rice, Milton, enl. Aug. 19, 1861. Thomas, Darwin, disch. for disability April 8, 1863. Whitney, George C., commissary sergeant; eill. Aug. 9, 1861. Trumbull, Edgar B., musician, enl. Aug. 19, 1861. COMPANY G. Smith, Edward, must. out Feb. 27,1866. CO0IPANY I. Burk, Aaron S., disch. by order. COMPANY K. Haysmayer, Stephen, must. out Maicl 25, 1866. Johnson, George, must. out March 25, 1866. COMPANY L. Fuller, Richard, disch. for disability Jan. 4,1866. Hawley, George A., must. out March 6, 1866. Hull, Ezra, must. out July 10, 1865. Steere, David, must. out April 7, 1866. COMPANY M. Morgan, James, must. out June 28, 1865. SOLDIERS OF THE FIRST CAVALRY COUNTY. COMPANY F. Berk, Silas, died of disease at New Market, Va. Costell, William H., disch. by older June 15, 1865. FROM MONTCALM MILITARY RECORD OF IONIA AND MONTCALM. 91 COMPANY H. Page, Wallace R., must. out March 25,1866. COMPANY K. Woodard, William H., died of disease at Fort Leavenworth Oct. 8,1868. SECOND CAVALRY. The Second Cavalry Regiment was organized in the summer and autumn of 1861 by Hon. F. W. Kellogg, and for this reason was generally known during the period of its enlistment as " Kellogg's First Cavalry."* It contained between thirty and forty men from lonia and Montcalm Counties, these being scattered among several of its companies. The regimental rendezvous and camp of instruction was located at the city of Grand Rapids, and here it was mustered into the United States service Oct. 2, 1861. On the 14th of November following it proceeded to St. Louis, Mo., where it remained until March, 1862. It then joined Gen. Pope's "Army of the Mississippi," and took part in the operations against New Madrid, Mo., and Island No. 10. After the capture of those rebel strongholds it was transferred (with Gen. Pope's command), on steamers via the Mississippi, Ohio, and Tennessee Rivers, to Hamburg Landing,t Tenn., and helped to swell the large force of Northwestern volunteers there concentrated under Gen. Halleck. It was engaged in the battle of Farmington, Miss., May 5, 1862, and in the siege of Corinth its members were active participants. It pressed closely upon Beauregard's retreating rebel columns when they fled south from Corinth, and fought them at Boonville, Blackland, and Baldwin, Miss. Thereafter, in the summer of 1862, the Second was actively employed in cavalry duty in Northern Mississippi and West Tennessee. Its commanding officer was Col. Philip H. Sheridan (now lieutenant-general), who had recently been detailed from duty as a captain in the regular army to receive the colonelcy lately vacated by the promotion of Gen. Gordon Granger. Col. Sheridan was also, during a portion of the time alluded to, in command of a brigade which consisted of the Second Michigan, Second Iowa, and Seventh Kansas Cavalry, and at its head made numerous excursions throughout the country around Corinth to keep down guerrillas and learn the movements of the enemy. Early in the autumn, however, Col. Sheridan was made a brigadier-general of volunteers and transferred to the Army of the Cumberland, and at about the same time the Second Michigan Cavalry was sent to Kentucky. In December, 1862, and January, 1863, it was engaged in a movement into East Tennessee, the men being in the saddle twenty-two days and taking part in several sharp skirmishes. Soon afterwards it moved into Middle Tennessee, and for several months its headquarters were at or near Murfreesboro', while it was almost constantly engaged in scoutings and raids through that region. On the 25th of March, 1863, it had a sharp encounter with a large rebel force under"Gen. N. B. Forrest, killing and wounding many of the enemy, besides capturing fifty two prisoners, the Second losing only seven men. On the 4th of June it had another brisk skirmish with the enemy at a point between Franklin-and Triune, Tenn., losing five men killed and wounded. When the Army of the Cumberland advanced from Murfreesboro' in June, 1863, the Second accompanied it as part of the cavalry division and assisted in driving the enemy from Shelbyville, Middletown, and other points. In the autumn of that year it was engaged in scouting around Chattanooga, at one time being part of a force which chased Gen. Wheeler's rebel cavalry one hundred and ninety-one miles in six days (October 3d to 8th, inclusive). In November it marched into East Tennessee, and on the 24th of December it participated in an attack on a large force of the enemy at Dandridge, having ten men killed and wounded. On the 27th of January, 1864, the Second with other Union forces attacked a brigade of rebel cavalry on Pigeon River, Tenn., capturing three pieces of artillery and seventy-five prisoners, sustaining a loss of eleven men wounded. Three hundred and twenty-eight members of the regiment re-enlisted as veterans soon after, and in April returned home on veteran furlough. The remainder accompanied Gen. Sherman in the early part of the Atlanta campaign, but, being ordered back from Lost Mountain, Ga., to Franklin, Tenn., were there rejoined by the veterans in July. During the summer and autumn following, the regiment was busily engaged in marching through Middle Tennessee, fighting the horsemen of Forrest and other rebel commanders. On the 5th of November, 1864, the regiment was attacked at Shoal Creek, Tenn., by a large Confederate force (a part of Hood's army then advancing against Nashville), and was forced back with heavy loss. It fell back steadily, however, skirmishing almost constantly with the enemy, and at Franklin, Tenn., on the 30th of November, it resisted his advance all day, having eighteen officers and men killed and wounded. After Hood's defeat before Nashville the Second pressed hard on his rear, and at Richland Creek, Tenn., on the 24th of December, it charged repeatedly, driving the foe sixteen miles and having seven men killed and wounded. After Gen. Hood's final retreat from the State the regiment remained mostly in Middle Tennessee until March, 1865, when it set out on a long raid through Northern Alabama to Tuscaloosa, Ala., thence through Talladega, Ala., to Macon, Ga., where it arrived on the 1st of May. On the 17th of July detachments of the regiment were sent to garrison Perry, Thomaston, Barnsville, Forsythe, and Milledgeville, Ga., two companies remaining with headquarters at Macon. But one month later (August 17th) it was mustered out of service, and, moving homeward, arrived in Jackson, Mich., August 26th, and was disbanded. IONIA COUNTY MEN WHO SERVED IN THE SECOND CAVALRY. COMPANY A. Andrews, Lewis, must. out Aug. 17,1865. Brown, William J., must. out Aug. 31,1865. Blake, Theodore A., trans. to Veteran Reserve Corps. Cahoon, Washington, vet. Jan. 5, 1864; must. out Aug. 17, 1865. *2 Called the First because Mr. Kellogg soon after commenced the organization of other cavalry regiments. t A few miles above Pittsburg Landing. 92 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTGALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. COMPANY C. Fredenberg, Moses W., must. out May 18,1865. McNeil, John, must. out Aug. 17, 1865. McNeil, James, died of disease at Nashville, Tenn., July 15,1864. COMPANY D. Clifford, William M. B., must. out June 12, 1865. Sprague, Dewitt C., trans. to Veteran Reserve Corps Feb. 11, 1865. COMPANY F. Bradford, Jacob A., corporal; disch. at end of service Oct. 22,1864. Caswell, John, died of disease at Commerce, Md., March, 1862. Demoret, Lorenzo A, died of disease in Tennessee Aug. 5, 1863. McCaslin, William, died of disease at Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 10, 1864. Root, William E., corporal; vet. Jan. 5, 1864; must. out Aug. 17, 1865. Race, George B., disch. at end of service Oct. 22,1864. Race, Hiram S., disch. at end of service Oct. 22, 1864. Osborn, William H., enl. Sept. 12,1861. Scott, Douglas, missing in action July 1, 1862. Weaver, Caleb F., died of disease in Tennessee Oct. 6, 1863. COMPANY I. Manning, Perry, must out July 6, 1865. COMPANY M. Gaines, Sullivan, enl. Sept. 20,1861. Sayles, Willis, enl. Sept. 5,1861. Sayles, Lyman, enl. Sept. 5,1861. MEMBERS OF THE SECOND CAVALRY FROM MONTCALM COUNTY. COMPANY C. Delano, Eben R., died of disease at Nashville, Tenn., July 14,1864. COMPANY F. Barnum, Charles, disch. for disability July 16,1862. Burgess, John C., vet. Jan. 5, 1864; must. out Aug. 17,1865. Corbin, George, disch. for promotion. Devendorff, Dwight F., disch. for disability. Gallea, Emerson H., disch. for disability Dec. 27,1862. Rossman, George, disch. for disability April 3,1864. Williams, Henry B., disch. for disability Dec. 27,1862. COMPANY L. Striker, William S., must. out Aug. 17, 1865. THIRD CAVALRY. The Third Cavalry Regiment of Michigan was recruited and organized in the summer and fall of 1861, and was mustered into the United States service at Grand Rapids (its rendezvous) on the 1st of November of that year. Company D contained a large number of Ionia County men, and the same county was also represented in Companies B, E, F, and I. Montcalm had but few men in this regiment, and they served in Companies D and I. With a total strength of eleven hundred and sixty-three officers and enlisted men, under the command of Lieut.Col. Robert H. G. Minty (previously major of the Second Michigan Cavalry), the regiment left its rendezvous on the 28th of November, 1861, and proceeded to Benton Barracks, St. Louis, Mo., where Col. John K. Mizner soon after assumed command. It remained at St. Louis until early in the spring of 1862, when it joined Gen. John Pope's Army of the Mississippi, and actively participated in the operations which resulted in the capture of the rebel strongholds Island No. 10 and New Madrid. With Gen. Pope's army it then proceeded, via the Mississippi, Ohio, and Tennessee Rivers, to Pittsburg Landing, where it arrived soon after the battle of Shiloh, and took an active part in the advance of Gen. Halleck's army upon Corinth, Miss. Immediately after the evacuation of Corinth by Beauregard, the Third was ordered to Booneville, Miss., to ascertain the position and strength of the enemy. While in the performance of this duty a small detachment of the regiment was sent out in advance under one of the captains. It ran on to a rebel force of all arms, drove them from their position, halted, and bivouacked for the night. The following morning, while eating breakfast, a Union scout discovered the enemy in the vicinity. The men left their breakfast half eaten, mounted, and hurried forward. They soon found a small body of rebel cavalry, who fled before them. The Union horsemen advanced at a rapid pace, and soon came upon an entire regiment of rebel cavalry drawn up to dispute their further progress. There was no time for consideration. If the little command had then retreated, it would have been attacked and crushed by the elated Confederates. The captain knew it was essential for cavalry to get the advantage of its own momentum in a combat, and accordingly shouted the order to charge. The detachment dashed forward at the top of its speed, burst through the Confederate lines, and then turned and charged back. The enemy was so demoralized by these movements that no attempt was made to follow. How many of the foe were killed and wounded was not known, but it is certain that at least eleven were dismounted, for eleven of their horses accompanied the Union force on its returning charge. After retreating a short distance, the commander halted and sent a dispatch to camp. About four o'clock in the afternoon he was relieved by the Second Michigan Cavalry, under the command of Col. Philip H. Sheridan. The latter drove back the enemy four or five miles, and then rejoined the main army. The regiment was actively engaged in the usual cavalry duty of picketing and scouting throughout the whole season. Through the month of August it was at Tuscumbia and Russellville, Ala. On the approach of Price's rebel cavalry it returned to the vicinity of Corinth. At Iuka, Miss., on the 19th of September, 1862, while in command of Capt. L. G. Wilcox, Col. Mizner being chief of cavalry, the regiment was actively engaged, and was specially mentioned in Gen. Rosecrans' report of that battle. When Price and his defeated rebel army retired from the field the Third hung on his flanks and rear'for many miles, becoming several times hotly engaged, and causing him repeatedly to form line of battle to check the Union advance. At the close of the year ending Nov. 1, 1862, the regiment had lost one hundred and four men who died of disease, seven killed in action, forty-five wounded in action, and fifty-nine taken prisoners. Its battles and skirmishes to that date were New Madrid, Mo., March 13, 1862; siege of Island No. 10, Mo., March 14th to April 7th; Farmington, Miss., May 5th; siege of Corinth, Miss., May 10th to 31st; Spangler's Mills, Miss., July 26th; Bay Springs, Miss., September 10th; Iuka, Miss., September 19th; Corinth, Miss., October' 3d and 4th; Hatchie, Miss., October 6th. It advanced with Gen. Grant's army into Mississippi in November and December, 1862, and engaged the enemy at Holly Springs, November 7th; at Hudsonville, November 14th, where it captured an entire rebel company; at Lumkin's Mill, November 29th; at Oxford, December 2d; and shared in the defeat of the Union cavalry at Coffeeville, December 5th. The following winter it was on active duty in North Mississippi and West Tennessee. MILITARY RECORD OF IONIA AND MONTCALM. 93 I During the year 1863 the Third Cavalry was principally engaged in the arduous service of driving out the numerous bands of guerrillas which infested Western Tennessee and Northern Mississippi and repelling the incursions of Confederate forces from other quarters, its camp being most of the time at Corinth, Miss. There were few very severe battles in this kind of warfare, and few opportunities for winning martial glory amid the shock of charging squadrons, but it tested to the utmost the endurance, the fortitude, and the patriotism of the hardy sons of the West. Day and night, in sun and rain, the cavalry was kept in motion. Often when all the camp lay locked in the deep slumbers of two o'clock in the morning the silence would suddenly be broken by the stirring sounds of the bugle, and a moment later the officers would be heard going from tent to tent, arousing the half-awakened men with the orders, " Turn out here, Company B." " Turn out, Company F." " Get ready to march with three days' rations." "' Lively, now; lively, I say!" Then would follow a hurried drawing of rations, the filling of haversacks and saddle-bags with coffee, pork, and " hard-tack," and perhaps the cooking of a hasty meal for immediate consumption. Presently the bugles would sound " Boot and Saddle," the horses would be speedily equipped, mounted, and ridden into line, the voices of a dozen captains would be heard in succession commanding " Fours Right-Column Right-March!" and away into the darkness would go the Third Michigan or the Seventh Kansas or the Third Iowa, or any two of them, or all of them, as the occasion might seem to require. Nobody would know where they were going except the field-officers, and very frequently they did not; but all sorts of rumors would pass rapidly among the boys: " Forrest is coming to attack the camp;" " Roddy is out here ten miles;" "Chalmers is raising the devil over at Holly Springs," etc. A ride would follow, perhaps lasting two or three hours, perhaps extending through three or four days and half as many nights, and sometimes embracing a period of one, two, or three weeks, during which the bold riders were generally compelled to live upon the country they traversed. In that half-cleared country there was seldom an opportunity for the dashing charge which one naturally associates with the idea of cavalry service; but whenever they met the foe, which was quite frequently, both sides dismounted, and a lively skirmish with carbines against shot-guns ensued, which lasted until one party or the other retreated. The retreating party was usually, though not always, the rebels, for, notwithstanding the best Confederate troops, after the battle of Corinth, in October, 1862, were taken away to other sections, leaving only undisciplined bands of what was called " shot-gun cavalry" in Northern Mississippi and Western Tennessee, the " chivalry," as a general rule, fought well. In such tasks the Third Michigan Cavalry was engaged throughout 1863, taking part in sharp fights (and generally defeating the enemy) at Clifton, on the 20th of February; at Panola, Miss., on the 20th of July; at Byhalia, Miss., on the 12th of October; at Wyatt's Ford, Miss., on the 13th of October. At Grenada, Miss., also, on the 14th of August, the Third led the Union advance, and after a vigorous fight drove back the enemy, captured the town, and destroyed more than sixty locomotives and four hundred cars, gathered there by the Confederate authorities. In the latter part of January, 1864, the regiment being then in winter quarters at Lagrange, Tenn., three-fourths of the men re-enlisted, and the command became the Third Michigan Veteran Cavalry. After the men had enjoyed their veteran furlough the command went to St. Louis, in March, 1864, and in the latter part of May proceeded, dismounted, to Little Rock, Ark. It was not mounted until the first of August, when it resumed the work of chasing guerrillas, scouting for information, etc., with an experience similar to that already described. From November, 1864, to February, 1865, the Third was in garrison at Brownsville Station, on the Memphis and Little Rock Railroad, where the men built such a fine appearing set of quarters and stables that the place was commonly called Michigan City, instead of Brownsville Station. In March, 1865, the regiment, as a part of the First Brigade, First Division, Seventh Army Corps, proceeded to New Orleans, and in April continued its course to Mobile. After the capture of that place the Third was on outpost duty in that vicinity until the 8th day of May, when it marched across the country to Baton Rouge, La. In June it set out for Texas by the way of Shreveport, and on the 2d of August arrived at San Antonio, in that State. Its headquarters remained at San Antonio until the 15th of February, 1866, while successive detachments were scouring the country, protecting the frontier against the Mexicans and Indians. In February, 1866, the regiment was dismounted, mustered out,* and sent home, being paid off and disbanded at Jackson, Mich., on the 15th of March, 1866, after a service of four years and a half unsurpassed as to hardship and fidelity by that of any other regiment in the army. It is claimed to have captured during the time over two thousand five hundred prisoners, besides those taken in co-operation with other regiments. MEMBERS OF THE THIRD CAVALRY FROM IONIA COUNTY. COMPANY B. Corp. Thomas B. Wallace, enl. Sept. 9,1861. Hale, Charles W., disch. for disability Nov. 4,1864. Sinclair, Elijah, enl. Nov. 11, 1861. COMPANY D. Second Lieut. Philo D. Cutler, enl. Aug. 26, 1861; com. second lieutenant Sept. 7, 1862; pro. first lieutenant same regiment Oct. 1, 1862; pro. major Third Infantry July 29, 1864, so says the record, but there is nothing to show what became of him ultimately. Q.-M. Sergt. Gardner C. Freeman, died of disease at Iuka, Miss., Sept. 7,1862. Sergt. William A. Jones, enl. Sept. 1, 1861. Sergt. Charles H. Morse, enl. Sept. 14, 1861. Sergt. Guy Webster, enl. Sept. 1, 1861. Corp. John W. Hudson, enl. Sept. 3, 1861; must. out Feb. 12, 1866. Corp. Daniel S. Hill, enl. Sept. 6, 1861; must. out Feb. 12, 1866. Corp. Henry J. Phillips, enl. Sept. 3,1861. Bugler C. E. Brooks, enl. Sept. 10, 1861. Bugler William H. Whidders, enl. Sept. 8,1861. Wagoner Henry H. Steel, enl. Sept. 10, 1861. Farrier Washington R. Phillips, enl. Oct. 5, 1861; disch. for disability Feb. 20, 1862. Saddler Richard S. Hinds, enl. Sept. 10,1861. Farrier Nelson Hinds, enl. Sept. 10, 1861; must. out Feb. 12, 1866. Blauvelt, Sylvester, enl. Oct. 5, 1861; must. out Feb. 12, 1866. Breman, Michael, enl. Nov. 28,1861. Brooks, Stephen A., enl. September, 1861; disch. by order Sept. 14, 1865. ' The regiment was mustered out at San Antonio, Texas, Feb. 12, 1866, and arrived at Jackson, Mich, March 10th of the same year. 94 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. Cronkite, Byron, enl. Sept, 9, 1861; died of disability, St. Louis, Mo., Jan. 11, 1862. Davis, John E., enl. Oct. 4,1861; must. out Feb. 12, 1866. Duel, James P., enl. Sept. 25,1861; must. out Feb. 12,1866. Duel, John, enl.Sept 25, 1861; must. out Feb. 12,1866. Dexter, Albert, enl. Sept. 25,1861; died at Ripley, Miss., Dec. 1, 1863. Evans, Chauncey M., enL Sept. 10,1861; disch. for disability Jan. 2,1863. Ellsworth, Alfred E., enl. Sept. 25, 1861. Ehrman, Joseph, saddler; enl. Sept. 10,1861; must. out Feb. 12, 1866. Frost, Charles L., enl. Sept. 10,1861; disch. for disability September, 1862. Franklin, Aaron B., enl. Sept. 15, 1861; disch. for disability May 26,1865. Fuller, Bermont, enl. Sept. 9,1861; died at St. Louis, Mo., March 31, 1862. Gardner, John S., enL Sept. 9,1861; must out Feb. 12, 1866. Green, James W., enl. Sept. 28, 1861; died in Keene, Mich., about Dec. 1, 1861. Hubbs, Milo A., enl. Sept. 25,1861; died at St. Louis, Mo., Jan. 4, 1862. Hubbe, Jared F., enl. Sept. 25,1861. Houghton, Charles L., enl. Sept. 10,1861; must. out Feb. 12,1866. Hughson, Frederick, enl. Sept. 10, 1861. Hinman, Henry M, enl. Sept. 15,1861. Hawley, Adam B., enl. Sept. 15, 1861; died of disease at Duval's Bluff, Ark., July 14,1864. Harrington, John, enl. Sept. 15,1861; must. out May 22, 1865. Locke, Wilber H., enl. Sept. 10, 1861; vet. Jan. 19,1864; must. out Oct. 12,1865. Miles, Charles A., enl. Oct. 10, 1861; died on hospital-boat" Lancaster" May 11, 1861. Mitchell, William, must. out Feb. 12,1866. Mann, Alonzo, enl. Sept. 1, 1861; must. out Feb. 12,1866. Robins, Russell, enl. Sept. 5,1861; disch. for disability March 29,1864. Whipple, Wm. H., enl. Sept. 10, 1861. Stearns, Chandler W., died of disease in Arkansas Oct. 8,1864. Wilmouth, M. V. B., enl. Sept. 10,1861; died of disease at Rienzi, Miss., August, 1862. Winslow, Nathan, must. out Feb. 12,1866. Younger, Wm. E., must. out Feb. 12,1866. Younger, George, died of disease in Arkansas Sept. 11,1864. COMPANY E. Hagaman, Wm. E,, must out Feb. 12, 1866. COMPANY F. Briggs, Henry, must out Feb. 12,1866. COMPANY I. Bennett, Wilshire, vet. Jan. 19,1864; must. out Feb. 12,1866. Converse, J. H., vet. Jan. 19,1864; absent, sick, at muster out. Eckert, David S, died of disease at Memphis, Tenn., April 18, 1863. Goodenow, Edward, died of disease in Tennessee May 26, 1862 Goff, James A., disch. for disability Sept. 18, 1862. Kent, Alfred, corporal; vet. Jan. 19, 1864. Messecar, Alfred, disch. for disability Feb. 14, 1862. Goodenough, Asa, farrier; enl. Oct. 10,1861. MEMBERS OF THE THIRD CAVALRY FROM MONTCALM COUNTY. COMPANY D. Berry, Edwin A., disch. for disability. Hamilton, James H., disch. at end of service Oct. 24,1864. Johnson, David T., vet. Jan. 19,1864; must. out Feb. 12, 1866. Staley, Wm. H, vet. Jan. 19,1864; must. out Sept. 23,1865. Wheeler, Squire W., disch. for disability Oct. 13,1862. COMPANY I. Merritt, Richard L., died of disease at Lagrange July 1, 1862. being principally found, however, in Companies E and M. The first named of these companies entered the service under command of Capt. James H. Kidd, of Ionia, and the other (M) had for its first commander Capt. John M. Pratt, of Saranac. The regiment was recruited in the summer and fall of 1862, under authority given by the War Department and the Governor of Michigan to the Hon. F. W. Kellogg. It rendezvoused at Grand Rapids, where it was mustered into the United States service, under command of Col. George Gray, on the 13th of October in that year. Mounted and equipped, but not armed, bearing upon its rolls the names of twelve hundred and twenty-nine officers and enlisted men, it left the regimental rendezvous on the 19th of December following, and proceeded to the seat of war in Virginia, where it was soon after assigned to the Michigan Cavalry Brigade, in the Third Division of the Cavalry Corps, Army of the Potomac. In the early part of 1863 it was encamped for a considerable time at Fairfax Court-house, and saw some service in February and March, but was not engaged in any notable actions with the enemy until the time when the rebel army of Gen. Lee moved northward after the battle of Chancellorsville. In that campaign it fought at Hanover, Pa., June 30, 1863, at Huntstown and Gettysburg, Pa., and Monterey, Cavetown, Smithtown, Boonsboro', Hagerstown, Williamsport, and Falling Waters, Md., in July. At Gettysburg and Falling Waters it was particularly distinguished. In reference to its part in the latter engagement the correspondent of the New York Times said: " The Sixth Michigan Cavalry were in the advance. They did not wait for orders, but a squadron composed of Companies D and G were deployed as skirmishers, while Companies B and F, led by Maj. Weaver,* made the charge. The line of skirmishers was forced back several times, but the men rallied promptly, and finally drove the enemy behind their works. A charge was then made, the squadron passing between the earth-works. So sudden and spirited was the dash, and so demoralized were the enemy, that the first brigade surrendered without firing a shot. The charging column moved directly on and engaged the second brigade, when the brigade that had surrendered seized their arms, and then commenced a fearful struggle. Of the one hundred who made this charge, only thirty escaped uninjured. Seven of their horses lay dead within the enemy's works. Twelve hundred prisoners were here captured from the enemy, and the ground was strewn with dead and wounded rebels. Among the killed was Maj.Gen. Pettigrew, of South Carolina. Crossing the Potomac into Virginia after the battle of Falling Waters, the regiment was engaged with the enemy at Snicker's Gap, July 19th; Kelly's Ford, September CHAPTER XVII. SIXTH CAVALRY. Organization and Departure for the Seat of War in Virginia-Assignment to the Michigan Cavalry Brigade-Its Campaigns in 1863 -Winter Quarters at Stevensburg-The Richmond Raid-Continuous Campaigning in 1864-Closing Services in Virginia-A Rebel General's Opinion of the Sixth-Goes to North Carolina-Returns to Washington, D. C.-Participates in the Grand Review-Ordered to Fort Leavenworth-Service on the Plains-Muster-out-List of Members from Ionia and Montcalm Counties. THE Sixth Cavalry-one of the regiments composing the famed Michigan Cavalry Brigade, which won imperishable laurels under the gallant Custer-contained Ionia and Montcalm soldiers in all its companies except B, these * Evidently this correspondent was in error regarding the name of the major in command of the charging column. The original majors of the regiment were Thaddeus Foote, Elijah D. Waters, and Simeon D. Brown. Maj. Waters resigned May 7, 1863, and Maj. Brown resigned July 17, 1863; so that the majors in commission in the regiment at the battle of Falling Waters, fought July 14, 1863, were Majors Foote, Brown, and James H. Kidd, the latter of whom was promoted May 9, 1863, vice Waters, resigned. George A. Drew succeeded Maj. Brown, his commission as major bearing date July 17, 1863. MILITARY RECORD OF IONIA AND MONTCALM. 95 13th; Culpeper Court-house, September 14th; Raccoon Ford, September 16th; White's Ford, September 21st; Jack's Shop, September 26th; James City, October 12th; Brandy Station, October 13th; Buckland's Mills, October 19th; Stevensburg, November 19th; and Morton's Ford, November 26th. From the latter date it remained in winter quarters at Stevensburg until the 28th of February, 1864, when it joined the cavalry column of Gen. Kilpatrick on his raid to the vicinity of Richmond. It participated in all the hard riding, fighting, etc., attendant upon that unsuccessful expedition, and, with others of the command, succeeded in joining the Union forces at New Kent Court-house. Thence it moved down the Peninsula, proceeded on transports to Alexandria, and then marched to its former camp at Stevensburg. On the 18th of April the Michigan Brigade was transferred to the First Division, and thereafter until the close of the war was known as the First Brigade of the First Division, Cavalry Corps, Army of the Potomac. Companies I and M, which had been operating in the Shenandoah valley during the year 1863, rejoined the regiment at Culpeper on the 3d of May, 1864, and on the 6th of that month the Michigan Brigade was in the midst of the terrible battles raging in the Wilderness. The enemy, led by the renowned rebel cavalry-leader Gen. J. E. B. Stuart, made desperate efforts to drive the Union cavalry from its position, but the fiery Custer and his Michigan men were equal to the emergency: the enemy were repulsed at all points, and finally driven from the field in great disorder. On the 9th of May the Cavalry Corps set out under Gen. Sheridan on his great raid to the rear of the rebel army. With Custer and his Michigan Brigade in the advance, three divisions, numbering full twelve thousand men, turned their horses' heads to the southward, the blue-coated column, as it marched by fours, extending eleven miles along the road from front to rear. On the route they overtook a large body of Union soldiers who had been taken prisoners at Spottsylvania, released them, and captured the rebel guard. Towards evening the same day the Michigan Brigade, followed closely by the rest of the column, dashed into the rebel depot at Beaver Dam Station, scattering, almost in an instant, the force stationed for its defense. After supplying themselves the Union forces were busy throughout the night destroying the immense amount of rebel supplies accumulated at Beaver Dam, worth millions of dollars, consisting of three long railroad trains, with locomotives, goods of various kinds, and one hundred loaded army-wagons, the flames from which rose in lurid columns through the darkness amid the cheers of the exultant soldiers. At daybreak the next morning the command moved forward, and after tearing up the railroad-track at Negro Foot Station it reached " Yellow Tavern," ten miles from Richmond, on the 11th of May. There Gen. Stuart had assembled a large force of rebel cavalry, and a severe battle ensued. The brigade dismounted and charged the enemy's position under a heavy fire, routing him after a most stubborn resistance. The rebels lost heavily in this engagement, including their commander, Gen. J. E. B. Stuart, who was mortally wounded by a private of the Fifth Michigan. The next day the command arrived within a mile and a half of Richmond, but found fortifications in front on which cavalry could make no impression. Gen. Sheridan then changed his direction towards the Chickahominy at Meadow Bridge. The rebels had destroyed the bridge, and a large force of them disputed his further progress. The approaches to the stream led through a swamp along which not more than four men could ride abreast, and a well-posted battery on the opposite side cut down the head of the Union column, completely checking its advance. The leading brigade vainly endeavored to force a passage. The next one likewise failed. Gen. Sheridan then sent for Gen. Custer and his Michigan Brigade, which at once hastened to the front. There the youthful general dismounted the Fifth and Sixth Michigan and sent them forward into the swamp as flanking-parties, while with drawn sabres the First and Seventh.Michigan breathlessly awaited the order to charge. The dismounted men of the Fifth and Sixth drove the enemy from their first position, advanced through water waist-deep to the railroad-bridge, crossed it on the ties, and then plied their Spencer rifles on the rebel cannoneers with such effect that the latter were obliged to turn their guns on these assailants to prevent being entirely enfiladed. The moment they did so Custer gave the order "Charge!" and the two mounted regiments, with brandished sabres and ringing cheers, dashed forward at the top of their horses' speed. The rebels had barely time to limber their guns and retreat, leaving the road again open for the advance of the whole corps. The command then proceeded, via Bottom's Bridge, Malvern Hill, Hanover Court-house, White House, Ayelitt's, and Concord Church, to Chesterfield Station, where it joined the main body of the Army of the Potomac. On the 28th of May the Sixth was hotly engaged at Hawes' Shop, where it aided in driving the enemy from their position after a desperate hand-to-hand fight. The loss of the regiment in this action was very severe. Of its numbers present one-fourth were either killed or wounded in less than ten minutes. The battle was fought in thick woods, the men dismounted. The Michigan Brigade soon after set out with Gen. Sheridan's forces in the raid towards Gordonsville, and on the 11th of June met at Trevillian Station a large force of the enemy, both infantry and cavalry. During that day and the next there ensued one of the severest cavalry-fights of the war, the Union cavalry mostly fighting dismounted. The Michigan Brigade did most of the fighting the first day, and lost heavily. The brigade battery was three times captured by the enemy, and as many times retaken by the determined efforts of the Michigan men. The rebels were finally driven from the field and pursued several miles, six hundred prisoners, fifteen hundred horses, one stand of colors, six caissons, forty ambulances, and fifty wagons being captured by'the victorious Unionists. Early in August the Michigan Brigade, with others of Sheridan's command, was transferred to the Shenandoah valley, where the Sixth took an active part in all the skirmishes, battles, marches, and counter-marches that occurred during this part of the operations in the valley, —a cam 96 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. - - paign which has made the names of Sheridan, Winchester, and Cedar Creek famous for all time. The principal actions in which the regiment participated in the Shenandoah valley were those of Front Royal, Leetown, Smithfield, Opequan Creek, Winchester, Luray, Port Republic, Mount Crawford, Fisher's Hill, Woodstock, and Cedar Creek. In December it went into winter quarters near Winchester, its total list of killed for the year ending Nov. 1, 1864, amounting to fifty-five, while forty-four of its members had died of disease. During the last days of February, 1865, the regiment began its final Virginia campaign. After a long and eventful march under Sheridan, during which it helped to defeat the rebel general Rosser at Louisa Court-house, to break up the Lynchburg and Gordonsville Railroad, and to destroy the locks, aqueducts, and mills on the James River Canal, it reached White House Landing on the 19th of March, moved thence across the James River, and joined the Army of the Potomac in time to take part in the final battles of the war, being engaged at Five Forks, Va., March 30th and 31st and April 1st; at South Side Railroad, April 2d; Duck Pond Mills, April 4th; Sailor's Creek, April 6th; and Appomattox Court-house, April 9th. In one of these engagements the rebel general Pickett was captured, and he afterwards spoke of a charge made by the Sixth Michigan which he witnessed as " the bravest he had ever seen." After Lee's surrender the regiment moved to Petersburg, thence into North Carolina, and then north to Washington, D. C., where it participated in the great review of May 23, 1865. Immediately after, it was ordered West, and moved with the Michigan Cavalry Brigade, via the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri Rivers, to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. There it received orders to cross the Plains. These orders produced much dissatisfaction among its members, as they, with all other volunteers, had supposed that with the collapse of the Rebellion their services as soldiers would be no longer required. Remembering, however, their noble record as a regiment, adhering firmly to the high degree of discipline and faithful observance of orders which had ever distinguished them, they moved unhesitatingly to the performance of the disagreeable duty,-i.e., service in the Indian country,-on which they remained till the 17th of September, 1865, when the men of the regiment whose terms of service did not expire prior to Feb. 1, 1866, were transferred to the First Michigan Cavalry, and the remainder of the regiment was ordered back to Fort Leavenworth, where it was mustered out of service Nov. 24, 1865. Returning to Michigan, it arrived at Jackson November 30th, and was there disbanded. OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE SIXTH CAVALRY FROM IONIA COUNTY. FIELD AND STAFF. Col. James H. Kidd, Ionia; corn. May 19, 1864; major May 9, 1863; captain Oct. li, 1862; wounded in action at Falling Waters, Va., July 14, 1863; wounded in action at Winchester, Va., Sept. 19,1864; brevet brigadiergeneral United States Volunteers, for gallant and meritorious services during the war, June 15,1865; must. out Nov. 7,1865. Aest. Surg. David C. Spalding, Lyons; corn. Oct. 15,1862; res. Oct. 1,1863. 1 I COMPANY A. Denton, George W., must. out June 21,1865. Stark, James, must. out June 21, 1865. Sayles, W. H., must. out July 21,1865. Sayles, Lyman A., must. out Aug. 4,1865. COMPANY C. Hayes, William 0., died of disease in Dakotah Territory Sept. 13,1865. Scott, John H., transferred to First Cavalry. COMPANY D. Brown, James W., must. out June 30, 1866. Jessup, Andrew S., transferred to First Cavalry. Rugby, Thomas S., enl. Nov. 26,1862. COMPANY E. Capt. James H. Kidd, lonia; joined Aug. 28, 1862; pro. to major May 9, 1863. Capt. Edward L. Craw, Lyons; corn. May 9,1863; first lieutenant Oct. 13,1862; honorably discharged for disability Nov. 12, 1863. Capt. Angelo E. Tower, Ionia; corn. Nov. 12, 1863; first lieutenant May 9,1863; second lieutenant Oct. 13, 1862; res. Aug. 15, 1864. Capt. Osmond S. Tower, Ionia; corn. Aug. 16, 1864; honorably discharged May 15, 1865. First Lieut. Jacob 0. Probasco, Lyons; corn. May 19, 1864; pro. to captain Co. K. Second Lieut. Jacob 0. Probasco, Lyons; corn. Nov. 12, 1863; pro. to first lieutenant. Second Lieut. Solon H. Finney, Lyons; corn. May 19,1864; killed in action at Beaver Mills, Va., April 4, 1865. Supn. Second Lieut. Ambrose L. Soule, enl. Sept. 17,1862; corn. Oct. 13,1862. First Sergt. Angelo E. Tower, Ionia; enl. Aug. 30,1862; pro. to second lieutenant. Q.-M. Sergt. James L. Manning, North Plains; pro. to second lieutenant Second Michigan Infantry. Sergt. William H. Robinson, Lyons; died at Washington March 4, 1863. Sergt. William Willett, Lyons; must. out July 10, 1865. Sergt. Schuyler C. Triphagen, Danby; disch. by order Aug. 10, 1865. Sergt. Solon H. Finney, Lyons; pro. to second lieutenant. Corp. Jacob 0. Probasco, Lyons; pro. to second lieutenant. Corp. Isaac R. Hart, Orleans; reported died in Andersonville prison' May 2, 1864. Corp. David Welch, lonia; mustered out. Corp. Marvin A. Filkins, Ionia; mustered out. Corp. James W. Brown, Ionia; killed in action at Hawes' Shop, Va., May 28, 1864. Farrier George W. Osborn, Ionia; transferred to Invalid Corps Aug. 1,1863. Wagoner David Bowerman, enl. Sept. 8, 1862. Allen, Simon E., enl. Sept. 6,1862. Belden, Shuman, died of disease at Fortress Monroe, Va., March 22, 1865. Briggs, John, died in Andersonville prison-pen June 25, 1864. Brown, George, must. out Nov. 24,1865. Brown, Heman S., must. out Nov. 24, 1865. Berry, Lester A., must. out Nov. 24,1865. Bott, Clarence S., must. out March 27, 1866. Bass, Nathan B., missing in action Oct. 16,1864. Croff, William W., disch. for disability. Compton, Randall S., disch. for disability. Cook, Edward H., died in Andersonville prison-pen Oct. 18,1864. Carey, Seth, killed in action at Hawes' Shop May 28,1864. Corwin, James H., must. out Nov. 24, 1865. Compton, William H., must. out Nov. 24,1865. Compton, Randall S., disch. for disability April 1, 1863. Conkrite, Manly, must. out Nov. 24,1865. Decker, A., enl. Sept. 12, 1862. Dyckman, Reinhart, must. out May 23,1865. Daniels, Owen W., must. out Nov. 24, 1865. Edwards, Seth, died in Andersonville prison-pen Sept. 5,1864. Finney, Charles, disch. for disability Jan. 15, 1864. Friend, Francis N., must. out Nov. 24,1865. Gray, James, died in Andersonville prison-pen Oct. 23,1864. Grinnell, John, must. out Aug. 30,1865. Halliday, Eli, must. out Nov. 24,1865. Halliday, George E., must. out. Nov. 24, 1865. Hogle, Elias, must. out Nov. 24,1865. Hart, Isaac, died in Andersonville prison-pen May 7, 1864. Hopkins, Warren, died in Andersonville prison-pen July 12, 1864. Hopkins, Nathaniel, died in Andersonville prison-pen. Hempstead, Robert, transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps March 31,1864. Hutchinson, Miles E., missing in action at Hawes' Shop, Va., May 28, 1864. Kepfort, Lewis, missing in action at Grove Church, Va., April 5, 1864. Kountz, Searight C., must. out Nov. 24,1865. Mangus, Solomon, must. out Nov. 24,1865. Merchant, George W., died of disease at Fredericksburg May 28, 1864. Manning, Hiram, must. out Feb. 28, 1866. Osborn, George W., transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps Aug. 1,1863. Osborn, Jedediah D., died in Andersonville prison-pen Nov. 13,1864. Pratt, Walter E., must. out Nov. 24, 1865. Parker, Albert M., must. out Nov. 24,1865. Rail, George W., must. out May 22,1865. MILITARY RECORD OF IONIA AND MONTCALM. - - - -. - -. - - Randall, Solomon, must. out June 12,1865. Robinson, William H., died of disease at Washington March 4,1863. Smith, Samuel J., must. out Nov. 24,1865. Smith, Frederick, transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps Feb. 15, 1864. Showerman, Orlando V. R., must. out Nov. 24, 1865. Sliter, James 0., died of disease at Fort Laramie Sept. 1,1865. Stewart, Francis, died in Andersonville prison-pen Sept. 21, 1864. Stewart, Jesse, disch. for disability March 21, 1864. Starks, David S., disch. for disability Aug. 10, 1863. Stowell, David, must. out June 19,1865. Trephagen, Schuyler C., must. out Aug. 10, 1865. Thompson, Josiah, must. out Nov. 24,1865. Toynton, William, disch. for disability Aug. 29, 1864. Trim, Mortimer, must. out Nov. 24,1865. Trim, Homer, died of disease at Alexandria, Va., Aug. 12,1864. Truax, Albert, died of disease at Washington Feb. 12, 1864. Wilder, Harvey C., died of disease Aug. 5,1863. Wyman, Solon H., disch. by order Aug. 31,1864. Willett, Wm., must. out July 10, 1865. Welch, David, must. out June 23,1865. COMPANY F. Winksworth, Robt., died in Andersonville prison-pen Feb. 5,1865. COMPANY G. Stewart, John R., died of disease at Washington June 17,1863. Whitefield, Chas. W., must. out Feb. 8,1866. COMPANY H. Brown, Irving A., must. out March 31,1866. Fish, Emory, must. out Nov. 24,1865. Jennings, Lewis, must. out June 3,1865. COMPANY I. Capt. Benj. F. Rockafellow, Lyons; con. March 17, 1864; must. out March 10,1866. Briggs, John, trans. to Veteran Reserve Corps Dec. 1, 1863. Fifield, Ira A., must. out July 1, 1865. Lambert, Frank, must. out Feb. 27,1866. Porter, Jesse, must. out June 6, 1865. Rawlins, Geo. L., must. out Feb. 27,1866. Smith, Stowel J., must. out Feb. 27,1866. COMPANY K. Gapt. Jacob 0. Probasco, Lyons; com. Dec. 10, 1864; must. out March 25, 1866. COMPANY L. Austin, Hiram D., died of disease at Fredericksburg, Va., May 21, 1864. Barnard, Geo. W., died in Andersonville prison-pen Oct. 1, 1864. Hopkins, Asahel, died of disease at Winchester, Va., Sept. 10, 1864. Hopkins, Sherman, died of disease at Winchester, Va., Oct. 1, 1864. Lamb, Lyman T., transferred to First Cavalry. Millard, Hendrick D., transferred to First Michigan Cavalry Shaw, Thos. J., transferred to First Cavalry. Strong, Henry F., must. out March 2,1865. Sayles, John, must. out Aug. 8,1865. Sayles, Sidney, must. out March 2,1865. Sayles, Wm. R., must. out Aug. 8,1865. COMPANY M. Capt. John M. Pratt, Saranac; com. Oct. 13, 1862; res. Feb. 7, 1863. First Lieut. Benjamin F. Rockafellow, Lyons; com. second lieutenant Oct. 13, 1862; first lieutenant March 16,1863; captain Co. I March 17, 1864. Corp. Cornelius E. Densmore, enl. Sept. 20,11862; disch. June 30, 1865. Corp. George W. Barnard, enl. Sept. 20,1862. Corp. William H. Wilson, enl. Sept. 3,1862. Corp. Erastus Hull, enl. Sept. 3,1862. Corp. Harvey R. Hawley, enl. Sept. 15,1862. Corp. Franklin P. Groman, enl. Sept. 5, 1862. Teamster Samuel Hart, enl. Sept. 3, 1862; must.'out June 26, 1865. Teamster Bradford S. Cook, enl. Sept. 20, 1862; must. out Nov. 24, 1865. Farrier Frederick Lockman, enl. Sept. 1, 1862. Saddler William S. Brown, enl. Sept. 1, 1862; disch. for disability Nov. 5, 1863. Austin, Hiram D., enl. Sept. 3,1862. Aldrich Stephen A., enl. Sept. 29,1862. Aldrich, Joel P., enl. Sept. 19, 1862; disch. June 6, 1865. Abbott, Amos H., enl. Sept. 13,1862; must. out Nov. 25, 1865. Brown, Harmonus, enl. Sept. 3,1862; must. out Nov. 24, 1865. Barnard, Levi J., enl. Sept. 20, 1862; must. out Oct. 20, 1865. Curtis, Sheldon R., enl. Sept. 19, 1862; must out Oct. 10, 1865. Dexter, Dallas, enl. Sept. 22, 1862; trans. to Veteran Reserve Corps August, 1863. Foster, William, enl. Sept. 3,1862; disch. for disability Sept. 25,1863. Farrell, Thomas, enl. Sept. 2, 1862; died at Harper's Ferry of wounds Aug. 17, 1864. Gibson, William, enl. Sept. 3,1862; must. out July 6, 1865. Gross, Charles H., enl. Sept. 12,1862; killed in action at Hawes' Shop May 28, 1864. Hudson, Furman 0., enl. Sept. 23, 1862; must. out Nov. 24, 1865. 13 Hubbard, John C., en]. Sept. 12, 1862. Mead, M. B., enl. Sept. 8, 1862; must. out Nov. 24, 1865. Mead, William H., enlisted Sept. 3,1862; must. out Nov. 24,1865. Miles, Lafayette, enl. Nov. 6, 1862; must. out Nov. 24, 1865. McCagg, Thomas M., enl. Sept. 16, 1862. North, Charles, enl. Sept. 15,1862. North, Ezra, enl. Sept. 15, 1862. Potter, Edmond, enl. Sept. 20, 1862; must. out Nov. 24, 1865. Sprague, Alexander, enl. Sept. 22, 1862; must. out Nov. 24, 1865. Sayles, Adelbert W., enl. Sept. 13, 1862; must. out Nov. 24, 1865. Starks, Henry, enl. Sept. 10, 1862; must. out Nov. 24. 1865. Starks, Henry, enl. Sept. 10, 1862; must. out July 8, 1865. Tower, Solomon, enl. Sept. 3,1862. Wilson, Abner J., enl. Sept. 25, 1862. Wilson, William H., Jr., enl. Dec. 2, 1862. SOLDIERS OF THE SIXTH CAVALRY FROM MONTCALM COUNTY. COMPANY D. Smith, William S., disch. for disability Aug. 1, 1863. COMPANY E. Dickenson, Thomas, died of disease at hospital, Maryland, March 8,1865. Hammel, John J., must. out Nov. 24, 1865. Phinsey, William, must. out May 15,1865. COMPANY G. King, Enoch J., must. out Feb. 16,1866. COMPANY K. Woodward, William H., died of disease at Fort Leavenworth Oct. 8, 1865. CHAPTER XVIII. TENTH CAVALRY. Organization of the Tenth Cavalry-Large Representation from Ionia and Montcalm-Regiment proceeds to Kentucky, thence to Knoxville, Tenn.-Arduous Service in East Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina-In Pursuit of Jeff Davis-Closing Services in Tennessee-Disbandment-List of Members from the two Counties. THE Tenth Regiment Michigan Cavalry, having for its rendezvous the city of Grand Rapids, was recruited from July 4 to Nov. 15, 1863, under authority given by the War Department to Hon. F. W. Kellogg. With nine hundred and twelve officers and enlisted men, under command of Col. Thaddeus Foote (previously major in the Sixth Michigan Cavalry), the regiment was mustered into the United States service Nov. 18, 1863. Ionia and Montcalm were represented in all its companies by a force aggregating about two hundred and seventyfive men, but the companies containing the greatest number of men from the two counties were E and G, the first named being led into the field by Capt. Harvey E. Light, of Eureka, while Capt. James B. Roberts, of Ionia, was the original commander of Company G. On the 1st of December, 1863, the Tenth left its rendezvous and was transferred to Lexington, Ky., whence on the 13th it moved to " Camp Nelson." From that camp it was moved on the 25th of January, 1864, to Burnside Point, from which place it marched on the 29th of February for Knoxville, East Tenn. It was engaged, though with but little loss, at Bean's Gap, March 26th, and at Rheatown, April 24th; but a more severe fight was had on the 25th at Carter's Station, near Jonesboro', Tenn., when the Tenth, with the Third Indiana Cavalry, was sent to destroy a railroad-bridge across the Watauga River. The Tenth fought dismounted, charging at a " double-quick" 98 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. I over the outer ramparts through a galling fire into the main bastion, driving the enemy out completely to seek protection in a rocky gorge. The fight lasted from 2 P.M. until dark, and resulted in a loss to the regiment of three killed, eight wounded, and three missing. The operations of the regiment during the months of May and June embraced little that was out of the usual monotonous round of cavalry duty, excepting that a detachment one hundred and sixty strong, while engaged on a reconnoissance to Bull's Gap and Greenville, encountered a superior force of the enemy and attacked and routed them with severe loss, besides capturing twenty-six prisoners and a number of horses and mules. During the month of July and the early part of August detachments of the regiment were constantly engaged in scouting and pursuing small bands of the enemy in various parts of East Tennessee. On the 23d of August the Tenth took part in an attack made on a rebel brigade at Blue Springs, Tenn., driving the Confederates from a strong position and through Greenville, the casualties of the regiment being six wounded. Having moved through Rogersville, Bean's Station, and Bull's Gap, the regiment returned to Strawberry Plains on the 31st. On the 24th of August, during the absence of the regiment, the detachment left in garrison at Strawberry Plains -about sixty men, together with about one hundred and fifty men from other commands-were attacked by Wheeler's rebel cavalry, numbering over six thousand men, with nine pieces of artillery. The Union troops made a successful defense against this force, and thus saved the post from capture and the great railroad-bridge from destruction. On the same day (24th) a detachment of the Tenth left at Knoxville charged a rebel regiment (Eleventh Texas) near Flat Creek Bridge and routed it, capturing its colonel and other prisoners, but, coming upon a superior force, were in turn pursued, and the enemy succeeded in recapturing their men and in taking a number of prisoners from the detachment. The regiment participated in the attack on the noted partisan general John H. Morgan at Greenville, September 4th, which resulted in the death of Morgan and the surprise and total rout of his forces. During the remainder of that month the men of the Tenth were continually in the saddle in pursuit of Wheeler's and other rebel cavalry, frequently overtaking and fighting them, though not taking part in any general battle. In the month of October it was engaged in picket-duty and scouting. To Nov. 1, 1864, the regiment had lost, in killed and wounded, fiftyseven; missing in action, forty-four; by desertions, ninetysix; while the large number of one hundred and forty had died of disease. At that time (November 1st) the regiment was stationed at Strawberry Plains, where, on the 17th of the same month, it was attacked by a force of rebel cavalry, with artillery, under command of Gen. Breckenridge. This attack was commenced by the artillery from the opposite side of the Holston River, the cavalry force at the same time threatening the rear. The fight, which was a prolonged skirmish, with occasional artillery-firing from across the river, was kept up for a number of days, but the enemy was decisively repulsed on the 24th, and withdrew from the field. OD the 6th of December the regiment marched to Knoxville, and thence soon afterwards to Saltville, Va., where it assisted in destroying the Confederate salt-works at that place, having been engaged at Kingsport, December 12th, at Bristol, December 14th, and at Saltville, December 20th. After the accomplishment of the purpose for which the force was sent out it returned to Knoxville, having had a smart skirmish at Chucky Bend on the 10th of January, 1865. The Tenth remained at Knoxville until the latter part of March, when it proceeded with its brigade to the northern part of East Tennessee, and soon afterwards joined an expedition to North Carolina, under Gen. Stoneman. In this incurson it fought the enemy at Brabson's Mills, March 25th, and at Booneville on the 27th. Turning thence northward by way of Wilkesborough, it penetrated to the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad at Christiansburg, Montgomery Co., Va., reaching that place on the 5th of April, and there taking part in the destruction of nearly one hundred miles of that railway-line. Then it moved to Henry Court-house, ninety-five miles away, and made that distance in a little less than twenty-four hours. At that place, on the 8th of April, it was attacked by a heavy force of rebel cavalry and infantry, but successfully held its ground with only a slight loss. On the 9th of April (the day of Lee's surrender) the Tenth, with its companion regiments, left Henry Court-house, moved south, destroying the railroadline, fighting at Abbott's Creek and High Point on the 10th, capturing the town of Salisbury, and with it an immense amount of stores, and then, passing down the Catawba River; engaged in the business of picking up bands of rebel cavalry who had heard of the surrender of Lee and were endeavoring to make their escape to their homes. A few more skirmishes (among which was one at Statesville on the 14th, and another at Newton, N. C., on the 17th of April) finished the fighting of the Tenth Cavalry. News of the surrender of Johnston's army was received soon after, and then the regiment was sent on an expedition having for its object the capture of Jefferson Davis; but in this it was forestalled by the Fourth Michigan Cavalry. When it was found that the pursuit of the rebel chief would be fruitless, the regiment was ordered westward, and, passing by way of Stevenson, Ala., into Tennessee, it remained on duty in that State until the 11th of November, when it was mustered out of service at Memphis, and thence proceeded directly to Michigan, arriving in Jackson on the 15th of the same month. A little later the men received their final pay and dispersed to their homes. TENTH CAVALRY SOLDIERS FROM IONIA COUNTY. FIELD AND STAFF. Surg. David 0. Spalding, Lyons; cor. Sept. 28, 1863; must out Nov. 23, 1865. First Lieut. and Adjt. Charles E. Soule, Lyons; cor. July 6,1863; trans. to Co. K April 1, 1864; res. for disability Dec. 21, 1864. NON-COMMISSIONED STAFF. Sergt.-Maj. James B. Soule, Lyons; enl. Aug. 28,1863; trans. to Co. G Jan. 8, 1864. Sergt.-Maj. Edwin R. Hull, Lyons; enl. Oct. 13,1863; trans. to Co. G July 29, 1864. Hospital Steward Marcus E. Brown, Lyons; enI. Sept. 15, 1863; disch. to be hospital steward in regular army Oct. 28, 1864. Saddler Sergt. Isaac W. Kendrick, Lyons; enl. Nov. 17, 1863; must. out Nov, 11,1865. MILITARY RECORD OF IONIA AND MONTCALM. '99 COMPANY A. Betts, Frederick G., must. out Nov. 11,1865. Betts, John C., must. out Nov. 11,1865. Campbell, Finley, must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Hart, Martin, must. out Oct. 6,1865. Robinson, Joseph, died of disease at Somerset, Ky., February, 1864. COMPANY B. Sergt. Charles Watson, Lyons; enl. Aug. 21, 1863; pro. to second lieutenant Co. H Sept. 2,1865. Allen, William W., must. out Nov. 11,1865. Bradley, Henry, must. out Nov. 11,1865. Burch, Eli, must. out June 20, 1865. Burnham, Charles, drowned in Holston River, Tenn., July 31,1864. Clark, Michael, disch. by order Sept. 13,1865. Cornell, Leonard, must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Dalrymple, W. H., died in rebel prison January, 1865. Foote, L. H., disch. by order Nov. 13, 1865. Gladding, Willis A., corporal; must. out Nov. 11,1865. Howell, John, died of disease in Michigan. Mirey, Frederick, died of disease in Kentucky Feb. 24, 1864. McDonald, Patrick, must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Neitz, Philip, must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Pratt, Alexander, must. out Nov. 11,1865. Rexford, Horace A., must. out Nov. 11,1865. Spoon, William, must. out Nov. 11,1865. Simmons, James H., must. out Nov. 11,1865. Terhune, Henry, corporal; must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Van Wort, John, must. out March 10,1865. Whiting, Joseph R., must. out Nov. 11,1865. Wheeler, Ray, transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps May 1,1864. COMPANY C. First Lieut. George W. French, Lyons; enl. April 1, 1864; must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Backston, Charles A., must. out Nov. 11,1865. Cony, Joseph J., must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Hickock, Loren L., must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Lilly, George, must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Tanner, Samuel S., must. out Nov. 11,1865. Triphagen, John, must. out June 30,1865. COMPANY D. Autcliff, Henry F., must. out Nov. 11,1865. Fletcher, Joseph, must. out Nov. 11,1865. COMPANY E. Van Meer, Edwin, must. out Nov. 11,1865. Wilcox, Edgar A., must. out Nov. 11,1865. Walruff, Charles, must. out Oct. 2,1865. COMPANY F. Day, Samuel, must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Dodge, Carlton M., must. out Nov. 11,1865. Kimberly, George E., must. out Nov. 11,1865. COMPANY G. Capt. James B. Roberts, Ionia; corn. Aug. 1, 1863; res. Aug. 10, 1865. Capt. Ambrose L. Soule, Lyons; corn. Sept. 2, 1865; com. first lieutenant July 25,1863; must. out Nov. 11, 1865. First Lieut. Alfred A. Garlock, Lyons; corn. Aug. 10, 1865; must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Second Lieut. George W. French, Lyons; comrn. July 25, 1863; pro. to first lieutenant Co. C April 1, 1864; pro. to first lieutenant U.S.A. First Sergt. Edwin R. Hall, Lyons; enl. Oct. 13, 1863; pro. to sergeant-major; trans. back to company Oct. 1,1864. Q.-M. Sergt. William H. Gardner, Lyons; enl. Oct. 28,1863; must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Sergt. Benjamin A. Miller, Lyons; enl. Aug. 19,1863; must. out Nov. 23,1865. Sergt. Alfred A. Garlock, Lyons; enl. Oct. 12, 1863; pro. to second lieutenant Co. L. Sergt. Edwin F. Morehouse, Portland; enl. Aug. 22, 1863; must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Sergt. Don A. Hubbell, Ionia; enl. Sept. 26, 1863; died of disease at Camp Nelson, Ky., March 16, 1864. Corp. Hiram M. Mapes, Portland; enl. Aug. 27, 1863; must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Corp. James Arms, Portland; enl. Sept. 11, 1863; must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Corp. John M.'Nichols, Lyons; enl. Aug. 29, 1863; must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Corp. William B. Williston, Lyons; enl. Sept. 5,1863; must. out July 13, 1865. Corp. Ebenezer Bennett, Jr., Orange; enl. Sept. 10, 1863; must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Corp. John R. Wilcox, Lyons; eul. Sept. 29, 1863; must. out. Nov. 23,1865. Farrier Wm. Griffith, North Plains; enl. Sept. 27, 1863; must. out Nov. 29, 1865. Musician William R. Sergeant, Portland; enl. Aug. 31, 1863; must. out June 19,1865. Saddler Charles Darin, Lyons; enl. Aug. 18, 1863; must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Wagoner Philip Kist, Portland; enl. Aug. 29,1863; must. out Nov. 11,1865. Armstrong, John, died of disease at Nashville, Tenn., May 10,1865. Brown, Sidney A., must. out May 22,1865. Briggs, Charles, must. out Oct. 23.1865. Bailey, Milton D., must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Baldwin, Algernon, must. out Nov. 11,1865. Borden, Valentine, killed by guard at Knoxville, Tenn. Colby, Albert D., died of disease at Camp Nelson, Ky., March 23,1865. Clark, Albert, must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Cook, William, must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Clifford, Jefferson, must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Converse, Thomas S., must. out Nov. 11,1865. Craff, Cyrus A., must. out Nov. 11,1865. Carter, Alonzo J., must. out Nov. 11,1865. Dewall, Edwin, must. out Oct. 21,1865. Dodge, Joshua, disch. by order June 29,1865. Emery, Elijah, must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Frazer, William, must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Friend, George E., must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Griswold, F., disch. by order Aug. 3,1865. Groger, William H., must. out Nov. 11,1865. Groger, Charles, disch. for disability Aug. 5, 1865. Hall, Hiram, must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Holcomb, Perry W., must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Hay, Hiram N., must. out Nov. 23,1865. Joslyn, Emery, must. out Nov. 11,1865. Jotley, Lewis C., must. out Nov. 11,1865. Jotley, Samuel S., must. out June 3,1865. Miller, Benjamin A., must. out Nov. 23,1865. Mead, Lyman F., must. out Nov. 11, 1865. McIntyre, Thomas, must. out Nov. 11,1865. Moore, William H. H., died of disease at Somerset, Ky. Meakin, Henry, disch. by order June 19,1865. Patterson, John, must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Pickett, Lafayette, must. out Nov. 11,1865. Reynolds, Reuben, must. out Oct. 6,1865. Rands, George, must. out Nov. 11,1865. Reed, Rufus D., must. out Nov. 11,1865. Reed, James F., disch. for disability Oct. 25,1865. Snyder, Benjamin, must. out June 7,1865. Soule, James B., must. out Nov. 11,1865. Soper, Charles H., must. out Nov. 11,1865. Smith, Silas H., must. out Nov. 11,1865, Sykes, George, must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Smith, Alvin J., must. out Nov. 11,1865. Tousley, Oren, must. out Nov. 11,1865. Van Buren, Augustus, must. out Nov. 11,1865. Van Buren, Gustavus, must. out Nov. 11,1865. Van Buren, Ebenezer, must. out Nov. 11,1865. Williams, Earl W., must. out Nov. 11,1865. Williams, George H., must. out Nov. 11,1865. Whalen, Dennis, must. out Nov. 11,1865. Wurstur, John, must. out Nov. 11,1865. Waite, Wm., must. outNov. 11,1865. White, Albert D., must. out Nov. 11, 1865. White, Wm. H., disch. by order Sept. 25,1865. Woodward, John H., disch. for disability July 27,1865. COMPANY H. Second Lieut. Charles Watson, Lyons; corn. Sept. 2,1865; must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Benedict, Thomas, died of disease at Nashville July 4,1865. Brown, Oliver, must. out Jan. 27,1865. Beach, John, disch. by order Sept. 4, 1865. Crosse, Ira, must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Eastman, Lyman C., died of disease at Nashville July 4, 1864. Hall, Amasa L., must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Hall, Rowland, must. out Nov. 11,1865. Hall, Zachary, disch. by order Aug. 31,1865. Holcomb, Milton J., disch. by order June 17,1865. Henry, Delos, must. out Nov. 11,1865. Ingham, Philo B., must. out Oct. 26,1865. Jenks, Henry, must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Jenks, Hiram, must. out Nov. 11,1865. Joslyn, Duane, must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Kimberly, George, must. out Nov. 9,1865. Moon, Henry, must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Morgan, Homer, disch. by order July 15, 1865. Phillips, Wilson M., must. out Nov. 11,1865. Rich, Abijah, disch. by order Sept. 22, 1865. Ring, Jacob, disch. by order June 17, 1865. Shillinger, Samuel, disch. by order Nov. 4,1865. \ Spencer, George A., must. out Nov. 11,1865. Weeks, Henry R., disch. by order Sept. 5,1865. COMPANY I. Brink, Olin, must. out Nov. 11,1865. Brown, Howard H., must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Day, Loren, must. out Nov. 11,1865. 100 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. Dunn, John W., disch. for promotion. Grove, Henry, must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Harris, George W., must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Holcomb, Andrew J., must. out Nov. 11,'1865. Helmore, Delos, must. out Nov. 11,1865. Hubbs, Warren P., must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Hupp, Abe C., must. out Sept. 29,1865. Howell, Uriah C, disch. by order Sept. 19, 1865. Hopkins, Albert, died of disease at Lenoir, Tenn., June 25, 1865. Mosier, Frank, died of disease at Knoxville, Tenn., June 28,1865. Spicer, Allen J., must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Tallant, Joseph B., must. out Sept. 30,1865. Waldron, Hanley A., must. out Nov. 11, 1865. COMPANY K. First Lieut. Charles E. Soule, Lyons; corn. Jan. 8, 1864; res. Dec. 21, 1864. Andrews, John M., must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Cheeny. Uz H., must. out Nov. 11,1865. Gardner, Ira S., must. out June 19, 1865. Godard, Rufus, must. out Nov. 24,1865. Hubbs, Warren D., corporal; must. out Nov. 24,1865. Hauks, Eli, must. out Nov. 11,1865. Prestle, Hiram, must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Sabens, Nelson P., must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Windsor John J., must. out Nov. 11, 1865. COMPANY L. Second Lieut. Alfred A. Garlock, Lyons; cor. Jan. 7,1865; must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Casper, Lafayette, died of disease at Grand Rapids Nov. 8, 1863. Cameron, Andrew, disch. by order July 20,1865. Dow, David, disch. by order Sept. 20,1865. Gloster, Henry, disch. by order Sept. 22, 1865. Walker, Samuel A., disch. by order July 1, 1865. Westbrook, M., must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Williams, Elvin, must out Nov. 11,1865. COMPANY M. Grow, Darius H., must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Heydlauff, Jacob, musician; must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Hall, Bancroft J., must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Homer, John, disch. by order July 13, 1865. Leary, George, must. out May 22,1865. McMurphey, Moses, must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Washburn, Charles G., must out Nov. 11,1865. MEMBERS OF THE TENTH CAVALRY FROM MONTCALM COUNTY. FIELD AND STAFF. Maj. Harvey E. Light, Eureka; cor. Jan. 1, 1865; must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Asst. Surgeon William D. Scott, Greenville; com. July 7, 1863; must. out Nov. 11,1865. COMPANY A. Orman, Jacob, must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Riley, John J., disch. for disability Dec. 26, 1864. COMPANY B. First Lieut. Nelson Robinson, Eureka; com. Aug. 3,1865; must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Arntz, John, disch. Dec. 1,1863. Carr, Robert, must. out Nov. 11,1865. COMPANY C. Dunn, Thomas E., must. out Nov. 11,1865. Nichols, Nathan, must. out Nov. 11, 1865. COMPANY D. Harris, Ovid, Jr., disch. by order June 17, 1865. Harvey, Ira E., killed at Marlinsville, Va., April 8, 1865. Printler, William H., disch. by order Aug. 22, 1865. Snow, Thomas, disch. by order June 17,1865. Thornell, J. F., disch. by order June 17,1865. COMPANY E. Capt. Harvey E. Light, Eureka; cor. Aug. 10.1863; pro. to major Jan. 1, 1865. Second Lieut. Nelson Robinson, Eureka; corn. Jan. 6, 1865; pro. to first lieutenant Co. B. First Sergt Emory J. Blanding, Winfield; enl. Aug. 23, 1863; pro. to second lieutenant Co. F. Q.-M. Sergt. Nelson Robinson, Eureka; enl. Aug. 29, 1863; pro. to second lieutenant. Sergt. Wm. R. Fort, Winfield; enl. Aug. 31, 1863; must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Sergt. Johnson B. Reed, Pierson; enl. Aug. 31,1863; must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Corp. Henry V. Darling, Evergreen; enl. Aug. 18,1863; must. out Oct. 20,1865. Corp. Edwin A. Berry, Fair Plain; enl. Sept. 8,1863; died of disease in Ken tucky Feb. 16,1864. Farrier Alfred V. Roosa, Eureka; enl. Oct. 20, 1863; must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Wagoner Levi Spaulding, Eureka; enl. Aug. 25,1863; disch. for disability April 26,184. I Almy, Alfred, disch. by order Sept. 11, 1865. Buck, Anson, disch. by order Feb. 20, 1865. Bigbone, Lewis, must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Barnum, Chas., must. out Nov. 11,1865. Barnes, Caleb, must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Clark, John.H., must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Carr, Elijah, must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Douglass, James E., must. out May 18, 1865. Furguson, James N, must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Field, James H., must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Fuller, Orville, must. out Nov. 21, 1865. Ferguson, Elias R., disch. for disability Aug. 5,1865. Gorman, Thomas, disch. by order June 17, 1865. Hubbard, Orrin, disch. by order June 4, 865. Hewitt, Benjamin, must. out Nov. 11,1865. Kilburn, Churchill, disch. by order June 17, 1865. Moon, Charles M., disch. by order June 17,1865. McMillan, Eugene F., died of disease at Camp Nelson, Ky., Jan. 23, 1863. McKelvey, Alexander, died of disease at Knoxville, Tenn., Feb. 8, 1865. Poulter, Jerome. must. out Nov. 23, 1865. Rose, George H., disch. by order June 29,1865. Show, Braddock, disch. by order June 29,1865. Sager, William H., died of disease at Knoxville, Tenn., June 25,1864. Smith, Gerardus, died of disease at Detroit, Mich., Feb. 8,1865. Satterlee, Demas, must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Stout, Urias, must. out Nov. 11. 1865. Skeels, Stephen, must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Wheeler, George B., must. out Nov. 11, 1865. COMPANY F. Second Lieut. Emory J. Blanding, Greenville; corn. Sept. 2, 1865; must. out Nov. 11,1865. Spencer, Samuel, must. out Oct. 4,1865. COMPANY G. Allen, Henry A., disch. for disability. Carpenter, Samuel B., must. out Nov. 11,1865. French, Henry H., must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Orcutt, James M., must. out May 27, 1865. Price, Oliver, must. out Sept. 1, 1865. Riker, Jackson, must. out Oct. 3,1865. Stokes, Daniel E., must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Towley, Buel, must. out Nov. 11, 1865. COMPANY H. Decker, John, died of disease at Grand Rapids, Mich., Dec. 12,1863. COMPANY K. Gorton, Jonathan T., died of disease at Camp Nelson, Ky., Feb. 11, 1864. Pierce, Delos, died of disease at Grand Rapids, Mich., Nov. 23,1863. COMPANY M. Jones, William, must. out Nov. 11, 1865. Sharpe, Stephen, disch. April 14, 1865. Shook, Daniel, disch. by order Aug. 30, 1865. CHAPTER XIX. OTHER SOLDIERS FROM IONIA AND MONTCAILM COUNTIES. Soldiers from the two Counties who served in Military Organizations not already mentioned. BESIDES the regiments of which historical sketches have already been given, there were many others containing Ionia and Montcalm County soldiers whose record is equally as bright, though they served in organizations in which these counties were less numerously represented. Lists of the officers and enlisted men who served in these commands (made from the official records in the State adjutantgeneral's office) are given in this chapter. FIFTH INFANTRY. SOLDIERS FROM IONIA COUNTY. COMPANY A. Sergt. Emery P. Moon, Otisco; vet. Dec. 24, 1863; transferred to New Third Infantry. Crane, Gilbert J., disch. for disability June 7, 1865. Kitchen, Eliah, must. out July 10, 1865. MILITARY RECORD OF IONIA AND MONTCALM. 101 COMPANY B. First Lieut. Orange W. Van Duyne, Lyons; corn. Dec. 21, 1864; pro. second lieutenant Oct. 12, 1864; must. out July 6, 1865. COMPANY D. Race, Charles N., must. out July 5,1865. Race, Delos M., must. out July 5, 1865. COMPANY E. Sergt. Ernest Synold, Lyons; vet. Dec. 23, 1863; pro. second lieutenant Co. I. Mandell, Walter L., must. out July 5, 1865. COMPANY F. Hammond, Benjamin F., died in action June 16, 1864. COMPANY I. Second Lieut. Ernest Synold, Lyons; corn. Sept. 1, 1864; pro. first lieutenant May 8, 1865; must. out July 5, 1865. FROM MONTCALM COUNTY. COMPANY E. Munson, Homer C., dropped from rolls while prisoner of war. SEVENTH INFANTRY. FROM IONIA COUNTY. COMPANY I. White, Philo T., disch. for disability Dec. 17,1862. TENTH INFANTRY. FROM IONIA COUNTY. COMPANY A. Beck, Jacob, must. out July 19,1865. COMPANY E. Stillwell, Austin A., must. out July 19,1865. FROM MONTCALM COUNTY. COMPANY A. Best, Charles, must. out July 19,1865. COMPANY C. Hiliker, Jerome, must. out July 19,1865. COMPANY E. Walker, James, must. out July 19,1865. ELEVENTH INFANTRY (NEW). FROM IONIA COUNTY. COMPANY A. Chapman, William H., must. out Sept. 16,1865. COMPANY C. Shay, Michael, must. out Sept. 16,1865. COMPANY D. Freeman, George, must. out Aug. 28,1865. Presley, Charles, must. out May 8,1865. COMPANY G. Jordan, Chluncey, must. out Sept. 16, 1865. King, Israel M., must. out Aug. 28, 1865. Kingsley, William S., must. out Sept. 16, 1865. COMPANY H. Ball, George H., must. out Sept. 16,1865. Ryan, Edward, must. out Sept. 16, 1865. TWELFTH INFANTRY. FROM MONTCALM COUNTY. COMPANY D. Bennett, Thomas, disch. by order Oct. 13,1865. Sherwood, Solomon, disch. by order Oct. 13,1865. COMPANY E. Halleck, Merritt, disch. by order Oct. 13,1865. COMPANY F. Wetherly, John B., disch at end of service Sept. 9, 1865. FROM IONIA COUNTY. COMPANY F. Dillingham, Samuel, disch. by order May 12, 1865. -f THIRTEENTH INFANTRY. FROM IONIA COUNTY. COMPANY C. Baker, Melvin, disch. for disability June 3, 1865. Hunter, Robert, disch. for disability May 16,1862. Potruff, John, died of disease at Louisville March 8, 1862. Potruff, Daniel, died in rebel prison. Story, Oliver P., disch. for disability March 8,1863. Wilder Hiram, died of disease at David's Island, N. Y., May 16,1865. COMPANY D. Finn, Garrett, died of disease at Ringgold, Ga., Feb. 28, 1865. COMPANY F. Capt. V. W. Lunderlen (or Sunderlin), com. Oct. 4.1861; res. Nov. 12,186'2. Alger, Martin M., died of disease. Brown, Joseph M., died of disease at home. Brown, William, enl. Dec. 23,1861. Bovee, Sylvester A., disch. for disability June 29, 1863. Barber, Charles W., disch. by order July 11,1865. Dunn, James D., disch. for disability March 4, 1863. Dunn, Reuben C., disch. at end of service Jan. 16,1865. Everest, John D., died of disease at Nashville Jan. 21, 1863. Principal Musician Jeremiah E. Glines, vet. Jan. 18, 1864; transferred to Co. F; transferred back to principal musician; pro. to second lieutenant. Gillett, Amos, disch. at end of service Jan. 16, 1865. Hathaway, Norton B., died of disease at home. Hathaway, York C., died of disease at Chattanooga Oct. 7,1863. Jennings, William, sergeant; disch. for disability. Little, Andrew, sergeant; vet. Jan. 18, 1864; must. out July 25, 1865. Pratt, William H., sergeant; discharged. Sprague, De Witt C., disch. for disability May 2,1862. Stevens, Royal F., disch. for disability Aug. 7, 1862. Shoemaker, Thomas, vet. Jan. 18, 1864; must. out July 25, 1865. Snow, Richard C., must. out July 25, 1865. Todd, Samuel W., disch. for disability Sept. 16,1862. Wiser, Augustus, disch. by order Aug. 1,1865. White, John L., corporal; disch. at end of service Jan. 16,1865. Warner, Lucius C., vet. Jan. 18, 1864; must. out July 25, 1865. COMPANY G. Jenks, Lord C., must. out Feb. 25, 1865. FROM MONTCALM COUNTY. COMPANY D. Lewallen, Kirk, disch. by order June 1,1865. COMPANY F. Bennett, Oscar P., died in action at Chickamauga, Tenn., Sept. 19, 1863. Little, Andrew, vet. Jan. 18, 1864; must. out July 25, 1865. Wiser, Augustus, vet. Jan. 18,1864; disch. by order Aug. 1,1865. COMPANY G. Jenks, Lora C., vet. Jan. 18, 1865; must. out Feb. 25, 1865. FOURTEENTH INFANTRY. FROM IONIA COUNTY. COMPANY A. Lampman, Peter, disch. at end of service March 14, 1865. Wimple, Enoch, must. out July 18,1865. Hempstead, Robert, disch. for disability at Ypsilanti, Mich., April 15,1862. COMPANY B. Sanborn, Wm., must. out July 18,1865. Thompson, Francis, died of disease at Jeffersonville, Ind., Feb. 5,1865. COMPANY D. Barnard, Charles W., must. out July 18,1865. Thuma, David, disch. by order June 13, 1865. COMPANY E. Breetz, Frederick, must. out July 18, 1865. Davis, George, disch. by order June 7, 1865. Lockwood, George W., must. out July 18,1865. COMPANY F. Dawson, Richard, must. out. Sergeant, George, died of disease at Murfreesboro', Tenn., March 4,1863.. Sergeant, Timothy, vet. Jan. 4, 1864. COMPANY H. Marlett, Wm. H., must. out July 18, 1865. McCreary, Robert, must. out July 18, 1865. COMPANY I. Negley, Adelbert, must. out July 18, 1865. Rosser, James, died of disease at Ypsilanti, Mich., March 24,1862. 102 HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN. FROM MONTCALM COUNTY. COMPANY A. Strong, Francis, must out July 18,1865. Van Horn, Abraham, must. out July 18,1865. COMPANY B. Johns, Abiah, disch. by order June 1, 1865. Scott, Nathan B., must out July 18,1865. COMPANY C. Borgen, David, must. out July 18,1865. COMPANY D. Bump, Henry, died of disease at Fort Schuyler, N. Y., Jan. 11, 1865. COMPANY E. Washburn, Albert, must. out June 15,1865. COMPANY F. Fields, John, must. out July 18,1865. Kibby, Horatio, disch. for disability July 1,1862. Moore, Lewis J., must. out July 18,1865. Youngs, Daniel, died of disease at Willet's Island (New York Harbor) May 23, 1865. COMPANY H. Neve, James P, must. out July 18,1865. COMPANY I. Jenks, Robert, must. out July 18,1865. Jenks, Luther, must out July 18,1865. SEVENTEENTH INFANTRY. FROM IONIA COUNTY. NON-COMMISSIONED STAFF. Sergt-MaJ. Charles D. Todd, Ionia; pro. to second lieutenant Co. D. COMPANY D. Second Lieut. Charles D. Todd, Ionia; com. July 4,1863; pro. to frst lieutenant Co. E. COMPANY E. Frst Lieut. Charles D. Todd, Ionia; com. Oct 19, 1863; wounded in action near Petersburg July 23,1864; brevet captain U.S.V. July 23,1864, for gallant and meritorious services in the campaign before Richmond, Va., 1864; honorably disch. Dec. 30,1864. TWENTY-FOURTH INFANTRY. FROM IONIA COUNTY. COMPANY G. McGowan, John, must out June 30,1865. UNASSIGNED. Beeves, B. J., must out June 30,1865. TWENTY-SIXTH INFANTRY. FROM IONIA COUNTY. FIELD AND STAFF. Ad4t. Charles D. Fox, Lyons; app. Oct. 13, 1862; res. April 13,1863. NON-COMMISSIONED STAFF. Q.-M. Sergt. E. V. W. Brokaw, Odessa; enl. Feb. 16,1865; honorably disch. June 4,1865. COMPANY A. First Lieut Charles D. Fox, Lyons; corn. Sept. 5,1862; appointed adjutant. Campbell, John, en. Aug. 7,1862. COMPANY I. Musician E. V. W. Brokaw, Odessa; eul. Aug. 12, 1862; appointed quartermaster-sergeant Feb. 16,1865. Beam, Ansel H., must out June 4,1865. Church, Horace E, died of disease in Virginia Feb. 1,1864. Davenport, Nathaniel, died of disease in Virginia April 30,1863. Godfrey, Augustus C, killed in battle at Spottsylvania, Va., May 12,1864. Hatch, John F., disch. by order Feb. 15, 1863. Hiller, William, must. out June 4,1865. FROM MONTCALM COUNTY. COMPANY D. Hissing, Emanuel, disch. for disability Aug. 8,1863. THIRTIETH INFANTRY. FROM IONIA COUNTY. COMPANY D. Corp. John Renick, must out June 30,1866. Cole, Mose, must out June 30,1865. Hare, John, must. out June 30,1865. COMPANY E. Wolverton, Amos, must. out June 30,1865. COMPANY F. Vandecar, Spencer A., must. out June 30,1865. COMPANY G. Westfall, Benjamin, must. out June, 30,1865. COMPANY I. Vescelius, Arthur, must. out June 30,1865. COMPANY K. Capt. Fayette Smith, Ionia; con. Jan. 9,1865; must. out June 30, 1865. First Lieut. Laselle C. Brewer, Ionia; com. Jan. 9,1865; must. out June 30,1865. Second Lieut. John H. Barnes, Ionia; com. Jan. 9.1865; must. out June 30,1865. Corp. George M. Vanatta, must. out June 30,1865. Clark, Robert, must. out June 30,1865. Groats, John, must. out June 30,1865. McVeigh, Henry H., must. out June 30,1865. Smith, James W., must. out June 30, 1865. Wilkenbach, Henry, must out June 30, 1865. FIRST MICHIGAN SHARPSHOOTERS. FROM MONTCALM COUNTY. COMPANY H. Rhineholt, James, died of disease at Andersonville, Ga., Sept. 9,1864. DUESLER'S SHARPSHOOTERS. FROM IONIA COUNTY. Blakeslee, E. R., enl. Aug. 17,1861. Cronkite, William G., enl. Aug. 17,1861. Patterson, Schuyler, enl. March 14, 1862. MATHER'S SHARPSHOOTERS. FROM IONIA COUNTY. Gilbert, John H., enl. Jan. 7,1862. Race, Sidney J., enl. Dec. 31, 1861. Race, Charles N., enl. Jan. 23,1862. FIRST MICHIGAN (ONE HUNDRED AND SECOND UNITED STATES) COLORED INFANTRY. FROM IONIA COUNTY. COMPANY A. Bailey, Isaac, must. out Sept. 30,1865. Spriggins, Thomas, must. out Sept. 30, 1865. COMPANY C. Watson, John, must. out Sept. 30,1865. COMPANY G. Taylor, Jesse, must. out Sept. 30, 1865. COMPANY H. Ingham, David, must. out Sept. 30,1865. COMPANY I. Jefferson, George W, must. out Sept. 30,1865. Lett, Samuel, must. out Sept. 30,1865. FROM MONTCALM COUNTY. COMPANY E. Read, Jeremiah, died of disease Sept. 29,1865. Read, Elijah, died of disease Orangeburg, S. C., June 27,1865. FIRST LIGHT ARTILLERY. FROM IONIA COUNTY. BATTERY B. Ashley, James A., must. out June 14,1865. Choate, Alonzo, must out June 14,1865. Hopkins, Robert, must. out June 14, 1865. BATTERY O. Tifft, Levi R., disch. for disability July 19,1862. Warren, John, vet. Dec. 28,1863. BATTERY E. Chute, Elias, must. out Aug. 30, 1865. Doty, Elwood F., must. out Aug. 30,1865. Fessenden, Elias, enl. Jan. 16,1862. Kimball, William R., enl. Jan. 16,1862. Segar, Lewis, enl. Jan. 20,1862. MILITARY RECORD OF IONIA AND MONTCALM. 103 BATTERY G. Morse, David, must. out Aug. 6,1865. Morse, Martin, must. out Aug. 6,1865. BATTERY H. Tubbs, Ransom, trans. to Fifteenth Infantry. BATTERY I. Cooper, Adelbert, must. out July 14,1865. Isham, William 0., must. out July 14,1865. BATTERY M. Bradford, George W., must. out Aug. 1,1865. FROM MONTCALM COUNTY. BATTERY A. Pierson, William H., must. out July 28,1865. Thields, William, must. out July 28,1865. Tucker, Stephen T., must. out July 28,1865. BATTERY B. Burroughs, Nathan, died of disease at Pulaski, Tenn., April 29,1864. Styles, Benjamin F., must. out June 14,1865. BATTERY H. Bennett, Leroy, disch. by order June 16,1865. BATTERY K. Stewart, Charles, must. out Aug. 22,1865. THIRTEENTH BATTERY. FROM IONIA COUNTY. Cooper, John W., disch. by order Nov. 16,1865. Hart, Franklin E., must. out July 1,1865. Irwin, James, must. out July 1,1865. Marble, Nelson, disch. by order May 30, 1865. Minor, Norman F., must. out July 1,1865. O'Morrow, John, must. out July 1, 1865. Stocking, Ransom D., died of disease at Washington Nov. 6, 1864. FOURTH CAVALRY. FROM MONTCALM COUNTY. COMPANY A. Leman, Alexander C., died of disease at Nashville, Tenn., Nov. 27,1863. FIFTH CAVALRY. FROM IONIA COUNTY. COMPANY C. Duff, Norman, must. out Jan. 4,1866. Sprague, Robt. J., trans. to Seventh and First Cavalry. COMPANY D. Second Lieut. Henry H. Hitchcock, lonia; cor. March 31,1863; res. May 28, 1863. Canfield, Wilber H., disch. for disability. Smith, Harding, disch. by order. Sanborn, Justus, trans. to Veteran Reserve Corps. Sanborn, Enoch, must. out June 22,1865. Sperry, Albert T., trans. to First Cavalry. White, John I., must. out June 22,1865. Pennington, Wm. D., enl. Aug. 18,1862. FROM MONTCALM COUNTY. COMPANY A. Wheaton, Edwin A., must. out June 22,1865. SEVENTH CAVALRY. FROM IONIA COUNTY. FIELD AND STAFF. Maj. John S. Huston, Lyons; comrn. Oct. 14, 1862; disch. by order Feb. 14, 1864. COMPANY A. Second Lieut. Franklin P. Nichols, Ionia; corn. Oct. 15,1862; res. July 13, 1864. COMPANY F. Second Lieut. Joseph Duell, must. out March 10,1866. Second Lieut. Winchester T. Dodge, Orange; comrn. Oct. 15,1862; res. Feb. 22, 1864, for disability. COMPANY H. McDonald, Roderick, transferred to First Michigan Cavalry Nov. 17,1865. COMPANY I. Cornell, Samuel, died of disease at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., June 22,1865. Fish, Austin 0., died of disease at Harper's Ferry, Va., April 18,1865. Lamb, Almon F., must. out Dec. 15, 1865. McOumsey, Geo. H., must. out Dec. 15,1865. i I i j i i 1 Sprague, Robt. J., transferred to First Michigan Cavalry Nov. 17,1865. Vaughn, Jos. W., must. out Dec. 15,1865. COMPANY M. Simpson, John F., trans. to First Michigan Cavalry Nov. 17,1865. FROM MONTCALM COUNTY. COMPANY D. Aldrich, Stephen, must. out July 10,1865. Turner, David, died of disease at Frederick, Md., Dec. 22, 1864. COMPANY E. Hawkins, Francis F., must. out July 22,1865. EIGHTH CAVALRY. FROM IONIA COUNTY. COMPANY G. White, Alonzo L., died of disease March 15,1862. COMPANY L. Cramer, William L., disch. for disability March 1,1865. ELEVENTH CAVALRY. FROM IONIA COUNTY. COMPANY C. First Lieut. Matthew B. Bruger, Odessa; com. June 30, 1865; com. second lieutenant Oct. 3, 1863; must. out Aug. 10, 1865. Hogle, Charles, died of disease at Lexington, Ky. Kinney, Chandler, must. out May 13, 1865. Lincoln, Fletcher, must. out Sept. 22,1865. Monks, Joseph P., must. out May 13,1865. Major, Augustus, must. out Sept. 22, 1865. Sayles, Merritt, corporal; disch. by order Aug. 10, 1865. Taylor, John, must. out Sept. 22, 1865. White, William H., sergeant; must. out Sept. 22, 1865. MISCELLANEOUS. First Sergt. Francis G. Gleason, eul. in Co. B, Eighth Michigan Infantry, Aug. 12, 1861; engaged in battles of James Island, Second Bull Run, and Chantilly; disch. Dec. 29, 1863; re-enl. same day; wounded and taken prisoner in the Wilderness, May, 1864; sent to Andersonville; exchanged Nov. 22, 1864; disch. at close of war. First Lieut. and Adjt. John Pennington, enl. as private in Co. D, Twelfth Michigan Infantry, Nov. 15,1861; pro. to sergeant and quartermaster-sergeant; re-enl.; pro. to second lieutenant Co. E; first lieutenant Co. 0; afterwards to the adjutancy; must. out with regiment Feb. 15, 1866. Second Lieut. Lafayette L. Trask, enl. in Co. H, Sixteenth Michigan Infantry,, Aug. 13, 1861; appointed sergeant; disch. Jan. 8, 1863; re-enl. August, 1864, in Co. B, One Hundred and Seventy-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry; corn. second lieutenant, and must. out with regiment at close of war. Sergt. Joseph Randolph, enl. as private in Co. F, Thirteenth Michigan Infantry, Oct. 5, 1861; pro. to sergeant April, 1862; disch. Nov. 15, 1862. Phinney B. Millard, musician; enl. Co. F, Thirteenth Michigan Infantry, Aug. 5,1861; disch. for disability in 1862. W. E. Seaver,enl. Co. B, Eighth Michigan Infantry, Feb. 15, 1864; wounded at Spottsylvania, Va., May 12,1864; disch for disability April 12,1865. Capt. Judson H. Gregg,;enl. Co. B, Twenty-third Michigan Infantry, Aug. 9, 1862; com. second lieutenant Aug. 15, 1864; wounded in action at Nealy's Bend, Tenn.; pro. to brevet captain; must. out with regiment June 28, 1865. Sergt. V. B. Luce, enl. in Co. G, Eleventh Michigan Infantry, February, 1865; disch. in September of that year. Thomas R. La Due, enl. Third New York Artillery October, 1864; disch. at close of war. Corp. Frank A. Rockafellow, enl. Co. G, Twenty-Fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Feb. 28, 1864; disch. June 18, 1866. John H. Savage, enl. Co. A, Fourteenth Missouri Infantry, 1861; disch. January, 1863. Judson Barrett, private Co. K, Twenty-first Michigan Infantry; enl. Aug. 15, 1862; disch. March 25,1863; re-enl. Aug. 27,1864; served till close of war. Uriah Miner, drafted; assigned to duty with Two Hundred and First Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Co. B, 1862; served ten months. C. S. Smith, enl. Co. F, First Michigan Cavalry, Aug. 26,1864; served one year. Hilliard Mench, Third Michigan Cavalry; enl. Co. K, November, 1863; disch. for disability January, 1865. Corp. Andrew J. Reader, enl. in Co. E, Sixty-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Oct. 14,1861; re-enl. Dec. 9, 1863; disch. July 10, 1865. Amos Shaffer, One Hundred and Ninety-seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry; reenl. in April, 1865; disch. August of same year. James M. Beck, enl. Co. F, Third Michigan Infantry, May 13, 1861; disch. for. disability Nov. 21, 1862. Sergt. Elias Shaffer, eul. Co. C, Thirty-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Aug. 25, 1861; disch. at expiration of term, Sept. 13, 1864; re-enl Co. I, Eighteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, March 21, 1865; appointed corporal, April 3, 1865; sergeant, May 20, 1865; he participated in many engagements; wounded in hip, March 29, 1863, at Eagleville, Tenn.; disch. Oct. 9,1865. I :PA.RT SE0TICOND HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY. CHAPTER I. LOCATION, TOPOGRAPHY, AND MINERAL RESOURCES. Boundaries-Soil-Surface-Streams, etc.-Probable Origin of Name and History of the Ancient ronians (see Note)-Geological-Orange Risdon's Remarks in 1831-Dr. Houghton's Belief respecting Salt in 1837-Results of Professor Winchell's Explorations in 1860, and of Professor Rominger's in 1876-The Latter's Remarks relative to Coal-Mining in Michigan. LOCATION. IONIA,* one of the counties of Michigan in the fourth tier, counting northward from the southern line of the * The name given to the territory embraced within the limits of this county by the Fourth Legislative Council of the Territory of Michigan (which at its second session convened at Detroit, Jan. 4, 1831, and adjourned March 4th of the same year) was suggested, doubtless, by some member of that body familiar with ancient history. This council was composed of Henry R. Schoolcraft, representing Brown, Chippewa, Crawford, and Michilimackinac Counties (territory which included Northern Illinois, Northern Michigan, and Wisconsin as at present constituted); John Stockton, representing Macomb and St. Clair Counties; Abraham Edwards and Laurent Durocher, for Lenawee and Monroe Counties; Daniel Leroy and Thomas J. Drake, for Oakland County; James Kingsley, for Washtenaw County; and William Brown, William Bartow, John McDonnell, and William A. Fletcher, for Wayne County. Ionia, in ancient geography, was a country on the western coast of Asia Minor, lying mainly between the river Hermus on the north and the MaWander on the south, including the islands of Chios and Samos. This district was named after the Ionians, who returned from Attica to these shores, from which they had previously emigrated to European Greece, and founded the twelve cities of Miletus, Myus, Priene, Ephesus, Lebedus, Colophon, Teos, Erythrse, Clazomense, Phoema, Chios, and Samos, which were designated the Ionian Dodecapolis. The new colonists settled among kindred Greek tribes engaged in fishing and navigation, and the Lydians seem to have allowed their settlements on the coast without regarding them as an encroachment. The lonians demanded rights of supremacy and the best localities for the foundation of cities for themselves, and drove the old inhabitants out of their seats. (How closely our modern Ionians followed the example set by their ancient namesakes when they drove, so to speak, the Ottawas from their corn-fields and hunting-grounds!) The legends speak of their struggles with the Carians and Leleges. The religious and political centre of the Dodecapolis was the Panionium, which was a temple of Neptune, on the north slope of Mount Mycale, near Priene, where the common affairs of the independent republics were discussed at regular meetings. About B.C. 700, Smyrna, which until then had belonged to 4Eolis, became by treachery a member of the Ionian Confederacy, which subsequently consisted of thirteen cities. Their country soon attained great prosperity. Before the middle of the sixth century, however, the Ionian cities beoame subject to Lydia, and on the fall of Cresus 104 State, is bounded on the north by Montcalm, east by Clinton, south by Eaton and Barry, and west by Kent. Its southern line lies parallel to, and is distant twenty-four miles north from, the base-line, while its eastern boundary runs parallel with, and is the same distance west from, the principal meridian. It contains the same territory as when formed in 1831,-viz., townships 5, 6, 7, and 8 north, of ranges 5, 6, 7, and 8 west (sixteen surveyed townships), its limits never having been enlarged or diminished. TOPOGRAPHY. In regard to the productive quality of its soil and its adaptation to the various purposes of agriculture, Ionia County is properly regarded as one among the best in this most prosperous commonwealth. It has a diversity of surface, however, unusual to most counties of the Lower Peninsula; for, although but few precipitous hillsides are found, and there exists but a limited amount of territory which cannot be subjected readily to all the operations of husbandry, it has an altitude ranging from fifty to two hundred and fifty feet above Lake Michigan, possessing, therefore, in all their variations and alternations, hills, bluffs, plains, rolling uplands, and alluvial bottoms. That remarkable depression termed by Prof. Winchell the " Grand Saginaw valley," which stretches obliquely across the Lower Peninsula from the head of Saginaw Bay to the mouth of Grand River, via the valleys of the Saginaw, Bad, Maple, and Grand Rivers, and which, according to the same authority, nowhere attains an altitude of more than seventy-two feet above Lake Michigan,t they were annexed to the Persian empire by Cyrus. In 501 and 494 the Ionians made unsuccessful attempts to regain their independence, and they assisted the Greeks against the Persians at the battle of Mycale (479). The Persian yoke was at length shaken off by the victory at the Eurymedon, but the peace of Antalcidas (387) renewed it. On the overthrow of the Persian empire by Alexander, Ionia became subject to Macedon, subsequently to the Syrian and Pergamene kingdoms, and in 133 it fell into the hands of the Romans by the bequest of Attalus III. of Pergamus. The Ionian cities then soon lost their importance, and under the Turkish supremacy all but Smyrna disappeared or sank into total insignificance. Though Ionia never possessed great political power, the commerce of its cities extended to the shores of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, as well as to the coasts of the Mediterranean. Ionia was the cradle of Greek epic and elegiac poetry, history, philosophy, medicine, and other sciences; it developed a new style of architecture, and it was the birthplace of several celebrated painters. t This greatest elevation is found on the line of the principal meridian, between Gratiot and Saginaw Counties. (See article entitled / MINERAL RESOURCES. 105 passes through portions of North Plains, Lyons, Ionia, Easton, Berlin, and Boston townships. Hence it has been definitely ascertained by scientific measurements that the altitude of various points along the route of the Detroit, Grand Haven, and Milwaukee Railway are as shown in the following table: POINTS. Above Lakes Huron Above the Sea. and Michigan. Saranac......................................... 50 feet. 628 feet. Mouth of Maple River.................. 56 " 6.34 " Ionia City...................................... 60 " 638 M uir............................................. 67 " 645 " Pewam o.........................................' 153 " 731 Going back from the bluffs bordering the Grand River valley (which rise to the height of about one hundred feet above the lake-level), we find the greatest elevations south of the Grand to be in Sebewa, Odessa, and Campbell townships, and in the northern parts of Orleans and Ronald, on the north side of the river, the altitude in these districts being two hundred and fifty feet above the Great Lakes. The remaining portions of the county, in their irregularity of surface, average about one hundred and seventy-five feet above the same water-level. The lake-area of Ionia County is small in extent, Morrison Lake in Boston, Woodward in Ronald, and another in the northern part of Orleans being the most important of the five or six small bodies of water found within its borders. The principal streams are the Grand, Maple, LookingGlass, and Flat Rivers and their tributaries. The Grand enters the county by crossing the east border of Danby township, flowing westward; thence in its windings it flows towards every point of the compass before leaving that township, but finally emerges and moves to the northward through Portland and Lyons, until the village of Lyons is reached, where it makes a grand sweep to the westward, and thence continues in a southwest course through Ionia, Easton, Berlin, and Boston, leaving the county by crossing the west border near its centre. The Grand, in its passage through this county (except at the villages of Lyons and Portland), is a sluggish stream, affording very few advantageous mill-sites. It has been navigated in former years to a limited extent (see Chapter VIII. of General History), but at the present time it is more valuable as an avenue of drainage than for purposes of navigation. The LookingGlass also first makes its appearance in Danby township, and after a flow to the northwest of but four or five miles in this county empties its surplus waters into the Grand at the village of Portland. The Maple, a slow-moving stream, comes down the " Grand Saginaw valley" from the northeast, and, intersecting portions of North Plains and Lyons townships, increases the volume of the Grand at a point on section 18 in the latter township. Prairie Creek takes its rise in Montcalm County, and, after flowing southwest through Ronald and Ionia townships, empties into Grand River two miles east of the city of Ionia. Sebewa Creek is the most important tributary of the Grand from the south. It flows northerly from Eaton County, and, touching both Sebewa and Danby townships, finds its way to Grand River on section 18 of the last-named township. Flat River is a stream of considerable volume, and, after draining a large portion of Montcalm County, flows to the southwest through the central part of Otisco and the northwest corner of Keene, thence into Kent County, and finally empties into the Grand at Lowell, in the same county. Springs, some of them impregnated with iron, sulphur, and salt, abound in many portions of the county. Those at the city of Ionia, although not possessing any mineral properties, are among the most valuable in the State, for from them a large population receives an adequate supply of water for household and various other purposes. MINERAL RESOURCES. Orange Risdon, the deputy United States surveyor, who in May and June, 1831, subdivided Ionia township, seems to have been the first to place upon record anything concerning the mineral resources of this county. This was done, however, in obedience to orders issued by the Surveyor-General of the United States, who instructed his subordinates to append to their field-notes brief remarks regarding the nature of the soil, surface, timber, Indian trails, streams, springs, lakes, mineral indications, etc., found upon each section surveyed by them. Hence, after running the section-lines in the vicinity of the present city of Ionia, Mr. Risdon remarked: "In section 19 is a wet prairie of about three hundred acres in which there is said to be a salt spring, but I could discover nothing that indicated salt. The Indians showed me a sulphur spring." The second Legislature of Michigan, at its regular session in 1837, passed an act (approved February 23d of that year) which provided "that the Governor is hereby authorized and directed to nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate to appoint, a competent person, whose duty it shall be to make an accurate and complete geological survey of this State, which shall be accompanied with proper maps and diagrams and furnish a full and scientific description of its rocks, soils, and minerals and of its botanical and geological productions, together with specimens of the same." Under this act the Governor appointed as State geologist, to take charge of the survey, Dr. Douglass Houghton, who in the fall of the same year set out with three assistants and made a cursory exploration of this portion of the State, the object of the visit being to examine the outcroppings of bituminous coal and the salt springs which were reported to exist in this region. Although we have not had the privilege of reading what Dr. Houghton said regarding his researches in this immediate locality, we have been informed by Richard Dye, Esq., that the eminent doctor and his party did tarry in Ionia for a while, and he (the doctor) declared it as his opinion that the " wet prairie" mentioned by Mr. Risdon was the basin of a saline deposit which might be of no inconsiderable magnitude. Mr. Dye also assures us that, to his knowledge, there is a spring on the bottom-lands referred "Maple River Navigation Projects,' Chapter VIII., Part First.) Prof. Winchell also claims that when Lakes Michigan and Huron stood at their ancient elevations their waters communicated freely across this depression, and divided the Lower Peninsula into two portions, of which the northern part was an island. 14 106 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. to whose waters are quite brackish. Further than what has already been said, we must refer to and quote from Professors Winchell and Rominger concerning the geological formation of the earth's crust in this vicinity. They are gentlemen eminent in their professions, they have rendered this State invaluable service, have made geology a life-study, and are therefore more competent to speak intelligently upon these subjects than ourselves. In 1860, in his report to the State authorities, Prof. Alexander Winchell, State geologist, said: "The coalmeasures, with the overlying Woodville Sandstone, occupies the whole central area of the Lower Peninsula. The territory covered embraces the counties of Saginaw, Shiawassee, Clinton, Ionia, Montealm, Gratiot, Isabella, and Midland, and the greater part of Tuscola, Genesee, Ingham, Eaton, and Barry, besides considerable portions of Livingston and Jackson, and probably other counties on the north. The whole area underlain by the coal-measures is approximately one hundred and eighty-seven townships, or six thousand seven hundred square miles. Over nearly the whole of this extent of country the measures will be found productive." In another paragraph he said: " Indications also exist of the neighborhood of an outcrop of coal near the centre of Ionia County, but no authentic observations have been made." Of the " Woodville Sandstone," already mentioned, Prof. Winehell then remarked: " Wherever it is not denuded it is the capping stone of the coal-measures. It is a friable, rather coarse quartzose sandstone, stained to a variable extent with oxide of iron. At Jackson the rock is nearly white, and has been used in the manufacture of fine glass; at Corunna it is pale buff, and embraces abundant rich nodules of kidney iron-ore, which on the disintegration of the rock are left in the soil; at Owosso it is flesh-colored; near Lyons,* in Ionia County, it is striped and mottled with red, or even of a uniformly brick-red color. It varies equally in hardness, being sometimes sufficiently solid for grindstones and building-purposes. The State prison is built of a rock supposed to be this. The material for the county offices at Ionia was also derived from the same source This rock embraces numerous comminuted remains of vegetation, and some well-preserved stems of Calamites and Lepidodendron." In conclusion, the professor expressed his belief that the Parma Sandstone, the coalmeasures, and the Woodville Sandstone all belonged "to one geological epoch." Of the geological formation in this region, Prof. C. Rominger, State geologist, wrote as follows in 1876: " In section 23, township of Ionia, the upper sand-rock of the coal-measures comr to the surface, or is only covered by a thin coating of drift. The quality of this sand-rock is superior to the equivalent beds at Grand Ledge or at Jackson. It can be quarried in blocks of large dimensions, and is of proper durability for building-purposes. It has a reddish tint or is a variegated red and white. In the quarries I observed an interesting example of discordant stratification. The surface of a sand-rock ledge is seen deeply eroded by furrows and excavations, as ifit had been a long * Meaning the quarry in section 23, Ionia township, which is claimed to be eighty feet in depth. time exposed to the action of the atmosphere, and this eroded surface is coated with a smooth argillaceo-ferruginous cuticle. On this ledge another deposit of sand-rock follows, which fills out all the inequalities of the lower bed. We must therefore suggest a temporary emergence of the lower stratum before the next ledge could be deposited over it. "From Mr. Blanchard,t of Ionia, I received the record of a boring in the vicinity of the quarries made to a depth of four hundred and fifty feet. It penetrated in sand-rock, eighty to one hundred feet; shales and fire-clay, four feet; coal, from twenty inches to four feet; fire-clay, two feet; sand-rock, fine-grained, forty feet; coal-seam, thickness unknown. " The deeper strata were alternations of sand-rock and shales. At three hundred feet below the surface a copious stream of sweet water was struck, which rises in constant flow to the surface, proving very refreshing to the laborers of the quarry. " West and north of lonia the coal-formation disappears under the drift, and no borings have been made in these directions by which we could ascertain the extent of its distribution as the surface-rock." Results of other borings in the vicinity of Ionia County might be mentioned, and statements given of the strata through which they passed, but these would be neither valuable nor interesting. They are but records of failure, so far as their disclosure of any valuable mineral deposits are concerned. That a similar opinion is entertained by Prof. Rominger, in regard to explorations and experimental excavations, not only in this county, but in the entire Lower Peninsula, is made clear by his concluding remarks on this subject, as follows: ' The benefit to the commonwealth of a geological investigation consists not only in adding discoveries of new stores of minerals to those already known, but to a much greater extent, I think, in causing to be fairly understood the uselessness of explorations for certain minerals in places where they do not exist. Thousands and thousands of dollars have been spent in this way which could have been saved to their owners if they had had a clear comprehension of the structure of the earth's crust which they explored, or had asked advice of some one better informed than themselves... " The coal-fields of Michigan, supposed to cover a space of eight thousand square miles, are, up to the present day, of very inferior importance in the economy of the State. Only four mines are in actual operation, and these are worked with but a small force of men. Searhing for the causes of this neglect of apparently so great stores of wealth buried beneath our feet, we find one of them in the imperfect exposure of the rock-beds, which, with the exception of those in a few limited districts, are all deeply covered by drift deposits. This would be no serious impediment if the coal-seams were spread in a continuous sheet over the surface of a certain horizon; we-could then without much risk go down and uncover them r but all coal-deposits are con fined originally to certain-imited basins, and if we consider t John C. Blanchard, Esq. (Th GEOLOGICAL -MAP MICHPiI GAN.V, WA U' ffelder#&wr ~tEl jCarboni~er OTSEGO NTM LP N N KLACWFOR K ~ALC N A ESE wctn 0 - z I CIVIL CHANGES. 107 that the coal-series, as the youngest of the stratified rockbeds on the peninsula, has been, without protection by later deposits, exposed to the vicissitudes of untold ages, we must expect to find a large proportion of the deposits destroyed and swept off. " In particular during the drift epoch the coal-formation must have suffered immense destruction from the moving glacier-masses. The direct proof of this is furnished by the large quantity of debris of the coal-measures mixed with the drift-material; but the drift-action has not only destroyed a large proportion of the coal-formation, but has at the same time filled up the eroded gaps with loose driftmaterial, hiding the extent of destruction from observation, and thus rendering our mining-operations always hazardous in a deeply drift-covered region, because we have no means whereby to know how much of the supposed underlying rock-strata has escaped destruction.... This loose, porous mass of debris, in proper comminution to make a soil, and being composed of every variety of mineral substance necessary for the sustenance of vegetable life, formed the destiny of this strip of land: it makes it an agricultural country. No great mineral wealth is hidden here under our feet which we could have reached through the gaps; so it were better they were closed and leveled, to enable us to harvest golden ears of wheat and corn from their surface, than that we should enter shadowy subterranean passages in search of wealth, endangering our lives, and without any certainty of success in the end." CHAPTER II. CIVIL CHANGES. Ionia County as a part of Quebec-Of Hesse-Of the Northwest Territory-Of the Great County of Wayne-Of Indiana-Of Michigan-Of Oakland County-Of Lenawee County-Of St. Joseph County-Of Kalamazoo County-Formation of Ionia County-Of Ionia Township-First Township-Meeting-Attached to Kent County. ' IN 1774, by what was known as the " Quebec Act," the British Parliament made Michigan a part of the province of Quebec; but, in fact, it did not receive any civil government. Small tracts around the military posts of Detroit and Mackinaw were subject to the arbitrary rule of postcommandants, while the remainder was completely controlled by the Indians. Four years later the captain-general of Canada divided that province into four districts, the peninsula of Michigan forming one of them, with the name of " Hesse," given in honor of the Hessian troops then serving King George III. in America. But the fortunes of war decided that the people of Michigan should not be termed " Hessians." At the close of the Revolution, Michigan became part of the United States; but the British still held the mili tary posts, thus retaining their influence over the Indians and the control of the peninsula. In 1787, Congress declared Michigan to be a part of the " Northwest Territory," which was then organized, but the "possession of the forts by the British prevented the act from being carried into effect north of the Maumee River. Early in July, 1796, Michigan-or rather the posts of Detroit and Mackinaw-was surrendered to the United States by the British government in acccordance with the provisions of Jay's treaty. On the 15th of the same month a proclamation was issued by Gen. St. Clair, Governor of the Northwest Territory, by which he organized the county of Wayne,-a county which included the northwest part of Ohio, the northeast part of Indiana, and the whole of Michigan (then embracing a part of Wisconsin), and by a mere executive act annexed the same to the United States territory northwest of the Ohio River known as the Northwest Territory. In May, 1800, the Territory of Indiana was formed from the Northwest Territory, and the eastern boundary-line of the new Territory (Indiana) was extended northward through the middle of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan to the Straits of Mackinaw, while the easterly half still continued part of the Northwest Territory. A party now sprang up in the Territory who became impatient for a State government, and, in answer to their petitions, Congress, on the 30th of April, 1802, passed an act authorizing such government, but excluding the inhabitants of Michigan from representation in the Convention. This gave general dissatisfaction. But within three weeks' time the constitution was framed, and, without being submitted to or ratified by the people, became the fundamental law of the State of Indiana by the act of the Convention alone. By the same act of Congress the residue of Michigan (the easterly half) was attached to the Territory of Indiana, and so continued until Jan. 11, 1805, when the Territory of Indiana was divided and the Territory of Michigan created, the first meeting to organize the government of the latter Territory being held by the Governor and judges at Detroit, July 4, 1805. Until after the close of the war of 1812 no further action was taken concerning the organization of counties. In 1815 (November 21st), Governor Cass, by an executive act, reorganized the county of Wayne, and ordered that its boundaries should include all the lands within the Territory of Michigan of which the Indian title had been extinguished. In early subsequent years other counties were formed from Wayne, and as the remaining lands of the Territory gradually came into the possession of the general government by cessions from the Indians they were attached by successive gubernatorial proclamations to the counties already organized. Thus the first ordinance which, nominally at least, brought any portion of the county of Ionia under civil jurisdiction was by proclamation of Governor Cass, who, on the 13th of April, 1821, ordered that "all the country of which the Indian title was extinguished by the treaty of Saginaw,* Sept. 24, 1819, be attached to Oakland County." Therefore all the territory in Ionia County east of a line drawn from the southwest corner of Richland township, Kalamazoo Co., to the head of Thunder Bay River, was by Governor Cass' proclamation attached to Oakland County. Another change affecting Ionia County was made in 1826, X See Chapter VI. of General History. 108 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. upon the organization of the county of Lenawee, when, by an act of the Legislative Council approved November 20th of that year, all the country to which the Indian title had been extinguished by the treaty of Chicago was attached to Lenawee County. Thus the lands in Ionia County lying south of Grand River were attached to Lenawee. On the 12th of April, 1827, another act of the Legislative Council formed the territory thus annexed to Lenawee County into the township of St. Joseph,-a township that must have contained at least ten thousand square miles. After the formation of the township of St. Joseph, as just narrated, the next change in the municipal relations of the territory now comprising Ionia County was made by an act of the Legislative Council approved Nov. 4, 1829, which organized the counties of St. Joseph and Cass. Section 5 of that act reads as follows: " That the counties of Kalamazoo, Calhoun, Branch, Barry, and Eaton, and all the country lying north of township four north of the base-line, west of the principal meridian, south of the county of Michilimackinac, and east of the line between ranges twelve and thirteen west and of Lake Michigan, where said range-line intersects the lake, shall be attached to and compose a part of the county of St. Joseph." On the following day (Nov. 5, 1829) an act was approved, of which section 4 provided " that the counties of Kalamazoo and Barry, and all the country lying north of the same which are attached to and compose a part of the county of St. Joseph, shall be a township by the name of Brady, and the first township-meeting shall be held at the house of Abram I. Shaver,* in said township." Section 5 of the same act provided, further, "that the counties of Branch, Calhoun, and Eaton, and all the country lying north of the county of Eaton which are attached to and compose a part of the county of St. Joseph, shall form a township by the name of Green; and the first township-meeting shall be held at the house of Jabez Bronson,t in said township." Both of these townships were regularly organized and township officers elected within one year after their formation. Thus the eastern halves of the counties of Ionia and Montcalm were attached to the township of Green, and the western portions of the same to the township of Brady, all in the county of St. Joseph. By an act of the Legislative Council approved July 30, 1830, the county of Kalamazoo was organized, and, as shown by the following extract from said act, the territory comprising the present counties of Ionia and Montcalm was attached to the former county: "That the counties of Calhoun, Barry, and Eaton, and all the country lying north of township four north of the base-line, west of the principal meridian, south of the county of Michilimackinac, and east of the line between ranges twelve and thirteen and of Lake Michigan, where said range-line intersects the lake, shall be attached to and compose a part of the county of Kalamazoo for judicial purposes." No further changes affecting the territory of the county of Ionia took place until the next year, when, " by an act to provide for laying off into separate counties the district of country adjacent to Grand River, and for other pur i - poses," approved March 2, 1831, Ionia, Montcalm, and several other counties were formed. The section referring to Ionia County says: " That the country included within the following limits-to wit: West of the line between ranges four and five west of the meridian; east of the line between ranges eight and nine west; south of the line between townships eight and nine north of the base-line; and north of the line between townships four and five north of the base-line, containing sixteen townships-be, and the same is hereby, set off into a separate county by the name of Ionia." A provisionary section (15) of the same act added "' that if any portion of the country hereby laid off into counties shall be found to extend into the territory not yet purchased from the Indians, no authority shall or is hereby intended to be given to the courts of this Territory to extend the laws of said Territory over such portion of the country in any case not now provided for by the laws of the United States or of this Territory." On the 7th of March, 1834, a law was approved which enacted " that the county of Ionia be a township by the name of Ionia, and the first township-meeting therein shall be held at the house of Louis Genereux, in said township." It was further provided that this act was to take effect on and after the first Monday in April, 1834. It proved to be the case, however, that, although the people of Ionia County were very anxious to organize their township by the election of officers and the enactment of laws regulating their own immediate affairs, they were estopped by the existing laws of the Territory, and could not find enough qualified voters among their number to organize a board of election, much less to fill the various township offices required; consequently, no election was held. The following year, therefore, their disabilities were removed by the passage of an act to amend, which, approved March 26, 1835, read as follows: " SECTION 2. It shall and is hereby declared to be lawful for the citizens of the township of Ionia, liable to the payment of county or township tax, to meet at the dwellinghouse of Samuel Dexter, in said township, and elect from their number all township officers, and transact all business which townships, by law, are authorized to transact; and the proceedings of said meeting shall be valid and binding in all respects, as if the same had been held by the qualified electors of said township. " SECTION 3. The inhabitants of said township are hereby authorized to hold their election for members to the convention to form a constitution and State government at the house aforesaid, on Saturday, the fourth day of April." As the township thus formed comprised the whole county, we here transcribe from the records the proceedings of the first township-meeting: "Record of the township of Ionia, of Kalamazoot County, M. T.: "At the first township-meeting in the town and county, as above mentioned, held at the house of Antoine Campau & Co., on Monday, the sixth day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-five, Mr. Alfred Cornell was chosen moderator ~ Resided in the vicinity of the present village of Schoolcraft, Mich. f Lived in the present township of Bronson, Branch Co. I The Kalamazoo County board of supervisors, at a meeting held in October, 1835, ordered that there be levied and collected for defraying expenses in the township of Ionia the current year the sum of forty dollars. ORIGINAL SURVEYS. 109 and W. B. Lincoln clerk. After the moderator and clerk were sworn by Samuel Dexter, Esq., the electors proceeded to the election of township officers by ballot, which were elected as follows: " For supervisor, Erastus Yeomans; for township clerk, W. B. Lincoln; for assessors, Franklin Chubb, Gilbert Caswell, Henry V. Libhart; for commissioners of highways, Philo Bogue, John E. Morrison, Nathan Benjamin; directors of the poor, Samuel Dexter, John McKelvey; constable and collector, Asa Spencer; constable, Daniel McKelvey. " A division of the electors being called for, it wa.s decided that the next township-meeting, or that of 1836, should be held at the house now occupied by A. Campau & Co., in the said township of Ionia and county of Kalamazoo, M. T." On the application of twelve electors a special election was held, May 12, 1835, for the purpose of choosing commissioners and inspectors of common schools. As a result, Alfred Cornell, George Case, and John McKelvey were elected school commissioners, and William D. Moore, Alfred Cornell, Jr., Erastus Yeomans, Nathaniel Soules, and William B. Lincoln inspectors of schools. A home civil government was now fairly established, but the people of the township and county were not to remain citizens of Kalamazoo County much longer; for by an act of the State Legislature approved March 24, 1836, Kent County was organized, and various unorganized counties were attached to it, as the following excerpt will show: "That the unorganized counties of Ottawa, Ionia, and Clinton shall be attached to the county of Kent for judicial purposes. This act to take effect and be in force on and after the first Monday of April, 1836." In this chapter we have endeavored to speak clearly and correctly of the various changes of jurisdiction through which the territory of Ionia County had passed prior to its separate organization in 1837. Meanwhile, other important events had transpired which in passing down the years in nearly chronological order we have, for convenience, omitted to mention, but which will engage our attention in the two succeeding chapters. CHAPTER III. ORIGINAL SURVEYS-EARLY SETTLEMENTS. By whom and when the Surveys of Danby, Portland, Lyons, North Plains, Sebewa, Orange, Ionia, Ronald, Odessa, Berlin, Easton, Orleans, Campbell, Boston, Keene, and Otisco Townships were made -The First White Occupation of Ionia County other than by the Indian Traders-The Settlement made by Samuel Dexter and his Associates in 1833 an Exception to the Course usually followedMention of the Earliest Settlers in the Various Townships. ORIGINAL SURVEYS. THE townships of lonia County, excepting Keene, Otisco, and Orleans, were laid out and subdivided prior to the year 1832. The work was performed by various parties, and it is to show by whom and when these surveys were made that we speak of them-briefly though it may be-in this connection. Danby (township 5 north, of range 5 west) was surveyed and subdivided by Lucius Lyon, deputy United States surveyor,* in the winter of 1830-31. He described the direc - These surveyors were all termed deputy United States surveyors, and performed their work under instructions from and contracts made with the Surveyor-General of the United States. tion taken by various Indian trails, and spoke of plains, oakopenings, willow-, tamarack-, and maple-swamps, also of Indian wigwams on section 8, left bank of the Grand River. Portland (township 6 north, range 5 west) was also surveyed by Mr. Lyon early in the winter of 1830-31. He made mention of the " Indian trail to Chigamaskin," and denominated this as a rolling and good township. The township-lines of Lyons (township 7 north, of range 5 west) were run out by Robert Clarke, Jr., in February, 1831. In going north on the west line of section 18 he said: " South of river the land is rich bottoms, and an Indian village [Cocoosh's] is on the river to the east of south end of this mile. North of river it is hilly barrens, land second rate. Timber: oak, elm, cherry, maple, etc." At the conclusion of his work, February 15th, he added: " Commenced raining this morning, the first day that it has thawed any since the 4th day of January,-forty-two days." In May and June of the same year Orange Risdon subdivided the township. Going north between sections 22 and 23, he crossed the ' broad Indian trail to Detroit fiftyfive chains from the south line of said sections." Other trails were encountered, besides oak-openings, ash-swamps, wet willow- and ash-bottoms, prairies, drowned maple-bottoms, steep bluffs. pine bluffs, and oak-plains. Between sections 18 and 19 the quarter-section post was placed "where raises a mound." North Plains (township 8 north, range 5 west) had its boundary-lines run by Lucius Lyon in March, 1831, and it was subdivided by Orange Risdon in the 'summer of that year. On the 16th of August he said: " Broke compass, and was obliged to go to Detroit to have it repaired." His work was recommenced September 11th. Sebewa (township 5 north, range 6 west) was surveyed by Lucius Lyon in the spring of 1831. The records do not show who surveyed Orange (township 6, 6), but it was probably done by either Lyon, Clarke, or Risdon early in 1831. Ionia (township 7 north, range 6 west) had its townshiplines run by Robert Clarke, Jr., in February, 1831, and it was subdivided by Orange Risdon from May 27 to June 27, 1831. He made mention of excellent mill-streams, Indian trails, prairie-bottoms, excellent timber,-" straight and thrifty,"-rolling surface, good soil, numerous springstreams, and, in meandering the river, of "Indian fields" and " Genereau's ferry." The township-lines of Ronald (township 8 north, range 6 west) were run out by Robert Clarke, Jr., in March, 1831. It was subdivided by Orange Risdon in July of that year. He also meandered a lake on section 18, and spoke of Indian trails, many small brooks, fine springs of cold water, between sections 3 and 10, and a tract of large timber destroyed by fire. Odessa (township 5 north, range 7 west) was surveyed and subdivided by John Mullett in October, 1830, "in pursuance of instructions from and a contract with Surveyor-General William Lytle, made Aug. 25, 1830." He also meandered its lake-surface. Mr. Mullett also ran out the township- and section-lines of Berlin (township 6 north, range 7 west) in March and April, 1831. He made mention of an Indian trail, course 110 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. northeast and southwest, crossing the north line of section 5, also of the hills and bluffs in that portion of the township. At the same time he meandered the Grand River in section 6, and a lake on sections 19 and 20. Easton (township 7, 7) was subdivided by Orange Risdon in June and July, 1831. He was unstinted in his praises of the township, and spoke of Indian trails, cranberry-swamps, oak-openings, dry-oak ridges, many springs, "a ridge of good pine" on sections 10 and 15, "rolling land of the richest description" on sections 20 and 21, "rich bottoms well timbered with ash, elm, black-walnut, and butternut" on sections 31 and 32, superior rolling lands and " extensive Indian sugar-establishments" on sections 29 and 30. Orleans (township 8 north, range 7 west)-which, with Keene and Otisco, was not acquired by the United States until by the treaty of Washington (1836)-was surveyed by Noah Brookfield, assisted by William Parker and Perkins Snyder, chainmen, and John Herrold, marker, in March and October, 1837; in pursuance of a contract made with Robert T. Lytle, surveyor-general for the States of Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan. A lake on sections 2 and 3 was meandered at the same time. The township- and section-lines of Campbell (township 5 north, range 8 west) were run by John Mullett in October and November, 1830. An Indian trail, course east and west, crossed the southern part of the township, and, according to his field-notes, it was a heavily-timbered region. He also meandered the lakes on sections 1, 2, 8, and 17. Boston (township 6 north, range 8 west) was also surveyed by Mr. Mullett in December, 1830. His brief fieldnotes show that rolling uplands, bluffs, and swamps abounded, all thickly wooded with the many varieties of deciduous trees common to this portion of the State. Grand River and a lake on sections 35 and 36 were also meandered. Keene (township 7 north, range 8 west) was surveyed by Noah Brookfield and his assistants, Parker, Snyder, and Herrold, in April and October, 1837. The township of Otisco (designated in the survey as township 8 north, of range 8 west) was also surveyed by Mr. Brookfield in April and October, 1837,-a time subsequent to the coming of its first settlers. EARLY SETTLEMENTS. The first white men to reside in the county of Ionia were the Indian traders Genereau, Hunt, Belcher, Fraro, Lasley, and others, of whom mention has already been made in a previous chapter. But, as they were here only for the purpose of trading with the Indians, did not cultivate the soil,-to any extent, at least,-and, with one exception, removed from its limits very early in the history of Ionia, they cannot, in the sense the term is usually applied and understood, be considered settlers. When, during the years succeeding 1830, the hardy men and women of Northern and Western New York and of the State of Vermont had compassed the perils then attendant upon the journey westward to Detroit by way of the Erie Canal and Lake Erie, there completed their (frequently very scanty) outfit, and then, slowly drifting out to the borders of settlements in the counties of Macomb, St. Clair, Lapeer, Genesee, Oakland, Washtenaw, Monroe, and Lenawee, where they settled, they but followed practices which since the occupation of the Atlantic coast by the Dutch and English had governed movements in extending settlements inland and westward. But in the true settlement of Ionia County we find an exception,-a marked deviation from usages which to that time had prevailed in beginning new settlements in Michigan. Here the spring of 1833 witnessed the arrival in Detroit of Samuel Dexter and his worthy associates, Erastas Yeomans, Oliver Arnold, Darius Winsor, Edward and Joel Guild, Dr. W. B. Lincoln, and others, en route to new homes in the Grand River country. Remaining in Detroit only long enough to make needful preparations for their journey of about one hundred and fifty miles through the wilderness, they moved on through the sparsely-settled county of Oakland, crossed the corners of Genesee and Livingston, thence continued westward through the as yet wild and unsettled regions of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties to the site of the present city of Ionia, where they arrived late in May of that year, and where their habitations were immediately established in the midst of the friendly Ottawas. It is asserted-and doubtless it was the fact-that the Grand River (which then and for many years after was considered a navigable stream) was the inducement which led the members of Judge Dexter's party of colonists to fix their homes so far away from settlements already established. However that may be, quite a number of other settlers followed the course of the "Dexter trail" and located in the county the same year. But, as extended and detailed accounts of the early settlements and settlers will be given in the separate histories of the several townships, it is not purposed in this place to do otherwise than briefly outline the first settlements in each township, and this merely for the purpose of showing the manner in which the settlements spread from the point where they commenced on the Grand River to other points of the county. Following the settlement of the " Dexter Colony" in May, 1833, came Henry V. Libhart to the southeast corner of the same township (Ionia*), the Cornells to Easton, John E. Morrison to Berlin, and Philo Bogue and John Milne to Portland, all of whom became settlers before the close of the year 1833. Among those of 1834 were Franklin Chubb and Nathan Benjamin, in Lyons; George W. Case, Horace Case, and the Conner brothers, in Easton; John McKelvey and Gad Bunnell, in Ionia; and others whose names (attached to a petition) will be found in the next chapter. In the year 1835 the population of the county was still further increased by the settlement of Alonzo Sessionst and his brother Job in Berlin, Chancellor Barringer, the first settler in Danby, and Selah Arms, the first settler in Orange. The great influx of immigrants from New York State to Michigan in the succeeding year and the establishment of the United States Land-Office at " Ionia County-Seat" were causes which greatly increased the num ber of inhabitants, and among the townships first settled * The names of townships are used as they now exist. t Present lieutenant-governor. THIE COUNTY-SEAT. 1ll THE OUNT-SEA. 11 that year (1836) were Boston,* by Jacob Francisco and Ira A. Dean, Otisco, by George W. Dickinson, Daniel and Nathaniel Horton, and North Plains, by Hiram Brown and Hector Hayes. George Younger and Joshua Shepard became the first settlers of Ronald in 1837, Joseph and William Woods and John Van Vleck following in the autumn of the same year. By the settlement of Guy Webster, William H. H. Sutliffe, and Joseph Collins in Orleans, Edward Butterfield, Cyrus Rose, James Monk, and Morton Reynolds in Keene, and John Terrill, Charles W. Ingalls, and John Brown in Sebewa, in 1838, these townships received their first settlers. Myron Tupper, Wellington Russell, and Harvey Kibbey became the first permanent residents of Odessa in 1839, while Campbell-the last township settled in the county-did not welcome its first settlers, the brothers Jeremiah and Martin Campbell, until Christmas Day of the year 1840, and it was seven years later ere its forests bowed in recognition of the presence of Amasa Nash, Marvil Church, Joseph Whitney, and others, its next pioneers. As before remarked, matters relating to the early settlements in the various townships, together with many other events and incidents of the past, will be found detailed at length in succeeding pages. Therefore, deferring to another place the further discussion of these matters, we will in the next chapter refer to a subject which was interesting to many pioneers of the county, if it does not prove to be so to its present occupants. CHAPTER IV. THE COUNTY-SEAT. Manner of locating County-Seats in Early Days-Diverse Parties and their Opinions respecting the Proper Place for the Seat of Justice of Ionia County-Indian Traders send Petition to Governor Porter-Their "Notice"-Elisha Belcher proceeds to Ann Arbor, and there makes Oath-Petition of Erastus Yeomans and OthersCommissioners appointed to locate County-Seat-Their Names, Journey, and Decision -Charles D. Friend's Letter of Remonstrance -Petition of Henry V. Libhart and Others-Death of Governor Porter-Stevens T. Mason becomes Acting Governor-Another Letter from Friend-Second Petition from Erastus Yeomans and Others-Governor Mason's "Toledo War," and consequent Neglect of Ionia County-Seat Matter-Erastus Yeomans and other Restive Ionians send in their Third and Last Petition-A Clinching Argument-Final Termination of the Question. LOCATING," seats of justice" in new counties in Michigan was a matter of great importance to both resident and non-resident landowners (especially to those who owned lands deemed by themselves centrally situated in their relation to the county), as well as to the men who received appointments from the Governor to act as county-seat commissioners; for the office of commissioner carried with it what were considered in early days heavy emoluments in the way of pay per diem and mileage. Besides, if we may believe what has been so often asserted, there were other perquisites for the commissioners at times when those * Wooster English and Timothy White were the first permanent settlers of Boston, settling there in 1837. representing conflicting interests wished to obtain their favor. Unfortunately (for the peace of mind, at least, of many of its citizens for many subsequent years), the new county of Ionia possessed two or more localities deemed most advantageous for the establishment of the county-seat. In consequence, there were two opposing parties, and they strove long, earnestly-ay, bitterly-for the mastery. One party was composed of the original settlers of " Ionia County-Seat" and its vicinity, while their opponents were their neighbors up the river at Lyons, assisted by the early residents of Portland. Victory at length perched upon the banners of the Ionians. But the Lyonese and their friends have in a queer manner avenged their supposed wrongs; for, from the organization of the county until the present time, they have steadfastly opposed and voted against all appropriations having for an object the erection of necessary county-buildings, and, as a result of this peculiar style of warfare, combined with the parsimony displayed by people residing in outlying districts, no court-house structure yet adorns the beautiful grounds which were set apart for such purposes in 1833 by Judge Samuel Dexter. Concerning the proceedings which led to this location, much that is interesting and of historic value can be learned by perusing State executive files relative to this subject. By their aid, therefore (after forty-seven years have passed away since the question was first agitated), we will proceed to tell the story. Early in the year 1833 the Indian traders and their employees-then the only white people residing in the county-inaugurated measures looking towards the establishment of a county-seat, and on the 5th of March of that year they drew up and signed the following petition, which was forwarded by messengert to Governor Porter: "To His EXCELLENCY GEO. B. PORTER, "Governor of the Territory of Michigan: "We, your petitioners, residents of the county of Ionia, feeling a deep interest in the affairs of said county, and convinced of a rapid increase of population for the present year, do humbly solicit that commissioners be appointed to establish the county-seat of said county, and, as in duty bound, your petitioners will ever pray. "(Signed) WILLIAM HUNT, ELISHA BELCHER, "SAMUEL LASLEY, Louis GENEREUX,j "MATHEW MCGALPIN,T ISEDORE NANTAIS, "JOSEPH PYATT, FRANCIS FRARO, "LOUIS GENEREUX, Jr., MATAR PARCE, " FRANCIS BAILEY." Several weeks later these people caused to be posted in three of the most public places in the county the following "NOTICE! "To WHOM IT MAY CONCERN.-Notice is hereby given that application will be made to the Governor of the Territory of Michigan to appoint commissioners to establish the seat of justice of Tonia County in said Territory. " Dated April 28, 1833." At the time specified below, Elisha Belcher, who seems to have been the most active spirit in pushing this matter, - There were no mail-routes in this portion of the Territory at that time. t Or McGulpin. # In other places we find his name written Genereaux and Gene reau. 112 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. proceeded to Ann Arbor and made oath before Justice Morgan as follows: "TERRITORY OF MICHIGAN, WASHTENAW COUNTY. " Elisha Belcher, of the county of Ionia, in said Territory, being duly sworn, maketh oath that between the 28th day of April and 1st day of May last past, or about that time, three notices, of which the above is a substantial copy, were affixed up, one on the outer door of William Hunt's dwelling-house, one at Genereaux's trading-house, and the other on the liberty-pole at the village at the mouth of Maple River, being the three most public places in the said county of Ionia: and this deponent often saw said notices remaining fixed up as aforesaid, and they remained so fixed up but a short time since, and further saith not. ' ELISHA BELCHER. "Sworn and subscribed before me Aug. 13, A.D. 1833, at Ann Arbor, in said county of Washtenaw. " E. W. MORGAN, "One of the Jlstices of the Peace in said County." Meanwhile, between the dates before mentioned,-i.e., the posting of notices and Belcher's visit to Ann Arbor,-Samuel Dexter and his associates had arrived and located permanently on and near the site of the city of Ionia. The county-seat question at once became uppermost in their thoughts, and early in July, 1833, Governor Porter was the recipient of another petition, as follows: "To THE GOVERNOR AND COUNCIL OF THE TERRITORY OF MICHIGAN: " We, your petitioners, being citizens of the county of Ionia, and destitute of those privileges and advantages which have uniformly been extended to all those counties in said Territory of Michigan which, like Ionia County, have been rapidly increasing in wealth and population, by organizing and determining on suitable situations for seats of justice, therefore ask that commissioners may be appointed to fix and determine upon the place suitable for the erection of a courthouse and other county-buildings for the county of Ionia. For which your petitioners will ever pray." This paper was dated on Grand River, Ionia County, July 12, 1833, and was signed by Erastus Yeomans, Edward Guild, Oliver Arnold, Sanford A. Yeomans, Silas D. Arnold, Abraham Decker, Warner Dexter, John Dexter, Zenas G. Winsor, W. B. Lincoln, Samuel Dexter, Darius Winsor, Alfred Cornell, Thomas Cornell, and Lorenzo Dexter. On the 5th of September, 1833, Governor Porter appointed James Kingsley, Stephen V. R. Trowbridge, and Charles J. Lanman commissioners to locate the countyseats of Ionia, Clinton, and Kent Counties, and commissions under the Broad Seal of the Territory were issued to them of that date. Four days later the commissioners gave notice that they would meet at the "Washtenaw House," in the village of Ann Arbor, Oct. 7, 1833, for the purpose of taking the required oath. The oath was administered to them by Justice Morgan on the 8th of October, and from Ann Arbor they proceeded on horseback to the performance of their duties. They first visited Clinton County, then Ionia,* and lastly Kent, arriving at Grand Rapids November 8th. After due deliberation, the commissioners made choice of land owned by Samuel Dexter, situated upon the north half of section 19, township 7 north, range 6 west, for which Mr. Dexter paid one hundred and seventy-one dollars, as shown by the following receipt: Received of Samuel Dexter by the hand of Abraham S. Wadsworth, Dec. 12, 1833, one hundred and seventy-one dollars for locating county-seat of Ionia County. "[Duplicate.] L. COOK, " T. M. T." The news of their proceedings and determination as regarded the seat of justice of Ionia County was soon noised abroad, and very soon thereafter Arew forth a letter of remonstrance from Charles D. Friend, of which the following is a copy: "COUNTY OF IONIA, "TERRITORY OF MICHIGAN, " Nov. 12, 1833. ' To HIs EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR: "The commissioners appointed under the commissions issued by you for locating the seat of justice in the above-named county, having proceeded to execute their appointment and affix the location on the lands of Samuel Dexter, upon the north bank of the Grand River, being situated upon the north one-half of section 19, township 7 north, of range No. 6 west, I respectfully beg leave to remonstrate against the report of such location of the commissioners being carried into effect, for the following reasons: " Because the spot selected for the seat of justice is situated upon the north bank of the Grand River, instead of the south bank, and within one hundred yards, or thereabouts, of a wet prairie or swamp of more than three hundred acres, bordering upon the Grand River and flooded therefrom occasionally, and which swamp, being hollow, cannot be effectually drained; that the seat of justice is also within two or three hundred yards of broken land lying north, of ordinary value, the hollows interspersed with swamps, and extending several miles northward, when oak-openings of a poor quality terminate the county-line, and beyond which are Indian reservations. "In consequence of this wet prairie or swamp being between the location of the seat of justice and the Grand River, a most expensive highway would be required to connect the location with the country on the south bank of the river; and, from the description of the lands northward of the seat of justice, that part of the county will not settle readily, and the part available for settlement east and west of the location is all taken up, and only by five or more farmers, for many miles, there being a frontage upon the Grand River of about one mile only, in depth, including the swamp, of three-quarters of a mile, where broken lands and swamps and indifferent oak-openings terminate the county-line. The land on the south side of the river is also subject to overflow, when broken land follows, and which for a considerable distance from the bank of the river is not habitable; beyond which, however, southwardly and westwardly, are many miles in extent of most valuable land fast locating, and all of which borders upon the Territorial turnpike road. "That the commissioners did not view every part of the county; that they did not follow the line upon the south bank of the river to the Territorial turnpike road, embracing one-quarter of the whole extent of the county, of a level and rich character, well supplied with running streams of fine water, neither low nor swampy, is fast settling, and will be soon all taken up. " This section of the county runs in a direct line from Peshimnacon along the Territorial road several miles, when it takes a northwardly course and strikes the Grand River. "That the seat of justice is located away from the Grand River three-fourths of a mile, although many very commanding situations upon the banks of the river might have been selected. " That lands in the county situated upon Maple River are also settling, and it would be very difficult for carriages to pass from thence along to the present seat of justice. "That the seat of justice as at present located, from its local disadvantages, can never become the centre of population; it is therefore not placed so as to afford facility or convenience to the inhabitants of the rich and more settled part of the county. " And that therefore for the above reasons the situation of the seat of justice, as at present located, is inconveniently placed in the county, being away from the centre of population, which will be residing chiefly in the southeastern quarter of the county, between the Grand River and the Territorial road, and from the mouth of the It is proper to mention, however, that this payment by Mr. Dexter was in conformity with the provisions of the law directing the appoint ment of the commissioners, which required that they should receive their compensation (for time necessarily employed) from the proprietor of the land on which they should decide to locate the county-seat. THE COUNTY-SEAT. 113 Maple River along the Grand River to the Territorial road, striking the river at Peshimnacon. " For the above reasons I hope a revision will be permitted for the better adjudicating the county-seat. "I am, sir, Your Excellency's most obedient servant, " CHARLES D. FRIEND." After the reception of Mr. Friend's letter six months' time intervened and still no action had been taken by Governor Porter in the case of Ionia's county-seat. Therefore, in May, 1834, Henry V. Libhart, Russell Libhart, Selah Arms, John Milne, Gad Bunnell, Charles D. Friend, Philo Avery, Thomas Shepherd, Jesse Wilmoth, Thomas Chamberlain, William Moore, Daniel Moore, Asa Bunnell, Obadiah J. Miles, Joseph Ledue, Stephen Demers, Abraham S. Wadsworth, William Hunt, W. A. Burgess, John McKelvey, Daniel McKelvey, and Nathan Benjamin signed and sent in another petition to Governor Porter, reiterating substantially what was claimed in Mr. Friend's letter and again asking for a revision, adducing, as additional reasons, S' that sufficient land could not be found within miles of the proposed county-seat to constitute even a very small neighborhood; that the lands they [the petitioners] represented, with one exception, were not purchased when the countyseat was located; that in a county situated remote from the facilities of market, and where making roads of any ordinary description must be attended by a very heavy expense to the few inhabitants already located, no unnecessary outlay should be countenanced to increase the value of lands of a few individuals, when the benefits could not be productive to people of the whole county; that the county-seat, as at present located, will be extremely inconvenient to the people generally, who will chiefly settle in the southeast quarter of the county,-a tract embracing a very fine country in prairies, plains, oak-openings, and heavy-timbered lands, watered with fine streams, free from swamps, marshes, and wet prairies, and where the central part of the county, as to population, must be at all times found." Governor Porter died July 6, 1834, without having confirmed by proclamation the report of the county-seat commissioners; neither did he order a revision of their work by the appointment of new commissioners. Hon. Stevens T. Mason, secretary of the Territory, although but twenty-two years of age, then became ex-officio Governor, and Mr. Friend soon after renewed the struggle, as the folowing copy of his letter will show: "COUNTY OF IONIA, M. T., " GRAND RIVER, Aug. 15, 1834. "' To His EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR MASON: " SIR,-I addressed a letter, dated November 12th past, to His Excellency the late Governor Porter, upon the subject of the location of the county-seat of this county, in which I stated my objections, which were also the objections of all the inhabitants of the same county who were residents east of the location of the county-seat, a copy of which lettbr I inclose herewith for your information. "When I was in Detroit, in the month of January last, I had an interview with the then Governor, who stated that he had not laid before the Legislative Council the report of the commissioners who had located the county-seat of Ionia, because he thought that if the allegations contained in my letter (above referred to) were borne out by a petition of the inhabitants, stating in detail the objections that I had made, that an appointment of other commissioners ought to be granted to remove such county-seat and act therein, and which he stated he had the power of granting. A petition was subsequently signed, I believe, by every inhabitant and resident freeholder in the 15 eastern section of the county, and transmitted to Governor Porter; and when I waited upon the Governor, in the early part of the month of June last, he stated to me that he saw sufficiernt reasons, founded upon the petition, to grant our request, and that if I would, previously to my leaving Detroit, address a letter to him expressing a desire that he should grant the prayer of the petitioners, that he would give the business proper attention. I went into the country to spend a few weeks with some friends there, previously to my return to the Grand River, and intended to take Detroit on my way back, when, unhappily, I then learned of the death of the late Governor. When at Detroit last week, I took steps to see you to have detailed this business, but, being exceedingly hurried, was obliged to leave without that pleasure. I therefore trouble you in this way, that if any measures are necessary to be taken in consequence of the demise of the late Governor, beyond those already stated, that you will do me the favor to communicate the same to me, addressed in care of Mr. Adolphus Spoor, Lodi Plains, Washtenaw Co., who is my partner, and will be coming to the Grand River in a few days, which will be more expeditious than to send by the circuitous post-office route, which does not at present come near me, by forty miles. "I am, sir, Your Excellency's most obedient servant, " CHARLES D. FRIEND." The continued and determined efforts on the part of Charles D. Friend and his associates to have the seat ofjustice removed at last aroused to further action the people at " Ionia County-Seat" and its immediate vicinity, and in September, 1834, they placed before the Governor another petition, of which the following is a copy: " IONIA COUNTY, M. T., Sept. 24, 1834. "To HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR OF THE TERRITORY OF MICHIGAN: "We, the undersigned petitioners, having been informed that a remonstrance has been got up, circulated, and presented to Gov. Porter by Charles D. Friend, bearing on its face many false representations respecting the location of the county-seat in and for the county of Ionia, do make use of this opportunity for their confutation. The sum of the objections contained in the remonstrance, as we understand, were the following: That the spot designated by-the commissioners for the county-buildings is surrounded by hills and swamps which are almost, if not quite, impassable; that the land about it is not susceptible of cultivation to any extent; that there were but some four or five families located in its vicinity; and that the remainder of the land can never be cultivated on account of its extreme inferiority for farming purposes. " For the truth of these assertions we would refer His Excellency the Governor to Chas. D. Friend's observations in the Herkimer American. "That there is a marsh in the vicinity of the county-seat we are ready to admit, and that it can be effectually drained is equally true. A ditch for such purpose is nearly completed, and when done will fit it for any kind of cultivation. Considering the central position of the location, and its facilities for farming and hydraulic purposes, that a saw-mill is already in operation, and that materials are collecting for the immediate erection of a grist-mill, with many other facilities, we are constrained to say that a more judicious selection could not be made. " That His Excellency the Governor will issue his proclamation confirming the proceedings of the commissioners, we, as your humble petitioners, are in duty bound to ever pray. "(Signed) ERASTUS YEOMANS. W. B. LINCOLN. "SAMUEL DEXTER. "CHARLES DOTY. "THOMAS CORNELL. " SANFORD A. YEOMANS. JOHN C. DEXTER. "GILBERT CASWELL. "ALFRED CORNELL. " OLIVER ARNOLD. " DARIUS WINSOR. "ZENAS G. WINSOR. "N. G. BROWN. " DANIEL A. CORNELL. " GEORGE CASE. ASA SPENCER. WILLIAM DOTY. ALFRED CORNELL, JR. LORENZO DEXTER. JOSEPH HADSALL. WILLIAM DUMPER. SILAS D. ARNOLD. JOHN E. MORRISON. JACOB W. WINSOR. CHARLES THAYER. HEZEKIAH FRANCIS. BENJAMIN G. BARBER. HORACE CASE." 114 I1STORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. I Soon after assuming the duties of the office of chief executive of the Territory, Acting-Governor Mason became involved in a warm dispute with the authorities of the State of Ohio regarding the boundary-line between the two sections,-an episodical event in the history of Michigan which has since been termed the " Toledo war." He was stoutly supported in his position by the Legislative Council, who declared it a criminal offense for any person not acting under authority from the Territory, or from the government of the United States, to exercise any official functions within the asserted boundaries of the Territory. Governor Mason also issued orders to Brig.-Gen. Brown, giving him discretionary power to order the militia into actual service, and commanding them to arrest the commissioners of Ohio " the moment they stick the first stake in the soil of Michigan." Meantime, the executive was busily engaged in putting into the field a force of " Wolverines" to defend the rights of the Territory, and in issuing commissions to company, battalion, regimental, and brigade officers who were to command the same. Indeed, a perusal of the State documents proves the fact that at that period His Excellency's time was almost wholly devoted to such purposes, matters pertaining to the Ionia county-seat being too insignificant to attract his attention when, impelled by his young and hot Southern blood, he had decided on having a tilt with the " Buckeyes." However, the inhabitants of " Ionia County-Seat," becoming restive under the long-delayed action of the Governor and the non-appearance of his proclamation confirming the commissioners' report, and thinking, perhaps, that the petitions of Charles D. Friend and his friends still had some effect, sent in another communication in February, 1835, of which the following is a copy: " To HIS EXCELLENCY THE ACTING GOVERNOR OF THE TERRITORY OF MICHIGAN: "The undersigned, citizens of the county of Ionia, in said Territory, beg leave to represent to Your Excellency that one or more petitions have been forwarded to you praying that measures may be taken to alter the site which was established by commissioners duly appointed for the seat of justice for the county of Ionia. We boldly state and frankly declare that a petition above alluded to, which was drawn by Charles D. Friend, and signed by himself and some others in the east part of this county, was filled with falsehoods and wilful misrepresentations respecting the present location and the lands contiguous. " We crave, sir, your indulgence whilst we shall refute these statements, and exhibit some important facts in relation to the county-seat and the quality of lands in different directions from the same. " The spot selected for the court-house by the commissioners was not suddenly or inadvertently fixed upon. They carefully examined the county around for six days, and finally determined on the site upon the lands of Samuel Dexter, a few rods east of the centre of the county east and west, and about two miles north of the centre north and south. For beauty and healthiness it is believed that this location is not surpassed by any place in Michigan. A large spring of excellent water issues near the county-seat, which affords a sufficient quantity for one hundred thousand inhabitants, and, with trifling expense, might be conducted to every man's door. Near to this spot are mill-seats and extensive hydraulic privileges. A grist-mill is already under contract to be built immediately, one-fourth of a mile from the county-seat. South of the county-seat lies a prairie of some hundred acres, sloping to Grand River, which has been grossly mis represented as a swamp, not susceptible of being drained. A part of this prairie is wet, but, there being a descent of at least twenty feet to the river, a chance is afforded for laying it dry by a drain or ditch, which for the most part is already accomplished by Mr. Dexter, and will be finished early in the ensuing season. " Much has been said by many in the east part of this county with regard to the quality of the lands lying west of the county-seat as being of an inferior quality. This is a matter which they have prejudged and guessed at without knowledge or investigation. Since such representations have been made, we have traversed the county and examined the lands south, southwest, west, north, and northwest. Almost the whole of the southwest quarter of the county appears to be first-rate timbered land. A great proportion of the timber is superior fencing-timber, and an abundance of sugar-maple is found. " We have commenced cutting a road from Ionia Centre south upon the centre section-line of the county, to continue through Eaton County to Marshall, the shire of Calhoun County. We have progressed eight miles with the road without meeting with any obstacles which would require a deviation from the section-line. It passes through a beautiful country, which it is believed will be settled at no remote period by a dense population. Not a single eighty-acre lot could possibly be selected upon the road as far as we have cut but what would be excellent. The country north is generally timbered with oak, and contains some extensive burr-oak plains. The face of the surface is beautiful, and the soil of good quality. West and northwest large tracts of timbered lands of the best quality are found, and along the river to the westward are extensive bottomlands which it is believed are not surpassed in quality by any lands in the United States. A considerable portion of the last-mentioned lands are already purchased and are rapidly settling. In short, the west half of this county, considering the quality of the soil, the utility of the numerous springs, brooks, and other watering-places with which it abounds, the healthiness of the place, as far as our experience and observation has extended, is such that we believe, with those who surveyed it, 'that no county in this Territory excels it.' "The statements above made are facts which we should attest to on oath but for the want of officers in this county qualified to administer oaths. In view of these facts, can it be reasonable, just, or proper that the county-seat, after having been located near the centre of the county by three competent and judicious men, should be removed five or six miles east, to the greatinconvenience of all who have and all who will hereafter settle in the county west of the centre? "Therefore, being solicitous for the welfare and prosperity of Western as well as Eastern Ionia, and believing that Your Excellency participates in the same solicitude, we most earnestly request that you exercise the authority vested in you by issuing your proclamation confirming and establishing the location of the county-seat for this county according to the determination of the commissioners. "For which we shall ever pray. "IONI, Feb, 11, 1835. "(Signed) ERASTUS YEOMANS. "JARED CONNER. "ELI YEOMANS. " ZENAS G. WINSOR. "SAMUEL DEXTER. "W. B. LINCOLN. "WILLIAM DUMPER. " LORENZO DEXTER. "JOHN C. DEXTER. "DEXTER ARNOLD. "ASA SPENCER. "LYMAN WEBSTER. " SANFORD A. YEOMANS. "OLIVER ARNOLD. " NATHANIEL J. BROWN. "ALFRED CORNELL. " PATRICE M. FOX. NELSON BECKWITH. THOMAS CORNELL. DANIEL CORNELL. ALFRED CORNELL, JR. GILBERT CASWELL. BENJAMIN G. BARBER. GEORGE W. CASE. WILLIAM DOTY. ELEAZER MURRAY. JAMES CROFFORD. THOMAS H. CONNER. ELISHA DOTY. CHARLES DOTY. SILAS D. ARNOLD. JOSEPH HADSALL. CHARLES THAYER. JOHN E. MORRISON." The last petition seems to have settled the county-seat matter with the executive,-at least to have proved a clinching argument; for, although we have been unable to ascertain the precise date of issue of his proclamation confirming the commissioners' report, it is conclusive that it was issued some time during the years 1835 or 1836, and the seat of justice of Ionia County still remains where it was first located in the autumn of 1833. ORGANIZATION, ETC. 115 CHAPTER V. ORGANIZATION, ETC. Ionia County organized by Act of the Legislature-First Election of County Officers-Results of other Early Elections-Organization of Ionia County Townships. ORGANIZATION. DURING the great influx of immigrants from New York State to Michigan in 1836, Ionia County received a goodly proportion,-especially so for an interior district that yet bordered on Indian lands,-and at the close of that year her population numbered nearly one thousand people. Soon, therefore, in the ordinary routine of business (greatly increased by the location of the land-office in their midst), transfers of property, etc., the needs of an independent county organization became daily manifest to the inhabitants, and, in accordance with the prevailing sentiment, a petition, numerously signed, was in the winter of 1836-37 sent in to the State legislative bodies, then in session, praying for such organization. That the petition was promptly and favorably considered the following extracts from "an act to organize the counties of Ionia and Van Buren" will show: "SEC. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Michigan, That the county of Ionia be, and the same is hereby, organized; and the inhabitants thereof entitled to all the rights and privileges to which by law the inhabitants of the other counties of this State are entitled.... "SEc. 3. All suits, prosecutions, and other matters now pending before any court or before any justice of the peace of either of the counties to which the said counties of Ionia and Van Buren are now attached for judicial purposes shall be prosecuted to final judgment and execution; and all taxes heretofore levied shall be collected in the same manner as though this act had not passed. "SEC. 4. The Circuit Court of the county of Ionia shall be held, until public buildings shall be erected, at such place as the supervisors of said county shall provide, at the seat of justice in said county, on the last Monday of May, and in November, in each year... " SEc. 6. All that part of the State lying north of the county of Ionia, and not included in any organized county, be, and the same is hereby, attached to the county of Ionia for judicial purposes.... " SEC. 8. There shall be elected in each of the said counties of Ionia and Van Buren, on the second Monday of April next, all the several county officers to which by law the said counties are entitled, and whose terms of office shall severally expire at the time the same would have expired had they been elected on the first Monday and the next succeeding day of November last; and said election shall in all respects be conducted and held in the manner prescribed by law for holding elections for county and State officers. " SEC. 9. In each of said counties the board of county canvassers, under this act, shall consist of two of the presiding inspectors of said election from each township; and said board shall meet in their respective counties on the Thursday next after said election, at the county-seat, at one o'clock P.M. of said day, and organize by the appointment of one of their number chairman and another secretary of said board, and thereupon proceed to calculate and ascertain the whole number of votes given at such election for any individual for either of said offices, and shall set down the names of the several individuals so voted for, and the number of votes given to each, for either of said offices in said county, in words at full length, and certify the same to be a true canvass of the votes given at such election in said county, and that the person receiving the highest number of votes for either of said offices is duly elected to said office; which certificate shall be signed by the chairman and secretary, and delivered to the clerk of said county, to be filed and kept in said office. "SEC. 10. In case the election for county officers shall not be held on the second Monday of April, as provided in the Eighth Section of this act, the same may be held on the first Monday of May next. "SEC. 11. This act shall be in force, and take effect, on and after the first Monday in April next. " APPROVED MARCH 18, 1837." FIRST ELECTION OF COUNTY OFFICERS. In accordance with the provisions of the foregoing act, the legal voters of the townships of Ionia* and Maple* assembled at their respective voting precincts on the second Monday of April, 1837, and voted for candidates for county offices. On the 13th day of the same month the board of county canvassers, composed of Isaac Thompson and Asa Bunnel from the township of Maple, and Cyrus Lovell and Erastus Yeomans fiom the township of lonia, met at the house of Asa Spencer in Ionia, the countyseat, and organized by electing Isaac Thompson chairman and Erastus Yeomans clerk. The board then proceeded to examine the returns of votes taken at the election for county officers, and found that for associate judges Isaac Thompson received 292 votes; Truman H. Lyon, 187; William Babcock, 104. For judge of Probate: Cyrus Lovell, 116; William D. Moore, 173. For sheriff: Elhanan W. Curtis, 191; Henry V. Libhart, 93. For county clerk: Asa Bunnell, 183; Erastus Yeomans, 110. For county treasurer: John E. Morrison, 185; Robert S. Parks, 106. For district surveyor: Buel H. Mann, 220. For coroners: Thaddeus 0. Warner, 293; Philo Bogue, 187. For register of deeds: Adam L. Roof, 189; Mason Hearsey 102. RESULTS OF OTHER EARLY ELECTIONS. At an election held Aug. 23, 1837, for the purpose of electing a member to the United States House of Representatives, the whole number of votes polled in the county was 96, of which Isaac E. Crary received 73; Hezekiah G. Wells, 20; Hezekiah C. Wells, 2; Hezekiah D. Wells, 1. For Governor, Nov. 9, 1837, Stevens T. Mason received 148 votes; Charles C. Trowbridge, 91.In November, 1838, the county board of canvassers was represented by William D. Moore of Portland, Henry Barstow of Maple, Asa Spencer of Ionia, Cyprian S. Hooker of Boston, and Alonzo Vaughn of Otisco. Returns were presented from the township of Cass, but no canvasser from that township appeared. It was ascertained, however, that in the county 352 votes were thrown for rival candidates for members of Congress, of which Isaac E. Crary received 187; Hezekiah G. Wells, 163; Isaac A. Crary, 2. One year later (November, 1839), for Governor, Elon - By an act of the State Legislature approved March 11, 1837, the townships of Ionia and Maple were formed for "temporary purposes," as the following extracts from the act will show: "SEC. 12. All that portion of the county of Ionia lying west of the sectional lines running north and south through the centre of townships five, six, seven, and eight north, of range six west, be, and the same is hereby, set off and organized for temporary purposes into a separate township, by the name of Ionia; and the first townshipmeeting therein shall be held at the house of Samuel Dexter, in said township. "SEC. 13. All that portion of the county of Ionia lying east of the line as described in the last section be, and the same is hereby, set off and organized into a separate township, for temporary purposes, by the name of Maple; and the first township-meeting therein shall be held at the house of William Hunt, in said township." 116 HISTORY OF 10NIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. -7 Farnsworth received 218 votes, and William Woodbridge 195. In 1840-the days of "Tippecanoe and Tyler too"the Presidential electors voted for, and the whole number of votes received by each, in this county, were as follows: Thomas J. Drake, 265; John Van Fossen, 266; Hezekiah G. Wells, 266; Charles Moran, 219; Kingsley S. Bingham, 219; Charles E. Stuart, 219; A. L. Porter, 2; J. S. Fitch, 2; Thomas McGee, 2. We thus find that of the seven thousand and fifty-nine votes polled in all the United States for James G. Birney, Liberal or Abolition candidate for the Presidency in 1840, Ionia County contributed two of them. IONIA COUNTY TOWNSHIPS. The following table exhibits the names, dates of organization, and the territory originally embraced by each of the sixteen townships of the county; also the names of owners or occupants of dwellings where the first township-meetings were ordered to be held. Ionia township was formed by act of the Legislative Council of the Territory, all others by the State Legislature. CHAPTER VI. COURTS AND ATTORNEYS. Establishment of Circuit Court, Judge Ransom presiding-Ludicrous Proceedings-Sketch of Judge Ransom-The First Suits brought into Court-Early Attorneys: Elisha Belcher, Cyrus Lovell, Adam L. Roof, and others-Copy of Incomplete Attorneys' Roll-Other Attorneys-Present Members of Ionia County Bar-County Court — Judge Brown-First Suits entered for Trial-First Jury-Michigan County Courts cease to Exist in 1851. THE CIRCUIT COURT. BY Section 4 of the act under which Ionia County was organized it was provided that " the Circuit Court of the County of Ionia shall be held, until public buildings shall be erected, at such place as the supervisors of said county shall provide, at the seat of justice in said county, on the last Monday of May and in November in each year." The act organizing the county took effect on the first Monday in April, 1837. County officers were duly elected on the second Monday of the same month and year, and, in accordance with the provisions of Section 4, just quoted, the first term of the Circuit Court of Ionia County was held (according to Mason Hearsey's " Recollections") in the school-house* at " Ionia County-Seat," Hon. Epaphroditus Ransomt presiding, on the last Monday in May, 1837. Unaccountably, the Circuit Court journal, as also the supervisors' journal, for the years 1837 to 1845, inclusive, have disappeared from the county records; therefore, as the only means of illustrating the manner of conducting this first term of court, we quote from a sketch written by Mason Hearsey, of Ionia: " Grand and petit jurors had been summoned, and were in attendance. But the early settlers of lonia were better posted in cutting down trees, building fences and log houses, than in the routine and etiquette of courts. The result was that the grand jury got badly bewildered in the mazes of the law, and the prosecuting attorney had not skill enough to get them out. In this dilemma it occurred to some of the smartest of them that the proper course would be to send for the judge. The attending constable was accordingly directed to go and bring the judge, but, being young, ignorant, and awkward, and withal bashful, he Townships. Date Organ- Territory Originally Emized. braced.* Ionia........... March 7, 1834.. Entire county................... Lyons......... March 11, 1837 Three-eighths of county, east side, Ionia township taking the remainder of the county................... Boston......... Dec. 30,1837... Township 6 N., range 8 W. Present township of Danby was annexed March 6, 1838............................... Berlin........ March 6, 1838.. Townships 5 and 6 N., range 7 W. West one-half townships 5 and 6 N., range 6 W., and west one-half of township 7 N., range 6 W., and of township 7 N., range 7 W., lying south of Grand River.............. Oti......... March 6, 1838.. Townships 7 and 8 N., range! 8 W............................... Portland...... March 6, 1838.. Townships 5 and 6 N., range 5 W., also east one-half townships 5 and 6 N.,, range 6 W.................... Keene......... Feb. 16,1842... All of township 7 N., range 8 W., lying on east side of Flat River................. Easton......... March 9,1843.. All of township 7 N., range 7 W., lying north of Grand River....................... North Plains Feb. 29,1844... Townships 8, 9, and 10 N., range 5 W., except that part of township 8, lying south of Maple River..... Danby...... March 19,1845 Township 5 N., range 5 W. Orange..... March 19,1845 Township 6 N., range 6 W.. Sebewa....... March 19,1845 Township 5 N., range 6 W.. onald........ March 19, 145 Township 8 N., range 6 W.. Orleans....... March 25,1846 Township 8 N., range 7 W.. Odessa......... March 25, 1846 Township 5 N., range 7 W.. Campbell..... March 15, 1849 Township 5 N, range 8 W.. Occupant of House where First Township-Meeting was ordered to be held. Louis Genereau. Wm. Hunt. Wooster English. Wm. Babcock. Robert W. Davis. Joshua Boyer. Nathaniel Beattie. Joseph Richardson. Bartley Dunn. ChancellorBarringer. Dean W. Tyler. Jac. Showerman. Wm. J. Clarke. Ira Wheeler. Myron Tupper. Marvil Church. * Changes in boundary-lines have since occurred by enlarging and reducing the size of townships intersected by the principal rivers, but we do not deem it necessary to speak particularly of those changes in this connection. t As Maple; name changed to Lyons by act approved March 30, 1840. t As Cass; name changed to Berlin by act approved Feb. 11, 1842. * Another authority-" Memorials of the Grand River Valley"states that the first term of this court was held in a building occupied by Daniel Ball as a store, and that the only business transacted was to admit to the bar Adam L. Roof. This statement is an erroneous one, doubtless, for at the time mentioned Mr. Ball was a resident of Owosso, where he settled in 1836, remaining until about 1840. t Judge Ransom was born in Hampshire Co., Mass., in 1799, and removed in early childhood with his father's family to Windham Co., Vt. He was a graduate of Chester Academy, Windsor Co., Vt., and of the law school at Northampton, Mass. Finishing his studies at the latter institution in 1825, he successfully practiced his profession at Townshend, Vt., until 1834, when he removed to Kalamazoo, Mich., meanwhile having served two terms in the Vermont Legislature. He was appointed one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Michigan in 1836, chief justice in 1843, and remained in that position until elected Governor of Michigan in 1847; he also served in the State Legislature in 1853. He afterwards removed to Kansas, and died at Fort Scott, Nov. 9,1859. His remains now repose in Mountain Home Cemetery, Kalamazoo, Mich. Governor Ransom was a man of commanding presence, in height over six feet, in weight exceeding two hundred pounds, with massive head and a voice of great power. COURTS AND ATTORNEYS. 117 hardly knew how to discharge his duty properly. The school-house was of the old-fashioned kind, having the door in the centre of one end, and the desk in the centre of the end opposite. The constable went to the door, and, opening it a little ways, began signaling to the judge, hoping to get his attention and thus call him out. But, although His Honor saw the signals, he failed to comprehend their import. The constable, finding this system of tactics to fail, finally mustered up courage, and, striding up to the desk, blurted out, 'Judge, the grand jury want you up town,' and, turning, strode out again. A momentary expression of astonishment flitted across the countenance of His Honor; but, quickly comprehending'the situation of things, he took an early opportunity to excuse himself, went to the grand-jury room, got the jury out of their trouble, and, returning, finished the session. This, it is believed, is the only instance in legal practice of a circuit judge being summoned from the bench before a grand jury." Although the court journal cannot be found, the docket is still in a good state of preservation, and from its pages we learn that case marked Number One was entitled " Malachi Loveland and David Furman vs. James Anderson; action, attachment." The second was "James M. Nelson and George C. Nelson vs. James Anderson; action, attachment." Third, ". Galen Marron and 0. B. Perry vs. James Anderson; action, attachment." Writs in these cases were issued May 15, 1837, and returned May 26th with report of " Nothing Found." Number Four was entitled State of Michigan vs. Wm. McCausland; action, indictment for selling liquor without license." Cyrus Lovell, district attorney, appeared for plaintiff, J. C. Abell, Esq., for defendant. The bill was filed Nov. 28, 1837, and the case tried in May, 1838. Defendant was adjudged guilty and fined one dollar and costs, which together amounted to thirteen dollars and eighty-seven cents. Case Number Five was "State of Michigan vs. Ezekiel Welch; action, same as Number Four." It was tried at the same time. A. L. Roof appeared for the defendant, who was fined five dollars and costs. Mr. Welch also appeared as defendant in case Number Six, an action in which he was charged with "selling or bartering whisky to the Indians." In this he was more successful, for a verdict of " Not Guilty" was rendered. During the year 1838, John Lloyd, Ashbel H. Barney, Egbert B. Brown, Philo Bogue, George W. Dickinson, and William Ten Eyck were also indicted for selling liquor to the Indians, and in most cases found guilty; while Wm. A. Burgess, Elijah Kirkham, Egbert B. Brown, and Henry Norris were arraigned for assault and battery. The first petition for divorce was filed May 29, 1838. It stood Number Twenty-one on the docket, and was entitled " Henry Norris vs. Bethia his wife." To May, 1845, one hundred and ninety-two cases had been docketed. ATTORNEYS.* Among the lawyers and law-firms who in years prior to 1845 were conspicuous as practitioners in the Circuit Courts I of the county were Cyrus Lovell,t Adam L. Roof, J. C. Abell, Charles Smith, and Rathbone & Martin, in 1837; C. P. Calkins, Calkins & Bridge, and George Martin, in 1839; Alexander F. Bell, Ball & Rathbone, Roof & Bell, 1840; Luke H. Parsons, Martin & Johnson, A. D. Rathbone, Louis S. Lovell, Rathbone & Chamberlin, Brown & Van Armnan, 1841; Ira Porter and Porter & Bell, in 1842; John C. Blanchard,t S. M. Johnson, T. Romeyn, A. H. went to Ohio, thence emigrated to Michigan, locating at Ann Arbor in 1826, and thence removing to this county soon after 1830. He was employed in some of the limited number of cases that were prosecuted among the early settlers, and, as we have seen in a previous chapter, was active and took the initiative steps in the matter of locating the county-seat of Ionia. His primary education and his knowledge of law were acquired in the evenings after the toil of the day in field or shop was past. His industry was proverbial, and in his younger days he had acquired a fair knowledge of all farm employments, and had also fitted himself for many kinds of mechanical labor. All these qualifications made him a very useful man in the neighborhood of his residence. He removed to Kalamazoo in 1834, and was soon recognized as one of the leading lawyers in Western Michigan. Hon. H. G. Wells says of him: " His plain, unostentatious appear-s ance, his sympathy with any of his neighbors in trouble or misfortune, gave him a strong hold on the affections of all the old settlers. Each one seemed to recognize him as u member of his own family, and his counsel and advice were sought for in many matters outside of his profession.' He was peculiar in his efforts at the bar. His address always exhibited respect for the court, and his plain way of talk and apparently sincere manner gave him power with the jury. His practical knowledge of all employments in newly-settled portions of the West often gave him an advantage in his cases at the bar over the opposing attorney. His facility in describing minute details in every-day matters enabled him to reach the comprehension of ordinary minds, and by this means he held power with the jury. His addresses were without oratorical effort; they were talks; but he made his audience believe as he professed to believe. Mr. Belcher, in manner, mind, and peculiar ways as a lawyer, and in form and face as a man, may have had his peer and like or duplicate in some other part of the world, but never in Western Michigan." He removed from Kalamazoo to Otsego, Allegan Co., Mich., where he died in 1852. t Hon. Cyrus Lovell, born in Windham Co., Vt., migrated to Michigan and settled in the village of Kalamazoo in 1832, building in that year, as his place of residence, the first frame dwelling in the place. While a resident of Kalamazoo he held the offices of supervisor, justice of the peace, and prosecuting attorney, being the first incumbent of the latter office in that county. He was a soldier in the " Black Hawk war," and for his services a grateful government rewarded him with one hundred and sixty acres of bounty-land. In 1836 he removed to this county, and from that time to the present has been one of its most prominent citizens. As a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1850 he took an active part in its discussions, and always enlisted the attention of his associates; and it is freely spoken that if his counsel had been listened to and acted upon, it would have freed the people from some very obnoxious provisions in that instrument. He was subsequently twice elected a member of the State Legislature, and during one session served as Speaker with credit to himself and with the approbation of his fellow-members. He has also (besides holding various township and county offices) held the office of receiver of the United States Land-Office at Ionia. Well instructed as a lawyer, he has ever maintained, in the estimation of the court and his professional brethren, a high character for ability, and now, at the age of nearly fourscore years, he has an active, vigorous mind, and expresses opinions upon important legal questions with a clearness that would be creditable to much younger men. His contemporary in the courts of Ionia in 1837, Hon. Adam L. Roof, after having been honored with many official positions in the gift of an appreciative public, also continues as a resident amid the scenes that have known him for the past forty-five years. t Prosecuting attorney in 1845. * Undoubtedly, Elisha Belcher was the first of the legal profession to reside in Ionia County. He was born in Boston, Mass., in 1800, l 118 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. Hanscom, Bell, Roof & Blanchard, in 1843; and H. S. Jennings, in 1844. From an incomplete attorneys' roll on file in the county clerk's office we find that during the years from November, 1855, to May, 1880, inclusive, the following-named attorneys have been admitted to practice in the courts of this county: John Toan, Nov. 23, 1855; W. B. Wells, June 10, 1856; Alexander W. Dodge, Sept. 12, 1857; Morris B. Wells, May 3, 1859; Calvin Porter, May 7, 1859; W. W. Mitchell, Oct. 1, 1859; C. C. Webb, Dec. 9, 1859; J. M. Mathewson, July 3, 1860; John K. Truax, Jan. 26, 1861; B. F. Spencer, Oct. 10, 1863; Lemuel Clute, Nov. 15, 1864; Allen B. Morse, Feb. 13, 1865; Moses B. Butterfield, Aug. 18, 1865; W. Melvin Spencer, Aug. 19, 1865; Charles E. Soule, John S. Bennett, May 19, 1866; A. K. Roof, Oct. 3, 1866; Cass L. Morehouse, Frank Dumon, May 15, 1867; Charles L. Wilson, William A. Pratt, Nov. 19, 1867; F. S. Hutchinson, William O. Webster, Edgar M. Marble, Jan. 4, 1869; Thomas D. Scofield, Byron E. Benson, March 29, 1869; William B. Thomas, July 2, 1870; G. W. Beelman, May 23, 1871; Frank A. Cahill, June 15, 1871; Joseph Sayles, Aug. 16, 1871; Cassius O. Trumbull, Dec. 7, 1871; Elvander W. Dodge, Seneca Woolford, Feb. 10, 1872; Vernon H. Smith, William L. Strickland, Aug. 9, 1872; Henry C. Sessions, Dec. 23, 1872; Robert Garner, Feb. 8, 1873; George A. Hawley, April 7, 1874; Frank D. M. Davis, Edward E. Williams, Aug. 3, 1874; Jerome W. Carus, May 3, 1875; Richard D. Hudson, Sept. 6, 1875; Adolphus A. Ellis, Jan. 5, 1876; Jay Sessions, May 6, 1876; Louis H. Jennings, June 13, 1876; N. S. Basomr, April 6, 1877; John R. Crites, James Vosper, May 19, 1877; Clarence B. Wardle, John J. Inman, Aug. 5, 1878; Sherman B. Daboll, Feb. 7, 1879; Frederick H. Stowe, Palmer T. Williams, Frank O. Cook, March 24, 1879; Frank Ramsdell, D. C. Cagwin, Oct. 11, 1879; Clarence B. Cole, Dec. 12, 1879; Albert A. Crane, Feb. 16, 1880; Samuel K. Gates, Feb. 27, 1880; William H. Howard, Charles R. Calkins, May 21, 1880. Many other lawyers, not mentioned in the foregoing list, have at various periods practiced in the county, but, from the fact that it has no bar association or records from which a complete list can be made, such an undertaking is now impracticable. There were among them, however, George F. Peek, A. J. Southard, Edward Cahill, Oscar F. Wisner, and A. D. Griswold. Following is a list of the members of the Ionia County bar at the present time (1880):* Ionia City.-Cyrus Lovell, Louis S. Lovell, John C. Blanchard, W. B. Wells, A. F. Bell, W. W. Mitchel, George H. Cagwin, W. O. Webster, A. B. Morse, George W. Beelman, L. B. Soule, L. Clute, Henry L. Mitchell, Donald McPherson, Fred S. Hutchinson, Benjamin Vosper, James Vosper, William A. Pratt, Albert Williams, Seneca Woolford, Clarence B. Wardle, Alexander W. Dodge, Benjamin F. Spencer, Vernon H. Smith, Adolphus A. Ellis, John S. Bennett, Frank D. M. Davis, William B. Thomas, Henry C. Sessions, L. H. Jennings, Royal A. Hawley, Alanson B. Clark, Thomas F. McGarry, Charles Calkins, John H. Mitchell. Saranac.-L. E. Jones, Fred H. Stowe, P. T. Williams. Portland.-Hervey Bartow, Ben H. Bartow, Byron E. Benson, Clarence W. Cole, Samuel K. Gates. Lyons.-Adam L. Roof, Albert K. Roof, John Toan. Pewamo.-Moses Bartow. Orleans.-Newell S. Basom. COUNTY COURT. The County Courts which had existed in Michigan prior to April, 1833, were by law abolished at that time, but were re-established by an act of the Legislature in 1846. In consequence, at the November election of the year last named, Hiram Brownt was elected county judge and Luke Harwoodt second judge of Ionia County. The records show that the first session of this court, Hon. Hiram Brown presiding, was held at Ionia County-Seat, May 24, 1847, and that the first case called was entitled "'Norton H. Beckwith, Appellee, vs. Israel B. Richardson, Appellant." Whereupon the following was entered upon the journal: "On application of Israel B. Richardson, appellant, it is ordered by the court that Monday, the 5th day of July next, be, and is hereby, appointed for the trial of the aboveentitled cause." The next session of Judge Brown's court was held at the county-seat on Monday, June 7, 1847, when, " on application of Louis S. Lovell, attorney for defendant" in the case entitled " Charles L. Collins, for the use of Charles M. Moseman, Appellee, vs. Charles Broas, Appellant," it was ordered by the court that " Monday, the 5th day of July next, be, and is hereby, appointed for the trial of the aboveentitled cause." Other early suits entered for trial in this court were entitled " John Thompson vs. William Johnson and Dorus M. Fox," "Edwin Foot vs Joel Burgess," "William Cronkrite vs. Anthony Niles," and " Adam W. Patridge vs. Abel Avery." The first jury (impaneled July 5, 1847) consisted of Calvin M. Rice, Thomas Cornell, Mason Hearsey, Sanford A. Yeomans, Richard M. Bishop, and Ethan S. Johnson, "for whom a venira was issued returnable on the first Monday of August next at 1 P.M." The next jury was impaneled Aug. 2, 1847, in the case of Norton H. Beckwith vs. Israel B. Richardson, on motion of plaintiff for jury. The jury summoned was composed of Jonathan Tibbitts, Isaiah G. Frost, David Baldie, Daniel A. Cornell, Forman Sloan, and Peter Hackett. When the case was called, Baldie and Frost did not appear; whereupon Samuel Demarest and James M. Hanks were summoned and seated instead. The trial of this case resulted in a verdict for the plaintiff for thirty-one dollars and the costs, which were. taxed at fifteen dollars. The County Court of Ionia continued to transact business until October, 1851, when, by a limitation embodied in the constitution of 1850, County Courts ceased to exist, and their business was transferred to the Circuit Courts. t Re-elected in November, 1850. * Furnished by Mr. George H. Cagwin. I 1 -41 4 - COUNTY J AIL t, IGOi~ W-0, COUNTY PROPERTY AND BUILDINGS. 119 CHAPTER VII. COUNTY PROPERTY AND BUILDINGS. Public Square-County Offices-Old and New Jails-Poor-Farm and Buildings-The various Places used for Courts and for Sessions of the Board of Supervisors. PUBLIC SQUARE. CONCERNING the public buildings and the real estate owned by Ionia County, the story is easily and quickly told. The west half of the public square was set aside and donated to the county for the purpose of erecting public buildings thereon by Judge Samuel Dexter at the time of making his original plat of the village of " Ionia CountySeat." On the 3d of June, 1850, the east half of the square (one hundred and twenty-eight square rods) was granted to the county by J. M. Kidd, of Ionia Co., Mich., and Edwin C. Hart, of Oswego, N. Y., in consideration of the sum of ten dollars. Thus the plat known as the "Public Square" embraces an area of two hundred and fifty-six square rods, or sixteen rods square. COUNTY OFFICES. The proposition to build the structure where are situated the present county offices was submitted to the people in April, 1842, and, by a vote of one hundred and fifty-two for to one hundred and seventeen against, it was decided to erect the building. The returns from Lyons township, however, were thrown out, by reason of not having been signed or certified to by the township inspectors of election. The building was completed in 1843. In 1874 eleven hundred dollars were expended for repairs and in building an addition. COUNTY JAILS. The old jail was authorized in October, 1849. The plans submitted by H. Borden were adopted in January, 1850, and during the same year the building was completed under contract by H. Borden and Osmond Tower. In January, 1851, it was accepted by the board of supervisors, and doubtless was soon after occupied by some luckless wight. To that time malefactors of the county condemned to durance vile had generally been incarcerated in the Kent County jail. Rooms suitable for dwelling-purposes were arranged in the structure in 1864. But at last the old jail became insufferable,* utterly unfit for purposes required of a jail-building, and in April, 1880, the question was submitted to the people of the county whether ten thousand dollars should be appropriated for the construction of a new jail. By a vote of two thousand eight hundred and thirty' Illustrative of the condition of the old jail and the estimation in which it was held by the sheriff, we append a communication addressed to the board of supervisors in October, 1877: " TO THE HON. BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF IONIA COUNTY: "' In view of the fact that you accepted the invitation of the Hon. Hampton Rich to visit the State house of correction, I think it no more than courtesy that you should accept an invitation from me to visit your county jail, and buildings in connection, as I would take great pleasure in showing you around the grounds and pointing out some partially-preserved relics of antiquity,-among others, the cornerstone of the Soldiers' Monument and our jail conveniences; which invitation is hereby extended. "' WM. H. MATTISON, "Sheriff." eight to two thousand two hundred and six the proposition to build a new structure was carried. Mr. J. V. Consaul soon after entered into a contract to perform the work, and the process of construction began about July 1, 1880, to be completed Jan. 1, 1881. The building is composed of Ionia sandstone and brick. It is commodious, substantial in appearance, and adds somewhat to the hitherto desolate aspect of the " Public Square." POOR-FARM AND BUILDINGS. Prior to.December, 1856, the indigent of the county received assistance at the hands of the authorities of the various townships wherein they resided from a fund annually appropriated by the board of supervisors. These appropriations were small, comparatively, during early years, and as late as 1849; but four hundred dollars were appropriated for the support of the county poor for that year. At their annual session held in October, 1855, the supervisors voted that the county superintendents of the poor be authorized and instructed to examine lands with some improvements, with a view of purchasing eighty acres for a poor-farm." The superintendents were also instructed to report at the next (January) session of the board of supervisors what buildings would be necessary for county poorfarm purposes. Two thousand dollars were then appropriated for the purchase of a poor-farm, etc., of which one-half was to be " raised the present year." In January, 1856, Alonzo Sessions and Osmond Tower were appointed a committee with power to purchase a farm and to erect suitable buildings thereon, to the amount of the appropriation (one thousand dollars) ordered spread upon the tax-rolls by the board sitting in October, 1855. Erastus Yeomans and John E. Morrison were added to the committee in June, 1856, and in October of that year the supervisors voted (in addition to the one thousand dollars already raised) the further sum of six hundred and fortyfour dollars and thirty-three cents, with which to pay for the premisest in Ronald township already bargained for by, the committee. The buildings were immediately placed inorder for their occupation by the county poor, and were so occupied during the winter of 1856-57. During the subsequent ten years from fifteen hundred to two thousand dollars were annually appropriated for the maintenance of the indigent and insane of the county. From the superintendent's report submitted in October, 1869, are gathered the following statistics: "Number of paupers at the farm, 21; number during the year, 31; average number, 19; number deaths, 3. "Farm products raised during the year: Bushels of wheat, 136; acres of corn, 9~; acres of oats, 2; acres of potatoes, 2; tons of hay, 15; pounds of maple-sugar, 500; vegetables sufficient for family use; acres wheat in the ground, 11. t By referring to files in the office of the county register of deeds it is ascertained that, in consideration of the sum of sixteen hundred dollars, David Baldie sold to the county of Ionia, on the 22d day of December, 1856, the south half of the northwest quarter, and the southwest quarter of the northeast quarter, of section 33, township of Ronald, except forty square rods, reserved for cemetery purposes. This tract was increased Oct. 20, 1873, by the purchase from Hampton Rich of thirty-eight and fifteen-one-hundredths acres, being a. portion of the southwest quarter of the same section, for which the sum of two thousand two hundred dollars was paid. 120 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. "The stock consists of one mare, one yearling colt, forty-five sheep, seven old hogs, and eight store hogs. " The total amount expended during the year, including temporary relief, is $3050.21. The amount appropriated last year was $3500, and we received from sale of farm products $315.33. We recommend that the sum of $3500 be raised for the support of Jthe poor the ensuing year, and we would also recommend that an appropriation be made for the building of a new poor-house. " (Signed) SANFORD A. YEOMANS, " THOMAS CORNELL, "JOSEPH P. POWELL, "OCT. 12, 18e9. County S~uperintendents of the Poor." Plans for the construction of a new county-house were submitted to the board of supervisors by Orra Waterbury in 1870, and on the 7th of February, 1871, Messrs. 0. and C. Waterbury contracted to build the present county-house for the sum of nine thousand seven hundred and ninetyone dollars and fifty-seven cents. The structure (which is of brick) was completed during the same year, costing, with heating-apparatus, ten thousand seven hundred and twenty-two dollars and seven cents. In 1875 one thousand dollars were expended in finishing the interior of the upper story. As showing the present condition of the poor-farm and its occupants, the following statistics, gathered from the superintendent's annual report of October, 1879, are appended: Whole number of paupers at poor-farm during the year, 84; number now at the farm, 31; average number at the farm, 39; number of insane, 4; number of idiotic, 7; number of deaf-mutes, 1. The live-stock consisted of 3 horses, 9 cows, 10 head of young cattle, 82 sheep and lambs, and 15 hogs. The productions of the farm the previous year were 408 bushels wheat; 297 bushels oats; 168 bushels barley; 342 bushels corn (ears); 31 acres potatoes; 15 tons hay; and 700 pounds butter. There was sold one mare for $80; wool-clip, $158.41; and paid to county treasurer, $681.37; to G. W. Wolverton (keeper), $1000; to hired man, $187.44; for medical attendance and medicine, $304.92; for span horses, $300; for platform spring-wagon, $84.75; cultivator, $35. The whole amount drawn from the "poor fund" was $5121.02, of which $3208.07 was expended at the poorhouse and on the farm, and $1912.95 for temporary relief outside of the county-house and in the various townships of the county. The superintendents closed their report by recommending that five thousand dollars be raised for the support of the poor " the ensuing year" (1879-80). CIRCUIT COURT ROOMS. During the earliest years in the history of the county (after organization) sessions of the Circuit Court and of the board of supervisors were held (as before noticed) in the school-house, and soon after in a building occupied by Daniel Ball as a store. As early as 1845, Abel:Avery furnished rooms for the use of courts and supervisors, and continued to do so until 1850, when Smith's Hall was rented, and occupied for about eighteen years. Dr. Bayard's hall then became the place for holding courts, etc., and continued to be used for such purposes until May, 1879, when Armory Hall was leased of the Ionia LightGuard Association. I CHAPTER VIII. IONIA COUNTY CIVIL LIST. Various Officers, State and County, from 1837 to 1880, inclusive. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTOR. Alonzo Sessions, elected November, 1872. LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR. Alonzo Sessions, elected November, 1876. Alonzo Sessions, " " 1878. STATE AUDITOR-GENERALS. Digby V. Bell, 1846-48. Daniel L. Case, 1859-61. COMMISSIONER STATE LAND-OFFICE. Digby V. Bell, 1844-46. DELEGATE SECOND CONVENTION OF ASSENT. Samuel Dexter, December, 1836. DELEGATES TO STATE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONS. Cyrus Lovell, elected November, 1850. Henry Bartow, " " 1850. George W. Germain, " April, 1867. Sanford A. Yeomans, " " 1867. MEMBER OF CONGRESS. George W. Webber, elected November, 1880. SPEAKER HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES (STATE). Cyrus Lovell, 1855. STATE SENATORS. Adam L. Roof, Seventh District, elected November, 1848. Adam L. Roof, Seventh District, " " 1849. Jefferson H. Beckwith, Twenty-fifth District, elected November, 1854. Osmond Tower, Thirtieth District, elected November, 1858. Osmond Tower, Thirtieth District, elected November, 1860. Hampton Rich, Twenty-eighth District, elected November, 1866. Hampton Rich, Twenty-eighth District, elected November, 1868. John C. Dexter, Twenty-eighth District, elected November, 1870. Allen B. Morse, Twenty-seventh District, elected November, 1874. Franklin S. Freeman, Twenty-fourth District, elected November, 1876. Erastus H. Stanton, Twenty-fourth District, elected November, 1880. I REPRESENTATIVES IN THE STATE LEGISLATURE. Digby V. Bell, elected November, 1839. George W. Dexter, " " 1841. Adam L. Roof, " " 1844. John L. Morse, " " 1845. Alexander F. Bell, " " 1846. Cyrus Lovell, " "( 1848. IONIA COUNTY CIVIL LIST. 121 Frederick JIall, Daniel L. Case, Charles W. Ingalls, Cyrus Lovell (Speake Alonzo Sessions, George W. Germain Alonzo Sessions, Almneron Newman, Milo S. Baker, Alonzo Sessions, John B. Welch, Asa Spencer, John B. Welch, Myron Tupper, Robert B. Smith, Abiel S. Stannard, Robert B. Smith, Abiel S. Stannard, Albert K. Roof, Shiverick Kellogg, William Sessions, Shiverick Kellogg, Jacob M. Benedict. William Mercer, Nathan B. Hayes, Sanford A. Yeomans, George Pray, Sanford A. Yeomans, A. Milan Willett, Adoniram J. Gibbs, elected November, 1849. "C "C 1850. "C " 1852. r), " " 1854. " " 1856., " C " 1856. ' " c 1858. " 1858. " " 1860. "C 1860. " " 1862. (" " 1862. " " 1864. ( "C 1864. " "c 1866. ' " 1866. "C c 1868. t " 1868. " " 1870. " " 1870. " 1872. " " 1872. " "t 1874. " " C 1874. " " 1876., C " 1876. " " 1878. C' " 1878. " " 1880. " " 1880. John L. Morse, Willard B. Wells, Willard B. Wells, William H. Woodworth, William H. Woodworth, William HI Woodworth, COUNTY CO3 Alexander F. Bell, Timothy White, Ira Webster, Amos B. Hubbell, Abram S. Wadsworth, John L. Morse, elected November, 1860.. " " 1864. " " 1868. c" " 1872. " " 1876. " "4 1880. RMISSIONERS. elected November, 1838. " " 1838. " " 1838. " " 1839. " c" 1840. " " 1841. COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT OF COMMON SCHOOLS. N. Melvin Spencer, elected April, 1867. Evert V. W. Brokaw, " " 1869. Charles A. Hutchins, " " 1871. Wilber H. Moon, " " 1873. SHERIFFS. JUDGE OF CIRCUIT COURT. Louis S. Lovell, 1857, 1863, 1869, 1875. ASSOCIATE JUDGES. Elhanan W. Curtis, e John P. Place, Alonzo Sessions, William Cramer, Cyprian S. Hooker, Hiram Brown, Volney Eaton, Peter Coon, Asaph C. Smith, Ami Chipman, Charles A. Holmes, Charles A. Holmes, Abraham Alderman, Abraham Alderman, James L. Jennings, James L. Jennings, Abraham Alderman, Abraham Alderman, Edson P. Gifford, Edson P. Gifford, William Reynolds, William H. Mattison, William H. Mattison, William Toan, lected April, 1837. " November, 1838. " " 1840. t " 1842. " 1843. " 1844. " " 1846. "c 1848. " " 1850. " 1852. " 1854. i" 1856. " " 1858. " " 1860. " " 1862. " " 1864. " 1866. " 1868. " " 1870. " " 1872. " 1874. " " 1876. " " 1878. " " 1880. Isaac Thompson, elected Truman H. Lyon, " Samuel Dexter, " Erastus Yeomans, " Erastus Yeomans, " Almeron Newman, " Lambert B. Barnum," Erastus Yeomans, " Erastus Yeomans, " Joseph Boynton, " April, 1837. " 1837. November, 1840. April, 1841. November, 1844. "< 1844. " 1848. " 1848. " 1850. "( 1850. COUNTY JUDGE. Hiram Brown, elected November, 1846; re-elected 1850. SECOND (COUNTY) JUDGE. Luke Harwood, elected November, 1846; re-elected 1850. JUDGES OF PROBATE. William D. Moore, Henry Barstow, Washington Z. Blanchard, John L. Morse, Gilbert H. King, Adam L. Roof, John L. Morse, 16 elected April, 1837. " November, 1840. " " 1844. " " 1848. " " 1850. " " 1852. " " 1856. COUNTY CLERKS. Asa Bunnell, elected April, 1837. Lawson S. Warner, " November, 1838. Osmond Tower, " ' 1840. David Irish, " " 1842. Hampton Rich, " " 1844. Hampton Rich, " " 1846. Abram V. Berry, " " 1848. Alvin C. Davis, " " 1850. Alvin C. Davis, " " 1852. Willard B. Wells, " " 1854. Alfred Cornell, Jr., " " 1856. Clark A. Preston, " " 1858. 122 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. Clark A. Preston, elected November, 1860. _ John S. Bennett, John S. Bennett, Edgar M. Marble, Edgar M. Marble, Henry C. Sessions, Henry C. Sessions, Levi Noble, Samuel O. Hosford, Henry P. Taylor, Henry P. Taylor, " " 1862. " " 1864. c c" 1866. "c " 1868. " " 1870. " " 1872. ', it 1874. " " 1876. "4 " 1878. " " 1880. Alfred H. Heath, Albert K. Roof, James A. Sage, James A. Sage, James W. Loomis, elected November, 1872. " " 1874. " " 1876. " " 1878. " " 1880. I COUNTY TREASURERS. John E. Morrison, elected April, 1837. Thomas Cornell, " November, 1838. Asaph Mather, " " 1840. Asaph Mather, ( " 1842. Isaiah G. Frost, " " 1844. Isaiah G. Frost, " " 1846. John C. Dexter, " " 1848. Charles M. Moseman, ' " 1850. Charles M. Moseman,* " " 1852. Albert Williams, " " 1854. Albert Williams, " " 1856. Ethan S. Johnson, " " 1858. Ethan S. Johnson, " " 1860. George Ellsworth,t " " 1862. Clark A. Preston, " " 1864. Silas Sprague, " 1866. Silas Sprague, ( " 1868. John Morton, " 1870. John Morton, " 1872. Amon Otis, " 1874. John L. Mosser, " " 1876. John L. Mosser, " " 1878. Josiah E. Just, " " 1880. REGISTER OF DEEDS. Adam L. Roof, elected April, 1837. William Dallas, " November, 1838. John C. Dexter, " " 1840. William Dallas, " 1842. Frederick Hall, April, 1843. Frederick Hall, November, 1844. Archibald F. Carr, " " 1846. Ethan S. Johnson, " " 1848. Ethan S. Johnson, " " 1850. Thomas Cornell, " " 1852. Herman Hunt, " 1854. C. Oscar Thompson, " " 1856. Julius Jennings, " 1858. Julius Jennings, ( " 1860. Joseph Rickey, " " 1862. Joseph Rickey, " 1864. Vernon H. Smith, " " 1866. Vernon H. Smith, " " 1868. Alfred H. Heath, " " 1870. * Died Jan. 19, 1853; Mason Hearsey appointed to fill vacancy. t Died in 1863; Clark A. Preston appointed to fill vacancy Oct. 15, 1863. John C. Blanchard, Hervey Bartow, Willard B. Wells, Willard B. Wells, Albert Williams, William W. Mitchell, William W. Mitchell, Allen B. Morse, Allen B. Morse, Edgar M. Marble, Edgar M. Marble, Charles L. Wilson, Willard B. Wells. Willard B. Wells, Frank D. M. Davis, CIRCUIT COURT L. E. Jones, e Louis S. Lovell, John Toan, John Toan, Morris B. Wells, John A. Bander, B. Franklin Spencer, B. Franklin Spencer, B. Franklin Spencer, Edward Cahill, Hervey Bartow, William O. Webster, William L. Strickland, Vernon H. Smith, William B. Thomas, Frank D. M. Davis, William L. Strickland, Donald McPherson, Frank D. M. Davis, Clarence B. Wardle, George A. Hawley, COUNTY SI Buel H. Mann,ll e Alexander F. Bell, Thomas Cornell, James M. Marsh, John E. Morrison, John E. Morrison, Alexander F. Bell, Jedediah Brown, " " 1852. " " 1854. " 1856. " " 1858. " " 1860. " 1862. " " 1864. " " 1866. " " 1868. " " 1870. ( " 1872. " " 1874. " " 1876. " " 1878. " " 1880. COMMISSIONERS. lected November, 1852. c, " 1854. " " 1856. " " 1858. " " 1860. " " 1862. " " 1864. " ( 1866. " 1868. " " 1870. " " 1870. " " 1872. " " 1872. (" 1874. " " 1874. " 1876. ( " 1876. " " 1878. " 1878. ( " 1880. c " 1880. URVEYORS.~.lected April, 1837. " November, 1837. " 1838. " " 1840. " April, 1841. "November, 1842. " " 1844. " 1846. PROSECUTING ATTORNEYS.t John C. Blanchard, elected November, 1850. t Prosecuting attorneys were appointed by the Governor until the adoption of the constitution of 1850, when the office became elective.? Erastus Yeomans was appointed district surveyor by the Governor in 1835. I1 He was elected as district surveyor. THE PRESS. 123 Royal Howell, William Jennings, Asaph C. Smith, Jireh Baker, Samuel C. Alderman, Samuel C. Alderman, Samuel C. Alderman, Samuel C. Alderman, William H. Freeman, Hiram W. Nicholson, Hiram W. Nicholson, Thomas Cornell, Thomas Cornell, Asaph C. Smith, Thomas Cornell, Thomas Cornell, Thomas Cornell, elected November, 1848. i, lC tc ll lC CL (L C~ lL IC i i t ( " 1850. " 1852. " 1854. 4" 1856. c" 1858. " 1860. C" 1862. " 1864. (" 1866. " 1868. " 1870. " 1872. 9" 1874. c4 1876. " 1878. (" 1880. CORONERS. Philo Bogue,* elected April, 1837. Thaddeus 0. Warner,* " 1837. Levi Taylor, " November, 1838. Thaddeus O. Warner, " " 1838. Franklin Chubb, " 1840. Charles Broas, " 1840. Lucius Babcock, " April, 1841. Reuben W. Phillips, " November, 1842. Edson English, " " 1842. John L. Covert, 1844. Levi Taylor, " " 1844. Levi Taylor, " " 1846. Gilbert H. King, " " 1846. George D. Kellogg, " " 1848. Levi Taylor, " " 1848. Levi Taylor, " " 1850. Willard R. Brooks, " " 1850. James White, " " 1852. Levi Taylor, " " 1852. Levi Taylor, " " 1854. Ebenezer F. Smith, " " 1854. Levi Taylor, " " 1856. Philander Danley, " " 1856. John E. Morrison, " " 1858. Peter Clark, " " 1858. John E. Morrison, " " 1860. Peter Clark, " 1860. David Crapo, " " 1862. Shiverick Kellogg, " " 1862. Arba Chubb, " " 1864. Abraham Alderman, " " 1864. Benjamin Shelton, " " 1866. Peter Clark, " " 1866. Arba Chubb, " " 1868. Peter Clark, " " 1868. Oscar Talcott, " 1870. C. Oscar Thompson, " " 1870. Ethan S. Johnson, " " 1872. John H. Welch, " ( 1872. Charles Mathews, " " 1874. * Both were re-elected in November, 1837. i Milo Dibble, Ethan S. Johnson, Frederick Pitt, Ethan S. Johnson, Albert F. Morehouse, Ethan S. Johnson, Daniel Hoyt, CHAPTER IX. THE PRESS.t The First Attempt-Ionia Journal-Extracts from its Columns-Ionia Gazette-Ionia County Democrat-Ionia Sentinel —Daily SentinelDaily Telephone-Ionia Standard —Ionia National-Lyons Herald -Present Age-Grand River Echo-Muir Echo-Grand River Herald-Muir Plaindealer-The Pewamo Plaindealer-Portland Advertiser-Portland Observer-The Hubbardston AdvertiserGrand River Valley Standard-The Reporter-The Saranac Local -The Belding Telegram-The Belding Home News. THE lonia Journal, the first newspaper published in Ionia County, was established by Ira W. Robinson in February, 1843. By the courtesy of Ethan S. Johnson, Esq., we have been permitted to examine a tattered copy of the Journal,-a solitary relic of early journalism in Ionia County. It is No. 45, Vol. I., and is dated " Ionia, Michigan, December 27, 1843." Beneath the heading " Ionia Journal" appears the motto, "( Freedom of Inquiry and the Power of the People-Bound to no Party-To no Sect Enslaven." The business notice in the upper left-hand corner declares that the Journal will be published every Wednesday by Ira W. Robinson. "TERMS.-TO village subscribers who have their papers left at their dwellings, $2.00 per annum in advance. Office and mail subscribers, $1.50 per annum in advance. Twenty-five cents will be added to the above prices when payment is delayed six months, and fifty cents if not paid until the end of the year." The terms of advertising were as follows: "One square (12 lines or less) inserted 3 weeks for $1.00. Each additional insertion 25 cents. -A liberal discount made to those who advertise by the year. " Advertisements not accompanied with directions will be published until ordered out, and charged accordingly. When a postponement is attached to an advertisement, the whole will be charged, as if for the first publication..2Payment for all advertising from abroad, and all legal advertisements, will be required in advance. "'.. Letters on business must be POST-PAID, to receive attention." The size of the Journal was that of a five-column folio, each page being twelve inches by sixteen in dimensions. The absence of local news was characteristic of all the papers of that period, but they usually contained some general and foreign items. Thus the issue in question contained a short editorial on " Post-Office Reform;" an article on "The Culture of Wheat," contributed by "A Farmer;" one column devoted to the Ionia " Business Directory;" eight columns to other advertisements; a story occupying four columns entitled " Life in New York, elected November, 1874. 'c " 1876. " " 1876. as " 1878. c" " 1878. " " 1880. " " 1880. t It was purposed in this chapter to give brief but correct sketches of all newspapers ever established in the county. If a failure has occurred in two or three instances, it is due to the fact that personal solicitations and urgent appeals by mail did not bring forth the desired data. 124 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. by Jonathan Slick, Esq.;" a few items of general news; and " fifteen days' later news from Europe, per the steamer 'Acadia,' which arrived at Boston on the 5th instant;" but in all the sheet not a single item of local news appeared. A poetic article appropriate reading for the men and women who had but recently left their former homes in Vermont and New York to locate in the county of Ionia, then termed a portion of the "l Far West," also found place in this number of the Journal, and is here reproduced: "THE GREEN HILLS OF MY FATHERLAND. "The green hills of my fatherland In dreams still greet my view; I see once more the wave-girt strand, The ocean depth of blue, The sky-the glorious sky-outspread Above their calm repose, The river o'er its rocky bed Still singing as it flows, The stillness of the Sabbath hours, When men go up to pray, The sunlight resting on the flowers, The birds that sing among the bowers Through all the summer day. "Land of my birth,-mine early love,Once more thy air I breathe! I see thy proud hills tower above, Thy green vales sleep beneath; Thy groves, thy rocks, thy murmuring rills, All rise before mine eyes, The dawn of morning on thy hills, Thy gorgeous sunset skies; Thy forests, from whose deep recess A thousand streams have birth, Glad'ning the lonely wilderness, And filling the green silentness With melody and mirth. " I wonder if my home would seem As lovely as of yore? I wonder if the mountain's stream Goes singing by the door, And if the flowers still bloom as fair, And if the woodbines climb, As when I used to train them there In the dear olden time? I wonder if the birds still sing Upon the garden-tree As sweetly as in that sweet spring Whose golden memories gently bring So many dreams to me? "I know that there hath been a change, A change o'er hall and earth, Faces and footsteps new and strange About my place of birth; The heavens above are still as bright As in the days gone by, But vanished is the beacon-light That cheered my morning sky; And hill, and vale, and wooded glen, And lake, and murmuring stream, That wore such glorious beauty then, Would seem, should I return again, The record of a dream! " I mourn not for my ohildhood's hours, Since in the far-off-West, 'Neath sunnier skies, in greener bowers, My heart hath found its rest. I mourn not for the hills and streams That chained my steps so long, Yet still I see them in my dreams, And hail them in my song; And often by the hearth-fire's blaze, When winter eves shall come, We'll sit and talk of other days, And sing the well-remembered lays Of my Green Mountain home.". Mr. Robinson continued the publication of the Journal some three or four years, when, in consequence of having become involved in some business relations not altogether pleasant, he abandoned this field and departed,-whence, we have not learned. In December, 1848, Mr. E. R. Powell* came to Ionia from Howell, Livingston Co., Mich. (where he had been engaged in the publication of the Livingston Courier), and, purchasing considerable of the material formerly used in the Journal office, established the lonia Gazette, the initial number being issued on the first Tuesday in January, 1849. It was a five-column folio and printed on a Ramage (wooden) press. In 1853 it was enlarged to six columns, and again, in September, 1857 (on the completion of the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad to Ionia), to a seven-column folio, which size was retained until its publication ceased, in August, 1867. Mr. Powell then sold the greater portion of his office material to the publishers of the Sentinel, and, removing to Stanton, Montcalm Co., there engaged in the publication of the Montcalm Herald. The Gazette was started as an independent newspaper. After two or three years it began the advocation of Democratic principles, continuing thus until the organization of the Republican party, in 1856, when it joined that party, and thereafter was a "stalwart" Republican sheet to the end. Financially, the Gazette was a success. The Ionia National, a staunch advocate of Greenback principles, was first issued Aug. 23, 1878, by L. P. Brock, its present editor and publisher. It is a seven-column folio, a sprightly, entertaining sheet, and in October, 1880, had a circulation of nearly two thousand copies. Other papers published in the city of Ionia are the Ionia Sentinel (weekly), the lonia Daily Sentinel, and the Ionia Standard. The Sentinel was established in 1866 by Capts. John C. Taylor and Thomas G. Stevenson (formerly of the Twenty-first Infantry). It has a wide circulation, and is prominent as the leading Republican newspaper of the county. Messrs. Stevenson & Taylor still continue as its publishers. The Daily Sentinel, a five-column folio, was started in the winter of 1879-80, taking the place of Daniel Young's daily, The Telephone. The Ionia Standard, first established in Saranac in 1870, became an Ionia City paper in 1872. It advocates Democratic principles, and also has a large circulation. The lonia County Democrat, another newspaper of which no satisfactory data have been obtained, was published in the village of Ionia in 1868, and received for the publication of the proceedings of the board of supervisors, October, 1868, the sum of twenty dollars. At Lyons the first newspaper was the Lyons Herald, * See history of Montcalm Herald, Part Third. POST-OFFICES AND POSTMASTERS. 125 I which was started in 1855 by Gideon Hendrick. It was Democratic in principles, and was continued by him until in the year 1856, when, by the burning of Dorus M. Fox's store, the material composing the Herald office was also destroyed. Not rising, phoenix-like, from its ashes, the publication of the Herald ceased thus abruptly. Dorus M. Fox established the next paper at Lyons in 1868. It was styled the Present Age, but, not proving to be an eminently successful business venture, its publication also ceased, after a continuance of about one year. The Grand River Echo, an eight-page, independent journal (previously known as the Muir Echo), was established in Lyons by J. A. Dickey in September, 1879. Hiram J. Deitz, present publisher of the Echo, purchased from Mr. Dickey, Feb. 16, 1880. The Muir Echo was first issued in 1878 by J. A. Dickey, and, as before mentioned, was transferred to Lyons in 1879. Muir had boasted of earlier papers, however,-the Grand River Herald, which was started in 1873 by Benton Bement, and discontinued three years later, also the Muir Plaindealer, soon after removed to Pewamo, thus leaving Muir without a newspaper at the present time. The Plaindealer, of Pewamo, was first established at Muir by Messrs. Miles & Tefft, Oct. 12, 1877, as the Muir Plaindealer. Soon after (Nov. 9, 1877), it was removed to Pewamo, and issued from that point as the Pewamo Plaindealer. On the 7th of December, 1877, Charles H. Ward, who had been engaged on the paper from its inception, bought the interest of Miles, and, Oct. 1, 1878, that of Tefft, thus obtaining sole control, which he has continued to the present, writing. The Plaindealer is independent in politics and ably conducted. Portland's first paper-denominated the Portland Advertiser-was established by J. H. Wickwire, and the first number (printed, however, at Grand Rapids) was issued Oct. 24, 1867. It was a seven-column folio, and neutral politically. Within a few weeks after its projection Joseph W. Bailey purchased a half-interest, and the office was then settled at Portland. Messrs. Wickwire & Bailey, as partners, published the paper nearly one year, when Mr. Bailey became the sole owner. Two years later he changed the name to that of the Portland Observer, and enlarged it to an eight-column folio. In 1875 it was again enlarged to its present size and form (a six-column quarto). Mr. Bailey still continues as its editor and publisher, and it has a large and constantly-increasing circulation. The Advertiser, of Hubbardston, E. V. Phister publisher, was established in 1870 by Charles H. Sever as the Hubbardston Advertiser. Not being a practical printer himself, Mr. Sever soon after obtained the valuable services of the present proprietor, who at the expiration of eight months' time purchased Mr. Sever's interest, changed the title of the paper to that of the Advertiser, and has since remained in control of it. The Advertiser is a seven-column folio, independent in political matters, and has a gratifying circulation. The Grand River Valley Standard-the first newspa per established in the village of Saranac-was started as a Democratic journal in 1870 by N. T. Kimsey. After the expiration of six months the name was changed to the Standard, and one year later still the paper was removed to the city of Ionia, where, as the lonia Standard, it exists at the present time. During its continuance in Saranac, N. T. Kimsey was publisher, F. H. Spencer and C. L. Wilson editors. The Reporter was commenced at Saranac, by C. H. Smith, of Ionia, in 1874. It was neutral politically until 1876, when it supported Republican principles and candidates to the close of the campaign, and was then discontinued. The Saranac Local, the present newspaper of the village of Saranac, was established in October, 1877, by Messrs. Johnson & Buchanan. After several changes in its proprietorship it came into the possession of F. T. Stevenson (its present publisher) in July, 1879, though F. H. Spencer has been the editor since October, 1877. The Local is an eight-column folio, independent in political matters, is issued every Thursday, and has upon its lists the names of four hundred subscribers. The Belding Telegram, William F. Slawson publisher, was started in the village of Belding in December, 1877. After the issue of forty-six numbers it was removed to Greenville, Montcalm Co. The initial number of the Belding Home News, Messrs. Mudge & Kendall publishers, appeared in pamphlet form, June 19, 1879. As a five-column folio it is now issued every Thursday, aiming to be independent regarding politics. CHAPTER X. POST-OFFICES AND POSTMASTERS. Names of all Post-Offices ever established in the County-When Established-Names of Postmasters-Dates of Appointment. BY the courtesy of officials of the Post-Office Department (in response to request for data), we are enabled to place before the readers of this volume a detailed and (we believe) correct statement of all post-offices ever established in the county since Erastus Yeomans was commissioned as the first postmaster, in August, 1835,-a feature never before carried out so fully in a work of this character. In doing so, however, we are aware that Mr. Schwartz has treated the subject in his separate township sketches, and that contradictions occur; but it must be borne in mind that this statement is derived from the books of the Department, while Mr. Schwartz gathered his data from individuals. His work is allowed to stand for the reason that if stricken out incidents and good points made by him in connection would be lost. Algodon (Established March 10, 1864).-Edmund Vandecar, March 10, 1864; Chauncey Townsend, July 28, 1868; Caleb C. Vantasel, April 21, 1871; George Strother, Feb. 11, 1880. Boston (Established Dec. 30, 1840).-Timothy White, Dec. 30,1840; Worcester* English, June 24, 1841; Cyprian S. Hooker, May 18,1843; Jacob Pratt, July 2, 1846; Benjamin Ellsworth, Oct. 24, 1849; Ammon Wilson, May 3, 1853; Carlton B. Pratt, Jan. 29, 1858; Carlton B. Pratt, Feb. 12, 1859;t Gilbert A. Cotton, April 12,1861; Jonathan * We find his name variously written as Wooster, Worster, and Worcester. t Changed to Saranac. 126 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. Sprague, Nov. 11, 1871; Gilbert A. Cotton, Nov. 8, 1875; Mrs. Lucy M. Cotton, March 26, 1877. Avon (Established July 11, 1844).-Asaph C. Smith, July 11, 1844; Simon Heath, May 23, 1850; Stephen Dexter, April 15, 1852; Harvey H. Vinton, June 8, 1854; Harlow S. Vinton, July 14, 1858; Silas Sprague, Dec. 4, 1858.1 Cass (Established Feb. 8, 1840).-Levi Taylor, Feb. 8, 1840.2 Campbell (Established Aug. 1, 1854).-Richard D. Hudson, Aug. 1, 1854; Daniel S. Curdy, Nov. 5, 1857; Alva MoCormick, Jan. 5, 1861; Alvah J. McCormick, Jan. 2, 1865; William Hewitt, Jan. 27, 1868. Kiddville (Established Aug. 20, 1855).-James M. Kidd, Aug. 20, 1855; Simon J. Cromwell, May 20, 1875; William E. Kidd, Oct. 30, 1878. Kossinth (Established Dec. 6, 1855).-George W. Dickinson, Dec. 6, 1855; Mark J. Taylor, Sept. 18, 1865.3 Patterson's ifills (Established Feb. 23, 1857).-Andrew C. Reynolds, Feb. 23, 1857; Erastus M. Stevens, Jan. 25, 1858; Solomon S. Brown, Oct. 17, 1862: Solomon S. Brown, Sept. 18, 1871;4 William A. Luther, April 21, 1873. Richardson's Corner (Established July 14, 1857).-Samuel Bretz,5 July 14, 1857; Rufus K. Barlow, Aug. 18, 1858.6 Lake City (Re-established Feb. 27, 1871).-Washburn Wight, Feb. 27, 1871; Mark D. Morick, Jan. 25, 1877.7 Danby (Established Sept. 16,1850).-John Compton, Sept. 16, 1850; John T. Cahoon, April 25, 1857; John Compton, Sept. 20, 1861; Henry C. Wright, April 8, 1869; Reading Sargent, Nov. 11, 1869; Vorhies J. Warner, Jan. 18, 1872; John R. Davids, Jan. 13, 1873; Thomas H. Wilcox, Aug. 19, 1875; Samuel F. Davis, July 3, 1879. Easton (Established May 21, 1862).-William Dildine, May 21, 1862; Augustus C. Savage, Dec. 11, 1866; George Corkins, Jan. 30, 1872.8 Ionia (Established Aug. 29, 1835).-Erastus Yeomans, Aug. 29, 1835; Jacob W. Winsor, Aug. 24, 1841; Ethan S. Johnson, June 24,1842; Richard Dye, Nov. 1, 1845; Jonathan Tibbits, Oct. 1,1849; William Yerington, May 18, 1853; David Irish, March 2, 1857; Edward Stevenson, April 8, 1861; Lewis D. Smith, March 10, 1865; Marion L. Smith, March 12, 1873; Alfred M. Heath, April 14, 1877. Collins (Established April 11, 1871).-William A. Staley, April 11, 1871. Chadwick (Established April 10, 1872).-Charles Chadwick, April 10, 1872. Clarksville (Established May 2, 1875).-Clark L. Howard, May 12, 1875. Keene (Established June 22, 1868).-Wallace Davenport, June 22, 1868; Edwin Abbey, June 1, 1874; George Hart, Jan. 9, 1879; Jas. D. Loucks, April 18, 1879. Chandler (Established Sept. 22, 1879).-Dayton M. Church, Sept. 22, 1879; Eustis E. Church, Dec. 29, 1879. Bonanza (Established May 17, 1880).-Horace F. Miner, May 17, 1880. West Campbell (Established Dec. 16, 1867).-Isaac Gibson, Dec. 16, 1867. Montrose Station (Established Sept. 12, 1857).-Andrew B. Robinson, Sept. 12, 1857; George W. French, Sept. 24, 1858; George W. French, Feb. 15, 1859;9 Charles W. Staley, April 12, 1861; A. Byron Robinson, Jan. 21, 1869; Henry V. Staley, Sept. 24, 1877. M'atherton (Established March 2, 1848).-William Mather, March 2, 1848; Aspah Mather, Sept. 10, 1850; Hiram F. Blanchard, July 5, 1856; Silas C. Smith, Aug. 13, 1860; Laban J. Lemert, July 3, 1862; Asaph Mather, March 11, 1863; Laban J. Lemert, March 14, 1864; Nelson P. Johnson, Nov. 3, 1871. North Plains (Established March 31, 1846).-Hiram Brown, March 31, 1846; Tobias Perrine, Aug. 21, 1856; Hiram Brown, May 22, 1858; John Ransom, Dec. 23, 1869; Miss L. Jane Ransom, May 24, 1877.10 Lyons (Established Dec. 31, 1836).-Truman H. Lyon, Dec. 31, 1836; Giles S. Isham, June 7, 1840; Adam L. Roof, May 11, 1843; Dorus M. Fox, March 24, 1849; Gideon A. Hendrick, Feb. 14, 1857; Joseph Rickey, March 20, 1861; Marvin F. Baker, Nov. 18, 1862. Maple (Established July 11, 1838).-Zina Lloyd, July 11, 1838; Joseph H. Rowe, May 22, 1852; John H. Canfield, May 30, 1866; Robert Toan, Jr., Sept. 28, 1868; Amos Worcester, Jan. 16, 1872; Burnett M. Goodwin, Feb. 1, 1878. New Berlin (Established March 17, 1855).-Alonzo Sessions, March 17, 1855; William Jones, Dec. 12, 1856.11 Otisco (Established June 20, 1838).-George W. Dickinson, June 20, 1838; Rufus R. Cook, Dec. 8, 1838; Lemuel P. Davis, Jan. 7, 1857; Wm. R. Hubbard, Dec. 22, 1860; Edwin F. Root, Sept. 3, 1861; Salmon Pangborn, Feb. 3, 1862; Volney Belding, June 2, 1863; Wm. J. Shaw, Nov. 5, 1864; John S. Hunt, July 3, 1865; John C. Stockholm, July 21, 1865. Palo (Established July 14, 1857).-O. H. Tyler, July 14, 1857; Barnabas D. Galloway, Aug. 31, 1860; Leander Millard, Jan. 30, 1865; Ira Winegar, Feb. 8, 1867; Asa C. H. Halbert, April 28, 1868. Plains (Established Sept. 13, 1858).-Linus Van Alstine, Sept. 13, 1858;12 Linus Van Alstine, Dec. 27, 1859; James T. 4lolbrook, July 29, 1861; Wm. Wilson, June 4, 1862; Jacob C. Howard, Feb. 11, 1864; Albert G. Russell, Feb. 18, 1864; Edward Cahill, Dec. 8, 1868; John R. Abbott, Nov. 17, 1870. Pewanto (Established July 14, 1857).-Hiram W. Blanchard, July 14, 1857; John Betts, April 18, 1870; John Pennington, Feb. 15, 1871. Orange (Established Nov. 20, 1858).-Lewis Preist, Nov. 20, 1858. Portland (Established March 11, 1837).-Joshua Boyer, March 11, 1837; Charles W. Ingalls, Dec. 3, 1845; Hezekiah Smith, Aug. 22, 1849; William W. Bogue, June 21, 1850; Francis G. Lee, May 3, 1853; William Root, Aug. 12, 1861. Rix (Established May 1, 1851).-Joseph W. Sprague,'May 1, 1851; Ira Pinckney, Dec. 12, 1856; Benjamin Covert, March 22, 1858; Archileaus C. Lee, Jan. 7, 1861; Ephraim Abbott, Jr., Dec. 31, 1861.13 Ronald Centre (Established Feb. 16, 1851).-Ralph Ely, Feb. 16, 1851; Samuel Stone, Jan. 5, 1857: Volney Belding, July 2, 1861; George Pray, Dec. 12, 1862; Francis P. Minier, June 29, 1863; William Brown, Feb. 23, 1869; Nelson Stedman, Sept. 20, 1869.14 Ronald (Established Feb. 21,1850).-Freedom Gates, Feb. 21,1850.15 Sebewa (Established Jan. 24, 1851).-Benjamin D. Weld, Jan. 24, 1851; Hiram Trim, Aug. 22, 1853; Lucius Showerman, April 14, 1854; Pierce G. Cook, Nov. 7, 1857; John Friend, Nov. 16, 1861; Oscar W. Kibbey, Sept. 1, 1873; Riley W. Wilson, Nov. 12, 1878;16 Riley W. Wilson, July 8, 1880. South Boston (Established Aug. 16, 1849).-R. J. Hess, Aug. 16, 1849; George Wickham, May 26, 1852; Simeon Hunt, Feb. 3, 1853; Elbridge G. Williams, May 13, 1854; Curtis Clarke, Dec. 16, 1862; Harley B. Church, Jan. 20, 1865; Alfred Stearns, Dec. 2, 1867; Elbridge G. Williams, July 19, 1872.17 Stony Creek (Established Aug. 2, 1852).-Archibald Wilcox, Aug. 2, 1852.18 South Cass (Established Dec. 30, 1840).-Myron Tupper, Dec. 30, 1840; George Sickles, June 24, 1854; Esteven Russell, Dec. 18, 1860; Gordon H. Shepard, Feb. 23, 1869; Martin Cox, Dec. 6, 1871; Frank W. Clark, May 13, 1873; Samuel 0. Hosford, Jan. 5, 1874; Eber Sickles, July 7, 1875; Charles M. Runyan, March 4, 1878; Charles Sickles, April 25, 1879; Gordon H. Shepard, April 5, 1880. Smyrna (Established March 16, 1848).-Wilber Fisher, March 16, 1848; Orson Nichorson, Aug. 19, 1850; Norman G. Chase, Aug. 6, 1851; Ezra Spencer, June 6, 1854; Erastus Spencer, Aug. 19, 1859; Ambrose J. Ecker, June 8, 1861; James B. Purdy, Aug. 5, 1865; Charles H. Randall, Nov. 10, 1868; Ambrose J. Ecker, Feb. 8, 1869; George P. Hoppough, Sept. 27, 1872. West Sebewa (Established April 14, 1871).-Nathan Steward, April 14, 1871; Andrew C. Steward, Nov. 14, 1871; Charles M. Caldwell, Jan. 24, 1876; Luke Cook, March 20, 1877; George W. Adams, June 7, 1880. 1 Discontinued July 10, 1862. 2 Changed to Berlin April 13,1842; 3 Discontinued Dec. 10, 1868. 5 Changed to Lake City. 7 Changed to Rosi.a. 9 Changed to Muir. discontinued Sept. 28, 1842. 4 Changed to Belding. 6 Discontinued Jan. 16, 1860. 8 Discontinued Sept. 4, 1872. 10 Discontinued Nov. 11, 1878. 11 Discontinued March 5, 1858. 12 Changed to Hubbardston Dec. 27, 1859. 13 Discontinued April 24, 1868. 14 Discontinued March 17, 1870. 15 Discontinued April 19, 1853. 16 Changed to Cornell July 8, 1880. 17 Discontinued April 23, 1875. 1s Discontinued Nov. 19, 1856. COUNTY SOCIETIES-INSURANCE-AGRICULTURAL. 127 Smith's Crossing (Established Jan. 15, 1879).-Charles Hoyt, Jan. 15, 1879; Charles Hoyt, Dec. 31, 1879. Wheatland (Established Sept. 7, 1844).-Joel C. Green, Sept. 7, 1844; Daniel Hoyt, May 10, 1852; James W. Gould, Dec. 12, 1856; Daniel Hoyt, Jan. 16, 1868;f Daniel Hoyt, June 22, 1868; John Greenop, Feb. 2, 1871; Anson Ostrom, Feb. 26, 1878; Elmore 0. Smith, March 18, 1878; Elizabeth Palmer, Oct. 27, 1879; Elmore O. Smith, Nov. 12, 1879. Waterville (Established April 5, 1838).-James J. Hoag, April 5, 1838; Cyprian S. Hooker, March 13, 1839.4 Wood's Corners (Established April 15, 1869).-Jefferson E. Bennett, April 15, 1869; Joseph Dehen, Dec. 9, 1870; Daniel T. Hoyt, April 5, 1876; Joseph Dehen, April 17, 1877. CHAPTER XI. COUNTY SOCIETITES-INSURANCE-AGRICULTURAL. Ionia an Insurance Centre-Sketches of the Farmers' Mutual, People's Mutual, Home Mutual, and Union Mutual Fire Insurance Companies, and of the Ionia Co-operative and Mutual Benefit Association-The Ionia County Agricultural Society. INSURANCE. THE city of Ionia has long been noted as an insurance centre of no inconsiderable importance, and at the present time there are located in one building the offices of the Farmers' Mutual Fire Insurance Company, the People's Mutual Fire Insurance Company, the Home Mutual Fire Insurance Company, and the Ionia Co-operative and Mutual Benefit Association, while Capt. Taylor, of the Sentinel (newspaper), serves as secretary and treasurer of the Union Mutual Fire Insurance Company. The Farmers' Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Ionia County was organized by Almeron Newman, Asa C. Davis, James Newman, Moses B. Beers, Nijah Chamberlain, Aretus H. Howland, Benjamin D. Weld, Nicholas Outwater, and John J. Maynard. A charter was adopted Nov. 1, 1863~ (in accordance with an act of the State Legislature approved Feb. 15, 1859), of which the preamble recited that the company was formed "for the transaction of the business of mutual insurance upon dwelling-houses, barns, and all kinds of outbuildings situated and being upon farms, and the same being farm property, and household furniture, goods, wares, merchandise in such farm dwelling-houses, barns, and outbuildings, or being upon farms as farm property, against loss and damage by fire." The officers elected in 1864 were Benjamin D. Weld, President; Daniel G. Smith, Vice- President; Hiram Brown, Secretary; John J. Maynard, Treasurer; Timothy Vorce, John J. Maynard, Albert Dorr, and William Jennings, Directors. Other than directors, the subsequent officers of the company have been as follows: 1866.-President, Hiram Brown; Vice-President, Daniel G. Smith; Secretary, F. N. Newman; Treasurer, James F. Maynard. 1868.-President, Hiram Brown; Vice-President, John B. Welch; Secretary, F. N. Newman; Treasurer, James F. Maynard. I I -I 1870.-President, Hiram Brown; Vice-President, Sanford A. Yeomans; Secretary, Oscar Talcott; Treasurer, Thomas Cornell. 1872-80.-President, Alonzo Sessions; Vice-President, Sanford A. Yeomans; Secretary, Oscar Talcott; Treasurer, William Sessions. The directors for the year 1880 were Freeman S. Jones, E. P. Kelsey, Isaac Harwood, E. P. Gifford, and Barney Mathews. That the company has steadily increased in usefulness and in the confidence of the community in which it operates is best shown by the following statement of the amount of its assets at the beginning of the years indicated: 1870, $1,918,480; 1871, $2,215,189; 1872, $2,743,976; 1873, $3,710,274; 1874, $4,507,359; 1875, $4,849,596; 1876, $5,158,360; 1877, $5,510,187; 1878,$5,959,550; 1879, $6,292,805; 1880, $6,628,209. The People's Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Ionia, Montcalm, and Clinton Counties, of which Horace H. Goodwin, John B. Welch, Joseph P. Powell, N. K. Brooks, A. Byron Robinson, F. S. Freeman, Hampton Rich, James L. Jennings, John Avery, B. B. Crawford, Lester R. Miller, N. M. Turner, George W. Childs, Quartus Joslin, Harvey H. Edmunds, W. H. Woodworth, George Comstock, and R. B. Smith composed the original members, was organized Dec. 20, 1871, by the election of the following officers: Westbrook Divine, President; A. G. Russell, Vice-President; H. H. Goodwin, Secretary; F. S. Freeman, B. B. Crawford, R. B. Smith, L. B. Mosher, George W. Childs, and C. R. Dickinson, Directors. The company was formed pursuant to an act of the State Legislature approved Feb. 15, 1859, and, as amended Dec. 19, 1877, Dec. 18, 1878, and July 7, 1879, its charter provided that the officers shall consist of a president, vicepresident, secretary, and not less than five nor more than twelve directors. The charter also declares that the secretary shall be the ex-officio treasurer of the company. Originally its limits were confined to the counties of Ionia and Montcalm, but on the 7th of July, 1879, Clinton County was annexed. Its affairs have been most successfully managed, and on the 7th of September, 1880, it embraced a total membership of two thousand three hundred and sixty-five, while its assets amounted to $3,695,765. The secretary, in his report of the same date, said: " Our gross increase from January 1, 1880, to September 7th-a period of eight months-is $484,850; during that time we have issued over five hundred policies. This, in connection with the light assessments, places the popularity and prosperity of the company on a most substantial basis. Although Clinton County was not annexed until July 7, 1879, with no special effort to work it up, we have in a little over a year insured in that county to the amount of $244,795. This company has been organized eight years. During that time there has been, including this year, only seven mills' assessment on the dollar, or less than one dollar on one thousand dollars insured for each year." The following comprises a list of the presidents, vicepresidents, and secretaries of the company for the years 1873 to 1880, inclusive: * Changed to Shiloh Dec. 31, 1879. f Changed to Orleans June 22, 1868. $ Changed to Saranac March 13, 1839, and discontinued June 24, 1841. # The charter has since been amended, Jan. 29, 1867, March 3, 1870, Jan. 11, 1871, Jan. 12, 1876, and Jan. 8, 1879. 1873.-President, Westbrook Divine; Vice-President, W. P. Burhans; Secretary and Treasurer, F. S. iFreeman. 128 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. I 1875.-President, Westbrook Divine; Vice-President, W. P. Burbans; Secretary and Treasurer, F. S. Freeman. 1877.-President, Westbrook Divine; Vice-President, W. P. Burhans; Secretary and Treasurer, C. Waterbury. 1879.-President, Westbrook Divine; Vice-President, W. P. Burhans; Secretary and Treasurer, C. Waterbury. The directors elected in 'the year last mentioned were Hampton Rich, of Ionia; Westbrook Divine, of Eureka; R. W. Hoy, of Bushnell; I. N. Newman, of Portland; J. M. Dickerson, of Winfield; H. H. Hinds, of Stanton; C. R. Dickinson, of Bloomer; A. Van Vleck, of Palo; Emerson Vance, of Lebanon; Frank Noeker, of Westphalia. The Home Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Ionia, Clinton, and Montcalm Counties was organized Feb. 21, 1879, and commenced issuing policies March 20th of the same year, the first officers being Osmond Tower, President; F. S. Freeman, Vice-President; Sylvester Taylor, Secretary; L. A. Cornell, Treasurer; Frederick Hall, William A. Luther, A. W. Goodell, and John C. Cotherin of Ionia County, William J. Just, James W. Belknap, and H. H. Hinds of Montcalm County, Charles Kipp, Joseph Hewett, and Adam Beattie of Clinton County, Directors. On the 21st of January, 1880, the following-named directors were elected: Frederick Hall, A. W. Goodell, Albert Van Vleck, and Henry P. Taylor, of Ionia; H. H. Hinds, J. W. Belknap, and R. S. Sprague, of Montcalm; and O. F. Peck, Josiah Upton, and H. A. Potter, of Clinton County. To October, 1880, the company embraced a membership of nearly twelve hundred. It had issued twelve hundred and eighty-one policies, and its assets amounted to $1,385,000. The Union Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Kent, Barry, and Ionia Counties was organized by A. H. Heath, W. C. Page, A. B. Morse, J. C. Taylor, O. Talcott, C. A. Preston, C. E. Belknap, I. W. Vrooman, R. B. Wightman, George M. Dewey, T. Phillips, and N. P. Parker, in March, 1880, pursuant to an act of the State Legislature approved April 15, 1873, and of amendments to the same act. The charter of this company provides that its officers shall consist of a president, vice-president, secretary, and six directors, of which the president, vice-president, and secretary shall hold their offices three years, and the directors for the term of one year. The officers first elected, and now serving, are Sanford A. Yeomans, President; Lewis Durkee, Vice-President; John C. Taylor, Secretary and Treasurer; George W. Webber of Ionia, R. B. Wightman of Hastings, I. W. Vrooman of Hastings, Charles E. Belknap of Grand Rapids, James W. Hine of Lowell, and C. A. Preston of Ionia, Directors. The Ionia Co-operative and Mutual Benefit Association was chartered April 30, 1875, and May 12th of the same year the first officers were elected, as follows: N. B. Hayes, President; Hampton Rich, Vice-President; F. S. Freeman, Treasurer; Oscar Talcott, Secretary. These officers, together with R. B. Smith, Isaac Harwood, and William H. Freeman, composed the first board of trustees. Annual meetings are held in May of each year. The president, vice-president, treasurer, and secretary hold office for two years, the~trustees for one year. The president and vice-president also form part of the board of trustees. Subsequent officers have been as follows: 1877.-President, Hampton Rich; Vice-President, Amon Otis; Treasurer, F. S. Freeman; Secretary, 0. Talcott; Trustees, R. B. Smith, William Mercer, George Pray, and N. B. Hayes. 1878.-Trustees, George Pray, Sanford A. Yeomans, R. B. Smith, B. H. Preston, and A. M. Willett. 1879.-President, H. Rich; Vice-President, Amon Otis; Secretary and Treasurer, Oscar Talcott; Trustees, A. M. Willett, William Mercer, George Pray, F. S. Freeman, Jacob King, B. H. Preston, S. A. Yeomans. The trustees elected in May, 1880, were the same as shown for 1879. To October, 1880, the association numbered five hundred and twenty-four members. The original corporators were H. Rich, N. B. Hayes, W. D. Arnold, E. M. Marble, William Oliver Webster, W. B. Wells, Allen B. Morse, H. C. Sessions, F. S. Freeman, Henry F. Hubbell, L. H. Jennings, William Sessions, B. H. Preston, William E. Kidd, Amon Otis, Isaac Harwood, Haviland Woolverton, Chauncey Talcott, A. B. Robinson, J. H. Jones, J. W. Ewing, Perry Spaulding, John J. Maynard, Josiah E. Just, J. B. Morehouse, James W. Willett, Chester Smith, D. W. Sunderlin, A. F. Morehouse, George A. Percival, C. H. Maynard, V. H. Smith, P. Coon, John B. Hutchins, William H. Freeman, L. B. Mosher, William M. Hugg, James L. Fowle, R. B. Smith, J. B. Welch, J. W. Bailey, D. R. Cory, E. B. Percival, Henry W. Hitchcock, William L. Strickland, T. G. Stevenson, A. V. Phister, C. A. Preston, G. W. Germain, Giles W. Clarke, R. W. Mathews, Reuben Gould, George Talcott, J. P. Stevenson, James H. Tibbitts, W. H. Mattison, and Oscar Talcott. IONIA COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. The early history of this society is involved in some doubt and mystery for the reason that the proceedings of the first two or three years were scarcely made a matter of record. It appears, however, that an organization was effected some time during the year 1853, and that a fair was held in the early autumn of that year in a small inclosure nearly opposite the present residence of Ethan S. Johnson. The constitution adopted declared, among other things, that the society had for its object " the promotion of agriculture, horticulture, household and mechanical arts in the county of Ionia," also that." any person, being a resident of this county, by signing this constitution and paying fifty cents to the treasurer shall become a member." Those who paid fifty cents and thereby became members of the society in 1853 were Erastus Yeomans, Lyman Stone, John B. Welch, Joseph L. Freeman, Thomas Cornell, Edson English, James M. Kidd, Cyrus Lovell, Eli Dairymple, Alexander F. Bell, Mrs. A. F. Bell, Amos H. Russell, J. C. Ball, Leander Millard, David Irish, A. F. Carr, Jonathan Tibbitts, John M. Chapman, L. H. Bailey, Martin Kimball, Osmond Tower, William Yerrington, P. Hutchins, Edward Stevenson, Levi Ferguson, Phineas Varnum, Alanson Cornell, Fred Hall, Hampton Rich, Levi Taylor, Alfred Cornell, Sr., Charles W. Norton, V. Ran dall, John Steward, Amos Ives, Charles M. Cornell, Joseph McKelvey, Albert Dorr, R. W. Phillips, Tobias Perrine, John R. Stone, Luke Harwood, John H. English, Alonzo AGRICULTURAL. 129 Sessions, Albert Clement., A. W. Dodge, W. H. H.Crocker, Myron Balcom, William S. Storey, James M. Webster, J. Hethington, George C. Neummer, Darius Stone, Lockwood Yates, J. E. Turner, Ira Wheeler, Dorus M. Fox, Simon Welch, Alfred Cornell, Jr., H. F. Baker, Silas Norton, Julius Jennings, D. Everest, William H. Freeman, H. Bartow, Reuben Reynolds, E. Goodwin, Jeremiah Stannard, Alanson R. Cornell, Herman Hunt, J. W. Foster, Palmer Taylor, G. D. Kellogg, B. H. Preston, Charles A. Holmes, Thomas McKenzie, James Miller, Mrs. Smith, James Carey, Emmet Vance, Timothy White, James W. Battolph, Adam L. Roof, Ethan S. Johnson, and Mrs. MI. Hearsey. Forty entries were recorded in 1853, and the total amount paid out in premiums was twenty dollars, the successful competitors being Lyman Stone, J. McKelvey, Edson English, Alonzo Sessions, Dorus M. Fox, H. F. Baker, and George Case. In 1854 one hundred and fifty-one entries were made, and the amount paid as premiums was about seventy-five dollars. The annual fairs of 1855 and 1856 were fairly attended, and the number of articles, etc., entered for exhibition was about the same as in 1854. The fair in 1857 was held in the village of Lyons, September 23d, 24th, and 25th. There were many competitors for premiums. The receipts amounted to one hundred and forty-seven dollars and sixty cents, while one hundred and fifty-seven dollars were awarded to successful exhibitors. In 1858 the officers of the society received from the county treasurer the sum of one hundred dollars, which had been appropriated in 1855 by the board of supervisors in accordance with the provisions of an act of the State Legislature approved March 16, 1849, which required boards of supervisors in counties having regularly-organized agricultural societies to levy an annual tax of not less than one-tenth nor more than one-fifth of one mill on the dollar to help maintain such societies, or, in other words, for the "encouragement of agriculture, manufacturing, and the mechanical arts." These appropriations for the support of the Ionia County Agricultural Society (in amounts varying from one hundred dollars to three hundred dollars annually) were continued for several years. No fair was held in 1858. In February, 1859, however, Messrs. Fred Iall, Hampton Rich, and Osmond Tower, in behalf of the citizens of Ionia village, offered to inclose and prepare in a suitable manner grounds containing five acres for the use of the society. The proposition was accepted, and the fair was held in Ionia in September of that year. The entries numbered one hundred and sixty-one. The receipts amounted to three hundred and twenty-three dollars and eighty-nine cents, and two hundred and fifty-seven dollars and thirty-four cents were paid as premiums. In January, 1860, the society took the initiative steps towards the purchase of " permanent fair-grounds," and in March following ten acres were purchased from John E. Morrison, at thirty dollars per acre, the grounds being situated on the south side of Grand River, near the village of Ionia. At about the same time, too, the society was incorporated (according to the provisions of an act of the Legislature approved Feb. 12, 1855), and it then began a more 17 regular existence, the officers elected and officiating under this new state of affairs being Frederick Hall, President; Lyman B. Brown, Secretary; Milo S. Baker, Treasurer; Alonzo Sessions, Dorus M. Fox, Myron H. Norton, John C. Dexter, and Edward Stevenson, Directors. The seventh annual fair, therefore, was held on the grounds of the society in September, 1860, also the eighth, in September, 1861, but during the remaining years of the war (1862, 1863, and 1864) no fairs were held. At the annual meeting in January, 1868, it was decided to sell the old grounds and purchase a new plat (situated on the north side of the Grand) from Erastus Yeomans. The bargain was completed June 29, 1868, and the society then came into possession of twenty acres (a portion of the present grounds), for which two thousand four hundred dollars were paid. Soon after, the old fair-grounds were sold for seven hundred and forty dollars. In 1874 the Park Association leased from Erastus Yeomans ten acres (adjoining the agricultural society's grounds on the west). This plot and the original twenty acres were occupied in common by both organizations until 1879, when the agricultural society purchased the tract that had previously been leased. The present year (1880) eight additional acres have been purchased. Thus the grounds of the agricultural society now contain thirty-eight acres. The Ionia Trotting Association, a stock company incorporated in May, 1880, of which William W. Mitchel is president, J. T. Webber treasurer, and M. L. Smith secretary, also have a lease of the grounds for a term of ten years, with the privilege of ten more. Many improvements have been made the past season, and the trottingcourse (half a mile) is now one of the very best in the State. - The affairs of the agricultural society have been conducted very successfully during the past decade, and it is now regarded as one of the strongest organizations of the kind in Michigan. For the years indicated, ending in January, the annual receipts have been as follows: 1876, $2429.15; 1877, $3307.19; 1878, $4661.84; 1879, $1991.57; 1880, $5324.39; and at the last (twentyfourth) annual fair, held Oct. 5, 6, 7, and 8, 1880, the receipts were more than three thousand eight hundred dollars. Following are lists of officers elected annually for the years from 1854 to 1880, inclusive: February, 1854.-Alonzo Sessions, President; John B. Welch, VicePresident; Albert Williams, Treasurer; E. R. Powell, Secretary; II. V. Libhart and John R. Stone, Executive Committee. October, 1854.-Alonzo Sessions, President; E. R. Powell, Corresponding Secretary; A. R. Cornell, Recording Secretary; John R. Stone, Treasurer; Cyrus Lovell, James M. Kidd, Asa Spencer, Executive Committee, R. W. Phillips, Marshal. October, 1S55.-Alonzo Sessions, President; Mason Hearsey, Secretary; A. Willett Smith, Treasurer; Philander Howe, William S. Storey, R. R. Cook, Executive Committee; J. B. Welch, Marshal. October, 1856.-Reuben W. Phillips, President; H. F. Baker, Secretary; A. R. Cornell, Treasurer; Darius Stone, M. B. HIinsdell, Alonzo Sessions, Executive Committee; Charles A. Holmes, Marshal. September, 1857.-M. IB. Iinsdell, President; H. F. Baker, Secre tary; A. R. Cornell, Treasurer; Peter Coon, J. B. Welch, James Webster, Executive Comimitt e. January, 1859.-D. M. Fox, President; H. F. Baker, Secretary; M. 130 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. I S. Baker, Treasurer; Frederick Hall, James M. Webster, Peter Coon, Executive Committee; Charles A. Holmes, Marshal. January, 1860.-Frederick Hall, President; Lyman B. Brown, Secretary; Milo S. Baker, Treasurer; Alonzo Sessions, D. M. Fox, Myron H. Norton, Edward Stevenson, and John C. Dexter, Directors; Hiram Borden, Marshal. January, 1861.-D. M. Fox, President; Lyman B. Brown, Secretary; Frederick Hall, Treasurer; E. P. Kelsey, Benj. D. Weld, George Ellsworth, Alonzo Sessions, and Charles Mathews, Directors; Hiram Borden, Marshal. January, 1862.-Alonzo Sessions, President; E: P. Kelsey, Secretary; Frederick Hall, Treasurer; Sanford A. Yeomans, John McKelvey, Myron H. Norton, B. Benedict, and Curtis Hanley, Directors. January, 1865.-Alonzo Sessions, President; E. P. Kelsey, Secretary. January, 1866.-E. P. Kelsey, President; P. H. Taylor, Secretary; Frederick Hall, Treasurer; A. B. Robinson, J. L. Morse, M. H. Baleom, John Friend, and Edson English, Directors; Hiram Borden, Marshal. January, 1867.-John B. Hutchins, President; Walter D. Arnold, Secretary; Frederick Hall, Treasurer; Myron Balcom, W. S. Storey, Thomas Cornell, J. Dorenburg, and Joel Benedict, Directors; J. M. Kidd, Marshal. January, 1868.-John B. Hutchins, President; Walter D. Arnold, Secretary; James W. Loomis, Treasurer; Myron Balcom, W. S. Storey, Thomas Cornell, J. Dorenburgh, Joel Benedict, Directors. January, 1869.-Myron H. Norton, President; Walter D. Arnold, Secretary; James W. Loomis, Treasurer; Edson English, Joel Benedict, A. F. Kelsey, B. H. Preston, and Henry Hitchcock, Directors. January, 1870.-A. F. Kelsey, President; Walter D. Arnold, Secretary; James W. Loomis, Treasurer; Albert Van Vleck, Benjamin HI. Preston, Joel Benedict, Edward Stevenson, John J. Maynard, Directors. January, 1871.-A. F. Kelsey, President; Walter D. Arnold, Secretary; James W. Loomis, Treasurer; Erie Le Valley, Southwick Merritt, Jerry Spaulding, Henry Hitchcock, and William S. Bates, Directors. January, 1872.-A. F. Kelsey, President; Walter D. Arnold, Secretary; James W. Loomis, Treasurer; Erie Le Valley, Southwick Merrit, George C. Spencer, John H. English, and N. B. Hayes, Directors, January, 1873.-John H. English, President; Walter D. Arnold, Secretary; James W. Loomis, Treasurer; E. P. Kelsey, C. J. Freeman, Thomas E. Smith, William S. Storey, and A. Milan Willett, Directors. January, 1874.-John H. English,* President; Walter D. Arnold, Secretary; James W. Loomis, Treasurer; E. P. Kelsey, C. J. Freeman, Thomas E. Smith, William S. Storey, and A. Milan Willett, Directors. January, 1875.-George W. Webber, President; Henry C. Sessions, Secretary; James W. Loomis, Treasurer; N. B. Hayes, E. P. Kelsey, D. H. English, D. T. Hoyt, and W. A. Inman, Directors. January, 1876.-George W. Webber, President; Henry C. Sessions, Seretary; James W. Loomis, Treasurer; F. S. Jones, William H. Mattison, Charles Lewis, E. P. Kelsey, D. H. English, Directors; -A F. Kelsey, Marshal. January, 1877. —George W. Webber, President; W. & Bates, VicePresident; Henry C. Sessions, Secretary; James W. Loomis, Treasurer; F. S. Jones, C. J. Freeman, and C. E. Goodrich, Directors; A, F. Kelsey, Marshal. January, 1878.-E. P. Kelsey, President; Edson English, Vice-President; Walter D.Arnold, Secretary; James W. Loomis, Treasurer; W. Divine, Montcalm County, Dr. A. Peck, Kent County, and Pi. E. Trowbridge, Clinton County, Directors. January, 1879.-D. J. Green, President; W. W. Mitchel, Vice-President; John P. Stevenson, Secretary; William A. Inman, Treasurer; William H. Vanderheyden, Horace Robinson, E. R. Williams, Mont Spaulding, Directors. January, 1880.-D. J. Green, President; W. W. Mitchel, Vice-President; William A. Inman, Treasurer; M. L. Smith, Secretary; Dr. A. Peck, Kent County, H. B. Fargo, Montcalm County, Directors. CHAPTER XII. STATISTICAL. The Census of 1837-Subsequent Census Returns-Apportionment of Taxes in 1879-Population of the County by Townships-Presidential Votes, 1840 to 1880, Inclusive-Vote of the County by Townships in 1880. CENSUS OF 1837. BY an act of the State Legislature approved March 27, 1837, the township collectors (to be chosen at the following township elections) were designated census enumerators. The act required that they should visit each house in their respective townships and take an enumeration of all the inhabitants (excepting Indians not taxed) " residing therein on the second Monday of October, 1837," and the act further specified that the names of all males over twenty-one years of age should be entered on the lists. In pursuance of the duty devolving upon him, J. B. Welch,t collector of the townshipt of Ionia, during the time intervening between the second Monday of October, 1837, and the first Monday of November of that year, went forward and completed the census of his township, and, according to the ninth section of the act, appended to his returns the following affidavit: "STATE OF MICHIGAN, IONIA COUNTY, 88.: "I do solemnly swear that the number of persons set forth in the returns made by me have been ascertained by actual inquiry at the dwelling-house or personal inquiry of the head of every family, and that the return is correct and true according to the best of my knowledge and belief. "J. B. WELCH. "Sworn and subscribed before me this 27th day of November, 1837. CHARLES SMITH, "Notary Public." The township of Ionia then embraced five-eighths of the present county of Ionia (Maple township the remainder), and, as a matter of historic interest, the following statistics, in extenso, from Mr. Welch's original returns, are given. Showing as they do the names of a large number of the real pioneers of the county, the number of members in their respective families, the amount and kind of their yearly products, their mills, merchants, and manufactures, their live-stock and kind, these returns cannot but prove interesting to those of them who still survive, to their posterity, and to all others who to-day are residents here. Cyrus Lovell, males, 5; females, 5; bushels corn, 50; bushels oats, 45; number of head of cattle, 13; number of horses, 2; number of hogs, 1. John Lloyd, males, 2; merchants, 1; number of horses, I. Samuel Dexter, males, 8; females, 7; grist-mills, 1; saw-mills, 1; bushels corn, 125; bushels oats, 35; feet of lumber, 4000; number of head of cattle, 15; number of horses, 2; number of hogs, 36. Geo. W. Dickinson, males, 4; females, 2; number of head of cattle, 8; number of horses, 3. Mr. Kelly, males, 1; number of head of cattle, 7; number of horses 1; number of hogs, 4. Asa Spencer, males, 4; females, I. Mr. Muckle, males, 1. Alonzo Vaughn, males, 1. Wm. Springer, males, 2; females, 1. * Died while holding the office. George W. Webber elected to fill vacancy. t Why his own name does not appear on the list is not explained.: The returns for the township of Maple have not been preserved, -at least, they cannot be found. STATISTICAL. 131 Daniel HIoughton, males, I; females, 1; number of head of cattle, 5; number of horses, 2; number of hogs, 3. Mr. Alexander, males, 1; number of head of cattle, 6. Wm. McCausland, males, 2; females, 3. Ezekiel Welch, males, 4; females, 2; number of hogs, 1. Jonathan Tibbits, males, 7; females, 1; bushels corn, 35; number of hogs, 2. Lorenzo Dexter, males, 1; females, 1; number of head of cattle, 1; number of horses, 2. Daniel Baxter, males, 2; females, 2; number of head of cattle, 1. Osmond Tower, males, 2; females, 2; number of head of cattle, 4. W. B. Lincoln, males, 2; females, 2. S. B. Worden, males, 2; females, 1; number of head of cattle, 7; number of horses, I; number of hogs, 2. Joseph L. Collins; males, 3; females, 3. Win. Alger, males, I; females, 3. John Dale, males, 2; females, 1; number of head of cattle, 2. Lawson S. Warner, males, 3; females, 3; merchants, 1; bushels wheat, 100; feet of lumber, 10,000; number of head of cattle, 4; number of horses, 3. Lyman Webster, males, 5; females, 6; bushels wheat, 25; number of head of cattle, 5; number of horses, 1; number of hogs, 9. John Stevenson, males, 11; females, 2; carding-machines, 1; bushels corn, 40; bushels oats, 40; feet of lumber, 5000; number of head of cattle, 10; number of sheep, I; number of hogs, 19. Alfred Cornell, males, 3; females, 2; bushels wheat, 70; bushels corn, 60; bushel oats, 200; feet of lumber, 400,000; number of head of cattle, 11; number of hogs, 12. Alfred Cornell, Jr., males, 1; females, 1; number of.head of cattle, 1; number of horses, 2. Thomas Cornell, males, 3; females, 2; number of head of cattle, 4; number of hogs, 12. Mason Hearsey, males, 1; females, 1. Calvin M. Rice, males, 7; females, 2; bushels wheat, 50; bushels corn, 35; bushels oats, 35; feet of lumber, 2500; number of head of cattle, 7; number of hogs, 8. G. W. Dexter, males, 6; females, 3; number of head of cattle, 6; number of hogs, 3. Cyrus Rose, males, 6; females, 2; number of head of cattle, 2. Stephen Dexter, males, 4; females, 4; number of head of cattle, 4. John Delong, males, 2; females, 3; number of head of cattle, 2. Vine Welch, males, 8; females, 3; number of head of cattle, 10; number of hogs, 2. Richard Dye, males, 2; females, 2; number of head of cattle, 2; number of hogs, 1. Nelson Dye, males, 2; females, 2; number of head of cattle, 2. H. Shepherd, males, 5; females, 2; number of head of cattle, 11; number of hogs, 1. Geo. Younger, males, 1; females, 2; number of head of cattle, 3; number of hogs, I. Amos Roberts, males, 2; females, 1; number of head of cattle, 4; number of hogs, 1. Oliver Arnold, males, 6; females, 2; bushels wheat, 40; bushels corn, 100; feet of lumber, 1000; number of head of cattle, 13; number of hogs, 1. John Taft, males, 1; females, 2. Wm. Babcock, males, 6; females, 4; bushels wheat, 100; bushels corn, 20; bushels oats, 40; bushels buckwheat, 25; feet of lumber, 7000; number of head of cattle, 12; number of hogs, 8. J. C. Babcock, males, 2; females, 1; bushels wheat, 1; bushels corn, 20; number of head of cattle, 14; number of hogs, 7. P. M. Bates, males, 6; females, 4; bushels wheat, 150; bushels corn, 25; bushels buckwheat, 40. A. B. Bliss, males, 4; females, 2; number of head of cattle, 7; number of hogs, 13. B. B. Brand, males, 2; females, 1; number of head of cattle, 2; number of hogs, 1. Moses Marsh, males, 3; females, 1; number of head of cattle, 1; number of hogs, 1. James Pierce, males, 2; females, 1; number of head of cattle, 3; number of hogs, 1. Peter Hackett, males, 4; females, 2; bushels wheat, 3. Wm. Smith, males, 2; females, 1; feet of lumber, 50,000. C. W. Jacobs, males, 4; females, 1; number of head of cattle, 3; number of horses, 2; number of hogs, 5. I i Jesse Stevenson, males, 1; females, 3; number of hogs, 1. P. P. Hewitt, males, 3; females, 4; number of head of cattle, 1; number of horses, 2; number of bogs, 1. Henry Norris, males, 3; females, 1; number of head of cattle, 2; number of hogs, 1. W. B. Perry, males, 3; females, 4; number of head of cattle, 2; number of hogs, 1. E. B. Brown, males, 1; merchants, 1; number of head of cattle, 1; number of hogs, 1. Chauncey M. Stebbins, males, 2; females, 3; bushels corn, 40; bushels oats, 80; feet of lumber, 1000; number of head of cattle, 13; number of horses, 2; number of hogs, 13. Joseph Fetham, males, 1; females, 3; number of horses, 2. Orrin Whitman, males, 2; females, 1; number of head of cattle, 1. L. W. Botsford, males, 1; females, 1; number of head of cattle, 1. Daniel Clapsaddle, males, 3; females, 1; number of hogs, 1. Jeremiah Eaton, males, 1; females, 1. Charles Smith, males, 2; females, 2. Robert S. Parks, males, 3; females, 3; merchants, 1; bushels oats, 300; feet of lumber, 3000; number of head of cattle, 6; number of horses, 6; number of hogs, 1. E. B. Marlett, males, 2; females, 3; number of head of cattle, 4. Russell Locke, males, 1; females, 1. W. A. Tryon, males, 4; females,; number of head of cattle, 1. Hiram Kelly, males, 1; females, 2. A. Melvin, males, 2; females, 3; number of head of cattle, 3; number of hogs, 1. Joseph Galpin, males, 2; females, 2; number of head of cattle, 2; number of horses, 1; number of hogs, 1. A. Mather, males, 3; females, 2. XMercy Smith, males, 1; females, 1. Sylvester Thompson, males, 1; females, 1. Zebulon Whipple, males, 5; females, 3. Erastus Yeomans, males, 7; females, 6; bushels wheat, 200; bushels corn, 40; number of head of cattle, 15; number of hogs, 15; pounds of flax, 50. Dexter Arnold, males, 5; females, 3; bushels wheat, 10; number of head of cattle, 18; number of horses, 1; number of hogs, 12. John E. Morrison, males, 3; females, 2; number of head of cattle, 13; number of horses, 5; number of hogs, 22. J. W. Brown, males, 9; females, 8; bushels corn, 100; bushels oats, 100; number of head of cattle, 13; number of horses, 3; number of hogs, 2. Ezra Winslow, males, 3; females, 4; number of head of cattle, 5; number of hogs, 5. Gilbert Caswell, males, 5; females, 3; bushels corn, 40; bushels oats, 30; number of head of cattle, 4; number of hogs, 3. Rufus Densmore, males, 3; females, 2; bushels wheat, 20; bushels corn, 10; bushels oats, 150; number of head of cattle, 5; number of hogs, 2. Chester Stebbins, males, 1; females, 1; bushels corn, 10; bushels oats, 40; number of head of cattle, 3; number of horses, 1; number of hogs, 2. John Smith, males, 5; females, 1; bushels wheat, 15; bushels corn, 15; bushels oats, 50; number of head of cattle, 2; number of hogs, 3. W. Reed, males, 2; females, 1; bushels corn, 20; bushels oats, 20; number of head of cattle, 3; number of hogs, 7. E. K. Bickford, males, 4; number of head of cattle, 4. Alonzo Sessions, males, 2; females, 1; bushels wheat, 150; bushels corn, 75; bushels oats, 100; number of head of cattle, 18; number of hogs, 13. Cyprian S. Hooker, males, 3; females, 1; number of head of cattle, 5; number of horses, 3; number of hogs, 1. Leonard Mulican, males, 1; females, 1. James J. Hoag, males, 6; number of head of cattle, 4. Moses Gould, males, 2; females, 1; number of head of cattle, 3. W. English, males, 3; females, 3; number of head of cattle, 3; num ber of hogs, 6. Timothy White, males, 2; females, 4; number of head of cattle, 4; number of horses, 1; number of hogs, 20. Jesse Williams, males, 2; females, 2; number of head of cattle, 3; number of hogs, 9. J. M. Talent, males, 2; females, 1; number of head of cattle, 3i number of hogs, 3. 132 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. I Jeremiah Stannard, males, 2; females, 3; number of head of cattle, 3; number of horses, 2. Charles Doty, males, 2; females, 1; bushels corn, 40 number of head of cattle, 4; number of hogs, 4. Elisha Doty, males, 3; females, 1; bushels oats, 40; number of head of cattle, 5; number of hogs, 12. B. G. Barker, males, 3; females, 1; bushels corn, 15; bushels oats, 30; numb3r of hogs, 2. Jared Conner, males, 6; females, 3; number of head of cattle, 3; number of hogs, 2. To recapitulate, we find that in the territory embraced within the limits of the present townships of Otisco, Keene, Boston, Campbell, Orleans, Easton, Berlin, and Odessa, and the west half of Ronald, Ionia, Orange, and Sebewa, the population, products, live-stock, etc., returned in November, 1837, were as follows: Number of males.......................................... 306 " females....................................... 203 Total population of the township................... 509 Number of grist-mills................................... 1 " saw-mills............................. 1 " carding-machines.......................... 1 " merchants................................... 4 " bushels wheat produced during the year.................................... 934 " bushels corn produced during the year......................................... 915 " bushels oats produced during the year........................................ 1335 bu-hels buckwheat produced during year........................................ 65 " pounds flax................................. 50 " feet of lumber manufactured............ 483,500 " head of cattle owned...................... 392 " horses......................................... 51 sheep.......................................... 1 " hogs.................................. 322 As before mentioned, the returns for the township of Maple-then comprising the present townships of North Plains, Lyons, Portland, and Danby, and the east half of Ronald, Ionia, Orange, and Sebewa-cannot be found. However, the census of 1837 returned a total of one thousand and twenty-eight inhabitants in the county, and, as but five hundred and nine are accounted for in Ionia, it necessarily follows that the remainder (five hundred and nineteen) were then residents of Maple. The amounts of their annual products, live-stock owned, etc., were probably in proportion to those already shown for Ionia township. SUBSEQUENT CENSUS RETURNS. In comparison with the foregoing facts concerning the first census of Ionia County, and as showing the gradual increase of population, the development of agricultural and manufacturing interests,-more clearly, perhaps, than could be done in any other way,-the following statistics, taken from the census returns of the years indicated, are ap 1850.t Whole number of dwelling-houses............. t '* fam ilies........................ s" " inhabitants.................... Value of real estate owned........................ Whole number of occupied farms............... " " acres improved............. i " li acres unimproved.......... Cash value of farm lands.......................... Value of farming implements, etc............... Number of horses owned June 1, 1850........ " mules " " " " milch cows owned June 1, 1850.. " working oxen" " ". " other cattle " " " " sheep " " " swine " " ". Value of live-stock owned June 1, 1850....... Bushels of wheat produced during year ending June 1, 1850............................ Bushels of rye produced during year ending June 1, 1850................................. Bushels of Indian corn produced during year ending June 1, 1850.................... Bushels of oats produced during year ending June 1, 1850................................. Bushels of barley produced during year ending June 1, 1850.................... Bushels of buckwheat produced during year ending June 1, 1850..................... Bushels of potatoes produced during year ending June 1, 1850............................ Pounds of wool clipped during year ending June 1, 1850...................................... Value of orchard products during year ending June I, 1850................................ Pounds of butter produced during year ending June 1, 1850............................ Pounds of cheese produced during year ending June 1, 1850............................ Pounds of maple-sugar produced during year ending June 1, 1850..................... Tons of hay produced during year ending June 1, 1850...................................... Bushels of clover-seed produced during year ending June 1, 1850.................... Value of home-made manufactures during year ending June 1, 1850..................... Number of flouring-mills (water-power) June 1, 1850...................................... Capital invested in flouring-mill.............. Barrels of flour made............................. Value of " "............................. Number of saw-mills (water-power)......... Capital invested in saw-mills................. Annual product of " (feet)........... Value of annual product....................... Aggregate capital invested in all kinds of manufactures (flour- and saw-mills included).......................................... Number of hands employed in all manufactories............................................... Aggregate value of all annual manufactured products........................................... 1854.t Number of inhabitants in the county......... " acres taxable.......................... " " not taxable..................... s " improved....................... " " sowed with wheat........... " " corn harvested, 1853....... " bushels corn raised........ " acres wheat harvested, 1853...... " bushels " raised, "...... " " of all other kinds of grain raised in 1853............ "t {" potatoes raised in 1853... " tons hay cut, 1853............... pounds wool sheared, 1853........ it "t pork marketed, 1853..... i" " butter made, 1853......... i i" cheese " ' maple-sugar manufactured, 1853............... "t horses.................................. " cattle, other than oxen and cows " working oxen....................... " milch cows........................... sheep.e " sheep.................................... sw ine............o.......,,,........o...... " mules.................................. water-power flouring-mills........ 1374 1393 7597 $985,995 613 30,067 46,891 $746,740 $38,649 711 2 1,580 1,266 2,365 8,447 3,336 $128,030 76,946 2,543 75,945 44,003 1,057 7,312 57,304 23,823 $866 117,769 20,386 118,537 5,596 77 $7,245 1 $4,000 1,600 $9,750 6 $12,700 3,100,000 $16,920 $27,200 63 $55,811 10,727 243,836 456 47,296 13,274 6,605 151,680 11,992 171,162 70,332 91,599 8,114 39,553 239,605 180,292 23,352 124,368 1,462 3,805 2,117 3,387 13,848 6,169 2 7 pended, viz.: 1840.M Number of inhabitants................................. 1923 " horses........................................ 200 " neat cattle................................... 1866 " sheep..................................... 270 swine......................................... 3,202 " bushels wheat produced 1839........ 32,382 rye ".......... 240 IC '- Indian corn.......... 14,784 cc " oats.......... 16,695 " barley.......... 1,100 " potatoes.......... 23,500 i' pounds wool sheared 1839............. 315 f' tons hay cut "........... 466 Value qf dairy products "............. $208 Number of flouring-mills..................... 2 ' saw-mills........................... 9 Capital invested in mills......................... $31,700 * United States. t United States. $ State. t United States. $ State. STATISTICAL. 133 Number of steam~ power flouring-mills....... '" run of stone........................... " persons employed................... " barrels flour made preceding year................................. Amount of capital invested..................... Value of products for past year................ Number of water-power saw-mills............ " steam " "............ " feet lumber manufactured the preceding year.................... " persons employed.................... Amount of capital invested in saw-mills.... Value of saw-mill products preceding year.. Number of distilleries............................. " gallons liquor made preceding year.................................. " barrels of fish caught preceding year................................ Amount of capital invested in all other kinds of manufactories........................ Number of persons employed in same........ Value of their annual products................. " all merchandise imported for sale during the year................... 1860.*': Number of dwelling-houses..................... "t families................................ " inhabitants........................... Value of real estate owned...................... Number of occupied farms....................... " acres improved...................... "t " unimproved.................. Cash value of occupied farm lands............ Value of farming implements and machinery............................................. Number of horses, June 1, 1860........ i" mules, "........ " milch cows,........ " working oxen, "........ " other cattle,........ " sheep,........ " swine, "........ Value of live-stock................................. Number of bushels wheat produced during year ending June 1,1860...................... Number of bushels rye produced during year ending June 1, 1860.................... Number of bushels Indian corn produced during year ending June 1,1860............ Number of bushels oats produced during year ending June 1, 1860..................... Number of bushels barley produced during year ending June 1, 1860...................... Number of bushels buckwheat produced during year ending June 1, 1860............ Number of bushels potatoes produced during year ending June 1, 1860............... Number of bushels clover-seed produced during year ending June 1, 1860............ Value of orchard products during year ending June 1, 1860................................. Number of pounds wool sheared during year ending June 1, 1860..................... Number of pounds butter produced during year ending June 1, 1860..................... Number of pounds cheese made year ending June 1, 1860...................................... Number of tons hay made year ending June 1, 1860.............................................. Number of pounds maple-sugar made year ending June 1, 1860............................ Value of home-made manufactures year ending June 1, 1860.......................... Number of water-power flouring-mills, June 1, 1860............................................. Number of steam-power flouring-mills, June 1, 1860.............................................. Capital invested in flouring-mills, June 1, 1860................................................ Number of barrels flour produced for year to June 1, 1860................................. Value of flour produced for year to June 1, 1860................................................ Number of water-power saw-mills, June 1, 1860................................................ Number of steam-power saw-mills, June 1, 1860.............................................. Capital invested in saw-mills, June 1, 1860. Number of f-eet of lumber sawed for year to June 1, 1860....................................... 1 14 16 17,850 $28,500 $50,000 17 1 5,650,000 55 $17,300 $42,470 1 4,000 4 $9,700 25 $6,100 $150,900 3,499 3,385 16,665 $5,274,184 2,027 79,712 97,478 $4,051,276 $157,740 3,179 36 5,070 3,064 7,259 25,425 11,492 $533,750 227,906 13,049 156,829 105,597 4,970 6,122 69,876 1,051 $12,599 66,908 408,248 44,879 19,893 315,323 $7,906 11 2 $94,000 58,324 $303,227 10 6 $73,000 6,190,000 Value of lumber sawed for year to June 1, 1860.......................................... $55,010 Number of persons (males) employed in all manufactories................................... 166 Aggregate of all manufactured products, saw- and flouring-mills included............ $449,677 1864.t Number of inhabitants........................... 17,984 " acres taxable.......................... 242,175 " " not taxable.................... 646 " " improved..................... 91,636 " " sowed with wheat............ 25,471 " " corn harvested preceding,year....................... 7,485 " bushels corn raised preceding year........................ 159,426 " acres wheat harvested preceding year................................ 34,107 " bushels wheat harvested preceding year........................... 214,562 " bushels all other kinds of grain raised preceding year......... 103,443 " bushels potatoes raised preceding year........................... 90,924 " tons hay cut preceding year..... 24,445 " pounds wool sheared.......... 189,689 t" " pork marketed preceding year............... 632,724 CC ' butter made preceding year..................... 380,667 " " cheese made preceding year.............. 52,842 " CC maple-sugar manufactured preceding year. 260,636 horses, June 1, 1864...... 4,520 " milch cows, " "...... 6,146 t working oxen, " "...... 2,587 other neat cattle, " ".... 6,672 " sheep,.... 59,214 swine, " "...... 8,342 " mules, "...... 7 steam-power manufactories, not hereafter enumerated........... 5 " water-power manufactories, not hereafter enumerated........... 3 " persons employed in same........ 43 Amount of capital invested in same.......... $33,300 Value of their products for past year......... $36,460 Number of water-power flouring-mills....... 11 " steam- I C......." 2 " run of stone......................... 33 " barrels flour made preceding year........e.................. 36,341 " persons employed................... 25 Capital invested in flouring-mills.............. $83,900 Value of products for the past year........... $296,103 Number of oil-mills (peppermint)............ 3 " pounds peppermint-oil manufactured the preceding year. 1,860 " water-power saw-mills............ 12 " steam- " "...... 5 " feet of lumber manufactured the past year........................... 4,710,000 " persons employed in saw-mills.. 76 Amount of capital invested in saw-mills.... $72,900 Value of saw-mill products the past year... $62,640 Number of gallons of wine manufactured the past year...................... 84 Number of barrels cider manufactured the past year........................................... 1,134 Value of merchandise imported the past year for purposes of sale........................ $395,100 1870.t Number of inhabitants......2............. 27,675 " farms............................... 3,168 " families m...................... 5,687 " dwellings.............................. 5,565 " voters.................................. 6,789 " acres improved...................... 156,097 Cash value of farm lands........................ $12,199,020 t" " farming implements............ $456,912 Estimated value of all farm products......... $2,547,513 "( " forest "......... $24,167 CC home - made manufactures....................... $10,072 " pounds maple-sugar manufactured............................... 130,712 " gallons syrup manufactured...... 1,696 " pounds beeswax..................... 654 t" " honey.................... 12,547 * United States. t State. + United States. 134 HISTORY OP IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. Number of horses, June 1, 1870...... 6,514 " mules,..... 39 u milch cows, " "...... 7,365 i working oxen, " ".... 1,820 " other cattle, " (...... 8,043 " sheep, "...... 79,199 " swine, "t...... 9,564 Value of live-stock, "...... $1,546,559 Value of animals slaughtered for year ending June 1, 1870....................... $301,411 Number of pounds wool produced for year ending June 1, 1870......,............. 320,009 Number of pounds butter for year ending June 1, 1870................................ 651,299 Number of pounds cheese produced for year ending June 1, 1870........................... 25,492 Number of gallons milk sold for year ending June 1, 1870..........7................... 36,801 Value of orchard products for year ending June 1, 1870.........................$84,729 Number of bushels wheat harvested for year ending June 1, 1870........................ 665,445 Number of bushels rye harvested for year ending June 1, 1870......................... 419 Number of bushels Indian corn harvested for year ending June 1, 1870..................... 360,768 Number of bushels oats harvested for year ending June 1, 1870............................. 283,361 Number of bushels barley harvested for year ending June 1, 1870..................... 26,340 Number of bushels buckwheat harvested for year ending June 1, 1870................ 12,979 Number of pounds tobacco raised for year ending June 1, 1870.......................... 593 Number of bushels peas and beans raised for year ending June 1, 1870................. 2,723 Number of bushels potatoes (Irish) raised for year ending June 1, 1870................. 313,838 Number of bushels potatoes (sweet) raised for year ending June 1, 1870................. 891 Number of tons hay cut for year ending June 1, 1870....................................... 33,574 Number of bushels clover-seed for year ending June 1, 1870........................... 2,455 Number of pounds hops raised for year ending June 1, 1870................................. 32,825 Number of steam-power saw-mills........... 10 Aggregate capacity in horse-power........... 490 Number of water-power saw-mills........... 11 Aggregate capacity in horse-power........... 436 Number of persons employed in saw-mills.. 228 Value of materials used......................... $152,480 Amount of capital invested..................... $229,100 Value of total saw-mill products, including lumber, lath, and shingles.................... $287,085 Number of steam-power flouring-mills...... 3 " water-power "...... 11 " run of stone in all................. 36 t persons employed in flouringm ills................................. 40 " bushels wheat ground.............. 259,500 " " other grain ground...... 75,500 Capital invested in flouring-mills.............. $185,000 Value of total annual products................. $296,640 Number of steam-power foundry and machine-shops.................................... 8 Number of water-power foundry and machine-shops..................................... 2 Number of persons employed in same........ 46 Amount of capital invested..................... $6,200 Value of total annual products................. $61,846 Number of breweries.............................. 1 - persons employed in same........ 4 Amount of capital invested..................... $12,000 Value of total annual products (1400 barrels ale and beer)................................ $12,600 Number of cheese-factories.................. 1 " persons employed................... 2 Capital invested..................................... $3,500 Number of pounds total annual product..... 60,000 " woolen factories..................... 3 " persons employed, 17 males, 4 females.............................. 21 Capital invested................................... $31,500 Value of annual products........................ $36,050 Number of peppermint-oil distilleries........ 1 " persons employed in same........ 20 Capital invested..$ 8........................ $8,000 Value of annual products (1570 pounds).... $4,710 Number of other manufacturing establish ments not already enumerated............. 134 Number of persons employed................. 702 Amount of capital invested..................... $682,600 Value of annual products....................... $1,107,746 True valuation of real and personal estate of the county.................................... $16,991,160 1874.* Number of inhabitants........................ 28,376 " acres of taxable land.............. 338,717 " " improved land........... 152,369 " farms................................... 3,451 " acres in farms.................... 291,470 Average number of acres in a farm............ 84.45 Number of acres sowed to wheat, May, 1874 44,723 " " of wheat harvested in 1873 38,221 " " of corn a " 15,996 " bushels of wheat " " 594,519 " " corn " " 474,015 < " "t all other grain harvested in 1873..... 444,836 " bushels potatoes raised in 1873 146,884 t tons of hay cut in 1873............ 33,484 pounds of wool sheared in 1873 299,816 " pork marketed " 911,359 " " cheese made " 47,479 " butter " " 760,819 " " fruit dried for market in 1873......... 31,465 " barrels of cider made in 1873 3,897 " pounds of maple-sugar made in 1874................................. 285,867 " acres devoted to orchard fruits.. 7,046 " "t vineyards...... 21 " " " raspberries..... 10 " " strawberries.... 9 " bushels apples raised in 1872 230,464 " " peaches " " 1,058 " pears " " 394 " plums " " 475 " cherries " " 1,611 " hundred weight of grapes raised in 1872............................. 437 " bushels strawberries raised in 1872.................................. 316 " bushels currants and gooseberries raised in 1872............... 1,475 " bushels melons and garden vegetables raised in 1872........... 7,436 Value of all fruits and garden vegetables, 1872............................................... $91,407 Number of horses owned in May, 1874... 7,753 " mules " " " 71 " working oxen owned in May, '74 1,754 " milch cows owned in May, 1874 8,912 " other neat cattle owned in May, 1874............................ 9,414 " swine owned in 1874............... 10.584 " sheep "............ 67,061 " " sheared in 1873...... 71,546 " steam-power flouring-mills, '74 4 " water- " 1874 15 " persons employed in flouringmills, 1874.........................57 " run of stone....................... 50 " barrels flour made during year.. 62,800 Value of products during year................. $431,300 Capital invested in flouring-mills.......... $204,500 Number of steam-power saw-mills, 1874.... 17 " water " "..10 " persons employed in saw-mills, 1874................................ 336 Capital invested in saw-mills, 1874....... $375,300 Number of feet of lumber sawed past year.. 36,125,000 Value of saw-mill products past year........ $438,000 Number of steam shingle-mills, 1874......... 3 " persons employed in same........ 46 Capital invested in same......................... $22,000 Value of products................................. $32,800 Number of planing- and turning-mills and sash-, door-, and blind-factories............ 6 Number of persons employed in same........ 59 Capital invested in same......................... $43,000 Value of annual products........................ $68,500 Number of foundries and machine-shops.... 8 " persons employed in same........ 59 Amount of capital invested.................... $79,000 Value of yearly products........................ $110,000 Number of carriage-factories................... 2 " persons employed in same........ 11 Capital invested................................. $6,000 Value of yearly products........................ $15,000 Number of pump-factories.......................2 " persons employed in same........ 13 Capital invested.................................. $7,000 Value of annual products........................ $13,000 Number of stave-, heading-, and hoopfactories............................................. 3 Number of persons employed in same......... 42 Amount of capital invested....................... $32,000 * State. STATISTICAL. 135 Value of yearly products.......................... Number of wooden-ware factories............... " persons employed in same......... Capital invested...................................... Value of year's product............................ Number of breweries................................ " persons employed in same......... Capital invested...................................... Number of barrels manufactured during year.................................................. Value of year's product............................ Number of woolen-factories....................... " persons employed..................... Capital invested................................ Value of year's product............................ Number of clothing manufactories.............. " persons employed in same......... Capital invested...................................... Value year's product................................ Number of vinegar establishments........... " persons employed..................... Capital invested...................................... Value of yearly products.......................... Number of plaster-mills......................... " persons employed..................... Capital invested............................. Value of annual products......................... Number of peppermint-oil factories............ " pounds manufactured............... It persons employed..................... Capital invested...................................... Value of year's product............................ $63,000 2 319 $8,500 $10,500 1 6 $12,000 1,535 $13,500 3 34 $45,000 $60,000 1 10 $8,000 $18,000 1 4 $3,000 $1,800 2 4 $6,500 $6,825 4 3,300 8 $3,500 $10,000 Number of manufactories school-room furniture................................................... 1 Number of persons employed in same........ 8 Capital invested...................................... $15,000 Value of year's product.....$.................... $20,000 Aggregate number of manufacturing establi-hments in the county......................... 85 Persons employed in same........................ 716 Capital invested in same.......................... $870,300 Value of products, 1873........................... $1,312,225 Number of building-stone quarries............. 2 " persons employed in same......... 9 Capital invested..................................... $6,000 Number of cubic feet mined...................... 4,000 Value of products, 1873........................... $1,400 The returns for the present year (1880) not having yet been completed, of course no compilations can be made from them; yet, when they are placed before the people, doubtless a large and gratifying increase will be observed in all the departments noticed in the foregoing tables. APPORTIONMENT OF TAXES IN 1879. The following table exhibits the value of real and personal estate in the county as equalized in October, 1879, also the amount of taxes levied for various purposes: North Plains.................................................. $913,802 00 $1,665 7.0$170 $3.21 $1,685.21 $1,362.20 $400.00............... $3,447 51 Ronald.......................................................... 956,145.00 1,742.10............... 1,742.10 1,425.40 545.00............... 3,712.50 Oti-co........................................................... 990,216.00 1,804.26 10.85 8 16 1,823 27 1,476.20 464.10.....3,963.57 Orleans......................................................... 715,47.00 1,303.60 3.94 7.73 1,308.27 1,06 50 1,215.66............... 3,590.43 Keene.......................................................... 7,975 00 1,424.80........................ 1,424.80 1,165.70 400.00 2,990 50 Easton.......................................................... 777.71.00 1,416.401,416.40 1,158.40 501.18 $1,800.00* 3,875.98 loia City, First and Scmd Wards............... 933.210.(;0 1,70.46............ 2.42 1.702.88 1,391.20.............. 25.00t 3,119.08 lonia City, Third and Fourth Wards................. 2.66. 914.0.....................14.8 748.40............................20 lonia Township........................................... 921,512 00 1,679.10 43 120.1 1,799.64,373.0 706.95............ 3,880.39 Ly ns............................................................ 1,160,338.00 2,114 25 1.36 8.90 2,124.51 1,729.80 1,605 00............... 5,459.31 Portland................................................... 1,144,902.00 2,o86 13 11.16 2.42 2,099.71 1,706.80 2,350.70 705.70t 6,862 91 Ora, ge....................................................... 741,176 00 1,355 96........... 2.39 1,358.35 1,109 40 7.00.............. 3,197.75 Berlin........................................................... 889,484.0 1.620.73............1,620.73 1,326.00 300.00............. 3,246.73 Boston.................................................. 869,356.00 1,584.00........................ 1,584.00 1,296.00 450.00 3,330.00 ('ammpbell..............49......................... 497,202.00 905.90............ 95.90 741.20 625 00..2,272.10 Odes-a.......................................................... 441,384 00 804.20 11.90............ 816.10 658.00 54 00.. 2,014.10 Sebe a....................................................... 483,280.00 880.50........................ 880.50 720.40 585.00............... 2,185.90 Dnnby........................................................... 565,836.00 1,031.00.1,031.00 844.50 683.00............ 2,558.50 Totals................................................... $14,287,432.00 $26,033.19 $44.74 $160.24 $26,238.17 $21,300.00 $12,101.59 $1,530.70 $61,170.46 * Town-hall. t Sidewalk. + Railroad. POPULATION OF THE COUNTY, BY TOWNSHIPS. As shown by the census returns of that year, the population of Ionia County in 1837 was 1028; in 1840, 1923; and in 1844 it was 4940. The population at several subsequent periods, from 1850 to 1880 inclusive, is given by townships in the following table: Townships. 1850. 1854. Berlin......... 391 570 Boston........ 424 635 Campbell...... 40 228 Danby......... 262 452 Easton.......... 397 611 lonia............ 774 1,129 lonia City............... Keene.......... 737 813 Lyons.......... 850 981 North Plains. 292 549 Odessa......... 81 225 Orange......... 378 592 Orleans........ 491 684 Otisco..........1,018 1,321 Portland...... 763 1,036 Ronald......... 452 570 Sebewa......... 247 331 Total of Co...7,597 10,727 1860. 1,026 1,244 518 727 837 1,926 1,150 1,949 921 488 801 857 1,349 1,381 893 598 16,665 1864. 1,152 1,391 598 529 922 2,350 1,125 1,927 1,187 559 826 1,068 1,355 1,53 824 631 17,984 1870. 1,587 1,946 1,120 1,176 1,401 4,158 1,271 2,855 1,976 959 1,382 1,426 1,570 2,353 1,356 1,139 27,675 1874. 1,659 1,893 1,179 1,140 1,164 1,496 3,251 1,202 2,843 1,803 1,087 1,341 1,423 1,684 2,596 1,324 1,291 28,376 1880.* 1,806 2,014 1,642 1,424 1,841 1,707 4,186 1,263 2,749 1,909 1,579 1,493 1,641 2,152 2,624 1,483 1,565 33,078 PRESIDENTIAL VOTES. 1840. —Harrison (Whig).............................. Van Buren (Democrat)........................ Birney (Liberal)................................. 1844.-Clay (Whig)....................................... Polk (Democrat)............................... 1848.-Taylor (Whig).................................... Cass (Democrat).................................. Van Buren (Free-Soil)...................... 1852.-Scott (Whig)...................................... Pierce (Democrat)............................... Hale (Free-Soil)................................. 1856.-Fremont (Republican).......................... Buchanan (Democrat).......................... 1860.-Lincoln (Republican).................... Douglass (Democrat)......................... 1864.-Lincoln (Republican)..............,.......... McClellan (Democrat)........................... 1868. —Grant (Republican)............................. Seymour (Democrat)..................... 1872.-Grant (Republican)............................ Greeley (Democrat and Liberal)............. O'Connor (Democrat)........................... Black (Prohibition)............................. 1876.-Hayes (Republican)............................ Tilden (Democrat)............................... Cooper (Greenback)............................. Smith (Prohibition)............................ 1880.-Garfield (Republican).......................... Hancock (Detnocrat)............................ Weaver (Greenback)............................ 266 219 2 421 397 379 608 477 659 864 302 2002 1154 2231 1294 2205 1383 3503 2140 3326 1702 53 28 4308 3230 68 40 4210 2542 1257 * Newspaper report. Not official. 136 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. OFFICIAL VOTE OF IONIA COUNTY (BY TOWNSHIPS) FOR PRESIDENT AT THE ELECTION HELD ON TUESDAY, NOV. 2, 1880. Townships. Garfield. Hancock. Weaver. Berlin............................. 207 144 29 Boston..................... 302 196 54 Campbell...................... 205 46 76 Danby............................. 177 99 63 Easton....................... 158 68 141 lonia...2........................ 219 164 72 Ionia City, First Ward....... 162 168 25 " " Second Ward...... 119 89 18 " " Third Ward....... 106 108 16 Townships. Garfield. Hancock. Weaver. Ionia City, Fourth Ward..... 112 106 13 Keene............................. 134 57 102 Lyons....................... 394 254 101 North Plains..................... 232 179 40 Odessa...................... 186 73 94 Orange.......................... 166 106 68 Orleans............................. 185 109 118 Otisco.............................. 329 121 98 Portland......................... 404 264 43 Ronald............................. 231 71 35 Sebewa.......................... 182 120 51 4210 2542 1257 CITY OF IONIA. IONIA,* the county-seat of Ionia County, occupies a site but two miles removed from the geographical centre of the county, and lies partly in the town of Easton as well as in Ionia, but mainly in the latter. The Grand River forms the city's southern boundary of one mile and three-quarters, which is likewise the stretch of the northern boundary; while upon the east and west the city-line is about a mile in length in either case. In population Ionia has manifested a steady but not rapid growth since its foundation. From twenty-five hundred inhabitants in 1870, it rose in 1874 to three thousand two hundred and fifty-one, and in 1880 to four thousand one hundred and eighty-six. For the most part, the business of the city is derived from the support offered by the surrounding agricultural region; for Ionia, being devoid of water-power, although situated on a pretentious mill-stream, is poor in manufactories. A foundry or two, flouring-mills, railway-car shops, and a few small concerns comprise the manufacturing interests of the place. The car-shops, of which detailed mention is made farther on, form the most important adjunct to the city's industries. Two liies of railway-the Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee and the Detroit, Northern and Lansing-cross at this point, and give speedy access to all quarters. The natural location of the town possesses marked features of handsome prospect. Along the entire front a broad plain stretches to the river, and beyond that rises a chain of wooded hills. Main and Washington Streets, the chief thoroughfares, lie in the valley, and extend between east and west about a mile and a half in length. On the north from Washington Street the land rises at every point to a considerable height, and upon this far-reaching eminence one may count scores of elegant and costly homes from whose spacious grounds the view of city, plain, and surrounding country is a very engaging one. Washingtton and Main Streets-notably the latter avenue-are prettily embellished with handsome residences, set within bright and cheerful-looking grounds embellished with lawns and flowers. Main Street, in the business quarter, contains many fine business blocks, of which a few are constructed of the beautiful variegated sandstone found on the line of the Detroit, Lansing and Norlhern Railroad a few miles east of the city. This stone enters also, to some extent, into the construction of many dwelling-houses, and is much in demand, moreover, at other places as well as at home. Churches and schools are abundant. Of' the former are the Methodist Episcopal, Baptist, Presbyterian, Catholic, Disciple, Congregational, Protestant Episcopal, German ' By David Schwartz, who also prelared the historical sketches of the various tovnships in Ionia County. 18 Evangelical, and German Lutheran. The union schools are Ionia's boast, and rank deservedly high among the public educational institutions of the State. THE FOUNDERS OF IONIA, ETC. The father of the city of Ionia is known as Samuel Dexter, and, although he passed long ago into the mysteries of the " Beyond," his name is, and long will remain, an honored one from the fact that lie and a band of sturdy associates plucked from the wilderness a cluster of happy homes and created what is now a handsome and prosperous town. Mr. Dexter is regarded as lonia's founder not because he made the first settlement upon its site, but because he conceived and matured the project that led to the settlement. When he made his home here he was but one of a colony whose members reached the spot the same day. Mr. Dexter lived in Herkimer Co., N. Y., and on behalf of himself and several neighbors made a journey to Michigan in the autumn of 1832 for the purpose of selecting lands upon which to make settlements. It is said that he fancied the land upon which the village of Lyons now stands, and would have made a purchase there had the tract not been previously located. So he pushed on, and, coming to section 19, in town 7 north, range 6 west, concluded that the northwestern quarter of that section was what he wanted. He hastened to White Pigeon, entered the land, and then made his way back to Herkimer County. Upon the declaration of his intention to move with his family to his Michigan land-possession the following spring, he found that five other families would join him in the enterprise, while William B. Lincoln, a young physician, and four other unmarried young men.-P. M. Fox, Abraham Decker, Warner Dexter, and Winsor Dexter,-agreed to become pioneers with them. The five families mentioned were those of Erastus Yeomans, Oliver Arnold, Darius Winsor, Edward Guild, and Joel Guild. The winter was devoted to preparing for the journey, and on the 25th of April, 1833, the company, numbering sixty-three persons, set out fiom Utica in a chartered canalboat, into which they loaded their entire possessions and such supplies as it was foreseen they would need. The incident of their departure was of course an important one in the community in which they lived, and was witnessed by a throng of people who came from far and near to waft "Good-bys" to the voyagers and bid them godspeed. As they moved away fiom the landing Joel Guild enlivened the occasion with the singing of a song entitled " We're bound for JMichigania," and it it recollected that he sounded it with a deal of vigor of animation. Their course westward to Buffalo was marked by receptions at many villages 137 138 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. and landings, for the members of the company were well known along the canal, and their progress was for a day or two prospered by the hearty good wishes of crowds who here and there assembled to greet them and say " Good-by." Joel Guild felt called upon to sing his song each time a landing was sighted, and gave up the exercise eventually because of sheer exhaustion. May 7th saw their arrival at Buffalo, and, there being transferred with their goods to the steamer "Superior," bound for Detroit, without encountering incident of especial interest they reached that port May 10th. From Detroit they headed for the Grand River valley with teams, and entered upon the first stages of a rough and wearisome journey. Passing via Pontiac, Fuller's, and Saline, they reached the latter place May 19th, and then faced the unbroken wilderness through which their route lay. They had to cut their road through the forest for many and many a mile, and that pathway, followed thereafter by a good many pioneers, was long known by the name of the "Dexter road." El route, one of Mr. Dexter's children died, and, coffined in a trunk, was buried at the foot of a tree upon what is now the farm of Courtland Hill, in Bengal township, Clinton Co. Upon the tree they inscribed " Here lies Riley, son of S. Dexter." The " S. Dexter" was branded upon the tree with a branding-iron, and is said to be still in good preservation. The rest of the inscription was made with chalk, and disappeared long ago. On the 28th of May, 1833, just thirty-three days after it was begun, the journey ended upon the bank of the Grand River where the city of Ionia presents its graceful front to-day. Upon section 19, where a majority of the company concluded to settle, they found a large Indian village numbering about five hundred inhabitants. The inhabitants had tilled the ground and had growing crops, but they were simply occupying the lands on sufferance, for they had long since disposed of them to the general government. The white colony bargained with the savages for what crops and improvements occupied the ground, paying, it is said, twenty-five dollars as the purchasemoney, and upon that took immediate possession. A majority of the settlers decided to occupy Indian huts as temporary habitations; Dexter, Yeomans, and Winsor, however, built log houses. The relations between settlers and savages were exceedingly friendly, and they trafficked between each other to the profit and satisfaction of all concerned. Remark should have been made that Dexter's house stood on the lot now occupied by J. Smolz's brick block on Main Street; Winsor's shanty occupied the present site of J. M. Fitch's residence; Mr. Yeomans' house was located in what is now the township of Easton. The Indians, as has been remarked, were good neighbors, and in exchange for such things as the settlers could spare or for silver they supplied venison, fish, sugar, etc. The colony had forwarded the greater portion of their goods and supplies from Detroit, via the lakes, to Grand Haven, and expected to get them in short order, but it was not until midsummer that they received them, and mean while they were compelled to do without even some of the necessaries of life. The savages had a standard of exchange to which they blindly adhered, and, as to money, it was useless to offer them anything but silver. When they traded it was quart for quart or bushel for bushel, whether it was flour for cranberries or potatoes for huckleberries. Paper currency they knew not, and, given a choice between a ten-dollar bill and twenty-five-cent silver piece, would take the silver without hesitation. As soon as the settlers got matters comfortably arranged there was a call for a saw-mill, and Samuel Dexter promptly supplied the need by building one on a creek about two miles west of the settlement, the saw-mill site being in what is now known as Easton township. Although it is difficult to fix the matter with certainty, the weight of evidence inclines to the theory that Dexter's mill, built in November, 1833, was the second mill in the county, and that H. V. Libhart's mill, built in Ionia township, two miles west of Lyons, was the first, the latter being built in the summer of 1833. The land upon which the saw-mill stood was not bought by Dexter until after his arrival with the colony in 1833. Dr. Lincoln rode over to White Pigeon to enter it for Dexter, and while proceeding along through the woods met a man dashing excitedly through space, by whom he was suddenly assailed with the inquiry, "Are you Dr. Deming?" "No, sir," replied Lincoln; "I'm not Dr. Deming, but I am Dr. Lincoln. Can I do anything for you?" The man, then hurriedly explaining that Judge Lovell (Cyrus) was lying at Bronson (now Kalamazoo) quite sick, and that he had been sent after Dr. Deming, besought Lincoln to turn aside and call on Judge Lovell. Lincoln went on to Bronson, and found that Lovell was quite sick, and that a diet of cold water and brandy steadily administered had failed as a part of the treatment. Acting under a sudden inspiration, Lincoln decided to try hot water and brandy, and from that moment Lovell, who was thought as good as dead, rallied. He is still alive and hearty in Ionia, and will probably always think that the hot water and brandy saved him. The first framed house built in the village was Dr. Lincoln's, erected in 1834 and still doing duty as a portion of Dr. Allen's residence. The first white child born was Eugene, son to Darius Winsor, whose birth occurred in August, 1833. The Winsors lived just east of where Dr. Barnes now resides, and in 1835 moved to Grand Rapids. In the family of Darius Winsor, also, occurred the first death in the settlement. It was that of Darius Winsor's six-year-old daughter, in the summer of 1833. She was ill of marasmus when the colony came, and never got better. She was buried on the hill north of the village, about where Isaac H. Thayer lives, and there were also buried on that spot a few others. There was no regularly laid-out burial-place until 1843, when the town made a cemetery of the place in the western part of the city now used as such. The first wedding in the settlement was that of Dr. W. B. Lincoln to Anthy P., daughter of Oliver Arnold. The marriage took place at the residence of the bride's father on Sunday, July 5, 1835, Squire Samuel Dexter performing the ceremony. It was a quiet festival. The day itself protested against hilarity, and, aside from that consider ation, the spirit of piety prevailed throughout the community to such an extent that dancing even at a wedding would have been frowned down most sternly. CITY OF IONIA. 139 The need of a grist-mill was one of the earliest and most pressing, and in this emergency Dexter bethought himself to become a public benefactor by fixing to the front of his cabin a large coffee-mill. This everybody was welcome to use as a grist-mill; and use it everybody did to grind corn. It wasn't much of a grist-mill, to be sure, but it was far better than none, and immeasurably better than having to go a week's journey to mill. In the fall of 1834, Mr. Dexter made an improvement in the grist-mill department by furnishing his saw-mill with a run of small stone thirty inches in diameter. The first grist ground belonged to Asa Spencer, and the hour that saw the mill in motion for the first grist was a proud and joyful one for the settlement. Despite the privileges of the big coffeemill, the people had been occasionally compelled to go to mill to Pontiac or Gull Prairie, sometimes carrying the grist afoot and conveying the flour back after the same fashion. Going to mill that way meant a hardship which can illy be understood by the present generation, but it is easy to understand that the introduction of an enterprise which promised relief from such a burden must have been welcome beyond expression. The pioneer mechanics in the settlement were Oliver Arnold-who set up a blacksmith's shop on the south side of the river, near where Wesley Arnold & Sons carry on the manufacture of agricultural implements-and Darius Winsor, carpenter and millwright. The pioneer physician was, of course, Dr. Lincoln, who had his hands full of practice, too, from the period of his first appearance. He was Ionia County's first, and for some years its only, doctor. He was called here, there, and everywhere, and rode over a stretch of territory extending from Grand Rapids and Greenville on the west to Do Witt on the east, and from Montcalm County on the north to Barry County on the south. Soon after he was married he was called in a hurry to the Niles settlement, thirty miles distant. to attend an obstetrical case, and, starting early in the morning, attended, saw the trouble safely over, and got home the same evening. A horseback-ride of sixty miles through forests seems like a considerable job, but then it was looked upon as a common incident in the life of a backwoods doctor. Dr. Lincoln has lived in Ionia since he first set foot within its limits, and until quite recently continued the practice of his profession uninterruptedly. Still hale and hearty, lhe takes an active interest in the stirring duties of life, and when occasion serves recalls with zestful animation the events of the period that gave birth to Ionia. Having now reached a point in this narrative where record is to be made of fresh accessions to the settlement, the chronicler deems it proper to note the later history of the members of the Dexter Colony. Samuel Dexter himself lived ever after in Ionia, and died here in 1856. Erastus Yeomans, who lived from the first in the township of Easton, is still a resident of that town, at the venerable age of ninety. The Guilds and Winsors removed to Grand Rapids after a few years' residence in Ionia, and in Grand Rapids died. Oliver Arnold, the blacksmith, died in Ionia. Chauncey, James, and Wesley, of his sons, live in Ionia. T. D., another son, lives in Easton. A daughter is the wife of Dr. W. B. Lincoln. P. M. Fox lives at I I. Muir. Abram Decker and Samuel Dexter's two unmarried brothers were inclined to be rovers, and passed to other scenes after a brief sojourn. Mrs. Don Jones, one of Samuel Dexter's daughters, lives in Ionia. THE CORNELLS. The month of November, 1833, saw an important addition to the little band in the coming of Alfred Cornell and family, numbering, all told, twelve persons. The Cor. nells were from Madison Co., N. Y., and struggled through the woods between Detroit and Ionia fourteen days before completing their journey. The sight of this band of fresh pilgrims was to the settlers as welcome as the flowers of May; and they not only welcomed them right heartily, but put their hands together and built a shanty for them. Bedquilts and blankets did duty in that house as doors and windows, but the house was probably no less a cherished home for all that. The Cornells had brought west, as far as Detroit, a considerable stock of supplies and provisions, but lack of transportational facilities prompted them to move on and await their arrival at Ionia, before undertaking to get them forward. Their idea was to wait until snow came and then haul the goods out on sleighs. They waited patiently for the snow long after snow was due, but no snow came. The weather remained obstinately mild, and, although that condition of things favored the members of the colony in preparing against the rigors of winter, they began to see a thinning out of the stock of supplies in the colony, and prayed for snow and cold weather, so that Cornell might get on to Detroit and hurry back with what was needed. The cold weather refused to appear, however, until the middle of January, and then it fioze just enough to cover the river with a thin sheet of ice. To hasten the solidifying of a highway over the river, which would have to be crossed at the commencement of the journey, members of the settlement worked two weeks at carrying water and pouring it upon the ice, that a thickness for crossing might be reached. Snow came at last, the river was spanned, and three of the Cornell brothers started with oxen and sleds for Detroit. They reached there in due season, loaded up, and started for home with promising prospects. They had been en route but a few days when the snow disappeared, and they could proceed no farther. For six weeks they were held there weather-bound, and meanwhile the settlers at Ionia, having consumed by the last of January all available provisions, waited anxiously and impatiently for the Cornells. Occasional supplies of venison, fish, maple-sugar, and Indian corn cracked in Dexter's coffee-mill, sustained the settlers but feebly, while for four or five weeks they lived-so 'tis said-almost wholly upon coarse Indian meal and maple-sugar. The arrival of the Cornells in March revictualed the community and made glad the hungry, Hon. Alonzo Sessions, himself a comer to Ionia County in 1835, has written graphically and interestingly upon the pioneer era. He says: "No adequate idea can be formed of the difficulties and dangers attending the first settlement of Ionia County without taking into account the condition at the time. It was a vast wilderness a hundred miles distant from any 140 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICIIGAN. other settlement, with no roads for communication in any direction, and no possible channel for supplies but the circuitous, hazardous, and expensive water communication around the lakes and up the Grand River. The whole country was in the possession of a strange and savage people who would naturally regard the new-comers as not entitled to a friendly welcome, with abundant leisure, always armed, and with sagacity enough to know that the incomers were at their mercy. " With scanty supplies, with continued uncertainty as to obtaining more, wiih no shelter except the poor wigwams provided by tie Indians, with everything to make and build anew, with all the hazards of toil, exposure, sickness, suffering, starvation, and death,-they boldly took the risk and conquered every obstacle. By kind treatment and honest dealing the Indians soon became friends, and often supplied the material most in need when hunger came and famine threatened. With a kindness or prodigality unknown among thrifty, cautious people, they would divide their food or part with all of it by turns if the inducements were satisfactory. They often became useful allies in navigating streams and in other pursuits; and when the early settlers got into a condition to produce a surplus of food, for a time after pay-day they were very good customers, and a limited commerce with them was constant and beneficial on both sides. " Under such circumstances it was of course impossible for a weak colony to make rapid progress. But men who had the courage to make the attempt were not the men to fail, and the work progressed steadily from the outset. Fields were made and planted, houses, mills, and barns were built, and the work went gradually but surely on, gathering number, strength, tone, and power to the present time. The filst.tettlers, like all pioneers, had a village-perhaps a city-in the immediate future on their purchase, and the location became for some time a very interesting matter to them and resulted in their favor. A stake was stuck in the ground and named lonia Centre, though not very near the centre of the county." A TRIP UP THIE THORNAPPLE. Following the arrival of supplies by the Cornells in March, 1834, there was later in the spring another loud cry for provisions, and in response an expedition was fitted out to proceed by pole-boat as far as the present village of Middleville, on the Thornapple River. Tile craft was capable of carrying perhaps fifteen tons, and was in command of Erastus Yeomans, aided by a corps of stout and lusty boatmen, of whom the present chaplain at the Ionia house of correction (Rev. Alfred Cornell) was one. Provisions had been purchased at Gull Prairie, in Kalamazoo County, and, according to contract, were delivered on the Thornapple near iMiddleville, where Capt. Yeomans and his merry crew took them aboard and poled homeward in great glee. Until the first crops were raised it was irksome business getting wheat, corn, and other supplies, for transportation was difficult and the journeys demanded trips to Kalamazoo, Pontiac, and even to Detroit. The memorable frost of Jqne, 1834, was a sad blow to the settlement, for, while the settlers were congratulating themselves upon the brightening prospect of growing crops, the biting cold nipped the promise in the bud and left dire discouragement where erstwhile gladsome hope sat enthroned. Luckily, such hearts as pioneers boasted were not made to be utterly cast down. Fresh endeavors, renewed efforts, and an unswerving faith in eventual prosperity bore them up and along, and they buffeted with heroic zeal the waves with which fate seemed determined to engulf them. TRADERS AND TAVERNS. In the fall of 1836 old Coon* Ten Eyck, of Northville, Mich., concluded that Ionia offered a good opening for a merchant, and so he arranged to send his son William up there in company with John Lloyd for the purpose of opening a store. Lloyd and Ten Eyck rented Samuel Dexter's barn, and engaged Ezekiel Welch, then captain of the pole-boat " Davy Crockett," to bring up a load of goods from Grand Haven. Welch set sail from lonia, September 28th, having on board forty passengers for Grand Rapids, at one dollar a head. Those who were in a hurry lent a hand in poling the boat; those who had leisure took matters lazily. Welch got the goods and brought them up as far as Utica landing (now in Easton), whence they were hauled by teams to Ionia; for the river above was then too low for the passage of the boat. Lloyd & Ten Eyck used Dexter's barn until they could put up a storebuilding, which was simply a hastily-constructed blockhouse. It occupied the corner of Main and Third Streets where Allen Wright's store now stands, and was long known as the "Grab-Store," because of the high prices charged by Lloyd for goods. Lloyd used to say, in explanation, that it cost a heap to get goods up the river, and lie was bound to make Ionians pay for them. In December, 1837, they received a load of goods by the steamer "Governor Maison," and it may be that they were enabled after that to put prices down to a decent figure. The second store was opened by Parks & Warner, on the site now occupied by MI. J. Young's hardware-store. They afterwards moved up town to the corner of Main and Kidd Streets, where they were doing business in 1837, and where they eventually thiled. There was'no village tavern until early in 1838, although there were boarding-houses before that, Asa Spencer's, in 1836, being the first one. The frame for the structure afterwards called the Eagle Tavern was, however, raised in July, 1837, but the enterprise was left uncompleted until 1843, when Abel Avery bought and finished it. Samuel Dexter wanted a tavern for the town, and with J. W. Brown, register of the land-office, Cyrus Lovell, and others, formed what was known as the "Iontia House Company" for the purpose of building a tavern, to be called the Ionia House. A site was chosen on the corner now occupied by the Bailey House, and Jeremiah Eaton, a house-builder of IHerkimer Co., N. Y., was induced by the promise of a liberal interest in the company to come out and build the tavern. As before observed, the frame was raised in July, 1837, and a kitchen finished, but by that * Conrad. CI;TY OF~ IONIA. 141 CY O time the affair had gone in expenditure so far beyond the expectations of the projectors that they got disheartened and refused to push it any farther. So it was left in an unfinished state, and the Ionia House Company became a thing of the past. The failure stimulated Ezekiel Welch to try his hand at tavern-keeping, and, as will be seen, he made a " go" of it. Welch had come to the town in 1836, was captain of a pole-boat on the Grand River that year, and the following year and early in 1838 opened the first tavern known to the history of Ionia. He claims to have poled to Grand Rapids the first lot of flour shipped by Samuel Dexter, for whom Daniel Cornell worked as a cooper. Welch's log tavern stood in the rear of where Broad & Plant's market now is, and on the 14th of February, 1838, he raised his sign. It bore the legend " Union House, by E. Welch," and was the handiwork of Nelson Dye. Mr. Welch says he called it the Union House because he wished to conciliate both Whigs and Democrats, to whom he catered equally for favor and patronage. The kitchen attached to the unfinished Ionia House he stocked with five beds and packed it full of Whigs and Democrats every night. His remembrance at present is that the air used to get blue in that bedroom with politics, for the occupants generally made it a point to extend their excited discussions until far into the night. Welch kept also a small grocerystore that stood directly in front of his tavern, but his store was probably an affair limited to the occupancy of a few "wet" goods. The second tavern was opened by William McCausland in April, 1838, just west of the present building of the Second National Bank. That tavern was called the " Cottage Inn," and was afterwards kept by Ezekiel Welch. In 1843, Abel Avery, having bought the unfinished Ionia House of Samuel Dexter for a stock of Yankee notions and leather, opened it with a flourish of trumpets as the "Grand River Eagle," and made a famous house of it. Illustrative of the genial spirit and friendly consideration that prevailed in those early days, a story is told that has to do with Avery's tavern. Avery had bought a load of hay, but when the man came to deliver it Avery was away from home. Mrs. Avery didn't know just what to do about it, but, seeing Dr. Lincoln near by, she called out to him to come over and " guess off" the load of hay, as she had no means of weighing it. Just then Lawson S. Warner, a storekeeper, and Osmond Tower, a carpenter, happened along, and Lincoln invited them to take a hand in the guessing business. Dr. Lincoln guessed seven hundred and fifty pounds as the weight, while the others guessed all the way up to eleven hundred pounds. Tower said he'd like to settle the matter a little more definitely, and, remarking that he knew where he could get a pair of steelyards that would weigh a hundred-pound draught, fetched them, and the load, being weighed, reached just seven hundred and forty-nine pounds. Dr. Lincoln's reputation as a guesser was of course at once established, and Mrs. Avery's faith in his guessing powers emphatically indorsed. SCHOOL AND CIIURCH. To provide school education for the young and religious teachings for themselves were among the earliest thoughts and cares of the settlers. In the winter of 1834-35, Dr. Lincoln was besought to open a school in his office (the fact of his having been a school-teacher suggesting naturally his selection as pedagogue), and, consenting to the plan, he trained the young and tender idea during that winter to climb the dizzy heights of learning, although how high they got tradition fails to state. A Baptist Church was organized as early as June, 1834, a Methodist Class in 1835, an Episcopal Church in 1841, and a Presbyterian Church in 1842. Religious zeal took thus early a firm hold upon the hearts of the pioneers, despite the struggles and anxieties they were called upon to endure, and that zeal, watered by the spirit of piety and loyalty to early teachings, has brought forth abundant fruit. After Dr. Lincoln's effort the cause of education was encouraged and fostered by Mason IHearsey, who in the autumn of 1835 taught the first public school. Amanda 'Yeomans, afterwards the wife of Rev. Alfred Cornell, taught, in 1836, the first summer school in Ionia. Unfortunately for the historian's purpose, no early township school records can be found, and but little, therefore, can be said about early schools. THE LAND-OFFICE ESTABLISHED AT IONIA.OTHER EVENTS OF 1836. The year 1836 was a year fraught with importance to the village, for it was during that period that the United States located a land-office at that point It was on September 20th of that year that the office was opened, on Main Street, near where Arnold & Cornell now have a store, and there set in at once a steady and voluminous flow of' land-seekers and speculators to that centre, which in a trice seemed to have awakened from the quiet features of a backwoods settlement to the bustling, stirring, and well-nigh distracting elements of a country village in fairtime. The rush for lands was something quite remarkable, and applicants were frequently compelled to wait for weeks before they could get a chance to make an entry. The crowd was hungry, and must be fed and lodged. The citizens were, of course, not averse to entertaining them, provided pay was forthcoming, and, as money was plentiful, customers did not haggle about the prices charged. The inroad upon the stock of provisions compelled new supplies to be brought from Detroit or Pontiac, and, although it was a race between Supply and Demand, Supply managed through heroic exertions to meet the requirements of the occasion, albeit it was tough business hauling goods from Detroit, especially when the ground was frozen. Thirty days to Detroit and back was not considered a very long trip. Jackson's war upon the United States Bank brought oceans of worthless Western bank-notes into circulation, and money was almost as plentiful as water. Speculation ran rampant and fortunes were rapidly made. The turn in the tide came with the issue of Jackson's specie circular, and Ionia, with her people, suffered some disaster under the blow. The check was a sudden one and gave the little settlement a set-back, but the blight was simply temporary. The reaction came in due season, and then set in the era 142 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. of substantial advancement which strengthened and expanded with the march of time. A writer of the time thus deals with that period: " The location of the land-office at Ionia was the occasion of public rejoicing, but it proved a very unfortunate thing for the county. At the very time when the mania for speculating in wild lands was raging and the fever at its extreme height the land-office was opened-in the midst of an extensive tract of the most valuable lands just thrown upon the market-by officers so devoid of all sense of honor as to practice daily in open daylight the most barefaced frauds upon poor men who desired small tracts to live upon, and a criminal favoritism in the interests of those who had money to bribe them and to secure great numbers of acres to hold wild and waste. "Just at that time President Jackson's specie circular came in force, and that enabled greedy officials to swindle honest purchasers in detail and in bulk. It would require too much space to describe all the methods of fraud and' swindling that were practiced, but a few of them will be given, to wit: The law required that each parcel of land should be first offered at auction. The bids were required to be in writing and placed in a box previous to the day of sale. When the time for final decision came, all bids were missing except the one put-n by the favored one. Again, only gold or silver or the bills of a few favored banks were received for lands. This was a surprise sprung by the specie circular, and many-in fact, most poor men-came unprepared. The nearest banks were at Detroit, one hundred and forty miles distant and no road. A broker's office across the street from the land-office was a good thing to have, for gold and silver were in demand at ten per cent. premium. The broker's office sold specie while the supply lasted, but gave out before noon and night. At night and at noon boxes were seen to pass from the land-office to the broker's, and the specie used to buy land was used twice each day, and somebody pocketed twenty cents on each dollar of it every day, and the money was taken from the pockets of those who had no money to spare.; The result is soon told. Those who came to buy land to make themselves homes soon became disgusted and left. It may be wondered why they did not tear down the landoffice and the office of the broker. But Gen. Jackson was President, and, 'by the Eternal!' it might not have been safe. They left peaceably, and the speculators, as they are called, took the land and held it from settlement and improvement. Some paid taxes upon it, and others let it be sold for taxes. The titles became mixed and doubtful, and careful men shun it." Tile first Fourth-of-July celebration in Ionia took place in 1836, and was, of course, a great event. Alonzo Sessions delivered the oration, and Thomas Cornell provided the feast of solids. There was much eating and drinking and dancing and merry-making, but each patriot conducted himself in an eminently respectable manner, and went to bed happy. NAMING THE TOWN. When the locale of the settlement of the Dexter Colony began to assume the appearance of a hamlet, Dexter wanted to give it a name, and, anxious to do the fair thing by the bantling, called it Washington Centre, because he thought it likely to be something of a town some day, and therefore entitled to a pretty high-sounding name. Nathan Brown had captured the name of Ionia for his prospective village, a mile or so eastward, and possessed a pretty well-defined impression that his locality would be the county-seat some day. It happened, however, that his was a still-born village, and after a bit Dexter platted his and called it the Village of Ionia County-Seat. This was along in 1836, but it was not until 1841 that the village plat was formally recorded. The place was known as Ionia County-Seat until 1863, when a special act of Legislature, approved March 7th, changed it to Ionia. JULY 4, 1837. The second Fourth-of-July celebration at Ionia was an animated affair, and deserves remembrance. The moving spirits were Samuel Dexter, Alfred Cornell, Jr., and Sanford A. Yeomans. They engaged Ezekiel Welch to get up a dinner for fifty couple, and caused a "bowery" one hundred or more feet long to be built at the corner of Main and Kidd Streets. Welch was then living on the upper creek, near Mr. J. C. Blanchard's present residence, and, with the assistance of his wife, baked the dinner, consisting of roast beef, roast pigs, etc., against a log; and the dinner, they do say, was a most excellent one, and well relished. Although dinner had been prepared for one hundred people, only about eighty sat down, as it happened; and why it thus happened was because the other twenty, ignoring their pledges to take part, danced away to an opposition celebration at Lyons. There was considerable dinner left, and, rather than see it wasted, the masters of ceremonies extended a general invitation to the Indians hovering about to take hold and fill up. One invitation was quite sufficient for the hungry redskins, and they attacked the tables sans ceremony in such vigorous and voracious style that in a trice everything was swept from the banquet-boards as cleanly almost as if there had never been an edible upon them. There was a " bowery" dance, of course, speeches, cannon-firing, etc., and a high patriotic time generally. Everybody was probably as happy as true patriots usually are on Independence Day, and at fright, after the daylight festivities had whetted the public appetite for continued indulgence, there was a ball in the building used in part by Parks & Warner as a store, at the corner of Main and Kidd Streets. THE VILLAGE PLATTED. In the month of July, 1841, Thomas Cornell and Alexander F. Bell, surveyors, laid out for Samuel Dexter the village of (" Ionia County-Scat," on the north half of section 19, in town 7 north, range 6 west. The line of survey commenced at "a stone set south nine degrees and thirty minutes east, distant one hundred and fifty links from a stump known as the county-stake of Ionia County. Said stone lay north forty degrees thirty minutes, west two hundred and twenty-five links, from the northwest corner of the upright part of the house built by Joseph W. Brown, and now occupied by Cyrus Lovell." Aug. 25, 1841, the plat of Warner's addition to " Ionia CITY OF ION~IA. 143 CITY OF. JON.A. 143 County-Seat" was recorded as having been surveyed by A. F. Bell, and beginning at a point on the northeast quarter of section 19 aforesaid, fifty links westerly on the north line of Main Street from the southwest corner of Il. Rich's store, formerly known as Parks & Warner's store. Nov. 9, 1854, James M. Kidd and Hampton Rich platted an addition, commencing at a point south twenty degrees, east four chains and seven links, from the southeast corner of the brick county offices of Ionia County; thence north eighty-one degrees, east eight hundred and thirty-nine and fifty-five-one-hundredths feet; thence north nine degrees, west eight chains; thence south eiglhty-one degrees, west eight hundred and thirty-nine and fifty-five-one-hundredths feet; thence south nine degrees, east eight chains, to the place of beginning. Nov. 29, 1855, Merritt and York's addition to the village of Ionia County-Seat was recorded. In June, 1857, Samuel C. Alderman surveyed Titus Merritt's addition, upon the northwest quarter of section 20. Sept. 1, 1857, Charles W. Ingalls recorded the plat of his addition on section 19, and May 3, 1854, Louis S. Lovell, Richard Dye, and Nelson Dye platted an addition on the northwest corner of section 19. Lovell's addition on section 19 was platted Oct. 16, 1858, by Cyrus Lovell and Edwin R. Powell, and Cyrus Lovell's addition on section 18 on the 27th of October, 1864. The foregoing were plats and additions to the village of Ionia County-Seat. The first addition to the village of Ionia was made by Frederick Hall, Oct. 24, 1865, on section 19; the second by L. F. Mills, Nov. 10, 1865, on the east third of the east half of the southwest quarter, and the west third of the west half of the southeast quarter, of section 18, town 7 north, range 6 west. M. Bliss' addition was platted on the northeast corner of section 19 and northwest corner of section 20, town 7 north, range 6 west, May 31, 1870, by Milton Bliss and William Milligan. June 25, 1872, Laura Place platted, on sections 20, 21, and 16, Place's addition to the village of Ionia. The survey commenced at the northeast corner of section 20, and ran fourteen and one-half degrees north of east to the centre of the highway designated on the plat as First Street (distance seventeen chains and fifteen links); thence south eight and a quarter degrees, east to the centre of the highway running east from Ionia (distance fifteen chains); thence in a southwesterly direction, following the centre of said highway, a distance of thirty-eight chains eighty-one and a half links, to the centre of the highway designated on plat as Fourth Street; thence north to the north line of section 20; thence following the section-line east to the point of commencing. Besides the additions named, Louis Campau, as administrator of the estate of Louis Genereau, platted, May 13, 1848, an addition called Genereauville, which did not, however, cut much of a figure. THE SPIRIT OF '36. Elder Alfred Cornell, now chaplain at the Ionia house of correction, and himself a member of the band of pio neers who founded Ionia in 1833, wrote in 1876 an interesting sketch of Ionia's settlement, and alluded therein to the lives and condition of the pioneer settlers. He says: "You may very naturally say they must have suffered very great privations and endured very great sufferings. Not at all, my friends,-not at all. Thank you for your kindly sympathies, but know this,-that there are none of the pioneer settlers now living who do not look back with pleasure-even desire-to the days when an untrodden wilderness surrounded them; when the nearest settlement was a hundred miles away. Yea, they hunger for the return of those days as the Israelites hungered for the leeks and onions of Egypt, or as the weary traveler hungers for the repose and comforts of home. The memories of those days are full of the sweetness of real life, virtuous and noble aspirations. Never before did the husband and wife so realize their oneness, never the family union so complete and perfect, or neighbors live in such peace and joyful fellowship. Not that they were different from other men, but their circumstances and surroundings were favorable for the development of the noblest qualities,-to the stirring up of the generous impulses and awakening the kindlier feelings that insure mutual sympathies and help. They were like the returned days of man's primitive virtue and innocence. Helping others, they helped themselves; seeking to make others happy, they increased their own happiness. They were delighted with every new arrival. Everything was yet to be done, and they rejoiced in the doing of it. Every new acre of improvement produced a thrill of joy in the household. Every fruit-tree planted was watched over with an ever-increasing interest as the family estimated the time when it would yield them its ripened fruit. Every new building erected by themselves or others marked the advancing tide of civilization, and all were jubilant over it. "No man who has come into the possession of the paternal patrimony with the lands all cultivated, buildings all made, fruit-trees all in bearing condition, the surrounding villages grown to a standstill, can have a just appreciation of the vitalizing power and life-giving energy embodied in pioneer life, or the abiding pleasure with which the early pioneer looks back to the days and doings when the wilderness was made to bud and blossom as the rose. "True, there were those who came and went away again without staying long enough to be baptized in the spirit of frontier-life. One such family came to Ionia at an early day. The wife began at once to bemoan her hard fate and great privations, and begged with tears to be taken back to her once Eastern home. Friends interposed and expostulated, her husband persuaded, but at last, in a fit of utter desperation, she announced the decree as unalterable as the laws of the Medes and Persians, saying she' would not stay in any country where she couldn't get a stone churn.' Against such an argument and proposition there was, of course, no appeal, and without more ado the meek husband bowed his head, packed the household goods, and with his spouse left Michigan forever." RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS. Tradition preserves a few poetic reminiscences of life in Ionia when the prosy reality of life was the development of the country, but the stock preserved represents only a very small proportion of the light and airy incidents that embellished the progress of local history. Mention of one 144 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. I or two will be found in connection with the history of the old Grab-Store. Others will be found here. One recollection deals with a proposed duel between Dr. Norton Beckwith and A. F. Bell. Beckwith was something of a practical joker, and in that department made himself famous on the occasion of a Fourth-of-July dinner at Lyons. Bell was quite as much given to harmless amusement, and likely enough these two played tricks upon each other. At all events, Dr. Beckwith took occasion to feel sorely offended at some action of Bell's, and, to appease his wounded honor, challenged Bell to mortal combat according to the " Code." Bell regarded the custom sanctioned by the Code as a barbarous one, no doubt, and, while he ridiculed Beckwith's "swelling anger and boundless passion," resolved to make sport of the doctor and his challenge. In accepting the challenge, therefore, he stipulated that potatoes should be the weapons, that the field of battle should be the Grand River bridge, and that each combatant, standing at one end of the bridge, should discharge potatoes at the other until the doctor's honor should declare itself satisfied. Beckwith was intensely disgusted with such a turn to what he looked upon as a decidedly serious affair, and, considering, doubtless, that it would be an idle waste of time to pursue the matter farther, said no more about it. Speaking about Bell suggests the name of his law-partner, J. C. Blanchard, one of the chosen band who invaded Ionia County when the county was a forest. Blanchard had occasion to hunt up a justice of the peace on behalf of a young couple anxious to be married,-Jeremiah Hunt and Ann Tripp. The justice was new at the business, and when brought before the happy pair was so far confused at the prospect of an untried duty that he stood like one confounded, not knowing what to do or which way to turn. Blanchard poked him in the ribs and told him to "go ahead." The squire felt that something must be done, and, resolving in his desperation to do it, suddenly cried out in a loud voice, "M r. Jeremiah Hunt, hold up your hand. Do you swear by God Almighty that you take this woman for your wife?" The answer being an assent, the squire rapidly addressed the same form of inquiry to the woman, and, upon being similarly answered, yelled, as if he would yell the roof of the house off, "Tllhen I swear by God Almighty that you are man and wife, and God Almighty's curse on the one that shall separate you! Amen." Having delivered himself of that remarkable and original form of joining two souls, the unhappy justice subsided and breathed a fervent prayer of thankfulness fir the divine mercy that had permitted him to pass through the trying ordeal alive. Franklin Everett, in his " Memorials of the Grand River Valley," tells of Blanchard an amusing story that deserves to be repeated here. Everett says: "Blanchard and a companion went out one day to conduct a case before a rural justice,-their maiden case,-and, by agreement, one was to examine witnesses and the other do the pleading. The court-room was in a log house raised some feet from the ground, and supplied upon either side with an open doorway. The pleader stood erect before the court, with his back to one of the open doors, and commenced, ' May it please the court, sir!' There he stuck; but, spitting two or three times, said again, ' May it please the court, sir!' stepping back a step or two at the same time; but there he stuck again. Growing desperate, he a third time exploded, ' May it please the court, sir!!' and, stepping back again, fell out of the door, turning a somersault as he went. Crawling on his hands aind knees, he stuck his head through the doorway, and, yelling 'Go to the devil with your old court!' made off through the woods." PIONEER PREACHING. A Methodist circuit-preacher who was wandering through Western Michigan in 1835 stopped awhile in Ionia. He was fond of saying that he had " taken his life into his hands and come all the way from Ohio to go into the backwoods and preach the gospel to the heathen." He was fond also of shouting a good deal in the course of religious worship, belonging, indeed, to that class known as " Roaring Methodists," and in zeal abounded amazingly, although his learning and refinement were not of the most distinguished. Upon one occasion, while holding services at a private house, he roared most vociferously through a hymn, and, when he had finished, asked a young woman of the company if she sang. "Y5es," said she; "I can sing, but won't. " Well, well!" replied the parson; " those who can sing, and won't sing, should be made to sing." "And those," spitefully returned the young woman, " who can't sing without braying like donkeys should be made to hold their noise." Report says the parson subsided. BOATING ON THE GRAND. The first steamboat that troubled the waters of the Grand River as high up as Ionia was the " Governor Mason," a side-wheel lake-boat, which on the occasion of a winter fieshet took advantage of the high water in the river to make a trip from Grand Haven to Lyons. Although the trip was simply a freak on the part of the owners of the craft, she did carry some goods up to Ionia for John Lloyd, the pioneer storekeeper of that place. The " Mason" landed at Ionia, Dec. 1, 1837, pushed on to Lyons, and returned to the lake without delay. After that transportation was afforded, as it had been before, exclusively by pole-boats until 1847, when, an attempt being made by the State to "improve the navigation of the Grand River," small steamboats were put into commission for the purpose of towing barges between Grand Rapids and points above as far as Lyons. The "Humming-Bird," built with a double hull and having one wheel in the centre, was the first boat up in 1847. Her captain was Vine Welch. Following the " Humming-Bird" came the " John Almy," the "J. W. Porter," and other boats. They were small affairs, and carried but little cargo. Daniel Ball, a Grand Rapids trader, who had all along been runting a line of pole-boats, added also a steamboatline, and was extensively engaged in river-marine until the passage of the railway-trains of the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad in 1857. He built a wheat warehouse on the south side of the river, near the site of the present bridge, opposite the fair-grounds, and there loaded his barges and shipped first and last great quantities of grain. Mr. Ball CITY OF IONIA. 145 used to ship wheat down the river before that in pole-boats, and is accredited with having, in 1841, shipped via river the first load of wheat ever sent from Tonia over the waterroute. Historical authority has it, also, that the first wheat cargo shipped from Ionia via river was forwarded by Giles Isham in 1839. It was pretty expensive business getting wheat to market via the river and lake, for at Grand Rapids the cargoes had to be hauled overland around the rapids and reshipped. Wheat was in consequence bought in at a pretty low rate along the river, and not often touched more than sixty-two cents per bushel, while fifty, and even forty, cents were not uncommon prices. It was not always, either, that cash could be obtained for wheat by thec producers, and, what with store-pay and low prices, they were sometimes inclined to think the game not worth the candle. While the difficulties and expenses of transportation bore down upon the price of wheat at home, they contributed, upon the other hand, to increase the prices of goods brought from the East. Merchants used to figure that it cost more to freight their goods from Grand Haven to Ionia than from New York to Grand Haven. The delays, too, in transportation were such that, it is said, notes at three months given in New York by Ionia merchants for goods would sometimes fall due before the goods reached their destination. A BUSINESS DIRECTORY OF 1843. In the issue of the Ionia Journal (Ira W. Robinson publisher) of date Dec. 27, 1843, appears a Business Directory setting forth the names of' merchants, lawyers, physicians, tavern-keepers, etc., as follows: " Louis S. Lovell, Attorney and Counselor-at-Law. Office one door west of the Land-Office. " Ira Porter, Attorney and Counselor-at-Law. Office in the LandOffice. " Cyrus Lovell, Attorney-at-Law. Office at his residence on Main Street. "A. F. Bell, Attorney-at-Law. Office north side of Main Street. "W. 11. Parks, Attorney and Counselor-at-Law. Office in the Eagle building. " M. Hearsey, Justice of the Peace. Office at Dr. Cornell's, south side of Main Street. "Hampton Rich, Notary Public. "Fredeiick 1all, Notary Public. Office in the Land-Office. "Kalamazoo Mutual Insurance Co. Louis S. Lovell, Agent. "Asaph Mather, County Treasurer. "Alauson Cornell, Physician, Surgeon, and Druggist, Main Street. "*W. B. Lincoln, Physlei.cn and Surgeon, Main Street. "G. M. Mills, dealer in drygoods, groceries, crockery, hardware, etc., corne.r Main and Canal Lie ets. "Granger & Ball, dealers in drygoods, hardware, groceries, etc., corner lMain and Canal Stiects. " L. S. Warner, dealer in drygoods, crockery, boots and shoes, etc., Eagle building. '* Si. S. iarks, dealer in drygoods, groceries, boots and shoes, etc., corner Main and Canal Streets. "A. Avery, dealer in buots, shoes, leather, clocks, jewelry, etc., Main Street, oplposite Laud-Office. "Daniel Clapsaddle, boot- and bhoe-m ker. Shop over Parks & Beckwith's store, corner Main and Canal Streets. ''E. S. Johnson, merchant tallor. Sh,p on Main Street. "Thomas 11. Mullen, tailor. Shop over Parks & Beckwith's store, corner Main and Canal. "'. & N. Dye, eauinet- and chair-makers, corner Washington and Dye Streets. 1*9 "M. Hearsey, blind-, door-, and sash-maker, at Messrs. Dye's shop. "J. M. Kidd, manufacturer of fanning-mills, chairs, bedsteads, etc., Jackson Street, Upper Diggins. "P. linds, blacksmith. Shop on Main Steet. "John Tompkins, blacksmith, corner Main and Second Streets. "S. Dexter & Son, millers, corner Main and Ferry Streets. "Grand River Eagle, by A. Avery, Main Street. "Ionia Hotel, by E. Welch, Main Street. "Ionia Cottage, by George Parks, Main Street." From the same issue of the Journal are copied the following advertisements of rival tavern-keepers: "ANOTHER OUTRAGE! "Some gentleman stole my sign on Saturday evening last, and it found itself placed on the top of that lonesome old po-t in front of my house. Don't be afraid of it, you that are in the habit of calling at a place called a tavern: your names are sufficient without fear of your bills. The old Travelers' Home is, as it always was and always will be, cheap! cheaper!! cheapest!!! Call and see. "E. WELCH. P. S.-All kinds of produce taken for bills of entertainment after the bills are made." "HURRAI FOR THE GRAND RIVER EAGLE! "This way, stranger! Don't be scart at the large house. Try it once; that's what tells the story. Wanted, all kinds of produce in payment of bills of entertainment,-at the time would be preferable. I say, mister! where are you going with that load of lumber? To Avery's, for he has done t iking promises. "Cash up your bar-bill on the spot. "A. AVERY." IONIA VILLAGE IN 1845. "Squire" A. B. Clark, now a justice of the peace in Ionia City, came to the town with his father in the summer of 1845, Clark the elder having come from Oakland County for the purpose of continuing in Ionia the business of foundryman, which he had been following in Pontiac for some years. Squire Clark was then a lad of fifteen, and the impressions of time, place, and circumstance made upon him at that period have remained with him to this day with such keenness of recollection that he calls to mind vividly and in elaborate detail the condition of Ionia in the summer of 1845. From First Street down to and beyond Dexter's red mill he names, on Main Street, residents, storekeepers, and all others abiding thereon with such minute exactness that one is forced to compliment the performance as a remarkable feat of memory. Following his chain of description, the north side of Main Street, in the summer of 1845, may be pictured as follows: At the corner of Firs tand Main Streets was the Baptist church, and just north of it the Episcopal church. West on Main Street was the residence of Olmond Tower, and next to it Mr. Tower's fanning-mill factory. Still farther along was S. B. Worden's cabinet-shop and residence, and on the Sherman House corner the residence of John Tompkins, the blacksmith. Tompkins enlarged his residence in 1848 and opened it as a tavern called " The Exchange." When the Exchange was burned Tompkins built the Sherman House, and kept it until his death. On the corner where now stands the Second National Bank stood Tompkins' blacksmith-shop. Where M. J. Young's hardware-store is stood the Cottage Inn, then vacant. That tavern was built by William McCausland, and by him opened in 1838 as one of the pioneer institutions of the 146 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICIIIGAN. kind in the village. West was the residence of Steptoe Brown, a carpenter; beyond him, A. F. Carr's house; next west, the Parks lot, into the house on which W. C. Clark moved when he came to town, and on which also Cornelius Elvert, a tailor, lived. Then there was the house of Benjamin Harter (that fall a clerk for James M. Kidd), and on the corner of Main and Third Streets Jesse Stephenson, a shoemaker. Crossing the street to the opposite corner, the exploration reaches the " Grab-Store," built by John Lloyd, and then kept by Charles M. Moseman. THE GRAB-STORE. Moseman's Grab-Store (so called while John Lloyd owned it, and thus designated always afterwards) was a place of popular resort, or, more appropriately speaking, "the general loafing-place of the town." George M. Mills had succeeded John Lloyd in its possession, and to Mills succeeded Charles M. Moseman, a sometime Mormon preacher of Nauvoo, 11. Practical jokers abounded in those days, and to tell even a tithe of the pranks perpetrated upon one another by the patrons of the Grab-Store, or the lies they swapped in the story-telling season, would require a vulume of no inconsiderable proportions. One of the many Grab-Store stories yet fresh in recollection deals with S, B. Worden, the cabinet-maker, as the vietim, and the condign punishment meted out to him by selfconstituted moralists. Worden was freely given to gossiping, and when pretty well filled with liquor would exert himself to scandalize everybody within his thoughts. " The boys" came to a determination to make an example of him, and one night, inducing him, by some pretext, to visit the back room of the Grab-Store, startled him with the information that they proposed to make hint "dance" for his sinful conduct. Before Worden could protest or offer opposition, Elijah Kirkhanl, a carpenter, drew forth a" blacksnake" and proceeded to lay it about Worden in a manner that caused the victim most unutterable disgust. Meanwhile, Philander Hinds, the blacksmith, began to beat a snare-drum, so that Worden's cries should be drowned. The louder Worden yelled the mightier did Hinds' drum-beats sound, and the taster and more furiously did Kirkham ply the black-snake. When the drummer grew exhausted, the whipper nerveless, and Worden well-nigh lifeless, they let him go,-vastly improved, they do say, as to his love for scandal-mongerng. Another rich story is told of how Moseman played what he thought a huge joke on a sick Indian, but which turned out, through the aid of William Creamer, a most magnificent joke on Moseman. Squire Clark can tell that story much better than it can be written. Apropos of pioneer pranks occurs the story of one in which George M. Mills, the once proprietor of the GrabStore, and one of Ionia's prominent citizens, played the chief part. Mills was living at Grand Rapids at the time in question, and in response to a banter came up to Ionia for the purpose of drinking an Ionia man drunk. Report has it that for two days and two nights they drank and they drank and they drank;-whisky straight every'time. At the end of the two days Mills was placed hors du combat,literally floored, for he fell dead drunk to the floor at the close,-while the Ionia man remained " as fresh as a daisy." Not only was he as frcsh as a daisy, but he capped his performance by then and there stripping Mills, chalking his face, placing Canada coppers on his eyes, and announcing publicly from the door of the bar-room in which all this had taken place that " he had on exhibition within a Grand Rapids corpse, which could be viewed by everybody at ten cents per head." MAIN STREET, WEST. Resuming the thread of the narrative of" Ionia in 1845," note is made that next west of the Grab-Store was E. S. Johnson, tailor and postmaster, and next west of him was Dr. W. B. Lincoln, upon the present site of McMullen & Co.'s drug-store. Then there was the residence of the widow of William )allas (who had served as register of deeds and died in 1842), the house and shop of Elijah Kirkham, carpenter and joiner and lccal " character," the office of the Ionia Journal (whose editor, I. W. Robinson, lived on Waslington Street just north of his office), and the house of Samuel Dexter, whose place extended to the corner of Dexter and Main Streets. Westward of Dexter's, in lonely solitude, lay the residences of Samuel Smith, Ethan S. Johnson, and Erastus Yeomans, between which two latter residences was the village school-house. On the south side of Main Street, beginning at the eastern end, was the Eagle Hotel, on the Bailey House site. Abel Avery completed the Eagle Hotel in 1843, but in 1845 it was kept by Ben Welch. Abel Avery lived just west of the Eagle Hotel, and west of his house was Ezekiel Welch's tavern. Beyond was Daniel Baxter's wagon- and repair-shop (south of which lived Dr. Norton Bcckwith), and west of the corner of Second Street the residence of B. Preston, an employee of Ethan S. Johnson. West of Preston's was the United States Land-Office and Dr. Alanson Cornell's drug-store, in one corner of which Judge L. S. Lovell had his law-office. Back of the drugstore was Dr. Cornell's residence. Merritt Fisher lived in the next house, and next to him was the building first used as the Ionia land-office, but then occupied by Ira Porter, a lawyer. Westward were Daniel Clapsaddle, shoemaker, and Jonathan Tibbitts, harness-maker. The southeast corner of Main and Third Streets was occupied by a vacant store, into which, in the fall of 1845, James M. Kidd moved a stock of goods and began trading. On the southwest corner of Main and Third Streets, A. F. Carr was carrying on a store for Daniel Ball, of Grand Rapids, and west of him was the residence of Mason Hearsey, the blacksmith-shop of Philander Hinds, the wagon-shop of John Miller (kept in the log house built by Samuel Dexter when he reached Ionia), Samuel Dexter's barn, Daniel Fargo's meat-market (Fargo was Samuel Dexter's fatherin-law), and then Dexter's red grist-mill, where the Novelty Mills stand. West of that, on the south side, Main Street was a waste. At the corner of Main and Kidd Streets was a vacant store, originally occupied by Parks & Warner. It was the second store built in lonia, but happened to be too far out of the way for business and did not have a very long lease of life. When Parks & Warner built it they thought, perhaps, that Brown's village at Prairie Creek CITY OF IONIA. 147 might become the county-seat, and thought, perhaps, that Dexter's town might be chosen. At all events, the supposition is that they wished to strike a happy mean, and therefore got pretty well out of the way of either place. Hampton Rich, justice of the peace, lived near by, Lorenzo Dexter lived where W. C. Page now lives, and Lawson S. Warner lived on eastward towards Prairie Creek. EARLY TRADERS. Of the early traders in Ionia those who came earliest upon the scene of action included John Lloyd, Parks & Warner, William Creamer, John C. Ball, Daniel Ball, Granger & Ball, A. F. Carr, A. Avery, R. S. Parks, L. S. Warner, Baldy & Freeman, Benjamin and Harvey Harter, Hampton Rich, Edward Stevenson, James M. Kidd, Barstow & Nash, Forman Sloan, and C. M. Moseman. Although more properly classed as manufacturers, it will be proper enough to mention here the coming to the town, before or in 1836, of such artisans as Osmond Tower, Joseph Hadsall, and Gilbert Caswell (carpenters), and Ethan S. Johnson (tailor, and the first one in the village), as well as Mason Hearsey, S. I. Yates, and Lyman Webster. BRIDGE AND FERRY. Until 1847 transportation across the Grand River was accomplished by means of a rope-ferry. This ferry was provided by the county, and the tax levied for its maintenance became a subject of wide-spread legal controversy. Landowners in many cases refused to pay the ferry tax, and their lands were sold under tax judgments. Resold under tax titles, their sale was contested by the original owners, and as a result of the legal investigations that ensued the ferry tax was decided to be unconstitutional. The first person employed to manage the ferry was George Rosecranz; the second, James Crawford. At that crossing near to the present fair-grounds David Burnett constructed in 1847 a wooden bridge, which he contracted-so say the township records-to erect for one thousand three hundred and seventy dollars, and which proved to be a very substantial affair. EARLY MANUFACTURERS. Ionia does not rejoice in the possession of any important water-power, and for that reason its manufacturing enterprises have never occupied a very broad plane. Some little power is obtained from two small brooks flowing southward through the city, and it was from a combination of the power of these two streams that Samuel Dexter was enabled to drive a small grist-mill, which stood on the site of what is now known as the Novelty Mills. Indeed, the present mill contains Dcxter's original structure, which has been expanded with the march of time. James M. Kidd and L. W. Botsford came to Ionia in March, 1836, from Oakland County, loaded down with material for the manufacture of fifty tanning-mills. They had been making mills of that character in Oakland County, and conceived the idea that Ionia County stood in need of a few. They set up a shop on a lot just north of where the Sherman House is and manufactured the fifty mills, which when sold supplied the country so amply that Kidd and Botsford concluded to abandon the business temporarily. Later the manufacture of fanning-mills was resumed by Botsford and Osmond Tower. In 1836, Samuel B. Worden began the manufacture of furniture on the woolen-mill site, and used water power. In 1837, R. & N. Dye engaged in the same business. They produced hand-made work until 1850, when they employed steam-power. In 1846, Mason Hearsey entered the lists as a furniture-manufacturer, employing at first horse-power and aft[rwirdj steam. In 1841, John Tompkins and Allen Cameron put up a small " pocket-furnace" on the west creek, and made such small castings as plow-points, etc., of which the settlers stood keenly in need. In 1845, William C. Clark, of Oakland County, came to Ionia, bought the Tompkins & Cameron foundry, and carried it on until 1856. In that year he built a much larger foundry on the site of the Hill foundry, and that establishment passed in the course of time into the possession of F. J. Hill & Brother. They were burned out in April, 1873, and immediately built upon the same spot a brick foundry, which they supplied with expensive machinery, and in which they invested upwards of ten thousand dollars. They engaged largely in the manufacture of steam-engines and mill-machinery, employing from twentyfive to fifty men and doing a prosperous business until 1876, when, disaster overtaking them, they failed. Since then the foundry has been idle. In 1840, William Creamer started a distillery on the site of the Catholic church, and about that time John Lloyd operated a small brewery on the west creek. Creamer's distillery was a great place on a Sunday, when crowds of Indians and whites used to assumble there to shoot at a mark for whisky. The Maine Liquor Law of 1853 closed the distillery and stopped the shooting at a mark. THE IONIA GUARDS. There are still a few of lonia's old residents who remeamber the military company known as the lonia Guards, and, while they remember, will also call to mind that the organization was a famous one locally. Capt. John Anniba was the father of the enterprise, which had its birth in 1848 with an aggregate of about thirty members. John Anniba was the captain, D. K. Anderson first lieutenant, and John Ralph orderly sergeant. The company uniform consisted of glazed oil-cloth cap, Kentucky jean " wammus" with red flannel trimmings, and white breeches with red stripe. As to arms, the members supplied themselves as best they could, and, as some had rifles and others shotguns, some long and some short, the display on parade was, in point of weapons, a unique one. The company was organized simply for the purpose of encouraging the study of military drill, and set out upon its career amid high enthusiasm. Two years' experience sufficed to cool the fiery ardor of the members, and in 1850 the Guards died an easy death. THE VILLAGE INCORPORATED. Under the general law the village of lonia was incorporated by the board of supervisors, Oct. 13, 1857. The corporate limits were described as " all that tract of country situated in the township of Ionia, in the county of Ionia, and being the whole of section nineteen north of thp Grand 148 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. River and the west half of section twenty, lying north of the banks of the Grand River, all in town seven north, range six west." The villagers never took very kindly to the charter, as it was generally understood that it was not what was needed. Nevertheless, there was a show of organization, and until 1860 elections were held. A. F. Bell was chosen village president in 1857, A. B. Clark village clerk, and Francis B. 31inier village marshal. So little interest was taken in the progress of the corporation history after 1857 that the village records were cast aside as worthless and lost, and, as Ilemory fails to supply the record, no data can be given touching what the village did as a corporation between 1857 and 1860. When the period for holding the election of 1860 loomed up, it was discovered that the village clerk (A. B. Clark) had resigned, and, as under the law the village clerk was the party ordained to call the election, the outlook for an election appeared to be dubious. In this condition of things public sentiment seemed to incline towards doing nothing about it; and, nothing being done about it, the corporation collapsed, and the village resumed its normal position as a ward of the township. INCORPORATED BY THE LEGISLATURE. After maintaining an inactive existence until 1865, the village was reincorporated by legislative act approved Feb. 17, 1865. The limits incorporated are described in the act as follows: "All that tract of country situated in the county of Ionia, being in township seventh north, range six west, coimmncing on the south bank of the Grand River where the same is intersected by the west line of the township of Ionia; thence easterly along the south bank of tile Grand River to the point where the north and south quarter-line of section twenty intersects the south bank of the Grtnd River; thence north on the quarterline to the north quarter-post of section twenty; thence west along the north section-line of section twenty to the northwest corner thereof; thence north on the section-line between sections seventeen and eighteen to the southeast corner of the northeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section eighteen; thence west along the centre-line (running east and west) of the south half of section eighteen to the township-line between the townships of lonia and Easton; thence south on the township-line to the south bank of the Grand River." 4 The first election was ordered to be held at Amphlett's Iall on the first Monday in March ensuing, and it was further provided that the officers to be annually elected should be a president, trustees, and marshal. By some mischance the village records under the reincorporation dating from 1865 to 1870 have been lost, and thus there is a second break in the official list. Those chosen fiom 1870 to 1873 to the chief offices are herewith named: 1870.-President, J. C. Blanchard; Clerk, II. A. Chapman; Treasurer, Viigil V;n Vleck; Attorney, J. S. Bennett; Trustees, L. B. Townsend, Henry Morganthaler, Harvey Harter. 1871.-President, George S. Cooper; Clerk, II. A. Chapman; Treasurer, Win. Y. Just; Attorney, J. S. Bennett; Trustees, B. R. Covert, D. T. Fargo, Osmond S. Tower. 1872.-President, George S. Cooper; Clerk, II. A. Chapman; Treasurer, William Y. Just; Attorney, John S. Bennett; Trustees, L. B. Townsend, Henry Morganthaler, Iarvey Ilarter. INCORPORATED AS A CITY. The act incorporating Ionia as a city was approved Marcll 21, 1873. The territory set off to the city is described as all that tract of land in Ionia County located within the following limits, to wit: Commencing at a point eighty rods north of the north quarter-post of section twenty, in town seven north, range six west; thence running due west to a point eighty rods west of the west township-line of Ionia; thence due south to the centre of the Grand River; thence along the centre of said river easterly to a point where the north and south quarter-line of section twenty, if extended across said river, would intersect the centre of the river; thence due north to the place of beginning." The city was apportioned into four wards, and an election ordered for mayor, clerk, treasurer, collector, justices, constables, aldermen, and supervisors. The first election in Ionia under the city charter was held April 7, 1873, at which the whole number of votes aggregated six hundred and ninety-five. The officials elected were mayor, clerk, treasurer, collector, justices of the peace, constables, supervisors, and aldermen. The canvass was made by Messrs. Osmond Tower, Isaac H. Thayer, Sylvester Taylor, Alanson B. Clark, Walter D. Arnold, James M. Kidd, and Charles D. Lowe. Osmond Tower was chosen chairman, and Charles D. Lowe secretary. The result of the election is here appended: iMtyor. —Frederick Hall,-* 434; Welling C. Pays, 240. C,'erk.-Hiram A. Chapman,':366; Henry P. Taylor, 329. T'reasurer.-Joseph L. HIudson,5- 380, Gelas Deldine, 307. Colflerti'. —Charles WV. Stone,"' 400; Henry G. Wright, 280. Jtltices. —John Mr. Stacy,:- 402; Sylvester Taylor,' 374; William B. Thomss,,- 363; Henry L. Mitchell,? 369; George W. Beelman, 288; C. Oscar Thompson, 302; Edward Ste\ enson, 324; Edwin A. Chubb, 299. Constblues.-Daniel P. Chapman,- 328; Plyn Williams, 280; Gottlieb Laustes, 315; Da vid A. Jewell, 323; Henry Ramllow,-:; 385; Andrew J. Welch,;' 36 l; Oscar IL. Dean,- 375; James IIumphreys, 324. Al dermei. —First Ward: Richard Dye, 112; G. F. D. Wilson,? 154; A. B. Morse, 180; Isaac II. Tha3 er, 76. Second Ward: E. B. Willis, 48; George 11. MMe ullen,' 81; Henry Morganthaler, 61; John II. Tutbs,:' 76. Third Ward: John G. Bennett, 70; Osmond Tower,*70; John L. Taylor," 77; Walter D. Arnold, 63. Fourth Ward: F. S. IIutchinson," 75; William 11. Dunn, 63; Charles Bean, 57; William W. Mitchell,; 72. SupJervisors.-Mason lIearsey,': 225; Amasa Sessions, 171; Chauncey \Waterbury,; 175; William Sessions, 106. The mayors, clerks, treasurers, justices, supervisors, and aldermen chosen annually from 1874 to 1880 will be found named below: 1874.-Mayor, George W. Webber; Clerk, Iiram A. Chapman; Treasurer, Virgil Van Vleek; Justice, C. O. Thompson; Aldermen, Richard Dye, Peter Haskell, Walter D. Arnold, James M. Kidd; Supervisors, Sylvester Taylor, Chauncey Waterbury. 1875.-Mayor, George W. Webber; Clerk, Theodore IIetz; Treasurer, Joseph L. Hudson; Justice, Ienry L. Mitchell; Supervisors, Sylvester Taylor, Chauncey Waterbury: Aldermen, Charles Allison, E. 1I. King, Francis lill, G. S. Cooper. 1876.-Mayor, James M. Kidd; Clerk, Theodore Hetz; Treasurer, Joseph L. Hudson; Justice, William B. Thomas; SuperI- Elected. \. ~ibi7 47873 HoN. ERASTUS YEOMANS was born in Lebanon, Conn., Aug. 11, 1791. His parents' names were Daniel and Esther Yeomans. At the age of sixteen he removed with them to German Flats, Herkimer Co., N. Y. The ensuing year he engaged as teacher in one of the public schools of the county. Evideuce of his efficiency in this capacity at the early age of seventeen is given in the fact that he continued in the same school for nearly three years, with an advance of salary each year. Soon after this, in the war of 1812, he demonstrated his fitness to be a citizen of the Republic by taking his place in the ranks of her defenders. March 19, 1815, he married Phebe Arnold, of Fairfield, N. Y. His parents being advanced in years their care devolved upon him and his wife, which duty was conscientiously discharged. Discerning that the future of his young family would be improved in the West, he emigrated with five other families to the then Territory of Michigan. The magnitude of such an undertaking can, at this time, hardly be estimated. The party, having chartered a canal boat, put on board all their goods and embarked for the West, April 20, 1833, arriving at Buffalo on the 7th of May. Here the heavy household goods and farming implements were shipped by sailing vessel to Grand Haven, and the party went by steamer to Detroit. After the necessary preparation for a trip across the Territory the company started, passing through Pontiac and other settlements in their course. On the eighth day out they took a guide to lead them through the wilderness, in which they had to cut their way slowly and painfully. When about thirty miles from their destination they were detained by an event distressing and mournful in character,-the sickness, death, and burial of a child of one of the families. Resuming their march, they reached the present site of Ionia City on the 28th of May. The purchase from the Indians of little patches of clearing with crops of corn and vegetables planted having been effected, the party exchanged their tents for bark wigwams. The Indians, well satisfied with the bargain, moved on a few miles to be ready for a similar transaction with the next new-comers. A number of the most able-bodied colonists were now sent to convey to their settlement on flat-bottomed boats, propelled by poles and strong arms, the goods which had been landed at Grand Haven. This accomplished, the erection of more suitable dwellings was begun. Not the least of the discomforts endured by them at this time were the mosquitoes. An empty wine pipe in which articles had been packed, placed with the open end towards a smudge, afforded to Mr. Yeomans a secure retreat, and an opportunity for much-needed sleep. The season being so far advanced, only the corn and vegetables purchased of the Indians could for that year be grown. They had no provision for grinding the corn, consequently had to prepare it for food in the Indian fashion. The large stumps of trees yet firmly fixed in the ground were hollowed into mortars, in which the corn was crushed until by obtaining a large coffee-mill it could be coarsely ground. This source of supply served to bridge over the times of sharp necessity caused by scarcity of breadstuff, which could be obtained only from Detroit by the way of Grand Haven. In 1835 a run of small mill-stones was procured and put in the basement of the saw-mill which had been erected. With the official organization and adminis tration of the affairs of his county and town Mr. Yeomans was closely identified. He was appointed first postmaster of Ionia County, receiving his commission from Amos Kendall, Postmaster-General under President Jackson, which position he held for six years. In 1841 he was elected associate judge of the county, continuing to serve in that capacity for eight years. He has always been active in advancing the best interests of humanity and of the community. He is the only surviving one of the five pioneers who, with their families, constituted the colony. He is now in his ninetieth year, and, without departure from truth, it may be said of him that "the silvery radiance cast athwart his locks by the sunset of life" is not dimmed by a single charge of wrong to his fellow-men. MRS. ERASTUS YEOMANS was born in Smithfield, R. I., March 18, 1797. Her parents, Job and Hannah Arnold, were of prominent families in the early history of Rhode Island. She was one of a large family of children, and early gave evidence of that amiability and strength of character which as wife, mother, and friend made her in these relations a tower of strength through life. At the age of ten she received a present of a pair of gold ear-rings for her faithful attendance, day and night, upon her grandmother, who was entirely blind. At the age of twelve a string of gold beads was the recognition of her continued faithfulness to her charge. Her educational advantages were limited to the common schools of the time. She removed with her parents to Fairfield, Herkimer Co., N. Y., where she was married to Erastus Yeomans, March 19, 1815. This union was a most happy one in all that makes home the "one ray of happiness that survived the fall," and a home the influence of which pervades as with a blessing the lives of those reared around the hearthstone. The children born of this union were Sanford A., Amanda D., Harriet, Hiram, Sarah M., Emily, Mary M., Harriet A. Possessing to an eminent degree soundness of judgment and moral force, she stood by her husband, " staying up his hands" and bearing with unwavering spirit the burdens and hardships of a pioneer mother. One incident may be mentioned as illustrative of her character. The delusion of Millerism which swept over the land found many believers among her neighbors and friends. The church of which she and her husband had been almost life-long members did not escape, the pastor himself becoming a convert. In one of the last meetings before the direful day her intense convictions overcame a naturally retiring disposition, and, rising in her place, she denounced the whole thing as a sham and delusion, disgraceful alike to a Christian profession or common intelligence. On the conclusion of her remarks the meeting was closed, no one feeling able to escape the force of her denunciation. It is impossible in a few brief lines to do justice to a life like hers, and it must suffice to say that she was faithful to her day and generation in the sphere in which she moved. "Honor and shame from no condition rise: Act well your part; there all the honor lies." In this sense hers was a life crowned with honor. She "entered into rest" June 25, 1864, and her memory is treasured as a rich heritage by her descendants and friends. I ~C 'A v I K t / > ( * $ V^^7 ^-2Zi ^'^^ CITY OF IONIA. 149 visors, Sylvester Taylor, Chauncey Waterbury; Aldermen, Milton H. Huntress, Lemuel Clute, F. C. Sibley, C. E. Burt. 1877.-Mayor, J. M. Kidd; Clerk, J. P. Stevenson; Treasurer, J. W. Baldie; Justice, F. M. Spencer; Supervisors, E. R. Chubb, Chauncey Waterbury; Aldermen, Charles W. Croff, E. D. Voorhees, M. E. Mills, James H. Kidd. 1878.-Mayor, James M. Kidd; Clerk, Charles H. Spencer; Treasurer, J. W. Baldie; Justice, A. B. Clark; Supervisors, Sylvester Taylor, Chauncey Waterbury; Aldermen, Charles Allison, O. II. Dean, F. C. Sibley, J. H. Tubbs. 1879.-Mayor, E. H. Stanton; Clerk, John S. Bennett; Treasurer, F. A. Stevens; Justice, HI. L. Mitchell; Supervisors, Sylvester Taylor, Chauncey Waterbury; Aldermen, Charles R. Dye, F. S. Freeman, Silas P. HIovey, James Vosper. 1880. —Mayor, E. H. Stanton; Clerk, Godfrey Gundrum; Treasurer, John W. Baldie; Justice, Ethan S. Johnson; Supervisors, Sylvester Taylor, Chauncey Waterbury; Aldermen, Robert D. Cain, George C. Watrous, Angelo E. Tower, O. H. Dean. CHURCHES. FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF IONIA. The first religious organization of Ionia County was effected in Ionia by the Baptists. Since then the church has maintained a continuous active existence, and, now known as the First Baptist Church, is wealthy and prosperous. The original church records note that at Washington Centre (as Ionia City was then called), on the 24th of June, 1834, Elder E. Loomis, agent of the American Baptist Home Missionary Society, and Elder L. Slater, missionary at the Thomas Missionary Station (Grand Rapids), met and joined in religious services at the house of Erastus Yeomans. After the service six persons united in conference. They were named Samuel Dexter and Anna his wife, Alfred Cornell and Nancy his wife, Erastus Yeomans and Phoebe his wife. Of these Erastus Yeomans is still living and a member of the church. Aug. 23, 1834, Elder E. Loomis and Caleb Eldied, a member of the church in Comstock, Kalamazoo Co., visited the village. After prayer and conference, Benjamin G. Barber was received by letter as a member of the Conference, and XV. B. Lincoln was received as a candidate for baptism. Aug. 24, 1834, Elder E. Loomis preached fiom the second chapter of Acts, part of the forty-first verse. At intermission the congregation proceeded to the Grand River, where the solemn rite of baptism was performed upon W. B. Lincoln. After the ceremonics at the river were concluded the congregation returned to the house of Erastus Yeomans, where services were resumed. For a period of nearly three years after that the church had no pastor, and maintained services at irregular and uncertain times. As to the progress of church events during that lapse the records are silent. Under date of Feb. 18, 1837, mention is made in the records that the Baptist Church in Ionia met at the school-house in District No. 1, and that at that and previous meetings members were received as follows: George WV. and Almirah Dexter, Stephen and Berilla Dexter, William and Sally Ann Wood, Jeremiah Eaton, Candis Dexter, Justus Barber, Mercy Smith, Jane Smith, and Delilah Clapsaddle. In May, 1838, Rev. A. C. Sangster, of Pike Co., N. Y., came to the village in search of a location, and May 20th he preached to the church and administered the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. He was thereupon engaged as pastor, I I I I I and remained until 1840. His successor was Rev. Henry D. Buttolph, who preached from 1840 to 1845. In 1845, Rev. Alfred Cornell assumed the pastoral charge, and remained therein continuously until 1863. Mr. Cornell came from New York State with his father's family in November, 1833, joined the church at an early day, and began his ministerial labors as its pastor. During his ministration a house of worship was built, in 1845, upon the site of the house now occupied, and the church rose steadily in membership, prosperity, and property. Mr. Cornell is now chaplain at the lonia house of correction, where he has been located as such since the institution was founded. In 1865 and 1866 he served his second term as pastor of the Ionia Baptist Church. After him the pastors were Rev. J. H. Morrison, 1863-65; Rev. Levi Parmely, 1867-72; Rev. John Rowley, 1872-73; Rev. E. O. Taylor, 1874 -77; and Rev. John Donnelly, the present pastor, who began his labors in 1877. In 1870 the old frame church that had endured as the place of meetings from 1845 was replaced by the imposing brick edifice now occupied. The latter measures eighty feet in length by a front of forty-six feet, has a seating capacity of six hundred, and cost in the aggregate upwards of twenty thousand dollars. The membership, Aug. 1, 1880, was three hundred and seventeen. The deacons were William B. Lincoln and Mason Hearsey; the trustees, Alfied Broad, Virgil Van Vleck, H. B. Barnes, J. W. Baldie, Ira Root, and Orry Waterbury; the clerk, J. B. Hutchins; and the treasurer, J. E. Howard. The Sunday-school, organized directly after the formation of the church, has now an average attendance of one hundred and forty-one scholars and seventeen teachers, Virgil Van Vleck being the superintendent. METIODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF IONIA. Before the Michigan Conference was established, Rev. Mr. Monette, of the Ohio Conference, was sent into Michigan and entered at once upon a busy experience in seeking out Methodists and organizing Methodist Episcopal Classes. It was late in 1834 or very early in 1835 that he appeared for the first time in Ionia and looked about him for material upon which to found a Methodist Episcopal Church. His search was rewarded by finding three persons ready to encourage him. These three were Silas D. Arnold, Anitha P. Arnold, and Anthilda Arnold (all children of Oliver Arnold), and them he organized as a Methodist Class in Oliver Arnold's house, Silas D. Arnold being the classleader. These first three members of the first Methodist Episcopal Class in Ionia still live. Anitha P. Arnold has been the wife of Dr. William B. Arnold since 1835; Silas D. Arnold lives in Easton township. The class numbered but three members until 1836, when Jesse Stevenson and his wife were received; and until 1840, when George Rosecranz and his wife became members, the three Arnolds and two Stevensons constituted the entire strength of the religious organization now known as the Methodist Episcopal Church of lonia. Services such as could be had at irregular and uncertain periods were at first held in the dwellings of members, and as the class grew larger the village school-house was used. Along 150 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. towards 1850 a house of worship was built, and matters began to prosper. The church first built continued to serve the society until 1869, when the growing demands of the congregation found more convenient accommodations in the present handsome and imposing brick structure, which cost, completed, fully sixty-five thousand dollars. The old church was sold to the First Congregational Society, and is still used by that denomination. In April, 1871, the basement of the new church was occupied, and in May, 1873, the entire edifice was dedicated. The church is now exceedingly prosperous, and owns a church and parsonage upon which the aggregate indebtedness is but two thousand dollars. From the "Annual Review" issued Sept. 11, 1880, by Rev. Washington Gardner, at that time pastor of the church, are taken the following statistics concerning the history of the Conference year then brought to a close: Members in full connection at beginning of the year, 301; received, 39; removed, 25; total membership at present, 315; probationers, 27; officers and teachers in Sunday-school, 25; number of scholars, 316; average attendance, 201; benevolent collections for the year, $355.66. From Dec. 28, 1879, to Aug. 7, 1880, the church paid every dollar of its indebtedness and disbursed in the aggregate upwards of fifteen thousand dollars. The official directory for the ensuing year is as follows: Presiding Elder, Rev. R. C. Crawford; Pastor, Rev. V. Gardner; Local Preacher, George Watson; Exhorter, Joel Coon; Board of Stewards, Allen S. Wright, Oscar Talcott, Lester Joslin, John C. Blanchard, James Mains, F. II. Doland, B. L. Udell, N. H. Batson, J. P. Grannis; Trustees, Hampton Rich, Joseph L. Hudson, D. T. Fargo, A, H. Heath, W. C. Page; Class-Leaders, John C. Blanchard, Thomas L. Amphlett, George Stevenson, W. W. Williams, Mrs. Mary Crawford, W. Gardner; Superintendent of Sunday-school, L. H. Jennings; Assistant Superintendent, A. P. Sweet. ST. JOHN'S (PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL) CIURCH. In an old church-record appears the following: "Believing in the authenticity and excellence of the Christian religion, and desirous of promoting its benign influences in our hearts and in the hearts of our families and friends; and further believing that the establishment of a Protestant Episcopal Church in this place is calculated to advance this object; therefore we, the undersigned, do organize ourselves into a church to be known and designated by the name or title of St. John's Church, Ionia, county of Ionia and State of Michigan, and in so doing do adopt and accede to the laws, regulations, and usages of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Michigan, and of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. "Da ted Ionia, 4th of February, 1841. "WM. AUG. TRYON. JAMES M. KIDD. " LAWSON S. WARNER. EDWARD STEVENSON. " HAMPTON RIC... W SOUTHWICK. "A. S. WADSWORTH. AWM. FLEMING. " GEORGE FLEMING." At that meeting, accordingly, W. A. Tryon was chosen senior warden, L'iwson S. Warner junior warden, and Hampton Rich, William Fleming, G. W. Southwick, James M. Kidd, and A. S. Wadsworth vestrymen. At a meeting on March 23d, Hampton Rich was chosen secretary, Lawson S. Warner treasurer, and Rev. Melancthon Hoyt provisionary rector. In May, 1841, it was resolved to enter into union with the Protestant Episcopal Church of the diocese, and in March, 1842, Rev. Mr. Hoyt was engaged to serve as rector for three years. For his services he was pledged one acre of land, a dwelling-house, and a salary of one hundred dollars per annum. In the spring of 1842 the society completed the erection of a house of worship. It was the first church built in the county, and continues to this day to serve its original purpose. Sixteen pews were rented at auction to Joseph Babcock, Mathew A. Patrick, William A. Fleming, C. W. Beckwith, W. S. Stevens, John S. Van Vleck, Clapsaddle & Dexter, Robert S. Parks, Lawson S. Warner, Hampton Rich, William A. Tryon, Merrit Fisher, Dallas & Porter, and James M. Kidd. April 24, 1842, the church was dedicated by Bishop Samuel A. McCoskry. About the same time C. C. Trowbridge and Daniel Miller donated to the church one hundred and sixty acres of land on section 14 in town 6 north, range 6 west. Somehow the organization did not prosper, and after a brief struggle ceased to have an active existence. May 1, 1860, however, a reorganization was effected, with George Farnsworth, J. B. Sanford, George W. Wilson, Frederick Hall, A. D. Allen, and J. H. Davis as members. Dec. 25, 1860, the articles of association were signed also by H. L. Mitchell, Julia T. McConnell, Maria Sanford, Ann Hall, and D. B. Lyon. At the meeting of Dec. 25, 1860, J. B. Sanford, H. L. Mitchell, Frederick Hall, A. D. Allen, George Farnsworth, P. H. Taylor, and George W. Wilson were chosen vestrymen, and of their number J. B. Sanford and George Farnsworth were elected wardens. Frederick Hall was appointed treasurer, H. L. Mitchell secretary, and D. B. Lyon rector. Jan. 29, 1861, the church-building was rededicated by Bishop McCoskry. In 1866, Rev. D. E. Brown succeeded Mr. Lyon as rector, and, in 1868, Rev. Robert Wood was officiating. After him the rectorship was filled by Revs. Stonix, B. A. Brown, J. W. Clark, William Brittain, and Louis L. Noble. The latter has been in charge since November, 1879. The vestry is composed of John Young, E. T. Montgomery, E. H. Stanton, Joseph Lindlcy, James Vosper, J. J. Grafton, A. Oberholt, and Henry Tremayne, Messrs. Young and Montgomery being the wardens. The church-membership is about fifty, and that of the Sabbathschool about forty, John Young being superintendent of the school. FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. The organization now known as the First Presbyterian Church of Ionia was formed Oct. 8, 1842, in Ionia, by Rev. Le Moyne T. Smith, a missionary of the American Home Missionary Society. (Rev. Calvin Clark had organized a Presbyterian Church in Cass township in 1839, but its existence was brief.) The organization of the Ionia Church was effected in the building used as a court-house, and the At a meeting of the friends of the church held at the court-house Feb. 4, 1841, Rev. Melancthon Hoyt, of Grand Rapids, presided. At that meeting the preamble was adopted and signed, and a notice given that on the first of March there would be a meeting for the completion of the church organization. v MRS. RICHARD DYE. RICHARD DYE. RICHARD DYE. Among those adventurous individuals who nearly a half century ago laid the foundation for the present wealth and prosperity of Ionia County is the subject of this biography, Mr. Richard Dye. He was born in Herkimer village, N. Y., Oct. 23, 1810, and was the son of Jonathan and Rebecca (Steel) Dye, who reared a family of three children,-two sons and one daughter. The elder Dye was a carpenter and joiner by occupation, a thrifty and industrious man, and one of the pioneers of that county, whither he had removed from Rhode Island when a young man. He served with distinction in the war of 1812. He was highly esteemed for his integrity, and died in Hierkimer at an advanced age. Richard lived under the parental roof until he was fifteen years of age, when, owing to some reverses in his father's affairs, he was thrown upon his own resources. He was apprenticed to the trade of a cabinet-maker, and completed his indentures about the time he attained his majority. In March, 1832, he was married to Miss Polly, daughter of Vine Welch, one of the substantial tarmers of Herkimer County. After their marriage Mr. Dye followed his trade, working in Herkimer until 1836, when he decided to try his fortunes in the Territory of Michigan. He came to Ionia County, whither some of his old neighbors had already preceded him, and being favorably impressed with the soil and natural advantages, and foreseeing that it would ultimately become a more prosperous country than the one he had left, he made a purchase of one hundred and sixty acres of government land on section 19 in the town of Easton. In the fall of that year he returned East and the following spring came back with his family, which consisted of his wife and two children,-George H. and Mary E.,-and commenced the development of his purchase. A substantial log house was erected and twelve acres were cleared and prepared to receive a crop. Mr. Dye brought with him a lathe and such tools as were necessary for the manufacture of ordinary cabinet-ware. The lathe was placed in the garret, and the most common articles of household furniture were made, which found a ready sale among the settlers. In 1839 his business had so increased that he decided to remove to Ionia, then a little hamlet of perhaps one hundred and fifty inhabitants, and give the business his entire attention. He built a shop on what is now the corner of Dye and Washington Streets, and for many years prosecuted a successful business. In 1859 he engaged in merchandising in company with his brother Nelson. Two years later A. F. Carr became associated with them, and the firm did an extensive business for seven years, when Mr. Dye withdrew, and since this time has been retired from active business pursuits. He has taken an active interest in everything that pertains to the welfare and advancement of Ionia, and has filled several positions of trust and responsibility, although he has never courted political preferment, preferring to give his undivided attention to the demands of his business. In 1850 he was appointed postmaster, and for many years has been a prominent member of the city council. Mr. Dye is emphatically a self-made man. Starting in life with only a robust constitution and an indomitable will as his capital, he has attained a prominent position among the successful business men of the county. Honesty and a firm desire to succeed have been the essential media of his success. He has evinced excellent judgment in all his transactions, and sterling honesty has been the basis of his operations. This is high testimony,but it is only the reflex of the prominent traits of Mr. Dye's character, and what to the strange reader may seem peculiarly the language of eulogy will be readily recognized by all who know him as a plain statement of the salient points of his character and features of his commercial career. Mr. Dye never enjoyed the advantages of education, but being naturally intel ligent and endowed with a large amount of common sense, industry, and ambition he has succeeded in building an enviable reputation. Indeed it may be truly said of him that his career is one worthy the emulation of the young, and a fitting example for all sorts and conditions of business men to follow. This biography would not be complete without special mention of his estimable, wife who has shared with him the privations and hardships of the early days. For nearly fifty years she has been his faithful friend and adviser, and to her industry, sage counsel and advice he attributes much of his success. She was born in the town of Middleburg, Schoharic Co., N. Y., Jan. 29, 1814. Her mother, whose maiden-name was Ruth Squires, was born in Vermont. Her father was a native of Massachusetts, and emigrated to Schoharie County about 1800. Hle leased an unimproved farm of Peter Smith, father of Gerrit Smith, upon which he remained until about 1825, when he removed to Herkimer village, where he resided until his removal to Ionia. In the fall of 1836 he settled upon lands adjoining the farm of Mr. Dye. He was one of the prominent old settlers of the county, and died in Ionia in 1858. Mrs. Dye is a lady of rare personal excellence and a fine type of the pioneer woman. As illustrative of her pioneer experiences we append the following incident which occurred in the spring of 1838. At this time Indians were frequent visitors, and were generally peaceful excepting when crazed with liquor. They were in the habit of visiting the settlers and bartering maple-suogar and peltry for various articles. One day, while Mr. Dye and the male portion of the household were absent, two or three stalwart Indians with their squaws came and desired to exchange sugar for turnips. Mrs. Dye had acquired a slight knowledge of the Indian language, and gave them to understand that she would give them two baskets of turnips for five pounds of sugar. The sugar was weighed, and Mrs. Dye, followed by one of the Indians, started for the cellar, which was back of the house, leaving her mother to watch the squaws, who were much given to theft. She measured the turnips according to the bargain, giving him two baskets for every five pounds of sugar. He insisted that he was to have three. She told him in a very decided way that two was the number. He shouted three, and, drawing a long knife, jumped towards her and reiterated the assertion. Mrs. Dye, having much presence of mind and an insight into Indian character, looked him squarely in the face and gave him to understand that he could have but two. Seeing that she was not to be intimidated, he placed the vegetables in his bag and the party went away. On another occasion two drunken Indians visited the house at night with the idea that they could obtain whisky. The family had retired, Mr. Dye being absent, and by neglect the doors were left unfastened. The first intimation that Mrs. Dye had of their presence was being awakened by a bright light. She drew aside the curtains of the bed, and there in the centre of the room, with torches above their heads, were two tall savages who demanded whisky. She told them that there was none in the house, and in such a way that they were convinced, and by a neat little ruse got them out of the house and closed the doors. As a wife, mother, neighbor, and friend, Mrs. Dye has performed all her duties and obligations with a scrupulous regard to the right and with a personal unselfishness. Both she and Mr. Dye are prominent members of the Church of the Disciples, and are in every way worthy of the prominent position they hold among the representative people of the county. Both are past the meridian of life, and, surrounded by their children and a large circle of friends, they feel that they have been in a measure rewarded for the hardships and privations of their pioneer life. I *l CITY QF IONIA. 151 - membership was composed of William Babcock, Julia Babcock, Araminta Dye, Rebecca Dye, Lucretia Webster, Mary S. Lovell, Mary Lovell, and Abby J. Lovcll. October 9th, Dolly B. Overhiser and Harriet A. Bates were received by letter, and October 29th Samuel P. Hodges, Rufus Dinsmore, Reuben W. Stevens, Martha E. Stevens, George C. Overliser, and Olivia S. Babcock. At the meeting on October 29th it was resolved to call the organization the " First Congregational Church of Ionia," and on the 30th the members met in S. P. Hodges' school-room for worship, when Rev. L. M. S. Smith preached. Mr. Smith was engaged as pastor, and remained in charge upwards of a year. William Babcock was chosen the first deacon of the church, but how long he served does not appear. Before Mr. Smith's departure the place of worship was changed to a building near where Pickhaver & Miller's store stands, and later to where Ethan S. Johnson used to live, west of the Bailey House lot. From there they moved to the Episcopal church, which they used until the occupation of the present Presbyterian church edifice, in 1857. Although the church was organized as a Congregational Church, application was made in 1845 for admission to the care of the Presbytery of Ionia. In 1848 a release was asked from this Presbytery, and a union effected with the Grand River Valley Congregational Association. In 1856 connection with the latter body was severed, and in 1857, the Presbyterian form of government being adopted, the church became a member of the Presbytery of Grand River Valley. Jan. 31, 1857, David Irish, N. Williams, and Gilbert Powlinson were chosen elders, and Nelson E. Smith and John Butler deacons. Mr. Smith's successors in the pastorate to 1857 were Rev. Winthrop Wheeler, to 1844; Rev. George C. Overhiser, to 1847; Rev. Norman Ackley, to 1849; and, after a season of stated supplies to 1854, Rev. Louis Mills, to 1855. In May, 1856, Rev. R. W. Landis became the pastor, and during his term the erection of a house of worship was commenced, in 1856. The structure was first occupied July 26, 1857, and dedicated Aug. 12, 1857, on which day, also, the Presbytery of Grand River Valley was organized. Rev. Courtney Smith preached the dedicatory sermon, and Rev. William M. Ferry offered the prayer. Mr. Landis remained the pastor until 1859, and after that Revs. L. I. Root and E. D. Newberry were the successive pastors to April, 1868, —Mr. Root from the spring of 1860 to July, 1861, and Mr. Newberry from the autumn of 1861 to April, 1868. At this time there was some dissension in the church, and the result was the withdrawal of a considerable number of members, who straightway assisted in the organization of a Congregational Church. Rev. Job Pierson was called to the charge of the Presbyterian Church, and, although he found matters far from prosperous, succeeded, by energetic and zealous labor, in not only right speedily restoring a brighter and happier condition of affairs, but pushed the church interests to a greater success than they had ever be fore met with. Mr. Pierson labored as the church's pastor ten years, and in July, 1878, was dismissed at his own request. I I Rev. Charles Foote, Mr. Pierson's successor, was a man of more than ordinary ability as runs the average of suburban pulpit teachers, and in the little time he was spared to serve the church gave abundant promise of fruitful efforts. In the full flush of his usefulness, however, he was stricken with a fatal illness, and died in the spring of 1879. The place left vacant in the pastorate by his death has thus far not been supplied, although likely soon to be. The church has now an active membership of two hundred and fifty, and in the Sunday-school the average attendance is about one hundred and seventy-five. The elders are L. S. Lovell, J. L. Taylor, G. S. Cooper, L. F. Mills, J. F. Reekie, N. E. Smith, J. W. Ewing, David Irish, C. O. Thompson; the deacons, William Sessions, I. E. Thatcher, and R. P. Sherman; and the superintendent of the Sunday-school, J. W. Ewing. CHURCH OF CHRIST IN IONIA. In January, 1859, several of the members of the Church of Christ in Muir living in and near Ionia determined to organize a church in Ionia, and on the evening of January 24th, assisted by others of the same faith, effected this object under the direction of Elder Isaac Errett, of the Muir Church. The organizing members numbered fortythree, as follows: J. B. Welch, Sarah A. Welch, Ruth Welch, B. H. Preston, Mrs. C. E. Preston, A. Lewallen, Mrs. N. Lewallen, Miss E. Lewallen, A. A. Anderson, Mrs. E. Anderson, I. L. Yates, Mrs. I. M. Yates, Miss M. E. Yates, Thomas Reed, Mrs. E. Reed, Reuben Steel, Mrs. Esther Steel, Benjamin Barter, L. W. Frost, J. D. Vial, Mrs. M. A. Vial, Clark Preston, Mrs. S. A. Preston, Miss Mary Delaney, Mrs. E. A. Jennings, Mrs. M. E. Armstrong, Mrs. A. Rodman, Mrs. L. M. Alderman, Mrs. R. Baley, Mrs. S. Fuller, Mrs. Geo. Hosford, Mrs. H. Hosford, S. Stevens, Mrs. F. Stevens, Mrs. C. A. Bayard, T. H. Loveland, C. B. Loveland, Mrs. I. Loveland, G. Foreman, James Reed, Mrs. Ann Reed, Mrs. S. A. Holcomb, Curtis Brooks, and Jas. Rich. Services for a little while were held in the Presbyterian church, and afterwards in Merritt's Hall, Dye's Hall, and Union Hall, until 1867, when the society completed the present house of worship, which contains seating capacity for six hundred people and cost twenty-two thousand six hundred dollars. Elder Isaac Errett preached 'for the church at first, and after him came Rev. J. B. Crane, W. R. Spindler, O. Eberts, L. R. Gault, and A. S. Hale. A. S. Hale, the last regular pastor, closed his term of service in July, 1880, since which time dependence has been upon supplies. The church membership isnow about two hundred and fifty. The trustees are Richard Dye, W. A. Inman, and J. H. Tubbs; the elders, B. H. Preston, C. A. Preston, and G. A. Willett; the deacons, Benjamin Harter, W. A. Inman, N. K. Brooks, Duncan Robinson, Hallet Bentley, Henry Cheney, and L. Merriam. The Sabbath-school, of which O. M. Benedict is superintendent, has about fifty scholars. GERMAN EVANGELICAL CHURCH. This church was formed in 1859 by Rev. Mr. Kreiger with twenty members, and a church was built on Washing 152 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. ton Street in 1866. Among the pastors who succeeded Mr. Kreiger were Revs. Ude, Speg, Trometer, Fox, Meek, Henna, Schweitzer, and B. F. Miller, the latter of whom has been the pastor since 1877. Since 1859 the organization has prospered steadily, and includes now a membership of upwards of one hundred. Indeed, the present church accommodations are altogether too small to meet the demand, and the erection of a finer and more commodious house of worship is therefore earnestly contemplated. The Sabbath-school has frequently an attendance of one hundred and twenty-five or more, and an average attendance of about one hundred. The presiding elder of the district is Rev. Mr. Fox; the church trustees, Frederick Cutler, George Cutler, William Wing, Gottleib Lauster, and George Lauster; and the Sabbath-school superintendent, William Wing. ST. JOHN'S LUTHERAN (GERMAN) CHURCH. This church was organized in 1870 with eighteen members by Rev. J. Her, of Lansing. Services were held in the City Hall until October, 1880, when the society's newly-built church-edifice was occupied. The membership is now twenty-two. Rev. J. Bundcnthall is the pastor, and comes over from Lansing once in three weeks. ST. PETER'S (ROMAN CATHOLIC) CIIURCI. Early services among the Catholics of Ionia were held previous to 1863 by priests from Corunna and Westphalia at the house of Peter Hackett. In 1863 there were perhaps fifty Catholic families in Ionia and its vicinity, and, the time being thought ripe for the organization of a church, Peter Hackett offered to donate an acre of land in the village, and with a few others pushed the matter by the erection upon that land of the present house of worship. At this juncture (1863) the bishop sent Rev. Charles G. Bolte (who had previously preached occasionally at Ionia) to take charge of the church, and since that time Mr. Bolte has remained steadily the priest of St. Peter's. There is now carried on, as an adjunct to the church, a flourishing parish-school, containing two departments, in charge of three Sisters of Christian Charity. This institution, supported by the church and free to the children of the members thereof, has an average attendance of one hundred and twenty pupils. In addition to the church property mentioned, there is also a handsome parsonage. Preparations are now going forward for the erection of a more commodious and costly church-building to replace the present edifice. The church trustees are Frank Schmicker, Fergus Flanagan, - ean, John Dobson, and Peter Hackett. FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CIIURCI. A defection from the Presbyterian Church in 1868 of upwards of thirty members led to the organization, May 9th of that year, of the First Congregational Church of Ionia, with forty-one members, under the charge of Rev. Benjamin 'arsons. Early services were held in Bayard's Hall, but in 1869 purchase was made of' the edifice formerly owned by the society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The first deacons chosen were 1t. W. Phillips and E. V. Brokaw. Robert Edgar succeeded Mr. Parsons as pastor, and to him followed Revs. Childs, Barker, W. H. Thomas, J. W. Iorner, and Rev. Mr. Worden. The church enjoyed its greatest prosperity during Rev. Mr. Thomas' ministrations, when the membership reached about seventy. Since then a material falling off has been shown, the members in August, 1880, numbering but thirty-six. The deacons are now Peter Clark, Joseph Rogers, and James Harris; the trustees, A. J. Webber, Joseph Rogers, A. A. Knight, J. L. King, and Peter Clark; and the Sabbath-school superintendent, James Harris. The attendance at the school averages about forty. IONIA SPIRITUALISTS. Although there are in Ionia a good many advocates of the doctrine of Spiritualism, there is not any organized body devoted to the formal dissemination of that creed. In 1868, however, steps were taken by John C. Dexter and others looking to the formation of such a body, and April 5th of that year articles of incorporation were issued to the First Spiritualist Society of Ionia through J. C. Dexter, II. W. Boozer, E. S. Bellamy, H. Dunham, Morey Tibbitts, C. F. Arnold, Sylvester Taylor, J. S. Dunham, L. H. T. Dexter, A. B. Bellamy, Catharine King, A. L. Avery, P. H. Frazer, and D. McGay. The trustees were Mrs. C. King, Mrs. H. Dunham, E. S. Bellamy, Sylvester Taylor, J. C. Dexter, and H. W. Boozer. Although the society flourished for a time, it lost material strength after the removal of John C. Dexter from the town, and shortly afterwards ceased to live. IONIA'S PUBLIC SCHOOLS. The excellent and liberal system of public schools now boasted of by the city of Ionia has been a thing of steady and prosperous growth from 1837, when there was but a handful of school-children in the town, and when a log cabin sufficed as the district temple of learning, until 1880, when a high-school building and three ward schools barely supply pressing educational demands, and when the scholars in attendance number upwards of eight hundred. The oldest record of proceedings in School District No. 1 (afterwards Ionia) certifies that anterior to 1843 the school records were kept on loose papers, and that, in 1843, Ira Porter transcribed to a book such records as could be found. From this transcript it is learned that at a regular meeting of the inhabitants of District No. 1 at the district school-house (on Main Street, west of Dexter), Nov. 16, 1837, Asa Spencer was appointed moderator and Erastus Yeomans clerk of the meeting. An election for officers for the current year resulted in the choice of Thomas Cornell as moderator, Cyrus Lovell director, and Robert S. Parks assessor. It was voted at that meeting that each of the district officers should receive five dollars for his services the ensuing year, that the summer school should last four months and the winter school three months, and that a tax of ninety dollars should be levied and raised in the district for the year to pay teachers' wages. Dec. 27, 1838, pursuant to the provisions of the Revised Statutes that no school district should contain more than nine sections, District No. 1 was reorganized and set off as follows: " To CITY OF IONIA. 153 commence on the north bank of the Grand River at a point where the section-line between sections twenty-six and twenty-seven, in town seven north, range seven west, intersects the Grand River; running thence easterly along the north bank of the Grand River to the point where the north-and-south line running through the centre of sections sixteen and twenty-one, in town seven north, range six west, intersects the Grand River; thence north to the quarter-post on the north line of section sixteen; thence on the section-line to the northwest corner of section fourteen; thence south to the Grand River and place of beginning." At the annual meeting Oct. 4, 1841, it was provided that each scholar should furnish one-quarter of a cord of wood by the 1st of December ensuing, or that, any scholar failing, the director should supply the deficiency at the expense of the parents or guardians of such scholar in default. Oct. 2, 1843, it was voted to build a new schoolhouse at an expense of three hundred dollars, and that it should be completed by May 1, 1844. It was afterwards agreed that five hundred dollars should be expended for the house, and a committee was appointed to select a site. There was difficulty at the outset in agreeing with propertyowners upon terms for several proposed sites, and as the upshot the resolution providing for a new school-house was rescinded. The old school-house was continued in service, but at the meeting of Dec. 6, 1844, it was reported that the house was unfit to keep school in. It was, however, repaired, and it was not until the meeting of Sept. 26, 1848, that anything more was done towards procuring a new school-house, when a site was chosen on a lot where the City Hall and the engine-house stand, and by the votes of twelve out of fifteen taxable inhabitants present at the meeting the sum of three hundred dollars was apportioned for the erection of a school-building. The contractor was Alanson Cornell, who was to put up a one-story structure. Jan. 6, 1849, Louis S. Lovell, Hampton Rich, Osmond Tower, and C. M. Moseman, on behalf of themselves and others, proposed to add a second story to the building for the use of the lonia Division, Sons of Temperance, for religious meetings, and for the renting thereof to the county of Ionia for a court-room, in case terms could be made. The proposition was accepted, but there was some public opposition to the matter, and Jan. 20, 1849, there was a meeting to reconsider the resolution, the request for the meeting being signed by John Tompkins, Hampton Rich, Wm. Lyon, J. C. Ball, Abel Avery, Jesse Holcomb, Henry Hatch, Frederick Hall, and Peter Hackett. The attempt failed, and the building of the house was completed according to the original design. The house was, however, no more than finished when it was destroyed by fire, but no time was lost in erecting a similar house on the same spot, the district this time doing the entire work. July 26, 1863, it was resolved to organize the school, under Section 23 of the School Law, according to the union-school system. The annual report of the district board at the meeting of Sept. 26, 1853 presented the following details: Amount collected during the year for con tiIngent purposes, forty dollars and thirty-six cents; amount raised for the payment of teachers, three hundred and eleven dollars and sixty-seven cents. 20 The teachers employed during the year were J. P. Powell, B. H. Preston, Catharine Stevenson, and J. B. Wells. Previous to that year the records mention only Sitmon Hunt, E. WX. Cornell, Betsey Webster, and H. C. Finch as teachers from 1844 to 1852. For 1855 the tax voted was ninety-nine cents per child on two hundred and eleven children. The teachers in 1854 were Miss L. H. Tower, Catharine Stevenson, Ann Avery, Mliss Mills, and Miss Clapsaddle; in 1855, Miss Elwood, Miss Mason, C. 0. Thompson, L. H. Town, Miss Nash, Miss Stevenson. In 1860 the standard works in use by the school consisted of Davis' " Practical Arithmetic," Stoddard's " Mental Series," Emerson's "Numbers," Welch's and Sill's grammars, Willard's history, Sanders' readers and spellers, Monteith's geography, and Davis' algebra. Sept. 11, 1863, the district voted to raise ten thousand dollars for a union-school building, the number of scholars in the district that year being four hundred and twentytwo. A site was purchased for one thousand dollars, and at the annual meeting in September, 1864, it was decided to expend fifteen thousand instead of ten thousand upon the new school-house. In addition to the fifteen thousand dollars, there was subsequently raised the sum of four thousand five hundred and ten dollars to pay for janitor's house, extras on school-building, furnishing, etc. Later there was an additional appropriation of five thousand dollars on account of the building, and, according to the annual report dated Sept. 3, 1866, the total estimated cost of school-house, furniture, grounds, janitor's house, etc., aggregated thirty thousand dollars. In the summer of 1873 a lot for a West Ward school was purchased, and four thousand five hundred dollars voted to build the house. By legislative act of 1875 the district was incorporated, and that year the Fourth Ward school-house was built, 0. W. Harnden being the contractor at three thousand two hundred and fifty dollars. Prairie Creek had been previously attached to the district in 1871. From the annual school report dated July 12, 1880, are taken the subjoined details: Expenditures for teachers, $7390; outstanding bonds, $8500; estimated expenditures for 1880-81, $17,300; receipts for foreign scholars, 1879 -80, $1007. Appended is a list of the teachers engaged for 1880-81, with salaries: J. W. Ewing,* superintendent, $1400; A. Prof. J. W. Ewing graduated from the Michigan University in the class of 1864. He then assumed charge of the schools at Perrysburg, Ohio, where he remained three years, giving general satisfaction; in fact, after an absence of three years, the board of education of Perrysburg urged that he should again take charge of their schools, offering as an inducement an increase of salary equal to five hundred dollars per year. He was then, however, the superintendent of the Saginaw City schools, a position which he accepted in 1867, at an annual salary of eighteen hundred dollars per year. His work in Saginaw was most satisfactory to the people of that city, but he was forced to relinquish his task there in 1871 on account of the climate. The superintendency of the Ionia City schools was then tendered him, which he accepted in 1871. Fromn the latter date he has been closely identified with the educational interests of Ionia, and has continued to discharge most efficiently the duties of superintendent of the city's schools to the present, with the exception 154 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. G. Oven, principal high school, $800; Miss E. T. Phelps, assistant high school, $450; Miss J. A. Williams, assistant high school, $450; Miss F. E. Fitch, principal grammarroom, $500; Miss Ella Hutchins, assistant grammar-room, $400; Miss F. C. Sines, intermediate grammar-room, $400; Miss Alice Barr, assistant intermediate grammar-room, $350; Miss Flora Ripley, primary, $320; Miss Mary Cadwell, primary, $375; Miss Iaddie Green, primary, $320; Miss Nlina Scheurer, Second Ward, $320; Miss Anna Smith, Second Ward, $320; Miss Tillie Harvey, Second Ward, $320; Miss Lida Brooks, Second Ward, $350; Miss E. T. Welch, Fourth Ward, $320; Miss Anis Knowles, Fourth Ward, $320; Erwin F. Smith, Prairie Creek, $350. IONIA'S MANUFACTORIES. As a manufacturing centre Ionia has but little of which to boast. Water-power there is none worth speaking of, and, as steam is necessarily the motive employed, there is not, nor is there likely to be, a very brisLk mill-wheel industry at this point. There was no lumber manufactured here before 1852, when Page & Bean built a steam saw-mill on the river, although there was, and had been for some years, a saw- and grist-mill at Prairie Creek, just above the town. RAILWAY CAR-SHOPS. The most important industry in Ionia, and one which contributes largely to the business of the town, is the one known as the Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railway CarShops. To 1874 the works consisted of round-house, blacksmith-shop, and machine-shop. In that year the car-shops were added, and now at this point the railway company not only repairs and rebuilds its cars and locomotives, but constructs also new cars of all kinds save passenger-coaches. The works, which now occupy about five acres of ground, will soon be removed to new and more spacious quarters near the present location. Including trainmen and others assigned to that department, the Ionia car shops employ in the aggregate a force of two hundred men. George C. Watrous, the mastermechanic, has been in charge since July, 1875. The general foreman is George O'Keefe. DYE'S FOUNDRY. George H. Dye is engaged in the manufacture of agricultural implements, iron columns, and general machine-castings. Mr. Dye employs twelve men, and has been engaged in the business upon the same site since 1873. The foundry was first set in motion by E. A. Chubb and Osmond Tower in 1857. NOVELTY FLOURING-MILL. This mill, occupying the site of the grist-mill built in 1837 by Samuel Dexter, has been carried on since 1875 by Stiff & Sharick. It contains three runs of stone, and, besides doing a fine custom business, manufactures about seventy-five barrels of flour daily. AMPIILETT'S POTTERY. The pottery of MIessrs. T. L. Amphlett & Sons, on the line of the Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee Railroad, was founded at Ionia by that firm in the spring of 1861, and since then has been carried on as a profitable enterprise. The productions are flower-pots, stone-ware, and fire-brick, which find markets at Detroit, Chicago, and other Western points. The hands employed number ten. IONIA BRICK AND DRAIN-TILE WORKS. Jonathan Tibbitts and William Kitts were early brickmanufacturers at Ionia upon land owned by Thomas Cornell, who himself became the successor to Tibbits & Kitts, and in 1865 sold out to W. hI. Vanderheyden, who has since then been largely engaged in making white and red building-brick. In 1870 he added the manufacture of draintile, and now employs forty-five men. He makes about three million five hundred thousand bricks and two hundred thousand drain-tile yearly, shipping fully half his product to distant points. Since 1873 he has used steam as the motive-power at his works. BANKING IN IONIA. With the creation of the United States Land Office in Tonia, in 1836, arose also the banking and exchange office of Winsor & Macy, —the first concern of the kind known to the history of the village. Its existence was, however, a brief one, and within less than a year it had outlived its usefulness. Some years later Daniel Ball and James Kennedy started exchange banks, but Ionia had no chartered banking institution until Jan. 5, 1864, when the First National Bank of Ionia was organized with a capital of $50,000, and Frederick Hall, Benjamin Harter, J. F. Holbrook, Benjamin Soule, G. S. Cooper, Jay Olmstead, A. F. Carr, Manning Rutan, and Alonzo Sessions as directors. Frederick Hall was chosen president and James Kennedy cashier. The bank opened business in James Kennedy's banking-office, but in 1865 built and occupied the present banking-house. The cashiers of the bank since Mr. Kennedy have been A. F. Carr, R. P. Sherman, and F. A. Sessions. The of two years (1876-77), when, by reason of needing rest and a relaxation from the cares and responsibilities of his position, he was granted a leave of absence for one year, which was extended to two. He was not idle, however, for during these two years he traveled as State agent for the well-known publishing-house of Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co., of Cincinnati, Ohio. Prof. Ewing's work in lonia has been a continued round of success, and the most cordial feeling has ever existed between him,,the board of education, and the people. When he assumed charge of Ionia's schools they possessed one small organ; now they rejoice in the possession of a fine piano and five organs, all purchased with money raised by various entertainments. By the same means money has been raised to fresco a large room in the high-school building, also to make many additions to the school library and apparatus. The second year of hi. superintendency in Ionia there graduated a class of two, the next year a class of three, the fourth a class of eight, the fifth a class of nineteen. Fourteen were graduated during each of the years he was absent, and fourteen each subsequent year to the present. He also holds a normal-school class every autumn (in connection with the high school), lasting two months, which has proved to be very successful. The non-resident tuition of the schools of Ionia amounts to about one thousand dollars per year, only two other schools in the State exceeding the amount in this respect. From the last annual report it is also ascertained that the whole number of pupils then enrolled was nine hundred and sixty-eight; the number of non-resident pupils, ninety-four; number studying Latin, forty-two; number studying Greek, nine; number enrolled in the high school, one hundred and sixty-three. CITY OF IONIA. 155. capital of the bank, originally $50,000, is now $100,000. The directors, August, 1880, were Alonzo Sessions (president), L. S Lovell (vice-president), S. A. Yeomans, Mlanning Rutan, Harvey Harter, Benjamin Harter, A. F. Carr, lampton Rich, S. W. Webber. F. A. Sessions, the present cashier, was appointed February, 1880. July 1,1880, the amount due depositors was $132,120.21, and the amount of loans and discounts $131,476.32. SECOND NATIONAL BANK. This bank was chartered in February, 1873, and assumed the business of the First National Bank of Lyons, which was then discontinued. The first directors chosen were A. L. Roof, HI. J. Wilson, D. T. Fargo, W. C. Page, P. R. Howe, E. II. Stanton, A. J. Webber, C. W. Colby, and G. W. Webber. W. C. Page was chosen president and Virgil Van Vleck cashier. Geo. W. Webber is now the president and Virgil Van Vleck cashier. The bank capital is $50,000; deposits, $108,000; loans and discounts, $90,000; circulation, $45,000; profit-and-loss account (undivided profits July 1, 1880), $15,000. The directors for 1880 are G. W. Webber, Mrs. G. W. Webber, A. J. Webber, Forman Sloan, and W. P. Burhans. W. C. PAGE & CO. This banking firm, organized July, 1879, carries on a general exchange and banking business. PHYSICIAN S. Allusion has already been made to the fact that Dr. W. B. L:ncoln, who c.me into the Ionia settlement wiih the Dexter Co'ony in 1833, was the first physician known to Ionia County, and, remaining the only one for a few years, he came to be known far and wide, for he was called to almost every portion of the county, and rode over a circuit so broad that his earliest experience was mainly passed in the saddle, and made the demands for his services so continuous and urgent that day-time and night-time saw him almost constantly on the wing. Dr. Lincoln still resides in Ionia, enjoying a quiet rest well earned by the active pursuits of more than forty stirring, bustling years of service in behalf of humanity. The next physician to occupy the local field was Dr. Alanson Cornell, who came to the town in 1838, and, in connection with his medical practice, carried on a drugstore. He remained in continuous practice from the date of his arrival, in 1838, to the date of his death, in 1873. Next after Dr. Cornell came Dr. Norton Beckwith (first a settler in Lyons town), who joined with Dr. Richardson in practicing medicine in Ionia. Doctors came in pretty rapidly after that, and many of those who came did not remain long enough to call for a place in current history. Mention may be made of Drs. Williams, D. W. Bliss, Avery, Zenas Bliss, Tyler, H. B. Barnes, W. B. Thomas, S. M. Bayard, T. B. Benedict, Frederick Gundrum, A. L. Corey, Thomas G. Ranney, O. R. Long, Allen, Lodge, Little, and so on. The physicians now in practice in Ionia (August, 1880) are Thomas & Logan, C. H. Hammond, Fuller, Bailey, W. B. Barnes, S. V. Romig, and Best, of the allopathic school; Allen, Long, and Ford, homoeopaths; Tremayne, I I I.... Bayard, and Joslin, eclectics. Those longest in practice in Ionia are W. B. Barnes, W. B. Thomas, and S. M. Bayard, all of whom came in 1861. THE IONIA BAR. The history of the Ionia bar begins with the appearance in lonia, in 1836, of Cyrus Lovell, who came to the town in September of that year from Kalamazoo, where he entered upon a legal career in 1832. He built a residence in Ionia in 1836, on Washington Street, and in that house kept his office. "Uncle Cy," as he is best known, still lives in Ionia, but his law-practice he gave up a few years ago. When he first came to the county-seat he found the field an unpromising one and briefs few and far between, for people were too busy looking after bread and butter and clearing forests to need much law. Of course lawyers came to the county-seat to plead during court term, but, until 1841, Cyrus Lovell was the only resident lawyer that Ionia boasted. In 1841 came A. F. Bell from Lyons, where he and A. L Roof had been members of the pioneer army since 1836. Mr. Bell was surveyor as well as attorney, and between the duties attendant upon both pursuits managed to keep himself tolerably busy. He is still a practicing lawyer in Ionia as a member of the firm of Blanchard, Bell & Cagwin. In 1841, too, came L. S. Lovell and Ira Porter. L. S. Lovell was chosen circuit judge in 1857, and in that office has served continuously from that time to this. Iis present term expires in 1881. W. H. Parks came in 1842, Loss E. Jones in 1849, J. C. Blanchard in 1850, and Albert Williams in 1852. Mr. Blanchard's earliest legal operations were conducted in Lyons, and in Otisco, in 1845, Mr. Williams began his bar career in Ionia County. Both are still in practice in Ionia. Willard B. Wells, the present prosecuting attorney, came to the Ionia bar in 1855, and, in 1858, A. B. Clark was admitted. The lawyers and law-firms n6w practicing in Ionia are Blanchard, Bell & Cagwin, Mitchel & Pratt, W. B. Wells, Vosper Brothers, Smith & Sessions, Albert Williams, Lemuel Clute, William 0. Webster, Charles Calkins, J. S. Bennett, L. B. Soule, John H. Mitchell, H. L. Mitchell, A. B. Morse, A. W. Dodge, B. F. Spencer, Donald McPherson, F. S. Hutchinson, C. B. Wardle, L. H. Jennings, W. B. Thomas, and George W. Beelman. IONIA POST-OFFICE. The post-office in Ionia was established in 1835, and Erastus Yeomans appointed to the charge thereof. IIe kept the mail in his log house, at the western end of the village; but, that location being publicly inconvenient, he removed pretty soon to the centre of the town and occupied a building erected expressly for post-office purposes. Ionia was at first on a mail-route between Jackson and Grand Rapids, and received mail once in two weeks by the hands of a horseback-rider. When the stage route was opened between Detroit and Grand Rapids via Ionia, mail came in daily. Mr. Yeomans was succeeded in 1841 by Jacob Winsor, who kept the office in the tailor's shop of Ethan S. John 156 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. I son. Mr. Johnson was Winsor's deputy; and when popular objection to the latter compelled his resignation Johnson got the appointment, in 1842. Richard Dye succeeded Johnson in 1845, and thereafter the incumbents were Jonathan Tibbitts, fiom 1849-57; William Yerrington, 1857 -61; Lewis D. Smith, 1861-69; Edward Stevenson, 1869 -73; M. L. Smith, 1873-77; Alfred N. Heath, 1877 to the present. The business of the Ionia office for the three months ending June 30, 1880, is shown in the following: Received for sales of stamps, stamped envelopes, box-rent, etc., $2100.87; received for domestic money-orders issued, $7668.24; received for foreign money-orders issued, $208.30; paid on domestic orders, $5565.45; paid on foreign orders, $82.79; fees on money-orders, $88.90. THE PRESS. Ionia's first newspaper was the Iolni Joulrnal, first issued in February, 1843, by Ira W. Robinson. The second paper was the lonia Gazette. Detailed reference to the history of these as well as successive representatives of the Ionia press will be found in the General History of the county. The city is supplied at present with one daily and three weekly newspapers. The daily is the Ionia Sentinel, andthe weeklies the Sentinel, the Standard, and the National, -organs, respectively, of the Republican, Democratic, and Greenback political parties. Each paper enjoys a fair amount of circulation and patronage, and in the cases of the Sentinel and S'tandard especially the support is substantial and lucrative. SECRET ORDERS AND OTHER SOCIETIES. IONIA LODGE, NO. 36, F. AND Ag M. The first meeting of Ionia Lodge was held at the Eagle Hotel, May 23, 1849, on which occasion there were present Levi Taylor, W. M.; C. S. Ilooker, S. W.; J. L. Freeman, J. W.; B. Sherman, Sec.; --- Thom, Trcas.; George Townsend, S. D.; - Brown, J. D.; Chapman, Tiler. The first petition for membership was received on that occasion from Juln C. Ball, and at the second lodge-meeting, June 19, 1849, petitions were received from Peter Hackett, Richard Dye, W. C. Clark, John L. Taylor, and Charles M. Moseman. Following Mr. Taylor, Charles M. Moseman was Master from 1850 to 1852; P. H. Taylor from 1854 to 1856. Between 1856 and 1867 there is a break in the records. P. B. Haight was Master in 1867; J. B. Hutchins, 1S68; J. S. Bennett, 1869-70; WV. H. Dunn, 1871-73; R. H. Bedford, 1874-76; J. C. Bentley, 1877; R. C. Hatheway, 1878; Chauncey Waterbury, 1879-80. Tile lodge was chartered Jan. 10, 1850, and fiom that time forward has enjoyed a prosperous existence, the membership in August, 1880, being one hundred and thirty. Since 1874 the Blue Lodge has occupied, with the commandery, council, chapter, and Washtenong Lodge (the latter a tenant of Ionia Lodge), spacious and finely-appointed apartments in Union Block. There are three lodge-rooms, parlors, kitchen, etc., all completely equipped and arranged not only in handsome taste, but with eminent regard to comfort and convenience. Finer Masonic quarters would be difficult to find in the interior of Michigan. The lodge officers for 1880 are Chauncey Waterbury, W. M.; A. H. Smith, S. W.; S. P. Hovey, J. W.; Silas Dildine, Treas.; R. C. Hatheway, Sec.; Allen L. Colton, S. D.; William K. Christie, J. D.; Robert Hall and C. B. Dyer, Stewards; E. P. Worden, Chaplain; J. W. Seymour, Tiler. IONIA CHAPTER, NO. 14, R. A. M. On Jan. 9, 1856, a charter was issued to Ionia Chapter, the persons named in the charter being Frederick Hall, David Irish, L. B. Barnum, and Dorus M. Fox. Frederick Hall was High Priest in 1858-59; George W. Wilson, 1860; P. H. Taylor, 1861; George Hill, 1862-63; J. C. Blanchard, 1864-65; W. B. Thomas, 1866; A. W. Dodge, 1867 -68; J. C. Blanchard, 1869; W. B. Thomas, 1870; J. C. Blanchard, 1871; C. H. Axtell, 1872-75; P. B. Haight, 1876; F. S. Freeman, 1877; Chauncey Waterbury, 1878; R. C. Hatheway, 1879; Chauncey Waterbury, 1880. In August, 1880, the active members numbered one hundred and thirty, the officers being Chauncey Waterbury, H. P.; R. H. Bedford, King; F. S. Freeman, Scribe; Henry Wheadon, C. of H.; William Huggins, P. S.; Henry Weiser, R. A. C.; Silas Dildine, Treas.; R. C. Hatheway, See.; Geo. R. Abbott, M. 3d V.; Loomis Mann, M. 2d V.; Silas P. Hovey, M. 1st V.; John W. Seymour, Guard. IONIA COMMANDERY, NO. 11. The commandery was instituted MarchB12, 1861, when the following officers were elected: George W. Wilson, E. C.; Frederick Hall, G.; J. C. Blanchard, C. G.; D. B. Lyon, Prelate; A. A. Stevens, S. W.; L. B. Townsend, J. W.; Frederick Hall, Treas.; James Kennedy, Rec.; J. L. Freeman, Standard-Bearer; John Toan, Sword-Bearer; P. B. IIaight, W.; Henry Stiles, C. G. The commandery was chartered June 5, 1861. The first petitions for membership were received from Frederick Hall, G. W. Wilson, and D. B. Lyon. The membership in August, 1880, aggregated one hundred and ten. The officers at that time were A. 3M. Heath, E. C.; George Sayles, G.; J. H. Kidd, C. G.; J. B. HIutchins, P.; E. B. Miller, S. W.; P. P. Fanning, J. W.; Richard Dye, Treas.; Chauncey Waterbury, Rec.; John Wingler, Standard-Bearer; C. E. Biglow, Sword-Bearer; R. 11. Bedford, W.; J. W. Seymour, Sentinel; W. F. Walton, 1st G.; F. M. Barnes, 2d G.; F. S. Freeman, 3d G. WASIITENONG LODGE, NO. 2-6, F. AND A. M. The first meeting of Vashtenong Lodge was held Aug. 8, 1870, on which occasion the officers of the lodge present were C. R. Taylor, M.; G. S. Cooper, S. W.; F. S. Iutchinson, J. WV.; J. H. Kidd, S. D.; Richard Dye, J. D.; F. S. Freeman, Sec.; H. D. Irish, Treas.; Henry Ramloe, Tiler. The first petitions for membership were received from F. S. Freeman and Henry Ramloe. Sept. 5, 1870, peti tions were received from Jeffrey Corbit, Rev. 0. Ebbert, F. Gundrum, and Franklin Merrianville, and Jan. 13, 1871, the lodge was chartered. CITY OF IONIA. 157 The membership was sixty in August, 1880, when the officers were Henry Wiser, W. M.; WV. W. Mitchel, S. W.; Isaac P. Hoag, J. W.; Richard Dye, Trcas.; A. J. Moorhead, Sec.; C. II. Spencer, S. D.; John Dobson, J. D.; L. P. Essick and D. L. Nash, Stewards; H. D. Irish, Chaplain; Frank Tyler, Tiler. ION1A COUNCIL, NO. 12, R. AND S. M. Ionia Council was chartered June 5, 1861. The officers for 1880 are R. C. Hatheway, T. I. M.; R. H. Bedford, Dep. M.; H. Wheadon, P. C. of W.; W. K. Christie, Treas.; W. W. Worden, Rec.; H. E. Bailey, C. of G.; H. Weiser, C. of C.; E. P. Worden, Chaplain; J. W. Seymour, Sentinel. IONIA LODGE, NO. 175, I. O. O. F. This, the first lodge of Odd-Fellows in Ionia, was instituted Nov. 22, 1871, by R. W. G. M. Isaac Sides at a meeting held at Bayard's Hall. The officers appointed at the organization were T. A. Willett, N. G.; C. S. Smith, V. G.; J. H. Horton, Treas.; W. T. Kimsey, Sec. On that occasion petitions for membership were received from J. H. Welch, A. Udell, W. H. Dunn, R. J. Humphrey, Henry Brown, D. A. Devine, and David M. Kerstetter. None of the persons named in the foregoing are members of the lodge at this time (August, 1880). The lodge was chartered Jan. 18, 1872. Present members number fifty-three. Smith's Hall has been the place of assemblage since 1872, and the present officials are John Flater, N. G.; J. HI. Conrad, V. G.; A. B. Clarke, R. S.; D. P. Chapman, P. S.; William W. Hall, Treas. RELIEF ENCAMPMENT, NO. 53, I. O. O. F. This encampment was instituted Feb. 9,1872, and chartered Feb. 19, 1873. The charter members were Alfred Udell, Allen B. Morse, H. C. Sessions, James H. Horton, Charles II. Axtell, Joseph Rounds, James Brown, B. McCarthy, J. H. Welch, O. W. Babcock, W. T. Kimsey, William W. Hall, William M. Dreskell, Frederick Hall, C. L. Smith, William T. Anniba, D. M. Ierstetter, William W. Mitchel. Regular assemblies are held in Smith's Hall. In August, 1880, the membership was thirty-three, the officers being F. G. Newman, C. P.; John Parker, H. P.; J. H. Conrad, Scribe; James T. Brown, S. W.; James Donovan, J. V. IONIA DIVISION, NO 108, SONS OF TEMPERANCE. Division No. 108 was chartered March 26, 1877, with members as follows: P. H. Taylor, Andrew Green, James M. Fink, C. G. Newman, James Mickle, H. G. Wright, A. B. Clark, H. E. Stevenson; A. A. Knight, J. K. Train, Judson Clark, George Pettit, E. A. Chubb, Samuel Cavanagh, D. P. Chapman. The membership Sept. 1, 1880, was seventy-eight. Meetings are held in Smith's Hall. The present officers are Lottie E. Kimball, W. P.; George C. Griswold, W. A.; J. M. Fink, R. S.; J. B. Williams, A. R. S.; W. II. Dunham, F. S.; D. M. Lyon, Treas.; H. J. Sissem, Chaplain; A. Sissem, Con.; I. Sissem, Asst. Con.; E. A. Chubb, O. S.; O. Dunham, I. S. BROTHERHOOD OF LOCOMOTIVE ENGINEERS. Grand River Subdivision, No. 168, of the International Division of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, was chartered July 20, 1873, James Pogue being authorized to organize the lodge. Thirty members are now enrolled upon the books of Grand River Subdivision. Meetings are held twice a month in Smith's Hall. The officers are Terry Dolan, C. E.; Harry Hayes, Sec.; C. leidman, Treas. LADIES' LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. As its name indicates, this association was organized for the purpose of providing a circulating library for public benefit, and it has not only supplied in a popularly gratifying way a pressing need, but it has steadily prospered and expanded its field of useful labors. The association was created in 1876, and included in its list of first officials Mrs. Job Pierson as president, Mrs. Albert Williams vicepresident, and Mrs. George W. Webber secretary. There is now a membership of about one hundred, and about one thousand volumes in the library. The officers are Mrs. William Sessions, President; Mrs. Lemuel Clute, VicePresident; Mrs. G. W. Webber, Secretary; Mrs. Virgil Van Vleck, Treasurer; Miss Alice Worden, Librarian. YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION. The Young Men's Christian Association, organized in 1876, has now an active working membership of about sixty. Much effective religious work has been done since 1876, especially in the way of " cottage" prayer-meetings and the conduct of the prison Sunday-school. The present acting president is J. W. Ewing. The association has as yet no library or reading-rooms, but these wants are likely to be very soon supplied. KNIGHTS OF HONOR. This lodge was organized Oct. 19, 1876, with twelve members. M. H. Huntress was the first Dictator, and following him, to 1880, Dictators have been chosen in regular succession as follows: Godfrey Gundrum, H. C. Sessions, Frederick Gundrum, George H. Allured, L. H. Jennings, H. C. Sessions, John Schneider, William Wing. In August, 1880, the lodge had twenty-one members, and its officers were as follows: William Wing, D.; S. V. Romig, V. D.; L. H. Jennings, A. D.; Godfrey Gundrum, Reporter; George Gundrum, Treas.; F. Miller, F. R.; H. C. Sessions, Chaplain; B. L. Udell, Guard. ARBEITER UNTERSTUTZUNG VEREIN (GERMAN LABORERS' AID SOCIETY). This society, incorporated Aug. 8, 1878, has a present membership of thirty-six, the chief officers being Godfrey Gundrum, President; Rudolph Seig, Secretary; Philip Schillinger, Vice-President; Jacob Schmolz, Treasurer. WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION. The Women's Christian Temperance Union was organized during the " temperance crusade" of 1873, and since then has maintained a more or less flourishing existence. There are now fifty members. Meetings are held weekly. Mrs. R. C. Crawford is president, Mrs. Esther Thomas and Mrs. W. D. Arnold vice-presidents, Mrs. J. L. Reynolds 158 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. secretary, Mrs. H. J. Wilson corresponding secretary, and Mrs. C. 0. Thompson treasurer. ION IA LIGHT-GUARD. The Ionia Light-Guard, otherwise known as Company G, Second Regiment Michigan State Troops, was organized March 22, 1876, with eighty-one men and the following commissioned officers: Capt. J. H. Kidd, First Licut. O. S. Tower, and Second Lieut. H. C. Sessions. The Guard headquarters (Armory Hall) was built in 1876 by the Armory Hall Association, whose members are also connected with the Guard. It is a commodious structure, cost six thousand dollars, and was commenced upon the proceeds of the Light-Guard Centennial excursion to Philadelphia in 1876. The hall also affords accommodations for holding the Circuit Courts of the county, and for theatrical troupes, public meetings, etc. Capt. F. S. Hutchinson succeeded to the command of the Guard in August, 1880, and with A. E. Tower as first lieutenant, H. C. Sessions as second lieutenant, and eightyfour men, the company went into brigade encampment at Kalamazoo during the same month. During their stay at Kalamazoo the company's rifle-team, in clarge of Sergt. F. N. Barnes, won the Rloehm & Wright prize at ranges of two hundred and five hundred yards. RAILWAY BUSINESS. DETROIT, LANSING AND NORTHERN RAILROAD. For the calendar year ending Dec. 31, 1879, the Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad shipped from Ionia 27,949,557 pounds of freight, and during the same period received at lonia 33,845,314 pounds. A detailed reference to the chief shipments is made as follows: Merchandise, 3,983,805 pounds; produce, 754,968 pounds; animals, 1,008,500 pounds; plaster, 2,702,720 pounds; stone and brick, 4,883,289 pounds; manufactured articles, 944,739 pounds; flour, 900,594 poun; wheat, 7,575,703 pounds; lumber, staves, etc., 2,121,305 pounds. DETROIT, GRAND HAVEN AND MILWAUKEE RAILROAD. The shipments from Ionia station over the line of the Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee Railroad during the year 1879 embraced 448 barrels of flour, 126 barrels of salt, 1487 barrels of apples, 10,000,000 pounds of grain, 250,000 pounds of wool, 350 car-loads of lumber, 250 tons of brick, and 2400 tons unenumerated freight. IONIA COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. The grounds of the Ionia County Agricultural Society, located within the limits of the city, cover nearly forty acres, of which sixteen acres are embraced within a handsome grove. The Grand River skirts the southern border of the inclosure, which is said to be one of the finest among all similar grounds in the State. The society has held twentyfour annual fairs, of which that of 1879 was a conspicuous success. The net gains of that venture were two thousand eight hundred dollars. The investment represented in grounds and improvements aggregates fourteen thousand dollars, and upon the property there is no indebtedness whatever. There is on the ground an excellent half-mile track, upon which the Ionia Trotting Association holds yearly meetings each summer. The officers of the agricultural society for 1880 are D. J. Green, President; W. W. Mitchel, Vice-President; M. L. Smith, Secretary; Allen Inman, Treasurer. IONIA FIRE DEPARTMENT. The first fire-engine introduced into Ionia was a small "mud-box" affair of the Peasely pattern, named the " Fountain." Records touching the history of the first fire company are not extant, and, as to oral testimony, the matter to be gleaned therefrom is vague at best. A report of the Ionia County fair held in September, 1858, alludes to the presence on the grounds of the Ionia Cornet Band (organized in May of that year, under the instruction of Professor Barnhardt, of Grand Rapids, and then-September, 1858-" able to play a whole tune") and the uniformed fire company parading their new engine, the " Young America," with the old Fountain bringing up in the rear in charge of a company of boys. The history of the Ionia Fire Department does not show that it has been remarkably prosperous, and it appears but latterly (under the control of II. A. Cornell) to have received into its management anything like an appearance of energetic system. Even now the needs are still numerous, and of them the necessity of more convenicnt quarters is the most urgent. The fire service of the city could be made exceedingly effective with the present supply of hand-apparatus in the event of the utilization of a strong water-power present on the hills north of Washington Street, and capable of being transmitted through mains to the lower portion of the city in force quite adequate to all emergencies. The department consists at present of two hand-engine companies, two hose-companies, and an extra apparatus, a hook-and-ladder truck. Members of the department receive as pay twenty-five cents per hour for drill, the same for fire-alarms, and fifty cents per hour for service at fires. H. A. Cornell is chief engineer and W. R. White assistant chief. The companies and their officers are as follows: Excelsior Fire-Engine Company, No. 1, with twentyeight men. Foreman, George Youngs; first assistant, Leroy Heath; second assistant, John Thompson. Star Fire-Engine Company, Nro. 2, with thirty-eight men. Foreman, D. M. Lyons; first assistant, John Bartlett; second assistant, Edward Cain. Liberty Hose Company, No. 1, with twelve men. Foreman, John Beattie; first assistant, A. Aniba; second assistant, William Dildine. Wolverine Hose Company, ANo. 2, with twelve men. Foreman, John Schild; first assistant, P. Gaybersen. The master-mechanic of the department is Roscoe Hearsey. 7 I I 8itt%.1~.. Ii:. ~s-~~"- 1'11 rl '?~ I 'rr i ~'~ i Pfii;S' o` "'P k.~. ' 4 I -2 - t I i II age, I I. I j i itP.. I~c I I &WEBBE1?: &SaON, i" eROCtEHl VEUDEq | & SON i ll R I I I I I.0000 Ia 7,*t.vm h I "t!, - ",,, , - N ",, I,,, I " I. I I I..1 -- I I I I, - I - 1- - -, I - I -. ~ 4 X 1 I II I " I ",I ",.! ",.7 I, QP y,, I 3 '" i ii i L. i, ^S.7 1 -E Iii /j.,2: 7 'r s 3 5' r ~ c.r; r 7r rll I II ~ 1~ It 1 '' ' "n wT -- I'm M I 1 I I - ll, ~ ~II.-..," IM BUSINESS BLOCKS O.i11 E l X. lAAO f 'I ~ g~"; '15 0 14141,1 AND RESIDENCE /l/v/?, MI(f/. CITY OF IONIA. 159 C BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. IION. SANFORD A. YEOMIANS. Hon. Sanford A. Yeomans, Ionia, Mich., was born in the town of German Flats, Herkimer Co., N. Y., Nov. 16, 1816. He is the eldest of nine children, and received his education in the public school of his birthplace. At the age of seventeen he joined, with his parents, the colony which settled in the Grand River Valley. lIe remained with them until the age of twenty-four, sharing in all the hardships of pioneer life. The forty-acre farm on which he began for himself, and upon which he still lives, has, by industry and economy, enlarged to nearly a section in size, and joins the corporate limits of the city of Ionia on the northwest. In January, 1840, he married Abigail Thompson, a daughter of Mr. Levi Thompson, of Pownal, Bennington Co., Vt. She had come to Michigan with her uncle, Dexter Arnold, and his family, who settled in Ionia County. By this union four children were born to him, three of whom, two sons and one daughter, are still living. Shortly after the birth of the fourth child his wife died. In November, 1848, he married Marietta A., daughter of the late Chauncey M. Stebbins. Mrs. Yeomans is still living, the mother of three children. In the business and politics of his county Mr. Yeomans has long been an active participant. In politics he is a "stalwart" Republican, having been identified with the Republican party since its formation under the oaks at Jackson. His fellow-citizens have shown their confidence in him by successively electing him to many positions of trust and responsibility in his town and county. In 1859 he was appointed one of the commissioners to lay the Ionia, Houghton, and Mackinaw State road. In 1867 he was a member of the State Convention to revise the constitution of Michiigan. He was elected to the State Legislature for the session of 1877, and re-elected to the session of 1879, from the district in which he has resided for nearly half a century. He is a prominent stockholder and director of the First National Bank of Ionia. In this, as in other business relations, he has won the respect and confidence of the community. Mr. Yeomans has ever been an industrious, energetic man, of powerful will, and richly endowed with that mental quality more to be desired than genius,-common sense. Few of the earlier settlers of the Grand River valley have had greater success. From a small beginning there has been steady and uninterrupted progression in all the material interests in which he has engaged. Ile is now in the prime of life, and his strength and vigor seem to give promise of many years of service and usefulness. lION. GEORGE W. WEBBER. This gentleman, who has won distinguished honors, was born Nov. 25, 1825, at Newbury, Orange Co., Vt., and is descended from the earliest settlers of that portion of the Connecticut Valley, members of the family having located both on the Vermont and New Hampshire sides of the stream. His paternal grandfather was a successful farmer, and owned the fine farm belonging with the "Profile House," among the mountains of Franconia, N. H. He kept what was then known as the " Webber Inn," a few miles from the present hotel. He was well known throughout that region, and was universally respected. The members of the family for at least three generations have, through great force of character, made for themselves excellent records. Andrew Webber, father of George W., was also a farmer by occupation. In 1828 he removed to Steuben Co., N. Y., where, with the aid of his six sons, he improved several farms. He engaged also in mercantile pursuits, and his sons were thus afforded opportunities for acquiring a thorough knowledge of business affairs. The subsequent career of each has shown that these opportunities were not neglected. George W. Webber was educated in the common schools in the neighborhood of his home, and at the academy in Alfred. Allegany Co., N. Y. At the age of twenty years he engaged in business as a lumber-dealer and general merchant. July 18, 1850, he married Miss Antoinette C. Abbey, daughter of Jonathan E. Abbey, an old resident of Ulster Co., N. Y. Miss Abbey was born Nov. 29, 1830, and, like her husband, was descended from a race of pioneers. This marriage was celebrated in Steuben Co., N. Y. In 1852, Mr. Webber came to Michigan, and for six years was engaged in lumbering in Manistee County, which was then very new and contained no roads or post-routes. Mail was carried by Indians. Manistee had not yet a village organization. In 1856, when John C. Fremont was the nominee of the Republican party for President, Manistee was the banner Republican county in the State, giving but three Democratic votes. This result was largely owing to the efforts of Mr. Webber. In 18.8 he removed to Ionia County, which has since been his home, and with whose interests his own have been identical. He engaged in mercantile business at Lyons in company with his brother, S. W. Webber, to whom he sold his interest after five years. His next location was at Ionia, where he entered into business with H. J. Wilson, a pioneer of the place. He was also engaged in lumbering on the Little Muskegon River, in company with Hon. Fred Hall, this partnership continuing three years, the firm-name being Hall & Webber. At the end of three years Mr. Hall's interest was purchased by A. J. Webber, and the firm became Webber Brothers, who have continued in business until the present. The firm of Webber & Wilson, previously mentioned, discontinued business after a prosperous career of five years. The Webber Brothers have also been engaged in farming near the city of Ionia, and became the owners of one of the finest farms in the county; this is now the property of A. J. Webber. The enterprising village of Mecosta was founded by the Messrs. Webber and built upon their land. About 1870, George W. Webber engaged in a private banking enterprise at Muir with his brother, S. W. Web ber, to whom, after a continuance of four years, he sold his interest. He was one of those most prominent in organizing the Second National Bank of Ionia, of which institu 160 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. tion the following were the officers: President, W. C. Page; Vice-President, George W. Webber; Cashier, Virgil Van Vleck. A year later Mr. Webber was elected president, a position he has since continued to hold. This is one of the most reliable banks in the State. Mr. Webber was one of the village trustees of Ionia at the time of its organization as a city, and assisted in drafting its charter. He has since been twice elected mayor of the city, and has assisted in many ways in advancing the interests of the place. The Webber Block was built in 1879, at a cost of fifteen thousand dollars, the Webber brownstone block in 1880, at a cost of thirty thousand dollars. Rooms in the latter block were fitted up by Mr. Webber especially for the Ladies' Library Association, and donated to their use as long as Mr. Webber or his wife shall live. Steam is used for heating. Mr. Webber is also principal owner in the Second National Bank Block, including two stores and the bank-building. During his term of office as mayor many new improvements were made in the city, among them being numbered an iron bridge over Grand River and a high-water road; also the purchase of valuable property for the purpose of laying water-pipe. The period was one of marked improvement, and was the most prosperous the city has ever seen. Mr. Webber takes especial interest in educational matters, and has aided liberally in the enlargement of facilities for learning in his city. Churches and benevolent institutions have also been remembered by him, and those who apply to him for assistance are certain to share his bounty. He is a man of pleasing address and fine personal appearance, has a strong character and an inflexible will, and these, combined with practical sense and enterprise, have brought to him success in all his business undertakings. Nov. 2, 1880, Mr. Webber was elected to Congress fiom the Fifth District of Mlihigan by a plurality of eleven thousand two hundred and forty-three votes, and a majority of two thousand and seven over all competitors. This is a fitting- testimonial to his worth as a man. ARCHIBALD F. CARR. This gentleman, whose name is so prominently associated with the history of the city of lonia, was born in Amsterdam, Montgomery Co., N. Y., Sept. 3, 1814. The Carr family is descended from three brothers, who came from Paisley, Scotland, some time previous to the Revolution and settled in Providence, R. I. They were weavers by trade, and followed their vocation in this country. John T. Carr, father of the subject of this memoir, and son of one of the three brothers just mentioned, was born in Providence in 1784; when a young man, in company with two brothers, he emigrated to Amsterdam, N. Y., where he was married. He reared a family of seven children, Archibald being the second son. When he was three years of age the family moved to Syracuse, N. Y., where the elder Carr resided many years. At the age of thirteen Archibald F. went to live with an uncle who was a merchant in Orleans County. With him he remained until he attained his twenty-first year. He acquired a good practical business education, and in his youth evinced much perception and business acumen, and laid the foundation for a successful business career. In 1836 he was married to Miss Jane A. Howe, of Fairport, N. Y., and shortly after his marriage he went to Rochester, N. Y., where he was engaged as salesman in a wholesale drygoods-house. In 1839 his only child, Marion, was born. She married Dr. Zenas E. Bliss, who died in Grand Rapids in 1877. Mrs. Bliss is now at the University of Ann Arbor, educating her only daughter, Jennie. In 1843, Mr. Carr came to Ionia and engaged in mercantile pursuits up to 1865, when he turned his attention to other interests. But few men have been more prominently connected with the best interests of Ionia, or have identified themselves more largely with its growth and development. He was one of the first directors of the First National Bank of Ionia; he was its president a short time, and held the responsible position of cashier nearly eleven years. He then devoted his time and energies to his lumbering interests and pine lands. Mr. Carr is a gentleman well and favorably known, and, aside from his identification with the business interests of the city, has taken a prominent part in all social and educational enterprises. He was one of the projectors of the Stanton branch of the Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad, and prominently identified with its construction. In a word, he is one of those gentlemen whose identification with any county is always productive of good. HON. OSMOND TOWER.* Hon. Osmond Tower, of Ionia, Mich., late United States marshal of the Western District of this State, was born at Cummington, Hampshire Co., Mass., Feb. 16, 1811. He is the sixth in direct descent from John Tower, who in 1639 emigrated from Hingham, England, to Hingham, New England. The names in the genealogical record are John, born March 14, 1609; Benjamin, born Nov. 5, 1654; Thomas, born June 27, 1693; Nathaniel, born March 13, 1719; Nathaniel, born Oct. 14, 1744; Nathaniel, born Dec. 6, 1772; and Osmond, the subject of this sketch, born Feb. 16, 1811. His father moved in 1780 from Hingham to Cummington, Mass., where Osmond was born. Osmond was educated in the common schools and academies of his native town until, early realizing the unprofitable results of the toil and labor incident to a farmer's life in that sterile region, he decided to leave home and try his fortunes in the West. With this end in view, in order to obtain the necessary funds he went to work at the carpenter and joiner's trade for ten dollars a month, and taught school in the winter at eleven dollars a month, until at the age of twenty-three he had accumulated a fortune of one hundred and seventy dollars. To most young men of the present *: From "Eminent Men of Michigan." I rA Ir i i I 6;Call A Joel' Aw 16 21 Ift 41 K 4. F —, 7-, l'l 7 FD I - V. L7 k it L 4 I '., ".p 'I I.1 - - -. I. I I I I I. I. - I I I I rr1 r,I-, T. - 1-1 ' - 7 1 s -1 " "~'~ ''' I *"'' 1.'t.n: J t r.,, i:, 'Clil *L 'I/ 1~~~:,, :Si 1'1 — ~ F, L lr: I I i I I* ( I i 1 ii. ' ~I; ~;1..:'t ~~ - r ", r i'" 1: *' ': 'Ic:i~ r". '*'' ;~ui ~ i I ~' riir r r 1: ur::'*~'~'' ~I r ,, Ir'r4y 1.(i.II ~?~ ": I *' ' '',1 ~' ~' 1~ "~ 'I::lf: "~:'- 1 : rlr '** 1" I;I I 1~ ~' Ci ~?li i~s'' ' ~'~;i:I~ ": 'I~ "" I ~.. ~~.;~-. ',,r~;"'~ ~:;'~:fr,. ~ ~~,~~ i 'I'' '' ~' '' ,,,, ~; '`" '' ' '' n t N: lil* '' r" i rr~ ',::~: '~,,,. II,. I. I I~ I I RES/DENCE OF OSMOND TOWER, ION/A. MICH, NQ I CI~TY OF IONIA. 161 CT O day this sum would barely suffice to purchase a respectable outfit of clothing; but to Osmond, taught lessons of frugality and economy on the rocky soil of a Massachusetts farm, it seemed not only enough to pay his own way to the golden regions of the West, but sufficient for two. Accordingly he offered to share his fortune with Miss Martha Gallagher, of Albany Co., N. Y., provided she would accompany him as his wife. This offer was accepted, and on the 1st of September, 1834, they were married in Watervliet, Albany Co., N. Y., at the residence of her guardian and friend, Dr. James Wade, a brother of Hon. B. F. Wade, of Ohio. Dr. Wade had adopted her on the death of her mother, soon after her arrival in this country from her native land, Ireland. Shortly after the ceremony the young couple started on their long and tedious journey to the West, which was rendered still more painful and difficult by an accident with which Mrs. Tower met in jumping from a wagon soon after their departure. This so disabled her that she could not walk for six months, and compelled the young husband often to carry her in his strong arms. They arrived at Detroit in November, and, fipding that navigation had closed, concluded not to go farther that winter. Mr. Tower worked at his trade until that failed, on account of the coldness of the weather, when they moved to Farmington and engaged board at one dollar and a half a week for both. When spring opened Mr. Tower returned to Detroit and worked at his former occupation there until fall, when, hearing glowing accounts of the Grand River valley, he hired a horse and rode from Detroit to Ionia. He was obliged to swim his horse across Grand River three times, twice at Lyons and once at Thornapple. The village of Ionia then consisted of two log houses. Proceeding to the land-office at Kalamazoo, Mr. Tower located one hundred and twenty acres of land near Ionia, and returned to Detroit via Marshall, Jackson, and Ann Arbor. In the following spring, with his wife, he started for lonia, and arrived there on the 25th of March, 1836, with seventyfive cents in his pocket and a debt of one dollar and a half for board and lodging first night to a Mr. Dexter. He immediately secured work at his trade on the first school-house built in the Grand River valley, and in a little time was able to build a house for himself. This he afterwards sold and immediately built another, in which he lived thirtyfour years, erecting in 1870 the magnificent residence in which he now lives, a view of which is shown elsewhere in this work. The lot contains about three acres, in the centre of the city, adjoining on the south the public square, and bounded on the east by Union Street and on the north by Hight Street. The house is on an elevation of seventy feet above the public square and Washington Street. Soon after coming to Ionia he spent some time on the land he had located in 1835, clearing and improving it. While thus engaged he shot and killed a large bear within a few feet of his door. He continued in the business of housebuilding at Ionia until 1844, when he engaged in the manufacture and sale of fanning-mills, which he carried on for twenty years. During this time, however, and since, he has been occu21 pied in several lines of business. He was for seven years a member of the drygoods-house of J. S. Cooper & Co.; for six years the senior member of the firm of Tower & Chubb, in the foundry business; for several years the senior member of the hardware firm of O. & 0. S. Tower; and for six years the financial member of the firm of Baker & Tower, engaged in the manufacture and sale of hot-air furnaces. He has taken from the wilderness and cleared up nine farms in Ionia County, having done his full share to make the wilderness blossom. In the spring of 1850, enticed by the prospects which influenced so many about that time, Mr. Tower left Ionia overland for California, where, after a journey of great hardship and privations, he arrived July 28th, exactly four months after he started. He remained there only till February of the next year, when he returned home by way of Panama and New York. He reached Ionia the last of April, 1851, having realized little beyond that dearlybought experience which in those days fell to the lot of hundreds of others. While giving the closest attention to his business, Mr. Tower has also been called to take an active part in local and State politics, and has ever proved an able and faithful public servant. He was a Whig, in opposition to Andrew Jackson, and attended the first meeting held in Detroit (then the Territory of Michigan), in 1835, to form a Whig party. In 1838 he received the Whig nomination for first sheriff of Ionia County, but declined to become a candidate. In 1840 he was elected county clerk on the Whig ticket, and was defeated for the same office in 1842 with the balance of the ticket. In 1852 was a candidate on the same ticket for county treasurer, and, although he ran several hundred ahead of the Presidential ticket, was defeated by a small majority. He has held the office of supervisor of Ionia several times, elected on the Whig and Republican ticket. In 1858 he was chosen to represent his district in the State Senate, and was re-elected in 1860. He has been identified with all the local enterprises that tended to benefit the city of Ionia. At the organization of the Ionia and Lansing Railroad Company he was one of the principal stockholders, a director, and first treasurer of the company. When the Ionia and Stanton Railroad Company was organized he was one of the principal stockholders and a director and first president. These two companies were afterwards consolidated, and became a part of the Ionia, Lansing and Northern Railroad. In March, 1863, he was appointed by President Lincoln first United States marshal of the Western District of Michigan, and held that office about three years. The circumstances attendant upon his removal by President Johnson gained for Mr. Tower a far more than local reputation as a man of powerful will and strong, decided character. A copy of the famous " Randall Circular," issued in 1866, was handed to him while confined to his bed by sickness. He read the document, and, calling for paper and pencil, immediately wrote and sent to press for publication one of the most caustic and defiant replies that appeared during that exciting campaign. In order to illustrate Mr. Tower's character we give the concluding portion of the letter, taken from the New York Tribune, without comment. The New 162 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. York Tribune headed the article: " Another Official who can Live without Official Bread and Butter." "As long as the Republican party is true to its principles I shall give it my influence, whether in office or out, and therefore shall not join any new party, or cross between treason and loyalty, to be controlled by traitors and their sympathizers. At the Baltimore Convention, being a delegate, I voted for Hannibal Hamlin, and at the election I spent all the time and money I was able to elect Lincoln and Johnson. I have favored all measures to suppress the Rebellion and preserve the Union; had three sons in the army, and paid my share of taxes and bounties. By virtue of New England energy and economy I have been able to eat my own bread and butter and have some left not obtained through any office. If my actions and my sentiments, as above set forth, are not consistent with holding a Government office, I am ready to vacate any time my successor may be appointed, with only one request, which is that as there are several sudden converts to this new organization, made so by the promise of my office, it shall be filled by an original, consistent Copperhead. I can in a measure respect a straightforward rebel or Copperhead, but can do no other than abominate a political Judas bartering away his faith and covering himself with dishonor for an office. " I am, respectfully, "OSMOND TOWER, " United States Marshal Western District Michigan." Mr. Tower is now, and has been for about twelve years, president of the board of education of the city of Ionia, and has been officially connected with the public schools most of the time for over forty years. When the " Home Mutual Fire Insurance Company for lonia, Montcalm, and Clinton Counties" was organized, Mr. Tower was elected director and president of the company, which office he now holds. The company has been very successful, and is now among the solid fire insurance companies of the State. His family consisted of four sons, three of them living; the eldest, George W., died in February, 1880. Two of his sons were captains in the celebrated Sixth Michigan Cavalry, and one a private in Sherman's army in its " March to the Sea." The younger son, then thirteen years old, wished to enlist as drummer, but while learning to drum the war ended. Mr. Tower has to a great extent retired from active business, and with his estimable wife quietly enjoys the fruits of their early struggles. A man of powerful will, strong prejudices, and positive character, usually acting from impulse, he has made many warm friends as well as bitter enemies. But even his enemies acknowledge that generally lis impulses are good, his judgment correct, and his integrity unquestioned. He is a willing and generous friend, and a liberal contributor to all benevolent objects. He is possessed of strong religious convictions, being a Universalist in sentiment, and his moral character is above reproach. AMASA SESSIONS. Amasa Sessions, son of Amasa and Phoebe Sessions, was born in Onondaga Co., N. Y., Sept. 23, 1818. The elder Sessions was a native of Connecticut, where he was born in 1779. His father came from England previous to the Revolution, and was the progenitor of the fanrily in this country. Amasa, Jr., remained under the parental roof until he was twenty years of age. He received such an education as was afforded by the district schools of that day. His surroundings were such as to develop many traits of character that under more favorable circumstances might have remained dormant. In 1838 he was married to Miss Emily Baker, of his native county, and shortly after their nuptials removed to Ionia County and settled in the town of Berlin, where he purchased from government two hundred and forty acres of land. Mr. Sessions applied himself to the development of his new home with that energy that has characterized his subsequent operations. In 1869 he removed to the city of lonia, where he has since resided. During the forty-two years that he was a resident of Berlin he was prominently identified with all its interests, and perhaps no one did more for its advancement than he. His ability and integrity were recognized by the people, who elected him to various positions of trust and responsibility, notably among the number that of supervisor and magistrate, the duties of which he discharged with credit to himself and to the satisfaction of his fellow-townsmen. In 1873, Mrs. Sessions died. She was a lady of many virtues and but few faults, and was highly esteemed. Two years after her death Mr. Sessions was again married, to Mrs. E. T. Tubbs, of Seneca, N. Y. Mr. Sessions is now in his sixty-second year, and is still hale and hearty and in the enjoyment of perfect health. He has seen the county of Ionia transformed from a wilderness to one of the important counties in the State, and in his own person typifies many of the agencies that have wrought the change. DAN T. FARGO. This gentleman is of English descent, his grandfather and uncle having come from England at an early day and settled in Connecticut. His father, Daniel Fargo, Jr., was born in Herkimer Co., N. Y., in 1792, and was by occupation a farmer. He served as a private in Capt. Bell's company in the war of 1812. He married Margaret Devendorf, who was also born in Herkimer County in 1796. In 1837 they removed to Tecumseh, Lenawee Co., Mich., and began clearing and improving a farm of eighty acres of new land. In 1840 they removed to the village of Tecumseh, for the purpose of educating their children, numbering ten. Dan T. Fargo was born in Busti, Chatauqua Co., N. Y., Sept. 1, 1828, being the fourth son in the family. He was but nine years old when his parents removed to Michigan. He attended the branches of the Michigan University, and in 1847 journeyed to Montcalm County and began work in a saw-mill. This was the beginning of his life-work, for he has since continued in that business. In 1853 he married Phebe A. Root, of Otisco, who has borne him two children. Mr. Fargo served one term as sheriff of Montcalm County, and surveyor one term. Upon the breaking out of the Rebellion he enlisted in the Second Michigan Cavalry, and remained in the service nearly four years. He rose from private to'the rank of captain, and performed duty on the staff of Gen. Croxton. He was in active service during the entire period of his enlistment, and enjoyed excellent health through it all. Since 1865 he has resided in the I I I A NASA6 SESSSI NS V - a. i -. RE.DENCE OF ANMASA SESIONS. /OmnA. MICH. DAN T. FARGO. I..tk^i / -fr, RESIDENCE OF DAN T fARGO. /ON/A M/CH. 47 Mv, M fl, zSI lk 4i CQ QC 14J L4 Ot IN v R F tZ 4.5 -4F.- 47 W5 ulI -~ r - l~ 0I e _ _. a: J t_,2'c '~t t _ - EJ _ - _ _ _ - A _ _.~~ ~2r- r418ylPb.3*C ~ly 1 h9yl.r~V ~-; ~d r "6-"`;.*~.n ~C RES OF W B, WELLS ES(. /ON/A MICH. vW~i I I Ib CITY OF IONIA. 163 city of Ionia and been actively engaged in lumbering. He is now numbered among the most substantial business men of the place, and has a host of friends and bright prospects for the future. A. J. WEBBER. Andrew J. Webber, son of Andrew W. and Sophia (Wilkins) Webber, was born in Steuben Co., N. Y., Jan. 7, 1831, and was the youngest son in a family of seven sons and five daughters. His father was engaged in numerous branches of business, being a farmer, merchant, etc. He is now deceased. After the death of his father, A. J. Webber had of necessity to provide for himself. He received a common-school education. In the fall of 1852, in company with his brother, George W. Webber, he removed to Michigan. Was engaged in lumbering on the west shore of Michigan for four years. For the next ten years he was engaged in farming and the mercantile business. In the year 1866 he took charge of the lumber business of Messs. Hall & Webber, in Mecosta Co., Mich., on the Little Muskegon River. After three years' time he purchased the interest of Mr. Frederick Hall, and since that time has continued the business under the firm-name of Webber Brothers. Oct. 20, 1855, he married Miss Mary C. Abbey, of Reading, Schuyler Co., N. Y., and to them have been born five children,-four sons and a daughter. Mr. Webber now owns a fine farm of four hundred and sixty acres, adjoining the city of Ionia, where he is largely interested in fruitculture, as well as production of wheat. He makes a specialty of American merino sheep, and has at present a flock of seven hundred. His house, built of the Ionia sandstone, is said to be finest farm-house in the State of Michigan. He is a stalwart Republican politically, but has never engaged in politics or cared to hold office. His fine fortune has been accumulated through the channels of legitimate business,-farming and lumbering. He has been one of the directors of the Second National Bank of Ionia since its organization. Was chosen as president of the Ionia County Agricultural Society at its last meeting. He is a gentleman of large resources, possessing that push and vim necessary to certain success in his various affairs, and has a very large circle of friends. The poor and needy remember with gratitude many acts of kindness from him. He is liberal to all in need, and strictly one of nature's noblemen. HON. W. B. WELLS.* Hon. W. B. Wells, of Ionia, Mich., was born in Hartwick, Otsego, Co., N. Y., March 25, 1828. His father, Benjamin Wells, a native of Rhode Island, who settled in New York early in life, died near Fallasburg, Kent Co., in December, 1861. His mother, a lady of unusual ability and force of character, was from Schoharie Co., N. Y., and died June 13, 1838. From boyhood Mr. Wells has been distinguished by his insatiable thirst for knowledge. Not i I satisfied with the meagre opportunities for education which the elementary schools of those days afforded, he determined to win his way to a broader field of culture. With this end in view, at the age of nineteen he bought some land, for which he was to pay one hundred and ten dollars, and in order to meet the obligation thus incurred engaged to "grub out" thirty-five acres of land on Flat River, Kent Co., at three dollars and a half an acre. After six months of labor he completed the task, having occupied the interval during the winter in chopping wood for a suit of clothes. He then set off to visit an uncle in Paris, Canada, walking the whole distance of three hundred miles in eight days. After spending the winter with his uncle he went to Yates Co., N. Y., where he worked at harvesting the following summer. With his earnings he then went to college, prosecuting his studies successively at Prattsburg and Lima, N. Y., and at Oberlin, Ohio. In 1853 he commenced reading law in the office of Blanchard & Bell, Ionia, Mich., and after four years of close application, during which he supported himself by teaching, he was admitted to the bar and immediately began to practice. The offices with which Mr. Wells has been honored during the twenty years of his professional career form the best criterion of his legal ability. He has been county clerk, prosecuting attorney, and, for eight years, judge of Probate of Ionia County. In 1876 he was again elected prosecuting attorney, and re-elected in 1878. In politics Judge Wells is an uncompromising Republican, and cast his first vote for John C. Fremont. While not avowedly associated with any religious body, he is thoroughly in sympathy with the objects of all Christian and benevolent societies. His mental vigor is well balanced by a sound constitution, his energy is untiring, and his perseverance of the most persistent type. When he chose the profession of law he determined to master its spirit as well as its form, and his large practice bears ample testimony to his success. He is an earnest and forcible speaker as well as a sound lawyer. In his positions of trust and honor he has been faithful in the performance of every duty, always a champion of the right, and has reflected credit upon every office which he has held. An attractive conversationalist, his sympathetic nature and liberal views, his sincerity and candor, make him a favorite in Ionia County. He clings to old friends with tenacity and is devoted to the welfare of his children. In May, 1858, he married Nancy Davis, of Otisco, Ionia Co., a lady of rare accomplishments, who died a few months after her marriage, leaving a large circle of friends. Mr. Wells married, in October, 1861, Ellen A. Hatch, daughter of Samuel A. Hatch, of Chatauqua Co., N. Y. She was a graduate of the seminary at Mount Holyoke, Mass., and a lady of remarkable ability and talents. She died Aug. 23, 1874, leaving three children, Ben, Nanta, and Morris. An obituary notice which appeared in the Ionia Sentinel will show the high appreciation in which she was held in the community: "Mrs. Wells was a lady of finished education and superior mind, well informed upon all the topics of the day. She was not wanting in the domestic virtues; she looked well to the ways of her household. Industrious in her habits, economical, and prudent, her management was marked by energy and indomitable perseverance. As a I: From " Representative Men of Michigan." 164 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. wife the heart of her husband did safely trust in her. She loved her children with a self-sacrificing devotion and watched most carefully over their mental and moral development. She was always an attentive and kind neighbor, and the various public interests of the community, such as education, temperance, and the promotion of literary culture, were ever near to her heart." Morris B. Wells, a brother of W. B. Wells, was born Feb. 3, 1834, and, a native of the same town as the judge, emigrated with his father to Michigan in 1843, and settled near Fallasburg, Kent Co. In 1855 went to Oberlin College, Ohio, and in 1856 to Antioch College, located at Yellow Springs, same State. While attending these colleges he devoted a considerable portion of his time to the study of the natural sciences, in which he became proficient. He also became a fine Latin, German, and French scholar. In 1857 he came to lonia and remained in the law-office of his brother (the judge) for two years. After a very creditable examination was admitted to the bar. He then entered the Michigan University as a member of the first law class, graduating with high honors. In 1860 he was elected Circuit Court commissioner of Ionia County. In the spring of 1861 he resigned this office and enlisted in Company B of the Sixteenth Michigan Volunteer Infantry, and was appointed second lieutenant of that company. In the summer of 1862 was transferred to the Twenty-first Regiment and made adjutant, taking a conspicuous part in all the engagements in which his regiment participated, and for meritorious conduct was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and during the terrible charge of Gen. Bragg at the battle of Chickamauga, where the Union forces under Gens. Thomas and Rosecrans did such heroic fighting, Col. Wells was killed, but not until long after the war was his grave discovered and all doubts as to his death dispelled. HON. ALLEN B. MORSE.* Hon. Allen B. Morse is the eldest of the nine children of the Hon. John L. and Susan A. (Cowles) Morse, and was born Jan. 7, 1839, in Otisco, Ionia Co., Mich. His father, now of Wright Co., Iowa, began to earn his own living at seventeen; he married at nineteen, and was one of the first settlers in Ionia County. While in Michigan he held various township offices; was judge of the Probate Court for twelve years, and a member of the State Legislature. In Iowa he has been county judge and county auditor, and is now a member of the Iowa Assembly. The education of Allen B. Morse was carried on mostly at home. He was an apt scholar, but loved sport too well to be a close student. He excelled in mathematics, English literature, and botany; the last is still his favorite study. He took a two years' course at the Agricultural College, taught a few months, and in the spring of 1860 commenced the study of law. In 1861 he enlisted as a private in the Sixteenth Regiment of Michigan Infantry. In December, 1863, he was transferred to the Twenty first Regiment, and soon after the battle of Chickamauga assigned to duty as acting assistant adjutant-general on the staff of Col. F. T. Sherman, who commanded the First Brigade of Sheridan's division. While in this position he lost his arm at the storming of Mission Ridge. He was in the battles of Hanover Court-house, Gaines' Mill, Pope's battle of Manassas, Antietam, Chickamauga, and in numerous skirmishes. On severing his connection with his staff he received the following flattering testimonial; "HEADQUARTERS FIRST BRIGADE, SECOND DIVISION, FOURTH ARMY CORPS, " CAMP LAIBOLD, EAST TENNESSEE, Feb. 9, 1864. "To WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: The undersigned takes great pleasure in bearing testimony to the ability and bravery of Lieut. A. B. Morse, adjutant of the Twentyfirst Michigan Infantry Volunteers. " Lieut. Morse was, by my orders, detailed as acting assistant adjutant-general of my brigade, and was selected by me for this responsible position because of his peculiar fitness and ability to discharge the duties which would devolve upon him. Ever at the post of duty, either in the office or the field, Bfe won the esteem and confidence of his superior officers, and the love and respect of his juniors. I respectfully recommend him to the consideration of his country and government for any position in the Invalid Corps which he may desire. " F. T. SHERMAN, "Colonel Eighty-eighth Illinois Infantry Volunteers, "County Brigade. "FIRST LIEUT. A. B. MORSE, Ionia, Mich." " HEADQUARTERS SECOND DIVISION, " FOURTH ARMY CORPS, " LOUDON, TENN., Feb. 11, 1864. "I take great pleasure in approving the wishes and recommendations of Col. Sherman. " Lieut. Morse while in my division proved himself to be an able, efficient, and gallant officer, and was wounded while leading his men in the storming of Mission Ridge. "P. H. SHERIDAN, " Mcjor- General." Lieut. Morse concluded his law studies on his return home, and has practiced since February, 1865, at Ionia. In 1866 he was elected prosecuting attorney for Ionia County. In 1874 he was the Democratic candidate for senator for his district, and was elected by a majority of two thousand two hundred and eleven in a strong Republican district. While in the Senate he was chairman of the military committee, and a member of the committee on State affairs and constitutional amendments. Mr. Morse is an enthusiastic lover of field sports; all his spare hours at the proper season are spent with rod and gun, or in the study of the flora of forest and field. He is of medium size and active temperament. As a boy he thought deeply and was well informed on political subjects. Taking the side of humanity and liberty, he early became a Union soldier, and showed a courage that proved him worthy to be one of the lifeguard of a great nation. On his return from the war, made victorious by the valor of soldiers like himself, and bearing its scars, a grateful people were swift to honor him with public position. His opinions are tenaciously held and fearlessly declared. He is an expert * From " Eminent Men of Michigan." 1111_ 1 RESIDENCE OF A,BMORSE, IONIA, MICHIGAN. I. I 7 -7t _;n- - aide P A Q ~ I Ii 7tC7~ 4cc/ODCNVCE OF BENJAMIN M.V AST ER, IONVIAM/CH. ij 2 z,. b r --;:1 ''.~= "" c-~ — Z I ``` r 1 t Elt RESIDENCE OF I.H.THAYER, /ONIA., IONIA CO., MICH. --- I CITY OF~ IONIA. 165 CITY OF JONJA. 165 in his profession. Seizing the material points of a case, he examines and masters them, drawing conclusions that are rarely erroneous. In addressing a court, a jury, or a public meeting he is fluent, clear, and forcible. He has already an extensive practice. He is strong in his friendships and frank in his animosities. So decided are his convictions and characteristics that his presence is acknowledged wherever he moves. In Nov. 25, 1874, he married Frances Marian Van Allen, daughter of George W. Van Allen. They have two children, a son and daughter. In 1878 he ran for attorney-general of State on the Democratic ticket and was defeated, and in 1880 was a delegate from State of Michigan to the Democratic National Convention at Cincinnati. BENJAMIN HARTER. Benjamin IIarter, son of Michael Harter, was born in Herkimer Co., N. Y., April 18, 1813. His father was a native of the same county, in which eight brothers who bore the name of Harter had settled at an early date. The family came from Germany. Michael Harter was a farmer. His wife, Abigail Harter, was a native of the same county. Benjamin Harter was the third in a family of thirteen children, and assisted on the home-farm until he was sixteen years of age, attending the common schools in the vicinity. At the age of sixteen he entered as clerk in a Utica grocery, and after a short time went to Little Falls, where he was employed as a clerk for eight years, attending select school during a portion of the same time. His wages were given to his father until he was twenty-one. In 1839 he came to Michigan and located upon one hundred and sixty acres of unimproved land in Ionia County, four miles from Ionia. At that time he states that the county contained but two or three stores. Aug. 9, 1841, he was married to Miss Sarah Yates, of Tonia, who was born in Skaneateles, Onondaga Co., N. Y., May 26, 1823. In 1845, Mr. larter moved to Ionia village, and was employed for two years as a clerk by James M. Kidd. At the expiration of that time he established a drygoods-house, and continued in business from 1847 until 1867. During that period he served his township one year as supervisor, and was for several years a village trustee. In 1867 he retired from business, and since then has lived most of the time a quiet life, although engaging to a small extent in farming. His residence is in a very pleasant location on the heights in Ionia City. He has ever known good health, and has been an active worker. Of his four children two are now living,Mrs. L. B. Avery, of Ionia, and Mrs. U. B. Rogers, of Detroit. Politically, Mr. Harter is a staunch Republican. For twenty-one years he has been connected with the Christian Church, and his wife is a member of the Baptist Church. Mrs. Harter's parents, Samuel H. and Hannah (Lockwood) Yates, settled in Ionia County in 1835. Mr. Harter has always been identified with the best interests of Ionia, and the brick block of stores known as " Harter's Block" was built by him. He has liberally aided churches, railroads, etc., and for about eighteen years, or since its organization, has been a director in the First National Bank of Ionia. ISAAC H. THAYER. This gentleman was born in Oxford Co, Me., Aug. 22, 1823, and is the youngest of three children born to John and Susannah (Hersey) Thayer. John Thayer, a veteran of the war of 1812, was born in Randolph, Mass., in 1787, and died in 1853. His wife was born at Minot, Me., in 1792, and was descended from a family of pioneers. She was one of eleven children, and not a death occurred among them until the youngest was fifty-six years of age. John Thayer was by occupation a farmer. I. H. Thayer lived at home until he was nineteen years of age, acquiring such education as he could in the district school, aside from the greater advantages afforded by the village academy, which together gave him a good practical education, such as business men need. When a young man he went to North Bridgewater, where he remained seven years, acquiring during the time a good knowledge of music. Going from there to Boston, he entered a musical establishment and continued the study of this most pleasing science, imparting, also, a knowledge of it to others. About 1852 he took up his residence in Bridgeport, remaining two years, returning thence to Boston. Nov. 4, 1856, he was married, in the latter city, to Miss Eliza A. Cooper, a native of Paris, Me., where she was born March 28, 1826. Upon the day after their marriage they started for Wisconsin. Mr. Thayer engaged in mercantile business at Dartford for a year, and removed from there to Beloit, where he became interested in the shoe business. In 1860 he came to Ionia, where for the subsequent twenty years he has been engaged in mercantile business. Their children are Walter Hersey Thayer, Minnie Belle Thayer, and Jennie Leone Thayer. ERASTUS H. STANTON. Erastus H. Stanton was born at Durham, Greene Co., N. Y., Nov. 13, 1816. His father, James R. Stanton, was a son of Reuben Stanton, a Baptist minister, whose parents removed from Stonington, Conn., to Westerloo, Albany Co., N. Y., in 1790. The family is of Welsh descent. His mother, Martha (Niles) Stanton, was a daughter of Henry Niles, a descendant from a Scotch family belonging to the sect of Quakers or Friends. They were persecuted for their opinions under the reign of Charles II., and fled to a new continent that they might enjoy that freedom of opinion denied at home. They suffered this indignity because, like all Friends, they professed to be conscientiously opposed to the payment of tithes, to doing military duty, to taking oaths in courts of justice, and to taking off the hat as an act of homage to man. The Niles family settled in Rhode Island in 1672. Mr. Stanton's grandfather and grandmother were married in 1780, and removed first to Dutchess County, and soon after the close of the Revolutionary war to Albany Co., N. Y. His parents were married in 1813, and removed to Durham, Greene Co., N. Y., where his father followed the business of tanner, shoemaker, and farmer. Mr. Erastus Stanton was educated in the common schools and academy of his native town. An early taste for read 166 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. ing was gratified by access to a circulating library, in which his father owned an interest for forty years. At the age of sixteen he was placed, at his own request, with a mercantile firm in Rensselaerville, Albany Co., where he was initiated into the details of business life; his first lessons were in sawing wood, sweeping store, measuring ashes, and weighing sugar. He remained with this firm until the year 1837, acquainting himself with all details, and then commenced ERASTUS H. STANTON. business for himself at Greenville, Greene Co., N. Y., where he remained twelve years. At the end of that time he removed to Angelica, Allegany Co. It was generally supposed that the Erie Railroad was to pass through the place, thus promising to make it an important town. But these anticipations were not realized. His wife's health failing, Mr. Stanton removed to the town of Rockton, Winnebago Co., Ill., about one mile from Beloit, Wis., where he bought a small farm and built himself a home, expecting to end his days there. The financial storm of 1857 changed his plans, and, his wife's health having improved, he looked forward to leaving a climate which he had never liked. He remained in Rockton and Beloit, occupied in farming, banking, and general mercantile business until the year 1867, when with his family he removed to Ionia, where he still resides. Since coming to Ionia he has been engaged in manufacturing and selling lumber. After an active business life of forty years, his reputation for business integrity stands unquestioned. He has always been able to pay one hundred cents on a dollar, has never had a judgment rendered against him, except once in his early life, and has never had a note of his making protested for non-payment. In October, 1838, he received a commission from William L. Marcy, then Governor of the State of New York, as quartermaster of the Thirty-seventh Brigade of Infantry, on the staff of Brig.-Gen. William Salisbury. This position he held for four years, when he resigned. Dec. 24, 1861, being then in Springfield, Ill., he received a commission from Governor Richard Yates as his temporary military aide, and was detailed to visit the several regiments and detached companies of the volunteers of Illinois, under instruction from Allen C.- Fuller, adjutantgeneral of the State. In this capacity he visited the Illinois regiments in the Department of North Missouri. His principal duties were to see the troops provided with necessary arms, clothing, medicine, camp and garrison equipments, etc., and to supply all deficiencies. While at Greenville, Greene Co., N. Y., he held the office of trustee and secretary of the board of trustees of Greenville Academy. He also represented that town on the board of supervisors of Greene County, holding the office for two years. He was honored with a similar position at Angelica, Allegany Co., being a member of the board for two years, and the last year acting as chairman of that body. After his removal to Rockton, Ill., the people soon called him to serve in official position, electing him without opposition to represent them on the board of supervisors of Winnebago County for the years 1862, '63, '64. Always a public-spirited and enterprising citizen, the people of Ionia were not slow to recognize his character, and called on him accordingly. In July, 1872, a company was organized to build a railroad from Ionia to Stanton, in Montcalm County, and Mr. Stanton was elected a director and its first secretary and treasurer. His connection with the road in those positions lasted until its consolidation with the Detroit, Lansing and Lake Michigan Railroad Company, Nov. 30, 1872. He took a lively interest in the completion of the railroad, taking upon himself many arduous duties and weighty responsibilities. As an officer of the company he proved himself a capable, efficient, and faithful servant, as well as a straightforward, energetic, and enthusiastic business man. Mr. Stanton was connected with the Democratic party until 1856, when he became a Republican. He married at Greenville, Greene Co., N. Y., Sept. 2, 1840, a daughter of Truman Sanford, of that place. Her elder brother, Mitchell, was a prominent lawyer of that State, and was for four years State senator from the district comprising Schoharie, Greene, and Delaware Counties. Her eldest sister, Abatha, was the wife of the late Erastus Barnes, a prominent lawyer of New York and a partner of Lucius Robinson, ex-Governor of New York State. Another s ster, Sally, is widow of the late Cyril Blair, at the time of his death pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Angelica, N. Y. Two other brothers of Mrs. Stanton are Judge Sanford, of Middleburgh, N. Y., and Truman Sanford (deceased), of Springport, Jackson Co., Mich. Mr. Stanton, though not professedly a Christian, attends the services of the Episcopal Church. His wife has been a member of that denomination for twenty-five years. His mother, who makes her home with him, has reached an advanced age. Her family are remarkable for their longevity, as she has living three sisters aged respectively ninety-two, seventy-five, and seventy-three years, and two brothers that have reached the ages of eighty-eight and eighty-five. In 1879, Mr. Stanton was elected mayor of the city of CITY OF IONIA. 167 Ionia, and re-elected in 1880. On Nov. 2, 1880, he was elected by the Republican party to the State Senate for the Twenty-fourth Senatorial District. HON. WILLIAM SESSIONS. This gentleman is of English descent, the family having made its home in the United States at a very early day. His father, Nathaniel Sessions, was born in Connecticut, Aug. 20, 1790, and served in the war of 1812. In 1837 he removed to Michigan and settled with his family in the township of North Plains, Ionia Co., when but three Legislature of the State and served one term (two years). In 1871 he moved his family to the city of Ionia. Mr. Sessions is now fifty-nine years of age, and, though practically retired from active life, is still engaged in business, being a member of the lumber firm of Hynes & Sessions, of Sheridan. He has ever been an active and industrious man. Politically he is a Republican. He is a trustee and deacon in the Presbyterian Church, and has been prominent in church matters. Socially, Mr. Sessions is a man who enjoys the confidence and implicit trust of his acquaintances, and is an honor to the community in which he resides. GEORGE L. TAFT. G. L. Taft, of Ionia, was born in the township of Ionia, Oct. 18, 1841, and is therefore ranked among the early settlers of the locality. His father, John Taft, was born in New York in 1812. He was a farmer by occupation, and married Eliza Clark, also a native of New York, in which State she was born in 1814. They removed to Ionia Co., Mich., in 1837, and settled in the valley of Grand River, in the township of lonia. HON. WILLIAMI SESSIONS. other families had located in the same territory. His wife, Chloe (Thompson) Sessions, was born Sept. 27, 1798, in Steuben Co., N. Y. Nathaniel Sessions was by occupation a farmer. William Sessions, who is the third in a family of fourteen children, was born in Marcellus, Onondaga Co., N. Y., May 2, 1821, and was consequently sixteen years of age when his parents removed to Michigan. He had led the life of a " farmer-boy" at the old home in New York, and after coming to Michigan remained until twenty-one years of age with his father, aiding in clearing and improving the farm which had been purchased. Upon attaining his majority he purchased a farm for himself, and cleared two hundred and forty acres of " wild land." March 26,1854, he was married to Miss Julia A. Jennings, daughter of John and Elizabeth Jennings, of the township of Ronald. Three children blessed this union, of whom two are now living,-viz., Clarence W. Sessions, born Feb. 8,1859, and John Sessions, born Dec. 23, 1863. The elder son has been for three years a student in the Michigan University at Ann Arbor. Mr. Sessions has held most of the offices in his township,-supervisor ten years, township clerk six years, township treasurer, school inspector, highway commissioner, etc. In the fall of 1872 he was elected to the I GEORGE L. TAFT. George L. Taft lived at home until he was twenty-one years of age. He was the eldest son, and one of seven children; commenced teaching at eighteen, and taught winters until twenty-one, attending the Hillsdale College a portion of the summer. At the age of twenty-one he purchased a farm in the township of Ionia for himself, retaining it about two years; then purchased a half-section of wild land in Orange township, improving it, selling a portion, and purchasing additional, owning now two hundred acres. His wife, formerly Sophia Courter, of Monroe Co., N. Y., was born Dec. 6, 1839, in Wayne County, of the same State. They have three children. Mr. Taft is now residing in Ionia City for the purpose of giving his children superior educational advantages. He is connected with the Farmers' 168 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. Mutual Insurance Company of Ionia County at present. He is a Republican in politics, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, with which he united when twenty-two years of age. He has aided much in the support of church affairs. His father was a man of considerable importance, and held positions of supervisor, town treasurer, etc. About fifteen years ago he rode over to the village of Ionia, leaving his horse at the hotel, and started for the depot to take the train, intending to visit Rochester, N. Y. Since that time nothing has ever been heard of him, although every effort was made and search in every possible way instituted to find him. The supposition is that, being a man of means and well known as such, advantage was taken of the time of his proposed visit, and that he was murdered for the money which he had on his person. Mr. Taft's mother is still living on the old homestead. STEPHEN MATHEWS BAYARD, M.D. James Bayard, the great-grandfather of the above-named gentleman, emigrated at an early day from Scotland to America, and died in Massachusetts in 1817. His wife, served in the French-and-Indian war, and Stephen in the Revolution. Daniel M., son of Stephen, was born Jan. 7, 1767, and married Lucy Foot, of Connecticut. Dr. Bayard is descended from a race of pioneers. His father was a merchant. The son at the age of twenty-one years began the study of medicine in Detroit, Mich., and in 1850 went to California, where he gained his first start in life. He was then thirty years of age, having been born Oct. 1, 1820, in the town of Harpersfield, Delaware Co., N. Y. At the age of thirty-three he began the practice of medicine in Ionia County, which he has continued to the present, and is now actively at work in his chosen field. In 1844 he was married to Catharine Amelia Corey, of Lansing. He is one of a family of physicians, four of five brothers having chosen the medical profession as a field of labor,-viz., A. L. Bayard, Daniel E. Bayard, Henry B. Bayard, and Stephen M. Bayard. The third mentioned is now deceased. Dr. Stephen M. Bayard, although sixty years of age, is in full possession of his mental faculties, and has the bodily vigor of a man much younger. LYMAN SIMMONS. Lyman Simmons, son of William and Betsey (Ives) Simmons, and the fourth son in a family of twelve children, was born in Rensselaer Co., N. Y., July 13, 1821. His parents were natives of the same county, his father's STEPHEN MATIEWS BAYARD, M.D. STEPHEN MATI1EWYS BAYARD, M.D. Martha Bayard, died in 1825. Their home had been fur many years at Great Barrington, Mass., where both ended their days. Their sons were three in number,-James, Ezekiel, and Aaron. Lyman Bayard, the son of Ezekiel and father of the subject of this article, was born in Washington, Mass., March 29, 1794, and died at Salt Lake City, Utah Terrritory, Sept. 1, 1850, while on his way to California. His wife, Rebecca Laura Mathews, was born at Watertown, Litchfield Co., Conn., June 5, 1795, and was descended from William and Jane Mathews, who emigrated from Wales to Connecticut in 1671. Their son, Thomas Mathews, was born in Watertown, Conn., in 1699, and died in 1798. His son, Stephen M., whose birth occurred in 1724, also in Connecticut, died in 1821. Thomas Mathews LYMAN SIMMONS. birth occurring June 16, 1796, and his mother's July 27, 1797. William Simmons, a farmer by occupation, had served in the war of 1812 when a young man. His father was Scotch and his mother German. The family moved into Rensselaer County at an early day. Lyman Simmons assisted to the extent of his ability on the home-farm, and at the age of fourteen removed with his parents to Niagara Co., N. Y., where his father purchased and cleared a new farm. In 1843, Lyman Simmons was married to Miss Annie Kelley, of Niagara County. Her parents, Hugh and Annie Kelley, were from New England. CITY OF IONIA. 169 In 1849, Mr. Simmons and his wife came to Michigan and settled on an unimproved farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Berlin, Ionia Co. He now possesses four hundred acres of land. In 1852 his parents and family located in the immediate vicinity on an eighty-acre tract. Mrs. Simmons died in 1858, leaving five children. Three years later Mr. Simmons was married to Miss Jane Willard, of Barry Co., Mich., and by her he has had two children. Mr. Simmons was one of the pioneers of Berlin, and as such passed through the varied experiences of a," dweller in the wilderness." The northern portion of' the township was but thinly settled at the date of his arrival. Mr. Simmons has for twenty years been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, during ten years of which he has been class-leader, and has held other important offices in the church. He has aided liberally in the support of the gospel, and as a man is known to possess sterling traits of character. He has always been a hard worker, and in 1878 he rented his farm to his sons and removed to Tonia, where he now resides. His father died April 5, 1872, and his mother Feb. 24, 1871. JOHN B. WELCH. John B. Welch was born in Schoharie Co., N. Y., March 21, 1816. His parents, Vine and Ruth Welch, were natives of Vermont, and settled in Schoharie Co., N. Y., on Petersburg Hill, on what was formerly called Peter Smith's Patent. At that time lands in New York were held by individual rights and never sold in fee-simple, the rentals being payable in commodities and money. The land occupied by the father of John B. was rented for a certain number of bushels of wheat per annum, and after the first crop was gathered the soil settled down to hardpan and no wheat could be raised. The lease was kept up for about fifteen years, when, the crops totally failing, the rent fell behind and his property was taken in payment, thus throwing him upon the world with a large family, John at that time being but eight years of age. The children of Vine and Ruth Welch were as follows: Lene, Lucy, Loriney, Eliza, Ezekiel, Simon, Polly, John, Vine, and Ebenezer, who died in infancy. When John was nine years of age his parents removed to Herkimer Co., N. Y. At fourteen years of age John left home and went to live with his sister Eliza and her husband, John Small, with whom he remained, working for his board and clothing and enjoying the advantages of the district school during the winters, until he arrived at the age of eighteen years, when with his brother Ezekiel he went to the village of Frankford, in Herkimer County, where he learned tile butcher's trade, following that opcupation during the summer months until the spring of 1836, when lie removed to Michigan, reaching Ionia May 22d of that year, being accompanied by his brother Simon and brother-in-law Richard Dye and Philander Hinds, who was brother-in-law to Richard Dye. At that time but three log houses were embraced within what now constitutes the city limits of Ionia. _, I Upon reaching lonia, Mr. Welch's entire capital consisted only of seven dollars in money, an old shot-gun, and a French watch worth two dollars. He succeeded, however, in disposing of the watch for five dollars. Upon his arrival in Ionia he found the family of Samuel Dexter, who had removed there from Herkimer three years previous, and by whom he was cordially received. Here he parted with his brother Simon and Richard Dye, who proceeded to Kalamazoo for the purpose of entering their land. Mr. Welch found employment with Mr. Dexter until October 1st, when he engaged with William McCausland in the butchering business, which industry was at that time rendered profitable by the location of the United States Land-Office at Ionia. About this time provisions became scarce in Ionia, owing to a frost in August which destroyed the crops, and the winter stock was rapidly consumed. September, 1836, his father and brothers Ezekiel and Vine arrived in Ionia, bringing with them three barrels of flour and one of pork, which were soon disposed of, and it became apparent that before navigation opened all would be short of provisions, and John was selected by Parks, Warner, and others to make a trip to Detroit for the purpose of securing a supply. This was a hazardous undertaking, owing to the severity of the weather and the swollen condition of the rivers, filled with floating ice, through which he was obliged to swim his oxen. However, upon the 1st December, 1836, he set out upon his perilous journey, and reached Detroit after a long and exceedingly difficult and dangerous journey. The entire trip to Detroit and back occupied thirty days. Out of the stock of provisions thus procured Mr. Welch received one barrel of pork, valued at forty-five dollars, and one barrel of flour, valued at twenty-two dollars. John Welch, together with his father and brother Vine (the latter now a resident of Keene township, Ionia Co.), now turned his attention to preparing a home for the reception of the remainder of the family. Land was cleared and a log house erected, and everything made comfortable in anticipation of their arrival, which occurred in the following May. In June, 1837, Mr. Welch purchased from Col. Roberts a portion of the farm in Ionia township upon which his son, John D., now resides. In 1839 he returned to New York, where he married Miss Marcia V. Wilson, daughter of Eliphalet and Matilda Wilson. Dec. 10, 1840, Mr. Welch returned to Ionia and began the work of preparing a home for himself and wife, and in September, 1841, revisited New York for the purpose of bringing his wife to Ionia. By this union Mr. Welch has had three children, -namely, Eliza M., Ruth K., and Eli. Ruth died at Pleasant Hill Seminary, Pennsylvania, and Eli when six months of age. Mrs. Welch died in 1846, and in 1848 Mr. Welch married as his second wife the widow of Amos N. Roberts, and daughter of Seldon Morgan, of Ilion, N. Y By this marriage he has had four children,-namely, Mar' cia, Mary, Darius, and Amos. The principal occupation of Mr. Welch has been that of farming, holding that as the surest, sweetest, and most 170 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. satisfactory. His shipments of wheat and flour have been very extensive, and he has also dealt largely in wool, his transactions amounting at times to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars per annum. When the war broke out Mr. Welch became actively interested in recruiting for the army, and assisted in raising the first full company under the call for seventy-five thousand volunteers, and which formed a part of the Third Michigan. He was afterwards commissioned by Governor Blair to raise the Twenty-first Regiment of Volunteers, which he did, being ably assisted by Rev. Isaac Erett and Mr. Fred. Hall and wife. Mr. Welch has been the father of seven children, but has cared for twenty until they have arrived at maturity or been otherwise provided for, and all have become good and respected citizens. His first vote was cast for Martin Van Buren as President, and until 1852 he was a strong adherent to the Democratic party. Upon the formation of the Republican party he joined its ranks, but has since affiliated with the Greenback party. Mr. Welch held the office of under-sheriff in Ionia County for eight years, and served as supervisor two years, and member of the Legislature four years. He is a strict temperance man, and is also an abstainer from tobacco in every form. Religiously, he was brought up under Methodist training, but when fourteen years of age became a member of the Christian or Disciple Church organized at Ionia, contributing generously of his means towards the erection of the house of worship owned by that denomination, and which now stands on Washington Street. Mr. Welch is now sixty-four years of age, and resides at Langton, Elk Co., Kan. JOHN CELUS BLANCHARD.* John C. Blanchard was born at Mentz, Cayuga Co., N. Y., Sept. 19, 1822. His father, Washington Z. Blanchard, is a leading physician of Lyons, Mich. His mother, Hannah (Jeffries) Blanchard, was a direct descendant of the celebrated Judge Jeffreys, of England. Mr. Blanchard was educated at Temple Hill Academy, at Genesee, N. Y., and Cayuga Institute. His father being unable to provide further for him, he engaged to work in a mill. As soon as he had earned ten dollars he left home for the Territory of Michigan. Upon arriving at Detroit, which was then a small village, he engaged in work on a farm at a salary of six dollars per month. At the end of the first month he received eight dollars, the additional sum being paid him because of his zeal. In the fall of 1836, being then fourteen years of age, he went to Shiawassee County, and did whatever work he could find until the spring of 1837, when, having accumulated fifty dollars, he started for the land-office at Ionia, walking the whole distance of sixty miles through an unbroken wilderness, and sleeping in the woods. Having reached his destination he sought the land-office and paid his fifty silver dollars for forty acres of land. Returning in the same manner to Shiawassee County, he remained there until the spring of 1838, when he removed to Ionia County and engaged to break land for a farmer at Lyons at twelve dollars a month. His engagement was fulfilled so satisfactorily that he received twenty dollars per month instead of the sum agreed upon. In the fall of 1838 he engaged as clerk in the store of Giles S. Isham and remained there one year, devoting his leisure time to study. Having then decided to study law, he entered the office of Roof & Bell, where he remained three years. After passing a creditable examination, in 1842, at the age of twenty, he was admitted to practice. Mr. Roof then proposed a partnership, which Mr. Blanchard accepted, and this business connection continued for three years. Afterwards, until 1850, Mr. Blanchard practiced alone. At that time, having been elected prosecuting attorney, he removed to Ionia and became the partner of Hon. A. F. Bell, under the firm-name of Blanchard & Bell, which is to-day a leading law firm of Ionia County.t During the Presidency of James Buchanan, Mr. Blanchard was appointed register of the United States Land-Office, and held the position four years. He was also president of Ionia for two terms. He was a school director for nine years, prosecuting attorney for Ionia County five years, and a trustee for Albion College, having liberally contributed to its endowment-fund. In 1872 he was the Democratic candidate for Lieutenant-Governor. He is a prominent member of the Democratic party, and has distinguished himself as a speaker in the public support of the Presidential candidates. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and has filled several of the principal offices of its various bodies. Mr. Blanchard has been a liberal benefactor of every worthy object. Besides his contributions to churches, schools, and railroads, he has, during the twenty-five years of his residence in Ionia, given not less than one thousand dollars a year to charitable purposes. He is a regular attendant of the Methodist Episcopal church. In 1845 he married Miss Harriet A. Brewster, daughter of Frederick Brewster, of Burlington, Vt. They have four children. As a lawyer Mr. Blanchard has many qualifications which fit him for successful public life. His opinions are his convictions on all subjects, and while firmly upholding them he has the greatest respect for the convictions of those with whom he may differ. As a criminal lawyer he is acknowledged to be at the head of his profession in Michigan. The innate ability and indomitable perseverance which overcame in succession every impediment in his path to success, and placed him in his present position of prosperity and influence, justly entitle him to a place among Michigan's self-made men. t This firm was subsequently changed to Blanchard, Bell & Cagwin by the admission of Mr. George H. Cagwin, and at present consists of Blanchard & Cagwin, Mr. Bell having retired from the firm. Mr. Blanchard at the last election was the nominee of the National Greenback party for Congress from this district, and, though polling a very large vote, was defeated with the rest of that ticket.-Historian. * From "Representative Men of Michigan." CITY OF IONIA. 171 j-?LZ& SYLVESTER TAYLOR. Sylvester Taylor was born in Berkshire Co., Mass., April 9,1814, removed with his father to New York City at two years of age, and from thence to Portage Co., Ohio, at the age of fifteen. At the age of eighteen he was apprenticed to learn the trade of chair-maker, which business he followed until after his removal to Michigan in 1854. In October, 1838, he married Catharine Ann Colton, of Nelson Ohio, and had four sons and no daughters. His wife died Dec. 19, 1880. Since coming to Michigan he was three times elected justice; was one year assistant provost-marshal, when the headquarters for Michigan troops was at Grand Rapids, during the war of the Rebellion; was assistant assessor of internal revenue from 1867 to 1872, having the county of Ionia for his district at first, and afterwards Barry County connected with it. In 1874 he was chosen supervisor of the First and Second /67t Wards of Ionia and still holds the office. In 1878-79 he organized the Home Mutual Fire Insurance Company, was chosen secretary, and now devotes his time to the interests thereof. OSCAR TALCOTT. The ancestry of Oscar Talcott traces back through nine generations to (1st) John Talcott, of Colchester, Essex County, England, the date of whose birth is not known, and whose death occurred in 1606. His will may be found in the registry of the Commissary Court of the Bishop of London, dated Sept. 24,1606. Second in line of descent was John Talcott, who was born previous to 1558 and died in 1604. He also left a will, which can be seen on the registry of the Court of Canterbury. 3d. John Talcott was born in England, and came to 172 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. America with his family in the ship ' Lyon," which sailed from England June 22, 1632, and arrived in Boston Sept. 16, 1632. The following are the names of some of the passengers: William Wadsworth, John Talcott, Joseph Roberts, John Cogsall, John Watson, Robert Shelly, William Heath, Richard Allis, Thomas Uskett, Isaac Murrill, John Wichfield, Jonathan Wade, Robert-Bartlett, John Brown, John Churchman, Tobie Willet, William Curtis, Nicl's Clark, Daniel Brewer, Jo. Benjamin, Richard Benjamin, William James, Thomas Carrington, William Goodwyn, John White, James Olmstedd, William Lewis, Zeth Graunt, Nathaniel Richards, Edward Collmer, Edward Holmes, Jo. Zotman, Charles Glover. These persons' names were taken from a book of records of emigrants found in Westminster Hall, England. The ship "Lyon" was commanded by Capt. Mason, and had one hundred and twenty-three passengers, fifty of whom were children, and all arrived in good health after a passage of twelve weeks from England. Many of these names became notable in our country's history. John Talcott and his wife (Doratha Mott) and their two children, Mary and John, were the only persons of this name who emigrated to this country. Their descendants in America bearing the name of Talcott number two thousand two hundred and sixty-six, of whom over seven hundred are now living. John Talcott and the company who came over at the same time settled in Newtown, now Cambridge, near Boston. In 1635, John Talcott built the first house in Hartford, Conn., and in the following year moved with his family. He was one of the chief magistrates of the colony until his death, which occurred at Hartford in March, 1660. He was buried in Hartford, and his name is inscribed upon the monument erected by the citizens of that place to perpetuate the memory of the founders of the colony of Connecticut. His son John, who resided in Hartford, was made an ensign in 1650, a captain in 1660, was elected an assistant magistrate of the colony of Connecticut before it was joined to New Haven, May 18, 1654, and treasurer to succeed his father, May 17, 1660, which office he held till 1676. He was one of the patentees named in the charter of Charles the First, granted to Connecticut April 20, 1662, which document was intrusted to Wyllis, Talcott, and Allyn for safekeeping. In 1676, on the breaking out of the King Philip war, he resigned the office of treasurer and was appointed to the command of the army, with the rank of major, and in June of that year went into the field at the head of the standing army of Connecticut, accompanied by two hundred Mohegan and Pequot Indians. In the various battles with the Indians in which he was engaged he was always victorious, and obtained great renown as an Indian-fighter. Many of his official papers are on record in the secretary of state's office at Hartford, and are interesting relics of the memorable King Philip war. His son, Joseph Talcott, born in Hartford, Conn., Nov. 16, 1669, was the first Governor of Connecticut born within its limits, and occupied that position from 1724 to 1741, a period of seventeen years. 4th. Samuel Talcott was born in Newtown, now Cam bridge, Mass., 1634. He was the founder and original proprietor of Glastonbury. He was a graduate of Harvard College in 1658, and became a man of exceeding culture and attainments. He died at Wethersfield, Conn., Nov. 10, 1691. 5th. Cornet Samuel Talcott was born in Wethersfield, Conn., in 1662, and died April 28, 1698, at the early age of thirty-six years. 6th. Samuel Talcott was born in Wethersfield, Conn., in 1696, and died May 6, 1739. 7th. Ebenezer Talcott was born in Wethersfield, Conn., in 1731, and died Aug. 25, 1795. 8th. Joseph Talcott was born in Wethersfield, Conn., and died in Madison, N. Y., June 17, 1832. 9th. Ebenezer Talcott, son of Joseph Talcott and Anna Boardman, was born at Wethersfield, Conn., July 20, 1804, and came with his father to Madison, N. Y., in 1816, and married Ruble S. Risley (born June 3, 1809), of Madison, N. Y., June 13, 1827. Their family, comprising seven children, were Nelson, Cornelia, Oscar, Chauncey, Irving, George, and Amelia. Ebenezer Talcott and family moved from Madison, N. Y., to Ronald, Mich., in the spring of 1848, encountering the romance and hardships of pioneer life; were ten days on the Erie Canal, four of which were spent in a blockade at Lockport, and ten days penetrating the forests of Michigan from Detroit to Iouia County,-a journey which then took twenty-two days can now be accomplished from sunrise to sunrise again. It is an old story, and has been rehearsed too many times to repeat here the hardships and privations encountered battling with the forest and strugling to hew out a home and provide for the wants of a numerous family without money; yet these were seemingly but slight inconveniences to the record of John Talcott and those with him, who were twelve weeks in their passage from England in 1632, and who encountered the rigor of the inhospitable and barbaric shores of New England, first at Newtown, now Cambridge, and next erecting the first shelter in the forest where now stands the beautiful city of Hartford. Next, Samuel Talcott, striking out into the wild forests of the Connecticut River, occupying a tract purchased by his father in 1643, encountering not only the hardships, but endangered by prowling hostile Indians, whose war-path was marked by the blood of many victims. And again, Joseph Talcott, grandfather of Oscar, leaving with his family in 1816 what had become the beautiful valley of the Connecticut, wandering his way into the forests of Central New York; and now his grandchildren can rehearse tales told by the old fireside of encounters with prowling bears, howling wolves, and hostile Indians. The subject of this narrative, Oscar Talcott, the third in his father's family, was born at Madison, N. Y., April 12, 1836, and was twelve years old when his father moved to Michigan. The advantages at that time in a forest-home for education were meagre indeed, and his aspirations to acquire knowledge and culture were somewhat satiated after walking five times to Hillsdale to attend college, distant one hundred miles from his home. His present farm homestead in Ronald was a forest when purchased by himself and brothers in 1859. He was married to Mary A. Ackles (born at Tully, N. Y., Aug. 12, 1839), at Grand Rapids, Mich., March 4, 1861. Mrs. Talcott is a woman of culture, gentle, unassuming manners, an exceeding favorite with her CITY OF IONIA. 173 friends and all who know her, and enjoys the unreserved and unbounded affection of her family. Their family of three children are Ettie May, born at Ronald, Mich., April 11, 1863; Julia Harriet, born at Ronald Dec. 12, 1866; and Bertha Bell, born at Ronald Jan. 4, 1869. Oscar Talcott and family have resided at Ionia, Mich., since the spring of 1876, and where he built a residence in 1877. The family all cherish their homestead in Ronald, to which they expect to remove when he is released from the office which requires his attention at Ionia. Mr. Talcott has filled various offices of trust, most prominent of which is secretary of the Farmers' Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Ionia County. To this position he was elected first Jan. 11, 1870, and has been five times re-elected, holding that position now for eleven years. At the time of his first taking charge of this business the company had a capital of one million eight hundred thousand dollars. The capital of this company now is seven million two hundred thousand dollars, and affords the cheapest insurance on farm property the records of our country has ever known. The popularity of this company under its present management is discussed and quoted as a model for imitation in all parts of the State. In all the records of the Talcott family, for a period of over three hundred years, a prominent characteristic is their devotion to and adherence with some known Church founded upon the principles and faith of the New Testament. Mr. Talcott and all his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Ionia. CHAUNCEY WATERBURY. Chauncey Waterbury was born Aug. 1, 1836, in Nassau, Rensselaer Co., N. Y., his father, George Waterbury, having been born at the same place March 30, 1807. The latter was a farmer by occupation. His wife, Eliza (Brown) Waterbury, was born in Rensselaer County in 1805. The father of George Waterbury was a soldier in the war of 1812. Chauncey Waterbury attended school until seventeen years of age, when he began' teaching, which he followed for nine winters and one summer. His mother died in April, 1862, and in 1864 he came to Michigan, and engaged for a year in teaching school at Hadley, Lapeer Co. In March, 1865, he located at Ionia and engaged in the building business with O. Waterbury, under the firm-name of 0. & C. Waterbury. The firm continued in business until the fall of 1875, and met with good success. In 1866, Mr. Waterbury married Emma L. Cornell, of Ionia, daughter of Rev. Hiram Cornell, an early settler in the county. She was born in this county, Nov. 26, 1846. In 1877, Mr. Waterbury became connected with the People's Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Ionia and Montcalm Counties, as deputy under F. S. Freeman, then secretary of the company. In December, 1877, he was himself elected secretary, and still holds that position. In 1873 he was elected supervisor of the Third and Fourth Wards of Ionia, and has held that office eight years. For four years he has been trustee of the Ionia school district. He is a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity, and for two years has been Master of Ionia Lodge, No. 36, and High Priest of Ionia Chapter, No. 14. For two years he has been chairman of the board of supervisors of Ionia County. He was the second in a family of five children, and has five children of his own,-viz., Denver Jay, May Lunelle, Maurice Glenn, Chester Earl, and Wade Cornell. HON. FREDERICK HALL.* Hon. Frederick Hall was born in Shelburn, Chittenden Co., Vt., March 24, 1816. His father, Burgess Hall, was an associate judge and a member of the Legislature of Ver. mont. Mr. Hall was educated in the public schools of his native town. He was well drilled in all the elementary branches, but liked hunting and fishing better than study. In 1835 he went to Galena, Ill. While there his funds failed, and he crossed the Mississippi and spent the winter of 1835-36 in chopping cord-wood. He was variously occupied at different places until the fall and winter of 1836 -37, when he was engaged in looking up government lands. In the fall of the latter year he was appointed deputy register at Lyons, Mich. In the spring of 1842 he became associated with John Ball, of Grand Rapids, and assisted him in selecting five hundred thousand acres of land granted by the United States to Michigan for internal improvements. In July, 1842, he engaged with Daniel Ball as clerk in a general mercantile business. The following February he was appointed deputy register, and was also made clerk for the receiving of public money. In 1844 he was elected register of deeds, and in 1845 was appointed receiver of public money, which position he held until 1849. From that time until 1853 he was engaged extensively in land speculation. In 1853 he was again appointed receiver of public money by President Pierce. In 1840 he was justice of the peace of Lyons township, Ionia Co. In 1849 he was elected to the Legislature. He was nominated for Congress on the Democratic ticket in 1864. In 1873 he was the first mayor of Ionia, and the following year was the Democratic candidate for Lieutenant-Governor. In 1876 he was one of the State electors. He was a director of the Ionia and Lansing Railroad until its consolidation with the Detroit, Lansing and Lake Michigan Railroad, and was president of the First National Bank for a number of years,from its organization. Mr. Hall has been actively engaged as general land-operator for many years. He is the wealthiest man in Ionia County, and one of its most generous and public-spirited citizens. His political views and sentiments harmonize with those of the Democratic party. He took a prominent part in getting up a regiment during the late Rebellion. Mr. Hall became a member of the Masonic fraternity in December, 1849, and was exalted to Ionia Chapter, No. 14, in 1852. He is also a member of Ionia Commandery, No. 11, Knights Templar. He belongs to the council of Royal and Select Masters, and was knighted at Detroit Commandery, No. 1, in 1853. He became an * From " Representative Men of Michigan." 174 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. Odd-Fellow in 1875. He has held the offices of High Priest in Chapter No. 14, Commander of Ionia Commandery, and Chief Patriarch of Ionia Encampment Mr. Hall has always been intimately identified with the educational and public interests of Ionia. He is a liberal supporter of churches and schools, and contributes to the building of railroads. His rare business qualifications have gained for him universal respect, and his unvarying courtesy and hearty sociability win the love of those fortunate enough tote thrown into intimate relations with him. In person he is tall, of graceful bearing, and prepossessing appearance. His residence on Main Street, Ionia,-one of the most elegant in Western Michigan,-is built entirely of the variegated sandstone obtained from the Ionia quarries. Mr. Hall was married Jan. 8, 1848, to Ann Eager. They have one child, a daughter. I"I., i 6 *4l —, I" il"I,"... I, I 1:, ' 111; 1 u'; "'~~~ `-,.~, J. 8. WELCH, t I,.r i I " I A Li I b4 XO~~~.i- ' RESIDENCE OF J. B. WELCH, /ONIA 7TP /ONIA CO MICH. VILLAGES AND TOWVNSHIPS OF IONIA COUNTY. IONIA TOWNSHIP. THE seventh town north in range 6 west is now known as Ionia township. Ionia's present boundaries are Ronald on the north, Orange on the south, Lyons on the east, and Easton on the west. Apart from the city of Ionia,-which has, indeed, nothing in common with the township,-the latter has a population of eighteen hundred and fifteen, or an increase of three hundred and nineteen since the year 1874. The surface of the country, especially in the south, is exceedingly hilly, but the soil is fertile; while, as to wasteland, there is but little to be found. Two railways cross the town between east and west, following essentially the course of the Grand River, which enters at section 13 and emerges at section 19. The river has in Ionia township no mill-power, but on Prairie Creek, flowing from the north into the river, there are three excellent mill-sites. GENEREAUVILLE. As early, perhaps, as 1830 or before, Louis Genereau, assisted by his son Louis, Jr., established an Indian tradingpost in Ionia township, on the Grand River, about one mile west of the present village of Lyons. The place was commonly spoken of as Genereauville, and was well known far and near. Louis, the son, got himself into the State's prison through roasting an Indian to death, and left the old man to carry on the business, which did not, however, last very long after that. There was a bridge over the Grand River at Genereauville at an early day, as a connecting-link in the stage-route between Detroit and Ionia via Lansing, and an attempt was likewise made by the Campaus (who came into possession after the departure of the Genereaus) to found there the village of Genereauville, but the scheme came to nothing. EARLY SETTLEMENTS.-THE PIONEER SAWMILL IN THE COUNTY. It is pretty certain that the first saw-mill built in the county was the one erected by H. V. Libhart on Libhart Creek, about two miles west of Lyons village, in 1833. Mr. Libhart visited the country in the spring of 1833, in company with William and Russell Libhart and William Delap, and selected the mill-site, besides a considerable tract of land in the same vicinity. He returned at once to New York State, and, shipping appliances for the erection of a mill, started with his wife and child for the scene of his future operations. At Detroit he hired seven teams to carry his supplies westward, and, accompanying them as I I far as where Laingsburg is now, there left the party, and with his wife and child pushed on through the woods for the mouth of the Maple. They made the journey on horseback from Laing's to the mouth of the Maple, following Indian trails and fording streams. They reached the present site of the village of Lyons at sunset on the 4th of July, 1833, and so exhausted was Mrs. Libhart by the toils of her trip that she had to be carried across the river by Indians to the trading-post of Hunt & Belcher. The arrival of the Libharts was attended by demonstrations of eager welcome on the part of the Indians there, as well as of Hunt and Belcher. Libhart and his wife enjoyed the hospitality of Hunt's cabin a few days while awaiting the coming of the teams, and when these reached the place, after a tedious twenty days' passage from Detroit, all hands moved out to the mill-site. The first work was the construction of a log cabin, and the second the building of a saw-mill. History appears to have insisted that Libhart was the first settler in Lyons, when the fact is that he did not locate in Lyons until Lyons had received a score or more of inhabitants. He carried on the saw-mill until 1837, when he sold the property to Judge Isaac Thompson and removed to Lyons village. Mr. Libhart was a man of considerable local importance, and enjoyed the distinction of having delivered one of the first Independence-Day orations heard west of Pontiac. The year was 1834, and the locale of the pioneer Fourthof-July demonstration the hill on which now stands the residence of Henry Hitchcock, of Lyons. The infant child brought by Mr. and Mrs Libhart to the Michigan wilderness in 1833 lived to womanhood, and is now known as Mrs. E. B. Armstrong, of Saranac. The first birth in what is now the township of Ionia, outside of the city of Ionia, was a son to Mr. Libhart, and, as the child lived but a few days, his was also the first death. John McKelvey came from Oakland Co., Mich, in May, 1834, and located on Libhart Creek, in section 24, where he had a tract of three hundred acres, in which was the mill-site now occupied by a grist-mill. Libhart was then carrying on a saw-mill on the same creek, but westward to Ionia village there was no settler. A Mr. Soules who came in with McKelvey as a farm hand bought a place a mile west of McKelvey's in 1835, and that year began to clear it. He cleared two farms in lonia in the course of time and removed subsequently to Oregon, where he died. John McKelvey died on his farm in section 24 in 1847. The mill-site he himself did not improve, but sold it to Aaron 175 176 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. Pratt, who erected a grist-mill there in 1844. James, son of John McKelvey, was born June 28, 1835,-doubtless the first birth in the township outside the village of Ionia, except Mrs. Libhart's child. In 1835, William Moore, Jr., son of William Moore, of Moore's Island, in Lyons township, lived in Ionia, one mile west of Lyons village, but moved from there in 1837 to Portland. William Moore, Jr., was a justice of the peace, and married several couples at his house, including the first couple married in the township beyond the limits of the village; but who the couple were cannot now be recalled. Gad Bunnell came with Libhart, and in 1835 made a settlement west of McKelvey's. Asa Bunnell came out in 1835 to join his brother, but settled in Lyons township. Eliza Bunnell, a sister, came to the settlement in January, 1836, and lives still in Ionia, on the town-line in Lyons village. Cynthia, a second sister, was a school-teacher, and in 1835 or 1836 taught school in John McKelvey's house. Susan Moore (now the widow of Joshua Boyer) taught school in 1835 in Lyons village on the Ionia side. John MecKelvey put in a crop of wheat in 1834, and when he harvested it people came from far and near to get seed-wheat of him. In the McKelvey neighborhood settlements were slow, and for some years that part of the town, rough and uninviting, was an almost trackless forest. PRAIRIE CREEK. The neighborhood known as Prairie Creek, lying on the stream of that name, was purchased in 1835 by Nathaniel Brown, whose idea was that the water-power at that point would found a village. Indeed, he went so far as to say that his town at Prairie Creek would outstrip Dexter's village, farther west, and that he would have the county-seat fixed there. At all events, he platted a village, which he called Ionia, set about the construction of a saw-mill, and hired J. C. Abell, a Grand Rapids lawyer, to look after affairs, Brown himself not remaining permanently on the ground. Abell got tired after a while of looking after village lots and a saw-mill, and notified Brown to get somebody else. Brown was in Chicago, and some time in 1836 encountered John P. Place, then looking for a chance to invest in Michigan and grow up with the country. Place purchased a half-interest in Brown's Michigan village, and left at once to take charge of the enterprise. When Place reached the scene of operations he found that Abell had got the saw-mill frame up and was living in a log house on the site of the present Place homestead. As soon as Place appeared Abell put off and took no further part in local history. Place went on to finish the mill, and engaged a tailor by the name of Perry to occupy the log house and board the saw-mill hands. In the fall of 1836 the mill was finished and began to saw lumber, and in that year Place built a store (the first in the township) and stocked it with goods brought up the river from Grand Haven by pole-boats. Inhabitants were scarce, and trade was chiely bestowed upon Place's store by Indians. Although Brown and Place sold a few village lots, settlers fought shy of the place. A man by the name of Bogue, I whose wife had received from Brown the gift of a lot, built a log shanty on the village site and lived in it a little while, but beyond that faint indication of progress the new town never gave any vigorous signs.* By the close of the year 1837, Place made up his mind that the village enterprise was a failure, and, selling his stock of goods to Judge Brown, of Ionia County-Seat, closed his store, which was the first and only temple of trade vouchsafed to Nathaniel Brown's embryo city. By that time Bogue and Perry had moved away, and William Lyon was boarding Place and the mill-people. Place eventually purchased Brown's interest in the land, and devoted himself to farming and milling. He was a man of some mark, and occupied the office of sheriff with considerable credit. After a few years the saw-mill was burned, and from that time forward Place confined himself to farming. He died in 1869, leaving a widow, who still lives on the old place. The nearest approach the village ever made to having a tavern was when the Perrys built a large framed house in which they proposed keeping tavern; but the undertaking was too much for them, and financial collapse precipitated their departure for other scenes. After the burning of Place's mill the mill-site was not occupied until Blanchard & Beatty built upon it, in 1861, the fine grist-mill now carried on by Hoag & Mansfield. In 1872, Laura Place platted Prairie Creek as an addition to the village of Ionia, but it has thus far not reached a very wide-spreading dignity. William D. Place, son of John P. Place, carries on the old farm, and also manages a large dairy stocked with forty cows. RESIDENT TAX-PAYERS OF IONIA IN 1838. The assessment of Ionia in 1838 was made by Egbert B. Brown, Alfred Cornell, Jr., and Erastus Yeomans, and the roll presented a total assessed valuation of one hundred and seventeen thousand eight hundred and four dollars, of which the resident assessment was forty-eight thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight dollars. The names of the resident tax-payers, together with the amount of lands owned by each, are given below: Names. Acres. Stephen Dexter............................................... 80 Richard and Nelson Dye................................. 160 John Delaney.......................................... 40 George W. Dexter........................................... 240 Lull and Crawford.......................................... 240 William Musselman...................................... 214 Cyrus Rose...............................................Personal Simon W elch............................................... 160 Asak Phipps.......................... Personal Sylvester Thompson...................................... 1841 Calvin M. Rice............................................... 80 Calvin M. Rice, for Justice Barber..................... 80 Dexter Arnold............................. 370 Sanford A. Yeomans........................................ 40 Erastus Yeomans........................................... 200 Alfred Cornell, Jr............................................ 573 Daniel A. Cornel.............................. 40* Alfred Cornell........................................... Personal Chester Stebbins...............,..... 120 John L. Smith...................................... 65 Benjamin G. Barber......................................... 80 Benjamin GE. Barber.............................. Saw-mill Rufus Dinsmore............................... 119 Mason Hearsey........................................... 125 Jared Conner....................................... 371 * Brown is said to have been induced by Samuel Dexter (who gave him some land at Ionia, County-Seat) to abandon his village project. IONIA TOWNSHIP. 177 Names. Acres. Jared Conner............................... Saw-mill Jared Conner and Wait.5........................ 54 J. Squier.......................................... 54 Ezra Winslow.......................................... 107 Dexter, Richardson, and Winslow, saw-mill......... 20 Jam es Crawford.............................................. 40 Samuel D. Smith............................................ 60 D. Clapsaddle and S. D. Smith........................... 80 Zebulon Whipple...................................... 169 S. Dexter and A. Mather............................Grist-mill Samuel Dexter................................................ 733 Erastus Yeomans....................................Village lot John Lloyd.........................................3 village lots Arad Melvin............................... Elijah B. Marlett..................................... A lbert S. Parks............................................... 2 -W illiam M. Causland....................................... Cyrus Lovell.............................................. 240 A. Cornell, Jr., and C. Merrifield........................ 80 Egbert B. Brown........................... 40 Daniel Clapsaddle......................................Personal Thomas Cornell............................................... 80 Thomas Cornell, A. Howard, and G. G. Lovell..... 80 Asa Spencer........................................2 village lots Samuel D. Smith...................................... 1 Ionia ouse................................................... Osmond Tower................................................. 120* J. W. Brown.................................................. 65i James M. Kidd............................................... Ethan S. Johnson............................................ 401 Jonathan Tibbits............................................. 23 Parks and Warner........................................... 50 Levi \W. Bottsford....................................... Daniel B. Stebbins....................................... 198 John P. Place & Co......................................... 371 Daniel Baxter............................................... Lorenzo Dexter............................................... 120 D. Clapsaddle and S. Thompson...................... 6 John B. W elch................................................ 57 Bradford, Curtiss, and Lovell............................ 160 Amos N. Roberts............................................. 423 Guy W ebster.................................................. 163 George Younger.................................... 80 Chaunccy Shepard........................................... 120 W illiam Dum per............................................. 203 John S. Stark................................................. 199 Asaph ather............................................... 80 Calvin Woodard............................................... 80 John P. Place................................................ 80 John P. Place and Douglass (Ionia County-Seat).. 15 W illiam W ood................................................ 80 Calvin W oodard............................................. 80 John C. D exter............................................... 120 S. Dexter and J. W. Brown......................... 232 Ezekiel Welch..................................... Village lot Hubbell and Parks................................. J. S. Stark and \W. F. Gore..................... a Elijah Kirkham...................................... Henry Ilayner................................................ 200 SOUTH IONIA. Opposite the city of Ionia, on the south side of the Grand River, there is a small hamlet which G. W. Arnold surveyed and mapped in 1876 and designated as South Ionia. In that locality Oliver Arnold (a comer to Ionia with Samuel Dexter and others in 1833) set up the first blacksmith's shop in the county the same year, and there he worked as a blacksmith more or less regularly until his death, in 1856. The Arnolds have occupied the place since 1833, and now G. W. Arnold & Son carry on there an agricultural implement factory. Near at hand E. A. Chubb has a foundry that Jenks & Arnold started in 1866. Mr. Chubb has been the proprietor since 1878, and makes agricultural implements of various kinds. There is also the flouring-mill of A. C. Hughson. It is fitted with three runs of stone and does a flourishing business. South of the river, along the western town-line, no settlers followed Oliver Arnold, the blacksmith, until March, 1836, when Philo Bates and William Babcock came on with laborers to commence the improvement of a large tract of land they had purchased in 1835. This tract, which 23 Bates and Babcock bought in common, comprised fully four thousand acres, and lay in the towns of Ionia, Berlin, and Orange. When they came, in March, 1836, they brought the families of Moses Marsh and Benjamin Brand to assist them, and, by the fall of 1836, Bates and Babcock having got up their cabins and made a fair start, brought out their own families. Moses Marsh became a settler in Ionia, and BesJjamnin Brand in Orange. In 1836 the State road called the Bellevue road, extending from Marshall to Ionia, was opened along the town-line between Berlin and Ionia, and it was on both sides of that road that Bates' and Babcock's lands lay. Philo Bates, who was son in-law to Babcock, died at an early day, and in 1840 his widow's present husband, G. C. Overhiser, came to the neighborhood. Mr. Overhiser located in Ionia village in 1839, and from that period for many years onward he rendered valuable and untiring service as a Presbyterian preacher. Ile traveled to many points and preached in many places, as circumstances arose to call for his efforts. Previous to making his home in Ionia he had passed through a somewhat extended experience as a licentiate preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. and Mrs. Overhiser reside now with Mr. A. H. Tibbitts (their son-in-law), on section 30. E. Le Valley was a settler in that neighborhood in 1838, on the J. Benedict place, and in the month of January of that year Levi Taylor moved from Eastern Michigan to section 31, where his son W. B. now lives. In the northeast quarter of the township there were but few settlements as early as 1846. In the fall of that year Darius Stone, his brother, John R. Stone, and brother-inlaw, Daniel R. Calkins, brought their families in (having bought their lands in June of that year) and began to improve the wilderness. Darius Stone had three lots on section 11 and one on section 12, Calkins land on section 2, and John R. Stone on section 1. In June, 1846, a man by the name of Dalrymple was working a place on section 12 for Samuel Hayden, who was then living in Lyons, but who soon afterwards came out himself to occupy his land, upon which he has since continued to reside. On section 1, in the extreme northeastern corner of the town, Gardner Chidester was keeping tavern on the townline road between Ionia and Lyons. He had a hundred acres of cleared land and, what was something out of the common, a framed house and two framed barns. On the Chidester place Perry Spaulding, a later occupant, hung himself in his barn in 1876 because of financial reverses. Maj. Olmstead, of North Plains, owned on section 1 a lot then occupied by one Mlabie as tenant, and on section 12, where H. A. Corbin now lives, there was a settler named Buskirk. On section 4 a Mr. Anderson had a grist-mill on Prairie Creek, where one De Long had previously set up a carding-machine. Soon after 1846, Going built a grist-mill on Prairie Creek, in section 9, about a mile below Anderson's. Both these mills were burned,-Going's in 1863 and Anderson's in 1878, when the property was owned by J. B. Welch, himself a settler in that neighbor hood before 1846, having married the widow of Mr. Roberts, who came to that locality not far from 1840. Moving northward again, we find that Nathan Chidester 178 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. was on section 1 in 1846. In 1848 he sold out to L. F. Burdick and moved away. Thomas McKenzie and Henry Searing, his brother-in-law, had farms on section 2, but vacated them in the spring of 1847. William Kitts, then, as now, living on section 12, had been an active figure in the business of Michigan pioneering, and as far back as 1837 or earlier assisted in making surveys in various portions of the county. Timothy Vorce came to the neighborhood in 1849, and about that time also came J. B. Chase, W. W. Weed, C. G. Wheelock, N. G. Cornell, and others. TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION. Ionia township's political existence dates from 1835, when the entire county, as Ionia township, was attached to Kalamazoo County for judicial purposes. The county was organized in 1837, and March 11th of that year divided into two townships,-Ionia and Maple. Ionia township embraced " all that portion of the county of Ionia lying west of the sectional lines running north and south through the centre of towns five, six, seven, and eight north, of range six west." The first election under that organization was ordered to be held at the house of Samuel Dexter. Dec. 30, 1837, towns 5 and 6 north, range 8 west, were detached from Ionia and organized as Boston. March 6, 1838, towns 7 and 8 north, range 8 west, were set off and organized as Otisco. At the same time towns 5 and 6 north, range 7 west, the west halves of towns 5 and 6 north, range 6 west, and all of the west halves of town 7 north, range 6 west, and town 7 north, range 7 west, lying south of the Grand River, were organized as the township of Cass. March 25,1840, the town of Orleans was formed of town 8 north, range 7 west. March 9, 1843, all of town 7 north, range 7 west, lying north of the Grand River, was organized as Easton. March 19, 1845, the township of Ronald was organized, and took in the west half of town 8 north, range 6 west. March 22, 1848, sections 22, 27, and 34, in town 7 north, range 6 west, and also so much of that town as lay north of the centre of the Grand River, then belonging to the town of Lyons, was attached to the town of Ionia, as was so much of town 7 north, range 6 west, as was then attached to Berlin. March 13, 1867, so much of the territory of town 7 north, range 6 west, as was then a portion of Lyons was set off to Ionia. The result of these additions and subtractions left to Ionia the present territory of six miles square. The first township-meeting and election is thus recorded: "Record of the township of Ionia, of Kalamazoo County, M. T. "At the first township-meeting in the town and county, as above mentioned, held at the house of Antoine Campau & Co., on Monday, the sixth day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-five, Mr. Alfred Cornell was chosen moderator and W. B. Lincoln clerk. After the moderator and clerk were sworn by Samuel Dexter, Esquire, the electors present proceeded to the election of township officers by ballot, which were elected as follows: For supervisor, Erastus Yeomans; for township clerk, W. B. Lincoln; for assessors, Franklin Chubb, Gilbert Caswell, Henry V. Libhart; for commissioners of highways, Philo Bogue, J. E. Morrison, Nathan Benjamin; directors of the poor, Samuel Dexter, John MeKelvey; constable and collector, Asa Spencer; constable, Daniel McKelvey. "' A division of the electors being called for, it was decided that the next township-meeting, or that of 1836, should be held at the house now occupied by A. Campau & Co., in the said township of Ionia and County of Kalamazoo, M. T." A special township-meeting was held May 12, 1835, at the house of A. Campau & Co., on the application of twelve electors, for the purpose of electing commissioners and inspectors of common schools. Alfred Cornell, George Case, and John McKelvey were chosen school commissioners; William D. Moore, Alfred Cornell, Jr., Erastus Ycomans, Nathaniel Soules, and Wm. B. Lincoln, inspectors of common schools. At the second annual meeting, April 4, 1836, Joshua Boyer was chosen moderator. Officials were elected as follows: Supervisor, J. C. Abell; clerk, J. E. Morrison; assessors, Joshua Boyer, Asa Bunnell, Erastus Yeomans; highway commissioners, Franklin Chubb, Lyman Webster, Daniel C. Moore; justices of the peace, Joshua Boyer, Wm. D. Moore, Samuel Dexter, Thomas Cornell; constable and collector, Nathaniel Soules; constables, Warren S. Bogue, Lorenzo Dexter; overseers of the poor, Samuel Dexter, John McKelvey. It was voted " by the uplifted hand" to raise one hundred dollars for the support of the poor, and " by the uplifted hand" the following officers were chosen: School inspectors. W. B. Lincoln, Joshua Boyer, Erastus Yeomans, Asa Bunnell, Thomas Shepard; pathmasters: District No. 1, Asa Spencer; District No. 2, Chancellor Barringer; District No. 3, Philo Bogue; District No. 4, Daniel Brown; District No. 5, I. Thompson; District No. 6, Nathan Benjamin. Upon the organization of Kent County, in 1836, Ionia County was attached thereto as a township. In 1837, Ionia County was given a separate political organization and divided into two townships. The first township-meeting of Ionia under the new organization was held at the house of Samuel Dexter, April 3, 1837. Cyrus Lovell was chosen moderator, and Samuel Dexter, Thomas Cornell, and John E. Morrison inspectors of the election. After organizing the electors adjourned to the school-house in Ionia village. Mason Hearsey, Cyrus Lovell, A. H. Barney, and Calvin Rice were elected school inspectors "by the uplifted hand;" Samuel Dexter and Alonzo Sessions overseers of highways for Districts No. 1 and 7 respectively, by viva voce; and, similarly, Warren S. Bogue, Gilbert Caswell, and Samuel Dexter, fence-viewers. Officials were chosen by ballot as follows: Supervisor, Cyrus Lovell; clerk, Erastus Yeomans; justices of the peace, Philo Bates, W. S. Bogue, John Lloyd; school commissioners, Stephen Dexter, A. H. Barney; directors of the poor, Erastus Yeomans, William Babcock; assessors, Mason Hearsey, Lawson S. Warner, Alonzo Sessions; collector, John B. Welch; constables, John B. Welch, Amos B. Bliss, James B. Ryan. Herewith is presented a list of the names of persons chosen annually from 1838 to 1880 to fill the offices of supervisor, clerk, treasurer, and justice of the peace. SUPERVISORS. 1838, Asa Spencer; 1839,7 C. Lovell; 1840, E. Yeomans; 1841, G. W. Dexter; 1842, M. Ilearsey; 1843-44, H. Rich; 1845, M. Hearsey; 1846, J. P. Place; 1847-48, C. M. Moseman; 1849, A. F. Bell; 1850, B. Harter; 1851, W. C. Clark; 1852, J. B. Welch; 1853, IE. Borden; 1854, C. Lovell; 1855, D. Irish; 1856, T. Merritt; 1857-58, F. Hall; 1859-60, J. C. Dexter; 1861, L. Kelsey; 1862, I Seventy-five votes cast. IONIA TOWNSHIP. 179 0. Tower; 1863-6t, William Kitts; 1865-66, E. S. Johnson; 1867, P. D. Cutler; 1868, B. R. Covert; 1869, E. S. Johnson; 1870-72, R. R. Covert; 1873, E. P. Kelsey; 1874, T. E. Smith; 1875-76, William Kitts; 1877-78, T. E. Smith; 1879, J. B. Welch; 1880, William Kitts. CLERKS. 1838, E. Yeomans; 1839-42, 11. Rich; 1843, M. Itearsey: 1844-45, S. D. Smith; 1846, J. B. Welch; 1847, E. Welch; 1848, F. Sloan; 1849, B. 11. Preston; 1850-51, W. D. Arnold; 1852, D. Irish; 1853-54, 11. Harter; 1855, A. W. Dodge; 1856, L. B. Townsend; 1857, D. L. Coon; 1858-59, F. Sloan; 1860, G. Powlinson; 1861, A. B. Culver; 1862, E. E. Gates; 1863, V. H. Smith; 1864, A. B. Powlinson; 1865-66, H. A. Chapman; 1867, J. V. Mickel; 1868, H. A. Chapman; 1869, I1. P. Taylor; 1870-72, II. A. Chapman; 1873-80, W. D. Place. TREASURERS. 1838, E. Welch; 1839, E. Yeomans; 1840, William A. Tryon; 1841, A. Cornell; 1842, D. A. Cornell; 1843, J. Tompkins; 1844-45, R. Dye; 1846, D. Clapsaddle; 1847-52, II. Borden; 1853-55, H. Stiles; 1856, F. Gates; 1857, J. Stevenson; 1858-59, S. Merritt; 1860, A. Fuller; 1861, L. Mann; 1862, A. A. Knight; 1863-64, William Brooks; 1865-66, J. Mains; 1867, H. A. Chapman; 1868, II. V. Worden; 1869, J. V. Morrison; 1870, James Mains; 1871, S. Williston; 1872-75, J. V. Mickel; 1876, E. Reusch; 1877-78, II. Wiser; 1879, George W. Young; 1880, George Wooster. JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. 1838, T. Cornell; 1839, G. W. Dexter; 1840, M. IHearsey; 1841, L. S. Warner; 1842, T. Cornell; 1843, J. Wood; 1844, C. Lovcll; 1845, G. II. King; 1846, H. Rich; 1847, M. Hearsey; 1848, L. Taylor; 1849, C. M. Moseman; 1850, H. Rich; 1851, M. Hearsey; 1852, L. Taylor; 1853, A. Williams; 1854, J. R. Stone; 1855, M. Hearsey; 1856, A. W. Dodge; 1857, H. Rich; 1858, F. Gates; 1859, E. Stevenson; 1860, R. D. Sprague; 1861, W. W. Mitchell; 1862, D. B. Soules; 1863, A. Chubb; 1864, E. R. Powell; 1865, A. B. Morse; 1866, D. B. Soules; 1867, A. Chubb; 1868, 11. L. Mitchell; 1869, E. M. Marble; 1870, W. B. Thomas; 1871, J. M. Stacey; 1872, II. L. Mitchell; 1873, J. E. Morrison, Sr.; 1874, A. Shadbolt; ]875, J. Moore; 1876, J. Avery; 1877, A. Tibbits; 1878, E. Le Valley; 1879, A. Shadbolt; 1880, G. Scribner. PAYING THE TOWN OFFICIALS. The first recorded account audited by the township board was dated March 30, 1839, and reads as follows: G. Caswell, services as highway commissioner..................... $11.00 S. A. Yeomans, " " "..................... 18.00 Wm. Dallas, " school inspector.............................. 10.50 Mason Ilearsey, " justice, etc.................................... 16.50 Geo. W. Dexter, " "............................. 1.75 John B. Welch, " chainman................................... 3.75 D. A. Cornell, " highway commissioner................... 15.00 H. Hayner, i chainman...................................... 2.00 C. M. Rice, "..................................... 1.00 S. Thompson, "..................................... 1.00 Alfred Cornell, "..................................... 1.00 A. C. Sangster, "..................................... 1.00 A. C. Sangster, Jr.," t"..................................... 3.00 Thos. Cornell, " surveyor, etc............................. 18.50 Alfred Cornell, " director of poor............................. 3.C Alfred Cornell, Jr.," school inspector..................... 5.50 $112.50 EARLY JURORS. 1839.-Ezra Winslow, Samuel D. Smith, John C. Dexter, Jared Connor, Rufus Locke, Chauncey Goodwin, Guy Webster, Alanson Snow, Simon Foster, Joseph McLaughlin, Malcomb McLaughlin, John Delaney, Henry Hayner, Edward Smallman, Wm. IH. H. Sutliff, John Higbee, Joshua S. Hall, Wm. Cramer, Isaac Frost, Philander Hinds, Charles' Beckwith, A. K. Phipps, John Tompkins, John Turrell. 1840.-Daniel Clapsaddle, Thomas Cornell, Alfred Cornell, Rufus Densmore, George W. Dexter, Mason Hearsey, Samuel Dexter, Osmond Tower, Daniel S. Hoyt, Nathaniel E. Horton, Daniel S. Brownell, Calvin M. Rice, Chester Scovill, Dexter Arnold, Levi W. Botsford, Daniel Baxter, Alfred Cornell, Jr., Lorenzo Dexter, Richard Dye, Stephen Dexter, John W. Dexter, Isaac Finch, James M. Kidd, William McCausland, Robert S. Parks, Sylvester Thompson, William Wood, Sanford A. Yeomans, George W. Sessions, Lorenzo D. Bates. 1841.-Jesse Wood, William J. Clark, William Cramer, Daniel A. Cornell, Amos N. Roberts, Russell Locke, E. B. Marlett, Asaph Mather, Malcomb McLaughlin, Simon Welch, Hiram Cramer, Jared Connor, Richard Dye, Nelson Dye, George Foster, Chauncey Goodwin, Jr., Philander Hinds, Ethan S. Johnson, Hampton Rich, Joseph Wood, John Tompkins, William A. Tryon, Zebulon Whipple, Guy Webster, Lawson S. Warner, Wm. Fleming, B. G. Barber, Curtis Merrifield, Henry Harner, John Van Vleck, Jos. McLaughlin, Ezra Winslow, Charles Ilecox, Joshua S. lall, Chauncey Goodwin, Jonathan Tibbits, Ezekiel Welch, Chauncey Shepard, Asak Phipps, Edward Smallman. TOWNSHIP SCHOOLS. Ionia's earliest schools were taught in Ionia village, Dr. Lincoln, the pioneer physician of the county, being the first teacher as well as the first doctor in the town. The Ionia City schools are in nowise concerned with the township school-system. The township proper has five full and four fractional school districts, with a combined average attendance of three hundred and fifty-nine, and a total valuation of school property of four thousand nine hundred and fifty dollars. Further details may be learned from the subjoined statistics, taken from the official report for 1879: En umoeDirectors. E - ration. Dist. 1-.......... S. Bates. 26 " 2..........Joshua Hall. 68 3..........J. B. Welch. 51 " 4........E. R. Brown. 37 " 5..........J. Spalding. 32 " 6..........A. R. Wilcox. 101 7..........Henry Faxon. 30 " 8..........S. W. Stone. 33 " 9-..........A. Shadbolt. 53 Total.................. 431 Average Attendance. 33 60 32 28 40 64 22 30 50 359 Value of Property. $500 400 150 1000 1500 200 300 100 800 $4950 Teachers* Wages. $134 186 114 176 204 178 128 230 128 $1478 IONIA SANDSTONE QUARRY. About four miles eastward from Ionia City, on the line of the Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad, there is a valuable deposit of variegated sandstone, whence vast quantities of building-material have been and are yet to be taken. The lands upon which the deposits are found are owned by seven persons, who lease the quarrying privileges to practical stone-workers. This stone is highly esteemed for its variety of shades and durability, as well as for its capacity for receiving a handsome polish. When first quarried it is soft and easily worked, but grows hard under exposure to the atmosphere. It is extensively used in Ionia in private dwellings and business blocks, and is shipped to many points in Michigan. Grand Rapids especially favors it, and in that city one may see numerous evidences of the liberal use to which this stone is put. - Fractional. B E R L I N. THE town of Berlin, the only one in the county containing a greater area than six miles square, includes town 6 north, in range 7 west, and that portion of town 7, in the same range, south of the Grand River, or an aggregate of about forty-two sections. The Grand River is the northern boundary separating the town from Easton; Odessa is on the south, lonia and Orange on the east, and Boston on the west. Berlin's population, July 1, 1880, was eighteen hundred and six, or an increase of two hundred and thirteen over the census of 1870. Except along the river the surface of the country is generally even and occupies mainly timbered land. Oak-openings prevail on the west and northeast. The town is rich in many excellent farms, and especially in the river-district offers a delightful reach of landscape, upon which the eye may rest with much pleasure. There is not a village, post-office, store, or mill in the town. "Agriculture" is the watchword and the monopoly. BERLIN'S PIONEERS. That portion of Berlin lying nearest the river, and included within town 7 north, range 7 west, engaged the attention of land-lookers as early as 1833, and, because of the general desire of the first comers to keep within hailing distance of the Grand (then a highway of traffic), coupled, perhaps, with the opinion that land thereabout was a little better than land in the more remote interior, the river-district was in a fair state of development by the time the central and southern portions of the town heard the first notes of the hardy woodman's axe. The region lying upon both sides of the Bellevue road, which divides Ionia and Berlin, was likewise a favored locality, and, beginning to grow in population almost as soon as the town took its first step forward, advanced materially in that respect when the Bellevue road was pushed through and offered the luxury of a thoroughfare worthy such a name. The first land-entry in the present town of Berlin was probably made in July, 1833, by John E. Morrison, who was likewise the first person to make a settlement in the town. The land he entered occupies the northeast corner of the township, upon section 25, in town 7, and lies upon the river. Mr. Morrison penetrated into Oakland Co., Mich., in 1824, and after nine years' experience as a pioneer in that locality was dissatisfied with the progress he had made. Conceiving that better land could be found farther westward, he determined to investigate the matter, and endeavored to impress some of his neighbors with similar septiments; his efforts in that direction were, however, unavailing. They declared themselves suited with what they had, and intimated to Morrison that he had better remain content or it might be worse for him. Young Morrison was, howpvpr, not to be 4issuQ3ed, and in July, 1833, 180 set out alone on horseback over the old Indian trail from Pontiac, bound west. In narrating to the present chronicler that portion of his Michigan experience, Mr. Morrison took occasion to remark that he was more determined than ever to push his project since others opposed it. He added, with a glow of satisfaction, that he never " backed out" of any enterprise into which he entered, although he would have backed out in 1849, when, on a tour across the Plains to California, he was taken sick and felt sure he would die. He had to stick, however, because there was no help for it. As he expected, he did find better land farther west, and in section 25, as earlier noticed, he chose a farm to his liking. He hastened back to Oakland County for his family, and, returning in the fall with his wife and little ones, found that he had already got a neighbor in Oliver Arnold, a blacksmith, who was living on the south bank of the Grand, in what is now Ionia township, having come out with the Dexter Colony. Morrison lodged his family with Mr. Arnold until he could prepare a habitation of his own, and when they began life in their own cabin they felt, no doubt, a deal of comfort and satisfaction at first, although, to recollect it all now, Mr. Morrison thinks there must have been precious little to be thankful for. However, he set himself sturdily to work, and pushed aside with vigorous arm the jagged edges and tough knots that faced him in his pioneer's progress until he began directly to reap the reward of his toil in improved property, comfort, and conveniences. Although Mr. Morrison was for nearly two years the only settler in the town now called Berlin, and lived upon the fringe of an unbroken wilderness, he was not entirely out of the world of civilization, for there was his neighbor Arnold close by, and just over the river was the little community at Samuel Dexter's village of lonia County-Seat, so that he was not quite so lonesome or isolated as he might have been. In 1835 he put out a half-bushel of appleseed that came from Ohio, and from the orchard that followed he supplied many a customer with trees. He therefore not only planted the first orchard, but raised, likewise, the first crop of wheat, in the town. For his first wheat he says he got two dollars a bushel, and for his first potatoes a similar price, although these figures were exceptional and must have been realized as the result of an emergency. Mr. George Hosford, now living on section 25, in town 7, was among the early comers to Ionia County (being then a mere lad), and at a very early day worked for Mr. Morrison in Berlin, so that he may be strictly regarded as a pioneer of the front rank, although not an actual settler in Berlin until the town was pretty well populated. Mr. Morrison resides now in Ionia township, on the south side of the river, but not far from the place of his first BERLIN. 181 I 181 settlement in Berlin. He has been prominent in county history not only as the first county treasurer, first clerk of Ionia township, and first town clerk of Cass, but as a surveyor of many of the county's earliest highways. He has been something of a wanderer, too. He joined the army of California gold-seekers in 1849, lingered awhile in Texas, and lived two years in Tennessee; but Michigan proved his best love, and to Michigan he returned to find rest for the soles of his feet and a home that will remain his as long as he needs one on earth. Alonzo Sessions, now and for many years a conspicuously prominent citizen not only of Berlin, but of Michigan, entered the forests of the town as a permanent settler in company with his brother Job, with whom he had in October, 1833, traveled from Western New York to Ionia County on a land-looking expedition, and on foot made the tour fiom Detroit to Ionia. Raw pork and dry bread comprised their diet, and the forest their lodging-place when night happened to overtake them. Being suited with the land lying in tile northern portion of what is now the township of Berlin, they made selections, and at once pushed on to the White Pigeon land-office, where they made their entries. Much, however, as the brothers desired to begin the actual experience of a settler's life, they were compelled to await a more favorable opportunity, for to buy land had taken all their money, and without some spare cash to sustain them until their land might yield its products they cared not to undertake the roles of pioneers. So to earn money Alonzo taught school in Ohio, while Job worked as a farm-hand in Michigan. Their pay was meagre, and it was not until after the lapse of two years that they found themselves with a sufficiency of wealth to make even a small beginning. They were, however, ambitious to make a start, and that start, it may be well to observe, they followed with such effective efforts that fame and fortune were not slow in being overtaken by them upon the journey. Alonzo Sessions traveled from Dayton, Ohio, with two horses, one of which carried him, while the other carried two trunks. His own account of the trip thus tells the story: " Traveling northward along the Miami River, and frequently fording it, I soon entered a dense and nearly unbroken wilderness where there was only here and there a settler. In places there were no roads and scarcely a trail. It was raining daily, and every river, creek, or bayou was full to overflowing. Many of the latter were more difficult to cross than the rivers, being more swollen and muddy. In places canoes were found at crossings, but more frequently I crossed on the back of one horse while leading the other. In this way I progressed to Defiance, several times swimming rivers. At Defiance my troubles and dangers were not ended. The only way to get into Michigan then was to go down the river from Defiance by way of Perrysburg, and there were swollen creeks without bridges in abundance. From Perrysburg I rode to Ypsilanti, where I met my brother and left my trunks. From that point we proceeded in company on horseback to Ionia, where we arrived June llth." Without delay the two brothers began work upon their Berlin lands, near which they found that John E. Morrison had already made a commencement. They got along so briskly that in September of that year they sowed ten acres with wheat. In November, 1835, Alonzo Sessions built a log cabin (the second in the township), and in 1837 married the daughter of Samuel Dexter, the Ionia pioneer. During that year he built the first framed barn known in Berlin, although a framed house had been put up by Elisha Doty before that time. Alonzo Sessions, still a dweller upon the land he cleared in 1835, has been long in public life. He commenced his services in 1836, when he was chosen justice of the peace. In 1838 he was elected supervisor of Cass, and in that office has served nineteen terms, besides occupying other local trusts, while for eight terms he was chairman of the board of supervisors. In 1840 he was elected sheriff, and, entering the State Legislature in 1856, remained therein until 1862. From 1860 to 1864 he was internal revenue assessor, has been president of the First National Bank of Ionia since 1866, was Presidential elector in 1872, and in 1876 was called to be lieutenant-governor of Michigan,a distinction he still maintains (October, 1880). Mr. Sessions' trifling bit of wild land of 1833 has materially expanded in breadth and length, and, although he has taken from it several farms for the benefit of purchasers, there remains still a tract of about a thousand acres, whose front along the line of the Detroit and Michigan Railroad reaches a distance of two miles and a half or more. Job Sessions, less conspicuous in Ionia County history than his brother Alonzo, performed, nevertheless, most excellent pioneer work in Berlin. He cleared two farms in that town, and, having done that much, changed his residence to Spring Lake. The Sessions brothers and John E. Morrison were the only ones in the town for fully a year. In 1836 there was an important influx of settlers, among whom were William Babcock, Amasa Sessions, Zophar Alderman, William Elvert, William Reed, Elisha Doty and his three sons. William Babcock and Philo Bates made large purchases of lands on the Bellevue road, in the towns now called Ionia, Berlin, and Orange. In the division of their purchases the Berlin land was taken by Babcock, and, although he had a small regiment of sons, he bought land enough to give a farm to each of the boys. Bates and Babcock brought out two hired men,-Moses Marsh and Benjamin B. Brand,-each of whom became a settler in short order. These men, with Babcock's sons, gave great assistance to Bates and Babcock in pushing matters forward, and as a consequence the Bellevue road soon found itself running through a landscape of nice-looking farms. William Babcock died in lonia in 1871, at the ripe age of eighty-eight. Amasa Sessions made his home on section 3, and after a hardy campaign as a subduer of the forest collected his bountiful substance and retired to Ionia, where he enjoys at present the luxurious ease that well befits the evening days of a laborious and well-spent life. William Reed lived on section 3, and, save for the fact that he was exceedingly poor, was not conspicuous. Late in life he was killed in an altercation with a farm-tenant. Reed put up his log cabin on a Sunday, and went over into Easton to get some lumber to cover it. The lumber he found at Mason Hearsey's mill, but himself had to assist 182 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. I Hearsey in sawing it, and afterwards paddled it across the river in a canoe a few boards at a time. Oct. 4, 1836, Reed and Alonzo Sessions set out with ox-teams for a trip eastward in search of provisions, and for a good share of the way to Lyons had to cut out the road. Elisha Doty, to whom is ascribed the performance of having built the first framed house in Berlin, lived on the river-road. Zophar Alderman, like a majority of Michigan pioneers, was poor. He bought eighty acres of land on section 36, and, besides a wife and eight children, could boast only a yoke of oxen and two cows among his possessions. The older boys and the old man improved every shining moment by working early and late in the woods. When a few dollars had to be raised for taxes, they worked for anybody willing to pay money; for money of their own they had none, and had no means of acquiring it except by labor for others. Alderman is remembered as the man who wore a pair of shirts two years, and so patched them from time to time that at the end of the two years it was found quite difficult to trace the presence of any of the -original material. Alderman was always eager to get road contracts, for they meant cash, and cash was one of the hardest things to get; indeed, there was scarcely any plan that would bring cash except the business of working out non-resident taxes. So desperate was the competition among the settlers to get the road contracts that by dint of hardest labor they would yield, as a return for the work of a man and yoke of cattle, twenty-five cents a day. Twenty-five cents in actual money meant something, however,-something more, indeed, than a wagon-load of wheat; for there were times when a wagon-load of wheat even could not command twenty-five cents in cash: it was store-pay or no pay at all. Alderman was the first settler upon section 36, and William Elvert the second, but a little while after Alderman. The next comer to that section was Edward Butler, in 1840. Thomas Butler, son of Edward Butler, thus relates his recollections of pioneering: "Thomas Butler moved into this county from the township of Henrietta, Monroe Co., N. Y., with his father, Edward Butler, and settled on section 36, in the township of Berlin, then called Cass (he then being nearly fourteen years of age), in November, 1840, and helped clear up the farm on which his father lived till 1871, when he was killed by his team running away, he then being seventy-one years of age. Thomas still resides in the same township, on section 14. We came up the Eric Canal, then by steamboat on Lake Erie to Detroit; there bought a yoke of oxen, and came by road.through the woods and mud. We were nine days coming from Detroit. We traveled two nights, there being no place to stay, the people being all sick on the way with the fever and ague. We came in by what was then called the White Lake road, by Pontiac and Shiawassee, Portland and Lyons, to our place of destination, where the people seemed overjoyed to see a new settler. We went right to work: built a log house and moved into it, chopped ten acres the next spring, cleared it all off, and got it into crops with our own labor. We have not had to buy any provisions since. I think we enjoyed ourselves about as well then as we do now, occasionally having a good deer-hunt and several other amusements, such as fighting mosquitoes and rattlesnakes and hunting cattle, hardly ever coming in without them (although they sometimes traveled far). We would be belated into the night, so that the neighbors would have to resort to the blowing of horns and the firing of guns that we might find our way out of the woods. Edward Butler located his land in the fall of 1836. He came to Kalamazoo, and, the office there being closed, had to travel on foot through by way of Yankee Springs and a place called Marsac's to Ionia, often having to ford or swim the streams, there being no bridges then. He stayed at Ionia and helped build the old land-office, boarding with Oliver Arnold." Nelson Beckwith, Robert F. Hall, Abraham Eddy, Reuben Stevens, John W. Young, Nathan and William Pierce, Lyman Simmons, Luke Howard, and Julius Babcock came to the town in 1837. Nelson Beckwith was burned to death in 1862, as will be found more fully set forth elsewhere. Robert F. Hall, who lived alone in a shanty on section 6, was drowned while attempting to cross the Grand River. How the calamity came upon him was never known. His dead body was found floating down the stream, and that was all the story told. Abraham Eddy lived an uneventful life, and died in 1875, aged eighty; eight. Dr. W. B. Lincoln, the first physician to practice in Ionia County, was an early settler in Berlin, to which place he removed from Ionia village and made his home on section 11. He continued his medical practice just the same, but doctoring was dull work at first, and he felt that he must be busy, so he bought a bit of a farm and betweentimes employed his hours in making or repairing boots and shoes, doing odd jobs of carpentering, or, in short, anything that came to him; for he was a stirring young man, and felt that no idler had any business in the ranks of the push. ing pioneers of the time. In 1838 the town enjoyed for the first time the luxury of a saw-mill within its borders. E. K. Bickford built it on the small stream that passes through section 3, the millb wright being Daniel S. Brownell. Fire destroyed the structure, and the site, being purchased by William Reed of Dr. Lincoln for six sheep, was directly afterwards occupied by a second mill. In 1839, George Mitchell made his home on a forty-acre tract in section 13. He died in 1841, and, the place falls ing to the control of Curtis B., his son, the latter exchanged it in 1842 for a place on section 23, owned by William Pierce. Pierce himself had done no work there, but had hired Van Rensselaer Randall to clear five acres. The year 1839 also witnessed the coming of George H. Coe, David Woodruff, and, a little later, Solomon Tanner. Francis Humphreys, an Irishman, was one of the men of '39, but in getting to the town gained more than his share of hazardous adventure. He got as far as Bellevue, and, there being forced to seek assistance in the matter of pushing himself, family, and goods through the wilderness to Berlin, found help in one Peter Kinney, living north of Vermontville. Humphreys had to make a night-journey in search of Kinney, and en route was treed by wolves. The beasts kept him upon his elevated perch until the next BERLIN. 183 morning, when, benumbed with cold and half famished, he descended and made off for Kinney's. Kinney undertook the job of getting Humphreys' family and goods to Bellevue for forty dollars, and with two pairs of oxen tried it. He was five days getting from Bellevue to Vermontville, but at the latter point only commenced the real troubles of the situation. In the language of an earlier historian, " the hardships of that journey were almost incredible,-tugging through swamps, cutting out trees, getting across streams (in some instances being obliged to take the wagon apart and carry that and the load piecemeal across a swamp, often not making half a mile a day). Snow fell during the time, and the cold, sleety storms caused suffering in addition to their exhausting labor. Serenaded at night by wolves, tired, cold, and wet, for five weeks they struggled on,-and got through. It cost Kinney his life: he was so used up he never recovered." Joshua Clark and his son Edward made settlements in 1842; Joseph Howard in 1843; Ienry P. Yates, William Letts, James M. Crane, Eleazur Murray, and Nathan J. Crane in 1845. The Cranes were stonemasons, and, purchasing their lands of Alonzo Sessions, paid him in part by laying stone walls upon his farm. In 1848, B. W. Backus came to Berlin and bought some land on section 12. He chopped a year and then went back to New York, where he remained three years. In 1852 he returned to Berlin and traded farms with Asa Houghton, south of him. Ile lived on the Houghton place until 1879, when he got his old farm back, and now resides there. When Mr. Backus came to the town, in 1848, he found already on the ground as neighbors Lyman Simmons, William Pierce, William Letts, and Gibbs McKown. In 1852, Elias Lillie, I. J. Curtiss, J. W. Loomis, and Delos Walker came in a body as settlers, and, in 1855, D. P. Aldrich bought land on section 17, to which he moved in 1856. Alanson Youngs had been on section 17 since 1854, and B. F. Hines since 1853. He also found James Udell on section 18, and David Peck on the place now occupied by George Youngs, the latter having come to it in 1858. South of Peck Lake settlements were slow. Stephen Aldrich was on the northeast corner of section 30, and Lemuel HI. Potter on section 29. Isaac Austin and Elias Lillie were on section 16 (to which came also Win. O. Sible in 1857), and R. J. Curtiss and Rufus Aldrich on section 21. Berlin had no post-office until, perhaps, 1850, when New Berlin post-office was established, and Alonzo Sessions appointed postmaster. William Jones, his successor, retained possession until 1857, when the office was discontinued. Since then there has been none in the town. TOWN ROADS. The first two roads recorded in the highway records of Cass township were laid by William Reed and Reuben W. Stephens, commissioners of highways. Herewith is presented a copy from the records of the two surveys: "The following is the survey of a road laid and described as such by the undersigned commissioners of highways of the township of Cass, in the county of Ionia,-viz.: Commencing at the southeast corner of section 1 and running west between said section and in township 6 north, of range 7 west, and section 12, in said township, and between sections 2 and 11 and sections 3 and 10 and sections 4 and 9, the section-lines between said sections above mentioned being the centre of said road from the southeast corner of said road section, and to the southwest corner of said section 4, from the southwest corner of said section 4 on a line west thirty-five degrees north seventeen chains; thence west twenty chains; thence west thirty degrees north nine chains; thence west ten chains and sixty-four links; thence west thirty degrees south fifty chains; thence west sixteen chains and sixty links; thence west thirty degrees south five chains and thirtyseven links; thence west thirty degrees north four chains and seventythree links; thence west on the section-line between sections 6 and 7 to the west line of said township. " WILLIAM REED, " REUBEN WV. STEPHENS, Conmmissioners of HiCghways. "Dated Cass, May 1, 1838." "The following is the survey of a road laid and established by the undersigned commissioners of highways,-viz.: Commencing at the southwest corner of section 3, in township 6 north, of range 7 west, and running north on the west line of said section and on the west line of section 34, in township 7 north, of range 7 west, to Grand River, it being two miles from the place of beginning by sectionlines. And all of said road south of the centre of said section 3 is annexed to Road District No. 3, and the remainder is annexed to District No. 2. " WILLIAM REED, "REUBEN W. STEPHENS, " Commnissioners of Hiyihways. "Dated May 2, 1838." May 2, 1838, a public road was established commencing at a point on the east line of section 34, in town 7 north, range 7 west, said point being twelve chains and fifty links north of the quarter-post on the said line, running west twenty degrees north fourteen chains and fifty-four links; thence west thirty degrees north nine chains and ninety links to a point on the river-road in said township; then commencing at said point on said section-line and running east fourteen chains and thirty-three links; then east ten degrees north five chains and thirty links; thence east five degrees north sixteen chains east forty degrees south fifteen chains and twenty-five links; thence east thirty-two chains and twenty-four links; thence east seventeen degrees south four chains and thirteen links to the quarter-section post on the west line of section 36, in town 7; thence east on the line of quarter-posts through sections 36, 31, 32, and 33 to the east line of section 33, in town 7 north, range 6 west. Oct. 19, 1838, Commissioners Reuben W. Stephens and Lucius Babcock established a road commencing at the section-corner post on the southwest corner of section 6 and northwest corner of section 7, town 6 north, range 6 west, and running east on the section-line between the abovenamed sections, and between sections 5 and 8, one mile and a half from the place of beginning. A road was established Jan. 7, 1839, beginning at the section corners of 1 and 2,11 and 12, in township 6 north, of range 7 west, running north between section 1 and 2 and to the quarter-post of 35 and 36 in township 7 north, of range 7 west. A road was laid Feb. 10, 1839, commencing in town 7 north, range 6 west, at the centre of section 32; thence running south three degrees twenty minutes east (according to the magnetic meridian) one hundred and sixty rods to a 184 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. quarter-post on the north boundary of section 5, in town 6 north, range 6 west; thence south four degrees east three hundred and twenty rods to a quarter-post on south boundary of section 5; thence south three degrees east three hundred and twenty rods to a quarter-post on the south boundary of section 8; thence south three degrees thirty minutes east three hundred and twenty rods to a quarterpost on the south boundary of section 17. Appended is a list of the names of residents in a majority of the road-districts in 1842, together with amount of highway labor assessed upon each person: DISTRICT No. 1. Days. John E. Morrison........................................ 8 Oliver Arnold................................................... 54 James Fitch.................................................... 1 DISTRICT No. 3. Silas D. Arnold..................................3...... 3~ John K. Knceland........................................... 2 Abraham Eddy................................................ 1 Gardner Eddy................................................ 1~ William Reed.................................................. 5 D avid H all...................................................... 44 James Hamblin................................................ 4 Joshua Wells................................................. 21 Alonzo Sessions................................................ 1 DISTRICT No. 4. George Parks................................................... 4 E. D. Alderman......................................... 3 Levi Taylor..................................................... 4 P. II. Taylor................................................... 1 William Babcock............................................. 11 Herman Babcock........................................... 3 Joseph M. Babcock.......................................... 4 Lucius Babcock.................................... 3 Reuben W. Stephens......................................... 5 George C. Overhiser.................. 6 Silis D. Arnold................................................ 1 Estate of Philo Bates........................................ 10 DISTRICT No. 5. Jesse Taft....................................................... 24 John Taft....................................................... 3 James B. Cook................................................ 24 A. Adgate....................................................... 3 John Adgate................................................... 14 Silas Adgate................................................... 1 Loren Benedict............................................... 1 Alexander Dalziel............................................. 3 Thomas J. March............................................. 4 Levi Greely.2.................................................... 2 Joseph M. Babcock.......................................... herman Babcock............................................. William Babcock............................................. 5~ Estate of Philo Bates....................................... 7 DISTRICT No. 6. A. B. Bliss...................................................... 44 John H all....................................................... 21 DISTRICT No. 7. Edward Butler........1.......................... 1... 4 Zophar Alderman.............................. 2 Francis Ilumphreys.......................................... 3 Patrick Hackett............................................ 24 Peter Hlackett................................... 3 Samuel C. Alderman......................................... 1 William Elworth......................1....... 1 DISTRICT No. 9. Myron Tupper................................................. 3 B. R. T pper................................................... 2. H1. i. ibbey................................................. 2 Reuben Iaight................................................ 22 Hiram S. Lee...........................2................... 2 Wellington Russell........ 2 Emory Russell................................................. 2 John Hlight..................................................... 14 Jason Smith................................................... 2 DISTRICT No. 10. Days. B. D. Brand........................................... 34 J. H ousman................................................ 6 M. Ware.......................................... 2 J. Iousman, Jr......................................... 2 B. Long.................................................... 1 B. Long, r.................................................... 1 L. Babcock...................................................... 2 H. Babcock.................................................... In 1840 the highway labor assessed in the town aggregated six hundred and eighteen days, of which two hundred and two were performed. Money received from all sources was fifty dollars and seventy-eight cents. Three and a half acres of road were cut out and nineteen and one-fourth rods of causeway and bridges made. In 1841 the labor assessed was six hundred and fiftyfour and a half days, and the amount performed two hundred and forty-eight and a half days. Five rods of bridges were made, at a cost of ten dollars. RESIDENT TAX-PAYERS IN BERLIN, 1844. Acres. Silas Adgate, section 29................................... 40 John Adgate, sections 29, 32............................. 120 Oliver Arnold, sections 19, 30........................... 190 George C. Overhiser, sections 31, 30................... 180 Alonzo Sessions, administrator of estate of Philo Bates, sections 5, 17, 28, 30, 32, 33.................. 1253 Eric Le Valley, section 32................................ 80 Caspar Steigel, section 32................................. 80 William Babcock, agent for Silas Wood, sections 33, 32......................................................... 50 Samuel Babcock..........................................Personal Levi Taylor, sections 1, 6, 31............................ 245 John Hull, section 19....................................... 89 Horace I. Hull............................................Personal Amos B. Bliss, section 19.................................. 89 John Ilousman, Sr., section 20.......................... 200 John Housman, Jr., section 20........................... 80 Gideon C. Holcomb, section 20.......................... 80 Addison Bowman, section 20............................. 40 Patrick Hackett, section 31.............................. 80 Peter Hackett, section 31................................. 100 Lucius Babcock, section 1, 17............................ 160 Palmer H. Taylor.......................................Personal William Winslow, section 35............................. 10 John North, section 35..................................... 40 Joseph Howard, section 35........................... 80 Joseph Babcock, section 36............................... 120 Herman Babcock, sections 32, 36........................ 120 John Woodruff, section 4.................................. 80 Benjamin Sage, section 4.................................. 160 Alexander Dalziel, section 5............................. 120 Thomas I. Marsh, section 5.............................. 200 Reuben W. Stevens, section 36.......................... 160 B. D. Brand, sections 8, 17............................... 160 William Babcock, sections 1, 6, 32................... 555 John K. Kneeland, section 2............................ 80 Abram Eddy, section 2.................................... 40 Gardner Eddy, section 2....................... 40 George HI. Coe, section 3.................................. 74 David Woodruff, section 3............................... 40 Alva Hill, section 3.......................................... 40 Amasa Sessions, sections 3, 4, 21........................ 312 David Hull, section 3....................................... 80 David Hull................................................Mill-site William Reed, section 3.................................. 155 Robert F. Hall, section 6.................................. 460 Joshua Wells, section 7................................. 85 Nelson Beckwith, section 7............................... 160 James Ilunchlin, section 10.............................. 160 James Lincoln, section 11................................. 80 Nathan S. Nichols, section 30............................ 80 Alvinus Nichols, section 12...........................8.... 80 William Pierce, sections 13, 14, 23..................... 200 Luke Harwood, sections 13, 14, 24.................... 120 Winslow Eddy, section 14................................. 40 John Foster, bection 14................................... 80 David Peek, sections 17, 19, 20.......................... 243 B. D. Weld, sections 32, 33.............................. 320 Asa Houghton, section 22................................. 80 Eastman Russell, section 26.............................. 40 Emory Russell, section 27................................. 160 Mlyron Tupper, section 27................................. 136 H. H. Kibbey, section 27................................. 80 Benjamin Tupper, sections 27, 28....................... 120 Hiram S. Lee, section 33.................................. 0 BERLIN. 185 Acres. John M. Evans, section 33................................ 80 Reuben Haight, section 35............................... 105 J. D. Hight, section 35.................................... 80 THE VOTERS IN 1846. In 1846 the votes cast numbered eighty-five. The question of "license" being before the people, there was a vote of thirty-two against license and eleven for license. The names of the eighty-five voters follow here: Palmer H. Taylor, Nathan J. Crane, John L. Taylor, Simeon Welch, James Fitch, C. T. Andrews, John W. Crane, Louden Andrews, Robert Barton, John Taft, Luke Harwood, Daniel Austin, Joseph M. Babcock, Ira Carpenter, Amasa Sessions, Samuel Randall, Henry Howlich, Eleazer Murray, Joseph H. Lincoln, S. Tanner, William D. Davis, Eric Le Valley, Nathan Hannah, Charles T. Babcock, Alva Hill, Alvin W. Nicholls, George Townsend, William Reed, John Doty, Job S. Sessions, George H. Coe, Chauncey Lincoln, William Doty, William Elvert, Joel Roberts, David Woodruff, Joshua Clark, Edward 0. Clark, William Babcock, George D. Overhiser, Stephen M. Aldrich, Rufus W. Aldrich, Z. M. Ware, Nelson Beckwith, Gordon Eddy, William I. Alderman, William Winslow, Oliver Beers, Joseph Cross, Abram Eddy, Jacob Bullman, Nathaniel Pierce, Rufus Smith, Francis Humphreys, Levi Taylor, William Barton, Chauncey F. Arnold, Almond Tefft, Joel Dean, Charles W. Fullington, Gilbert Crane, Oliver Arnold, C. B. Mitchell, Samuel M. Crane, John E. Morrison, James B. Cook, Javan Hall, Silas Adgate, Winslow Eddy, Alonzo Sessions, Robert Hannah, Henry Stiles, C. C. H. Huggins, Philo Stevens, David Branson, Herman Babcock, Edward Butler, David Peck, James Barton, Jesse Taft, Joln Adgate, William B. Lincoln, Austin P. Ware, Nathan Nichols, Lucius Babcock. The votes cast in 1849 were sixty-one. The names of the voters are below: N. J. Crane, Abram Eddy, Peleg Eddy, William Reed, Stephen M. Aldrich, Thomas Butler, Lucius Babcock, J. M. Babcock, Francis Humphreys, George Townsend, Luke Harwood, C. L. Babcock, D. Mitchell, Joshua Clark, Alonzo Sessions, William Babcock, H. P. Gates, Hiram Benjamin, Gilbert Crane, Alva Hill, James D. Tarbell, Samuel Randall, Sylvester Stevens, O. Hall, Siloam Stevens, W. Eddy, Joel Dean, Herman Babcock, Morris Woodruff, David Branson, William Elvert, Edward Butler, J. E. Morrison, Chauncey Lincoln, Solomon Tanner, James Fitch, R. W. Aldrich, J. M. Ware, A. P. Ware, George Phillips, J. W. Crane, C. B. Mitchell, William Doty, W. Phillips, D. Woodruff, G. H. Coe, Nelson Austin, Daniel Austin, J. S. Sessions, William Letts, Hathaway Randall, Nathan Pierce, N. S. Nicholls, Gardner Eddy, Nelson Beckwith, C. W. Fullington, Asa Houghton, Anson Young, D. W. Lincoln, Samuel Alderman, Harvey Eldredge. TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION. The present township of Berlin was organized March 6, 1838, as the township of Cass, and included towns 5 and 6 north, in range 7 west, the west halves of towns 5 and 6 north, in range 6 west, and all that portion of the west halves of town 7 north, in range 6 west, and town 7 north, in range 7 west, lying south of the Grand River. The town 24 of Cass was christened by Alonzo Sessions as a mark of honor for Lewis Cass, then a conspicuous statesman, and in recognition, moreover, of the Democratic tendency of the age. Feb. 16, 1842, the name of the township was changed from Cass to Berlin. March 19, 1845, the west halves of towns 5 and 6 north, in range 6 west, were apportioned respectively to the townships of Sebewa and Orange. March 25, 1846, town 5 north, in range 7 west, was organized as Odessa, and March 22, 1848, that portion of town 7 north, in range 6 west, lying south of the Grand River was apportioned to Ionia. These changes left to Berlin the six miles square of town 6 north, in range 7 west, and all that portion of town 7 north, in range 7 west, lying south of the Grand River; and that is the territory now occupied by the township. At the first town-meeting in Cass, held in the house of William Babcock, April 2, 1838, John E. Morrison was chosen moderator and William S. Babcock clerk. The officials chosen were Alonzo Sessions, Supervisor; John E. Morrison, Clerk; W. B. Lincoln, Levi Taylor, and C. R. Bickford, Assessors; Lucius Babcock, R. W. Stephens, and William Reed, Commissioners of Highways; John Taft, Collector and Constable; John Taft, James Hurlbut, Silas D. Arnold, and Amos B. Bliss, Constables; John E. Morrison, Job S. Sessions, and William S. Babcock, School Inspectors; Reuben W. Stephens and William Babcock, Directors of the Poor; Alonzo Sessions, John E. Morrison, Philo Bates, and W. B. Lincoln, Justices of the Peace. Overseers of highways do not appear to have been chosen until the annual meeting in 1839, when Oliver Arnold was elected for District No. 1, Alonzo Sessions for No. 2, E. K. Bigford for No. 3, John Taft for No. 4, Lucius Babcock for No. 5, and Nathaniel Pierce for No. 6. The persons chosen annually from 1839 to 1880 to fill the offices of supervisor, clerk, treasurer, and justices of the peace are named as follows: SUPERVISORS. 1839-40,; A. Sessions; 1841-42, J. E. Morrison; 1843, C. W. Fullington; 1844-45, A. Sessions; 1846,t James Barton; 1847-49, L. Harwood; 1850-52, A. Sessions; 1853, M. Balcom; 1854, A. P. Ware; 1855-56, A. Sessions; 1857, L. Harwood; 1858-62, A. Sessions; 1863-64, Amasa Sessions; 1865-66, M. Balcom; 1867, A. Sessions; 1868, M. Balcom; 1869-70, A. H. Heath; 1871-73, A. Otis; 1874, A. Sessions; 1875, W. P. Mitchell; 1876, A. Sessions; 1877-80, D. P. Aldrich. CLERKS. 1839-41, W. B. Lincoln; 1842, G. E. Overhiser; 1843, C. T. Andrews; 1844, J. K. Kneeland; 1845, J. M. Babcock; 1846-47, C. T. Andrews; 1848, J. M. Crane; 1849-50, J. M. Babcock; 1851, C. T. Andrews; 1852-53, J. M. Babcock; 1854-56, C. T. Andrews; 1857, E. Lillie; 1858, C. T. Andrews; 1859, A. Kellogg; 1860-61, A. G. Kellogg; 1862-64, J. E. Morrison; 1865, W. H. H. Crocker; 1866, R. Coe; 1867, T. Noddins; 1868-70, A. Otis; 1871-72, M. Balcom; 1873-80, T. Noddins. TREASURERS. 1839, J. S. Sessions; 1840-41, H. Babcock; 1842, J. S. Sessions; 1843, William Pierce; 1844, R. W. Stevens; 1845, C. B. Mitchell; 1846, J. M. Crane; 1847, C. B. Mitchell; 1848, Thomas Butler; 1849-51, A. P. Ware; 1852, D. 0. Brunson; 1853, W. Eddy; 1854-56, William Letts; 1857, P. Eddy; 1858, C. C. Coats; 1859, -: Forty-five votes cast. - Eighty-five votes cast. 186 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. William Letts; 1860, W. P. Mitchell; 1861-62, L. Canwright; 1863, R. Pettit; 1864-66, W. P. Mitchell; 1867, W. Hicking; 1868, W. P. Mitchell; 1869-70, L. L. Harwood; 1871, W. P. Mitchell; 1872-76, D. P. Aldrich; 1877-78, W. 0. Sible; 1879-80, W. Hicking. JUSTICES. 1839, L. Babcock; 1840, E. K. Bickford; 1841, John Hale; 1842, G. Townsend; 1843, E. Russell; 1844, H. Babcock; 1845, A. P. Ware; 1846, G. Townsend; 1847, F. Humphreys; 1848, L. Babcock; 1849, C. T. Andrews; 1850, A. Sessions; 1851, Z. Alderman; 1852, H. Babcock; 1853, A. Houghton; 1854, N. J. Crane; 1855, L. Loveland; 1856, N. S. Nichols; 1857, T. D. Hartwell; 1858, R. J. Curtiss; 1859, J. E. Morrison; 1860, C. Stowe; 1861, C. T. Andrews; 1862, W. Darling; 1863, J. W. Loomis; 1864, A. H. Bostwick; 1865, T. D. Hartwell; 1866, C. W. Stowe; 1867, D. P. Aldrich; 1868, J. McDonald; 1869, J. S. Locke; 1870, L. Benedict; 1871, T. D. Hartwell; 1872, E. M. Wilcox; 1873, J. S. Locke; 1874, A. Pike; 1875, D. P. Aldrich; 1876, E. W. Wilcox; 1877, J. S. Locke; 1878, A. Pike; 1879, D. P. Aldrich; 1880, E. Wilcox. REPORTS FOR 1839. Alonzo Sessions, town treasurer, made a report March 31, 1840, for the year 1839, as follows: Amount paid into the treasury the current year.... $70.00 Orders given on the treasurer by the town board...... 69.61 William Babcock, director of the poor, reported: Amount of money on hand May, 1839.................... $37.87 Paid county commissioners' orders....................... 29.87 Paid W. B. Lincoln's order.................................. 8.00 The commissioners of highways reported: Whole amount of labor assessed for 1839, 6431 days. Money received during year............................ $132.25 Paid on orders by county treasurer..................... 164.30 Probable amount due on orders.......................... 566.41 Six and a half miles of highway have been opened on timbered land, three rods wide, during the year, the amount of improvement to be made on roads above the labor to be assessed the ensuing year. JURORS FOR VARIOUS YEARS. 1840.-Amasa Sessions, John Taft, Alexander Dalziel, E. K. Bickford, R. W. Stevens, Levi Taylor, James Hamblin, Luke Harwood, B. D. Brand, S. D. Arnold, Thomas J. Marsh, Francis Humphreys, Abel Adgate, Herman Babcock, Zophar Alderman, Eric Le Valley. 1842.-Amasa Sessions, Herman Babcock, R. W. Stevens, James Hamlin, George Townsend, G. C. Overhiser, Alex. Dalziel, Zophar Alderman, Benjamin D. Brand, Silas D. Arnold, Thomas J. Marsh, Francis Humphreys, Alfred Adgate, Joseph M. Babcock, William Reed, Peter Hackett. 1843.-Myron Tupper, David Hall, Reuben Haight, Lucius Babcock, John Hall, Joshua Clark, Luke Harwood, Charles W. Fullington, David Woodruff, John K. Kneeland, E. D. Alderman, P. H. Taylor, Nelson Beckwith, Gardner Eddy, Charles T. Andrews, E. O. Clark. May 10, 1848, it was recorded that the persons in the town subject to military duty were Peleg Eddy, Jackson Eddy, W. B. Lincoln, John Youngs, J. M. Babcock, Marcus Babcock, Henry S. Babcock, Herman Babcock, J. S. Sessions, Alonzo Sessions, Amasa Sessions, George Phillips, Harvey Gates, I. W. Robinson, Nelson Beckwith, Hathaway Randall, Edmund Harwood, William Ferguson, Dennis Shaw, D. Chapman, Gardner Eddy, Isaac L. Austin, O. Hall, Alha Hill, Moses Woodruff, John Wilkinson, Julius Ware, Rufus Aldrich, A. Alderman, C. W. Fullington, William Letts, C. B. Mitchell, Randall Camplan, David Peck, Winslow Eddy. SCHOOLS. The annual school report for 1848 testified that there were twenty-nine scholars in District No. 2, forty-two in No. 3, and thirty-four in No. 4. The apportionment of primary school fund was seventeen dollars. Of that amount, No. 1 received $2.92; No. 2, $3.45; No. 3, $6.37; No. 4, $3.85. The distribution of military money gave $6.41 to No. 2; to No. 3, $6.63; to No. 4, $7.50. The number of school-children in the town for 1849 was as follows: District No. 1, 23; No. 2, 28; No. 3, 56; No. 4, 33; total, 140. The annual report for 1856 gave two hundred and eighty-four as the total number of scholars, seven as the number of districts, and one hundred and forty-nine dollars and four cents as the amount of mill-money divided. SCHOOL-TEACHERS. From 1847 to 1860 the following teachers received certificates in Berlin (anterior to 1847 there do not appear to be any school records): Nov. 6, 1847, Susan C. Bates, Lewis Tuttle; Nov. 25, 1847, Thomas A. Kenworthy; Dec. 15, 1847, Charles W. Fullington; April 8, 1848, Mary Taylor; Nov. 25, 1848, James Bradley; Dec. 16, 1848, Eveline Townsend; June 4, 1849, Esther Coe; Nov. 15, 1849, Charles T. Andrews; Nov. 15, 1849, J. A. Ellsworth, Thomas Butler; April 13, 1850, Joseph M. Babcock, Emeline Dexter, Miss Olivia L. Babcock; April 27, 1850, Jane Clark, Eliza Brown; Nov. 1, 1851, Thomas Butler; Dec. 6, 1851, Jeannette Jones; Nov. 29, 1852, Sarah Smith; Nov. 30, 1852, James Bradley; Dec. 10, 1852, Lucy Curtiss; April 8,1854, Emily Tanner; April 15, 1854, Sarah E. Howard; May 6, 1854, Ccleste Peasley; Nov. 4, 1854, Alpheus G. Smith; May 19, 1855, Martha M. Hubbell; April 14, 1855, Harriet A. Thomas; June 8, 1855, Louisa B. Granger; Nov. 3, 1855, Ann Eliza Beckwith, Sarah Johnson; May 14, 1856, Celeste Peasley; Nov. 8,1856, Elias Lillie, George Sissem; Nov. 17, 1856, C. T. Andrews; April 13, 1857, Louisa H. White; May 25, 1857, Eveline Nichols; June 13, 1857, Emma Chipman, Martha Vosper; Nov. 7,1857, Philetus Baker; Nov. 17, 1857, Joseph A. Rogers; Nov. 21, 1857, L. C. Simmons; April 10, 1858, Betsey Ann Gould, Mary E. Bennett; May 5,1858, Betsey A. Austin; Nov. 6, 1858, John Gould; Nov. 15, 1858, E. J. Fancher; Nov. 19, 1858, Stephen A. Aldrich; April 9, 1859, Louisa White, Ellen Smith, Mary Jane Allen, Emily Mills; May 2,1859, Martha Clark; Nov. 15, 1859, L. C. Simmons, Daniel F. Betts; May 4, 1860, Caroline E. Kellogg, Ellen M. Dunham. Following are statistics gathered from the school report for 1880: Dist. it it it It it I. n( Directors.. 2.....John Randall. 3.....E. Townsend. 4......J. E. Morrison. 5*.....M. Bennett. 6......L. J. Barnard. 7......Amon Otis. 8......J. W. Gardner. 9......George Allen. 10......D. P. Aldrich. 11*.....A. Wheelock. Enumeration. 51 96t 27 35 92 65 73 56 51 53 599 Average Attendance. 50 85 26 35 64 47 65 40 48 45 505 Value of Property. $500 600 200 1000 1500 1000 800 700 400 $6700 Teachers' Wages. $110 184 104 140 117 156 174 214 150 113 $1462 Total.................. w: Fractional. t Graded school. BERLIN. 187 B I CHURCHES. Less fortunate in that respect than some of its neighbors, Berlin can boast of but one church edifice (Wesleyan Methodist), and of but few religious societies at best. The oldest organization of that kind is the Berlin Methodist Episcopal Class, now worshiping at the centre school-house. The class was formed in 1854 by Rev. Mr. McKnight, at the house of R. J. Curtiss, with nine members, who were named R. J. Curtiss and wife, Catharine Walker, Lucy Curtiss, Elias Lillie, Sarah Lillie, Elizabeth Barnard, Jacob Sissem, Clarissa Sissem, R. J. Curtiss being the leader. Since 1854 the class has maintained an active existence and held regular periodical services. The class is now on the Orange Circuit, of which Rev. ). Ward is in charge. Chase S. Winn is now the class-leader, and W. W. Woodard superintendent of the Sabbath-school. The centre school-house is likewise occupied on alternate Sundays by the Methodist Episcopals and by the Free Methodists. EAST BERLIN WESLEYAN METHODIST CHURCH. The East Berlin Wesleyan Methodist Class was formed about 1865, at the Benedict school-house, by Rev. D. A. Richards, with about twelve members, of whom Mr. Whittenmyer was leader. In 1872 a house of worship costing fifteen hundred dollars was built on section 13. Rev. H. C. Hulburt is pastor and Christopher Hornig class-leader. Services are held semi-monthly. The membership is now thirty. There is also a Sunday-school with an average attendance of forty, in charge of Homer Strong. IONIA GRANGE, NO. 191. Ionia Grange, holding its sessions in Berlin, was organized in the fall of 1873, Alonzo Sessions being chosen Master. Meetings are held once each fortnight in a hall on Myron Balcom's farm. The present officers are Myron Balcom, M.; William S. Bates, O.; E. R. Dunham, L.; E. B. Butler, Chaplain; Frank Balcom, Steward; Thomas Rinehart, Asst. Steward; A. H. Tibbits, Sec.; John Sessions, Treas. BERLIN CENTRE GRANGE, NO. 272. Grange No. 272 was organized Feb. 20, 1874, with about one hundred members. That number has now been reduced by removals to sixty-four. The Masters of the grange since organization have been Amon Otis, J. S. Locke, William P. Mitchell, and L. J. Barnard. The present officers are L. J. Barnard, M.; Charles McCoy, O.; William P. Mitchell, L.; Lorenzo Kaiser, Chaplain; J. S. Locke, Sec.; O. E. Aldrich, Treas.; Oscar Bliss, Steward. A fine grange-hall was built in 1879 at an expense of thirteen hundred dollars. Regular meetings are held once in two weeks. TRAGEDIES AND CASUALTIES. Berlin has had its share of tragic incidents, in which five persons at least came to violent deaths. One of the first was the burning to death of Nelson Beckwith (a Berlin pioneer of 1837) and one of his children. It was during the year 1862 that Mr. Beckwith was aroused one night from his sleep by the revelation that his dwelling was burning over his head. Hastily arousing the members of his family, he sought to save what property he could, and while thus engaged he was apprised by his wife that one of the children had failed to emerge from the burning structure. At this alarming intelligence Mr. Beckwith plunged headlong into the fiery mass without a thought as to the danger, although it seemed certain that he would meet his death. Such, indeed, proved to be the case. He had no sooner effected an entrance than the roof fell in, burying him and his child beyond recall in a lake of fire. Their bones, charred and fragmentary, found after the conflagration spent itself, toldkthe sequel of the mournful tale. William Reed, also one of Berlin's earliest settlers, met his death in 1872 at the hands of a farm-tenant named Germon Grizzell. They disputed about some matter of repairs, and Reed, being somewhat rough in language and action when angered, made what seemed to Grizzell a threatening demonstration with a stick. At this, Grizzell, having an axe in his hand, felled the old man with it. The blow was a fatal one, and two days after receiving it Reed expired. Making no attempt to escape, Grizzell was carried away to jail, and upon trial was sentenced to imprisonment for five years. He served his term, and now resides in the northern portion of the State. In 1871, Edward Butler, an aged pioneer, was en route to his home from Ionia with his wife. The horses he drove were young and spirited, and when within eighty rods of home they took a sudden fright, darted off at a breakneck speed, utterly beyond Mr. Butler's control, and, overturning the carriage, threw the occupants to the ground. Mr. Butler was so badly hurt that he died the following day. Mrs. Butler recovered, and still lives. William Liverton, an early settler, was killed by the fall of a tree. His son George met with a remarkable tree-adventure, from which, however, he escaped alive and, to his own wonderment, almost unhurt. It was about 1870 that he was out one day coon-hunting, and, treeing a specimen, mounted nimbly upwards to secure his prize. Up he went and up went the coon until the top of the tree was not far away, and then the animal, scrambling out upon a limb, tremblingly awaited the issue. Liverton, dead to every thought or consideration save the one consuming desire to capture the coon, kept right on after him, and, unmindful of the uncertain tenure upon which the slight limb hung, pushed out upon it. All progressed happily and favorably, and, lo! he was within reaching-distance of the frightened game, when, just as he was about to make sure of it, snap went the limb and down tumbled Liverton, coon, and all, a distance of full seventy-seven feet, to mother earth. The coon was killed, but tougher Liverton not only escaped death, but was so little hurt that he managed to walk home and was actually out and at work the next day. He was, however, cured of his desire for coon-hunting, and to this day has let the sport severely aIOne. 188 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. HON. ALONZO SESSIONS.* Hon. Alonzo Sessions, of Ionia, was born Aug. 4, 1810, in Marcellus, Onondaga Co., N. Y. His grandfather owned and worked a rough, stony farm in Connecticut. He had a family of eleven children, all of whom were obliged to earn their own living. Of these, Amasa Sessions, father of Alonzo, was the eldest child, and at the age of nineteen made his way on foot into the wilderness of Central New York. He had acquired the rudiments of an education, and by teaching and clearing land obtained means to purchase a farm on the east side of Skaneateles Lake. There he remained until near the time of his death, which occurred in 1838. His wife, Phebe Smith, was the youngest daughter of Job Smith, an officer in the Revolutionary army. Her brother, Lewis Smith, was sheriff of Onondaga County and a member of the New York Legislature. She was remarkable for her modest, quiet disposition, love of her home and family, and untiring industry; she had nine children, all of whom survive her. Alonzo Sessions was trained in frugal, industrious habits. He made diligent use of his opportunities for an education, and, after leaving school at Skaneateles, taught at Galen, Wayne Co., and Owasco, Cayuga Co. In 1831 he went to Bennington, where he was engaged two years as clerk in a store. As compensation he received his board and ten dollars per month, from which he saved the first year one hundred dollars. His employer was an able, intelligent business man, who owned an establishment consisting of a store, an ashery, a distillery, a grain-mill, and a saw-mill. In this position he daily learned the value of all kind of commodities, and acquired prompt and accurate methods of doing business. He had constant opportunities to deal with men and women, to study human nature in all its phases, and to weigh the motives which govern human actions. Meanwhile, his leisure was devoted to reading and study. In 1833, Mr. Sessions left his native State and traveled, most of the way on foot, from Detroit to the land-office at White Pigeon, Mich. His route was by the way of Mount Clemens, Romeo, and Pontiac to Farmington. At the latter place he struck the Grand River trail, which crossed the Huron near where Kensington now is, and followed it through the counties of Shiawassee, Clinton, and Ionia to the site of the present city of Ionia. There he found five families, part of them living in unfinished log cabins and the others in Indian wigwams. From Farmington to Ionia his brother and another young man accompanied him. Their food was bread and raw pork, their bed the ground in the open air, excepting one frosty night when they slept in a deserted wigwam which they found on the place now occupied by De Witt. In Shiawassee their trail divided, and after some hesitation they took what proved to be the wrong one, for after crossing a small river it entered a dense forest and ended abruptly in an extensive Indian sugar-bush. After retracing their steps they ventured doubtfully forward and reached Ionia. " From "Representative Men of Michigan." I I Here they boarded a Frenchman's batteau and floated down the Grand River to Grand Rapids, stopping over-night with Rix Robinson, an Indian trader at the mouth of Thornapple River. They traveled on foot from Grand Rapids, via Gull Prairie, Kalamazoo, and Three Rivers, to White Pigeon, and camped one night on Bull's Prairie, near Thornapple River. They purchased their land and returned to Detroit by the Chicago road. Mr. Sessions spent the ensuing winter in a store in Tuscarawas Co., Ohio. He afterwards taught at Dayton, Ohio, until 1835, when he purchased two horses and started north for lonia. One day's travel brought him to a densely-timbered wilderness, which he traversed by the aid of blazed trees until he reached Fort Defiance, on the Maumee River. It rained nearly all of the time; the rivers, creeks, and bayous were swollen to overflowing and could be crossed only by swimming the horses. In this primitive way he crossed the Auglaize three times and the Maumee once. From Fort Defiance he traveled down the Maumee, swimming the creeks and bayous until he was opposite Perrysburg, Ohio. There he found an open road free from mud which led through an unoccupied region to Michigan. He passed Ann Arbor, Jackson, and Marshall, which were then scarcely worth the name of villages. At Saline he was joined by his brother, and they proceeded to Ionia. The way from Bellevue on lay through a dense forest and across two rivers. The journey from Dayton to lonia occupied sixteen days. Mr. Sessions swam his horses through all the streams, crossed numerous swamps and marshes, and once left his horse in the middle of the stream to recover some article which had dropped from the packhorn and floated away. Yet under all these difficulties he and his brother with their horses reached their destination in safety. Mr. Sessions immediately made himself a home on his land in the wilderness. He built the second log cabin in Berlin, Ionia Co., and the first bridges across the small streams between Ionia and Saranac. He married, in August, 1837, Celia, second daughter of Judge Dexter, the pioneer of Ionia County. They have had thirteen children, seven of whom are living. Mr. Sessions was the first supervisor of Cass (now Berlin), and chairman of the first board of supervisors that met in Ionia County. He was one of the first justices of the peace, and held the position several years. He was sheriff of Ionia County in 1841 and 1842; has since been supervisor eighteen times, and often chairman of the board. His farm, in resources of soil, timber, water, stone, etc., was one of the best in the State. But it was also one of the most difficult to bring under control and cultivation. The amount of labor required was unusual, the results were remote and uncertain; but the work was carried steadily on with courage and confidence, Mr. Sessions directing all and performing much of it with his own hands. He has been able to make the farm support his family, pay all expenses of improvement, and provide something for future use. It has become a good home and a valuable inheritance. Land has been added until it has increased from three hundred and sixty to one thousand acres. Mr. Sessions was elected to the State Legislature in 1856, 1858, and 1860. During his last term of service he was appointed by President Lin IT 6'- tct I *HOA/V 0^ VIAO/ NI7&-ig `4PAIOMU/SWJS 0207V 'NOH 3H. mYO _70AUG/O57fe "I, v~-r *:dL;'' L~ ~i Irri jl; ~jl'"~ ":/~ ":-~; "*l:i ~e ~~ ~ L P ~-rs-1 jq l,~;gs L-~) ~LS 'j-7T F-ir* ~".~ "Irp,I ''*^^^ '' [',''*' <''.^ ^^ y,.r I '~;' "~ ~~i ih ~,iir C ''~t.r, ~:: "` t, V`,,,, '4::~~,_ r~ *rr7(~li~ ~ll,~9:3~ s";''"''LI i,, '.,r c'. ~~ i:~._~ '",c, "',.a,, ^ A~jG1S' MsiI)jo M31,A iwy/Ofs' )^^^i^:^^^ * * " '.....^s`fe^^:'- ~h" )I( ^\ \:~C 'i~:"\.1. I~ "I; rr:r ~*,"i:-,~-;~ Pf~.,i ~a:* rr 1, tass I LrI C;~ ~' c Irlt '',~~; ".~';'~5t~nr~~"'';~",; '\"~,: ' ~' r -'~; "'.~ -s.ri i'r ':~;~i, '' I ~ ' ''*r R"~S"5F: l`li *2 f;3 ~:~, -:I r _*":r ~`:~~,.14:t: diha(kLI ", ~~ 4.C,. n+ rr* ""'.~~~~~...;.;rhf;;;_r:r;r~~^jl;~1. +~:,Liir; —' rcr diliWiCE;h; -~I: ~.:iG:~:.~? C.. ~~,.r~ri.r-r-~-~~l —~ ~ ~ ~ u c ~, Z r_.I,~ ~..,~ L k:. ~- ~~ r~;~ r,r, '~' Ir iY II L( -.e.. 'ii r X r~ (:;ttr"i::~:'~?, "L1, L?_%!: a*,1~.)hi ~*", I~'(-"::':: I="`:~E": kTP~i~,, )~~~ i.''l''(r~-:'* u''~-; r ISi y: "~i:?~f`l,'c, 'C*~ ~~;~.*1,.1', ":::~~ a,,, ~r,, c~:,, sMt:t~iul;r~r;~.':'"Drr' P' t nnruir C".""*"' ~J.Le.1 1B:~ a l-a II:. -"S.*;, I I 'tiCG I, "I'r~c ~; -~: " *1<.'N;? z 9 4:= 1~' -r *~ -~ L ..', _ j _I - 11~ _I I I I Zl, i / -; e!, 't -r_ I S-.4w r 94 uj Q (i - kft 9., -1 I I - t `-.Ito; co ( 1 44 1 r 1,I Q: 0 %A -14 45 C Z BERLIN. 189 coin assessor of internal revenue for the Fourth District of Michigan. He faithfully discharged the duties of the office during four years, when, on his disapproval of President Johnson's " policy," he was removed. Mr. Sessions never did more severe, unpleasant, nor honest work than while in the discharge of his duties as assessor. In order to aid the government to raise funds during the Rebellion, Mr. Sessions and others organized a national bank at Ionia, of which he has been a director since 1863 and president since 1866. He has been president of the Farmers' Mutual Fire Insurance Company since 1870. Both institutions have increased in strength and prosperity under his administration. In 1872 he was chosen by the Republicans of Michigan one of the Presidential electors, and by them president of the electoral college. In 1876, without any effort on his part, he was made Lieutenant-Governor by a majority of sixteen thousand, notwithstanding the fact that his opponent, a Democrat, received the Greenback vote. He has never solicited official positions. His ambition has been to discharge faithfully all his duties, and to encourage others to do likewise. He has especially desired to educate his children to be valuable citizens, an honor to himself and the country. Few living men have had more hardships to encounter, greater difficulties to overcome, and less encouragement in their struggle with adverse circumstances; but temptation and trouble have not been able to move him from the path of duty, nor to shake his resolution to act well his part. In 1878 he was renominated in the Republican convention by acclamation and re-elected Lieutenant-Governor for another term of two years. He was an able, impartial, prompt, and faithful presiding officer, secure in the respect and confidence, as well as the kind regard, of every one associated with him. When free from public duties he has always returned to his home and farm, pleased and contented to plan and execute new improvements and better methods, and while reclaiming waste places, making poor land valuable and productive, has been his only amusement, it has enabled him to enjoy life, to enjoy work, to make his home more healthy and more valuable, and, more than all, to influence others to imitate his example, so far as it is worthy of imitation, whether he is living or dead. Mr. Sessions is now in his seventy-first year, strong and healthy, and daily doing the work of a stout, vigorous man. LOREN BENEDICT. This family traces its ancestry to the settlement of Salem, Mass., and is of English origin. Aaron Benedict, grandfather of the above, was a Presbyterian minister, and continued in the line of his duty until he was seventy years of age. He was also a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and was at the side of the lamented Warren at Bunker Hill when it was demonstrated to the satisfaction of incredulous Britons that " Yankees" would fight. He settled after the war in Sangerfield, Oneida Co., N. Y., and died at the age of ninety-three at Harvard, N. Y. His son Aaron married Achsah Foster, and about 1804 located at Attica, N. Y. (then in Genesee County), purchasing eighty acres on Wells' Hill, near the centre of the town. About I I BRIN18 1820 he exchanged places with Grove Cooley and removed to Courtland Co., N. Y. Loren Benedict was the third in a family of ten children, and was born at Attica, N. Y., Sept. 19, 1811. Remaining at home until he had attained his majority, he then worked a short time for monthly wages, and at the age of twenty-three set his face towards Michigan, coming via the Erie Canal to Buffalo, where he took water passage for Detroit. The vessel was wrecked off Erie, Pa., on the night of Nov. 22, 1834, stranding on a sand-bar. The boat was the steamer " Columbus," and had four hundred passengers on board, who were all safely landed in the morning. The remainder of the trip to Detroit was made by Mr. Benedict in a stage. He proceeded to Rochester, Oakland Co., and resided near that place two years, assisting his brother-inlaw in making improvements and putting in grain. He was on one occasion lost at night while searching for the cattle, and only knew which way to find home by wetting his finger and holding it up to ascertain the direction of the wind. Feb. 15, 1838, he proceeded to Flat River with a load of pork, and crossed on a skiff to the cabin of Ambrose Spencer. Spent a day in looking at land, and purchased at Cook's Corners, in the township of Otisco, Ionia Co., one hundred and sixty acres. His money was of that uncertain breed known as "wild-cat," and he returned to Pontiac and disposed of it (two hundred dollars) in the purchase of two yokes of oxen. In less than two weeks the said money was worthless. He sold his cattle the following spring, receiving gold in payment, and on foot journeyed to his land in Otisco, erected a cabin, and began improvements. In December he again returned to Pontiac, where on the 1st of January, 1839, he married Paulina Adgate, daughter of Abel and Polly Adgate, and took her to his wilderness home. In 1846 he disposed of his place and removed to his present farm, lying in Berlin and Orange townships, Ionia Co. This purchase had upon it a log house and a frame barn, but little other improvement, and the labor necessarily expended upon it was great. To-day it is in excellent condition, and additions have been made until it now consists of four hundred acres, including the residences of his sons George, Abel, Emerson, and Philo. One daughter, Emeline, was also born to Mr. and Mrs. Benedict, and is now Mrs. Henry Sprague, of Easton. Mrs. Benedict died Dec. 7, 1872, and her loss was deeply mourned by her family and a large circle of friends and relatives. Mr. Benedict is a Jefferson Democrat in politics. In his private life he is honest and upright, and those who know him testify to his worth as a friend and neighbor and business man, while the destitute and needy have cause to remember his many acts of kindness and charity towards them. WILLIAM C. REED. William Reed, father of the above, first saw the light of day on ground made memorable in the " long-ago," during the struggle of the colonies for independence. He was born in 1805, near the Bunker Hill battle-ground, in Massachu setts. At the age of twenty he shipped aboard a whaler, and led the life of a sailor a few years. On his return he visited his grandparents, residents of New York, and fell 190 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. T in company with Mr. David Beebe and family, who were preparing to come to Michigan; he came with them and located in Oakland County, where Sarah, one of the daughters of Beebe, taught two terms of school, but in the mean time Mr. Reed married her, she completing her school after marriage. In September, 1836, he removed to Berlin township, Ionia Co., and purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land on section 3. On the Sunday following his arrival, with the assistance of four men, he erected a log house on his place. He afterwards purchased two hundred and ten acres additional on section 10, upon which he erected substantial buildings. His death occurred in June, 1873, at the age of sixty-seven years eight months and three days. He was married three times, and his third wife survives him. He was the father of ten children,six by his first wife and four by his second. He was a man who was much respected. He was energetic and industrious, and from having funds barely sufficient to make his first purchase from government he accumulated a handsome property. William C. Reed, the second in his father's family, was born Jan. 25, 1835. His youth was spent on the homefarm, and he occasionally assisted in a mill owned by his father. Sept. 25, 1858, he married Samantha Shilton, daughter of Benjamin and Hannah Shilton, of Orange township, in which (on section 7) they were early settlers. The daughter was born in Raleigh township, Kent Co., Canada West; removed to Michigan, where they arrived April 1, 1819. In 1860, Mr. Reed purchased eighty acres of land on section 10 in Berlin, to which he removed with his wife, occupying a frame dwelling, fourteen by twenty, which he had erected. It was roughly constructed, but served a good purpose. Mrs. Reed died Jan. 3, 1872, leaving her husband and one child (the only survivor of four) to mourn her loss. He subsequently married Miss Mary A. West, daughter of William and Vina West, who was born March 27, 1845, in Kent Co. (township of Raleigh), Canada. Her parents had settled in Orange township, Ionia Co., in 1855, and are still residents thereof. In 1879, Mr. Reed replaced his first home with the finest brick residence in the township. He is the present owner of two hundred acres of land, finely improved, well stocked, and having a tenement-house and three large barns and other outbuildings. Mr. Reed and his first wife united with the Disciples' Church, and his present wife is a member of the Episcopal Church. To each of these ladies is given the great credit due to most excellent and exemplary wives. Mr. Reed's children now living are Clara Belle, by first marriage, born May 31, 1863; Jennie Bird Reed and Berton Lewe Reed, by second marriage, the former born Oct. 7, 1873, and the latter June 16, 1878. Mr. Reed is a man of liberal spirit, and is foremost in all enterprises in the interest of his town. He has contributed much towards religious and benevolent objects, and is highly esteemed for his many manly qualities. He is a member of the Masonic lodge, chapter, and council, and of Berlin Grange, Patrons of Husbandry. He has never sought notoriety in public life, and sickness, caused by heavy labor and exposure early and late, also a hurt, has resulted in weak eyes, which at times makes him nearly blind, the trouble being chronic granulated eyelids and iritis of corona, for which he has been treated at Ann Arbor University, and is now enabled to attend to business, though not able to read newspaper print. GEORGE.HOSFORD. This gentleman was born July 11, 1823, on the eastern shore of Cayuga Lake, in the State of New York. His parents were of German descent, and their circumstances were meagre. The boy became inured to a life of poverty, and at the age of eight years we find him working for his board among farmers, and attending school whenever opportunity presented. His mother gave him into the keeping of one Dr. Swett, with whom he remained until he was fifteen years of age, and then determined to try his fortunes in the West. Accordingly he walked to Buffalo, took passage on the " Constitution," and arrived at Detroit, after a perilous trip, in the last of November, 1838, with fifty cents in his pocket. Starting to reach friends in Ionia, he stopped for a week ten miles west of Detroit, and then proceeded on his way through a country at the best but thinly populated, and often through an almost trackless wilderness. For about three years he worked in the employ of his stepfather, Ezra Winslow, then a resident of this county (Ionia), then at various occupations until the spring of 1845, when he purchased forty acres of land in Easton township, on section 4. He had learned the trade of a mason, and about the last-named date returned to New York, worked at his trade, and attended school for three years. He finally returned to Michigan, bought forty acres of land adjoining his first purchase, cleared five acres, erected a small cabin, and on the 5th of May, 1849, married Harriet J. Abbott, daughter of Gilbert and Charlotte Abbott, of Saranac. In 1859 he journeyed to California via New York, returning in 1860. In 1862 he became indebted for a purchase of eighty-eight and a half acres of land, included in his present home. About ten acres only were cleared, all other improvements and changes having been made since, and he is now enjoying life in a beautiful home. His wife died July 27,1876, leaving five children, -viz., Orvis, born May 25, 1850; Ellen, born Aug. 5, 1852, married Dr. Wilson, of Branchport, N. Y.; Warren, born April 25,1854, now a resident of Medina Co., Ohio; Numie, born March 12, 1856, now Mrs. Byron Weeden, of Berlin township; Burt, born Dec. 5, 1868. Mr. Hosford and his wife were both members of the Disciples' Church, which they assisted in organizing. The parents of the present Mrs. Hosford were natives of New Jersey, and were named Samuel and Sally Yandoran. The daughter, Anna E., was born in Kalamazoo Co., Mich., Sept. 11, 1837, where her parents were early settlers. When she was nine years of age they returned to New York (Yates County). In 1876 Anna came to Palo, Ionia Co., Mich., on a visit to a brother, and there met Mr. Hosford, to whom she was married Oct. 14, 1876. She had previously been twice married,-first to Edwin Besemer, of Port Byron, N. Y., and second to Marvin Harris, of Dresden, N. Y. She is a most estimable lady, and is in possession of the sincere regard of those who know her. - — zillions I,3 11-I 11 " - I plo., — l - I 'F%, 10,, - iA r- I I ll "I I ~ 1,; ! I;a u.:i:a:x.,~-~*Lres; IFF I) ur)li 1? ~r~I C' I" h I 'I:I~.1"'1v' *'" rl.L rrl.~i Yb:r i.~. ) ~ 114*-1 _~) I i ii,i, \, , , r- r ~IL1111',4:! I:r; p S ' " ~.~~~~ "' '~~ ~.~ ' ~r~ i r,.2 11' '.~3,. 17;:* F / " ii I,,,, 'i''' ''1.1 r~~.: ~n, ,n II... ~: "r..s~s "2 ~,ri h...' * ~ 2, "~ ,,~ ntI,I, , .11"'3". LIU I~2~ '',' 3 1' ''' -* ~L.'I '( ~'~ "~~ t ~ I ~. r h\, ~,, tl~,r '' ''L. 117.1,1 ' '' i " 'Y.,:i (i: ~il*~P L.1 i.;r 1~ 1 ~~~~ - ~ yl''" I / RES/DENCE. OF GEORGE HOSFORD, BERLIN. IONIA CO. MICH. BERLIN. 191 I B. W. BACKUS. B. W. Backus, the eighth in a family of ten children, was born in Winfield, Herkimer Co., N. Y., Oct. 11, 1818. When but five years of age he lost his father, and the mother was left with the large family of children dependent upon her. The products of their snmall farm were not l He purchased eighty acres of land on section 17, in the township of Orange, Ionia Co., on which three acres had been cleared and a small shanty erected. His entire available means consisted of one hundred and ten dollars, with which a payment must be made upon his place and the necessaries of life procured. Very close calculating was the c(nsequence. The shanty was twelve by twelve feet, and had neither floor nor fireplace. Their first fire was kindled in one corner of the room. During the following year Mr. Backus worked at his trade, thereby bettering his condition. In the next year he was incapacitated for labor by the ague, and, being unable to meet the payment due upon his place, exchanged the latter for forty acres of unimproved land, and later exchanged for twenty acres on section 19 in the same township. Ten acres on the lastnamed place were improved. About one and a half years afterwards he sold out and removed to a forty-acre lot he had purchased on section 12 in Berlin township. This was also unimproved, and Mr. Backus erected a log house and cleared ten acres. In the fall of 1854 they were summoned to New York on account of sickness, and remained in that State four years. Finally returning to Michigan, and having accumulated some money, they traded their forty for eighty acres on section 12, of which about twenty-five acres were improved. In 1869 an additional forty acres was purchased, a commodious farm-house erected, and other improvements made. He had worked upon the farm and at his trade, and preached occasionally, and in 1869 was assigned to the charge of a church at Leoni, Jackson Co. In 1879, Mr. Backus removed to his present residence on section 12. His wife died Sept. 15, 1870, and on the 21st of May, 1871, he married Emily J., daughter of Ira Bartlett. Her death occurred Oct. 31, 1874, and on the 17th of April, 1879, he married Dolly J. Cain, a resident of Barry County. Iis first wife bore him three children,-viz., Sewell Warren, Odessa Benjamin, and Colorado Parker. Mr. Backus united with the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1838, and has been an influential member thereof, supplying pulpits and aiding in the formation of societies, among them that at East Berlin. His present wife is a member of the same denomination. Mr. Backus is highly esteemed and respected by those who know him, and is a model citizen. IP B. W. BACKUS. sufficient to support them all, and the elder children sought employment elsewhere. B. W. Backus scarcely knew what home was after he was seven years old, and until he was sixteen found shelter wherever he could. At the age of sixteen he had by his energy and close application fitted himself for teaching, and engaged in that vocation for one year. He then learned the carpenter's trade, and at eighteen found employment thereat in Orleans Co., N. Y., In the spring of 1840 he married Rhoda A. Houseman, of Yates, Orleans Co., N. Y. In 1848 they removed to Michigan, via Erie Canal, Buffalo, and Lake Erie. From Detroit they passed to the interior of the State by rail, stopping for a time with relatives at Albion. BOSTON. TOWN 6 north, in range 8 west, of the United States survey, bears the name of Boston, and lies in the western tier of Ionia County's townships, with Keene township on the north, Campbell on the south, Berlin on the cast, and Kent County on the west. Grand River, entering at section 1, flows through the northern portion of the town and emerges at section 6. At the village of Saranac it is spanned by a fine iron bridge that cost eight thousand dollars. The river has no mill-power in the town, but Lake Creek, flowing from Morrison Lake northward to the Grand at Saranac, drives several mills. Morrison Lake, occupying in Boston portions of sections 36 and 35 and reaching into Campbell, is a handsome sheet of deep water somewhat in favorable repute among pleasure-seekers and anglers residing in the adjacent territory. Along the river and Lake Creek the surface of the town is uneven and in places hilly, but generally the country is undulating and the soil freely impregnated with sand and gravel. Swamps are to be found, but rich farming-tracts are plentiful, while well-to-do farmers are the rule. The township contains a smart village (of about eight hundred inhabitants) called Saranac, a station of some consequence on the Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee Railroad, and a point of valuable trading interests as well as of large annual wheat-shipments. HOW BOSTON WAS SETTLED. A Frenchman named Jacob Francisco and his son-in-law, Ira A. Dane, were the first to break ground in Boston, and, although they did not remain long enough to be classed as permanent settlers, yet they were settlers while they remained, and made not only the first improvement in the town, but put in the first crop of wheat, which was harvested, however, by others who came after them. It was in the spring of 1836 that Francisco and Dane came to the town, in pursuance of an engagement with Robert Hilton, of Grand Rapids, who owned considerable land in the Grand River valley, and who hired Francisco to work some of his land in town 6. The latter and Dane, accompanied by their families, made a location on section 17, where N. Hotchkiss now lives, and put up a log house which was even for pioneer days a rude affair. It was destitute of either window, door, or fireplace, the fire necessary for comfort and household purposes being built against one of the sides of the cabin. While Francisco and Dane lived there they sowed that fall two acres of wheat on the land now owned by J. H. Allen, in section 22. Beyond that work Francisco and Dane did nothing of consequence, except the clearing of two or three acres on section 17, where they lived. Early the next year they bought land near Lowell, and in March, 192 I 1837, removing thither with their families, participated no more in events appertaining to the history of Boston. The wheat sown by Francisco was harvested by Albert Clement and Moses M. Gould (of whom more hereafter), and was, of course, the first wheat gathered in the town. THE ENGLISH SETTLEMENT. The first permanent settlement in the town was effected in that portion known as South Boston, and, as the first comer was named English, the particular neighborhood of his location is called to this day the English Settlement. It was in the spring of 1836 that Timothy White, James B. Tallant, Worster* English, and Jesse Williams came west from Vermont with their families and stopped at Kalamazoo, where they looked about them and discussed the subject of a permanent location, meanwhile engaging in such labor as came to their hands. They decided to settle in the township now known as Boston, and Worster English, being earliest prepared to migrate, set out for his new home in January, 1837. He made a commencement on section 21, where his son-in-law, Horace Robinson, now lives, and, as he and his friends White, Tallant, and Williams had come over from Kalamazoo the previous summer and rolled up a log cabin on the place, he went to housekeeping forthwith. The next after English as a settler was Timothy White, whose advent was made in March, 1837. His settlement was upon section 20, where he lived until his death, in 1878. Tallant and Williams followed in May, Tallant locating on section 29, close to White, and Williams next to him on the east. One of White's sisters married James M. Tallant, a second married Jesse Williams, a third Worster English, a fourth Gilbert Abbott, and a fifth Harvey Hatch, all the husbands being early settlers in Boston. The only one now living is Mrs. J. M. Tallant, who still resides with her husband upon the place they chose for their home in 1837. During the year 1837 a State road was laid between Kalamazoo and Ionia, and that road passed through the English Settlement. Samuel Dexter, of Ionia, used the road a good deal in hauling wheat from Kalamazoo to his Ionia mill (employing several teams for the purpose), and there was, moreover, some other travel upon it; so that to accommodate people who came that way Timothy White kept "a house of entertainment," which meant a place where wayfarers could be lodged and fed if night overtook, while it was not in the strict sense a tavern. It was called White's Tavern, nevertheless, and a very hospitable and excellent one it was, too. - Indiscriminately written Wooster, Worster, and Worcester, the latter method being correct, if he did or did not so write it himself. BOSTON. 193 White and some of his neighbors, perhaps, brought with them sufficient flour to last something like a year, and they were therefore relieved of one of the chief causes of worry and anxiety among pioneers; but they had to go all the way to Kalamazoo for marketing, and for a short time had to travel to that town for even blacksmithing. Dexter gave them a mill at Ionia in pretty quick time, however, and they had not much to complain of so far as going to mill was concerned. English and Whitesowed wheat in 1837 and the same year set out orchards, the latter being the earliest in the town. Mr. White was prominently concerned as a worker on some of the early roads, and in that matter exhibited a vast amount of energy and zeal. Ile was a moving spirit in laying out and constructing a mailroute through the swamps of Campbell, assisted in cutting out a road between Ada and Cascade, and as one of his earliest experiences in highway-making cut out, with English and his fellow-pioneers, a road from Yankee Springs to the English Settlement. English and White had a tougher time in getting in than did their successors, for when they made the journey there was cold weather and ice to contend with, and between wading across the Thornapple arid Coldwater breastdeep in water full of anchor-ice and camping over-nights in the snow-decked woods they suffered no inconsiderable hardships. Mr. White was, moreover, appointed one of the commissioners chosen to re-survey the old Clinton road between Jackson and Grand Rapids, and had to do also with the laying of the State road between Lyons and Ada. Mr. White performed also a memorable trip, in which, concerned solely for himself and his family, he walked to Grand Rapids for provisions, and, packing one hundred pounds thereof upon his back, walked back again,pretty well played out, too, when he got there, but glad no doubt to get home alive. For some years there held sway in the township of Boston a strong division of political sentiment based upon what was known as the White and English factional commotion. The origin is said to be traceable to the extraordinary ambition manifested by Timothy White to dictate in the matter of locating township highways, and the still further extraordinary desire to have a good many roads in his neighborhood, to the setting aside of other equally just claims. Of course he met with strong opposition, but he rallied also a strong following; and, as Worster English was prominent among the opposition, the factions were named respectively the White and the English parties. The contest became eventually a political one, and during its brief career was marked with many more than ordinarily interesting incidents that developed a show of some rancorous feeling. It is said that the annexing of that portion of Boston north of the Grand River to the township of Keene was effected by the English party because there was in that locality a small majority for the White party, and the division increased, of course, the political chances of the English people. The White men responded with a strong effort, however, and succeeded in having the fractional ter ritory restored, after which it was suffered to remain undisturbed. This business of securing roads was an all-important one, 25 and of course every man contended persistently for road conveniences on his own behalf whenever occasion offered. James J. IIoag, living at Waterville, adopted a novel expedient as aid in securing a road from Bowne to Waterville in 1838. It was the expedient of issuing invitations to a party at his house, and he took good care to invite all people who lived in such places as would be likely to give them need of passage over the route required. The result justified Hoag's expectations, and opened the highway in decent shape. Such an event as a ball, and a grand ball too, like the one Hoag promised to give them, was a very charming inducement to the pioneers, and for a time about all the considerations of existence sank into minor consequence before the dazzling prospect of a jolly dance and unlimited social merriment. Because there was no road to Hoag's counted for nothing. They determined to make a road, and, all hands turning out with a will, cut and slashed and dug and scraped and went to the ball over a highway which afterwards served as a route of travel for the public. Becket Chapman, of Tunbridge, Vt., came to Kalamazoo in the fall of 1836 to join English, Tallant, White, and Williams, who were from the same town, and, learning that they had already secured land in Boston, he concluded to make a purchase there himself. He walked over with Albert Clement (likewise a Tunbridge man) to prospect, and as a result of their explorations Chapman secured one hundred and sixty acres on section 28, and Clement eighty acres on section 22. Both Chapman and Clement were unmarried young men, and, camping out or boarding with some settler, chopped on their lands during the summer of 1837. Clement was a surveyor, and divided his time between surveying and land-clearing as it happened. Chapman boarded with Worster English at three dollars a week, and at the close of the summer of 1837, finding himself out of means, decided that not only could he not afford to pay Worster English or any one else three dollars a week for board, but that he must resume his old trade of shoemaking as a means towards getting his farm cleared. Suggesting, therefore, to Mr. English that he would come back when the price of board got cheaper, Chapman went from the town at the close of the year 1837 and became an itinerant shoemaker. He remained away about four years, making and repairing shoes, and out of the wages of his toil he paid as lie could spare for the labor of a man on his Boston place. When he returned, in 1841, he found that he had considerable cleared land, but not enough to suit him; and so, still hiring men to chop for him, he went about the town shoemaking for whoever wanted anything of that sort. In 1845 he married one of Jeremiah Stannard's daughters, and, having then a good farm well cleared, he settled permanently as a husbandman upon the place that he has ever since made his home, and where he dispenses a graceful hospitality to all such as are fortunate enough to rest within the shadow of his " vine and figtree." June 3, 1837, Jeremiah Stannard, with wife and three children, accompanied by Moses M. Gould, wife, and one child, landed in Boston, where they proposed to make their future homes. They went to Timothy White's house for temporary accommodations, and were of course heartily 194 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN; and hospitably received. The quarters were, however, close ones. The house contained but one room, and in that room the three families, numbering eighteen persons, lived for nearly three weeks. How they managed to exist in that shape some of the participants now living cannot understand; but then it is difficult, amid the comforts and conveniences of present-day civilization, to understand how pioneers struggled so successfully as they did, but circumstances alter not only cases, but the strength of one's philosophy. Stannard had bought, before he came on to settle, two hundred and eighty acres of land on sections 29 and 32. Gould purchased after he reached the town the land he now lives on in section 21. Stannard and Gould busied themselves at first in clearing their lands for crops, meanwhile lodging their families at White's, but after a two weeks' endurance of that uncomfortable mode of existence Mrs. Stannard declared that she could not stand it any longer; that she must have a home of her own, let it be what it might. Pressed, therefore, to bestir himself in the matter, Mr. Stannard commenced the construction of a residence, of which the foundation consisted of two poles laid across an open space between the forks of two trees at either end, and upon these poles a covering of bark formed a roof. Bark composed also the sides of this primitive dwelling, and blankets did duty as windows and doors. Although her first house was not much of a building to look at, or much of a one to live in, yet Mrs. Stannard moved willingly and gladly into it, for it was a home, and that, to her way of thinking, was a good deal. Stannard and Gould each brought a pair of horses upon their arrival, in 1837, and, having no place in which to keep them, turned them out with bells upon their necks. Stannard saw nothing of his horses after that until the next fall, when, upon searching he found them some distance south of Ionia in a most deplorable condition by reason of exposure and lack of proper subsistence. Concluding to exchange them for horned cattle, he started with them for Kalamazoo. He reached Kalamazoo, made the exchange, and got back all right, but he was two weeks making the journey, to say nothing of sleeping in the woods of nights, and having a sad time generally. Stannard had a worse time, however, with the same steers and other cattle that he had purchased in Detroit. They were contented, it appears, to stop in their new home until the persecutions of August flies made life a burden, and to escape torment they fled towards their earlier abode in Detroit, by, as it afterwards appeared, an almost airline. Stannard and Albert Clement followed, and came up with them only at Vermontville, in Eaton County. They were gone a week'on the search, and, as it was supposed when they set out that their absence was not at all likely to be prolonged above twenty-four hours, it may well be imagined that as the days passed on and they came not the members of the family at home grew concerned, alarmed, and finally overcome with distressing fears. They made sure that Stannard and Clement must have been murdered or accidentally killed, and a period of saddening gloom enshrouded the routine of daily existence, while hope still battled against fear. When, at the end of the week, the wanderers came home driving the fugitive cattle before them, they were received with fervent demonstrations of rejoicing, and where sorrow had erstwhile reigned there blossomed refreshing gladness and thanksgivings. When the Stannards and Goulds came to the town they found, besides the dwellers in the English Settlement, Albert Clement, a bachelor, on section 22; Becket Chapman, another bachelor (and a shoemaker), on the southeast quarter of section 28; and David Whitney, also a bachelor, on the southwest quarter of section 27. Ormand Hunt, who bought his land at the time Jeremiah Stannard bought his, settled in 1838 upon section 32, where C. C. Winegar row lives, and May 30th of that year came Riley and Diocletian Hess. Diocletian moved into a shanty that had served David Whitney as a residence, while Riley settled next east of Ormand Hunt. Diocletian made his permanent location upon the southwest quarter of section 28. Shortly after their coming Oliver Hess made a settlement on section 33, subsequently occupied by Levi Nelson, and pretty soon afterwards James Norris located upon section 34. Jeremiah Stannard, aged eighty-one, lives now with his son Abiel S., one of the wealthiest farmers of Boston, and for two terms a representative of his district in the Legislature. One of Jeremiah Stannard's daughters is Mrs. Becket Chapman, and a second Mrs. J. C. English. These two daughters and Abiel were the three children who came with their father to Boston in 1837. Some time during 1837, James Hutchinson came to Boston and made a commencement in the English Settlement. After a brief stay he returned Eastward for a carpenter, and without delay returned with Marvil Church, who built for Hutchinson the first framed dwelling put up in Boston. Hutchinson could not persuade his family to undertake the rigors of pioneering, and, abandoning his place, sold it in 1840 to Edson English and Sylvester Train, who in that year joined the settlement. The first birth in Boston was that of Betsey Ann, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Moses M. Gould. She first saw the light Oct. 29, 1837, and is now known as Mrs. J. A. Aldrich, of Boston. The second birth, and the first of a male child, was that of Henry, son of Diocletian and Lydia Hess. Mr. and Mrs. Hess were living then temporarily in a tent made of quilts, and in that tent the child was born in September, 1838; he lives now in St. Louis. The first marriage was that of Sarah Alden (the first school-teacher in Boston) to a Mr. Morton, of Lyons, in 1838, at Timothy White's house, Miss Alden being Mrs. White's sister. She taught school at Lyons in 1837, and attracted tie attention of Morton (then a widower), whose children were among her scholars. After she came back to Boston he used to visit her frequently on courtship bent. Mrs. Moses M. Gould, whose remarkable memory as to dates, places, and events concerning pioneer life in Boston has passed into proverb, recalls the day when Morton, making his first visit to Miss Alden in Boston, stopped at Gould's to ask the way to Timothy White's, and Mrs. Gould remembers also that on that occasion the happy Morton wore " clouded" stockings as a portion of his apparel. The second wedding was probably that of E. G. Williams and Susan Ann Church, who were married in the BOSTON. 195 BOSTON. 195 spring of 1841, on the very day that Jeremiah Stannard set out the twelve handsome maples that now embellish the front of his son Abiel's residence. The bride's mother rather insisted that Cyprian S. Hooker, then "squire," should marry the couple,-for, according to her notion, Hooker was the only justice able to make out a marriage certificate in proper form (the marriage certificates of those days were all written out),-and by Hooker they were accordingly married. The first death was that of Timothy, the four-year-old son of Riley Hess, in July, 1838. The father, a Baptist preacher, although overwhelmed with grief at the loss of his son, whom he worshiped, preached the funeral sermon, and a touchingly effective one it is said to have been. Jesse Williams, who bore the coffin to the grave, was the next person to die, his death occurring Aug. 5, 1838. Their remains were laid away in family lots, and subsequently conveyed to the South Boston cemetery. The jobs of laying out and clearing the South Boston burying-ground and the ground at Saranac were let, June 1, 18-14, to Henry B. Alden for twenty-nine dollars each. In the autumn of 1836, Joseph H. Allen, living in New York, bought of the government a tract of one hundred and sixty acres of land on section 26 in Boston, and, having bought it, concluded he would go out and see what it looked like. He walked to the place from Ionia, and to sustain him while making the journey bought in Ionia a pound of pork, for which he paid fifty cents, and a loaf of bread that cost him twenty-five cents. Thus provisioned for his tramp, he pushed forward, and slept that night upon his own land in Boston by the side of a log,-that is to say, he tried to sleep, but failed utterly to compass the undertaking, for he heard, or thought he heard, the howling of wolves all the night through, and, thus lying in momentary fear of being pounced upon and devoured at any moment, he was not precisely in a condition of mind calculated to steep his senses in forgetful slumber. Rather was he on the qui vive for whatever was likely to assail him, and, with his hatchet by his side, was quite prepared to do some pretty good work in defense of his life. He was, however, suffered to pass the night unmolested, but the recollection of his lonely, trembling experience on that occasion was ever after the reminder of unhappy hours. The town was at this time an untenanted wilderness, and, although Allen was suited with his land and was anxious to settle upon it, he concluded that, as matters were alto. gether too lonesome in that locality, he would await the coming of more company. That season he took employment on a Grand River pole-boat and navigated the waters of that stream between Grand Rapids and Portland until winter, and then, shouldering his axe, went to his Boston land and chopped away until the next spring. For nine seasons he spent the winters working upon the place and /the summers in farm-work at his New York home. Occasionally he brought a stock of clocks West with him, and these he peddled to the neighbors, taking his pay in chopping; and in that way he managed to get considerable land cleared by 1845, when, having married, he brought his wife, commencing as a settler in earnest. With them were Enoch Hinman and wife, coming by ox-teams from Detroit. Mrs. Allen bears in vivid remembrance the circumstance that, towards the latter end of the journey, their oxen were pretty well fagged out, and, by reason of their bruised necks, were scarcely able to drag the wagon. In ascending a hill it required the combined efforts of Allen and his wife to urge along the cattle, upon either side of whom man and wife marched steadily and plied the gad persistently until the top was gained. Hinman rented of Jedediah Brown, a bachelor, the place now owned and occupied by J. H. Allen, and there the Aliens and Hinmans were entertained. by Brown the first night after their arrival in the town. In after-years, when Allen proposed to buy a new farm and a new home in Boston, Mrs. Allen besought him to purchase the place they live on now, because she had a cherished affection for the spot that first gave her rest and shelter after her arrival in the town, for to her it had always after seamed like home. Mrs. Allen's recollection goes on to say that when they came, in 1845, there were but two horse-teams in town, and one of them was owned by Worster English, to whom almost universal application was made when a horse was needed for a hasty journey to Ionia for Dr. Lincoln on behalf of a sick settler. The third horse-team, she thinks, was brought in by Mr. David Gilbert, who came shortly after the Allens, and who still lives on section 18, where he first settled. Whenever there was a funeral the teams of English and Gilbert were always wanted. In 1845 the Aliens' nearest neighbor on the west was Stephen Nute, one mile distant; northeast the nearest was James Hoag, at Waterville; east was a Mr. Peck, on the town-line; and on the south the Olmsteads, on the bank of Morrison Lake. Mrs. Olmstead appears to have been the heroine of a bear-hunting adventure in which, report says, she sustained a courageous part. The presence of a bear in the vicinity being made known, she and her husband determined to hunt him down. During the chase Bruin took to the lake, and after him the Olmsteads in a boat,-he armed with a rifle, and she with an axe. Coming within range, Olmstead fired twice at the bear, who, only wounded, turned as if to show fight. The hunters were soon upon him, however, and Mrs. Olmstead, nothing daunted by the bold front exhibited by the beast, went at him with her axe, and with such valiant bravery that she soon despatched him. They towed their prize in triumph to shore, and upon making known the exploit were lauded and praised by the neighbors who flocked to the spot until they became for a time veritable " lions of the hour." The banks of Morrison Lake were much frequented by wandering Indians as places of resort, and from time to time they gathered there in considerable numbers to camp,.fish, and hunt, but made no attempt to establish villages there. In the early days Uncle Tim White's house was quite a resort for young folks in search of merry-making, in which the old folks too occasionally took a prominent and spirited part. These parties were jolly, sociable gatherings, for the people of that time were most hearty and earnest in their social intercourse, and when opportunity for a friendly reunion would come whole families together, in ox-sleds, from many miles distant, assembled to have a royal good time. 196 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICIIGAN. When Joseph Allen was working his Boston place during the winters between 1837 and 1845, he frequently went over to Timothy White's house on pleasure bent, in company with ox-sled travelers, and when, upon his return to his New York home, he would tell his experiences, there was regularly a vast deal of laughter over his recitals about social life in the backwoods of Michigan. When he told about the inhabitants of Boston being Vermonters some of his auditors begged to know what sort of people Vermonters could be, and rather ventured towards the belief that they must be something out of the common. The general opinion seemed to be, too, that people living as pioneers in the wilderness of far-off Michigan must be, on the whole, a strange set. In 1846, Levi II. Nelson came to Boston from New York and settled on land in sections 28 and 33 upon which Oliver Hess had girdled about twelve acres. Hess moved to a place near by, when Nelson caime, and lives now in Campbell. West of Nelson were Rev. Riley Hess and Diocletian. his brother, and Ormand Hunt beyond the latter. Becket Chapman and Arba Benson were on the east. North there was an unbroken forest to the English Settlement, and south the only structure north of the town-line was a log house owned by the father of Oliver Hess. At a later date there came to that neighborhood C. C. Winegar, William Post, illiam Rogers William Dunn, and George Walter. Cyrus Peasley, George Ellsworth, and Benjamin Ellsworth entered the town as settlers in 1847. Benjamin Ellsworth located near Saranac, was one of the early postmasters there, and died in 1859. Cyrus Peasley's home was made on section 15, where his widow now lives, and George Ellsworth on section 15, where his widow likewise still lives. Before Ellsworth's arrival, Nathaniel Tallant had dug a well and put up a shanty on the place, but beyond those the improvements were nothing. Mrs. Ellsworth says that for six months after she came she saw nobody but Indians except when she went from home. Their neigllbors were Thomas Mosher (on section 22, where Mr. Mosher had quite a clearing), Edward Carvath, Elijah Pratt (at Saranac), and a man named McCausland (two and a half miles westward). Stephen Nute, already mentioned, settled on section 27 in May, 1840, and in that year Richard Vosper, Edson English, Sylvester Train, and Edward Carvath came in. Two years before that Moses Gould, James I. Tallant, Timothy White, and Jeremiah Stannard harvested their first crops of wheat, and that summer (1838) Moses Gould carried to Dexter's mill at Ionia with his ox-team the first grist taken thither from Boston. There were fourteen bushels in the grist,-ten belonging to Gould and four to. Stannard. The first wheat Gould sold in Ionia he disposed of for three shillings per bushel, and for his pay had to take store-trade and blacksmithing. Money for produce was then out of the question. J. F. Cilley and G. W. Tucker, on section 28, were among the moderately early settlers, as were David Lewis, George Story, and T. F. Woodbridge. Rev. Elbridge Cilley, brother to J. F. Cilley, was for many years a Baptist preacher of most excellent repute in Boston and neighbor ing towns. lIe settled in Boston on a place improved by Arba Benson. The latter settler was famous as a hunter of bears and deer in the days when four-footed game was plentiful, and to this day delights in narrating his experiences with the wild denizens of the forests. His success as a deer-slayer was conspicuous even among those who were more than ordinarily skillful hunters. Nathaniel Tallant, who came to the town in 1840, worked awhile for James J. Hoag at Waterville, and, by and by purchasing eighty acres of Hoag, became a settler. THE VILLAGE OF WATERVILLE. Robert Hilton, of Grand Rapids, made large land-purchases in the Grand River valley in 1836, and in his possessions was included a mill-site in section 24, on Lake Creek, in the present township of Boston. The mill-site was, moreover, on the line of the highway known as the Grand River turnpike, at that time, however, nothing more than a path through Boston. Hilton was convinced that the turnpike must become of necessity a highway of popular travel, and he proceeded, therefore, to lay out a town at his mill-site, and christened it, appropriately, Waterville. Having laid out his town he must of course give it some sort of a start, and in pursuance of that project he donated the mill-site and some adjoining land to one J. J. Hoag, of Oakland County, conditioned upon Hoag's erecting a saw-mill at that point. Like Hilton, Hoag thought the Grand River turnpike would be a great affair, and, promising for Waterville an important place in the history of events, gladly availed himself of Hilton's offer, and in 1837 put up the mill which he set in motion the following year. In 18.38 also he followed up his mill-enterprise with the opening of a store, and calmly but confidently awaited the surging tide of travel which he knew would flow over the " pike," and as a natural consequence push Waterville forward into a valley of prosperity. Fate was, however, against Waterville; for, although the surging tide did flow to some extent over the turnpike, it did not get as far west as Waterville, and, beyond the store and the mill, that once promising town never boasted the possession of industrial or mercantile enterprises, while its population could at any time be counted upon the fingers of one's hand. Being there, Hoag remained there despite the failure of his hopes, and eked out an uncertain existence with his mill, albeit he was a man of considerable energy and an industrious worker. He lived at Waterville until his death, in 1851, when he was killed by the fall of a tree. Among the earliest settlers in the vicinity of Waterville were Richard Vosper and Edward Carvath on sections 24 and 25, Lymlan Smith, Jonah E. Turner (the latter a stepbrother to Hoag), Isaac Leary, and Thomas Barber, who, in 1847, set up a blacksmith-shop on the line of the pike, half a mile or so west of Waterville. About 1854, Peck & Page built a second saw-mill on Lake Creek, in section 14. In 1864 the property passed to the possession of A. J. Moffett, who still carries on the business, and has also, in connection therewith, a small machine-shop. He saws hard and soft wood, can cut about four thousand feet daily, BOSTON. 197 and also does planing-work. In that neighborhood, besides the Pecks and Pages, the early comers included the Bargers, Transals, and A. J. Smith. RESIDENT TAX-PAYERS OF BOSTON IN 1844. Acres. Albert Clement, sections 22, 26........................ 160 Stephen Nute, sections 26, 27............................ 60 Altred Austin, sections 24, 25........................... 115 Edward Carvath, section 10.............................. 84 Jeremiah Peck, " house-lot,' section 24............... Hiram Benjamin, sections 15, 23, 24................. 120 George Miner, section 22................................. 66 N. A. Tallant, section 15.................................. 80 Mason Brant, section 11................................... 160 Daniel G. Abbott, section 1.............................. 80 Jared Stocking..........................................Saw-mill William R. Rose, section 18.............................. 80 Cyprian S. Hooker, section 1 1.......................... 30 Richard Vosper, sections 12, 25......................... 200 W illiam Rossiter........................................Personal Jacob Pratt. sections 11, 12.............................. 160 Jedediah and Rufus Brown, section 22............... 80 D. Hess, section 28.......................................... 160 HI. H. English, section 21................................. 160 D. E. English..................................... Personal Edson English, sections 8, 21, 20....................... 238 Timothy White, section 20................................ 140 Harley B. Church, section 30............................ 77 Harvey lhatch. section 20................................. 100 E. G. W illiams, section 23................................. 40 Clarissa Willii;ms, section 23............................ 80 James M. Tallant, section 23........................ 120 Oel Train.................................................Personal Sylvester Train, section 30............................... 317 Marvil Church, section 20................................ 80 Norman Kimball, section 10............................. 80 Jeremiah Stiinnard, sections 23, 32..................... 280 Ormand Hunt, section 32................................. 160 Riley J. Hess, section 32.................................. 80 Arba Benson, section 3................................... 40 O. J. Patterson, section 33................................ 80 Becket Chapman, section 2 8 8.................... 160 James Norris, section 34............................... 40 Moses M. Gould, sections 21, 22................ 154 Oliver Iless, section 33.................................. 80 Lemuel Train, section 34............................... 160 Martin Caml,bell, section 2.............................. 40 Jeremiah Campbell.........................P.......Personal Patrick Campbell........................................ " P. I). Sneathen........................................... 4 TOWNSHIP HIGHWAYS. The first recorded road in the township books appears under date of July 10, 1838. The record reads as follows: "The undersigned commissioners of highways for the township of Boston have laid and established a road on the line hereafter described, surveyed by Alonzo Sessions, said road commencing at a point fifteen chains west of the northeast corner of section 11, in township 6 north, of range 8 west, and thence running south twenty degrees west thirty chains; thence south forty chains; thence south twenty degrees east ten chains; thence south twelve degrees east eighteen chains forty links; thence south two and a half degrees west twenty chains; thence south forty-five degrees west seventeen chains; thence south forty-five degrees west eleven chains twenty-eight links; thence west twenty degrees south seventeen chains; thence south fifty degrees west thirteen chains and forty links; thence south thirty degrees west seventeen chains; thence south forty-five degrees west sixteen chains eighty-seven links; thence west twenty degrees south twenty-six chains and thirty-two links; thence south forty degrees west thirty-nine chains and sixty-five links; thence west thirty-two degrees south eleven chains; thence south forty-two degrees west ten chains and thirty-seven links; thence south forty degrees west nineteen-chains and thirty-eight links: thence west thirty-three degrees south four chains and twenty-six links; thence south thirty-eight degrees west nine chains and thirty-four links; thence west on the south line of section 21, in said township, seven chains and fifty links to the quarter-post; thence south forty-five degrees west six chains; thence west twenty-seven degrees south ten chains; thence west thirtyseven degrees south sixteen chains and fifty-six links; thence west forty degrees south eleven chains and fifty-nine links; thence south twenty-five degrees west nine chains and eighty links; thence west forty degrees south five chains and ninety-four links; thence south thirty-three degrees west eight chains; thence west twenty-five degrees south six chains and ten links; thence west thirty-three degrees south west seven chains; thence south forty degrees west eight chains and thirteen links; thence west thirty degrees south eleven chains and thirty-eight links; thence south fifteen chains, and terminating at the quarter-post on the south line of section 29, in said township. " C. S. HOOKER, " JEREMIAH STANNARD, " WORSTER ENGLISH. "BOSTON TOWNSHIP, July 10, 1838." On the same date, by the same commissioners, is record of a road laid on the following line: Commencing at the southwest corner of section 6, in town 6 north, of range 8 west; thence twenty-two chains and fifty links east on the south line of said section; thence east sixteen degrees north twenty-five chains and forty-one links; thence east seven degrees south fifty-one chains and seventy-eight links; thence east sixteen degrees south forty-nine chains; thence east twelve degrees north thirteen chains; thence east nine degrees south twenty-five chains and fifty links; thence east sixty-four chains; thence east seven degrees north eighty-two chains and sixty-two links; thence east twentyfive degrees north fifty-seven chains and thirty-eight links, terminating at a point eight chains and forty-four links south twenty degrees west from a point on the north line of section 11, in said township, fifteen chains west from the northeast corner of said section. Aug. 25, 1838, a road was laid beginning at the quarterstake between sections 28 and 21, running west on the section-line between sections 29 and 20 and between 19 and 30 to the west side of the township-line. Nov. 20, 1838, a highway was established commencing at the northwest corner of section 23, and running from thence east along said section-line two hundred and forty rods to the west line of the village of Waterville. The same day a road was laid commencing at the southwest corner of section 30 and northwest corner of section 31, of town 6 north, range 8 west, running east on the section-line three miles, and terminating at the southeast corner of section 28, and northeast of section 33. A third road was laid, commencing at the southwest corner of section 28 and southeast corner of section 22, running north on section-line one half-mile to quarter-post; thence thirty-two rods on said line, where it terminates in the road which crosses the road in an angling direction. THE STATE ROAD.* "In pursuance and by authority of an act to provide for the laying out of certain State Roads approved April 23d 1846 We the subscribed therein appointed Commissioners to lay out and establish a State Road commencing at the village of Hastings in the County of Berry and State of Michigan thence via Tyler settlement to the Village of Ada in Kent County have caused actual survey to be made of the premises hereinafter particularly described and have laid out and do hereby lay out and declair the same to be a Highway of the width of four Rods which said premises are in and by the said survey described as follows to wit Beginning at the North West corner of Section numbered seventeen (17) in township three (3) North of Range eight (8) West Thence North on Section Lines 640 chains to County line. Thence North (var 4~ 20' E) 45 C to Beech tree 24 I Diamitir Thence North 30~ West 35 C 50 L Thence North 550 West 15 C Thence North 9~ West 8c to South side of Creek Thence North 32~ West 169 C 50 L to a point on quarter section Line 11 C South of quarter Stake * Copy of record. 198 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. at South West corner of Harrison Wickham's Land Thence North to said quarter stake and along the West Line of said Wickham's Land 30 c to,take in Highway The above described line of Highway intersects the line on the south side of section numbered nineteen (19) in Town 5 North Range 8 West at a point one chain and seventy five links East of the S E corner of Sec. 24 Town 5 North Range 9 West. "And we hereby authorize the Township Clerk of the Township wherein the said survey is located to Record the same in pursuance of Law "Dated at Carlton this 9th day December AD 1846. "JOHN HANYON, ) " LOlRON B. TYLER. on Cox 8.ssioners. "A true copy: "' W. ENGLISH, Assistant Clerk." The report of the township highway commissioners for 1840 testified that in District No. 1, 3M. M. Gould overseer, the resident labor done amounted to $64.34, and the non-resident $62.72. In District No. 2, Jared Stocking overseer, resident labor was performed to the amount of $10.73, non-resident $28, and non-resident for 1838 in the sum of $5. In C. S. Hooker's district $71 were received for all purposes, and $71 paid out. In Timothy White's district $69.40 were received and paid out, and in D. Hess' $58.38. The non-resident road tax returned to the county treasurer for the tax assessed for the year 1839 was $741. The non-resident road tax for the year 1841 was $143.15 in District No. 1, in No. 2 it was $152.91, and $37.61 in No. 3. The highway commissioners reported March 31, 1841, that for the year $828.35 had been received for road-purposes, and $778.35 paid for work. The amount paid out in No. 1 was $235.81, in No. 2 it was $377, and in No. 3 it was $96.58. In 1840 the appropriation for roads and bridges was $250. TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION. All that portion of the county of Ionia included in towns 5 and 6 north, in range 8 west, was by act approved Dec. 30, 1837, organized as the township of Boston, and the first meeting therein ordered to be held at the house of Worster English. The township included the two towns until act approved March 15, 1849, set off town 5 as Campbell. That portion of town 6 north of the Grand River was annexed to Keene, Feb. 29, 1844, and March 17, 1849, it was restored to Boston. At a meeting of the citizens to fix upon a name for the township in 1837, Whitesboro' and Whitestown (in honor of Timothy White), Waterford, and Worster (the last by way of compliment to Worster English) were suggested, but none seemed to strike the popular fancy until Becket Chapman called out, " Let's name it Boston." About all at the meeting were New Englanders, and Boston was so well and affectionately remembered that with one accord the suggestion was adopted, and so the name stood. The first town-meeting was held, as ordered, at Worster English's house, April 5, 1838, and township officials chosen as follows: Supervisor, C. S. Hooker; Clerk, Jesse Williams; Assessors, Albert Clement, Jeremiah Stannard, and Timothy White; Highway Commissioners, C. S. Hooker, Worster English, Jeremiah Stannard; Overseers of the Poor, Ormand Hunt and James M. Tallant; Col lector, David Whitney; Justices of the Peace, C. S. Hooker, Worster English, Moses M. Gould, and Timothy White; Inspectors of Common Schools, C. S. H-ooker, Jesse Williams, and Albert Clement; Pathmaster and Fence-viewer, Worster English. It was voted by the electors that " the fences be five feet high in this town, and holes not to exceed four inches, two and a half feet from the ground." Following is given a list of persons chosen from 1839 to 1880 to be supervisors, clerks, treasurers, and justices of the peace: SUPERVISORS. 1839, W. English; 1840, J. J. Iong; 184-,- M. Church; 1842, T. White; 1843, E. English; 1844, M. M. Gould; 1845, Edson English; 1846, Timothy White; 1847, L. t1. Nelson; 1848, R. Vosper; 1819, II. II. English; 1850, A. Clement; 1851, T. White; 1852, A. S. Stannard; 1853-54, L. II. Nelson; 1855, G. Ellsworth; 1856, L. II. Nelson; 1857-59, G. Ellsworth; 1860, W. S. Story; 1861, Stephen Nute; 1862, G. Ellsworth; 1863-64, C. H. Warren; 1865-67, A. S. Stannard; 1868t-1871, E. Spencer; 1872-74, O. A; Page; 1875-80, A. B. Pardee. CLERKS. 1839, T. White; 1840, M. M. Gould; 1841, T. White; 1842, E. E. Williams; 1843-46, 11. II. English; 1847, A. Chipman; 1848, J. J. IIoag; 1849, Simeon Hunt; 1850, E. G. Williams; 1851, H. H. English; 1852, II. Hunt; 1853, J. H. English; 1854, C. B. Pratt; 1855, J. A. Ellsworth; 1856, E. B. Armstrong; 1857, W. Young; 1858, G. L. Iuff; 1859-61, S. Huntley; 1862, C. P. Ioliucs; 1863, S. Lewis; 1864-65, James Brown; 1866, W. F. Houghton; 1867, F. It. lluntley; 1868, F. HI. Spencer; 1869, F. 11. Huntley; 1870-71, S. A. Watt; 1872, J. P. Anderson; 1873, W. L. Strickland; 1874, C. L. Wilson; 1875-78, W. M. Dreskell; 1879, II. W.Johnson; 1880, C. L. Smith. TREASURERS. 1839, W. English; 1840-41, J. S. Stannard; 1842, M. Church; 1843, AI. M. Gould; 1844, W. R. Rose; 1845, M. Brant; 1846, E. Carvath; 1847, A. P. Wright; 1848, A. Wilson; 1849, D. IIess; 1850, G. Ellsworth; 1851-52, E. Pratt; 1853, 11. Hunt; 1854-56, N. Wixon; 1857, S. W. Matthews; 1858-59, L. H. Nelson; 1860 -61,A. Clement; 1862-64, L. II. Nelson; 1865, W. Young; 1866, George Weimer; 1867, P. Taylor; 1868, William Mercer; 1869, David Ehle; 1870, A. Harvey; 1871, J. W. Cushion; 1872, W. H. Cushion; 1873-78, A. W. Goodell; 1879, C. L. Smith; 1880, E. A. Richards. JUSTICES. 1839, Timothy White; 1840, W. English; 1841, C. S. Hooker; 1842, T. White; 1843, S. Nute; 1844, Jacob Pratt; 1845, B. Chapman; 1846, Thomas Mosher; 1847, Jacob Pratt; 1848, Ami Chipman; 1849, L. II. Nelson; 1850, B. W. Page; 1851, R. Vosper; 1852, M. M. Gould; 1853, G. L. Huff; 1854, B. W. Page; 1855, R. Vosper; 1856, M. M. Gould; 1857, W. Darling; 1858, J. H. English; 1859, D. F. Frazell; 1860, J. Warren; 1861, C. P. Iolmes; 1862, J. F. Cilley; 1863, R. D. Hudson; 1864, E. M. Marble; 1865, D. Dreskell; 1866, J. F. Cilley; 1867, J. D. Sackett; 1868, Charles Wilson; 1869, U. Murdock; 1870, J. F. Cilley; 1871, D. S. Brownell; 1872, R. Vosper; 1873, U. Murdock; 1874, George W. Tucker; 1875, R. B. Payne; 1876, F. D. M. Davis; 1877, 0. A. Page; 1878, George YV. Tucker; 1879, R. B. Payne; 1880, P. T. Williams. JURORS. 1840.-Worster English, Diocletian Hess, Ormand Hunt, Jeremiah Stannard, Marvil Church, Nathaniel A. Tallant. 1843.-Worster English, Marvil Church, Becket Chapman, Timothy White, Edward Carvath, Lemuel Train, Harvey 11. English, Nathaniel A. Tallant, Richard Vosper, Iiram Benjamin, Jared Stocking, Diocletian Iess, Jeremiah Stannard, James M. Tallent, E. G. Williams, H. B. Church, Sylvester Train. - Twenty-eight votes cast. t Four hundred and thirty-six votes cast. BOSTON. 199 1844.-Moses M. Gould, Worster English, Nathaniel A. Tallant, Arba Bcnson, Jeremiah Stannard, Becket Chapman, Richard Vosper, Daniel G. Abbott, Iarvey IlHatch, Jedcdinh Brown, Rufus Brown, George H. Miner, Albert Clement, Ormand Hlunt, MInson Brant, Alfred Austin, Orimel J. Patterson, William R. Rose. 1845.-Wor-ter English, N. A. Tallant, Richard Vosper, Daniel G. Abbott, Harvey Hatch, Mason Brant, Elson English, H. H. English, C. S. Hooker, Marvil Church, Edward Carvath, William Brown, Alfred Austin, Hiram Benjamin, James M. Tallent, Diocletian less, Ormand Hunt, Sylvester Train, Orson HIatch, Timothy White, Jacob Pratt. CH URCIIES. The first sermon in Boston was probably preached by Rev. Mr. Mitchell, a Methodist Episcopal circuit-rider, at Timothy White's house, in the spring of 1838. He preached there and elsewhere in the town after that occasionally, but not with any attempt at regularity. In 1842, Elder John Thomas organized a Free-Will Baptist Church at the centre school-house. The organizing members were Mrs. Moses M. Gould, Mr. and Mrs. Riley Hess, Mrs. Hunt, Arba Benson, James Norris and wife, and Mrs. Clement. After Elder Thomas organized the church, Rev. Riley Hess, living in the town, was engaged as pastor, and after him Elder Nelson Thomas preached awhile. Elder Elbridge Cilley, one of Boston's pioneers, was the latter's successor as pastor, and for twenty-one years he continued with the church, doing most excellent service, keeping his charge in a healthful prosperity (the church had a membership of sixty-five at one time during -his pastorate), and building a name which is still kept in affectionate remembrance. When he removed from the town the organization lost its cohesive strength, and in a little time buffered a dissolution. SOUTH BOSTON METIODIST EPISCOPAL CLASS. In 1841, Revs. Bush and Crippen, Methodist Episcopal circuit-riders, preached two sermons in Edson English's house, and in 1842, at that place, Mr. Crippen organized the South Boston Class. The organizing members were Edson English, wife, and mother, and Diocletian Iess and wife. Since that time the class has maintained an active existence, and enjoys to-day a good deal of prosperity. Worship has been held once a week in the hall of the South Boston Grange since 1877, but there is strong talk in favor of building a church-edifice, with a favorable outlook for a speedy completion of the proposed undertaking. The membership is now twenty-five. The class-leader is Calvin Baker, and the pastor Rev. J. E. Hollister. UNION EVANGELICAL CHURCH. The society known by this name is the outgrowth of the First Congregational Church of Boston, organized May 6, 1848, at the school-house in Saranac by Rev. Norman Ackley. The organizing members were Rev. Norman Ackley and wife, Nathan Cook, Silas Taylor, Ormand Hunt, Mrs. Anna Chipman, and Levi II. Nelson. May 7th, Harriet Jane Abbott joined the church, and Mrs. Emily D. Nelson in the following September. The first deacon was Levi H. Nelson, one of the most earnest workers in the church, and he was also church clerk and superintendent of the Sunday-school, which he organized directly upon the formation of the church. Preaching was held alternately at Saranac and South Boston, a log schoolhouse on section 28 in the latter locality being the temple of worship in the earlier days. The Grand River Association was joined at the outset, and in that body the church continued until 1877, when, in obedience to general desire, there was a change in form of government and name to that of the Union Evangelical Church, as there was in the name of the society, organized Aug. 21, 1867, at which time a parsonage was built on section 28. In 1877 the new organization erected on section 32 a neat and handsome church-edifice that cost fully completed about two thousand five hundred dollars. Of the Congregational Church the pastors were Revs. Norman Ackley, Newton Barker, Samuel Hemingway (formerly a Methodist Episcopal missionary), Rev. Wheelock, Revs. E-ler, Ballard, Strong, Eaton, Sykes, Strong (second term), McKinney, Williston, and Busser. Those of the Union Evangelical Church have been Revs. Leman N. Barber and John Turner. Mr. Turner, present pastor, preaches twice each Sunday. The society is in prosperous circumstances, and owns the church and parsonage. Fifty-five persons are included in the church-membership, and in the Sunday-school, of which the pastor is superintendent, there are five teachers and forty-five scholars. The deacons are Adam Van Valkenburg, C. L. Parsons, and W. E. Nelson; the trustees, J. W. Burr, B. E. Collar, and J. D. Woodworth. BAPTIST CHURCH. In 1854 a Baptist Church was organized at the centre school-house by Elder Fay, who had also a church in Keene. Among the organizing members were Titus Hartwell and wife, Mrs. Childs, Mrs. Root, Peter Sneathen, Mrs. Joseph Allen, and Mr. White. Titus Hartwell was chosen the first deacon. Services were held once a fortnight, and for a time the church prospered, but removals weakened it, and after an existence of five years or more it expired. SCHOOLS. Boston's first school was taught in Timothy White's house in the summer of 1838 by Sarah Alden, sister to Mr. Timothy White's wife. Mrs. Becket Chapman says she went to school to Miss Alden at J. B. Tallant's in the winter of 1838-39, but that after her father found wolftracks following her path home he concluded she hadn't better go to school any more. The scholars in that school included the Cushman 6hildren, daughters of Mrs. James M. Tallant, whose first husband was a Cushman. The legend goes that one of the Cushman girls, aged six, having one day committed an infiaction of the rules and fearing punishment, reflected upon the matter mournfully for a time, and then, as if happily consoled by her reflections, gave expression to the following sentiment (voiced so that her neighbors could hear her): " Whipping don't last long; scolding don't hurt me; kill me she darsn't." It came to the teacher's ears, and she, profoundly impressed at the evidence of so much moral philosophy in her little six-yearold pupil, forgave her the offense on the spot. 200 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. The first town school-house was built in November, 1838, on section 20. It occupied land owned by James Hutchinson, then an absentee, and in it the first school was taught by Miss Susan Ann Church, now Mrs. Elbridge Williams. School was held in that structure until 1840, when Edson English, then a comer to Boston, bought the Hutchinson place, and, no title to the school-house site having been issued to the town, Mr. English naturally claimed possession of it. He moved his family into the school-house, occupying it as his first residence in Boston. After he took possession, however, he built, at his own expense, an addition, in which school and meetings were held some time. While it was used by the town the old log school-house was also the temple wherein the people gathered for worship on the Sabbath. Methodists and Baptists met there whenever they could secure preaching, and quite likely, too, the old school-house rang full many a time and oft with shouts of mirthful laughter and witnessed scenes of merry-making after the fashions prevalent in that good old time. SCHOOL DISTRICTS ORGANIZED. Appended is a copy of the record certifying to the organization of School District No. 1: ",BosToN, April 9th, 1838. "The Inspectors of Common Schools for this Township met and organized by choosing Albert Clement chairman: " Ordered, That school District number 4, as established by the Inspectors of the Township of Ionia, be established and known as school District no. one in the Township of Boston, and described as follows,-viz.: Commencing at the southwest corner of Township No. six North of Range No. Eight West, and runs from thence North on the West Line of said Township three miles to the North west corner of section No. nineteen; thence east on the section-lines three miles to the North East corner of section No. twenty-one; thence south on the section-lines three miles to the south East corner of section thirtyfour; thence West along the Town-line three miles to the place of beginning, being three miles square. "ALnERT CLEMENT, " Chai rmana. "JESSE WILLIAMS, " TOwln Clerk." Sept. 28, 1839, School District No. 2 was formed, and placed within the following boundaries: Commencing at the quarter-stake on the township-line on section 30; thence due east to the quarter-stake on the east side of section 28; thence south to the section-corner between sections 33 and 34, on the township-line; thence west to the southwest corner of said township; thence north to the quarter-stake at the place of beginning, being three miles in length and one and one-half in width. Oct. 26, 1839, the boundaries of District No. 2 were so changed as to include the west half of section 34 and the southwest quarter of section 27. April 24, 1847, District No. 4 was organized, and bounded as follows: Commencing at the northwest corner of section 15, running south three miles to the southwest corner of section 27; thence east two miles to the southeast corner of section 26; thence north one and threefourths of a mile; thence west one-fourth of a mile; thence north three-fourths of a mile; thence west one and onefourth miles to centre of section 15; thence north one-half mile; thence west one-half mile to place of beginning. The annual report for 1847 gave the number of scholars in District No. 1 at twenty-seven; the number in District No. 2 as twenty-six, and in District No. 3 as thirty-eight. For 1845 the school money apportioned to the three school districts was seventeen dollars and eight cents. APPOINTMENTS OF SCHOOL-TEACIERS. The first recorded appointment of a school-teacher appears under date of June 1, 1844, when a certificate for the several districts of the town was issued to Miss Elizabeth English. Later, certificates were issued as follows: June 10, 1844, Miss Lucy Chapman; Dec. 1, 1844, Abial S. Stannard; Dec. 14,1844, Elvira K. Jordan; May 3, 1845, Electa Ann Lee, Adeline White; Nov. 26, 1845, A. S. Stannard; Dec. 13, 1845, Frederick L. Branch; Dec. 20, 1845, Mrs. L. M. Parish; May 3, 1846, Annette English, May 11, 1846, Adeline White; May 15, 1846, Emily Yeomans; Aug. 19, 1846, Adeline White; Nov. 7, 1846, Frederick L. Branch, Monroe W. Young, Henry B. Alden; Nov. 10, 1846, Miss Elizabeth English; June 15, 1847, Annette English, Elizabeth English; Nov. 25, 1847, Jane Abbott, Frederick L. Branch; Nov. 27, 1847, S. W. Matthews; May 12, 1852, Elizabeth English; May 19, 1852, Ann M. Everts; May 26, 1852, Delia A. Noyes; Nov. 6, 1852, Marcus Clark, Joel Andrews; Nov. 20, 1852, John A. Ellsworth; April 23, 1853, Percis A. Stannard and Ann E. Beckwith; May 19, 1853, Miss E. W. Stevens; Nov. 5, 1853, L. H. Colton; April 8, 1854, Betsey Ann Gould; April 29, 1854, Martha Heaton; May 3, 1854, Ann H. Rogers, Mary Rogers, and Martha Rogers; June 12, 1854, Martha D. Vosper; Nov. 4,1854, D. W. Sumner; Dec. 15, 1854, Curtis Clark; March 17, 1855, Elizabeth L. Warren and Percis Stannard; April 9, 1855, Emily E. Hatch; Nov. 5, 1855, Wesley Young; Dec. 1,1855, Jude C. English, Mr. Wood; April 12,1856, Phebe A. Brant, Betsey Ann Gould, and Mary Peck; Oct. 30, 1856, Ann Beckwith and Mary Fairchild; Nov. 24, 1856, Lucy V. Bates, Louisa Houghtaling; June 1, 1857, Mary McCormick, Betsey A. Austin; Nov. 24,1856, John Littlefield, Elias Gilbert; April 11, 1857, Alida Young, Harriet Houghton, Eliza Colton; May 10, 1857, C. Clark, W. W. Kirkland; Nov. 7, 1857, Mr. Huested and Jude English; April 10, 1858, Adelia Thompson, Mary Jane Allen, Sarah A. McCormick, Mary E. Richards, Mary E. Clark, and Eva M. Nichols; April 24,1858, N. J. Tallant; Nov. 6, 1858, P. A. Latta, Joseph M. Sterling, Wallace Middaugh, Mary E. Fay, and Lucy Fairchild; Nov. 20, 1858, James F. Mead; Nov. 30, 1858, Adeline E. Reynolds; Jan. 24, 1859, Byron Hess; Aug. 14, 1859, Mary Wheeler; Nov. 5, 1859, T. II. Gilbert, Myron Crosby, Mr. Currison, and Samuel Young. The report of the school inspectors for 1879 furnishes the following: Dist. 1........ " 2......... 3*....... i 4......... 7....... " 6......... " 8*. 9......... Drtr Enumer- Average recto ation. Attendance..P. Freeman. 52 51.J. 1). Stannard. 51 42.W. Cahoon. 303t 241.Jas. Leak. 50 42.Saml. Barger. 42 27.H. Stark. 43 38.Win. R. Barber. 31 28.Iiiram Van Dusen. 49 40.J. P. Livermore. 33 35 Total...............657 544 Value Property. $800 801) 15,000 1,001 1,000 600 500 1 0 600 $20,400 Teachers' Wages. $160.00 165.50 1581.00 134.00 62.00 140.00 144.00 84.00 105.00 $2575.50 e Fractional. t- Saranac. I "St~i~ A - ~~, RESIDENCE or HENRY FRACE, SARA NAC,BOSrONTP IONIA CO,MICw. SOUUIHBOSTONiGRANGE ~, BOSTONj T P, 'O ALAL0 No.7C 176, IONIA Co.,/vICH, BOSTON. 201 - SOUTH BO.-TON POST-OFFICE. In 1839 post-offices were established at Saranac and the English Settlement. That at the latter place was called Boston post-office, and Timothy White, a Democrat, was appointed postmaster. In 1841 the Whig administration removed White and gave the office to Worster English, but he retained possession only until the entrance of Tyler as President, after Harrison's death, when the office was discontinued. From that time until 1849 the inhabitants of the English Settlement had to go to Lowell or Saranac for mail, but in 1849 they managed to obtain a revival of their old office, which was rechristened South Boston post-office. Riley J. Hess was appointed postmaster, and he was followed successively by Simeon Hunt, E. G. Williams, Curtis Clark, H. B. Church, Alfred Stearns, and E. G. Williams. During Williams' last term, in 1878, the office was discontinued, but restored in 1879 as Chandler. Dayton Church, the first appointee, was soon succeeded by Eustace Church, the present postmaster. SOUTH BOSTON GRANGE, NO. 175, PATRONS OF HUSBANDRY. South Boston Grange, occupying what is claimed to be the finest grange-hall in the State of Michigan, was organized in December, 1874, and since that period its progress has been steadily forward to a present condition of prosperity and general popular estimation seldom reached by similar bodies. The members are now ninety in number. The officers are A. S. Stannard, M.; Isaac Hogle, O.; J. C. English, L.; W. S. Story, Chaplain; D. H. English, Sec.; S. K. Remington, Treas.; James Leak, Steward; E. W. English, Asst. Steward; H. Eastman, G. K. The grange-hall, which stands on section 20, was erected in 1876 and dedicated December 28th of that year. It cost upwards of three thousand dollars, and includes a main building thirty by forty-eight, and a wing twenty-two by thirty, both two stories in height. In the second story there is a spacious assembly-room that will contain four or five hundred people, and this room is supplied, moreover, with a stage, which is called into frequent use during the winter seasons by a local dramatic society. On the same floor is a ladies' dressing-room, and on the ground-floor an "Old Folks'" assembly-room, a grocery-store, kitchen, dining-room, etc. The grocery-store is opened each Friday night, and is for the exclusive benefit of grange members. Attached to the hall are sheds capable of housing one hundred and twenty-eight horses. Altogether, the hall is perfectly appointed and a model institution of its kind. During the festive season it is in almost constant demand for merry-makings, public gatherings, or exhibitions of some sort, and it is accordingly a source of much public benefit and pleasure, as well as an object of considerable local pride. EARLY SETTLERS' ASSOCIATION. This society, organized December, 1878, holds its sessions in the hall of the South Boston Grange. The mem bers are numerous and embrace all pioneers who choose to participate. A. S. Stannard is the president, F. D. Stocking vice-president, and D. H. English secretary. 26 i i I BOSTON 20 SOUTH BOSTON HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. The secretary of the State Pomological Society visited South Boston early in 1880, and as a result of his visit the South Boston Horticultural Society was organized in June, 1880. Meetings are held in the South Boston grangehall. The officers for 1880 are D. H. English, President; C. C. Winegar, Vice-President; J. D. Stannard, Secretary; Wayne Young, Treasurer. THE MORRISON LAKE TRAGEDY. Morrison Lake was the scene of a sad calamity in the spring of 1870. Four lives were sacrificed and a community plunged into gloom on the day when John Bechan, his wife and child, Miss Lucy Bedell, and Hiram Stark and his wife set out in a canoe for a pleasure-voyage upon the inviting waters of the lake. Inexperienced in such matters, they failed to know until too late that their party of six numbered too many for the frail craft. When they did discover that truth they were already some distance upon their voyage, and, becoming speedily frightened, they essayed to return to shore. Their terror and the presence of fatal danger confused and demoralized them, and in briefer time than is taken to tell the story the canoe capsized and the unfortunate ones found themselves struggling in the water, which at that point was very deep. Not one of the six could swim, but, by some lucky chance, Stark and his wife managed by the aid of the overturned canoe to reach a place of safety. The other four sank almost immediately, and were seen no more until their bodies were recovered on the following day. While upon this topic a similar episode is recalled in connection with the fatal adventure of Orvis Abbott and Ira Kinney upon Pratt Lake about the year 1841. The young men went out on a fishing- and trapping-expedition, and, although they were still away from home when night came on, no serious solicitude was felt on their account, since they had been out frequently before, and were thought to be fully competent to take care of themselves. As the hours passed, however, and they came not, alarm took the place of confidence, and a searching-party, armed with lanterns, went out to look for them. Unhappily, the saddest fears of the searchers were realized when they came upon a boat in which lay the dead body of young Kinney. The bottom of the lake was dragged, and the finding of Abbott drowned completed the mournful incident; but how or when they came to their deaths no one could tell. It was a mysterious tragedy, and has remained so to this day. The victims were buried in the South Boston cemetery, on section 20, in which they were the first to be laid at rest. SARANAC VILLAGE. Saranac, containing, according to the census of 1880, a population of eight hundred and seventy-seven, lies in the northeastern portion of the township, on the Grand River, and is, moreover, a station on the Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee Railroad, nine miles westward from Ionia. There is no especial feature of interest to note in describing the present condition of the town, except, perhaps, to remark that it is the centre of an area of rich farming-country and boasts somewhat of its wheat-shipments, which aggre 202 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. gate nearly a quarter of a million of bushels annually. Churches are numerous, and find representation in no less than eight societies, of which five own church-edifices. There is a fine public-school building, of which the people are justifiably proud, and there are also several handsome dwellings, although in that respect Saranac is not abreast of the age. Manufacturing is limited to grist-mills and carriage-shops. SARANAC'S EARLY SETTLEMENT. The land upon which Saranac now lies was purchased of the general government in 1836 by Judge Jefferson Morrison, of Grand Rapids. Soon after his purchase he sold to Dwight & Hutchinson, of Detroit, some of the land occupying portions of sections 1 and 2, upon which there was a mill-site on Lake Creek. Dwight & Hutchinson counseled with Morrison as to the founding of a town at that point, and, as a result, they platted in common the village of Saranac, Dwight & Hutchinson laying out the south fraction of the west half of the southwest quarter of section 1, and a portion of the south fraction of the southeast quarter of section 2, while Morrison platted the east half of the southwest quarter of section 1. Who christened the new village and why it was named Saranac does not now appear. The supposition, however, is that Hilton chose to associate the history of the enterprise in some way with Indian tradition, and thus bestowed the name of a presumable Indian chief. The village plat was not recorded, but that formality was probably not esteemed of essential value, since the village proprietors proceeded at once-say late in 1836 or early in 1837-to hold a public sale at Detroit, and at that and other sales disposed of many Saranac lots. In 1837, Dwight & Hutchinson, failing to see any signs of village growth (for none of the lot-purchasers seemed disposed to make improvements), induced Cyprian S. Hooker, of Oakland Co., Mich., by the donation of some land, to come out to Saranac and build a saw-mill. He began the erection of the mill in 1837 upon the site now occupied by the Saranac Mills, but, apparently in no hurry to complete it, allowed the business of construction to drag along until some time in 1841, when the mill was called for the first time to do active duty. Not long after Hooker's arrival at Saranac, Jerry Stocking, also of Oakland County, put in an appearance for the purpose of setting up a furniture-manuflactory. Hooker agreed to give him water-power if he would dig a race, and Stocking, accordingly, accepting the proposition, finished the job in due time, and then assisted Hooker in building the mill or labored for him otherwise. Both Hooker and Stocking took matters easily, and, as Hooker made a house of entertainment of his log cabin, he gathered a sufficiency of shekels to keep him from worrying over the situation or from feeling the need of undue haste in the matter of the mill. When the mill was started Hooker brushed up his energies and urged the business briskly forward, while Stocking, equally energetic, set up a small lathe in the mill, and, between making a little furniture and working for Hooker, managed to keep from rusting. In 1846, Hooker and Stocking concluded they had experimented in Saranac quite long enough and moved away, whereupon the mill-property was purchased by Ami Chipman and Samuel Wilson. Meanwhile, the village had failed to make any strides forward, although, in 1842, Richard Vosper moved up from section 24 and made a settlement upon the place that has ever since been his home. About 1844, Stephen Denny, a Frenchman, and a man named Powers opened a blacksmith-shop on the west side of the creek, but in 1846, when Hooker and Stocking gave up and retired, Denny concluded that Saranac was doomed to oblivion, and he too made off for other scenes. His sentiments were " Hooker gone, Saranac gone; no much now. All gone to ze devil; I go too." The first goods sold in the place were kept by Hooker in a corner of his log cabin, but the first recognized store was one opened by Ammon Wilson, of New York State, who, in response to an invitation from his brother, Samuel Wilson, of the firm of Chipman & Wilson, the millers, brought a stock of goods to Saranac in 1847 and put them into a board shanty on the bank of the creek, where Jerry Stocking had lived. That was his store until he could put up a better one on the corner east of him, and until the winter of 1850-51 he was the only trader in the place. Up to that time Saranac had struggled but feebly for existence, and at its best, to 1847, had been little better than a cross-roads; but, with the advent of Ammon Wilson's store and the introduction of steam navigation upon the Grand River, a slight show of activity set in, and the place slowly but surely increased in strength and vitality. In 1847, Ammon Wilson built a warehouse upon the river's bank and proposed to do something in the way of wheatshipments, but the house was scarcely finished before it was burned to the ground. Daniel Ball, of Grand Rapids, took hold, however, of the wheat business, and forwarded a considerable quantity of that staple from Saranac to Grand Rapids. Of course the village received through these trade developments a healthful impetus, and the town began to be peopled. Samuel Wilson opened a tavern in 1847 on "Spencer's Corner," and kept it until 1853. In 1854, Ammon Wilson built the Wilson Hotel, on Weier's Corner, but did not remain its landlord very long, although the house was known for a long time afterwards as Wilson's Hotel. To the year 1851 the village was called " Saranac," but in that year, as will be presently shown, it was rechristened "Boston" and for the first time formally platted. There was, it seems, some informality in the titles issued by Dwight & Hutchinson to purchasers of village lots, by reason of a lack of proper formal record of the plat, and when Dwight & Hutchinson failed there ensued a good deal of litigation over disputed titles, and in the end some of the purchasers and holders of lots found themselves ousted and put to a loss of not only purchase-money, but of improvements as well. VILLAGE PLATS. The first recorded plat of what is now the village of Saranac was made in May, 1851, by A. F. Bell. The village proprietor was Louis S. Lovell, and the village was BOSTON. 203 called " Boston." It occupied the south fraction of the west half of the southwest quarter of section 1, and the south fraction of the southeast quarter of section 2. Mercer's addition to the village of Boston was recorded Aug. 19, 1856. The survey commenced at the southwest corner of the east half of the southwest quarter of section ], running thence north through the centre of Vosper Street to the centre of the highway running from Ionia to Boston (distance, nine chains twenty-five links); thence along the centre of said highway to the east line of Pleasant Street (distance, eleven chains and fifty links); thence along the east line of Pleasant Street south to the sectionline (distance, nine chains twenty-five links); thence west eleven chains and fifty links to the place of beginning. Wilson & Chipman's addition to the village of Saranac was recorded May 15, 1868, by C. C. Van Tassell, C. C. Hinckley, Abraham Pike, S. A. Childs, A. H. Barber, Samuel Wilson, Ami Chipman, Peter Scheidt, Jacob Schindorf, and Mary Clement. The survey commenced at the northeast corner of section 11, and continued south on the section-line eighteen rods; thence south fifty-seven and a half degrees west thirty rods; thence south eighty-two and a half degrees west fifty-five rods and eight links to the west line of the east half of the northeast quarter of said section; thence north on the west line of the said lot forty-two rods and twenty-one links to the northwest corner of said lot; thence east on the north line of said lot eighty rods to the place of beginning. A second survey commenced at the southwest corner of the east half of the south fraction of the southeast quarter of section 2, running thence east on the section-line thirty-nine rods and eleven links to the west line of the mill property; thence north along the west line of said mill property to a point twenty and a half rods north of the south line of said section; thence west twelve rods; thence north seven rods twenty-two and a half links to a point four rods south of the centre line of the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad; thence south sixty-five degrees west on the line of said railroad thirty rods to the west line of said lot; thence south on the west line of said lot fifteen rods to the place of beginning. S. L. Shaw's addition to the village of Saranac was made May 20, 1872, and commenced at a point twenty rods east and sixteen rods south of the northwest corner of section 12, running thence east forty-one rods and twenty links to a point seventeen rods and nineteen and one-half links west, and sixteen rods south of the northeast corner of the west half of the northwest quarter of said section 12; thence south parallel with said section-line eighty-five rods and ten links; thence west forty-one rods and twenty links; thence north eighty-five rods and ten links to the place of beginning. In 1859, in obedience to a general request, the name of the village was changed from "Boston" to "Saranac." The ostensible reason was because the similarity of " Boston, Mich.," to " Boston, Mass.," occasioned confusion in the transmission of the mails; but the real reason was that the inhabitants did not like "Boston" as a village name and preferred " Saranac " by reason of its having been the earliest bestowed. THE YEAR 1850. In January, 1850, E. B. Armstrong, Lambert B' Barnum, and Dorus M. Fox, of Lyons, bought out Ammon Wilson and opened trade in Saranac, under the firm style of Fox, Barnum & Co. At that time the village streets were well covered with stumps, and ox-teams were so common that when a pair of horses did come to the place (especially if they were attached to a carriage) the sensation was quite astounding. Elijah Pratt had just got his gristmill, now the Boston Mills, started. Nelson Wixson was laboring upon the bench as the only village shoemaker, and then, too, the first bridge across the river at Saranac was in course of construction. In 1851, Fbx & Barnum concluded to retire from the firm, and, engaging Richard Vosper to build a store for them upon the corner now occupied by E. B. Armstrong, they soon moved into it, leaving Armstrong to carry on the old concern on his own account. Fox & Barnum abandoned the field after a brief career, and, their place being soon taken by Elijah Pratt, he gave way in turn to E. B. Armstrong, who has remained continuously in the trade on that corner since that time. With the completion of the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad to that point Saranac had grown to be a thriving village with noticeable improvements and a promise of something better to come. In 1862 the first brick store was built by William C. Mercer, who came to the village from Campbell in 1854, opened a store in 1860, and from that time to the present has continued to participate actively in the town's business enterprises. SARANAC POST-OFFICE. In 1839, Cyprian S. Hooker succeeded in having the Saranac post-office established and himself appointed postmaster. In 1840, Harrison coming into the Presidency, the Whigs in the town began to move for the displacement of Hooker, who was a Democrat. Jerry Stocking was the only Whig at Saranac, but he was not enough thought of to receive an indorsement for the office, and the consequence was that the office was abolished. Hooker took the matter sorely to heart7 and, for that matter, the discontinuance of the office was a great inconvenience to the people roundabout, but of course nothing could be done but grin and bear it until the tables could be turned. The turning of the tables came with the death of Harrison and the succession of Tyler as President, under whom Saranac was reestablished as a post-office and Hooker reappointed. That incident was immensely welcome to the Democrats in the neighborhood of the village, and the night of the day on which Hooker's commission arrived they gathered at his house for general congratulation and a merry time. Hooker kept the office in his dwelling, and received mail once a week over the route between Jackson and Grand Rapids by a carrier who traveled sometimes by horse and sometimes afoot. Hooker was succeeded as postmaster by Richard Vosper in 1844. After Vosper the incumbents were as follows: Jacob Pratt, 1846-49; Benjamin Ells worth, 1849-53; Ammon Wilson, 1853-57; Carlton B. Pratt, 1857-61; Gilbert A. Cotton, 1861-72; Jonathan / 201 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. Sprague, 1872-74; Gilbert A. Cotton, 1874-77; Mrs. L. M. Cotton (present incumbent), 1877. The sales of stamps at the Saranac office for the three months ending July 1, 1880, were seven hundred and ninety-nine dollars and twenty cents. Money-orders were issued in the amount of fourteen hundred and forty-two dollars and twenty-five cents. THE BOSTON LIGHT-GUARD. In 1858, A. A. Stevens organized an artillery company with twenty-five men and one brass gun. The name of "Boston Light-Guard" was bestowed and A. A. Stevens elected captain, Moses B. Houghton first lieutenant, and Elijah Pratt second lieutenant. The company uniform was blue, but showy and tasteful. The occasional parades and target-shoots incidental to the company's home history were conspicuously important events and themes of popular admiration. Mr. E. B. Armstrong, at one time second lieutenant of the company, still preserves a target bearing the legend " Boston Light-Guard, July 4, 1859." The shooting on that occasion was at forty rods, offhand, and, according to the evidence of the bull's-eye, appears to have been exceedingly skillful. The first prize was carried off by Cornelius Stowe, and in order of merit other marksmen were E. B. Armstrong, William Pratt, George B. Wilson, and Gilbert Cotton. Upon the outbreak of the civil war of 1861 the Guard entered the Federal service attached to the Second Michigan Regiment. Of its officers Capt. Stevens and Lieut. Houghton emerged from the service as brigadier-generals. INCORPORATION OF THE VILLAGE. Legislative act No. 246, approved March 4, 1869, provides "that all that tract of country situate in the county of Ionia and State of Michigan, being in township six north, of range eight west, and described as follows, to wit: The west three-fourths of the south half of section one, the east half of the southeast quarter of section two, the northeast quarter of section eleven, the west half of the northwest quarter of section twelve, the west half of the east half of the northwest quarter of section twelve, the north half of the north half of the east half of the east half of the northwest quarter of section twelve, and the north half of the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter of section twelve, be, and the same is hereby, made and constituted a village corporate, to be hereafter known and designated by the name of the village of Saranac." The first election was ordered to be held at Sackett's Hall, in Saranac, March 22, 1869, to select by a plurality of votes a president, clerk, assessor, treasurer, marshal, two trustees for one year, and two trustees for two years. At the election so ordered John D. Sackett and Richard D. Hudson were chosen judges of election and Charles L. Wilson clerk. The inspectors reported that officials had been chosen as follows: William Mercer, President; Charles L. Wilson, Clerk; Joel Andrews, Assessor; F. H. Spencer, Treasurer; John D. Sackett, Marshal; Cornelius W. Stowe, Edward B. Armstrong, Thomas Wilson, and D. M. Huntley, Trustees. The persons chosen from 1870 to 1880 to fill the chief village offices will be found named here: 1870.-President, Richard Vosper; Clerk, Charles L. Wilson; Treasurer, Edward B. Armstrong; Assessor, Ezra Spencer; Trustees, William Arnold and James Brown. 1871.-President, A. A. Stevens; Clerk, Charles L. Wilson; Treasurer, Henry Trace; Assessor, Ezra Spencer; Trustees Thomas Wilson and Jacob J. Young. 1872.-President, Ezra Spencer Clerk, William L. Strickland; Treasurer, Ansel W. Goodell; Assessor, Richard Vosper; Trustees, Spencer L. Shaw, Gilbert A. Colton. 1873.-President, Richard Vosper; Clerk, William L. Strickland; Treasurer, Ansel W. Goodell; Assessor, Ezra Spencer; Trustees, F. H. Spencer and Nathan Holmes. 1874.-President, Richard Vosper; Clerk, William L. Strickland; Treasurer, A. W. Goodell; Assessor, A. Weires; Trustees, Gilbert A. Colton and Spencer L. Shaw. 1875.-President, F. H. Spencer; Clerk, William M. Dreskell; Treasurer, A. W. Goodell; Assessor, A. Weires; Trustees, A. C. Lee and Thomas F. Mosher. 1876.-President, F. H. Spencer; Clerk, William M. Dreskell; Treasurer, A. W. Goodell; Assessor, M. A. Weires; Trustees, Spencer L. Shaw and Wesley Fox. 1877.-President, William Mercer; Clerk, William M. Dreskell; Treasurer, A. W. Goodell; Assessor, Ezra Spencer; Trustees, Harvey W. Dodge and Edward B. Armstrong. 1878.-President, Charles L. Wilson; Clerk, E. T. Payne; Treasurer, A. W. Goodell; Assessor, Ezra Spencer! Trustees, C. H. Phillips and M. J. Lord. 1879.-President, A. W. Goodell; Clerk, H. W. Johnson; Treasurer, Charles L. Wilson; Assessor, William W. Sargent; Trustees, A. P. C. Jones, Asa Harvey. 1880.-President, A. F. Lee; Clerk, Palmer T. Williams; Treasurer, C. L. Smith; Assessor, Richard Vosper; Trustees, H. H. Power and John S. Malcolmson. CHURCHES. Methodist Episcopal Church.-The recorded testimony touching the history of the Saranac Methodist Episcopal Church is so meagre that the compilation of historical matter from that source is a task that yields nothing, while, as to oral evidence, the results are far from satisfactory. There was a Methodist Episcopal Church worship at the village as early as 1845, and perhaps before, and in the year named there was a class including G. L. Huff (class-leader and Sunday-school superintendent), Thomas and Mary Wilson, Lyman Smith and wife, Mrs. G. L. Huff, Diocletian Hess and wife, and Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Pratt. Up to the close of 1849, however, services were held only on week-days in the village school-house. When Lambert B. Barnum and his wife became residents of the village, in December, 1849, Rev. Eli Westlake was the preacher in charge. Shortly after that Mr. Barnum made a successful effort to provide preaching on Sundays instead of on week-days, and from that time forward Sunday services were steadily maintained. The village school-house was the place of worship as well as Sabbath-school exercises until 1861, when the present church-building was finished and dedicated, Rev. M. I. Smith being then the pastor. Among earlier pastors may be mentioned Revs. Jenkins, Horace Hall, Baird, Clark, and Pratt. The church, now on the Saranac Circuit, has a membership of about forty, and is in charge of Rev. J. E. Hollister. The class-leader is Alvin Adams, and the trustees Lyman Smith, Alvin Adams, John P. Anderson, and W. R. Dodge. C. L. Smith is superintendent of the Sun day-school, which employs five teachers and has an average attendance of forty scholars. First Congregational Church. - The Congregational BOSTON. 205 BOTNI0 Church of Saranac was organized in the autumn of 1871, in the edifice owned by the Baptist Society, by Rev. D. L. Eaton, of Lowell. The organizing members included E. J. Turner and wife, Nelson Pratt and wife, J. N. Barbour and wife, Mrs. A. Houghton, Mrs. Mary E. Young, Mrs. Los E. Jones, Mrs. A. O. Wadsworth, Mrs. S. Smith, J. W. Lindsay and wife, E. A. Richards and wife, and Mrs. D. M. Huntley. Membership was at once sought with the Grand River Association, and Mr. Eaton engaged as pastor. He preached two years, and was succeeded by Rev. S. E. Busser, who remained two years, and after him Rev. E. W. Shaw was in charge nearly three years. Then came Rev. James A. McKay, the present pastor. The Sunday-school was organized in 1872, in which year, also, a house of worship was built, services having been held up to that time in the Baptist church. The school is in charge of E. A. Richards, who is assisted by a corps of seven teachers. There is an average attendance of sixty-five scholars in the school, and a membership of twenty-two in the church. The deacons are Jonah Turner and E. A. Richards; the trustees, Nelson Pratt, Jonah Turner, E. Crowner, E. A. Richards, and W. O. Hubbard. The church has passed through a varied experience, and in the course thereof has been called upon to struggle against adverse circumstances that sorely weakened it and threatened dissolution. The difficulties, however, were bravely met and surmounted, and latterly there has been a steady and prosperous growth. First Baptist Church.-The church now known as the First Baptist Church of Saranac was organized Jan. 8, 1854, at the "centre school-house," as the First Baptist Church of Boston. There were present on that occasion H. M. Sackett, Sarah Allen, Hannah Beckwith, Isaiah F. Fay, Harriet E. Fay, P. D. Sneathen, and R. Simmons. The church adopted the articles of faith and church covenant adopted by the New Hampshire State Convention, and on January 14th met a second time, when Sisters Peasley, Childs, and Root were received as members, Isaiah Fay chosen pastor, and R. Simmons clerk. A church council convened Feb. 15, 1854, at the school-house in the village of Boston, and at that meeting John D. Fletcher, Dennis Shaw, Dennis Root, and Altha Shaw were baptized. July 22d, John B. Fletcher was chosen deacon. June 16, 1860, the First Baptist Society of Saranac was incorporated, and T. D. Hartwell, N. D. Strong, A. C. Lee, Enoch Wilkinson, Caleb Woodward, and Corydon Cronkite chosen trustees. In 1868 the present house of worship was completed. The church-membership is now about twenty-five. Rev. C. A. Smith is pastor and Sunday-school superintendent. The trustees in 1880 were T. D. Hartwell, William Clark, E. Morrison, H. P. Gates, J. Outwater, and Charles Jepson. Trinity (Protestant Episcopal) Church.-An entry in the records of Trinity Church sets forth that " The first effort towards Episcopal services in Saranac was.made by a lady teaching a Sunday-school in a private house. After some time Rev. D. B. Lyon, of Lyons, and others held services and preached in the large school-house, and the Sun day-school was removed to the school-house by Mrs. A. A. Stevens from her private room. She was assisted in the school by Mrs. Fuller and Miss Quackenboss about the last of October, 1858. The following summer Rev. Mr. Barnwell held services once in the union school-house. Rev. Mr. Lyon preached during the winter of 1859 and 1860, and the following summer baptized eleven children." Jan. 9, 1860, Trinity Church was organized by D. F. Frazell, Theodore Cotton, Elihu Anderson, G. A. Cotton, Richard Vosper, Robert L. Taylor, T. C. Wert, M. B. Houghton, Elijah Pratt, S. L. Shaw, A. A. Stevens, and E. B. Armstrong. The corner-stone of the church-building was laid at 3 P.M., June 18, 1860, by Rev. D. B. Lyon, assisted by Rev. Dooley, of Pontiac, and Rev. Dr. Cummings, of Grand Rapids. The edifice was raised June 23d following, the cross was put up July 27th, and the bell placed in position October 14th. Nov. 1, 1860, the church was completed, and Feb. 17, 1861, it was consecrated. The first recorded election of vestrymen appears under date of April 23, 1866, when D. F. Frazell, Richard Vosper, W. M. Arnold, Elijah Pratt, G. A. Cotton, Theodore Cotton, and S. L. Shaw were chosen. Succeeding Mr. Lyon, the first rector, Rev. D. E. Brown, occupied the pulpit until 1869, when he resigned. Rev. J. F. Walker served to 1872, Rev. George W. Wilson from 1872 to 1874, and, following him, Revs. L. L. Rogers, William Brittain, and Louis Noble, the latter being the rector now in charge. He holds services once a fortnight. The church is accredited with a membership of seventy, and the Sunday-school with an average attendance of thirty-six. The vestry is composed of M. A. Weiers and Ezra Reasoner (wardens), James H. Kilmer, William Whitney, and S. A. Watt. The Sunday-school superintendent is M. A. Weiers. Wesleyan 3Methodist Church.-In April, 1874, Rev. D. A. Richards organized the Wesleyan Methodist Church of Saranac, with sixteen members. They were Stillman Shaw, Elizabeth Shaw, Allen H. Smith, Ann E. Smith, A. P. Hughson, Ellen L. Hughson, A. J. Root, Sarah A. Root, A. A. Richards, Carlie Richards, Lydia Nash, Sarah Lemon, Eliza A. Richards, Thomas E. Myers, Francis Myers, and Otis S. Richards. A church was built and dedicated in the fall of 1874, and in the fall of 1875 the membership had increased to twenty-five. Sept. 1, 1880, the membership was about thirty-five. Rev. D. A. Richards was the pastor to 1875, and, being succeeded by Rev. J. H. Canfield, returned for a second term in 1877, and is still in charge. The class is on the Campbell Circuit, and has public services every Sunday afternoon. Andrew Tasker is the leader, and Calvin Nash, D. C. Benson, and Andrew Tasker the trustees. Free Methodist Church.-During the year 1869 an American Methodist missionary conducted camp-meeting exercises at Saranac, and, as a result of his visit, there was a successful movement to organize a Free Methodist Church. The organization has maintained an active existence since that period, although it has at no time risen to a very prosperous pinnacle. A parsonage was built in 1879, but a church-edifice is still lacking. Services are held once in two weeks at the residence of Mathew Crooks. The membership is eleven. The leader is Charles Benjamin. Seventh-Day Adventists.-Some time during the summer of 1874, Elders Lawrence and Strong held a series of tented Adventist meetings at Saranac, and at the end organized a church, which has continued to flourish to this day. The 206 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. organizing members numbered seven, and were Mrs. Wilkinson and daughter, Mrs. Henry, Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Lee, Mrs. Haynor, and Mrs. Payne. Services, which were held at first at the residence of 0. Train, are now conducted at R. B. Payne's residence, and consist usually of prayer and conference, with occasional preaching as convenience serves. Enoch Wilkinson is now the elder. Although the society had at one time as many as thirty members, the number is at present something less. Society of Spiritualists.-Advocates of the theory of Spiritualism have for some years maintained a considerable showing of strength in Saranac, and at present, organized as the Saranac Society of Spiritualists and Liberalists, hold occasional meetings. Willard Cahoon is the president, and Mrs. S. L. Shaw the secretary. SARANAC'S PUBLIC SCHOOL. In common with a majority of Michigan villages, Saranac has occasion to boast of public-school privileges and a fine school-building. The school-house is an imposing and roomy brick structure, occupying spacious and neatly-kept grounds. It was completed August, 1873, cost about seventeen thousand dollars, and has two stories and basement, in which are contained five departments. It belongs to District No. 3, which includes a portion of Berlin as well as Saranac village, and had during 1879 an average attendance of two hundred and forty-one out of an enrollment of three hundred and three. The expenditures for teachers during that year aggregated fifteen hundred and eighty-one dollars. For 1880 the principal is E. M. Plunkett (for eight years previous to 1880 principal of the schools at Byron, Mich.). His assistants are Addie Reeves, Grammar School; Vertie Pond, Intermediate; Rosa Harris, Primary. The board of trustees includes Willard Cahoon, Director; F. D. M. Davis, Moderator; and Delos M. Huntley, Assessor. MANUFACTURES. The water-power at Saranac is derived solely from Lake Creek, and serves to run two flouring-mills. One of these, the Saranac Mills, occupying the site chosen originally by Cyprian Hooker for his saw-mill in 1842, is owned by Messrs. Lee & Brown, is fitted with three runs of stone, and can grind about three hundred bushels of grain daily. Its business is almost exclusively that of custom-work. " The Boston Mills" was constructed by Elijah Pratt in 1849, and since 1871 has been carried on by Nathan Holmes, the present proprietor. It is devoted to customwork, has three runs of stone and a daily grinding capacity of three hundred bushels. There is a considerable business at Saranac in the way of carriage and wagon manufactures, in which three firms -D. W. Anderson, Jacob Schindorf, and Peter Schiedtare engaged, and in which employment is given to a good many persons. The saw-mills of William Kelly and George Barber and Hubbard & Co.'s stave-factory complete the list of village manufactories. An oar-factory-once an important local industry, but latterly silent-is likely to be re vived within the near future. Hubbard & Co.'s Stave-Factory.-The manufacture of staves was introduced into Saranac, in 1866, by Ira Reynolds, who presently sold the business to Messer & Benson. The work has since then been carried on by various firms, and is controlled at present by Messrs. Hubbard & Co., who turn out annually about one million staves, and employ from ten to a dozen hands. THE VILLAGE PRESS. Saranac's first newspaper was called the Grand River Valley Standard, which was issued by N. T. Kimsey in the winter of 1870 as a Democratic journal. After the lapse of six months the name was changed to The Standard, and twelve months after that the paper was transferred to Ionia, where, as the Ionia Standard, it has since endured. During its career in Saranac, N. T. Kimsey was the publisher, and F. H. Spencer and C. L. Wilson editors. There was no village paper subsequent to the Standard's removal until 1874, when C. H. Smith, of Ionia, called to the surface of events The Reporter. It was neutral in politics until the campaign of 1876, when Republicanism became its watchword. After the campaign it gave up the ghost. After another year of journalistic vacancy, The Saranac Local was started by Johnson & Buchanan in October, 1877, as an independent journal. It passed through several proprietary changes, until July, 1879, when F. T. Stevenson, the present publisher, came into possession. F. H. Spencer has been the editor since October, 1877. The Local is an eight-column folio, independent in politics, issues every Thursday, and has a circulation of four hundred copies. BANKS, ETC. Until 1869 the village boasted no banking conveniences. In that year, A. C. Lee and A. W. Goodell opened a private bank, and under the firm-name of Lee & Goodell carried on a prosperous business until 1878. In the year last named Goodell retired, and since then Lee Brothers have been the successors of Lee & Goodell. When Mr. Goodell retired from Lee & Goodell, in 1878, he joined William Mercer in a similar enterprise, and assisted in conducting it until Aug. 15, 1880, when the firm was dissolved, and thereupon succeeded by the present firm of William Mercer & Son. Messrs. Mercer & Son and Lee Brothers are also largely engaged in the purchase of wheat for shipment Eastward. Mercer & Son claim to ship about three hundred cars yearly, and Lee Brothers the same number. Estimating each car at four hundred bushels, the aggregate of yearly wheat-shipments from Saranac station reaches, therefore, two hundred and forty thousand bushels. SOCIETIES. Boston Lodge, No. 146, F. and A. M.-Boston Lodge was organized about 1862. The Masters who have served from 1862 to 1880 have been William Drowlman, Elijah Pratt, C. W. Stowe, Horace Robinson, James T. Roberts, and Charles L. Wilson. The membership is now about fifty. The officers are Charles L. Wilson, Master; F. H. Spencer, S. W.; V. V. Campbell, J. W.; A. F. Noyes, Sec.; J. Stewart, Treas.; Wm. Fitzgibbons, S. D.; W. O'Brien, J. D.; D. Donovan, Tiler. BOSTON. 207 Saranac Lodge, No. 168, 1. 0. O. F. -This lodge was organized in August, 1871, in the Anderson Building, and chartered in March, 1872. The charter members were James T. Brown, J. H. Russell, Henry Trace, F. M. McDonald, A. R. Hicks, and Dennis Donovan. Since the organization the following have been chosen to the office of Noble Grand: James T. Brown, J. H. Russell, Dennis Donovan, William M. Dresskell, William L. Strickland, Harvey W. Dunn, H. A. O'Connor, J. B. Case, Elisha Prosser, George B. Wilson, G. W. Lee, H. M. Cronkite, D. B. Kelly, W. S. Allen, and Chailes Numa. The present membership is forty-three. Meetings are held in Shaw's Hall, the upper portion of which is the joint property of the I. O. O. F. and F. and A. M. lodges. The officers of Saranac Lodge for 1880 are R. E. Arthur, N. G.; George Topp, V. G.; J. T. Brown, P. and R. Sec.; Frederick Riar, Treas. Saranac Council, No. 22, Royal Templars of Temperance.-This temperance organization, which was formed in February, 1880, with a membership of forty, had increased that number to seventy by Sept. 1, 1880. Regular sessions are held in Templars' Hall each alternate Monday, and thus far the excellent service rendered by the council gives abundant promise that the good work will be carried vigorously forward. The officers for 1880 are Merritt Moore, S. C.; F. Richmond, P. C.; P. W. Holcomb, V. C.; Ira Cotton, Sec.; A. Richardson, F. S.; Charles Jepson, Treas.; W. A. Hughson, Herald; Hattie Beadle, Dep. Herald; G. N. Westfall, G.; M. C. Beadle, Sentinel; J. Beadle, H. H. Gardner, and H. H. Power, Trustees. Saranac Liberal League, No. 129.-On the 28th of December, 1879, Hiram Olmstcad and forty-seven others opposed to the non-taxation of churches and in favor of free thought organized Saranac Liberal League, No. 129, which maintains its original strength and meets regularly once a month. The officers are S. L. Shaw, President; S. M. Crawford, Secretary; Fred H. Stowe, Treasurer; Hiram Olmstead, Dr. A. P. C. Jones, and B. A. Cotton, Trustees. Saranac Hook and Ladder, No. 1.-The fire department of Saranac includes a hook-and-ladder company, which was organized in 1876 with A. D. Veits as the first foreman. The apparatus includes now a Babcock extinguisher. The company numbers twenty-four men, F. P. Grommon being the foreman and Andrew Payne first assistant. VILLAGE PHYSICIANS. About the year 1842, a Dr. Rose, known as a Thompsonian, made a location at Saranac, and, practicing upon the neighboring inhabitants with feeble success until 1845, withdrew to more promising fields. Upon the heels of his departure came Dr. Taylor, an eclectic, who remained three or four years. After him there was a blank in local medical history until 1849, when Drs. John Brandt and Cyrenus Kelsey occupied the field. Kelsey left for California in 1850, and Brandt for unknown regions in 1852. From 1852 to 1855 there was no resident physician. In 1855, Dr. Wilbur Fisher opened an office, and after practicing until 1858 removed to a place a mile and a half east from the village, where he died. Dr. Pomeroy was in about 1855, and, removing after a short stay, returned in 1866, and remained until his death. Dr. H. H. Power, now in village practice and the oldest in point of service of all the village doctors, has been in Saranac since 1856. William Dowlman followed Dr. Power in 1863, and moved away about 1870. Dr. Kimberly came in 1863,-and remained until 1866. Besides Dr. Power (allopath), there are in village practice Drs. A. P. C. Jones and Dennis Dreskell (allopaths), Dr. Munch (eclectic), and Dr. A. Gesler (homoeopath). LAWYERS. Charles L. Wilson, the lawyer of oldest practice in the village, was admitted in 1867, and opened an office in Saranac in 1868. Los. E. Jones was then a practicing lawyer in the town, but latterly he has appeared to have deserted the legal field for the blacksmith's shop. Richard Hudson came in before Wilson, and was probably the pioneer lawyer of the town. Wm. L. Strickland studied with Wilson, and then joined him as a partner. The village lawyers are now F. D. M. Davis, P. T. Williams, F. H. Stowe, and Charles L. Wilson. A " BOGUS" BAND. For a little time previous to 1857 the manufacture of bogus Mexican dollars was carried on in the village, but so secretly did the counterfeiters conduct their operations that knowledge of the matter was not made public until after the business had been suspended for a year or so. The information came out in 1857, when, upon the arrest of some housebreakers who had been depredating the villagers' homes, it was learned that they had before that figured as a counterfeiting band in the town, although upon their own confession the money they made was so very bad that but few people could be deceived with it. The political campaign of 1868 is recalled as a memorable one in Saranac by reason of the violent death, at a mass-meeting, of Dr. Perry, of Lowell. It was charged that Perry had been shot by Deputy-Sheriff Philip Taylor, and such indeed proved to be the case; but upon the subsequent trial of Taylor for murder it was shown that the shooting was accidental, and of course Taylor was acquitted. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. JOHN H. ENGLISH. John H. English was born in the town of Tunbridge, Orange Co., Vt., Sept. 13, 1827. He was the eldest son in the family of Edson and Abigail English, one of the pioneer families of Boston, and a nephew of Worcester English, the town's first settler. In his boyhood he shared the privations and hardships of a pioneer family, and his surroundings were such as to develop many strong points of character that perhaps might otherwise have remained dormant. He received the rudiments of his education at the log school-house of the early days, and to the knowl edge thus obtained he made repeated additions until he acquired a thorough business education. He remained under the parental roof until he attained & 208 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. I his twenty-fifth year, at which time he was married to Miss Arminda, a daughter of Urius Strong, of Boston. After the marriage he removed to the farm upon which he resided until his death, which occurred March 4, 1874. Mrs. English was born in the town of Leicester, Livingston Co., N. Y., Dec. 21, 1827. She removed to Michigan with her parents in 1849. She is a lady of much culture and refinement, and possessed of a large amount of business acumen. Mr. English identified himself with all matters devoted to the county and State. He was an ardent Republican, but never courted political preferment, although he occupied several positions of trust and responsibility. He was one of the prominent agriculturists of the county, and did much to advance the farming interests of the county. In 1873-74 he was president of the County Agricultural Society, in whose affairs he always took a deep interest. His farm evidenced much taste and thrift, and he was regarded as one of the most successful farmers in the county. He was one of the members of Lodge 175 of the Patrons of Husbandry, and was its secretary when he died, in 1874. He was a man of marked social qualities, genial and pleasant, winning and retaining the regard of all with whom he came in contact. Positive in character, he reached his decisions with deliberation, and an opinion once formed was unchangeable. He was possessed of sound judgment, much perception, and an innate knowledge of men and thing. He had the confidence of all, and was regarded as one of the true representative men of the county. EDSON ENGLISH. This venerable pioneer was born in the town of Tunbridge, Orange Co., Vt., Sept. 12,1801. His father, David English, was one of the prominent farmers and influential citizens of Orange County, and reared a family of five children, Edson being the fourth; he was a man of marked integrity, and died in Tunbridge in February, 1840. Edson lived with his father until he died; he received a commonschool education, and was married April 12, 1823, to Miss Abigail Willard. She was born in 1799, April 14th. After their marriage he went back to the old home, where he remained until April, 1840, when he came West on a tour of observation. He came to Boston, where his brother Worcester, the first settler of the town, had already settled. He was very favorably impressed with the soil and natural advantages, and, foreseeing that it would ultimately become a more prosperous country than the one he had left, he concluded to make it his home. He accordingly purchased one hundred and sixty acres where he now resides and re. turned East for his family. Aug. 17, 1840, he left Tunbridge, Vt., with his family and household goods in two wagons; the family consisted of his wife, mother, and five children. The journey occupied forty-five days, and was devoid of any incident worthy of mention. In 1859 he paid his old home a visit, and the journey previously made in forty-five days occupied only thirty-four hours. Mr. English has identified himself prominently with all the initial events in the history of Boston. He established the first school taught within the present limits of the town of Boston, his daughter being the teacher. In all social and religious matters Mr. English has taken a conspicuous part, and has done much in advancing religious interests, to which he has been a generous supporter. Both he and his wife are prominent members of the Methodist Church. This biography would not be complete without special mention of his estimable wife, whose influence and sage counsel has been largely productive of good. She was born in Sharon, Orange Co., Vt., and was the daughter of Elias Willard and Abigail Hill. At the age of fourteen years she was thrown upon her own resources and went to live with a family by the name of Lee, with whom she remained four years. Both she and her husband are valuable members of society, and their names will live in Boston's history so long as anything is known of it. I I II 1F AMASA F. LEE. ARCHELAUS C. LEE. Among the pioneer families of the western portion of Ionia County none perhaps have been more prominently identified with its early history and subsequent development than the Lees, and perhaps none are more intimately connected with its business interests than the gentlemen whose names head this biography. They are descended from Amasa Lee, who was born near Saratoga Springs, N. Y., in June, 1787. But little is known of his early history farther than that his father was a farmer, and that he removed when a young man to the town of Elbridge, Onondaga Co., N. Y., where he purchased a small farm. He was one of the pioneers of that town, and his name is connected with many of the initial events in its history. He was married in 1808 to Miss Elects Strong, daughter of Isaac and Mariam Strong. She was born in Bennington, Vt., in 1790. Her father was one of the early settlers of the town of Sennet, Cayuga Co., and a man of considerable prominence. He built the first mill erected in the city of Auburn, and also the first in the town of Elbridge. Upon the breaking out of the war of 1812 the elder Lee entered the service as a lieutenant. He served with distinction, and at its close he returned to his farm. His wife was as patriotic as himself. The day previous to his departure for his regiment she spent in moulding bullets, and she exhibited in other ways a true Spartan fidelity to her country's cause. Mr. Lee died in the town of Sennet, Cayuga Co., in 1832, highly esteemed for his general worth. In the prime of life he was noted for his strength and agility. He took a prominent part in all social matters, and was a prominent member of the Baptist Church. Mrs Lee resided in Cayuga County until 1844, when she sold her property, and with three children, Archelaus C., Electa A., and Rhoda B., started for Michigan. She purchased a new farm on section 23, where she resided until her death, which occurred April 24, 1862. She was a fine type of the pioneer woman, and was highly esteemed for her many womanly virtues. Amasa F. Lee was born in the town of Sennet, Cayuga Co., N. Y., Aug. 12, 1826. His father died when he was but six years of age. He received a good common-school education, and at the age of eighteen came to the town of Odessa, Ionia Co., where his elder brother, Hiram, had previously settled. He worked by the month for a number of years. In 1850 he was married to Miss Augusta H., daughter of Benjamin and Sabrina Covert, early settlers of the town of Keene. Shortly after his marriage Mr. Lee purchased eighty acres of government land in Keene, running in debt for a large portion of the purchase-money. As a farmer Mr. Lee was eminently successful. To his small beginning he made repeated additions until, upon his removal to Saranac, he was the owner of two hundred and eighty acres of valuable land. He identified himself with the best interests of the town, taking a leading and advanced position. In all important matters his sound judgment, business ability, and integrity were recognized by his fellow-townsmen, who made him their representative upon the board of supervisors for nine successive terms. In October, 1868, in company with his brother Archelaus C. and A. W. Goodsell, he established the first banking-house in the western portion of the county. In 1877 they purchased the interest of Mr. Goodsell, and the firm of Lee Brothers is considered to be among the solid banking institutions of the county. In connection with his banking business Mr. Lee is extensively engaged in milling and as a general buyer of all farm produce. Industry and a firm desire to succeed are the salient points in his character, and his success in business is attributable largely to his energy, thrift, and integrity. His career as a business man is certainly worthy of the emulation of young men. In his political and religious affiliations he is a Republican and a Baptist. Mr. Lee's history would not be complete without special mention of his wife, to whose industry and economy he attributes much of his success. She was born Feb. 23, 1823, in the town of Yates, Orleans Co., N. Y. Her father, Benjamin Covert, was a native of Virginia. Her mother, Sabrina Runyon, was born in the State of New York. They settled in Keene in 1845. They reared a family of fourteen children,-seven boys and seven girls. Mr. Covert was a man of sterling qualities. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, and was one of Keene's prominent pioneers. He died in Keene in 1876 at the advanced age of eighty-three years. Mrs. Lee is the mother of four children named in the order of their ages,-Fred C., Florence A. (now Mrs. Jerome Browne), Adelaide A. (now Mrs. Don C. Jones), and Corey L. ARCHELAUS C. LEE, of the firm of Lee Brothers, was born in the town of Sennet, Cayuga Co., March 2, 1830. He received a good commonschool education, which he made practically useful to himself and others as a teacher. He came to Keene with his family, and in May, 1850, was married to Miss Harriett E. Bowen, of Keene. He was engaged in agricultural pursuits up to 1865, when he went to Lowell, Kent Co., and engaged in merchandising. At the expiration of one year he returned to his farm in Keene, and shortly after went into trade in Saranac; but the occupation was not congenial, and in company with his brother, Amasa F., established the banking-house of Lee Brothers. He is a man of clear perception, sound judgment, and business sagacity. Like his brother, Amasa F., he has been eminently successful. Both are emphatically self-made men, to whom the Latin phrase Faber sls fortunae can be appropriately applied. Starting in life with only his hands and an indomitable will, he has attained a foremost position among his business associates. Mrs. A. C. Lee was born in the town of Crawford, Orange Co., N. Y., Nov. 18, 1831, where her parents were also born; they removed to Keene in 1845, having previously lived in Oakland County some thirteen years. Mrs. Lee is a lady of high Christian character, and to her Mr. Lee attributes much of his success in life. They have four children,-Jennie (now Mrs. B. Wilkinson), Chadwick A. (married Cornelia Bash), Elmer E., and Elbert C. MRS. BECKET CHAPMAN. BECKET CHAPMAN. BECKET CHAPMAN. This venerable pioneer was born in Barnard, Windsor Co., Vt., June 8, 1808. His father, Willard Chapman, followed the vocation of a gunsmith. He served with distinction in the war of 1812, and at its close settled in Tunbridge, Vt., where he resided until his removal to Ionia County, in 1844. He was an industrious mechanic and a successful business man. He died in Saranac on Aug. 16, 1868, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. He reared a family of six children,-three boys and three girls,-Becket being the eldest. At the age of seven years Becket met with an irreparable loss, that of his mother, and at this tender age he was left to take care of himself. He went to live with a gentleman by the name of Bruce Jones, with whom he remained until he was sixteen years of age, when he apprenticed himself to the trade of a tanner and currier. After the completion of his term of apprenticeship he went into business in Tunbridge, Vt., where he remained nine years, when he decided to make a home in the wilds of Michigan. He came to the town of Boston in November of 1836 and purchased from government one hundred and sixty acres of land in section 28. The following winter he spent in Kalamazoo County, where he followed his trade. In the spring he returned to Boston and commenced the improvement of his purchase. He cleared and fenced five acres, and in the fall returned to Kalamazoo, where he remained for three years working at his trade. He then went to Grand Rapids, where he remained four years. In 1844 he returned to his farm, and the following year was married to Miss Emma S., daughter of Jeremiah Stannard, one of the early pioneers of the town. She was born in Hardwick, Caledonia Co., Vt., in 1825, and came to Boston in the spring of 1837, the date of the family's emigration. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Chapman entered into the development of their home with that energy which has characterized their subsequent operations. They can look back over forty years and feel assured that they have been in a measure rewarded for the privations and hardships of their pioneer life. In this connection a single incident may be related as showing something of Mr. Chapman's pluck and energy, and of the material required for a Michigan pioneer. In plowing new land for the first time, or "breaking," as it was called, the plow irons had to be frequently sharpened. At the time we speak of the nearest blacksmith was at Ionia, a distance of sixteen miles, and Mr. Chapman was obliged to carry his irons on his back the entire distance every other day. He would leave his home after the completion of his day's work, walk to Ionia and return the next morning in time to commence his day's work. In all the relations of life Mr. Chapman has done his duty. He is an indulgent husband, a kind father, and a valuable friend and neighbor. He was deacon in the Free Baptist Church of Boston twenty-one years. Both he and his wife are prominent members of the Union Evangelical Church of Boston, of which they are liberal supporters. He was one of the founders of the Hillsdale College, and has done much to advance the interests of that institution. I CAMPBELL. CAMPBELL, lying in the southwestern corner of Icnia County, is town 5 north, of range 8 west. It has Boston township on the north, Barry County on the south, Odessa township on the east, and Kent County on the west. Campbell occupies a good farming country, albeit there are many hills and some swamps. There are several small streams, but no water-power worthy the name. Morrison Lake reaches over from Boston and takes up a portion of section 2. Peddler Lake is in West Campbell, and is said to have taken its name from the circumstance of a peddler having been drowned therein at some time in the remote past. -The town boasts three post-offices and two hamlets, known respectively as Clarksville and Campbell. It has no railroad facilities within its borders, but finds market-towns and railway-stations within easy distances at 1Hastings, Lowell, and Saranac. CAMPBELL'S EARLY SETTLERS. From 1840 to 1847, Campbell boasted but one family of settlers, and they even were for some years what are commonly known as "squatters." Previous to 1840 no white man had penetrated the present six miles square called Campbell for the purpose of making a settlement therein. One reason for the delay in opening up that portion of the country may have been because settlers preferred to keep near the river, which, in the absence of roads, was the only fairly convenient method of communication with the outer world, and another may have been found in the fact that Campbell was somewhat rough and swampy. At all events, it is certain that the town was not occupied to any extent until the adjacent river-townships were pretty well dotted with inhabitants. The pioneers in Campbell's settlement appear to have been two brothers, Jeremiah and Martin Campbell, who, but recently over from Ireland, set out late in 1840 for Michigan, where they proposed to become husbandmen. Martin had a wife and family, but Jeremiah was a bachelor, and between them they had fourteen head of cattle, a few pigs, and a comfortable sum of money, the larger share of the possessions belonging to Jeremiah. Driving their stock before them they came presently to the Clinton trail, which they followed until, on Christmas day, they reached section 2 in town 5 north, of range 8 west, where, concluding to " squat," they came to a permanent halt with their goods and chattels. They may have stopped there because they were tired, or they may have seen something about the lay of the land that suggested the presence of a desirable place of settlement, but the fact that they squatted upon the land and failed to make a purchase of it until some years afterwards would appear to indicate that they chose the locality because of its distance from human habitations, as well as 27 for the promise apparent that they were not likely to be disturbed right away. As to that, as well as to the general circumstances of the coming of the Campbells, their settlement, and their experiences after they did settle, the historian can give but vague information at best, since there is now in the town not one of their kith or kin. Martin moved to California in the early days of the gold-hunting era, and Jeremiah, after living in Campbell a bachelor's life all his days, died in 1878 full of years. The Campbells were by no means energetic pioneers, but were rather content to maintain an easy existence, satisfied to gain a meagre living without worrying themselves to clear land or weary themselves with arduous labors. They lived in a shanty, raised a few swine, tilled the soil sufficiently to supply their own wants, and for the rest deferred the exercise of more emphatic industry until the country should become populated and furnished-with better conveniences for transporting agricultural products. For seven years they lived an isolated existence, far from civilization, and probably not at all solicitous to be any nearer. The only road they had besides the Clinton trail was a straggling, rough path to Saranac, whither they went once in a while to buy such necessaries as were absolutely imperative. In 1847, or seven years after the advent of the Campbells, the town received its first healthful push forward in the way of pioneer development, for it was not until that year that it gained settlers who took hold with a will, as if they intended to do something towards conquering the forest wilds. (Oliver Hess had come over from Boston in 1846 and put up a shanty on section 8, but he did not stop long enough or do enough to be regarded as a permanent settler then. He came back in after-years and moved to the place he first improved, where he still resides.) The settlers of 1847 to whom reference has been made in the foregoing were Amasa Nash and Marvil Church. Church was a carpenter, and came from New York State to Boston township in 1839, to build for James Hutchinson the first framed house put up in Boston. He lived in Boston and other localities until May, 1847, when he moved to section 10 in Campbell, where he had bought land. When he came to take possession, he found on section 10 the body of a log house that had been put up by Amasa Nash, who was then away after his family. Two weeks after Church got in Nash came back with his family, and moved into the roofless, doorless, and windowless cabin. As soon as Nash and Church got fairly domiciled they took measures for the construction of a decent road that would let them out to some base of supplies, and after the road matter was arranged they turned towards the task of clearing land. Mr. Nash, who had been pioneering in the State since 1836, had the company of his four sons, Calvin, 209 210 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. Marcus, Charles, and Edwin, each of whom became himself a settler in a short time. Next in order after the Campbell, Nash, and Church families, the settlement was increased during 1847 by Joseph Whitney, with whom came also William Mercer, his nephew, now a banker at Saranac. Mr. Mercer spent a year in Boston township, from 1842 to 1843, in the employment of James J. Hoag, at Waterville, whence in 1843 he returned to New York State, and came no more to Michigan until he accompanied Mr. Whitney to Campbell, in 1847. A. H. Bushnell, who came from Oakland County in 1848 to section 2 in Campbell, found in town the Campbells, Marvil Church, Amasa Nash, Alvin Briggs, Joseph Whitney, and Mr. Nash's sons, Calvin, Marcus, Edwin, and Charles. These settlers lived upon sections 2, 3, 10, and 15. South of section 15 there had been no attempt at settlement, and indeed no commencement in the town except upon the four sections named. To quote William Mercer, in his recollections of his pioneering experience in Campbell, the country was new." Continuing, he remarks upon the same subject, ( "Well, I rather guess you would have thought there was some newness and some roughness about that stretch of territory if, as I did, you had gone out of a morning and encountered a bear on the highway, or, aroused at night by the noise of swine, had rushed out towards the pig-pen and found Sir Bruin making off with a pig in his arms." As to the incident touching the bear and pigs, Mr. Mercer has keen recollections of coming upon a bear who was industriously at work eating his way through a fine live hog. Mercer went hastily for an axe, and did, indeed, resolve to do battle with the bear for the possession of the porker; but the bear, snuffing danger, moved away. Mercer was quite willing to have him go. Apropos of bear-stories, room must be made for one from the lips of the widow of George Fish, now living on section 20, to which she came with her husband in the fall of 1853. It was in September, 1855, that, during the prevalence of a terrific thunder-storm, in the dead of night, she awakened Mr. Fish with the intelligence that there was " a bear in the pig-pen." Pigs werb precious property just about then, and the prospective loss of one was something well calculated to bring the owner to the rescue in double-quick, whatever the circumstances. Not only Mr. Fish, but his wife and ten-year-old boy sprang to the front on this occasion. Fish snatched his gun, Mrs. Fish armed herself with the family axe, and the lad, bound to take a hand, clutched a pitchfork, which happened to be the weapon nearest at hand. The procession moved in good but hurried order towards the pig-pen, whence came distressing and convincing cries in evidence that the bear was bravely improving his opportunity and filling himself with fresh pork at the same time. The attacking party heeded not the storm, the pelting rain, or the bellowing thunder, but pressed on to the assault. They were upon the bear before fairly aware of it, and bang I went Mr. Fish's gun. The bear knew then the time had come for him to quit eating and take to running. Seeing no other way out of the trouble except to run the gauntlet of his foes, he made a bold rush for liberty, and, although Fish tried to club him and Mrs. Fish to axe him, while the boy did his best to pitchfork him, the brute got away, leaving, however, behind him a hog so badly lacerated and dissected that he was dispatched forthwith as the only means of saving his carcass for food. The bear, it appears, made off for a neighboring swamp, where he doubtless fancied he might be permitted to rest in peace. Unfortunately for him, Fish was determined to get even on the night's adventure, and so the following day he got together a hunting-party, surrounded the swamp, captured the game, and bore him homeward, dead, to grace his own and other larders for days to come. In June, 1853, Maxwell Ludlow and his son Horace located upon section 20, and them Mr. Fish found there when he got in. Upon section 18, where the widow of Darius Freeman lives, Mr. Freeman settled in October, 1853. He came with his family by the way of Bowne, and having to cut his road to his place from a point a half-mile west of the county-line, was a week in finishing the job, although liberally assisted by neighboring settlers. He was six weeks engaged in putting up a shanty, his family meanwhile stopping in Bowne, and when they did move into it, it had old blankets in the places of doors and windows, and was otherwise a lonesome, dreary, and about half-finished human habitation. Freeman's nearest neighbor at the period of his settlement was Matthew Hammond, one mile and a half eastward, while directly north or south there was not an inhabitant in the town. The only road in his vicinity was the one he cut out to get to his land. There had been, a half-mile to the westward, a road running off towards Hastings, but at that time it was washed out and choked up, and consequently impassable. Mrs. Freeman remembers quite distinctly that, late as it was, they had a pretty hard and lonesome time, and that the wolves used to howl of nights about their shanty until it did seem to her as if living in the woods, away from human beings, surrounded by wild beasts, and compelled to work like beavers for the simplest necessaries of life, was too much for flesh and blood to endure. They stood it, however, and when affairs began to brighten as the country began to fill up they were prepared to appreciate a pleasanter and more human-like condition of things. About the fall of 1854 the neighborhood grew more populous and saw the coming of W. G. Forman, followed by Leander Hooper, Mr. Hoover, D. C. Hooper, the Coons, Osborns, C. H. Curtiss, Edward Minard, Isaac Gibson, and others. Mr. Freeman died in 1872, upon the place he first occupied. Over in the Fish neighborhood the settlers in 1853 included Orrin Burleigh, in section 20, and, on Duck Creek, Lyman Stillwell and Edward Hayes. In 1854, Nathan Todd came to section 16 for a settlement, and, finding no road leading to his place, made one as fast as he could. Over on the east town-line, in section 24, John Ryder settled in 1859 upon the place now occupied by Wallace Lovewell, whose father ranked among the earliest settlers in Woodland, Barry Co. In 1853, Stephen White, with his three sons, William H., Amasa, and Sanford, made settlements upon sections 1 and 2. Leroy A. Scoville located in 1854 upon land in section 3, first improved by CAMPBELL. 211 I Thomas Q. Frost, and, in the spring of 1854, Alva McCormick moved to the place in section 10 first settled by Marvil Church, who in that year made a change to section 5, where his son Robert now lives. In November, 1854, Elijah Trowbridge came to section 4, and previous to Elijah's coming by a few months his brother Elisha settled upon section 5, in which neighborhood also James Trowbridge, William Trowbridge, Jesse Drew, and Jacob Baumgardner made settlements about the same time. There are in the town a good many Germans, who did not, however, begin to come in until the country was pretty well cleared. They are more plentiful in the southern portion, where they have a church of the denomination known as Dunkards. There is also a church of that kind in the northwest. These two societies own the only two church-buildings in the town. The first school in Campbell was taught by Sarah Platt, in a log building erected by the Nash brothers and occupying a site on Marvil Church's land in section 10. The first child born in Campbell was John, son of Martin Campbell, whose birth occurred in 1843. The first death was that of John Calvin Church, son of Marvil Church. lie died in 1851, and was buried upon his father's farm, whence his remains were subsequently removed to the Boston burying-ground. The first mill was a saw-mill erected on Duck Creek, on the site now known as Gifford's. The water-power never was of much value, and in dry seasons failed utterly. Grist-mill there has not been in Campbell, nor manufactory of any kind save a cheese-factory that had but a brief existence. Campbell's first physician resident in the town was one 'Dr. Lyon, who came in before 1860 and departed after a brief residence. Nelson Wixson, living at Campbell Postoffice, was an early settler in Boston, and in 1861 began to practice in Campbell. Since then, with the exception of two years, he has continued to minister to afflicted humanity in the township and outlying districts. At this present writing the physicians in the town are four in number,Wixson, Sergeant, Hess, and Alden. In 1868, Chauncey Townsend, living on the eastern town-line, suicided to escape from what he was pleased to term a world of care. Domestic trouble was supposed to be at the bottom of the affair. While at Saranac one day he bought a dose of poison, and en route towards his home swallowed the fatal draught. By the time he reached his residence he was dying, and breathed his last shortly after. RESIDENT TAX-PAYERS IN CAMPBELL, 1849. Acres. Amasa Nash, section 10.................................... 80 Calvin Nash, section 10............................ 120 Marcus R. Nash, section 15..................... 80 Marvil Church, section 10.................... 80 Jeremiah Campbell, section 3............................. 80 Martin Campbell, section 2..................... 40 A. H. Bushnell, section 2.................................. 80 C. M. Bushnell, section 11...................... 80 Thomas Q. Frost, section 9..................... 40 Henry Briggs, section 9................................... 40 William Mercer, section 15........................... 80 Joseph S. Whitney, section 15........................... 120 THE VOTERS IN 1849, 1850, AND 1854. At the general election of Nov. 6, 1849, the votes cast numbered nine. The voters were Amasa Nash, A. H. Bushnell, Jeremiah Canpbell, Wm. Mercer, Calvin Nash, Marcus R. Nash, Edwin Nash, Martin Campbell, and Orson Hatch. At the general election in 1850 the voters numbered sixteen. They were named as follows: Alvin Briggs, Thos. Q. Frost, Calvin Nash, Edwin Nash, Charles Nash, Joseph S. Whitney, Jacob Brotherton, Judson Hilton, Morris J. Hammond, A. H. Bushnell, James G. Bushnell, Marvil Church, William Mercer, Jeremiah Campbell, Amasa Nash, Martin Campbell. In 1854 there were forty-two voters. Their names were James Dakin, John Niles, Jas. G. Bushnell, David Demera, Abram Ketcham, R. D. Hudson, Chauncey Townsend, Hiram Kirby, A. S. White, O. W. Stover, George W. Groves, MI. J. Hammond, Seth Whitney, M. R. Nash, D. S. Curdy, Chas. Darby, Stephen White, Henry Groves, Robert Church, John V. Coon, Marvil Church, Orson Hatch, Edwin Doty, Joseph S. Whitney, T. W. Noyes, Maxwell Ludlow, C. C. Vantassel, A. H. Bushnell, James F. Chambers, C. AI. Bushnell, Alva McCormick, Truman Darby, Sr., Martin Campbell, Jeremiah Campbell, James Bushnell, Alvin Briggs, Hiram K. Noyes, N. K. Noyes, Jesse Drew, Amasa Nash, H. L. Brown, David Stover. TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION. Campbell was a portion of Boston township until March 15, 1849, when it was detached by act of Legislature and called by its present name in response to a general desire that such honor be paid to Martin and Jeremiah Campbell, the town's first settlers. At the meeting in Marvil Church's house for the purpose of fixing upon a name for the proposed township, Mr. Church put forward the name of Winnifred, in remembrance of Martin Campbell's wife Winnifred, the first white woman to make-her home in the town. Mr. Church, reconsidering the suggestion, replaced it with a proposition to call the town Wanford, as less likely to intrude upon Mrs. Campbell's retiring avoidance of notoriety, and yet enough like her name to preserve its recollection; for, said he, "Wanford is the next thing to Winnifred." To this William Mercer replied, "1 Ol, no! the next thing to Winnifred is Campbell," and, it being thereupon generally supported that the first settlers of the ~town ought to be conspicuously 'honored in such a way, Campbell was settled upon as the name. Some person had previously urged " Nashville," as a means of extending a tribute to Amasa Nash, but the influence in favor of Campbell was too strong to be overcome. Pending the first town-meeting, Amasa Nash, who was looking after the supervisorship, called on Joseph Whitney, whom he found with William Mercer, building fence. "Friend Whitney," remarked Nash, "you are just the man for a justice of the peace, and I guess we'll have to put you in." " Well," replied Whitney, " I don't want to be either justice of the peace or a holder of any other office." "That's a pity," was Nash's response, " for you ought to be willing to serve your town. Now, I'm not like you, for I do want an office: I want to be supervisor." William Mercer, then but a young man, assured Nash they would do all they could for him; but, unknown to Mercer himself, the townsfolk had decided to make him their supervisor, and, as will be seen, elected him. 212 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. I The first town-meeting was directed to be held at the house of Marvil Church, and was so held on the first Monday in April, 1849. Amasa Nash was chosen moderator, Alexander H. Bushnell clerk, and William Mercer and Marcus R. Nash inspectors. It was voted that a bounty of four dollars should be paid for the killing of a wolf, that fifty dollars should be raised for highway purposes, seventy-five dollars for township expenses, and one dollar on each scholar for the support of schools. The whole number of votes for township officers aggregated fourteen, and the officers elected were as follows: Supervisor, William Mercer; Clerk, A. H. Bushnell; Treasurer, Amasa Nash; Justices of the Peace, Alvin Briggs, Amasa Nash, and Jeremiah Campbell; School Inspectors, William Mercer and Marcus R. Nashi; Highway Commissioners, Joseph S. Whitney, Calvin Nash, and Martin Campbell; Overseers of the Poor, Marvil Church and Joseph S. Whitney; Constables, Thomas Q. Frost and Henry Briggs; Overseer of Highways, Edwin Nash. Following will be found the names of the persons chosen annually from 1850 to 1880 to be supervisors, clerks, treasurers, and justices of the peace: SUPERVISORS. 1850-51, William Mercer; 1852, 0. Hatch; 1853, W. Mercer; 1854, M. Ludlow; 1855-57, R. D. Hudson; 1858, A. H. Bushnell; 1859'-60, J. Sinclair; 1861-62, A. H. Bushnell; 1863-64, I. Gibson; 1865-66, J. Sinclair; 1867, D. A. Richards; 1868-70, E. P. Gifford; 1871-72, J. B. Post; 1873, A. H. Bushnell; 1874, H. R. Welker; 1875-77, E. P. Gifford; 1878, D. C. Hooper; 1879 -80, J. Mick. CLERKS. 1850-52, A. H. Bushnell; 1853, 0. Hatch; 1854, A. HI. Bushnell; 1855, J. Dakin; 1856, A. H. Bushnell; 1857, C. C. Vantassel; 1858, A. A. Merrill; 1S:9, M. T. Merrill; 186J, 11. R. Brjwn; 1861, E. D. Jennings; 1862, J. Sinclair; 1863-64, E. 11. Whitney; 1865-66, W. Scott; 1867, N. Wixson; 1868-69, 3. B. Post; 1870-72, E. H. Whitney; 1873-74, L. P. Townsend; 1875-76, J. M. Lawson; 1877, J. B. Post; 1878, C. Sullivan; 1879-80, C. L. Howard. TREASURERS. 1850-51, M. Church; 1852, G. W. Groves; 1853, C. Darby; 1854, M. Hammond; 1855, O. W. Stover; 1856, D. S. Curdy; 1857, I. Gibson; 1858, M. If. Alden; 1859, I. Gibson; 1860-61, S. P. Dillingham; 1862-63, A. S. White; 1864, J. Sinclair; 1865-67, A. S. White; 1868-70, N. Todd; 1871, William Hewit; 1872, N. Todd; 1873, O. O. Adams; 1874, William Hewit; 1875-77, N. Todd; 1878, 0. Markham; 1879-80, A. S. Burleigh. JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. 1850, J. Campbell; 1851, M. J. Hammond; 1852, J. F. Chambers; 1853, George W. Groves; 1854, R. D. Iudson; 1855, J. V. Coon; 1856, S. White; 1857, A. McCormick; 1858, Z. Finch; 1859, I. Brotherton; 1860, E. D. Jennings; 1861, George Bronson; 1862, N. Wixson; 1863, R. 0. Church; 1864, E. D. Jennings; 1865, William Kelly; 1866, N. Wixson; 1867, E. P. Gifford; 1868, A. E. Griffith; 1869, A. Burt; 1870, J. B. Post; 1871, Joseph Briggs; 1872, R. Canfield; 1873, A. E. Griffith; 1874, J. B. Post; 1875, J. Briggs; 1876, D. C. Hooper; 1877, George Darby; 1878, E. E. Witbeck; 1879, J. B. Post; 1880, L. A. Scoville. TREASURER'S REPORT FOR 1849. RECEIPTS. School money............................................... $27.95 Library...................................................... 5.37 Highway................................... 22.61 $55 93 * One hundred and sixteen votes polled. PAID. Brought forward........................................... $55.93 School money.................................. $27.95 Library.............................................. 5.00 Highway.......................................... 22.61 55.56 Balance......................................37 RECEIPTS. Township money.......................................... $75.00 Library..................................................... 13.84 School money............................................... 28.00 H ighway..................................................... 134.46 State and county.......................................... 131.61 Collector's fees............................................ 15.48 $398.39 PAID. Orders and treasurer's fees.................... $48.54 Receipt from county treasurer............... 343.91 392.45 Balance town money in treasurer's hands... $5.94 TOWNSHIP ROADS. According to the township records of Boston, the first road laid in town 5 north, range 8 west (Campbell), was surveyed March 18, 1840, by Thomas Cornell, county surveyor. It commenced at a post set in the line of the " W. S. A." road marked ninety-two miles, in town 5, and pursued the following course: 1st, north twenty-three degrees west fifty-five chains to a hickory-tree twelve inches south twenty-three degrees east five links. 2d, north forty-one and one-fourth degrees west ten chains sixty-seven links to a lyme-tree sixteen inches south fortythree and one-half degrees west thirty-six links. 3d, north twenty-five and two-thirds degrees east three chains sixty links to a bush eighteen inches south twenty-five and twotwirds degrees west three links. The second road was surveyed by Albert Clement, deputy county surveyor, Nov. 13, 1840, and commenced at the quarter-stake on the west line of section 2, whence it extended half a mile north on the section-line to the town-line. The third road was laid by Albert Clement, deputy county surveyor, Oct. 21, 1841. It commenced at the township-line between ranges 7 and 8, at a stake set sixteen rods south of the quarter-post on the east side of section 12, in town 5 north, range 8 west, and running north seventy-three degrees west one hundred and twenty-eiglht chains; thence south fifty-nine degrees west eleven chains twenty-five links, north seventy-three degrees west one hundred chains, north forty-eight degrees west ninety chains, north twenty-three degrees west twenty-five chains to section-line; thence north on section-line forty chains to the quarter-post on the west side of section 2, town 5 north, range 8 west. The fourth road was laid March 3,1844, and, commencing at the northwest corner of section 3, ran south one mile to the southwest corner of said section, and thence east to the southeast corner of the same section. That portion of the Clinton road between Jackson and Saranac included in towns 5 and 6 north was surveyed June 12, 1845, and laid by Highway Commissioners Timothy White and Harvey Williams. COPY OF RECORD. "Survey of a road in the township of Boston, in town 5 north, range 8 west, commencing at the quarter-stake on the north side of CAMPBELL. 213 I I section 3, and running south through centre of section 3 in town 5, the course, by the true meridian in town 5 south, (1) degree east. "Variation of compass from the true meridian three and one-half degrees. "Surveyed Aug. 2, 1847. "JEDEDIAH BROWN, " County Surveyor." "Survey of a road in 'he township of Boston, commencing at the quarter-stake on the north side of section 10, in town 5 north, range 8 west, and running south on quarter-line five miles to the quarterstake on the south side of section 34, town 5 north, range 8 west, on the county-line between Barry and Ionia Coun'y; also another road commencing at the southeast corner of section 34, town 5 north, of range 8 west, and running north on section-line five miles to the corner of sections 2, 3, 10, and 11. "Surveyed March 9, 1848. "A. CLEMENT, " Suerveyor." CHURCHES. The first religious services held in Campbell were observed in the log school-house built by the sons of Amasa Nash in the centre of section 10. In that log schoolhouse, too, Rev. Mr. Kennard, a preacher of the United Brethren persuasion, formed the first religious organization known in the history of the township. Among the organizing members of that class were Amasa Nash and wife, Mrs. Alden, and Mr. and Mrs. John Coon. Rev. Mr. Haskins, who succeeded Elder Kennard as the pastor, soon left, and attempted with but poor success to organize in the town a church of the denomination known as the Church of God. The United Brethren Class did not maintain itself very long, but became gradually absorbed in other church organizations. A Methodist Episcopal Class, now worshiping at the Lake school-house, on section 9, was organized about 1865, and since then has maintained regular periodical services. There are now about twenty members, and there is also a Sabbath-scllool in connection with the church, having an average attendance of from fifty to sixty scholars. Sunday-school exercises and preaching are held every Sunday. The class-leader is Elisha Trowbridge, and the pastor Rev. J. E. Hollister, in charge of the Saranac Circuit. The superintendent of the Sunday school is Leroy P. Rounds. A Wesleyan Methodist Class was organized by Rev. D. A. Richards in 1865, and attached to the Campbell Circuit. The membership, which numbered about twenty at the outset, is now about twenty-five. Mr. Richards has preached for the church since 1865, except for a period of two years, and is still the pastor. Services are held fortnightly in Howard's Hall, at Clarksville. A. J. Jepson is class-leader and superintendent of the Sunday-school. In the latter the attendance averages about fifty. The German Baptists (or Dunkards, as they are commonly called) have a church-edifice on the south town-line, in section 34. It was built in 1869, and was for ten years the only church-building in the town. It is now one of the only two. The members of the church had occasional public worship at one another's residences from 1867 to 1869, when the increased membership warranted the erection of the present house. The preaching was at first obtained whenever and from wherever it was possible, but was furnished mainly by preachers from La Grange Co., Ind. The ministers at present are Joseph Winey and Isaac Rairigh, of Campbell, who supply between them one sermon each fortnight. There are from fifty to sixty members, who give church affairs an encouraging support. The deacons are Samuel Groff and George Kepner. Henry Hahn is superintendent of the Sunday-school, which has about forty scholars. The United Presbyterians of Eastern Campbell formed an organization about 1871, and since then have held meetings at the school-house east of Hewitt's Corners. The membership is now twenty-two. Rev. N. A. Whitehill, of Bowne, preaches every Sunday. The elders are William A. Gray and Robert Richardson. A union Sunday-school, held each Sabbath in the same school-house, is in charge of William A. Gray and a corps of five teachers, and accommodates about forty scholars. Once a month the Dunkards hold services in the Hewitt school-house, as do the Mennonites with similar frequency. The second of the only two church-buildings in the town belongs also to a Dunkard Society. It was erected in 1879, and stands on the town-line, in the northwestern portion of the town. Rev. George Long is the pastor. The Mennonites have met regularly as an organization at the school-house on section 8 since 1872. The preacher is Rev. George Lampert. SCHOOL DISTRICTS. School District No. 1 included originally sections 2, 11, 14, 3, 10, and 15. Oct. 24, 1849, sections 9, 22, and 13 were added. Nov. 6, 1852, section 13 was detached and section 12 substituted. No. 2 was formed March 14, 1854, of sections 19, 20, 21, 28, and the north halves of 29 and 30. March 20, 1855, No. 2 was changed to No. 3. A new No. 1 was organized March 20, 1855, and consisted of sections 1, 12, 13, 14, 11, and 2, excepting the west half of the southwest quarter of section 11. There was also added the northeast quarter of the southeast quarter and southeast quarter of the northeast quarter of section 3. On the same day a new No. 2 was formed of sections 3, 10, 15, 22, 4, 9, 16, and the west half of the southwest quarter of section 11 (except the northeast quarter of the southeast quarter of the latter) and the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter of section 3. District No. 4 was formed May 13, 1856, of sections 5, 6, 7, 8,17, 18, the west half of section 4, the west half of the northwest quarter of section 9, the southwest quarter of section 9, the northwest quarter of section 16, the southwest quarter of the northeast quarter of section 16, and the south half of section 16, except the south half of the southeast quarter of said section 16. District No. 5 was formed Aug. 20, 1856, of the south half of section 22, the south half of section 23, the south half of section 24, and all of sections 27, 26, 25, 34, 35, 36. District No. 6, of Campbell and Odessa, was formed May 4, 1858, containing sections 24, 25, and 36 of Campbell, and sections 19, 30, 31, and the west halves of sections 20, 29, and 32 in Odessa. The annual school report for 1879 gives the following: 214 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. Directors. Enumeration. Dist. 1......A. A. Merrill. 63 2.....L. Scoville. 96 " 3......William Preston. 60 " 4......W. E. Bumford. 75 5......J. G. Winey. 75 " 6.....W. A. Gray. 93 7......H. Benedict. 53 " 8.....C S. Rosenberger. 78 Total...............593 Average Attendance. 42 67 54 60 59 93 34 66 475 Value Property. $250 500 900 1200 700 700 1000 950 $6200 Teachers' Wages. $156 168 153 157 156 221 183 248 $1442 SCHOOL-TEACHERS. From 1849 to 1860 the appointments of school-teachers in the town were as follows: Dec. 3, 1849, Sarah L. Platt; May 6, 1850, Louisa Chipman; April 12, 1851, Delia A. Noyes; Dec. 11, 1851, D. C. Ingersen; May 15, 1852, Serepta Train; Dec. 11, 1852, John T. Gould; Nov. 4, 1854, Evert Brokaw; March 20, 1855, Mary McCormick; May 17, 1856, Emily Noyse; May 20, 1856, Mary Thomas; May 26, 1856, Lydia Abbott; June 24, 1856, Harriet E. Taylor; Nov. 2, 1856, John Gould; Nov. 22, 1856, Sarah McCormick; May 2, 1857, Mary Richards; May 19, 1857, Mary McCormick; May 25, 1857, Sarah E. Ritch; June 13, 1857, Matilda Frisbie, Betsy Ann Austin; Nov. 13, 1857, Phoebe Ann Yules; Dec. 1, 1857, Andrew Merrill; Dec. 28, 1857, Anna M. Fay; April 24, 1858, Sarah Gilbert; May 15, 1858, Sarah Wood; Nov. 6, 1858, Ellen Smith; Nov. 16, 1858, Amelia Richards, Mary E. Richards; Dec. 4, 1858, Sarah Messer; April 16,1859, Mary McCormick, Emma Nash; May 2, 1859, Mary Harvey; May 4,1859, Lucy Center; Nov. 12, 1859, Sarah McCormick; Nov. 21, 1859, Mary E. Fay, Charles Brown; Dec. 8, 1859, Henry R. Brown; Dec. 11, 1859, Rosiaa Pratt; April 14, 1860, Emma Finch; May 7, 1860, Caroline Harvey; May 28, 1860, Martha M. Clark; Aug. 3, 1860, Henry R. Brown; Nov. 12, 1860, Mary Jane Cramer; Dec. 1, 1860, Andrew Merrill. WEST CAMPBELL POST-OFFICE. Campbell township is well supplied with post-offices, for three such places would appear to be a good supply. They are Clarksville, Campbell, and West Campbell. Each is not more than three miles removed from the other. West Campbell post-office was established in 1868, when Isaac Gibson was appointed postmaster. Mr. Gibson opened a store about that time on section 17, where he has kept store and post-office to the present day. Unlike Clarksville and Campbell, there is at West Campbell no pretense towards a village. Just north of Gibson's store is the steam saw-mill of Mark Shanks, who used to manufacture oars in connection with his millbusiness. Mr. Gibson has been a settler in Campbell since about 1855. CAMPBELL POST-OFFICE. Campbell post-office, now at "Hewitt's Corners," on Duck Creek, was the first post-office given to Campbell township, and was established in 1856, previous to which time Saranac,.South Boston, Lowell, and Hastings were the nearest points for mail-facilities. The first postmaster was Richard Hudson, who held the office from 1856 to 1858, and was succeeded by Richard Curdy, who gave way in 1861 to Alva McCormick. Alva McCormick, Jr., followed his father in 1865, and in 1868 the present incumbent, William A. Hewitt, received the appointment. In 1867, Mr. Hewitt opened at the " Corners " the first store boasted by Campbelltown, and since 1868 he has been storekeeper and postmaster at the same place, which is the residence of a physician and contains perhaps a half dozen houses. There is upon Duck Creek at this place an uncertain water-power, which is not, however, in present use. CLARKSVILLE. In 1875, C. L. Howard built a store at the corners between sections 3 and 10, where there was already a wagonshop, grange-hall, etc., and without delay secured a postoffice for the place, which was christened "Clarksville," after Howard's Christian name of " Clark." Mr. Howard is still storekeeper and postmaster at Clarksville, which contains also a second store owned by Otis S. Richards. There are also two physicians in that locality, and in the second story of Mr. Howard's store-building a Wesleyan Methodist Class meets regularly once in two weeks for public worship. There is a daily mail to and from Clarksville post-office, which lies on the route between Hastings and Lowell. It was in the neighborhood of Clarksville that the Campbells located in 1840, and near there also the Nash and Church families settled seven years later. WEST CAMPBELL GRANGE, PATRONS OF HUSBANDRY. Campbell was at one time fruitful soil for the order of the grange, but just now there does not appear to be quite so much healthful growth in that field. The Campbell and West Campbell granges flourished simultaneously for a while and then, for some not clearly definable reason, passed into a decline, which ended in the abandonment of charter by both organizations. In 1879, however, West Campbell Grange was re-created, and now, with an active membership of twenty-five, appears to be working along towards a stable condition. Meetings are held once each month at the house of J. B. Post. The officers for 1880 are J. B. Post, M.; E. D. Jennings, 0.; A. E. Griffith, L.; Mrs. E. D. Jennings, Sec.; D. C. Hooper, Treas. D A N B Y. TOWN 5 north, in range 5 west, known as Danby, occupies the southeast corner of Ionia County, having Portland township on the north, Eaton County on the south, Clinton County on the east, and Sebewa township on the west. The surface of the country is undulating and the soil mainly a sandy loam. The town is agriculturally a fruitful region and contains but little, if any, waste-land. The Grand River flows through it in a very eccentric course, dividing the town into two nearly equal parts, and touching sections 24, 25, 26, 23, 27, 22, 15, 16, 21, 28, 20, 17, 18, 8, 9, 4, and 5. Although there is mill-power on the stream within Danby it has not yet been utilized. The Looking-Glass River cuts across the northeast corner, and Sebewa Creek through sections 30 and 31, to re-enter on section 19 and empty into the Grand River. There is on the west town-line a small hamlet known as Cornell. Beyond that the town is given over exclusively to farming interests. THE PIONEERS OF DANBY. The first settler in Danby was probably Chancellor Barringer, who is said to have located as early as 1835 in section 5, upon a piece of land owned by A. S. Wadsworth. Whether the statement is strictly true or not is now scarcely capable of demonstration, since neither Barringer nor any of his kin having certain knowledge of the circumstances attendant upon his coming are within reach. It is, however, certain that Barringer lived in 1837 on the north bank of the Grand River, in section 22, upon what is now known as the J. Horner place, and that at a later day (say 1844 or thereabouts) he kept a house of entertainment at that point. How much of a tavern he kept does not appear, but it had a special name at all events, and in the town records several town-meetings are noted as having been held at " the Barringer House." In 1836, Asher Kilburn located in the bend of the Grand River, on section 8, and worked a piece of land belonging to a Mr. Jones of Detroit. In the same yearthat is to say, 1836-the first commencement was made on the south side of the Grand River by William and John Cronkrite, who made purchases of considerable land along the river, and in the summer of 1836 put up a cabin on section 21 (where J. W. Rice lives) and made a chopping. In the fall the brothers Cronkrite returned Eastward, and, in spring of 1837, William came back to Danby with his family, for the purpose of making a permanent settlement, while John, his brother, concluding that he did not want to become a Michigan pioneer after all, went to Texas, where he had formerly lived, and where he was subsequently killed. With William Cronkrite, besides his own family, came Chester Gleason (whom he brought as a farm-hand), with his family, and John Compton, Cronkrite's brother-in-law. Gleason became afterwards a settler himself, but in Portland town. Compton was out on a land-looking expedition, and while making a selection lived with Cronkrite and Gleason in the rude shanty put up the summer before by William and John Cronkrite. The quarters were of the narrowest, and when all hands-men, women-folks, and childrenassembled in the one room boasted by the hut, they were about as thickly lodged as bees in a hive. Compton picked out some land on section 33 (where he now lives), and after waiting four weeks to get a chance to enter it at the Ionia land-office, he went East to prepare for the removal of his family and possessions to the backwoods of Michigan. He hired Benjamin Silsbee to convey family and goods overland by horses and wagon to Michigan, and, as Silsbee wanted to see the country and sell his horses, the arrangement was a satisfactory one all around. They were four weeks en route from Western New York to Eagle township, in Clinton County, and at the locality known as the Niles settlement came to the end of the road, and from that point Compton " backed" goods, provisions, etc., across the county through the woods to section 33 in Danby. He reached the spot in the fall of the year, and as he had, when out in the summer, hired a man named Allen to chop five acres and sow them to wheat, he expected to find himself with a nice little start. Allen had indeed made the chopping, but failed to sow the wheat, and so the promise of a crop for the next year was a faded hope. However, Compton was glad to have a beginning of five acres laid out for him, and set himself to work with a cheery spirit and stout heart. When he raised his cabin he had the help of Cronkrite and Gleason, and of a far-off neighbor, Asher Kilburn, who came from section 8 to take part in the exercises. By February, 1838, Compton had everything in readiness, and then went to fetch in his family from the Niles settlement, where they had tarried while he prepared a home for them. Daniel Hull, Compton's father-in-law, came with him, and brought also a bushel of apple-seed, which he planted straightway, and produced the first orchard in the town. From -that orchard went out afterwards supplies for many an orchard round about. Mr. Compton claims to have built the first framed barn in the township (in 1839), and says that among those at the raising were the Newmans and others from Portland. He claims also that his framed house, put up in 1844, was the first one of the kind built in Danby. Mr. Compton grew to be a man of considerable consequence in the settlement, and, besides being the moving spirit in the pioneer religious organization, the first postmaster, and a preacher and teacher among the Indians in Danby, was recognized as a man of medicine among the 215 216 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. whites, who, especially during the fever-and-ague seasons, besieged him by night and by day with calls for medical help, and thus, owing to the exigencies of the times, he became a doctor in spite of himself. Not that he had studied medicine, but when he came out he brought a medicine chest for family use, and when fever and ague played havoc he was naturally called upon by sufferers for such simple remedies as would meet demands. From that he drifted into prescribing, and almost before he knew it he was a country doctor with a practice that left him scarcely any time to attend to his own pressing affairs, while, as to pay for his doctoring, he probably never thought of asking for any. He doctored three or four years, and then decided that he must give up practicing or abandon pioneering. As pioneering was likely to pay him better, he threw physic to the dogs, and pushed on as a practical subduer of forests and tiller of the soil. In the spring of 1837 the northern portion of the township received also further additions to its settlement in the families of Charles G. and Willard L. Brooks, who settled on section 3. They journeyed with W. R. Churchill and family from Jackson, via the Grand River, in a scow, and before they reached their destination they met with many a mishap and more than once came within an ace of coming to a sudden end in the murky waters of the rapidly rolling stream. It was during the month of April that they thus traveled, and, the river being bank-full after a more than ordinarily severe spring freshet, navigation with a scow upon the hastening tide was not boy's play by any means. Running upon hidden rocks, snags, etc., was a not infrequent performance, and, as there was always danger of either sinking or being swamped, it may be easily conceived the occupants of the craft were far from happy during the voyage and immensely satisfied when it came to an end. Isaiah G. Frost, still remaining in Danby as a venerated survivor of the days of '38, came to the town with his family on the 14th of July in that year and located a home in the woods on section 11, where he now lives upon a handsome farm of one hundred and sixty acres. Mr. Frost found in that part of the town Abijah Schoff on section 1, Willard and Charles G. Brooks on section 3, and Asher Kilburn on section 8. Schoff came in doubtless some time early in 1837.* The place he occupied is now included in the farm of R. G. Abbey, on the southeast quarter of section 1. Among Mr. Schoff's farm-hands was A. C. Davis, now a farmer on section 3 and one of the early comers to Portland, where he took a hand in the pioneer saw-mill business. Mr. Frost came from Detroit to Danby through the wilderness by way of De Witt, in Clinton County. He started from Detroit with a pair of horses, but at Scott's, in Dc Witt, the beasts were not only utterly exhausted, but mired into the bargain, and it was as much as Scott and those about were able to do to get the animals out alive and save the goods. At Scott's exchanging his horses for two yoke of oxen, Frost managed to get through to Danby, after having been ten days making the trip from Detroit. He traveled over the so-called Grand River turnpike, but so vague a highway was it that he could not always trace its course and frequently lost his way. In the Frost neighborhood the early settlers included also Horace Peake and his brother, Chester Davenport, John Storm, A. J. Potter, and the Barnards. For about ten years after the arrival of Mr. Frost there were, however, but few additions to the settlement in his vicinity. They lived long in the wilderness, and saw few faces except those of Indians or heard few sounds save the howls of hungry wolves. Mr. Frost has lived in Danby from 1838 to the present time, except for the space of four years, when, from 1844 to 1848, he was county treasurer. Among the early settlers south of the river were John D. Brown and Nathan H. Wyman (who came in 1839 from Indiana with ox-teams), James D. Norris, Elias Bailey, Benjamin Horner, Joshua Bailey, James Burns, J. R. David, P. R. Comfort, E. P. Miner, H. H. Allman, Loren Sears, Patrick Murtaugh, and Isaac De Witt. Caleb Fulkerson, who came with John Compton as a farm-hand in 1837, settled in a little while on section 32. Off in the northwest corner of the town the first settlement was made in 1840 by Reuben Hopkins, who remarks that he found things " pretty wild" thereabout at that particular period, and, indeed, for some time afterwards. His first neighbors in that part of the town were William Hogle, Orrin Merchant, and Edward Sanborn, who were not long after Hopkins in making their clearings. Portland was the milling-place for all of Danby's early settlers. Those living in the north were especially fortunate in being able to get to mill without much trouble, and, what made matters still more agreeable in that direction, Willard Brooks and A. F. Bell laid a road about 1838 from Portland up by the Brooks settlement, and so on to the river. Settlers on the south side of the stream had, however, to take the river as their highway to mill, and not infrequently would hitch a pair of oxen to a canoe and drive overland through the woods with a grist. The first birth in Danby was that of Jane E., daughter of John Compton. She was born April 30, 18:38, and lives now in Eaton County as Mrs. Sylvanus Peabody. The second birth appears to have been that of Charles Brooks, Aug. 28, 1838. It is alleged by some that the first death was that of the wife of Abijah Schoff, who died some time in 1838 and was buried on her husband's farm on section 1. It is, however, strongly probable that the first death was that of Martha, daughter of William' Cronkrite. The date of Mrs. Schoff's death cannot be fixed, but that of Martha Cronkrite can, at April 21, 1838. She was but five years of age, and was burned to death at a flaming brush-heap near which she was playing. It is related that the first man buried in the town was William Cummings, and that when he was lowered into the grave (whither he was conveyed on an ox-sled) the only halter the settlement owned was brought into requisition as the best substitute for a needed rope. The town records show that the cemetery on section 28 was bought of Horace F. Peake, March 7, 1851, and that the first sexton appointed was John Rice. The first post-office established in Danby was Danby post-office, about 1844. John Compton was appointed * It is claimed in a published history that Schoff settled in 1831, and that he was the first white man in Danby. DANBY. 217 I the first postmaster, and remained in charge for about twenty years thereafter, except for the space of two years, when John T. Cahoon, living a mile east of Compton, was' the incumbent. Compton's other successors, aside from Cahoon, were Redding Sargent, J. R. David, John Hovey, and Samuel F. David, the present incumbent. Mail is now received tri-weekly from Portland. INDIAN SETTLEMENTS. When the whites began to settle on the south side of the river in Danby they found on the river, in section 22, an Indian village of considerable pretensions as to size and fashion, peopled by perhaps a hundred and fifty Ottawas and Chippewas. Their village* was known variously as Mishshiminecon, Chiininecon, and Michimmey Cahniny, but meaning, according to the English interpretation, " sour apple-tree,"' or "apple-orchard." These Indians seemed to have chosen the place as a permanent habitation, or at all events as a locality where they remained steadily for some months each year. They raised corn and were particularly busy in the spring at sugar-making, but beyond those pursuits they cared not to pursue the subject of labor. Getting drunk and indulging in wild tom-tom dances seemed to be their chief delight and pastimes, and, as they found it no trouble to procure whisky from Indian traders, they could drink to their heart's content. Their tom-tom dances lasted generally two or three days, and as they succeeded in making a good deal of noise, and grew noisier and drunker as the ceremonies progressed, the whites used to get just a little nervous for fear the drunken orgies might result in a desire for a quarrel with the settlers. Happily the savages confined their demonstrations to the limits of their village, and at no time manifested an inclination to harm their pale-faced neighbors. There was a graveyard at the village on section 22, and until a few years ago traces of the burial-places could be seen, but now no sign marks the spot. In this connection the recollection of John Compton is suggested to the effect that an Indian woman who happened to die while coming with a party of savages from Portland to the village was tied to a pony's tail and thus dragged over the ground the rest of the way home. According to an Indian's philosophy, it probably made no difference to a dead person whether the conveyance was by means of a rope and a pony's tail or by the more exalted method of a funeral car. The Indians cultivated quite a patch of land on the riverbottom in section 22, and got along, after Indian fashion, until about 1846, when Manasseh Hickey, a Methodist missionary, ventured among them in the hope that he might do something towards converting them to Christianity. At the time of his coming the savages were passing through one of their periodical drunken carousals, and were at first inclined to resent his appearance with violence. Seeing that it would not be policy to press himself upon them at that time, Hickey retired, leaving with them, however, the interpreters he brought with him, Joseph and Mary his wife. The interpreters so mollified the Indians that they consented to have Hickey preach to them, and he, returning at summons, delivered, through his interpreter, a sermon - The name of this village was generally spelled by the best informed of the early settlers Peshimnacon or Peshimnecon.-ED. 28 T. that pleased his dusky auditors so well they besought him to come again. Thus the missionary work among the Indians was begun with a promise of encouragement. John Compton took a hand also in the work and assisted Hickey in preaching, while the interpreters Mary and Joseph inaugurated schoolteaching among them. Seed being thus sown and a harvest promised, Hickey persuaded the Indians to make an effort to become bona fide settlers and husbandmen, in imitation of the white people; in other words, he proposed to civilize them. Religion had already entered into the savage soul and not a few had been converted either by Hickey or at a camp-meeting at Charlotte, to which a large number repaired in 1846 or '47, and they were accordingly ready to encourage HIickey's laudable efforts. They therefore empowered Hickey to buy land for them, and he made at once a purchase of Mr. Fitch, of Portland, of one hundred and eight acres in the bend of the river on section 21, the property now known as the Ingalls farm. The land was laid out into twenty lots and the Indians applied themselves forthwith to the business of making clearings, building log houses, and tilling the soil. The village took on the name of Mishshiminecon, in remembrance of the old village on section 22, and as time passed by the savages gravitated slowly into a civilized existence, dressed and lived like white folks. and followed the pursuits of agriculture with considerable zeal and a remarkable industry. Their chiefs were Dayomac and Manuquod, while among otherssomewhat prominent were Onewanda, Nacquit, Negumwatin, Sisshebee, Nikkenashwa. Whiskemuk, Pashik, Squagun, Thargee, and Chedskunk. Shortly after locating them in their new village, Hickey (who exhibited, by the way, a remarkable spirit in converting the Indians) obtained some financial assistance from a benevolent lady living in New York for the purpose of erecting a mission-house. For this house John Compton selected the logs and hauled the first load of lumber, the sawing being done at the Sebewa mill. The house was divided into two apartments, in one of which school and church services were held, while the other served as the residence of the teacher or the missionary. The first school in the mission-house was taught by John Compton, who was also their preacher from time to time during their stay there, and came to be regarded by them eventually as their spiritual leader. They took kindly to school and church, and betrayed upon frequent occasions a religious fervor and enthusiasm seldom equaled by white people. Compton taught for them in early spring, and although he had to cross the river every day to teach, and once when the river was full of running ice, he was so prompt in his attendance that the Indians bestowed upon him the name of Te-cum-a-gaw-shee (meaning " wade through the river"). After a while Manasseh Hickey, being called to newer fields of labor, was succeeded as missionary by Rev. Mr. White, who during his residence there lived in the mission-house. While he lived there his wife died, and he married a young lady then engaged as Indian teacher. Her name cannot be recalled. Presently there was more demand for church and school room, and so a new school-building and church-edifice were 218 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. erected. Rev. Mr. Shaw preached the dedicatory sermon in the new church, and of that circumstance it is related that, in the glow of enthusiasm, he made too wide a swing with his left arm and knocked one of the pulpit lamps from its place to the floor. Preaching was, of course, delivered through an interpreter, and the interpreter on the occasion in question is said to have so closely followed the minister, both in tone and gesture, that his reproduction was wonderfully faithful and needed but the knocking off by him of the right-hand lamp to have rounded the picture to perfection. The old church-building still stands, and until within a year, or so has been used as a town-hall. The Indians remained in Mishshiminecon and prospered until about 1856, when, under act of Congress, they were removed, along with other bands, to the reservations of Northern Michigan. Beyond the presence of the old church there is only an old burial-ground to bear testimony of the existence in the town years ago of the little community of Methodist Indians. TOWNSHIP ROADS. From an entry in the town records of Danby by John Compton, town clerk, under date of May 13, 1845, it is learned that on that day he transcribed a copy of the surveys of roads in town 5 north, range 5 west, made while said town was a portion of the town of Portland. The roads mentioned were eleven in number, as follows: A road commencing at the northwest corner-post of section 31, and running thence due east on section-line two hundred and forty chains to the northeast corner-post of section 33. A road commencing at the north quarterpost of section 1, and running thence due west on the township-line one hundred and forty-six chains seventy-six links to the centre of highway. A road commencing at the northeast corner of section 12, running thence due south on the county-line one hundred and thirty-nine and one-half chains to the Grand River road; thence north seventy-eight degrees west along the line of the Grand River road, as surveyed by the United States, to the Grand River, being three hundred and forty and one-half chains. A road commencing at the southwest corner-post of section 31, and running thence due west on surveyed township-line nine hundred and sixty chains. A road commencing at the southeast corner-post of section 33, running thence due north on section-line one hundred and seventyeight chains twelve links to a witness-tree; thence south forty-four degrees west ten links; thence north forty-three degrees east seventeen chains seventy links; thence south twenty-five degrees east twenty-two links; thence due east on quarter-line nine chains ten links to centre of section. Also a road commencing at the southeast corner-post of section 36; thence due west on county-line two hundred and forty chains. Also a road commencing ten chains due west of northeast corner-post of section 29; thence due east on sectionline to said section-corner; thence due south on section-line eighty chains. Also a road commencing at the southeast corner of section 1; thence west on section-line one hundred and twenty chains to quarter-post; thence north forty-eight degrees west fifty-seven chains to post witness, south forty-four degrees west twenty-six links; thence north thirty-four degrees west seventy-eight chains to white-oak witness, north thirty-six links. Also a road commencing at the north quarter-post of section 11; thence south forty-eight degrees east from quarter-post to quarter, one hundred and sixty-eight chains to the line of Clinton County. Also a road commencing five chains west of the north quarter-post of section 29; thence south fifty-seven degrees forty-five seconds east seven chains twenty-six links to post witness-tree, north forty degrees east twenty-two links; thence north eighty-seven degrees east twelve chains to post witness-tree, south twenty degrees east fourteen links; thence north sixty-four degrees east nine chains thirty-two links to post on said section-line; then east on section-line eighteen chains fifty links to section-corner; thence south on section-line twenty-eight chains seventyfive links to a post; thence north eighty-seven degrees east forty-five chains to a post on formerly surveyed road. Also a road commencing at the south quarter-post of section 30, running thence north twenty-three chains to a post; thence north twenty-six degrees east twenty-one links; thence north twenty chains to a post in township-line road. RESIDENT TAX-PAYERS OF DANBY IN 1845. Names. Acres. W illard L. Brooks, section 3.............................. 160 Charles G. Brooks, sections 2 3........................... 160 John B. Brown, section 32............................. 80 Chancellor Barringer, section 22.......................... 97 Elias Bailey, section 25.................................... 80 Henry Cummins, section 35................................ 100 William Cronkrite, section 28............................. 200 John Compton, sections 33, 34............................ 240 George S. David, section 35................................ 60 Alpha David, section 28.................................... 80 Elkanah Drake, section 30............................. 40 Mathew Davenport, section 11............................ 320 George Davenport, section 12.............................. 120 Chester Davenport, section 12............................. 120 John Evens...............................................Personal Reuben Hopkins, section 6................................. 40 Benjamin Horner, section 26............................. 160 James N. Abrey, section 6................................. 80 Henry Jones, section 31.................................... 40 Asher Kilburn, sections 8, 9, 17........................... 936 Erastus P. Miner, section 29.................... 80 James Nicholson, sections 1, 12, 29...................... 360 A. F. Schoff, sections 1, 12................................. 240 Lorenzo Sears, sections 30, 31........................ 200 Charles Sutherland, section 12.......................... 80 Nathan Wyman, section 30........................... 80 James Burns, section 29......~..................... 40 THE POLL-LIST OF 1845. The first recorded poll-list is the one used at the general election of 1845. The voters numbered nineteen, and were named as follows: Jonathan Bailey, Elias Bailey, Alpha David, Oscar P. Schoff, George A. Kilburn, Charles G. Brooks, Willard L. Brooks, Benjamin Horner, Seth W. Drake, John Compton, Mathew Davenport, Lorenzo Sears, Abijah F. Schoff, Reuben Hopkins, Wm. Cronkrite, Elkanah Drake, Justus Bailey, George I. Davenport, John D. Brown. THE POLL-LIST OF 1846. At the general election of 1846 the voters were sixteen. Their names were Alpha David, Jonathan Bailey, Alfred B. Sayles, Win. Cronkrite, Asher Kilburn, Charles G. Brooks, John Compton, Elias Bailey, Mathew Davenport, DANBY. 219 Benjamin Horner, John D. Brown, George Davenport, Henry Jones, Chester Davenport, Lorenzo Sears. DANBY JURYMEN FOR 1845. A. F. Schoff, Willard Brooks, William Cronkrite, Elkanah Drake, Lorenzo Sears, Henry Jones, John Compton, Charles G. Brooks, Mathew Davenport, Benjamin Horner. At the first meeting of the township board for that purpose, Sept. 25, 1815, accounts were audited as follows: A. F. Schoff................................Order given. $10.13 John Compton.......................... 17.00 Oscar P, Schoff........................... " 5.00 Henry Jones.............................. " 1.00 Lorenzo Sears........................... ( 2.00 Asher Kilburn........................... 1.00 Elkanah Drake........................... " 5.25 Win. Cronkrite........................... 3.50 Mathew Davenport..................... " 1.00 Charles W. Ingalls...........................Surveyor. 3.00 W. L. Brooks................................. "* 12.50 $61.38 Poor money returned to supervisor.................. 30.00 TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION. March 19, 1845, town 5 north, in range 5 west, was detached from Portland and organized as Danby. The name was bestowed by Charles G. Brooks in remembrance of Connecticut, whence he came. There was a desire to christen the township Brookstown, but there being another place in the State of that name the idea was abandoned. Tile first meeting was held at the house of Chancellor Barringer on the 7th of April, 1845. Abijah F. Schoff, Willard L. Brooks, William Cronkrite, and Lorenzo Sears were chosen inspectors, and John Compton clerk. Twenty-six votes were cast and the following officials chosen: Supervisor, Abijah F. Schoff; Clerk, John Compton; Treasurer, Charles G. Brooks; Justices of the Peace, Mathew Davenport, William Cronkrite, Henry Jones, and Lorenzo Sears; Highway Commissioners, Oscar P. Schoff, Elkanah Drake; School Inspectors, William Cronkrite, Oscar P. Schoff; Overseers of the Poor, Alpha David, W. L. Brooks; Constables, Elkanah Drake, Alpha David; Assistant Assessor, Willard L. Brooks; Overseers of Highways, George S. David, John D. Brown, Willard L. Brooks, Alpha David, John Newsome, Mathew Davenport, George A. Kilburn. The annual elections beginning 1846 and ending 1880 resulted in the choice of supervisors, clerks, treasurers, and justices of the peace as follows: SUPERVISORS. 1846, no record; 1847, William Cronkrite; 1848, no record; 1849-57, William Cronkrite; 1858-60, J. C. Smith; 1861, M. Baker; 1862-64, J. C. Smith; 1865, D. Taylor; 1866, T. Pryer; 1867,* J. Storm; 1868-69, C. W. Ingalls; 1870-71, W. T. Triphagen; 1872, J. K. Barnard; 1873-75, W. Hixson; 1876, J. L. Fishell; 1877, G. W. Peake; 1878-80, W. Hixson. CLERKS. 1846, no record; 1847, E. Drake; 1848, no record; 1849-51, W. H. Turner; 1852, Horace Peake; 1853, J. Compton; 1854-55, B. Horner; 1856-60, S. K. Gates; 1861, W. Peake; 1862-63, B. Horner; 1864, W. T. Triphagen; 1865-66, W. Peake; 1867-71, J. K. Barnard; 1872, J. W. Peake; 1873-74, G. B. York; 1875 -76, R. E. Guilford; 1877, C. W. Wyman; 1878-79, R. G. Abbey; 1880, T. J. Boughner. One hundred and twenty-two votes cast. TREASURERS. 1846, no record; 1847, C. G. Brooks; 1848, no record; 1849-50, E. P. Miner; 1851-53, I. G. Frost; 1854, W. L. Barr; 1855, J. D. Norris; 1856-61, G. W. Davenport; 1862-63, J. D. Norris; 1864, J. Roberts; 1865-68, W. T. Triphagen; 1869-75, I. G.Frost; 1876-77, H. Horner; 1878-79, R. L. Peake; 1880, D. F. Saxton. JUSTICES. 1846, no record; 1847, Loren Barr; 1848, no record; 1849, A. David; 1850, B. W. Barber; 1851, William H. Turner; 1852, G. Davenport; 1853, W. Cronkrite; 1854, J. C. Smith; 1855, E. Blanchard; 1856, no record; 1857, P. G. Cook; 1858, J. Evans; 1859, W. H. Turner; 1860, M. Knight; 1861, N. Halladay; 1862, G. W. Davenport; 1863, R. Brown; 1864, M. Knight; 1865, T. Pryer; 1866, H. C. Wright; 1867, C. W. Ingalls; 1868, G. W. Peake; 1869, A. C. Davis; 1870, C. Pierce; 1871, J. C. Stockwell; 1872, George York; 1873, C. H. Holbrook; 1874, J. A. McConnell; 1875, T. Munsell; 1876, S. B. Reeder; 1877, J. W. Peake; 1878, D. P. Wilcox; 1879, A. Brightman; 1880, R. Reed. SCHOOLS. The first school taught in Danby was held in a rickety board shanty on section 28, about 1841 or 1842. The building was put up for a church as much as for a school, and, although a pretty poor affair, did very well for religious and educational purposes until a better one could be provided. The first school-teacher was Hester Ann David, daughter of Alpha David. She married David Soules and now lives in Portland. Further reference to Danby's schools and school-teachers will be found in what follows, as gleaned from the town records. School District No. 1 in Danby was erected Nov. 1, 1845, out of the district formerly known as No. 7 of Portland, and was described as commencing at the north quarter-post of section 29, running thence south two miles, thence east three miles to the south quarter-post of section 35, thence north to the Grand River, and thence down said river to the place of beginning. District No. 7, as aforesaid, was formed Feb. 24, 1844, and the first district meeting ordered to be held at the house of John Compton. District No. 2 was organized June 6, 1846. Its limits began at the " west" corner of section 19; ran thence south three miles; thence east two miles; thence north to the Grand River; thence along the Grand River to the north line of section 19; thence west to the place of beginning. District No. 3 was formed Nov. 3, 1849, to commence at the northeast corner of the southeast quarter of section 1, on the Clinton county-line, and to run thence westward two miles to the northwest corner of the south quarter-post of section 2, thence south to the Grand River, thence following the Grand River to the county-line east, and thence north to the place of beginning. In 1849 the apportionment of the primary school interest fund gave to District No. 1, with thirty-six scholars, eleven dollars and eighty-seven cents; and to District No. 2, with thirteen children, four dollars and twenty-nine cents. School District No. 4 was formed Sept. 2, 1854. The limits began at the Grand River where the section-line crosses the northeast quarter of section 9, and extended east to the northastst corner of section 10; thence south to the east quarter-post of section 15; thence west to the centre of 15; thence south to the south quarter-post of section 15; thence west to the Grand River; thence along A 3 220 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. down said river to the quarter-line of section 21; thence west on the quarter-line to the Grand River; and thence down said river to the place of beginning. The annual report for 1856 presented the following: Fractional District.............................. 28 scholars. ( it 6........................... 19 6 CC 5.2 1 " "i " 5.............................. 21 " " i 2.............................. 27 " W hole " 1............................. 66 " t 3.............................. 20 " " " 4.............................. 56 " In 1867 there were six whole districts and one fractional district, reporting in the aggregate three hundred and fifty-three scholars. The annual report for 1880 is here given: Directors. Enu - ation. District.........John Nicol. 84 " 2......I.H.Wilcox. 54 3........William Ilixson. 46 " 4......... N. Brooks. 38 5.........J. W. Peake. 30 6.........Willard Weld. 38 1... I. G. Abbey. 58 348 Average Attendance. 72 53 53 27 25 34 52 316 Value of Property. $1800 1000 800 800 900 50 500 $5850 Teachers' Wages. $166 116 97 120 129 150 120 $898 DANBY'S SCHOOL-TEACHERS. Certificates to school-teachers in Danby were issued by the school inspectors from 1846 to 1860 as follows: May 2, 1846, Hester Ann David; May 31, 1847, Jeannette Jones; June 12, 1848, Louisa Miner; May 1, 1848, Mary Ann Sanders; Nov. 20, 1848, Charles Maynard; May 9, 1849, Phoebe L. Barr; June 25, 1849, Elmira Cahoon; Aug. 18, 1849, Eliza B. Silsbee; Nov. 10, 1851, B. G. Moyer; May 15, 1851, Miriam Potter; Nov. 10, 1852, B. C. Macomber; May 17, 1852, Eugenie E. Showerman; April 9, 1853, Mary Jane David; Nov. 5, 1853, Adam Hildebrand; April 8, 1854, Lomira Barker and Mary E. Berry; April 14, 1855, Huldah Shear; Nov. 3, 1855, Charles L. Hay; April 30, 1856, Naomi Chapel; May 14, 1856, Rosetta Crittenden; Nov. 8, 1856, Gordon; April 11, 1857, Caroline Smith, Mary A. Ratcliffe, Harriet M. Cronkrite, Mary Ellen Smith, Eliza Ratcliffe, and Samantha A. Partlow; Oct. 24, 1857, S. K. Gates, Robert Brown; Nov. 7, 1857, William Ratcliffe, Lucy A. Jones; Nov. 28, 1857, Nancy Scadin; April 10, 1858, Catharine L. Copenhaver, Helen M. Scott, Charlotte Partlow; April 24, 1858, Jennie M. Hinman; Nov. 8, 1858, B. C. Macomber; April 9, 1859, Phoebe L. Barr, Mary Jane Sears, Sally Caroline Smith, Mary Ann Ratcliffe, and Samuel Ratcliffe; May 9, 1859, Lucetta Brown; Nov. 5, 1859, Asemath De Graff, Josephine O'Neil, and Catharine Stevens; Dec. 3, 1859, Mary Ellen Smith; April 14, 1860, Ella May Triphagen, Charlotte Baldwin, Sarah Ann Thuma; Nov. 3, 1860, J. W. More; Dec. 1, 1860, J. W. Peake, S. K. Gates, and Catharine Stevens. RELIGIOUS HISTORY. Danby has a religious history that deals with Indians as well as whites. The matter touching the religion of the Indians is treated of elsewhere. In the following, reference is made to the history of religion among the white settlers. ' Fractional. Methodism entered the field in Danby almost as soon as the town was entered by white settlers, and, gaining a foothold, has maintained it with vigor ever since. Indeed, there has been at no time any other religious organization within the limits of the town, except a United Brethren Class, although there have been and are, of course, members of other denominations. It was in the summer of 1838 that Monette, the Methodist Episcopal missionary, penetrated to the Cronkrite settlement and met John Compton, who, having been a Methodist Episcopal class-leader in New York State, was earnestly anxious to see the organization of a Methodist Episcopal Class in Danby. The result was that June 14, 1838, a meeting was held at John Compton's house, and then and there a class was formed by Elder Monette, with a membership of eight, to wit: John Compton and Ann, his wife, Charles W. Ingalls, Catharine Ingalls, Jonathan Ingalls, William Cronkrite and Calphurnia his wife, and Nancy Hull, mother to Mrs. Cronkrite. The Ingalls family was from Sebewa; the rest lived in Danby. Accessions to the class were soon made of John F. Terrill, Martha A. Terrill, John D. Brown, Charlotte Brown, Stephen Pilkinton, and Abigail Terrill. Elder Monette preached the first sermon, and after that came no more. Rev. Orrin Mitchell succeeded him, and then came Rev. Larmon Chatfield. John Compton, who was chosen the first leader, is still the leader of the class, which since 1838 has enjoyed a continuous active existence. Mr. Compton enjoys the distinction of having served uninterruptedly in New York and Michigan for a period of fiftyfour years either as class-leader, exhorter, steward, or local preacher. Elder Chatfield, one of the most zealous and energetic of all the pioneer Methodist Episcopal preachers in Michigan, traveled generally afoot, and when he came first to the Danby charge found nearly every member of the little class down sick with the ague; but he gathered the fragments, and preached just as earnestly, and perhaps more so, thft if he had found the prospect a hundred times more inviting and encouraging. Meetings were held two or three years in John Compton's house, until the erection of a board shanty schoolhouse on section 28, just across the way from Compton's cabin. That school-house was a primitive structure, two of whose uprights were simply two small beech-trees that happened to be located just right for the purpose. The first sermon preached in it was delivered by John Compton, who chose the text, " Fear not, little flock, it is the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." Services were held in the district school-house until the erection of the church-edifice now standing on section 34. It is known as the' Compton Methodist Episcopal church, and was dedicated Sept. 4, 1879, the dedicatory sermon being preached by Rev. D. F. Barnes, of Grand Rapids. The church has prospered since the outset, and has now a membership of ninety, including probationers. The class-leaders since 1838 have been John Compton, William Cronkrite, James E. Norris, and Alpheus Baker. The present pastor is Rev. J. E. Hollister, of the Danby and Sebewa Circuit, who holds services at Danby once a week. The church trustees are John Compton, John R. David, Alpheus Baker, D. W. Reed, and Jonathan I. Brown. DANBY. 221 IAB. 2 FROST METHODIST EPISCOPAL CLASS. The Danby and Sebewa Circuit includes in its three appointments the Frost Methodist Episcopal Class, organized in 1876 by Rev. Mr. Nichols with twelve members. The membership is now about twenty-five. The leader is Aaron M. Roberts. The Sunday-school has an average attendance of twenty-five. Besides the two Methodist Episcopal Classes named, there is a flourishing United Brethren Class at the Wcllington school-house, on section 36. DANBY GRANGE, No. 185. Danby Grange was organized in 1874 with a membership of thirteen, and has had for Masters G. S. Allen, A. D. Bates, Addison Rice, Joseph L. Fishell, and J. W. Peake. A hall was built in 1879, but almost immediately prostrated by a wind-storm. Without delay a new and better building was erected, and serves now for a town as well as grange-hall. The grange has a store in the building, and enjoys at present a membership of seventy-five, twenty-three having been received in 1880. The officials are J. W. Peake, M.; M. W. Brooks, 0.; Clark Pierce, L.; I. N. Brooks, Sec.; Thos. Pryer, Treas.; J. C. Turner, Steward. CASUALTIES IN DANBY. Although Danby has upon its record no history of murders within its borders, fatal accidents have been 1BI OGRAPHIOA B1 IO GRAPH H IC A chronicled to the number of four surely and mayhap more. There was one in 1855, when a man named Smith, living on section 16, was killed by the fall of a tree, and another in 1856, when Edward, a son to P. R. Compton, met a similar death. In 1877 a man named Sprague ventured out of his house during a thunder-storm, and had no more than just got beyond his doorstep when a lightning-stroke felled him dead in his tracks. During the summer of 1880 one Culver, of Portland, while asleep upon the floor in a farmhouse on section 16, was struck dead by lightning. The electric fluid passed down a stove-pipe to the sleeper near the stove, and killed him so quickly that those in the same apartment knew not even that he was injured until, attempting to rouse him, they found that life was extinct. CORNELL VILLAGE. On the west line of Danby, in section 19, Pierce G. Cook, as agent for Elizabeth Cornell, of New Jersey, laid out April 11, 1867, a village which he named Cornell, containing ninety-six lots measuring each five rods by eight rods. Although Cornell village never amounted to very much itself, it gave rise in a short time to the creation, just over the line in Sebewa, of the village of Sebewa, and these two hamlets, known at present as "The Corners," boast two or three stores, a tavern, post-office, and so on, the larger portion of the village lying, however, in Sebewa. -L SKETCHES. ISAIAH G. FROST. MRS. ISAIAH G. FROST. ISAIAH G. FROST. Isaiah G. Frost was born in Dutchess Co., N. Y., Nov. 5, 1805, and was the fourth in a family of eight children. His parents, Thomas and Phebe (Green) Frost, were born in the same State, and the father was a merchant in the city of New York. With him the son remained until he was twenty-three years of age, when he established himself in trade in Ulster County, where he married Maria Vernooy, March 17, 1832, who was born in Ulster Co., N. Y., Sept. 16, 1812, being the fifth in a family of ten children. Her parents, Charles and Sarah (Dubois) Vernooy, were born in the same county, their parents being early settlers and came from Holland, they being the builders and owners of the first flouring-mill in that vicinity. Mr. Frost sold out his business in 1838 and floated westward on the tide of emigration, finally landing, July 14th of that year, in the township of Danby, Ionia Co., Mich., where he had the previous year made a purchase of land. 222 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. He occupied a house on the place of a neighbor until he could prepare logs and build a house of his own. The same farm has since been Mr. Frost's home, except during the four years that he lived in Ionia while holding the office of county treasurer. He has been prominent in the political history of his township since its, organization, having held numerous offices therein. To Mr. and Mrs. Frost were born the following children, five in number: Isaac T., Jan. 8, 1836; Sarah M., Dec. 1, 1838; John G., Aug. 28, 1843, who died Feb. 4, 1846, aged two and a half years; John G., Jr., Dec. 1, 1846, who died April 13, 1870, from the effects of a fall, aged twenty-three years; Thomas, Dec. 6, 1847. Isaac T. is now residing in New York City, Sarah M. is the wife of William Hixson, and Thomas remains on the old homestead. Mr. Frost's religious views are of a liberal nature, yet he belongs to that school which allows perfect freedom of thought and respects the opinions of those who may differ with him. Mr. Frost and his wife have vivid recollections of their experience as pioneers, and the stories of other days, though oft.told, seem ever new. WILLIAM HIXSON. MRS. WILLIAM HIXSN.. MRS. WILLIAM HIXSON. WILLIAM HIXSON. William Hixson, the eldest in a family of seven children, was born Aug. 22, 1833, in Ulster Co., N. Y. His father, Virgil Hixson, was born in the same county in 1812 and died in 1853. The mother, whose maiden-name was Sarah Ann Hasbrook, was born in 1813, and married Mr. Hixson in 1832. William Hixson, who had previously assisted on the home-farm of his parents, at the age of sixteen entered a store as clerk, continuing four years. He then worked for his mother until 1858, when he visited Michigan, remaining through the summer, and going from here to La Porte Co., Ind. While there he engaged in farm-work, was employed in the freight-office one year, and finally went to Colorado, where he remained until 1866, except one year spent on a prospecting trip in Montana. Returning to New York in 1866, and remaining one year, he came thence to Michigan in 1867. October 3d in the latter year he married Miss Sarah M. Frost, who was born in Danby township (where her father was an early settler and is now living) Dec. 1, 1838. Mr. and Mrs. Hixson are the parents of four children,-viz., Phebe S., born July 29,1868; Virgil J., born April 25, 1870; Sarah Ann, born March 3, 1877; Willie, born Sept. 9, 1878, died March 19, 1879. In the summer after his marriage Mr. Hixson purchased eighty acres of land, a small part of which had been cleared. He has since added thirty acres to his original purchase, and has his farm under a good state of improvement. Mr. Hixson and his wife are members of the Methodist Church. Politically Mr. Hixson is a Republican, and has been the recipient of numerous favors in his township in the way of official positions. He is a prominent member of the grange, and a respected and influential citizen. E ST O N. THE township of Easton, designated in the United States survey town 7 north, in range 7 west, occupies but a fraction of a town, and includes twenty-seven full and five fractional sections, the Grand River on the south setting off to Berlin several sections belonging to town 7. The township boundaries are Orleans on the north, Berlin on the south, Ionia on the east, and Keene on the west. The Grand River, which flows along the southern border, having no mill-power of its own, receives on section 27 the waters of Mill Creek, the only mill-stream in the town. The surface of the town is generally pretty level, although in the centre and southeast the land is rolling and in some places quite hilly. The State House of Correction is located in Easton, on sections 23 and 24, and makes an exceedingly attractive feature in the landscape. The Detroit, Milwaukee and Grand Haven Railroad touches sections 23 and 24, and the Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad sections 24, 23, 14, 13, 12, 1, and 2, but upon neither road in the town is there a station. Easton has neither village nor post-office, and but one church edifice. Its interests are simply and purely agricultural, and these are tributary to Ionia City, which is the exclusive market-town. EASTON'S EARLY SETTLERS. Simultaneously with the settlement of Ionia by the Dexter Colony the township now known as Easton received a handful of pioneers. These were the Cornells, who on the night of Nov. 9, 1833, landed in the Dexter Colony, and without delay made a commencement upon section 24 in Easton, where Thomas Cornell now lives. In the Cornell family were Alfred Cornell, Sr., his wife, Thomas Cornell (a son), with wife and two children, and two grown bachelor sons, Alfred, Jr., and Daniel A. Thomas Cornell, living in Madison Co., N. Y., had intended to accompany the Dexter Colony (Alfred Cornell, Sr., and Samuel Dexter being cousins), but the elder Cornell besought him to remain until the ensuing spring, saying that he also would sell his place and move westward with him. Pending the consummation of such plan, Alfred Cornell, Sr., and his son Thomas went out to Ionia in July, 1833, on a prospecting tour, but so little were they impressed with the prospect of making a new home in the woods where there were no roads, no post-office, and no conveniences that when they left the place in July to return to New York, they had by no means decided to join the Dexter Colony as permanent settlers; indeed, they thought unfavorably of the project. It appears that more mature consideration caused them to reconsider their determination, and in November they set out for the Dexter settlement. How they arrived has already been told, and likewise in the history of the city of Ionia will be found reference to incidents attendant upon their settlement not related here. Alfred Cornell, Sr., bought three hundred acres in what is now Easton after his arrival in November, 1833, and during the first year his and Thomas' family occupied a log cabin that stood near the present residence of Thomas Cornell. In 1834, Thomas put up a cabin just west of there and moved his family into it. Erastus Yeomans, who had come in May, 1833, had some knowledge of surveying, and, after the colony got settled and began to feel the need of roads, Mr. Yeomans was importuned to get a compass and chain and run roadand land-lines for the people. He went to Oakland County, bought compass and chain, and set in to do some surveying. He did not take to the business kindly, however, and after a years' trial gave up the task and sold his apparatus to Thomas Cornell, to whom he gave a few theoretical lessons in the study of surveying. Upon that slight start (the only instruction in the matter he ever received) Mr. Cornell became a surveyor, and, making his first practical effort in 1836, has been engaged as a surveyor more or less ever since. He claims to have laid out the first three roads surveyed in Ionia County. They were laid in 1835, and included a road from East Plains to Lyons, one from Portland to Lyons, and one from the present site of the House of Correction to the city of Ionia. The latter road was in 1836 continued to Lyons by way of Genereauville by John E. Morrison, who in that year brought out a compass and chain. Following close upon the Cornells came George W. Case in the winter of 1833-34, who made the second settlement in Easton. Case effected a location upon the bank of the Grand River, in section 26, upon what is now called the J. B. Sanford place. His brother Horace, a cooper and a bachelor, came in the summer of 1834, and upon his brother's clearing on the river's bank built a cooper's shop. The Cases have all disappeared, and of the Cornells who participated in the pioneer era, Alfred Cornell, Jr., is chaplain at the State House of Correction, Thomas lives on the old homestead, and there also lives the wife who came with him into the wilderness forty-seven years ago. Of the daughters of the elder Cornell who came in 1833, one is now Mrs. Mason Hearsey, of Ionia, and a second Mrs. Ezra Spencer, of McBride's. Lydia Cornell, who died, at the age of seventeen, in November, 1834, was the first person to die in what is now Easton. She was buried in the old Ionia cemetery, which was laid out by Samuel Dexter near Osmond Tower's present residence, and afterwards transferred to the present city cemetery. In February, 1834, Jared Conner and Thomas Harrison 223 224 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHEIGAN. Conner, two brothers, came to Ionia accompanied by James Crawford, then a sturdy youth and now a resident of Easton. The Conners bought the Case place on section 26 in Easton and joined the small army of settlers. Thomas Harrison Conner still lives in Easton. James Crawford, who came with the Conners, stopped in Ionia awhile, managed the ferry across the Grand River at that point, and in 1840 made a settlement in Easton upon section 18. George W. Case, to whom reference has been made, is said to have set out on his Easton place the first fruit-trees planted in that part of the Grand River valley. The farm is now the property of James B. Sanford, who put in an appearance at Ionia in 1839. George W. Case was drowned in 1836, while en route from his home to Grand Rapids in company with Thomas Cornell. They attempted to ford the Grand, just below the mouth of the Thornapple, and Case, lacking judgment in such matters, reined his horse strongly against the current, whereupon both horse and rider were capsized and the rider drowned. The old log house built by Horace Case, the cooper, on George W. Case's farm, is still standing, and is called the most ancient structure in Easton as well as one of the oldest in Ionia County. It was into that house that Jared Conner moved upon his taking possession of the place, and upon that land along the river's bank that he fixetd a site for a village which he called Utica. Without bothering himself to have the town surveyed he caused a handsome map to be made, and by the map actually sold some village lots. Conner was probably sincere in his expectation that Utica would be a town, and argued that, the river above there being too shallow for steamboats, while the stage of water to Utica was decently ample, river traffic would be bound to terminate at Utica and push it, of course, into a consequential place. Mr. Conner's speculations fell, however, far short of being realized, and although he did sell a few lots, and although he did count much upon Utica's future greatness, no one ever attempted any improvements at the spot, nor did steamboats ever deign to look upon it as the head of Grand River steam navigation. Utica was therefore a still-born town. In the spring of 1835, William Winslow entered Ionia, and in 1836 pitched his tent in Easton upon section 14. In 1837 he was joined by his father, Ezra, who settled upon the same section. The elder Winslow died in 1842. In 1836 the settlement received numerous accessions. Richard Dye and Simon Welch were among the comers that year. They located on section 19, whence Dye soon removed to Ionia, where he has abided ever since. Simon Welch lived on what is now known as the Pike farm (upon which the present occupant, Mr. B. Pike, has for many years been a resident), and there opened a roadside tavern which was a well-known and popular place of resort. His father, Vine Welch, who lived with him, opened a blacksmith's shop on the place,-the pioneer smithy of Easton, as Simon Welch's hostelry was the pioneer tavern of the town. Simon Welch married a daughter of Elijah Sprague, who settled in Keene in 1839. Mrs. Welch lives yet in Easton upon section 22. Her recollections of pioneer life in Michigan deal with the long-ago, and recall, among other things, the circumstances of her journeying through Easton on 'Y~IIII — ~-IYIU Y I — dUIYI~rb IY horseback more than once when her only roadway was a path through the woods marked with blazed trees. THE FIRST SAW-MILL. It was on Mill Creek (or Dexter Creek, as it was then called), on the present Welch farm, that Samuel Dexter built a saw-mill in 1833, and to it added a small run of stone in 1834. The saw-mill was a great boon, but the grist-mill was more,-it was a blessed luxury, although a pretty poor sort of a mill at that. A coffee-mill at Dexter's house had, however, been the grist-mill for the Dexter colony previously, and the little pepper-mill on the creek with its small run of stone was a vast improvement. The first grist ground in the Dexter Creek mill belonged to Asa Spencer, and they do say that it was tolled three times,first by Samuel Dexter, next by Mather, the miller, and lastly by John Dexter. There was considerable rejoicing over the completion of the mill, and likely enough Dexter and his men partook of the general exuberance of the occasion to such an extent as to make taking toll an important part of the ceremony, and a ceremony, too, that could not lose its virtue by repetition. There is no evidence to show that Spencer knew it, or whether, knowing it, he cared about it. In the general satisfaction he probably thought it would have been bad taste to protest, and maybe would not have cared if the grist had been tolled twice as many times. The old mill passed into the hands of many owners as time elapsed, and until a few years ago the busy whir of its wheel was daily music. Its last owner was Simon Welch, and, after having been abandoned for some time, it was destroyed by fire in 1875 or thereabout. Among those who came to the town in 1836 were also Elisha Doty, Dexter Arnold, B. G. Barber, Calvin M. Rice, and Chauncey M. Stebbins. Richard M. Bishop, who came in 1841, lived on section 8, and met a peculiarly tragic death in 1857. He was in his sugar-bush making sugar, and at noon sat upon a fallen log to dine. While at his dinner he was suddenly shot down by an unseen person and fell to the ground fatally wounded. A Mr. Shute, the man who fired the shot, ran hurriedly up, and was horrified to find that what he had taken for a deer was his neighbor Bishop, there writhing in death before him. At this juncture, too, James Crawford, working near at hand, responded to the alarm and came quickly to the spot. Bishop is said to have called out as he fell, " Oh dear! oh dear! I'm shot I Send for Jane" (his wife), and then lapsed into unconsciousness, which possessed him until his death twelve hours later at his home, whither he had been conveyed as soon as possible after the shooting. Singularly enough, Shute, the author of the shooting (who averred that while out hunting he mistook Bishop for a deer and shot accordingly), had only a day or two previous taken part in a hot and bitter discussion at a town school-tax meeting, in which he fought with the faction to which Bishop and others were opposed, and in which, too, there was a violent exhibition of hot blood and bad temper that threatened serious results. Indeed, so ugly was the quarrel thought by some to be that it was remarked that there was likely to be bloodshed before the vexed matter could find solution. Right upon the heels of this came the EASTON. 225 unfortunate business of Bishop's death, and there were not wanting those to suggest that the deed was premeditated on Shute's part, but general public opinion inclined to the theory of accident, and Shute was therefore never put to legal prosecution. In 1837 the settlement was augmented by the presence of William Musselman, Joseph Barker, Wm. Kitson, and George W. Dexter. Mr. Musselman tried to make his home on section 7, near the northern town-line, but his first attempt was a lamentable failure. His wife, naturally a timid woman, could not reconcile herself to the belief that Indians were harmless neighbors, and worried not only herself, but her husband, with her constant apprehensions and expectations that the savages were only awaiting a favorable opportunity to descend upon and murder them in cold blood. Such a condition of mind was of course far from a happy one, and it is due to Mrs. Musselman to say that she tried hard to induce her husband to leave the country for a more civilized region, but he was loth to abandon a new enterprise in which he had embarked about all he had, and which he knew would recompense him after a bit if he would but stick to it. Luckily for Mrs. Musselman, however, the Glass tragedy in North Plains gave her fresh opportunity to urge her point, and effectively, too. Glass' house had been burned and his family with it, and many people charged the deed to Indians. Mrs. Musselman was one who held to that belief, and so sorely was she distressed by the knowledge that she declared nothing on earth would induce her to stay another day in a country where no white person's life was safe an hour at a time. There was accordingly no help for it, and so Musselman packed up and with his wife made off for other scenes. After a few years' absence they returned, and, there being then no cause, real or fancied, for alarm, they remained and enjoyed peaceful lives ever after. George W. Dexter had a family of eight children and located on section 20. He died in the township in 1848. Within the short period of three years he lost six children by death, two of them being drowned at one time. George W. Dexter's brother Stephen settled upon section 20 in September, 1838. About the same time came William Fleming, with whose family, as a boy, lived Washington Currie, now a prosperous farmer of Easton. Isaac Finch appeared in the autumn of 1839, and upon section 28 made a vigorous commencement. He was alive with the true sort of pioneer energy, and gave it to be understood that he had not only come to stay, but that he proposed to improve every hour and opportunity while he was on the ground. He succeeded in acquiring a handsome property, and abided upon the place of his first settlement until his death, thirty-five years afterwards, at the ripe age of eighty-two. In 1841, Granville Madison, now living on section 20, came to Easton from Oakland County, where he had been residing since 1831. He made a commencement in Easton on section 7. Among his neighbors were Malcolm and Joseph McLaughlin (the latter being a blacksmith), on sections 17 and 18 (where they had been since 1839), and on section 17, also, John Delaney. William Musselman had been in on section 7, but had gone in obedience to his wife's 29 fears and importunities touching the Indians, whom she dreaded beyond expression. Simon Welch and his father Vine, a blacksmith, were on the present Pike place in section 19, and on section 20 were George and Stephen Dexter (brothers to Samuel Dexter, of Ionia). Subsequent settlers in that neighborhood were James Bradford, George W. Guernsey, S. T. Snell, Shiverick Kellogg, Charles Kellogg (his father), George Corkins, J. G. Bush, and a Mr. Shute. In 1843, William Dildine and his brother-in-law, Charles W. Reynolds, came to section 10, on which they still live. They were from Elmira, N. Y., and occupied thirteen days in completing the journey to Easton. Dildine bought his place of Erastus Yeomans, who had effected a clearing of a few acres thereon. The year of the arrival of the Dildines a school was established near them in the just-formed District No. 3, and in the shanty that served as the temple of learning Betsey Webster was the first teacher, Margaret Foote the second, and Mrs. Dildine the third. Charles W. Reynolds still lives on his old place east of Dildine's, and west of the latter are A. C. Savage and Benjamin Conner, who came to the town in 1844. Mr. Conner had a hard time getting in to his new forest-home, and, unaided, hewed a way before him for a considerable distance. William Cook, whose widow lives now on section 6, was an early settler on the present 0. S. Cobk farm in section 14, and, in 1844, John North moved from Berlin to Easton, where he located on section 16. On section 3, John D. Parks was a settler in 1843, J. H. Richardson on section 4, James Bradford on section 5, and William W. Ward on section 10. ~In 1841, Sanford A. Yeomans, now living on section 13, made his home there and lent the services of his strong right arm in the business of changing the wild forest into a blooming garden-spot. He came to Ionia in 1833 with his father, Erastus Yeomans, and, until venturing as a pioneer in 1841 in Easton on his own account, was a member of the little settlement founded by Samuel Dexter. The eastern portion of Easton could boast but little in the way of advancing civilization when Mr. Yeomans settled there, but the tide of pioneering was not slow in flowing towards that quarter, although it did flow sluggishly for a while. Among other early settlers in that part of the town were the Halls, Jacksons, Holcombs, McPhersons, Marquettes, and Haynors. D. C. Colton was a settler on section 4 in 1853. Mrs. Fleming, who has already been named among the early settlers, deserves conspicuous mention because she supplied on many an occasion the place of a physician, and in emergencies, when Dr. Lincoln, of Ionia, could not be found at home or could not come, she was invaluable. Her ready tact, experience as a nurse, and familiarity with sickness gave her the right to be regarded as a physician. She helped scores of afflicted through periods of troublesome illness, and was regarded for a long way around as a veritable Good Samaritan. Although Easton never had a resident medical professor, there seems to be no good reason why Mrs. Fleming should not be remembered as the only doctor who ever lived in the township. Burials of the Easton dead were made in the early days in the Ionia cemetery, which 226 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. 1 was owned conjointly by both towns. Later, the town laid out a cemetery on section 8, in which the first burial was that of Eunice, daughter of Jesse Smith, a cooper, living on section 18. The building of the first mill in the town by Samuel Dexter has already been noticed. The second mill was a saw-mill built on Mill Creek in 1836 by Jared Conner, Dr. Eastman, and Mason Hearsey. E. S. Bellamy built a grist-mill on the samne site some years afterwards, and still carries it on. Easton's first post-office was called Avon, and it was located at the house of Silas Sprague, who was appointed postmaster. The office was discontinued after a while, and home mail accommodations were not restored thereafter until 1861, when Easton post-office was established and William Dildine given charge thereof. Mr. Dildine was the postmaster until his removal from the township, in 1866, when A. C. Savage succeeded him. George Corkins, who came after Savage, was the last incumbent. He continued in charge of the office until 1872, when, being called upon to contribute ten dollars as a political assessment, he protested thatthe emoluments of the office were entirely too small to admit of such disbursement, and, preferring to be without the office than make himself poorer by ten dollars, he resigned. There never was any real necessity for a post-office in Easton, for Ionia is quite conveniently enough at hand, and that view of the case was probably taken by the Post-Office Department upon Corkins' resignation, for since the latter's time the town has had no post-office. TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION. All of that portion of town 7 north, in range 7 west, lying north of the Grand River was detached from the township of Ionia by legislative act approved March 9, 1843, and organized as a township named Easton. The first meeting therein was ordered to be held at the house of Joseph Richardson, and on the 3d of April the electors met and chose Erastus Yeomans moderator, Daniel S. Brownell, Stephen Dexter, Isaac Finch, and Malcolm McLaughlin inspectors, and B. F. Pew clerk. On motion, Thomas Cornell was chosen clerk of " the proceedings of this meeting." Twenty-eight votes appear to have been east at this first election for town officers, and, as there was but one ticket in the field, there was probably no difficulty in ascertaining the will of the majority. The persons chosen as officials were as follows: Supervisor, Thomas Cornell; Clerk, Sanford A. Yeomans; Treasurer, Erastus Yeomans; Justices of the Peace, Malcolm McLaughlin, Thomas Cornell, David S. Brownell, William Fleming; School Inspectors, Erastus Yeomans, George Fleming; Commissioners of Highways, Granville Madison, Calvin I. Rice, Daniel S. Brownell; Directors of the Poor, Calvin M. Rice, Benjamin G. Barber; Constables, Joseph H. Richardson, Thomas H. Conner; Pathmasters, Daniel S. Brownell in District No. 1, Thos. H. Conner "in the district that Stephen Dexter served in last year," and Joseph H. Richardson " in the district that William Dumper served in last year." Some of the officials chosen above failed to qualify, and June 15, 1843, a special election was held, at which Daniel S. Brownell, George W. Dexter, and Malcolm McLaughlin - were chosen justices of the peace, Sereno Rood commissioner of highways, and Thomas H. Conner constable. Appended will be found the names of persons chosen annually from 1844 to 1880 to be supervisors, clerks, treasurers, and justices of the peace: SUPERVISORS. 1844, Geo. W. Dexter; 1845, Thos. Cornell; 1846, D. S. Brownell; 1847, E. Yeomans; 1848, J. York; 1849, A. V. Berry; 1850, J. York; 1851, D. S. Brownell; 1852, S. Kellogg; 1853-54, A. Cornell, Jr.; 1855, S. Kellogg; 1856, C. 0. Thompson; 1857-60, S. Kellogg; 1861, A. Cornell; 1862, S. Sprague; 1863, S. Kellogg; 1864-65, S. M. Stebbins; 1866-69, L. 1I. Colton; 1870-75, W. D. Arnold; 1876-77, 0. S. Cook; 1878, A. C. Smith; 1879, 0. S. Cook; 1880, Thos. Thomas. CLERKS. 1844-45, S. A. Yeomans; 1846, T. Cornell; 1847, S. A. Yeomans; 1848, A. C. Savage; 1849, Goo. Fleming; 1850, S. A. Yeomans; 1851 -53, E. Yeomans; 1854-58, S. A. Yeomans; 1859-61, S. Sprague; 1862-64, E. Yeomans; 1865-66, S. Sprague; 1867-68, N. S. Hitchcock; 1869, A. R. Cornell; 1870, C. 0. Ketchum; 1871, Wm. H. Annable; 1872, M. T. King; 1873, S. T. Minard; 1874, H. W. Phillips; 1875, Samuel Stowell; 1876-79, Chas. A. Cornell; 1880, E. F. Strong. TREASURERS. 1844-46, E. Yeomans; 1847-49, W. Dildine; 1850-51, A. C. Savage; 1852, M. McLaughlin; 1853, S. Welch; 1854, A. C. Savage; 1855 -58, A. R. Cornell; 1859-60, A. Rice; 1861, L. Carpenter; 1862 -64, M. McLaughlin, 1865-66, H. Dexter; 1867, A. C. Savage; 1868, I. B. Haynor; 1869, N. Heald; 1870, W. H. Conner; 1871 -75, Wm. Rice; 1876-77, T. Thomas; 1878, W. 0. Lewis; 1879, Wm. Rice; 1880, Wm. O. Lewis. JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. 1844, W. Fleming; 1845, M. McLaughlin; 1846, T. Cornell; 1847, J. Ellison; 1848, W. M. Entrican; 1849, J. York; 1850, T. Cornell; 1851, S. T. Dexter; 1852, W. M. Entrican; 1853, J. York; 1854, T. Cornell; 1855, S. Sprague; 1856, D. C. Colton; 1857, L. H. Colton; 1858, Geo. Corkins; 1859, T. Cornell; 1860, A. Currier; 1861, L. II. Colton; 1862, S. Kellogg; 1863, T. Cornell; 1864, S. T. Dexter; 1865, L. H. Colton; 1866, S. Kellogg; 1867, T. Cornell; 1868, S. T. Dexter; 1869, L. 1. Colton; 1870, S. Sprague; 1871, S. M. Stebbins; 1872, S. T. Minard; 1873, L. II. Colton; 1874, Geo. II. Newton; 1875, S. M. Stebbins; 1876, B. Iolcomb; 1877, N. Winship; 1878, S. A. Yeomans; 1879, L. Carpenter; 1880, S. A. Yeomans. JURORS. 1843.-B. G. Barber, Jared Conner, William Lemon, Simon Welch, Ezra Winslow, Malcolm McLaughlin, Richard M. Bishop, IIenry Haynor, Curtis Merrifield, Anson R. Arnold, Edward Smallman, John L. Smith. 1844. —Graid Jurors, Dexter Arnold, Daniel S. Brownell, Stephen Dexter, Thomas Cornell, Sereno Rood, James W. Cole, Chauncey M. Stebbins. Petit Jlurort, George W. Dexter, Granville Madison, Sanford A. Yeomans, Joseph McLaughlin, William Kitson, Joseph II. Richardson, Jesse Smith. 1S45.-Benjamin G. Barber, Elisha P. Cheney, John D. Parks, William Dildine, William Fleming, Calvin M. Rice, John L. Smith, Simon Welch, Malcolm McLaughlin, Charles W. Reynolds, Curtis Merrifield, Benjamin Conner. RESIDENT TAX-PAYERS OF EASTON IN 1844. Acres. Dexter Arnold, sections 13, 24........................... 210 D. S. Brownell, sections 23, 26, 27....................... 198 < James Bradford, section 5...................... 320 Joseph Barker, section 17................................... 80 Benjamin G. Barber, section 24....................... 80 Richard M. Bishop, section 7.............................. 100 Jared Conner, section 29.................................... 120 Thomas Cornell, sections 15, 24, 25...................... 290 James Crawford, section 18.............................. 120 James W. Cole, section 15.................................. 80 William Dumper, section 24................................40 Stephen Dexter, section 20.............................. 80 - - EASTON. 227 EASTON. 227 Acres. George W. Dexter, section 20........................ 120 John Delaney, section 17.................................... 40 Isaac Finch, section 28...................................... 300 W illiam Fleming, section 10.............................. 80 Ienry Hlaynor, section 10.................................. 40 Charles L. IIecox, section 20.............................. 40 W illiam Kitson. section 9................................... 80 W illiam Lemon, section 29................................. 40 Granville Madison, section 7.............................. 140 William Musselman, section 5............................. 214 Curtis Merrifield, sections 2, 3............................. 120 Cornelius Meyers, section 4............................. 40 Malcolm McLaughlin, section 18......................... 40 Joseph McLaughlin, section 17........................ 40 John D. Parks, section 3.................................... 188 Calvin M. Rice, section 24.................................. 80 Serene Rood, section 10.................................... 120 Reynolds & Dildine, section 10....................... 8 George Rosencranz, section 23......................... 40 Joseph K. Richardson, sections 4, 22.................... 147 Edward Smalliman, section 13............................. 80 John L. Smith, sections 23, 26............................. 65 Chauncey M. Stebbins, sections 24, 2).................. 120 Chester Stebbins, section 23............................... 80 Jesse Smith, section 18...................................... 120 Adonijah Stevens, section 9................................ 80 Richard Taylor, section 23................................. 80 S. Thompson (Snyder occupant), sections 29, 32..... 184 Simon Welch, sections 7, 19............................... 200 Erastus Yeomans, sections 19, 24......................... 178 Sanford A. Yeomans, section 13.......................... 80 CHURCHES. Easton is not especially rich in either church-buildings or church societies, although the pressing need is limited, since a very large proportion of the inhabitants go to church in Ionia and other towns. There is but one church-edifice, and that is the only one the town ever had. There are two Methodist Episcopal Classes, a United Brethren Class, and a Wesleyan Methodist Class. The latter meets at the Dexter school-house, and owns to but a youthful age. The United Brethren Class was organized at the Dildine school-house in the fall of 1877 by Rev. L. D. Newman, with A. C. Savage and wife, Daniel Cogswell and wife, L. D. Newman and wife, and James Moore (leader) as members, seven in all. The members still number seven, A. C. Savage being the leader, and meet for worship once a fortnight at the Dildine school-house. The class is called the United Brethren Class, No. 1, of Easton, and is attached to the Ionia mission, in charge of Rev. Benjamin Hamp, of Barry County. METHODIST EPISCOPAL CLASSES. The first religious organization formed in the town was a Methodist Episcopal Class that met in a school-house on Simon Welch's place about 1839, or perhaps earlier, and included among its members the Welchs, McLaughlins, Dexters, and others whose names cannot be recalled. There was preaching pretty regularly about once a fortnight until 1844, when the class suffered a division. A portion of the class organized anew in Keenc, and others formed the Easton Methodist Episcopal Class, No. 1, in the Madison neighborhood. The organizing members of that class included Granville Madison and wife, Richard Bishop and wife, and Charles Kellogg, Madison being chosen leader. It was attached to the Flat River Circuit; and continued to flourish apace. In the spring of 1868 a house of worship was erected on section 8 at a cost of three thousand dollars, and on the 4th of July, 1868, it was dedicated by Rev. Mr. Johnson, of the Flat River Circuit. The class is now attached to the Orleans Circuit, of which Rev. James Aiken is the preacher in charge. Services are held at the Easton church once each fortnight. The membership is twentyfive. William Bradford is class-leader, the trustees are A. A. Hull, William Bradford, S. T. Minard, T. E. Conner, and Samuel White, and the Sunday-school superintendent is William Bradford. The school has an average attendance of five teachers and fifty scholars. DILDINE METHIODIST EPISCOPAL CLASS. In 1843 there was a Methodist Episcopal Class in the Dildine neighborhood. Its members numbered thirteen, and were Granville Madison and wife, Richard Bishop and wife, William Kitson and wife, Sereno Rood and wife, Henry Haynor and wife, William Winslow and wife, and James Stevens. The class-leader was Granville Madison, and the preacher in charge Rev. Larmon Chatfield, who, with the assistance of another preacher, managed to give the class the privilege of public worship once every two weeks. Circuits were pretty extensive in those days, and Methodist circuit-riders had a good deal of traveling to do. The class, meeting now at the Dildine school-house once a fortnight, is attached to the Orleans Circuit. The leader is William Dildine. SCHOOLS. Thomas Chamberlain, perhaps the first school-teacher in Easton, taught in a log house at what is known as Strong's Corners. IIe was a small man, but a strict disciplinarian, and, in the language of one who knew him, "could throw any man of his weight in the town." His rigorous way of dealing with refractory pupils brought him into disfavor with parents who owned boys of that character. Dexter Arnold in particular was opposed to the discipline exercised over his boys, and at his instigation a school-meeting was called to pass upon charges of severity to pupils brought against Chamberlain. At the meeting Arnold grew somewhat excited and charged Chamberlain with being a bull-dog, only fit to bite and hang on, to which Chamberlain publicly answered him, " Yes, I am; and you can't shake me off either." The majority of the persons at the meeting strongly sustained Chamberlain, and, indorsing him as a capable and correct teacher, dismissed the charges, much to Arnold's chagrin and the corresponding triumph of the pedagogue. Sept. 22, 1843, the school inspectors divided the township into school districts, as follows: District No. 2, composed of sections 17, 18, 19, 20, 29, 30, and the south halves of sections 7 and 8, and so much of sections 31 and 32 as lay north of the Grand River; No. 3, composed of sections 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, the west halves of sections 2 and 11, and the north halves of sections 7 and 8. Although nothing is said in the records about the formation of District No. 1, the presumption is that No. 1 embraced the portions of the township unnamed in the foregoing. July 8, 1844, a new school district, called District No. 1, was formed, and was composed of sections 13, 14, 24, 23, the south half of section 12, the southeast quarter of section 11, and so much of sections 25 and 26 as lay north of Grand River. June 3, 1846, the inspectors' report set forth that the 228 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. I number of scholars in District No. 1 was 40; in No. 2 the number was 34, and 28 in No. 3. In 1855 the township reported 241 scholars. TOWNSHIP TEACHERS. From 1843 to 1860 teachers were appointed by the school inspectors as follows: June 17, 1843, Betsey Webster; Dec. 9, 1843, Margaret Foote; Aug. 17,1844, Milton Dexter, Emily Yeomans; Dec. 10, 1844, Hiram Yeomans, Catharine Dildine; Nov. 7, 1844, Horace F. Baker; Dec. 20, 1845, Homer Dexter, Jerome Dexter, Benjamin F. Woodman; Jan. 27, 1846, W. D. Arnold; May 2, 1846, Esther L. Viele; Nov. 7, 1846, Electa Ann Lee; Dec. 1, 1846, F. M. Cowles; Feb. 9, 1847, Alfred Cornell, Jr.; June 18, 1847, Ann Eliza Bunnell, Elizabeth De Long; July 5, 1847, Alphleda Fallas; Nov. 6, 1847, Joel Andrews; Dec. 10,1847, Rosanna Matherson; Dec. 20, 1847, Walter D. Arnold; Jan 3, 1848, Harriet J. Abbott; May 15, 1848, Elizabeth M. Tracy; Nov. 4, 1848, Lewis Tuttle; Nov. 18, 1848, Thomas H. Bignell; Aug. 13, 1849, Hester Cole, Helen M. Wilcox; Oct. 16, 1849, Martha J. Clark; Nov. 5, 1849, A. R. Cornell, James C. Taylor; Dec. 1,1849, Mrs. Martha Taylor; Jan. 16, 1850, Silas Sprague; April 15, 1850, Mary M. Yeomans; April 20,1850, Catharine Cole; Nov. 18,1850, Catharine Hutchinson; Dec. 10, 1850, John H. Hitchcock; April 2, 1851, Bianca Keziah Potter; May 17, 1851, Caroline A. Wilcox; May 19, 1851, Mary Worcester; Nov. 17. 1852, Daniel B. Payne; Nov. 26, 1852, Harriet Alden; May 1, 1854, Luania Harrington; May 13, 1854, Adelia Thompson, Helen Thompson; May 22, 1854, Esther Coe; Nov. 4, 1854; Clarinda T. Wilbur, Hester L. Cole; April 28, 1855, Harriet Yeomans; May 5, 1855, Sarah L. Cole, Ann L. Cheney; Nov. 10, 1855, Irving Arnold, F. L. E. Olmstead; Nov. 21, 1855, A. M. Sprague, J. Holt; Dec. 3, 1855, Oliver W. Gray; April 26, 1856, Ann E. Bailey, Elizabeth Wilson, Seraphina Porter, Emily Mills; Nov. 15, 1856, Isaiah J. Whitfield, G. F. Whitfierd, Lyman B. Clark, Charles A. Clark, Hester L. Cole, Clarinda Wilbur; May 2, 1857, Sarah L. Cole, Sarah E. Howard, Ellen Badger; Nov. 14, 1857, Sarah E. Gilbert, E. J. Whitney, T. H. Gilbert, Luman H. Colton; Nov. 16,1857, H. A. Clements; April 17, 1858, Emily M. Irish, Emma Cadwell; April 30, 1858, Ellen Colton; May 8, 1858, Elizabeth Merritt, Anna M. Merritt; Nov. 6, 1858, Silas Sprague, I. G. Whitfield; Nov. 22, 1858, Charles Morse; Nov. 29, 1858, Smith T. Dexter; April 11, 1859, Mary E. Clark, H. L. Houghton, Nancy Beattie, Hattie M. Patrick, Sarah E. Howard, E. M. Dunham; Nov. 7, 1859, Luman H. Colton, William Colton, A. P. Morse; Nov. 21, 1859, Lemuel Clute. The annual school report for 1879 supplies the following statistics touching Easton's public schools: Total Average Value Directors. iEuumer- Attend- School Tetces atloa. ance. Property. "ages. Dist. 1....... William Rice. 80 76 500 204 " 2.........R. Rathburn. 67 52 1200 181 3.........George Leach. 62 80 1000 188 " 4.........S. T. Snell. 80 62 200 150 5.........Joseph Curtis. 51 45 150 142 " 6.........R, Gould. 68 49 400 186 Total................... 408 364 $3450 $1051 I HIGHWAYS. While Easton was yet a portion of Ionia, roads were laid laid out in Easton by the Ionia highway commissioners as follows: Dec. 9, 1835, a road commencing at a stake set south eleven chains from the quarter-stake standing between sections 22 and 23 in township 7 north, range 7 west, and ending at a stake set north twenty-five degrees west from the quarter-stake on east side of section 24 in town 7 north, range 7 west. A second road, commencing at a stake set north two chains fifty links from the southwest corner of section 24, and ending at a stake standing near the northwest corner of Dr. Lincoln's lot. A third road, commencing at a stake set north two chains fifty links fron the southwest corner of section 24, and ending at a stake set north twenty degrees west sixty-five links from a large red oak. Jan. 1, 1836, a road was surveyed commencing at the corners of sections 13, 18, 19, 24, on the town-line between ranges 6 and 7 from the meridian, running thence north seventy-eight chains seventy-nine links. Jan. 9, 1838, a road was surveyed by Thomas Cornell, commencing at a post set at the end of the road running south from Samuel Dexter's grist-mill across the Grand River, running between town 7 north and ranges 6 and 7 west to the corner of said town. Thomas Cornell surveyed a road Jan. 6, 1838, commencing at a post set south thirty-seven degrees west nine chains fifty-seven links from the quarter-post on the west side of section 4 in town 6 north, range 8 west, ending at a post set south from the quarterpost on the east side of section 22 in town 7 north, range 7 west. Thomas Cornell surveyed a road June 4, 1838, commencing at a post set thirty-six and three-quarter degrees east twenty-two chains sixty links from the corners of sections 21, 22, 27, 28, in town 7 north, range 7 west, and ending at the quarter-post on the west of section 30, in the same town and range. June 5, 1838, a road was laid commencing at the quarterpost set between sections 21 and 28 in town 7 north, range 7 west, and ending at a post set south eleven chains from the quarter-post between sections 22 and 23. STATE HOUSE OF CORRECTION. The Michigan State House of Correction and Reformatory, although commonly alluded to as the Ionia House of Correction, and in the managers' annual report mentioned as "located at Ionia," is, as a matter of fact, located in the township of Easton, nearly a mile from the western limit of the city of Ionia. The project of building the House of Correction first took shape under legislative act approved April 25, 1873, wherein it was provided that the Governor should have authority to appoint a board of three commissioners, whose business it should be to select and secure a suitable site for a State House of Correction and provide plans for the necessary buildings to be erected thereon. The Governor appointed, under the act, Hon. Hampton Rich, of Ionia, Hon. John Swift, of Northville, and Hon. Charles T. Hills, of Muskegon, as commissioners on location. The citizens of the city of Ionia, ambitious to secure the presence of the proposed institution in that neighbor EASTON. 229 hood, offered to donate a tract of sixty-three acres in the township of Easton, near the city of Ionia, for the location of the House of Correction. Upon the report of the commissioners, the Legislature of 1875 passed Act No. 96 (approved April 22d), appropriating the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars " for the erection of a House of Correction according to the plans and estimates presented by the commissioners appointed under Act 170 of 1873," and authorized the Governor to appoint a board of three commissioners to take charge of the work of construction, " provided that the work when completed should not cost more than two hundred and seventy thousand dollars." The commissioners appointed by the Governor under that act were Hon. Hampton Rich, of Ionia, Hon. Charles Kipp, of St. John's, and Hon. Westbrook Divine, of Montcalm County. The work of construction was at once begun, and steadily pursued to completion. Under Act 59, approved April 29, 1877, an additional appropriation of one hundred and twenty-one thousand two hundred and fifty-eight dollars was made to complete the work, an appropriation of twenty thousand dollars having been made the same year by Act 1, approved January 13th. The total amount of appropriations by the Legislature, as here recorded, aggregated therefore two hundred and ninety-one thousand two hundred and fifty-eight dollars. The institution was opened in August, 1877, and in 1878 the State purchased a contiguous tract of one hundred acres, by which the entire landed possessions were increased to one hundred and sixtythree acres. Of these, eighty acres are now cultivated, fifteen are occupied by the prison-buildings, and sixty-eight are covered with timber. The prison and grounds proper are surrounded by a high brick wall, which forms an almost perfect square. They rest upon a commanding eminence in the midst of a naturally attractive region, and, embellished at various points with sharply-pointed turrets and towers, present to the observer, even from afar, a gracefully picturesque spectacle. WARDEN'S REPORT FOR 1879. From the warden's third annual report, dated Sept. 30, 1879, are gathered statistics, as follows: Appraised value of real estate, $277,535.33; gross current expenses for the year, $43,343.83; net current expenses for the year, $39,176.45; average daily number of inmates, 247; av erage net cost per inmate for the year, $158.53; average daily cost per inmate for the year, 43~ cents; amount paid discharged inmates, $1036.35; gross earnings during the year, $15,863.67; net expenses in excess of earnings, $25,336.93; received from Fargo & Co. for labor, etc., $12,078.90; received from visitors' fees, $556.10. There are at present (Aug. 20, 1880) in the prison three hundred and thirty-nine convicts, all of whom are males. Of these, the one serving the longest sentence is Daniel Van Wagner, who was committed in July, 1877, upon a forty-five years' sentence for the crime of highway robbery with attempt to kill. A contract made with C. H. Fargo & Co., of Chicago, Sept. 17, 1878, for the employment of one hundred or more inmates in the manufacture of boots and shoes, is still in force. At the close of the fiscal year, 1879, Messrs. Fargo & Co. were employing one hundred and fifty-three men. The officers and employees in 1880 included Hons. Hampton Rich, Westbrook Divine, and Thomas F. Moore as the Board of Managers; John J. Grafton, Warden; D. P. Fargo, Deputy Warden; Charles S. Lowe, Clerk; C. O. Thompson, Treasurer; Alfred Cornell, Chaplain; and W. F. Reed, Physician. The complete roll of officers employed at the institution embraces one warden, one deputy warden, one clerk, one treasurer, one chaplain, one physician, one engineer, one steward, one hall-master, fourteen keepers, and six guards. EASTON GRANGE, NO. 186, PATRONS OF HUSBANDRY. Easton Grange was organized Dec. 27, 1873, and although the earlier period of its existence was a fairly prosperous one, the interest manifested at the outset declined after two or three years, and to such an ebb eventually that the grange charter was abandoned. There was a reorganization, however, Dec. 26, 1879, under favorable auspices, and thirty-one persons became charter members. There is now a membership of thirty-seven, and at the weekly meetings, which take place in the town-hall, there is invariably a full attendance and a general display of encouraging spirit that promises well for the future. The officers are now as follows: J. N. Hodge, M.; F. A. North, O.; Mrs. F. A. North, L.; H. G. Coney, Sec.; Orville North, Treas.; Mrs. G. W. Gould, Chaplain; James Weaver, Steward. KE EE N E. KEENE, one of the western townships of Ionia County, is designated in the United States survey as township 7 north, range 8 west, and has for its boundaries Otisco township on the north, Boston on the south, Easton on the east, and Kent County on the west. The only stream of any consequence in the town is the Flat River, which passes across the northwest corner. It is a sluggish watercourse, without mill-power, and serves only for the transportation of saw-logs. Keene has never had a mill or village within its borders, and until the fall of 1880 was without a church-edifice. The soil is diversified, but productive. There is but little waste-land aside from what is known as the Cranberry Marsh, in the northeast corner. That is, however, reclaimed in the greater part, and promises in time to be completely so. THE FIRST SETTLERS OF KEENE. Prior to Aug. 5, 1839, the lands in township 7 north, range 8 west, were not offered for sale by the general government, and although settlers came on, pre-empted, and occupied tracts before that period, and set forward at once to clear and improve the lands so occupied, they were, technically speaking, simply squatters, although, as a matter of fact, they had come to stay, and were settlers just as much as though they had owned their lands. Of course, they had no more legal rights than others had, as concerned the ultimate purchase of the land, and were liable to be ousted by designing persons (and such persons were by no means lacking in Michigan in those days), but the Keene pioneers knew their moral rights in the matter and proposed to maintain them. They formed an association for mutual protection, and chose Asa L. Spencer, of Otisco, to represent them. Such a move was necessary, since there were always hordes of land-speculators about land-offices ready and eager to pounce upon and buy lands improved by squatters or pre-emptors at the earliest opportunity, and then the original occupant, finding himself liable to be cast out of his place that another might reap the benefit of what improvements had been made, had no alternative but to make the best terms he could with the scheming speculator. The early settlers in Keene knew how matters were liable to work in that respect, and not only took concerted action to protect themselves, but gave it freely to be understood that it would not be very healthy for any speculator, or anybody else, to turn his energies towards depriving the actual possessors of the lands they had already selected and commenced to improve. The consequence of such positive action was that when the land-sale took place at Ionia, in August, 1839, there was no attempt made to disturb the Kcene settlers. The first " commencement" made in Kecne was on scc230 tion 25, and on that section the first permanent settlement in the town was effected. The commencement alluded to was made in the fall of 1837 by two young unmarried men, by names Orrin Owen and Charles Hickox, of Monroe Co., N. Y. They doubtless intended to make a settlement at some time, for they put up a shanty and chopped aJvay as though the only object in life were the hewing down of forests. Whether they grew tired of the business, whether they concluded that pioneering was not much fun after all, or whether they determined to pioneer in some other locality, cannot be said; but it can be said that they did not become very early permanent settlers in Keene, and so may be briefly dismissed. The first actual settler in the town was Edward Butterfield, who, with Cyrus Rose, cleared some land in 1837, and Feb. 2, 1838, settled with his family on section 25. In the following December, Mr. Rose settled with his family on section 36. In 1838, also, what is still known as the " Canadian Settlement" was founded by James Monk, who came in from Canada and in March of that year located on section 26. In April, Morton Reynolds, also a Canadian, came to section 27, followed by John Follett, another Canadian, who made his home on section 35. In the same year John Conner, from Oakland County, pitched his tent on section 35; James Crysler, from Canada, on section 26; Samuel Wells, from St. Lawrence Co., N. Y., on section 23 (in May); and Dexter Cutler, in June, near Flat River, on section 6. Charles Higgins settled about the same time in Cutler's neighborhood, on section 7. In 1838 or 1839, William Lott, a bachelor, came to section 30, and there in a little while opened what he was pleased to call a tavern, but which was nothing more than a place where travelers were treated to such refreshment as poor whisky could provide, and where, on a pinch, they were kept over-night. The occasion of Lott's embarking in the enterprise was the opening of a stage-route between Ionia and Grand Rapids over the road on which Lott's shanty stood. The stage-route was a popular highway before the opening of the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad, and for a time two four-horse coaches passed over it daily, while there was considerable other travel as well. With the completion of the railway, in 1857, the traffic of the road fell to the ordinary country-road level. Until that time, however, Lott flourished as a dispenser of fire-water on the route. In addition to that distinction, he won the perhaps better one of being the first person to erect a framed house in Keene, his lumber coming from the Fallasburg mill, in Kent County. His house was put up in 1842, and, the year following, Samuel Wells built on section 23, where D. C. Johnson now lives, the first framed barn in the township. He got his lumber at the Bellamy mill, in Easton. KEENE. 231 There was another so-called tavern on the south townline road, in section 35, over which one Johnson held sway as landlord. That road was at first the main traveled road between Ionia and Grand Rapids, but upon the opening of the stage-route north of there the tide of travel was transferred, and Johnson's occupation as a Boniface fled forever. A prominent member of the Canadian Settlement in Keene was Elijah Sprague, who in the summer of 1839 made a settlement with his family, followed closely by Philip Monk and James Baird, likewise from Canada. This year of 1839, in which the lands of Keene were put upon the market, saw a material accession to the settlement, and the town began to develop rapidly. Thomas Beattie and his son Nathaniel came to the county in 1839, and at the land-sale, in August, Nathaniel bought a place in Keene, to which father and son removed in the fall from the Dye farm, in Easton, where they had been temporarily abiding. In 1840 the elder Beattie bought a farm (now occupied by his son Robert), where he died in 1860. James Beattie, brother to Robert, is also a resident in Keene, on section 25. When Nathaniel Beattie came to the town with his father, he found David and Stephen Shaul, two bachelor brothers, keeping house, each in a shanty, on the place now owned by Hiram S. Lee. Other settlers of 1839 were John L. Covert, Jennison Henry, Simon Heath, and Nathaniel Davenport. In June, 1840, Zelotus B. Frost, William Sparks, and Ephraim Abbott, of Courtland Co., N. Y., came to Michigan in search of land, and, finding in Keene what they wanted, made locations on section 15,-Sparks and Frost each a forty- and Abbott an eighty-acre lot. All went back to New York as soon as they had completed their land purchases, and in October, 1840, Abbott, Frost, Ephraim Abbott, Jr., and Stephen Sparks, with their families, set out in company for Keene. Abbott, leaving the rest of the party at Buffalo and pushing on through Canada (while they proceeded via the lake to Detroit), reached Keene some days before them, and, moving into an abandoned shanty on section 24, he and his son Ephraim began at once the work of clearing and cabin-building upon the Abbott eighty in section 15. Eight days after Abbott's arrival along came his friends, and into the old shanty they went; so that, all told, the occupants of that exceedingly small habitation numbered a total of twelve persons, and in it they managed to live two weeks. At night the floor of the one room was just about covered with the beds necessary for the twelve, but in the morning, by piling the beds in a heap, sufficient room was made to allow the womenfolks to get about in the performance of their household duties. In the northern half of the town there were but few settlers when Abbott, Frost, and Sparks came upon the scene. Schools they had none, and, indeed, needed none, for school-children were scarce, and when they wanted to g6 to meeting they could not get there short of the Welch school-house in Easton. Sparks became a famous hunter, and as a slayer of deer and bears was known all over. In the spring of 1846, Ephraim Abbott, Jr., set up a shop on section 15 and began to make barrels, tubs; and i I IEN. 3 sap-buckets, much to the convenience of his fellow-settlers, and much, it is hoped, to his own profit. In 1848 he changed his business location to section 22, his present place of residence, and, building a more commodious and convenient factory, added chairs, rakes, and grain-cradles to his list of manufactures. In 1868 he added the manufacture of patent horse-pokes, and still carries on with his son, under the firm-name of E. & A. H. Abbott, the only manufacturing interest Keene ever possessed. The Messrs. Abbott have likewise a general repair-shop, and latterly have opened a store in connection with their factory. James Day, a settler in Oakland County in 1825, moved to Keene in June, 1841, accompanied by his two grown sons, Cyrenus and Allen, each of whom, as well as the father, had made a land purchase in the town,-the father two hundred and forty acres on section 28, and the two sons smaller tracts on section 27. The road to their land, afterwards a part of the Ionia and Grand Rapids stage-road, had just been laid out, and they got in without much trouble. East of the Days, James Baird and Prindle Hubbell were living in'glo-my solitude the lives of bachelors on section 26; north, the nearest neighbor was Nathaniel Beattie; west, William Lott, on section 30; and south, Aaron Hardenburgh, on section 33. There was a mill at Vergennes, in Kent County, only a few miles distant, and so getting a supply of family flour, provided the grist was obtainable, was by no means the troublesome task experienced in a similar direction by many of the early settlers in neighlboring towns. Zaccheus H. Brower, a New Yorker, came to the town in 1840, and made a commencement on an eighty-acre lot in section 13. He got up the body of a log house, and in 1841 went back to New York after his family. Joseph Brown had got in before Brower and was living on section 13, and about then the Widow Electa Ann Lee, accompanied by her sons Amasa and Archelaus, occupied the Shaul place (the Shauls having returned to Canada), upon which now lives Hiram S. Lee, a son of the Widow Lee, and himself one of the earliest settlers in the town of Odessa. Delos Gibson, now living on section 11, settled in Eaton County in 1837, and in 1841, buying a forty-acre tract in Keene of Stephen Shaul, moved to it that year. In that neighborhood there had been no other attempt at settlement, and from Potter's Corners Mr. Gibson had to hew his road through the timber a distance of two miles. His nearest neighbor was Zaccheus Brower, on the south; north he had no neighbor nearer than four miles; east no nearer than two; and westward he had to travel six miles before sighting the smoke of a settler's cabin. George W. White came to the town in the spring of 1841, and still lives where he then located. In the same year A. C. Smith settled on section 25, where Mrs. Alexander Kinney now lives. Ira Pinckney, a settler in Oakland County in 1826, joined the settlers of Keene in the fall of 1842, in which year J. W. Sprague and Harlow Sprague (brothers) came to section 29. Shortly after J. W. Sprague's arrival he concluded that a post-office was one of the needs of the community, whereupon he circulated a petition for names. Himself being requested to name it, and urged to give it an Indian name, he said that 232 HISTORY OP IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. he could not just then think of a good Indian designation, but he could think of Rix Robinson, the Indian trader, and, that being something as near to Indian as he could well get, he would ask to have the office called Rix. Rix it was called accordingly, and Sprague was made postmaster. Just before that, in 1845, Avon post-office was established, near the eastern line of the town, and given in charge of Asaph C. Smith. The office was ultimately removed to Easton. Silas Sprague, father of the Spragues named above, came in some time during 1844 and brought his family for a permanent stay, having, however, been in previously with his son Jared and done some work on the place covering the northwest quarter of section 29. In addition to the already mentioned Canadians who became settlers in Keene at an early day may also be ineluded Joseph Gardner, C. C. Sayles, George Sayles, Elias Sayles, Chas. Sayles, George Denton, Harvey H. Vinton, Philip Marble, G. N. Jackson, and the Carrs, including the father and his sons James, John, and George, each of whom bought a farm. Apropos of the Canadian Settlement, there was the neighborhood in which the Monks, Robert Taylor, James Chrysler, John Follett, and Cyrus Rose lived, to which the name of Dickertown was given by reason of the fact that the settlers there out-Yankeed the veriest Yankee that ever lived in their extraordinary passion for trading, or dickering," as it was then called. They dickered with one another at dewy morn, at gentle eve, and at high noon. Although the proof is not at hand, yet it is gravely asserted, so strong was the passion for dickering upon the innocent and peaceful Canadians, that cases were known where members of the little community were frequently aroused from midnight slumbers to open, discuss, or close a trade. They were, forsooth, a noble band of traders, trading in anything that by any manner of means could be made to serve the purpose of a trade. That some of them must have grown pretty sharp and quick in due time as to matters appertaining to their favorite pastime follows of course, and it follows equally as a matter of course that there must have been a vast deal of rivalry and getting up early o' mornings in that vicinity in the general wild and yearning desire to get the better of somebody in a trade. Dickertown is now simply a remembrance, and those who remember it are able to tell some amusing stories of the locality and the weakness of the inhabitants thereof. In 1844 came Gilbert Ayers, and, in 1845, Vine Welch, Roland Hull, Israel Bowen, Oliver Bowen, James Bowen, and Alpheus Bowen, the spring in which they came being conspicuous as a time when there was a rapid rush of settlers to Keene. In 1846, C. G. Hunter came from Oakland County, where he had been since 1826, and settled on section 34. Two years before that time William H. Pearsall, also from Oakland County, had come on and located in section 33, just west of where Hunter afterwards built his cabin. D. W. Woodman was an early settler just south of Roland Hull, his mother keeping house for him until he married, sonle little time afterwards. More recent settlers in Keene included Mathew Brown, William Clark, William N. Higgins, W. Campbell, William Cannon, Pierce Jcn kins (an earlier settler in Easton), Joseph Long (who opened at the centre about 1850 the first blacksmith's shop in the town), R. Russ, Harvey Batson, and Aaron Pratt. The first birth in Keene is said to have been that of Berilla, daughter of Morton and Alvira Reynolds, May 17, 1838; the first death, that of Mary, wife of Robert Rose, who came from Canada intending to settle, but, his wife and daughter dying soon after his arrival, he abandoned his purpose and returned to Canada. January, 1840, Keene saw its first wedding when Alvin Butterfield and Ilena Phipps were married by Squire George Dexter, of Easton. The first pair of horses owned in the town by one of the town's settlers belonged to Jennison Henry, who in the fall of 1845 bought them of William Higgins, then just in that way after having carried Amos Sparks and his family, from the East, over to Charles Sparks', on Flat River. Of Keene's earliest settlers, Orrin Owen died in the town in 1874; Cyrus Rose, aged upwards of ninety, lives in Saranac; Charles Hickox died in Greenville in 1873; Joseph Brown was killed by the running away of his oxen, John Conner and Jennison Henry by falling trees,-Conner in 1849, and Henry in 1851. To the list of deaths by falling trees may also be added that of a Mr. Weller, who was killed at a chopping-bee held on the place now owned by W. E. Hull. About 1850, Hiram Fuller came to his death in a singular and sudden manner. Being at the raising of a barn on the Lee place, he was moved, in a spirit of mischief, to attempt to pull from a load of hay passing on the highway a young man whom he knew, who lay upon the hay kicking his heels in the air and rather inviting Fuller to have some fun. Fuller ran quickly to the rear of the wagon and attempted to leap up, that he might lay his game by the heels, but in leaping he leaped squarely against the tines of an unseen pitchfork (lodged at the bottom of the hay), and was so badly hurt that he lived but five minutes afterwards. RELIGIOUS HISTORY. Keene has but little religious history. Churches and religious organizations were ready to hand in convenient places over in adjoining townships, and so the need for home organizations was not considered a pressing one. Indeed, such has continued to be the case in Keene to a more or less degree to the present time. There is but one church-building in the town (and that was not- erected until 1880), and but one religious organization,-Methodist Episcopal. It is known as the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Keene, and includes what were formerly three separate classes worshiping at Marble's, South Keene, and Potter's Corners. The classes joined their forces and means for the purpose of erecting a common house of worship, and the result is a church-edifice costing, with organ, bell, etc., about two thousand dollars. The eldest of the three classes is the South Keene Class. The present aggregate membership is about fifty; the leaders, Thomas Daniels of South Keene, Harvey Lampkins of Marble's, and Mrs. Vine Welch of Potter's. The church trustees are Charles Taylor, Philip Dutt, Harvey Lampkins, Johln Denton, William Covert, Dc Witt Johnson, and Jared Sprague. MRS. JAMES BOWEN. JAMES BOWEN. JAMES BOWEN. James Bowen was born in Orange Co., N. Y., April 2, 1820. He was the eldest son in the family of Israel and Jane Bowen, who reared a family of six children,-three boys and three girls. The elder Bowen was a wagon-maker and machinist; he was an industrious mechanic and a native of Orange County, where he followed his trade for nearly thirty years. He was married in 1819, and in 1832 emigrated with his family to Oakland Co., Mich., and settled in Pontiac, where he followed his trade; he subsequently removed to the town of Bloomfield, where he resided twelve years, when he came to Keene, where he died in April, 1876. James was a lad of twelve years at the time of his father's removal to Michigan. His education was received in the log school-house of the early days. He learned the trade of a carpenter and wheelwright. On coming to Keene he bought, in company with his brother Oliver, one hundred and sixty acres of land in the northwest quarter of the town, where he was the first settler. His name is connected with most of the initial events in the history of Keene, and he may with propriety be called one of the founders of the town, being the founder of District No. 5. In November, 1848, Mr. Bowen was married to Miss Electa A. Lee at the home of her mother in Keene, Elder Cornell, of Ionia, officiating. Two children have been born to them,-Alfred L. and Elsie A. Both Mr. and Mrs. Bowen are prominent members of the Baptist Church, and have done much to advance the religious interests of the town. He organized the first Sabbath-school, and for many years was its superintendent. He has always been an ardent friend of education, and has done all in his power to give to others what he himself was unable to obtain. He established the first school in Keene, and assisted in the organization of the first school district. The life of Mr. Bowen, while it has been comparatively uneventful, is worthy of emulation. He is emphatically a self-made man, and has done his part in the development of Keene, and is worthy of the prominent position he holds in its history. I KEENE. 233 RESIDENT TAX-PAYERS OF KEENE IN 1844. Acres. Ephraim Abbott, sections 15, 22.......................... 80 Ephraim Abbott, Jr., section 15............. 40 Nathaniel Beattie, section 22........................ 120 Thomas Beattie, section 23.................. 80 Joseph Brown, section 13.................... 80 Z. H. Brower, section 13.................................... 80 John N. Butterfield, section 25....................... 240 James Baird, section 26.................................... 160 J. Boldman, section 36..................................... 160 John T. Covert, sections 13, 24..................... 80 H. V. N. Covert, section 23................................ 40 James Chrysler, sections 35, 36........................... 120 Nathaniel Davenport, section 19................. 80 William Devine, section 18................................. 84 James Devine.............................................Personal John Devine............................................ Cyrenus Day, section 27............................. 80 Allen Day, section 27....................................... 80 James Day, section 28....................................... 240 William Fallass, section 19........................... 80 John Folbert, section 35.................................... 40 W. H. Gay, section 26....................................... 40 Delos Gibson, section 11............................ 40 Aaron HIrdenburg, sections 33, 34..................... 240 Jennison Henry, sections 13, 24.......................... 120 Simon Heath, sections 13, 24............................ 80 Prindle Hubble, sections 26, 27.......................... 80 G. H all.....................................................Personal Simon Helmer, section 6.................................... 103 Francis Jones, section 34................................... 40 John Jones............................................ Personal Sebastian Lown, section 6......................... 55 Joseph Lown, section 6.................................... 55 W illiam Lott, section 30.................................. 120 John Monk, section 34.......................... 80 James Monk, section 26.................................... 80 Philip Monk, section 35................................... 40 Francis Potter, section 24.................................. 160 Ira Pinckney, section 28.................................... 80 Asa K. Phipps, section 27....................... 160 Cyrus Rose, sections 35, 36........................ 200 George R. Sayles, section 29............................ 80 B. W. Soules............................................Personal Elijah Sprague, section 10........................ 115 Joseph Sprague.......................................Personal Harlow Sprague, section 29................................ 80 Randall Monk, section 35.................................. 80 A. C. Smith, section 25...................................... 80 Stephen Parks, Jr., section 15.......................... 40 William Sparks, section 15................................. 40 John E. Conner, section 35................................ 80 Levi Strong, section 23..................................... 80 James Tefft, section 27..................................... 80 Robert L. Taylor, sections 26, 35........................ 80 Martin Vincent, section 19................................ 40 Richard Vincent, section 6................................. 82 Reuben Vincent.......................................... Personal George White, section 34................................... 40 Samuel W ells.............................................Personal Z. B. Frost, section 15....................................... 40 TOWNSHIP ROADS. June 15, 1842, Asa K. Phipps and George W. White, highway commissioners, established a road commencing at the quarter-stake on the town-line on the south side of section 33, and running due north on the quarter-line through sections 33 and 28 and to the centre of section 21, to intersect "the north road, so called." July 14, 1841, Thomas Cornell surveyed a road from the west line of Otisco, "near Mr. Sprague's," and running through the township east to the township of Ionia " near Mr. Henry's." Dec. 25, 1840, Thomas Cornell surveyed a road on the line between Otisco and Boston, and Oct. 16, 1842, Asa K. Phipps, H. V. N. Covert, and George W. White, highway commissioners of Keene, established a road commencing at the corner of section 21, town 7, and running north three and a half degrees west one hundred and fifty-nine rods to the quarter-stake of said section; thence north eighty-six degrees east four hundred and eighty rods to the sectioncorner between sections 23, 24, 14, and 15; thence south 30 three and a half degrees west one hundred and fifty-eight rods to intersect a road running on the quarter-line west from the east quarter-stake of section 24. SCHOOLS. The first school taught in Keene was held in a sixty-dollar log school-house on section 23 by Ruth Hunt, daughter of William Hunt, of Lyons. Just when the school was opened does not seem to be remembered by living pioneers, but it was probably not until 1842; for, according to the recollection of Mr. Ephraim Abbott, there was no need of a school before that time, since there were no school-children in the town. In 1845 the people of the town concluded to use for other purposes the usual annual appropriation on behalf of public education, for an entry in the town records under date April 6, 1845, reads " Voted to raise no money for the support of public schools." ORGANIZATION OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS. The first meeting of the school inspectors was held April 12, 1842, at the house of Allen Day, when, after appointing Simon Heath chairman, the board adjourned sine die. At the next meeting (non-dated) the west half of section 27 was taken from School District No. 3 and annexed to District No. 5. June 13, 1842, the inspectors detached section 25 from District No. 3 and attached it to District No. 4. Under the same date notice is made of the fact that the school districts in the town were District No. 3, including sections 25, 26, 27, 34, 35, and 36; District No. 4, including sections 13, 14, 15, 22, 23, and 24; District No. 5, including sections 28, 29, and 30. April 11, 1844, the inspectors formed District No. 1, and described it as beginning at the southwest corner of section 30, running south to the south line of the town, thence east with the line of the town to the east line of section 31, thence north to the southeast corner of section 29, and thence west to the place of beginning. The annual report of the school inspectors dated Oct. 11, 1845, gave the following: District No. 4: children, 58; District No. 5: children, 40. In No. 4, Samuel Case was the teacher, and received ten dollars and ninety-four cents for one month's teaching. Thomas Congdon taught six months in District No. 5, and received fifty dollars. District No. 6, formed Jan. 21, 1846, included the west half of section 36, the whole of section 35, the east half of section 34, the southwest quarter of section 34, the south half of section 33, the south half of section 26, and the southeast quarter of section 27 in town 7, and the north half of section 4 and the northwest quarter of section 3 in town 6. May 2, 1846, the school inspectors recorded District No. 1 as containing sections 13, 14, 15, 22, 23, 24, and 25, the northeast quarter of section 26, the northwest quarter of the southeast quarter of section 26; No. 2 as containing sections 28, 29, and 30, and the west half of section 27; No. 3 as containing the territory ascribed to No. 1, formed April 11, 1844; and No. 4 the west half of sec tion 36, the whole of section 35, the east half of section 34, the southwest quarter of section 34, the south half of section 33, the east half of the east half of section 26. 234 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. I TEACHERS. The first teacher's certificate issued by the school inspectors appears from the records to have been to Miss Betsey Fallass, June 13, 1844. Certificates were doubtless issued before that, but the records do not say so. To 1860 subsequent certificates were issued to the following persons: Dec. 5, 1844, Thomas Congdon; Sept. 22, 1845, Electa A. Lee; Dec. 27, 1845, Thomas Congdon; April 30, 1847, Electa A. Lee; May 19, 1847, Helen M. White; May 10,1848, Lucy Ann Vinton; Nov. 18, 1848, Thomas Congdon, Silas Sprague, E. R. Peck, Harriet J. Abbott, and Sarah M. Atwood; April 19, 1849, Helen M. White; July 10, 1849, Clorinda Robinson; Nov. 3, 1849, A. C. Lee, Mary L. Woodman; Nov. 27, 1849, B. F. Woodman, Louisa Melvin; Dec. 13, 1849, A. C. Smith; April 13, 1850, Julia D. Miles; April 29, 1850, Nancy Goodsell, Sarah Peasly; Nov. 16, 1850, Elizabeth English; Dec. 3, 1850, A. F. Chapin, Sarah S. Fisk, and Oliver L. Littlefield; Dec. 6, 1850, Joel Andrews, J. A. Alsworth; Nov. 1,1851, B. F. Woodman, D. W. Richards; Jan. 17, 1852, Alfeta Fallass; April 10, 1852, Miss Smith, Miss Marble; May 1, 1852, Miss B. Potter, Adelia Potter; July 17, 1852, Miss E. Stevens, Eliza Chipman; Nov. 13, 1852, Alfred A. Proctor; April 9, 1853, J. Andrews, Mary L. Woodman; May 14, 1853, Hannah I. Davenport; June 4, 1853, Mary Worcester; Nov. 5, 1853, S. P. Curtiss, Levi Nash; March 13,1854, Cynthia Hardenburgh; April 8, 1854, Abby Abbey, Caroline Marble; May 13, 1854, Miss Ford, Celeste Gibson; May 23, 1854, Sarah A. Underhill; Nov. 4, 1854, Mrs. Adelia A. Potter; Nov. 20, 1854, W. Yonge, Mrs. Ingalls, and Mrs. H. A. Thompson; March 27,1855, Clorinda T. Webber, Laura Dupee, Elizabeth Coons; Nov. 10, 1855, Harvey S. Curtiss, George D. Wood, Charles Morse, Frank T. Jacques, S. P. Curtiss, Elizabeth Wakeman, and Mary Rogers; Nov. 15, 1855, Edwin Shaw; Nov. 24, 1855, E. R. Smith; Feb. 13, 1856, Joel Andrews; March 8, 1856, Frances Parks and Rose T. Hanson; May 24,1856, Cordelia Petit, Ann Beckwith; June 30, 1856, Asa W. Slayton; Nov. 1, 1856, Carrie Fallass, Samuel B. Young, George F. Whitfield; Nov. 18, 1856, Lucy Fairchild, Edwin Abbey, Charles A. Warner; March 23, 1857, Lois Mudge, Elizabeth Mudge; April 11, 1857, Mary C. Davenport, H. J. Davenport, Elizabeth Ackley, P. A. Stannard; June 11, 1857, Mary Benton; June 15, 1857, Lydia Abbott; Aug. 17, 1857, Betsey Ann Gould; Nov. 7, 1857, W. W. Kirkland, A. Heath; Nov. 14, 1857, Miss Smoke; Nov. 17, 1857, Mary Rogers; Nov. 24, 1857, Wallace Davenport; Dec. 5, 1857, J. J. Whitfield; April 10, 1858, Mary Rogers, Martha Vosper, Caroline Bowen, Cynthia Gardner, Edwin Abbey; May 3, 1858, Sarah L. Cole; Nov. 6, 1858, C. A. Warner, D. B. Sage, S. P. Curtiss, S. S. Hull; Nov. 20, 1858, Hannah M. Hough, William Fallass, Isaac Unsworth; Dec. 30, 1858, Stephen B. Knapp; Feb. 21, 1859, Harriet Houghton; April 9, 1859, Louisa Knapp, Miss J. H. Davenport, Catharine Niles, Julia Heath, Caroline E. Moyer, Mary C. Davenport, Mary E. Misner, Eliza M. Sayles, Betsey Fal lass, Mary E. Trumbull, Olive Sayles, J. B. Trumbull; May 7, 1859, Mary J. Barker and Margaret Dunsmore; May 13, 1859, Clarissa Holding; Aug. 10, 1859, Betsey Ann Gould; Nov. 5, 1859, Harvey S. Curtiss, Elizabeth A. Wakeman, Reuben Tower, J. B. McWithey; Nov. 26, 1859, William G. Sayles, Walter B. Morrison. Appended is a synopsis of the school report for 1880: Directors. Dist. 1.....William Cannon. 2-.....J. G. Kennedy. " 3......J. W. Rickert. " 4.....E. Hancorn. " 5......J. D. Loucks. " 6......P. Jenkins. 7......C. Jepson. " 8......L. Warner. 9......M. Frost. En a lmer- Average Wtion. Attendance. 35 34 37 29 37 34 35 25 41 30 67 60 41 43 49 43 31 27.373 325 Value of Teachers' Property. Wages. $1500 $169 800 184 1000 168 250 157 250 118 400 136 570 145 150 162 500 80 $5420 $1319 Totals.......................... TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION. Town 7 north, in range 8 west, was a part of Otisco until Feb. 16, 1842, when that portion of the town lying on the east side of Flat River was organized as the township of Keene. Subsequently the fraction was attached to Keene. Feb. 29, 1844, that portion of Boston lying north of the Grand River was set off to Keene, and March 17, 1849, was again restored to Boston. When John Covert and Simon Heath agitated the project of applying for township organization, there was difficulty in obtaining the suggestion of a town-name. In the dilemma some one moved that Edward Butterfield, the oldest man in the town, be allowed to supply the name. Butterfield, being called upon, promptly replied that he would bestow the name of his native town in New Hampshire, and Keene it stood accepted. The first meeting in Keene was held at the house of Nathaniel Beattie, April 4, 1842. John L. Covert was chosen moderator, Edward Butterfield, Nathaniel Beattie, Ephraim Abbott, and Aaron Hardenburgh inspectors, and Simon Heath clerk. After organizing and choosing pathmasters the meeting adjourned to Allen Day's house, where the election was held. Thirty-nine votes were cast and the following officials chosen: Supervisor, Asaph C. Smith; Clerk, Cyrenus Day; Treasurer, Samuel Wells; Justices of the Peace, John L. Covert, Joseph W. Sprague, Aaron IHardenburgh, Z. H. Brower; Highway Commissioners, Henry V. N. Covert, George W. White, Asa K. Phipps; School Inspectors, Simon Heath, James Chrysler, Asaph C. Smith, James Baird; Overseers of the Poor, Granson L. Hall, John L. Covert; Associate Assessor, Elijah Sprague; Constables, Prindle Hubbell, Loren Sprague, George W. White; Highway Overseers, John Covert, W. M. Lot, E. Butterfield, H. V. N. Covert, E. Abbott, E. Sprague, John Devine. Following is a list of names of those chosen annually from 1843 to 1880 to serve as supervisors, clerks, treasurers, and justices of the peace: SUPERVISORS. 1843, A. C. Smith; 1844, S. Heath; 1845, A. C. Smith; 1846, no record; 1847, S. Heath; 1848, A. C. Smith; 1849, S. Heath; 1850, Z. B. Frost; 1851, S. Heath; 1852, G. R. Sayles; 1853, A. C. Smith; 1854, T. Jacques; 1855, A. C. Smith; 1856, S. Wells; 1857,t G. R. Sayles; 1858-59, J. Sprague; 1860, S. Wells; 1861 -i' Fractional. t A total of one hundred and twenty votes cast this year. KEENE. 235 62, J. B. Sprague; 1863-64, O. Bowen; 1865, J. Sprague; 1866 -67, C. Cowles; 1868-76, A. F. Lee; 1877-78, R. Hardy; 1879-80, V. Welch. CLERKS. 1843-44, C. Day; 1845, A. K. Phipps; 1846, no record; 1847, S. B. Knapp; 1848, A. W. Corlis; 1849, G. R. Sayles; 1850, A. W. Corlis; 1851, C. Day; 1852, II. V. N. Covert; 1853, Z. B. Frost; 1854, H. V. N. Covert; 1855, J. Andrews; 1856, E. Abbey; 1857 -63, R. N. Covert; 1864-65, E. Abbey; 1866, T. Lowden; 1867, Vine Welch; 1868-70, T. Daniels; 1871, W. Covert; 1872-74, T. Daniels; 1875, II. H. Batson; 1876-77, T. Daniels; 1878-79, H. N. Lee; 1880, F. Bowen. TREASURERS. 1843, Z. B. Frost; 1844, N. Davenport; 1845, J. N. Butterfield; 1846, no record; 1847, E. Abbott, Jr.; 1848, N. Beattie; 1849, D. Gibson; 1850, J. N. Butterfield; 1851, N. Beattie; 1852, I. Pinckney; 1853, B. Covert; 1854, E. Abbott; 1855, D. W. Woodman; 1856, J. Sprague; 1857-58, C. Day; 1859-60, A. F. Lee; 1861, J. Pritchard; 1862-63, L. Hart; 1864, J. W. Gardner; 1865-66, W. N. Higgins; 1867, J. W. Rickert; 1868-70, S. Strong; 1871, W. E. Hull; 1872-74, E. Abbott; 1875, W. Covert; 1876, R. Hardy; 1877, A. Brown; 1878-79, C. N. Hunter; 1880, F. P. Hunter. JUSTICES. 1843, E. Abbott; 1844, A. Hardenburgh; 1845, Z. B. Frost; 1846, no record; 1847, J. Il. Hart; 1848, C. G. Hunter; 1849, J. W. Sprague; 1850, A. C. Smith; 1851, E. Abbott, Jr.; 1852, E. Wilkerson; 1853, J. Gardner; 1854, Z. B. Frost; 1855, L. C. Goodwin; 1856, N. H. Batson; 1857, N. Dlvenport; 1858, C. Rexford; 1859, G. R. Saylcs; 1860, E. Abbott, Jr.; 1861, W. A. More; 1862, C. Rexford; 1863, F. J. Whitfield; 1864, W. Clark; 1865, W. H. Davenport; 1866, S. Wells; 1867, J. Long; 1868, W. Clark; 1869, D. P. Ransom; 1870, L. Belgrave; 1871, L. E. Jones; 1872, E. Morrison; 1873-74, W. H. Davenport; 1875, W. Hawley; 1876, J. Sprague; 1877, E. Morrison; 1878, Vine Welch; 1879, P. Bozung; 1880, J. W. Rickert. THE VOTERS IN KEENE IN 1852. Ten years after the township organization of Keenethat is to say, in 1852-the votes cast at the annual election numbered one hundred and forty-two. The names of the voters were William Pearsall, Nathaniel Davenport, Thomas Beattie, Amasa F. Lee, Z. H. Brower, Peter Covert, Harlow Sprague, Arnold Wooley, Theodore Prosser, Ira Pinckney, Robert Diamond, Albert Wooley, Cyrenus Day, Israel Bowen, James A. Cain, Hiram Lee, Hiram Weller, Henry Hart, Daniel Weller, Charles Sayles, A. C. Lee, Benjamin Covert, Iarvey Walker, Prindle Hubbell, James Day, John P. Latta, G. L. Hall, Ira Corlis, Jr., Silas Sprague, Jr., George Rose, Allen Day, William Sparks, J. W. Bunncll, Samuel W. Johnson, T. Jacques, John T. Hopkins, Anthony T. House, Henry Sherman, C. C. Sayles, Oliver Bowen, B. W. Soules, William H. Rose, Samuel Hart, Peter Hart, A. J. Hunter, Francis Potter, Pharos Rose, Samuel Wells, Jacob Snyder, Orrin Owen, A. C. Smith, William Lott, Delos Gibson, Nathaniel Beattie, Peter Snyder, J. W. Butterfield, James W. Myers, Z. B. Frost, Samuel C. Johnson, Charles G. Hunter, Peter Muna, Rufus N. Belknap, Milo Abbott, Joel Andrews, James Trumans, Samuel Ackley, Erastus Hull, Francis Wooley, Thomas L. Barry, Isaac Barry, David Miesner, B. F. Woodman, Abel Cutter, David Nevers, John McCarty, William Campbell, John Shaw, Thomas Lowden, James Tefft, James Chrysler, Cyrus Rose, John Vandrear, George W. White, James Beattie, DeWitt Wooley, J. W. Sprague, Silas Towles, Ahab Sayles, Jesse Hollenshead, Enoch Wil kerson, Thomas J. Congdon, Stephen Sparks, Jr., George Wooley, John Snyder, John Follett, Samuel Crawford, Elijah Sprague, Charles J. Keeler, Peter Shindorff, H. V. N. Covert, N. D. Strong, George R. Sayles, Henry Croup, Ira C. Corlis, William Potter, Nelson Irwin, James Stephens, Eli T. Corlis, Robert N. Covert, Andrew Barry, John Brumhall, Asher Lane, George Denton, Levi Goodwin, Lewis Hart, Washington Howe, Randall Monk, Cyrus Clark, Joseph Long, James B. Sprague, Silas Sprague, Jared Sprague, Amasa Davis, Oziel Davis, Obadiah Lane, A. R. Wakes, Stephen Sparks, Ruel Lamberton, Ephraim Abbott, Joseph Gardner, Elias Sayles, D. W. Woodman, Daniel Proctor, Dudley Marble, D. C. Dupee, William Day, James Bowen, Joseph Brown, William Ayers, Loren McDonald, Hugh Dodge, J. H. Henry. KEENE GRANGE, NO. 270. Keene Grange was organized in 1875, and in 1876 built a nice hall. It has been prosperously sustained since the beginning, and numbers now fully one hundred and fifty members. The Masters who have served since 1875 have been Vine Welch, Dexter Cutter, Ed. Hancorn, Myron Kreiger, and Thomas Brown. The officers for 1880 are Thomas Brown, M.: Myron Kreiger, O.; Ed. Hancorn, L.; DeWitt Johnson, Sec.; George Denton, Treas.; D. W. Woodman, Chaplain; Merrit Sayles, Steward; Albert Gunn, Assistant Steward; Mrs. Albert Gunn, Stewardess. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. MATHEW BROWN. Mathew Brown one of the early settlers and prominent farmers of the township of Keene, was born in the town of Cyduff, county of Tyrone, Ireland, Feb. 4, 1822. His father, Robert Brown, was a farmer; he married Miss Sarah Kyle and reared a family of twelve children, six boys and 236 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. I six girls; he possessed a finished education, and was in the military service until he attained his twenty-second year. In 1831 the family came to America and settled in the town of West Bloomfield, Oakland Co., Mich., where the elder Brown purchased a farm and where he resided until his decease, which occurred in his eighty-second year. Mathew was thrown upon his own resources when eleven years of age. He obtained employment upon a farm at four dollars per month, and continued to work in that capacity until he was twenty-two years of age. In 1840 he came to Keene and located one hundred and twenty acres of land; he shortly after returned to Oakland, where he remained some years. In April, 1849, he was married to Miss Mary C. Cum mings, of Oakland County. She was born in Orange Co., N. Y., June 27, 1828. After his marriage he made a permanent settlement upon his property in Keene, in which he has since resided. Jan. 1, 1869, Mrs. Brown died, and in December of that year he was again married, to Miss Melinda Kyle. She was born in Macomb Co., Mich., Oct. 17, 1841. In his religious belief Mr. Brown is a Methodist, in political matters a Republican. He is emphatically a selfmade man. Starting in life at the early age of eleven, he has by his own efforts attained merited success in all departments of life, and is in every way worthy of the prominent position he holds among the representative farmers of Ionia County. MRS. A. B. PRATT. AARON B. PRATT. AARON B. PRATT. Aaron B. Pratt, one of tie pioneers of Ionia County, was born in the town of Newstead, Erie Co., N. Y., June 16, 1813. His father, Jacob Pratt, was a native of the eastern part of the State, and by occupation a carpenter and joiner, and an energetic and successful business man. He emigrated to Michigan in 1838, and settled in Bloomfield, Oakland Co. Here he remained two years, when he removed to Saranac, where he resided until his decease, which occurred in August, 1849. He was an exemplary man in all respects, a prominent member of the Methodist Church, and was highly esteemed for his kindly nature and manly virtues. Aaron acquired a good common-school education, and, being of a mechanical turn, learned the trade of a millwright. In 1837 he came to Michigan, and for three years worked at his trade in Oakland Ionia Co., where he built the first mill within the present limits of the town. Mr. Pratt resided in Lyons twenty-six years, and identified himself largely with its development and material interests. In 1866 he came to Saranac, and after a residence of seven years removed to his farm in Keene, where he has since resided. In 1839, Mr. Pratt was married to Miss Pluma Fox. She was born in Niagara Co., N. Y., March 28, 1820, and came to Michigan in 1825 with her parents, who settled in Auburn, Oakland Co. They have eight children,-Amanda, Walter E., Frank W., Lydia M., Dora C., Truman J., Mary A., and George C. Both Mr. and Mrs. Pratt are prominent members of the Church of the Disciples, and are highly respected by all who know them for their real worth. County; he then removed to the town of Lyons, IY LYONS. LYONS, one of the earliest settled of the townships of Ionia County, is known as United States survey township 7, in range 5 west, having North Plains on the north, Portland on the south, Clinton County on the east, and Ionia on the west. The town is well watered by the Grand and Maple Rivers and Stony Creek. Entering at the southwestern corner of section 33, the Grand River flows north and west in an exceedingly erratic course through sections 33, 28, 29, 20, 19, and 18, upon which latter it receives the waters of the Maple and passes out of the township. The Grand is in Lyons a picturesque and rapidly-flowing stream, dotted here and there with islands and fringed with high wooded banks, while its graceful curves are pretty features in the landscape. The Maple, a sluggish stream, flows south and west from section 2, is joined by Stony Creek on section 9, and itself joins the Grand on section 18. It possesses no mill-power, but serves a useful purpose to lumber-men for the transportation of logs. Stony Creek, like the Grand River, is a mill-stream, although scarcely to be compared in that respect with the latter. It enters the town at section 21, and, flowing north and west, joins the Maple on section 9. Two lines of railway traverse the township,-the Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee, and the Detroit, Lansing and Northern. Upon the former in Lyons are the stations of Muir and Pewamo; upon the latter there is none. The township boasts, likewise, three sizable incorporated villages, -Lyons, Muir, and Pewamo. In population the township has slightly declined in ten years from two thousand eight hundred and fifty-five in 1870, to two thousand seven hundred and forty-nine in 1880. As an agricultural district it ranks with the highest in the State, and excels especially as a wheat-producing region. In 1878 there were 5175 acres of wheat, and the yield thereon 140,347 bushels, or an average of 27.12 bushels per acre. The same year the average in the State at large was 18.79 bushels per acre. VILLAGE OF LYONS. The village of Lyons, charmingly situated in a fertile valley upon both sides of the Grand River, invited the attention of the pioneer at an early day both by reason of its picturesque location and the presence of fine water-power. The river flows from the south through the centre of the village, margined by high abrupt bluffs and thickly-wooded banks. South of the town one may gain from the hill overlooking the river a magnificent view. At his feet and stretching away upon either hand lies a broad-reaching valley, upon whose bosom in picturesque beauty repose the villages of Lyons and Muir, and through which like silver threads wind the Grand and Maple Rivers. North, east, and west a frame of verdure-clad hills shuts in the picture and embellishes it with rich color and impressive surroundings. The natural prospect here described has often been the theme of delightful comment, and is justly the source of a more than ordinary local pride. ITS SETTLEMENT. Until 1830 no white man ventured to penetrate into the Grand River Valley near the now village of Lyons. In that year, however, William Hunt, learning that the point was a most favorable one for the purpose, set up a tradingpost on the west bank of the river and began to traffic with the Indians for furs, skins, and such other commodities as they chose to bring to him in exchange for whisky, blankets, guns, etc. Hunt had as partners in the enterprise, at stated times, men named Belcher and Burgess, of whom Belcher remained until 1834, when he removed to Kalamazoo. He was by profession a lawyer, but while here appeared to be given to the notion that he could do better as an Indian trader in the wilds of Michigan than as a lawyer in the haunts of men. Whether his practice proved the truth of that theory has never yet been disclosed. Belcher's wife was undoubtedly the first white woman ever resident upon the site now occupied by the village of Lyons, while her child, born in 1834, was likewise the first white child born upon that territory. The business of trading with the Indians, as carried on by Hunt, Belcher, and Burgess, was the only white man's effort pursued in that neighborhood until the year 1836, when Lucius Lyon founded the village of Lyons. Lyon, who was concerned with the surveying of government lands in Michigan, entered the land upon which Lyons now stands, and in 1836 proceeded to carry out his originallyformed project of creating a village there. The first settler upon the ground was Giles S. Isham, who made a location upon the west side of the river, put up a log cabin, and began to clear his land. The impression that H. V. Libhart was an early settler in Lyons is a mistaken one. He settled, it is true, in 1833, but in what was then in Lyons township and now in Ionia township. Isham had got fairly settled in the summer of 1836, when along came Edward Lyon, Henry A. Leonard, and Andrew Hanse, attended by a company of sixteen carpenters and builders sent out by Lucius Lyon to build a bridge, stores, dwellings, etc., and to give the new village a sharp architectural start. Among the sixteen carpenters alluded to were Ashley Cooper, David Pressy, and N. J. Allport, who, with Leonard and Lyon, became permanent settlers. Isham's was the only house on the spot except Hunt's, and the only one at all capable of containing the company of 237 238 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. carpenters, although it was a close fit. However, all hands took shelter in it until they could arrange accommodations of their own, which they were not long in doing. They established a camp on the bank of the river, N. J. Allport being chief cook and bottle-washer, and as the first work in hand began the erection of a store, in which Edward Lyon was to be the storekeeper. That building-a pretty good one even for this day, and the first framed structure built in the village-is still in excellent preservation. It stands just south of the school-house, and has long been known as Temperance Hall. The next improvement was the building of a dwelling-house for Edward Lyon, likewise on the west bank of the river. It is now the residence of Mr. Henry Hitchcock. Edward Lyon obtained the brilliant idea that Lyons would become a first-class city in less than no time, and to meet what he conceived would soon be the popular demand he stocked his store with choice goods, including even silks, champagne, etc. When he gave the champagne away to get rid of it, and saw the silks severely neglected, he concluded that there was such a thing as being too smart. The lumber for the village improvements was easily obtainable at H. V. Libhart's saw-mill, about two miles westward, and in the business of hauling the lumber from mill to village David Baldwin, famous as the owner of a great breaking-up team, was the chief actor. THE VILLAGE PLATTED. The first recorded plat of the village of Lyons is dated Nov. 26, 1836, signed by Lucius Lyon, and designated as " occupying land on sections 18 and 19, in town 7 north, range 5 west." The plat further sets forth that "this town is situated at the head of steamboat navigation on Grand River, one hundred miles from the river's mouth, and sixty miles from Grand Rapids." The second plat was made by Walter Halstead, on section 19, March 18, 1857, as Halstead's addition. The third was made by Daniel Ball and R. E. Butterworth, in September, 1857, as Ball's addition, and the fourth by H. and E. A. Hawley, D. B. Lyon, and B. F. Rockafellow. The latter addition is described as " commencing at a point in the south line of Isham Street, four rods south of the southeast corner of block 84 of the original plat of the village, in a magnetic course south three degrees east; thence along the south line of Isham Street south eighty-seven degrees west two thousand eight hundred feet to the bank of the Grand River." PUSHING ON. In the fall of 1836, the village being platted and the village site fast emerging from the embrace of the forest as the woodmen plied their busy axes, the population began to increase, and the signs of the times pointed to a healthful growth of the enterprise. In October, 1836, Simeon Mortimer came to the town, and December 7th of that year opened the pioneer blacksmith-shop. It stood, and still stands, on the west bank of the river. Mr. Mortimer still lives in Lyons, and until a few years ago worked at the forge uninterruptedly after he opened the campaign. To that time the village improvements had been confined wholly to the west side of the river, but then James W. Tabor, who was in charge of Lucius Lyon's landed interests in that region, erected a fine residence on the east bank. Meanwhile, Joel Burgess had opened a house of entertainment on the west side of the river, and A. L. Roof, with A. F. Bell, was living in a shanty on the lot now occupied by Mr. Roof's residence. Bell and Roof made the journey together from Jackson to Lyons down the river in a poleboat, in which they conveyed all their worldly possessions, which, as may be imagined, were not very extensive. These young men were law-graduates and surveyors, and, coming to the new village with a few law-books as their chief stock in trade, established themselves there as lawyers and surveyors. They kept bachelors' hall in a shanty on the lot now occupied by Mr. Roof's residence, and became among the most active workers in the community. Mr. Roof still lives in Lyons; Mr. Bell has been a resident of Ionia since 1842 or thereabouts. THE FIRST BRIDGE. In 1837, Ienry A. Leonard and Andrew Hanse began the erection, for Lucius Lyon, of a bridge over the Grand River at Lyons. It was the first bridge thrown across that stream between Grand Haven and Jackson. Apropos of Mr. Leonard, it is worthy of note that he still resides in Lyons, where he has followed the trade of carpentering continuously since 1836. Early in the year 1837, Peter Coon and T. H. Dewey, then sturdy young men, joined the diminutive band in the little village. They were friends and neighbors in Genesee Co., N. Y., and, hearing from Marshal Smead, just returned from a prospecting-tour, that there was a fine country and good land at the mouth of the Maple River, they determined to go out there and grow up with the country. They went to a country dance the night of February 22d, and on the morning of the 23d left the ball-room for the far West; and each, with a twenty-eight pound pack on his back, footed it merrily to the mouth of the Maple, which, without experiencing any remarkable vicissitude, they reached March 13, 1837, each with an English sixpence in his pocket as the sum-total of his worldly possessions. Mr. Dewey, now living in Pewamo, relates that when they got to Lyons, they found Edward Lyon and Giles S. Isham keeping stores on the west bank of the river; Joel Burgess kept what he called a tavern; Simeon Mortimer was carrying on a blacksmith-shop; and there were living also on the west side of the river David Irish (clerk for Edward Lyon), James W. Tabor (Lucius Lyon's agent), William Hunt (then having exchanged the business of Indian trader for land-hunter and guide), David Pressy, and Henry A. Leonard, carpenters, and A. L. Roof and A. F. Bell, who were keeping house and studying law in a board shanty. RIVER NAVIGATION. Dec. 1, 1837, the good people of Lyons were treated to the sensational spectacle of a steamboat plowing the waters of the Grand River to the very doors of the town. The vessel was the " Governor Mason," a side-wheeler employed in navigating the lakes, and, the river being risen to an extraordinary height, the owners of the craft ascended the LYONS. 239 I rapids and river as far as Lyons simply to gratify a sudden fancy. Ordinarily, of course, the boat-which was a capacious one-could not have accomplished the undertaking, but the flood had laid the country under water and supplied an ample depth in the river. Until 1848 the waters of the stream were not again vexed by a steamboat's paddle, although navigation was regularly pursued by means of poleboats. In this way supplies for the settlement and produce were forwarded to market via Grand Haven, although there was, too, similar traffic overland to and from Detroit. Ten years afterwards (or in 1847) the Legislature made an appropriation for the improvement of navigation on the Grand River, and navigation was so improved that in 1848 small steamboats were put into service by Daniel Ball and others between Lyons and Grand Rapids for the purpose of towing flat-boats. These boats did considerable business in the way of carrying produce out of the valley, and by their agency all wheat-shipments were made until railway construction pushed them aside. Burgess Hall, as agent for Beach & Co., had a wheat-warehouse at the west end of the bridge (where it still stands), from which the flatboats took their wheat-cargoes, and through which a vast amount of grain was forwarded from first to last. Steamboats and flat-boats plied with more or less regularity between Grand Rapids and Lyons until the completion of the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad, in 1857, when the business was abandoned. INCIDENTS OF 1837. The village received in 1837 its first resident physician, when Dr. John Jewett-since then continuously in practice in Lyons-made a permanent location in the fall of that year, and opened an office near William Hunt's cabin. Dr. Jewett visited the country in the fall of 1832 in company with Samuel Dexter, who was then looking for a landlocation for his Herkimer Colony. At that time Dr. Jewett stopped awhile at William Hunt's, but simply in the character of a prospecter. Dr. W. Z. Blanchard, the second physician in the village (now living there, but retired from practice), came first in 1837 to look about him, and in 1838 for a permanent residence. Up to the time of the construction of the first bridge across the river at Lyons, in 1837, the village proper was confined exclusively to the western side of the stream, but with established communication between the shores came a spread of the population and business to the eastern shore. The first improvement there after Tabor's house was Truman Lyon's tavern, at the eastern end of the bridge. Lyon called the tavern the " Lyons House," and there, as postmaster, he opened Lyons' first post-office, in 1836. The first business establishment, aside from the tavern, on the eastern bank, was started by N. J. Allport, the shoemaker, and the first store in 1841 or 1842, by Dorus M. Fox. Lucius Lyon was anxious to push the architectural adornments of the town, and engaged a man to burn a kiln of brick with a view to the erection' of a brick hotel, but the brick-kiln turned out a total failure, and the hotel project was abandoned. On the eastern shore were also, in 1837, Stevenson, a shoemaker, David Burnett and one Atwater (carpenters), Horace Catlin, John Montrael, Abram Hanse, and other mechanics, William W. Fitch, a surveyor, and Peter Coon, Mount Vernon Olmstead, Thomas Dewey, and Joseph Letandre, the four latter being employed by James W. Tabor. David Irish, earlier a clerk for Edward Lyon, himself became a storekeeper, and had for a clerk Frederick Hall, now an eminent citizen of Ionia. Of William W. Fitch, mentioned above, a story is told to show what an abrupt lover he was. He had been engaged as surveyor on the line of the Port Huron and Northern Railway and, when he finished his task, located at Lyons and boarded with Truman Lyon. Lyon had a pretty daughter, with whom Fitch fell in love, but the old man was not disposed to favor the suit, and when Fitch asked for the girl's hand he was told he could not have it. Piqued and mortified, Fitch vowed he would be married anyway, and set out for a tramp up the river, saying that he would stop the first girl he met, ask her to marry him, and, if she consented, marry her on the spot. He had not gone far when he stepped into the cabin of a settler on the river, called Hopkins. Hopkins' daughter being within, Fitch asked her to have him, and, Miss Hopkins consenting, the twain proceeded to the village and were united that very day. THE STAGE-ROUTE. There was a popular stage-route from Detroit to Grand Rapids, via Lansing, Lyons, and Ionia, in the days of 1846 and after, and there was much travel upon it. The road touched Lyons on the western shore of the river, where Giles Isham kept a stage-house, and passed on down stream to Genereau's landing, where there was a bridge, and so on towards Ionia. Those were the good old coaching-days when each passenger was called upon to carry a rail to lift the coach out of the mud every few miles. RESIDENT TAX-PAYERS IN 1841. L. R. Atwater, lots 5, 10; block 64. Joel Burgess, lots 1, 2, 13; block 11. David Burnett, lots 7, 10, and west half 8 and 9; blocks 11, 78, 79. W. Z. Blanchard, lots 1, 11, 12; block 64. Nathaniel Fisk, lot 2; block 74. Frederick Hall, personal. Giles S. Isham, lots 3, 13; blocks 12, 13. Edward Lyon, lots 1, 13; blocks 14, 22. Henry Leonard, lot 7; block 17. Daniel McKelvey, personal. Simeon Mortimer, lots 11, 12; block 16. Patrick Nagle, lot 7; block 16. M. V. Olmstead, personal. David Pressy, lot 6; block 16. William Perry, Iot 6; block 17. A. L. Roof, lots 1, 2, 13; block 12. Paul Romes, lot 12; block 12. C. C. Smith, lots 1, 2, 3; block 13. Samuel Sutliff, lots 1, 2, 3; block 92. G. S. Smith, east half 8 and 9; block 64. J. W. Tabor, entire block 53. VILLAGE SCHOOLS. The first village school is said to have been taught by Miss Susan Moore, in 1835, in a log cabin erected by H. V. Libhart in the village, but just over the town-line in Ionia. A school was taught in 1837 in a shanty that stood on Henry Leonard's lot. Leonard bought the building of 240 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. I Libhart for sixty dollars and sold it to the town. Naomi Irish taught the first school there, and Eliza Ann Bunnell the second. Richard Parsons and William Jennings were early teachers in the village, but they did not come in until about 1842. THE BOGUS ERA. There was some agitation in the neighborhood of Lyons in 1835 or 1836 about the alleged discovery of a counterfeiters' den, but, whatever the nature of the discovery, it never became positively known in a public manner. The counterfeiters took the alarm and fled, but whether they were captured or not cannot be said. Certain it is that they did not return to Lyons. Their tools, dies, etc., were afterwards found in the river, where, in their flight, the counterfeiters had doubtless thrown them. PAPER TOWNS. In 1836 and 1837, Michigan was covered with so-called paper towns. About every third landowner felt called upon to plat a village in the woods, and then, with a beautifullycolored map showing what looked like a city with manufactories, mills, stores, churches, and' every necessary appointment, would hurry Eastward to dispose of village lots in his Michigan town. Strange to say, victims were plentiful in those days, for there was a fever in the East to speculate in Western village-lots. As not one in twenty or more of these paper towns ever came to anything, lot-purchasers came to grief upon every hand when they came to understand how mythical their villages were. Illustrative of this, Thomas H. Dewey tells a story about a speculator in lots in the prospective village of Arthursburg,* which was shown on a handsome map to be laid out on the river-bluff just west of where Muir now stands. While at work on the river-bottom one day Dewey was accosted by a well-dressed traveler who inquired for the road to Arthursburg. The direction and location being pointed out to him, he casually asked which was the best hotel at Arthursburg, and whether the river-crossing was by ferry or bridge. Dewey laughed until he got blue in the face at the air of sincerity with which the man asked the question and at the utter ludicrousness of the matter. " Why," said he, "my friend, Arthursburg is a wilderness,-never was a town, and never will be a town." Amazement deprived the stranger of speech for a bit, but, soon recovering, he launched out into bitter invectives upon the man who had sold him Arthursburg village-lots and drawn him on a journey all the way from the State of Connecticut. Dewey said the case was a common one, but that did not mollify the anger of the victim, who rushed wildly from the spot, swearing vengeance upon his victimizer if ever he caught him. Roof & Bell surveyed for speculators no less than eight paper towns, not one of which ever lived. EARLY TRADERS, PHYSICIANS, ETC. Truman Lyon, Giles Isham, and Joel Burgess have already been mentioned as the pioneer tavernkeepers at *A scheme of Judge Morrison, of Grand Rapids. The town was mapped, but never surveyed. Lyons, and Edward Lyon as the pioneer storekeeper. Among the early traders may likewise be named Giles Isham, Daniel Ball, William Beach & Co., David Irish, Van Allen & Irish, D. M. Fox, John Wyman, George B. Tiffany, Bowser & Walker, Russell Morton, Coon, Dickey & Rickey, etc. Drs. Jewett and Blanchard have already been named as the advance guard of the medical corps. Dr. David Kelley, who came in 1850, Dr. D. C. Spalding, in 1858, Dr. B. M. Hutchinson, in 1867, and Dr. W. W. Walker, at a late date, are now in practice in the village. Among the doctors who have passed over the stage of village practice were Dr. William M. Hugg, from 1850 to 1865, Dr. Gilbert, in 1856, and Dr. W. Wilson, from 1857 to 1863. Roof & Bell, and afterwards Roof & Blanchard, were the pioneer lawyers, and in their office studied many a young attorney who became afterwards prominent in connection with the county bar. Hervey Bartow studied with Mr. Roof and set up in practice at Portland; John Toan, now practicing at Lyons, with A. K. Roof, came west in 1837, and in 1843 entered A. L. Roof's office, whence he departed for college. Similarly, John C. Blanchard, one of Ionia's leading lawyers, studied with Mr. Roof. Luke L. Parsons was one of Lyons' early lawyers before he moved to Owosso. John A. Bauder practiced in the village from 1862 to the time of his death, in 1864, James Fox from 1854 to 1856, and Jacob Ferris from 1855 to 1856. THE FIRST WEDDING, ETC. Lyons' first wedding was solemnized in 1835 by Franklin Chubb at the house of William Hunt, the Indian trader. The contracting parties were Loisa, daughter of William Hunt, and Stephen Bunker, a young man in the employ of William Hunt. The young woman was apparently anxious to have the performance attended with proper embellishment, even if it was to be simply a backwoods wedding, so she took a six-mile walk through the woods one fine morning to the house of T. O. Warner, of whose wife she borrowed a pair of wedding-gloves, and then went back to be married in style. The child of Belcher, the Indian trader, is supposed to have been the first white child born upon the village site. The first child born to a settler in the village was Martha, daughter of James W. Tabor, the year of her birth being 1836. Lyons came within one vote of being chosen by the Legislature in 1846 as the capital of the State, and they do say that if it had not have been for the obstinacy of somebody the project would have succeeded. Lyons' first Fourth-of-July celebration occurred in 1834, on the hill now occupied by Henry Hitchcock's residence. There were not many in attendance, because the people of the town were but a handful. The Libharts, Moores, McKelveys, Hunts, and Belchers were there, and, besides, there were some Indians who enjoyed the fun quite as much as did anybody. What they lacked in numbers, however, they supplied with enthusiasm. H. V. Libhart was the orator; a liberty-pole was raised; patriotic songs were sung; a feast was digested, and a hollow stump, in lieu of a cannon, awakened the loud echoes. LYONS. 241 INDIAN MOUNDS. The river-flats near Lyons were favorite camping-places of Indians, and there Indian villages were regularly established. The excellent pasturage afforded by the fertile lowlands naturally attracted the savages thither, while the picturesque location aided in no small measure in inviting them to fix their stationary homes there whenever they chose to retire temporarily from the restless atmosphere of a nomadic existence. Traces of an Indian burying-ground may yet be seen on the west bank of the river at Lyons between the bridge and the school-house. Relics of silver arid stone are even now unearthed there, and there, too, the curious will be shown the spot where the Indian chief Cocoosh is supposed to have been buried. Traces of Indian mounds and fortifications were plentiful when the white settlers first came in, and may, indeed, yet be found. John Toan recalls the presence, on Arthursburg hill, of earthen breast-works, and the testimony of an old Indian that there had been a good deal of fighting there. A half dozen or more large burial-mounds, the largest being fully eight rods across, were discernible not long ago near Lyons, and from their recesses explorers have taken from time to time great numbers of bones and other evidences that these places were places of Indian sepulture. FIRES AND FRESHET. The village of Lyons has been sorely tried by fire and flood, and first and last has suffered, through those agencies, serious loss of property. The business portion of the town has been disfigured and injured by conflagrations fully half a score of times, and once, in the early spring of 1857, by a memorable flood. There was an ice-gorge in the river below the village, and the water, backing up, overflowed the streets, in some places to the depth of five feet or more. The waters rose so suddenly that people had not time to remove their property beyond reach, and, as every store and dwelling on the low ground was flooded, there was considerable damage to goods, although there was neither loss of life nor serious injury to person. Business was sorely interrupted and affairs in general all over the river-country were much put back by the flood, which did not thoroughly subside for two weeks, and even then much labor and time was required to repair damages and restore the usual course of events. LYONS POST-OFFICE. Lyons' first postmaster was Truman Lyon, the village tavern-keeper, who was appointed in 1836, and who is said to have kept the mail " in a little box under the counter of his bar." Mail was first received by way of Grand Rapids. N. J. Allport was the first mail-carrier, and rode the route on horseback once a week. Before 1837 the only way by which the people of Lyons could get their mail was by means of such persons as happened to be making trips to Detroit and return, for, in the absence of more definite address, the early comers first ordered their letters to be sent to Detroit, but few of them knowing, upon their departure from the East, where they would land, except that it would be " in Michigan." When stages were put on between Grand Rapids and Detroit, via 31 Lansing and Lyons, about 1846, mail facilities became exceedingly convenient. Mr. Lyon's successor in the office was Giles S. Isharn, who was appointed in 1841. He retained the position but a year, when A. L. Roof came into possession and remained until 1849. Dorus M. Fox was his successor, and served until 1857. From that time until 1861, G. A. Hendrick was the postmaster, and in the latter year he gave way to Joseph A. Rickey. In 1863, M. F. Baker, the present incumbent, was appointed, and has retained the appointment continuously ever since. VILLAGE INCORPORATION. Lyons village was incorporated by the board of county supervisors under the general law, Jan. 6, 1859. The corporate limits of the village were described to be as follows: " Beginning at the southwest corner of section nineteen, in the town of Lyons; running thence east on the south line of said section to the south quarter-post of said section; thence north to the north bank of the Grand River; thence east along the north bank of said river to a point eighty rods east of the east line of section nineteen; thence north eighty rods; thence west to the south bank of the Grand River; thence west along the south bank of the Grand River to the west line of land owned by H. Degarmo; thence south along said west line of H. Degarmo, and continuing on the same line to a point eighty rods south of the section-line between sections eighteen and nineteen; thence over a due west course to a point eighty rods west of the town-line; thence south to a point that shall be eighty rods south of the quarter-line of section twenty-four, town seven north, range six west; thence due east to the west line of section nineteen, town of Lyons; thence south to the place of beginning." Truman Fox, Curtis Hawley, and Peter Coon were appointed to be inspectors of the election, which was ordered to be held in the town-hall in the village of Lyons. The village records, dating from the incorporation in 1859 to the reincorporation in 1867, have disappeared, and nothing can therefore be presented to show who served as village officials during that period. In 1867 a legislative charter was obtained, and under that act the village has since then continued to have its legal existence. The act of 1867 described the limits of the corporation to be as follows: " Beginning at a point sixty rods north of the southwest corner of section nineteen, town seven north, range five west, running thence east one hundred and sixty rods; thence north to the north bank of Grand River; thence east along the north bank of Grand River to a point eighty rods east of the east line of section nineteen; thence north to a point eighty rods north of the section-line between sections seventeen and twenty, town seven north, range five west; thence west to the south bank of the Grand River, to the west line of land owned by George W. Van Auken; thence south along said west line of Van Auken's land to the section-line between sections eighteen and nineteen, town seven north, range five west; thence west to a point forty rods west of the town-line between town seven north, range five west, and town seven north, range six west; thence south to a point sixty rods 242 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. I north of the south line of section twenty-four, town seven north, range six west; thence east to the place of beginning." The first village election under the new charter was held at the town-hall the first Monday in March, 1867. William Merrill and Edward L. Perkins were chosen inspectors of election, and Samuel J. Scott clerk. The whole number of votes cast reached seventy-four, and the cfficers chosen were as follows; President, James W. Burns; Clerk, J. W. Hagadorn; Treasurer, Henry Hitchcock; Trustees, D. C. Spaulding, Jonathan J. Littlefield, Peter Coon, John Toan, Walter Halstead, Charles Staley; Assessor, William Z. Blanchard; Marshal, David Kelly. From 186S to 1880 village officials have been as follows: 1868.-President, Peter Coon; Clerk, A. K. Roof; Treasurer, Jonathan C. Littlefield: Trustees, W. Z. Blanchard, Jonathan Hale, Henry Van Etten; Assessor, Charles E. Lewis; Marshal, William Merrill. 1S69.-President, Peter Coon; Clerk, A. K. Roof; Trustees, Henry Iitchcock, Jonathan C. Littlefield, John R. Dougherty; Assessor, A. K. Root: Marshal, Truman Roberts, Jr.; Treasurer, Joseph F. Baker. 1870.-President, Jonathan Hale; Clerk, A. K. Roof; Treasurer, Joseph F. Baker; Trustees, William II. Carpenter, Albert Amsden, John Toan; Assessor, -- -- Marshal, Win. Merrill. 1871.-President, Gideon A. Iendrick; Clerk, A. K. Roof; Treasurer, --;- ' Trustees, Jonathan Iale, David C. Crawlord, Nelson Isham; Assessor, —;" Marshal, Abram H. Jacob. 1872.-President, David C. Spalding; Clerk, A. K. Roof; Treasurer, -- -- Trustees, Henry Iitchcock; William Pennington, Alexander McFarlane; Marshal, A. H. Jacob. 1873.-President, A. L. Roof; Clerk, A. K. Roof; Trustees, Peter Coon, Burgess Hall, Henry C. Hammond; Marshal, John W. Rudgers; Treasurer, Joseph F. Baker. 1874.-President, William H. Freeman; Trustees, Henry Searing, B. M. Hutchinson, John A. Kelley; Marshal, Lyman Hlizer; Treasurer, Joseph F. Baker; Clerk, A. K. Roof. 1875.-President, Albert Amsden; Clerk, A. K. Roof; Trustees, Henry IHitchcock, S... Marcy, J. R. Dougherty; Marshal, Henry Searing; Treasurer, Joseph F. Baker; Assessor, A. K. Itoof. 1876.-President, Albert Amsden; Clerk, A. K. Roof; Trustees, B. M. Ilutchinson, John W. Broad, Jonathan Hale; Marshal, William Merrill. 1877.-President, John A. Kelley; Clerk, A. K. Roof; Trustees, Henry A. Leonard, J. L. May, John Toan; Treasurer, Joseph F. Baker. 1878.-President, Jonathan lale; Clerk, A. K. Roof; Trustees, Francis T. Gleason; John MeQuillin, William D. Pennington: Marshal, S. C. DuBois; Treasurer, Joseph F. Baker. 1879.-President, Jonathan Hale; Clerk, A. K. Roof; Trustees, H. A. Leonard, Henry Hitchcock, Abram II. Jacob; Marshal, Thomas II. Ranger. 1SS0.-President, Jonathan Hale; Clerk, A. K. Roof; Trustees, D. C. Crawford, John McQuillin, William C. Iawley; Marshal, Wallace IHalstcad. THE LYONS WATER-POWER COMPANY. The first attempt to utilize the water-power at Lyons occurred in 1840, when Abram S. Wadsworth made an effort to build a brush-dam across the river, but he gave up the task almost directly after he began it. Not long after that Lucius Lyon made a show as if to dig a mill-race, but that attempt was similarly a fisco. Although there was a superior water-power at hand, neither Lyon nor anybody else made any energetic attempt to improve it until 1857,t when Daniel Ball, of Grand Rapids, took hold of the matter and carried it to successful issue. Ball bought considerable property along the river-front, and, upon being guaranteed subscriptions from the residents to the amount of eight thousand dollars, agreed to build a dam, dig a millrace, and to lay, in short, the foundation of an era of manufacturing prosperity. Previous to that B. F. Rockafellow had, upon the receipt of a public donation of one thousand dollars, built a steam grist-mill, and this mill was being carried on by Rockafellow & Hathaway at the time Ball constructed the dam. Ball platted an addition to the village of Lyons in 1857, and when he had completed his improvements leased a mill-site to Rockafellow & Hathaway, who moved their steam-mill to the lot now occupied by the Gothic Flouring-Mills. Hale Brothers, the present proprietors, purchased the property from D. M. Fox in 1868, and materially improved it. It is furnished with four runs of stone and has a capacity for the manufacture of upwards of one hundred barrels of flour daily, and, besides doing a large business in custom- and merchant-work, ships each year about sixteen thousand barrels of flour. The flouring-mill was the first to occupy the water-power, and, in 1862, Mr. Huntley, of Grand Rapids, was the second occupant. He put up a woolen-mill, but soon disposed of his interest to William C. Hawley, who took as a partner J. C. Waterman, when the firm became J. C. Waterman & Co. The building occupied was one originally used by Walter Halstead as a steam cabinet-factory, and subsequently set upon the mill-race by Huntley. In 1868, A. Amsden purchased an interest with J. C. Waterman & Co., and in the course of time that firm was succeeded by A. Amsden & Co. They continued business until the destruction of the mill by fire, Jan. 12, 1879. In the summer of 1879, A. Amsden & Son purchased the building originally used by Joshua Manning as a sash-andblind factory, and, reviving the woolen-mill, still carry it on. The mill has a manufacturing capacity of forty-five thousands pounds of wool annually, and when so run employs twenty hands. Cassimeres, flannels, jeans, and yarns are among the products. A plaster-mill, founded by A. L. Roof and William C. Hawley, was the next enterprise to occupy the water-power. In January, 1879, it was burned along with the woolenmill. The water-power at Lyons, estimated as capable of carrying thirty-four runs of stone, is now owned by the Lyons Water-Power Company, which was incorporated under the general law, Jan. 21, 1865, for a period of thirty years, and purchased all of Daniel Ball's interests at Lyons. The charter members of the company were D. I. Fox, M1. W. MNcWilliam & Co., George WV. Farman, R. G. Mattison, J. P. Manning, Robert Crawford, Charles W. Staley, E. C. Wagar, and Lewis Bierce. The directors chosen were D. M. Fox, J.P. M.anning, C. W. Staley, William C. Hawley, t Oct. 12, 1857, the supervisors of the county authorized Daniel Ball, Peter Coon, Thomas 11. Dewey, it. V. Staley, J. Rickey, IR. E. Butterworth, A. L. Roof, A. B. Iubbell, and Curtis Hawley to construct a dam across the Grand River at Lyons. " Not recorded. 4~ LYONS. 243 and David Crawford. D. M. Fox was the president, William C. Hawley secretary, and David Crawford treasurer. The directors of the company are now Albert Amsden, Jonathan Hale, Henry E. Green, John Hale, and Albert K. Roof. Albert Amsden is president, A. K. Roof secretary, and Jonathan Hale treasurer. THE HOLLY WATER-WORKS. In 1879 the village adopted the Holly water-works system as a protection against fire. The total cost of the enterprise was two thousand dollars. Lyons had suffered most disastrously from conflagrations previous to 1879, and her citizens concluded that the time had come for an investment in a valuable fire-fighting apparatus. The power is supplied at the Gothic Mills. There is also a fire organization known as " Lyons Volunteer Fire Company, No. 1," which was formed Nov. 4, 1879. The officers now under appointment from the village board are A. H. Jacob, Chief Engineer; Jonathan Hale, First Assistant; E. B. Hale, Second Assistant; Lyman Parks, Superintendent of Hose. Those elected by the company for 1880 are A. H. Jacob, Foreman; M. H. Rudgers, First Assistant; William C. Hawley, Jr., Second Assistant; E. B. Hale, Treasurer; W. C. Hawley, Jr., Secretary. RELIGIOUS. LYONS METI1QDIST EPISCOPAL CIURCI. Lyons was made a Methodist preaching-point as early as 1836, when Rev. Jacob Dobbins, of Eaton County, held services at the village. Elder Chatfield was also an occasional visitor, and, in 1840, Rev. Allen Staples was appointed to the Lyons Circuit. In that year there was organized a class, of which Dorus M. Fox was the leader, and a Sunday-school, also, of which he was the superintendent. In the absence of records it is difficult to say much about the early history of the class. In 1851 meetings were held in Temperance Hall, and there were then twelve members. Rev. Mr. Crittenden was at that time in charge of the Lyons Circuit, which covered a wide extent of territory. Rev. Mr. Carpenter gave Mr. Crittenden some assistance, and, as a rule, the Lyons Class was enabled to have preaching once each fortnight. Services were sometimes held in Temperance Hall and sometimes in Truman Fox's house. The village school-house came afterwards to be used regularly until 1858, when the Episcopal church-building was purchased. It is still used as the Methodist Episcopal house of worship. Besides the church property, the society also owns a parsonage. The membership of the class is forty-five, and the leader Loyal H. Blancher. There is preaching once a week. Mrs. J. R. Dougherty is superintendent of the Sabbath-school, which employs four teachers and has thirty scholars. The church trustees are Micajah Sherman, Orson Bentley, David Kelley, E. Roberts, and S. Sherman. GRACE CHURCH (PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL). About the year 1850, Rev. Melancthon Hoyt, of Ionia, visited Lyons and held Protestant Episcopal services in the village school-house on Sunday afternoons. Shortly after wards Rev. D. Brayton Lyon located in the village, organized a church, and caused the erection of a church-edifice. That step proved disastrous, for it entailed an incubus of debt that disorganized the church and led to its eventual dissolution about 1855. The church-building is the one now owned by the Methodist Episcopal Society. FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CIURCI OF LYONS. In obedience to a call for the organization of " a Presbyterian or Congregational Church" a small company assembled in the Lyons village school-house Sept. 7, 1844, and then and there Revs. L M5. S. Smith and W. F. Wheeler, missionaries of the American Home Mission Society, formed the First Presbyterian Church of Lyons. The members received on that occasion numbered four,-Mrs. Euselia Brewster, Miss Marian Adelia Isham, Miss Mary Jane Wright, and Daniel Chidester. The Articles of Faith and Covenant of the Congregational and Presbyterian Churches of Ionia County and Greenville were adopted, and on Sunday, September 8th, Rev. W. F. Wheeler preached a sermon on the text, "Approved in Christ." March 28,1845, Alexander Morris, William M3. Way, and David Dodge were chosen elders and Moses Dean deacon. From 1844 to 1852 there was irregular preaching at North Plains, East Plains, and Lyons, by Revs. Wheeler, Smith, and others. At the close of 1845 there were twenty-one members, and twenty-seven at the close of 1846. After 1852 the church maintained an uncertain existence. In 1856 there was an unsuccessful attempt to revive it, and directly afterwards it disbanded. FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF LYONS. The Baptist Church of Lyons was organized June 19, 1852, " by mutual association in church relation" of Russell Hervey, Joseph Rickey, Marvin F. Baker, Joshua P. Manning, Joseph Rickey, Jr., Smith Pruden, Eunice Rickey, Alice B. Baker, Lydia R. H.ugg, Angeline Coolidge, Sarah Jane Todd, Eunice Bennett, Jane Pruden. The First Baptist Society was organized May 7, 1855, and trustees chosen, as follows: J. P. Manning, J. R. Stone, T. L. Gilmore, G. Rockafellow, W. Z. Blanchard. In 1856 a church-edifice was built. Russell Hervey, the first pastor, was succeeded by Revs. Alfred Cornell, Coe, Portman, Smith, Rasco, Faxon, A. R. Hicks, N. P. Parlow, and T. Robinson. At present the church depends upon Rev. S. E. Faxon as supply. The membership is now forty-one. The deacons are M. F. Baker and C. G. Wheelock; the trustees M. F. Baker, G. W. Merrill, C. G. Wheelock, John Hale, G. Trefry. At the Sabbath-school there is an average attendance of sixty-five scholars, M. F. Baker being the superintendent. THE PRESS. Lyons was first vouchsafed the boon of a newspaper in 1855, when Gideon Hendrick launched the Lyons Herald upon the uncertain sea of journalism. Democratic colors were nailed at the mast-head, but somehow it was doomed, for, in 1856, D. M. Fox's store burned, and consumed the Herald office along with it. After that the Herald was heard of no more forever. 244 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. By and by D. M. Fox conceived the idea that it would pay to publish in Lyons a newspaper devoted to Spiritualism. So he called the Present Age into existence in 1868, and established his printing-office in Temperance Hall. Fox was doubtless mistaken in his estimate of the amount of public support likely to be given to the Present Age, for after a profitless experiment of a year he abandoned the field and carried the establishment to some other locality. After that Lyons was forced to struggle along without a newspaper until September, 1879, when J. A. Dickey brought the il[iir Echo over to Lyons and rechristened it the Grand River Echo. He sold the paper Feb. 16, 1880, to the present publisher, Hiram J. Deitz, who issues it every Friday as an independent eight-page journal. BANKING. In 1856, Daniel Ball opened a banking-office in Lyons, and from that time forward to 1861 conducted a flourishing business. He owned a bank at Michigan City, Ind., and at his bank in Lyons put out a considerable amount of the bills of his Indiana bank, to the great accommodation of the surrounding country. There was no bank in the village between 1861 and 1873, when the First National Bank of Lyons was organized by S. W. Webber, George W. Webber, A. L. Roof, Philander R. Howe, Merrick Faxon, and George R. Dougherty, with a capital of fifty thousand dollars. A. L. Roof was the president, S. W. Webber vice-president, and J. E. Just cashier. After doing business a few months as the First National Bank of Lyons the institution was transferred to Ionia and reorganized as the Second National Bank of Ionia. William H. Freeman then opened a private banking-house in Lyons, and in June, 1879, sold his business to John R. Dougherty & Co., who now carry it on, John McQuillin being cashier. LYONS SOCIETIES. LYONS LODGE, NO. 37, F. AND A. M. This lodge was chartered Jan. 10, 1850, but, the early records being lost, not much can be said about the incidents attendant upon the first few years of the existence of the organization. Of the first officers, Hiram Brown was the Master, Dorus M. Fox the Senior Warden, and David Irish the Junior Warden. The present membership is one hundred and five and the officers as follows: William S. Burrows, M.; Dayton Douglas, S. W.; Donald McIntyre, J. W.; A. K. Roof; Sec.; D. C. Spalding, Treas. The lodge owns a fine brick block in Lyons, and occupies handsomely-appointed quarters therein. LYONS CHAPTER, NO. 60, R. A. M. A charter was issued to Lyons Chapter, Jan. 14, 1869, a year after a dispensation had been granted. The officers designated were D. C. Spalding, II. P.; A. B. Robinson, K.; William A. Staley, Scribe. The officers chosen for 1880 were A. K. Roof, H. P.; Jonathan Hale, K.; A. Amsden, Scribe; Henry Hitchcock, C. of H.; J. W. Broad, P. S.; C. N. Isham, R. A. C.; D. C. Crawford, Sec.; D. C. Spalding, Treas.; S. Mans, William Jones, and William Pennington, Masters of the Veils; M. Sherman, Sentinel. MUIR LODGE, NO. 177, I. 0. O. F. Muir Lodge was instituted at Muir, Jan. 8, 1872, by P. G. M. E. H. Whitney, and in April, 1879, was transferred to Lyons. Under the charter the officers were D. T. Webster, N. G.; A. H. Wilmot, V. G.; E. N. Cone, Sec.; D. W. Martz, Treas. Following Mr. Webster the Noble Grands have been A. H. Wilmot, W. Wallace, M. Beach, W. A. Lewis, Benton Bement, William Heydlauff, James Burgess, Nelson Isham, George Merrill, J. D. Strachan, A. Heydlauff, Jonathan Hale. The membership is now twenty-five and the officers as follows: Jonathan Hale, N. G.; Robert Osgood, V. G.; A. H. Ford, Sec.; Nelson Isham, Treas.; M. Beach, Trustee and D. D. G. M. LYONS DIVISION, NO. 138, S. OF T. Reynolds, the temperance reformer, swept through Lyons in 1877, and awakened an extraordinary amount of enthusiasm on behalf of the total abstinence cause. Red ribbon clubs, temperance unions, and other similar societies grew spontaneously, and it seemed for a time as if the temperance wave had buried all other worldly considerations. Although the village has experienced a slight reaction in the premises, there still remains the flourishing organization known as Lyons Division, Sons of Temperance, which was organized in April, 1879, with thirty-seven members and John McQuillin as president. The active members number now about fifty. A. S. Bunnell is president, Marcellus Faxon secretary, and William Church treasurer. LYONS OF THE PRESENT. Although the village of Lyons has been unfortunate enough to be missed on one side by the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad, and on the other by the Detroit, Lansing and Northern, it still maintains as prosperous a condition of affairs as has ever attended it. It occupies a natural location for a town, and as long as its water-power endures must retain, and mayhap will increase, its strength. Had it secured railway communication when such a consummation was easy, there is not the slightest doubt- that it would have materially and rapidly advanced far beyond its present limits. Petty dissensions combined, it is said, to drive the Detroit and Milwaukee Railway from the village doors at a time when the railway company was anxious to run the line through the town. There is now, however, a vague indication that the village may be a railway station in the not far-distant future. The Marshall, Grand River and Jonesville Railway, graded through the township in 1870 and 1871, passes through Lyons, and, although the project has been temporarily abandoned, recent indications have pointed to a probable successfu Irevival. The township voted in 1869 to aid this enterprise to the extent of a six-per-cent. tax on all the taxable property in the township, the vote being three hundred and sixty ayes and one hundred and four nays. The law authorizing such action was, however, declared unconstitutional, and the bonds were therefore not issued. LYONS. 245 As an indication of the progress of Lyons village in twenty years, it is noted that the population in 1860 was six hundred and thirty-four, in 1870 it was seven hundred and five, and in 1880 about seven hundred and seventy-five. A very conspicuous improvement at the village is now going forward in the construction across the river of a fine iron bridge costing thirteen thousand dollars. The first brick structure built in the village was the hotel called the "Lyons Exchange," erected in 1864 by Charles L. T. Fox and Mrs. Naomi Bunnell. The first brick store was the one in Masonic Block, and the second one that of Alexander McFarlane. Besides the maunfactories already alluded to elsewhere, there is the foundry of Tunmore & Church, established in 1855 by M. F. Baker, and on the river a saw-mill and scroll-sawing works. There are the general stores of A. McFarlane & Co., Dougherty & Gleason, and Gabriel & Trefy, the grocery of Wm. Harding, the hardware-store of Hatch & Baker, and the drug-stores of David Kelley and Osborne & Bro. TOWNSHIP SETTLEMENTS. During the year 1834, Thaddeus O. Warner (now living in Pewamo) and John Gee (of Wayne Co., N. Y.) started for Michigan to look for land, intending to make for Portland on the Grand River. From Detroit they journeyed afoot towards that point via Jackson, but, after leaving Jackson, wandered from the track, and after groping three days in the woods without well knowing where they were came outat the mouth of the Cedar River where Lansing now stands. There they were lucky enough to find an Indian canoe moored to the bank of the Grand River, and, taking possession, put off for Portland. They met with such trifling mishaps as capsizing half a dozen times, but at the end of a thirty-six hours' jaunt made their destination and put up with Philo Bogue, whose log cabin occupied a place on the present site of Portland. From Portland, Warner and Gee pushed on to Lyons, where they found William Hunt and William Burgess keeping bachelors' hall, on the river's bank where Lyons village now is, and trading with the Indians at a sharp rate. The morning after their arrival they engaged Hunt to pilot them through the town in search of a location. Gee selected a tract on section 36, in what is now North Plains, and Warner one hundred and thirteen acres near by, on section 1 in Lyons. In the six miles square now called Lyons, between Stony Creek and Maple River, they found just two settlers. One was Franklin Chubb (who had settled in the spring of 1834), on the northeast quarter of section 11, and the other Nathan Benjamin, on the northeast quarter of section 1. Having located their lands, Warner and Gee returned eastward. In April, 1835, Warner married, and in May, with his wife, set out for his new possessions in the West. While waiting in Detroit to prepare for his trip westward Warner stopped at a tavern in what is now the heart of the city, on Jefferson Avenue, and was importuned to buy a ten-acre lot opposite the tavern, at thirty dollars an acre. "I had the money in my pocket," says Mr. Warner in telling the story, " to pay for the lot, but I thought it ridiculous to i i pay thirty dollars an acre for land, when I could get plenty of it farther west at the government price of ten shillings." When he thinks of the sum that ten-acre lot would sell for now he thinks he missed a fine chance for becoming a millionaire. He started from Detroit with a pair of oxen and a lumber-wagon loaded with supplies, and got on well enough until after he passed Pontiac. Thence he expected to find a fairly decent road, as he knew Dexter had gone over the route cutting his way towards Ionia, but he found, upon the contrary, that the road was a little worse than anything he had either seen or dreamed of. Consequent upon that discovery, he engaged a man at Pontiac to assist him in cutting out the six miles over which he would have to pass before reaching a hard-soil country, and agreed to pay him two dollars a day. The road was terrible, and no mistake. Fallen timber, underbrush, and marsh so worried and impeded their progress that they were three days in making the six miles. On the night of the third day their cattle got away while the travelers slept, and in the search for them that ensued had to be chased twelve miles. Pushing on through thick and thin, Warner found himself mired one day in a marsh measuring fully thirty rods across. He could not get his loaded wagon over, and, as the only remedy available under the circumstances, he packed on his back across the swamp everything in his wagon except a barrel of salt and a barrel of pork, in the lot of stuff he carried over being a barrel of flour. Thus lightened to two barrels, the wagon was hauled over by the cattle, and then, loading up, the wayfarers were off once more. When about six miles east of De Witt they were overtaken during a night encampment by a terrific rain-storm, and in floods and inky darkness shivered and suffered upon their bed on the ground until morning, while, to add to their misery, their cattle, affrighted at the howling storm, broke from their fastenings and fled madly from the scene. Warner rushed after them in dismay, guided through the black space only by the flashes of lightning, and after a weary, wet chase that lasted the better part of the night returned exhausted to find his wife half drowned in the falling flood, and almost dead with terror. They got straightened out, however, the next morning, and, pressing on to Capt. Scott's, at De Witt, reached there safe and sound without further mishap, at the close of their tenth day out from Detroit, after such a floundering, heart-sickening journey as more than once sorely tested the stamina of pioneer Warner, and urged him on two occasions to the verge of a resolve to turn about and give up the whole thing in despair. Capt. Scott gave them a hearty Western welcome, pressed them to stay as long as they chose, and at the close of a two days' visit saw them started for their destination. Although they found the going terribly tough, they fared much better than in the early stages of their journey, and two days out from Scott's landed at Franklin Chubb's, on section 11, in Lyons town, on the last day of May, 1835. The next morning they went over to Nathan Benjamin's, and found that he had just gone over to Portland to borrow some flour on which to make a breakfast. He came back in due season, bringing with him ten pounds of the 246 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. precious commodity. The next day Warner began the erection of his cabin, and became a member of the brotherhood of pioneers. John Gee, who accompanied Warner on a land-looking expedition in 1834 and picked out a piece of land in North Plains, did not return until 1836 for a permanent settlement. He lived on the North Plains clearing a year, and in 1837, selling it to Moses Dean, moved southward to a mill-site on Stony Creek, in section 14, which he bought before he came West in 1836. In 1837 he put up a sawmill there, the mill being the first one in the township. Judge W. H. Woodworth, of the Probate Court, who came to the town in 1856, occupies the place now with a hardwood saw-mill. At Gee's old mill the surrounding country drew its early supplies of lumber, for there was not another mill for miles around, and there, too, Pewamo village has always sought material for its improvements. William Merrill, who came out with Gee as a farm-hand, settled on a place of his own in Dallas in 1839, and in 1841 removed to a tract on section 11 in Lyons. In 1837, Sebastian Beckwith, a bachelor, appeared, and claimed the place on section 1 occupied by Nathan Benjamin. It appears that when Benjamin was searching for land he fancied the northeast corner of section 1, and, squatting on it at once, sent over to the land-office the money to pay for it. Before the money reached there, however, Sebastian Beckwith had entered the tract. Nevertheless, Benjamin remained on the place, and when Beckwith came, in 1837, he paid Benjamin a hundred dollars for the value of the improvements he had effected. Thereupon, Benjamin bought and located on a piece of land in section 12. Beckwith was soon afterwards joined by his two bachelor brothers, Norton and Hiram, and for some time the three lived together, keeping house as well as bachelors can keep house. Norton Beckwith was a physician, and busied himself after his arrival in the practice of medicine. He was the second resident doctor in Lyons, and rode over a good wide stretch of territory, as all pioneer doctors had to. For a little time a family by the name of Crippen worked the Beckwith place and kept house for the bachclors. Alexander Chubb, a New Yorker, visited Lyons in 1837 and stopped awhile with his brother Franklin, whom he assisted in erecting the first framed house in that part of the township. The lumber was obtained at Libhart's mill, on Libhart Creek. The house stood on Franklin Chubb's place, in section 11, and is still in use on the same spot as the residence of Patrick Ryan. Alexander Chubb bought land on section 11, went back to New York, and in October, 1838, started with his family on the return trip. His two sons, Kelsey and Alonzo, walked all the way from Detroit to Stony Creek, traveling by the way of Ann Arbor and driving two cows and eight sheep, with which the Chubbs made a pretty good start in the wilds of their new settlement. The lads made the tramp alone, and were just six days doing it. Alexander Chubb built upon section 11, in 1842, the first framed barn seen in that portion of the town, getting the lumber at Gee's saw-mill. After they settled, Kelsey Chubb engaged in business as a freighter, and hauled goods from Detroit for Portland and Lyons storekeepers, going usually over the road via Scott's, at De Witt, and Shiawassee. PIONEER INCIDENTS. The first child born in the township was Franklin Chubb's daughter Antoinette, who saw the light first on the 28th of June, 1835. The first death is said to have been that of Harry, an infant son of Franklin Chubb. The first adult person to die is believed to have been Miss Palmer, sister to Silas Crippen's wife, with whom she was living at the time of her death. She was buried in the Lebanon cemetery, which was for some time thereafter used by the people in that portion of Lyons for burial-purposes. The first crop of wheat raised in the township was sown by Franklin Chubb in the fall of 1834. There were eight acres in the piece, and, to the surprise of everybody, it threshed out thirty-six bushels to the acre. Chubb made so poor a guess about it that he offered to sell -Thaddeus Warner one acre of the standing wheat, reckoned at twentyfive bushels to the acre, but Warner would not have it even at that. Until 1839 wheat was threshed in Lyons by causing oxen to tread it out. In that year a Mr. Castle, of Owosso, came in with a Burrill thresher, and straightway effected a welcome revolution in harvest methods. Under a strong pressure the old Burrill thresher could dispose of from one hundred to two hundred and fifty bushels daily. Thaddeus Warner bought the machine of Castle, and for twenty-five years after that pursued continuously the business of wheat-threshing. Reference to Thaddeus Warner suggests the recollection that he too made an effort to call a town into existence. He owned some land on the Maple in section 2 where there was a landing, and, conceiving that the advantages of a landing ought to build a town, lie laid out a village and called it Burlington. He sold, it is said, one lot to Dr. Jewett for a watch, and that was as far as the enterprising village of Burlington progressed towards development. Jesse Tripp located there in 1838, and to this day the landing is known as Tripp's. Another paper town was laid out by John Gee, the saw-mill man, on Stony Creek, where he built a saw-mill. -His town he called Watervliet, but nobody came to help the matter along beyond the name; and Watervliet, like Burlington, was a myth. There was a small grist-mill at Portland and one at Ionia, but neither amounted to much. Thaddeus Warner thought lie could get up about as good a mill nearer home, and so he fixed up a big coffee-mill that he had brought out with him, and in it did grind corn,-after a fashion. That mill became popular, and was much resorted to. In 1837, Warner walked to Jackson over the Indian trail for the purpose of buying some flour. He bought four barrels, and, hiring a man to assist him, poled it down the river on a scow. It took him eight days to get home with it from Jackson, and well it was for the neighborhood that he did get there so soon as that, for.everybody was out of flour and crying for bread. Upon his arrival Warner was assailed upon every hand by hungry ones clamoring for the loan of some of his flour, and, although he got rid of it speedily, he rejoiced, no doubt, that he had been the means of making his neighbors happy. W. H. WOODWORTH. II LYONS. 247 Stories are told about the peculiar penchant the Indians had for boiling sugar and dead dogs together and then selling the sugar to the white settlers. The savages are said to have eaten boiled dogs, musk-rats, or any similar animal with keen relish, and, as a matter of economy, boiled the food in the same dish with the sugar. The latter was nevertheless always nice in color, and, they do say, tasted excellently well until it came to be generally known in what company it occupied the boiler. Money was precious scarce, and was hardly to be had for produce short of Detroit. " Store-pay" was the currency of the country, and many a time has a settler been worried to raise the trifling sum of twenty-five cents to pay postage on a letter. Thaddeus Warner had seven hundred dollars in money when he came in, and he assumed at once an elevated position among the settlers as a man among a hundred. He was besieged night and day by persons wanting a small loan, and while the money lasted he doled it out; but when pay-day came he found that, instead of money, he had to take produce in return in most cases. Speaking about grinding wheat and corn in coffee-mills brings to mind the distress brought about by what was called the "sick flour." The flour was brought to the settlement from Ohio, and likely enough was damaged. At all events, there was something wrong about it. When it reached the settlement everybody was of course out of flour, and the demand for loans in small quantities became clamorous. The consequence was that all who ate of it were taken desperately ill, and, although no fatal disasters resulted, there was much misery and agonized apprehension while the sickness lasted. Salt was of course a great necessity. It was hard to get, called sometimes for long journeys, and was accordingly highly prized when obtained. Nehemiah Hunt walked over to Ionia after some, secured a half-bushel, and when, upon traveling homeward, he had to crawl across Stony Creek on a tamarack-log, he tied the half-bushel of salt about his neck. He crawled over in safety, but he trembled afterwards when he thought that if he had fallen from the log into the creek the salt about his neck would have drowned him beyond recall. DANIEL HUNT. Daniel Hunt, brother to William Hunt, the Indian trader, made up his mind in 1834 to emigrate from New York State to Ohio. Upon reaching the latter State he concluded it would not suit him, and therefore pushed on to Detroit. There he learned that his brother William was living at Ann Arbor, and to Ann Arbor he traveled. At Ann Arbor he found William Hunt's family, and found, also, that William was out at the mouth of the Maple, trading with the Indians. William having just then sent word to his family to join him, Daniel said he would make the trip with them; and that is how he happened to locate at Lyons. He stopped with Hunt & Belcher a year, and then, buying a forty-acre tract on Stony Creekl sent for his family, and in the fall of 1835 became a veritable settler. EARLY SETTLEMENTS SOUTH OF STONY CREEK. Settlements in that portion of the township south of Stony Creek wecrr made as early as 1837, the earliest comers being Zina Lloyd and Henry Bartow. In 1838, when Nathaniel Searing visited Lyons in search of a landlocation, he found but three settlers between Portland and Lyons on the road between the two points following the river on the east. These three were Webster and Haskins in Portland township, and Zina Lloyd on section 34, in Lyons township. Lloyd was building a saw-mill there on Goose Creek, and was keeping a post-office called " Maple." The mail he got by carrier between Portland and Lyons, and when he got it kept it in an old cupboard. There was so little of it that it did not make much difference where he kept it. In 1838 came Richard Farman to land on section 34 that he had located in 1836, Asa Bunnell and Joseph Letandre to section 21, and Asahel Hopkins on the south town-line, upon the western bank of the river, where George Dutton had made the first clearing. When Farman settled there was no house between his and Lyons. There was a " pepper"-mill at Portland, kept by Newman, but it was not much better than the primitive pestle and pan used by many a settler to grind his corn. In 1838, Henry Bartow was living on the south town-line, on section 35. Zina Lloyd, who is spoken of as a man of considerable capacity, is likewise remembered as being inordinately fond of lawsuits and of getting " by the ears" with his neighbors. His besetting sin was a quarrelsome disposition, and, although he was otherwise fitted to occupy high places, his temper made him unpopular, and he never got beyond the distinction of postmaster. He moved into Portland township after a while, and carried the post-office with him. In 1838 there was a decent road along the river between Lyons and Portland, following essentially the course pursued by the road now used. In that year there was Methodist preaching by Rev. Mr. Mitchell at the houses of Henry Bartow and Zina Lloyd. Sabbath-school was also held at Lloyd's house, Berrick Cooley, of Portland, being the superintendent. Mitchell came into the country with a horse, but, finding it a pretty hard matter to get fodder for him, he sold the beast, and after that traveled the circuit afoot. It has already been remarked that when Nathaniel Searing came in, in 1838, he found but three families between Lyons and Portland. When he returned, in 1839, for a permanent settlement, he found that quite a number of people had come into the neighborhood meanwhile; so that when he raised his cabin he had at the raising Robert Toan, Zina Lloyd, Berrick Cooley, Richard Parsons, Hopkins Roe, Levi Ferguson, Henry and Hervey Bartow, Patrick Lawldss, George Lloyd, and George Marcy. Mr. Searing bought his land of Elder Hickox, and still lives where he made his first clearing. Ie was thirteen days making the trip by sleigh from Niagara Co., N. Y., to Lyons, and during the entire journey Mrs. Searing carried her ninemonths-old child. As soon as Mr. Searing got up his cabin, along came the tax-collector. "How much do I owe you?" queried Sear ing. " Five dollars," returned the rian; and with the remark " I suppose the best time to pay a debt is when you have the money," Searing handed over the amount, 248 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. I "and it left me," relates he, "just two dollars and a half as every cent I had in the world." That is the kind of a start he had. The force and use of philosophy are illustrated in the following incident, as related by Mr. Searing. In the summer of 1843, Elder Chauncey Reynolds went to Northville for a load of supplies, and among other things brought back a case of shoes, which, he gave out, he would exchange for hides. Now, it so happened that Searing, his wife, and the children had been going barefooted for some time simply because they were too poor to buy shoes. It had also happened that a steer belonging to Searing had mired and died the day before Reynolds got back with his case of shoes. Philosophy taught Searing that he was in great luck, after all, in having the steer mire when he did, for the hide was just what he wanted to trade for shoes; and so he actually convinced himself that, as he would not have got any shoes had it not been for the death of the steer, it was rather fortunate than otherwise that he lost the animal. In 1839, Elder Chatfield, a Methodist Episcopal circuitpreacher, organized a class at the school-house on section 34, and in that same school-house religious organizations were effected from time to time. Among them was a Wesleyan Methodist Class, of which Elder Swift was the founder. Elder Chatfield looked with much disfavor upon Swift's work, and carried his objection to the proceeding so far that he sought upon every conceivable occasion to malign Swift and prove him and his creed objects unworthy of support. Chatfield's bitterness and opposition recoiled, however, upon himself, to the end that he himself became slightly unpopular, while Swift and his Wesleyan Class flourished. In 1837, Lewis Willey, then a young man, came West with Cole and Wadsworth, who settled in Portland, and he recollects that getting through the woods was such slow work that they were all of one day floundering through three miles of mud. In 1837 he found Henry Bartow on section 35, and north, Allen and Chauncey Reynolds and William Bartow, Sr., on section 23, and Stephen Willett on section 24. Almon Rosekrans, now living on section 25, came in with the Reynolds families, and worked for them a while before making a settlement of his own. Allen and Chauncey Reynolds were Free-Will Baptist preachers, and organized a Free-Will Baptist Church at the school-house on section 25. They furnished not only about all the preaching needed there, but roamed over a good bit of country, dispensing the Word wherever and whenever they could find place and opportunity. Lewis Willey worked about in the Reynolds neighborhood until 1839, when he settled upon section 1 in Portland, and in 1845 upon the northeast quarter of section 35, where George W. Farman and Archibald Wilcox had made clearings of nineteen and twenty acres each. Shortly after, Willey came to the town, in 1837, Isaac Canfield, a brother-in-law to Henry Bartow, made a settlement upon section 36, and at a later date came a Mr. Preston, Hiram Stevens, and Levi Ferguson. There was an occasional chance to sell wheat at Lyons and get half cash and half store-pay, but journeys to Detroit were often in order, and then the man who went would usually undertake to bring out supplies for the entire neighborhood. Once it happened that the man was gone about three weeks, and before he returned the whole settlement came within an ace of dying of starvation. The first cemetery laid out in the eastern part of the town was the one now in use on section 25, and the first person buried therein the wife of Dr. W. Z. Blanchard, in 1839. Mrs. Blanchard lived at Lyons, but, being a FreeWill Baptist, requested that she might be buried over in the Reynolds neighborhood, where she had been in the custom of attending divine worship. THE MILLARD SETTLEMENT. Charles Millard, now living in the village ot Pewamo, first located in the wilds of the far West in 1840, and for three years after that period lived in the townships of Lebanon and North Plains. In 1844 he moved to section 14 in Lyons, and made a beginning upon an eighty-acre lot of wild land. The Beckwiths were then living on section 1, and, with Moses Dean, owned the only two horse-teams boasted in the region between Stony Creek and the Maple. There was at that time a traveled road between Lyons and the region known as the East Plains, and a road from the south that intersected the angling Lyons road on section 11. Millard and his wife had accompanied Moses Dean and wife westward at Dean's suggestion, the latter, for some time a settler in North Plains, being in Western New York on a visit. In the summer of 1841, Millard concluded he would go to mill, and, as a preliminary to that performance, walked through the woods to Maple Rapids to engage an Indian and canoe, for the trip to mill was to be made via river to Ionia. He and the Indian came on to Tripp's landing, where he took in twelve bushels of wheat and three bushels of corn, hired William Vance to go with him and navigate the craft, and pushed off for Ionia. They reached Ionia at sundown, and, there being no other available method to get the grain to the mill, they carried it themselves by hand over the distance of half a mile, and then, having no money to buy lodgings, crept into a hospitable barn to pass the night. They carried their flour back to the boat, started for home, and reached there after a tugging passage, during which they had frequently to jump overboard and pull or push their craft over rough and shallow places. In September, 1841, Millard came down with chills and fever and lay almost helpless until June, his wife having meanwhile to do farm-work, chop wood, look after the household, and, as a rule, labor quite as hard as, if not harder than, the average male pioneer. Early in the spring, when her husband was beginning to convalesce, she determined to give him a pleasure-ride, and, yoking the oxen to the sled, took in father and children and set off for an excursion to a neighbor's three miles distant. While they were there, up came a heavy rain and washed away the snow. When they started for home, Mrs. Millard tucked her charges safely and snugly into the sled, and herself, barefooted, tramped sturdily along through the cold and slush driving the oxen, and, although she got back from that " pleasure-ride" alive, she remembers it as one of the trying incidents in her pioneer experience. LYONS. 249 -- I Like their neighbors, the Millards had to go hungry once in a while. Mr. Millard went on a flour-borrowing expedition one day, and succeeded in getting only a few tailings,-" such stuff," says he, " as I would now feed to my horses." It was not much, to be sure, as a prospective feast, but he could not do any better; and so he pushed off for mill to have the stuff ground. As there was not anything in the house but a few turnips, on them his family lived until he got back from mill. Good wholesome flour was a highly-prized luxury, hard to get, and exceedingly satisfying when at hand even if there was not much else available. When Charles Millard settled in Lyons upon section 14 in 1844, he found his neighbors to be Alexander Chubb, on section 11, where H. Loomis now lives; Nehemiah Hunt, just west; Abram Ely, directly north of Hunt; Franklin Chubb, on section 11; T. O. Warner, on section 11; and John Gee, at the mill-site on Stony Creek. " Dr." Millard, father of Charles Millard, bought Alexander Chubb's place in 1846 and moved upon it. Although his name was Joshua, he gained somehow, early in life, the appellation of Doctor," despite the fact that he never was a man of medicine, and in time he was not only known of all men as Dr. Millard, but signed his name thus, to the utter abandonment of Joshua. RESIDENT TAX-PAYERS OF LYONS TOWNSHIP IN 1811. Acres. A. J. Allport, section 31.................................... 120 M. B. Allen, sections 2, 3, 11.............................. 643 Beckwith Estate, section 1................................. 189 H. F. Baker, section 27................................... 16 W in. Bartow, section 25................................... 137 Henry Bartow, section 35................................. 320 Hervey Bartow, sections 23, 34, 35...................... 320 J. H. Beckwith......................................Personal N. H. Beckwith, sections 24, 25......................... 207 Nathan Benjamiln, sections 1, 12........................ 200 Baker Borden, section 9.................................... 40 John Beal, section 25.................................... 103 Royal Bradiih, section 15.................................. 40 Asa Bunnell, sections 20, 29.............................. 129 G. W. Bunnell, section 27............................. 120 I. N. Canfield, section 36.................................... 40 - Chidester, section 1......................... 350 Agent of H. Brown, sections 25, 31, 32, 36............ 320 Anson Church, section 2................................. 320 Franklin Chubb, section 11................................. 160 Alexander Chubb, section 11........................... 80 Calvin Crippen, section 31................................. 30 Silas Crippen, sections 29, 30..................... 200 Chauncey Conkey, section 15.............................. 120 Moses Dean, section 36..................................... 240 Oliver Dean, section 1...................................... 120 Eli Dalrymple, section 8.................... 80 Wm. Delap, section 32....................................... 80 Thomas Dunn, section 2.................................... 98 Bartlett Dunn, section 28.................................. 160 Wm. W. Edmisler, section 15....................... 160 Abraham Ely, section 10.................................... 80 " " (agent B. F. Pew), section 15......... 40 Richard Farman, section 34........................ 80 G. W. Farman, section 35.................................. 80 Levi Ferguson, section 34................................... 80 D. M. Fox, section 25.................................. 80 Jonah Gallup, section 6............................. 10 John Gee, section 14.......................................... 160 George Gibson, section 36.................................. 80 Joel Greene, section 7...................................... 80 Benjamin Harter, sections 3, 4........................... 160 Anson Hawkins, section 3.................................. 80 ' " ((agent J. D. Long, Jr.), sections 3, 4..................................... 480 Hector HIayes, sections 22, 31, 32........................ 400 Alvason Hopkins, section 33............................. 110 Dennis IHowe, section 24.................................. 80 1Royal Ilowel, section 35..................................122 Asa Hutchinson, section 22................................. 20 Benjamin Hunt, section 22................................. 100 Daniel Iunt, section 15............................... 40 32 Acres. Hubbell & Merrill, section 23.............................. 251 James Jones, section 36.................................... 40 Geo. D. Kellogg, section 14................................ 50 Hiram Kelley, section 4................................... 120 Joseph Letandre, section 28................................ 100 Valentine Lewis, section 2................................. 80 Zina Lloyd, sections 3, 27, 34.............................. 360 Maria Lounsbury, section 36.................... 40 H. V. Libhart, section 31................................... 160 George G. Lovell, sections 10, 29........................ 200 Mary Lovell, section 11..................................... 80 Edward Lyon, section 24.................................... 40 John Morrison, section 24.................................. 160 Henry March, section 36................................. 40 M. D. Mills, sections 19, 20................................ 320 John MeKelvey, sections 23, 24........................... 240 John Norwood, section 36................................. 40 Charles W. Norton, section 29............................. 80 Jay Olmstead, sections 20, 30, 32......................... 480 Aaron Pratt, section 23..................................... 40 Betsey Palmer, section 14.......................... 190 B. R. Phillips, section 5..................................... 119 B. R. Parsons, section 34................................... 80 Stephen F. Page, sections 2, 35........................... 416 J. P. Rathbone, sections 29, 30, 31.................... 90 Abner Rosencrantz, section 25............................ 160 Ira A. Reynolds, sections 23, 26.......................... 240 Adam L. Roof, section 24................................... 100 Chauncey Reynolds, sections 23, 26...................... 280 Nathaniel Sessions, section 23............................ 320 Eli S. Soules, sections 26, 27.............................. 240 Abner Soules, section 6.................................... 113 Nathaniel Soules, section 25................................ 80 S. E. Stoughton, sections 10, 15........................... 140 Preston Stevens, section 25................................. 160 Hiram Stevens, section 36.......................... 160 A. B. Smith, section 29...................................... 80 N. Searing, section 27...................................... 160 Jesse Tripp, section 2................................. 40 Isaac Thompson, sections 29, 31, 32, 33, 36............ 573 Phineas Varnam, section 27............................. 40 John T. Van Vleck, sections 3, 34........................ 74 Matthew Van Vleck, sections 1, 2........................ 320 William Vance, section 25................................. 80 Nathan Wallace, section 27........................... 80 Stephen Willett, section 24................................. 160 Lewis W illey, section 36.................................... 40 T. 0. Warner, sections 11, 12.............................. 200 Archibald Wilcox, section 35.............................. 80 Orange Wright, section 13................................. 92 William Way, sections 25, 26.............................. 84 Samuel II. Yates, sections 3, 34........................... 298 Job L. Yates, section 34.................................... 300 EARLY SETTLEMENTS WEST OF THE GRAND RIVER. The first settlements west of the Grand River, and among the first made in the township, were those of William Moore and his sons Daniel and William. They made their advent early in the summer of 1834, and, after tarrying at Hunt's trading-house long enough to permit the men-folks to get up a cabin on the Moore tract, in section 28, the family moved up there. Their land lay on the river, opposite what is now known as Moore's Island,-so named from the family. The Moores did not remain more than four years, when they moved to Portland. Meanwhile, in 1837, Isaac Thompson-known far and wide as "Judge" Thompson-purchased in that vicinity a very large tract of land, and brought out a large force of men to do the clearing. For a time Thompson was allowed to remain the only settler in that locality. Asahel Hopkins was perhaps the earliest comer thereabouts after Thompson, but Hopkins happened to locate on the eastern bank of the river, in section 33. William Hunt, the Indian trader, determined to become a settler in fact after his business as Indian trader and land-looker was finished, and he too made a land-location near Thompson's, on the western shore of the river. William Way came along presently, and, in 1847, A. A. Crane, 250. HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. living now on section 32, made his clearing. A man by the name of Lamb was among the early comers in that region, and, in 1853, B. F. Faxon and his son, E. M. Faxon, made settlements, followed in 1854 by Rufus Kelley, who bought of the old Thompson tract land on sections 29 and 32, on which Judge Thompson had cleared about thirty acres. Jacob Benedict improved the place on section 32 now occupied by C. E. Hodgmran. Among other early settlers on the west side of the Grand River may also be named John Rock, Edward Doran, D. C. Bennett, W. Johnson, Simon Town, Bernhard, Thomas, and Frank McQuillin, Patrick Fitch, and C. W. Staley. SUBSEQUENT SETTLEMENTS. In 1840, James Root, living in Ohio, concluded to come out to Lyons and join Mr. Jason, one of his relatives then living west of the river upon land formerly embraced within the Judge Thompson tract. Root remained there about two years, and in 1842 removed to the eastern side of the river, where, upon section 26, he bought a place of Hervey Bartow, and where, in 1845, he died. Alvin Sutton settled in 1842 in Portland township, on the north town-line. lie came from Western New York, where he had been a Methodist Episcopal circuit-preacher, and upon his arrival in Michigan resumed his ministerial labors. He preached in Portland, Lyons, and other places over a wide circuit, and died in Lyons in 1864. His son Lorenzo, now living on section 27, settled there in 1849, and made his home in the midst of a dense forest. Later setders in that neighborhood were M. R. Fisk and E. 0. Smith, the latter a settler in Eaton County in 1838. William Brown settled in Michigan in 1833, and in 1843 bought of Allen Reynolds a place in Lyons, on section 23, where Joseph Reynolds had made a clearing of twenty acres. The north-and-south road now passing his farm was then but a mere path. About then O. S. and S. H. Kimball made beginnings on new land just south of Stony Creek, Howard Wright, now on section 23, coming with 0. S. Kimball. Among other settlers in the neighborhood of Stony Creek were W. It. Slade, N. P. Hopkins, W. eele, Francis Gee, Isaac Balch, and Joseph Townsend. North of Stony Creek and east of the Maple we come to the settlement, in 1842, of Isaac Shoemaker, who bought of Nathan Benjamin, on section 1, forty acres of land partially improved. He was accompanied to the town by his brother-in-law, William H. Pratt, who soon afterwards made a location on section 1, where he now lives. Near Shoemaker, at a later period, settlements were made by Dr. Alonzo Sunderlin (a practicing physician in those parts for many years) and William T. Bissell. With them came Nicholas G. Bissell, who settled farther south. Joseph Randolph was among the later settlers in that vicinity. West of these David Fifield and Abram Ely were early comers, and, in 1845, Richard Carberry and Thomas Welch took possession of a quarter-section on section 10 and gave out that they proposed to farm according to purely scientific princples. They brought in a flock of about three hundred sheep, and in support of their scientiic determination brought also an invoice of books op agriculture, according to whose precepts they proposed to conduct their operations as husbandmen, for their practical knowledge of farming was literally nothing. Of course they made a disastrous failure of the whole affair and a laughing-stock of themselves. They had no sooner got their sheep into the town than they discovered there was nothing for them to eat, and so they sold them off as fast as they could. At the end of less than a year they came to the conclusion that they had made a woeful mistake in undertaking farming, and, like sensible men, retired to some other and more congenial pursuit. The place was subsequently occupied by Eugene Beckwith, and in 1853 by M. R. Vance, the present occupant. Carberry boarded with Nehemiah Hunt a while, but by and by came to the conclusion that he could not pay the price of board, one dollar and a half per week, and accordingly set up a bachelor's hall. At that time sturgeon were very plentiful in Stony Creek, and Carberry was naturally fed on them freely. He probably grew tired of a steady fish-diet, for Hunt overheard him holding an imaginary conversation with some of the old folks at home, in the course of which he remarked, " Oh, if you old folks could only know how we're living out here in Michigan! Just think of it! Stinking fish and johnny-cake!" There used to be Methodist preaching on the East Plains about 1845 by Elder Coles, who organized a Methodist class of fifteen members or more in Sydney Streubel's house. There was also in that neighborhood more or less preaching by William Camfield and Chauncey and Allen Reynolds. Henry Loomis moved with his family, in 1849, to a place on section 11, where Alexander Chubb had improved ten acres. South of him the Seavers (early settlers in Dallas) settled later, and A. Bahlke on the north, where William Merrill had made the first improvement. TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION. Act of Legislature approved March 11, 1837, provided that all that portion of lonia County lying east of the lines running north and south through the centres of townships 5, 6, 7, and 8 north, in range 6 west, should be set Cf and organized for temporary purposes as a township, with the name of Maple. Who named the town does not appear, but naturally the source of the name was that of the Maple River, so called long before. March 6, 1838, towns 5 and 6 north, in range 5 west, and the east half of towns 5 and 6 north, in range 6 west, were set off to Portland. March 30, 1840, the name of the township of Maple was changed to Lyons. The change in name was effected at the instigation of Lucius Lyon, who desired, doubtless, the additional honor of being remembered in the township designation, as well as in the name of the village. Feb. 29, 1844, the town numbered 8 north, in range 5 west, was set off to the township of North Plains, excepting that portion southeast of the Maple River. The tract named was set off from Lyons to North Plains Jan. 9, 1867. March 19, 1845, the township of Ronald was organized from town 8 north, range 6 west. LYONS. 251 March 22, 1848, sections '22, 27, and 34, in town 7 north, range 6 west, together with sections 1, 2, 3, 10, 11, 12, and so much of sections 13, 14, 15 as lay north of Grand River, in the same town, were attached to Ionia. These various eliminations left to the township of Lyons town 7 north, range 5 west, and sections 35, 36, 25, 26, 23, 24, and that portion of section 13 lying south of Grand River, all in town 7 north, range 6 west. The territory named as lying in town 7 north, range 6 west, south of Grand River, was detached from Lyons, March 13, 1867, leaving the township with its present six miles square. The first township-meeting in Maple was held April 3, 1837, at the house of William Hunt. David Irish was chosen clerk of the election, and Asa Bunnell moderator. There was then an adjournment to the house of E. Lyon & Co., and at the election which followed town officials were chosen as follows: Supervisor, Isaac Thompson; Clerk, David Irish; Assessors, Hiram Brown, Asa Bunnell, and Almeron Newman; Collector, Nelson J. Allport; Directors of the Poor, Edward Lyon and Gad W. Bunnell; Constables, Nelson J. Allport, Daniel C. Moon, T. O. Warner; Highway Commissioners, Zina Lloyd, William Hunt, B. F. Mann; Commissioners of Schools, Henry Bartow, Phineas Coe; Justices of the Peace, Truman H. Lyon, Franklin Chubb; Inspectors of Schools, Benjamin R. Parsons, Asa Bunnell, Adam L. Roof, Philo Bogue, Joshua Boyer; Pathmasters, C. Boranger in District No. 2; D. C. Moore in District No. 3; Daniel Brown in No. 4; Isaac Thompson in No. 5; Franklin Chubb in No. 6 (the road from Lyons to Nathan Benjamin's up the Maple River); No. 7, Gad W. Bunnell (the road from Lyons to John E. Morrison's). It was resolved at the same meeting that no fence should be lawful unless five feet high, and that a bounty of twenty shillings should be paid for each wolf caught or killed in the township by any white man. From 1838 to 1848 the following persons were chosen to be supervisors, clerks, treasurers, and justices of the peace: SUPERVISORS. 1838, I. Thompson; 1839-41,- William Bartow; 1842-43, J. H. Beckwith; 1844, A. Bunnell; 1845, J. II. Beckwith; 1846, F. Chubb; 1847-48, J. II. Beckwith. CLERKS. 1838-39, David Irish; 1840-41, L. R. Atwater; 1842, A. L. Roof; 1843, W. Z. Blanchard; 1844-45, W. W. Fitch; 1846, David Irish; 1847-48, T. H. Dewey. TREASURERS. 1838, N. J. Allport; 1839-40, L. R. Atwater; 1841, M. Farnsworth; 1842, Hiram Brown; 1843, A. Bunnell; 1844-48, A. Chubb. JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. 1838, Franklin Chubb; 1839, Henry Bartow; 1840, A. Soule; 1841, H1. Bartow; 1842, A. Bunnell; 1843, P. Stevens; 1844, A. Soule; 1845, Joel Burgess; 1846, A. Bunnell; 1847 William Bartow; 1848, A. Sutton. The township records covering the years between 1848 and 1867 have been lost, and there is therefore a necessary break in the civil list. From 1867 to 1880, a complete official record is given as follows: 4' Seventy-five votes cast in this year. SUPERVISORS. 1867-71, W. H. Woodworth; 1872, D. C. Spalding; 1873, Louis Willis; 1874, W. 1. Freeman; 1875-76, A. W. Sherwood; 1877-79, A. K. Roof; 1880, A. H. Jacob. CLERKS. 1867, C. W. Staley; 1868-72, J. F. Baker; 1873, C. P. Somers; 1874 -80, J. F. Baker; 1880, J. McQuillen. TREASURERS. 1867, II. Iitchcock; 1868, A. K. Roof; 1869, J. S. Wagar; 1870-71, A. K. Roof; 1872, J. O. Probasco; 1873, 0. S. Kimball; 1874, C. Swarthout; 1875, H. Searing; 1876, Jonathan Hale; 1877, L.W. Greenwood; 1878, C. P. Somers; 1879, J. McQuillen; 1880, L. M. Greenwood. JUSTICES. 1867, J. Littlefield; 1868-73, no record; 1874, H. B. Staley; 1875, C. W. Olmstead; 1876, L. Hungerford; 1877, no record; 1878, Zophar Simpson; 1879, J. H. Canfield; 1880, T. O. Warner. JURORS FOR 1812. Herewith are the names of persons chosen to be grand and petit jurors for 1842: GRAND JURORS. Henry Bartow, Nathaniel Chidester, George D. Kellogg, Jay Olnstead, Nathaniel Searing, Mathew Van Vleck, Asa Bunnell, Hiram Brown, Henry V. Libhart, Aaron B. Pratt, Nathaniel Sessions, Lockwood Yates, Abram S. Wadsworth. PETIT JURORS. Benjamin Harter, Royal Howell, Stephen F. Page, M. V. Olmstead, John Berry, Levi Ferguson, Oliver Dean, Franklin Chubb, Abner Rosecranz, Samuel E. Stoughton, Handel Beals, Phineas Varnum, William W. Edminster. TAXES FOR 1842. The taxes raised for 1842, as per a report dated June 30, 1842, included sixty-four dollars for support of common schools and one hundred dollars for raising Maple River bridge, near Fish Creek. JURORS FOR 1846. Ienry Bartow, J. H. Beckwith, Asa Bunnell, Sanford Buskirk, Nathan Chidester, Reuben W. Phillips, Isaac Thompson, Zina Lloyd, Simon Mortimer, C. C. Smith, D. M. Fox, Almon Rosecranz, Handel Beals, Stephen Willett, A. D. Brewster, Joseph Letandre, Alexander Chubb, Lafayette Church, M. V. Olmstead, George G. Lovell, G. Chidester. TOWNSHIP ROADS. No record of laid-out roads can be found of earlier date than 1841, although roads were laid in the town as early as 1837. March 5, 1841, the Lyons and North Plains. road was laid, commencing at the north quarter-post of section 6, in town 7 north, range 5 west; thence due south through sections 6 and 7, on the quarter-line, to the south quarter-post of section 7,-distance two miles; thence south thirteen degrees east six chains and fifty links to the centre of the Lyons and Ionia road; thence along said road to the north end of Maple River bridge. March 26, 1841, the road districts were altered and revised, and, to the number of twenty-one, were apportioned to the town. April 26, 1841, upon the application of 252 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. Hector Hayes, a road was laid commencing at the south quarter-post of section 31, town 8 north, range 5 west, running thence due north eighty chains on the quarter-line to the north quarter-post of said section. Sept. 15, 1841, a road was laid commencing at the northwest corner of section 2, town 7 north, range 6 west, running thence along the west lines of sections 2, 11, and 14, of the said town, one hundred and ninety-three chains, or two miles and thirty-three chains, to intersect the road leading from the North Plains to Ionia. Sept. 13, 1841, a road was laid commencing at the northwest corner of section 27, town 8 north, range 5 west, running thence east along the north line of said section 27 and the north line of section 26 to the State road leading from the Rochester Colony to Ionia. Sept. 2, 1841, a road was laid commencing on the east line of section 1, town 7 north, range 6 west, thirty-seven chains and ninety-four links from the northeast corner of said section, running thence south two hundred and fiftyeight chains, to intersect a road leading from Lyons to Ionia at a white tree eighteen inches in diameter. Sept. 21, 1841, a road was laid, commencing at the southwest corner of section 15, town 8 north, range 5 west, running thence east to the southeast corner of said section, thence south along the east line of sections 22 and 27, to intersect the road leading from the Rochester Colony to Ionia. Another road was laid Dec. 11, 1841 (on the petition of Calvin Crippen), commencing at the quarter-post in the west line of section 29, town 8 north, range 5 west, running thence east along the quarter-line to the east side of said section, thence north on the east line of said section to the northeast corner thereof. SCHOOLS. FIRST ORGANIZATION OF DISTRICTS. At a meeting of the school inspectors of the township of Maple, Oct. 26, 1837, Zina Lloyd was chosen chairman, and the following districts set off and organized: District No. 1.-Commencing at the northeast quarter of section 8, in town 7 north, range 5 west; running thence south to the southeast corner of section 29; thence west on section-line to the southwest corner of section 26; thence north to the northwest corner of section 11, the last two boundaries being in town 7 north, range 6 west; thence east to the place of beginning, in town 7 north, range 5 west. District Jlb. 2.-Commencing at the northeast corner of section 28; thence east to the north quarter-post of section 26; thence south to the south quarter-post of section 26; thence east to the county-line; thence south to the southeast corner of section 13, in town 6 north, range 5 west; thence west to the south quarter-post of section 17; thence north to the north quarter-post of section 32, in town 7 north, range 5 west; thence cast to the northeast corner of section 32; and thence north to the place of beginning. District No. 3.-Commencing on the south line of section 4, on the east side of Grand River, in town 5 north, range 5 west; thence east to the southeast corner of section 3; thence north to the northeast quarter of section 22, in town 6 north, range 5 west; thence west to the Grand I River; thence following said river southerly to the place of beginning. District No. 4.-Commencing at the northwest corner of section 22, in town 7 north, range 5 west; thence east on section-line to the county-line; thence south on sectionline to the east quarter-post on section 36; thence west on quarter-line so as to include the east half of the northeast quarter of section 35; thence north to the north line of said section 35; thence west so as to include the east half of the southwest quarter of section 26; thence west to the section-line; thence north to the northeast corner of section 27; thence west to the northwest corner of section 27; thence north to the place of beginning. District No. 5.-Commencing on the east line of Ionia County where the Maple River crosses the same; thence south on said line to the southeast corner of section 13, in town 7 north, range 5 west; thence west on section-line to Stony Creek; thence down said creek to the junction of the same with the Maple River; thence up said Maple River to the place of beginning. The annual school report, dated October, 1839, presented but partially complete statistics from three districts, and nothing satisfactory can be quoted. The books then in use in the schools were Daboll's, Adams', Smith's, and Colburn's arithmetics, Woodbury's, Olney's, and Smith's geographies, " Elementary Spelling-book," Smith's and Kirkham's grammars, " English" and " National Readers." June 9, 1838, District No. 6 was organized, and was thus bounded: Commencing where the east line of section 15 crosses Stony Creek; thence south to the east quarterpost of section 27; thence west to the Grand River; thence down said river to the quarter-post line of section 20; thence north to the Maple River; thence up Maple River and Stony Creek to the place of beginning. Oct. 23, 1839, District No. 7 was set off, with boundaries as follows: Commencing at the centre of section 27; thence south on the quarter-line to the south quarterpost of section 34; thence west on section-line to the Grand River; thence down said river to the quarter-line running east and west through sections 27 and 28; thence east to the place of beginning, town 7 north, range 5 west. The township includes now eight full and two fractional districts. The total enumeration is 805, the average attendance 645, the value of school property $11,050, and the wages paid to teachers $3801. There is a graded school at Lyons containing four rooms, capable of seating 300 scholars. The average attendance is 210. Muir has likewise a graded school, with an average attendance of upwards of 200. VILLAGE OF PEWAMO. The gradual progress of the line of the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad westward in 1857 called villages into existence along its course wherever the chief engineer of the road (Robert G. Higham) chose to locate stations. Higham, having fixed a site for a depot where the village of Pewamo now stands, purchased, with Dr. W. C. Blan chard, J. C. Blanchard, A. F. Bell, and Amos Gould, a village site of J. C. Blanchard, who had himself bought it of Cuyler Deitz, Ben Mosher, and Mr. Bissell in contempla LYONS. 253 tion of the location of a station there. The village tract included the south half of section 12 and the north half of section 13. Upon the completion of their purchase the proprietors proceeded to found a village, which, at the suggestion of J. C. Blanchard, they called Pewamo. Mr. Blanchard remembered an Indian chief of that name with whom he used to hunt and fish a good deal in the pioneer days, and thus chose to honor him. Mr. Blanchard met Pewamo while traveling through Canada in 1877, and the chief, learning then for the first time that his name had been given to a Michigan village, was excessive in his demonstrations of delight over the fact that his memory would be perpetuated in his much-loved native home of the Grand River valley. The village was surveyed by A. F. Bell in 1857, but the plat was not recorded until July 25, 1859. It was described as being situated on sections 12 and 13, and commencing at the quarter-post on the north line of section 13, the streets being platted sixty-six feet in width. The recorded village proprietors were J. C. Blanchard and W. Z. Blanchard, July 20, 1874. Sherwood and Loomis platted an addition which embraced the western fifty acres of the south half of the northeast quarter of section 13. It commenced at the centre of section 13, ran thence north twenty chains; east twenty-five chains, south twenty chains, and west to the place of beginning. The pioneer trader of the place was Hiram Blanchard, who came from Canada in the spring of 1857 and erected a store and dwelling on the corner now covered by William Triphagen's store. At that time Daniel Shepard was living in a log house (that stood upon the site of Mr. Taft's house), Ben Mosher was in a log house upon the American House lot, and Town Robinson, a carpenter, was living in the house which is still his home. Daniel Shepard died in 1857, his being the first death in the village. The second trader was E. L. Morse, who, having tried unsuccessfully to start a village of his own, called Woodville, two miles to the eastward, on the line of the railway, carried his stock of goods to Pewamo in the spring of 1857 and erected the store-building now occupied by Ralph Mattison. Then also Ira Fisher bought Benjamin Marsh's log house and converted it into a house of entertainment, although he never entertained many people therein, chiefly because the house was too small. Later the Widow Stokes added a frame structure to the log cabin, and gradually there was evolved out of the affair the American Hotel, still standing where Ben Mosher's hut stood, but just now untenanted. In the fall of 1857, E. L. Morse built a blacksmith's shop in the village, and hired Ihugh Robertson, a Canadian, to carry it on for him. When Robertson came to the town, late in 1857, he found six families, all told, occupying the site of the present village. Fisher was keeping tavern and Morse and Blanchard were keeping stores. There were also in the town Town Robinson, a carpenter, Franklin Gilbert, of the same trade, and Cuyler Deitz, a farmer. The spot selected for the village was an exceedingly un suitable one, for it was in the midst of a low tract, and for the greater part of the year roads were so bad that it was almost impossible for people to get to the town. This con I dition of things kept trade away, and the village thrived but feebly, with a fair promise that it would ultimately die of inanition. For a time, however, there was considerable done at that point in the way of supplying wood to the railway company, and thus the storekeepers managed to eke out a thin existence. When Hiram Blanchard came to the town he was led to remark that it looked as though it ought to be given over entirely to the control of the frogs, who had well-nigh absolute possession. Even up to the year 1870, Pewamo was a desolate-looking place, and was pretty closely hemmed in by woods. It had, however, begun to move forward as a consequence of the improved condition of the roads leading to it, the township having bestirred itself actively in the premises. Morse, having failed in his mercantile enterprise, was succeeded by Snell & Hungerford, and in 1866, when John Pennington came in and built the store he now occupies, Lewis Hungerford and Hiram Blanchard were the only traders in the place. In 1867 the village received its first resident physician, and in 1868 Helm & Mattern established a wagon- and carriage-manufactory, which they carried on with more or less success until 1875, when the business was discontinued. Up to 1870 there had been neither saw-mill nor gristmill at Pewamo. In that year Rice & Hilliker built the present grist-mill, with two run of stone. Previous to 1870 lumber was obtained at Gee's saw-mill, on Stony Creek, and grists carried to Matherton, Hubbardston, or Lyons. After passing through various proprietorships the mill fell to the possession of Hugh Robertson in October, 1879, and he still carries it on. In 1869, 0. W. Holley established a stave-factory at Pewamo and did a large business for several years, but latterly the factory has been idle. The first physician resident in Pewamo, already referred to, was Dr. Lafayette Jones, who came in 1867 and remained until 1876. Meanwhile, Dr. William H. Chaddock came to the town in 1868 from Clinton County, and since that time has been continuously in practice at Pewamo. Other physicians flitted across the surface of local history, but tarried only briefly and left scarcely an impression. Among these were Drs. Herman, Outwater, Ward, May, and Carpenter. The physicians besides Dr. Chaddock now in practice in the village are Drs. George B. Gregory and Dennis Sunderlin. THE POST-OFFICE. Hiram Blanchard, Pewamo's second merchant and first station-agent as well as express-agent, was appointed postmaster in 1857, when Pewamo was established as a postoffice, and continued in the office until 1870. John Betts, his successor, was in possession but a little while, and Feb. 15, 1871, John Pennington, the present incumbent, was appointed. Pewamo has been a money-order office since August, 1871. Three mails are received and forwarded daily by railroad, and one by stage. NEWSPAPER. Pewamo has a newspaper called the Plaiidealer, a small journal of sixteen columns, published weekly on Thursdays ,254 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. I by Charles H. Ward. The paper was first issued by Miles & Tefft, at Muir, Oct. 12, 1877, and called the Muir Plaindealer. Being shortly persuaded to transfer the publication to Pewamo, they made the change after issuing four numbers, and Nov. 9, 1877, put forward the first number of the Pewamo Plaindealer. Dec. 7, 1877, Charles H. Ward, who had all along been engaged on the paper, bought the interest of Miles, and Oct. 1, 1878, bought out Tefft. Since then Ward has been in sole control. The Plaindealer is now, as it always has been, independent in politics, and bright with home news. VILLAGE INCORPORATION. Legislative act approved April 13, 1871, incorporated the village of Pewamo, and fixed the territory to include the south half of section 12 and the north half of section 13. The charter election was held at the office of Lewis Hungerford, Monday, May 1, 1871. H. W. Blanchard and B. W. Hungerford were appointed inspectors, and James H. Robertson clerk of election. The list of village officials chosen on that occasion follows here: President, A. W. Sherwood; Clerk, W. L. Tilden; Trustees, A. J. Worden, Lafayette Jones (two years), A. S. Pettinger, S. W. Triphagen (one year); Treasurer, E. D. Hammond; Assessor, A. T. Rice; Marshal, John Betts. The first meeting of the Common Council was held in Pettinger Hall, May 2, 1871. At the second meeting, May 8th, James H. Robertson was appointed street commissioner. Below is given a list of the names of persons chosen annually from 1872 to 1880 to be president, clerk, treasurer, trustees, assessor, and marshal: 1872.-President, Amos W. Sherwood; Clerk, John W. Triphagen; Treasurer, Ezra D. Hammond; Trustees, C. P. Somers, Thaddeus O. Warner; Assessor, John Pennington; Marshal, William H. Rudd. 1873.-President, Lafayette Jones; Clerk, John W. Triphagen; Trustees, Amos W. Sherwood, James II. Robertson; Assessor, William L. Tilden; Marshal, James D. Dunn. 1874.-President, Lafayette Jones; Clerk, Jay Ludwick; Treasurer, M. W. Smith; Trustees, J. W. Triphagen, John Betts; Assessor, Robert Boyce; Marshal, James Dunn. 1875.-President, Amos W. Sherwood; Clerk, Jay J. Ludwick; Treasurer, C. P. Somers; Trustees, Lafayette Jones, John W. Triphagen; Assessor, Dennis O'Neil; Marshal, George Maxted. 1876.-President, Amos W. Sherwood; Clerk, Charles H. Ward; Treasurer, Charles P. Somers; Assessor, Erastus Fisher; Marshal, Newton K. Wright; Trustees, John Pennington, Robert Boyce. 1877.-President, John Dunlap; Clerk, Charles H. Ward; Treasurer, C. P. Somers; Trustees, L. L. Trask, L. Hungerford; Assessor, James Robertson; Marshal, William J. Lewis. 1878.-President, Amos W. Sherwood; Clerk, Charles II. Ward; Treasurer, Charles P. Somers; Trustees, O. W. Holly, D. W. Howie; Assessor, T. 0. Warner; Marshal, John 0. Parks. 1879.-President, A. W. Sherwood; Clerk, Stephen A. IIathaway; Treasurer, Thomas Mells; Trustees, James Greenwood, Marshall Beach; Assessor, T. 0. Warner; Marshal, Elmer McLean. 1880.-President, Thomas Mells; Clerk, Stephen A. Hathaway; Treasurer, Simon Rogers; Trustees, 0.. Holly, Charles Millard; Assessor, Thaddeus O. Warner; Marshal, William H. Rudd. Pewamo village contains now a population of three hundred and fifty, and, besides being the centre of considerable mercantile trade, is a good wheat-shipping point. Mills & Greenwood and Henry Hitchcock & Co. have capacious wheat-houses, and ship from Pewamo station an aggregate of about one thousand car-loads of wheat annually, or three hundred and fifty-five thousand bushels. The railway business is in charge of D. M. Howie, who has been stationagent since 1870. At this point, moreover, freight is received for the villages of Hubbardston, Matherton, Carson City, Elm Hall, and Bloomer. The business interests at Pewamo include the general stores of Freeman & Taft, John Pennington, Ralph Mattison, Coon & Henderson, the grocery-stores of Wm. Triphagen and John Ludwick, the drug-store of John Triphagen, and the hardware-store of C. B. Somers. The legal profession is represented by Moses Bartow, who has been practicing law at the village since May, 1879. Pewamo had no lawyer until 1874, when two young persons named Cummings and Button descended upon the town and alleged that they had come to peddle law for the benefit of stricken humanity. Cummings, who lived in Dallas township and claimed to have practiced there, was said to have graduated as a backwoods lawyer in some portion of rural New York, and, with the legal lore obtainable in such an experience, turned himself loose in Michigan. His partner and friend Button was about as high up in the Blackstonian scale as he was, and it is said that when either attempted the framing of a legal document he came to grief, as a rule, although instances have been cited where success crowned their protracted and labored efforts. Although they never essayed a loftier legal flight than sufficed to reach the office of a justice of the peace, they succeeded so badly that after a year's trial they confessed their mission a dismal failure and gave up the ghost. CHURCHES. Methodist Episcopal Church (Pewamo Class).-As early as 1856, and probably before, there were Methodist Episcopal class-meetings at the " white" school-house, about a mile north of Pewamo. More than that not much can be said as to the earlier history of what is now known as the Pewamo Methodist Episcopal Church, since there are no records at hand, while those who took part in the early meetings have passed from the current of local events. In 1858, when Mrs. Hiram Blanchard came to Pewamo, the class was worshiping at the "white" school-house. Rev. Mr. Carpenter was the preacher, and Nehemiah Hunt the class-leader. The class numbered then about fifteen members. Among the early pastors of the class, besides Mr. Carpenter, were Revs. Chick, Braggins, Colby, and Youngs. Shortly after 1858 the place of worship was transferred to Pewamo, and in Pennington Hall services were held until 1868, when the church now in use was dedicated. The only historical mention in the church records seems to have been made by Rev. V. P. Welch, who supplied tlie pulpit in 1879. He writes: " Pewamo Church Class, No. 1, formed by Rev. W. F. Jenkins; D. F. Barnes, Presiding Elder First Quarterly Conference held at Pewamo, Dec. LYONS. 255. 10, 1870, when the Methodist Episcopal Society was organized. Jenkins came here a superannuated preacher, labored as pastor one year, and then filled the office of leader for a number of years. The church fell into disorganization, and was allowed to run down at a sad rate. When I came here I found the class in such a fearful condition that I could not tell who were members and who were not. I reorganized it Aug. 31, 1879, discontinuing eighteen members and transferring twenty-eight to the new class-book." The condition of the church is now exceedingly satisfactory. The society is out of debt and owns a parsonagelot, as well as the church property. The class has a membership of fifty, and the Sabbathschool an average attendance of the same number. D. M. Howie is class-leader and superintendent of the school, in which latter work he is assisted by a corps of eight teachers. The church trustees are D. M. Howie, L. L. Trask, N. C. Hunt, E. G. Taft, and John Reynolds. The pastor now in charge is Rev. D. W. Parsons. First Baptist CAurch of Pewanmo -The First Baptist Church of Lyons was organized in 1845 at the house of Dr. Millard, on section 11, by Elder Amos Chase, who lived near Ada. The organizing members were Dr. Millard and wife, Nancy Millard, and Mrs. Charles Millard, all of whom were received by letter from the Baptist Church of Dundee, N. Y. Elder John Van Vleck was the first 'pastor, and he preached about two years. Dr. Millard was chosen deacon, and served in that capacity until 1864. John A. Millard was chosen the first church clerk, and was the clerk continuously from the year 1845 to 1865. The first entry in the church records appears under date of April 17, 1847, and recites that " covenant meeting was more fully attended than for a long time, and there seems to be a growing interest in religion. Brethren felt to confess their faults one to another each had more charity for others than for themselves." Upon that occasion Edward Henderson was received into the fellowship of the church. At a meeting at the house of Dr. Millard, Jan. 14, 1851, there were present Dr. Millard, Charles Millard, Hiram Hunt, Nathan Benjauiin, Edward Ienderson, John A. Millard, Sylvester Benjamin, Alvira Millard, Catherine Millard, Charity Millard, Amanda Hunt, with Elder F. S. Batcheldor, of the Indian Creek Church, in the chair. It was resolved that " as the Baptist Church of Lyons has for nearly two years had no meeting as a church, and whereas God in His mercy has revived us, therefore resolved, That the church now recommence, and that those of the former members of the church who are in fellowship one with another, and who desire to renew their covenant and henceforth to walk in church relation, shall be considered members of the church. That we endeavor to obtain preaching one-fourth of the time, and appoint Brothers D. Millard, N. Benjamin, and Hiram Ilunt a committee for this purpose." The records are not very clear as to the engagement of pastors, but it appears therefrom that Elders Cornell and Batcheldor preached in 1851, and Elder Clute in 1858. April 24, 1858, Nathaniel Williams was chosen second deacon, to act with Deacon Dr. Millard. Until 1864 services were held in the house of Charles Millard and the "white" school-house. Aug. 13, 1864, there was a change of name to " First Baptist Church of Pewamo," and a removal of the place of worship to the village. In 1864, Brother Green was chosen to act as deacon with G. Millard, and Dr. Millard was relieved from the office of deacon at his own request. The next mention of a pastor appears under date of 1867, when Elder A. McLean officiated. In 1868, Elder Weaver occupied the pulpit, and in that year a new church-building at Pewamo, commenced in 1866, was dedicated. A parsonage was purchased in April, 1869, and during that year there was preaching by Elders Roes and Baker. In 1870, Elders Faxon, Miller, and Wesselius officiated, and in May, 1871, Elder Petit began a pastorate that lasted until April, 1875. Elders A. R. Hicks and Morrison succeeded him, and, in September, Rev. S. Hendricks, now in charge, commenced his labors. The church has encountered many vicissitudes and has seen its membership reduced to a low ebb, but there has been a steady perseverance in the cause by the chosen few, and as a result there is now much ground for gratification. There is now a flourishing church-membership of seventyone and an attendance in the Sunday-school of forty scholars. The deacons are B. F. Hunt and James Blackmar; the trustees, B. F. Hunt, James Blackmar, C. P. Somers, Henry Snyder, and John Pennington; and the Sundayschool superintendent, James Blackmar. The Presbyterian Church of Pewamo.-This church, now extinct, was organized in 1864, in the " white" schoolhouse, by Rev. Lewis Miller, a missionary living at Ionia. The members were about twenty in number, of whom the early. elders chosen were John H. Hopkins, Alexander Morris, and W. H. Woodworth. Rev. Mr. Mills preached about two years, and in 1866 the place of worship was removed to Pewamo village, where meetings were subsequently held in Pennington Hall, which was fitted up for church purposes. Rev. Mr. Ransom preached from 1866 to 1869, and then Rev. James B. Walker took hold and remained until 1873, when the church decided to discontinue its meetings, and since that time has held none. Previous to the dissolution, matters were in a flourishing condition; the membership was about forty, and at the very time measures for the erection of a house of worship were so far along that a church-lot had been bought and the church foundation commenced, but, for reasons best known to themselves, the members of the congregation concluded to bring matters to a close. The society is, however, still in legal existence, and owns a parsonage as well as the church-lot. The Disciple Church of Pewamno.-This organization was formed at T. O.Warner's house by O. Wilcox, of Muir, in 1868, with about twenty-five members. T. 0. Warner was chosen elder and Handel Beals and T. B. Millard deacons. Mr. Wilcox preached for a while, and was followed by O. Ebert, C. C. Covey, and John Maverty. The village school-house was first used as a meeting-place. The erec tion of a church-edifice was commlenced without delay, and Jan. 2, 1869, the building was dedicated. The church flourished for a time, rising in 1870 to a membership of eighty. Internal dissensions followed close upon the advent 256 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. I- - of Mr. Maverty, and they grew apace with disastrous results that ended in the dissolution of the organization in 1875. The church-building is now occupied by Frederick Dewey as a furniture-store. PEWAMO SOCIETIES. Pewamo Lodge, No. 815, 0. G. T.-The temperance movement in Pewamo was inaugurated with some vigor in 1874, when a lodge of Good Templars was organized. Dec. 28, 1874, the lodge was chartered, Charles Russell, State Deputy-at-Large, conducting the opening ceremonies. During the summer of 1877 there was a series of interesting temperance meetings, in which workers from abroad took part, and over which popular favor ran so high that in that year upwards of two hundred and fifty persons publicly espoused the cause of temperance in the village. The first officials were W. Jenkins, W. C. T.; Eliza Chaddock, W. V. T.; John Dickson, Sec.; Thomas Dewey, Treas.; Elvira Dickson, P. W. C. T.; Mrs. Lora Seaver, Marshal. The membership includes now about thirty active workers. Meetings are held each Tuesday in Robertson Hall. The present official list is John Ludwick, W. C. T.; Mrs. Hugh Robertson, W. V. T.; John Smith, W. S.; Hugh Robertson, W. T.; Mrs. Mary Haley, Chaplain; Eugene Randolph, O. G.; Miss Florence Henderson, I. G.; George Deitz, Marshal; Mrs. Yerrington, Lodge Deputy. Pewamo Reform Club.-The temperance enthusiasm created in Pewamo early in 1877 through the efforts of home-workers assisted by members of the St. John's Reform Club resulted in the organization, in April, 1877, of the Pewamo Reform Club, with one hundred and sixty members. C. H. Ward was chosen president, L. L. Trask secretary, and Lewis Hungerford treasurer. The club has now about thirty-five paying members, meets every Monday in Robertson Hall, and has the following officials: Mrs. Hugh Robertson, President; Mrs. Daniel Mosher, Secretary; Hugh Robertson, Treasurer; M. D. Taft, S. at A.; George Phillips and John Smith, Marshals. The successive presidents of the club have been C. H. Ward, J. Miller, L. Robinson, and Mrs. Hugh Robertson. Pewarno Lodge, No. 277, 1 0. O..F.-This lodge was chartered March 24, 1876, upon the application of A. M. Boyce, J. H. Robertson, C. L. Johnson, William M. Osborn, and A. R. Hicks. At a meeting held the same day, Robert Boyce, J. Greenwood, J. Dixon, F. Loomis, Lewis Hungerford, J. Seaver, Charles Millard, and J. Dunn were elected members. The present membership is twenty-three. Meetings are held each Friday night. The officers now are Charles Millard, N. G.; James Greenwood, V. G.; William NI. Osborn, Treas.; James Robertson, Sec.; Joseph Ivinson, Financial Sec. The lodge enjoys a healthful existence, and has finely-appointed quarters over Freeman & Taft's store. Pewamo Grange, No. 430, 1. of H.-This grange was organized May 19, 1874, and chartered July 21st the same year, with about thirty members. Amos W. Sherwood was M.; Thomas H. Dewey, O.; John Dunlap, L.; William H. Pratt, Chaplain; B. S. Patrick, Sec. The Masters of the grange have been Amos W. Sherwood, Thomas LI. Dewey, and B. S. Patrick. Meetings are now held in Robertson Hall. The membership is seventy, and the officers A. W. Sherwood, M.; William Osborn, O.; Frederick Stowe, L.; John Ludwick, Chaplain; Joseph Randolph, Sec.; M. R. Vance, Treas.; and Phineas Millard, Steward. VILLAGE OF MUIR. The village now known as Muir covers a tract of land first improved by W. Z. and J. C. Blanchard, who there cleared a farm, built a farm-house and barn, and installed a farmer as tenant. In 1856, when the signs of the times disclosed the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad making westward, A. L. Soule, R. L. Robinson, A. B. Robinson, and Isaac Everett, extensive owners of Michigan pine-lands, bought the Blanchard farm, proposing, first, to establish a steam saw-mill at that point pn the river, and secondly to secure the construction of the railway through that neighborhood and the location of a station upon their property. Lyons village had counted upon the coming of the line that way,- and had, indeed, considered the fixing of a station there as a foregone conclusion, but there was some delay in furnishing the promised ten thousand dollars bonus demanded by the railway company from the village, and while the project lagged A. L. Soule, one of the owners of the Blanchard farm, hurried away to Detroit and offered to subscribe the ten thousand dollars' aid at once, conditioned upon the railway traversing his property. The company, out of patience with the Lyons people for their lack of energy, accepted Soule's proposition, and thus Lyons was left out in the cold. This important matter settled, Soule & Co. built a steam saw-mill capable of cutting about twenty thousand feet of lumber daily, and platted a village on sections 17 and 18, which they called Montrose. The first business improvement was a hotel, put up in June, 1856, by George W. French, on the site of the Denison House. The hotel was opened by Smith & Barnard in the fall of 1856, and at the same time French & Chamberlain built and opened a store on the corner now occupied by Jacob Probasco. That autumn two small grocery-stores were started by Marvin Greenwood and William Smith, and Vincent Palmer opened a blacksmith's shop. Darwin Lyon was appointed railway agent at Montrose, and for a while the depot was in the old Blanchard barn, improved for the purpose. It may be here noted that the Blanchard farmhouse now serves as the residence of Marvin Greenwood. In the spring of 1857, Montrose began to look up, and, -the milling interest developing, the population multiplied at a good sharp pace. A. B. Robinson built a store across the way from French & Chamberlain and leased it to Dr. W. Z. Blanchard, who retained it one season and sold out to Staley Brothers. The second saw-mill was built by Armstrong, Fox & Dibble and carried on by Aaron Abby & Son. After that the saw-mill interest expanded into important proportions and pushed the town rapidly forward. Between the years 1870 and 1873 that interest was at its best in Muir. Then the amount of lumber cut aggregated fifteen million feet annually. The mills were those of the Wagar Lumber Company (started by Wagar, Fox, Armstrong & Co.), cutting about sixty thousand daily; Marvin LYONS. 257 & Smith's, twenty-five thousand; J. & J. Begole & Co., thirty-five thousand; and Abby, French & Co., thirty-five thousand. There were also W. P. Hewitt's shingle-mill and James Smith's sash-, blind-, and door-manufactory, where a heavy business was done. In 1863, when H. R. Wagar opened a drug-store, there were but two other stores,-J. Soule's and Staley, Robinson & Co.'s. The next store was that of Wagar & French, in 1866. In 1863, also, Gardner & Adams built a gristmill, now run by M. Murphy. In 1860 the name of the village, post-office, and station was changed from Montrose to Muir. The existence in the State of another post-office called Montrose occasioned some confusion in the transmission of the mails, and, as H. K. Muir, the then superintendent of the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad, had favored the town, it was decided to honor him by naming it after him. Jan. 15, 1869, Benjamin Soule, A. B. Robinson, and others, executors of the estates of A. L. Soule and R. L. Robinson, platted " addition No. 1 to the village of Muir," on the west fractional half of the northwest fractional quarter of section 17, commencing at a point on the north side of the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad where the east line of Blanchard Street crosses the railroad; thence running north along theast line of said street to the south line of land owned by Patrick Sullivan; thence east along the south line of said Sullivan's land to the west eighth line, running north and south of section 17; thence south along said line to the railroad; thence west along the railroad to the place of beginning. May 28, 1869, Jay Olmstead platted an addition commencing at the section-post at the southeast corner of section 7; running thence north along the east line of section 7 a distance of twenty rods to a point in said section-line; thence due west at right angles with said section-line ninety-two rods and one and a quarter feet; thence due south twenty rods to the south line of said section; thence east along said section-line ninety-two rods and one and a quarter feet to the place of beginning. George French was appointed the first postmaster, and served from 1856 to 1861. C. W. Staley succeeded French, and continued in the office from 1861 to 1869, when A. B. Robinson came in, and remained until 1877. In 1877, H. V. Staley, who was deputy under C. W. Staley, was appointed, and still holds the place. Muir is a money-order office, and receives three mails daily. Dr. W. H. Thomas, now of Ionia, was the first resident physician, and practiced from 1858 to 1859. Subsequently there came to the place a number of physicians, but none remained more than a moderate length of time. Among them were Drs. Lindsley, Hollywood, Halstead, Lane, and Ives. The village doctors at present are B. E. Terrill and L. S. Stevens. The present village attorney, A. A. Ellis, is the only one Muir has ever boasted as a permanent resident. CHURCHES. Church of Christ in Muir.-The Church of Christ in Muir was organized as the Church of Christ in Montrose, Sept. 7, 1856, with the following twenty-four members: 33 A. L. Soule, Sophia M. Soule, Isaac and Harriet Errett, R. L. Robinson, Hannah M. Robinson, A. B. Robinson, Annette and Julia A. Soule, A. L. Soule, Jr., J. I. Soule, Clara M. and Frederick Everest, J. Baker, Sarah Baker, Sarah J. McKelvey, Ephraim and Mary Hatfield, Solomon and Hannah Slanker, John, Lovina, and Catherine Little, and Isaac Morse. The church was organized by Rev. Isaac Errett at the village of Lyons (Mr. Errett being an evangelist), assisted by A. L. Soule, the officiating elder. Mr. Errett, a business partner with Soule & Robinson at Montrose, had, with A. L. Soule, held occasional services at the village during the three months previous to the organization. Meetings were held at Lyons until Dec. 14, 1856, when the place of worship was changed to the " north side of the Maple River." Dec. 31, 1856, the church-membership had increased to thirty-two, and Nov. 6, 1858, to one hundred and fortysix. Elder Errett, the first pastor, was succeeded from time to time by Revs. Alanson Wilcox, John La Grange, 0. Webber, M. P. Hayden, and G. J. Ellis. Mr. Ellis retired from the charge in December, 1878, since when there has been no pastor. Supplies are now obtained as convenience serves. A church was built at Muir in 1861, the name of the organization having been changed in 1860 to that of the Church of Christ in Muir. By removals for the formation of other churches the membership of this organization has been now reduced to forty-three. The elders are Darius Stone and A. M. Willett; the deacons, William Nolty and L. B. Struble; and the trustees, L. B. Struble, A. M. Willett, and Darius Stone. Methodist Episcopal Church.-The absence of recorded testimony has made the task of obtaining a history of the Muir Methodist Episcopal Church a difficult one. A brief historical record sets forth that " somewhere about 1870 or 1871 a charter was applied for and obtained under the supervision of Rev. D. F. Barnes as presiding elder, and the new church was called the Barnes Methodist Episcopal Church of Muir." The organization was a feeble one, and struggled hard for an existence for a few years. Rev. A. D. Newton, the first pastor, did some excellent work during his three years' pastorate, and secured a subscription of nine hundred dollars towards the building of a house of worship. Upon his retirement he left the charge with a membership of sixty-six, about one-half of whom were connected with the church at Muir. In October, 1875, purchase was made of a parsonage and two lots for church purposes. A church was built, and Dec. 9, 1875, it was dedicated. Church and parsonage cost three thousand one hundred dollars. From 1875 to 1876, Rev. John Hills was the pastor, and, in 1876, Conference united Muir and Pewamo in one charge and placed Rev. F. Glass thereon. The church is now supplied each Sunday by Lyons and Pewamo pastors. The class has twenty-four members in full connection. The leader is L. H. Blancher. Mr. Blair is superintendent of the Sunday-school, which has an average attendance of fifty scholars. The church trustees are Noah D. Koutz, 258 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. Henry Kendall, Wilbur Beedle, N. L. Marsh, Benjamin Dyckman, and L. H. Blancher. First Presbyterian Church of Muir.-Feb. 23, 1862, Rev. Louis Mills organized the First Presbyterian Church of Muir. The organizing members included former members of the Presbyterian Church of Lyons, as follows: Lester W. Sparks, Mrs. Sarah Sparks, Mrs. Lucinda Hayes, Orlando Warner, Abigail Warner, D. Chauncey Bennett, Mrs. Mary Bennett, Charles Norton, Mrs. Mary Norton. Those received by letter were Jonathan Hoyt, Mrs. Isidore Hoyt, George G. Hoyt, Emily M. Hoyt, Benjamin Hoyt, Mrs. Rosina C. Hoyt, Mrs. Frances E. Hoyt, Timothy Hoyt, Mrs. Emma L. Hoyt, Martin Hubbell, Mrs. Lavina S. Hubbell, Alexander MeFarlane, and Mrs. Hulda Scott. Those received upon a profession of faith were William M. Smith, Mrs. Myrta Smith, Mrs. Maria Staley, and James Scott. The elders were L. W. Sparks, Benjamin Hoyt, and Jonathan Hoyt; the deacon, Martin Hubbell. Mr. Mills preached for the church until 1864, when Rev. George Ransom was engaged. Since that time Mr. Ransom has been the pastor continuously. A church society was organized May 9, 1864. In 1868 the erection of a church-edifice was begun, and in January, 1870, the building was dedicated. It is thirty-six by seventy in size, contains sixty-six seats, and cost four thousand dollars. Since 1862, members have been received to the number of one hundred and fifty, of whom seventy-five yet remain. Mr. Elliott is superintendent of the Sabbathschool, which employs sixteen teachers, and has an average attendance of eighty-five scholars. The elders are E. H. Lyman, Benjamin Hoyt, C. E. Stevens, and A. S. Baker; the deacons, Elliott Culbertson and G. N. Shaw; the trustees, C. E. Stevens, George N. Shaw, E. Culbertson, J. Ross, A. S. Baker, Benjamin Hoyt, and Daniel S. Johnson. BANKING. In 1869, S. W. Webber & Co. founded a private banking-house in Muir, and, in 1872, William H. Freeman and others organized the First National Bank of Muir, with a capital of fifty thousand dollars. N. B. Hayes was president, and Wm. H. Freeman cashier. In 1873, S. W. Webber, being chosen president, closed his private bank, and in the same year J. E. Just was appointed cashier. In 1878 the bank abandoned its charter, and the business passed to the newly-organized firm of Webber, Just & Co., still doing business in the village. NEWSPAPERS. Although Muir is now without a newspaper, it has had three. The Grand River Herald was, started in 1873 by Benton Bement as an independent journal, and collapsed in 1876. J. A. Dickey set the Muir Echo afloat in 1878 -and in September, 1879, transferred it to Lyons. Oct. 12, 1877, Miles & Tefft issued the first number of the Muir Plaindealer, and after printing the fourth number carried the concern to Pewamo. MUIR FIRE COMPANY. Jan. 14,1878, the village authorities ordered the erection of an engine-house and lock-up, and at the same time measures were taken for the formation of Muir Fire Company, No. 1, to be composed of W. P. Hewitt, H. R. Wagar, J. D. Strahan, D. Hamilton, Wm. Boyden, Robert Heydlauff, A. O. Heydlauff, D. Boyden, J. HI. Stevens, B. W. Hayes, J. E. Just, T. Clark, John Ileydlauff, Wm. Flowers, C. C. Clark, C. Brock, R. Derrick, L. M. Greenwood, J. 0. Probasco, H. Philp, Simon Stevens, G. W. Lord, W. A. Webber, A. A. Ellis, Dr. McKenzie. A Babcock fireextinguisher was purchased for seven hundred and fifty dollars, and to that apparatus were added hooks and ladders. The company numbers now forty-four members, and is officered as follows: Foreman, J. O. Probasco; First Assistant, Wim. Boyden; Second Assistant, J. D. Strachan. J. E. Just is president, J. Heydlauff secretary, G. W. French treasurer, and W. P. Hewitt chief-engineer of the fire department. VILLAGE INCORPORATION. The village of Muir was incorporated by act of Legislature approved March 25, 1871. The territory incorporated was 1" all that tract lying in the town of Lyons commencing at the quarter-stake on the north side of section eighteen, in town seven north, range five west; running thence due south on said quarter-line of said section eighteen to the north bank of the Grand River; thence along the north bank of the Grand River to the corporate limits of the village of Lyons; thence due east along the north line of said village of Lyons to the northeast corner thereof; thence due north to the Maple River; thence northeasterly along the south and east bank of the Maple River to the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad track; thence north to a point due east of the north line of Olmstead's addition to the village of Muir; thence west to and along the north line of said Olmstead's addition to the north-and-south quarter-line of section seven; thence due south to the place of beginning." The first village election was held at Wagar's Hall, April 10, 1871, on which occasion the officials elected were: President, A. B. Robinson; Clerk, John S. Wagar; Marshal, Amos H. Wilmot; Treasurer, Charles D. Hampton; Assessor, Aaron Abby; Trustees (for three years), Humphrey R. Wagar, Zophar Simpson, (for two years) Hiram L. Gardner, Charles E. Stevens, (for one year) George'W. French, Charles Swarthout. From 1872 to 1880 inclusive, the village has annually chosen for presidents, clerks, marshals, treasurers, and trustees the following-named persons: 1872.-President, A. B. Robinson; Clerk, Benton Bement; Treasurer, Chauncey W. Olmstead; Trustees, Jay Olmstead, Charles A. Bills; Assessor, Aaron Abby; Marshal, Daniel Spire. 1873.-President, Aaron Abby; Clerk, Benton Bement; Treasurer, Chauncey W. Olmstead; Trustees, John C. Nicles, John H. Stevens; Assessor, Charles D. Hampton; Marshal, Amos H. Wilmot. 1874.-President, James N. Willett; Clerk, Benton Bement; Treasurer, Chauncey W. Olmstead; Trustees, Spaulding S. Ackles, Marshall Beach; Assessor, Charles D. Hampton; Marshal, Amos H. Wilmot. 1875.-President, A. B. Robinson; Clerk, Benton Bement; Treasurer, Chauncey W. Olmstead; Trustees, Mathew H. Fox, Hiram L. Gardner; Assessor, Elisha W. Coolidge; Marshal, Richard Derrick. 1876.-President, Josiah E. Just; Clerk, Adolphus Ellis; Treasurer, Chauncey W. Olmstead; Trustees, John C. Nicles, Jacob 0. Probasco; Assessor, Zophar Simpson; Marshal, Charles Swarthout. *t t I" -- T I — -]i ~;a~ ~:.~'.r i ~~ iJ r; j' U;: c) X u,: Q f0 Cs S -,u) Af s0 X 2 o 2 -_ <5 as 0 41 'I ti 0 z < x zt %'-' '\ - -~ ~-r-i - 1 —; sFI ~I-;_ n, r.` 3 `- — r;, ~' F ,: " sl -- ~--f F r -i~,-i:~.- '"; %LIL;C rC8'81 - -c-t ,= ,, -s IL T_ -Ctif ~ra f. ~;ri Is-s~~ I-f 1 f i k i:T -:- = a isri 1 +t " ~-Yr Y', Fi`" _,, '-'' i w LLI a (I) cc 1 I -- -A II -I.r:18 T-t,t- "P - , LYONS. 259 LYN. 5 1877.-President, Charles E. Stevens; Clerk, Adolphus A. Ellis; Trustees, Thomas Campbell, Byron W. Hayes; Assessor, Allen D. Stone; Marshal, Charles Swarthout. 1878.-President, G. W. French; Clerk, J. D. Strahan; Treasurer, L. M. Greenwood; Trustees, J. E. Just, C. E. Stevens; Assessor, I. H. Stevens; Marshal, Thomas B. Fox. 1879.-President, George W. French; Clerk, John B. Heydlauff; Treasurer, Carlton C. Clark; Trustees, John C. Nicles, John T. Kimball; Assessor, Zophar Simpson; Marshal, Daniel H. Corlet. 1880.-President, John H. Stevens; Clerk, John B. Heydlauff; Treasurer, Carlton C. Clark; Trustees, C. B. Rumsey, Dayton Douglass; Assessor, Zophar Simpson; Marshal, Richard Derrick. MUIR AT PRESENT. Muir is now a thriving village of upwards of seven hundred people, and, as heretofore, derives its main business support from the lumber interest, although an excellent trade is carried on with the surrounding country, which is bound to maintain the town after the lumber interest disappears. Wheat-shipments are considerable, and aggregate yearly about two hundred thousand bushels, W. C. Hawley and Henry Hitchcock being the chief shippers. The Wagar Lumber Company, carrying on the largest mill ever boasted by Muir, removed their business from the village in 1879 and somewhat checked the town's prosperous career. There are still three extensive saw-mills in operation. C. J. Rumsey employs twenty-six men and cuts about forty thousand feet daily; Hayes, Packard & Co. control the mill started by N. B. & B. W. Hayes, employ in mill and camp thirty-five men, and cut about forty thousand feet of pine and hardwood lumber daily; Freeman & French employ fifteen men, and cut twenty-five thousand feet each day. C. J. Rumsey has also a planing-mill and sash-and-blind factory, where eleven men are employed, and M. Murphy a fine grist-mill, with three runs of stone and a daily capacity of one hundred barrels of flour. Muir has an excellent graded school, and would have an institution of learning of something more than ordinary pretensions had the expressed intentions of the late A. L. Soule been given effect. Mr. Soule died in 1856, and bequeathed ten thousand dollars for the maintenance of a public school at Muir; but, the will being contested by his heirs, the provision for the public school was annulled. The first brick building in the village was erected by H. R. Wagar in 1870. Brick blocks are now plentiful, and include the Denison House, and blocks occupied by C. E. Stevens, Christopher Rufus, Webber & Co.'s bank, and stores west, the block built by S. W. Webber and W. P. Hewitt, Fuller & Co.'s block, and others. There are five general stores, one hardware-store, two drug-and-grocery stores, one drug-store, one furniture-store, and numerous minor business-houses. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. NATHANIEL SEARING. MRS. NATHANIEL SEARING. NATHANIEL SEARING. Thllis gentleman, who was born at Saratoga Springs, N. Y., Feb. 17, 1814, is a descendant from Quaker ancestry. His grandfather, Samuel Searing, came from Hempstead, L. I., and was of Quaker parentage. Our subject's father, Nathaniel Searing, was also born at Saratoga Springs, and married Ursula Wright, who was born at Stillwater, in the same county (Saratoga). To them were born three children, of whom Nathaniel was the youngest. The other two were Martha and Henry. Martha married Donerson Worthington, of Albany, N. Y., and died there in 1837 or 1838. Henry married Nancy McKenzy, of Niagara Co., N. Y., and came to Branch Co., Mich., where he died in 1878. When Nathaniel was but twelve years old his father died, and he lived with his mother until he was sixteen, attend 260 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. I ing school a portion of the time and earning small amounts, between his eighth and sixteenth years, by cupping water at the famed " Congress Spring." He assisted in clearing up the land which is now the park, and after the death of his mother, which occurred when he was sixteen years of age, he found employment by the month on a farm. Two years afterwards he went to Niagara Co., N. Y., and continued farm-labor for hire for five years. He was then married to Louisa C. Martin, a native of Whitby, Ontario, Dominion of Canada, where she was born Dec. 22, 1813. Her father, Richard Martin, was born in Vermont in 1787, and her mother, Lovina Lay, in the same State, in 1792, and died about 1865. They were farmers-by occupation. Nathaniel Searing came to Michigan in 1840, the journey occupying thirteen days, and being made with a team, settled in the woods, on the farm he now occupies, which has a vastly different appearance from that it then presented. There were in 1838 but three families living between Portland and Lyons. He started here with a capital of but ten dollars, built a log house, and began the work of clearing up the farm. Now, at the age of sixty-seven years, he can look back upon a successful life. But once has he been induced to hold office, and was elected to and served one year as supervisor of his township. Mr. and Mrs. Searing have had nine children, four of whom are dead and five living, all near him. The deceased were Martha M., Mary J., George W., and Louisa A.; the living are Henry R., Melvin M., Chester A., James A., and Laura L. Politically, Mr. Searing is a Republican. In his farmwork he makes a specialty of raising and dealing in shorthorn cattle. SAMUEL W. WEBBER.* Samuel W. Webber, banker and capitalist of Muir, Ionia Co., was born in Newbury, Vt., May 25, 1823. His parents, Andrew J. and Sophia (Wilkins) Webber, were both descended from early settlers in Vermont. His father was engaged in farming, and when Samuel was four years old moved from Vermont to Steuben Co., N. Y. He was one of a family of six brothers, and until he was twenty-three years old spent his time in farm-work and in attending the common school in winter. In 1846 he was enabled, by running a little in debt, to buy his father's farm. In the sameyear, June 27th, he married Miss Marietta Bowen, who, after sharing his burdens until April 2, 1859, died, leaving two sons. After spending a year in mercantile business in Steuben County, Mr. Webber sold his land and with his family joined the great tide of Western emigration. He had never visited that part of the country, but, attracted by the glowing accounts of the Grand River valley, decided to settle in Portland, Ionia Co. There he located some new land, and spent four years in bringing it under cultivation. This he considers the hardest work of his life. During this time occurred his wife's death. Shortly after, he sold his Portland farm, and in 1859 moved to the village of Lyons and engaged in general mercantile business. He soon bought a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, which he cultivated in connection with his other occupations. By subsequent purchase this farm has been increased to seven hundred acres. In 1868, in partnership with his brother, George W. Webber, he opened a private bank in Muir. This partnership continued four years, when Mr. S. W. Webber bought his brother's interest. The next year he bought a controlling interest in the First National Bank of Muir, with which he has since been connected as president. He still cultivates his farm in Lyons, and spends much of his time there in summer. Although he is a successful business man, he experiences keen delight in attending to his farm-labors. At Lyons, in June, 1861, he married Marian N. Bowen, sister of his first wife. They have one son, who is now ten years old. The eldest son, George B. Webber, died in 1871, at the age of twenty-four; he was at that time cashier of the bank. His second son, William A. Webber, is now twenty-seven years old, and is engaged in the bank with his father. Mr. Webber professes no form of religious belief, although he is a liberal supporter of churches of every denomination. He has invariably and consistently avoided the responsibilities of public life. He is a man of medium height, kindly expression, and shrewd, penetrating gaze. He is universally respected and esteemed. JOHN R. DOUGHERTY. This gentleman, the son of James and Sarah (Loomis) Dougherty, was born in Cayuga Co., N. Y., on the 17th of December, 1842. His father was a native of Ireland, and came, alone, to the United States at the age of fourteen; his mother was a native of Scotland, and died when the son was young. The mother of John R. was born in Onondaga Co., N. Y. John R. Dougherty came to Michigan with his mother in 1857, and located near Lyons, Ionia Co. He remained at home until he was twenty years old, supporting his mother by working on a farm during the summers, and attended school winters. Her death occurred July 19, 1876. In August, 1862, Mr. Dougherty enlisted in the Eighth Michigan Infantry, and served his country three years. He was with Burnside in all his campaigns, and took part in the siege of Knoxville, Tenn., the battles of South Mountain and Antietam, Md., Fredericksburg, Va., Blue Springs, East Tenn., Petersburg, Va., etc. He was promoted to first lieutenant in May, 1865. For one year after his "coming home from the war" he worked by the month on a farm, and then engaged in the grocery and provision business in the village of Lyons. This was in 1867. In 1868 he purchased an unimproved farm, which is now in excellent condition and a source of pride to its owner. In 1862 he married Melissa J. Truesdell, of Broome Co., N. Y. She was the-daughter of Samuel and Perthina Truesdell, who were early settlers in that region. Her grandfather, Jabish Truesdell, served seven years in the Revolutionary army. Mr. Dougherty is now the senior member of the banking firm of John R. Dougherty & Co., and also of the mercantile firm of Dougherty & Gleason, at Lyons, Mich., and is one of the most promising among the younger citizens of the town. In about fourteen years he has won his way from a position of dependence to one of independence. * From " Representative Men of Michigan." It k. S. W. WEBBER. 15,77-77777,- ----.-, -, - I-. - I :iCbii "'-:""" ,,,, I~"..~.~..nr..rW*ir..l~. r,**..iJ,,i *~ Ir,~~ ~: l,?il:. f;!+t;".:h:!~'~:i~i~ii~ u*;`* r',r, I~~i,. ( I..(. iC.'."I'..$."~.~.~:;* *., '.:. I ~~~I, '~ ~i: ~?.~,.~;,,wp:":;9 ~ j,;; —iI ---~ — -; --- — MMMMM", "'MM, r w;_ m_ -EMlr <-_.3it.I. Ac U..,t I 'r^.~~r ~J nc~r~~ II - I. ' RESIDENCE OF S.. W WBBER. LYONS, ION/A CO. MICH. I I , "'. I.,. I., I I ', 1., I I .., " ,;-.., I,-, ,, " , 0,,,,,. ', ! ",, 1. g, 1, I. ', ,, 11 I 'I I,, ", I, 0, I,. I, 'I 4! w 4AA I i, I I, I I " I -1 I I, I 1 4 1 111I "I II1 ,I % I I I I, I I I %,, I I I I I, l,,, I I I. I ".,, I, "I. 1,. 11 i. I I '' I r. StVQNfo. If. 4, b!" 1, WV, - Ilk,, -,,, 11,,. - I, "d& -1.;,, I - RESID EN CE OF JO HN P. DO0UGH ER TY LyoNs Te-/ kNi4 Co. MiA4ciH LEW/S WILLEY. Mf LEWIS W rLLEY (DEC) REs. OF LEWIS WILLEY, LYONS /ONIA Co. M/CH. I I _ Lle _ __ t I I i I "- ir ~ — r -i;I 4nr_ f, aPfi;tf ",,T f -:; u J pp s;r — I-__ fi C ~r;e — '-.I: _-;cr -I I i:~.-~ ---etc-a!5; 1 -i; r bsi! ~- 'ac=========,, J+. —;i t r TiS r Cr~ r t; Zti-,i.--i 1 -;i-_ _ ,- --- Q s U rtil-,~~ 6~ f:QL t 4 pZ=iL ci 2 ~ Z -~~-I ~ L k: S-?, -- II~ 1 i, ~ jL I ~~ wcz;r aa. Pte -~ t- 1"91sis-IIBdti IsJ; ~ ESpj -sp-ae g EP ai~,i: 4:: Z L Q 5 1U i~: i;-~ -s C;3 ii: ~~`Z L Er i b PC O i;~S-' tL sl_ ~ p is ~ Q ' -a: r::,= f t -;1 i-; — z $ fii lu J ~:~ ~- u t- 5 4; ~:-y ttj 5 "aJTpC-c~9ii-5-es r: r~-5 P C;r; iI r -5,-ffd r j-s; s 71,Q 5 k= f-= i ~B I r 4"'' FC` Ir--r f- rq; 2-T- $ r"r' t- Z s b~in ~- ~ G " "1, z;r 4i -— -I-~ ~,1 f~-;,2 r_ — t- a ~-~ Liiil ;f;~; - a 1 t"' r~- = -1 raI i — a~.;.4~, '* ~-" LYONS. 261 MRS. S. H. KIMlBALIL. S. H. KIMBAIL. STEPHEN H. KIMBALL. This gentleman-the son of Stephen Kimball, who was born in New Hampshire in 1785 and died in 1872-was born in St. Lawrence Co., N. Y., Feb. 2, 1827. His mother, Mercy Styles Kimball, was born in Massachusetts in 1784, and became the mother of ten children, of whom Stephen H. was the youngest. Stephen Kimball, Sr., served in the war of 1812, and moved with his family to Calhoun Co., Mich., in 1831. When Stephen H. Kimball was nineteen years of age his mother died, and a year afterwards he commenced work for himself, being employed by the month. In the fall of 1852 he went to California and remained for two years in the mines, making money enough to afford him a start in life. Before leaving for the new " El Dorado" he had purchased one hundred and sixty acres of unimproved land in Lyons township, Ionia Co., and on his return he purchased one hundred acres in addition. When he was thirty-two years of age he married Mary Jane Wright, of Lyons, the daughter of Samuel and Rebecca Wright, who lived in Marshall, where they were among the early settlers. Mr. and Mrs. Kimball are the parents of eight children, all living but one, and at home. These are Henry L., Flora D., Minnie C., Emma Ann, Annie, Frankie, Heeler H., and one, between the first two named, who died. Mr. Kimball at present owns two hundred and eighty acres of land, mostly improved, and a house which ranks among the finest farm-dwellings in the State. In politics he is a Democrat, but has never cared to hold office. He is an esteemed and honorable citizen, a man of fine personal appearance, and an honor.to the town in which he lives. LEWIS WILLEY. Lewis Willey, son and fourth child (in a family of seven) of Ebenezer and Ruth Willey, was born in Watertown, Jefferson Co., N. Y., Sept. 26, 1815. When but six years of age he left home to live with a farmer in the same township, and remained with him eight years. From this time until he was twenty-one he worked on farms at various places, and attended school winters. In 1836 he came to Michigan, and, after spending three months at Monroe, proceeded to Portland, Ionia Co. For two years he found employment at stipulated wages in different places, and in 1838 he married Nancy Murch, daughter of Henry Murch, of Portland. Subsequently he purchased forty acres of new and unimproved land in that township, and settled and began work upon it as a pioneer. Eight years after their marriage Mrs. Willey died, and, in 1847, Mr. Willey married Catharine Masher,* of Lyons, a native of the State of New York. By his first wife Mr. Willey was the father of four children,-Orville B., Lewis B., Theresa D., and Nancy C. Willey. His second wife has borne him one child,-Mary R. Willey. The children are all married, and their father has given a farm to each, and they are in prosperous circumstances. Mr. Willey, from having started poor and in debt for the forty acres he first purchased, became in time the owner of nine hundred acres of land, and is now one of the wealthiest men in the township of Lyons. With politics he has never meddled. His house was entered by two burglars at three o'clock on the morning of Oct. 8, 1876, and in the struggle which took place Mr. WXilley, was severely clubbed, besides being shot in the leg. The robbers were finally arrested and imprisoned. * Or Mosher. 262 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. ', -"' OLIVER S. KIMBALL. MRS. OLIVER S. KIMBALL. OLIVER S. KIMBALL. Oliver S. Kimball, of New England parentage, and the eldest in a family of ten children, was born at Russell, St. Lawrence Co., March 10, 1812. His father, Stephen Kimball, was born in New Hampshire in 1785, and his mother, Mercy Styles Kimball, first saw the light in Massachusetts in 1784. In 1831, when Oliver Kimball was nineteen years of age, he came with his father to Calhoun Co., Mich., which then contained but one house, and in that they lived for a time. Oliver remained with his father until he was twenty-one, doing the earliest pioneer work in the county of Calhoun; but he soon purchased a farm of his own, and conducted its affairs until 1839, when he sold it and purchased four hundred acres in Lyons township, Ionia Co., which was then but thinly settled and contained very few houses. Returning to Calhoun County, he renained there until 1849, when he settled finally in Lyons. He was married, Oct. 29, 1848, to Mrs. Rebecca Ann Wright, widow of Samuel L. Wriglit, of Washington Co., N. Y. She was born in West Haven, Rutland Co., Vt., in 1814, and by her first husband had three children. By Mr. Kimball she had two,-viz., William H. and Helen M. Kimball. As the result of an accident, Mr. Kimball's death occurred on the Gth of March, 1880. His widow, who survives him, occupies the finely-improved farm which he left, and is an energetic, hard-working woman. Mr. Kimball was in politics a Democrat, but was too much occupied with other work to trouble himself much with political matters. He was once elected township treasurer, and was among the most influential and respected members of the community in which he rebided. JOSIAH E. JUST. Josiah E. Just was born on the 20th of December, 1847, on the farm still owned and occupied by his parents in the township of Otisco, Ionia Co. His parents were James and Jane (McClure) Just. HIe attended the common school until lie was twelve years old, after that attending the common school winters and working on his father's farm summers until he was eighteen, when he obtained employment as clerk in the First National Bank of Lowell. The confinement becoming irksome, he at the expiration of three months returned to his farm-work. After remaining one summer, he went to Chicago and became clerk in a store, where he remained only one month and again returned home. Soon after, in January, 1870, he was employed in JOSIAII E. JUST. the banking-louse of S. W. Webber & Co. at Muir, where he remained about three years. At the end of that time he was elected cashier of the National Bank of Lyons, in which Mr. S. W. Webber was a large stockholder. He held this position until the bank was removed to Ionia. He was then elected cashier of the First National Bank at Muir. In 1878 this bank was succeeded by the banking LYONS. 263 firm of Webber, Just & Co., Mr. Just being continued as cashier, which position he still occupies. Mr. Just is Republican in politics, outspoken in his opinions, and renders enthusiastic support to his party; has held the position of president of the village of Muir, and is now member of the board of trustees. In the last election he was elected treasurer of Ionia County by a majority of six hundred and twenty-five, which, on account of a fusion ticket in opposition, was a large majority. He belongs to the Knights of Pythias, and is now Past Chancellor. He was married, July 29, 1875, to Ella V. Fox, daughter of Mathew H. Fox, of Muir. HON. ADAM L. ROOF.* Hon. Adam L. Roof, of Lyons, Ionia Co., was born at Canajoharie, Montgomery Co., N. Y., Feb. 22, 1810. His grandfather, Johannes Roof, was a captain under Gen. Herkimer; his uncle, John Roof, was colonel under the same commander, and fought with courage in the battle of i I the Supreme Court of the State of New York in August, 1836. In the same month he left his native residence, in company with his friend, A. F. Bell, to seek his fortune in the West. They reached the city of Monroe, Mich., and were advised to go to Ionia, where the general government had established a land-office, which was about to be opened for the sale of public lands. On the 28th of August they arrived at Jackson, then a village of about fifty inhabitants. Here they ascertained, much to their disappointment, that there were no roads leading to the interior, the land between there and Ionia, a distance of eighty miles, being an unbroken wilderness. They had a boat built, and on the morning of the 1st of September launched it at the junction of Portage and Grand Rivers and continued their journey. Three days after they camped on the west bank of Grand River, on section 16, where the city of Lansing now stands. After suffering many perils and hardships they reached Portland, which then contained in all four log houses. Here, after singing the Te Deum for their safe deliverance, they rested during the night. The next day they proceeded to Lyons, a little village of three log houses. This place was so inviting, its surroundings so beautiful, and its future prospects so encouraging that they concluded to make it their future home. They suffered, however, many privations of pioneer life, being at one time ten weeks without bread. During the fall of 1836, Michigan was made a State. The county of Ionia at that time contained about four hundred inhabitants, widely scattered over a large area, and little employment was to be had. Judge Roof and Mr. Bell spent the first two years of their residence in the county in laying out cities, making State roads and public highways, and in private surveys. In 1838 the county of Ionia was organized, and Judge Roof was elected the first register of deeds. In October of that year he married Clarissa, eldest daughter of John Knox. Mr. Knox was a distant relative of Henry Knox, a general in the Revolutionary war, and was a direct descendant of John Knox, the Scotch Reformer. In 1840, Mr. Roof was appointed prosecuting attorney by Governor Barry. In 1842 he was elected representative to the State Legislature by a large Democratic majority, although the district, which was composed of the counties of Kent, Ottawa, Ionia, and Clinton, had been for many years represented by the Whigs. As the farmers of the upper counties had no means of shipping their produce, they were desirous to obtain an appropriation of public land sufficient to construct a canal around Grand Rapids, which would enable them to obtain cheap transportation by the river and upper lakes. The people of the southern part of the State were working for the construction and extension of the Michigan Central Railroad, and, as they wanted all the public lands, vigorously opposed every effort to obtain grants elsewhere in the State. Through the influence of Judge Roof, however, they were defeated, and a large appropriation of land was obtained for the canal and the Northern Railroad. In 1848, Judge Roof was elected State senator against the combined opposition of the Free-Soil and Whig parties. The interest in politics ran high that year, and his election L Y O N S. _ _ 3 IION. ADAM. L. ROOF. Oriskany, near Fort Stanwix.t The maternal grandfather of Judge Roof, Philip Van Alstine, was an ardent patriot in the war of the Revolution. His father built Fort Van Rensselaer on the east bank of Canajoharie Creek, where it may still be seen, having been little injured by the ravages of time. He was a member of the State Legislature in 1798. In 1828, Judge Roof entered Williams College, where he remained two years. He then went to Hamilton College, from which he graduated in 1832. The following year he was appointed division quartermaster, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, on Maj.-Gen. Schemerhorn's staff, by Hon. William L. Marcy, then Governor of the State of New York. He was admitted to the bar of - From " Representative Men of Michigan." t See Stone's " History of the Campaign of General Burgoyne and Colonel Barry St. Leger," pp. 166, 196, 197. 264 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. I was hotly contested. In 1852 he was made judge of Probate for a term of four years. Entering upon the duties of his office, he found that the records of the court had not been fully kept, that the papers of the office were in a state of confusion, and that the cases were without proper forms and some without precedents. In a short time he reduced all to order; he remodeled the old forms and adopted new ones, all of which have since been ratified by his successors. In 1859, having been in poor health for many years, he retired from the practice of law and gave his attention to farming, which occupation he has since continued. During the late Rebellion he was a War Democrat; he made many speeches on the war, and inspired the people to such an extent that they contributed their money freely and no draft was found necessary in the township of Lyons. Judge Roof has always taken pleasure in stating the fact that every requisition of the general government upon Lyons was promptly filled by volunteers. Judge Roof is slightly under medium size, and is well formed. He has dark eyes, plentiful brown hair, a high forehead, and regular features; his movements are deliberate and dignified; he has a good constitution, and his habits have always been regular. He is therefore, both in body and mind, a well-preserved man. He is a ripe scholar, possessing a classical taste. His language is unusually correct and chaste, and his reasoning logical. He is an excellent conversationalist. Clear in his statements, ready in illustrations, candid, and earnest, he is an eloquent and effective speaker. His counsel always commanded respect among the members of his profession, and but for his undue modesty he might have risen to marked distinction. As it was, during the period of his active practice he stood second to no lawyer in his county. He is the first and oldest lawyer who settled permanently in Ionia County, and is highly esteemed. The following persons, among others, studied law in his office, and from it were admitted to the bar: A. F. Bell, H. Bartow, J. Toan, J. C. Blanchard, and his son, A. K. Roof. As a public officer, Judge Roof was ever at his post, correct, and incorruptible. In business he has always been industrious and reliable, and now enjoys the results of his labor. He is a firm friend, whose advice and criticisms are of rare value. In every public enterprise he has taken a deep interest, while the causes of education, temperance, morality, and religion have received from him substantial aid. His opinions are formed after much thought, and adhered to accordingly. His success in life is but the natural outgrowth of integrity, industry, and economy, governed by intelligence,-a combination of qualities well worthy of imitation. i (4 S z F-4 At z 0 I-. A? 0 z Co 0 I- Z CO zz CLj C-, Lai 0 1A. Co Q ' 4 I -- ~ Mfs J OSEPH TOWNSEND. JOSEPH TO WNSEND JOSEPH TOWNSEND. Jonathan Townsend, the father of the gentleman above named, was born in the State of New York in 1800, and married Hannah Hines, who was born in New England in 1799. Joseph Townsend remained at home, working on the farm and attending school, until he was twentytwo years of age, when he went to Syracuse and learned the trade of a carpenter and joiner. After six years he journeyed to Australia, where for four years he was engaged in mining. Upon his return he purchased a farm in Philadelphia, Jefferson Co., N.Y. Mr. Townsend was born in the State of New York, Dec. 24, 1824, and on the 26th of January, 1859, married Mary A. Arnold, daughter of Caleb and Mary Arnold, both natives of New York. In 1864, Mr. Townsend and his wife came to Michigan, and located in Lyons township, Ionia Co., on the place they now occupy. Mrs. Townsend was born in Clayton township, Jefferson Co., N. Y., Aug. 14, 1838. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Townsend are five in number, namely: Charles, Eugene, Minnie E., Harry W., and Jay Townsend. I I N ORTHP PLAINS. THE northeast corner of Ionia County is occupied by the township of North Plains, known in the United States survey as township No. 8 north, of range 5 west, and esteemed as one of the finest agricultural districts in the State. Its boundaries are Montcalm County on the north, Lyons township on the south, Clinton County on the east, and Ronald township on the west. The soil, widely varying as to character, is exceedingly productive, and in 1870 gave to North Plains the rank of fourth in productiveness among the townships of the State. The surface is generally undulating, except on the west, where there is a flat stretch of country known on the south as North Plain and northward as Round Plain. Fish Creek, a mill-stream of considerable power, enters the town on section 1, and, flowing southward, passes through the villages of Hubbardston and Matherton, and empties into the Maple River on section 25, where the Maple enters the town, and whence it passes southwesterly, emerging on section 35. THE EARLY SETTLEMENT OF NORTH PLAINS. The township of North Plains enjoys the distinction of yet containing within its borders, upon the places of their early settlement, the two pioneers who were the first to invade the then wilderness of town 8 north, in range 5 west. They are known as Hector Hayes and Hiram Brown. In 1836 they set up their backwoods cabins upon section 31, where white men had never tarried before, and upon section 31 they still abide in the fullness of a hearty and happy old age. They first knew the country when it was an unbroken waste, have grown and prospered as it has grown and prospered, and behold it to-day a handsome, fruitful region dotted with attractive homes and rich farms, and thickly populated with a prosperous people. As a matter of fact, Brown reached North Plains four days in advance of Hayes (although both started from New York State in company), and equally as a matter of fact was the veritable " first settler." In May, 1836, Brown and Hayes, living in Bristol, N. Y., concluded to visit Michigan in search of land locations, and together journeyed to Lyons, where, encountering H. V. Libhart, they were piloted by him over to what was then known as the North Plain, in town 8 north, range 5 west, and, although they did not fancy the land overmuch, selected each a tract without much delay, for Michigan lands were much in demand just then, and they feared that by waiting to be better suited they might not get even as desirable places. Hayes took two hundred and eighty acres on sections 31 and 32 (buying, the following winter, a sugar-bush on section 22), and Brown three hundred and twenty acres on section 31 in North Plains, and across the line in what is 34 now Ronald. Their purchases completed they returned to Lyons, where they made provision for the future by planting a patch of potatoes on Libhart's land and engaging Dean Delap, of Lyons, to put up a log house on Brown's place and cut some marsh-hay for their live-stock. Having thus made satisfactory arrangements against their coming out for permanent settlement, Brown and Hayes returned to New York State, gathered their families and goods, and in early autumn started for their Michigan possessions. They traveled by water to Detroit, and from that point journeyed by teams, Hayes having two yoke of cattle and two wagons, and Brown two yoke of cattle and one wagon. En route, Hayes' cattle gave out under the pressure of extraordinarily hot weather, and he himself, falling sick, made progress so slowly that Brown grew impatient, and at Hayes' suggestion pushed on alone. Brown reached Lyons October 3d, and there hired one Burgess to get his goods and family across the Grand River on a raft. On the same day Hayes arrived at Capt. Scott's, at DcWitt, and that night there came on a snow-storm that covered the ground to the depth of nearly a foot, and by morning, when Hayes found himself ready to continue his journey, he found, also, that the snow had obliterated traces of the path over which Brown had preceded him. He hired a man named Proctor to assist him in clearing a road, and so laborious and tedious was their progress that the first day out from DeWitt they covered but six miles. The trip to Lyons was a painful one, and during its continuance the party camped two nights in the woods. Mrs. Hayes had two children,-George, then five years old, and a nursing babe, now known as N. B. Hayes, of North Plains. Hunger troubled them likewise on that trip, and the sorest trial Mrs. Hayes was called upon to endure was when her little boy George said to her one night, " Ma, why didn't you leave me at grandpa's, where I could get something to eat?" At Muir (or where Muir now is), Hayes engaged H. V. Libhart to assist him over, and, as the stream was so risen that fording was out of the question, their goods, and even their wagons, had to be conveyed across the river piecemeal in canoes. On the 12th of October, 1836, they reached their destination, and there were heartily greeted by Brown, who had got there on the 8th. Delap had not got the cabin done, and both families temporarily occupied the tent in which Delap had been living. Shortly after their arrival Hayes and Brown, accompanied by their two hired men, went over to Libhart's to gather the crop of potatoes the two pioneers had provided for during the previous spring, and, although they got there all right, they capsized their canoe while crossing the Maple on the return-trip, and into the water everybody, including 265 266 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. the potatoes, went. Luckily, they hung on to the precious potatoes and got them and themselves ashore in safety, but, as neither man possessed a change of clothing, the subsequent hours of night, passed in dripping wet garments in a chilly atmosphere, were not particularly delightful, although by morning they felt but little worse for their adventure. When Hayes and Brown got in they found they had a neighbor in Abner Soule, who had just made a commencement on section 6 in Lyons. In a little while they greeted new-comers into their own settlement, of whom more anon. Mr. Brown tells how he brought with him an ample supply of things eatable except flour, and would have brought that only he was told that he would be able to buy plenty of wheat in the neighborhood of his proposed settlement, and that he would, moreover, find a mill at Ionia. That he had good cause to regret having followed that advice the sequel will show. True, he bought two barrels of flour and some wheat, but the flour was almost worthless, and, as there was no mill in which to get his wheat ground, he fed nearly the whole of it to his cattle. Then e went to Lyons to buy flour, but, being asked sixteen dollars a barrel, concluded to wait until it got cheaper. Instead of getting cheaper it grew dearer, and when Brown concluded to pay twenty dollars a barrel he could not buy a pound in either Lyons or Ionia. Meanwhile he and his family made shift to live on the two barrels of spoiled flour until Samuel Dexter set his red mill in motion at Ionia. Mr. Brown says he was luckier than some of his neighbors, many of whom, he adds, did not see a mouthful of bread for three months at a time. Hector Hayes is said to have enjoyed the honor of providing the citizens of Grand Rapids with the first fat beef known to the good people of that town. He owned an ox so large and ungainly that he could not be matched, and, despairing of doing anything else with him, fatted him and took him to Grand Rapids. The fatted ox was a sensation there, and awakened popular enthusiasm and desire. Hayes did not find the speculation a very profitable one, but he got rid of unpleasant property, and made lots of folks happy, a consolation doubtless quite sufficient to satisfy him. In February, 1837, Jay Olmstead, a bachelor, came to the North Plain with a string of six pairs of breaking cattle, wagons loaded with provisions, and two hired hands, Joel C. Green and Alvin Smith. Olmstead had bought land on section 31, and proposed to pitch right in with his breakingteam and hired men and do some big work. They did accomplish considerable by the next summer, and then Olmstead concluded to go back to New York after a wife. He sold his cattle and provisions, went to New York and got married, came out as soon as he could with fresh supplies, and remained as a permanent settler. Green, one of his hands, himself became a settler on section 7 in 1838, but Smith remained in Olmstead's employ several years. Major D. Mills, said to have effected the first land-entry in the town, settled upon a quarter-section in section 19 in May, 1837, and about the same time Silas Crippen moved to a place on section 30. Crippen had been on the East Plain since the spring of 1837, but did not get over the line until early in the summer. Major Mills was the hero of an adventure in which he made a midnight sally upon a bear whom he discovered playing havoc in the family pig-pen. Mr. Mills attacked him on the spot with an axe, which, throwing at the beast with fruitless results, he followed with a bombardment of bowlders. The hogs, thus emboldened by assistance, showed also a belligerent front, and between hogs and bowlders the bear found the fight growing so hot that he took leg-bail, despite Mr. Mills' heroic efforts to capture him. The settlement of Nathaniel Sessions in the eastern portion of the township in May, 1837, was the pioneer undertaking thereabout, for until that time new-comers gathered about the Hayes and Brown settlement. Sessions came to Michigan in the fall of 1836, and, visiting Alonzo and Amasa Sessions in Berlin township, found there a man named Lodi, who, upon learning that Nathaniel was in search of land, agreed to pilot him to a choice tract. He took Sessions over to North Plains, and on section 23 pointed out what he called a desirable piece of property. Sessions must have agreed with him, for he lost no time in making purchase of the northern half of the section, and, returning Eastward, came to North Plains in May, 1837, with three of his sons. With them he put up a cabin and otherwise prepared for the reception of the rest of the family, who came on in the fall. Nathaniel Sessions was a man of mark in his day and generation, and in matters secular and religious was a conspicuous figure in the community. Although a strict churchman and a revered Methodist class-leader, he was not without a humorous appreciation of the ridiculous. Apropos of that feature in his character, there runs a story that, being much in need of an ox-sled, he essayed to make one himself. The result of his labors must have been a remarkable spectacle, for, in alluding to it to a neighbor, he observed that, orthodox as he was, he felt bound to confess that there could be no sin in worshiping that sled, since it was like nothing upon earth, in the heavens above, or in the waters under the earth. THE GLASS TRAGEDY. In 1837, Moses Dean and William Vance settled on section 36, and the same year the first settlement in the northwestern portion of the town was effected by Ansel D. Glass, a New Yorker, who in the fall made a commencement on section 5. He lived in a pretty lonesome place, for his cabin was four miles from the nearest habitation. He was conspicuous in current history,-not for that, but for the occurrence of a tragic episode in which his family and his home were destroyed by fire in the spring of 1838, and which not only made a commotion in Ionia County, but caused fear and consternation to prevail in all the neighboring newly-populated communities. About the middle of March, Major Mills and his wife went over to Glass' house, upon hearing that Glass had hurt himself badly, and remained there during the night, doing what they could by way of help and care. Glass was neither seen nor heard of by the settlers thereabout after that until, on the 28th day of March, Hiram Brown, straying into the Glass neighborhood on a bee-hunting expedition, came upon the burned ruins of that person's NORTH PLAINS. 267 house, and among the embers discovered the burned bodies of three persons. He lost no time in giving the alarm, and from miles around people flocked to the place. A strict investigation showed the human remains to be those of the wife and two children of Glass, but, as to Glass himself, he was not to be found, despite an organized and protracted search. The verdict of the jury called to make an inquest was that the three unfortunates had come to their deaths at the hands of a person or persons unknown, but popular belief pointed to Indians as the authors of the crime. This belief gained ground rapidly, and in a brief space of time settlements in Ionia and Clinton Counties were terrorized to that extent that many people, abandoning their homes, fled to Ionia, while others took vigorous measures in protecting their houses from prospective savage attacks; and that there was a wide-spread feeling of uneasiness and dread may be easily imagined. The prospect of an uprising of the Indians, as indicated by the Glass tragedy, was an unhappy one to contemplate, for it conjured a sad picture of spoliation and massacre, and that settlers were sorely distressed is not to be wondered at. The Indians of the Grand River valley, through their chiefs, denied the imputation that the work had been done by any of their people, although they admitted that there was savage deviltry at the bottom of it, and, to their credit be it said, they sought through evidences of renewed kindnesses and friendly assurances to restore popular confidence, but their efforts were scarcely availing. The dire thought centred upon the disappearance of Glass, for it was argued that the Indians had killed the family, burned the house, and carried Glass away a captive. After a bit came the story that Glass had been unearthed in Wisconsin, and with this disclosure came a sudden return of confidence and security, for then the belief became a conviction that Glass had committed the crime and fled. At all events, the theory that Glass was the murderer relieved the public mind of the Indian bugbear that had affrighted it, and matters resumed in a little while their normal condition. The story of the finding of Glass is said to have been coined by a person who saw in such an invention the only medium for a restoration of public peace and contentment. No one will gainsay that the end justified the means. That the murder was the result of Indian work has never been doubted by many of those who were central figures in the incidents of that time, but they ever believed that the cause was simply traceable to the drunken frenzy of loafing savages, who, being opposed by Glass in their attempts to help themselves from his larder, killed him and then destroyed the rest of the family that there might be no living evidences of their crime. LATER SETTLEMENTS. In May, 1838, Mrs. Elizabeth Palmer, a widow, with her sons, settled on section 14, and, in the fall of 1838, Samuel E. Stoughton, of Oakland County (where he had been living since 1825), located on section 10, where his widow still lives (her father, Nathan Park, having been a settler in Oakland County in 1823). In that portion of the town Mlr. Stoughton was the first. His nearest neighbor was Nathaniel Sessions, who, with his sons, assisted Stoughton in cutting a road from the Sessions settlement to section 10. In January, 1839, William Edminster brought his family to a place on section 15, where, the June previous, lie had rolled up a cabin. The same year (1839) Amos Conkey, a bachelor, came along to occupy some land on section 15, and got the Sessions boys and Samuel Stoughton to give him a lift in making a road to his place and in building a house. Amos Conkey tarried but a year, and then, selling out to his brother Chauncey, moved farther westward. In 1839, G. D. Kellogg, a New Yorker, came with his family to section 14, where he still lives. He had to make his own road from the Hayes settlement, and found Calvin Crippen already located upon section 14. To the same neighborhood, in 1840, came Caleb Bundy, Mr. Kellogg's father-in-law, and, later, E. C. Reed, now living there. In April, 1843, Harvey Waterman moved from Clinton County, and made a commencement on section 20. His widow, still on the old place, says they got in by cutting their road at a painfully slow rate, and that for years they saw no chimney-smoke except their own and Major Mills'. A man by the name of Smith moved to a place a mile north of them in a little while, but he soon died, and then his family moved away. Besides Major Mills, Waterman had no near neighbor for twelve years, when a Mr. Pennington settled just west of them. Lyons was their first post-office, and their milling-place lonia, and for a trip to the mill it was not uncommon to use up the better part of two days. John McKelvey, now living on section 30, came to Michigan in 1834 with his father (likewise John), who located near Lyons in that year and put in what is said to have been the first wheat sown in Ionia County. John the son made a settlement in North Plains in 1842, and for many years has divided his time between farming and law-practice. Mr. McKelvey enjoys the double distinction of having brought the first threshing-machine into the Grand River valley, in the year 1838 (a special journey being made for it to Rochester, N. Y.), and the first lot of " civilized" hogs as well. Jefferson Thomas, now living on section 18, located on a forty-acre tract in section 19 in 1848, and worked it three years for the use of it (clearing in that time all but four acres). In 1851 he moved to his present home. Elder B. B. Brigham was also a settler thereabout in 1848, as was Alvin Smith, who sold out some years afterwards to Edwin Moore, whose widow now resides on the place. William Stone, who came on with Thomas, settled on section 18, and about that time Joel Hiscock made a start on section 7. There is a considerable of an Irish settlement in the town, mainly west of Hubbardston, which was founded in 1849 by John Cowman. Thomas Welch was among the earliest to follow him (in 1851), and after that accessions were rapid and numerous. They are mainly Catholics, and worship in a fine church-edifice at Hubbardston. As to other early settlers and some later ones, mention may briefly be made of Bartley Dunn (a blacksmith), George W. Germain, Baker Borden, Loren Jenks, J. A. Williams, J. Dal 2G8 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. zell, S. Vandosen, the Merrihews, D. W. Myers, A. C. Strachan, the Scotts, Henry Evans, Le Roy Pullman, A. M. Willett, Archibald Morris, C. Wright, and W. McVeigh. INCIDENTS. Religious services were first held in the town at Hiram Brown's house by Methodist Episcopal preachers, among whom were Nathan Mount, Orin Mitchell, and Larmon Chatfield. Services were held in various houses from time to time as convenience suggested, and by and by a Methodist Episcopal Class was organized. Abner Soule, a fervent disciple of the Lord, was leader as well as exhorter, and, although gifted with a vigorous and resonant voice, lie was sadly lacking in common education. Despite that drawback, he affected to a liberal extent the use of big words with a strong sound, and, as he did not always seem to get a clear idea of the meaning thereof and strung them along in his talks promiscuously without much regard to their fitness for place, he created a good deal of amusement at not only prayer-meetings, but at debates, for which he appeared to show an especial fondness. A famous Fourth-of-July celebration-the first held in the town-took place in 1841 on the William Vance place, in section 36. The Stars and Stripes run up on that occasion had been provided by the hands of Mrs. Charles Millard, the soul-stirring speech was delivered by H. V. Libhart, and the music discoursed by John C. Millard, a great drummer in those days, who, by reason of his drum-beating skill, was called, by the Indians, Ha-wa-gun. There was a large gathering of patriotic citizens at the celebration, and there were also at hand a good many Indians in full paint and feather toggery, quite as jubilant as anybody, and quite as active as their white brethren in making a grand success of the occasion. The.first child born in North Plains is supposed to have been a daughter of Silas Crippen. She lived but nine months, and was doubtless the first person to die, as well, in North Plains. The firAt marriage was that of Calvin Crippen to Sarah Parks, a domestic in Jay Olmstead's family. They were married at Olmstead's house in 1839, but by whom cannot be said. The first burial-place used by the public was laid out on Silas Crippen's place, in section 30, -the northeast corner of the south half, —which Crippen donated for public burial-purposes. The first burial there was that of Olive Palmer (sister of Silas Crippen's wife) in 1837, her death having occurred on the East Plain. In January, 1848, a town burying-ground was established on section 31, and after that the Crippen cemetery was used no more. The first crops of wheat were gathered simultaneously by Jay Olmestead, Major Mills, Hector Hayes, Hiram Brown, and Silas Crippen. The first orchards were set out in the spring of 1838 by Brown, Hayes, and Olmestead, their trees having been purchased of Thomas Cornell, of Ionia. The first public highway laid out was a road on the western town-line, running from the southwest corner of the town, northward a mile or so. Directly afterwards a road of a mile or more in length was laid from the northwest corner of section 31 eastward. The first post-office the town had was called North Plains, established in 1844, and given in charge of Hiram Brown, who remained the postmaster until Jan. 1, 1870. John Ransom and Jane Ransom were his successors. In 1878 the office was discontinued. In 1838 a man by the name of Barker, of Lebanon, while attempting to cross the Maple with a pair of oxen, was swamped and drowned. In 1876 one Yarner killed a man named Brown in a bar-room fight. Conviction followed his first trial, but upon a second trial he was acquitted. In 1878, near the centre of the town, two men, named Kilduff and Wilbur (between whom there had previously been some ill feeling), were out hunting, when Kilduff, watching his opportunity, came up behind Wilbur and shot him dead. He is now serving out a nine years' sentence in the State prison. RESIDENT TAX-PAYERS IN NORTH PLAINS, 1844. Acres. Hiram Brown, sections 25, 31, 32, 36................... 316 M. N. Beckwith & Co., sections 1, 12, 13, 24, 25...... 926 Royal Bradish, section 15................................... 40 Caleb Bundy, section 14.................................... 30 W illiam C. Botsford, section 12......................... 40 Chauncey Conkey, section 15......................... 120 Silas Crippen, sections 29, 30.............................. 120 Calvin Crippen, section 29................................. 40 Bart]ey Dunn, section 28.............................. 160 W illiam Delap, section 32.................................. 80 Moses Delong..............................Personal William W. Edminster, section 15........................ 160 George W. Sherman, section 29......................... 80 Hector Hayes, sections 22, 31, 32....................... 400 John Jennings, section 34.................................. 160 George D. Kellogg, section 14............................. 50 Henry V. Libhart, sections 22, 31........................ 200 John C. Lewis, section 32................................. 160 Valentine Lewis, section 2............................ 80 Major D. Mills, sections 19, 20............3........... 320 John McKelvey, section 27................................ 160 Silas Norton, section 29.................................. 40 Charles W. Norton, section 29............................. 80 Jay Olmstead, sections 20, 31, 30, 32................... 480 John Palmer, section 14.................................... 80 W illiam Palmer, section 14................................ 80 Alvin B. Smith, sections 14, 30........................... 196 (George W. Sessions, sections 7, 29....................... 120 Nathaniel Sessions, section 23............................. 240 W illiam Sessions, section 23............................... 80 Samuel E. Stoughton, section 10......................... 160 Linus Van Alst ne, section 15............................. 40 Harvey Waterman, section 18............................. 40 Silas L. Ward, section 31.................................... 30 Nelson I. W ard, section 15............................. 4 Nathan W allace, section 27............................... 80 Grove Wilder, section 34......................... 320 Solomon W illiams, section 10............................. 80 John Yeomans, section 14.................................. 160 TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION. North Plains was given its name by reason of its territory occupying a broad stretch of level country north of the Maple River. The township was organized under act approved Feb. 29, 1844, and included towns 8, 9, and 10 north, in range 5 west, except that portion of town 8 lying southeast of Maple River. Towns 9 and 10 remained as a portion of North Plains until the organization of Montcalm County, to which they belonged. That portion of the town lying southeast of the Maple River was included within the limits of Lyons until Jan. 9, 1867, when it was apportioned to North Plains, which contained then, for the first time, as it does now, an area of six miles square. The town-name was suggested from the designation given years before town organization to that part of the town lying in the southwestern corner, where the earliest settlements were effected. Nathaniel Sessions put forward the name NORTH PLAINS. 269 of Ashland as appropriate because of the presence in his portion of the town of considerable ash-timber. That name was rejected because it was said that one Ashland already existed in the State. Some one wanted the town called Cocoosh, but, an inquiry into the meaning of that Indian term developing the information that it was synonymous with "Old Hog," the suggestion was promptly smothered. At this juncture H. V. Libhart said North Plains would be a good name, and lo, everybody seemed suited. The first town-meeting was held at the house of Bartley Dunn, April 1, 1844. Nathaniel Sessions was chosen moderator, Hector Hayes, George D. Kellogg, Chauncey Conkey, and Hiram Brown inspectors, and George D. Kellogg clerk. It was resolved that town officers should be allowed six shillings per day,-"no more, no less;" that ninety dollars should be raised for the ensuing year's contingent expenses, and ten dollars for the support of the poor. At the election of officers thirty-seven votes were polled, and, except for the office of supervisor (for which Nathaniel Sessions and Hiram Brown were candidates), there was no contest. The result of the canvass was reported by the inspectors as follows: Supervisor, Nathaniel Sessions; Clerk, George W. Germain; Treasurer, Silas Crippen; Highway Commissioners, Major D. Mills, William Sessions, and John Jennings; School Inspectors, John Jennings and Hector Hayes; Directors of the Poor, Hiram Brown and Nathaniel Sessions; Constables, Samuel E. Stoughton and Bartley Dunn; Justices of the Peace, Chauncey Conkey, Henry V. Libhart, Hector Hayes, and Nathaniel Sessions; Poundmasters, Henry V. Libhart and William W. Edminster; Overseers of Highways, Caleb Bundy, Samuel E. Stoughton, Silas Crippen, and Lyman Williams. During the year Nathaniel Sessions resigned the office of supervisor because of illness, and his son William was chosen to fill the vacancy. The names of those chosen annually from 1845 to 1880 to be supervisors, clerks, treasurers, and justices of the peace are here given: SUPERVISORS. 1845-47, Silas Crippen; 1848-49, A. Mather; 1850-51, G. W. Germain; 1852-53, H. Brown; 1854, A. Mather; 1855, H. Brown; 1856, G. W. Germain; 1857-62, W. Sessions; 1863-64, G. W. Germain; 1865-69, W. Sessions; 1870, L. J. Lemert; 1871-74,- W. Reynolds; 1875-76, A. M. Willctt; 1877, W. Patrick; 1878-80, W. Reynolds. CLERKS. 1845-49, G. W. Germain; 1850-54, W. Sessions; 1855-56, G. M. Brown; 1857, I. F. Blanchard; 1858, B. G. Cooley; 1859, J. R. Abbott; 1860, J. B. Parmelee; 1861, E. R. Williams; 1862, J. R. Abbott; 1863-64, P. Spalding; 1865-66, D. R. Corey; 1867, 1. E. HIolbrook; 1868-69, E. Cahill; 1870, E. Palmer; 1871-72, B. McMullen; 1873, A. V. Phister; 1874-75, J. E. Charles; 1876, J. A. Lusk; 1877-S0, A. V. Phister. TREASURERS. 1845, J. Baker; 1846-47, W. Sessions; 1848-49, G. D. Kellogg; 1850, J. McKelvey; 1851, S. Crippen; 1852-53, G. W. Germain; 1854 -55, Willialn Stone; 1856-58, L. M. Sparks; 1859-64, 11. Brown; 1865-69, D. A. Bangs; 1870, J. Cahalan; 1871, D. A. Bangs; 1872-73, J. Cahalan; 1874, B. McMullen; 1875, D. Needham; 1876, W. P. Wood; 1877-78, B. McMullen; 1879-80, O. C. Townsend. JUSTICES. 1845, 1. Hayes; 1846, L. R. Jenks; 1847, J. Baker; 1848, N. Sessions; 1849, G. W. Germain; 1850, A. Mather; 1851, H. V. Libhart; 1852, J. W. Burns; 1853, G. W. Germain; 1854, A. Mather; 1855, I. Mershon; 1856, D. F. Hunter; 1857, H. Brown; 1858, D. A. Bangs; 1859, P. Spalding; 1860, B. G. Cooley; 1861, I. Mershon; 1862, D. A. Bangs; 1863, J. R. Hiscock; 1864, B. G. Cooley; 1865, H. Colby; 1866, D. A. Bangs; 1867, M. L. Weatherwax; 1868, B. G. Cooley; 1869, G. W. Germain; 1870, D. A. Bangs; 1871, A. G. Russell; 1872, S. Woolford; 1873, W. J. Tabor; 1874, D. A. Bangs; 1875, A. G. Russell; 1876, R. Webber; 1877, A. B. Sunderlin; 1878, V. Mather; 1879, H. M. Brown; 1880, R. Webber. The annual statement of the township board for 1879 set forth that April 1, 1880, there were on hand of the general fund, $329.36; of the school fund, $332.48; highway fund, $3.71; road district fund, $20.73. During the year 1256 days of highway labor were assessed, and 1283 worked. JURORS FOR 1845. Hector Hayes, Major D. Mills, Jay Olmstead, Wm. W. Edminster, Luther R. Jenks, Charles W. Norton, John O. Lewis, and Wim. Delap. For 1846 the jurors were George D. Kellogg, Nathaniel Sessions, Harvey Waterman, Lester W. Sparks, Jireh Baker, Nathan P. Wallace, Nehemiah Charles. SCHOOLS. The first school-house vouchsafed to North Plains was a shanty which Hector Iayes built on his place for his hired man, Valentine Lewis (himself afterwards a settler on section 2), and the first school-teacher Sarah, daughter of Rev. Mr. Sangster, a Baptist preacher of Orleans. In that same shanty school was taught, after Miss Sangster's time, by Mary Lovell (sister to Judge Lovell, of Ionia), Amos Foster, and Jane Baker (now Mrs. John McKelvey, of North Plains). ORGANIZATION OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS. At a meeting of the school inspectors, May 4, 1844, the several school districts and parts of districts previously districts in Lyons, but included in town 8 north, range 5 west, were rearranged and renumbered as districts in North Plains as follows: District No. 12 to be District No. 1, commencing at the centre of section 16; thence running south to the north quarter-post of section 33; thence west to the south quarter-post of section 29; thence north to the centre of said section 29; thence west to the west quarter-post of section 30; thence north to the west quarter-post of section 18; thence east to the place of beginning. District No. 9 to be District No. 2, commencing at the east quarter-post of section 14; thence south to the corner of said section; thence east to the north quarter-post on section 24; thence south to the quarter-post on the south line of section 25; thence west to the south quarter-post on section 28; thence north to the north quarter-post of section 21; thence east to the northeast corner of said section 21; thence north to the west quarter-post of section 15; thence east to the place of beginning. Fractional District No. 7 to be District No. 3, com mencing at the northeast corner of section 32; thence south to the southeast corner of section 32; thence west to the southwest corner of section 31; thence north to the: In 1873 three hundred and thirteen votes were cast. 270 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. I quarter-post; thence east to the centre of section 31; thence south to the south quarter-post; thence east to the southeast corner of said section 31; thence north to the quarter-post; thence east to the centre of section 32; thence north to the north quarter-post; thence east to the place of beginning. Fractional District No. 8 to be District No. 4, commencing at the centre of section 29; thence south on the quarter-post line to the centre of section 32; thence west to the quarter-post; thence south to the southwest corner of section 32; thence west to the quarter-post; thence north to the centre of section 31; thence west to the quarterpost; thence north to the west quarter-post of section 30; thence to the place of beginning. District No. 5 (fractional) to be District No. 5, comprising the south half of section 34, and all of section 35 west of the Maple River. District No. 11 to be District No. 6, commencing at the west quarter-post of section 6; thence east to the centre of section 6; thence south to the centre of section 18; thence west to the west quarter-post of said section 18; thence north to the place of beginning. The first annual report of the school inspectors, dated Nov. 18, 1844, certified that in Districts 1 and 2 there were forty-two school-children, that forty-eight children attended school, and that three months' school had been taught in each district. The books in use were "Elementary Spelling-book," Collins', Adams', and Daboll's arithmetics, "< American Manual," Olney's geography, " English Reader," Smith's arithmetic, and " Historical Reader." TEACHERS. From 1844 to 1858 the school inspectors of North Plains issued certificates to teachers as follows: Nov. 22, 1844, Jireh Baker; May 3, 1845, George Smith; Dec. 16, 1844, William C. Bunnell; Nov. 26, 1845, Almon Charles; Dec. 22, 1845, Louisa M. Ransom; Nov. 7, 1846, Lucy L. Coates; Dec. 22, 1847, William Sessions; Jan. 19, 1847, Almon Charles; April 10, 1847, Julia Jennings; May 1, 1847, Elizabeth Tracy; Nov. 20, 1847, Mary M. Hall; May 6, 1848, Lucy L. Coates, Caroline Brown; Dec. 23, 1848, William Sessions, J. K. Kneeland; Nov. 3, 1849, Horace F. Baker; Nov. 10, 1850, Catherine Wilson; Nov. 27, 1850, William Sessions; Jan. 6, 1851, Alexander Dodge; April 12, 1851, Sarah Crossett; May 22, 1851, Mary Dodge; Nov. 4, 1851, Julia Ann Jennings; May 1, 1852; Lavinia Stone; May 6, 1852, Sybil L. Waterman; May 15, 1852, Miss Chena T. Norton, Irena Loomis; June 12, 1852, Jireh Baker; Nov. 6, 1852, Paul Charles; Nov. 29, 1B52, John H. Woodard; Nov. 30, 1852, Caroline Everest; April 16,1853, Julia A. Loomis; April 22, 1853, Mrs. Sarah Jane McKelvey and Miss Frank Willard; Nov. 2, 1853, Julia Ann Jennings; Nov. 28, 1853, Nancy Bernard; April 29, 1854, Jane A. Charles, Harriet E. Corey, Mary Runyon, and Laura Edwards; Nov. 4, 1854, Harriet E. Carmichael, Mr. Ten Eyck, and Laban Lemert; April 28, 1856, Ruth Dodge; May 8, 1856, Mrs. Kate Mead; Nov. 3, 1855, Samuel J. Scott and Sarah E. Scott; Dec. 3, 1855, James M. Lance; May 27, 1856, Jane Charles; Oct. 15, 1856, Harriet E. Corey; Nov. 19, 1856, Franklin Wallace; Jan. 10, 1857, Mr. Lemert; Nov. 30,1856, Mr. Woodard; April 25,1857, Clarissa Taft; April 4, 1857, Mary Ackles; May 2, 1857, Miss W. C. Norton, Caroline E. Allen; May 11, 1857, Julia and Mary Sessions; June 15, 1857, Armand Barlow; Nov. 7, 1857, Mr. Hunt, Mr. Cramer, Miss Coots, and Nancy E. Bernard; April 10, 1858, Mary Crossett, Sarah E. Goodwin, Helen Mabie, Mary E. Harper, Henry Lane, Jane Charles. The annual school report for 1880 supplies information in detail as follows: Directors. Enu ration. Dist. 1-.... Wm. F. Charles. 49 " 2'......Simon Newhouse. 48 " 3.......Thomas Hogan. 69 " 4.......J. 0. Williams. 60 5'......W. M. Irish.t 80 6........Levi Dick. 35 7.......Thomas Wilder. 67 8-'......W. J. Tabor.. 171 9.....P. Needham. 70 " 10......A. Y. Sessions. 33 Totals.........................682 Average Attendance. 40 34 76 60 65 31 56 160 56 19 597 Value of Teachers' Property. Wages. $250 $196.50 300 146.00 250 213.50 600 143.75 1,800 250.00 600 196.00 800 184.00 7,000 675.00 600 164.00 400 140.00 $12,600 $2308.75 VILLAGE OF MATHERTON. In 1842 or 1843, Asaph Mather, still living in Matherton and a comer to Ionia County in 1837, bought of Dr. Norton Beckwith a half-interest in the land upon which the village of Matherton now stands. Mr. Mather was a practical millwright, and had in view the building of a mill on Fish Creek, when he made the Beckwith purchase, but it appeared that James R. Langdon, a somewhat noted Michigan land-speculator, owned the water-power at that point, and Mather and Beckwith accordingly bargained with him for forty acres that included the required millsite. Langdon, who owned about all the water-power on Fish Creek, including twenty-four eighty-acre lots, agreed to dispose of the forty acres, as asked, provided Mather and Beckwith would buy one-half of the twenty-four eighties on the creek and become equal partners with him. The proposition was accepted, and Langdon, Mather, and Beckwith, under the firm-name of Beckwith & Co., began improvements at Matherton. They cleared ten acres on section 24, where Asaph Mather now resides, and put up a log house. They threw a dam across the creek and built a saw-mill on the site occupied by the present saw-mill. This mill, completed in 1813, was the first mill erected either in North Plains or on Fish Creek. At this time Matherton was in the midst of a wilderness, with no human habitations in the town nearer than the Sessions Settlement. In the same year, however (1843), Peter Briggs settled on a place between Matherton and the Sessions neighborhood. The product of the saw-mill was pine-lumber, and found its chief market in Chicago, whither it was transported in rafts via the Grand River and Lake Michigan. The only additional improvements at Matherton to 1845 were a few shanties for mill-hands. In the latter year Mr. Mather brought his family to the place, and became a permanent resident. * Fractional. I Ilubbardston school. t Matherton school. NORTH PLAINS. 271 In 1846, Mr. Mather had become the sole owner of the village site and mill-property. He continued the business as before, and in 1849 made an effort to expand it by the erection of a grist-mill fitted with two runs of stone. The first pronounced step towards the condition of villagedom was then taken, and in that year Dr. W. Z. Blanchard set up a trading-establishment in a shanty near the grist-mill, and sent his son Hiram over to look after it. In 1850, Matherton post-office was established, and Asaph Mather appointed postmaster. He got a mail once a week from Lyons, his young son carrying it on horseback. The post-office Mr. Mather conveniently kept in the gristmill. The successive postmasters at Matherton have been Hiram F. Blanchard, L. J. Lemert, and N. P. Johnson, Mr. Johnson, the present incumbent, having been in charge since 1871. May 22, 1851, Asaph Mather platted the village of Matherton, which upon the record is described as lying upon section 24, "commencing at a point where the highway intersects the county-line on the east side of the county, running east from Fish Creek bridge, near Mather's grist-mill, on section twenty-four; thence along the said county-line north three degrees west seven chains and fifty links; thence south eighty-seven degrees west thirteen chains eight and seven-tenths links; thence south thirty degrees forty minutes east eight chains forty-six and eight-tenths links; thence north eighty-seven degrees east nine chains fifteen and one-half links to the place of beginning." In 1851 the lumbering interests at Matherton were considerable, and, Eastern capitalists taking hold with Mr. Mather, business was quite lively for a time. The gristmill was likewise pushed to its utmost capacity to supply demands flowing in from the then newly-peopled northern country, and Matherton, being the base of supplies, bustled and grew big with promised greatness. Matters prospered and expanded until about 1854, when Hubbardston, two miles farther up the creek, was called into existence, and in cutting off the northern trade from Matherton administered a serious blow to the latter's welfare. Still, there was a good show of business, and the prospect was fair for better times. About 1853, Joseph Brown put up the store-building now occupied by Wood Brothers, and into it W. Z. Blanchard removed his goods. Meanwhile, Eli Morse had opened a second store, and not long after Morse's advent a Mr. Brinkerhoff started a third trading-post. Dr. William Mather had come to the village in 1849 and begun the practice of medicine. Later he embarked in trade at Matherton with his brother Asaph. In 1854, Marcus Smith built the present tavern (since moved to the location it now occupies), and sold also goods in one end of it. In 1865, Asaph Mather, Isaac Smith, and one Fremont built a woolen-mill at Matherton. They used steam-power, gave employment to about a dozen people, and manufactured woolen cloths, yarns, etc. The enterprise gave excellent promise of beneficial results, but it failed to pay, and after an existence of four years was discontinued. J. T. Irish started a foundry and sash- and blind-factory, but lost the property by fire in 1872. Fire has invaded Matherton on frequent occasions, and invariably with deplorable results. Besides the foundry, the saw-mill was burned, as was the grist-mill in the fall of 1880. The mill, which Asaph Mather carried on uninterruptedly from 1849 to 1867, was owned by Irish, Tooker & Co. at the time of its destruction. The disaster was an especially unfortunate one, since upon the mill the town depended largely for support. There is, however, talk of very soon rebuilding it. In 1872, Asaph and Vernam Mather, anticipating speedy railway advantages at Matherton, erected a fine steam sawmill, but the railway never came, and the mill was not as valuable property as it might have been. It was carried on more or less until the summer of 1880, and then transported northward. At its best Matherton was a thriving country village, and supported three stores, two mills, and minor other industries. Untoward circumstances have operated against it sorely, and it boasts now but one store. The fall at Matherton, on Fish Creek, gives excellent power, being ten feet at the saw-mill and twelve feet at the grist-mill site. RELIGIOUS. A Methodist Episcopal Class was organized in the Sessions settlement at an early day, and shortly after 1850 the class was transferred to Matherton. In 1854 the Matherton Circuit was established, but the Matherton Class failed to prosper, and after 1860 passed out of existence. In 1868 it was revived in the Matherton school-house by Rev. A. R. Boggs, and had at the reorganization seven members. They were Nathaniel Sessions, Chloe Sessions, A. Y. Sessions and wife, Vernam Mather and wife, and Mrs. Fox, Vernam Mather being chosen leader. A house of worship was not provided until 1879, when the edifice now in use was completed at a cost of fifteen hundred dollars. Vernam Mather, the first leader (in 1868), has been the leader ever since. The pastor is Rev. Nelson Saunders, of the Hubbardston charge, the superintendent of the Sundayschool is Stephen Tooker, and the church trustees are Vernam Mather, Archibald Huston, A. Y. Sessions, Stephen Tooker, and F. W. Wood. United Brethren Church.-The Matherton Class of the United Brethren Church was organized Jan. 8, 1857, as a point in the Gratiot Mission, H. W. Marsh leader, W. H. Stone pastor, and C. B. Patterson steward. The organizing members were H. W. Marsh, C. B. Patterson, Susan Stone, W. H. Stone, Garry C. Fox, Cynthia Fox, Sophia A. Parmelee, Chester Warner, Laura P. Marsh, Amanda Satterlee, and Susan Johnson. In 1879 the present house of worship was first occupied. The membership is now twenty-nine. The leader is N. P. Johnson; the steward, H. Seitner; the pastor, James Campbell; and the trustees, N. P. Johnson, Peter Dommy, and Joseph Bennett. The church owns a parsonage, and is altogether fairly prosperous. MATHERTON LODGE, NO. 296, I. O. 0. F. Matherton Lodge, organized in June, 1877, started with five charter members, received six on the night of the first meeting, and has now a membership of thirty-eight. The 272 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. officers for 1880 are J. H. Ludwig, N. G.; S. R. Bradish, V. G.; Hiram Bradish, Sec.; M. T. Tyler, Treas. VILLAGE OF HUBBARDSTON. As early as 1836, J. R. Langdon, a wealthy capitalist of Montpelier, Vt., visited Michigan for the purpose of speculating in lands, but more especially in lands embracing water-mill sites. Fish Creek struck him as a good stream for mill-power, and he accordingly walked from the mouth to the source of the stream, picking out en route all the mill sites on its banks, and subsequently locating lands embracing them all, his aggregate purchases in the premises covering something like two thousand acres. Langdon's purchases included the major portion of the site of the present village of Hubbardston, which, until 1852, remained upon his hands as idle and unproductive property. In that year, however, he sold to Joseph Brown, of Kalamazoo, two hundred and forty acres that included the Hubbardston water-power, and Brown proceeded at once to construct a dam at that point and erect a saw-mill. Brown's saw-mill was a small affair, but, small as it was, the building of it and the dam had used up his means and brought his progress to a temporary halt. At this juncture a company of Eastern capitalists, already the owners of about seven hundred acres of pine-lands in Montcalm County, bought Brown's mill-property and his two hundred and forty acres, much to Brown's satisfaction, no doubt. The company, known under the firm-name of Hubbard, Taylor & Co., and consisting of Thomas Hubbard, Wilson Homer, Newton W. Taylor, Asa Patrick, and J. F. Collister, took possession of the property in January, 1853, improved the dam, enlarged the mill, turned on a force of about twenty men, and began at once to launch into the lumbering and milling business at a brisk rate. In October, 1855, J. F. Holbrook and D. F. Hunter, Massachusetts men, built the first store at Hubbardston, the village containing at that time the saw-mill, the mill boarding-house, in charge of Calvin Crippen, and the dwelling-house of Albert Collister, the manager of the mill and representative of Hubbard, Taylor & Co. The store built and occupied by Holbrook & Hunter in 1855 is still in use as H. C. Whipple's hardware-store. In the summer of 1856, J. C. Howard, who had been keeping the mill boarding-house, built a tavern on the site of the present Chatterton Block, and called it the Howard House. In 1856, also, Hubbard, Taylor & Co., finding the water-power to be failing, attached to their mill a hundred horse-power steam-engine, and maintained a cutting capacity of about twenty-five thousand feet daily. In 1857, Patrick & Sabin started the erection of the present grist-mill, and almost directly joined with the sawmill company of Hubbard & Co. in completing it, the mill being fitted with three runs of stone. In 1863 the saw-mill firm of Hubbard, Hitchcock & Co. and the mercantile firm of Holbrook & Hunter consolidated their interests under the firm-title of Iomer, Holbrook & Co., and carried on saw-mill, grist-mill, and store, besides dealing also largely in pine-lands. By this time, of course, Hubbardston had taken on the shape of a tangible village. Dr. Wilson, the first resident physician in the place had opened, in 1858, a drug-store in a two-story building put up by Warren A. Sherwood (of mill interest) on the site of the present Sunderlin Block. In a few months Frank Bailey (now of Ionia) joined him, and to the drug-store was added a department for general goods. In 1858, William Crossett opened a third store, and about the same time a Dr. Buchanan came on and became a village practitioner, while in the same year the first village school-house was built. In November, 1864, the death of Holbrook caused a dissolution of the mill-firm and an immediate reorganization as Wilson Homer & Co., in which firm were included four of the members of Homer, Holbrook & Co. and N. F. Rogers. The new firm assumed the grist-mill and saw-mill business, and, in 1868 disposing of the grist-mill to D. F. & C. H. Hunter, devoted themselves thenceforward to the prosecution of their lumbering interests. In 1870 the firm became incorporated as " The Hubbardston Lumber Company," with a chartered capital of seventy-five thousand dollars. Five years previously-that is to say, Dec. 18, 1865-Thomas Hubbard, Noah Hitchcock, Newton W. Taylor, Wilson Homer, and N. F. Rogers laid out and platted the village of Hubbardston, which was designated on the recorded plat simply as "being on section 12, in town 8 north, range 5 west." In 1872 the lumber company, looking forward to the passage through Hubbardston of the proposed Marshall and Coldwater Railroad, and anticipating largely increased business therefrom, erected a large steam saw-mill at Hubbardston upon the site of the present saw-mill, and expended in its construction upwards of thirty-one thousand dollars. It had a daily cutting capacity of forty thousand feet and employed something like forty hands. The railway failed to come, and, as a consequence, the company found themselves with an expensive mill on their hands without adequate means for transporting the product to market. Despite the drawback, they managed to push the business, but the game was a losing one, and resulted, in July, 1876, in the collapse of the corporation. The failure was a disastrous one not only to individuals, but to the village, for the company had largely sustained the village's material interests, and when the check came it was naturally a serious shock. The recovery came in due time, and, although the village does not make the bustling business show it did in the palmy days of the lumber company, its growth and substance are more healthful and enduring in tone, and, keeping pace with the development and prosperity of the adjacent agricultural region, will always make the village a place of some consequence, while manufacturing interests, bound to prevail there to a greater or less extent, will add no small element to the general aggregate. The company's mill-property was bought by Cuddeback & Corey, who operated it in a small way until the spring of 1879, when it was destroyed by fire. In 1874 the Hubbardston Water-Power Company built what is known as the upper dam, and laid out thereon from twelve thousand to fifteen thousand dollars. Their purpose was to induce manufacturing enterprises to locate there, but somehow the scheme miscarried, and bad management wrecked it before it had got fairly under way. NORTH PLAINS. 273 VILLAGE INCORPORATION. The village of Hubbardston was incorporated according to act of Legislature approved March 2, 1867. The act described the village territory as being " all that tract of country situated in the counties of Ionia and Clinton, in town eight north, range four west, and town eight north, range five west, and including the whole of section twelve and the north half of section thirteen, in town eight north, range five west, and the west half of the western fractional half of section seven and the northwestern fractional quarter of section eighteen, in town eight north, range four west." Pursuant to notice, the first village election was held in Sever's Hall on Monday, March 18, 1867. B. G. Cooley and William T. Hess were chosen inspectors, and Elmon Palmer clerk. The result of the canvass gave one hundred and fourteen votes as cast for the following: For president, D. F. Hunter, 111;* N. F. Rogers, 3. For marshal, A. G. Russell, 67;* H. A. Minor, 47. Trustees (one year): W. Homer, 33; H. E. Holbrook, 65;* Clark Thompson, 32; William H. Lewis, 46;* J. R. Abbott, 45;* N. F. Rogers, 35; J. E. Chatterton, 35; O. W. Holly, 45; Chauncey Reed, 2; D. T. Hunter, 1; Lyman Carow, 1. Trustees (two years): A. B. Sunderlin, 111;* 0. W. Holly, 62;* N. F. Rogers, 51; A. G. Russell, 46; Chauncey Reed, 31; Lyman Carow, 24; W. Homer, 13; Clark Thompson, 1; J. E. Chatterton, 1. At the first meeting of the board of trustees, March 25, 1867, Edward Cahill was elected clerk. The persons who have been chosen annually from 1868 to 1880 to be presidents, marshals, trustees, and clerks of the village are named as follows: 1868.-President, W. Homer; Marshal, A. G. Russell; Trustees, J. R. Abbott, William Reynolds, H. E. Holbrook; Clerk, E. Cahill. 1869.-President, N. F. Rogers; Marshal, A. G. Russell; Trustees, D. F. Hunter, Edwin Perry, W. J. Tabor; Clerk, E. Cahill. 1870.-President, N. F. Rogers; Marshal, D. W. Weeks; Trustees, O. C. Townsend, E. W. Dodge, William Reynolds; Clerk, Patrick Needham. 1871.-President, William Reynolds; Trustees, Edwin Perry, William H. Lewis, George A. Chatterton; Marshal, Wilson Homer; Clerk, E. W. Dodge. 1872.t-President, William Reynolds; Clerk, A. V. Phister; Treasurer, A. A. Sunderlin; Trustees, C. H. Hunter, C. E. Hait, H. W. Hitchcock; Assessor, William Reynolds. 1873.-President, A. A. Sunderlin; Clerk, A. V. Phister; Treasurer, B. McMullen; Trustees, Edwin Perry, Harrison Foskett, William Reynolds; Assessor, Joseph H. Bachelor. 1874.-President, J. E. Chatterton; Clerk, A. V. Phister; Treasurer, B. McMullen; Trustees, A. G. Russell, J. E. Charles, D. R. Corey; Assessor, David P. Weeks. 1875.-President, J. E. Chatterton; Clerk, A. V. Phister; Treasurer, E. B. Percival; Trustees, Harrison Foskett, Charles F. Wheeler, John R. Abbott; Assessor, Lyman Carver. 1876.-President, Harrison Foskett; Clerk, A. V. Phister; Treasurer, A. A. Sunderlin; Trustees, D. P. Weeks, B. McMullen, Clark Thompson; Assessor, William Patrick. 1877.-President, William Patrick; Clerk, M. L. Peck; Treasurer, A. A. Sunderlin; Trustees, David H. Kirkpatrick, George F. Roberts, Robert Gardner; Assessor, Charles F. Wheeler. 1878.-President, William Patrick; Clerk, Jay Corey; Treasurer, A. A. Sunderlin; Trustees, B. McMullen, T. J. Barber, D. P. Weeks; Assessor, Charles F. Wheeler. 1879.-President, William Reynolds; Clerk, A. V. Phister; Treasurer, 0. C. Townsend; Trustees, Robert Gardner, George F. Roberts, and J. J. Robbins; Assessor, CharlesPF. Wheeler. 1880.-President, Harr'son Foskett; Clerk, A. V. Phister; Treasurer, O. C. Townsend; Trustees, William W. Warren, George H. Frink, Boyd Redner; Assessor, Walter J. Tabor. RELIGIOUS HISTORY. First Congregational Church.-The First Congregational Church of Hubbardston was organized in Matherton in 1854 as the First Congregational Church of Matherton. Rev. Mr. Grattan effected the organization in the Matherton school-house, and received as a first accession but half a dozen or so members, including B. G. Cooley, Alexander Morris, and J. M. Jessup, with their wives. In 1860 the organization was removed to Hubbardston, and its name changed, Mr. Grattan (living in Lebanon) continuing to be the pastor some little time. A church-edifice was commenced in 1867, and, although occupied shortly afterwards, was not wholly completed until 1879. It measures forty by sixty-four, has a seating capacity for three hundred and fifty people, and cost five thousand dollars. Belonging earlier to the Grand River Association, the church is now attached to the Lansing Association. The present pastor is Rev. J. T. Husted, who in December, 1879, succeeded Rev. Mr. Ludwig. The trustees are G. A. Chatterton, William P. Brayton, Boyd Redner, and D. P. Wicks. The deacons are Chauncey Reed, Wilson Homer, and Alfred Kemp. The church has a membership of sixty, and the Sunday school (in charge of John W. Bennett) about the same number. Methodist Episcopal Church.-A Methodist Episcopal Class was organized in Hubbardston about 1854, and attached to the Matherton Circuit; but after a fitful existence it disbanded. In September, 1865, there was a reorganization, in Almon Townsend's house, by Rev. Mr. Bignell, with a membership of nine. They were Almon Townsend and wife, Rinaldo Webber and wife, Harrison Colby and wife, N. F. Rogers and wife, and G. T. North, Harrison Colby being chosen leader. Services were held in the village school-house until 1868, when the present house of worship (seating three hundred and fifty and costing five thousand dollars) was occupied. There is now a strong membership of one hundred and thirty. Services are held every Sunday, the pastor being Rev. Nelson Saunders, of the Hubbardston charge. The trustees are Almon Townsend, N. F. Rogers, H. F. Blanchard, Rinaldo Webber, and M. L. Peck; the class-leaders, N. F. Rogers, L. W. Robinson, Rinaldo Webber, and W. H. Davis. There is also a flourishing Sunday-school, at which the attendance averages seventy, and of which L. W. Robinson is superintendent. St. John's (Roman Catholic) Church.-In 1853, Rev. Father Goditz, of Westphalia, in Clinton County, learning there was a little settlement of Catholics in North Plains, near Hubbardston, went over there and held services at John Cummings' house. He visited the settlement twice that year and four times in 1854, holding meetings in the dwellings of members of his congregation, which included at first but seven families. By 1857 the congregation had so strengthened that a church was built that year on section - Elected. 35 t Charter amended. 274 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. 11. Affairs prospered, and in 1868, with the advantage of largely-increased membership, the church erected in Hubbardston what was then considered the largest churchbuilding in the county.. It cost eight thousand dollars, and will seat, perhaps, seven hundred persons. The priests sent to the charge after Father Goditz's term were Revs. Bolte, De Bevre, O'Brien, and De Smet. The latter, who is now in charge, has been the priest since 1875. The church trustees are Thomas Welch, John Cahalan, John Hogan, and Nicholas Roach. HUBBARDSTON PUBLIC SCHOOL. District No. 8, in North Plains, including Hubbardston, was formed in October, 1856, but beyond that declaration nothing much can be said as to the early history of the district, since the early records of the district are not extant. The fine brick school-building now used by the district was completed in 1879, and cost, including land, five thousand five hundred dollars. It contains grammar, intermediate, and primary departments, in which the average attendance is about one hundred and fifty. George B. Holmes is the principal, and the Misses L. C. Petrie and Lilian Smith his assistants. The school board comprises W. J. Tabor (director), H. W. Brown, Robert Gardner, E. C. Reed, O. C. Townsend, and Boyd Redner. MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES. There is at Hubbardston a very excellent water-power, giving a total fall, for both dams, of twenty-seven feet, and it has of course been made to serve from time to time the demands of various manufacturing enterprises other than those alluded to in connection with the history of the lumber company. True, the power at Hubbardston will always make the village a place of business, but the need of railway transportation is the one great need felt by the village. That need supplied (as it is likely to be at no fardistant day), Hubbardston will push forward with rapid strides into something like prominent importance. There is a place for factories, but there must be an improvement in the facilities for transporting the manufactured products to market before the factories can be maintained successfully. Among the manufacturing industries now flourishing at Hubbardston, one of the most important is the wind-mill manufactory of S. Langdon, which promises to develop into a business of considerable consequence. It is of but recent growth, but gives already signs of a healthy vitality. A. F. Stuck carries on a foundry and machine-shop, in which, besides effecting general repairs, he manufactures plows, agricultural implements, wagons, etc. J. W. Dunn & Son, earlier in the same business on section 18, have been engaged since 1876 at Hubbardston in the manufacture of farm-cradles. In addition to the foregoing are the grist-mill owned by George M. Jones and carrying three runs of stone, G. W. Townsend's sash- and blind-factory, and George Cuddeback's saw-mill. SOCIETIES. Tuscan Lodge, No. 178, F. and A. M.-Tuscan Lodge was organized in 1865, A. G. Russell being chosen Master on that occasion. The lodge has enjoyed a uniformly prosperous existence since the beginning, and has now an active membership of seventy-five. The present officers are William Reynolds, W. M.; A. S. Ellinwood, S. W.; Henry Gillett, J. W.; Samuel Davis, Sec.; M. J. Tyler, Treas.; George K. Danks, S. D.; J. A. Churchill, J. D.; William Marlett, Tiler. lubbardston Lodge, No. 3, A. O. U. W.-A representative lodge of the Ancient Order of United Workingmen was organized at Hubbardston in 1876, and continues to flourish, the membership, Oct. 1, 1880, being twenty-five. The officers then were N. M. Campbell, P. M. W.; M. L. Diver, M. W.; A. V. Phister, O.; J. E. Charles, Recorder; J. Ludwick, F.; 0. D. Race, Receiver; J. A. Churchill, J. W.; J. H. Bachelor, O. W. North Plains Grange, No. 281.-There have been other granges in the township, but none survive except North Plains Grange, which was organized in 1874 with thirty members, and boasts now upwards of fifty. Since 1874 the office of Master has been filled by G. W. Germain and A. M. Willett. In 1877 a neat hall was erected, and there meetings are now held once a fortnight. The officers for 1880 were A. M. Willett, M.; Corydon Rice, O.; Julia Stone, L.; James F. Dalzell, Chaplain; G. F. Stone, Sec.; James Scott, Treas.; Delos White, Steward; Alexander Strachan, Assistant Steward. Hubbardston Reform Club.-The cause of temperance is vigorously forwarded by the Hubbardston Reform Club, which, organized March 8, 1877, has now about one hundred working members. W. W. Warren is president, H. W. Cook secretary, James Chick treasurer. Public meetings are held semi-monthly in the village churches. Central Fair Association.-Hubbardston has for ten years enjoyed distinction as the locale of a fair association which has regularly each autumn since 1871 held a four days' fair, much to the gratification of the inhabitants of the surrounding country, who have popularized the gatherings and made them features in current history. The officers for 1880 were D. F. Hunter, president; Thomas T. Newton, vice-president; J. E. Charles, secretary; 0. C. Townsend, treasurer. The directors are nine in number, and represent the counties of Ionia, Clinton, Gratiot, and Montcalm. The association owns twenty acres of land near the village, and claims to have in the property one of the most conveniently-appointed fair-grounds for miles around. Hubbardston Trotting Association.-Summer trottingmeetings have been given yearly since 1878 by the Hubbardston Trotting Association on the track of the Central Fair Association, and with uniformly excellent success. The association trotting-meetings are in high favor, and promise to endure as local sporting events for a long time to come. B. S. Patrick is president and F. W. Burch secretary of the association. THE HUBBARDSTON ADVERTISER. Hubbardston waited until 1870 before reveling in the possession of a village newspaper. In that year Charles H. Sever issued the Hubbardston Advertiser, and presently sent over to Saranac for E. V. Phister to assist him in the O'A w M 14 ",f-U n,~~~~tV u/OIN/GS OF N. B.HAGS. NORtH PLAINS, /ON/A CO. MICH. NORTH PLAINS. 275 business, Sever himself not being a practical printer. Phister occupied the post of assistant just eight months, and then, buying Sever's interests, became sole proprietor and publisher, and to this day has so remained. Upon obtaining possession he changed the name of the paper to the Advertiser, which it still retains. The Advertiser is a seven-column folio, has always claimed to be independent in politics, and has a circulation of four hundred and fifty. Aside from the Advertiser, Hubbardston has had no newspaper. HUBBARDSTON FIRE COMPANY, NO. 1. The Hubbardston fire department embraces a fire-engine and hose-cart company, organized in the spring of 1879, and now including thirty members. A. V. Phister is the foreman, and Monroe Diver the assistant. HUBBARDSTON IN 1880. Hubbardston is not so busy a place as it was during the lumber company regime, but it still maintains a population of about seven hundred, or but fifty less than it contained at its most prosperous period. Among its business-houses are three general stores, four grocery-stores, two drug-stores, a hardware-store, and the banking-house of 0. C. Townsend & Co. The oldest merchant in the village is David R. Corey (one of the firm of Sunderlin & Corey), who has been in trade there continuously since.the fall of 1864, in which year also A. A. Sunderlin embarked in business in Hubbardston. In 1869, Mr. Sunderlin built the first brick business block erected in the village. There are also two lawyers and six physicians, of the latter of whom Dr. J. J. Robbins has been longest in village practice, his advent having occurred in 1867. Hubbardston is still awaiting communication by railway with the outer world, and, according to present indications, is likely to obtain it before long. There was a strong prospect in 1869 that the expectation would be realized before the close of that year, but the Fates said, " Nay." At the township-meeting Dec. 11, 1869, public aid to the amount of ten thousand dollars was voted to the Jonesville, Marshall and Grand River Railroad, and a similar sum to the Westphalia, Hubbardston and Northern Railroad, twenty-five thousand dollars more on Jan. 14, 1870, to the latter, and for the same purpose forty thousand dollars in private subscriptions (of which twenty thousand dollars are said to have been paid in), but, save the graded roadbed of the Jonesville, Marshall and Grand River road, nothing has thus far been shown as results. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. N. B. HAYES. The father of this gentleman, Hector Hayes, was born in Prattsburg, N. Y., in 1804, and was a farmer by occupation. His wife, Lucinda (Warren) Hayes, was born in Connecticut in 1806. Hector Hayes removed to Ontario Co., N. Y., when a young man, and was there married. In 1836 he removed with his wife and two sons (George and Bradford) to Michigan, and settled in North Plains, Ionia Co., in a region covered mostly with burr-oak. But one other family was then in the township, and had settled at the same time with Mr. Hayes. The nearest grist-mill was at Marshall, Calhoun Co. Wheat was ground for immediate use in a coffee-mill, and "bolted" through a common sieve. The family realized in their experience the broadest meaning of the word "pioneering." The sons remained at home, attending to matters on the farm and spending a portion of their time at school in winter. N. B. Hayes (" Brad") began attending Olivet Institute when twenty years of age, remaining two years. He subsequently rented his father's farm for two years, and taught school during five winters. At the age of twenty-four he purchased eighty acres of land, and commenced improving it. When twenty-nine -years old he was married to Miss Mary A. Olmsted, of North Plains. Her parents, Jay and A — (Case) Olmsted,* were early settlers in the township, and came fiom Onondazga Co., N. Y..... J. OLMSTED, Sit.* N. B. Hayes was chosen president of the First National Bank of Muir at its organization, filling that office two years. He was for two years president of the Ionia Cooperative Mutual Benefit Association, and held the position of president or director of the Grand Rapids and Muir Logrunning Association during its existence,-about seven years. With the exception of one year, he has been a trustee in his school district since he was twenty-one years of age. In 1876 he was elected by the Republicans to the Legislature, running one hundred votes ahead of his ticket in his township, and three hundred in tie district. While in the Legislature he was a member of the committee to investigate the noted Rose-Douglas university case. Mr. Hayes is now the largest farmer in the county of Ionia, owning two hundred acres in the town of Lyons, fourteen hundred in North Plains, and about fifteen hun * Or Olmstea 1. 276 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. dred acres of pine-land (cut and uncut) in Montcalm County. He carries over forty-six thousand dollars of insurance on his farm-buildings, etc. In 1862 he engaged in the lumbering business, which he has continued successfully to follow, manufacturing from one million to six million feet of lumber annually. His farm in North Plains is connected with his office in Muir by a Bell telephone, the distance being three and one-half miles. This was the second telephone erected in the county. Connections are also made with his bookkeeper's residence, the residence of Mr. Just, cashier of the bank, the bank, the railway depot, the residence of S. W. Webber in Lyons, and two stores in the same village. Mr. Hayes, whose parents are both living, is the father of four sons, who are all residing at home. He is the owner of the largest barn in Ionia County, it being one hundred and sixty-two feet in length, with a wing one hundred feet long, with twenty-three-feet posts. A cellar is constructed under a portion of the edifice, and one hundred head of cattle can be fed and sheltered at one time. The building cost seven thousand dollars. A. M. WILLETT. A. M. Willett was born in Oswego Co., N. Y., April 18, 1829. When about six months old his parents removed to Onondaga Co., N. Y. He received a common-school education, and, losing his father at the age of fifteen, soon after N. Y. Her birth occurred in Onondaga County in 1831. In the fall of 1853 he came to Michigan, and until 1860 was engaged at his trade at Muir, Ionia Co. In the latter year he purchased eighty acres of land in North Plains, and relinquished his trade for the life of a farmer. He has continued to add to his original purchase until he is at present the owner of one hundred and ninety-two acres of fine land. In the fall of 1861 he raised a company of men, which was mustered into Col. Berdan's famous regiment of United States Sharpshooters, and remained in active service for thirteen months, at the end of which time he resigned on account of disability. Mr. Willett is a Republican in politics, and at the November election in 1880 was elected to a seat in the Legislature of the State. He has also served two years as supervisor of his township. He and his wife became members of the Disciples' Church in 1855, and are still connected with it. His children are three in number, and all daughters, one of whom is married, the others remaining at home. His father died in 1844, and his mother in 1874. Mr. Willett makes a specialty of breeding American merino sheep, and is more extensively engaged in that business than any other person in the county. ALCINOUS Y. SESSIONS. Alcinous Y. Sessions is of Welsh extraction; his ancestors were early settlers in New England. His father, Nathaniel Sessions, was born in Connecticut, Aug. 20, 1790, served in the war of 1812, and removed to Onondaga Co., N. Y., at the age of twenty-five. The 4th of November of the following year (1816) he was married to Miss Chloe Thompson, a native of Onondaga County. In 1822, Mr. Sessions removed to the town of Harmony, Chatauqua Co., N. Y., where the subject of our sketch was born, Feb. 15, 1833. When Alcinous was four years of age his father, with his family, removed to Ionia Co., Mich., settling in North Plains, being one of the first settlers in the township, cutting his own road through the timber and locating on the farm where he died, March 15, 1880, Mrs. Sessions having died the 14th of November of the previous year. Mr. Sessions was a man of strict integrity, determination, energy, and marked character, of pronounced temperance principles, zealous in the cause, and one of the original Abolitionists. To Mr. and Mrs. Sessions were born seventeen children. Mr. A. Y. Sessions remained at home assisting on the farm and attending the district schools, where he received such instruction as they afforded, until he was nineteen years of age, when he commenced the battle of life for himself. He worked out until he was twenty-four years of age, meanwhile purchasing eighty acres of wild land, on which he now resides, and to which he has added two hundred and forty acres, making three hundred and twenty acres in his present farm, which is in a high state of cultivation, very productive, and highly improved. A view of his farm and residence is given on another page. Mr. Sessions was married, Feb. 22,1857, to Charlotte F. Coville, of Bloomer township, Montcalm Co., a native of Lapeer Co., Mich. Her parents were both from the State A. M. WILLETT. left home and apprenticed himself to learn the carpenter's and joiner's trade, attending-school during the winter seasons, and subsequently becoming himself a pedagogue and wielding the " birch and rule" for two winters. He continued working at his trade in New York until the spring of 1850, when he changed his abiding-place to Minnesota. In November of the same year he returned to New York. In 1852 he was married to Julia Yager, of Skaneateles, -,117777 -o - V r,",", - 4!..!-.. 1........ - - -1 - - - -. (94(4 44 7 -~ u';-7$c-j5$. 49 4 - "lllk-I- 1-1 11, 111, 1.1, I " I I I I t""", 4,111, 44- 7,.l..1' ", I'nlllll-1-11 mmomV -~ I1 '4 - i * 4 4 - 344- - I 4 I4444 3 44 443, 44'4 -. R9ESIDENCE of, rest HON. A. -Al. WILL irr, NORTH f-AuvS, IONIA CO. IVICHo'. II I r *1 I, l 't MRS. A.Y.SESSOINS. IS;:. - -U~~.-..~;"."... ".."".\.'.c::ia,.~, i~~ r :i,... I.rlPn . '*CICI:=I.L iL." (I * 1 !S:,r*C. " "`"I,,,,,~ ~sl;;,i;; 1. I - I i i~ x, mi s. ~; ".'t 1 S.a'^ - ->'", ' ". ', t 4" i ' XIt', '. '.- a"I 71 ~,?i q I ~Etmcro AY ES INSNTHPA5sT 0I C. ICMH NORTH PLAINS. 277 of New York. Mr. and Mrs. Sessions are the parents of five children,-viz., Ida J., born Aug. 9, 1858, married David C. Cagwin, Sept. 2, 1878, and died December 24th of the same year; Mary Alvina, born March 23, 1860, married Oliver N. Ely, June 12, 1879, living in North Plains; Herbert Alcinous, born June 21, 1862; Flora Bell, born Feb. 18, 1869; and Cora Adell, born Nov. 9, 1870. George Coville, the father of Mrs. Sessions, was born in Oswego Co., N. Y., March 24, 1813, and removed to Detroit, Mich., in 1823. When twenty-four years of age he married Miss Hannah Wood, by whom he had three children, the eldest becoming the wife of Mr. A. Y. Sessions. In August, 1843, Mrs. Coville died, and in May, 1844, Mr. Coville married as his second wife Mrs. Julia Ann Ransom, by whom he had four children. In 1853, Mr. Coville moved to Bloomer township, Montcalm Co., and died Dec. 2, 1863. O T I S O0. TOWNSHIP 8 north, of range 8 west, known as Otisco, lies in the northwest corner of Ionia County, having Montcalm County on the north, Keene township on the south, Orleans township on the east, and Kent County on the west. Otisco occupies the central point of one of the finest wheat-producing regions in the State, and is itself especially favored in respect to wheat-growing soil, which, upon the plains, is remarkably fertile. The "plains of Otisco" passed, in the days of Ionia County pioneering, into a proverb, and not only captivated the first comers into that section, but speedily attracted a large volume of population by reason of their reported richness as an agricultural field. The Flat River, a logging- and mill-stream of some importance, enters the town on section 2, and, flowing in an eccentric course southward, passes through no less than thirteen sections, covers a course fully ten miles in length, and emerges finally at section 32. At Belding and Smyrna the water-power of the river is utilized to valuable purpose. There is likewise a water-power at Kiddville, on Dickinson Creek, and still another on Seely Creek, at Smyrna. Otisco is a prosperous and growing town with not only valuable agricultural interests, but manufacturing industries of considerable consequence, especially at the village of Belding. The latter place is the largest of the four villages in the township, the other three being Cook's Corners, Smyrna, and Kiddville. Kiddville, on the Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad, is connected by a branch railway with Belding, two miles distant. The other villages have no railway facilities. THE PIONEERS OF OTISCO. It appears that before the eye of the hardy pioneer had rested upon the plains of Otisco in earnest of the pioneer's intention to settle, the value of a water-power on Dickinson Creek (so called) near its confluence with the Flat River engaged the attention of George W. Dickinson, a New York man, who in the year 1836, in company with Thomas Cornell, then and now of Ionia, built a saw-mill on the millsite mentioned. Dickinson was the working and resident partner at the mill, and with him, as a mill-hand, came, among others, Patrick Kelly, who in a little while preempted some land near the mill and became a permanent settler. Latterly he has resided at his son's place in Orleans. Among Dickinson's mill-hands in 1836 and 1837 were Asa Palmer, William G. Bradish, Hiram Baxter, and Thomas Palmer. In July, 1837, Asa Palmer and Rosa McDonald (a servant in Dickinson's family) were married at Dickinson's house by Squire Horton, then a resident of Otisco. That was the pioneer wedding in the township, although residents of the town (Ambrose Spencer and Ev278 elina Melvin) were married before that at Ionia, whither they had to go for the performance of the ceremony, since there was nobody in Otisco prepared to do it. Not long after their marriage Palmer and his wife moved to Orleans, where Palmer lived until his death, and where his widow still resides. Pretty soon after Dickinson and his men made their appearance in Otisco there came to the southern portion of the town Daniel Horton, Nathaniel Horton, and Munson Seely. The Hortons located on section 32, and after tarrying about ten years moved to Iowa, where they died. Seely pitched his tent upon section 21, near where Smyrna now peoples the plain. He grew tired of staying there, however, and in a few years passed on to Muskegon County. COOK'S CORNERS. The little hamlet known as Cook's Corners was the centre of the first important settlement in Otisco, and it became right speedily a place of considerable local repute, chiefly because of its famous tavern. The country thereabouts was, and is, a handsome burr-oak plain, and when, in the fall of 1837, Amos Russell, John L. Morse, and Abel Adgate, of Oakland County, journeyed out to Otisco to look at the country, they were captivated at once, and Russell and Morse straightway made land pre-emptions. Adgate fancied the land as much as did his companions, but his taste of trouble experienced in the tough time they had in getting from Ionia to Otisco dulled the edge of his ambition, and so he concluded he did not want any land. In November, 1837, Russell and Morse, accompanied by R. R. Cook, started once more from Oakland, intending to make some improvement on their Otisco lands (Cook having meanwhile also made a pre-emption), but, the inclement season setting in earlier than they expected, they were forced to abandon their undertaking and return to Oakland for the winter, after having completed one shanty and partly finished a second. Upon their return-journey to Ionia they undertook to effect a shorter cut than the way by which they had come (via the mouth of the Flat River), and, as a consequence, they were swamped in the river, lost in the wilderness, and mired in swamps; but they stuck to it like heroes, and got through alive, although the business was discouraging and tough enough to make them feel more than once like giving up. At the time of the appearance of Russell, Morse, and Cook there were already before them (besides the millpeople at Dickinson's) Nathaniel and Daniel Horton, on section 32; Ambrose Spencer and Munson Seely, in the same locality; Volney Belding and R. W. Davis, keeping bachelors' hall in a shanty just north of where Cook's Corners now are. OTISCO. 279.In February, 1838, Amos Russell, Rufus R. Cook, and J. L. Morse gathered their families and effects for another start towards Ionia County, intending that time to stay. With them started also William Russell, Calvin Gage, and Charles F. Morse, three young men who went on as hired hands. The party navigated the Looking-Glass and Grand Rivers in flat-boats as far as the mouth of the Flat River, and thence by Indian trail they moved to their destination. From Ambrose Spencer's they had to cut their road, and when they reached the present Cook's Corners they found on Cook's place the shanty Cook, Morse, and Russell had put up the previous year. It was a poor affair, fourteen feet square, without chimney, floor, window, or door, and, although it did have a " shake "-roof, it was just a trifle better than no roof at all. Poor as were the lodgings, all hands, to the number of thirteen, lived in the cabin a week. When the beds were made up for the night the rest of the household furniture was set out of doors, for there was just room for the beds, and they in turn had to be bundled out of doors in the morning to give the women-folks a chance to keep house. The first births in Otisco occurred in the Cook's Corners settlement, the first being Eliza, daughter of Amos Russell (now Mrs. Loren C. Fales), and the second A. B. Morse, son of John L. Morse, and now a prominent lawyer of Ionia City. The first death was that of Clarissa Fisk, in June, 1841. The first cemetery was surveyed by Thomas Cornell, on section 21, Dec. 6, 1842. It must be borne in mind that the land occupied by settlers previous to Aug. 5, 1839, was simply pre-empted, for the Otisco lands were not put upon the market until that date. There was therefore danger that at the landsale land-sharks might bid against the pre-emptors for possession, since the improvements thereon would prove a tempting inducement to do so. To prevent such action the settlers joined for the purpose of mutual protection, choosing Asa Spencer to bid in their respective claims, while they themselves proposed to visit condign punishment upon the head of any offender. That determination was widely understood, but, despite its generally wholesome influence, one rash individual made a counter-bid. Promptly enough the irate settlers collared him and gave him fifteen minutes to choose between leaving the country and being pitched into the Grand River. He decided in two minutes to leave the country, and that was the last seen of him in those parts. Among the early comers to the neighborhood of Cook's Corners, in 1839, were Joseph Fisk, John Shaw, Tiberias Belding, Nathaniel Fisk, and Loren Benedict. Mr. Benedict built in 1839, on section 9, the first framed house in Otisco. In 1840, R. R. Cook built the first framed barn. In 1840 came Samuel Demorest, and, in 1841, Silas Kimberly, Frederick Kimberly, and Horace Luscombe. In the fall of 1841, E. S. Jenks, Elder Slade, and William Alexander, of Rensselaer Co., N. Y., came West in search of land, which they expected to find in the Flat River country. Jenks' father urged him to avoid Flat River, for, according to his notion, Flat River must run through a flat country, and a flat country meant fever and ague; wherefore the elder Jenks argued that his son would surely be down flat upon his back as soon as he got there, and would have to be fetched home in the end. Jenks and his companions went out from Ionia to Otisco afoot, and, besides a rough tramp, had a wretched experience with mosquitoes. Slade and Alexander concluded that in such a country they did not want to live, but Jenks thought he might do much worse, and so he was the only one of the party that bought land there. His selection included sixty acres on section 6, and, after arranging his purchase, he went with his two friends to New York State. By the time he got there Jenks was considerably enthused over Michigan, and by his enthusiasm so influenced his neighbors Richard Ellis, William Stokes, and Charles Gibbs that they determined to pack up, sell out, and make for Michigan with their families as soon as ever they could. Accordingly, in the spring of 1842, Jenks, Ellis, Gibbs, and Stokes, with their families and effects, set out for Michigan, accompanied also by John Gibbs, who wanted to "see the country," and who became later also one of Otisco's settlers. The company proceeded via lake to Detroit, and thence, with five ox-teams, through swamps and forest, by way of Scott's, at De Witt, to Otisco, where they landed in May (eleven days after leaving Detroit) and housed themselves with Tiberias Belding, who was then living on section 9. At the time of his first visit Jenks had rolled up a " pen" on his place, fourteen by twentyfour, and into it he moved his family. In that "pen" Mr. Jenks and his family lived for five years, and that it was a pretty poor sort of home may be inferred from the fact that Jenks' father, coming out to visit him, and being shown the building, exclaimed, "Good heavens! Does Erastus live in that thing?" Richard Ellis settled on section 3, Charles Gibbs located in Boston township, and Stokes on section 10, in Otisco, whence he subsequently moved to Montcalm County. When Jenks made his home upon section 6 his nearest neighbor was Sheldon Ashley, in Kent County, about a mile to the westward. Presently he had a nearer neighbor in E. B. Tuttle, who moved to section 6, upon the Enoch Brown place, Tuttle selling the farm to Brown about 1850. Elder Wilson Mosher, a famous pioneer preacher, was an early comer to the neighborhood. His home was on section 7, where his widow now lives. Elder Mosher was an energetic preacher and worker. His motto was " Preach and work," and from the pulpit he once delivered it as his opinion that a lazy man could not well be a Christian. He thought nothing of going ten miles to preach a funeral sermon, and so ready was he at all times to answer calls upon him that he would drop at once whatever work he was engaged in and go, while, as to pay for his services or time, that never occurred as a thought, much less as a request. Early settlers near Cook's not before mentioned were J. M. Brown, Mr. Boynton, C. F. Morse, George Cooley, and M. R. Weter. Weter bought his farm of Mr. Penney, who made the first improvement on it. Later came Hiram Hovey and William Slawson. To return to Cook, of Cook's Corners, history recites that in the fall of 1846, upon the opening of the Grand Rapids and Lyons road via Cook's, Mr. Cook built a tavern,. 280 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. I which became in due time a place of popular resort. There was a good deal of travel over the road, and the tavern did a flourishing business. When the stage-line between Ionia and Greenville was started Cook's was made a stage-house, and until the completion of the Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad to Greenville was a busy and prosperous roadside inn. Although the tavern has always been known as Cook's," Mr. Cook was, as a matter of fact, its landlord only the first year after its erection. He then leased it to Nathaniel Fisk, and, after Fisk, Hiram Weeks was the landlord for fifteen years or thereabout. From the hour it was finished the tavern has been continuously open to the public to this day. In 1839 the Otisco post-office, which was established at Dickinsonville (now Kiddville) in 1838, with George W. Dickinson as postmaster, was transferred to Cook's Corners and given in charge of Rufus R. Cook, Dickinson not fancying the trouble of having to carry mail to and from Ionia. Cook did not mind it so much, but when he went out on his regular mail-carrying expeditions he always took good care to kill two birds with one stone by carrying grists for himself and neighbors to the Ionia mill. In 1850, Mr. Cook opened a store at the "Corners," and after a while took in as a partner J. L. Morse, with whom he carried it on many years. May 1, 1856, Mr. Cook platted the village of Cook's Corners, and recorded it as occupying the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter of section 16. James S. Patterson and Joseph Weeks were the earliest blacksmiths at the " Corners." The first school taught in the neighborhood was kept at a point about half a mile to the westward, by Julia Ann Ackley. In that school, also, one of the early teachers was Seth Reed, afterwards an eminent Methodist Episcopal divine in Michigan. J. S. Gage, who located at the " Corners" in 1846, set up a wagon-shop there in 1855, and still follows the business. Rufus Cook's old store has been kept since 1865 by J. C. Stockholm, who has likewise been postmaster since then. The list of business interests at the Corners includes also the bed-spring factory of Hawley M. Cotter. KIDDVILLE. The beginning made on Dickinson Creek in 1836 by George W. Dickinson with a saw-mill resulted soon in the development of a settlement known as Dickinsonville. A post-office was established there in 1838 and named Otisco. Dickinson was appointed postmaster, but he tired of the office in a year, and then a transfer was made to Cook's Corners. Dickinson carried on the mill until 1845, when he sold out to J. M. Kidd, of Ionia, who surveyed the place as a village, named it Kiddville, and, putting a few goods into the mill-building, hired a clerk to sell them for him, and in 1846 started both mill and store. He built a shanty store right away, and in 1850 erected a decent store. In that he caused the creation of a post-office, and himself was appointed postmaster. His mill business at Kiddville was considerable. During 1856 and 1857 he employed from sixty to seventy men, cut during his mill ownership there upwards of thirty-five million feet of lumber, and owned at one time in that vicinity two thousand five hundred acres of land. He carried on store and mill until 1862, when the latter was burned. The same year he rebuilt it, and in 1863 sold out to Elam Murray and Samuel H. Baird. The property is at this present writing again in the possession of Mr. Kidd, who carries on the mill as a point of supplies for his Ionia manufactory. As to other settlements in the town, mention has already been made of Thomas Stocking, who in the spring of 1839 located south of the Broas settlement. Joseph Collins came over about that time from Orleans and settled near the east town-line. Near Kiddville, Lewis Ellis, Abner Wright, Allen Thompson, James Tallman, John Riker, and John Murray were early comers. Thomas Stocking, above referred to, was an energetic pioneer. Ordinarily, Ionia was the milling-town, but on one occasion, the neighborhood being out of flour, Charles Broas and Thomas Stocking agreed to go to Grand Rapids for a supply. They took two teams, and, cutting their road all the way to Plainfield,-a distance of eighteen miles by section-lines,-were two days making the round trip. In the southern portion of the town the early settlers included Ambrose Spencer, Asa Spencer, Munson Seely, the Hortons, Alvin Moe (upon the place now occupied by D. B. Hoppough), Ezra Spencer, G. C. Spencer, William Gardner (who purchased of William Kitts), James and Judson Buttolph, Alvin Davis (on the place now occupied by B. & B. F. Tower, and first settled by James Barton), E. R. Berry, W. R. Douglass, E. G. Peterson, J. Moon, and C. S. Cowles. East of the river, Edward Ingalls settled on section 27 in 1844, and in the same year Amos Willett and Jeremiah Kilborn came to section 23. Charles M. Benton, who married Willett's daughter, came from Washtenaw County in 1848, Freeman Kilborn to section 26 in 1846, and Peter Cooper in 1848. His widow, now Mrs. Elam Moe, living on the old Cooper place, taught the first school in the Brink district. James Just, now living on section 23, made a permanent location there May 15, 1847, having bought his land in 1844, in which latter year Augustus Northway and Gilbert Caswell were in that vicinity, on the bank of the river. Daniel Philbrick came a few years later, as did W. W. Johnson, a Methodist Episcopal preacher from Adrian, who, after farming a year, took to circuit-riding again. When Just came on, there was no road in his neighborhood, except one from the eastern town-line to the Brink school-house, which he and others at once pushed on to the river. THE GERMAN SETTLEMENT. Along the south tier of sections in Otisco there is something of a German settlement, of which the members are a thrifty and prosperous people. They have a church (their religious faith being Roman Catholic), a school, a store, etc., and compose, in short, a little community to themselves. The pioneer or founder of the settlement was John Albert, of Baden, in Germany, who in the fall of 1841, passing through that region on a clock-peddling tour, was struck with the notion that he might do worse than locate there as a settler. Acting upon the idea, he made a purchase of six hundred and forty acres, or the entire territory OTISCO. 281 covered by section 33. Albert began work upon his land at once, and had, to assist him, Peter Kemp and Henry Kroop, both of whom soon became settlers themselves in that locality. The German settlement did not expand very rapidly after Albert's arrival, and for the first six years was confined to the three settlers named. In 1847, " Big" Henry Kroop (so designated to distinguish him from the first Henry Kroop, known as " Little Henry"), whose boast now is that when he commenced to pioneer he owed seventy-five dollars more than he could pay and was too poor to buy shoes, made a settlement on section 33, and in 1849 along came Charles Kroop. After that Germans came to the settlement rapidly, and in a little while made it a populous and active neighborhood. Among the earlier comers may be named Nicholas, Valentine, and Michael Jacobee, Peter Shindorf, John Loucks, Charles Schiltz, Joseph Warner, Michael Hansen, and Nicholas Manny. Soon after the advent of the Germans efforts were made to introduce public religious worship, and priests were had from Westphalia and Grand Rapids. In 1850 a house of worship was built, and in that year Rev. Father Bolte was engaged as pastor. His term of service was continuous from 1850 to 1862. In 1872 the old church-building was replaced by the edifice now in use,-a handsome and imposing structure measuring forty by fifty-six, with a spire one hundred feet high, and costing in the aggregate upwards of four thousand dollars. In 1876 a parsonage was built, and since then there has been a resident priest. The priest now in charge is Rev. Mr. Brockman. The attendance of worshipers numbers about sixty families. A school is kept, in connection with the church, in the building first used for worship. The scholars number about forty. The teacher in charge is Joseph Cramer, and his assistant Henry Smith. In 1877, Adam Hale opened a store in the German settlement, and still carries it on. RESIDENT TAX-PAYERS OF OTISCO IN 1843. Acres. William Alger, section 24................................. 40 Tiberas Belding, section 9.................................. 80 Volney Belding, section 4.................................. 150 Thomas M. Belding, section 4............................. 120 Baxter & Bradish, section 1................................ 183 Charles Broas, sections 10, 11, 14........................ 322 E. Brawldin...............................................Personal Peter Bull, section 15........................................ 41 Samuel 11. Combs, section 5........................... 80 Dexter Cutler, section 5...................................... 80 Rufus R. Cook, sections 8, 9............................... 160 Joseph L. Collins, section 12............................ 78 M. Coon....................................................Personal Samuel Demorest, sections 10, 15, 25.................... 319 George W. Dickinson, section 21......................... 157 Lewis Ellis, sections 2, 3, 8, 11........................... 226 Nathaniel Fisk, section 4.................................. 0 Joseph Fisk, section 5....................................... 195 Ambrose Fredericks.................................... Personal Charles L. D. 1Iaroun, section 10........................ 120 Daniel F. Horton, section 32.............................. 270 Paul P. Iewett, section 22................................. 50 Servis Horton, sections 5, 6, 7............................. 152 Silas Kimberly, section 5................................... 80 Frederick Kimberly, section 5............................. 80 Patrick Kelley, sections 1, 12............................. 91 W illiam Kitts, section 31................................... 160 Horace Luscorube, section 8...................... 80 John L. Morse, section 9................................... 116 Miller & Ilecock, sections 32, 33......................... 120 A. P. Miller, section 21...................................... 60 Alvin Moe, sections 5, 32................................... 203 James Moon, Jr., section 9................................. 46 James Moon, section 29...................................... 80 36 Acres. Benjamin M oe............................................Personal Elam M oe................................................ A. N orth................................................... " Jerome Pease, section 17................................... 80 Charles Parker................................ Personal A. I1. Russell, section 15.................................. 140 W illiam Russell, section 15................................ 80 John Riker, sections 2, 35.............................. 85 S. H. Rose.................................................Personal A bram Rose............................................... Josiah Russell, sections 9, 15........................ 93 John Shaw, section 4......................................... 203 Thomas Stocking, sections 14, 1........................ 127 Ezra Spencer, sections 28, 32.............................. 253 Daniel P. Springer, section 6.............................. 76 II. C. Stewait, section 31.................................... 77 A. M. Seeley........................................... P...Personal Solomon Tower.................................... " hIiram Green, sections 2, 11............................... 113 Alonzo Vaughn, sections 20, 21........................... 140 Gilbert Caswell, section 28................................. 43 C. L. Demorest, section 10.......................... 80 TOWNSHIP HIGHWAYS. The first recorded road on the Otisco highway records was surveyed by Thomas Cornell, laid out by order of Rufus R. Cook and Edward Butterfield, highway commissioners of Otisco, and recorded May 10, 1839. It commenced at the southwest corner of town 8 north, range 8 west, and ended on the north side of section 4, in the same town. May 11, 1839, Thomas Cornell surveyed a road as a continuation of the road from Ionia, commencing at the quarter-post set in the western end of said road near Ambrose Spencer's, and terminating at the line of the river road. On the same day another road was laid, commencing at the post set at the angle No. 6 of the river road, near A. M. Seely's, running past Amos H. Russell's, and ending at the northwest corner of section 15, town 8. June 28, 1839, Thomas Cornell surveyed a road commencing at a post set south twenty-five chains and forty links from the quarter-post on the east side of section 1, and ending at the quarter on the north side of section 9. March 21, 1840, a road was laid commencing at the northwest corner of section 18, and following the sectionline easterly on the north side of sections 18, 17, 16, and 15 to the quarter-post on the north side of section 14. The same day a road was laid commencing on section 19, town 7, sixty-four rods north of the quarter-stake, and ending at a point on section 24 where the road running west leaves the quarter-line. The same day a road was laid from the quarter-post on the west side of section 30, town 7, to the quarter-post on the east side of section 25. Sept 25, 1839, a road was laid beginning at the quarterpost on the west side of section 21, town 7, and ending at the corners of sections 25, 26, 35, and 36. Feb. 29, 1840, a road was established beginning at the quarter-post on the east side of section 28, town 8, and ending at the road running from Asa Spencer's to Ionia. Dec. 16, 1840, a road commencing at the quarter-post on the west side of section 4 and ending at the centre of the section. Dec. 17, 1840, a road commencing at the post set on the north-and-south quarter-line of section 1, where the road running below G. W. Dickinson's saw-mill crosses said quarter-line. Dec. 18, 1840, a road commencing at the meandering-post set on the east side of Flat River, on the town-line between towns 8 and 9, and extending to a point a little below George W. Dickinson's saw-mill. 282 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. I At a meeting of the board of highway commissioners of the township of Otisco, May 11, 1839, present Rufus R. Cook and Edward Butterfield, it was ordered that the said town be laid out into four road-districts, as follows: All that part of said town included in the four north tiers of sections in town 8 north, range 8 west, and lying east of Flat River, to be known as District No. 1; all that part of the same tiers of sections above mentioned, and lying on the west side of Flat River, to be known as District No. 2; all that part of said town included in the two south tiers of sections in town 8 north, range 8 west, and the north half of town 7 north, range 8 west, to be known as District No. 3; all that part of said town included in the south half of town 7 north, range 8 west, to be known as District No. 4. The following persons were duly appointed overseers of highways for the ensuing year: For District No. 1, G. W. Dickinson; District No. 2, Amos H. Huzsell; District No. 3, Asa Spencer; District No. 4, Charles Hecox. SCHOOLS. FORMATION OF DISTRICTS. At a meeting of the board of school inspectors at the town clerk's office, Sept. 25, 1838, it was ordered that School District No. 1 be laid out to include all of sections 4, 9, 10, 15, 21, 22, 28, 32, and 33. May 16, 1840, the township was divided into three school districts, No. 1 to include sections 9, 14, 15, 21, 22, 28, 29, 32, and 33; No. 2 to embrace sections 1, 2, 3, 10, 11, 12; No. 3 to include sections 13, 14, 24, 25, 35, 36, 26 of town 7. District No. 4 was formed Feb. 13, 1841, to include sections 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, and 17, except such portions of sections 10 and 15 as lay east of Flat River. Aug. 29, 1846, District No. 5 was formed, to contain section 13, the east half of section 14, all that part of section 22 lying east of Flat River, together with the whole of sections 23, 24, 25, and 26. District No. 7 was formed Jan. 23, 1847, commencing at the northwest corner of section 27; thence extending east to the quarter-post on the north line of section 26; thence south on the quarter-line through sections 26 and 35 to the south town-line; thence west on said line to the quarter-post of section 33; thence west to the river; thence up the river to the place of beginning. The annual report for 1848 gave the following as the number of scholars: District No. 1, 75; District No. 2, 62; District No. 3, 67; District No. 4, 57; District No. 5, 24; District No. 7, 24; District No. 3 (fractional), 7. District No. 6 was formed Oct. 10, 1846, to include sections 9, 18, and 19 of Otisco, and sections 12, 13, and 24 of Grattan. District No. 8 was formed Feb. 21, 1849, to commence at the southwest corner of section 21, and to extend thence north to the northwest corner of section 21; thence east to the north quarter-post of section 22; thence south on the quarter-line to the south line of said section; thence west to the southwest corner of section 22; thence south to the southwest corner of section 27; thence west to Flat River; thence down Flat River to the section-line between sections 32 and 33; thence north to the quarter-post between sections 28 and 29; thence west to the west quarter-post of section 29; thence north to the northwest corner of section 29; thence east to the place of beginning. March 7, 1849, District No. 9 was formed, to commence at the quarter-post standing on the west line of section 31; thence north to the northwest quarter-post of section 19; thence south to the section-line of section 19; thence east to the southeast corner of section 19; thence south to the quarter-post between sections 31 and 32; thence west to the place of beginning. In 1849 the amount of primary school fund apportioned to the'town was eighty-five dollars and forty-seven cents. The scholars reported in the various districts numbered as follows: No. 1, 75; No. 2, 62; No. 3, 67; No. 4, 57; No. 5, 24; No. 7, 24; No. 8, 40. The following statistics are taken from the school inspectors' annual report for the year ending Sept. 1, 1880: Directors. E Dist. 1.....R. Warren.' " 1.....G. H. Canutet. "2.....George Hoppough. " 3...... A. Waldron. 4.....Jerome Kern. 4.....F. P. Riterstorf.t " 5.....Joseph Cobb. 6.....W. E. Choate. ".....B. Tower. 9.....J. M. Earle.+ Total....................... numer- Average Value of ation. Attendance. Property. 76 75 $1200 35 22 800 96 74 1000 19 16 100 30 28 200 71 36 900 55 45 1000 53 43 700 22 24 400 205 138 600 662 501 $6900 Teachers' Wages. $335 119 465 130 54 162 150 115 132 615 $2278 TEACHERS. The first teacher's certificate issued by the school inspectors of Otisco seems to have been dated Aug. 9, 1842, when the board met to examine the school-teacher for District No. 1, but who the teacher was the record does not say. Similarly, there is no earlier mention of certificates, although some were doubtless issued directly after the town was organized, in 1838. Certificates were issued to teachers from 1843 to 1860 as follows: June 11, 1843, Julia Ann Ackley and Mary Patrick; Nov. 4, 1843, Elisha Cranson; Nov. 28, 1843, Seth Reed; May 4, 1844, Harriet Russell; May 11, 1844, Adeline Loomis; June 27, 1844, Martha Davis; May 8, 1845, Amanda Loomis; Nov. 7, 1845, Adeline Loomis; Dec. 4, 1845, Gideon Kendrick; Jan. 13, 1846, Elizabeth A. Bruce; May 29, 1846, William Kibley; Dec. 1, 1846, Cyrenus Kelsey; Jan. 2, 1847, G. E. Caukins; April 23, 1847, William Ashley, Susan Ingalls; April 23, 1847, Miss E. A. Bruce; Dec. 28, 1847, Miss C. Emeline Slayton; June 17, 1848, Fanny M. Slayton; May 19, 1849, Louisa Jane Melvin; Nov. 3, 1849, L. R. Chaddock, Mary French; April 13,1850, Martha Davis, Nancy Jane Davis, Amy Root, Emily Boynton; April 15, 1850, Sarah M. Atwood; Nov. 2, 1850, John H. Pasco, John H. Hitchcock, Cyrenus Alger; Nov. 14, 1850, Edwin Peck; Dec. 4, 1850, Mary Worster; April 26, 1851, Mary Gardner, Fanny M. Slayton, Fanny E. French, Lucy M. Hoyt, and Miranda C. Bement; May 24, 1851, Polly Clark, Diana Ingalls; Nov. 1, 1851, George A. Brigham; Nov. 25, 1851, Willard B. Wells, H. O. Cooper; April 10, 1852, Mary Ann Purdy; June 3, 1852, Martha Davis, Eunice - Cook's Corners graded school. ] Belding graded school. t Fractional. OTISCO. 283 I TISO28 Hewitt; June 9, 1852, Mrs. Harriet M. Alden; Nov. 6, 1852, William S. Lazelle; Nov. 20, 1852, Judson Buttolph; Nov. 27, 1852, Alfred M. Chapin; Dec. 11, 1852, Morris D. Wells; April 9, 1853, Cecilia Weeks and Diana Ingalls; April 19, 1853, Sarah B. Willett; May 1, 1853, Sarah Moe; May 14, 1853, Sarah R. Underhill; May 17, 1853, Elvira Seely; June 9, 1853, Julia Caswell; Dec. 3, 1853, Eliza B. Fries,. Theresa M. Stewart, Frances Caukins; Dec. 30, 1853, Willard B. Wells; April 8, 1854, Miss Slayton and Mary Anderson; May 9, 1854, Mrs. Harriet Alden; May 29, 1854, Julia Olmstead; July 31, 1854, Nancy Jane Davis; Nov. 4, 1854, James Trumbull; Dec. 14, 1854, Anson R. Arnold, Mrs. Smith, Edward Shaw; April 14, 1855, Cecilia Weeks, Cooper; April 25, 1855, Lavina Clark, Elizabeth Fuller; April 26, 1855, Mariette Wales, Mary A. Witt; Nov. 3, 1855, Geo. Anderson, C. B. Stayt, Charles Martin, William B. Campbell; Nov. 10, 1855, Noah Huson; Dec. 4, 1855, Catharine Latta; April 24, 1856, William Ball; May 2, 1856, Marian S. Mack, Lavina M. Coe; Nov. 1, 1856, P. A. Latta, L. D. Grove, C. B. Anderson; Nov. 15, 1856, A. D. Pickett, D. Dodge, Jr.; April 23, 1857, Minerva Page; May 3, 1857, Mary C. Davenport; June 3, 1857, Ellen Murray; Feb. 27, 1857, Rhoda A. Norton, J. R. Norton; March 16, 1857, Marietta Wales; April 1, 1857, Sarah Light; April 11, 1857, Lavina Clark; Nov. 6, 1857, F. R. Chase; Nov. 7, 1857, Daniel S. Root, S. W. Dunning, Sarah Mason, Mary Rogers; Dec. 4,1857, Cynthia Gorton; March 26, 1858, Minerva T. Pollock; April 17, 1858, Nancy Anderson, Julia E. Day, Betsey Russell, Geo. Hill; April 24, 1858, Susan A. Willett; May 6, 1858, Adeline Reynolds; May 10, 1858, Mary Ann Philbrick; May 13,1858, Maria Shearer; Oct. 15, 1858, Irvin Brooks; Nov. 6, 1858, Mrs. T. K. Clark, Miss E. Emeline Cutler, Sarah Frances Gibbs, Miss J. A. Fisk, L. D. Grove, Isaac Peasly, Wilbur Moon, Charles Martin; Jan. 11, 1859, N. P. Plaisted; April 9, 1859, Emma Grove, Cordelia Morse, Helena Watkins; May 2, 1859, Ann S. Lovell, Julia M. Sessions, Helena Peck; May 7, 1859, Corintha Wilbur; Nov. 5, 1859, Charles B. Anderson, William J. Just, E. H. Crowell, Nettie S. Cone, Margaret R. Weeks, Betsey Fallass, B. F. Morse; April 25, 1860, Ann Barrett; May 19, 1860, Sarah Light. RELIGIOUS. The first minister heard or seen in the township was Rev. Mr. Freese, a Methodist Episcopal preacher sent out by the Ohio Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, then exercising jurisdiction in Michigan. Mr. Freese's circuit covered the territory from Grandville up the Grand River to Lowell, and up the Flat River to Otisco, as well as a tract north of Grand Rapids to Courtland. His first sermon in Otisco was preached at the house of Munson Seely, probably in 1838. In that year-so the records go-Amos H. Russell, Esther Russell, and Margaret Hewitt were among the members of the charge known as the Flat River Circuit. In 1839, Thomas Stocking and Hannah Stocking were recorded as members, Ebenezer and Sally W. Smith in 1844, Daniel Grove, Abigail Grove, Catharine Lamoreux, and Henry Laverty in 1846, Abigail Moon, Eliza Anderson, D. W. Day, and Esther Day in 1847, and Oliver Stocking in 1849. Mr. Freese intended to ride over his circuit on horseback, but one trip convinced him that the country was not suited to horseback-riding. He thereupon sold his horse, and after that footed it, with saddle-bags in hand, during the residue of his term of service. Elder Godfrey, a Christian minister, and Elder Wooster, a Baptist, were early on the ground as dispensers of the Word, Wooster, who had been sent for by John Shaw, preaching his first sermon, in 1840, in Rufus R. Cook's house. The Methodist Episcopal Class organized by Mr. Freese has passed through many vicissitudes of fortune, but its active existence has never been interrupted, although at times exceeding feeble. Its present membership is nine, and of the nine all are females, Catharine Wilson being the leader. Meetings are held at the town-house. FIRST BAPTIST CIURCH OF OTISCO. The First Baptist Church of Otisco was organized some time previous to 1852 at Cook's Corners, where in the year named a house of worship was erected. The edifice was dedicated by Elder Prescott, then the pastor of the church. Since 1852 the organization has enjoyed a continuous existence and a fair share of prosperity. The members now number thirty. Services are held once in two weeks, Rev. William Buel being the pastor. Judson Buttolph is the deacon, Frank R. Chase superintendent of the Sunday-school (which has an average attendance of thirty scholars), and Frank R. Chase, Judson Buttolph, Mrs. R. R. Cook, H.IDisbrow, and Mrs. E. Heydorn, the trustees. THE OTISCO SOCIETY OF SPIRITUALISTS AND LIBERALISTS. This organization meets once a week in the town-hall at Cook's Corners. Roselle Warren is the president. TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION. March 6, 1838, all that portion of lonia County known as towns 7 and 8 north, in range 8 west, was organized as a township, to which was given the name of Otisco (probably from Otisco, N. Y.), and the first meeting was ordered to be held at the house of Robert W. Davis. Feb. 16, 1842, town 7 was set off as Keene. The electors of the township convened, according to law, on the 2d of April, 1838, and organized by choosing, viva voce, John L. Morse as moderator, Nathaniel E. Horton as clerk, and Robert W. Davis, Ambrose Spencer, and Rufus R. Cook as inspectors. The result of the canvass was the election of the following: Supervisor, John L. Morse; Clerk, R. W. Davis; Assessors, George W. Dickinson, Amos H. Russell, and Ambrose Spencer; Highway Commissioners, George W. Dickinson, Ambrose Spencer, and Rufus R. Cook; Directors of the Poor, William M. Springer and Volney Belding; Justices of the Peace, Robert W. Davis, George W. Dickinson, Rufus R. Cook, and Nathaniel E. Horton; School Inspectors, Robert W. Davis, George W. Dickinson, and Nathaniel E. Horton; Constable and Collector, Ambrose Spencer. The justices of the peace, one assessor, one highway 284 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICIIGAN. commissioner, one director of the poor, and one school inspector not qualifying, a special election to fill the vacancies was held May 15, 1838, and the following chosen: Highway Commissioner, George W. Dickinson; Assessor, George W. Dickinson; Justices of the Peace, Nathaniel E. Horton, Rufus R. Cook, Amos H. Russell, and Alonzo Vaughn; School Inspector, John L. Morse; Director of the Poor, Paul P. Hewitt. At the first meeting of the township board, Sept. 25, 1838, the following accounts were audited: Thomas Cornell, two days' services in laying roads, four dollars; N. E. Horton, fees to county clerk, twelve and a half cents. At the same meeting three dollars were voted for the contingent expenses of the town. The persons chosen annually from 1839 to 1880, inclusive, to be supervisors, clerks, treasurers, and justices of the peace will be found named below: SUPERVISORS. 1839, Asa Spencer; 1840, John L. Morsel; 1841, C. Broas; 1842, J. L. Morse; 1843-44, A. Moe; 1845, L. Patterson; 1846-47, J. Boynton; 1848, A. Williams; 1849, A. Moe; 1850, E. F. Root; 1851-53, R. R. Cook; 1854-55, A. W. Wales; 1856, R. Ellis; 1857-58, R. R. Cook; 1859, B. Fish;t 1860-61, W. Russell; 1862 -63, I. Brink; 1864-65, R. R. Cook; 1866, J. Avery; 1867-69, C. D. Ellis; 1870-71, A. C. Davis; 1872, R. R. Cook; 1873-76, J. A. Sage; 1877-80, J. S. Gage. CLERKS. 1839, J. L. Morse; 1840, R. R. Cook; 1841, S. Heath; 1842, Ezra Spencer; 1843-44, 0. W. Dickinson; 1845, E. Davis; 1846-47, G. W. Dickinson; 1848, W. Fisher; 1849, D. W. Day; 1850, 0. Nickerson; 1851, J. Wood; 1S52, O. Nickerson; 1853, J. B. Purdy; 1854, J. L. Morse; 1855, D. W. Day; 1856-57, A. J. Ecker; 1858, C. Stoughton: 1859-61, J. B. Purdy; 1862-63, L. P. Davis; 1864-65, C. II. Randall; 1866, J. A. Sage; 1867-68, L. C. Fnles; 1869, A. C. Moe; 1870-71, J. B. Purdy; 1872-73, W. R. Hubbard; 1874, C. B. Anderson; 1875, F. Deitz; 1876 -77, George P. Hoppough; 1878, F. A. Lamb; 1879-80, J. M. Earle. TREASURERS. 1839, Ambrose Spencer; 1840, Asa Spencer; 1841, Samuel Wells; 1842-43, A. II. Russell; 1844, S. Demorcst; 1845-46, H. Green; 1847, T. Belding; 1848, C. F. Morse; 1849-50, A. Sanderson; 1851-52, J. Anderson; 1853-54, S. Kimberly; 1855, J. J. Joslin; 1856, W. R. Hubbard; 1857, J. F. Dumon; 1858, D. W. Day; 1859, A.W. Wales; 1860, V. Belding; 1861, I. Brink; 1862, E. Hinds; 1863, R. L. Russell; 1864, F. Belding; 1865, A. D. Hewitt; 1866, A. II. Russell; 1867-68, W. R. Hubbard; 1869, W. Gardner; 1870, L. C. Fales; 1871, F. Deitz; 1872, J. G. Snyder; 1873-74, D. C. Upson; 1875-76, E. Murray; 1877-78, R. Brown; 1879-80, George P. IIoppough. JUSTICES OF TIIE PEACE. 1839, Dexter Cutler; 1840, G. Caswell; 1841, Asa Spencer; 1842, T Stocking; 1843, J. Russell; 1844, G. Caswell; 1845, J. Jones; 1846, A. Moe; 1847, T. Stocking; 1848, G. Caswell; 1849, R. R. Cook; 1850, A. Moe; 1851, J. 11. Richardson; 1852, A. Spencer; 1853, J. S. Patterson; 1854, A. Moe; 1855, R. Ellis; 1856, C. L. Smith; 1857, M. H. Norton; 1858, Daniel Grove; 1859, R. Ellis; 1860, C. L. Smith; 1861, A. S. Ford; 1862, Daniel Grove; 1863, R. Ellis; 1864, C. L. Smith; 1865, A. S. Ford; 1866, J. S. Gage; 1867, R. Ellis; 1868, C. L. Smith; 1869, R. Russell; 1870, J. S. Gage; 1871, R. Ellis; 1872, C. L. Smith; 1873, E. B. Purdy; 1874, J. S. Gage; 1875, W. A. Luther; 1876, C. L. Smith; 1877, George Moon; 1878, J. S. Gage; 1879, W. A. Luther; 1880, C. L. Smith. * Thirty-seven votes cast. t Two hundred and seventy-seven votes cast. JURORS. May 11, 1839, the assessors certified that the following persons were suitable to serve as jurors for the county of Ionia for the ensuing year: John Shaw, John Riker, Asa Spencer, Charles Broas, Thomas Stocking, Edward Butterfield, Loren Benedict, Lemuel Day. For 1840 the jurors were James Moon, Volney Belding, Gilbert Caswell, Joseph Fisk, William Russell, Orrin Owen, David Shaul, John L. Covert. For 1841 they were Nathaniel Beattie, Nathaniel Davenport, Cyrus Rose, Ephraim Abbott, Jennison Henry, Amos H. Russell, Charles Broas, Thomas Stocking, Dexter Cutler, Alonzo Vaughn. For 1842 they were Rufus R. Cook, John Shaw, John L. Morse, Jerome Pease, Alvin Moe, Samuel Demorcst, Gilbert Caswell, Thomas Belding. For 1844 they were Alvin Moe, Josiah Russell, Gilbert Caswell, Charles Broas, Joseph Fisk, Samuel Demorest, Abner Wright, Austin Sanderson, William Russell, Calvin L. Smith. For 1844'the town voted one hundred and sixteen dollars for contingent expenses, but nothing for highways, for the support of the poor, or for the support of common schools. THE VILLAGE OF BELDING. In 1837, Charles Broas, of Broome Co., N. Y. moved to Oakland Co., Mich., where his son-in-law, Mathew Coons, was living, and after abiding there a year went out with Erastus Higbee to Ionia County in search of a land-location. Higbee suited himself in Orleans, but Broas picked out four lots of eighty acres each in Otisco, on sections 10 and 11, where the village of Belding now is. He was piloted to the place by Thomas Stocking, then living temporarily in Ionia, although making ready to occupy land south of Broas' tract, to which he soon moved his family. Broas had intended to settle in the southern part of the State, but the prevalence there of fever and ague fiightened him off and persuaded him farther northward. After selecting his land in Otisco he moved his family to Ionia, and during the ensuing eight months kept them there, while he, his son Levi, and a hired man named Abraham Roosa bent themselves towards the improvement of the Otisco place. Broas, being first in that neighborhood, was in brisk demand among incoming land-lookers, who depended upon him to show them the lay of the land. His log cabin, measuring but eleven by fourteen, was a house of entertainment for all who passed that way belated. It is told that a party of land-lookers, halting at the house one night for lodging, hesitated at stopping for fear the accommodations would not suffice. Upon counting the boards in the floor, however, and finding there was a board for each man's bed, and an extra board to allow of " turning over," they at once decided they would stay. In February, 1839, Mr. Broas settled his family in the eleven-by-fourteen log cabin, and in 1840 took hold with others and built a bridge across the Flat River at what is now Belding. It stands as a tribute to John Shaw's shrewdness that when asked to assist in building that bridge he replied that lie wanted a bridge to Kiddville, and would reserve his assistance for that enterprise. Later, OTISCO. 285 - when called upon to do something towards putting down the Kiddville bridge, he professed himself as amply satisfied with the Belding bridge; and so he got bridge accommodations at both places without paying out a cent. In 1842. Mr. Broas constructed a wing-dam and race and erected a saw-mill on the present site of Wilson, Luther & Wilson's mill. About that time Lucius Patterson came to the town with his father-in-law, Alexis Loomis (who settled on section 16), and, buying an interest with Broas in the mill property, joined the latter in throwing a dam across the river. The mill enterprise did not flourish, and after a little while it was abandoned. Charles Broas thereupon devoted himself exclusively to farming, and in 1855 died upon the place he cleared in 1838. Meanwhile, the mill property was suffered to lie neglected, but, in 1856, Lucius Patterson, renewing possession, engaged Volney Belding to build a new dam, and, materially improving the mill, he set it once more in motion. In 1855, Hiram Belding had come in and bought a piece of land of Levi Broas on the present village-site. He found it difficult to pay from his land-earnings the interest on the money he had borrowed to make his land-purchases, and to assist him his sons sent to a brother in New York (there at work for a firm of silk-dealers) for small invoices of silks and other goods, offering to sell for him on commission. These goods the boys carried about the country in carpet-sacks, and sold them to such good advantage that they rendered valuable aid to their father in the payment of his debts. The story runs that from that small beginning sprang the present immense silk-trade carried on by the Beldings. In 1857 the place now known as Belding, and previously referred to as Broas' Rapids, was established as a postoffice, with the name of Patterson's Mill. E. M. Stevens, who was boarding Patterson's mill-hands, was appointed postmaster. The mail was brought over from Cook's Corners for a year, and then the office at Patterson's was discontinued. In 1858, S. S. Brown, a carpenter, came to Patterson's Mill, and found there three houses occupied respectively by Daniel T. Fargo, Lucius Patterson, and Elam Murray. Hiram Belding was living on the hill near by, but farmed on the present village-site, where he had broken twenty acres and put them into wheat. In 1858, Brown built a house for Hiram Belding on the present village-site, and Belding moved into it in 1859. In 1862 the post-office at Patterson's Mill was revived with a stage-mail, and S. S. Brown appointed postmaster. In this year Patterson disposed of his mill-interests to James Cochranc, who in 1863 took in William A. Knott, and the same year sold the balance of the entire concern to Knott. In 1864, Iliram Belding opened what was called a store on the site of Ncwcomb's drug-store, and after trading there a short time sold to J. B. Vincent, who remained there until 1869, wlen he put up a better and more commodious store-building. In 1870, S. S. Brown built the present tavern, and oyencd it as " Brown's I otel." In 1867, William A. Knott built the present grist-mill, and in 1868 the first village school-house was built, school having previously been found for the village children at Cook's Corners. The first school-teacher in the Belding school was Amelia Sabin. The second storekeeper in the village was Albert E. Weter, and the first resident physician Dr. Romig, now of Ionia. The present village physicians are Drs. Palmer Coville and Albert Connor, the former of whom lived and practiced many years in the township before taking up his residence in Belding. In 1871, when there were in Belding but thirteen families, and but seventeen school-children in the district drawing public money, the firm of Wilson, Luther & Wilson, of New York, purchased of William A. Knott a mill-site at Belding and erected a saw-mill forty by one hundred and twenty-five, with a capacity of from fifty thousand to sixty thousand feet of lumber daily. The introduction of such an important enterprise, involving the employment of many people and much capital, gave the little village a sharp push forward, and in a trice it began to develop with rapid strides. In 1872 a branch railway connecting Belding with Kiddville was completed, and added one more to the many impulses that Belding had received in its march towards prosperity. Although the survey of Belding village was made by the Beldings some time before that date, they did not record the plat until March 4, 1873, while C. W. Putney's addition, on sections 10 and 11, was recorded Nov. 1, 1871, and Levi Broas' addition, on section 11, Nov. 9, 1871. The Belding plat was signed by Alvah N. Belding, Milo M. Belding, and Hiram H. Belding, and commenced at a point five chains and fifty-four links south from the west quarter-post of section 11; running thence east parallel with the north section-line of section 11 a distance of twenty-five chains and fifty links; thence north at right angles with said line fifteen chains and fifty links; thence west parallel with said line two chains; thence north at right angles with said line one chain and fifty links; thence west parallel with said line six chains; thence north at right angles with said line two chains; thence west parallel with said line two chains; thence north at right angles with said line one chain and fifty links; thence west parallel with said line fifteen chains and fifty links; thence southerly at right angles with said line twenty chains and fifty links to the place of beginning,-the whole containing forty-seven and seven-eighths acres. VILLAGE CHURCHES. The Christian Church of Otisco, located at Belding.Jan. 25, 1846, the Christian Church of Otisco was organized in the vicinity of Cook's Corners, under the direction of Elders N. Godfrey and John O. Goodsell, with sixteen members, most of whom had previously been members of the same denomination in the far East, and of whom eight had been members of the same church at Pittstown, in Rensselaer Co., N. Y. The sixteen members were Richard and Hannah Ellis, Allen and Sally Thompson, E. S. Jenks, Elsie Jenks, George A. and Abigail Phillips, Alexander W. and Josephine Howe, Joseph and Sally Ann Thompson, Lorenzo D. and Mary Bates, Clarissa Boynton, and Mary Stokes. At the first meeting George A. Phillips was 286 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. I chosen clerk, and at a meeting March 24, 1846, Richard Ellis was elected to be deacon. During the year Elder Godfrey served as pastor, preaching once a month, and April 1, 1847, Rev. G. A. Hendryx began a year's term of service. In June, 1848, Wilson Mosher and his wife were received as members, and Mr. Mosher, being thereupon called to take charge of the church, became the first settled pastor. Mr. Mosher continued to be the church's pastor for the space of twenty-five years, until his death, June 10, 1873. He preached at first in the school-house near G. V. Snyder's, two miles northwest of Belding, and afterwards in the town-house at Cook's Corners. Some years prior to 1873 the place of worship was transferred to Belding, where, Aug. 2, 1875, the erection of a church-edifice was begun, under the inducement of a promise from the Beldings and Wilson, Luther & Wilson that they would donate one-fifth of the cost. The church was completed in September, 1876, and dedicated upon the 1st of October of that year. In the fall of 1860, E. S. Jenks and Alvin Berry were ordained as elders and Norman S. Wright chosen the second deacon. Upon Mr. Mosher's death, Rev. Elisha Mudge, who had been associated with Mr. Mosher in the pastoral charge, continued his labors alone, and in November of that year Rev. L. N. Barber was engaged to work with him. Mr. Mudge was obliged by his duties at Maple Rapids to relinquish his labors at Belding, and thereupon Rev. D. E. Millard was installed as pastor. In 1878, Mr. Millard retired, and Rev. E. Mudge, answering the call, has been in charge to this time. The society was incorporated Dec. 12, 1874, when the trustees chosen were R. Ellis, W. A. Luther, George Ranny, E. S. Jenks, and D. E. Wilson. The trustees for 1880 were E. S. Jenks, C. W. Putney, William Slawson, William A. Luther, and D. E. Wilson. The church-membership is seventy, the deacons are E. S. Jenks and C. W. Putney, and the Sunday-school superintendent J. B. Millard. First Baptist Church of Belding.-The First Baptist Church, organized in 1875 with sixteen members, has now twenty-five. W. P. Newcomb has served as deacon since the organization, and is now superintendent of the Sundayschool, in which the average attendance includes six teachers and from sixty to seventy-five scholars. Meetings have thus far been held in the village school-house, although there is at present talk of building a house of worship. Rev. William Buel, the first pastor, preached six months, was succeeded by Rev. E. R. Clark, and, returning in 1877, Mr. Buel still continues in charge. Belding Class Methodist Episcopal Church.-Belding Class was formed Dec. 19, 1875, with members as follows: Charles F. Watson, Miranda Watson, Catharine Rossman, H. P. Campbell, Eliza Campbell, Laura Long, Mrs. Deitz, Anna Orser, Rhoda Watson, Anna L. O'Brien, and John Rossman. Charles F. Watson, chosen leader at that time, has served as such ever since. The class is on the Orleans charge, has always met for worship at the village school house, and has now a membership of fifteen. The pastors have been Revs. M. D. Carrel, N. Bray, - Bronson, J. M. Aikcn, and M. II. Ware. BELDING'S PUBLIC SCHOOL. Belding's first school-house was built in 1868, and, although enlarged since then, has come to be inadequate to present demands. A very handsome and attractive schoolbuilding, occupying a commanding site, is now in process of completion, and, according to present intent, will be ready for occupancy Jan. 1, 1881. It is to be a two-story brick structure surmounted with a cupola, and will cost, when finished, four thousand five hundred dollars. Belding is in School District No. 9 of the township. The enrollment of school-children in the district is two hundred and five, and the average attendance at school one hundred and thirty-eight. In the new school there will be three departments. J. B. Millard is the principal, and Miss Anderson the assistant. MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES. Reference having already been made to the inception of the milling business of Wilson, Luther & Wilson at Belding, it remains to say that the large mill they built in 1871 was prosperously conducted until its destruction by fire, in 1878. Measures were at once set on foot for a restoration of the structure, and in April, 1879, the new mill was started with a cutting capacity of fifty thousand feet a day. The mill-power now in use is exclusively steam, whereas in the old mill it was water. The lumber-shipments by the firm aggregate six millions of feet annually, and the sales at the mill one million. Employment is furnished to from fifty to one hundred men, according to the condition of business. The mill is run during the open season of the year, and in the winter operations are confined to getting out logs, which are cut on the firm's pine-lands, in Lake and Montcalm Counties, where they own upwards of three thousand acres. In connection with their saw-mill they have also a sash-, door-, and blind-factory, and for thetr entire business operations at Belding occupy an area of thirtyfive acres. The Richard T. Hambrook Manufacturing Company. -This chartered corporation, with a capital of thirty-five thousand dollars, has its headquarters in the city of Chicago, where, in 1873, R. T. Hambrook & Sons founded the business. In 1876 the present corporation was formed and a branch manufactory established at Belding, where in that year a two-story frame factory was built, of dimensions forty by one hundred feet, and containing a nine-foot basement. The manufactures include school, church, and office furniture, refrigerators, cabinets, etc. Especial attention is given to the manufacture of the Patent Key-Note School Desk. In 1876 the force employed in the Belding factory was fifteen men, and in the fall of 1880 the pay-roll showed thirty-eight names, although the average for the year was not above thirty. Steam-power is employed exclusively. All the raw material, except black-walnut, is obtained in the neighborhood of Belding. The major portion of the product is shipped to Chicago. The officers of the company are Richard T. Hambrook, President; E. P. Phelps, Treasurer; John Lewis, Secretary. The superintendent at Belding is Joseph T. Hambrook. Knott & Smith's Grist-Mill.-The grist-mill built by William A. Knott in 1867 is now carried on by Knott & OTISCO. 287 Smith. It employs water-power, is furnished with-four run of stone, and has a capacity for four hundred bushels daily. Almost exclusive attention is given to custom-work and supplying of lumber-camps in the northern country. NEWSPAPERS. Belding's first newspaper was the Belding Telegram, which William F. Slawson started in December, 1877. He issued forty-six numbers, and then carried the concern to Greenville. June 19, 1879, Mudge & Kendall printed the first number of The Belding HIome News in pamphlet form. It is now issued every Thursday as a five-column folio, and aims to be independent in politics. SOCIETIES. Belding Lodge, F. and A. MI.-Belding Lodge is now working under a dispensation issued in December, 1879. The members number twenty-eight. The officers are Rev. E. Mudge, W. M.; J. M. Earle, S. W.; Thomas Crebbin, J. W.; A. D. Jenks, Sec.; R. M. Wilson, Treas.; H. A. Jersey, S. D.; George Light, J. D.; A. C. Huff, Tiler. Ancient Order of United Workmen.-Belding Lodge, Ancient Order of United Workmen, was organized in January, 1877, with eleven members. Charles Ranney was chosen the M. W., and E. F. Crooks the Recorder. Now there are forty-seven members, and officers as follows: M. E. Durkee, M. W.; M. V. Divine, Recorder; R. M. Wilson, G. F.; Daniel Hubbard, Overseer; C. D. Ellis, Receiver; Loren Kendall, F.; G. Haroun, Guide; Eugene Rothrick, I. W.; S. S. Brown, O. W.; S. S. Brown, D. G. M. SHIPMENTS, ETC. The shipments of wheat from Belding station aggregate something handsome every year. Leonard & Divine, T. B. Millard & Son, and Knott & Smith are the wheatbuyers, of whom, however, the heaviest shippers are Leonard & Divine, who during the year 1879 forwarded one hundred and twenty-six thousand bushels of the staple. At Belding station also the shipments of lumber will average ten cars weekly, and there is, of course, considerable in the way of miscellaneous shipments of produce, etc. Belding is a thriving business centre, and supports six excellent stores, of which three are general stores, carried on respectively by Leonard & Divine, J. M. Earle, and E. RI. Spencer, the former firm being of the oldest standing. The first brick store built in Belding was put up in 1877 by Edgar Holmes, who now occupies it as a hardware-store. The town had in November, 1880, a population of six hundred, and exhibited at that time cheering signs of healthful growth. It is worthy of especial mention that Belding contains a more than ordinarily handsome village display of elegant private residences and neatly-kept streets. VILLAGE OF MOUNT VERNON (SMYRNA POSTOFFICE). The village commonly known as Smyrna, but properly considered Mount Vernon, was in 1843 a wilderness. Its first settler was Calvin Smith, who during the year named (1843) came to those parts and, taking possession of his land-purchase, put up a log cabin and set about pioneering. Pretty soon after that G. W. Dickinson, then engaged in the saw-mill business at Kiddville, determined to put up a grist-mill at the mouth of Seely Creek where it empties into the Flat River, he having previous to that bought considerable land in that neighborhood. Dickinson's proposed enterprise came to the knowledge of N. G. Chase, just then looking around for a location, and it struck him forcibly that the result of the utilization of the waterpower must be a village; whereupon he bought a bit of land just west of his present residence and built a small framed structure (for which he obtained the lumber at Dickinson's Kiddville mill), in which he proposed to not only set up a store, but to make a home for his family. Mr. Chase opened his store (the pioneer trading-mart of Otisco) in October, 1844, at which time the present village of Smyrna contained the houses of Messrs. Smith and Chase, although there were considerably many settlers in the neighborhood. Mr. Chase bears in mind that among his early customers was Westbrook Divine, of Montcalm County, who directly after his marriage, in January, 1845, went over to Chase's to purchase an outfit for housekeeping. He bought supplies of tea, sugar, spices, etc., but that his purchases were not very heavy may be understood from the fact that he was enabled to carry all of them in his pockethandkerchief. Doubtless he bought all he could afford at that time, which was by no means a time wherein superfluous wealth impeded the pioneer's progress. Although Dickinson entered upon his Smyrna mill-building operations with a show of much vigor, he soon lapsed into sluggishness of purpose, and delayed its completion until 1849. That year, in company with Ivery Going, a practical miller, he set the concern in motion. The mill, which was fitted with one run of stone, was carried on with more or less success until the year 1854, when a violent flood destroyed the dam and swept the mill clear of its foundations into the river. As it happened, however, the mill-building was not occupied at the time, for, just before that, William and Joseph Woods, its owners, had completed a second mill close by, and had transferred to the latter the old mill-machinery. The second mill was subsequently destroyed by fire, and in its place arose in 1864 the present mill, furnished with two runs of stone, built by Dorr & Osgood, and now carried on by W. R. Tebbell. About 1855, Duane and John Joslyn threw a dam across the Flat River at Smyrna, and erected a saw-mill at the place now known as Stern's Mill. In 1848 the mercantile interests of the place were helped forward by the arrival of Marvin Babcock, of Albion, who purchased an interest in the grist-mill and put up a storebuilding. He made a big show and undertook to show how magnificently he could do business, but his high-flying got him into financial difficulty, and in a brief time he collapsed. About 1850, George W. Witt, a very worthy man, opened the first blacksmith-shop, and Alonzo Vaughn set up in business as a shoemaker. About then Noah Rich built a village tavern (the one now doing duty as such), and two young men, Ecker and Ford by name, came on with a set of tinners' tools and opened a small affair of a tinshop. They were ambitious youths, and worked with a 288 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. will. By and by they added a few drygoods, etc., to their tin-shop business, and succeeded so well that they abandoned the tin business and branched out as country merchants. Fod concluded to embrace the medical profession, but Eeker stuck to his store, and, becoming, in course of time, rich, moved to Greenville. Dr. Wilbur Fisher, the pioneer physician in Smyrna, made his appearance in 1848, and directly upon his coming bestirred himself in the matter of providing a post-office for the village. According to postal regulations, the village was too near Cook's Corners (where there was a post-office) to admit of there being one there also, but Fisher provided in the petition for the location of the office on section 32, just beyond the legally-established limits. The name Smyrna was bestowed upon the office at the suggestion of Dr. Fisher, who was doubtless desirous of securing a name not likely to be similar to that of any other post-office within his knowledge, although, as to the true reason for his selecting it, no one appears to be informed. Fisher was appointed postmaster, and before long he sent in a petition to permit the mail to be opened at the village as a measure simply of convenience, and, the privilege being granted, the village became ever after to all intents and purposes the post-office. The incumbents of the post-office after Dr. Fisher were N. G. Chase, Ezra Spencer, J. B. Purdy, Charles Randall, A. J. Ecker, and George Hoppough. Hoppough, the present postmaster, was appointed Nov. 1, 1872. Sept. 14, 1853, G. W. Dickinson recorded the plat of the village of Mount Vernon, but just why he chose the name cannot now be said,-mayhap, however, because he wished to pay a tribute to the memory of the " Father of his Country." The record of the plat runs that the village of Mount Vernon lies on the west half of the southeast quarter of section 21, and upon fractional lot number 5 of section 28. It is further set forth that the survey commenced at a stake two rods north of a point two rods east of the quarter-section post-corner between sections 21 and 28, and running east fifty-nine rods to the east line of " the school-lot." The width of the survey between north and south was set down as thirty-three rods three feet and six inches. Additions to the village plat were made by N. G. Chase and Calvin Smith. RELIGIOUS. First Baptist Church of Smyrna.-Previous to 1852 the people at Smyrna professing the religious faith of Baptists journeyed to Cook's Corners to attend church. In that year, however, a church was organized at Smyrna by Elder A. Underhill, an itinerant. The village school-house was the place of organization and six the number of constituent members. They were named J. W. Buttolph, Maria Buttolph, Judson Buttolph, N. G. Chase, Lucinda Chase, and William R. Douglass. March 24, 1853, the new church was recognized by a church council, and that year joined the Grand River Association. Elder Underhill was ordained as the first pastor, and J. W. Buttolph as the first deacon. The successors in the pastorate after Elder Underhill were Rlevs. J. H. Rasco, A. D. Williams, F. Prescott, L. B. Fish, S. E. Faxon, A. Cornell, lenry Wright, H. King, E. R. Clark, and N. P. Barlow, the latter, now in charge, being in the third year of his service. In 1868 a neat church-edifice was built at Smyrna at a cost of three thousand five hundred dollars, including organ and bell. The present membership is twenty-nine. J. M. Earle is the deacon, William Douglass, N. G. Chase, J. H. Woodard, A. B. Barnes, J. P. Cook, and - estover the trustees, and A. J. Spencer superintendent of the Sunday-school, in which the average attendance of scholars is thirty-two, out of an enrollment of fifty. First Congregational Church of Smnyrna.-At a meeting of Congregationalists held at Lyceum Hall, Smyrna, March 21, 1868, Rev. James Gregg, of Hubbardston, presided, and George C. Spencer acted as scribe. On that occasion the First Congregational Church of Smyrna was formed, with seven members, to wit: George C. Spencer, O. F. Mann, Mrs. George C. Spencer, Mrs. O. F. Mann, Mrs. D. B. Hoppough, Mrs. Abijah Rich, and Mrs. Jerome Stoughton. Rev. James Gregg was chosen pastor, and 0. F. Mann deacon. The pastors have been, besides Mr. Gregg, Revs. W. B. Seaver, William F. Rose, Benjamin Parsons, George Wesselius, S. S. Slayter, and Solomon Snider. The membership is now twenty. The deacons are M. C. Watkins and George Cooley. At present the church is without a pastor, and depends upon occasional supplies. Meetings are held in the town-hall at Smyrna. TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES. Smyrna has been exceedingly active on behalf of the temperance cause, and first and last has boasted a Good Templars' lodge, Red Ribbon clubs, and kindred organizations. Just now the only society of that character in existence is the Washington Temperance Society, organized Jan. 31, 1870, with sixteen members, and Asa Spencer as president. The president for 1880 was 0. F. Mann,jhe secretary N. G. Chase, and in October of that year the membership was one hundred and two. Regular meetings are held in Lyceum Hall. INDUSTRIES. Besides the mills already noticed the village contains the foundry of Bignell Brothers, started by George W. Bush in 1868. The manufacture of plows, bells, castings, and general farm-tools, besides a department for general repairs, may be mentioned as the scope of the business, which is a prosperous and developing one. The village contains, likewise, three blacksmith-shops and one wagon-shop. There are four stores, and, of the traders therein, Marvin Wheeler, who came to the village in 1856, when he set up a carpenter's shop, and in 1862 opened a store, is the oldest village merchant. George Hoppough began trading at Smyrna in the fall of 1872. Dr. Baird, who was practicing in Smyrna in 1856, was succeeded in 1857 by Dr. C. W. Dolley, who has been continuously in practice at the village ever since. EXCELSIOR AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF OTISCO. This society, holding its annual fairs at Cook's Corners, was incorporated in 1866. The president then chosen was M. C. Watkins, and the secretary Westbrook Divine. The grounds occupied by the society cover seventeen acres of I 1/7 A —.Iz 1 -,:~ 'm i e — r -,: — MRS. C.W. COOK. a II I.-4- -.' - -- =z;t~ 1~1 - ~-t '' CI`; Ir; r, _=~ -A ii Ii ii [ — I - - T71cC~ ~I H I RESI DEN CE OF. MRS R. R C OOK, COOK' CORNERS, IONIA CO.,MIcH. OTISCO. 289 I leased land, the improvements thereon being owned by the society. Fifteen annual fairs have been held since 1866 with uniform success. The present officers are Westbrook Divine, President (since 1871); J. S. Gage, Secretary; A. G. Stockholm, Treasurer. OTISCO GRANGE, NO. 187. The grange meets in the town-hall at Cook's Corners. The members number upwards of one hundred. The officers are Roselle Warren, M.; Edward Berry, O.; Ernest Howe, L.; Charles Wise, Sec.; J. Moon,-Treas; Mrs. J. M. Brown, Chaplain; L. Weeks, Steward; Levi Tuttle, Assistant Steward; Mrs. Kate Tuttle, Stewardess. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. RUFUS R. COOK. Rufus R. Cook, the founder of the village of " Cook's Corners," was born Sept. 11, 1811, at Hartland, Conn. When he was three years of age his parents moved to Rome, N. Y., and from there to Bergen, in the same State, where he lived until he was eighteen, when he moved with his parents to the then Territory of Michigan, and settled in Avon, Oakland Co. In 1837, in company with his brother-in-law, John L. Morse, and Amos and William Russell, he started on a prospecting-tour. They left their teams at a point on the Looking-Glass River, about three miles west of Laingsburg, Shiawassee Co., where they built a boat out of material they had brought with them. In this way they were four days reaching the mouth of Flat River. From there they traveled on foot to the burroak plains in Otisco, where they made a location, Mr. Cook taking the land where a village commemorates his name. Here he and Mr. Morse erected a shelter, but after winter had set in they went home on foot. In February they returned with their wives, taking also a span of horses, nineteen head of cattle, and eighteen swine, and, as they supposed, money enough to carry them through to harvesttime. Nine days of travel in extremely cold weather brought them to Lyons, where they found themselves unable to pay their tavern bill, as they had no money which the landlord would take,-the first intimation they had of the " wild-cat" collapse. They were therefore obliged to run in debt, but paid their bill the next fall, when the sale of some cattle gave them some money that had a value. In 1839, Messrs. Cook, Morse, Lincoln, and Baldwin built the first saw-mill in Montcalm County. It had a capacity to cut three or four thousand feet per day, which at that time was considered large. Until 1846, Mr. Cook had lived in a log house which had become quite popular among the traveling public, and that year he built the hotel which soon became popular and celebrated for its anniversary balls. Mr. Cook kept the hotel a short time, when he rented it and built a residence and went into the mercantile business. Mr. Cook was a good business man and had more than ordinary influence over men; was highly esteemed by 37 the community; held the office of postmaster for thirty-five years; was also justice of the peace for the greater part of the time; was supervisor for several years, and held other positions; through all his life was the recipient of most responsible and delicate trusts, which were never abused; and, although he held so many positions, he never sought office for himself. When he worked for others, however, he had a great power. Mr. Cook was a representative man among the early settlers of the Grand River valley. He was public spirited, and contributed in many ways to the growth and prosperity of the country, and was well known throughout Ionia, Montcalm, and Kent Counties. He died Jan. 6, 1875, in his sixty-fourth year. Mr. Cook was married Jan 2, 1834, to Cordelia W. Cowles, of Madison Co., N. Y., where she was born Oct. 2, 1811. Her father died when she was a child, leaving two children, Mrs. John L. Morse being her younger sister. Her mother subsequently married Joseph Davis, who came to Michigan in 1826 and settled in Oakland County. Mrs. Cook is well and favorably known in the community where she lives for her uniform kindness and Christian virtues, and is a member of the Baptist Church in their village. Both she and Mr. Cook found their peculiar enjoyment in the unobtrusive pleasures of the domestic circle. Having no children of their own, they have brought up several; a girl and a boy they adopted now carry on the large farm in connection with Mrs. Cook. JOHN M. BROWN. John M. Brown, one of the earliest pioneers of Otisco, was born in Scott, Cortland Co., N. Y., July 11, 1816, son of Timothy and Deborah (Marsh) Brown. Her father was a soldier in the war of the Revolution, and received the land where the village of Cortland now stands for his services in that war. Mr. Brown's grandfather was a captain in the Revolution, and of the same family of John Brown, of Ossawatomie, the martyr. The early life of John M. Brown was spent upon his father's farm in Cortland County until he was twenty-one, when he started out for himself, working at such employment as he could get until 1844, when, thinking the chances for getting himself a farm were better in a new country, he came to Michigan, stopping in Oakland County, where he remained a few years. Was married, March 5, 1848, to Marilda Skidmore, daughter of John and Sally (Bishop) Skidmore, among the early settlers of Macomb County, and who came from Rose, Wayne Co., where she was born Dec. 17, 1828. The family were formerly from Saratoga Co., N. Y. The following fall, after Mr. Brown was married, he moved to Otisco and purchased eighty acres of land, where he now lives, upon which there was a small log house and a small clearing made. Here this pioneer couple have diligently worked for more than thirty years. Soon after Mr. Brown came to Otisco he entered forty acres of * government land, and since then has added other lands, until he now has a large and well-cultivated farm. They have 290 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. three children living (having buried two, who died in infancy): Franklin was born May 15, 1849, Mark H., born June 10, 1861, and Mary E., born Aug. 14, 1863. Politically, Mr. Brown was formerly an uncompromising Abolitionist, until the necessities of that party were past,. when he joined the Democratic party. The business of his life has been that of a farmer. Has taken a deep interest in all agricultural matters. He and his wife are members of the grange. He has served as Master and Overseer. Mrs. Brown is the present Chaplain of the grange. MRS. JAMES MOON. JAMES MOON. In tracing out the early surroundings of some of our best representative men we often find that chilling adversity companioned their youth and that hard labor filled their early years. These reflections have arisen from hearing the reminiscences of one of our most esteemed citizens, James Moon, a man whose name is associated with the earliest settlement of the town of Otisco, and who by his own exertions has risen to the position of one of the substantial men of the town. He was born in Antwerp, Jefferson Co., N. Y., Jan. 16, 1820. His father, James Moon, was a farmer in Jefferson County; moved to Herkimer County and Western New York, and came to Michigan in 1836; remained in Jackson County a few years, then came to Otisco and "squatted" on eighty acres of land, February, 1839. Subsequently bought the land, built a comfortable home, where he died, leaving a large family of children, of whom James, the subject of this sketch, was the oldest son. He remained at home until he was twenty-one. Soon after that he pre-empted eighty acres of land in Otisco, upon which he made a small improvement. Being entirely without means, progress was slow. By his firm resolution and strong arm he kept steadily on, determined to have a home. Jan. 17, 1847, he was married to Lydia M. Russell, formerly of Cortland Co., N. Y., where she was born Sept. 27, 1826. The year after they were married Mr. Moon built a small log house on his land, and commenced in earnest to improve his farm. Here this pioneer couple have diligently worked for more than thirty JAMES MOON. years. The original eighty acres of land have expanded to one of the largest and finest farms in the township, bringing its owner such returns as place him beyond the necessity of labor, and giving him the position of a substantial, representative man. As this pioneer couple look back to their small beginning, they have the satisfaction of having acted well their parts, as they enjoy their well-earned competency and the respect of all. Six children have been born to them, four of whom are now living,-Adelbcrt L., Frank L., Dayton F., and Alton. GEORGE COOLEY. George Cooley, one of the pioneers of Otisco, who took his land from government, and has helped to make this county what it is, was born in Deerfield, Mass., April 14, 1819. The family were old settlers in that county, and located there soon after the Revolution. Here his father, Russell Cooley, was born, and lived until 1830, when he came to Michigan with a family of four children (having buried two children in Massachusetts). Hie stopped at Ann Arbor a year or two, then located one hundred and sixty acres of land in the town of Webster, that county, which he improved and made a fine farm, where he died, January, 1843. George, the only son, lived with his father until his death. He was married, February, 1842, to Caroline Kimberly, daughter of Silas Kimberly. The Kimberlys were early settlers and influential people in New Haven, Conn., and trace their genealogy to Thomas OTISCO. 291 TI Kimberly, who came from London, England, to New Haven, in 1633. Soon after the death of his father, Mr. Cooley left the paternal home to seek a home for himself. Having sufficient means to buy forty acres of government land, he came to Otisco and located the forty where he now lives. December, 1843, after securing his land, he worked at such employment as he could get, and at intervals worked on his land and at getting out logs for a house until the following summer, when he brought his wife from Washtenaw County. Soon after that the house was completed, and they moved in. This was a small log house of the most primitive kind. At this time the country was sparsely settled, their nearest neighbor was two miles distant, so they were thrown entirely upon their own resources; their necessities were few, and luxuries they did not indulge in, but with strong hearts and willing hands they kept steadily at work, looking forward to the fine farm and elegant home they now enjoy, a view of which may be seen in this work. They have three children,-Amelia C., Melvin A., and George J. In educational matters Mr. Cooley takes a deep interest, and has served for several years on the school board. Mr. Cooley and his wife are active and consistent members of the Congregational Church at Smyrna. They assisted in organizing the first Congregational Church at Cook's Corners, and are among the most substantial and respected citizens of their town. ERASTUS S. JENKS. IMRS. ERASTUS S. JENKS. ERASTUS S. JENKS. Erastus S. Jenks was born in Cheshire, Berkshire Co., Mass., July 6, 1814, where the Jenks family were numerous and influential people. At an early day they came from Rhode Island, and trace their origin to England. Erastus S. Jenks was raised on the farm which his grandfather, Jesse Jenks, cleared up. When twenty-one years of age he left the old farm to seek a home for himself. For a few years he worked as a farm-hand. Feb. 22, 1838, he was married to Ailes Dean, daughter of David Dean, of Adams, Mass. They were one of the oldest and most respected families in that part of the country. For a few years after Mr. Jenks was married he worked land on shares until the spring of 1844. When several families were starting for the then remote frontier of Michigan, Mr. Jenks, thinking the chances for getting a farm of his own were better in a new country, joined the expedition. The journey was slow and tiresome, especially for Mrs. Jenks, with her three small children, the youngest only six weeks old. From Detroit they came by ox-team, and took a longer time than would be required now to cross the continent. During this long journey the expense account kept running, and when the young pioneer counted his money on arriving in Otisco, he found the amount ten dollars short of paying for the sixty acres of government land he had selected. A neighbor lent him the amount which enabled him to pay for the sixty acres where he now lives. With neither team nor cow, the outlook wore a grave aspect. For the necessaries of life he went out to work, and at intervals of spare time worked on his land. The following summer a small, low shanty was built, a small clearing made, and so on, year by year, the improvements were made, other lands added, until he now has one hundred and sixty acres. The small clearing has expanded to broad and fertile fields. The cabin did good service for a few years, when a more comfortable house was built, and this has been succeeded by a substantial modern house, with such surroundings as indicate the thrifty farmer. Mrs. Jenks died February, 1873, in her fifty-fifth year, leaving a family of nine children,-six sons and three 292 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. daughters,-all now living: Dallas E., born Aug. 6, 1839; Albert, Dec. 22, 1840; Hiram, March 19, 1844; Cornelia, May 27, 1846; Mary Ann, Jan. 19, 1848; Perry E., Nov. 19, 1852; Jettory, Jan. 5, 1854; Ambrose, Oct. 4, 1855; Elmer E., Nov. 3, 1862. Mr. Jenks and his wife were members of the Christian Church at the East, and took an active part in the organization of the church at Belding, contributing liberally to the erection and support of that church. He is now and has been for some years deacon and trustee of the church, also trustee of the State board of conference. After a long and industrious life this worthy pioneer finds himself in the enjoyment of good health and an abundance of this world's goods, surrounded by a large and loving family, who have not disregarded a father's example of temperance and high morals. Three of the sons were in the army during the war of the Rebellion. EDMUND INGALLS. Edmund Ingalls was born in Hartford, Washington Co., N. Y., Dec. 25,1802. When nine years of age his father moved to what was known as Gouverneur Morris' tract of land, and here in the wilderness his mother died, leaving three children at home, of whom Edmund was the eldest. He had an elder brother who was married and lived some distance from his father, with whom Edmund went to live until he was twenty-one, when he was given one hundred dollars and a suit of clothes, and he started out to seek his fortune. We will pass over his struggles with the world in his various capacities as saw-mill man and farm-hand until he was twenty-five years of age, when he bought a small farm of forty acres for himself, and was married Feb. 7, 1828, to Sarah Dixon, formerly from Roxbury, Litchfield Co., Conn., where she was born Jan. 22, 1810. Her mother died when she was six years old. Her father took her to live with her uncle in Washington County, where she remained until she was married. Her father was a seafaring man, and left New York on a sailvessel, September, 1818, and was never heard from more. Soon after Mr. Ingalls was married he traded his land for a larger tract in Allegany Co., N. Y., and removed there, and lived in a shanty without window or chimney, only a hole through the roof for the escape of the smoke. But, although he worked very hard, he suffered great hardships, for his land was too poor to afford a living, so he determined to go West. After several ineffectual attempts, being deterred by sickness, he started for Illinois, got as far as Ohio, where he stopped to work a while. Here he found parties going to Illinois, who took him along. On their way back they came through Southern Michigan, and, hearing much praise of Ionia County, came and located one hundred and sixty acres of land in the eastern part of the town. Returning for his family (whom he had left in the southern part of the State), he brought them to Otisco, June, 1844, and pre-empted eighty acres of land, where he now lives. Their first few weeks were spent in Caswell's barn, while a log house was being built. This was of the most primitive kind, even to a blanket for a door. That fall he put in less than an acre of wheat, from which he threshed twelve bushels, and made bread from wheat of his own raising. The first few years upon their new farm their trials were severe. Mrs. Ingalls, being a true helpmeet, had a loom made and took in weaving, which aided her husband and furnished many comforts to the family. At first their progress was slow, but by industry and economy they have secured a competence which insures the down-hill of life less rugged than the up-hill was. Six children have been born to them; two died in infancy. John P. was a soldier in the war of the Rebellion, and died in a hospital at Bowling Green, Ky., March, 1863; Frank D. is a farmer in Otisco; Susan C. married Gains Northway, a farmer in Missouri; Diana M. married Amasa L. Hull, a farmer in Oakfield, Kent Co. Mr. Ingalls and his wife united with the Baptist Church in Washington Co., N. Y., soon after they were married. On coming to Otisco they joined the church at Cook's Corners, where they have since been consistent and worthy members. Mr. Ingalls was formerly a Whig, but upon the formation of the Republican party identified himself with that organization. Although he has nearly reached his fourscore years, he reads the papers and is well posted on the political questions of the day. And now, after a married life of more than half a century, this pioneer couple are in good health and cheerful spirits, as they look back over the joys and sorrows of an industrious life. CLARK L. DEMOREST. Clark L. Demorest, one of the first settlers of Otisco, is of Holland descent. His ancestors were among those steadfast Christians who were driven out of Holland for their religious belief and came to New York City, where they settled before the Revolution, and where some of the family still reside, William Demorest, the publisher, being of the family. The parents of Clark L. lived in Eastern New York, where they were married. Subsequently moved to Steuben County, where the subject of this sketch was born Nov. 25, 1819. Here the family lived until 1837, when they came to Michigan, performing the journey with an ox-team. They stopped in Washtenaw a few years. In the spring of 1840 the father, Samuel Demorest, came to Otisco and bought two hundred and forty acres of land. That fall the father, with two of the boys, came up and put in ten acres of wheat. The next spring (1841) the family located permanently upon their land. This was an important element in the then frontier settlement, as there were eight grown-up children, all now living. The father died in 1872, at the mature age of seventy-nine years. The mother is still living, at the age of eighty-three years. Clark L. is the oldest of the children. He purchased eighty acres of land from the government in the fall of 1840. Remained with his father until 1842, when he went to cut logs at the " Lincoln Mill," to get lumber to build with. The summer of 1844 he worked at building a saw-mill where Greenville now is; this was the first -- - - - --. I I. - ' - -t"~. -.;w 1 -., - I-~ - __ -- - - I I 1=, e1 I -:s- -~ -,,,- t, -'-w ',.-I 5- r~; '~,i c' r a =.. . ~ ISI I1.LL il ~ —~ 't;'.'~2~"~:~ '~~ '' -~i ~-~ ~ I ~~,I 1 ~~r —!C' \'r ~" ~: '.~- ': XrC~I ul; rr o., —F7/. `-'p"-iC i, -- F -5- t~ '` ~ —" -.e ,..~-;~ 5~?. - - -~" - - '~ -, ---- A I --- ~:~ =-;~-;~-~~'..":~(~, a-, ~- "-~ -~' -~1 591,, -+~ -,?~- iJI r7.r — .-" ',it-LlhI-i,:"' `=4~-f -:t~.~,~.i~CL -i `* qs ; 2~2-,l'c~ c~ SrS ih2bkglQ; ---~.- a; ",. n *IhVSs -Yi +~,,,u irrr —luci QLUY1Y, I.:s~. - '""6P9V C, REs OF CLARK L- DEMORESr. OTSCO. /ON/A 4. I. ',,4 '. -gig,St, iM, Mr-, I, -Gu s -s-A o ~q r~^;.~l'n''- 'i' ":!~p I 1' r -I~ i r ~ r. ~. u ~~.~\~'` .r;I. rr.'9 '- ~ I:j.tZ~' I . Clr .1, z~u ' I -,, `"$cxit ~,~ "!r c — ~ RES/DENCEOF GEORGE COOLEY, Ur/sco, /ONIA CO. MICH. 1 C4 OTISCO. improvement where that city now stands. After the mill was finished he worked in the mill, and at such jobs as came in his way, until Dec. 29, 1846, when he was married to Sally Ann Thompson, daughter of Allen Thompson, who had moved here from Rensselaer Co., N. Y., two years before. After Mr. Demorest was married he commenced in earnest to improve his land and make himself a home. A small house was erected, and in which they passed many happy years of pioneer life, improving their land and adding other land until they now have a large and well-cultivated farm, a substantial house, with such surroundings as indicate the thrifty farmer. They have five children,-three sons and two daughters. Dell W. is a farmer and occupies the old homestead of his grandfather Thompson; Clara A. lives at home; Allen T. is married and settled on a farm in the town of Orleans; Milon lives at home; May N. married N. B. Wordon, of Belding. Mr. Demorest was formerly a Whig until the organization of the Republican party, when he identified himself with that party; is interested in all local public affairs; has held several town offices. Mrs. Demorest, by her frugal and industrious habits, has aided her husband and discharged well the duties of a helpmeet. She and her people are active members of the Christian Church. This pioneer couple are among the best-known and highly-respected citizens of Otisco. MRS. GEORGE C. SPENCER GEORGE C. SPENCER. GEORGE C. SPENCER. George C. Spencer was born in the town of Schuyler, on the Mohawk, N. Y., June 13, 1810. His father, Elias Spencer, moved to Ontario County with a large family, when the subject of this sketch was a small boy, and settled Canadice, where George C. grew to manhood, and where he was married July 15, 1834, to Annette Hartson. She died Dec. 20, 1844, leaving six children,-three sons and three daughters. Mr. Spencer was again ma'rried, June 6, 1847, to Almira M. Gould, of Canadice, by whom he has three children,-two sons and one daughter. When Mr. Spencer commenced for himself his only capital was what nature had given him, but in this he was well stocked, having a strong constitution, a resolute will, and an active brain. His first business enterprise was boating on the Erie Canal, where he made some money, with which he bought a farm at Canadice where the village now stands. Farming was too slow a business for him at that time, and he soon became interested in several enterprises; was deputy sheriff, subsequently built and kept a hotel, was engaged in general merchandising, was postmaster, justice of the peace, and acted as attorney and counselor; was interested in all local public enterprises. In 1849, Mr. Spencer closed his business at Canadice, moved to Livona, Livingston Co., N. Y., where he engaged in mercantile business and buying wool and farm produce for eight years; moved to Lima, and came to Otisco, Mich., in 1859; purchased a farm of three hundred acres of land adjoining the village of Smyrna, upon which there was a hotel partly built. This he completed and kept forsix years. In 1863 he rented the hotel and built a fine residence, where he now lives. Having been in active business for thirty years, a retired life soon became monotonous, and he purchased a half-interest in a flouring-mill, and subsequently acquired the whole property. This was soon after the war, when a general stagnation in business and depreciation in property followed, and Mr. Spencer suffered heavy loss. At this time his health gave way, and, notwithstanding the shock of disease, we.see in his erect figure and keen eye a man of more than ordinary ability who has passed his " threescore years and ten" in active business life. 294 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. MICHAEL R. WETER. Michael R. Weter was born in Oneida Co., N. Y., April 17, 1821. He was the only child of John Weter, who moved there from Rensselaer County, when Michael R. was six years old, and commenced to clear up a farm, but died soon after. His mother returned to Rensselaer County with her boy, who went to live with his aunt, where he remained until he was thirteen years of age, when his aunt died and he was thrown upon his own resources. Never having enjoyed the luxuries of a permanent home, his great ambition was to have one of his own. For the first few years he worked out by the month at such employment as he could get, taking good care of his small earnings. When he had arrived at the age of manhood he had saved a few hundred dollars. He was married Feb. 27, 1844, to Emeline R. Gibbs, daughter of John Gibbs, then living at Pittstown, N. Y. That summer an expedition of several families started from that neighborhood for the burroak plains of Otisco. Mr. Gibbs joined the emigrant party, coming to Otisco in the summer of 1844, where he purchased two lots of eighty acres each,-one for himself and one for Mr. Weter, who had sent the money by him. Mr. Gibbs returned East, and the next spring the family moved out and made a permanent settlement on lands adjoining. Mr. Gibbs was a man of strong common sense and good judgment, and by his industry and thrift secured a competence. He lived to see a prosperous community developed from the primitive forest, and died April 22, 1864. Mrs. Weter was the oldest of seven children. She inherited some of the enterprise and spirit of her father, and was well calculated for the difficulties of pioneer life. When Mr. Weter arrived on his land he had a pair of oxen, and little else. He first built a temporary shanty, and commenced the improvement of his land under the most discouraging auspices. To procure the necessaries of life he went out to work by the day. The shanty answered for shelter the first summer. That fall a small house was commenced and inclosed so they occupied it that winter. The next summer it was made more comfortable; and so on the improvements were made year by year, under the most strenuous rules of industry and economy, until they now have a fine farm of one hundred and sixty acres, containing a commodious house with elaborate outbuildings, and all the modern improvements in farm-machinery, and may be considered the model farm of the town (a view of which may be seen in this work). They have two children,-Albert E., who married Sarah J. Slawson, and who lives in Belding, and Jennie A., who married Charles M. Wise, and occupies the old home with the parents. The business of Mr. Weter's life has been that of a farmer, and he may be truly classed as a self-made, representative man in that calling. This pioneer couple are among the best-known and most highly-respected in the community where they live, and by their judicious management have such surroundings as give them ease and comfort. DECKER B. HOPPOUGH. Decker B. Hoppough was born in Frankfort, Sussex Co., N. J., Jan. 7, 1813. When thirteen years of age his father, Peter Hoppough, moved to Ontario Co., N. Y., and settled at Canadice, where he died Jan. 3, 1844. The early life of Decker B. was spent upon his father's farm and working in his saw-mill until he was twenty-one, when, with twenty-five cents in his pocket, he left home to seek his fortune. The first year he worked as a farm-hand; after that rented a farm; was married, July 12, 1838, to Lydia Noble, daughter of Levi Noble, a farmer in Richmond, Ontario Co. The Noble family were early settlers in Massachusetts, and trace their genealogy to Thomas Noble, who emigrated from England in the sixteenth century. After Mr. Hoppough was married he continued to work a farm on shares for two or three years, when he bought a farm at Canadice, known as the Freeman farm, where he lived until 1864, when he purchased the large farm where he now lives, situated on Flat River, in the southern part of Otisco. Mr. Hoppough is a man of strong common sense and great force of character; acts upon the Golden Rule; is one of the most substantial and independent farmers of Ionia County; has raised a family of ten children, five sons and five daughters, several of whom are married and settled near their parents, except one who resides in New York State. Mrs. Hoppough united with the Methodist Church many years ago, and is at this time a consistent member and an exemplary woman. * g- li in;, -IZ: OF M/SSARA. /SOVEY OTrSCO oN O. MICN. 7-,4!l 7 X a -" ' oF ag,' 'M ) ~ - o ' * $ARAH....Lr ~ —i -~s. c;~L'-~j;~;,23 — "li;= I'T. 2= I I OR A NGE. OF all the townships in the county, there are few, if any, that can compare with township 6 north, range 6 west, in the matter of level country. Orange is so flat that it would require something more than ordinary sharpness on the part of the searcher to discover upon its surface a sufficient elevation to make even a hillock. Being thus flat, it possesses, of course, some considerable swamp-land. In the southern portion especially is this the case, while a similar statement, somewhat modified, perhaps, may apply as well to some portions on the north. An effective and liberal system of drainage now for some time in force promises, however, to work beneficial results and restore to the uses of agriculture much territory now lying waste. The township boundaries are Ionia on the north, Sebewa on the south, Portland on the east, and Berlin on the west. The land was originally covered with heavy timber. The soil is uniformly a clay loam and well adapted to both wheat and grass. There is no water-course of consequence, nor is there yet a lake within the limits of the township. Of churches there are four; schools are abundant, but villages are unknown, while there is but one post-office, the only one the town has ever had. THE PIONEERS OF ORANGE. The honor of being the first white settler in Orange undoubtedly belongs to Selah Arms, although there are those who maintain that to Benjamin D. Brand should be given that distinction. As a matter of fact, however, Arms made his commencement on section 25 late in 1835, while Brand, who came to Berlin as a farm-hard for Philo Bates and William Babcock, did not reach Michigan until late in 1835 or early in 1836, and certainly worked for Bates and Babcock in Berlin a while before himself becoming a settler in Orange. He was therefore the second settler (his location being on section 8, in the northwest corner of the town), and the first to build a house in Orange, Arms being a bachelor and camping out awhile before effecting any building improvement, although he did build the first framed barn. Brand's house was constructed entirely of wood and bark, and, singular to relate, was put together without the use of nails. At this time the present town contained no road, save, perhaps, an Indian trail, was densely timbered in every part, and was, in short, a wide wilderness, inhabited by wild beasts and resounding with the cries of wolves by night and by day. This was by no means an inviting prospect to the hardy settler who counted upon making a home there, but it was a prospect common enough in Michigan at that period, and, what was more, it had to be faced as one of the features of the situation, and subdued, too, before the conquering advance-guard of the army of civilization could I proclaim a victory over the forces of Nature and plant homes of plenty and comfort where forests stood before. In 1837 there came a bevy of settlers, including Dean M. Tyler,* from Oakland Co., Mich., Thomas J. Marsh, from Eastern Michigan, and the Hacketts (Peter and Barnard). Mr. Tyler was accompanied by his son, Dean M. Tyler, Jr., and with him made a settlement on section 24. He found a decent road from Portland to Wadsworth's sugar-bush, only three-quarters of a mile from his destination, and esteemed himself especially fortunate in having to cut a road over only the three-quarters of a mile. Thomas J. Marsh, living now on section 5, came from Marshall, in February, 1837, with an ox-team, a sled, and a few farm-tools as the sum-total of his worldly possessions, aside from his land. He was young and ambitious then, and, although he had to make his way through a forest stretch of forty miles, in which he saw but one human habitation, he felt, doubtless, quite eager and ready for the pioneer fight when he landed upon the patch of woods he had purchased, and of which he proposed to make a fruitful farm. Chopping away like a good fellow, he cleared, unaided, four acres, and, sowing it to wheat, awaited the harvest with fervent expectation. Sad enough for him, however, was the realization, for his crop was a failure and yielded him just one bag of wheat, from which he got fifty-two pounds of flour. It was not much, to be sure, as the fruit of a year's labor, and likely enough he thought he had reason to feel discouraged; but he stuck to his faith and energy, and in due season Dame Fortune smiled upon him and pushed him briskly on with gladsome encouragement. The Hacketts located in the southwest corner of the town, where the name of " Hackett Settlement," or " Irish Settlement," still designates the neighborhood. In 1838, Isaac E. Tyler (son of Dean M. Tyler) and John Brown came to the Tyler Settlement, and directly afterwards came a Mr. Whittaker to the same neighborhood. Brown, the Whittakers, and the Tylers, numbering, all told, sixteen persons, lived for two weeks in the cabin of Dean M. Tyler, Sr., and occupied in common the cabin's only room, measuring sixteen feet square. While they struggled to exist in these close quarters all hands were hard at work cutting out roads to the places where Brown and Whittaker proposed to settle. Cutting roads was a business at which each settler willingly assisted each newcomer to enable him to reach his destination, and it was a task at which they all worked with an energetic will, too, for roads they all wanted. Every road was a great blessing to every man in the town. Whittaker did not fancy the country very much, or per * In the act organizing the township his name is spelled Dean W. Tyler. I 295 296 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. haps found the job of pioneering more than he bargained for. At all events, he remained only a year, and then sold out to Adam Lewis and Alexander Hall. John Brown, to whom reference has been made, was married in 1838 to Betsy A., daughter of Dean M. Tyler. The ceremony was performed at Mr. Tyler's house by Squire Northam, a justice of the peace at Portland, and that was undoubtedly the first wedding the town knew. The first orchards are said to have been set out by John Brown, Dean M. Tyler, Dean M. Tyler, Jr., and Isaac E. Tyler, the year being 1840, and the first field of wheat was grown by Dean M. Tyler. Mr. Arms, their neighbor, although earlier on the ground, was more particularly given to coopering than to farming at first, and on his place made a good many barrels and pails, which he sold to his neighbors, and with the money thus obtained he got a start by which he was enabled to go ahead with his farming operations. The Tylers sold their first wheat at Ionia for forty cents a bushel, and had to pay five dollars a barrel for salt. Fanning-mills were not to be had, and, as the best substitute, fanning was done by hand. Fever and ague troubled the settlers sorely in those parts, and prevailed generally. Isaac Tyler says that during the first ten years of his residence in Orange it took all the money he could scrape together to pay doctor's bills and taxes, and for medicines and the simplest of life's necessaries. The first birth in the town is said to have occurred in Isaac E. Tyler's family. The child was his daughter Amelia, born in 1839, and now Mrs. J. E. Smith, of Nebraska. In 1838 came Ira F. Le Valley to section 5, having walked all the way from Detroit. He found in the neighborhood Thomas J. Marsh, Alexander Daleiel, Benjamin Brand, Paul Steel, John Houseman, Jared F. Long, Jacob Houseman, and John Long. In 1839, George Jourdan (who is said to have been a great man after bears) joined the settlement, and, locating on section 13, was soon in the thickest of the pioneer fight. He not only chased bears, but was somewhat noted as the wearer of a pair of buckskin breeches. He was desperately poor, and saw the time when he lived on a diet of two pancakes per diem, while he had to go once or twice to mill as far as Pontiac or Jackson. Alexander K. Hall made a location in 1840 on section 22, and, in 1842, William H, Allen, of Oakland County, came to section 15, having to underbrush for the distance of a mile or more from the east. The nearest house west of him was John Houseman's, two miles and a half away; the nearest neighbor on the south was Samuel Grinnells, on section 27; eastward the nearest was John Brown, a mile distant, and the same distance to the northward was Myron King. Adam Lewis settled north of Hal's in 1844, Theodore R. Darling on section 26, and E. F. Smith in the Tyler neighborhood the same year. Becket Coleman came to section 26 in 1845, and occupied wild land that he had purchased of the government. His near neighbors were Theodore R. Darling, Adam Lewis, and A. K. Hall. Two years before Coleman's coming, or in 1843, there were but three horses in the town. Of these, Dean M. Tyler owned two and Esquire Barnard one, the latter an Indian pony. The settlers of 1845 tell some merry stories of the good old times they used to enjoy in the form of social calls among the neighbors, and how an evening trip of half a dozen or more miles by means of an ox-sled, with a nice jolly visit at the end of it, and after that a midnight ride homeward, made a pleasant break in an otherwise toilsome existence, and helped to cheer up all hands amazingly. South of Coleman's there were already on the ground Charles Matthews, on section 35, and Samuel Grinnells, on section 27. The latter settler was the first to make a beginning in that corner of the town. Later, Charles Covey came to section 36. Among other prominent early settlers were also Elliott Martin, Dolphin Kinney, the Smiths and Rikers, A. Hunt, Mount Vernon Olmstead, and the Kings (David and his sons Arzah, Myron, and Burton). The first saw-mill built in Orange was erected in 1848 by Samuel W. Badger and Robert Kimball, on the north line of section 15. The second was the Keefer mill, built on the north town-line in 1853. The latter is the only one now in operation. Grist-mill there never has been in the town. The Bellevue road, passing between Orange and Berlin, was at a very early day a much-patronized highway of travel, as well as a mail-route. A great deal of traffic in the way of lumber, hauled southward by teams, passed over the thoroughfare and gave occasion for the creation of numerous roadside inns. In Orange the first tavern on that road was opened by William Snyder, who still continues to keep it, for there is quite a bit of travel that way to this day. I. M. Wolverton opened a house of entertainment at his place, and so did Ira Le Valley at his, but these hostelries passed out of existence a long time ago. Bear-stories are as thick in Orange as in most of Ionia's towns, but they are not, in interest, above the average bear-story one hears, or may hear of, in almost any Michigan town. It may, however, do to repeat that John Brown won some local fame through an encounter with a bear which he discovered in the dead of night briskly at work in the hog-pen. Brown, who had been hastily aroused from sleep by the yells of his porkers, armed himself with an axe, and came upon Bruin just as the latter was in the act of making off with a fine pig. The axe came into lively play, and the bear, dropping the prize, made as if he would fight with his new foe, but, the wielder of the axe appearing too much in earnest, Mr. Bear left the scene in a hurry; and that was the last of him,-as far as concerns the present story, at least.. George Jourdan, one of the early comers, was especially famous as a hunter and trapper of wolves and bears, capturing once, it is said, a bear that weighed upwards of four hundred pounds. Jourdan is well remembered in town for having won a remarkable victory over a bear, despite the fact that he was not rigged up in hunting-costume. Of course he was awakened one night by the warning of "Bear in the pig-pen," and, as he needed no second intimation to tell him what to do, he jumped out of bed, snatched his gun, and was off in a jiffy with nothing on except his shirt. Affrighted, doubtless, at the extraordinary spectacle, the bear took French leave at once; but if he thought to get off in that shape, he soon found himself sadly mistaken, as the sequel proved. Jourdan's blood was ORANGE. 297 up, and, shirt or no shirt, he was bound to have that bear; so away he went pell-mell after the game through bramble and through bush, until, finding the quarters too close for him, the bear took to a tree. By that time Jourdan's shirt was but a tattered reminder of its former glory,-a shred of a shirt, as it were,-yet he worried not his mind concerning the garment, but blazed away at the bear. Meanwhile, he kept up a desperate shouting for help, and presently, some of his neighbors coming to the rescue, they killed the beast, divided the meat, and turned in again at three o'clock in the morning, satisfied, no doubt, with the results of their work, while poor Jourdan, the excitement over, contemplated his lacerated and now useless shirt with feelings of direst dismay, since it was, alas! the only shirt he owned, and what to do until he could get another one was a harassing as it was a distressing thought. What he did recorded testimony does not set forth, but the presumption is that he lived through it. Orange post-office, the only mail-station ever established in the town, was created in 1855, and the office given to Lewis Priest. His successor was John Mosser, and after him Dr. Tremayne. The present postmaster is A. Youngs. TOWNSHIP HIGHWAYS. Previous to the organization of Orange township roads were laid in town 6 by the townships of Portland, Cass, and Berlin, as follows: Feb. 23, 1839, a road. commencing at the southwest corner of section 36, town 6 north, range 6 west, and running thence eastward on section-line one mile. On the same day, a road commencing at the southeast corner of section 36, and running thence north on the town-line four hundred and eighty chains. Sept. 12, 1839, a road commencing at the southwest corner of section 15, and running east on the section-line to the town-line at the southeast corner of section 13. Feb. 3, 1840, a road commencing at the southeast corner of section 1, and running thence west on section-line two hundred and forty chains. Same day, a road commencing at the northeast corner-post of section 10, and running thence due south on the section-line one mile. The same day, a road commencing at the northeast corner of section 27, and running thence due north on the section-line eighty chains. June 22, 1840, a road commencing at the southeast corner of section 25, and running thence west an the section-line to the southeast corner-post of section 26. Jan. 5, 1841, a road commencing at the east quarterpost of section 25, and running thence west on the quarterline of said section to the west quarter-post, northerly on the section-line to the northwest corner of said section, and thence west two miles. The same date, a road extending from the southwest corner of section 27 eastward to the southeast corner of section 25. Sept. 13, 1841, a road commencing at the southwest corner-post of section 14, town 6 north, range 6 west, thence north on section-line two hundred and forty chains to township-line. April 7, 1843, a State road commencing at the north quarter-post of section 5, town 6 north, range 6 west; thence 38 south forty-five degrees east to the east quarter-post of said section; thence south on said section-line to the east quarterpost of section 15; thence south forty-five degrees east to the south quarter-post of section 14; thence east on sectionline to the township-line of town 6 north, range 6 west. Mlay 10, 1844, a road commencing at a post on sectionline ten chains and eighty-six links east of southwest corner of section 36, town 6 north, range 6 west; thence north sixty-three degrees west on the line of the United States turnpike eighty-one chains to a post near the southwest corner of the southeast quarter of the northwest quarter of section 35. The above line is the centre of said highway, and the said highway to be the width of four rods. The foregoing roads were laid in the eastern half of the township. Roads in the western half of the town were laid to the close of 1840 as follows: Oct. 19, 1838, road commencing at the southwest corner of section 6, and running east on the section-line to the quarter-post on the south line of section 5, being one and a half miles. Dec. 31, 1839, a road commencing at the southeast corner of section 16, and running thence west on section-line to the west line of the town, two hundred and forty chains. Jan. 25, 1840, a road commencing at the Bellevue road, on the line between sections 30 and 31, and running thence east on the section-line one-half mile; thence due south eighty rods. Nov. 25, 1840, a road commencing at the northeast corner of section 33, and running thence due west on the section-line to the northwest corner of said section; thence north on the east line of section 29 a distance of eight chains and seventy links; thence north eighty degrees west twenty-one chains twenty-eight links; thence north fortyseven degrees west six chains nineteen links; thence west eleven chains sixteen links; thence west ten degrees north twenty-five chains eighty-four links; thence west twentythree degrees south twenty chains; thence south ten degrees west twenty chains sixty-two links; thence west on sectionline nine chains fifty-four links to the quarter-stake on the north line of section 31, in said township. May 22, 1839, a road commencing at the quarter-post on the north side of section 5, town 6 north, range 6 west; thence running southerly on line of quarter-stakes to the quarter-stake on the south line of section 17. Nov, 25, 1840, a road commencing at the northeast corner of section 28; thence running west on section-line to the west line of said township, three miles. May 12, 1845, the town was divided into twelve road districts. April, 1846, the overseers chosen for the twelve districts were, respectively, Henry Bush, Jr., Myron J. King, Asa Goodenough, Thomas R. Havens, Amos B. Bliss, George Jourdan, Ebenezer F. Smith, A. K. Hall, Esquire Barnard, Peter Hackett, Zachariah Grinnell, Chas. Mtatthewus RESIDENT TAX-PAYERS OF ORANGE, 1845. Acres. Seely Arms, section 25........................,..... 80 William H. Allen, section 15........................ 40 B. D. Brand, sections 17, 8................................. 160 John Brown, sections 23, 26.......................... 160 James Barton, section 6.................................. 115 298 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. I Acres. Addison Bowerman, section 20........................... 60 Samuel W. Badger, section 15............................. 80 Andrew S. Brown, section 12.............................. 80 Henry Bush, Jr., section 12............8....... 80 Amos B. Bliss, section 19................................... 80 Harvey Coursen, section 28................................ 80 Alexander Ialziel, section 5..................... 80 Zachariah Grinnell, section 27............................. 80 Samuel Grinnell, section 27................................ 80 A. K. Hall, sections 22, 23................................. 80 John Housman, section 20................................. 100 Gideon C. Holcomb, sections 17, 20..................... 160 David Hall, section 6..1................. 157 Sidney S. Hammond, section 12...................... 40 John Hall, section 19...................................... 88 Horace I. Hall........................................... Personal Patrick Hackett, section 31............................... 80 Peter Hackett, section 31............................. 100 James Humphreys, section 31 l............................. 80 E. D. Jones, section 11.................................. 80 George Jourdan. section 13................................. 120 M. J. King, sections 10, 14, 15........................... 162 A. H. King, section 14..................................... 80 A. A. Lewis, sections 22, 23................................ 80 George Lewis, section 23.................................... 80 Hiram Lewis, section 27.................................... 40 John Milstead, section 35................................ 120 Charles Mather, section 35................................ 80 Thomas J. Marsh, section 5............................... 160 Nathan Nichols, section 30................................. 80 Thomas Badger, section 12............................... 80 Darlin Stratton, section 26............................ 80 Philip Slaght, section 35.................................. 40 D. M. Tyler, Jr., section 24....................... 80 D. M. Tyler, sections 13, 24................................ 100 S. E. Tyler, section 24....................................... 100 Samuel Utter, section 10.................................... 80 John B. Utter, section 10............................. 80 Morris Woodruff, section 4............................... 80 Thomas White, section 12........................ 40 E. F. Smith, section 14..................................... 80 Esquire Barnard, section 22............................... 80 TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION. Until March 19,1845, the east half of town 6 north, range 6 west, was a portion of Portland, and the west half a portion of Berlin. At the date mentioned the entire town was given an organization of its own, and called Orange. The name was bestowed by Dean M. Tyler, but why cannot be ascertained. It was not in remembrance of any place in which he ever lived, but in all likelihood suggested itself merely because it was a name of pleasant sound, without especial local application. The first town-meeting was held at the house of Dean MI. Tyler, April 7, 1845, at 9 A.M. Dean M. Tyler was chosen moderator, Alexander Dalziel, Adam A. Lewis, Myron J. King, and Henry Bush, Jr., inspectors of election, and John Brown clerk. Thirty votes were cast, and in each case they were given for every candidate presented. The returns of the inspectors of election certified that the officials chosen were as follows: Supervisor, Alexander K. Hall; Clerk, John Brown; Treasurer, Myron J. King; Justices of the Peace, Adam A. Lewis, Peter Hackett, Dean M. Tyler, Alexander Dalziel; Highway Comlnissioners, Arza H. King, Benjamin D. Brand, Alexander K. Hall; School Inspectors, Alexander K. Hall, Alexander Dalziel; Overseers of the Poor, Dean M. Tyler, Thos. J. Marsh; Constables, Henry Bush, Jr., George Lewis, George Jourdan, Morris Woodruff; Highway Overseers, Henry Bush, Jr., Samuel Utter, Thos. J. Marsh, Nathan Nichols, Gideon O. Holcomb, Isaac E. Tyler, Adam A. Lewis, Jas. Humphreys, Z. G. Grinnells, Chas. Matthews. Twenty dollars were raised for the support of the poor, seventy-five dollars for contingent expenses, and five dollars own bounty offered for each wolf killed. The first accounts were audited Nov. 3, 1845, and included the following: A. K. Iall, services as supervisor..................... $6.00 i" " " highway commissioner..... 4.25 Thos. J. Marsh, overseer of the poor.................. 1.00 Benj. D. Brand, highway commissioner.......... 3.50 Ira Porter, for township plat............................ 1.50 Geo. Lewis, for notifying officers....................... 1.25 John Brown, for stationery............................. 88 ' 4" " services............................... 6.75 $25.13 The first report issued by the treasurer (for 1845) was as follows: Dr. To Warrant for Collecting Contingent Expenses........................................ $90.00 Same for Poor-Fund........................ 20.00 " Town Library.................... 13.91 Order on Tbwnship of Berlin............ 8.07 $131.98 Cr. By Order on Contingent............... $74.88 County Orders....................... 11.51 Note............................... 14.80 Cash........................... 30.79 $131.98 Herewith is presented a list of the names of the persons chosen annually from 1846 to 1880 to serve as supervisor, clerk, treasurer, and justice of the peace: SUPERVISORS. 1846, A. K. Hall; 1847-48, M. J. King; 1849-50, Paul Steel; 1851 -53, A.K. Hall; 1854-56, J. Brown; 1857-58, Paul Steel; 1859, Seely Arms; 1860,- Paul Steel; 1861-62, C. Matthews; 1863, M. V. Olmstead; 1864, no record; 1865-66, M. V. Olmstead; 1867 -70, Paul Steel; 1871, M. V. Olmstend; 1872, P. Steel; 1873-74, J. L. Mosser; 1875, William Keefer; 1876, B. Matthews; 1877 -78, William Keefer; 1879-80, M. V. Olmstead. CLERKS. 1846-53, J. Brown; 1854-55, I. Sailer; 1856-57, I. Sailer, Jr.; 1858, J. Brown; 1859, William Long; 1860-62, J. S. Bennett; 1863, A. Amidon; 1864, no record; 1865, I. M. Wolverton; 1866-70, J. E. Van Dorn; 1871, A. K. Hall; 1872-73, H. Price; 1874-76, C. Ayrs; 1877-79, H. Price; 1880, J. A. White. TREASURERS. 1846, M. J. King; 1847-51, A. H. King; 1852, M. J. King; 1853-55, C. Matthews; 1856-58, I. F. Le Valley; 1859, George Lewis; 1860, J. Brown; 1861-62, C. McKelvey; 1863, J. McLaughlin; 1864, no record; 1865-66, J. McLaughlin; 1867-70, J. L. Mosser; 1871, C. Lewis; 1872, B. Matthews; 1873-74, S. A. Gibbs; 1875-76, H. D. Bartlett; 1877, George McNeil; 1878, H. D. Bartlett; 1879-80, George McNeil. JUSTICES. 1846, Seely Arms; 1847, N. S. Nichols; 1848, D. M. Tyler; 1849, A. Dalziel; 1850, Seely Arms; 1851, E. T. Lo Valley; 1852, A. A. Lewis; 1853, S. W. Osborn; 1854, Seely Arms; 1855, Samuel Shaw; 1856, B. Shilton; 1857, B. F. Bartlett; 1858, J. 0. Graves; 1859, B. Matthews; 1860, S. Bennett; 1861, B. Shilton; 1862, N. J. Crane; 1863, J. Matthews; 1864, no record; 1865, B. Shilton; 1866, I. M. Wolverton; 1867, I. F. Le Valley; 1868, A. J. Gibbs; 1869, no record; 1870, D. L. Ritenburgh; 1871, William Hinds; 1872, B. Shilton; 1873, William Keefer; 1874, A. J. Gibbs; 1875, I. F. Le Valley; 1876, J. V. R. Priest; 1877, J. 11. Pierce; 1878, A. J. Gibbs; 1879, I. F. Le Valley; 1870, 0. M. Smith. SCHOOLS. ORGANIZATION OF DISTRICTS. Copy of the record of school districts formed in whole or part from the east half of town 6 north, range 6 west, *- One hundred and sixty-six votes cast. ORANGE. 99y previous to the organizing the township of Orange, as recorded in the township clerk's office in Portland: "Fractional District No. 4, commencing at Grand River, on the west side, on the north line of section 17, town 6 north, range 5 west; thence west on section-line to the northwest corner of section 13, in town 6 north, range 6 west; thence south to the southwest corner of section 24, town 6 north, range 6 west; thence east on section-line to the southeast corner of section 19, town 6 north, range 5 west; thence north to quarter-post between sections 19 and 20; thence east to Grand River; thence following the course of Grand River northerly to the place of beginning. "Recorded Oct. 21, 1839. "A. N. SHOFF, "ALMERON NEWMAN, " School Inspectors." At a meeting of the board of school inspectors of the township of Portland held Nov. 3, 1841, District No 6 in the town of Portland was formed, to commence at the northeast corner of section 2, town 6 north, range 6 west, and run south on section-line to the southeast corner of section 23; thence west to the southwest corner of section 22; thence north on section-line to the north line of said town; thence east on the town-line to the place of beginning. (At a meeting of the school inspectors of Orange, Nov. 22, 1845, the above district was called District No. 1 in Orange.) Fractional District No. 3 was formed Aug. 15, 1843. It commenced at the southeast corner of section 31, town 6 north, range 6 west, and continued northward to the quarter-post on the east line of section 18; thence west to the centre of section 14, to town 6 north, range 7 west; thence south to the south line of section 35 in said town; thence east to the place of beginning. TEACHERS. Following are the names of the persons to whom certificates were issued by the board of school inspectors of Orange from 1846 to 1860: May 4, 1846, Celinda Alderman; June 18, 1846, Hannah J. Easterly; Feb. 25, 1847, G. W. Osborn; May 1, 1847, Lucinda Barr; June 25, 1847, Sarah King; Nov. 20, 1847, Sarah N. Bates; Dec. 23, 1847, R. Strickland; April 8, 1848, Esther Rosecrantz; May 9, 1848, Anna A. Knox; June 12, 1848, Diana Earl; Nov. 18, 1848. A. R. Cornell; Dec. 1, 1848, Adelia Taylor; April 25, 1849, Ann Bunnell; May 8, 1849, Sarah Coe; Nov. 26, 1849, Lodema Curtis; Dec. 18,1849, Harriet A. Lovell; April 13, 1850, Hester Cole; Dec. 21, 1850, J. M. Cronkite; Dec. 31, 1850, Mary E. McKelvey; May 5, 1851, Almira C. Martin, Martha R. Andrews; May 23, 1851, Esther A. Elliott; Nov. 1, 1851, G. W. Osborn; Nov. 22, 1851, Martha Dodge; Dec. 5, 1851, John A. White, A. R. Cornell, Ann E. King; Jan. 2, 1852, Mary White; April 10, 1852, Adelia White; Dec. 16, 1852, Thos. Kenworthy; Jan. 29, 1853, Mary Dodge; April 14, 1855, Miss S. E. Scott, Elizabeth Maxim, Nancy Bird; May 7, 1855, Nancy F. Havens, Jane Youngs, Nancy C. Taylor; Dec. 1, 1855, A. T. Rice, H. Bassett; Dec. 12, 1855, Miss H. S. Johnson; May 24, 1856, Ellen Badger; May 29, 1856, Kate Matthews; June 7, 1856, Jane Toan; Nov. 1, 1856, Martha Crane, Mary White, - Howard, John A. White, Frank Jackson, Joseph Jackson; Jan. 18, 1857, Eliza Jane Hunt; April 11, 1857, Miss Hestor, Lydia Simmons; April 25, 1857, Electa Priest; May 2, 1857, Miss Dunham; Nov. 16, 1857, B. A. Miller; Nov. 28, 1857, Mary T. Dodge, Rodolphus Brown, Herbert H. Yates, William S. Bates, H. H. Goodwin, Franklin Allen, A. T. Rice; April 10, 1858, Joanna Crawford, Martha A. Williston, Minerva Kneeland; April 26, 1858, Adelia Bliss, Ellen-Badger; May 1, 1858, Marian North, James McLaughlin, John S. Bennett, Sarah C. Reynolds; May 15, 1858, Lewis C. Simmons; Nov. 6, 1858, Dellen North, Frances Holmes, William Long; Nov. 27, 1858, Charles E. Soule; April 9, 1859, Eliza J. Williston, Harriet A. Thomas, Emma M. A. Bartlett, Miss Adelia Murdock, Helen A. Blrtlett, James Crawford; May 20, 1859, Clarissa E. Taft; March 27, 1860, Elizabeth Cross; April 14, 1860, Margaret Hackett, Louisa White, Mary K. King, Mary E. Smith, Mary Howorth; April 26, 1860, Lucina Isham; Nov. 3, 1860, Simeon F. Town, James Corwin, John Q. Adams, Ebenezer Soule, Lewis B. Kneeland; Dec. 14, 1860, William C. Sumner; Dec. 31, 1860, Robert Hopkins. The annual school report for 1880 supplies the following data: Emnumera- Average Directors. tion. Attendance. District 1........E. K. Williams. 58 41 2........George S. Eddy. 42 46 " 3........A. J. Gibbs. 49 45 " 5........I. M. Wolverton. 52 48 7........William Sinebaugh. 38 34 " 9..... Justice Mousehunt. 84 54 " 1.....A. L. Furguson. 46 38 " 9*.....John Maxim. 62 40 Total............ 431 346 Value of Property. $1200 400 1200 400 100 100 800 1000 $5200 The apportionment of money raised in the township for school purposes in the year 1847 was as follows: Scholars. District No. 1...................................21 i "t 3.......................................... 14 " 4.......................................... 15 " 4.......................................... 7 " " 5 (Orange and Portland).......... 3 " " 5 (Orange and Ionia)..........I.... 11 I - Amount. $6.81 4 54 4.86 2.26.97 3.56 $23.00 The apportionment of money received from the county treasurer on account of distribution of interest of primary school fund for 1847 was: Scholars. District No. 1..................................... 21 "( 3.......................................... 14 " " 4.......................................... 15 " "( 5 (Orange and Portland).......... 3 " " 5 (Orange and Ionia)............... I1 " 3 (Orange and Berlin).............. 13 Amount. $5.97 3.98 4.26.85 3.13 3.70 $21.89 RELIGIOUS HISTORY. The first religious services held in the town are said to have been conducted by Rev. Larmon Chatfield, one of the pioneer Methodist Episcopal preachers of Ionia County, but just where he preached or how often is a matter difficult of elucidation. As nearly as can be ascertained, there was no church organization until 1849, when, on February 21st, Rev. Elbridge Cilley, of Boston, formed a Free-Will Baptist Church at the log house of Becket Coleman. The organizing members were Becket Coleman and wife, T. R. Darling and wife, Adam Lewis and wife, William H. Allen ~ Fractional. ;O3O HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. and wife, and Paul Steel. Of these, T. R. Darling and wife and Paul Steel are still members. William H. Allen was chosen the first deacon, and after him T. R. Darling served as deacon continuously for the space of twenty-two years. Elbridge Cilley preached for the church a number of years after organizing it, and, during Cilley's time, as well as afterwards, Rev. Myron Tupper, of Odessa, rendered frequent ministerial services, which he continued almost to the time of his death. After that Elder Reynolds (who had been associated with Elder Tupper) was the pastor. Among other pastors of the church were Revs. J. L. Santee, Benjamin Macomber, Whitcomb, Sumner, and Ferris. The present pastor, Rev. Israel P. Bates, has been in charge since 1878. Early services were held in the log school-house in the Coleman neighborhood, and later in various places. In 1880 the society completed the present neat and substantial edifice, which was dedicated in May of that year. The church-membership is about fifty, and there is also a very encouraging weekly attendance at the Sunday-school. Public worship is enjoyed once in two weeks. Ebenezer Wright is the deacon, and Clarence Houseman the clerk. LE VALLEY METHODIST EPISCOPAL CUIIRCHI. The Tuttle MethodiLt Episcopal Class was organized in Ionia township, in the Nelson Tuttle neighborhood, in 1846, by Rev. William Comfort, of the Ionia Circuit. The organizing members were George Rosecrantz and wife, Nelson Tuttle and wife, Lewis Tuttle and wife, Phoebe Le Valley, Eliza Townsend, Sarah Adgate. Nelson Tuttle, who had in New York State been Methodist Episcopal class-leader and steward since 1829, was chosen to fill that dual office, and in it he has served continuously to the present. As class-leader and steward, therefore, he has been steadily engaged for fifty-one years. The Tuttle school-house was occupied for worship until 1856, when a small frame church-building was put up in Ionia, near the southern town-line. In 1876 the Tuttle Class joined with the Benedict Class, of Berlin, in the erection of a fine brick church-edifice in Orange township. The structure cost four thousand dollars, and, in consideration of a donation of the land by Ira F. Le Valley, of Orange, the church was called by his name. There is preaching once in two weeks, as there has been since 1846. The church-membership is fifty, and in the Sunday-school there is an average attendance of seventyfive, the school superintendent being Thomas Rhinehart. The church trustees are William Adgate, Almon Tuttle, William West, and Israel M. Wolverton. The pastor is Rev. Mr. Thomas, in charge of Orange Circuit. HALL METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. The first Methodist Episcopal Church of Orange, known as the Hall Methodist Episcopal Church, was organized in 1864 by Rev. Mr. Edwards, of Saranac, at the Ritenburg school-house. Services were held at the school-house and grange-hall until 1875, when the present church was built, at a cost of two thousand five hundred dollars. It is a com modious structure, with a seating capacity for upwards of two hundred and fifty people. The class-leaders, in the order of service, have been I. M. Wolverton, John L. Mosser, Fillmore Smith, and Lewis Benedict. The present membership is between sixty and seventy. The class is attached to the Orange Circuit, which includes four appointments. There is also a flourishing Sundayschool, of which J. W. Klotz is superintendent. The church trustees are E. A. Coleman, J. W. Klotz, D. E. Coleman, Cornelius Franks, and Augustus F. Klotz. ORANGE CLASS (UNITED BRETHREN CHURCH). The Orange Class (United Brethren in Christ) was formed in 1864 by Rev. William Price, in the King schoolhouse, with a small array of members, A. D. Kinney being chosen leader. Meetings were held in the King schoolhouse, when a church costing two thousand one hundred dollars was built on section 10. The membership is now thirty-five, and the class-leader B. H. Custer. From the beginning the leaders have been A. D. Kinney, Absalom Price, A. J. Sanford, David Depew, and B. H. Custer. Mr. Price preached for the church one year, and was followed by Revs. Lewis Piper, James Carter, - Palmer, G. W. Fast, P. Burritt, A. M. Youngs, II. H. Maynard, - Abrams, B. H1. Molwers, A. Rust, and M. If. Sly. Preaching is supplied every Sunday. The trustees are James Jourdan and A. J. Sanford. The su perintendent of the Sunday-school is Josiah Naftzger, and the attendance at the school numbers forty scholars. ORANGE GRANGE, NO. 168, PATRONS OF HUSBANDRY. Orange Grange was organized in 1874, and in 1875 occupied a hall built by Charles Lewis and now the property of the town, although still the meeting-place of the grange. The organization has flourished from the beginning, and had at one time as many as a hundred members, although the number is at present but eighty. The officers for 1880 were Barney Matthews, M.; Samuel Maus, 0.; John A. White, L.; Henry Pierce, Sec.; John Bennett, Treas.; Osmon Smith, Chaplain; Dennis Zechariah, Steward; Frank Brickley, Assistant Steward. Meetings are held weekly. FATAL ACCIDENTS IN ORANGE The first fatal casualty of which there appears to be any recollection occurred in 1842, to David King, who, while on a coon-hunting expedition, fell from a tree and suffered such injury that he died in a short time. In 1847 the calamity list was continued with the death, by the fall of a tree, of Dean M. Tyler, one of the town's earliest and most prominent settlers. The same year James Humphreys suffered a similar death while clhopping browse for his cattle, and in 1863 his son George was killed by a lightning-stroke while taking shelter under a tree from a storm. In 1878, John Hare, while hunting rabbits, met with an accidental death. In attempting to climb a fence, gun in hand, the weapon caught upon a rail, and, exploding, delivered its charge full into the unfortunate man's heart. I YI L*.ft mm ell~P.!1E! n -,r I..,,, ,;1 ikii I II ''*'"~;,' ':U'j:'' l.~F,~"~:i;' 1~;1$3! ~1 ' ':"4 *L.,,,,,,, 1'1 '" '4 ':n,.41 I!r I:I r ~~':B ~;C'y"t:~' i Ci' '' i '1. rl "r I, 1"II fl I i'( '' 1 I 'I, ', I~l lI Iil~mv',, t 4~, * l RESIDENCE OF EDWIN R. WILLIAMS. ORANCE, /ONIA Co. MICH. ORANGE. 301 ORANGE. 30 BI OGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. aa,.043 A I.1E~ EDWIN R. WILLIAMS. John A. Williams, father of Edwin, was born in West Bloomfield, Ontario Co., N. Y., Oct. 16, 1798, and about 1826 married Patience Jenks, who was born in Tioga Co., N. Y., about 1800. This marriage took place in Oakland Co., Mich., in which Mr. Williams was an early settler. He cleared and improved a farm in the township of West Bloomfield, and there Edwin R. Williams was born Sept. 20, 1836. In 1856 the old farm was sold out, and the family removed to North Plains, Ionia Co., taking up a section of land. In May, 1868, occurred the death of Mrs. Williams, Sr., and that of her husband in February, 1880. Edwin R. Williams, who had remained with his parents until they removed to lonia County, received then from his father two hundred acres of the section which had been purchased, and began at once to improve it. On the 27th of March, 1860, he married Miss Jane R. Curtis, who was born in 1836, in Niagara Co., N. Y. Her father, William Curtis, was born in Ticonderoga, N. Y., and was a farmer by occupation. Mrs. Williams was the oldest in a family of seven children. Her father is now living in Wisconsin, to which State he removed in 1871. His wife died when tho daughter was quite young, and the latter met Mr. Williams while on a visit to her sister in Michigan. To Mr. and Mrs. Williams were born five children, a son and four daughters, who are all living but one daughter. Mrs. Williams died May 4, 1870, and on the 6th of December, in the same year, Mr. Williams married Miss Vinnie L. Higbee, daughter of Benjamin F. and Laura M. Higbee. She was born March 11, 1849, in Orleans township, Ionia Co. Her parents were natives of Oneida Co., N. Y., but were married in Michigan, in which State they were early settlers. They had a family of six children, in which Mrs. Williams was the third. Mr. Williams' children are as follows: By first wife: Ella E., born July 28, 1861; Minnie S., born April 28, 1863; Frederick S., born March 23, 1865; Florence M., born March 19, 1867; Jennie Patience; born Aug. 17, 1869, died Jan. 12, 1874. By second wife: Grace A., born Jan. 4, 1873; Frank Edwin, born March 8, 1875; Earl Rutheven, born Aug. 24, 1876. Mr. Williams, although his family has always lived on the farm, has been for a large portion of the time engaged in other business, buying and shipping stock, acting as general agent three years for E. Ball & Co., of Canton, Ohio, in the sale of agricultural implements, etc., during which time he traveled in Michigan and Wisconsin. Since the death of his first wife he has been engaged exclusively in farming. His first farm included two hundred acres on section 16 in North Plains, but in 1874 he changed his place of residence to a farm of fifty-tbur acres on section 30. In the winter of 1879-80 he sold that and purchased his present residence in Orange township, containing two hundred and forty acres, and is engaged in general farming. In October, 1873, a residence on his farm was destroyed by fire, causing a loss of six thousand dollars. Although taking an active part in politics, Mr. Williams is thoroughly independent, is progressive in his views, and awake to the interests of the class of producers to which he belongs. Ie is an earnest and determined Patron of Husbandry, and Master of Ionia County Pomona Grange. Is also a member of the Masonic fraternity, having been one of the charter members of the lodge at Hubbardston, and in which he was Master when he left it, and is a member of the Disciple Church, as was his first wife. His present wife is connected with the Baptist Church at lonia. 302 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. ISRAEL M. WOLVERTON. I. M. Wolverton, from the town of Conquest, Cayuga Co., N. Y., came to Michigan in 1848, and purchased forty acres of land in the township of Eureka, Montcalm Co. He remained there until 1863, holding the office of justice of the peace one term, and in the year last named moved to Orange township, Ionia Co., in the month of February, purchasing one hundred acres on section 8. In the spring of 1864 he assisted in organizing the Methodist Episcopal Church of Orange, the second religious society in the township, the Free-Will Baptists having organized tile previous winter. although at present working with the Democratic party. He is trustee, class-leader, steward, and recording steward in his church, and has held also civil offices. His children have been four in number,-viz., Drusilla A., born Oct. 5, 1851, now Mrs. George W. Benedict, of Orange township; Sarah J., born Aug. 22, 1853, now Mrs. Emerson F. Benedict, of same township; Elmer S., born May 19, 1855, married, June 1, 1877, to Miss Mattie Rankin, and residing upon the home-farm; and a son, born Jan. 14, 18-, and died January 19th. Miss Rankin's parents were natives of Jefferson Co., N. Y., and are now residents of Belleville, Ontario, Canada. Mrs. Israel Wolverton united at the same time with her husband with the Methodist Episcopal Church, about 1857. M. V. OLMSTEAD. M. V. Olmstead was born Aug. 4, 1816, in Burlington township, Chittenden Co., Vt., and was the ninth in a family of ten children. His father, Lewis Olmstead, was a farmer, and a native of Norwalk, Conn., and his mother, whose maiden-name was Hannah HIulbert, was also a native I IS.EL I. OLVERTON ISRAEL M. WOLVERTON. Mr. Wolverton's father, John Wolverton, was born at Conquest, N. Y., Jan. 6, 1802, and in the spring of 1848 brought his family to Michigan, settling in Montcalm County, where he died May 1, 1852. Ile had been twice married, first to Miss Drusilla Christian, Dec. 6, 1822, having four children by her, and second, June 10, 1829, to Betsy Beebe, who bore him six children. Six children accompanied him to Michigan. John Wolverton, during the administration of Governor William C. Bouck, of New York, was guard at the State penitentiary at Auburn. Israel M. Wolverton was born at Conquest, Cayuga Co, N. Y., July 13, 1826, and came to Michigan with his father, being the only survivor of the latter's children by his first wife. He made some improvements on the forty acres he had purchased, and in September, 1849, returned to Cayuga Co., N. Y., and married Elsie Wackman, Sept. 1, 1850. Her parents were natives of the county named. October 7th following, Mr. Wolverton brought his bride to Michigan. In November, 1862, lie exchanged his first purchase for one hundred acres of the farm he now owns, and proceeded at once to put the latter in excellent shape. Sixty acres have since been added to it, and one hundred and twenty are under cultivation. Besides assisting in the formarion of the first Methodist Episcopal Church in the township, Mr. Wolverton aided in building the Le Valley church-edifice. Politically, he was a Democrat of the Jeffersonian school, M. V. OLMSTEAD. of Connecticut, in wlich State she and Mr. Olmstead, Sr., were married, soon afterwards removing to Vermont, where they passed the remainder of their lives. Mrs. Olmstead died in March, 1834, and Mr. Olmstead in December, 1842, and M. V. Olmstead is the only survivor of their children. In the summer when M. V. Ollnstead was fifteen years of age he entered the employ of a farmer at monthly wqges,; and thus began life for himself. His time was spenton the farm summers, and in winter partly in the district schools, a portion of it also being spent in the occupation of wood chopping at the unremunerative wages of twentyfive cents per cord for four-feet wood, for the purpose of paying his board. In May of the year he was nineteen years of age (1835), he changed his abode to Lyons town ORANGE. 303 ship, Ionia Co., Mich., where he found employment for two years with James Tabor. Until May, 1842, he engaged in various capacities, and worked land on shares. At the latter date he purchased one hundred and twentythree acres of land in Lyons township. April 23, 1843, he was married to Miss Abigail McKelvey, who was born in Rochester, N. Y., April 6, 1820, and came, when small, with her parents to Oakland Co., Mich. In 1834 they removed to Ionia County. To Mr. and Mrs. Olmstead were born five children. Their new home was cleared and improved, and traded, in 1850, for the eighty acres Mr. Olmstead now owns. He is also the owner of one hundred and sixty acres one mile farther south. Mrs. Olmstead died March 23, 1855, since which time the children have attended to the household duties. One daughter and two sons remain at home. Mr. Olmstead, aside from conducting the affairs of his own farm, rents and works one hundred and sixty acres adjoining. In politics Mr. Olmstead was formerly a Whig and a " Free-Soiler," but upon the break-up of the parties he chose to accompany the Democrats. He is at present a Greenbacker, and has long been prominent in the political affairs of his township. He has represented it for a number of years upon the board of supervisors,-six as a Democrat. He was the " war supervisor" of the township, and was the only Democrat on the board. For six years he held the position of commissioner of highways. His views upon religion are liberal. Mr. Olmstead is a descendant of patriotic stock, and has in his possession a powder-horn, over one hundred years old, which was carried by his grand-uncle, Ebenezer Gilbert, who lost his life during the struggle for independence. ELI A. COLEMAN. MRS. HANNAH J. COLEMAN. ELI A. COLEMAN. Mr. Coleman's father, Becket Coleman, was a native of Connecticut, and a farmer by occupation. He was married to Harriet Stratton, a native of the State of New York, and for a number of years resided in Jefferson County, in the latter State, finally removing to Ohio. In the spring of 1844 they came to Michigan and settled on section 26 in the township of Orange, Ionia Co., where Mrs. Coleman died in June, 1858, and Mr. Coleman in May, 1874. Eli A. Coleman, son of the above couple, was born Sept. 20, 1827, in Jefferson Co., N. Y., being the oldest in a fam;ly of nine children. He was quite young when his parents settled in Ohio, and but seventeen years of age when they removed to Michigan. He assisted his father in the care of the homestead until he became of age, when he entered the employ of Hopkins & Co., of Ottawa County, and worked at lumbering for three years. In the spring of 1851 he purchased eighty acres of land in Orange township, which compose a part of his present farm. It was what is familiarly known as " wild land," and he set about the task of clearing and improving it. On the 2d of December, 1855, he was married to Miss Hannah J. Smith, daughter of E. F. Smith, Sr., and Nancy Smith. She was born in Oakland Co., Mich., June 25, 1837, and was the fifth in a family of eight children. Her father was a native of New York, and her mother (Nancy Merryfield Smith) of Massachusetts. They were numbered among the pioneers of Oakland County, but removed to Orange township, Ionia Co., when the daughter was but seven years old. Both died in the township named, Mr. Smith in June, 1862, and his wife in December, 1866. Mr. and Mrs. Coleman are the parents of two children,Ella S., born Nov. 6, 1861, now Mrs. Edmond Harwood, living at home, and Ida A., born July 15, 1863, and died at the age of six months. Mr. Coleman and his wife began their wedded life on the farm upon which they now reside. It has been enlarged from eighty acres of woodland to three hundred and twenty acres,-all improved and under a fine 304 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. state of cultivation except forty acres. In place of the humble log cabin is seen a much more pretentious dwelling. Mr. Coleman is an admirer of fine stock, and is the owner of some excellent cattle and sheep. In 1863 his patriotism asserted itself, and he enlisted in the First Regiment Michigan Engineers and Mechanics. He served twenty-three months, and returned to his home in 1865. In politics he is a Republican, and he and his wife are both members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, with which they united in 1865. Mr. Coleman has held several important township offices,-highway commissioner, drain commissioner, etc. ABRAM HUNT. MRS. MARY J. HUNT. ABRAM HUNT. The gentleman above named was born in Ontario Co., N. Y., Dec. 11, 1821, and was the second in a family of six children. His father, William Hunt, was born in Pittstown, N. Y. His mother, whose maiden-name was Mary Shadock, was also a native of the latter State, in which she was married to Mr. Hunt, Sr., who, in his younger days, was engaged in the hatter's business, which he continued until some years after his arrival in Michigan. He settled at Ann Arbor, Washtenaw Co., in 1825, and remained there five years, when he changed his place of residence to Lyons township, Ionia Co. For about three years he was engaged in trading with the Indians, and did not move his family to Ionia County until the spring of 1834. He kept "public-house" for two years in Lyons, and was a well-known pioneer. His " tavern" was one of the earliest in the county. During the latter part of his life he engaged in farming. His death occurred in the spring of 1859, and that of his wife in 1863. Abram Hunt, who was thirteen years of age when the family removed to Ionia County, became accustomed to the toil which sons of pioneers necessarily underwent, and inured to all the hardships of a life on the frontier. His advantages for obtaining an education were very limited, but the common schools of the vicinity found him in attendance during the winters, ready to learn all that was possible under the circumstances. He assisted at home until he was twenty-two years of age, when he journeyed west to Iowa, and remained in that State two years. Returning to Michigan, he purchased eighty acres of land on section 6 in Portland township, Ionia Co., which he occupied about seven years and largely improved. Disposing of that place, he purchased his present home in the township of Orange. In August, 1852, he married Miss Frances A. Hoyt, a native of New York, who came with her people to Michigan in 1837. One son and daughter were born to them, the daughter dying in infancy and the son at the age of twenty-six years. The mother herself died in May, 1861, and after her death Mr. Hunt enlisted in the Ninth Michigan Infantry, and served one year. Jan. 14, 1864, he was married to Mrs. Mary Jane Bugbee, who was born in Seneca Co., N. Y., July 28, 1830, and was the second in a family of five children. When she was but two years of age her parents removed to Ohio, in which State they continued to reside until their death,-that of her father occurring Aug. 30, 1860, and that of her mother in July, 1870. Mrs. Hunt's parents were born in New York,her father, Lewis Green, in 1803, and her mother in 1800. The daughter was married to Mr. Bugbee in Seneca Co., Ohio, Dec. 11, 1853, and bore him three sons, who are all living. Mr. and Mrs. Bugbee came to Michigan in 1854, and settled in Portland township, Ionia Co., where Mr. Bugbee died Oct. 19, 1854. His widow, since becoming the wife of Mr. Hunt, has borne him one son, Frank A. Hunt, whose birth occurred March 5, 1872. When Mr. Hunt purchased the farm of eighty acres ORANGE. 305 which he now occupies, it was covered with a heavy growth of beech and maple timber. He has cleared it up and made excellent and substantial improvements. In politics, Mr. Hunt is a Democrat, but his farm occupies his attention to such an extent that he does not feel inclined to look for nor wish for office. Religiously, his views are liberal. A. K. HALL. A. K. Hall, the oldest in a family of eight children, was born May 30, 1815, in Oswego Co., N. Y. His father, Daniel Hall, was a native of Rensselaer County, and his mother, Jerusha (King) Hall, was born in Herkimer County, same State. The family settled early in Scriba, Oswego Co. Mrs. Hall died May 10, 1844, and Mr. Hall Jan. 4, 1874, on the old homestead in Oswego County. A. K. Hall remained at home, assisting his father, who was a carpenter by trade, until September, 1840, when, having become master of his trade, he came to Michigan and located on the farm upon which Mrs. Hall now resides, being one hundred and twenty acres on section 22, Orange township, Ionia Co. Mr. Hall purchased his land from the government, and returned to New York. One year later, having suffered from a severe illness in the mean time, he came again to Michigan, and began making improvements on his farm. Feb. 5, 1843, he was married to Miss Adeline Barrett, daughter of Alfred and Dalmatia Barrett. She was born Jan. 15, 1828, in Volney, Oswego Co., N. Y. Her mother was a native of Vermont, and her father of Connecticut. The latter died when the daughter was quite young, and her mother was subsequently married a second time. The family removed to Michigan in 1842. Mr. and Mrs. Hall became the parents of five children, as follows: Daniel A., born Nov. 14, 1844; Jerusha D., born June 4, 1847; Charles O., born July 10, 1850; Alice I., born Dec. 22, 1857; Lydia L., born Aug. 21, 1859. Mr. Hall died Aug. 18, 1878, and his widow and their youngest daughter are residing on the eighty acres on sections 22 39 I and 23 which he located, the other children being married and settled in homes of their own. Politically, Mr. Hall was originally a Whig, and later a Democrat. Upon the A. K. HALL. latter ticket he was elected to several important positions in his township,-township clerk, supervisor, etc.,-though he was not a seeker after official honors. Both himself and wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, with which they united at the same time. Mr. Hall's advantages for obtaining an education were limited to the district schools of his youth. He was liberal in the support of schools and churches, and aided largely in erecting the church which is located upon his farm. The first funeral sermon preached in it was delivered at his burial. Mr. Hall was what may be termed a " mixed farmer," making no specialty in any department. ORLEANS. ORLEANS, designated in the United States survey as township 8 north, of range 7 west, lies on the northern border of Ionia County, and has for its boundaries Montcalm County on the north, Easton township on the south, Ronald on the east, and Otisco on the west. Two lines of railway traverse the town, the one known as the main line of the Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad passing northwest from section 35, and the other, extending in a straight line northward along the eastern side of the town, as the Ionia and Stanton branch. Upon these lines in Orleans are four stations, called Wood's Corners, Shiloh, Palmer, and Chadwick's Corners, of which the most important is Palmer. The only stream in Orleans boasting mill-power is Long Lake, or Spencer's Creek, upon which, in section 5, is a saw-mill and a grist-mill. There is also the steam saw-mill of Bishop & Leach, west of Shiloh, and a similar mill on the south shore of Long Lake, built about 1860 by Hiram Hall and T. W. Heald, and now carried on by Benjamin Hall. Its capacity is about two and a half millions annually. Long Lake, just mentioned, is the largest sheet of water in the county. It lies upon sections 2 and 3, covers upwards of four hundred acres, and measures about one mile and a half in length by three-quarters of a mile in width. It was once a favorite fishing-ground, and is still frequented by anglers, although to a limited extent. There is in the town a great variety of soil and timber, clay loam predominating as to the former. In the southeast there were originally timbered openings, and here and there are plains studiously avoided by the earliest settlers as undesirable lands, but later accepted with favor, and now occupied by some of the most valuable farms in the county. EARLY SETTLEMENTS. In common with the lands of Keene and Otisco, those in Orleans were not put upon the market until August, 1839, but lands were pre-empted and settlements effected more than a year before that date. Whatever distinction can attach to the first settler in the town is due now, by way of remembrance, to Guy Webster, of Ohio, who, then living on a farm in Lorain County, came out to Ionia County in the winter of 1837-38 on a tour of inspection, and, fancying the lay of the land upon section 36 in Orleans, pre-enpted a tract, returned to Ohio, and at once began preparations for the removal of his family and goods to Michigan. He hired a young man, by name William Henry Harrison Sutliffe, to help him over the journey, and all hands set out with two pairs of oxen, one horse, and a lumber-wagon packed with goods. At Ionia, Webster left his family at McCausland's tavern, 306 and with Sutliffe went to his Orleans place for the purpose of making a clearing and building a cabin. After he and Sutliffe had been at work just one day they concluded that they must have a female to look after the cooking department, since their efforts in that direction had been attended with lamentable and disastrous failure, so Sutliffe went over to lonia after Lucretia, the thirteen-year-old daughter of Webster (now Mrs. Loren Sprague, of Ronald), and at the little fellow's earnest request brought back also Master Guy Webster, Jr., a bright little lad of six years; but, young as he was, he was just as ready to rough it as any of them, and eager, too, to do what he could to lend a hand in pioneering. Sutliffe and the children came along on the road Webster and he had previously cut out by the way of the Yeomans place. When Lucretia and her brother Guy reached their father's clearing they found that their house-for a time, at least-was to be the wagon-box, and under that wagonbox the party of four people lodged during the ten nights that intervened between the coming of the children and the completion of Mr. Webster's cabin. Ordinarily, their stay under the wagon-box would have been an extremely unpleasant one, but a heavy fall of snow made the situation tenfold worse and entailed upon the little band no small amount of suffering. They pulled through after a fashion, though, and when they got into their new log house were ready to vote it a palace of luxurious comfort, albeit it was, perhaps, a poor sort of affair at best. Little Lucretia was a worker of almost invaluable assistance to her father, and not only did the housekeeping for the four,-her kitchen-fire being a blazing log-heap,-but aided in the clearing of the first seven acres he broke and in getting out the rails that fenced the same patch. When Mr. Webster raised his log cabin he had, besides that of Sutliffe, the assistance of Joshua S. Hall and Stephen Starks, two young men then just making a start in the woods in Ionia township near the northern town-line. The floor of that cabin was not what, in this latter day, would be called a stylish affair. It was, in short, a " split" or "puncheon" floor, and when Mr. Webster got enough of it laid to put a bedstead on he sent for his wife (who had thus far remained in Ionia in attendance upon her sick daughter) to come and help them keep house. With its split floor and otherwise primitive appointments, Webster's log house was nevertheless a sort of house of entertainment for a time after its construction, and lodged numbers of people journeying that way in search of land or upon other business bent. When Webster came to Orleans he brought a barrel of apple-seed and planted the first orchard in the town, from which he was ultimately enabled to supply his neighbors ORLEANS. 307 with material for the foundation of many another orchard. Guy Webster died in 1854, and his widow (who lived with her daughter, Mrs. Loren Sprague, during the latter years of her life) in 1874, at the age of eighty-four. As to Sutliffe, who worked for Mr. Webster, he pre-empted eighty acres on section 36 soon after coming in and did some work on the place while he boarded at Webster's, but not until 1843, when he married, did he make a settlement upon it. After a stay of ten years he moved to other parts, and now lives in Ohio. Joseph Collins, the second settler in Orleans, squatted on the northwest quarter of section 18 in May, 1838, but did not appear to care about making much of an effort towards improving his place. The very good reason for such lack of effort was that Collins was too poor to buy any land and knew that what improvements he might make he would have to give up just as soon as the land was sold. So he lived in a log shanty, raised enough to barely live on, and made up his mind to stop there until the purchaser of the land should put him off. He did not have to wait very long for that performance to take place, and then, like a philosopher, he went somewhere else. By some good fortune, he got somebody to help him to a small tract of land in Otisco, and there he lived until his death, in 1850. Although Mr. Collins was not especially distinguished for his pioneer performances in Orleans, his log shanty in that town became the locale of two interesting historic events,-the first wedding and the first death known in the town. The wedding was a double marriage, in which the brides were Lois and Sallie, daughters of Joseph Collins, and the bridegrooms William G. Bradish and Hiram Baxter, of Otisco. Squire Thomas Cornell, of Ionia, tied the knots, and of course there was a general happy time, although, truth to tell, the Collins mansion was not precisely of the kind adapted to a very brilliant display in the way of marriage festivities. The weddings took place in the summer of 1839, and late that year Joseph Collins, Jr., a lad of nineteen, died at his father's house, after a lingering illness, of consumption. He was buried in Otisco. Early in 1838, Erastus IIigbee came to Michigan from New York, and stopped in Oakland County to visit Charles Broas, formerly a neighbor of Higbee's in New York. From Oakland County, Broas and Higbee came to Ionia County in search of land, and, following Guy Webster's track to Orleans, reached his place June 26, 1838. Broas pushed on, and eventually located at the place now called Belding, in Otisco. Highec decided to locate in Orleans, and pre-empted four lots of eighty acres each on section 36, where his son John now lives. The next comer to that neighborhood was Rev. Archibald Sangster, an alleged Baptist clergyman. He had but recently come to America from England, preached a year at Ionia, and in 1839, finding that his preaching did not pay as a financial venture, made a settlement upon section 35 in Orleans. After assuming the role of pioneer he preached occasionally here and there, but as a divine did not cut much of a figure. His religious belief was a little shaky at times, and for that reason, possibly, his influence was not quite so powerful as it might or should have been. John Higbee says he called on him one day, and found the par son apparently disturbed in his mind; touching which condition he presently remarked to Higbee that if he could by such exchange satisfy himself, he would give the quartersection he owned for positive knowledge as to where he would go after death. Later, Mr. Higbee happened at a meeting where Sangster preached, and after service asked him whether he had satisfied himself as to the future. "Oh yes," returned the preacher; "I think I've got it reasoned out all right." As he did not indicate whether he felt sure of going to heaven or to the other place, his conclusions are simply matters of conjecture. After he left Orleans he removed to California. To him is ascribed the honor of having built, in 1839, the first framed house in Orleans, the lumber therefor being obtained at the Dickinson mill, in Otisco. The first framed barn in the town was built not long after by Guy Webster. Speaking about John Higbee, it may be remarked that in his day he was a famed hunter. Hundreds of deer have fallen beneath his unerring aim, and when he could not kill four a day he concluded the day was a bad one for deerhunting. He was likewise a sharp one after wolves, for the bounty (at one time as high as eight dollars) was a big inducement. They do say that while Higbee was in the wolf-catching business he made money faster than any man in the town. In 1838, Daniel Hoyt, living now on section 21, came to Michigan from New York State, and, squatting upon section 21 in Otisco, made a clearingand put in a crop of wheat. He made no attempt at a settlement there, however, living meanwhile at the house of Philo Bates, near Ionia. As he journeyed from time to time between his Otisco clearing and Ionia he passed by the land on which he now lives, and, despite the fact that there seemed to be a general desire on the part of everybody coming out that way to settle near the Flat River, he made up his mind that some very good country in Orleans was being passed by, and simultaneously made up his mind to buy some land in that town. Accordingly he picked out eighty acres on section 21, and at the land-sale, Aug. 5, 1839, he bought the tract, that being the first land in Orleans sold at the land-sale mentioned. When Mr. Hoyt bought his land and announced it as his intention to occupy it at once, those at the land-sale already living in that part of Orleans fairly shouted with joy at the prospect of getting a new neighbor. The persons referred to as already living in that vicinity were Asa Palmer, Lorenzo D. Bates, and Joseph Collins. Palmer and Bates had been in since December, 1838. Palmer had been working at Dickinson's mill in Otisco since 1837, and in December, 1838, as observed, moved to a piece of land on section 19, in Orleans. In 1842, Mr. Palmer moved to section 21, and there resided until his death. In 1851 he joined with his brother Charles in the erection of the first saw-mill in the town, on Long Lake Creek, in section 5, and before completing the enterprise added also as partners Hiram Hall and Robert Howe. Later, Jude R. Spencer bought the property and added a grist-mill. Both mills are now carried on by Mr. Ravell. Among the settlers of 1839 was Chester Scofield, who, coming from Ohio, near where Guy Webster used to live, 308 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. \ bought some land in Orleans of Webster, as did also John Frost, who came in about the same time. Scofield lives now in Minnesota, and Frost is a resident of Montcalm County. The identity of the first person born in Orleans is not easily defined, for there appear to be claims to that distinction on behalf of three children, of whom one was Abbey, daughter of Chester Scofield, born in 1841; in which year also were born George Palmer, son of Asa Palmer (in September), and Calista, daughter of Calvin Woodard, who married Mary Smith, sister of Chester Scofield's wife. Nathan Redington and Deacon Pierce came from Lorain Co., Ohio, in 1844, with a pair of horses and a yoke of oxen, and settled in Ionia County,-Redington on section 24 in Orleans, and Pierce on section 30 in Ronald. Before that, John Ditmars, son-in-law of Erastus Higbee, located on section 25, where he lived about twenty years, and then removed to Kansas, where he died. On section 25, also, Joseph Carey located in 1844, about a year after Marvil Haight occupied some land in section 36 that belonged to his son-in-law, Joshua Hall. Jesse Wood came from New York State about 1844, and after living a brief period with his son William, in Ronald, settled on a farm in Orleans, upon section 24, where his son Russell at present resides. Adam Buzzard moved from New York to Washtenaw Co., Mich., in 1837, and in 1840 was in Ionia for a brief stay. In 1845 he came back to Ionia County with D. C. Hurd, and the two made land-purchases on section 15 in Orleans. Buzzard worked for Hurd a year, and then occupied his own land, where he has since resided. Mr. Buzzard had a narrow escape from death in 1850, as did his companion on that occasion,-E. B. Post,-both of whom went out on Long Lake on a fishing-excursion, Long Lake being at that time a famous place for fish. While they were out a storm of violent fury came upon them, and before they fairly knew what had happened their canoe capsized, and they were thrown into the water. Although the wind blew almost a hurricane and the waves dashed about madly, the unfortunate fishermen managed by heroic, not to say most desperate, efforts to cling to the bottom of their upturned craft, and, half dead with wet, cold, and exertion,.reached shore in safety at last. It was a terrible experience, however, and one that neither participant is likely to forget to his dying day. In 1843, James Kidd, now of Ionia, located four hundred and forty acres of land in Orleans for his father, William R., who in the spring of 1844 came out with his two sons, S. T. and Robert W., and occupied the land. In 1842 the Orleans settlers included Edmund B. Post, Alexander Howe, and Angus McPherson. In 1843 came Martin Eckert and his son Jeremiah, from Washtenaw County, to section 18, Joel C. Green to section 17, Richard Hill to section 35, Isaac Harwood to section 18, Milo K. Cody to the Face farm, in section 23, David Courter to section 17, and Richard Hale to section 19. Those of 1844 included Albert Dorr (section 8), Ira Wheeler (sec tion 15), Warner Wheeler (section 8); of 1845, Thomas Neep, William Bradley, Samuel Raby, and Chester Goss; and of 1846, James WV. Gould to section 16, James C. Beach to section 28, Seneca H. King to section 20, Lewis J. Holcomb to section 19, Charles Chadwick to section 8, and Hiram Hall to section 17. Elder Robert Howe, Frank Olmstead, and Erastus Sherwood were likewise among the comers of 1846, the latter selling out in two years to Joseph Baldwin and returning to Oakland County. In 1847 there were Lewis and Myron Smith on section 14, James Baird on sections 16 and 17, and Hiel Preston south of Daniel Hoyt's. In the northwestern corner of the town there was something of a community of English or Canadian settlers, among whom were the Bradleys, Rabys, Neeps, Chadwicks, and Autcliffs. Near Long Lake, where Hiram Hall and T. W. Heald built a saw-mill in 1860, the early settlers were Theodore Leach, J. W. Drake, the Morses, Kings, Freeman Decker, and Oliver Decker. Among other early settlers in the southwestern corner of the town were Samuel Wooldridge, E. D. Lambertson, T. W. Heald, R. P. Johnson, L. A. Benedict, Gilbert King, and A. D. Johnson. Still other early settlers not named were L. M. Berry, John and Patrick Kelly, Fergus Flanagan, G. W. Basom, A. W. Smith, and Abraham Alderman, the latter a settler in North Plains in 1853. RESIDENT TAX-PAYERS OF ORLEANS TN 1846. Acres. Samuel Bement, section 21............................... 80 Erastus Brooks, section 14................................. 80 Joseph Baldwin, section 23................................. 160 Adam Buzzard............................................Personal L. D. Bates, sections 15, 19............................... 80 Bates & Bruce, section 14................................... 40 Joseph Bigelow.......................................... Personal Elson Cody, section 23....................................... 80 Milo K. Cody, section 23................................... 160 David Corter, section 17.................................... 40 M oses Collins, section 7...................................... 76 John Ditmars, section 25.................................... 40 Albert Dorr, section 8....................................... 120 Dorr & Wheeler, section 5................................. 120 George Ditmars, section 14................................. 40 Martin Eckert, sections 4, 20.............................. 240 Abram Eckert, section 18................................... 37 Hiram Eckert, section 8..................................... 80 John Frost, section 36....................................... 40 Chester Goss..............................................Personal Joel C. Green, section 17.......................... 80 Richard Hill, section 35................................... 40 E. B. Higbee, sections 35, 36.............................. 93 John Higbee, section 36..................................... 112 Benjamin Higbee, section 36.............................. 114 Jeremiah Eckert, section 18................................ 80 Daniel Hoyt, section 21................................ 80 Lewis J. Holcomb, section 19.............................. 40 Richard Hale, section 19............................ 40 William P. Hale.........................................Personal D. C. Hurd, sections 14, 15................................ 160 Isaac Harwood, section 18.................................. 40 Alexander Howe, sections 9, 17........................... 160 Peleg H ale................................................Personal G. H. King, section 19..................................... 156 Seneca H. King, section 20................................. 320 Lewis Kelner, section 25.................................... 40 William R. Kidd, section 13;............................... 120 R. W. Kidd, section 22..................................... 120 t Samuel T. Kidd, section 22................................ 120 Francis Moorman.....................................Personal Edward Post, section 17..................................... 160 Nathaniel Redington, section 24........................ 160 Asa Palmer, sections 10, 21, 22........................... 140 Garrett Snediker.........................................Personal Chester Scofield, sections 25, 36........................... 80 William H. H. Sutliffe, section 36....................... 120 A. C. Sangster, section 35................................. 120 Warner Wheeler, section 8............................... 80 Ira Wheeler, section 15...................................... 80 - Jesse Wood, section 24............................... 320 Guy Webster, sections 31, 36......................... 163 John Yeomans, section 19.................................. 80 ORLEANS. 309 EARLY ROADS. From the highway records of Ionia township is taken a copy of the surveys, by Thomas Cornell, of the first two roads in town 8 north, range 7 west, as follows: " Field-notes of the survey of a road in the town of Ionia, commencing at a post set on the town-line south thirty-three chains from northwest corner of section 18, in town 8 north, of range 7 west, running the lines according to the true meridian, bearing true to the post at the commencement of the road, white oak sixteen inches north seventy-one degrees east fifty-five links; from said post south fifty-five degrees west twelve chains fifty links to the east-and-west quarter-section line, bearing tree white oak sixteen inches north twenty-seven degrees east one hundred and twenty-nine links; thence south eighty-eight degrees fifty-two east on quarter-section line sixty-six chains seventy links to the quarter-post on the east side of section 18; thence south eighty-nine degrees forty-five east seventy-two chains twenty-eight links on the quarter-line, bearing tree white oak fourteen inches north fifty degrees thirty minutes east sixty links; thence south fifty-four degrees thirty minutes east sixtyeight chains thirty links to the quarter-post on the south side of section 16, in town 8 north, range 7 west. "THos. CORNELL, t" Surveyor." "We, the commissioners of highways of the Township of Ionia, do hereby establish a public highway on the following-described survey,-viz., Beginning on the north quarter-stake on section 21 in town 8 north, of range 7 west, and running thence due west one hundred and twenty chains to the northwest corner of section 20 in town 8 north, of range 7 west, in the organized township of Ionia; said line to be the centre of the road. Recorded March 15, 1844. " MONAL G. HAIGHT, " WVM. M. CAUSLIN, < Comli8ssioners of Highway8." May 13, 1846, Thomas Cornell surveyed a road beginning at the southwest corner of section 18, and passing alone the section-line to the southeast corner of said section. May 23, 1846, the same surveyor surveyed a road from the quarter-post between sections 19 and 20 along the section-line northward to the section-corner; thence north one degree east seventy-nine chains and twenty-eight links on the section-line to the section-corner; thence west to the township-line between Orleans and Otisco. March 30, 1847, the commissioners of highways met at the house of Daniel Hoyt and districted the town as follows: No. 1 to embrace sections 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9; No. 2 to include sections 17 and 18; No. 3 to include sections 19, 20, 29, and 30, and the west half of section 31; No. 4, the east half of section 32, west half of section 34, and the whole of 33; No. 5, sections 21, 28, and 27, the south half of 22, west half of 35, east half of 34, and west half of 26; No. 6, sections 1, 2, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 24, 23, and north half of 22; No. 7, sections 25, 36, and the east halves of 26 and 35. SCHOOLS. The pioneer school-teacher in Orleans was Arabella Hewitt, of Otisco, who in 1843 taught a subscriptionschool in the upper part of Daniel Hoyt's log house. Her pay was one dollar a week, and her scholars-six or eight in number-included the children of E. B. Post, Daniel Hoyt, and Alexander Howe. In the eastern portion of the town a school was taught in 1843 in a shanty on Guy Webster's land, by Sarah Haight, I now the wife of Joshua S. Hall. In that same shanty, school was afterwards taught by a Miss Hathaway and Miss Lucy Chapman. The first district school-house in that district was built not long afterwards by Loren Sprague. FORMATION OF DISTRICTS. Previous to the organization of Orleans township the school districts of Ionia included in the present town of Orleans sections 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 14, 15, 23, 25, 36, 13, 24, the west half of section 9, northwest quarter of 22, and the east halves of 26 and 35. The first meeting of the board of school inspectors of Orleans was held at Ira Wheeler's house, April 14, 1846, but nothing was done except to adjourn until May 2d ensuing. At the meeting of May 2d, Joel C. Green was chosen school visitant for the ensuing year and two school districts formed as follows: No. 1 to embrace section 20, the east half of section 19, and the north half of section 29, the first meeting of the district to be held at the house of Lorenzo D. Bates; No. 2 to include sections 16, 17, and, 18, the first meeting of the district to be held at the house of David Courter. District No. 3 was formed Oct. 19, 1846, to contain sections 21 and 28, the west half of section 27, and the southwest quarter of section 22. Nov. 30, 1848, Districts 1 and 3 were consolidated and called No. 1, embracing sections 19, 20, 21, 28, 30, the southwest quarter of 22, the west half of 27, and the north half of 29. In 1850, District No. 1 had fifty-one scholars, No. 2 had forty-seven, and No. 3 had sixteen. District No. 4 was formed Feb. 7, 1857, and included sections 33 and 34, the east half of 32, southeast quarter of 29, and south halves of 27 and 28. District No. 5, formed March 4, 1857, included sections 26, 35. the east half of 34, and the southeast quarter of section 27. May 16, 1 857, District No. 6 was formed, and included sections 25 and 26, and the southwest quarter of section 24. District No. 7, formed Sept. 17, 1857, embraced sections 17 and 18, the west half of section 16, and the east half of the northwest quarter and the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter of section 21. Appended is a synopsis of the annual school report for 1880: Directors. Enumera- Average Value of Teachers' tion. Attendance. Property. Wages. I Dist. 1...S..S. D. Chickering. " 2........Edwin Dorr. " 3.......John Ilill. " 4.......J. W. Barker. " 5........J. Beadle. " 6........L. E. Hall. 7T......J. Morton. " 8........ WV. Brown. " 9........F. Flanagan. "l 10........W. Bishop. Total........................ 47 40 $740 67 52 200 76 63 1200 35 33 100 39 28 1200 32 24 50 85 64 200 56 44 300 75 59 1200 68 56 600 580 463 $5790 $172 142 203 155 185 96 148 176 227 160 $1664 TEACHERS. Certificates to teachers were issued by the inspectors from 1846 to 1860 to the following: July 14, 1846, Caroline Wheeler; Aug. 8, 1846, Julia Ann Jennings; Nov. 7, *- Fractional. 310 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. 1846, Joel C. Green; Dec. 14, 1846, Thomas C. Kenwether, Ann M. Morman, Emily Boynton; May 6, 1847, Sarah C. Morman; Nov. 24, 1847, Ann Just; Nov. 20, 1847, Adeline Loomis; Dec. 31, 1847, Ann Morman, Alice Wilcox; May 20, 1848, Betsey Kendrick; May 25,. 1848, Mary Loomis; May 8,1849, Mary Dodge; Nov. 13, 1849, John Lazelle; Dec. 1, 1849, Sarah Morman; May 4, 1850, Gilman Hitchcock; Helen M. Wilcox, Mary J. Hewitt, Martha Hubbell, Henrietta Thornton; Nov. 2, 1850, Cynthia Lazelle; May 12, 1851, Sarah M. Atwood, Olive L. Littlefield, Lucy M. Hoyt; May 20, 1851, Ann Tuttle; Nov. 15, 1851, John Lazelle; May 8,1852, M. C. Bement, Nancy Anderson; Nov. 6, 1852, T. N. Chapin; March 30, 1853, Lucy M. Hoyt, Sarah Cole; Nov. 5,1853, Charlotte Holcomb; Nov. 19, 1853, William S. Lazelle, John Hitchcock; April 15,1854, Sarah M. Smith; April 14, 1855, Lucy A. Hoyt, Almira E. Hoyt; May 5, 1855, Corintha Wilbur; Nov. 3, 1855, Seraphine Porter; Nov. 23, 1855, Agnes King, Jacob King, and L. Moore; April 2, 1856, Jane M. Taggart; April 14, 1856, Amarilla Heath; May 9,1856, Ellen Colton; May 10, 1856, Julia E. Ford; Nov. 1, 1856, Charles Clark, William S. Lazelle, Lyman Clark, Gilman Hitchcock; Nov. 26,1856, Julia Ann Olmstead; May 2, 1857, Corintha E. Wilbur and Rachel B. Willet; May 29, 1857, Mary E. Hale; Nov. 7, 1857, Aaron P. Moors, Myron Morse; Nov. 11, 1857, Rhoda A. Norton, J. R. Norton; Nov. 25, 1857, L. P. Redington; Jan. 16, 1858, Jane Strcever; April 10, 1858, Mary J. Howe, Marian J. Colby; April 17, 1858, Josephine Baxter; May 10, 1858, Julia E. Ford; May 15, 1858, Amelia C. Holcomb; Nov. 6, 1858, Daniel C. Anderson, Julia A..Olmstead, Hannah J. Streever, Betsey Russell, and Matilda Redington; Nov. 18, 1858, Mary Elizabeth Hale; April 9, 1859, Elizabeth Wright and Miss Lezbe Easton; April 18,1859, Corintha E. Wilbur and Sarah Wilbur; May 31, 1859, Miss Taylor; Nov. 5, 1859, Thomas C. Kenworthy, Charles Morse, William Lazelle, Miss Ersa Hitchcock; April 14, 1860, Susan Murray, Ellen Murray, and Elizabeth Merritt; Nov. 3, 1860, Judson C. Bentley, Henry Hill, Jerome Caskey, Amelia Chittel; Nov. 5, 1860, R. L. Marrett; Nov. 8, 1860, Eli H. Hurlbut. CHURCHES. Orleans is at present moderately well supplied with churches, of which one is at Palmer village and three in the western portion of the town. On the eastern town-line, in the Webster neighborhood, the first religious services were held by Revs. Alfred Cornell and Archibald Sangster, Baptist ministers, while in the west Elder Godfrey, a Christian preacher of Vergennes, used to preach once in a while in E. B. Post's house, and Methodist preachers in the town school-houses. A Methodist Episcopal Class was organized in Orleans at a moderately early date, but just when or who were the organizing members cannot be clearly ascertained, for there are no records to enlighten the chronicler, and none of the early members within reach. In the steward's book appears the information that " the Otisco Circuit was formerly a part of the old Flat River Circuit, from which it was separated in 1861, and then constituted a circuit by itself." Rev. Mr. Frieze, who was a famous and a zealous preacher on the Flat River Circuit, preached probably the first Methodist sermon in Orleans. Among the ministers who served on that and the Otisco Circuit, with Orleans as a field of their work, were Revs. T. B. Granger, Seth Reed, J. N. Thomas, Isaac Bennett, I. S. Finch, William McKnight, D. Bush, Alfred Allen, J. W. Cawthorne, C. H. Fisher, E. Marble, A. P. Moors, E. D. Young, William T. Williams, T. J. Spencer, Alonzo Rogers, M. D. Carrel, N. L. Bray, W. A. Bronson, D. 0. Ball, J. M. Aiken, and W. H. Ware. There are now in Orleans two Methodist Episcopal Classes on the Otisco Circuit, which has five appointments, Rev. W. H. Ware being the preacher in charge November, 1880. The Orleans Classes worship respectively at the town-hall and the Green Methodist Episcopal church, on section 17, erected in 1872. The society trustees are Martin Post, E. A. Russell, Thomas Murray, Charles Chadwick, T. C. Fales. The class-leaders are Thomas Murray and John Morton. The membership of the charge is one hundred and twenty-six, exclusive of nineteen probationers. The Centre Class has twenty-three members, and the Green Class forty-five. There is a Sunday-school at the centre, of which John Collins is superintendent. SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS. The Seventh-Day Advent Church of Orleans was organized Nov. 27, 1862, with the following as members: Seneca H. King, Mariette King, I. A. Olmstead, Elizabeth Olmstead, Della Olmstead, Francis Morman, Charity W. Morman, Irvin Brink, Harriet Brink, Marietta Gould, Julia A. Hall. At the same time Seneca H. King was chosen elder (a position he has ever since filled), and Irvin Brink deacon and church clerk. The following year (1863) a house of worship was erected on section 20. Since 1862 the church has received fifty-seven members and lost thirtythree, leaving the present membership twenty-four. W. A. Towl is now the deacon, and L. B. Kneeland, S. H. King, and George Benton the trustees. There is a Sabbath-school with an average attendance of twenty-four scholars, L. B. Kneeland being the superintendent. FREE METHODIST CHURCH. A Free Methodist Class was organized in Orleans, Feb. 20, 1870, and soon afterwards a church-edifice was built upon section 32. The Orleans Circuit was formed in September, 1870, and included the First Free Methodist Church of Orleans and the First Free Methodist Church of Otisco. L. J. Francisco was appointed preacher in charge, and L. A. Benedict secretary. Mr. Francisco's successors have been Revs. A. Omans, I. J. Witham, C. W. Haynes, and A. Mudge. Mr. Mudge, the present preacher in charge, has an appointment at Fallasburg as well as at Orleans. The present membership is forty-three. The class-leader is Frank Stowell, and the church trustees Belden Hale, George Anderson, - Anderson, Hopkins Clark, and Manly Hale. TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION. Town 8 north, in range 7 west, was included within Ionia township until March 25, 1846, when it was organ ORLEANS. 311 ORENSI1 ized by the Legislature as the township of Orleans, and the first meeting ordered to be held at the house of Ira Wheeler. The meeting called for the purpose of naming the town was held at the house of E. B. Post, and among the names proposed those of Wheatland and Dover appeared to meet with the most favor, the former especially. It would have been adopted, but the discovery that there was another Wheatland in the State caused it to be set aside by the legislative representative of the district, and the substitution by him or somebody else of Orleans,-doubtless from Orleans, N. Y. It seems that some of the folks in the western portion of the town thought Wheatland ought to be the name because they raised considerable buckwheat, and, indeed, did call it Wheatland before the town was organized. When they gave their reasons for wanting that name adopted, Daniel Hoyt, always keenly alive to a sense of the ridiculous, exclaimed," Why not better call it Buckwheatland?" At the first town-meeting, held at the house of Ira Wheeler, April 6, 1846, Gilbert H. King and Jesse Wood, justices of the peace, were present as inspectors of election, and they, with Milo K. Cody, David Courter, and Garrett Snediker, constituted the board of inspectors. Jesse Wood was chosen moderator, and Albert Dorr clerk, whereupon the polls were opened. Forty-one votes were cast and officials elected as follows: Supervisor, Gilbert H. King; Clerk, Seneca H.'King; Treasurer, Ira Wheeler; Justices of the Peace, Guy Webster, Garrett Snediker; Highway Commissioners, Chester Goss, Joel C. Green, Jeremiah Eckert; School Inspectors, Joel C. Green, Chester Goss; Constables, Samuel T. Kidd, Isaac Harwood; Overseers of the Poor, Joel C. Green, Jesse Wood; Pathmasters, Milo K. Cody, Garrett Snediker, John Higbee, Gilbert H. King. Upon the license question, the vote against license was twenty-six to thirteen; at the next annual township-meeting, the vote was in favor of license by twenty-eight to fifteen. Herewith will be found the names of the persons chosen annually from 1847 to 1880 to serve as supervisors, clerks, treasurers, and justices of the peace: SUPERVISORS. 1847-48, G. II. King; 1849, S. H. King; 1850, L. D. Smith; 1851, Guy Webster; 1852, S. H. King; 1853, J. Jennings; 1854, W. S. Lazelle; 1855, S. H. King; 1856, D. Hitchcock; 1857-59, M. Lazelle; 1860, G. H. King; 1861-64, A. Dorr; 1865-66, D. C. Spalding; 1867-71, J. Collins; 1872, F. Flanagan; 1873-78, F. Pitt; 1879-80,* E. D. Lambertson. CLERKS. 1847, D. C. Iurd; 1848-49, L. D. Smith; 1850, D. C. Hurd; 1851, H. Preston; 1852, D. Hitchcock; 1853, D. C. Hurd; 1854, S. T. Kidd; 1855, L. Moore, Jr.; 1856, L. D. Smith; 1857, G. T. Hitchcock; 1858, A. Dorr; 1859-60, B. F. Willey; 1861-64, J. Collins; 1865-66, V. 11. Smith; 1867-70, J. Morton; 1871, G. Blakeslee; 1872, F. W. Smith; 1873-78, M. Morse; 1879, George W. Basom; 1880, E. 0. Smith. TREASURERS. 1847, W. Wheeler; 1848, II. Preston; 1849, S. T. Kidd; 1850, R. W. Kidd; 1851, L. J. Holcomb; 1852, D. C. Hurd; 1853, Joseph - Three hundred and thirty-nine votes cast. Weeks; 1851, J. Collins; 1855, L. A. Benedict; 1856, Guy Webster; L857, J. Jennings; 1858-60, J. W. Gould; 1861-64, Alex. Howe; 1865, J. Morton; 1866, T. Murray; 1867-68, F. W. Smith; 1869-72, H. G. Piper; 1873-76, F. W. Smith; 1877, A. Ostrom; 1878, N. S. Basom; 1879-80, A. H. Carey. JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. 1847, Jesse Wood; 1848, M. C. Smith; 1849, G. II. King; 1850, Guy Webster; 1851, Albert Dorr; 1852, M. C. Smith; 1853, D. Hitchcock; 1854, Joseph P. Deuel; 1855, W. W. Entrican; 1856, L. J. Holcomb; 1857, J. H. Morse; 1858, J. P. Deuel; 1859, W. Wheeler; 1860, Thomas Heald; 1861, J. H. Morse; 1862, J. C. Reid; 1863, G. N. Redington; 1864, D. C. Spalding; 1865, F. A. Decker; 1866, J. H. Morse; 1867, A. Howe; 1868, E. Blakeslee; 1869, C. Chadwick; 1870, J. H. Morse; 1871, H. G. Piper; 1872, J. S. Hall; 1873, J. W. Blakeslee; 1874, J. H. Morse; 1875, 11. G. Piper; 1876, F. W. Smith; 1877, T. Murray; 1878, J. H. Morse; 1879, U. C. Howell; 1880, A. Alderman. JURORS FOR 1846. The jurors appointed for 1846 were Ira Wheeler, John Higbee, Jeremiah Eckert, Samuel Bement, William H. H. Sutliffe, William R. Kidd. SOCIETIES. ORLEANS GRANGE, NO. 325. Orleans Grange was organized in 1874 with one hundred and one members. The first Master chosen was John Collins, who served two terms. The second was S. T. Kidd, and the third Mott Spaulding, now in his third term. In 1877 a grange-hall was built on section 16. The membership is now about eighty. The officers for 1880 are Mott Spaulding, M.; E. D. Lambertson, O.; Daniel Hoyt, L.; George Basom, Sec.; Mathew Bogardus, Treas.; Joseph Reid, Steward; John Blanchard, Assistant Steward; Mrs. A. H. Jackson, Stewardess. Meetings are. held once a week. BANNER GRANGE, NO. 640. Banner Grange was organized in April, 1880, with thirty-one members, and now (November, 1880) has fortythree. A site has been purchased on section 36, where a hall will shortly be erected. The officers for 1880 are Henry J. Hall, M.; George Vance, O.; Mrs. Austin Sprague, L.; Alfred Carey, Sec.; Austin Sprague, Treas.; William Brooks, Chaplain; C. E. Higbee, Steward; Julius Higbee, Assistant Steward; Mrs. Guy Higbee, Stewardess. THE CASUALTY LIST IN ORLEANS. The first fatal accident known to the history of Orleans is recorded of Paul T. Hewitt, of Otisco, who was in 1843 employed at Tompkins' furnace, in Tonia, and thither proceeded with horse and wagon regularly every Sunday night from his Otisco home by way of Daniel Hoyt's place, in Orleans. One morning he was found by a traveler lying dead by the roadside not far from Hoyt's house. How he came to his death was never known, but the supposition was that he must have been thrown from his wagon by a sudden lurch, and, being badly hurt, died where he lay without the ability to help himself. About 1850, Garret Snediker was killed by the fall of a tree on the farm of Robert T. Howe, a Wesleyan preacher, and popularly known as Elder Howe. In 1860, John Penny went into the woods on a gunning 312 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. expedition, and, failing to return within a reasonable time, was searched for and found dead with a gunshot wound in his breast. Whether he shot himself accidentally or whether some one else shot him was never positively known, although general belief inclined to the former view. In 1865, Guy Webster, son of the early settler of that name, after passing through the war of the Rebellion unharmed, met his death in his barn by the falling upon him of a patent hay-fork. The tines of the fork entered the unfortunate man's heart and caused an almost instant death. In 1870, John Morse was found hanging in his own barn, dead. Opinions were divided as to the cause of his death, some inclining to the suicide theory and others to that of murder. The murder theory carried the greater weight, evidently, for one William Brown, with whom Morse was known to have had some trouble, was straightway arrested and charged with having killed Morse. He was twice tried, and twice convicted. After serving a portion of his sentence at Jackson he was taken with a fatal illness, and, being pardoned upon that account, returned to Orleans, where he soon died. The killing of a man named Hubbard by Charles Hurd in 1870 is remembered as one of the sensational tragedies of the town. Hubbard was a farm hand on Hurd's place, and for some fancied grievance first abused and then violently beat Hurd. He even threatened directly after that to kill Hurd, who, fearing that he was in deadly danger, armed himself, and, despite the knowledge on the part of Hubbard of that fact, the latter again made threatening demonstrations; whereupon Hurd shot him dead. Hurd was tried, convicted, and sentenced to the State prison, but was ultimately pardoned. VILLAGES. PALMER. The village of Palmer (known as Orleans post-office), a station on the Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad, is the largest of the four villages in Orleans, and, although itself but a mite of a place, is bright and bustling with business energy, and gives excellent promise of a healthful progress. In 1870, when the construction of the railway was being pushed forward, it was understood that a station to be called Orleans would be located on the State road half a mile north of Palmer, and as precedent to that understanding the inhabitants roundabout had agreed to donate seven hundred dollars for depot, grounds, etc. Somehow, there arose some jangling and disputations over the promised subscription, and, as the result of the jangle was a delay of the promised donation, the railway company got out of patience with the people, and, accepting the offer of Asa Palmer, who promised land for station and lumber in the bargain provided the depot were placed on his land, abandoned the State road scheme and located the present Palmer station. Mr. Palmer caused the village of Palmer to be surveyed by S. C. Alderman, and Nov. 22, 1871, recorded the village plat as lying on the southwest quarter of section 22. John Greenop, who in 1870 had come from Jackson and put up a store on the State road where Orleans station was to be, traded there until the Palmer project was substituted, and, moving his store thither, re-embarked in business. Until 1874 he was the only storekeeper at Palmer. In that year Clark Hopkins entered the field for a share of the honors, and to this day Greenop and Hopkins have been the village merchants. The first physician to venture upon a residence in the new village was Dr. S. C. Lacey, now a practitioner at Greenville. The village doctor is now Dr. E. O. Smith, who is also postmaster, proprietor of the village drug-store, and town-clerk. Palmer is something of a wheat-shipping point, and forwards annually about seventy-five car-loads, or thirty thousand bushels of the staple. There are at Palmer a grist-mill and a planing-mill, built in 1879 by T. W. Heald, and now carried on by him. United Brethren Church. —In the fall of 1879 a church of the United Brethren in Christ was formed at Palmer with the following members: James Beach and wife, Myron Morse and wife, William Whipple and wife, T. W. Heald and wife, Mrs. Henry Dole, and William Beach and wife, Myron Morse being chosen class-leader. Directly after organization the church-edifice now in use was erected, at a cost of two thousand dollars. The membership is now fourteen. Rev. Mr. Flemings is the pastor, and holds services each Sabbath. The church trustees are T. W. Heald, Myron Morse, and James Beach. Orleans Lodge, No. 336, F. and A. M.-This, the only secret society, or indeed civic society of any kind, in Palmer, was organized in 1875 with nine members, to wit: George W. Basom, Charles Leach, John Greenop, Abraham Alderman, S. C. Lacey, John Collins, Joel Palmer, Samuel Cusser, and Charles Chadwick. The successive Masters of the lodge from the beginning have been G. W. Basom, Charles Leach, G. W. Basom, Charles Leach. The present official list is Charles Leach, W. M.; E. O. Smith, J. W.; Wilbur Knapp, S. W.; Ansel Ostrom, Sec.; S. A. Walker, Treas.; H. A. Smith, S. D.; John Hill, J. D.; Joel Palmer, Tiler. WOOD'S CORNERS. Wood's Corners-so called from the Wood settlement in that locality-lies on the eastern town-line, half a mile distant from the Ionia and Stanton branch railroad line. There was some travel over the town-line road in 1865 (although the thoroughfare was opened in 1850 or before as a State road), and John (or Jack) Lansing thought a tavern at Wood's Corners would be a good thing for him, and for the traveling public as well; so he put up a tavern there in that year, upon the Ronald side of the road. In 1866, Daniel Bennett concluded that he too would embark in the roadside-tavern business at Wood's Corners, and during that year he put up the tavern-stand now kept at Wood's Corners by Philander Hinds,-himself, by the way, one of the pioneers of lonia. In 1868 a post-office was established at the Corners, and J. E. Bennett, son of the landlord, was appointed postmaster. Two years before that a Mr. Morton built and opened a store at the Corners, and in 1870 sold out to J. E. Bennett, who soon disposed of his interests to J. Dehen, and since then the latter has carried on business there uninterrupt i:!4'0. j s v N " I f, I I ll, ia 1 I I 't I:t:~:i,',,:, i:4 d I/ I Fyr.;Y I A}? K, Of: ~~ ~ ''''' *!. i "''' '.'1' ~: X.11, i*. I, I ' l, ~.*r_..I -. I~~~ c ~-~ sP,,:11:"~ Ir ""i: ~ua I, t,L I "i'i.i "... ' ~~ r ic~ 1'";~~ i ri i:: ~h ",if' li(J a~,~I ~~ ~~.?;:~~ "` '5 r ':~ =.. i~..r~- ~I~~~.'-r rr .~ n~~Lc;l -:~'~\~;:'~:~~~," 1 ~ ~ -~~-.. 5, 3' ' ' 'i ''' i., ~~ '" ' " '',, f~;~-I r"f ' '* ` ~`.:' nrrt*jt,. L4J~' '.,. S L. J. MOSHCiER. M,, i 'Y,*. 59f6t" { ir. IU I A E$, ''' 7 ~t* ~,:^~ i,, '" '~~, 1 -Jkk A,,r.e - f,? ",.A ct~,.Id.. l " ~ I~,*~' ;'.r~ ~-hr 3-: r'r "'~; t~ '"~~ 5_ u *r6c*rru c r'sf"ip:j p**: i~1 V i t"S^ -, fES/iDENCE OF LORAND J. MOSHER. RONALD. ION/A Co. /MCH. I RONALD. 347 I When he has changed one farm or one purchase for another, it has been with a view of bettering his circumstances. He is a general farmer. Politically he is a Republican, and has held the position of highway commissioner. He was never an office-seeker, and always had business enough of his own to attend to. He is an active member of the order of Patrons of Husbandry, and both he and his wife are connected with the Disciples' Church. Mr. Mosher aids every way in his power to advance moral and educational interests in his locality. He is truly a self-made man, having commenced at the bottom round of the ladder and made his way upward by persevering industry and economy, and for his pains has a fine property and the esteem of those who know him. WILLIAM M. STEERE. MRS. WILLIAM M. STEERE. WILLIAM I. STEERE. David Steere, father of the above, was born near Winchester, Va., about the year 1784. He moved with his parents subsequently to Jefferson Co., Ohio. He married Phebe Midhouse, a native of Chester Co., Pa., whose parents also removed early to Jefferson Co., Ohio. In 1833, David Steere, who was a farmer by occupation, came with his wife and nine children to Michigan, and settled in Lenawee County, where he died at the age of about ninetythree years. Iis wife lived to the age of eighty-seven years. William M. Steere was born Dec. 25, 1812, in Jefferson Co., Ohio, and was the third child in the family. He passed his early years at home, and enjoyed the advantages afforded by a very good school, perhaps better than the average. He taught school several winters while yet living at home. On the 15th of October, 1837, he married Miss Elizabeth C. Beal, daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Beal. She was born in Monroe Co., N. Y., April 6, 1815. Her parents were natives of Massachusetts. Mrs. Stecre was the fifth in a family of nine children, and came with her parents to Michigan as early as 1831, locating near Adrian, Lenawee Co., where her father and mother both died, the latter in February, 1832, and the former Jan. 22, 1877, at the age of nearly ninety-five years. Mrs. Steere's grand father, Seth Beal, and his oldest son fought side by side at Bunker Hill, and her father was a soldier of 1812. Mr. Steere's ancestors were Quakers. To Mr. and Mrs. Steere were born nine children,-six sons and three daughters,of whom five sons and two daughters are now living. The sons are all married. Two are living on farms in Montcalm County, two near home, and one, Joseph B. Steere, is a professor of zoology at Ann Arbor. He was graduated from the literary department of the university in 1868 and from the law department three years later, and subsequently spent five years abroad, during which time he journeyed around the world and collected many rare and interesting specimens for the university museum. Mr. Steere has ilways been engaged in the business of farming. He located where he now lives about 1855. In politics he is a Republican, and has represented his township nine years as treasurer, two terms as supervisor, etc. Mr. and Mrs. Steere have been members of the Methodist Episcopal Church about forty years. They were schoolteachers in their younger days, and Mrs. Steere still takes an active interest in educational matters. Their daughter is in charge of the telegraph-office at Saginaw City. Two sons, David and William, served one year in the army during the Rebellion, the latter being with Sherman on his '" march to the sea." 348 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. GEORGE PRAY, M.D. GEORGE PRAY, M.D. Ezek Pray, father of the doctor, was a farmer by occupation, and a native of Connecticut. His wife, whose maiden-name was Sallie A. Hammond, was born in Rhode Island, where she married Mr. Pray. A short time later they removed to Allegany Co., N. Y., and in 1825 came to Michigan, and were among the earliest settlers in the township of Superior, Washtenaw Co. In that township Mr. Pray purchased and improved a large farm, upon which he remained until his death, in 1856. His wife died in 1872. George Pray, who was born Aug. 27, 1825, was but five weeks old when his parents arrived in Michigan, and his life up to the age of fourteen years was similar to that of all boys in a new country. When fourteen he entered the Ann Arbor Academy, and was prepared for the university, and in 1841, at the opening of that institution, entered its first class. He was graduated from the classical department in 1845. In 1846. after teaching a term of school, he commenced the study of medicine in the private medical school of Professors Sager, Douglass, and Gunn, and was graduated from the medical department of the Western Reserve College, at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1849. He located and began practice in Salem, Washtenaw Co., and in October, 1856, came to Ronald township, Ionia Co., purchased a tract of land, and has since engaged in real-estate business in connection with his practice. He was the first physician to locate permanently in this township, and his memory recalls many long and hard rides in pursuit of his duty in the field of medicine. Thirty and forty miles per day were sometimes traversed, corn enough for his horse being taken along, while his own fare was such as could be obtained, often very meagre. He is at present located on a very fine farm of two hundred and ninety acres, and is the possessor of an aggregate of five hundred acres in the township. In 1863 he returned to Ann Arbor and engaged in practice, but after four years came back to his present residence. His business at Ann Arbor was very lucrative, but he preferred his country home, which he had seen changed from an unimproved tract to a most excellent and productive farm. July 4, 1849, at Ann Arbor, he married Miss Deidamia H. Pope, daughter of Willard and Barbara Pope, who was born in Pennsylvania, in November, 1828, and died at her home in Ronald, March 14, 1875. Her loss was mourned by all who knew her, and friends at Ann Arbor and elsewhere united in expressions of sympathy and regret with those nearer to her home. In 1846 she was graduated from the Misses Clark's school at Ann Arbor. April 9,1876, Dr. Pray married Miss Ellen Adele Comstock, daughter of Jared V. and Mary Comstock. She was born in Montcalm Co., Mich., in February, 1858. One son, George Pray, has been born since this union, June 16, 1877. Dr. Pray has been a Republican in politics since the organization of the latter party, but was formerly a Democrat. He represented his district in the Legislature in 1879-80, was supervisor of his township for fourteen years, chairman of the board of supervisors of Ionia County for several years. In religion his views are liberal. His wife is a member of the Disciples' Church, as was also Mrs. Pray deceased. The doctor has also taken great interest in the grange movement, and, with the exception of the year spent in the Legislature, has been either Master or secretary of the Woodard Lake Grange since its organization. For four years he was Master of the Ionia County Grange. 'C I I I I I A.L I t, -L i W UUUlrW LA flL RESIDENCE OF fin. GEORGE PRAY. flONALD Ti'., ION IA CO., MICH. I I Ir iI M/.,s JOSEPH P POWELL. JOSEPH P. POWElFLL -, I - - - I RESIDENCE OF JOSEPH P. POWELL, RONALD. IONIA CO. MICH. RONALD. 349 ROAD 349 JOSEPH P. POWELL. Joseph Priestley Powell was born in Oneida Co., N. Y., Feb. 28, 1821, being the tenth in a family of thirteen children. His father, John L. Powell, who was born Jan. 1, 1780, at Lanesboro', Mass., was one of the pioneers to Trenton township in the county named. He was a student at Williams College, Massachusetts. In 1800 he married Miss Nancy Ann Peck, and removed to Oneida Co., N. Y., in 1804. His wife died in December of the same year, leaving him three children. In 1806 he married, for his second wife, Miss Margaret Hulburt, daughter of Hezekiah Hulburt, one of the four landlords of Holland Patent. Mr. Powell, after his second marriage, turned his attention to agriculture, and lived for sixty-five years on a farm about a mile east of the village of Holland Patent. His education and talents, united with a generous, noble nature, won him the entire confidence of the community in which he lived. He was a counselor and arbitrator whom the inhabitants of the new colony were wont to honor. He was an officer in the army in the war of 1812, and at the close of that conflict returned to his family and loved occupation, -farming. He died of paralysis, June 25, 1871, aged ninety-one years. Mrs. Margaret Powell was very ill at the time of her husband's death, and survived him but a few days. Her decease occurred July 7, 1871, when she had reached the age of eighty-four years and ten months. Joseph P. Powell enjoyed the educational advantages afforded by an academy, and at the age of sixteen began teaching school winters, passing his summers at home on the farm. When he became of age he came to Michigan, and, while living with a sister, continued his occupation of teaching, being employed in that capacity for one year in Marengo township, Calhoun Co. Returning to New York he remained one year, after which he spent a year in Illi nois, finally coming to Ronald. township, Ionia Co., Mich., and purchasing and locating upon one hundred and sixty acres of land which form a part of his present farm of four hundred acres. He is the owner of an aggregate of about seven hundred acres, the larger portion of which is improved. Nov. 11, 1846, he married Miss Ruth Goodwin, daughter of Chauncey and Sarah Goodwin. She was born in Steuben township, Oneida Co., N. Y., Sept. 14, 1831. Her father was a native of Connecticut, and her mother, whose maiden-name was Sarah Hubbard, was born at Middletown, in the same State. Mrs. Powell was the ninth in a family of eleven children. Her parents removed to Michigan in 1840, and settled on section 34 in the township of Ronald, Ionia Co. Her mother died Aug. 11, 1847, and her father April 3, 1864. To Mr. and Mrs. Powell have been born seven children, who are all living. They are C. Frances, born Aug. 8, 1849; Henry W., born July 30, 1852; Mary C., born Nov. 29, 1854; Ella M., born May 16, 1857; Horace H., born March 24, 1859; Herman J., born Jan. 30, 1864; Herbert E., born April 27, 1866. For three years succeeding his marriage Mr. Powell engaged during the winters in teaching, and since then has devoted his time to the culture and improvement of his farm. In politics he is a Republican. He has always manifested much interest in school affairs, but has never aspired to political honors. His oldest daughter, Frances, is now Mrs. William E. Normington, residing in Ronald township. Mr. Powell and his wife have been members of the Baptist Church since 1858. Their oldest son, Henry, is a member of the senior class at Kalamazoo College, and is preparing himself for the Baptist ministry. A daughter, Mary, has been a student in the art department of Hillsdale College, and is now pursuing a course of select studies in that institution. SE B EWA. SEBEWA, known in the United States survey as town five north, in range six west, lies on the southern line of Ionia County, having Orange township on the north, Eaton County on the south, Danby on the east, and Odessa on the west. In the central and northwestern portions of the town there are stretches of swamp-lands of considerable extent. The soil is generally a clay loam and famous for its wheat-producing quality. The timber is mainly beech and maple, the liberal presence of the latter making the yield of sugar no small item in the town's products. Three churches are among the architectural features, while more than that number of religious organizations worship in the school-houses. Sebewa Creek, on the east, has sufficient power in Sebewa to drive three mills, and that power is at present fully utilized. The only village in the town is a small one on the east town-line known as "' The Corners." SEBEWA'S EARLY SETTLERS. It is vaguely asserted that the first white settler resident in the present township of Sebewa bore the prosaic name of Jones, but whether John, James, Thomas, or Peter cannot be clearly ascertained, nor is it, perhaps, especially important as an inquiry, since Jones tarried but a short time before striking his tent. It is, however, known that he and his wife came to the town some time during the year 1836, carrying on their backs what few traps they owned, and squatted on section 1. They were poor enough, no doubt, and thought, maybe, that by some hook or crook they might eke out a sort of livelihood in the woods, and peradventure raise a crop and get something for it before being called upon to vacate the premises. However that may have been, they did not apparently recognize the full force of the undertaking upon which they had entered, for it seems clear that they sickened of the job in a little while, packed up, and were off to more congenial climes. It must have been pretty lonesome for them, deep in the woods, the solitary settlers in a dreary stretch of country, hemmed in on all sides by howling wolves, and, to cap the climax, so poor that they had to make many a meal on herbs and roots or starve. No wonder, therefore, that Jones and Mrs. Jones did not care to stay very long. They may not have done much better by making a change, but it seems to be agreed on all sides that they could not do much worse. Jones may therefore be dismissed early in the history as no very important factor therein, except as relates to the circumstance of his having been the pioneer of his race in the settlement of Sebewa. The first attempt at a permanent settlement, and the one from which the history of the town properly dates, concerns the coming, in 1838, of John F. Terrill, Charles W. Ingalls, and John Brown. Terrill located on section 25, 350 and Brown and Ingalls on section 36, not far away. All three were pushing Vermont Yankees and laid hold with a will to the heavy task before them. They had come to stay, and when they came they knew what they were coming to; so there was neither faint heart nor failing energy among them. Slowly but surely the forest-wild gave way before the sturdy blows of their ringing axes, and where erstwhile stretched a wilderness soon spread a pleasing prospect of comfortable, if not elegant, homes and fruitful farms. In due time John F. Terrill concluded to utilize the handsome water-power on Sebewa Creek, and so, in 1843, in conjunction with Anson W. Halbert, he built a saw-mill just west of where " The Corners" now engages the notice of the wayfarer. Halbert had come to the town in 1841; in that year he married one of Terrill's daughters, and in the log house he had built at the present Corners ventured into mercantile trade with a few goods, which were indeed few in number, but, few as they were, they sufficed evidently, and more too, for Halbert did not feel encouraged to pursue the subject of trade beyond disposing of his first stock. Strictly speaking, lie was perhaps the first merchant at the Corners, but his effort was so transitory that it has not been chronicled in the history of trade at the Corners as elsewhere given. Jacob Showerman and Eleazer Brown joined the Sebewa settlement with their families in 1839. Showerman had come into the town three years before-that is to say, in 1836-on a land-hunting expedition, and found then but one settler in the town,-Jones, to wit, on section 1, of whom mention has already been made..Showerman picked out one hundred and sixty acres on section 22, and after a fortnight's waiting at the Ionia land-office for his " turn" entered his land and returned at once to New York. When the Brown and Showerman families came in, some time in the fall of 1839, they found that there were already on the ground John Terrill, William Hogle (his sonin-law), John Brown, John Maxim, Joseph Munn, and Charles W. Ingalls. Brown and Showerman arranged to lodge their families at John Tenrill's until such time as they could cut out a road to section 22 and put up habitable quarters there. To accomplish these undertakings required the labors of four weeks, and meanwhile the families of Terrill, Hogle, Showerman, and Brown lodged and lived in Terrill's little log cabin of but one room. There were twenty persons in the four families; and if those accustomed to plenty of space and modern conveniences can begin to imagine the worrying and wearing time those twenty people had during the four weeks they passed in that one room, they will be doing some pretty good work in the way of conjuring up mind-pictures. Mr. Showerman SEBEWA. 351 - L -- ---- ---- — _ settled in section 22, upon the purchase he made in 1836, and Brown on section 26, where his widow still resides. As to the first birth in the town, Mrs. Brown appears to think it was that of her daughter Luriette, who was born in 1841. In the fall of 1837, Rufus Goddard, coming westward from Livingston Co., N. Y., tarried a while in Lenawee Co., Mich., and, there leaving his family, pushed on alone in search of a land-location. He found one in Sebewa that suited him, and back he went to Lenawee County for his family. Benjamin D. Weld was to come out with Goddard to settle, and to give Goddard some assistance towards paying for his land, but Weld was not ready just then, and so all hands decided to stop in Lenawee a while longer. In 1843, Mr. Weld came out with his family and settled in the southwestern part of the town. Goddard followed in 1844, and, squatting on a government forty in section 23, went to work for Mr. Weld, from whom he had previously borrowed money, and in the way of labor proposed to repay him. It took him a year and a half to earn money enough to pay Mr. Weld and buy a piece of land for himself, but he got around to it at last, and, buying an eighty on section 32, made a permanent settlement. On that place his son, Daniel W., lives now. Daniel W. Goddard was quite a character in the settlement even when but a lad of fifteen or thereabouts. It was upon him the neighborhood depended for mill-service,that is to say, Daniel usually went to mill for everybody, although the condition of the roads was so horrible that it was as much as he could do to haul ten bushels to Newman's mill, at Portland, and back again in two days. In one sense Daniel was a public benefactor, for the want of flour was sometimes a sore one, and the procuring of it was most assuredly a benefaction. Young Goddard would usually set out early in the morning with his ten-bushel load, drawn by a pair of oxen, and by dint of much urging of his beasts he would manage to reach mill by ten o'clock that night. While his grist was being ground he would bunk in his wagon, wrapped in his blanket, and by daylight the next morning was off again for home. The time of his arrival at home was always pretty well along in the night, and to help and cheer him on the last few miles of his journey some member of the settlement would go out and meet him, bearing a lantern to show the way, and himself abounding in social pleasantry to enliven the tired Daniel until he reached his destination. Among the settlers of 1843 or thereabouts were also John F. Olry, Elkanah Carpenter, Andrew Estes, William Reeder, Major Brown,-the widow of the latter marrying Weston Briggs,-John Waddell, John Estep, Thomas Waddell, Stephen Pilkinton, Moses Hogle, John C. Smith, and Anson W. Halbert. In the northwestern corner of the town the attraction for the early settler was less positive than appeared to be the case elsewhere, for there was, and still is, some marsh over there. Nevertheless, ventures were made in that direction about 1850, or perhaps before. Among the earliest in there were Pierce G. Cook, Nathan Stewart, prank Brown, and Solomon Hess, all of whom A. M. Ralston found there when, in 1852, he made a settlement on sec tions 8 and 17. Later there came, among others, J. C. Clark, George Snyder, John Waring, and John Johnson, In 1852 there was a road on the line between Odessa and Sebewa known as the State road, but, State road as it was, it was nevertheless a poor apology for a highway. To the names of the settlers already mentioned may be added likewise those of such later ones as Orrin Merchant, Edward Sanborn, Peter Mapes, David Griffin, William Estep, Chauncey Lott, Jacob Greene, I. Bretz, E. Probasco, T. J. Allen, A. Garlock, O. Stebbins, and P. Griner. RESIDENT TAX-PAYERS OF SEBEWA IN 1845. Acres. John Waddell, section 14................................. 80 Edward Sanborn, section 1............................... 38 Orrin Merchant, sections 1, 6............................ 60 John Maxim, section 1.................................... 38 Peter Mapes, section 2..................................... 80 Joseph Munn, section 1.................................... 38 George W. Dickinson, sections 13, 24.................. 320 A. W. Halbert, sections 24, 25........................... 240 John F. Terrill, section 25................................. 70 William Hogle, section 25................................. 50 Richard Fleetham, section 25........................... 80 Moses Hfogle, section 36.................................... 160 Charles W. Ingalls...................................... Personal John Terrill...............................................Personal Eleazer Brown, sections 26, 27......................... 120 Jacob Showerman, section 22............................ 160 B. D. Weld, sections 5, 32, 33............................ 400 THE POLL-LIST OF 1845. Although no record of the transactions at the first townmeeting, in 1845, is in existence, the names of the nineteen persons who voted at that election may be here given, as follows: Joseph Munn, Paul Steel, Benjamin D. Weld, Edward Sanborn, A. W. Halbert, John C. Smith, William Hogle, John M. Terrill, Jacob Showerman, Orrin Merchant, Richard Fleetham, Moses Hogle, Walter Harmon, Eleazer Brown, John Maxim, George W. Dickinson, Elkanah Drake, Rufus Goddard, and John Waddell. THE VOTERS OF 1853. Elkanah Carpenter, Richard O. McWorter, Cyril Carpenter, John Maxim, Oliver Brailey, John Waddell, Jr., Daniel W. Goddard, William Reeder, Moses Hogle, B. D. Weld, John Waddell, William Dunn, Orrin Merchant, John Cooper, David Griffin, Stephen Rider, Peter Mapes, William Waters, Major Brown, Apollos Halladay, Francis Brown, Albert Thompson, Perry Trim, Lucius Showerman, William Estep, Elihu Halladay, J. A. Whelpley, Daniel Halladay, Jacob C. High, Charles Derby, Jacob Green, Richard Fleetham, John Estep, Charles W. Ingalls, Charles Hammond, John F. Olry, Hiram Trim, P. G. Cook, Jacob Collingham, D. W, Rose, Jacob Showerman, Chauncey Lott. TOWN ROADS. The first road recorded in the highway books of Sebewa was one commencing at the southwest corner-post of section 31, town 5 north, range 5 west, and running thence due north on surveyed township-line six miles. This road was recorded Feb. 23, 1839, in the Portland town-books. A road recorded March 29, 1843, commenced at the centre of the town-line road, at the northeast corner of section 36, town 5 north, range 6 west, and extended thence due west one mile and a half to the north quarterpost of section 35. One recorded March 26, 1842, com 4 352 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. menced at the southwest corner of section 22, town 5 north, range 6 west, and extended thence due east three miles to the centre of the town-line road. Other roads laid about that time were the following: One commencing at the southeast corner of section 34, and extending north on section-line seven hundred and twenty chains; one commencing at the southeast corner of section 36, and running thence west on the southwest corner of section 34; one commencing at the south quarter-post of section 26, and running thence west on the section-line to the southwest corner of section 27; one commencing at the southwest corner of section 15, and running thence east one hundred chains; and one commencing at the southeast corner of section 12, and running west to the southwest corner of section 10. The report of the highway commissioners for 1845 set forth " what they had done during their term of office:" "April 12, 1845.-Met with the commissioners of the township of Danby, and divided the roads on the line between said townships as follows: The town of Sebewa taking the first half-mile on the south end of said road, and each alternate half-mile of said road, and the township of Danby the remainder. " April 19, 1845.-Met the commissioners of the township of Orange, and divided the road on the line of said townships as follows: The town of Sebewa taking the first half-mile of the east end of said road, and each alternate half-mile to the west end. "April 26, 1845.-Met the commissioners of the township of Berlin, and divided the road on the line of said townships as follows: It was resolved to assign to Berlin the north mile and one-half, to Sebewa the south mile and one-half of said road. "Dec. 17, 1845.-At a meeting of the commissioners of the townships of Sebewa and of Sunfield, Eaton Co., a road was laid out commencing at the southwest corner of the town of Sebewa, running east two miles on the line between said townships. Said road was also divided, Sunfield to take the west mile, and Sebewa the east mile. "Jan. 31, 1846.-At a meeting of the commissioners the following highways were laid out, to wit: A road commencing at the southeast corner of section 29, running west one mile; also a road commencing at the same place, running north one mile." TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION. Town 5 north, range 6 west, now called Sebewa, was divided between Berlin and Portland until March 19, 1845, when by act of Legislature it was created a township with exclusive organization. The names first proposed for it were Charlestown (in honor of Charles W. Ingalls) and Liberia, but, Rufus Goddard suggesting Sebewa (after Sebewa Creek, and meaning i' little river"), public fancy was suited, and " Sebewa" met with popular approval. The first town-meeting was held at the house of Jacob Showerman, as directed, but there appears to be no record of the transactions at that meeting. On Oct. 11, 1845, the township board audited the following accounts: John Maxim, commissioner of highways............ $4.00 Rufus Goddard, commissioner of highways......... 5.00 Eleazer Brown, commissioner of highways......... 5.00 John Waddel, director of the poor.................... 1.00 Jacob Showerman, director of the poor.............. 5.00 Benjamin D. Weld, supervisor......................... 7.50 Anson W. Halbert, town clerk.......................... 5.70 Edward Sanborn, justice of the peace................ 1.00 George W. Dickinson, justice of the peace.......... 1.00 John F. Terrill, moderator at town-meeting....... 1.00 William Hogle, clerk at town-meeting............... 1.25 John Terrill, inspector of board....................... 1.00 Moses Hogle, inspector of board....................... 1.00 For ballot-boxes........................................... 3.00 Total............................................$42.45 The second annual township-meeting was held April 6, 1846, at the house of William Packard. Joseph Munn and Paul Steel were chosen inspectors of election, and, together with Benjamin D. Weld, Edward Sanborn, and A. W. Halbert, constituted a board of inspectors. The meeting then adjourned to the house of A. W. Halbert, and elected John C. Smith clerk pro tern., when the following officers were chosen: William Hogle, Supervisor John C. Smith, Clerk; John F. Terrill, Treasurer; Paul Steel, John C. Smith, and William Hogle, Justices of the Peace; John F. Terrill, Jacob Showerman, and Orren Merchant, Commissioners of Highways; Anson W. Halbert, School Inspector; John F. Terrill and Richard Fleetham, Overseers of the Poor; Edward Sanborn, Moses Hogle, Walter Harmon, Eleazer Brown, Benjamin D..Weld, and Paul Steel, Overseers of Highways; Benjamin D. Weld, Edward Sanborn, and John Maxim, Constables. Appended is a list of persons chosen annually from 1847 to 1880 to be supervisors, clerks, treasurers, and justices of the peace: SUPERVISORS. 1847*-48, B. D. Weld; 1849-50, R. Goddard; 1851, Wm. Packard; 1852, H. Trim; 1853-54, B. D. Weld; 1855-56, C. W. Ingalls; 1857, C. Carpenter; 1858, A. Howland; 1859-63, I. Bretz; 1864 -66, D. W. Goddard; 1867-69, I. Bretz; 1870, D. W. Goddard; 1871-72, L. E. Showerman; 1873, J. Waring; 1874-75, L. E. Showerman; 1876-77, A. M. Ralston; 1878-79, L. E. Showerman; 1880, D. W. Goddard. CLERKS. 1847-48, Wm. Packard; 1849, A. Thompson; 1850, E.Drake, 1851 -52, C. Lott; 1853-57, E. Halladay; 1858-59, E. L. Carpenter; 1860-62, E. Probasco; 1863, G. H. Baldwin; 1864-66, C. L. Halladay; 1867-68, E. Shay; 1869, C. L. Halladay; 1870, R. P. Baldwin; 1871-79, J. H. McClelland; 1880, C. L. Halladay. TREASURERS. 1847, E. Sanborn; 1848, G. W. Dickinson; 1849-50, E. Brown; 1851, S. Carpenter; 1852, J. F. Olry; 1853-54, D. Griffin; 1855 -56, L. Showerman; 1857, 0. Stebbins; 1858, E. Brown; 1859, C. Carpenter; 1860, L. E. Showerman; 1861, C. Carpenter; 1862, L. E. Showerman; 1863, Wm. Estep; 1864-65, J. W. Stone; 1866, L. Stinson; 1867-70, L. E. Showerman; 1871-72, J. S. Gunn; 1873-75,A. M. Ralston; 1876-77, J. Smith; 1878-79, C. Sindlinger; 1880, A. M. Ralston. JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. 1847, J. Maxim; 1848, B. D. Weld; 1849, P. G. Cook; 1850, 0. Merchant; 1851, H. Trim; 1852, C. W. Ingalls; 1853, P. G. Cook; 1854, C. Lott; 1855, E. Carpenter; 1856, A. Nicol; 1857, J. H. Cook; 1858, J. Maxim; 1859, E. L. Carpenter; 1860, E. F. Smith; 1861, H. Trim; 1862, D. W. Goddard; 1863, W. L. Jewell; 1864, Thos. Allen; 1865, N. Steward; 1866, E. L. Carpenter; 1867-78, no record; 1879, Geo. Young; 1880, R. N. Wilson. SCHOOLS. The first matter recorded in the town-books of Sebewa touching schools refers to the formation, under date of Jan. 12, 1846, of Fractional School District No. 3, of Sebewa and Sunfield. The portion of the district lying in Sebewa included sections 29, 30, 31, and 32, and the west halves of sections 28 and 33. District No. 2 commenced at the centre of section 21, and extended thence west on the quarter-line to the west quarter-post of section 19; thence south on the township line to the southwest corner of section 31; thence east on * Twenty-one votes cast. e' I I 0 f. F A-1 V.T. 'I i 11:: b 3 h I I -t %, II tl - I, - z, L,- ", jj- - _;, 6!', - 4A 'N I r, 4 1 -,, , I I 1 - -, ".4, - f - -1 - . p1,, '., y": ll It If .. — I,1, " ", S,-, I I AL" I. 4 1 Id — t Y,; I;1, I N; k II Ic -/- ' I SEBEWA. 353 B the county-line to the southeast corner of section 33; thence north on the section-line to the east quarter-post of section 28; thence west on the quarter-line to the centre of section 28; thence north on the quarter-line to the place of beginning. District No. 1 was organized Feb. 11, 1846, commencing eight rods east of the northwest corner of section 13; thence west to the north quarter-stake of section 16; thence south to the south quarter-stake of section 28; thence east to the south stake of section 26; thence north to the south quarter-stake of section 14; thence east three-fourths of a mile; thence north to the place of beginning. The first meeting of said district was ordered to be held at the house of Jacob Showerman. District No. 4 was formed Sept. 18, 1847. The limits are described as commencing eighty rods east of the northwest corner of section 13; thence west to the north quarter-post of section 16; thence south to the south quarter-stake of section 28; thence east to the south quarter-stake of section 26; thence north to the south quarterstake of section 14; thence east three-fourths of a mile; thence north to the place of beginning. District No. 6 was formed April 13, 1852, and commenced eighty rods south of the northeast corner of section 25; passing thence south to the southeast corner of section 36; thence west three miles; thence north one mile; thence east one and a half miles to the south quarter-post of section 26; thence north one mile; thence east one mile to the north quarter-post of section 25; thence south eighty rods; thence a half-mile to the place of beginning. Under date of April 25, 1853, Elihu Halladay, township clerk, reported to the town treasurer the following as the apportionment of the mill-tax remaining after deducting the twenty-five dollars appropriated for the purchase of library-books: also, the earliest religious organizations in the various towns were Methodist Episcopal Classes. Sebewa was no exception. As early as 1839, Rev. Mr. Mitchell came into the town and organized a Methodist Episcopal Class at John Terrill's house. John Compton, of Danby, assisted in the work, and was himself chosen leader. Preaching was sup plied once in two weeks at various places, but usually at the district school-house. Since 1839 services have been held regularly, and at this time the Sebewa Methodist Episcopal Class has a strong membership and worships in a neat church-edifice which the society built in 1876. The leader is 0. V. Showerman, and the Sunday-school superintendent Mr. McClelland. The pastor is Rev. J. E. Hollister, in charge of the Danby and Sebewa Circuit. FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH. The First Baptist Church of Sebewa was organized April 3, 1858, with eighteen members. They were named Josiah C. Clark and wife, Samuel Freehouse, Carlos Pierce and wife, Stephen Rider and wife, Addison Rice and wife, John Jackson and wife, Cyril Carpenter and wife, Elkanah Carpenter and wife, Samuel Carpenter, Mary Bctts, and Margaret Griffin. The first pastor was Rev. Samuel B. Towne; the present pastor is 1ev. David Burgess. A house of worship was completed (on section 30) in 1871, and dedicated Jan. 10, 1872, the cost of the structure being one thousand four hundred and fifteen dollars. The membership is now upwards of seventy, and church affairs generally are in a condition of encouraging prosperity. There is also a flourishing Sunday-school, of which Z. Carter is the superintendent. The deacons are J. H. Lapo and C. D. Yeager; the trustees, John Hammond, Elkanah Carpenter, and Reuben Lapo. FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. The First Presbyterian Church of Sebewa was organized in 1865 by Rev. Lewis Mills. The organizing members were D. W. Goddard, Robert Allen and wife, Hannah Goddard, Mary Coe, E. B. Buckman and wife, Benjamin Bartlett and wife. Directly after organizing, thee church built a house of worship on section 7, and dedicated it in February, 1866. The pastorate is vacant at present, but preaching is supplied, nevertheless, pretty frequently. The Sunday-school has a growing membership, and assembles for exercises regularly every Sabbath. FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. The First Congregational Church of Sebewa was organized Dec. 20, 1870, at Charles L. Halladay's house, with four members, as follows: Charles L. Halladay, Amanda Halladay, Clarissa W. Lowe, and Nancy Halladay. Two months afterwards Mildred E. Halladay and Mary Warner were received as members. The first pastor was Rev. P. F. McClelland, and the second Rev. Burtwell N. Chamberlain, since whose departure, in 1872, dependence for preaching has been upon supplies. To 1876 meetings were held in the district school-house; since then the Methodist Episcopal church has been occupied. The membership is now seven. Scholars. District No. 1............................... 34 " " 2............................... 23 ( " 3................................ " " 4................................ 14 " " 5................................ 16 " 6................................ 20 Tota..................................107 Amount. $4.81 3.25 1.98 2.26 2.83 $15.13 The only reference in the early school records of the issuance of certificates to teachers includes the following: Oct. 4, 1852, Major Brown; Nov. 27, 1852, J. T. Whelpley; April 1, 1853, Susan Thompson; May 19, 1853, Eugenia E. Showerman. The annual school report for 1880 contains the following statistics: EnumeraDirector. tion. Dist. lt..R. N. Wilson. 73 " 2...G. B. Peabody. 67 " 3...D. B. Soule. 90 " 4...I. A. Brown. 83 " 6t..C. L. Halladay. 96 " 7...Thomas Leak. 60 * 8...C. Sanborn. 86 Total.................. 555 Average Attendance. 58 64 70 73 64 49 58 436 Value of Property. $800 5 900 150 150 300 500 $2805 Teachers' Wages. $210.20 157.25 184.00 199.50 199.50 129.75 204.00 $1284.20 RELIGIOUS. Methodist missionaries were, as a rule, first in the field in the infant settlements of Ionia County, and, as a rule * No returns. t Fractional. 45 354 HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. SEBEWA CORNERS. The village commonly known as Sebewa Corners lies on both sides of the line between Sebewa and Danby townships, and takes in the platted village of Cornell, in Danby. Properly speaking, the name " Cornell" belongs now to the entire village, although it is of such recent bestowal (consequent upon the similar change of the post-office name from Sebewa) that the average villager has not yet become sufficiently familiar with it to give it ready voice. The first attempt at establishing a trading-point at that locality was made in 1851 by a Mr. Hulse, who brought a few goods in a trunk and sold them from a block-house. After a little while he sold out to Aretas Howland. There were a grist-mill and a saw-mill in the vicinity when Hulse set up his store, and because they were there he thought, of course, a store was likely to meet with some support. These mills were on Sebewa Creek, just west of the townline road. The saw-mill (the first mill in the town) had been built by John Terrill and A. W. Halbert; the gristmill by Chauncey Lott and Jacob Green, in 1849 or thereabouts. In 1852, Elihu Halladay settled near the Corners, and in 1853 came John Friend (now living there), who bought Jacob Green's log house, and after occupying it a year built the house he now occupies, and, in one part thereof putting a stock of goods, became a trader. From that time to 1879 he kept store at the Corners almost continuously. The first tavern at the Corners was opened in 1854 by William Barber, and stood next south of Friend's house. P. G. Cook succeeded Barber as landlord, and after him Hiram Trim took the helm. The Corners rejoices at present in the possession of two general stores, a drug-store, two blacksmith-shops, a market, tavern, harness-shop, etc., and esteems itself a bustling little place. The post-office at the Corners is now called Cornell, although to the spring of 1880 it bore the name of Sebewa. Cornell has since 1867 been the name of that portion of the village lying in Danby (the plat having been recorded in that year), and, in deference to request, the post-office name was changed to accord with the name of only the legalized portion of the village. Sebewa post-office was established along about 1846 or 1847, and B. D. Weld appointed postmaster. In 1853 the office was removed from the Weld neighborhood, in the southwest corner, and transferred to the Showernan settlement, when L. E. Showerman received the appointment. In 1857 the office was moved to the Corners, where it has since remained. John Friend was the first postmaster at the Corners, and to him succeeded O. W. Kibbey and K. W. Wilson, the latter being the present incumbent. On Sebewa Creek, in Sebewa, there are a saw-mill and two grist-mills. The Lott mill, at the Corners, is being carried on by E. Y. Lowe. A mile north Andrew Weippert has the mill built by Malvin Rogers in 1872. SEBEWA GRANGE, NO. 165. Although the town boasts two granges, neither may be said to enjoy an active, prosperous existence. They are West Sebewa Grange and Sebewa Grange. The latter was organized in 1874, and chose John Friend as the first Master. Meetings are held only at irregular periods, but there is nevertheless a show of active organization that is likely by and by to come to something more fruitful. C. L. Halladay is now the Master, and G. S. Allen the secretary. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. D. W. GODDARD. D. W. Goddard, the third in a family of four children, was born March 2, 1831, in Livington Co., N. Y. His parents, Rufus and Louisa (Rand) Goddard, were natives of Massachusetts. In 1838, Rufus Goddard removed with his family to Michigan, settling in Lenawee County. In 1844 he sold out, came to Ionia County, and purchased forty acres of land. He built and moved into a log house upon it in 1847, subsequently purchased eighty acres on the opposite side of the way, and died in August, 1851. The mother of D. W. Goddard died in 1833, and the father was afterwards a second time married. After his father's death, D. W. Goddard remained at home. assisting the family. Together with his brother Rufus, he bought the interests of the other heirs, besides purchasing additional land, and when an addition was made he retained the old homestead. He is the present owner of one hundred and forty acres of land. April 11, 1868, he married Miss Frances A. Carpenter, whose father, Cyril Carpenter, came to Michigan in 1851. She was born in the State of Ohio, and lived but one year after her marriage to Mr. Goddard. Jan. 19, 1872, he married Mary De Pew, who was born in Noble Co., Ind., and spent the early portion of her life in De Kalb County, same State. Her birth occurred June 5, 1848, she being the second in a family of eleven children. Mr. Goddard, who is a Republican in politics, has been often chosen to reponsible positions by his townsmen, and is now serving his sixth term as supervisor. The township was yet quite new as late as the arrival of Mr. Goddard, and he assisted in cutting out most of the roads within its limits. Mr. Goddard and his wife are both connected with the Presbyterian Church. JOHN FRIEND. John Friend was born in Devonshire, England, March 4, 1825. His parents, John and Betty (Comb) Friend, were also natives of England. Mr. Friend's ancestors were landowners and farmers. In April, 1833, the family emigrated to America, settling at Royalton, Cuyahoga Co, Ohio, where Mr. Friend followed the occupation of farming. June 17, 1843, John Friend married Miss Polly Ann Meachum, of Brunswick, Medina Co., Ohio, who was born Dec. 22, 1826, at Shelby, Mass. By this union were born four children,-viz., Francis N., May 20, 1844, now f D. W. GODDARD. Ms D. GODDARD. -r -~ -~ -,,, L L i f i, F/IRST I 11 -:, -, -,, - -,w :, V, I - - 1! - -. - s., T, -- * "i I -, I -, - -A r - I RsHI/DENC or D. W. GODDARD. SEAEWA, /ON/A CO. MICH. iI r ANDREW M. RALSTON. Mf ANN M. RALSTON. (DEc) M4S CATHERINE RALSTON. qt L ''' _m"~.s "' -I_ t~, I L1-- C ;rzc~' 1-,,j - — - ir sl " rh: -- "F c:sf;-rc-; ~ —.. ~fl`'" - _~j aa.; -~ b -ar '"' r-521 —. C,- ~-~ -~- --— I;. 3 -~t~I h.;~; ~? --- -. "- =.lc. ''; -P - r. ~ - r IC' ~~ g,I;- i. 5; C; c" —I r ~~-;:e -f~ ~ - r.I - n- Lir ~=L ' r i. ~ -i'~ ~;;'''?;.~2' A C "?P Tti.X ";*tP- I i- `" - ' — -' 1 — 1' "= -p C1.`-- — ` —7 -..-_-_- 31 =- -— ` r, - I RESIDENCE OF ANDREW M. RALSTON. SEBEWA IONIA CO. MiwH, SEBEWA. 355 I engaged in merchandising; George E., Feb. 18, 1846, who follows the occupation of farming; Phebe M., Dec. 30, 1847; and Emma A., June 4, 1850. In April, 1854, Mr. Friend removed with his family to Sebewa township, Ionia Co., Mich. Dec. 17,1857, he was afflicted by the death of his estimable wife. During this time Mr. Friend conducted a general store at Sebewa, in connection with his farm and grist- and saw-mills. Dec. 24,1858, he married for his second wife Miss Sarah J. Cramer, of Herkimer Co., N. Y., where she was born Feb. 10, 1839. Her father was a farmer by occupation. By this union were born the following children,-viz., Estella Edith, July 17, 1861, died Oct. 24, 1861; Bertha, Nov. 11, 1862; Judson Zaeh, Oct. 6, 1865, died May 7,1866; Mornie Bell, July 16, 1867; and Ethel Rose, July 9, 1871. July 5, 1875, Mr. Friend was again afflicted by the death of his second wife, who was an excellent mother, as well as an intelligent business woman. Nov. 12, 1876, he married for his third wife Mrs. Lou A. Farral,firom whom he was divorced Nov. 15,1880. From 1859 to 1862, Mr. Friend engaged in business as a drover and stock-raiser. From 1862 to 1867 he followed the occupation-of lumbering, and from 1868 to 1871 was engaged in the hard-lumber business. From 1871 to 1875 he resumed the business of stock-raising, and from 1875 to 1879 kept a general assortment store at Sebewa, during this time-continuing the management of his extensive farms. He was an ardent supporter of the Union in the war of the Rebellion, and has been a Republican since the organization of that party. Mr. Friend is now located on sections 24 and 25, Sebewa township, and possesses three hundred and sixty-one acres of well-stocked land, embracing a beautiful and productive region of country, a view of which appears on another page of this work. Mr. Friend has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church for nearly three years. ANDREW M. RALSTON. This gentleman was born April 3, 1830, in Brook Co., Va., and was the fourth in a family of ten children, having two brothers and seven sisters. His parents, Daniel and Elizabeth (Parks) Ralston, were both natives of Virginia, and in 1834 removed to Holmes Co., Ohio. A few years later they removed to Seneca County, and sixteen years afterwards to Wyandotte County, where Daniel Ralston died in January, 1867. The latter's wife is still living in the same locality. A. M. Ralston, at the age of twenty-one, began cutting wood on contract, and for two years he worked also at the carpenter's trade. In the spring of 1854 he came to Michigan, and purchased one hundred and sixty acres of government land. Dec. 30, 1855, he married Miss Ann A. Crapo, whose parents were early settlers. To them were given two children,-namely, Gideon D., born May 2, 1859, and Florence A., born May 22,1863. Mrs. Ralston died June 3, 1863, and after her death Mr. Ralston visited Ohio, remaining four years. Dec. 6, 1866, he married Catharine Spitler, who was born Nov. 26, 1835, in Fairfield Co., Ohio, and was the fourth in a family of eight children (two sons and six daughters). The fruits of this marriage have been three children,-Charles M., born Feb. 23, 1867; Joseph G., born Aug. 15, 1868; Walter E., born June 24, 1871. In 1855, Mr. Ralston purchased the place upon which he has since continued to reside, with the exception of the four years spent in Ohio. His children were all born here except Charles, whose birth occurred in Wyandotte Co., Ohio. This place, when purchased by Mr. Ralston, had about twelve acres cleared, and a small log house had been erected upon it. It is at present finely improved, and a source of much pride to its owner. Mr. Ralston is a Republican in politics, and has held the most important offices in the gift of his townsmen. He is at present township treasurer. Both himself and his wife are members of the Presbyterian Church. PA.RT T EII:R D. HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY. CHAPTER I. LOCATION-TOPOGRAPHY-FIRST CORRECTIONLINE. Boundaries-Soil-Surface and Streams-The First Correction-Line: Why made-Its Effects on Montcalm County Townships. THE county of Montcalm,* one of the few interior divisions of Michigan, having an irregular form (as regards n a,I * This county also was formed during the second session of the fourth Legislative Council of the Territory of Michigan, and probably derived its n.ame from Louis Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm de Saint Veran, a distinguished French officer, who was born at the Chateau of Candiac, near Nimes, Feb. 28, 1712, and died in Quebec, Sept. 14, 1759. Montcalm entered the army when fourteen years of age, served in Italy in 1734, distinguished himself in Germany under Belle Isle during the war for the Austrian succession, and fought in Italy again, where he gained the rank of colonel in the disastrous battle of Piacenza (1746). In 1756 he was appointed tj command the French troops in Canada, where he arrived about the middle of May. He captured Fort Ontario (now Oswego, N. Y.), August 14th, and the next year (1757) forced Fort William Henry, at the head of Lake George, with a garrison of two thousand five hundred men, to surrender at discretion, and thus became possessed of forty-two guns and large quantities of ammunition and provisions. Montcalm had suffered from a scarcity of provisions, and was opposed to an enemy far superior in numbers and discipline to his own troops, which consisted mostly of raw Canadian volunteers; yet he held his ground firmly, when, in the campaign of 1758, the English under Abercrombie marched from the south towards the French dominions. Montcalm occupied a strong position at Fort Carillon (Ticonderoga); he made it still stronger by intrenchments, and at the head of about three thousand six hundrel men awaited the attack of fifteen thousand. After a fierce battle of four hours' duration (July 8,1758), the British retreated in disorder. The personal bravery of Montcalm increased his popularity among his soldiers, and if he had received timely reinforcements he could have maintained the supremacy of the French in North America. But the want of energy on the part of the home government, the scarcity of food all over New France, and personal dissensions between the Governor and the military commander forbade him to look for much assistance; and in the midst of victory he expressed his conviction that in a few months the English would be masters of the French colonies in America. Resolved, as he said, " to find his grave under the ruins of the colony," he actively prepared for the campaign of 1759. The English spared no exertions to make their conquest sure. Troops were sent from Europe; the colonial regiments were thoroughly reorganized, and a strong fleet co-operated with the landforces. While Amherst and Prideaux were manoeuvring to dislodge the French from the vicinity of Lake George and Lake Ontario, Gen. Wolfe, at the head of eight thousand chosen troops, supported by the fleet in the St. Lawrence, appeared before Quebec. The conquest of Canada depended upon the taking of that city, and to protect it Mont356 its exterior lines), lies in the fifth tier of counties counting northward from the southern boundary-line of the State. It contains twenty townships, and has for its boundaries Mecosta and Isabella on the north, Gratiot on the east, Ionia and Kent on the south, and Kent and Newaygo Counties on the west. It has long been noted as embracing within its borders a considerable portion of the Lower Peninsula's great pinebelt,-a natural feature which has rendered the pineries of Michigan famous, and which has been the cause of the rapid increase of wealth and numbers in this county. The time is not far distant, however, when the pines, the monarchs of these forests, hoarded by Nature for many ages, will have disappeared; when the rough woodsmen who now gather each winter in the lumber-camps will have departed to other regions or here assume the occupation of agriculturists; when the busy mills now bustling with life will stand silent and deserted. That when such a time does come, these lands, denuded of their forest wealth, are not to remain a waste and useless, is quite as certain; for, not as formerly supposed, the lands of Montcalm are valuable for agricultural purposes, farms are being rapidly developed, and bounteous crops of hay, corn, potatoes, fruits, and the cereals are annually produced. The surface of the county is varied and marked by many small streams and an unusually large number of small lakes. From Bloomer township, which stands only about one hundred and fifty feet above the level of the Great Lakes, calmp had concentrated his principal forces on the banks of the Montmorency. Being attacked in front by Wolfe, July 31st, he repulsed him with considerable loss. Wolfe then changed his plans: he secretly landed his troops by night on the left bank of the St. Lawrence above Quebec, climbed the table-land that overhangs the city, and on the morning of September 13th appeared with his whole force on. the Heights of Abraham, in the rear of the French army. By ten o'clock the two armies, about equal in numbers, each having less than five thousand men, were drawn up fronting each other. Montcalm led the attack in person, but his troops soon broke before the deadly fire of the British; and when Wolfe, at the head of the Twenty-eighth and the Louisburg Grenadiers, gave the order to charge with the bayonet, the French fled in every direction. Wolfe fell in the moment of triumph; Montcalm had received a musket-ball early in the action, and a few moments after Wolfe was borne from the field (while attempting to rally a body of fugitive Canadians) was again wounded, mortally. On being told that his death was near, "So much the better," he said; "I shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec." He died the next morning, and the French soon after lost all their possessions in this part of America, including the territory comprising the present State of Michigan. CIVIL CHANGES-ORGANIZATION, ETC. 357 I it rises to the height of three hundred and fifty feet above the same level in the townships of Home, Belvidere, Cato, and Winfield. The city of Greenville has an altitude of two hundred and fifty feet above Lake Michigan, which is somewhat less, perhaps, than the general average of the remainder of the county. Its principal streams are known as Flat, Little Muskegon, and Pine Rivers, and Tamarack and Fish Creeks. The former takes its rise in the Six Lakes and other lakelets and streams in the northern part of this county and the southern part of Mecosta, and, flowing thence southerly through Belvidere, Douglass, Pine, Montcalm, and Eureka townships, affords considerable mill-power at various points, but more particularly at the city of Greenville. The Little Muskegon River and Tamarack Creek, its tributary, flow southwesterly through Cato, Winfield, and Reynolds townships. Pine River, in Richland, and Fish Creek, in Evergreen, Crystal, and Bloomer townships, flow to the southeast while passing through the county, and finally mingle their waters, the former with those of the Saginaw River and Lake Huron, the latter with the Maple and Grand Rivers and Lake Michigan. The lakes of Montcalm are numerous, more than one hundred and sixty in number (according to the maps), the principal ones being Crystal and Duck Lakes, in Crystal township; Rock and Bass Lakes, in Richland; Tamarack Lake, in Cato; Town-Line Lake, between Cato and Belvidere; and White Fish Lake, in Pierson. Of the mineral resources of the county nothing can be said, from the fact that no researches-of any extent, at least-have been made. It possesses one peculiarity, however, in the first correction-line. This line, in its course across the Lower Peninsula, parallel to and north sixty miles fiom the base-line, passes between townships 10 and 11 north, or through the centre of Montcalm County from east to west. The necessity of this and of other correction lines will be perceived-when on a little reflection we find that if north-andsouth lines are true meridians they will not be parallel, but will approach one another or converge towards the north. In fact, if continued sufficiently far, they would meet in one point at the north pole. The convergence in a single township is small, though quite perceptible, the actual excess in length of its south over its north line being, in Michigan, about three rods. The townships north of the base-line, therefore, become narrower than the six miles width with which they commence by that amount, and those south of it become as much wider than six miles. If continued too great a distance, this narrowing or widening would cause serious inconvenience; and to obviate this effect of the curvature of the earth's surface, it is found necessary to establish, at stated intervals, standard parallels commonly called correction-lines. These are usually sixty miles apart, though in some localities it has been found convenient to establish them nearer together. Michigan has five correction-lines, all north of the base-line, the first, as before mentioned, being the one which passes through Montcalm County. On these parallels, which form new base-lines, fresh measurements are made from the principal meridian, and the corqers of new towqships are fixed six miles apart, as on the original base-line. This method of procedure not only takes up the error due to convergeney of meridians, but checks and arrests errors which, from want of precision or carelessness, are likely to occur in the surveys already made. The effects of running the first correction-line will be noticed by referring to the accompanying outline map of Montcalm County: its position is indicated by the offset which commences there in the north-and-south lines. Thus the east lines of Ferris and Richland townships are carried nearly half a mile to the westward of the line which forms the eastern boundary of Bloomer and Crystal townships, and these offsets continue on the same line to Lake Michigan. CHAPTER II. CIVIL CHA'NGES-ORGANIZATION, ETC. Montcalm County formed in 1831-Attached to Ionia County in 1840 -Its First Settlers at Work in the Forests-Montcalm Township organized and attached to Ionia County-First Township Officers -Organization of the County in 1850-First County Officers-First Session of Board of Supervisors-The Wolf-Hunters-Various Proceedings-Tabulated Statement concerning Organization of Townships-Other Early Events. PASSING through all the various mutations in common with other localities in this portion of the peninsula (matters which have been minutely described in the history of Ionia County, Part Second of this volume, to which the reader is referred), the territory now comprising the county of Montcalm remained an unknown factor in the political history of Michigan Territory until 1831, when, by an act of the Legislative Council approved March 2d of that year, Montcalm and several other counties were formed, the section relating to this county reading as follows: "SECTION 7. That the country included within the following limits, to wit: West of the line between ranges four and five, east of the line between ranges eight and nine west, south of the line between townships twelve and thirteen, and north of the line between townships eight and nine north, containing sixteen townships, be, and the same is hereby, set off into a separate county by the name of Montcalm." True, no township-lines had yet been surveyed, neither had the general government, by treaty with the Indians, yet acquired title to the major portion of the lands described. Nevertheless, it seems that the sturdy legislators who sat in council in Detroit during the winter of 1830-31 were determined to erect a county here in the wilderness, no matter whether it pleased the Ottawas or not. Several years then intervened, and, although the territory now forming the county had by successive acts been attached, nominally at least, to St. Joseph, Kalamazoo, and Kent Counties, the term Montcalm County was not again heard in legislative halls or made a matter of record until, by the provisions of an act of the State Legislature approved April 1, 1840, it was formally attached to Ionia County. Soon after, the 'slumbering echoes of its dense forests were aroused and daily made to resound again and again in response to the axe-blows of its first settlers. These men, 358 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. in the persons of John Green, Josiah Russell, Thomas H. Myers, Stephen H. Warren, Rosekrans K. Divine, Westbrook Divine, Luther Lincoln, George Gibson, Anson Ensign, Ethan Satterlee, Frederick W. Worden, Ananias Worden, Elihu Fortner, Samuel D. Barr, Edward Petty, Lyman H. Pratt, H. N. Stinson, Josiah Bradish, Volney Belding, and a few others, soon found that the needs of a local government were imperative. Settlements were springing up in various places, and it was a long distance to Ionia County-Seat, whither they must go for the transaction of any official business. Their petition, therefore, praying for a separate township organization, received favorable consideration at the hands of the State law-makers, and by an act approved March 19, 1845, the township of Montcalm was formed, the section relating to this township reading as follows: "All that territory known and designated by the United States survey as the county of Montealm (excepting townships- nine and ten north, of range five west), be, and the same is hereby, organized into a township by the name of Montealm, and said township is hereby attached to the county of Ionia for election, judicial, and taxation purposes; and the first township-meeting therein shall be held at the house of Anson Ensign, in said township." Pursuant to the act just quoted, the electors of the new township assembled at the house of Anson Ensign, April 7, 1845, for the purpose of holding their first township election. The board of election was organized by the choice of Stephen H. Warren as moderator, and George Gibson, Josiah Russell, Ethan Satterlee, and Rosekrans K. Divine as inspectors of election, Josiah Russell and Rosekrans K. Divine serving as clerks. Thirty-six was the total number of votes polled, and at the close of the proceedings the following officers were declared elected: Frederick W. Worden, Supervisor; Josiah Russell, Township Clerk; Rosekrans K. Divine, Treasurer; George Gibson, Stephen F. Warren, John Green, and Elihu Fortner, Justices of the Peace; Samuel D. Barr, Ethan Satterlee, Assessors; Westbrook Divine, Edward Petty, Lyman H. Pratt, Commissioners of Highways; H. N. Stinson, Josiah Bradish, Ananias Worden, School Inspectors; Volney Belding, Josiah Bradish, Directors of the Poor; Henry S. Halford, Jonathan Gould, Lorenzo Whitney, and Lyman H. Pratt, Constables. Ananias Worden served as supervisor in 1846, and at the October session of the Ionia County board of supervisors the real estate of Montcalm was valued at twentynine thousand nine hundred and forty-five dollars and twenty-eight cents, the tax levied on the same being, for county purposes, two hundred and nine dollars and sixtytwo cents; for State, seventy-four dollars and eighty-six cents. Josiah Russell, as supervisor, represented Montcalm in 1847-48, and Rosekrans K. Divine in 1849. The year 1850 ushered in an entirely new state of affairs for Montcalm, for the county was then organized, also the new townships of Bushnell, Fair Plains,t and Eureka. Thus the county of Montcalm began an independent career with four townships. The proceedings preceding organization are best explained, perhaps, by the organizing act, of which the following is a copy: "SEC. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of JRepresentatives of the State of Michigoan, That the county of Montcalm shall be organized, and the inhabitants thereof entitled to all the rights and privileges to which by law the inhabitants of the other organized counties of this State are entitled. "SEc. 2. That all suits, prosecutions, and other matters now pending before any court of record in lonia County, or before any justice of the peace in said county, or that shall be pending at the time of the taking effect of this act, shall be prosecuted to final judgment and execution; and all taxes heretofore levied and now due shall be collected in the same manner as though the county of Montcalm had not been organized. "SEc. 3. There shall be elected in the said county of Montcalm, on the first Monday of April in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty, all the several county officers to which by law the said county is entitled; and said election shall in all respects be conducted and held in the manner prescribed by law for holding elections for county and State officers: Provided, That until such county officers are elected and qualified the proper county officers of the county of Ionia shall perform all the duties appertaining to said county of Montcalm, in the same manner as though this act had not been passed: And provided further, That the county officers so to be elected shall be qualified and enter upon the duties of their respective offices on or before the fifteenth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and fifty. "SEc. 4. The board of canvassers in said county, under this act, shall consist of the presiding inspectors of elections from each township therein, and said inspectors shall meet at the county-seat of said county at the time appointed by law for the county canvass, and immediately alter the election authorized in the third section of this act, and organize by appointing one of their number chairman and another secretary of said board, and shall thereupon proceed to discharge all the duties of a board of county canvassers as in ordinary cases of elections for county and State officers. " SEC. 5. That the county of Montcalm, when so organized, and the county of Ionia shall constitute one representative district, and the election returns of said district shall be made at the county-seat of the county of Ionia. "SEC. 6. The Circuit Court for the county of Ionia shall have the same jurisdiction over the said county of Montcalm that it would have had this act not passed, until otherwise provided by law. " SEC. 7. That it shall be the duty of the sheriff of said county of Montcalm to provide some suitable place for holding courts in said county, at the county-seat thereof, until public buildings shall bh erected. "SEC. 8. That the county-seat of the said county of Montcalm shall be, and the same is hereby, fixed and established on the northeast quarter of the northeast quarter of section sixteen, in township number nine north, of range number 8 west,: until the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty, and until the same shall be permanently located as hereinafter provided; and the supervisors elected for the year eighteen hundred and sixty in said county shall have the power, and it shall be their duty, to permanently locate the countyseat of said county: Provided, That the inhabitants of the county shall not be taxed for the erection of county buildings until the permanent location of the county-seat is made, as provided in section eight of this act. "SEC. 9. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage. "APPROVED MARCH 20, 1850." According to the requirements of the foregoing act, the qualified voters of Bushnell, Eureka, Fair Plains, and Montcalm assembled at their respective voting-places on Monday, April 1, 1850, and there voted for the various candidates for county officers. On the following day (Tues day, April 2d), the board of county canvassers convened at + Eureka township. * These townships had previously been attached to North Plains, in Ionia County. f In the organizing act, proceedings of boards of canvassers apd supervisors, county and township records, etc., the name of this township is variously written Fair Plains, Fair Plain, Fairplain, and Fairplains, of which methods the former is adopted in this work. CIVIL CHANGES-ORGANIZATION, ETC. 359 I the house of Morton Shearer, in Greenville, the countyseat, and organized by electing Stephen H. Warren chairman and F. W. Worden clerk. "The board then adjourned to meet again at the above-namad place on Wednesday, the 3d of April, at ten o'clock in the morning. April 3d, board met according to adjournment. The clerk was absent. The messenger returned with the returns of the towns of Bushnell and Fair Plains. The board rejected the returns from the town of Fair Plains* on the account of informality of its returns." After canvassing the returns from Bushnell, Eureka, and Montcalm townships, it was declared that the whole number of votes given were 133, of which, for county judge, Josiah Russell received 129. For second judge: Ethan Satterlee, 120. For judge of Probate: Stephen H. Warren, 122; I. Fifield, 4. For sheriff: Gibson S. Fargo, 125; James French, 1. For county clerk: Henry M. Moore, 87; Ananias Worden, 35; Henry W. Moore, 4. For county treasurer: John Porter, 121. For register of deeds: Newcomb J. Ireland, 85; Hiram H. Slawson, 36. For county surveyor: Josiah Bradish, 122; Josiah Russell, 1. For coroners: Chauncey W. Olmsted, 109; C. W. Olmsted, 7; Chancy Olmsted, 3; John Green, 126. The county officers elect-viz., Messrs. Josiah Russell as county judge, Ethan Satterlee as second judge, Stephen H. Warren as judge of Probate, Gibson S. Fargo as sheriff, Enos T. Peck as county clerk, Newcomb J. Ireland as register of deeds, John Porter as treasurer, Josiah Bradish as county surveyor, and John Green and Chauncey W. Olmsted as coroners-were properly inducted into office before April 15, 1850, and the wheels of government began to revolve in the newly-organized county of Montcalm. The supervisors elect-viz., Rosekrans K. Divine, of Eureka, Volney Belding, of Montcalm, and Rufus K. Moore, of Fair Plains-held their first session in Greenville on the 9th of April, 1850. R. K. Divine was chosen chairman for one year, and the " public-house of Morton Shearer, at Greenville," was the place designated for holding the County Courts. Thereupon the sheriff was authorized to conclude a bargain with Mr. Shearer, which was done, the county agreeing to pay one dollar per day for the use of rooms for court purposes, etc. The clerk was then directed to notify the secretary of state of the election of county officers, coupled with a request that such books, blanks, papers, etc., to which the county was entitled should be sent forward. On motion of R. K. Moore, Mr. Powell, of the Ionia Gazette, was employed to print blanks, etc., for the county for one year. The following rates of assessment were then agreed upon for the year 1850: W ild lan(l, per acre....................................... $1.25 Improved land, per acre................................. 1.25 Good house like A. French's......................... 125.00 " " " Becker's........................... 75.00 " " G" reen's....................... 50.00 " barn...................................... 25.00 " span of horses...................................... 25.00 " yoke of oxen.................................. 10.00 wagon................................................ 10.00 cow.................................................... 4.00 " two-year-old steer.......................... 2.00 Good two-year-old colt............................... $2.00 " sheep...................................................25 " double saw-mill.................................... 400.0C " single ".................................... 300.00 Hiram Rossman was then allowed eight dollars as bounty for killing a wolf* in the township of Eureka, after which. The early settlers of Montcalm, in common with those who first settled other counties in the State of Michigan, were greatly annoyed by those midnight prowlers, the wolves, and the consequent destruction of their little flocks of sheep. Large sums of money, therefore, in the aggregate, in township, county, and State bounties, were cheerfully voted and paid for the wolves' extinction. Beginning with April, 1850, and ending in October, 1860, the county of Montcalm, for wolf-scalps, paid the sum of thirteen hundred and sixteen dollars. As a matter of curiosity, as well as of interest, we append herewith a list of the successful wolf-hunters during the period mentioned, which list also shows the amount paid for each scalp. Frequently, however, those who killed the wolves, not wishing to wait six and twelve months for their pay in cash, sold their certificates to merchants and others at a heavy discount. 1850. Hiram Rossman, 1 wolf.................................. Samuel Patrick, I wolf......................... Henry A. Allen, 2 wolves.............................. William Avery, 1 wolf................................... Joel Hall, 1 wolf.......................................... George Swager, 2 wolves................................ 1851. $8.00 8.00 16.00 8.00 8.00 16.00 J. M. Becker, 1 wolf.................................. $8.00 Ira Hale, 7 wolves................................ 56.00 Nehemiah Charles, 1 wolf.................. 8.00 Asa 11. Hawley, 1 wolf................................. 8.00 1852. Peleg Hale, 6 wolves............4........ $48.00 George Fleck, 1 wolf..................................... 8.00 Slaw-noh-se-gee, 3 wolves.............................. 24.00 1853. Nah-kah-we-quah-ung, I wolf....................... $8.00 Charles D. Hubbs, 2 wolves....................... 16.00 Henry W. Parker, 1 wolf......................... 8.o0 Lawson B. Hemingway, 3 wolves.................... 24.00 Maw-gon-a-quon, i wolf................................ 8.00 Phineas Swift, 1 wolf..................... 8.00 John Fleck, 3 wolves............................. 24.00 Pam-ba-to, 1 wolf...................................... 8.00 Bradford Wager, 1 wolf............................. 8.00 Daniel Parker, 3 wolves................................. 24.00 Peleg Hale, 1 wolf............................. 8.00 1854. Luther Scott, 1 wolf.........................$8.00 Luther Van Horn, 10 wolves..o v..............80.00 John Cataberry, 3 wolves............................ 24.00 Wy-me-haw, 1 wolf...................................... 8.00 Hiram Rossman, 1 wolf................................ 8.00 Ne-gak, 1 wolf............................................ 8.00 Henry Parker, 1 wolf.................................. 8.00 Slaw-noh-se-gee, 2 wolves..................... 16.00 Wah-be-sha-gun, 1 wolf......................... 8.00 Sah-gee, 1 wolf............................................ 8.00 Kub-ba-ah-se, 2 wolves................................16.00 Ka-ka-ko, 1 wolf......................................... 8.00 1855. Sho-voos, 3 wolves...................... $24.00 Cat-te-gat, 1 wolf.................................. 8.00 Da-o-mac, 1 wolf........................................ 8.00 Kub-be ah-se, 1 wolf............................ 8.00 Luther Scott, 1 wolf.....................................8.00 Henry Parker, 1 wolf.................................... 8.00 J. S. Derby, 1 wolf....................................... 8.00 Esh-ke-bug-ke-ke, 1 wolf.............................. 4.00 Ka ka-koo-na, 2 wolves................................. 8.00 Ah-me-ko-ning, 1 wolf.................................. 4.00 William Rowley, 10 wolves........................... 40.00 a~vid Whaley, 1 wolf.................................... 4.00 a A. Hale, 1 wolf........................ 4.00 George Covill, 1 wolf................................. 4.00 Henry Parker, 1 wolf.................................... 4.00 Isaac Dickerson, 1 wolf................................ 4.00 A. L. Griswold, 3 wolves............................. 12.00 Os-me-she-zic, 1 wolf................... 4.00 J. S. Derby, 1 wolf...................................... 4.00 * Fifty-three votes. 360 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. the first session of the board of supervisors " adjourned to meet on the 17th instant at nine o'clock A.M." To-to-ca-to, 1 wolf....................................... $4.00 Squah-ze-zic, 2 wolves.................................... 8.00 1856. David Hill, 1 wolf.................................... $4.00 Da-o-mac, 5 wolves....................................... 20.00 James McCready, 7 wolves........................... 28.00 H. E. Tucker, 1 wolf.................................... 4.00 William Carpenter, I wolf.............................. 4.00 Frederick Gravenbury, 2 wolves..................... 8.00 Da-o-mae, 3 wolves............................. 12.00 Henry Parker, 2 wolves................................. 8.00 James MeCready, 2 wolves............................. 8.00 Samuel Gillman, 1 wolf................................. 4.00 Or-san-ga-bo, I wolf...................................... 4.00 Da-o-mac, 1 wolf........................................ 4.00 Ke-mee-was, 1 wolf....................................... 4.00 Jacob A. Strager, I wolf................................. 4.00 Kub-be-ah-se, 1 wolf.................................... 4.00 Pem-ba-to, 1 wolf...................................... 4.00 Wab-sha-gun, 1 wolf.................................... 4.00 Asa L. G(riswold, 1 wolf............................... 4.00 Joshua V. Noah, 1 wolf................................. 4.00 Ka —hg -ah-he-wan, 1 wolf............................ 4.00 James Cataberry, 1 wolf................................ 4.00 Nim-e-ke-wan, 1 wolf.................................... 4.00 William Rowley, 1 wolf................................. 4.00 Kim-a-was, 1 wolf........................................ 4.00 O-gee-mlh, I wolf....f......................... 4.00 Ke-yon-a-gon, wolf....................................... 4.00 1857. Qua-qua-gee, wolf................................... $4.00 Zimmerman Watts, 1 wolf........................... 4.00 Pen-ah-so-bee, 3 wolves.................................. 12.00 William Shepherd, 1 wolf.............................. 4.00 Asa L. Griswold, I wolf................................. 4.00 Jim Cataberry, 1 wolf................................... 4.00 Wa-ben-de-to, 2 wolves.................................. 8.00 Henry Parker, 1 wolf................................... 4.00 J. McDa vy, 1 wolf....................................... 4.00 Qua-qua-gee, 1 wolf................................. 44.00 Wab-sha-gon, 1 wolf................................. 4.00 Ne-gak, 5 wolves.......................................... 20.00 Da-o-m ac................................................... 4.00 1858. Me-nam-quet, 1 wolf................................... $4.00 Franklin Stiles, 1 wolf................................... 4.00 Jacob Strager, 2 wolves................................. 8.00 Baron Blanchard, 1 wolf...........4.................4.00 Ne-gak, 1 wolf............................................ 4.00 Orrin Phelps, 1 wolf..................................... 4.00 Pen-ah-wam-bo, 1 wolf................................. 4.00 Charles Wabsis, I wolf.................................. 4.00 Nim-e-eo-wan, 2 wolves................................ 8.00 Ira Hale, 2 wolves...................................... 8.00 O-be-ah-see, 1 wolf...................................... 4.00 William J. Carpenter, 2 wolves l e............... 8.00 Ne-gak, I wolf............................................ 4.00 Bowman Van Kuren, 2 wolves........................ 8.00 Pen-ah-sa-wan, 1 wolf................................... 4.00 Richard Smith, 1 wolf................................. 4.00 Franklin Stiles, 1 wolf.................................. 4.00 1859. Da-o-mac, 6 wolves....................................... $24.00 William Fields, 1 wolf.................................. 4.00 Caleb B. Rice, 1 wolf................................... 4.00 Henry Satterlee, 1 wolf.............................. 4.00 Charles B. Davis, 1 wolf................................ 4.00 Ka-ka-koos, wolf....................................... 4.00 Sylvester Derby, 2 wolves.............................. 8.00 Gardner Flint, I wolf.................................... 4.00 Henry Parker, 3 wolves................................. 12.00 C. H. Dyer, 1 wolf................................. 4.00 Luther W. Van Horn, 2 wolves...................... 8.00 Stephen R. Pierson, 1 wolf............................. 4.00 Howard Mesick, I wolf................................ 4.00 Loren Towsley, i wolf.................................. 4.00 1860. Jonathan Swift, I wolf.................................. $8.00 Henry Parker, 6 wolves................................. 48.00 Benajah Pierson, 1 wolf................. 8.00 William Rowley, 3 wolves.............................. 24.00 Daniel N. Fox, 1 wolf................................... 8.00 Ira Hale, 1 wolf........................................ 8.00 James R. Griswold, 1 wolf.............................. 8.00 Charles H. Dyer, I wolf................................. 8.00 Benjamin Pierson, 1 wolf.............................. 8.00 Henry Parker, 2 wolves............................... 16.00 In October, 1850, Supervisors R. K. Divine from Eureka, R. K. Moore from Fair Plains, C. W. Olmsted from Bushnell, and E. B. Burrington from Montcalm, met at Greenville and audited and allowed the following accounts: E. R. Powell, for printing............................ A. Monroe, going to Ionia for books................ Josiah Russell, paying freight on books............ A. Roosa, serving notices on supervisors.......... Samuel Patrick, wolf-bounty........................... Henry A. Allen, "........................... W illiam Avery, "........................... Joel Hall, "........................... George Swager, "........................... G. S. Fargo................................................. Morton Shearer............................................ S. H. Warren.............................................. A. S. Bragg, of Detroit, for books................... John Porter................................................ E. B. Burrington............................. R. K. Divine............................................. C. W. Olmsted............................................. R. K. Moore............................................ Josiah Russell............................................. $9.00 2.00 7.50 2.00 8.00 16.00 8.00 8.00 16.00 5.50 8.00 1.75 130.25 7.00 3.54 12.25 10.74 9.12 1.00 Thereafter, R. K. Divine and C. W. Olmsted were appointed a committee to settle with Ionia County, and it was also agreed that the county clerk should be allowed twenty dollars for his services " to present date." The following apportionments of State and county taxes were then directed to be placed upon the rolls: TowNsHIPS. Real Personal. Real and State County Estaste. Personal. Tax. Tax. Bushnell................ $6,952.50 $893.00 $7,845.50 $9.46 $41.2712 Eureka.................... 24,600.98 1,5(4.62 26,105.60 31.45 136.70 Fair Plains..................... 18,127.39 1,031.50 19,158.89 23.08 100.43/2 Montcalm................... 12,542.24 1,114.00 13,656.24 16.45 71.59 We append a tabulated statement showing in concise form the date each township in the county was organized, by whom, the territory originally embraced, and the place where the first township election in each was ordered to be held. Names. Montcalm..... Bushnell...... Date. March 19, 1845 March 20,1850 Territory Originally Included. The county as then formed, except townships 9 and 10 N., range 5 W................... Townships 9 and 10 N., range 6W................................ Townships 9 and 10 N., range 7 W................................. FairPlains.... March 28,1850 Eureka......... March 28,1850 Township 9 N., range 8 W..... Bloomer*...... Jan. 6, 1852..... Crystal*........ March 4,1856. Evergreen*... March 4,1856.. Ferris*......... Jan. 5,1857..... Sidney*......... IJan. 5, 1857..... Cato*............ Jan. 5, 1857..... Piersont....... Feb. 17,1857... Townships 9 and 10 N., range 5 W.................................. Township 10 N., range 5 W.. Township 10 N., range 6 W.. Townships 11 and 12 N., range 5 W., and townships 11 and 12 N., range 6 W............... Township t1 N., range 7 W.. Townships 11 and 12 N., range 7 W., and townships 11 and 12 N., range 8 W............... Townships 11 and 12 N., ranges 9 and 10 W........... Townships 11 and 12 N., range 9 W................................. Township 11 N., ranges 7 and 8 W................................. Township 11 N., range 7 W... Township 11 N., range 9 W... Township 12 N., range 6 W... Township 11 N., range 6 W... Township 12 N., range 7 W... Township 12 N., range 10 W.. Township 12 N., range 5 W... Place where the First TownshipMeeting was designated to be held Anson Ensign. Joseph Stevens. School-house near Roswell Dudley's. School-house near Greenville P. 0. John A. Miner. Eli Davis. Ira Rider. Nathan B. Scott. Joshua V. Noah. Sam'l Youngman. David Pierson. John B. Moon. A. M. Adams. Aaron Hunt. Edward F. Foot. R. Jackson. H. Kretzinger. Wm. Gardner. David Swarthout. Joshua Painter. Winfield*..... Oct. 16, 1861... Pine*........... Douglass*..... Maple Val'y* Home*......... Day*............ Belvidere...... Reynolds...... Richland*.... Oct. 16, 1861... Feb. 17,1864... Feb. 17,1864... Oct. 12, 1864... Oct. 12, 1864... March 7, 1867.. March 30, 1869 Jan. 4,1870..... - Organized by supervisors, all others by the State Legislature. tAs a township in Mecosta County. But by Section 2 of the organizing act it was attached to Montcalm County "for municipal and representative purposes," and has remained as part of Montcalm to the present time. COURTS AND ATTORNEYS. 361 OTHER EARLY EVENTS. According to the records, Judge (afterwards Governor) Epaphroditus Ransom made the first purchase of lands in the county of Monticalm, his choice resting upon portions of sections 1 and 2, township 9 north, range 5 west, and section 36 in township 10 north, range 5 west. The entries were made in June, July, and August, 1835. The first transfer of lands other than by the general government to individuals was made Oct. 18, 1837, when Benjamin Young, of Phelps, Ontario Co., N. Y., transferred to Carso Crane, of the same town and county, an undivided one-fourth of the east half of section 35, and an undivided one-fourth of the northwest quarter and west half of the southwest quarter of section 36, in township 9 north, range 5 west, the lands described having been purchased from the United States, Nov. 7, 1836, by Frederick Smith and Don C. C. Hawley. Newcomb J. Ireland, the first register of deeds for Montcalm County, signalized his entry into office by recording the transfer from the State of Michigan to Ebenezer Salyer of lands situated on sections 15 and 21, township 9 north, range 7 west, the transaction bearing date May 2, 1850. It is very probable that Luther Lincoln was the first settler of the county. Thomas Cornell, the present county surveyor of Ionia County, penetrated into the wilds of Montcalm in the spring of 1837, and then found Mr. Lincoln and his son (a lad of about thirteen years of age) living near the junction of Flat River and Black Creek. Further concerning Mr. Lincoln will be found in the history of Montcalm township. The first marriage made a matter of record (in a book kept for that purpose in the county archives) was that of Benjamin A. Weaver to Gertrude Stockholm, the ceremony having been performed by Wilson Mosher, a minister of the gospel, March 19, 1851. John Porter, county treasurer, made the first county treasurer's report of which there is any record in January, 1853. A detailed statement of the moneys passing through his hands in an official capacity from Jan. 6, 1852, to Jan. 3, 1853, is as follows: Balance in treasury Jan. 6, 1852.................... $58.18 Interest on primary school funds.................... 74.44 i " salt spring lands.......................... 37.10 State bounty on wolf certificates.................... 24.00 Circuit and County Court fees...................... 14.04 Delinquent tax, interest, and office charges...... 348.54 Whole amount received................. $556.30t Paid on wolf certificates.............................. $36.00 " primary school money to Eureka township......,. 51.20 " " " " " Fair Plains township... 26.40 " " " " " Bushnell township.... 15.20 " State treasurer money received on lands advertised for delinquent tax............... 26.32 " State treasurer interest on primary school and salt spring lan s...................... 48.13 " delinquent tax to Busbnell township....... 63.00 it " " " Montcalm township..... 46.81 " " " " Eureka township......... 23.25 " on county orders............................. 117.13 Total disbursements.................... $453.44 It appears that the first proceedings in Chancery came up before Judge Martin at a term of court held in Green46 ville, June 21, 1853, the suits being entitled " Washington D. Coons vs. Martha E. Coons," and " Mary West vs. John West." Both actions were for divorce, and neither of the defendants resided in the State of Michigan. CHAPTER III. COURTS AND ATTORNEYS. The County Court-Early Proceedings-Establishment of Circuit Court, Judge Martin Presiding-Early Trials in that Court-Early Jurors-Judge Lovell-The Probate Court and First Proceedings -List of Montcalm County Attorneys. COUNTY COURT. THE first session of this court was held in Greenville, at the house of Morton Shearer, June 11, 1850, Hon. Josiah Russell presiding. Newcomb J. Ireland vs. Ira Porter" was the first case called, and we find in the court journal the following in relation thereto: " This cause, being called, was answered to by the plaintiff, and was by him withdrawn." The second case placed upon the docket was entitled "Abel French and Henry M. Moore vs. Frederick W. Worden and Ananias Worden." "This cause, being called, was answered to on the part of the plaintiffs by William Backus, and on the part of the defendants by Frederick W. Worden. The suit was then withdrawn by the plaintiffs. There being no further business, the court adjourned." Judge Russell opened court at the same place Sept. 10, 1850, but, there being no business before His Honor, the court " was adjourned sine die." On the 10th of December following court was again opened, when, the suit entitled " Caleb Kniffen vs. Luther I. Jenks" being called, it was answered to by the plaintiff and by the defendant. Adam L. Roof, as attorney, appeared for the plaintiff, and A. F. Bell, of the firm of Blanchard & Bell, for the defendant. Mr. Bell argued that " this is not the time for holding a court in this county, also that the county has no lawful place for holding a court." The court decided, however, that " this is the day for the opening of a regular term of this County Court, and that the house of Morton Shearer is the legal place for holding said court." Mr. Bell-then plead that the seal attached to the papers in the case was not lawful, and again obtained an adverse decision from the court. The case was finally adjourned, by consent of all parties, to the next term. The next term of the County Court was opened March 11, 1851, Hon. Josiah Russell presiding. The case of " Kniffen vs. Jenks" being called, Charles C. Ellsworth appeared as attorney for the plaintiff and withdrew the case, whereupon judgment was rendered against the plaintiff for costs. Judge Russell afterwards held terms of court which were convened June 10, Sept. 9, and Dec. 9, 1851, but it does not appear, taken all in all, that much business was transacted in the County Court of Montcalm. At last, by a limitation embodied in the constitution of 1850, and under provisions of an act of the Legislature approved I 362 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. June 28, 1851, the County Courts of Michigan ceased to exist, and the suits still pending were transferred to the Circuit Courts. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CIRCUIT COURT IN MONTCALM. By an act of the State Legislature approved March 31, 1851, entitled "An Act to establish a Circuit Court in the County of Montcalm," it was provided that two terms of the Circuit Court should be held in the county during each year, and that the circuit judge of the Fih District, within twenty days after his appointment, " be authorized and required to appoint the time of holding the terms of Circuit Court in Montcalm County." Pursuant to the provisions of this act, therefore, the opening of the first Circuit Court in the county was made a matter of record as follows: "GREENVILLE, Oct. 1, 1851. "'STATE OF MICHIGAN, I MONTCALM CO. i "This being the first Wednesday of October of said year, and the day appointed by the circuit judge, pursuant to law, for the opening and organization of the Circuit Court in said county of Montcalm, the court convened at the house of Morton Shearer, in Greenville, in said county, the place designated for holding said court, and was opened by proclamation of Abel French, sheriff. Present, Hon. George Martin, circuit judge. There being no business before the court, the same was adjourned by proclamation of the sheriff sine die. "(Signed) GEORGE MARTIN, "Circuit Judge." At the December term (1851) the judge was not present, and court was adjourned by the clerk. The term commencing June 15, 1852, was opened by proclamation of Under-Sheriff Isaac W. Van Fossen, but, in the absence of the judge, was adjourned until the following day. Pursuant to adjournment, the court was again convened at three o'clock P.M. of June 16, 1852, present Hon. George Martin, circuit judge, when the first suit, entitled " George Galloway vs. Josiah Russell; action, an appeal trespass on the case," came up for a hearing. The case being called, C. C. Ellsworth, attorney, answered for his client, the defendant, but, by consent of all parties, the case was continued to the next term. The next case on the docket was entitled " James Trippe and John F. Trippe vs. Abel French and Henry M. Moore; action, in assumpsit." By default of the defendants, on motion of L. Moore, the plaintiffs' attorney, the plaintiffs proceeded to trial, and at its close judgment was rendered against the defendants in the sum of five hundred and twenty-two dollars and eighteen cents damages, and costs of suit to be taxed. Judge Martin continued on this circuit until 1857, holding his last term here in October of that year, when he was succeeded by Judge Louis S. Lovell, who held his first court in this county at Greenville, Feb. 16, 1858, and has continued as circuit judge of the district which includes Montcalm to the present time. The first enrollment of a grand jury was made at a general term held at Greenville in October, 1854, when the following persons, " whose names were drawn according to law, and who were summoned by the sheriff to appear as grand jurors," answered to their names: Harvey Allen, Erastus Fisher, William Husker, James Kent, George Loucks, Charles H. Miel, Rufus K. Moore, Abijah Noyes, Manning Rutan, Phineas Swift, Jr., George W. Stevens, Seth Sprague, William R. Sherman, David Wilson, William Wells, and George Van Ness; of whom Rufus K. Moore served as foreman, and Seth Sprague as clerk. At the first term of Judge Lovell's court (Feb. 16, 1858) the grand jurors impaneled were John Burgess, John Rossman, William Walkington, Norman Ferris, Peter Despelder, Quartus Joslin, Stephen Cupp, Harvey Allen, C. P. S. Jackson, James Brown, Sr., William Clark, Philander A. Peck, Henry Gillmore, Lyman Demerest, James Taylor, Jr., William Maxsted, Jr., William Lampman, Harley Bump, William M. Crane, Phineas Swift, Obadiah E. Fuller, and Charles H. Miel, and at the same time the petit jurors assembled were Robert Eastman, Jason Mills, Charles H. Dickerson, Abram Manse, Bradley B. Crawford, Levi J. Allen, Henry B. Trippe, David K. Goodman, Abel G. Peck, D. C. Sebring, Jeremiah Mabie, Isaac Dickerson, James L. Mann, Hiram E. Russell, Lyman Lamb, Melvin C. Bacon, Erastus Bates, Joe Wilson, Robert Lum, Erastus Fisher, Henry L. Sanford, Ebenezer Ferrand, and William Stokes. PROBATE COURT. The first session of this court, according to the records on file in the probate's office, was held " at the office of the judge thereof," in Greenville, on Monday, Dec. 1, 1851, Hon. Chauncey W. Olmsted, Probate judge, presiding, the first proceedings being " in the matter of the petition of Jacob W. Petty," praying for the appointment of said Petty as administrator of the estate of Samuel S. Coy, deceased. Upon proof being adduced of the death of Coy, it was " ordered that Monday, Jan. 5, 1852, be assigned for the hearing of said petition." At the date last mentioned, however, Josiah Russell was appointed administrator of the Coy estate, giving bonds in the sum of one thousand dollars for the faithful performance of his trust, George Loucks also signing the bond. The next proceedings were in the matter of the estate of Henry C. Skinner, who died in Eureka, March 26, 1852. In this case Lafayette Knight was granted letters of administration, Isaac W. Van Fossen becoming his bondsman. ATTORNEYS. From the fact that Montcalm has no bar association nor a complete attorney's roll, it is impracticable, perhaps, to compile a complete list of all the attorneys who have practiced in the courts of the county. We find, however, by scanning the proceedings of early courts, that among the earliest practitioners were Charles C. Ellsworth, William Chapin, John Lewis, Alfred M. Chapin, William Backus, Lucius Patterson, L. Moore, Milo Blair, John F. Loase, Seth Sprague, and D. A. Elliott. An incomplete roll on file in the county clerk's office also affords the scanty information that John Lewis was admitted to the bar April 4, 1854; A. B. Clark, October, 1858; L. D. Grove, April, 1861; Seth Sprague, August, 1862; N. O. Griswold and Z. N. Garbutt, July, 1873; George P. Stone, August, 1873; C. R. Smith, January, 1875; Joseph D. Pardee, January, 1875; and Frank A. COUNTY SITES AND COUNTY PROPERTY. 363 I Miller, Oct. 4, 1880. Others, where the date of their admission was omitted, were Asa Morse, George S. Roswell, John A. Greenhoe, Francis Palmer, Lyman C. Moore, George A. Smith, George W. Stoneburner, George H. Cagwin, Harmon Smith, J. C. Mattison, F. L. Allen, W. N, Rogers, George S. Steere, and Emery J. Blanding. Among the resident attorneys of the county in October, 1880, were Ellsworth & Sapp, Daniel C. Moore, D. A. Elliott, Smith & Briggs, A. E. Bolster, A. P. Thomas, T. F. Shields, J. H. Tatem, A. T. Call, James F. Covel, George E. Backus, Norris J. Brown, Asa Morse, George A. Smith, Cagwin & Pennington, P. S. Dodge, W; E. Hoyt, C. B. Pratt, John Lewis & Son, Lyman C. Moore, Charles L. Rardon, M. C. Palmer, N. 0. Griswold, John Hicks, Otto J. Wolfe, Ephraim Follett, C. W. Perry, George P. Stone, Webster & Steere, George McGarry, and Frank Allen. CHAPTER IV. COUNTY SITES AND COUNTY PROPERTY, Establishment of the County-Seat at Greenville-Final Location at Stanton-Erection of Court-House-County Officers-New CourtHouse-The Poor-Farm. COUNTY SITES AND BUILDINGS. ACCORDING to the provisions of the act organizing the county of Montcalm, the seat of justice was temporarily located at Greenville, or, as the act read, "on the northeast quarter of the northeast quarter of section sixteen, in township number nine north, of range number eight west, until the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty, and until the same shall be permanently located as hereinafter provided; and the supervisors elected for the year eighteen hundred and sixty in said county shall have the power, and it shall be their duty, to permanently locate the countyseat of said county: Provided, That the inhabitants of the county shall not be taxed for the erection of county buildings until the permanent location of the county-seat is made as provided in section eight of this act." After a few years the Greenville people were anxious to retain the seat of justice in their midst or where first established, and it is claimed that for the purpose of obtaining reinforcements of their way of thinking the township of Pierson* (then including the present townships of Pierson, Winfield, Maple Valley, and Reynolds) was detached from Mecosta County in 1857 and attached to Montcalm. However that may be, the act of March 20, 1850, was amended by an act approved Jan. 29, 1859, which amendment in substance said that the supervisors might designate a place for the county-seat, but the question must be submitted to the people at the next general election. Accordingly, at a meeting of the board of supervisors held in April, 1860, by a vote of seven to three, it was decided to locate the county-seat on the northeast quarter of section 1, in township 10 north, of range 7 west; and on the question being submitted to the people, in November, 1860, the choice of the board was ratified by a vote of five hundred and four in favor to three hundred and seventy-four against. Thereupon, early in January, 1861, Westbrook Divine, Albert S. French, and William Castle, of the board of supervisors, were appointed a committee to visit the locality chosen and to "set the stake" for the county buildings. They performed their duty promptly, and on the 10th of January, 1861, reported as follows: "TO THE HONORABLE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF MONTCALM COUNTY: " We, the undersigned committee, do hereby respectfully make our report as follows: That after careful examination we set the stake for county buildings on the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter of section 1, in township 10 north, range 7 west, twenty-four rods east and twelve rods south from the northwest corner of the above-described lot. All of which we beg leave to submit, and ask to be discharged. "WESTBROOK DIVINE, "ALBERT S. FRENCH, (' Committee." Prior to the event last mentioned, however, a committee had visited Fred Hall, Esq., of Ionia (the owner of the tract described), and on the 4th day of January, 1861, in consideration of the sum of fifty dollars, he sold to the board of supervisors of Montcalm County the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter of section 1, in township 10 north, of range 7 west. Gratified and willing to honor so liberal a person as Mr. Hall had proved himself to be, the name of Fredt was immediately adopted as the title of the new county-seat. On the 16th of October, 1861, five hundred dollars were appropriated to clear the grounds of the county-seat, and eight hundred dollars more for the construction of a courthouse; while Stephen Rossman, Westbrook Divine, and G. F. Case were appointed a committee to plat the village of Fred. Work was pushed rapidly forward, and the courthouse was completed the same fall by Joseph P. Shoemaker, who received the sum of seven hundred and sixty-five dollars for his work. The first session of the board of supervisors at Fred was held on Jan. 7, 1862, M. P. Follett, as chairman, presiding, those present being Peter Schlappie, of Ferris; John L. Smith, of Crystal; Aaron Lyon, of Bloomer; John J. Hammell, of Bushnell; Geo. F. Case, of Evergreen; Ira Barlow, of Sidney; Stephen Rossman, of Montcalm; Westbrook Divine, of Eureka; Albert S. French, of Cato; E. J. Blanding, of Pierson; and the chairman, M. P. Follett, of Fair Plains. The village of Fred thus established in the forests began a rapid growth. Village lots owned by the county were given away to actual settlers, or, if sold, the amount paid was merely nominal. More land was required, however, to suit the plans of those who were interested in the future of the village, and on the 10th of March, 1863, an arrangement was completed by which Erastus Fairbanks, repre f Changed to Stanton by act of the Legislature approved Feb. 25, 1863. Stanton was incorporated by act of board of supervisors Oct. 18, 1867. a Section 2 of the act organizing Pierson, which was approved Feb. 17, 1857, was amended by an act approved Feb. 11, 1859, which amendment, in substance, debarred the supervisor and people of Pierson, and the people of the townships to be formed from it, from voting for or against the removal of the county-seat, but we believe they did vote when the questiog was submitted. 364 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. senting (and president of) the Saint Mary's Falls Ship Canal Company, in consideration of the sum of four hundred dollars to him paid, transferred to the board of supervisors of Montcalm County the southwest quarter of the southwest fractional quarter of section 31 in township 11 north, of range 6 west, containing forty-four acres.* In October, 1865, Jenson P. Beers was authorized by the board of supervisors to plat the grounds just described for village purposes, and "to reserve three good single lots for churches, and three lots for parsonages, to be given to the first societies organizing and building churches." He was also instructed to deed (for certain minor considerations) lots to those who would build dwellins within six months' time. In 1870 the structure known as the " fire-proof building" was erected for the accommodation of the county officers. Seth Sprague was the builder or contractor, and received about fifteen hundred dollars. Quarters were then arranged in the court-house for the confinement of the county's malefactors, who previously had been sent to the Ionia County jail, although we do find a resolution in the minutes of proceedings of the board of supervisors, of date Oct. 12, 1852, "that the upper part of Abel French's store be used as the jail of this county." The old buildings at the county-seat had outlived their usefulness, however, and in the spring of 1879 the question was submitted to the people of the county whether ten thousand dollars (in conjunction with the same amount to be contributed by the citizens of Stanton village) be raised to construct a new court-house. The proposition was carried by a vote of two thousand four hundred and eightytwo for to one thousand three hundred and sixteen against, and, in June following, Supervisors William Backus, William F. Turner, and W. D. Bellows were designated the building committee. That they moved promptly is shown by the fact that in July, 1879, Jacob V. Consaul, of Grand Haven, became the contractor, and the process of construction began about August 1st of that year. The building, an imposing structure of brick and stone, was completed early in the summer of the present year, and was first occupied by the county officials in July. Complete, it cost about twenty-three thousand dollars. POOR-FARM. The records afford but little information regarding what was done to alleviate the wants of the county poor prior to 1860, but it is very probable that all was done that could be done to smooth the paths of the poor and wretched, for the representative men of Montcalmt have ever proved themselves to be liberal and large-hearted. In 1860 (January 14th) a portion of the present county poor-farm, or the southeast quarter of the southwest quarter of section 5, and the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter of section 8, in township 9 north, of range 7 west (Fair Plains), except the lands then flowed by the dam attached to the saw-mill known as the Belden & Chapin mill,-in all, eighty acres,-was,- in consideration of the sum of nine hundred dollars, transferred by Maria M. Light to William Backus and Morton Shearer and their successors in office (the county superintendents of the poor). After a few years the needs of the county poor at the farm demanded an addition to the original purchase, and in consequence the southeast quarter of the northwest quarter of section 8, in the same township, was purchased from Ervin Sanford, Oct. 30, 1868, the consideration being one thousand dollars. The present condition of the county poor and farm is best shown by the following extracts taken from the superintendents' report to the board of supervisors in October, 1880: " The superintendents of the poor of said county ask to report for the year 1880 as follows, to wit: At your meeting Oct. 15, 1879, you very liberally appropriated for the relief of the poor of Montcalm County as follows: Poor fund, temporary relief........................ $6000.00 Keeper's salary..................................... 750.00 Deposited First National Bank, Greenville, to credit of county treasurer by superintendents of the poor.................................... 250.00 Making total in county treasury.................. $7000.00 The superntendents have issued poor orders on county treasurer to the amount of,....... $7112.00 Leaving superintendents in debt to county treasurer............................................... 112.00 The superintendents have received from farm and other sources................................... 1542.11 Less deposit with county treasurer............... 250.00 Leaving in their hands............................. 1292.11 The superintendents have paid out on farm and at county-house, etc......................... 1266.62 Leaving balance in their hands of............... 25.49 Making total expense of the poor of the county for the year.......................................... 8379.58 * * ^ X X X -* " Number in county-house at present, 39. Whole number of paupers in county-house during the year, 67. Keeper's family, hired man and woman, and transients, 6. Average number in house during the year, 35. Sixteen acres of wheat not threshed, 26 acres oats not threshed, 12 acres good corn, 400 bushels of potatoes all dug, I acre rutabagas, plenty of garden vegetables for the use of the house, 15 fat hogs, 18 shoats, 5 cows, 1 bull, 27 number one sheep. "Improvements on farm: Repairs on house, painting inside, papering, etc., addition on barn for wagon-house and loft for bay and repairs on old barn, 70 rods of new board fence, cleared from stumps 20 acres. There has also been a large amount of stone picked and buried. "No money now due us or the county from any source for next year, and no wheat of any account to sell off from the farm. Therefore we recommend an appropriation of $7250 for relief fund for the coming year, and $750 for keeper's salary. We also recommend the purchasing of 40 acres of timber land for county farm. " Condition of paupers in county-house: We have the worst lot of paupers for our number of any house in the State. Idiotic, 9; helpless, 5,-very old people; 9 almost helpless, 1 with both feet off; 4 children. The balance are able to assist in caring for the rest and do some work in the house and on the farm. All of which we humbly submit for your consideration. "B. B. CRAWFORD, "R. C. MILLER, ' ALFRED STONE, " S'upts. of the Poor." * This tract was part of a land-grant of seven hundred and fifty thousand acres first made to the State of Michigan by Congress, Aug. 26, 1852, and by the State to the Canal Company, May 25, 1855, for the construction of a ship canal around the falls of the river Saint Mary's. t During the war of the Rebellion, Montcalm County paid in relief to soldiers' families the sum of thirty-six thousand eight hundred and sixteen dollars and ninety-one cents. This was remarkable in a county having but three thousand nine hundred and eighty-four inhabitants in 1860. / I I 'r) ~~'' .: ~::?~ c' IL-' ~~.:. ~.' ~~.i ~~.." j,: i: ..~~.~-z ~. '- ~:,,,~ * r '' `' ";, ~t"' " ~ ~~,, ~ I $...,;nSP ~ MOANTCALM CO. COURT HOUSE, STANTON, MICH. II CIVIL LIST. 365 CHAPTER V. CIVIL LIST-AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. Various Officers, National, State, and County, from 1850 to 1880, inclusive-The Montcalm County Agricultural Society-The Northern Michigan Agricultural Society. MONTCALM CIVIL LIST. THIS list embraces the names of residents of Montcalm County who have held or do now hold important civil offices in the State* and national governments, and also the principal officers of the county since its organization. MEMBER OF CONGRESS. Charles C. Ellsworth, elected November, 1876. STATE SENATORS. Josiah Russell, Twenty-fifth District, elected November, 1852. Stephen H. Warren, Thirtieth District, elected November, 1856. Westbrook Divine, Twenty-eighth District, elected November, 1862-64. Henry H. Hinds, Twenty-seventh District, elected November, 1872. Joseph P. Shoemaker, Twenty-fourth District, elected November, 1878. REPRESENTATIVES Ananias Worden, Henry M. Moore, Charles C. Ellsworth, Rosekrans K. Divine, John D. Fargo, Jacob Ferris, Martin P. Follett, Levi Camburn, Levi Camburn, John Avery, Richard C. Miller, Richard C. Miller, William Backus, Stephen R. Stevens, Stephen R. Stevens, Stallham W. La Du, IN THE LEGISLATURE. elected November, 1847. it" 1850. " " 1852. (c " 1854. " " 1856. t " 1858. " " 1860. " " 1864. " " 1866. " " 1868. t " 1870. " " 1872. " " 1874. " " 1876. c c" 1878. c" 1880. I Stephen H. Warren, el Chauncey W. Olmsted, Morton Shearer, Myron Rider, Elijah Coffren, Elijah Coffren, Jacob M. Dickerson, Asa Morse, Asa Morse, Norris O. Griswold, SHERIFFS. Gibson S. Fargo, el Gibson S. Fargo, Abel French, Abel French, Dan T. Fargo, Chauncey W. Olmsted, William Phinesey, William Phinesey, Hiram Armsbury, Hiram B. Fargo, Decatur O. Blake, Ira C. Horton, Ira C. Horton, De Witt C. Carpenter, Zcnas E. Briggs, Leonard Rossman, Leonard Rossman, John Q. Crippen, lected April 1, 1850. " November 5, 1850. April 7, 1851. " November 2, 1852. " 7, 1854. " " 1856. " ".1858. " 1860. " " 1862. " 1864. " 1866. " 1868, " 1870. " 1872. " 1874. " " 1876. " 1878. " 1880. JUDGES OF PROBATE. ected April 1, 1850. " November 5, 1850. " " 2, 1852. " " 1856. " " 1860. " " 1864. " " 1868. " " 1872. " 4 " 1876. " " 1880. COUNTY CLERKS. Enos T. Peck.t Enos T. Peck, John A. Miner, Enos T. Peck, Seth Sprague, Seth Sprague, Seth Sprague, William Backus, Bedford Birch, Aaron Lyon, Aaron Lyon, Aaron Lyon, H. Irving Garbutt, H. Irving Garbutt, Sylvester P. Youngs, Sylvester P. Youngs, Joseph M. Fuller, Joseph M. Fuller, MEMBER OF STATE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. George F. Case, 1867. COUNTY JUDGE. Josiah Russell, elected April 1, November 5, 1850. SECOND (COUNTY) JUDGE. Ethan Satterlee, elected April 1, 1850. Rufus K. Moore, " November 5, 1850. COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS OF SCHOOLS. James F. Covel, elected April, 1867. Elijah H. Crowell, " " 1871. DRAIN COMMISSIONER. Alvin Morse, elected April, 1871. * Hon. Westbrook Divine is one of the present board of commissioners controlling the State House of Correction at Ionia, and Hon. Henry H. Hinds is a member of the board of control in charge of the State School for Dependent Children, at Coldwater. elected November 5, 1850. " " 2, 1852. " " 7 7, 1854. April 7, 1856. " November, 1856. " " 1858. " " 1860. " " 1862. " c" 1864. cc " 1866. ( " 1868. it " 1870. " " 1872. " " 1874. ' " 1876. " " 1878. c" " 1880. REGISTER OF DEEDS. Newcomb J. Ireland, elected April 1, 1850. Westbrook Divine, " November 5, 1850. Westbrook Divine, c" " 2, 1852. Lucius E. Backus, " " 7, 1854. t We find Enos T. Peck's name attached to papers as county clerk as early as April 9, 1850, but nothing to show when he was elected or appointed. 366 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. Frank T. Peck, Daniel A. Cornell, Daniel A. Cornell, Daniel A. Cornell, Bedford Birch, Jenson P. Beers, Jenson P. Beers, Thomas N. Stevens, Oscar Fenn, Oscar Fenn, Edwin D. Finch, Edwin D. Finch, Thomas N. Stevens, COUNTY John Porter, John Porter, John Porter, Joseph Griffith, Bedford Birch, Bedford Birch, Levi Camburn, Levi Camburn, Albert S. French, Albert S. French, Albert S. French, Albert S. French, Henry Kent, Henry Kent, George Howarth, George Howarth, William M. Thomas, elected November 7, 1856. " " 1858. " " 1860. " " 1862. C " 1864. c" " 1866. " " 1868. " " 1870. " " 1872. " " a 1874. " " - 1876. " " 1878. " " c 1880. TREASURERS. elected April 1, 1850. " November 5, 1850. " 2, 1852. " " 7, 1854. " " 1856. " " 1858. " " 1860. " " 1862. " " 1864. " 1866. " " 1868. " " 1870. c" 1872. " " L 1874. " " 1876. " " 1878. " " 1880. Edward H. Jones, Henry M. Caukin, Henry M. Caukin, Henry E. W. Palmer, Henry E. W. Palmer, A. De F. Gardner, Francello A. Palmer, Francello A. Palmer, Francello A. Palmer, elected November 7, 1864. " tc " 1866. ' "1868. c" 1870. " i" 1872. " " 1874. "" 1876. '" " 1878. " " 1880. CIRCUIT COURT COMMISSIONERS. J. B. Chamberlin, elected November 7, 1854. Jacob Ferris, " 1856. John Lewis, " " 1858. Charles C. Ellsworth, " " 1860. Charles C. Ellsworth, " " 1862. Seth Sprague, " " 1864. Harmon Smith, " " 1866. Francis Palmer, " " 1868. Lyman C. Moore, " " 1870. Harmon Smith, " " 1872. M. Clement Palmer, " " 1874. Norris 0. Griswold, " " 1874. Norris J. Brown, " " 1876. Norris O. Griswold, " " 1876. Norris J. Brown, " " 1878. Norris O. Griswold, " 1878. George C. Ellsworth, " " 1880. Frank A. Miller, " " 1880. CORONERS. PROSECUTING ATTORNEYS. Charles C. Ellsworth, elected April 7, 1851. Daniel C. Moore, " November 2, 1852. Westbrook Divine, " " 7, 1854. Jacob Ferris, " 1856. John Lewis, " " 1858. Charles C. Ellsworth, " " 1860. Charles C. Ellsworth, " " 1862. Seth Sprague, " " 1864. John Lewis, " " 1866. Harmon Smith, c " 1868. Charles C. Ellsworth, " " 1870. Albert G. Thomas, " " 1872. H. I. Garbutt, " " 1874. Harmon Smith, " ' 1876. Harmon Smith, " " 1878. Norris J. Brown, " " 1880. John Green, C. W. Olmsted, Ethan Satterlee, George Van Ness, Ursin Goodman, George Van Ness, Seth Sprague, Mark Willsey, Harvey Allen, Joseph E. Morrison, Joseph B. White, Harvey Allen, Henry Berridge, Richard C. Miller, Henry Berridge, Richard C. Miller, Egbert L. Heath, Harvey Allen, Luman Meach, Charles M. Woodard, Levi Camburn,,Harvey Allen, Oscar Fenn, Alonzo H. Monroe, Seth M. Moon, Levi Camburn, George Howarth, David H. Lord, James H. Moon, Emory J. Blanding, elected cc c' 'c CC CC cc CC 'c 'c 'C CI CtI c' Ca April 1, 1850. 1850. November 5, 1850. " 1850. " 2, 1852. " 2, 1852. " 7, 1854. " 7, 1854. 1856. 1856. 1858. " 1858. " 1860. " 1860. " 1862. " 1862. " 1864. " 1864. 1866. 1866. 1868. 1868. " 1870. " 1870. " 1872. " 1872. 1874. " 1874. " 1876. " 1876. COUNTY SURVEYORS. Josiah Bradish, elected April 1, 1850. Josiah Bradish, " November 5, 1850. Dan T. Fargo, James B. Farnsworth, Henry M. Caukin, Asa Ward Henry M. Caukin, Edward H. Jones, < " 2, 1852. ct cc 7, 1854. c" " 1856. c" " 1858. C" " 1860. c" " 1862. AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 367 William H. Snyder, elected November 7, 1878. Hezekiah B. Ramsey, " " 1878. Walton C. Sherwood, " " 1880. Norman E. Bachman, " " 1880. COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS OF THE POOR.* Ethan Satterlee, Morton Shearer, Stephen Rossman, Morton Shearer, Ethan Satterlee, Joel Sanders, John Green, Morton Shearer, Fite Rossman,t Manning Rutan, George Rossman, George F. Case, Josiah Bradish, Richard C. Miller, John D. Fargo, Morton Shearer, Fite Rossman, Milo Blair, Morton Shearer, William Backus, Asa Ward, Morton Shearer, Rosekrans K. Divine, Richard C. Miller,T Rosekrans K. Divine, Richard C. Miller, Hiram B. Fargo, Hiram B. Fargo, Richard C. Miller, Henry Berridge, John Huff, Bradley B. Crawford, Henry Berridge, Richard C. Miller, Bradley B. Crawford, Henry Berridge, Richard C. Miller, Bradley B. Crawford, Joseph Griffith, Richard C. Miller, Bradley B. Crawford, Alfred Stone, Richard C. Miller, Bradley B. Crawford, Alfred Stone, Richard C. Miller, elected April, 1851. " " 1851. t" 1851. "October, 1851. " " 1851. " " 1851. " " 1852. " " 1852. " " 1852. " " 1856. " " 1856. " " 1856. i" " 1857. " " 1857. " " 1857. " " 1858. " " 1858. " " 1858. " " 1859. " " 1859. " " 1859. " " 1860. '" " 1860. " " 1860. " " 1863. " " 1863. o" " 1863. " " 1864. " " ' 1865. " " 1865. ' l" 1865. " " 1866. " " 1867. ( " 1868. " " 1869. " " 1870. " " 1871. " " 1872. I" " 1873. " " 1874. " " 1875. " " 1876. " " 1877. " " 1878. " " 1879. " " 1880. i I E. D. Finch of Stanton; Vice-President, Charles W. Blumberg of Douglass; Secretary, F. H. French of Stanton; Treasurer, Israel J. Lucas of Stanton; Directors, Marcellus Palmer of Day, E. D. Hawley of Stanton, William F. Turner of Stanton. According to the constitution adopted at the first meeting, the first annual meeting was held in Stanton on the 11th of February, 1879. The society was then incorporated according to the laws of the State, and before adjournment the following officers were chosen for the ensuing year: President, Henry H. Hinds of Day; Secretary, F. H. French of Sidney; Treasurer, Israel J. Lucas of Day; Vice-Presidents, Henry Kent of Fair Plains, Charles Blumberg of Douglass, David Eschliman of Ferris, R. W. Hoy of Bushnell, H. G. Coburn of Howard City, J. M. Dickerson of Winfield; Directors, Orville F. Mason of Ferris, Marcellus Palmer of Day, E. K. Wood of Day, Wm. F. Turner of Sidney, E. D. Hawley of Day, N. H. Evans of Fair Plains, A. S. French of Cato. A special meeting of the board of directors was-held May 1, 1879, when measures were perfected for fencing and improving the grounds,~ the committee appointed to attend to such matters being E. D. Hawley, H. L. Bailey, and M. A. Reynolds. Such committee were also empowered to control and rent the grounds. On the 2d of June, 1879, Messrs. A. L. Slaght, F. K. Winsor, Giles Gilbert, M. A. Reynolds, John W. S. Pierson, R. T. Dyer, Wood & Thayer, Hawley & Pratt, Richards & Son, Oscar Fenn, Webber & Chapin, J. M. Weatherwax, R. S. Townsend, H. H. Hinds, E. D. Finch, A. De F. Gardner, William F. Turner, and C. D. Allen loaned the society money to the amount of three hundred and ninety-eight dollars until the society was able to pay back the same. The first fair was held Sept. 23 and 24, 1879, during which the receipts for tickets amounted to four hundred and thirteen dollars and sixty-five cents, and to that time, from other sources, such as life-membership tickets, entrance fees, etc., there was also received five hundred and five dollars and fifty-two cents. At the second annual meeting, held in Stanton, Jan. 13, 1880, the following officers were elected, to serve for one year: President, H. H. Hinds of Stanton; Secretary, M. H. Bachman of Stanton; Treasurer, J. R. Englebeck of Stanton; Vice-Presidents, George W. Stanton of Sheridan, John W. S. Pierson of Stanton, David Eschliman of Ferris, D. C. Carpenter of Vickeryville, Charles Stinchfield of Edmore, W. D. Bellows of Langston; Directors (one year), Alfred Stone of Greenville, A. L. Smith of Crystal; (two years) Mortimer Gilleo of Sheridan, Israel J. Lucas of Stanton; (three years) Marcellus Palmer of McBride's, C. W. Blumberg of Stanton, Henry Courter of Sidney Centre. The second annual fair was held on the society's grounds, at Stanton, on the 22d, 23d, and 24th of September, 1880, and proved a success. One hundred and thirty-three seasontickets were sold, and two hundred and seven premiums, ranging from twenty-five cents to three dollars, were awarded. j The grounds of the society, containing twenty acres and situated in the village of Stanton, were leased for a term of ten years, with a privilege, early in the spring of 1879. -I AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. THE MONTCALM COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY was organized at a meeting held on the 5th of September, 1878, when the following officers were elected: President, * Superintendents of the poor are elected annually by supervisors. t Same officers elected October, 1853, 1854, and 1855. t Same officers elected October, 1861 and 1862. 368 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. Among those who have by the payment of ten dollars each become life members of the society are C. D. Allen, O. T. Atwell, H. L. Bailey, C. W. Blumberg, 0. 0. Buckalew, C. W. Chapin, George W. Childs, L. Corey, George F. Case, R. T. Dyer, David Eschliman, John R. Englebeck, F. H. French, M. E. Fanning, Oscar Fenn, E. D. Finch, William Fuller, D. M. Gardner, Giles Gilbert, A. De F. Gardner, Alonzo Gilbert, E. D. Hawley, F. W. Higgins, H. H. Hinds, A. M. Hunt, Luther Handy, Fred. Kaltenbeck, James W. Lowing, A. Levitt, Charles A. Loughlin, Israel J. Lucas, Nelson Lunn, E. B. Moore, Alvin Morse, James MeGarry, J. H. Mathews, C. B. Nye, John W. S. Pierson, T. F. Pratt, William Pratt, E. R. Powell, J. W. Richards, M. A. Reynolds, Robert Smith, Norman Shepard, A. L. Smith, Stansell & Hurlbert, Willis Stansell, C. A. Thayer, William F. Turner, R. S. Townsend, Thomas S. Tew, George E. Wallace, E. K. Wood, J. Weatherwax, J. M. Weatherwax, F. K. Winsor, W. P. White, J. W. Willett, and S. Perry Youngs. THE NORTHERN MICHIGAN AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY was organized in 1877, its first officers being Richard C. Miller, President; James Sattcrlee, Secretary; and W. Backus, Treasurer. The present officers are H. B. Fargo, President; Walter Whitfield, Vice-President; Charles J. Church, Treasurer; James Satterlee, Secretary; Stephen Rossman, B. B. Crawford, Henry A. Smith, S. H. Toby, R. C. Miller, James Gowen, J. P. Shoemaker, and John Ashley, Directors; the division superintendents for the year 1880 being John Ashley, Henry A. Smith, John Whitfield, L. E. Griffith, Stephen Rossman, C. C. Merritt, and John Cole. The fairs of the society are held at Greenville, and have been very successful, the receipts averaging about two thousand five hundred dollars yearly. The grounds, containing twenty acres, are now owned by the society, and, with improvements, are valued at four thousand dollars. CHAPTER VI. THE PRESS-POST-OFFICES AND POSTMASTERS. The Montcalm Reflector the first Newspaper-Its Successor, the Greenville Independent-Greenville Democrat-Daily Bee-Montcalm Herald-Stanton Daily Meteor-Montealm Journal-Stanton Weekly Clipper-Howard City Record-Edmore Journal-Edmore Gazette-Carson City Commercial-The Post-offices and Postmasters of Montcalm County. THE PRESS. THE Montcalm Reflector, the first newspaper published in Montcalm County, was established at Greenville by Milo Blair. It was a six-column folio, neutral politically, and the first number was issued Sept. 19, 1854. As a semioccasional visitant it appeared irregularly for about two years, when it was purchased by J. M. Fuller, who changed it from a neutral to a Republican journal, and from the Montcalm Reflector to the Greenville Independent, which name it has since borne. Mr. Fuller after a short time sold the paper to George T. Woodworth, who published it for a brief period, or until his death. His widow (now Mrs. N. Slaght) then conducted the paper ably for some time, but was finally succeeded by James W. Belknap, who gave it added character. In February, 1866, Mr. E. F. Grabill, the present proprietor, editor, and publisher of the Independent, purchased and assumed control of it. Under his management the paper has since kept pace with the rapid development of the county and community in which it is published. From a seven-column folio it has successfully developed into an eight-column folio and ending in its present form, a six-column quarto. From an office in 1866 where the proprietor was everything from devil up, it has become a steam printing-house, its paper printed on a cylinder press, and its jobber also run by steam-power. It has a reputation at home and abroad of which its publisher is proud, and it ranks high among the country newspapers of the State. The first number of the Greenville Democrat, D. B. Sherwood publisher, appeared June 16, 1871. It was Democratic for a time, but, as Montcalm County was strongly Republican, it did not flourish exceedingly well, hence it was changed to an independent sheet. At the commencement of the Greeley Presidential campaign the Democrats of Montcalm again felt the need of an organ, and, assisted by them, J. Wesley Griffith purchased the paper and forthwith began the publication of a Democratic sheet of the most pronounced type. On the 1st of January, 1878, the Democrat passed into the hands of the Democrat Printing Company, and has since enjoyed a liberal and steadily increasing patronage. Its reputation as an able political (Democratic) and live local journal is well established. It is printed by steam, in connection with the Daily Bee, and has a large and complete job office. In size it is a six-column quarto. The Daily Bee, an independent five-column folio, was first issued April 18, 1880. It is devoted mainly to local news, and enjoys a circulation of nearly six hundred copies, which is quite surprising considering the size of Greenville. Its advertising columns are well patronized, and it has also a large job office in connection. The Bee is published by the Democrat Printing Company, of which J. B. Graham is manager. Stanton's first newspaper, the Montcalm Herald, was established by Edwin O. Shaw, and the first number appeared Sept. 11, 1867. Mr. Shaw continued in control of the paper until Nov. 15, 1868, when Edwin R. Powell* (former publisher of the lonia Gazette) purchased it, assuming personal control on Christmas Day of that year,a relation which he has since maintained. The Herald was started as a six-column folio, but before it passed from the control of Mr. Shaw he had enlarged it to seven columns. This size was continued until the fall of 1874, * Edwin R. Powell, besides being one of the first settlers of Michigan, is one of its earliest journalists. He was born in Livonia, Livingston Co., N. Y. With his father he settled at Ann Arbor in 1830, and in 1835 began work as a printer on the State Journal, a paper then published in Ann Arbor. In September, 1846, he removed to Howell, Livingston Co., Mich., where from that time until December, 1848, he was engaged in the publication of the Livingston Oourier, He then removed to Ionia and established the Gazette. POST-OFFICES AND POSTMASTERS. 369 - 1 when Mr. Powell changed it to a six-column quarto. He again enlarged it to a seven-column quarto in 1878. On the morning of Oct. 12, 1880, by a conflagration which devastated a large part of the business portion of Stanton village, the Herald office, with nearly all its material, was burned, including the files of the Herald, also of the Ionia Gazette, Mr. Powell's loss being about three thousand dollars. The Stanton Daily Meteor, E. R. Powell & Son publishers, was first issued June 18, 1880. It was a threecolumn folio, but its publication was discontinued after a period of about three months. The Montcalm Journal, a Republican six-column quarto, was started at Stanton by J. K. Fairchlld in September, 1875. Its publication was continued for a period of only about eighteen months. The Stanton Weekly Clipper, an independent journal, was. established by Messrs. Dodge & White in 1879, the first number appearing September 19th of that year. It began as a four-column folio, but at the expiration of six months was enlarged to its present form, a seven-column folio. It is published on Friday; circulation, five hundred. The Howard City Record began its career under the proprietorship and management of Wayne E. Morris in 1871. In 1872 he sold out to V. W. Bruce, who continued its publication until May, 1878, when the present publisher, Mr. J. L. Hissing, assumed control by purchase. The Record of the present is an ably-conducted Republican journal. The Edmore Journal, Daniel Youngs editor and publisher, was established by him Sept. 3, 1880. It is a fivecolumn quarto, advocates Republican principles, and has a first-class job office in connection. The Journal is printed by steam, and one month from the time of its establishment it circulated nearly five hundred copies. Mr. Youngs was the founder also of the Telephone, the first daily paper printed in the city of Ionia. Montcalm has boasted of two or three other newspapers, -viz., the Carson City Commercial (now discontinued), the Edmore Gazette, and a paper now published at Lake View,-but of them no data have been obtained. POST-OFFICES AND POSTMASTERS. The following list, showing when post-offices were established, discontinued, etc., also the names of postmasters and when appointed, from January, 1846, to October, 1880 (courteously furnished by officials of the Post-Office Department at Washington), is believed to be a correct one, and we trust will gratify all readers interested:.Decora (Established Sept. 22, 1879).-John Gaffield, Sept. 22, 1879; Joseph Wallington, May 18, 1880.Belvidere (Established Jan. 27, 1880).-J. C. Richards, Jan. 27, 1880; Rasmus Johnson, June 28, 1880. Fair Plains (Established March 20, 1852).-Myron H. Burley, March 20, 1852; Josiah Bradish, June 23, 1852; Luther Jenks, Aug. 13, 1856; Sylvester Derby, Dec. 27, 1856; Tyler M. Burley, Nov. 9, 1858; Martin P. Follett, Jan. 29, 1863; Chancey E. Shepard, Feb. 26, 1863; Charles Barnes, Sept. 19, 1864; Chancey E. Shepard, Nov. 28, 1864; Chancey E. Shepard, Oct. 24, 1865;t Alexander B. Ames berg, Feb. 16, 1866; John W. Smith, July 8, 1870; Broughton Goodsell, March 20, 1871; Joseph P. Shoemaker, Dec. 4, 1873. Moncalmn (Established Jan. 31, 1846).-Lyman H. Pratt, Jan. 31, 1846; Samuel D. Barr, Aug. 25, 1850; James Williams, March 22, 1856; Jonathan P. Gorton, Aug. 1, 1857.1 Greenville (Established Jan. 20, 1848).-Abel French, Jan. 20, 1848; Stephen Rossman, June 30, 1851; John Green, April 14, 1854; George Loucks, Oct. 30, 1855; Jacob S. Brillhart, April 13, 1857; Andrew Wissler, June 3,1859; Joseph M. Fuller, Feb. 6,1862; James A. Knight, Oct. 9, 1866; Hiram B. Fargo, May 15, 1867. Eureka (Established Nov. 22, 1854).-Orpheus T. Nelson, Nov. 22, 1854.0 Crystal (Established March 2, 1857).-Alfred A. Proctor, March 2, 1857; William Wood, Feb. 11, 1859; Joseph F. Proctor, March 15, 1859; Henry F. Brown, Dec. 31, 1861; Henry L. Parker, Nov. 4, 1862; Samuel S. Burtch, Jan. 24, 1865; Enos B. Drake, Aug. 5,1865; Ira Stewart, April 7, 1868; Anson L. Smith, Sept. 29, 1869; John F. Steffey, Feb. 26, 1870; John P. Young, Oct. 15, 1872; J. J. Herrick, Feb. 12, 1877; Norman L, Otis, March 14,1877; Thomas W. Preston, July 30, 1877. West Bloomer (Established March 2,1857).-Benj. S. Carey, March 2, 1857; Edward P. Timby, Nov. 22, 1859;i L. C. Jenks, Aug. 2, 1872; Wm. A. De Hart, July 15, 1875. Bushnell Centre (Established Nov. 27, 1857).-Wm. C. Griffin, Nov. 27, 1857; Chauncey A. King, June 22, 1868; Wm. M. Thomas, Jan. 10, 1872.~ Cato (Established Dec. 2, 1857).-Edwin T. French, Dec. 2, 1857; Albert S. French, Dec. 24, 1860; Hiram S. Barton, Nov. 25, 1864; Chas. E. Wright, Oct. 26, 1866; Ellsworth H. Stryker, Jan. 16, 1868; Wm. F. Ellsworth, Sept. 9, 1873. Bloomer Centre (Established Jan. 21, 1858).-Ariel K. Richardson, Jan. 21, 1858; Stillman J. Patch, Sept. 12, 1870. Ferris (Established Nov. 20, 1858).-Nathan B. Scott, Nov. 20, 1858; Calvin M. Woodard, May 6, 1863; Nathan B. Scott, April 19, 1871; Moses A. Dyer, Dec. 14, 1874. Clear Lake (Established Jan. 12, 1859).-Selah Lake, Jan. 12, 1859; Quartus Joslin, April 27, 1864; Abram C. Sanborn, June 24, 1867.*n Stanton (Established March 10, 1862).-Levi Camburn, March 10, 1862; Jenson P. Beers, Dec. 20, 1864; Geo. A. Smith, Oct. 25, 1866; Daniel M. Gardner, July 15, 1867. Sidney (Established Sept. 29, 1862).-Joshua V. Noah, Sept. 29, 1862; Henry Courter, July 2, 1870; Wm. Noah, Jan. 28, 1873; John D. Noah, April 2, 1875. Sheridan (Established Oct. 14, 1864).-Erastus P. Brown, Oct. 14, 1864; Chas. H. Stanton, Aug. 10, 1869; Edgar A. Clarke, July 24, 1874; Chas. H. Stanton, Aug. 20, 1874; John S. Manning, March 19, 1877. Lake View (Established Oct. 7, 1867).-Hiram S. Barton, Oct. 7, 1867; John H. Jenson, Sept. 20, 1869; Edwin R. Saxton, Jan. 8, 1872; Samuel R. Dickinson, Sept. 2, 1873; Lewis L. Bissell, Jan. 27, 1874. Conger (Established Aug. 29, 1872).-Benj. B. Powell, Aug. 29, 1872; Henry Jarman, Aug. 23, 1875.tt Fenwick (Established April 28, 1873).-James R. Hall, April 28, 1873; Henry M. Hassett, Feb. 5, 1875. Vestaburgh (Established Sept. 14, 1875).-Geo. W. O'Donnell, Sept. 14, 1875; Wm. Starkweather, Jan. 29, 1877; Geo. W. O'Donnell, May 24, 1877; Geo. W. Alger, Aug. 9. 1877; Wm. A. Starkweather, Jan. 2, 1878; Wm. H. Purdy, June 26, 1879. Cedar Lake (Established July 26, 1876).-Frederick H. Hamilton, July 26, 1876. MeBride's (Established March 26, 1878).-Alexander McBride, March 26, 1878. Edmore (Established July 12, 1878).-Abram West, July 12, 1878; Lauren Merriman, Oct. 21, 1878. Six Lakes (Established Dec. 20, 1878).-Alex. M. Hunt, Dec. 20, 1878; Fayette G. Rice, June 26, 1879. Trufant (Established Dec. 11, 1871).-Joseph B. Hileman, Dec. 11, 1871; T. H. Stimson, Oct. 13,1873; John E. Small, Nov. 13, 1874; Wm. D. Johnson, Feb. 17, 1875. Gowenc (Established March 4, 1872).-Samuel W. Peck, March 4, I I: Discontinued June 24, 1863. ~ Discontinued Sept. 18, 1858. I Changed to Vickeryville. ~ Changed to Dean's Mills; discontinued June 6, 1877.: Discontinued June 15, 1869. tt Discontinued Jan. 25, 1876. * Discontinued Sept. 14, 1880. 47 t Changed to Amsden. 370 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. 1872; A. D. Hewett, July 30, 1872; Lars Hanson, Jan. 12, 1874; Isaac F. Dodge, April 17, 1875; Robert S. Price, Feb. 14, 1876. Maple Valley (Established March 4, 1872).-Ambrose Atwood, March 4, 1872; Richard Kearney, Feb. 14, 1879. Westville (Established May 2,1872).-Eli M. Wallett, May 2, 872; Jesse H. Jordan, Feb. 24, 1873; Jacob McCrea, Feb. 1, 1875; Jesse H. Jordan, March 8, 1875; Galusha E. Lamb, Aug. 6, 1875. Bushnell Centre (Established May 8, 1872).-Jedediah W. Lane, May 8, 1872; Eugene A. Clark, May 29,1877.* Tamarack (Established Sept. 22, 1868).-Samuel W. Weeks, Sept. 22, 1868; Isaac Gilleo, April 8, 1870.t Howard City (Established Jan. 12, 1870).-John B. Spencer, Jan. 12. 1870; Walter D. Sabin, May 19, 1870; John F. Chubb, Nov. 6, 1871; Walter D. Sabin, June 26, 1872; Joel Smith, Feb. 2, 1875; Frank Underhill, Nov. 10, 1875; Amos R. Mather, Dec. 10, 1875. Reynolds (Established Jan. 27, 1870).-Harry R. Stevens, Jan. 27, 1870; Jerome R. Reynolds, Sept. 4, 1871; Mrs. Emma J. Kipp, Feb. 26, 1872; Mrs. Kate Robinson, March 31, 1873.t Maple Hill (Established April 29, 1870).-Daniel L. Shook, April 29, 1870; Silas A. Price, Oct. 13, 1871; Daniel Shook, Sept. 3, 1873; Wm. H. Freeman, June 7, 1876. Pierson (Established Jan. 29, 1857; late in Mecosta County).Alvin Clark, Sept. 7, 1870;* Joseph N. Clark, Nov. 20, 1872; Henry Martin, Sept. 26,1878. Neew Home (Established Feb. 26, 1868).-Thomas Forguer, Feb. 26, 1868; R. B. Nichols, Nov. 10, 1871.41 Montcalm (Established July 31, 1868).-John Mills, July 31, 1868; C. C. Wood, March 1, 1869; Clayton C. Wood, March 22, 1869; ~ James I. Parke, March 28, 1870; Joseph Frankeberger, Feb. 13, 1871; John Holcomb, April 9, 1872. Edna (Established July 31, 1868).-Daniel L. Shook, July 31, 1868; Henry M. Carpenter, Nov. 19, 1869.*iCarson City (Established Jan. 23, 1863; late in Gratiot County).Alonzo Proctor, Aug. 3, 1868;tt Addison H. Mack, Sept. 20, 1869; A. D. McGill, Feb. 2, 1874; Edward C. Cummings, Sept. 24, 1875. Langston (Established Sept. 10, 1868).-Henry M. Caukin, Sept. 10, 1868; Rufus F. Sprague, Oct. 20, 1870; Robert P. McLaughlin, Oct. 11, 1876; Cyrenus C. Sayles, Aug. 5,1880. Colby (Established May 14, 1879).-IHumphrey R. Wagan, May 14, 1879. Averyville (Established June 20, 1879).-Harvey P. Wyman, June 20, 1879;:.t Harvey P. Wyman, Aug. 12, 1880. Colwell (Established Sept. 22,1879).-Glenn H. Barnard, Sept. 22, 1879. CHAPTER VII. STASTSTICAL. Census Returns for 1850, 1854, 1860, 1864, 1870, 1874-Population of the County by Townships during the Same Years-Presidential Votes-Apportionment of Taxes, October, 1880. 1850. Bushels of wheat produced during year ending June 1, 1850............................ Bushels of rye produced during year ending June 1, 1850....................................... Bushels of Indian corn produced during year ending June 1, 1850..................... Bushels of oats produced during year ending June 1, 1850.............................. Bushels of buckwheat produced during year ending June 1, 1850............................ Bushels of potatoes produced during year ending June 1, 1850............................ Pounds of wool sheared during year ending June 1, 1850..................................... Pounds of butter made during year ending June 1, 1850....................................... Tons of hay cut during year ending June 1, 1850................................................ Value of home-made manufactures during year ending'June 1, 1850..................... Number of water-power saw-mills, June 1, 1850................................................. Capital invested in saw-mills.................... Feet of lumber sawed during year............ Value of annual product......................... Number of men employed in saw-mills...... 1854. Males, 1148, females, 908; total................ Acres of taxable land............................. " improved land........................... Acres sowed with wheat........................... Acres of corn harvested the preceding year.. Bushels of corn raised the preceding year.. Acres of wheat harvested the preceding year Bushels of wheat raised the preceding year " other grains raised the preceding year.................................. " potatoes raised the preceding year................................. Tons of bay cut the preceding year.......... Pounds of wool sheared the preceding year " pork marketed the preceding year.................................. " butter made the preceding year " cheese made the preceding year " maple-sugar raised the preceding year............................. Number of horses, June 1, 1854.............. " working oxen, June 1, 1854..... " milch cows, " " " other neat cattle, " " " sheep, " " " swine, " " fouring-mills (water-power)..... " run of stone....................... " persons employed in flouringm ill................................... Value of products for the preceding year.. Number of saw-mills (water-power)......... " feet of lumber sawed the preceding year........................... " persons employed in saw-mills... Capital invested in saw-mills.................... Number of other manufactories............. " persons employed in same....... Capital invested in same.......................... Value of products the preceding year........ " merchandise imported into the county the preceding year for purposes of sale.................... 1860. Number of inhabitants........................... " dwelling-houses..................... " families................................ Value of real estate owned...................... Number of occupied farms.................. Acres of improved lands....................... " unimproved lands...................... Cash value of farm lands......................... Value of farming implements and machinery........................................... Number of horses, June 1, 1860......... " mules,......... " milch cows, "......... " working oxen,......... " other cattle, "......... " sheep, " " " swine, " ". Value of live stock................................. Bushels of wheat produced during year ending June 1,1860,............................... Bushels of ryo produced during year ending Junp 1, 18$0................................. 3,781 340 4,570 2,660 1,075 3,590 942 5,580 199 $253 6 $27,000 6,000,000 $26,000 80 2,056 128,613 5,977 1,789 982 19,601 1,594 17,150 12,154 13,036 398 2,150 18,225 17,297 88 14,246 166 446 441 338 1,014 742 1 $3,000 13 7,000,000 95 $36,500 1 4 $800 $1,000 $30,500 3,984 923 822 $887,940 298 14,247 20,223 $478,730 $14,038 309 2 688 415 764 2,426 1,175 $71,904 36,144 2,313 Number of inhabitants........................... " dwelling-houses..................... " families................................ Value of real estate owned....................... Number of occupied farms..................... " acres improved....................... " unimproved........................ Value of farm lands............................... farming implements and machinery.............................. Number of horses, June 1, 1850............... " milch cows, June 1, 1850........ " working oxen," ".. " other cattle, "......... " sheep,......... " swine, i.. Value of live stock................................. 891 164 165 $122,250 26 1,711 3,408 $35,400) $2,020 49 72 63 66 469 158 $6,575 * Discontinued Aug. 8, 1878. t Discontinued April 14, 1873. t Discontinued March 26, 1875.? Changed to Montcalm County. t Discontinued Sept. 16, 1872. ~ Changed to Coral. ** Changed to Wood Lake. if Changed to Montcalm County. 44 Changed name to Wyman, Aug. 12, 1880. STATISTICAL. 371 Bushels of Indian corn produced during year ending June 1, 1860..................... Bushels of oats produced during year ending June 1, 1860................................ Bushels of barley produced during year ending June 1, 1860............................ Bushels of buckwheat produced during year ending June 1, 1860.......................... Bushels of potatoes produced during year ending June 1, 1860............................. Bushels of clover-seed produced during year ending June 1, 1860............................ Pounds of wool produced during year ending June 1, 1860................................ Pounds of butter produced during year ending June 1, 1860................................. Pounds of cheese produced during year ending June 1, 1860................................. Pounds of maple-sugar produced during year ending June 1, 1860..................... Tons of hay produced during year ending June 1, 1860..................................... Value of orchard products during year ending June 1, 1860.................................. Value of home-made manufactures produced during year ending June 1, 1860............. Number of water-power grist-mills......... Capital invested in the same.................... Value of annual products........................ Number of saw-mills (water-power).......... Capital invested in the same.................... Feet of lumber manufactured the preceding year............................................... Value of the same................................. Capital invested in all kinds of nianufactories (saw- and flouring-mills included).. Number of hands employed (75 males, 12 females)............................................ Value of all manufactured products.......... Estimated value of real and personal estate 1864. Number of males................................... " females................................. Total population.................................... Acres of taxable land............................. " improved................................ " sown with wheat........................ " corn harvested the preceding year " wheat " " Bushels of corn harvested the preceding year............................... " wheat harvested the preceding year................................. " all other grains harvested the preceding year................... potatoes raised during the preceding year....................... Tons of hay cut the preceding year........... Pounds of wool sheared the preceding year " pork marketed " " " butter made " " " cheese " t " " " sugar manufactured the preceding year............................ Horses owned in county, June, 1864......... Working oxen " "......... Milch cows " "......... Other neat cattle " i......... Sheep " "......... Swine "......... Mules ". Manufactories (water-power) not hereafter enumerated....................................... Persons employed in same...................... Capital invested................................... Value of products the preceding year........ Flouring-mills (water-power)................... Persons employed in same....................... Barrels of flour manufactured the preceding year................................................. Capital invested in flouring-mills............. Value of the preceding year's product...... Water-power saw-mills.......................... Steam "........................... Feet of lumber sawed the preceding year... Persons employed in saw-mills................. Capital invested "................. Value of last year's product..................... 1870. Number of male inhabitants.................... it female "it.. " female "................... Total population.................................... Number of families................................ " dwellings..................... 20,339 16,379 214 755 13,390 28 5,875 55,515 4,923 51,136 1,913 $878 $832 2 $8,500 $15,500 8 $54,000 5,800,000 $29,000 $68,300 87 $50,500 $1,361,584 2,929' 2,690 5,619 251,552 24,131 6,336 2,080 4,943 39,579 56,525 19,248 27,521 5,886 18,653 56,166 93,850 13,098 62,800 796 956 1,598 1,830 7,228 1,898 2 2 6 $2,800 $2,700 2 3 3,000 $9,900 $14,903 10 3 5,960,000 81 $34,300 $41,000 7,284 6,357 13,641 2,899 2,848 Number of voters.................................. Acres of improved lands......................... " woodland................................ " other unimproved lands.............. Cash value of farm lands........................ " " farming implements, etc...... Estimated value of all farm products........ ( " " forest products............ " " home - made manufactures................... Pounds of maple-sugar made for year to June 1, 1870....................................... Gallons maple-syrup made for year to June 1, 1870.............................................. Pounds beeswax made for year to June 1, 1870................................................. Pounds honey made for year to June 1, 1870................................................. Number of horses owned June 1, 1870....... " mules " " "C " milch cows owned June 1, 1870.. working oxen " ".. " other cattle " " " " sheep " ".. " swine " " " Value of all live stock owned June 1, 1870... Value of animals sold or slaughtered for year ending June 1, 1870...................... Pounds of wool sheared for year ending June 1, 1870............................................. Pounds of butter made for year ending June 1, 1870........................................... Pounds cheese made for year ending June 1, 1870............................................. Gallons of milk sold for year ending June 1, 1870............................................. Value of orchard products for year ending June 1, 1870...................................... Bushels of wheat produced during year ending June 1, 1870............................ Bushels of rye produced during year ending June 1, 1870................................. Bushels of Indian corn produced during year ending June 1, 1870..................... Bushels of oats produced during year ending June 1, 1870................................. Bushels of barley produced during year ending June 1, 1870............................ Bushels of buckwheat produced during year ending June 1, 1870..................... Bushels of peas and beans produced during year ending June 1, 1870...................... Bushels of potatoes produced during year ending June 1, 1870........................... Bushels of clover-seed produced during year ending June 1, 1870............................ Bushels of grass-seed produced during year ending June 1, 1870............................. Tons of hay produced during year ending June 1, 1870................................ Pounds of hops produced during year ending June 1, 1870................................ Number of lumber-, lath-, and shinglemills............................................... Number propelled by steam....................," " ",t water............... Average number of persons employed....... Capital invested................................... Value of total products........................... Feet of lumber sawed during the year...... Pieces of lath sawed during the year....... Thousands of shingles sawed during the year........................................... Number of water-power flouring-mills....... " steam-power " " runs of stone........................ " persons employed.................. Bushels of wheat floured....................... " other grain........................... Capital invested................................. Value of annual products....................... Number of foundries and machine-shops... " persons employed in same........ Value of annual manufactures................. Capital invested.................................... Number of tanneries............................. " persons employed therein......... Capital invested in tanneries................... Value of annual products....................... Number of breweries............................. Capital invested.................................... Value of year's product (350 barrels)........ Number of woolen factories..................... Persons employed (3 males, 2 females)...... Pounds wool used.................................. Capital invested................................... 3,256 48,422 82,720 2,694 $3,531,060 $115,795 $791,927 $77,289 $5,663 50,775 226 62 3,116 1,826 16 2,307 953 2,054 13,421 3,351 $470,220 $74,327 49,030 202,856 525 6,202 $15,079 137,451 1,520 115,800 10,694 7,923 6,682 1,087 114,028 147 27 11,375 2,100 57 39 18 411 $316,800 $411,715 31,805,000 805,000 49,180 1 5 16 19 59,000 42,700 $81,000 $115,198 2 7 $8,360 $21,000 3 4 $3,000 $8,109 1 $2,000 $3,150 1 5 9,000 $12,000 I 372 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. Value of year's product (7690 yds. cloth)... " miscellaneous products of woolenm ill.................................... Total number of manufacturing establishments in the county............................ Average number of persons employed in them............................................. Value of materials used..................... " total products.......................... Amount of capital invested..................... True valuation of real and personal estate in the county..................................... 1874 (State). $6,259 $1,200 156 629 $337,375 $755,560 $597,535 $4,739,250 Number of persons employed................... Capital employed................................... Barrels beer brewed for year to June, 1874. Value of year's product........................... Number of woolen-factories..................... " persons employed................... Capital invested.................................... Value of year's product........................... Number of brick and tile manufactories..... i" persons employed................... Capital invested.................................. Value of annual product.................... Aggregate number of manufacturing establishments in the county, June, 1874........ Number of persons employed in same the preceding year............................. Capital invested.................................... Value of all their products the preceding year................................................. 2 $4,000 500 $5,000 1 8 $8,000 $10,000 1 5 $500 $1,000 129 1,514 $1,030,770 $2,383,880 Number of male inhabitants.................... 11,311 " female ".................... 9,504 Total population, June, 1874........ 20,815 Acres of taxable land............................. 441,304 it improved lands......................... 57,539 Acres wheat on the ground, 1874.............. 12,261 4" " harvested, 1873.................... 10,251 Bushels " I.................... 160,372 Acres corn " ".................... 5,420 Bushels " t." "............. 173,630 " of all other grains harvested, 1873. 140,841 Bushels potatoes raised, " 84,549 Tons hay cut, " 13,970 Pounds wool sheared, " 52,696 pork marketed, " 219,852 U cheese made, 6,165 " butter " " 299,247 " maple-sugar made, 1874.............. 83,330 Barrels cider made, 1873...................... 297 Gallons wine "......................... 500 Number of horses, 1874...............'..... 3,214 " mules, "...................... 79 " work oxen, 1874................ 1,238 " milch cows, ".................. 3,500 (" other neat cattle, 1874............ 3,128 " swine, "............ 3,995 " sheep, "............ 13,544 " acres devoted to all kinds of fruits................................ 2,320 Bushels apples produced 1872.................. 30,204 " peaches " ".................. 16 " pears <" "............... 7 plums " ".................. 86 " cherries ".".............. 171 Hundred-weight grapes produced 1873...... 143 Bushels strawberries " "...... 203 " currants and gooseberries produced 1873...................................... 825 d" melons and garden vegetables produced 1873...................... 10,669 Value of such fruits and garden vegetables, 1873.................................................. $24,172 Number of flouring-mills................... 8 " persons employed in same........ 29 Capital invested invested ourinog-mills............. $115,500 Number of barrels of flour made............... 38,610 Value of same..................................... $317,580 Number of saw-mills.............................. 65 " " operated by steam...... 56 " " " water...... 9 " persons employed in saw-mills.. 942 Capital invested.................................... $668,300 Feet of lumber sawed the preceding year.... 118,996,246 Value " " " " "...$1,431,100 Number of shingle-mills..................... 40 " persons employed in same........ 410 Capital invested..............$1................. $110,170 Value of products for the year preceding... $457,600 Number of lath-mills.............................. 2 " persons employed.................. 9 Capital invested..................................... $800 Value of year's product........................... $5,000 Number of planing-mills, turning-mills, sash-, door-, and blind-factories............. 7 Number of persons employed in them........ 65 Capital invested.................................... $93,500 Value of products for the preceding year... $110,100 Number of agricultural implement works... 1 <" persons employed................... 6 Capital invested................................. $15,000 Value of products for the year preceding... $15,000 Number of stave-, heading-, and hoop-factories................................................... 2 Number of persons employed in same........ 35 Amount of capital invested..................... $10,000 Value of products for the preceding year.... $26,500 Number of tanneries.............................. 1 " persons employed in same........ 3 Capital invested..................................... $5,000 Value of annual product......................... $5,000 Number of breweries............................. I1 POPULATION OF THE COUNTY BY TOWNSHIPS. In 1845 there were but one hundred and sixty-one inhabitants in the county of Montcalm. The township of Montcalm then embraced the whole county (except townships 9 and 10 north, range 5 west), and until 1850 was attached to Ionia County for judicial purposes. The population at several subsequent periods, from 1850 to 1880, inclusive, is given by townships in the following table: Year of Organization, 1867. 1852. 1850. 1857. 1856. 1864. 1864. 1850. 1856. 1850. 1857. 1871. 1864. 1864. 1845. 1857. 1861. 1869. 1870. 1857. 1861. Townships and 1850. 1854. 1860. 1864. 1870. 1874. 1880.* Cities. Belvidere.......................................... 54 123 525 Bloomer.......i....... 282 630 754 1,422 1,816' 2,078 Bushnell............... 66 292 645 709 1,266 1,380 1,476 Cato............... 192 208 523 739 1,528 Crystal.................... 221 i 287 746 859 1,281 Day..................................................... 179 850 3,220 Douglass.............................I......... 56 208 363 1,000 Eureka................. 461 767 990 9 1,120 2,775 814, 926 Evergreen.................. 89 191 476 816 1,419 Fair Plains...........229 337 492 593 978 929 1,474 Ferris................................... 184 332 494 506 1,185 Greenville City..............I...I............................ 3,140 3,161 Home............................. 173 93 1,954 Maple Valley.......................... 147 462 1,721 2,287 Montcalm.....1..... 135 378 367 535 1,009; 1,480 1,734 Pierson..................... 300 757 1,531 1,562 Pine....................................... 38 283 461 1,020 Reynolds................................................ 460 1,271 1,532 Richlandey..................88 117 890 Sidneyureka.................. 174 220 962 1,359 2,260 Winfield................... 129 326 447 759 Total.............. 891 2,056 3,984 5,619 13,641 20,815 133,271 PRESIDENTIAL VOTES. 1852.-Scott (Whig)......................................................... Pierce (Democrat)........................................... Hale (Free-Soil)................................................... 1856.-Fremnont (Republican)............................................ Buchanan (Democrat)..................................... 1860.-Lincoln (Republican)..................................... Douglass (Democrat)........................................... 1864.-Lincoln (Republican)............................................ McClellan (Democrat)............................................ 1868.-Grant (Republican)........................................ Seymour (Democrat)................................. 1872.-Grant (Republican)............................................... Greeley (Democrat and Liberal)....................... O'Conor (Democrat)................................. Black (Prohibition)................................................ 1876.-Hayes (Republican)............................................... Tilden (Democrat)............................................... Cooper (Greenback)............................................. Smith (Prohibition)............................................... 1880. —Garfield (Republican)............................................. Hancock (Democrat).............................................. Weaver (Greenback)............................................... 120 156 6 414 265 565 361 595 443 1520 833 2010 750 11 1 3106 2445 77 4 4163 2770 763 MONTCALM COUNTY IN 1880. Statement showing the real and personal estate of the various townships in the county of Montcalm as equalized 8 As published in newspapers. Not official. STATISTICAL. 373 I by the board of supervisors at a session held in October, 1880: Statement showing the amount of taxes apportioned to the several townships and the city of Greenville at the same session: ToWNs. Real. Personal. Belvidere.............. $171,160 $10,365 Bloomer................ 708,240 104,070 Bushnell................ 498,330 63,222 Cato...................... 272,835 89,595 Crystal.................. 351,960 40,920 Day...................... 595,400 161,600 Douglass................ 282,595 20,369 Eureka.................. 359,000 38,820 Evergreen............. 334,135 46,535 Fair Plains............480,205 64,000 Ferris.................... 352,890 36,515 Home.....................464,498 104,340 Montcalm...............396,465 44,335 Maple Valley........ 333,970 151,665 Pine...................... 210,008 43,620 Pierson.................. 354,715 55,740 Reynolds............... 138,395 62,085 Richland............... 234,380 13,600 Sidney.................... 445,890 115,400 Winfield............... 265,845 23,470 GreenvilleFirst Ward..........293,830 61,630 Second Ward....... 294,000 181,800 Third Ward........285,710 77,770 Total......................... I Total. I Added. Deducted. Aggregate. $181,525 812,310 561,552 362,430 392,880 757,000 302,964 398,120 380,670 544,205 389,405 568,838 439,800 485,635 253,628 410,455 200,480 247,980 561,290 289,315 355,460 475,800 363,480 $18,475............................................................................................................................................................................................................................ $287,310 161,552 102,430 82,880 262,000 32,964 33,120 70,670 124,205 99,405 163,838 104,800 85,635 53,628 90,455 10,480 7,980 181,290 44,315 70,460 115,800 68,480 $200,000 525,000 400,000 260,000 310,000 495,000 270,000 365,000 310,000 420,000 290,000 405,000 335,000 400,000 200,600 320,000 190,000 240,000 380,000 245,000 280,000 365,000 295,000 State. Belvidere......................................... $153.30 Bloomer.................................. 402.42 Bushnell.................................. 306.60 Cato.................................. 199.29 Crystal.................................. 237.62 Day.................................... 379.42 Douglass.............................. 206.96 Eureka........................................... 279.78 Evergreen.................................. 237.62 Fair Plains......................................321.93 Greenville, First Ward.................... 214.62 " Second Ward.............. 279.78 " Third Ward..................... 226.12 Ferris...................................... 222.29 Home..................................... 310.44 Montcalm................................. 256.78 Maple Valley................................. 306.60 Pine......................................... 153.30 Pierson.................................... 245.28 Reynolds......................................... 145.64 Richland....................................... 183.96 Sidney......................................... 291.27 W infield........................................ 187.79 County. $853.33 2240.00 1706.70 1109.33 1322.66 2112.00 1152.00 1557.35 1322.65 1792.00 1194.66 1557.33 1258.66 1237.33 1728.00 1429.32 1706.66 853.33 1365.33 810.70 1024.00 1621.33 1045.33.............. $7,500,000 CITY OF GREENVILLE.* THE city of Greenville, the chief commercial emporium of the county of Montcalm, and until the year 1860 its seat of justice, is located in Eureka, which township lies in the southwest corner of the county. The city is built upon both banks of the Flat River, which stream pursues a circuitous course within its limits, entering at the northwest boundary on section 9 and flowing south, then east, and, veering again to the southeast, finally makes its exit from section 15. During the early settlement of the locality the stream was on one side covered by forests of pine, while on the opposite shore was a stretch of level land, varied by an occasional growth of oak. A most valuable water-power was afforded within the present corporate limits which led speedily to the development of milling enterprises; and very early two dams were erected,-one on the north side, where the stream begins its winding course, and another to the south, both of which are the centre of extensive manufacturing interests. With the improvement of this waterprivilege very soon disappeared every vestige of timber, and a thriving village superseded the vast expanse of plain and forest. As early as the year 1854, upon the upper dam, were erected a flouring-mill, saw-mill, tannery, chairfactory, foundry, and a shop for various kinds of woodturning, while upon the lower dam a saw-mill and a sash-, door-, blind-, and lath-factory were built. This waterpower has been since greatly developed and improved, and now forms the nucleus around which cluster the most extensive business interests of the county. In the southwest portion of the corporation lies Baldwin Lake, a picturesque body of water whose attractions have been greatly enhanced by the completion of a wide and carefully maintained boulevard along its borders.t The Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad passes through Greenville, thus making it easily accessible to all portions of the State, while affording an outlet for the produce of the adjacent country. The Grand Rapids, Greenville and Bay City Railroad, now in process of completion, will afford it additional facilities. The extensive area of timbered land adjacent to Greenville made it years since a favorable point for a growing lumber interest. Mills were early built and the business carried on to a greater or less extent, but lumber was dull and little profit was enjoyed by those who first embarked in the enterprise. Much of it was sold at the mills at from two dollars and fifty cents to five dollars per thousand, and country produce was frequently a legal tender in payment of the purchase. ' By Edgar 0. Wagner. t Adjoining it are Como and Fatal Lakes, less expansive, but equally beautiful in their natural charms. 374 Lumber that did not find a ready market at the mills was made into rafts and floated down the Flat and Grand Rivers to Grand Haven, where it was shipped by lake to the Chicago market, the annual spring freshets greatly assisting the owners of mills in the sale of their surplus stock. With the close of the war a stimulus was given to this interest, and the extensive pine-lands of the county were rapidly enhanced in value, thereby stimulating the milling business and creating an active demand for what was before but a drug in the market. Two of the heaviest operators cut and floated down the Flat River thirty-five million feet of logs during the winter of 1865-66, which, under the judicious management of one of these gentlemen, himself a lumberman of experience, safely reached their destination. The success of this enterprise affected materially the sale of pine-lands, especially those immediately adjacent to large streams. These lands were eagerly sought by mill-owners at Grand Haven and other points, and log-running, as a consequence, became an established institution. In 1867 the Flat River Booming Company was organized, with H. M. Fuller as president and C. J. Church as secretary and treasurer, both residents of Greenville. In 1874 the Grand River and Greenville Log-Running Company was formed, as opposed to the former organization, with a capital of fifteen thousand dollars. This company is composed of log-owners who transport their own property down the rivers, and, as a consequence, the two companies became antagonistic. After much hostility and litigation the matter was compromised. Most of the timber thus floated down the Flat and Grand Rivers finds its ultimate destination at either Grand Rapids or Grand Haven. The average amount of lumber run down the streams per season by the latter company is one hundred million feet. Ten per cent. of this is absorbed by the mills along the Flat River, the same quantity is detained at Grand Rapids, and the remainder finds its way to Grand Haven. The annual cost of transporting this amount of lumber is fifty thousand dollars, or fifty cents per thousand feet, the officers of the company being Sherman H. Boyce (president), James L. White (vice-president), Rufus F. Sprague (secretary and treasurer), Hunter Savidge, and Thomas Friant. ORIGINAL OWNERS. The corporate limits of the city of Greenville embrace four sections (9, 10, 15, and 16), and thus form a perfect square. Its lands were originally entered from the government or purchased of the State by the following individuals: Section 9.-From the government: 41.75 acres, by CITY OF GREENVILLE. I - 375 Wis-to-gan and Pan-de-gar-cow-an, Jan. 11, 1840. From the State: 160 acres, by Ethan Satterlee, May 15, 1844; 48.61 acres, by Josiah Russell and others, Dec. 11, 1844; 87 acres, by S. Demarest and others, Nov. 25, 1844; 23.25 acres, by the same, July 12, 1844; 116.25 acres, by Demarest, Green, and others, June 13, 1844; 115.15 acres, by Ira Porter, May 20, 1844. Section 10.-From the government: 71.15 acres, by Charles S. Harroun, Aug. 9, 1839. From the State: 40 acres, by Henry M. Moore, April 3, 1849; 36.85 acres, by George Van Ness, Feb. 17, 1846; 117.80 acres, by Jacob W. Petty, Aug. 12, 1847; 40 acres, by George Holmden, Sept. 15, 1846; 80 acres, by Charles Seymour, Oct. 30, 1848; 80 acres, by James Grant, Feb. 6, 1846; 48.71 acres, by A. H. Russell and Alexander N. Loomis, Jan. 8, 1846; 62.40 acres, by Ira Porter, Aug. 8, 1845; 49.95 acres, ditto, June 4, 1844. Section 15.-From the State: 160 acres, by Ira Porter, Sept. 17, 1845; 79.65 acres, ditto, May 26, 1845; 68.35 acres, ditto, Jan. 7, 1845; 60.50 acres, ditto, Aug. 8, 1845; 42.55 acres, by Thomas Green, Feb. 17, 1846; 41.65 acres, by Evan Williams, Sept. 23, 1845; 80 acres, by Daniel W. Tomlinson, Feb. 25, 1846; 160 acres, by Joseph C. Bailey, Dec. 21, 1849. Section 16.-From the State: 40 acres, by John Loucks, March 1, 1848; 40 acres, by Henry M. Moore, May 26, 1848; 40 acres, by Thomas Green, Sept. 21, 1847; 80 acres, by Smith & Moore, March 9, 1850; 40 acres, by James B. Chamberlain, March 26, 1850; 40 acres, by Lewis E. Smith, April 19, 1850; 40 acres, by Enos T. Peck, same date; 40 acres, by Samuel B. Peck, Sept. 19, 1857; 40 acres, by Manning Rutan, Dec. 8, 1864; 40 acres, by George and Erastus Fisher, Aug. 22, 1854; 42.37 acres, by Samuel B. Peck, April 7, 1855; 48.31 acres, by James B. Chamberlain, July 14, 1858; 40 acres, by L. B. Conant and A. S. Watson, July 5, 1865. FIRST AND OTHER EARLY SETTLEMENTS. Until the year 1844* the ground now covered by the busy city of Greenville was a vast plain diversified by an occasional oak, untenanted by the white man, and in sole possession of wandering tribes of the Blacksmith and Wabesis Indians, who pitched their tents on the sloping banks of the Flat River and devoted themselves to the pursuit of fish and game. During that year John Green emigrated from Fulton Co., N. Y., to the State, traveling by canal a portion of the way, by cars as far as Jackson, down the Grand River by boat, and by wagon to Otisco, in Ionia County. In June of the same year he entered, in connection with other parties, lands on section 9 of the township of Eureka,-now a portion of Greenville,-upon which he erected a shanty for the convenience of his family, and to which Mr. and Mrs. Green, with four children, soon after removed. The site of this primitive abode is now occupied by a barn belonging to what is known as the Hart Mills. Not a white inhabitant was to be seen, and a pilgrimage of six miles was necessary to find a neighbor. Mr. Green the same year built a sawmill upon the upper dam, on the location of the present Hart Mill, which was the property of a company embracing John Green, Samuel Demarest, and his two sons, Clark and Samuel, and, subsequently, Josiah Russell. The following year Mr. Green began clearing his land, and also turned his attention to farming pursuits. His partners in the milling enterprise-the Demarests-did not build, but remained in Otisco, and found a home with the Green family during their visits, at brief intervals. Mr. Green in 1849 sold the mill to Nelson Robinson and engaged in mercantile pursuits, his feeble health precluding severe manual labor. He survived until 1855, and was buried in the city which he founded, and which now does honor to his memory in the name it bears. Having been not only the earliest pioneer, but a man of means, he was an important factor in the development of the business interests of the place. Mrs. Green still resides in Greenville, and recalls with pleasure the experiences of the early years of her emigration. Josiah Russell, the second pioneer in point of arrival, came in November of 1844, and found a temporary home with Mr. Green until the following fall, when his family arrived and removed to the shanty owned by the former, he having meanwhile transferred his quarters to a more pretentious log cabin. Mr. Russell-more familiarly known as Judge Russell-later purchased a tract of land and became a comparatively large landholder. This was partially embraced within the present city limits, and was by him cultivated for a short period, but later sold. He also engaged in milling, and was the earliest presiding judge of the County Court, its first sessions having been held in Shearer's Hotel. Judge Russell early held the position of deputy postmaster of Greenville, probably under Abel French, the office having been kept in his house on the bank of the river. On one occasion, when called upon for the mail, he was seated at breakfast with his family. One of his sons having asked for more cakes, he took from between his knees a pan filled with the morning repast and dealt the boy his share. Abel French was the first postmaster, his commission bearing date Jan. 20, 1848. His wife a portion of the time managed the details of the office. The second commission was held by Stephen Rossman, and dated Jan. 3, 1851. He was succeeded by John Green, who was commissioned April 14, 1854, and transferred the office to Dr. Chamberlain. It was popularly known as the dead-letter office, because half an hour or more was required for the distribution of the mail. Judge Russell subsequently removed to Pentwater, Mich., where his death occurred. Soon after the advent of Judge Russell occurred that of Thomas Myers, in 1845. He was by trade a millwright, and, in connection with Russell, built a saw-mill, now known as the Wright Mill, on the Flat River, at the lower dam. He managed this enterprise for a brief time, but, becoming dissatisfied with his prospects, removed from the locality. Daniel Ball also came the same fall and assisted -' A tradition exists that one David Baldwin, of Ionia County, made a pre-emption claim of land covered by a portion of the present city of Greenville in 1837. He plowed a considerable tract to substantiate this claim, and may have been the first white man on the ground, but cannot be regarded as an actual settler. 376 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. Mr. Green in the mill and otherwise. The following year (1846) occurred the death of his wife, the earliest in the primitive settlement. George Van Ness removed from Fulton Co., N. Y., in 1845, and located upon ten acres of land purchased of Mr. Green on the bank of the river. He was a carpenter by trade, and soon found employment about the mill and in the erection of houses for the settlers as they arrived. Small as was the population of the little hamlet at this early date, the malarial fevers incident to the upturning of the soil made the presence of a physician indispensable. Dr. Thomas Green, brother of the earliest pioneer, arrived in 1845 and established himself in his profession, having left his former home in Chatauqua Co., N. Y., for this purpose. He erected a shanty, to which he removed, but the doctor himself fell an easy victim to the prevailing scourge, the ague, and after the lapse of a very few years returned again to the Empire State. John Loucks came from the Mohawk Valley, New York, the same year, built a shanty, and engaged in employment in the saw-mill. George Loucks, also originally from the Mohawk Valley, but later from Oakland County, arrived at the same period, and engaged in farming and lumbering adjacent to the village. In 1847 he removed to Greenville and embarked in mercantile pursuits. Lumber at this date was not readily disposed of at four dollars per thousand, and shingles made by hand and with much labor brought but six shillings per thousand. Mr. Loucks in 1857 removed with his family to Rockford, Ill., and later to Missouri, where an accident ended his life. Abram Roosa was the earliest blacksmith in the settlement. He built a shop and established himself in his trade, and the same year (1845) was married to Miss Deborah, daughter of John Green. This was the first marriage ceremony performed in Greenville. In the family of Mr. Green also occurred the earliest birth, that of his daughter Josephine,-now Mrs. D. A. Starkweather, and still a resident of her native place,-in 1845. William Weed removed from Oakland County in the fall of 1845 and located in Greenville, where he was employed in the saw-mill. During the winter he built a log house, in which he established his family. After a brief residence he went to the township of Fair Plains, and later to Ionia County. His son, Sylvanus, is still a resident of Greenville. Henry M. Moore, formerly a resident of Canandaigua, N. Y., early found a home in Oakland County, and the latter portion of the year 1846 became a resident of Greenville. By his ability and energy he contributed materially to the development of the village and its subsequent progress. He was the owner of two hundred acres of land on section 11, and, in connection with Abel French, opened a general store. Later he purchased, in conjunction with Lewis E. Smith, forty acres of land within the present city limits, upon which he erected a store and also a residence. He engaged extensively in mercantile operations, and at a later period devoted himself with vigor to the political issues of the day. He was in 1851 representative in the State Legislature, and active in the organization of the county the year previous. He also secured the passage of the law constituting Greenville the seat of justice of the county, where for ten years the sessions of the court were held. Mr. Moore's investments in Greenville did not prove lucrative, and this want of success caused his later removal to California, where he at present resides. Nelson Robinson, having purchased the mill-property of John Green and others, employed Abel French to look after his interests, and he brought with him a stock of goods furnished by Robinson, and opened a store for the payment of the hands employed in the mill. Mr. French afterwards engaged with Henry M. Moore in trade, having built a store for the purpose in the suburbs. About the year 1850 he erected a store in Greenville and embarked in business with John Green, whose extended credit enabled the firm to do a lucrative trade. Josiah Russell subsequently took an interest, and Charles C. Ellsworth also became one of the firm. Mr. French was not, however, a popular business man, and ultimately removed to the southern portion of the State, where his death occurred. James McCreedy arrived at nearly the same time and opened a small grocery, where he supplied the wants of the early settlers. His log dwelling also served the purposes of trade, his early stock, valued at forty dollars, requiring but little space. In 1856 he removed to Illinois, where he has since amassed a fortune. Alexander Satterlee came from Jackson County and purchased a farm on section 8 as early as 1845. Though not a resident of the village, he was identified with its interests and has witnessed its steady improvement. He now resides in Greenville. Levi Makley came from Oakland County in 1846 and located in the suburbs, but later removed to the village and resided on the corner of Orange and Barry Streets. He is now a resident of Eureka township. George Gibson, who came soon after, also chose a residence outside the present corporate limits. He was a millwright by trade, and found ready employment in the mills built upon the river. His three sons, Richard, Hiram, and Mark, are still residents of the township of Eureka. Hiram Slawson was a cabinet-maker, and the earliest representative of his craft in the village, where for some years he plied his trade. Roger Vanderhoff and his son William were former residents of New York State, from whence they came to Greenville in 1848. They were by trade carpenters and joiners, and followed their calling for many years, during which period many of the substantial early houses of Greenville were erected by them. The former died in the village. His son at an early date built a chair-factory on the Flat River, which was conducted by him until he removed to Kent County. E. M. Stevens, a former resident of the eastern portion of the State, came in 1848, and soon after built a dwelling on the present Montcalm Street. He was one of the earliest justices, and remained a resident of the village until the beginning of his service in the army. He now resides in Kent County. William Backus, a native of Vermont, came to Greenville from Oakland County in 1848, and purchased one CITY OF GREENVILLE. 377 hundred and forty acres on section 13, known as the Dale farm. Upon this he spent one summer, and then engaged as clerk for French & Moore, whose store was located upon section 11. Moore having later removed to the village, Mr. Backus came also, and has since resided within the corporate limits. He is engaged in farming pursuits, and is an extensive operator in real estate. Morton Shearer came also in 1848, from St. Clair County, and began, soon after his arrival, the erection of the first hotel in the village, known then as Shearer's Hotel, and now familiar to the traveling public as Keith's Exchange. He was for three years the popular landlord of this hostelry, after which it was rented in succession to Jesse Cole, E. B. Edwards, and Myndert Bovee, and then sold to Lyman Pratt, who became landlord. Mr. Shearer in 1853 erected his present residence on Washington Street, and has since followed the profession of a veterinary surgeon. Occasional religious worship was held at this period in the village, services having been conducted by circuitpreachers of the Methodist Church. The first Quarterly Meeting was held in 1847, in the barn belonging to Mr. Green, no school-building of sufficient dimensions having as yet been erected. Stephen Rossman came to the county of Montcalm in 1846, and a year later chose a residence in Greenville, where he erected a dwelling on the site of the present Webster House. This was in 1850 converted into a hotel and christened the " Rossman House." Josiah Russell purchased the property in 1855 and became landlord, and later Seth Sprague presided as host. During the ownership of Tucker & Smith this early landmark was consumed by fire. Mr. Rossman, having removed from the village, is now a resident of the township of Eureka. J. J. Shearer emigrated from Plymouth, Wayne Co., to Greenville in the year 1848, having been then in his sixteenth year. He early became the possessor of half an acre within the present city limits on Lafayette Street, exchanging his watch and rifle for the land on condition that he chopped forty cords of wood at twenty cents per cord and made three good shots off-hand. The singular compact was complied with, and his skill as a marksman insured possession of the ground. Upon it now stand six modern business-blocks of brick. Mr. Shearer has since devoted himself to mercantile pursuits, in which he is still actively engaged. Joseph Burgess, a native of Washtenaw County, removed from Livingston County to the hamlet in 1849. He engaged in lumbering and teaming until 1852, when he became associated with George Van Ness in the trade of carpenter and joiner, and was afterwards employed as a millwright. He purchased a farm in Eureka in 1867, upon which he now resides. Nathaniel Slaght, whose enterprise and extensive business connections have greatly enhanced the prosperity of the city of Greenville, removed from Kent County in April, 1850, and located within the present corporation limits, when, in connection with Abel French, he built a flouring-mill upon the upper dam on the Flat River. This was the first grist-mill in the immediate neighborhood, and 48 was managed for a period of two years and then sold to a purchaser named Hall. He then turned his attention to lumbering, having erected a mill at Greenville, and later one at Grand Haven. Another was built and conducted by him at Trufants. Mr. Slaght is still a resident of Greenville, and at present engaged in mining enterprises. Manning Rutan, another of the pioneers and publicspirited citizens of Greenville, is a native of New Jersey, and came from Morris County, in that State, in 1851. He had previously located land in Wisconsin, and despatched Enos T. Peck to make the purchase. The latter gentleman, on his return, tarried at Greenville. Mr. Rutan, en route to visit his newly-acquired property, called on Mr. Peck, and while here met Josiah Russell, with whom a bargain was speedily consummated, by which Mr. Rutan, in exchange for his Wisconsin land and some thousands of dollars, became the possessor of seven hundred acres in and about Greenville. He later, while on a visit with his wife, determined to make the place his home. By so slight a circumstance was his future and that of the city of Greenville influenced. He purchased a warehouse and dwelling built by Henry M. Moore, and opened the third store in the hamlet, which he stocked with goods suitable to the wants of the neighborhood. Later, Mr. J. M. Fuller became associated with him in business. He afterwards erected a substantial frame store, fifty feet square and two stories high, in which an extensive mercantile trade was conducted. Mr. Rutan recorded an early plat of the village, to which were later made many additions. He still resides in Greenville, to the advancement of which he has so materially contributed. William M. Crane made his advent in 1851, having come from Niles, Mich. He embarked with George Loucks in a general mercantile business, the store having been located on the site of the present engine-house. In 1852 they erected the building at present occupied by George Slawson as a drug-store. He subsequently engaged in the grocery, and later in the hardware, business, having built a store for the purpose. He has continued a resident of Greenville, and is now one of the largest real-estate and insurance agents in the city. Elijah Coffren, also a pioneer of 1851, and formerly a resident of Buffalo, N. Y., came from Howell to the village, where he erected a furnace and managed it in connection with William Maxted for three years, when the latter gentleman purchased his interest and became sole proprietor. He then erected a saw-mill in the suburbs, but continued his residence in the village. In 1860 he was elected judge of Probate, which office was filled by him for two terms. He still resides in the city. William Maxted came from Howell soon after the settlement of Mr. Coffren, and engaged with him in business. He still conducts the furnace built by the latter gentleman. D. C. Moore, a native of Vermont, came from Grand Rapids to the village in 1851. He erected a frame house on the site of the present opera-house block, and engaged in lumbering. In March, 1867, he removed to Lyons, Ionia Co., and seven years later returned to Greenville, his present home. Samuel and Urias Stout, father and son, came early from 378 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. I Seneca Co., N. Y., to the county of Livingston, in this State, and conducted a blacksmith-shop. The former survived his advent but three years, and the son relinquished his trade to enter the army. He is now, and has been for a period of nine years, the watchful guardian of the peace of the city. Charles C. Ellsworth removed from Howell to Greenville in 1851 as the earliest representative of the legal profession. With the exception of a brief interval in trade he has pursued his profession since that time, and has filled many important offices in the gift of his constituents. When Greenville was incorporated as a village, Mr. Ellsworth was chosen its first president. Rufus K. Moore came fronm Oakland County to the township of Eureka, where he remained until the fall of 1852, when his removal to the village occurred. He purchased a residence, and in connection with Erastus Fisher embarked in trade. lie remained in Greenville until his death, and two sons who survived him are engaged in manufacturing in the city. Joseph Griffith came in the year 1852, and for two years followed his trade of brickinaker. He then embarked in business on the site adjoining his present store on Lafayette Street. He has since that time been actively engaged in mercantile enterprises. John Lewis, one of the earliest attorneys in the city, was a former resident of Vermont, from whence he emigrated to the hamlet during the year 1853. He at once engaged in the labors of his profession, Mr. Ellsworth having been at that early date his only competitor. He has been steadily identified with the growth of Greenville, and is still actively employed in professional labor. E. B. Edwards removed from Steuben County in 1854 to the village, and bought pine-lands in adjacent portions of the county. He later purchased of Lyman Pratt and Peter Johnson the hotel now known as Keith's Exchange, of which he was landlord for a brief time, and then sold to Myndert Bovee. He subsequently engaged in farming and in mercantile pursuits until 1868, when he devoted his entire attention to the cultivation of his extensive landed interests. Mr. Edwards platted a considerable portion of the present city of Greenville. Milo Blair arrived in 1854 and established the Greenville Reflector, which he maintained for several years, but subsequently departed for Missouri. Dr. W. H. Ellsworth came from Berkshire, Vt., in 1855, and early engaged in the pursuit of his profession, having for competitors Drs. Sprague, Richardson, Chamberlain, and Slawson. He was at once successful in obtaining a large practice, to which he devoted himself until failing health induced him, in 1863, to repair to the South. On his return the following year lie suffered from an accident, which occasioned his death in February, 1864. Mrs. Ellsworth is still a resident of Greenville. M. Rider came in 1855 from Plymouth, Wayne Co., to Greenville, where he remained a few months. In 1857 he became a permanent resident, having been elected judge of Probate, which office he held for four years. He then engaged in trade and milling, and continued in business until his removal, in 1879, to Trufants, his present residence.. Among other settlers whose early presence contributed to the growth of the settlement were Hiram Rossman, Bedford Birch, Nathan F. Case, Newcomb J. Ireland, Ebenezer Ferrand, and Joel Sanders. ORIGINAL PLAT AND ADDITIONS. The earliest plat of the village was made by John Green in 1853. It included lots 8 and 9 on section 9, was surveyed by Volney W. Caukins, and executed Jan. 14, 1853. Rutan's plat, on section 10, is bounded on the west by Lafayette Street, south by Union Street, east by Webster Street, and north by the Flat River. It was surveyed by Volney W. Caukins, and recorded by Manning Rutan, Jan. 14, 1853. Rutan's addition, embracing the northeast quarter of the northeast quarter of section 16, was made April, 1864. Backus' and Church's addition, on section 10, was surveyed by H. M. Caukins, and executed in 1867, and an addition by the same individuals, on section 9, known as Backus' and Church's second addition, was surveyed by E. H. Jones the same year. Durfee's addition, on section 10, embracing about three acres, was surveyed by E. H. Jones in 1867. Macomber's addition, comprising all of the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter of section 16, and surveyed by E. H. Jones, was platted in 1867 and 1868. Edwards' first addition, lying west of the Flat River and north of Washington Street, on section 10, was surveyed by E. H. Jones, and recorded in 1862. Edwards' second addition, lying on section 15, was surveyed by the same party, and recorded in 1864. Edwards' third addition, surveyed by T. N. Stevens, and bounded north and east by the Flat River, west by Webster Street, and south by Cass Street, and located on section 10, was platted in 1867. Edwards' fourth and fifth additions, lying on sections 10 and 15, were surveyed by E. H. Jones in 1873. Merritt's addition, embracing eight acres on section 10, was surveyed by E. H. Jones in 1866. Slaght's addition, lying north of the river, on section 9, was surveyed by T. N. Stevens in 1867. Rutan's third addition, embracing the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter of section 16, was surveyed by E. H. Jones in 1868. Peck's addition, on section 15, was surveyed by E. H. Jones, and platted in 1868. Berridge's addition, on section 9, was surveyed by the same party in 1868. Chamberlain's subdivision, also on section 9, was platted in 1868, and surveyed by E. H. Jones. Lewis' addition, on section 9, was recorded in 1868, and surveyed by E. H. Jones. Shearer's addition was platted the same year, and surveyed by E. H. Jones. It is located on section 9. Ashley's addition, on section 9, was platted in 1868, and surveyed by E. H. Jones. Edwards, Ellsworth & Lewis' addition is located on section 10. It was surveyed by E. H. Jones, and recorded in 1870. CITY OF GREENVILLE. 379 Berridge & Muller's addition, on section 15, was surveyed by E. H. Jones in ] 870. Harrison's addition, which is located on section 15, was surveyed by E. D. Smalley in 1870. Avery's addition, on section 16, was surveyed by E. H. Jones in 1870. Moon's addition, embracing the northwest quarter of the northwest quarter of section 10, was recorded in 1871, and surveyed by E. D. Smalley. Backus' addition, on section 10, was surveyed by E. D. Smalley in 1871. Coffren's addition, located on section 10, was surveyed at the same date by E. D. Smalley. Van Kuren's addition, on section 10, platted at the same date, was surveyed by E. D. Smalley. Rider's addition, located on section 9, was surveyed by E. H. Leaming, and platted in 1872. VILLAGE INCORPORATION AND VILLAGE OFFICERS. The following act of the State Legislature constituted Greenville a village organization: " The people of the State of Michig(an enact: " That all those sections, tracts, pieces, and lots of land and country situated in the county of Montcalin and State of Michigan, being in township nine north, of range eight west, and described as follows,viz., the entire sections nine and ten, and the northeast quarter and the north half of the northwest quarter of section sixteen, and lots number one, two, three, four, five, and six of section fifteen,-be, and the same is hereby, constituted a village corporate by the name of the village of Greenville." This act was approved March 7. 1867, and the following officers in succession served under the village charter: 1867.-President, C. C. Ellsworth; Trustees, Morton Shearer, M. Rutan, J. J. Shearer, I. J. Merritt, N. Slaght, William Maxted; Clerk, J. F. Loase; Treasurer, Joseph Griffith; Assessor, J. M. Fuller; Marshal, George Woodward. 1868.-President, W. N. Pettee; Trustees, Edward Middleton, Aaron Amidon, C. J. Church; Clerk, C. J. Church; Treasurer, J. J. Shearer; Street Commissioner, M. Shearer; Marshal, N. J. Pratt. 1869.-President, II. B. Fargo; Trustees, S. R. Stevens, J. W. Belknap, N. M. Cole; Clerk, E. B. Schermerhorn; Treasurer, S. R. Stevens; Assessor, A. Amidon; Street Commissioner, William Backus; Marshal, William Backus. 1870.-President, H. B. Fargo; Trustees, T. N. Stevens, H. L. Bower, John Avery; Clerk, E. B. Schermerhorn; Assessor, S. R. Stevens; Street Commissioner, William Backus; Marshal, William Backus. CITY INCORPORATION AND CITY OFFICERS. By the following act Greenville was constituted a city: " The people of the State of Michigan enact: "That all that tract of country situated in the county of Montcalm and State of Michigan, and designated as follows, sections nine, ten, fifteen, and sixteen, all being in township number nine north, of range eight west, be, and the same is hereby, constituted a city corporate, under the name of the city of Greenville." This act was approved March 10, 1871. The first charter election under the act incorporating the city of Greenville was held in said city on Monday, the third day of April, 1871, and the following officers were elected for the year: Mayor, M. Rider; City Clerk, William H. Conover; Treasurer, William Maxted; Collector, N. F. Derby; Justices of the Peace, John Snow, F. L. Allen. First Ward: Supervisor, E. H. Jones; Aldermen, J. W. Belknap, George Clark, N. Slaght. Second Ward: Supervisor, William Backus; Aldermen, S. G. Hutchins, J. J. Shearer, D. A. Elliott; Constables, N. F. Derby, Samuel Johnson, T. J. Wood. The remaining officers in succession until the present are as follows: 1872.-Mayor, L. J. Macomber; City Clerk, Dexter T. Sapp; Treasurer, George Woodward; Collector, George Woodward. First Ward: Supervisor, Lyman H. Pratt; Alderman, F. N. Wright. Second Ward: Supervisor, William Backus; Aldermen, D. L. Coon, J. J. Shearer; Constables, L. A. Spaulding, C. B. Hayward, Samuel Johnson. 1873.-Mayor, Daniel C. Moore; City Clerk, Dexter C. Sapp; Treasurer and Collector, George Woodward; Justice of the Peace, Willard N. Pettee. First Ward: Supervisor, L. H. Pratt; Aldermen, James W. Belknap, Joseph Griffith. Second Ward: Supervisor, William Backus; Aldermen, Elijah Coffren, William J. Fowler; Constables, Samuel L. Johnson, Seymour Young, James Blakesley. 1874.-Mayor, Thomas N. Stevens; City Clerk, J. Wesley Griffith; Treasurer and Collector, George Woodward. First Ward: Supervisor, George Clark; Alderman, Stephen R. Stevens. Second Ward: Supervisor, William Backus; Aldermen, John Lewis, R. C. Miller; Constables, James N. Blakesley, L. A. Spaulding, W. C. Sherwood. 1875.-Mayor, N. Slaght; City Clerk, J. W. Griffith; Treasurer, George Woodward; Justice of the Peace, D. A. Eliot. First Ward: Supervisor, E. H. Jones; Alderman, H. B. Fargo. Second Ward: Supervisor, William Backus; Alderman, A. J. Acker. Third Ward: Supervisor, E. Coffren; Alderman, L. H. Colwell; Constables, A. M. Lang, D. D. Delabanty, T. J. Wood. 1876.-Mayor, Nathaniel Slaght; City Clerk, Emerson Peck; Treasurer, George Woodward; Collector, George Woodward; Justice of the Peace, Daniel C. Moore. First Ward: Supervisor, Edward H. Jones; Alderman, Stephen R. Stevens. Second Ward: Supervisor, William Backus; Alderman, Henry M. Fuller. Third Ward: Supervisor, Frank C. Acker; Aldermen, Joseph Griffith, Edward B. Edwards; Constables, L. A. Spaulding, David Delahanty, Asa M. Lang. 1877.-Mayor, James W. Belknap; City Clerk, Whiting G. Nelson; Treasurer and Collector, George Woodward; Justice of the Peace, N. O. Griswold. First Ward: Supervisor, R. R. Robinson; Alderman, Henry A. Smith. Second Ward: Supervisor, Henry M. Calkins; Alderman, Charles J. Church. Third Ward: Supervisor, Frank C. Acker; Constables, L. D. Featon, A. Drummond, W. C. Sherwood. 1878.-Mayor, J. W. Belknap; City Clerk, W. G. Nelson; Treasurer and Collector, George Woodward. First Ward: Supervisor, R. R. Robinson; Aldermen, S. R. Stevens, W. H. Willits. Second Ward: Supervisor, William Backus; Alderman, Leroy Moore. Third Ward: Supervisor, L. W. Sprague; Alderman, Charles Serviss; Constables, John Tucker, Asa M. Lang, A. Drummond. 1879.-Mayor, F. L. Spencer; City Clerk, R. H. Tompkins; Treasurer and Collector, George Woodward; Justice of the Peace, J. M. Cole. First Ward: Supervisor, R. R. Robinson; Alderman, W. H. Willits. Second Ward: Supervisor, William Backus; Alderman, W. H. Serviss. Third Ward: Supervisor, L. W. Sprague; Alderman, E. Coffren; Constables, John Wetmore, Asa M. Lang, D. H. Spencer. 1880.-Mayor, C. M. Martin; City Clerk, William M. Slawson; Treasurer, Luke Palmer; Collector, G. G. Clark; Justice of the Peace, William E. Hoyt. First Ward: Supervisor, John Avery; Alderman, 0. W. Green. Second Ward: Su pervisor, William Backus; Alderman, T. J. Potter. Third Ward: Supervisor, L. Wells Sprague; Alderman, Richard Smith; Constables, Richard Gibson, Daniel Padden, D. H. Spencer. 380 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. FIRE DEPARTMENT. Previous to the incorporation of Greenville as a city, in 1871, there existed no organized fire department. The primitive system known as the bucket brigade was then followed, and the property of residents, as a consequence, yielded speedily to the ravages of the devouring element. Babcock fire-extinguishers were purchased and distributed through the various wards, but, the citizens having been finally awakened to the need of more efficient means of protection against the fiery element, the following resolution was adopted by the Common Council, July 12, 1872: " Resolved, That in the opinion of the Common Council it is for the best interests of this city that we purchase a Clapp & Jones steam fire-engine, two hose- carts, and eight hundred feet of hose, and for that purpose the mayor and clerk are hereby authorized to issue the bonds of the city to the amount of five thousand dollars, payable in sums of one thousand dollars each in one, two, three, four, and five years from the first day of February, A.D. 1873, with annual interest at ten per cent." The necessary equipments having been purchased, in accordance with the above resolution, by a vote of the electors of the city of Greenville, the sum of five thousand dollars was appropriated for the erection of a suitable building to be devoted to the uses of the fire department, Mr. M. Rutan having already donated ground for the purpose. In July of the same year a hose company embracing thirty members was organized and designated as the " Wolverine Hose Company," with N. F. Derby as foreman, Daniels as first assistant, Charles Cooper as second assistant, M. E. Crane as secretary, and T. H. Green as treasurer. The officers of this company until the organization of the paid fire department were in succession as follows: 1873.-Foreman, A. B. Stevens; First Assistant, - Kahler; Second Assistant, S. B. Calkins. 1874.-Foreman, A. B. Stevens; First Assistant, William Forsyth; Second Assistant, Fred. Hemphill. 1875.-Foreman, A. B. Stevens; First Assistant, E. W. Kimberley; Second Assistant, Lucien Wright. 1876.-Foreman, A. B. Stevens; First Assistant, S. B. Calkins; Second Assistant, R. J. McLaughlin. 1877.-Foreman, E. W. Kimberley; First Assistant, Charles Buckley; Second Assistant, Seymour Young. For the year 1872, N. F. Derby was made chief engineer of the fire department; for 1873 and 1874, L. A. Spaulding was chief engineer, and John Wetmore first assistant; for 1875 and 1876, L. A. Spaulding was chief, and John Seigler first assistant. A hook-and-ladder company was also formed in 1872, with thirty names on its membership list. A truck of superior construction was purchased and christened the " Daniel C. Moore." T. J. Wood was the foreman of this company, and held the office until the creation of the paid fire department, in 1877, when it was disbanded. In 1877 the fire department committee of the City Council, having been instructed to devise some means for increasing the efficiency of the department, after several minor suggestions, proposed a radical change in the system then in use, and the employment of fifteen men from the company then existing," who shall be constituted a paid fire department, the chief of the department to receive seventyfive dollars per annum; two assistants, to be paid an annual sum of sixty dollars; and the remainder of the employees each to be allowed fifty dollars per annum." The report of the committee was adopted, and the department reorganized in February, 1877, with the following paid staff: Chief Engineer, H. B. Fargo; First Assistant, L. A. Spaulding; Second Assistant, John Seigler; J. Babcock, John Bowin, Charles E. Church, N. F. Derby, Wm. Forsyth, Wm. George, R. P. Russell, George Swift, A. B. Stevens, John Tucker, John Wetmore. Aided by the excellence of its equipments and the perfection of its discipline, the new organization has on repeated occasions demonstrated the wisdom of the change made by the city in its fire department. The force as at present existing is as follows: Chief Engineer, R. R. Robinson; Assistant, John Seigler; Engineer, Robert Motley; Claud Chiddick, L. Corvenus, William Forsythe, A. B. Stevens, John Tucker, Richard Smith; Jerome Brownell, driver. BANKING. The First National Bank of Greenville was organized Oct. 15, 1872, with a capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars and the following gentlemen as its first officers: Nelson Holmes, President; N. Slaght, Vice-President; W. J. Just, Cashier. In 1877 the capital stock was increased to one hundred and thirty-two thousand two hundred dollars, and in September it was reduced to fifty thousand dollars, which figures represent its present capital. The officers now serving are NM. Rutan, President; John Lewis, Vice-President; W. J. Just, Cashier; H. Hill, Assistant Cashier. Le Roy Moore & Co., Barkers, are successors to the banking firm of M. J. Norton & Co., the present firm having been established in 1876. They are private bankers, and transact a large exchange and discount business. The banking-house of Charles J. Church & Co. was established in 1861, and is the oldest in the city. It also is a private bank, and does a general business of exchange, brokerage, etc. MANUFACTURING. The Greenville Gas Company was organized early in 1875, for the purpose of manufacturing gas after the Needles process, and employing naphtha in place of coal. The stock having been subscribed for, works were erected, and a limited number of consumers availed themselves of its advantages. It was found at an early date that the works were wholly inadequate to the supply needed. More money was subscribed, and the manufactory partially converted into coalworks. They did not, however, answer the purpose for which they were designed, and the company struggled along with indifferent success. The result of the business of the year was thus laconically summed up by one of its officers: " The original and subsequent investments all exhausted, together with the amount received from consumers. To balance the investments, gas-works worth practically nothing, stock reduced to almost nothing, and a large debt hanging over the company." At this juncture H. M. Fuller purchased the depreciated CITY OF GREENVILLE. 381 gas stock and assumed charge of the company. He discarded the Needles process, constructed new works in a most substantial manner, and began the manufacture of gas by the old process,-proven by experience to be the better, -with coal as the material used. Since that time the gas has been excellent in quality and abundant in quantity. The officers of the present company are H. M. Fuller, President; W. H. Conover, Secretary and Treasurer; D. T. Sapp, Attorney; H. M. Fuller, C. C. Ellsworth, W. H. Conover, Directors. E. Middleton & Sons' Flouring-Mills.-A mill was early established on the site of these mills, the location having been known as the upper dam. The original mill was purchased of Mr. Rider in 1859, and the present proprietor then did an almost exclusive custom business. Since that time it has been increased to such a degree as to have become the most extensive manufacturing enterprise in the county. In 1872, Mr. Middleton erected the present extensive mill, which is also located on the Flat River, below the site of the former one. It is five stories in height, is equipped with eight run of stone and two pair of rollers, and has a capacity of three hundred barrels per day. It is fitted with the latest and most approved machinery for manufacturing flour by the patent process. The grain purchased for the mills is grown in Montcalm and the adjoining counties, and the market is exclusively European, all the flour being exported and previously sold by the senior member of the firm, who goes abroad twice a year for the purpose. Most of the flour is shipped in sacks, which answers better the foreign demand, though the mills have a cooper-shop, in which their barrels are manufactured. Four millers and twenty men are employed in the various departments. Messrs. E. Middleton & Sons are now constructing a new mill which will be fitted with four pair of double rollers, and which will greatly facilitate their opportunities for manufacture. The H. R. Weeks Flouring-Mill property is owned by W. E. Partlow, and leased from him by Mr. H. R. Weeks. It is conveniently located on the Flat River, which furnishes an ample power for its machinery, the mill having at its command a force of water equivalent to one hundred horsepower. It has four run of stone, one of which is devoted to feed and custom-work. The capacity, exclusive of the feed department, is one hundred barrels per day, for which the Detroit market creates a demand. This mill is not equipped with the modern improvements for the manufacture of flour by the patent process, but it is the intention of the present proprietor to remodel its machinery and make such additions as will render it one of the best establishments in the country. A considerable business is also done in buying and shipping wheat. The Saw-, Planing-, and Shingle-Millof F. N. Wright & Co.-The establishment of this mill is almost co-existent with the founding of the hamlet of Greenville, Josiah Russell having built it at a very early date upon the banks of the Flat River, near the lower dam. It was later pur chased by Manning Rutan, who sold again to Daniel D. Fargo. E. B. Edwards became owner at a subsequent period, after which it passed into the hands of the Messrs. I Woodruff, of whom it was purchased by the present proprietors. The power is derived from the river, which drives a water-wheel with a capacity of eighty-five horse-power. A large circular-saw is used for the heavier timber, while numerous smaller ones are introduced into the various departments for the manufacture of lath, shingles, etc. The mill has a capacity of four million feet per season, in addition to which two hundred bunches of lath and twenty thousand shingles are made per day. Match-work is also done in the planing department. The timber is obtained from adjacent portions of the county and floated down the river to its destination. The market is found in Michigan, Indiana, and the East. The firm contemplate the erection soon of another saw-mill, at Stanton, near which place they own extensive tracts of land. The Saw- and Planing-Mill of Oliver, Belknap & Green. -The establishment of this enterprise occurred in 1870, Oliver & Co. having been the owners. It was thus managed for three years when the firm became Oliver & Belknap, and later Oliver, Belknap & Green. In 1875 a mill was built on the present site, on Grove Street, which was burned in 1879, and immediately rebuilt. It has three planes and a sash-and-door department combined, which affords the mill a capacity of seven car-loads per day, the market being Indiana, Ohio, Connecticut, and New York. It is run by steam entirely, with an engine which represents a capacity of eighty horse-power. Connected with the business is a saw-mill, located at Stanton and managed by Mr. Green, of the firm. This mill is also run by steam, and has a capacity of thirty thousand feet of lumber per day. The Woodruff Mills, located on the Flat River, have a capacity of twenty-five thousand feet per day. They are at present owned by T. S. Wormer, of Detroit, but are not in active operation. The Planing-Mill of Towle, Douglas & Co. was erected in 1870 by the Clark & Rhinesmith Lumber Company, and was by them conducted until 1877, when the proprietors became Towle & Douglas, the present firm organizing in 1878. The mill is equipped with three planing-machines, which afford it a capacity of seventy-five thousand feet per day. It is run by steam, with an engine of fifty horse-power, and is capable of a considerable amount of work in excess of these figures when driven to its utmost capacity. The market for its products is found largely throughout the East and in Michigan. The Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad has a track adjacent to the mill, which greatly facilitates its shipments. Mr. Towle also has an interest in the saw-mill known as the Hart Mill, which is not at present running. The Greenville Woolen Mills are owned by J. M. Cole, and were formerly the property of N. M. Cole. They are located upon the Flat River, which furnishes the power for operating the machinery, the water-wheel representing a force equal to twenty-five horse-power. The capacity of the mills is one hundred and fifty pounds of yarn, or three hundred yards of cloth, per day. The market for their goods is found principally in Chicago, but a large home patronage is also enjoyed. The mills are not 382 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. I at present in working order, but will no doubt be started again when demands for their products increase. The J. P. Dodge Furniture-Factory.-The buildings in which this business is conducted were erected as early as 1852 by Albert Clark, and used for the manufacture of wagons. In 1854, J. M. & S. M. Waters converted them into a furniture-factory, and three years later A. B. Danforth again changed it to an establishment for the production of sash and blinds. During the year 1869, J. P. Dodge, the present owner, became proprietor, and, together with various partners, manufactured sash, doors, and furniture. The industry is at present devoted almost exclusively to the making of furniture, bureaus, bedsteads, etc., being made a specialty. The material is obtained at home; the wares find a ready sale within the limits of the county. The Tower Brothers' Foundry was established in 1872 by I. & T. H. Peacock, and purchased by S. Tower in December, 1874. It depends for its power upon a steamengine with a capacity fully equal to its needs, and is at present principally engaged in the manufacture of Newton's patent log-turner, which is quite generally used in the sawmills throughout the country. General work is also done in the foundry, and a large repairing trade is enjoyed by the firm. Shingle-packers are made in great numbers by them, and the market for their wares is found in tile adjacent country. The William Mlaxted Foundlry is one of the oldest business enterprises in Greenville, having been established by the firm of Coffren & Maxted as early as 1851. The partnership existed before the arrival of the firm in the place, Mr. Coffren having come in advance and superintended the construction of the building. It was formerly run by water, but now employs steam, using an engine with a capacity of ten horse-power. Much machine-work is manufactured, together with machinery for mills and agricultural implements, plows being the principal products. The material used is purchased chiefly in Detroit, and the market for their productions is found in the adjacent country and the various mills in and about Greenville. The establishment of Knapp & Barber, wagon-makers, is located upon the principal business street of the city, and was formerly known as Knapp & Scofield's. The latter retired from the firm, and for a period of years Mr. Knapp conducted it alone. In 1880 the firm became Knapp & Barber, the latter devoting himself exclusively to the ironwork, while the former superintends the wood-work. They manufacture wagons, sleighs, cutters, and carriages, and employ six workmen besides the firm. About one hundred vehicles are produced per annum in the shop, which find ready sale in the city and the country immediately around it, much patronage for this class of industry being derived from the farming community. James Scofield, wagon maker, began the business of wagon-making in Greenville in 1867, and has since conducted it. In the wagon department lumber- and platformwagons form the chief articles of manufacture, of which about fifty are produced each year, while half that number of buggies find their way to the market. For these a home demand is found. The carriage- and wagon-manufactory of Woodman & Winter was established by Mr. W. H. Woodman in his department of blacksmithing, while Mr. Winter, in 1872, became associated in the wood department, of which he has charge. The firm manufacture wagons, carriages, sleighs, and cutters, for which an extensive patronage is found in the surrounding country. PROFESSIONAL. THE PHYSICIANS OF GREENVILLE. Allopathic.-The earliest practitioner in the hamlet of Greenville was Dr. Thomas Green, brother of the founder of the city, who came from Chatauqua County in 1845 and began his professional labors. His residence, however, was brief. He speedily succumbed to the ravages of the ague, and returned to the East. Later years found him again a resident of Michigan, though not among the scenes of his early pioneer experiences. Dr. J. B. Chamberlain came from Macomb County in 1850, and established himself as the second practitioner, and for a brief time was the only one, in the primitive settlement. He remained until his death, in 1860. Dr. Israel B. Richardson, a former resident of Ionia County, arrived in 1852, and remained several years in the practice of his profession. He subsequently removed to Saginaw, and there engaged in professional labor. Dr. W. E. Darwin closed his career as a practicing physician in Greenville in 1852, having been for two years a resident of the place. Dr. H. E. Skinner arrived in 1851, and soon gained a lucrative practice, which was continued until his death, in 1853. Dr. Comfort Slawson, a former resident of New York State, chose Greenville as a place of settlement in 1853. HIe remained many years, during which a large and successful practice was enjoyed. He later removed to his present home, in Maple Valley. Dr. W. H. Ellsworth early pursued his studies at Woodstock, Vt., and completed the course in Montreal, Canada. At the solicitation of friends he made Greenville his home in 1855. His practice, which was large and successful, extended over a period of eight years, when failing health compelled a temporary residence in a more genial climate. His death occurred in the year 1864. Dr. J. B. Drummond was a graduate of the Albany (N. Y.) Medical College, and on the completion of his studies removed to Oakland Co., Mich., where he engaged in practice. At the expiration of one year he came to Greenville, where he pursued his profession until failing health obliged him to relinquish it. His death occurred in 1876. Dr. E. Rogers came from Ohio to the city in 1864. He at once began the practice of medicine, which was continued until his death, in 1872. Dr. C. M. Martin is a native of Wyoming Co., N. Y., and began his studies at Smyrna, Mich., with Dr. C. W. Dolley. He attended lectures at a later period at the Med ical Department of the University of Michigan, and graduated at the Bellevue Medical College, New York. He came to Greenville in 1864, and, with the exception of a CITY OF GREENVILLE. 383 brief interval at the West, has been a resident since that date. Dr. H. L. Bowers studied his profession and graduated at the Albany Medical College, becoming a resident of Greenville in 1865. He continued in practice until his removal from the city, in 1872. He returned in 1879, and is now actively engaged in professional labor. Dr. John Avery, having removed from Otisco, Ionia Co., in 1867, became the same year a resident of Greenville, where he at once acquired a lucrative practice. His early studies were pursued at Geneva, N. Y. In 1874 he opened a drug-store, and now combines the profession of pharmaceutist with that of physician. Dr. C. F. Morgan, having graduated at the Yale Medical College, New Haven, removed soon after to Mount Morris, N. Y., where he followed his profession until his removal to Greenville, in 1868. With the exception of brief intervals of absence, he has since been a practitioner in the city. Dr. James Mulhern is a graduate of the Detroit Medical College, and after the completion of his studies removed to Lake View. He came to Greenville in 1871, and is still one of the medical staff of the city. Dr. O. E. Herrick began his studies with Dr. Avery in Greenville, and completed them at the Albany Medical College in 1870. He established himself in the city, and continued in practice until his removal to Grand Rapids, in 1879. Dr. Alva W. Nichols made his advent in 1870, and began his studies with Drs. Morgan and Mulhern. He graduated at the Bellevue Medical College in 1874, and has since that time been established in Greenville. Dr. C. S. Sheldon graduated from the Buffalo Medical College in February, 1867, and again at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York City, in March, 1868, after which he settled in Minnesota. In 1872 he removed to Greenville, where he now enjoys an extended practice. Dr. L. B. Lester studied and graduated at Geneva, N. Y., having come from the latter State to Greenville in 1868, where he became established in his profession and still resides. Homeopathic. —Dr. E. Fish, the oldest practitioner of the homoeopathic school, is a native of Wayne Co., N. Y., and removed to Ohio in 1853. He early became a pupil -of Dr. David Shepard, of Geauga Co., Ohio, and was later a student in the Medical Department of the Willoughby University, graduating from the Starling Medical College, Columbus, Ohio, in 1848. He spent the winter of 1865 -66 in attendance upon the Bellevue and Charity Hospitals, New York., and began the practice of medicine in Greenville in 1869, having previously been a student of the Hom.eopathic Medical College. Dr. Fish enjoys an extensive practice in the city and adjacent country. Dr. T. M. Benedict is a graduate of the Detroit Homoeopathic College, where he finished his course of study in 1873. He removed from Oakland County to Ionia County in 1865, and to Greenville in 1873, where he has since been actively engaged in the pursuit of his profession. Eclectic.-Dr. L. A. Chaffee began the practice of medicine in Greenville in 1871, and, with the exception of in tervals of absence, has been a resident of the city since that time. Dr. S. C. Lacey, formerly of Pennsylvania, came to Michigan in 1871, and removed from Ionia County to Greenville in 1879. He graduated from the Medical Department of the University of Michigan in 1861, and removed to Greenville in 1879. GREENVILLE'S ATTORNEYS. The earliest representative of the legal profession in the city was Charles C. Ellsworth, who studied and was admitted to practice at Howell, Livingston Co., where he remained until his removal, in 1851, to Greenville. Mr. Ellsworth is a leading member of the bar of the county, and has filled the various positions of prosecuting attorney, Circuit Court commissioner, member of the State Legislature, and congressional representative. He is still in active practice as the senior member of the firm of Ellsworth & Sapp. William Chapin came to the village in 1851 and engaged in practice, remaining one year. He then departed, and his subsequent career is not known. In September, 1853, came John Lewis, from Vermont. He studied with Judge Beckwith, of St. Albans, Vt., now eminent as a member of the Chicago bar, and in 1852 was admitted to practice. He has since been actively engaged in the labors of his profession in this and adjacent counties, and was formerly a member of the firm of Ellsworth & Lewis. He has held the offices of prosecuting attorney and Circuit Court commissioner, and enjoys a considerable practice in the United States Court. In the spring of 1854 came Alfred M. Chapin, a very promising young lawyer, who established himself in the profession at Greenville, and died in the fall of the same year. Milo Blair came in the fall of 1854, as publisher of the Greenville Reflector, which he established. He at the same time studied law, and was in 1856 admitted to practice, but a few years later removed to Missouri. John F. Loase studied and was admitted in Detroit, and in 1858 came to Greenville, where he remained three years, and then removed to Kent County. He now resides in New York City. Dr. Seth Sprague became a resident of the village at an early date. In 1859 he began the study of law, and was admitted to the bar of Montcalm County in 1862. He died while engaged in practice in 1870. D. A. Elliott came from Pontiac, Oakland Co., where he studied and was admitted. He resided for a short time in Corunna, Livingston Co., and in 1867 removed to Greenville, where he has since been one of the representatives of the bar of the city. J. H. Tatem is a graduate of the Law Department of the University of Michigan, and was admitted to practice in Washtenaw County. He removed from Adrian to Greenville in 1870, and has since been in active practice, having once filled the office of city attorney. Dexter T. Sapp studied in Kalamazoo with Judge Joel L. Hawes and H. C. Severance, and was admitted at Coldwater, Branch Co., in 1870. The same year he removed 384 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. to Greenville and became associated with D. C. Moore, which partnership extended over but a brief period. In 1874 the firm of Ellsworth, Lewis & Sapp was formed, and, Mr. Lewis having retired, the remaining partners established the present firm of Ellsworth & Sapp. W. E. Hoyt, formerly of Pontiac, Oakland Co., where he studied and was admitted in 1873, spent a year in Georgia, and settled in Greenville in 1875. He is now engaged in practice, and also fills the office of justice of the peace, to which he was elected in 1880. N. O. Griswold studied with Ellsworth & Lewis in 1871 -73, and was admitted in July of the latter year. He has since been engaged in practice in the city. Mr. Griswold has served as Circuit Court commissioner since 1874, and was elected justice of the peace in 1877. He now fills the office of city attorney. George E. Backus studied with Ellsworth, Lewis & Sapp in 1875-76, and was admitted January 15th of the latter year. He has since that time been actively engaged in the labors of his profession. D. C. Moore was admitted to the bar of Ionia County, where he practiced and at the same time followed other pursuits. In 1874 he removed to Greenville, and has since engaged in professional labor to a limited extent. George Ellsworth was early admitted to the bar of Franklin Co., Vt. He became a member of the Montcalm County bar in 1880, and has recently made Greenville his residence. Milo Lewis, the youngest of the Greenville attorneys, studied with Ellsworth, Lewis & Sapp, and subsequently with John Lewis. He was admitted to the bar in 1879, and is now a member of the firm of J. Lewis & Son. THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF GREENVILLE. The earliest school was opened during the year 1845 in a building which stood near the present site of the enginehouse, on Lafayette Street. It was twelve by sixteen feet in dimensions, eight feet high, and was presided over by Miss Katharine Satterlee. For her guardianship of the rising youth of Greenville she received nine shillings per week (with probably the rare privilege of boarding 'round), and had twenty-five pupils, six of whom were Indian children. At a later date a larger school-house was erected on the ground now covered by the banking-house of Le Roy Moore & Co., on the corner of Lafayette and Cass Streets, commonly spoken of as the " Old Red School-House." This was the scene of the earliest religious gatherings, as also of most of the public meetings held at that early date. Greenville having been until its incorporation as a village included in District No. 1 of the township of Eureka, at a special meeting of the district, held July 23, 1853, it was resolved to sell the old school-building and select and purchase a lot for the erection of a new edifice. The contract was awarded to Joseph Griffith, who subsequently relinquished it, and Joseph Hart was employed to construct the building, George Loucks and M. Shearer having been his bondsmen in the sum of one thousand dollars. Mr. E. B. Towle seems for a brief period to have been the teacher during the winter of 1853 and 1854, and a contract was entered into with J. R. Brigham, in June, 1854, to teach the primary school for the sum of twentyfive dollars per month and board. He was succeeded in 1855 by S. D. Barnum, who received for his services thirty dollars per month and board. The teachers in succession from that time were: 1855, Miss Rhodelle Miller, Miss Clarissa Sherwood, Mr. S. Gibbs. The whole number of children who attended school at this time was one hundred and twenty. The remaining teachers were: 1856, A. W. Slayton, J. R. Slayton, Miss Margaret P. Ingalls; 1857, Harvey S. Gibbs; 1858, Miss Angeline Johnston; 1860, Miss Sarah B. Willits; 1861, E. H. Crowell, Miss N. M. Anderson; 1862, Miss Mary J. Rose; 1863, Miss Sarah L. Light, J. Knight Bacon, Miss Mahalia Moon; 1864, C. W. Borst; 1866, Miss Sarah Serviss, Miss Mary Roberts; 1867, Miss C. Randall, Miss Della Barr; 1868, Miss C. Cadwell, Miss E. V. Goodale, Miss Mahala Moore. The above list embraces the names of teachers before the establishment of the graded school and the erection of the present edifice. The Greenville high-school building was dedicated Friday, Sept. 3, 1869, and occupied for school purposes the following Monday. From the Greenville Independent is obtained the following account of the dedicatory exercises: "The new union-school building-the pride and boast of our citizens, on account of its architectural design and finish not less than the rare accommodations it affords the children and youth whose privilege it is to share these advantages-was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies on Friday afternoon last. The occasion was one of great interest, and the people manifested their appreciation of its importance by honoring it with their presence in large numbers. The spacious hall was only two-thirds full, but the audience would have filled either of our churches. " The platform was occupied by the pastors of the different churches and by the members of the board of education. "The programme was made up of choice music and addresses from various citizens. The choir consisted of E. H. Crowell, leader and tenor; Mrs. J. E. Oliver and Mrs. M. S. Savage, soprano; Miss M. Fenton and Mrs. C. C. Merrit, alto; Geo. Dimmock and C. C. Ellsworth, bass; while Mrs. C. C. Ellsworth assisted at the organ. "The chairman of the board of education, Col. E. H. Crowell, introduced the exercises by a few interesting remarks, in which he neatly alluded to the fact that this building was the realization of the cherished hopes of years. He then passed the programme to J. M. Fuller, treasurer of the board, who conducted the remainder of the exercises in an admirable manner. "An anthem of praise was the first offering of the choir. This was followed by a dedicatory prayer by Rev. J. L. Patton, pastor of the Congregational Church. "After another piece of music, Rev. Geo. S. Barnes, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church, made the address of the occasion. He first pleasantly alluded to the fact that but within the past seven days had he become a veritable Wolverine, although for years a citizen of this State. Then, by way of contrast with the superior advantages of the schools of the present day, followed an interest CITY OF GREENVILLE. 385 ing sketch of the speaker's early surroundings and his school experience therein. Allusion was made to the surroundings of our State. Bounded by a cordon of the finest lakes in the world, our facilities for commerce cannot be excelled; nothing can equal the product of our fruit-growing regions; our mines of copper and iron are inexhaustible; but in value superior to these, beyond all computation, is the common-school system of our State, testifying to which is the edifice we dedicate this day. Formerly a teacher himself, as a result of his experience he wished to impress the minds of his hearers that it was of very great importance that patrons in general, and parents in particular, should give support to the school by expressing warm sympathy for, and giving active co-operation to, the teacher in his work. The conclusion of this admirable address was a warm welcome given to the teachers about to put forth their efforts to aid in the education of the children and youth of our schools. "After the chief address a number of our citizens responded to the calls made upon them. " Maj. C. C. Ellsworth testified that from the first he had been engaged in the work of securing a school-building. Now that the building was erected and good teachers were secured, his work was not yet done: every citizen should give his continued influence to assure success to theschool. "S. R. Stevens, from the stand-point of a teacher, gave some valuable advice. A pleasant allusion was made to the valuable work accomplished by former teachers in the old school-building. The work of our common schools is to prepare the children less for distinction in public career than for usefulness in private life. " At this point the choir gave an ' Echo Song,' the effect of which was quite pleasing, a part of the choir, representing the echo, being stationed in another part of the building. "E. H. Jones read an original poem of pleasing measure, reciting a legend of the days of yore. "John Lewis, formerly director of the district, gave a sketch of the growth of our school interests,-first the little red school-house of one story and one room on Godfrey's corner (where Le Roy Moore's bank now stands); then the building on the hill, on Cass Street, of two stories and two rooms; next an addition, larger than the original, of two stories and two rooms; finally, this proud edifice. " Hon. John Avery said that the people of Michigan recognize the truth of the maxim that ' the property of the State ought to educate the children of the State,' as there is nothing better for the peace, security, prosperity, and protection of the State than universal education. Hence it is the policy of our State to provide all her children, of whatever position as respects wealth or station, with facilities for an education. "W. N. Pettee, chairman of the building committee, noted the rapid growth made by our village in the past few years. He had been a resident but five years, yet in that period so many strangers had come in to share our advan tages that he made claim to the title of 'an old resident.' " W. M. Crane took time only to say that the teachers should have his earnest co-operation. 49 "Prof. S. S. Babcock, principal of the school, made a short address full of interest, in which was a strong plea for the confidence and co-operation of the patrons of the school. " M. Rider, director of the district, expressed gratification that the people had made the occasion a success by so large an attendance, and that the exercises had been so good throughout. The school board may have made some mistakes, but their constant effort had been to secure the greatest good to the district. The house had been built and teachers employed, but the board will not cease in effort to promote the best interests of the school. "Rev. J. L. Patton said a great deal had been accomplished, but the work was not fully done until the grounds had been graded and fenced, matting placed on the floors, an instrument of music purchased to lead the children in their singing, while beautiful pictures on the walls should aid in the culture of mind and heart. "The choir gave a ' School-boys' Song,' with whistling chorus,-good rendering,-after which Rev. George W. Bower, pastor of the Baptist Church, dismissed the assembly with a benediction." When the new building was completed it furnished accommodations for all the schools of the village, and they were divided into six departments. S. S. Babcock, the principal, was assisted by six lady teachers at the beginning of the year,-viz., Miss L. M. Carpenter, Preceptress; Miss F. E. Everts, Grammar Department; Miss M. A. Fenton, "A," Intermediate; Miss A. M. Derby, "B," Intermediate; Miss E. C. Comstock, "A," Primary; Miss C. Palmer, " B," Primary. The old school-house on Cass Street was unused for two years. During that time a part of it was sold and moved down on Grand Street, near the railroad, where it now stands (1880), and is known as the " Eagle Hotel." At the opening of the school-year, Sept. 4, 1871, two primary schools were opened in the old school-house, or what remained of it. The room on the second floor was in charge of Miss Miranda Palmer for one year. Miss Palmer was succeeded by Mrs. Millie Stoughton, who still occupies the position (October, 1880). The school on the first floor was taught for one year by Miss Cornelia J. Dunton, since which time it has been taught by Miss R. M. Dodge and Miss Della Fargo. The brick building north of the river was completed in 1872, an intermediate grade placed on the second floor, and a " B" primary on the first. The school on the second floor has been taught by Misses Voorhies, Burke, Stamp, King, P. V. Boyce, and Stout. The primary grade, on the first floor of the same building, has been taught by Misses Opha Satterlee, Jennie A. Platt, and Josie M. Daniels. S. S. Babcock remained in charge of the schools three years. He showed himself to be a man of great energy and force of character, and an untiring worker. He left his mark on the school and the community, and all his successors have shared in the benefits bestowed by so superior an organizer and disciplinarian. Mr. James McMagrath, a graduate of the State university, succeeded Mr. Babcock, and held the position two years. 386 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. Mr. J. F. Dutton, also a graduate of the State university, was called to the superintendency of the schools in 1874, and continued in the position two years. He was an able scholar, and left the schools in a good condition to be taken in charge by his successor. In 1876, E. P. Church was called to the superintendency, beginning work September 4th of the same year, and is still holding the position (1880). Mr. Church is a graduate of Oberlin College, and had been for ten previous years a member of the faculty of Oahu College, in the Hawaiian (or Sandwich) Islands. In 1877 a more systematic course of drawing was introduced into the school than had before been employed. In 1880 vocal music was for the first time taught by a special teacher. The school has always had a high standard of scholarship, its grades being fixed higher than most of the graded schools in towns of the same size in the State. The prescribed course of study requires thirteen years for its completion, instead of twelve, as in most public schools of the State. Forty-four pupils have graduated from the high school course since its organization, as follows: 1873.-Wellington G. Clark, bookkeeper; Mary E. Fish, preceptress, city; Henry A. Jersey, lawyer; Milo Lewis, lawyer; Charles L. Rarden, lawyer; Mary Satterlee (Mrs. George Crosby); Ariel N. Wilson, Thomas B. Wilson. 1874.-Della Fargo, teacher in public schools; Anna Grels (Mrs. Jerome Pease); Anna Roby, teacher in Wisconsin. 1875.-A. Amos Crane, merchant; James W. Sherwood, merchant. 1878.-Clarence L. Fries, mechanic; Adelbert C. Story, student in University of Michigan; Louis A. Roller, medical student, Chicago; Effie M. Griffith, teacher, city; Nina A. Moore, teacher, Muskegon. 1879.-Arthur S. Coutant, printer, city; Adah A. Avery; Emma A. Gibbs, teacher, city; Emma L. Smith, teacher, Muskegon; Alice M. Smith, teacher, Coral; Amanda Stout, teacher, city; Carrie A. Cook, Occie Keith; Lu Stevens, register's office, Stanton; Ella E. Taber, teacher; Edward W. Peck, bookkeeper. 1880.-John A. Crawford, student at Olivet; Minnie G. Avery; Le Ella Clark, student in high school; Jenet Edgar, Emma Edwards, Mamie Hovey, Sarah Hutchins, teacher; Hattie Jones, teacher; Emma Kent, teacher; Emily Peck, teacher; Anna M. Satterlee, teacher; Clara M. Smith, Lillie Stoughton, Lucretia Stout, Alice M. Tower. The graduates of the high school that have sought admission to the State university have uniformly passed the examinations with credit to themselves and honor to the school. Miss Lucie M. Carpenter (now Mrs. E. H. Jones, of this city) became preceptress of the high school at the time of its organization, and continued in that position for ten consecutive years. Her thorough scholarship, faithful teaching, and efficient discipline contributed largely to the success of the school, while she deserves to be held in grateful remembrance by the whole community for the good work she did. The success of the graded schools of Greenville is due to the faithful teachers, efficient board of education, and the almost universal good will and co-operation of the community. The following is the list of teachers that have been con nected with the schools since 1869, so far as can now be determined: SUPERINTENDENTS. S. S. Babcock, 1869-72; J. McMagrath, 1872-74; J. F. Dutton, 1874-76; E. P. Church, 1876-81. TEACHERS. High School.-Miss L. M. Carpenter, 1869-78; Mrs. L. M. C. Jones, 1879; Miss Mary Fish, 1879-81. ASSISTANTS IN IIGH SCHOOL. Miss Anna B. Boyce, Miss Ella M. Hayes, Miss Anna Gerls, Miss Nettie I. Rogers, Miss Mary Fish, Miss Nina Moon, Miss Effie Griffith. TEACHERS IN HIGHER GRAMMAR GRADES. Miss Francis M. Everts, Mrs. F. M. (Everts) Babcock, Miss Anna B. Boyce, Miss Emma J. Cole, Miss Ella E. Latson, Miss Mattie I. Rogers, Miss Anna Gerls, Mrs. Anna (Gerls) Pease, Miss Prill V. Boyce. TEACHERS IN LOWER GRAMMAR GRADES. Miss M. A. Fenton, Miss A. M. Derby, Miss E. J. Brown, Miss Fannie A. Shelmire, Miss Miranda Palmer, Miss Sarah E. Voorhies, Miss F. A. Gooding, Miss L. A. Dickerson, Mrs. S. R. Fox, Miss M. Burk, Miss L. R. Stamp, Miss Louise Barnhouse, Miss Nettie E. Dayton, Miss Libbie H. Hawkins, Miss Emma L. Rogers, Miss Agnes King, Miss Francene Austin, Miss Carrie Bascom, Miss Marion A. Maxon, Miss Amanda Stout, Miss Prill V. Boyce, Miss Emma M. Johnston, Miss Emma Gibbs. PRIMARY TEACHERS. Miss E. C. Comstock, Miss Cerinthia Palmer, Miss Andrews, Miss Emma Lamb, Mrs. Mary Platt, Miss Sarah A. Dodd, Miss Ida M. Russell, Miss Cornelia J. Dunton, Miss Prill V. Boyce, Mrs. Milly Stoughton, Miss R. M. Dodge, Miss Opha Satterlee, Miss Mary J. Jennings, Miss M. O. Barkley, Miss Jennie A. Platt, Miss Mollie Blank, Miss Marion A. Maxon, Miss Nettie L. Charles, Miss Josie M. Daniels. ASSISTANTS. Miss Emma L. Smith, Miss Nina Moon, Miss Lillie Phelps. LADIES' LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. Early in the summer of 1868 a few of the enterprising and book-loving ladies of Greenville took into consideration the idea of establishing a public library. A preliminary meeting was called by three ladies from each of the three churches,-Methodist, Congregational, and Baptist,-to be held at the rooms of Mrs. C. C. Ellsworth, to consult as to the feasibility of the project, and what means were best for raising the first funds. They agreed to make the attempt, and decided upon holding a strawberry festival, with music and intellectual exercises. It was a delightful occasion and a success financially, the net proceeds amounting to seventy dollars. A public meeting was then called, and all ladies inter ested in the cause requested to be present. At this meeting it was voted to organize a society entitled " The Ladies' Library Association of the Village of Greenville." A com CITY OF GREENVILLE. 387 mittee was selected to draft a constitution and by-laws, consisting of Mrs. G. S. Barnes, Mrs. E. F. Grabill, and Mrs. H. L. Bower, and another meeting appointed for Aug. 7, 1868, which met pursuant to call. A constitution and bylaws were reported and accepted, and the following officers elected to serve one year: President, Mrs. G. S. Barnes; Vice-President, Mrs. E. F. Grabill; Secretary, Mrs. H. E. Light; Treasurer, Mrs. F. N. Wright; Librarian, Mrs. H. L. Bower; Executive Committee, Mrs. R. L. Ellsworth, Mrs. H. M. Fuller, Mrs. John Lewis. Quarterly meetings were to be held on the second Wednesdays of September, December, March, and June, and an annual meeting every second Wednesday of June. The generous offer made by the Methodist Society of the use of their vestry for a library-room was gratefully accepted, and the first instalment of books, consisting of twenty-five volumes, arranged in an attractive new bookcase, the gift of Mr. H. M. Fuller, was placed therein. After two years the library was removed to the third story of Mr. M. Rutan's store, where it remained another two years, with gradually-increasing success, when it was thought best to make another change. A large and commodious room was rented in the new brick block belonging to Mr. H. B. Fargo, and handsomely carpeted and furnished. Here the library is still located. From time to time new articles of furniture and pictures have been added, also a valuable piano and a beautiful oil painting, the work and gift of Mrs. R. R. Robinson, one of the presidents elected in 1875, and lately deceased. At the annual meeting held June, 1879, it was decided expedient to revise the constitution and by-laws, and a committee was appointed for that purpose, consisting of Mrs. J. L. Patton, Mrs. R. L. Ellsworth, and Mrs. N. J. Moore. The time of holding the annual meeting was then changed to the second Wednesday of September. The association has pursued a gradual, uniform, and successful course to the present time, the volumes having reached the number of twelve hundred and thirty. At the annual meeting held Sept. 8, 1880, the following officers were elected for the ensuing year: President, Mrs. C. C. Ellsworth; Vice-President, Mrs. T. J. Potter; Secretary, Mrs. N. J. Moore; Treasurer, Mrs. C. J. Church; First Librarian, Mrs. R. L. Ellsworth; Second Librarian, Mrs. C. A. Northrup; Executive Committee, Mrs. S. R. Stevens, Mrs. E. H. Leaming, Mrs. L. J. Macomber. SECRET BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATIONS. GREENVILLE LODGE, NO. 96, F. AND A. M. This lodge-one of the most flourishing in the State, and the parent of seven similar organizations in localities adjacent to Greenville-was formed under a dispensation, Feb. 25, 1857, and its charter granted January 23d of the following year. Its first Master was C. S. Ford, after which the following members in succession held the office: 1858-60, John Lewis; 1861, Charles Ellenwood; 1862 -63, M. Rider; 1864, John Lewis; 1865, William Maxted; 1866, John Lewis; 1867, M. Rider; 1868-70, William Maxted; 1871, John Lewis; 1872-75, William Maxted; 1876-79, J. W. Belknap. The present officers are J. W. Belknap, Master; WT. M. Ockerman, S. W.; Asa Hale, J. W.; G. B. Gibbs, Treas.; W. B. Wells, Sec. The lodge has a membership of two hundred, and holds its meetings at Masonic Hall. GREENVILLE CHAPTER, NO. 79, ROYAL ARCH MASONS. The Greenville chapter was organized under a dispensation, July 14, 1871. The charter was granted and its officers installed July 26, 1872. Its first High Priest was M. Rider, who filled the office from 1871 to 1875, inclusive, when he was succeeded by William Maxted, who has been the incumbent until the present time. The officers at this date are William Maxted, H. P.; P. S. Turner, K.; W. M. Ockerman, S.; G. B. Gibbs, Treas.; W. B. Wells, Sec. The membership roll embraces eightyeight names, and the convocations are held at Masonic Hall, in the Post-Office Block, on Lafayette Street. EUREKA LODGE, NO. 91, I. O. 0. F. This lodge was organized under a dispensation, Oct. 26, 1865, its charter members having been W. C. Sherwood, Seth Sprague, William Maxted, W. N. Pettee, D. A. Elliott. Its charter officers were W. C. Sherwood, N. G.; Seth Sprague, V. G.; L. W. Cole, Sec.; W. N. Pettee, Treas. The present officers are George Loder, N. G.; W. N. Padden, V. G.; J..Colman, Perm. Sec.; J. G. Gumbinsky, Sec.; W. M. Ockerman, Treas. The meetings of the lodge are held in their spacious hall, in the Rutan Block. LAFAYETTE LODGE, NO. 30, ANCIENT ORDER UNITED WORKMEN. The charter of this lodge is dated Jan. 2, 1878, its charter officers having been L. D. Fenton, P. M. W.; William Maxted, M. W.; John E. Oliver, G. F.; William A. White, Overseer; E. W. Tower, Recorder; A. Drummond, Financier; William M. Ockerman, Receiver. Its present officers are J. L. Wetmore, P. M. W.; F. M. Hickox, M. W.; Eugene Clark, G. F.; John N. Cole, Overseer; E. W. Tower, Recorder; O. W. Green, Financier; W. M. Ockerman, Receiver. STAR LODGE, NO. 440, KNIGHTS OF HONOR. The lodge of Knights of Honor was organized Feb. 5, 1877, their charter members having been A. W. Nichols, W. Knapp, Frank Ashley, G. R. Slawson, Edward Westbrook, John Mooney, Rev. A. R. Boggs, Charles E. Coon, Charles Godbold, Al. Drummond, William Forsyth, James Scofield, Al. Hansen, C. C. Hazel, Thomas Brough. The first officers were W. Knapp, Dictator; G. R. Slawson, Vice-Dictator; John Mooney, Assistant Dictator; Frank Aslley, Reporter; G. R. Slawson, Treas. The present officers are W. Knapp, Dictator; W. C. Rockwell, Vice-Dictator; John Newman, Assistant Dictator; C. C. Merritt, Reporter; J. J. Babcock, Financial Reporter; T. B. Inkley, Treas. The lodge meets in Odd Fellows' Hall on alternate Fridays. GREENVILLE COUNCIL, NO. 31, ROYAL TEMPLARS OF TEMPERANCE. The charter of this lodge is dated July 31, 1871, its present officers being John H. Tatem, S. C.; H. L. Bowers, V. C.; William Maxted, P. C.; Rev. J. Huntington, Chaplain; E. W. Tower, Rec. Sec.; Mrs. C. L. Frazier, 383 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. Herald; Mrs. E. W. Tower, Deputy Herald; C. J. Eschbach, Guard; James Norris, Sentinel.. The present membership is forty-six, and meetings are held at the temperance headquarters, in the Potter Block. MONTCALM GRANGE. The Montcalm Grange was organized on the 9th of March, 1874, with thirty-five charter members, its earliest officers having been Stephen Rossman, Master; Chester P. Baker, Overseer; Henry S. Sharp, Lecturer; L. C. Lincoln, S.; Charles Snyder, Sec. Its present officers are Westbrook Divine, Master; Daniel H. Fuller, Overseer; Joseph P. Shoemaker, Lecturer; Lewis P. Fuller, S.; B. B. Crawford, Sec. The grange is in a flourishing condition, its present membership embracing one hundred names. Its meetings arc held in the hall devoted to its use in the Post-Office Block in the city of Greenville. GREENVILLE REFORM CLUB. The Greenville Reform Club, as stated in the resolution under which it was organized, " was formed for the purpose of assisting one another, by social organization and co-operation, to resist the desire to use alcoholic liquors as a beverage, and to induce others to join in the good work, and thus secure to the community the benefit of the work already done." The meeting for organization was called March 14, 1877, and the following were chosen as its first officers: President, L. E. Morris; First Vice-President, J. F. Lindley; Second Vice-President, J. L. Wetmore; Third Vice-President, H. C. Carroll; Secretary, E. C. Morris; Treasurer, H. C. Weeks; Steward, Charles M. Coon; Marshals, C. Chamberlain, William Livingston. The club has since its formation achieved much success, and its influence in the community has been so powerful for good as to have won for it the support of the larger proportion of the population of Greenville. Its present officers are: President, H. L. Bower; First Vice-President, 0. W. Green; Second Vice-President, C. A. Northrop; Third Vice-President, R. C. Miller; Secretary, W. Knapp; Financial Secretary, C. E. Gregg; Treasurer, D. E. Padden. GREENVILLE CORNET BAND. The Junior Cornet Band was organized on the 4th of December, 1877, under the leadership of C. W. Cowell, who filled the r6le of instructor. Its officers were Herbert P. Bclknap, President; Charles W. Hayden, Secretary and Treasurer; Charles W. Cowell, Leader. Its original members were H. P. Belknap, H. M. Clark, Charles J. Clark, Emory Smith, Edward Van Wormer, J. J. Savage, Branch Cotbell, Louis Fredericsen, Fred Wilcox, C. W. Cowell, C. W. Hayden. The band, having been thoroughly organized, devoted itself assiduously to practice, and few changes occurred in its organization until 1879. It was then christened "Cowell's Greenville Band," and a new board of officers elected, who filled a term of one year, when the present offices were instituted, —viz., B. E. Avery, President; C. W. Hayden, Secretary; Milo Lewis, Treasurer; William M. Padd, Drum-Major, who filled the position made vacant by the resignation of W. B. Wells. Mr. Cowell, in the spring of 1880, terminated his residence in Greenville, and James Seeley, of Coldwater, became leader, the citizens having subscribed liberally towards the fund raised for the purpose. The present membership of the band is as follows: L. W. Cole, B. E. Avery, M. Lewis, Fred Cole, Thomas Patton, Elmer A. Dreskel, James Savage, Branch Cowell, H. M. Clark, C. J. Clark, Delos Towle, George Caldwell, William George, C. W. Hayden, William Judd, Fred Wilcox, Otis Pond. RELIGIOUS. METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. At the session of the Michigan Conference in 1850, Rev. Eli Westlake and Rev. Rufus C. Crane were appointed to Flat River Circuit, then comprising parts of Ionia, Allegan, and Kent Counties, and Fair Plains, in Montcalm County. They took up an appointment in Greenville in the fall, and, in January following, Rev. R. C. Crane commenced a series of special services in the latter place, which resulted in the organization of a Methodist Society in February, 1851. The meetings were held in a school-house then standing on the corner of Lafayette and Cass Streets, the site now occupied by the banking-house of Le Roy Moore & Co. Among the first members were D. C. Moore and wife, George Loucks and wife, Dr. James Chamberlain and wife, R. K. Moore and wife, A. R. Adams and wife, Levi Makley and wife, Erastus Fisher and wife, and Mrs. Burgess. The society consisted of about forty members. The first board of trustees was organized in April, 1851, and at once took measures leading to the erection of a church-edifice upon a lot donated to the society by John Green. The ground was situated on Cass Street, immediately west of the present parsonage. George Loucks and Rev. R. C. Crane were appointed a building committee to proceed with the erection of a church-building. They accomplished this during the summer and autumn of 1851, the success of the enterprise being largely due to the untiring energy and hopeful zeal of Rev. R. C. Crane. The present church and parsonage lot was purchased of W. M. Pettee in August, 1872, for the sum of forty-five hundred dollars. The house now occupied as a parsonage then stood on the northwest corner of the lot, fronting on Franklin Street. It was moved to the west side of this plot and made to front on Cass Street, having been fitted up as at present. The old church-building was subsequently moved upon the new lot, on the corner of Cass and Franklin Streets, where it still stands, comprising a part of what constitutes the present church-edifice. The purchase of the above-mentioned property, together with the expense of moving and otherwise refitting the building which now stands upon it, entailed a cost of about seven thousand five hundred dollars. Of this sum, the old parsonage which stood on the corner of Washington and Franklin Streets was sold for two thousand dollars, and two-thirds of the old church-lot was also made available in a similar manner, leaving a balance of five thousand dollars to be paid. About two thousand four hundred dollars of this was liquidated during the pastorate of Rev. A. R. Boggs, and the remaining two thousand six hundred dollars during the ministry of Rev. J. W. Reid, the last two I I A., I I 'HOIW '771AN3J19Y - HOyntH 7VNOIIVO3Y9MOQ 181sij ]: I~ ~~- -7'' ~ I -U -~ -'2~ -- ~ ' - - i - - - - - - -7 — - -- __ -— X- - - 'ti cr w. i -A i 11 I la I L i] I - t S GZ -' t ~-..1zi' *:1`~-~: c i *~ ~" i i V I-r i ~ :: ~r r — i-i- --xtr5;i- trI i -I-i j —` --- -~ - r — I - - — — P CITY OF GREENVILLE. 389.. thousand two hundred dollars having been paid during what is known as the "Long Roll-Call," on the 29th of December, 1878. At the session of the Michigan Conference in the fall of 1851, Greenville and vicinity were separated from the Flat River Circuit and formed into a separate charge, known as the Greenville Circuit. The succession of pastors appointed to Greenville, as nearly as can be ascertained, is as follows: Revs. M. Fassett, A. R. Bartlett, A. Wakefield, George Bignell, A. A. Dunton, J. L. Child, Francis Glass, J. J. Jenkins, W. W. Rorke, J. M. Dayton, George S. Barnes, W. M. Colby, W. J. Aldrich, A. R. Boggs, J. W. Reid, and A. A. Brown, the present pastor. In 1855 there were one hundred and seven members of the Greenville Circuit, which comprised all the territory now embraced in Greenville Station and Circuit. In 1867 there were in the same territory one hundred and eighty members. In 1870, the county appointments having been eliminated from Greenville charge and formed into a circuit by themselves, Greenville was left with one hundred and forty-five members. A series of revivals, commencing with the pastorate of Rev. W. W. Rorke and extending over six pastorates, eventuated in bringing the membership up to its present number of two hundred and ninety. This is the highest enrollment of members in the history of the church. The amount of annual salary paid to its pastors has ranged from two hundred and ninety dollars and house-rent or parsonage, the amount paid its earliest pastor, to fourteen hundred dollars and parsonage. The Sunday-school was organized in 1855, and has been in successful operation since that time. Its first superintendents were William Van Loo, J. L. Rook, and Elias Kent. John Lewis became superintendent in 1866, and remained in office until 1875, when he was succeeded by O. W. Green for two years. A. H. Bennett then took charge for a period of two years, and M. O. Griswold for one year, when A. H. Bennett was again elected. The attendance was small at the beginning, and many of the appliances for successful Sunday-school work were meagre. It struggled on through the years, gradually improving in numbers and resources, although no records exist from which to trace its progress from year to year. It now has a library of six hundred volumes, and its average attendance during the past year was one hundred and fifty scholars. A. H. Bennett was elected superintendent at the last annual meeting, and is now discharging the duties of that responsible office. FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. The following extract from a sermon by the pastor of the Congregational Church is given as embodying a concise history of its development and growth: "On the 5th day of June, 1852, a meeting was held in the public school-house which stood on the northwest corner of Cass and Lafayette Streets. It was called for the pur pose of considering the expediency of organizing a Congregational Church. Besides the people of the village interested, there were present the Rev. S. N. Manning, of St. Joseph's Presbytery, and the Rev. H. L. Hammond, of the Grand River Congregational Association. Mr. Hammond was made moderator of the meeting, and Manning Rutan scribe. The result of that consultation was the organization of ' The First Congregational Church of Greenville.' The new church was composed of eleven members, and these are their names: Manning Rutan and Melinda Rutan his wife, Hiram H. Slawson and Eusebia Slawson his wife, Ursan Goodman and Sarah Goodman his wife, Widow Harriet B. Peck, Frank S. Peck, Philander A. Peck, Mrs. Adeline Shaw, and William Gordon. "By what principle or by the working of what force this became a Congregational Church does not appear. Seven of the original number were Presbyterians; the four remaining were Congregationalists; the minister, Rev. S. N. Manning, was also a Presbyterian. Denominational preferences certainly did not run strong. It may be, too, that a certain Darwinian principle (survival of the fittest) prevailed in the determination of the ecclesiastical polity of the new organization. ' Rev. S. N. Manning was the first pastor of the church. He preached at Greenville before the-organization of the society, but how long before is not known or to be known. No record-is left of either his coming or his going. The last mention of his name in the records is early in the second year after the organization. There is no mention of the time between Jan. 7, 1854, and December 28th of the same year, at which latter date the name of Mr. Spooner appears as pastor, with no record of the time of his coming, -probably in the fall of 1854. He served the church and community and country round about, far and near, most faithfully and with efficiency for eleven years. The memory of himself and his family is still fragrant among his former people. IHe resides with his family in the village of Olivet, in this State, and is still doing good service in his Master's work. " When Mr. Spooner came to the church it numbered about twenty souls. There were added during his pastorate about one hundred and twenty members, but the changes incident to the new settlement and the nomadic character of the people kept the actual membership small, and he closed his work, leaving the church with about sixty-five resident members. "The present pastor began his work Jan. 1, 1866. During his pastorate to the present date (June, 1879) there have been added to the church by letter sixty-seven, and on profession of faith one hundred and twenty-four, making a total of one hundred and ninety-one. The present resident membership of the church is about two hundred. "The only record to be found of the church-building work of the society is the appointment of a committee, consisting of Manning Rutan, E. Coffren, and S. N. Manning, to solicit subscriptions for the building of a new house of worship. This was in July, 1853. From those who have assisted in obtaining these facts from their recollection of those days I learn that in the autumn of 1855 the new church was standing and roofed. It was probably finished and dedicated in the summer of 1856. The cost is not a matter of record. The people received help in building to the amount of five hundred and fifty dollars - 390 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. from the Congregational Union. In 1866 the building was repaired and enlarged by the addition of the orchestra, and the present pipe-organ placed in it. "During the twenty-seven years of the church's history it has had three hundred and thirty-four members. Two hundred and nineteen of these have been admitted on profession of faith, and one hundred and fifteen by letter. It has had three pastors, one serving two years, the second eleven years, and the present incumbent." Very soon after the delivery of the discourse from which the foregoing history is an extract measures were taken for the erection of a new church-edifice. A building committee, consisting of Nathaniel Slaght, Edward Leaming, and H. B. Fargo, was appointed, and superintended its construction, very liberal contributions having been made by members of the congregation for the purpose. A substantial and elegant edifice of brick and stone was erected at a cost of twenty-three thousand dollars, and dedicated with solemn ceremonies on the first Sabbath of June; 1880. A flourishing Sabbath-school is connected with the church, with a membership of two hundred and forty and an able and devoted corps of teachers. It possesses a wellselected library of one thousand volumes. The officers of the school are C. S. Sheldon, Superintendent; Frank Leonard, Secretary; W. G. Nelson, Librarian. The present officers of the church are: Pastor, Rev. James L. Patton; Deacons, Manning Rutan, Elisha Coffren, Herman Johnson, John Defree; Trustees, N. Slaght, S. R. Stevens, R. C. Miller. FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH. The meeting for the organization of the First Baptist Church of Greenville was held Nov. 19, 1853, at the schoolhouse located on the corner of Lafayette and Cass Streets. Rev. J. Rasco was chosen moderator of the assembly, H. P. Downs clerk, and the names of twenty-six members were placed upon the church records. In September, 1854, the organization became a part of the Grand River Baptist Association. The church at this time embraced but six male members, from whose ranks Ira Jenks and I. W. Irons were chosen to officiate as deacons. Great difficulty was experienced at this early period in obtaining a suitable place of worship, and for a considerable time it was not posible to maintain regular appointments. The various school-houses not having been available, the building known as the " old store," belonging to M. Rutan and located near the site of the present city fire department quarters, was secured. In the second story of this store the Baptist Society found its first place of stated worship. This place, which was used in the year 1859, seemed to offer but a temporary shelter, as in 1861 the records allude again to the difficulty of finding suitable quarters and the consequent abandonment of public services. Soon after, Miss Deborah Green, from whose family the city derived its name, opened her dwelling for regular service. M. Rutan having donated lots on the corner of Washington and Franklin Streets, the erection of a house of worship was begun, and the first services held in the new edifice February, 1865. The pastors of the church have been Rev. J. Rasco, 1853-55; Rev. A. P. Howell, 1855-57, others having officiated during a portion of the time. Mr. S. D. Ross, a member of the church, supplied, and was ordained as pastor Nov. 28, 1857. He remained until the advent of Rev. W. H. Prentiss, in 1862, and in 1864, Rev. A. Platt was summoned to the charge. In February, 1865, Rev. Dr. Drummond supplied the pulpit, until Rev. D. E Hills became pastor, who remained until 1868. Rev. C. E. B. Armstrong was called in 1870, and the same year a parsonage was secured. The resignation of Mr. Armstrong occurred in 1874, when Rev. E. Curtiss succeeded. His pastoral labor extended over a period of six years, and the present incumbent, Rev. Jay Huntington, began his labors May 1, 1880. At intervals the labors of Revs. A. H. Waterman, C. C. Miller, A. Corvell, and others should be noticed. The church has grown to a membership of two hundred, and is in a united and prosperous condition. Connected with it is a flourishing Sabbath-school, under the superintendence of Mr. R. H. Roys. ST. PAUL'S PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. The organization of St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church was effected Jan. 20, 1872, with the following membership: William B. Wells, Willard N. Pettee, John Avery, C. Jesse Church, Talmadge Stevens, Ephraim Williams, and L. Judd McComber. The first communion celebrated in the parish was held on Easter Day, March 31, 1872, on which occasion there were sixteen communicants. The first meeting of the parish was held on the same day, when the following vestry were elected: W. B. Wells, C. Jesse Church, L. Judd McComber, James Cornwell, Andrew W. Hoffman, John Avery, and Willard N. Pettee. At the first vestry-meeting W. B. Wells was elected senior warden and C. Jesse Church junior warden and treasurer. A Sunday-school was organized on Sunday, April 28, 1872, with W. B. Wells superintendent, Mrs. S. R. Stevens secretary, and Mrs. L. Judd McComber as treasurer. Two male and three female teachers were in attendance. While the parish was a mission the congregation were under the ministrations of Revs. Morris and Wood. At a later date Revs. William Brittain and S. H. Woodford were in succession installed as rectors. The church has suffered under a period of decline, but under the active labors of Rev. W. H. Sparling, aided by the parishioners, there is prospect of a revival of interest. SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS. The Seventh-Day Adventists have a church-edifice in Greenville, and were at one time prosperous. The larger portion of the congregation, however, residing in the suburbs, rendered it expedient to abandon their house of worship for one more accessible to the majority of worshipers. FREE BAPTIST CHURCH. During the spring of 1875, Mr. James Graham, of Greenville, who had devoted his energies to the spiritual welfare of the residents of the northern portion of the city, succeeded in awakening a sufficient interest in his work to begin the erection of a union chapel. Nearly four hundred CITY OF GREENVILLE. 391 dollars was contributed to the cause, and a desire expressed among the donors that the enterprise should assume a denominational character. There having been several Free Baptists in the vicinity, he presented the subject to one of their clergy, who also laid it before the Quarterly Meeting of the Free Baptists. During their June session a committee was appointed to investigate the matter, and, in the fall of 1875, Rev. William H. Smith was chosen to minister to the little flock. The field did not prove an encouraging one. During the interval the interest in the cause had greatly abated, and many were unable, through financial reverses, to meet their subscriptions. Mr. Smith established an appointment in the suburbs, which he maintained each Sabbath for three years, devoting, meanwhile, both time and means to the gathering of material for a house of worship. In the spring of 1877, in connection with D. H. Lord, he purchased a lot located upon the corner of Lafayette Street and Coffren Avenue, for which six hundred dollars was paid. In the fall of the same year a frame was erected, which was destroyed by a storm before its completion. Nothing daunted, the debris was cleared away, and Mr, Smith began the building of another edifice, which a year later was completed and ready for service. This building was dedicated on the 21st of September, 1879, a debt of more than six hundred dollars having been cleared on this occasion. The following Sabbath regular service was established. In December a call was issued by a few Christian people for a council of brethren from the different churches for the purpose of organizing a church. They convened on the 28th of the same month, and formed a church with a membership of ten, since which time nine have been added. Rev. Wm. H. Smith was chosen pastor, S. M. Waters and Silas Brown deacons, and Miss E. L. Smith clerk. The present officers of the church are Rev. W. H. Smith, Pastor; Silas Brown, S. M. Smith, J. C. Holding, Deacons; L. E. Baker, Secretary. The trustees are H. W. Riley, President; C. L. Baker, Treasurer; Daniel Smith, Wm. Marsh, Elias Kent, S. M. Waters. ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. The earliest services which led to the formation of a Roman Catholic society in Greenville occurred in 1859, when meetings were held at the house of Patrick McDonaid. They were conducted by Father Rivers, of Gratton, who officiated at intervals for a period of three years, and subsequently removed to Muskegon, where he died in 1878. He was followed by Father Bolte, of Ionia, who has been for many years in charge of the parish embraced in the latter city. During his ministry the church-edifice was begun and partially completed. He was succeeded by Father Leightner, who was in charge of the work until the advent of Father Seibold, in 1877. The following year Father Grimme was installed as priest, and remained two years, when his successor, the present incumbent, was appointed. The parish embraces forty families, many of whom are residents of the suburbs. The church-edifice is now in process of completion, circumstances having heretofore rendered the delay unavoidable. The board of trustees of the church are Patrick McDonald, Fred Wright, James Mooney. FOREST HOME CEMETERY. Between the years 1865 and 1870, Mr. E. Middleton bought lands lying on and adjacent to Baldwin, Fatal, and Como Lakes for the purpose of preserving to the city grounds suitable for cemetery and park purposes. These lands were in a wild, unbroken condition, and at some points almost inaccessible, as a result of fallen timber and dense undergrowth. The public generally had little idea of the natural advantages and beauty of the locality, although it lay within the corporate limits of,the city. The observations Mr. Middleton had made in his extensive travels, both at home and abroad, convinced him that the grounds possessed the requisite features for both cemetery and park. Through the western portion of this extensive tract he constructed numerous carriage-drives, every few rods of which present new and varied scenery. This portion was named Middleton Park, and the remainder of the tract was offered to the city for burial purposes at its original cost. The City Fathers, after mature deliberation, thought it unadvisable to consummate the purchase. Mr. C. C. Merritt had, in September, 1871, interred his only son within these grounds, on the presumption that they were to be devoted to the uses of a cemetery, and he was thus induced to purchase the land of the owner, the bargain having been consummated for the sum of six thousand dollars. Mr. Merritt at once began a tour of observation, embracing three months, among the most extensive and beautiful cemeteries of the country, and thus gathered ideas and plans best adapted to the natural advantages of Forest Home. On his return he had the grounds surveyed and platted by E. H. Leaming, Esq., whose taste and ability added greatly to their beauty. Forest Home possesses many of the natural advantages of Mount Hope, in Rochester, N. Y., and Greenwood, in Brooklyn, with the addition of three charming natural lakes, all of which form a part of its boundary. The undulating surface of the ground, its hills, valleys, ridges, and dells, all combine to make it unsurpassed in varied attractions of native beauty. There are few places in the State where so many happy combinations of the striking and beautiful in nature are grouped together to render " God's acre" what it should be,-a place of picturesque surroundings and retirement. Mr. Merritt has constructed numerous carriage-drives, thereby dividing the ground into sections, laid out walks, built a receiving-vault, lodge, and otherwise improved the spot. The fine adaptability of the grounds for vault-building has induced many citizens to construct family-vaults. The first, as the grounds are entered, is owned by 0. W. Green. It is constructed of stone, in Gothic style, with iron cornice and white brick facing. Near it is seen the family-vault of E. Middleton, substantially built and trimmed with Ohio cut stone. On either corner are heavily-draped urns, while in front rests an imposing figure of Hope. A few rods to the south is the Merritt vault, with two pieces of statuary in the tastefully-arranged lot which surrounds it. The Shearer family-vault is the largest in the grounds, 392 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. containing seventeen capacious catacombs. It opens on a grove of luxuriant evergreens, and is remarked especially for the seclusion of its surroundings. Many tasteful monuments have already been erected, among which the most noticeable are the Macomber, Wilson, Coon, Clark, Herrick, and Sprague memorials, in pure white marble, and one, in the lot of H. M. Fuller, manufactured of white bronze. The latter is one of the most imposing and elaborate of its kind in the West, and in the well-appointed lot shows to great advantage. Forest Home, possessing, as it does, all the desired advantages for a burial-ground, and gaining yearly in the pride and affection of the people, promises at no distant day to be one of the most beautiful places of sepulture in the whole West. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. HENRY MERRILL FULLER. Henry Merrill Fuller, a prominent citizen of Greenville, Mich., son of Judge Lucius and Candice (Newell) Fuller, was born at Orwell Hill, Pa, Nov. 7, 1825. His father's family consisted of thirteen children, eight of whom survive. The eldest son, Edwin, was a journalist of some distinction. The second son, Allen, was a prominent member of the New York bar, judge of Boone Co., Ill., and during the war was adjutant-general of Illinois. James Ensign, the third son, was for some years a prominent teacher. He was an officer in the army during the Mexican war, and died at Vera Cruz. Henry early exhibited an inclination for business, and at the age of fifteen resolved to free himself from the restraints of school and face the world for himself. He started out with a capital of only one dollar and fifty cents, but he was endowed with indomitable perseverance and untiring energy, which crowned his earliest efforts with success. He first obtained employment as a vender of stencil plates, but his ambition soon led him to engage in the business on his own account, which he did with remarkable success. He manufactured the plates, employing agents to sell them, and soon had a business extending over the Canadas and many of the States. He next entered his brother's printing-office, and served an apprenticeship of four years. During this time he married Miss Sarah Nicholson, of Warsaw, N. Y. In 1846 he was employed on the Chicago daily Journal, which position he left to assume charge of the Joliet (Illinois) Denocrat. Later he purchased the Lockport (Illinois) Telegraph, which under his management soon took high rank among the journals of that day. In 1850, becoming imbued with the popular " gold fever," he disposed of his property, fitted out an expedition, and started overland for California, arriving at Haughtown, now Placerville, in August of that year. He first engaged in buying and selling horses, which competition soon compelled him to abandon. He invested money in several mining spec ulations, which proved disastrous. He then organized a company and built a quartz-mill, which also proved a losing enterprise. Depleted in purse, but not disheartened, he took up a large ranche at Rose Valley, near the Yuba River, and planted it with potatoes. He had an immense yield, which he sold at the enormous price of six dollars per bushel. While engaged in potato-raising he obtained a charter from the State Legislature, and built a toll-road from Eureka to Grass Valley, which also was a pecuniary success. From the proceeds of the last two ventures he restored his fallen fortunes. In 1854 he left his ranche and again embarked in the newspaper business, purchasing an interest in the Nevada City Journal. This enterprise he successfully carried on until 1856, when a fire destroyed nearly the whole business portion of the city, including the Journal office. He then returned East, arriving in 1857 at Greenville, then a little hamlet in the pine woods of Northern Michigan. Here were magnificent forests of pine yet untouched, and the inhabitants of the embryo city of Greenville were totally unconscious of the vast wealth within their grasp. Few were engaged in lumbering, the only outlet being by means of rafts floated down Flat River. Mr. Fuller saw the grand possibilities for the future of the lumber business here, and, immediately purchasing a mill and a large tract of pine, commenced the manufacture of lumber. When the civil war broke out he was among the first to enter the service of his country. He enlisted as a private in the First United States Lancers, and was soon promoted to the rank of quartermaster. Six months after the regiment was mustered in the government decided not to employ that branch of the service, and Mr. Fuller returned home. He was very popular with his brother-officers and men, and upon retiring from the regiment was presented with an elegant gold watch and chain as a token of their regard and esteem. He at once obtained a commission as captain, raised a company, and went again into the service. He was taken prisoner at Harper's Ferry, and after being exchanged found himself ruined in health and compelled to resign. He returned to Greenville and reentered the lumber business, in which he has since been extensively engaged. He has also been engaged in other enterprises, all of which have been successful. He is president and principal owner of the stock of the Greenville Gas-light Company, which, under his management, has taken place among the permanent institutions of the city. He is an extensive landed proprietor, owning considerable real estate in Greenville, a large farm six miles out of town, and large tracts of valuable pine-lands. Himself and brother, Allen, own a large amount of pine-lands near Ashland, Wis., and at this writing they are making preparations to erect a large saw-mill for the extensive manufacture of lumber at that place. He is a stockholder and director of the First National Bank of Greenville; also builder and owner of one of the finest little opera-houses in the interior of Michigan. Mr. Fuller has always taken a deep interest in the welfare of the city, and has contributed largely to every enterprise of public interest. The vigor and energy with which he pushes to a successful completion every project, either public or private, which he undertakes, has given him a prominent position among the business men of the com munity. He has never sought political preferment, though he has served a term as alderman of Greenville. Mr. Ful 4 I I CITY OF GREENVILLE. 393 CR L ler is a Mason of high rank, having taken thirty-two degrees, there being but one higher in the order. In 1864 he married his second wife, Miss Cynthia A. Stratford, daughter of Dr. H. K. Stratford, of Chicago. He has had a family of eight children, only two of whom are now living. The family are all members of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Mr. Fuller is a pleasant companion, an earnest and devoted friend, and in all the relations of life is highly esteemed for his integrity and unwavering adherence to the cause and principles which he believes to be right. JOHN AVERY, M.D. John Avery was born in Watertown, N. Y., Feb. 29, 1824. He is the eldest son of John and Susan (Mitchell) Avery. His father served in the war of 1812. Mr. Avery attended the district school in Chautauqua Co., N. Y., and Clinton Co., Mich. He also studied a part of two Michigan Infantry, and in the following year was promoted to the rank of surgeon. He remained in the army until the close of the war; was present at the battles of Perryville, Stone River, Lookout Mountain, Chickamauga, and Bentonville, and was with Gen. Sherman on his march to the sea. During the last year of the war he acted as brigade surgeon, and with his regiment was mustered out of service at Detroit in June, 1865. Returning to his home in Otisco, Dr. Avery resumed the duties of a practicing physician, and remained there two years. In January, 1867, he removed to Greenville, making that a permanent place of residence. His knowledge as a physician and his skill as a surgeon were so highly appreciated that he was called upon to practice in all that section of the State. In 1872 he erected a handsome brick store, renting the building for a drug-store, and in 1875, having decided to retire from active practice, he purchased the stock and engaged in the drug business, in which he continues, practicing occasionally. As a practitioner, Dr. Avery was eminently successful. While in Otisco he was intimately identified with the township and county interests. He was supervisor of Otisco township, and has been connected with the city government of Greenville as an alderman and member of the school board. In 1868 he was elected to the State Legislature as the Montcalm County representative. During his term of service he introduced and advocated the resolution admitting women to the State university. Dr. Avery is president of the Northern Medical Association. He has belonged to the Masonic fraternity since 1853. He is a member of the Episcopal Church and senior warden of the church at Greenville. In May, 1852, he married Jane H. Ewell, daughter of Samuel Ewell, of Romeo, Mich. They have two sons and two daughters. The eldest son, Frank P., graduated at West Point, June, 1878; is now lieutenant in the regular army. Dr. Avery for many years has had an extensive surgical practice. His skill in this branch of his profession is of the highest order. He has twice successfully performed the difficult operation of ovariotomy, and twice successfully ligated the common carotid artery, besides performing many other extremely rare surgical operations. CHARLES M. MARTIN, M.D. Charles M. Martin was born at Portage, Wyoming Co., N. Y., July 4, 1839. When five years of age the family removed to Akron, Ohio, where the subject of this sketch remained until he was sixteen years of age, receiving such educational advantages as were offered by the common schools and the Akron Academy. In 1855 he came to Ionia County with his father's family, who settled in Otisco, where he remained several years, working on the farm summers and teaching school winters, with the exception of one year spent at the Agricultural College at Lansing, until 1861, when he commenced the study of medicine with Dr. Dolley, of that town. Subsequently he attended the medical college at Ann Arbor, and afterwards took a second course at the Bellevue Medical College at New York, where he graduated. Dr. Martin commenced the practice of medicine at JOHN AVERY...D. JOHN AVERY, M.D. years at the academy at Grass Lake, which was conducted by Rev. Hiram Elmer. He attended or taught school in the winter and worked on his father's farm in summer, until he reached the age of twenty-one. In 1847 he began the study of medicine with Dr. Whaley, of Grass Lake, and in 1848 went to Duplain, continuing his studies for several months with Dr. Watson. He then went to Cleveland, Ohio, where he attended lectures at the medical college, graduating in 1849 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Removing to Owosso, Mich., Dr. Avery entered into a partnership with Dr. J. B. Barnes, a physician there, and commenced the practice of his profession. In the spring of 1854 he removed to Ionia, where he practiced with Dr. D. W. Bliss. At the expiration of his engagement with Dr. Bliss he removed to Otisco, and continued the practice of his profession until 1862. IIe was then appointed assistant surgeon to the Twenty-first 50 394 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. I Greenville in the spring of 1864. Although the profession was well represented in the enterprising village, the young doctor soon established a good practice. In 1867 he formed a copartnership with Dr. Avery, which continued until 1871, when, in consequence of failing health, Dr. Martin removed to Longmont, Col., where he was elected pres JOSEPH J. SHEARER. Joseph J. Shearer was born in Arcadia, Wayne Co., N. Y., May 19, 1832. His parents, Jonathan and Christiana Shearer, were both natives of Massachusetts, and were of Scotch and English ancestry. They removed to Wayne Co., N. Y., in 1824, and thence, in 1836, to Plymouth, Wayne Co., Mich. The male members of the family have been noted for mental ability, fine presence, and longevity. The grandfather of Joseph Shearer was one of eight brothers who averaged six feet in height and two hundred pounds in weight. When the youngest was over sixty years of age they walked to church together, still stalwart men. His father entered largely into public affairs, and held many offices of trust in both county and State. Being exceedingly desirous to give his son a liberal education, he placed him at an early age in Plymouth Academy, where he acquired a fair knowledge of English branches. His teacher, though an excellent scholar, had no knowledge of the practical affairs of life, and Joseph Shearer became so impatient of knowledge gained from books alone that he found the restraints of the school-room unbearable. He was very fond of outdoor sports, especially hunting in the forest, where nature from the very impressiveness of its silence moulded and strengthened his undeveloped mind. His education since then has been largely derived from / v I ident of the Chicago Colorado Colony; was also editor of the Longmont Press. After remaining there one year, Dr. Martin had so far recovered his health that he returned to Greenville and resumed the practice of his profession, and is one of the leading physicians of the county. He is a member of the Union Medical Society of Northern Michigan; also a member of the State Medical Society. Politically, Dr. Martin is a Republican, and believes that all good citizens should take a conscientious part in the political questions of the day. His father and grandfather were outspoken and uncompromising Abolitionists. The doctor cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln, and has since been an active member of that party. He is the present mayor of the city of Greenville. Dr. Martin was married, March 28, 1865, to Sarah E. Ecker, of Plesis, Jefferson Co., N. Y., by whom he has had three children. One died in infancy; Charles Herbert was born Aug. 17, 1869; Hugh Warren, born May 21, 1871. Dr. and Mrs. Warren are members of the Congregational Church. In educational matters he takes an active part and is a member of the board of education. In social relations he is genial and companionable, in business matters prompt and reliable, and as a citizen respected and influential. JOSEPH J. SIEARER. careful reading and the observation of human nature in an active life among his fellow-men. When quite young he showed marked ability in trafficking. He came to Montcalm County, where he endeavored to purchase a piece of land which attracted his attention, offering in exchange his gun and watch, which were his sole possessions. The offer was accepted on condition that the gun would prove true. The gun, which had never failed its owner before, did not fail him now. Three shots were fired so accurately that the balls leaded into one. The barter was accomplished, and the property afterwards proved valuable, being situated CITY OF GREENVILLE. 395 -- -I in the business part of the main street of Greenville. It is now covered with fine brick buildings. Jan. 24,1852, he left Greenville for California, where he spent three years engaged in placer-mining. He introduced and erected the first hydraulic power for mining purposes ever used in that State. In 1855 he returned to Greenville and engaged successfully in mercantile and lumber business, farming, and building. He was a charter member of the First National Bank of Greenville, and was elected and re-elected its president. He also held other important offices in the city. He became a member of the Masonic fraternity in 1859. Mr. Shearer is noted for his earnest desire to assist the deserving, and for his public spirit. He first became interested in politics in 1856, and is a strong believer in " Squatter Sovereignty," but never allows his peculiar views to make him blind to error. He endeavors to give his hearty support to the best man. He was married May 10, 1856, to Harriet Serviss. They have two daughters,-Armie, born July 12, 1859, and Ettie, born March 3, 1861. VILLAGES AND TOWNSHIPS OF MONTCALM COUNTY. EU RE (KA.* THE- southwestern corner township in Montcalm was surveyed as town 9 north, of range 8 west, and when organized was named Eureka. Its boundaries are Montcalm township on the north, Ionia County on the south, Fair Plains township on the east, and Kent County on the west. A conspicuous feature in the topography of the town is found in the presence of numerous so-called lakes, to the number of fourteen or more. Baldwin Lake, the largest, is almost wholly within the limits of Greenville City. Next in size may be mentioned Burgess Lake, while, as to the residue, they are chiefly insignificant in extent. The surface of the country is rolling, and in many places, especially near the banks of the Flat River and Wabasis Creek, as well as about the lakes, there are marshy tracts that aggregate considerable territory. The city of Greenville, although occupying geographically a place in town 9 north, range 8 west, has nothing in common with the township of Eureka, of which it is, however, the business centre and market-town. Flat River, possessing mill-power of some consequence, and the Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad traverse the township via Greenville. EUREKA'S EARLY SETTLERS. From Hon. Westbrook Divine, now living in Eureka, is received the statement that the first settlement in not only Eureka township, but in Montcalm County, was made in August, 1843. The story of that settlement, together with mention of incidents leading thereto and following after, is herewith presented as related by Mr. Divine himself. In August, 1843, Stephen H. Warren and R. K. Divine, then living in Central New York, started for the far West in search of land locations. After looking over the southern portion of the State, where they hoped to find places to suit them, without, however, succeeding to their taste, they visited Grand Rapids. There they met John Ball, who advised them to visit Montcalm County, and, acting upon the suggestion, they found, sure enough, in what is now Eureka township, such land-tracts as they wanted. Each selected one hundred and twenty acres on section 34, and, thus having finished what he had come for, Divine returned at once to the East for his family. Warren concluded to stop behind, and, arranging to board at John Shaw's, in Otisco, worked during the month ensuing upon his Eureka farm, breaking up in that time about four acres. Mr. War* By David Schwartz. 396 ren's work, as noted, may therefore be regarded as the first attempt at land-clearing in Eureka, and probably in the county as well. R. K. Divine reached his New York home in August, 1843, and on the 4th of September following started once more for Michigan, accompanied by his wife and brother Westbrook. Journeying via lake to Detroit, they bought an ox-team at the latter place and pushed on by way of Scott's and Lyons village. Ten days after leaving Detroit, and sixteen after the departure from their New York home, they landed at John Shaw's, September 20th. They found Warren still on the ground, and, assisted by him and Westbrook Divine, R. K. Divine put up a framed house on section 34, the lumber being obtained at Dickinson's mill, in Otisco. Touching Stephen Warren, it may be briefly stated that he left for New York a few days after the arrival of the Divines, married there, and returned to Eureka in July, 1844, for a permanent settlement. He remained a citizen of the town until his death, in 1878. Mr. Divine's house, into which he moved Oct. 29, 1843, is said to have been the first house erected in the county. It still stands upon its original site, and serves as the residence of William C. Booker, who owns a portion of the R. K. Divine farm. R. K. Divine lived in Eureka until 1866, when he removed to Oakland County, in Michigan, where he now resides. Hon. Westbrook Divine assisted his brother, R. K., until December, 1843, when he bought sixty acres, and between work upon his own place and occasional labors for his brother he divided his time and energies until January, 1845, when, on the 27th of that month, he married Elizabeth Roosa, of Otisco, and took a place among the actual settlers of Eureka. Although Mr. Divine was the first one of Eureka's settlers to marry, he was married, as a matter of fact, out of the town. The first marriage in the town was that of Abraham Roosa, of Otisco, to Deborah, daughter of John Green, in February, 1845, at Mr. Green's house, in what is now the city of Greenville.t While on this topic it may be well enough to remark that the first birth in the town was that of Josephine, daugh t The marriage ceremony was performed by Elder Newcomb Godfrey, a Christian minister, who was in that locality a clergyman of considerable prominence. Among the wedding-guests were Josiah Russell and wife, Charles Morse, Anna B. Belding, Lyman Russell, R. K. Divine and wife, Westbrook Divine and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Peter Bull. EUREKA. 397. ter of John Green, in June, 1845. She is now known as Mrs. Ross Starkweather, and lives in Greenville. The first male child born was John, son of R. K. Divine, Jan. 16, 1846. His home is now in Oakland Co., Mich. The first death was that of Mrs. John Loucks, who died in 1846, and was buried on the bank of the Flat River, above Greenville. After her death burials were chiefly made on Enos T. Peck's place, east of Greenville. But few persons were interred there, however, before the town laid out a burial-place west of Greenville. There was some controversy as to the proper place for the location of the town cemetery, for about every man in town wanted the graveyard near his place, and when the matter came before the town board for decision there was such a conflict of opinion that, as the only method of determining who should locate the burial-ground, it was resolved to draw cuts. It happened that the task fell to Westbrook Divine, who bought of John Green four acres of land lying just west of Greenville, for which he paid one hundred dollars. His action in paying so much money for a cemetery site was generally regarded as a species of wild extravagance, and as a clincher popular argument pointed to the conclusion that the four acres would never be entirely occupied with graves, for the reasoning was that the town would not have people enough to make a sufficient number of deaths probable within at least a century. Divine simply said, " Wait and see;" and, lo I the graveyard has long since been so crowded with graves that no burials have taken place there for many a day. Returning to the subject of early settlement, notice may be made of the fact that until the summer of 1845, R. K. Divine, Westbrook Divine, and Stephen Warren lived with their families in R. K. Divine's house. Warren built a house in 1845, and Westbrook Divine one in 1846. In the earliest days of the settlement milling was done at Ionia and wheat-marketing chiefly at Grand Rapids. The latter trip, made with ox-team via Plainfield, and there across the river via ferry, usually consumed three days for the round journey. When the night-camp was made bells were tied upon the cattle, and the traveler himself, using the ox-yoke as his pillow, slept soundly enough until opening dawn warned him to be up and away. Westbrook Divine hauled a load of twenty-four bushels of wheat to Grand Rapids, and, selling it at fifty cents per bushel, took his pay in money issued by Daniel Ball's bank. Before he reached home the bank failed, and the twelve dollars that young Divine had looked upon as a fat reward for his produce and labored efforts to get it to market melted away to nothingness, like mist before the morning sun. It was pretty hard, but he had to stand it. After keeping the money a year in the hope that it would be redeemed he sold it at seven cents on the dollar, at which rate it yielded him for his wheat just three cents and a half per bushel. Lyman H. Pratt, Ethan Satterlee, Sr., and Westbrook Divine, as the first board of highway commissioners of Montcalm township, laid out the first roads in the present town of Eureka. One of the roads was a continuation, from the south town-line of Montcalm, of the road coming northward from Cook's Corners. That road they carried on to Lincoln's mill on the north,-a distance of eight miles. It is the one now in use between the points named. Another road laid about the same time was one from Warren's Corners to Greenville, and a third a branch road from Greenville into Fair Plains. Besides having been one of the first highway commissioners chosen in Montcalm, Westbrook Divine was chosen the first town clerk of Eureka; was in 1850 elected county register of deeds, in which office he continued four years; has been supervisor of Eureka from 1856 to 1881 (with the exception of only two years); served two terms as State senator, from 1863 to 1867; was appointed United States assessor in 1867, and retained the place until the office was abolished, in 1872; was in 1875 appointed by Governor Bagley as one of the commissioners of the Ionia house of correction, of which he is now one of the board of managers; has been president of the Excelsior Agricultural Society of Qtisco since 1871; has been president and a member of the board of directors of the People's Fire Insurance Company of the counties of Ionia and Montcalm; has been one of the town officers ever since Eureka was organized; and for a long time has been prominently identified with grange affairs in town, county, and State. Such a record is of some consequence, and in a historical way receives additional lustre from the fact that its possessor and author is the oldest living resident in the county and one of its very first settlers. One of the earliest land-entries in Montcalm County is said to be a tract of forty-nine acres in lot No. 8, on section 22, upon the bank of the Flat River. The patentee, Silas Saxton, of New York, entered the land in 1839, and since that time it has lain wholly idle. Mr. Saxton has regularly paid taxes on it, and when asked why he does not improve it or sell it says that he wants to keep it for the satisfaction of owning some Michigan land, and that, although he does not care to have it improved, his children may some day take a notion to make a farm of it. The earliest comers (outside of Greenville), next to the Divines and Warrens, were the Satterlees. There were Ethan Satterlee and his three married sons,-Alexander, Ethan, Jr., and Henry (each of whom was a man of family),-and four unmarried sons and daughters. The Satterlees owned about six hundred acres of land located on sections 7, 8, and 28. Henry, who had come on to prepare the way, as it were, had been on the ground about two weeks when his father and the other members of the family came on. When the latter reached Eureka all hands moved into Henry's shanty, and on the following day Satterlee and his sons put up a house, and finished it before night ready for occupancy, although, truth to tell, it was not much of a house. The Satterlees brought in five pairs of horses and a drove of cattle, the horses being the first animals of that kind to enter the town. There had been horses in the vicinity, owned by Cook, Morse, and Shaw, but they lived in Otisco. Ethan Satterlee, the elder, and his son Alexander, located on section 8, Henry on section 7, and Ethan, Jr., on section 28. The Divines and War ren probably put in the first wheat, but Ethan Satterlee set out in 1845 what was doubtless the first orchard, the trees for which he brought from Jackson. 398 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. i I Of Mr. Satterlee's sons named as early settlers, Henry lives on the farm he first occupied, in 1845, Ethan, Jr., is dead, and Alexander lives in Greenville. One of Ethan Satterlee's daughters, named Catharine, taught at Greenville, in 1846, the first school known in Montcalm County. She taught two summers in Greenville, and for two summers after that in the Loucks neighborhood, east of Greenville, where Harriet Wilcox was perhaps the first teacher. Miss Satterlee, who still resides on some of the land originally occupied by her father, says that when, in 1849, she taught in the Loucks neighborhood,-the settlers thereabouts included the two Loucks families, the Maynards, Sandersons, Sanders, Moores, and Moors. North of Greenville, on the Flat River, in section 9, was a small band of Indians called Blacksmith Indians, who, to the number of a dozen or more, lived on a forty-acre patch of land and pretended to cultivate it, but who did far less land-cultivating than loafing and begging. They lived in huts and eked out a precarious existence by hunting, fishing, and sugar-making until the filling up of the country drove out the game, and then the loafing redskins made off for more northerly latitudes. In 1846, John C. Stockholm, a New Yorker, came West to embark in the lumbering business with the Worden brothers of Wordens' Mills, in Montcalm township. When Stockholm reached the country he concluded the lumbering business would not suit him, and, determining to engage in pioneering in its stead, bought of James Kerr, on section 33, in Eureka, a farm of which Mr. Kerr had improved thirty-six acres, and had built thereon a log house and framed barn, the latter (erected in 1845) being the first one of the kind in Eureka. On the town-line, south of him, were R. K. Divine, Westbrook Divine, Stephen Warren, and Lorenzo Whitney. The latter, who had been in about two years, lived east of Westbrook Divine, and after a residence of seven years moved back to New York State, where he now lives. In 1847, A. G. Stockholm, brother of John C., came out to Eureka to look around, and looked around to such good purpose that he bought one hundred and twenty acres of land on section 32. In 1848 he went back to New York State and married. In 1849 he returned to Michigan for a permanent settlement, and since then has lived in Eureka. John C. Stockholm resided in Eureka until 1865, when he embarked in business at Cook's Corners, in Otisco, where he still abides. About the time of A. G. Stockholm's coming to Eureka, in 1847, came also Josiah Bradish, who in 1850 sold out to William Stokes and moved to Fair Plains. Henry M. Moore, already mentioned as one of the earliest settlers, opened the first store in the township, on section 11, in 1848, just without the present limits of Greenville. William Backus, now of Greenville, was one of Mr. Moore's clerks, of whom two others were W. E. Sholes and E. B. Campbell. The location was probably not a profitable one for trade, for after a two years' experience Mr. Moore closed the store. Outside of Greenville, that was the only temple of trade Eureka ever possessed. The first white woman to penetrate into the territory north of Wabasis Creek is said to have been a woman who in the spring of 1844 went over the creek and into Greenville to keep house for John Green and his mill-hands. Her name cannot now be recalled. As to early settlers other than those already mentioned, George Loucks died in Missouri; Henry Van Alien still lives in Eureka; Enoch Wilcox is dead (his son Enoch now living on the old place); John Porter lives at Grand Rapids; Fite Rossman is dead; Stephen and Hiram Rossman, his sons, live in Eureka. There were also Nathaniel Coons, the Huffs, Solomon Satterlee, John K. Scouten, Harry Pierce, Levi Makley, Robert Shaw, John Loucks, the Berridges, Bradick Shontz, S. Monroe, I. M. Wolverton (now of Orange, in Ionia County), and 0. T. Nelson. Mr. Nelson came in somewhere about 1850, and not long afterwards caused the creation of Eureka post-office and the appointment of himself as postmaster,-a place that he held until the office was discontinued. Briefer reference to the settlers in Eureka in 1850 will be found in the article giving the list of tax-payers in the town in 1851. RESIDENT TAX-PAYERS IN EUREKA IN 1851. Names. Sections. A. W. Maynard................................................ 14 Levi M ekley...................................................2, 11 R. R. M ones..................................................... 12 Monroe........................................... Personal -- Nelson.............................................. 33 John Porter..................................................13, 14 Miles Porter..........................................., 12 Levi Peck............................................ 14 Abel French........................................... 9 Ebenezer Ferren.................................... 15 John Green................................................ 9 Thomas Green.................................................. 9 George Loucks................................................... 9 John Loucks.................................................... 9 Henry M. Moore................................. 10 Enos T. Peck.................................................... 15 Henry Parker............................................... 15 Charles Parker................................................. 9 Manning Rutan...................................4, 5, 9, 10, 15 Stephen Rossman............................................... 10 Hiram Rossman................................................ 9 Abram Roosa.................................................... 9 Dr. Richardson............................................. 9 Hiram H. Slawson............................................ 16 Adam Loucks................................................... 14 Elias Small....................................................... 10 M. Shearer.......................................... 9 H. E. Tucker.................................................. 10 W. Van Derhoof................................................ 9 George Van Ness................................................ 9 E. Van Derhoof............................................... 9 I. W. Van Fossen.............................................. 9 N. Slaght......................................................... 10 Blacksmith Indians.................................... 9 S. W illson........................................................ 9 George Holmden.................................... 10 J. W. Petty..........................................3, 5, 6, 10, 9 William S. Hillman............................................ 28 Charles Hubbs.................................................1, 2 Ross Hoffman................................ 23 William Holmden............................................2, 11 Calvin Mead.............................. 35 Jonathan Arnold...................................... 20 J. C. Burgess................................................ 20 Abel Bills................................................. 18 William Backus................................................ 13 Alford Brown.......................................... 5 Ed. Butler..................................................... 5 James Chamberlain....................................Personal Nathaniel Coons............................................ 32 Samuel Covey............................................Personal R. K. Divine............................................ 34, 35 Westbrook Divine............................................. 34 Amos S. Fay................................................. 7 I. W. Irons........................................ 18 Wheeler Sholes.................................................. 18 Lyman Hay...................................................... 21 James Kent............................................... 2, 3 Harry Pierce...............................................21, 22 Oliver Pierce..................................................... 20 Luke Robinson................................................. 12 EUREKA. 399 E Names. Sections. Noah Robbins.................................................. 11 Fite Rossman.................................................... 3 George Rossman............................................... 2 L. D. Rhodes,....................... 30, 32 W illiam Stokes.................................................. 33 A.G. Stockholm.............................................29, 32 J. C. Stockholm..............................................19, 33 Bradick Shontz................................................. 19 J. R. Scouten...3....................................... 33 Solomon Satterlee...........................................18, 19 Ethan Satterlee, Jr................................... 28 Freeman Satterlee..........................................19, 20 Catharine Satterlee................................. 20 Abraham Satterlee.......................................Personal Ethan Satterlee........................... 7, 8, 17 Alexander Satterlee............................... 8, 17 Daniel Stokes.................................................... 28 Ezra Satterlee............................... 7 Henry Satterlee............................ 7 John M. Selden..................... 6 E. M. Stevens................................................ 9 M. Savery............................................ 9 James Smith................................................. 23 Asa Starkweather................... Personal Allen Thompson............................................... 32 Henry Van Allen............................................... 1 I. M. W olverton.......................................... 6 John Wolverton................................... 6 S. H. W arren.................................................... 3 E. R. W ilcox..................................................... 23 Enoch W ilcox................................................. 23 W illiam W ells.................................................. 25 B. W ells........................................................... 28 B. R. W eaver............................................ 29 William Weed...............................Peronal Sherman W ise................................................... 32 Abner Demera.................................................... 32 George N. Kelly................................................5, 8 0. B. Russell........................................ 5 Robert Shaw.................................................... 8 Coffin................................................ Personal TOWNSHIP HIGHWAYS. From the highway records of the township of Montcalm, it appears that previous to the organization of town 9 there were twenty surveys of roads in that town. The first four were as follows: May 27, 1845, a road commencing at a post twenty chains east of section 33, and ending at the mill-yard of Green & Co.; Sept. 9, 1845, a road commencing at the quarter-post on the side of section 33, and ending at the quarter-post on the side of section 6; Dec. 9, 1845, a road commencing at the northeast corner of section 16, and running eastward to the quarter-post on the east side of section 13. June 25, 1846, a road lying on a line between the towns of Montcalm and Courtland, commencing at the northwest corner of section 6, town 9 north, range 8 west, and ending at the southeast corner of section 31, town 9 north, range 8 west. May 13, 1850, the township of Eureka was divided into ten road-districts. District No. 1 included sections 7, 8, 17, and 18. No. 2 commenced at the southwest corner of section 16, ran east to Flat River, up the river to the quarter-section line on the east side of section 9; thence north on said line to the northeast corner of said section; thence west to the northwest corner of said section; thence south to the southwest corner of section 16, the place of beginning. No. 3 commenced at the quarter-post on the north side of section 2, running south on the quarter-line to the quarter-post on the south side of section 11; thence west on section-line to the centre of Flat River; thence up the centre of Flat River to the west side of section 10; thence north to the northwest corner of section 3; thence east to the quarter-post on the north side of section 2, to the place of beginning. No. 4 included sections 13 and 14, and all of 15 lying on the eastern side of Flat River. No. 5 included the south half of section 25, the south half of 26, the whole of 27, the southeast quarter of 28, the east half of 33, the whole of 34, 35, and 36, and lot No. 8 on section 22. No. 6 included section 1, the east half of 2, the east half of 11, and the whole of 12. No. 7 included the southwest quarter of section 28, the south half of 29, the south half of 30, the whole of 31 and 32, and the west half of 33. No. 8 commenced at the northwest corner of section 19, and ran eastward to the centre of Flat River; thence down the river to the quarter-line of section 27; thence west to the quarter-post on the west side of section 30; thence north to the place of beginning. No. 9 included sections 4, 5, and 6. No. 10 commenced at the northeast corner of section 24, and ran west to Flat River; thence down said river to the quarter-line of section 26; thence east to the quarter-post on the east side of 25; thence north to the place of beginning. SCHOOLS. ORGANIZATION OF DISTRICTS. April 15, 1848, the school inspectors of Montcalm township formed in that town certain school districts, of which districts 1, 2, 3, and 6 were embraced in town 9 north, range 8 west, as follows: No. I contained sections 4, 9, 15, and 16, and all of section 10 except the northeast quarter. No. 2 contained sections 1, 2, 3, 11, and the northeast quarter of section 10. No. 3 included sections 12, 13, 14, 23, and 24. No. 6 comprised sections 5, 6, 7, 8, 17, 18, the north half of 19, and the north half of 20. Sept. 14, 1850, the township of Eureka organized districts 4 and 5. No. 4 was ordained to contain the south half of section 27, the south half of 28, the south half of 29, the south half of 30, the whole of sections 31, 32, 33, and 34, and the west half of 35. No. 5 contained sections 21 and 22, the north halves of 27, 28, 29, and 30, and the south halves of 19 and 20. APPOINTMENTS OF TEACHERS. From 1850 to 1863 teachers' certificates were issued by the inspectors of Eureka as follows: Jan. 11, 1851, Mary Burgess; July 12, 1851, Miss M. C. Bement; Nov. 1, 1851, William Chapin; May 1, 1852, Julia Boyce, Lucy M. Hoyt; May 3, 1852, Catharine Satterlee; May 10, 1852, Mary Worcester; May 25, 1852, Elizabeth Ellsworth; June 19, 1852, Amanda M. Demara; Nov. 29, 1852, Enos T. Peck; April 9, 1853, Sarah Stout; April 13, 1853, Josephine Peck, Maria Shearer; May 20, 1853, Miss Watkins; May 25,1853, Elvira McOmber; Aug. 1, 1853, Mary Wells; Nov. 21, 1853, Martha A. Elsbey; Nov. 30, 1853, Miss Chapin; Dec. 20, 1853, Lucy A. Peterson; Jan. 10, 1854, Ebenezer Tolls; April 8, 1854, Mary F. Thompson; April 26, 1854, Mary E. Arnold; May 6, 1854, Catharine Satterlee; July 15, 1854, J. R. Brigham; Nov. 15, 1854, Theresa M. Straat; Jan. 28, 1855, S. D. Barnum; Feb. 13, 1855, Miss Marcia Ellsworth; April 14, 1855, Elmira Dorr; May 1, 1855, Car oline McOmber; May 11, 1855, Sarah A. Steele; May 14, 1855, Sarah S. Fisk; Sept. 10, 1855, Clarissa Sherwood and Rosella Miller; Nov. 21, 1855, George E. Ells 400 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. worth; Dec. 4, 1855, Samuel M. Gibbs and Rosina Miller; Dec. 22, 1855, Mary Ingalls; April 19, 1856, Maria Shearer and Julia Shearer; April 22, 1856, Eliza M. Blinn; April 25, 1856, Adelia Blinn and - Mead; April 29, 1856, Adeline Van Ness and M. Slayton; Oct. 28, 1856, Wilman Korchrecht; April 4, 1857, Josephine Peck, Aminie Richardson, and Adeline Miller; Sept. 4, 1857, William Martin and S. B. Ormsby; Dec. 28, 1857, P. R. Griffith; Jan. 30, 1858, Angelus Johnston; March 27, 1858, Maria Shearer, Adaline Vanness, Mary Ellsworth; April 10, 1858, Helen Peck, Matilda Moors, Laura Baldwin, and Rheuma Haskins; June 13, 1858, Miss M. Ingalls and Theresa Straat; Nov. 6, 1858, Lucina A. Miller; March 30, 1859, Carrie E. Davidson; April 9, 1859, Margaret Luscombe and George V. Kelly; April 30, 1859, Ellen E. Skey, Mary Conant; Nov. 5, 1859, Emory Moon; Nov. 7, 1859, Miss S. B. Willett; Nov. 11, 1859, Minerva T. Pollock; Nov. 14, 1849, Mr. E. Walling; Nov. 22, 1859, Wm. R. Martin; Dec. 9, 1859, Jennie A. Fisk; April 7, 1860, Mary Wing; April 14, 1860, Helen Peck and Mahala Moore, May 5, 1860, Kate E. Farrand; May 11, 1860, Adeline Miller; Oct. 13, 1860, E. H. Crowell; Nov. 3, 1860, Sophia Wheeler, Loren Fales, and Aaron Jenkins; Nov. 10, 1860, Nancy M. Anderson; Nov. 16, 1860, James W. Long; April 13, 1861, Carrie McOmber, Imogene Peck, Helen M. Peck, Catharine Satterlee, Mahala Moore, Hannah M. Huff, and Sarah L. Light; May 28, 1861, Mary D. Wright; Dec. 4, 1861, E. S. Smith; Dec. 7, 1861, Adeline House; April 7, 1862, Francis Town; April 7,1864, Catharine Satterlee, Ellen M. Hall, Emma E. Fiske, Jennie M. Belding, Hannah M. Huff, Mahala Wood, and Sarah Light; April 19, 1862, Eliza A. Hale; May 31, 1862, Miss A. Richardson; Aug. 18, 1862, Mrs. Crowell; Nov. 1, 1862, Hattie Moore, Clarissa Holden, Mahala Moore, Lizzie P. McRae, Catharine Satterlee, Hannah Huff, Mary Jane Rose, and Elizabeth Clark; April 11, 1863, C. W. Borst, Clarissa Holden, Mahala Moore, Julia Caukin, Arvilla Beams; April 16, 1863, Mrs. Weaver, Miss Wright; April 18, 1863, Sophia Wheeler and Matilda E. Rice; April 25, 1863, Lettia Satterlee; April 18, 1863, J. K. Been; April 23, 1863, Hannah M. Huff. The annual school report for 1880 gives the following and the first meeting ordered to be held at " the district school-house, near the Greenville post-office." The name chosen for the town at the meeting called to christen it was Wa-ba-sis, after the creek of that name that flows through the township, the creek itself having been named, long before that, after Wa-ba-sis, an Indian chief who (so relates his son John), for having offended his tribe in deeding certain lands to the United States, was condemned to be banished to that region of country lying north of Wa-ba-sis Creek and west of Flat River, the understanding being that he was not to venture south of the creek under penalty of death. Unfortunately for him, he allowed designing Indians to persuade him to take part in a pow-wow at the mouth of Flat River, and during the ceremonies he was set upon and killed. The name Wa-ba-sis did not appear to strike the fancy of A. L. Roof, the legislative representative of the district, as favorably as it had the townspeople, and of his own volition he substituted Eureka, but just why does not appear. The good people of the town were at first inclined to look upon Mr. Roof's amendment as discourteous, but they concluded by and by that the matter was a small one to get mad about, and good-naturedly accepted the situation. The first town-meeting was held in the school-house of District No. 1, April 1, 1850. Stephen H. Warren was chosen moderator, Ethan Satterlee inspector, John Porter and Aaron G. Stockholm clerks. The votes cast numbered sixty-six, and were given for the following: Supervisors: Rosekrans Divine, 51;t George Loucks, 10; R. R. Divine, 1. Clerk: Westbrook Divine, 66.t Treasurer: A. W. Maynard, 38;t E. R. Wilcox, 7; E. H. Wilcox, 6; Augustus Mainard, 2; A. Mainard, 1. Justices of the Peace: Hiram H. Slawson, 65;t John M. Sheldon, 58;t John Sheldon, 8; H. H. Slawson, 1. Highway Commissioners: John C. Stockholm, for three years, 54;t Abram Roosa, for two years, 38;t Charles Parker, for two years, 15; Ethan Satterlee, for two years, 3; Alexander Satterlee, for one year, 53;t Abram Roosa, for one year, 3; C. Parker, for one year, 1. School Inspectors: John Porter, 44;t Josiah Bradish, 43.t Assessors: Nathaniel Coons, 19;t George Van Ness, 12;t Ezra Satterlee, 9. Constables: Henry Satterlee, 54;t Enoch R. Wilcox, 42;t J. M. Becker, 29;t Elijah Van Derhoof, 12;t Nathaniel Coons, 11; William Becker, 9; George Van Ness, 6; John M. Becker, 5; J. N. Becker, 1; Jacob M. Becker, 1; E. R. Wilcox, 1; James Pearce, 1. Overseers of the Poor: Enoch R. Wilcox, 32;t Ethan Satterlee, 29;t Ethan Satterlee, Jr., 9; Enoch H. Wilcox, 4; Enoch Wilcox, 1; E. H. Wilcox, 2; E. R. Wilcox, 1; Elijah Van Derhoof, 1. The following overseers of highways were chosen: Ethan Satterlee, District No. 1; Morton Shearer, District No. 2; Henry M. Moore, District No. 3; Charles Parker, District No. 4; Westbrook Divine, District No. 5; Chubbs Hubley, District No. 6; Aaron G. Stockholm, District No. 7; Joseph Burgess, District No. 8; John M. Sheldon, District No. 9. details: EnumeraDirectors. tEw - Dist. l.....Thos. B. Story. 66 T 2.....L. E. Backus. 61 3*.....T. Belding. 13 3......J. L. Hunter. 52 4......W. Divine. 36 " 5......G. S. Rosevelt, 29 " 6......Wm. B. Warren, 18 7......A. A. Divine. 33 Total..................... 308 Average Attendance. 42 45 18 44 35 18 14 21 237 Value of Teachers' Property. Wages. $400 $127 500 216 400 110 500 160 300 173 200 80 500 108 500 116 $3300 $1090 TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION. Eureka township was organized under Act of Legislature No. 177, approved March 28, 1850. The territory of six miles square was set off from Montcalm township, * Fractional. t Elected. P4RAI - BARM,.,,,,"t isa.^ W IWH; ~i i * -',,. ^^6A^_^^ RESIDENCE OF M.A. BERRIDGE MONTCALM Co. M/CH. II EUREKA. 401 One hundred dollars were voted for township expenses. On the question of license, the vote was in favor thereof by thirty-nine to twenty-two. At a meeting of the town board, Nov. 11, 1850, accounts were audited as follows: John Porter................................................ $6.00 A. G. Stockholm.......................................... 4.50 Nathaniel Coons.......................................... 4.00 Stephen H. W arren....................................... 2.00 John C. Stockholm...................................... 1.50 Charles M. Moseman...................................63 A. F. Carr & Co........................................... 1.94 W estbrook Divine........................................ 20.75 Charles Hubbs, Jr.................................. 3.00 Ethan Satterlee, Jr...................................... 3.00 R. K. Divine............................................... 16.25 Abram Roosa............................................... 3.50 George Van Ness...................................... 3.50 R. K. Divine............................................ 3.00 John Green................................................. 4.50 Total................................................. '$78.07 The persons chosen annually from 1851 to 1880 to serve as supervisors, clerks, treasurers, and justices of the peace are named below: SUPERVISORS. 1851, George Loucks; 1852-53, S. Rossman; 1854, D. C. Moore; 1855, S. Rossman; 1856, W. Divine; 1857-58, J. M. Fuller; 1859-80, W. Divine.-' CLERKS. 1851, E. M. Stephens; 1852, I. W. Van Fossen; 1853, E. Fisher; 1854, J. Lewis; 1855, M. Blair; 1856, A. W. Maynard; 1857, G. V. Kelly; 1858, H. S. Gibbs; 1859-60, G. T. Woodworth; 1861, H. E. Light; 1862, F. S. Peck; 1863-65, J. W. Belknap; 1866, J. F. Loase; 1867-69, W. N. Pettee; 1870, W. H. Conover; 1871-80, A. G. Stockholm. TREASURERS. 1851-52, E. Satterlee; 1853, M. Savery, Jr.; 1854-55, W. Maxted, Jr.; 1856-57, W. Backus; 1858, W. Maxted, Jr.; 1859-61, P. R. Griffith; 1862, R. N. Sherwood; 1863, E. EWilcox; 1864-65, II. H. Slawson; 1866, D. G. Borden; 1867-68, J. W. Belknap; 1869-70, L. L. Bissell; 1871-72, S. Rossman; 1873-75, J. Hull; 1876-78, S. Rossman; 1879-80, A. C. Satterlee. JUSTICES. 1851, C. Hubbs, Jr.; 1852, W. Divine; 1853, E. Satterlee, Jr.; 1854, A. M. Chapin; 1855, C. R. Woodworth; 1856, I. M. Woolverton; 1857, J. G. Stockholm; 1858, S. Sprague; 1859, J. Iuff; 1860, 11. Satterlec; 1861, A. G. Stockholm; 1862, B. Birch; 1863, J. Huff; 1864, G. V. Kelly; 1865, A. G. Stockholm; 1866, W. N. Pettee; 1867, J. Huff; 1868, S. R. Stevens; 1869, A. G. Stockholm; 1870, W. N. Pettee; 1871, John Huff; 1872, H1. Van Allen; 1873, A. G. Stockholm; 1874, H. S;tterlee; 1875, J. Huff; 1876, Charles Snyder; 1877, A. G. Stockholm; 1878, H. Satterlee; 1879, J. Huff; 1880, Charles Snyder. THE VOTERS IN EUREKA IN 1859. The earliest poll-list of Eureka now extant is the one made in 1859 in obedience to the then newly-enacted registration law. The names of those registered follow here: Thomas Allen, James Breese, J. S. Billhart, H. S. Barton, B. 11. Burnham, J. B. Barr, D. Bunnell, Milo Blair, J. C. Burgess, G. B. Bentley, W. Buckle, Joseph Burgess, J. L. Butler, Richard Bentley, Henry Berridge, George Bamlett, Ed. Butler, William Backus, B. S. Begley, 1H. M. Caukin, M. F. Case, S. Conant, L. T. Cole, D. A. Cornell, James B. Chamberlain, A. A. Conant, J. H. Campbell. Nathaniel Coons, Robert Carr, James Calkin, Isaac Cranfield, Warren Clark, H. M. Clark, Joel Clark, Michael Chittick, James Cochran, Van E. G. Danforth, R. K. Divine, A. B. Danforth, W. Divine, L. Demorest, Asa Dean, J. Danforth, William Degraw, J. L. Degraw, A. A. Divine, Abner Demara, W. H. Ellsworth, E. B. Edwards, Charles C. Ellsworth, D. C. Edwards, Charles Ellenwood, D. Fargo, J. M. Fuller, J. Foster, Henry Fort, Squire P. Fuller, D. T. Fargo, Joel Foskett, A. M. Gravel, P. R. Griffith, M. V. Gibson, Joseph Griffith, John Green (2d), Addison Grow, J. C. Holden, John Huff, S. T. Hall, J. H. Harvey, O. M. Hall, G. Holmden, G. V. Herroun, A. Huff, J. H. Herrick, M. C. Hubbs, N. Herrick, A. W. Hubbs, Joseph House, Daniel Hall, J. A. House, R. A. Huffman, J. House, C. S. P. Jackson, P. G. Johnston, G. V. Kelly, Elias Kent, Benj. Knight, T. D. Keeler, William A. Knott, John Kent, J. Lewis; James Kent, W. Leach, H. Eli, William Maxted, Jr., James N. Moors, B. W. Moors, C. T. Mead, A. W. Maynard, S. Miller, F. A. Moon, L. M. McOmber, E. T. Miller, John Miller, Aaron Miller, N. J. Moore, M. McOmber, T. A. Nichols, 0. T. Nelson, C. W. Orcutt, Solon Peck, N. J. Pratt, F. S. Peck, O. L. Pierce, F. Roenigk, E. R. Pierce, S. D. Ross, H. Rossman, J. Rifenberry, G. Rossman, Fite Rossman, L. R. Rossman, M. Rutan, J. L. Rooke, J. Rossman, Jr., William Reckard, N. Robinson, Seth Sprague, A. Stoddart, A. G. Stockholm, N. Small, L. Spaulding, J. K. Scouten, William Stokes, J. C. Smith, E. B. Sanderson, J. E. Small, Ezra Satterlee, Freeman Satterlee, R. N. Sherwood, William Stokes, Jr., W. D. Scott, D. D. Slawson, D. E. Stokes, B. Shontz, R. Smith, S. Satterlee, Henry Satterlee, Ethan Satterlee, Solon Satterlee, Sylvester Satterlee, Robert Shaw, J. M. Sheldon, Morton Shearer, A. J. Satterlee, Ethan Satterlee, J. C. Stockholm, Alexander Satterlee, C. M. Tuttle, A. B. Tallman, James Taylor, Jr., William C. Town, J. R. Tallman, H. Van Allen, J. H. Voorhees, William Van Lieu, Jr., S. H. Warren, G. T. Woodworth, C. R. Woodwoith, B. A. Weaver, I. M. Wolverton, M. Wait, L. M. Waters, C. Wetherbee, J. B. Woodworth, E. R. Wilcox, C. P. Wilcox, Enoch Wilcox, L. Weed, Jerome Woodruff. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. JOEL W. CLARK. Joel W. Clark was born in Allegany Co., N. Y., Feb. 27, 1819. In his father's family there were twelve children, JOEL W. CLARK. only three of whom are now living. Mr. Clark came to Montcalm County in 1854, with sufficient means to purchase one hundred and sixty acres of land adjoining the city of Greenville on the north. There was some improvement * Four hundred and seven votes cast in 1868, and four hundred and thirty-five in 1870. 51 402 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. t upon this land when he took it, and it was not difficult for him to make himself a comfortable home. He was married, Feb. 27, 1862, to Maria L. Smith, daughter of Jonathan C. Smith, from Utica, N. Y., where she was born Sept. 3,1834. Soon after Mr. Clark was married he moved upon his farm, which under his careful management soon became a comfortable and pleasant home. Here he passed the remainder of his days. He was a retiring, unpretentious man, one esteemed for his upright character and fair dealing. He died Jan. 17, 1879, leaving a widow, who carries on the farm, and one son, Floraine C., who was born Nov. 9, 1868, having buried a daughter in the fourth year of her age and a son in infancy. DAVtD G. SLAWSON. David G. Slawson was born in Orange Co., N. Y., Jan. 21, 1821, the youngest of seven children of David Slawson, who moved to Tompkins County when David G. was twelve years of age. Here he grew to manhood, and was married, Feb. 16, 1842, to Maria Tooker. They resided in Tompkins County until September, 1848, when he shipped his household goods to Michigan, took his wife and three children in a lumber-wagon, and came to occupy a piece of land he had previously purchased in Oakfield, some eight niles west of Greenville. At this time the country was sparsely settled. A log house was soon erected, and the arduous task of making a farm in the wilderness at once commenced and successfully carried out. Here Mr. Slawson resided for nineteen years; he had a fine farm, with two hundred acres improved, good buildings, orchard, etc. In the spring of 1867, Mr. Slawson left the old farm in charge of his son Leander B., and purchased one hundred and sixty acres of choice land adjoining the city of Greenville on the east. Upon this land there was a small improvement, but under the management of Mr. Slawson broad and fertile fields have appeared, and a fine brick house with large and commodious outbuildings has been erected. Mr. Slawson has been three times married. His first wife died in 1858, leaving three children. The oldest child died Dec. 5, 1851; Leander is a farmer in Oakfield; George R. is a druggist in Greenville; the daughter, Sarah J., married A. E. Weter, one of the business men of Belding. Mr. Slawson's second wife was Lydia Scovell. She died Feb. 10, 1870. He was again married, to Mrs. Cordelia Dennison, formally Cordelia Warner, of Genesee Co., N. Y., by whom he has one son. JAMES TAYLOR. James Taylor was born in Sodus, N. Y., Jan. 1, 1823. His grandfather was John J. S. Taylor, who was a soldier in the war of the Revolution. Soon after the close of that memorable war he settled in Buckland, Franklin Co., Mass., where he lived many years, then moved to Phelps, Ontario Co., N. Y., when that country was new. There he died, leaving a large family, of whom James, Sr., was the youngest but two of the sons. He was born in Buckland. Sept. 2, 1791; moved to Phelps with his father, where he was married, Dec. 27, 1821, to Mary Maria Wilcox. They lived at Sodus and vicinity until 1836, when they came to Michigan and settled in Van Buren, Wayne Co., where he cleared up a farm, and where he died, April 2, 1864. The immediate subject of this sketch, James Taylor, Jr., lived at home until he was twenty-one. Soon after that he left the paternal roof to seek a home for himself. For a few years he worked as a farm-hand; in 1848 he came to Greenville and worked in a saw-mill until 1851, when he bought an interest in the mill. Was married, April 14, 1852, to Mary Jane Gibbs, daughter of John Gibbs, who came from Pittstown, N. Y., with several families, and settled in Otisco, Ionia Co., on government land, where he accumulated a handsome property. He died April 22, 1864, in his sixty-second year. Mrs. Gibbs is still living at the advanced age of seventy-five years. She makes her home with her daughter, Mrs. Taylor. A few years after Mr. Taylor was married his mill was destroyed by fire. Soon after that he purchased eighty acres of land in section 32, Eureka township, upon which there was a small improvement, and commenced in earnest to make himself a home. Here he has diligently worked for twenty-four years. Other lands have been added to the original eighty. A large, commodious, and modern house has been built, with pleasant surroundings, a view of which may be seen in this work. They have two children,-Helen M., born Oct. 24, 1865, and John E., born Jan. 10, 1854. He was educated and graduated at the State Agricultural College at Lansing. He married Rhodoskey C. Sanders, of Elis, Kansas. They have one daughter, Mary Agnes. HENRY VANALLEN. Henry Vanallen, one of the early settlers of Montcalm County, was born in Franklin, Vt., March 13, 1821. When he was six years of age his mother died, leaving a family of five children. At this event the family was broken up; the children scattered among the friends. Henry, having no permanent home, as soon as he was old enough went to work at such jobs as came in his way until 1840, when he came to Michigan, stopping in Oakland County, where he was married, April, 1848, to Cornelia A. Potter, from North Chili, N. Y., where she was born October, 1831. Soon after they were married Mr. Vanallen brought his wife to Eureka, where he had previously purchased one hundred and twenty acres of land, upon which there was a small log house of the most primitive kind, with little or no other improvement. There were a few settlers in the neighborhood, and Mr. Vanallen hired his wife's board until fall, when they moved into the log house and commenced the arduous task of making a home in the wilderness. With no capital save their own energies, and by judicious management and untiring industry, they have made a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, under a good state of cultivation, with commodious buildings, and have raised a family of three children, two daughters and one son. The oldest daughter, Mary Melvina, married E. RESIDENCE OF JAMES TAYLO R, SECTION 32 EUREKA TP, MONTCALM CO.,MICH. I "I I DAVID C. SLAW/JON. - - - ;T. - u - I 'e., -, I, -v-,,.m- I-iO-.W -- - , %., — 4. I 0-1-; - -,- I /?ES. OF DA VID G. SLA WSON. EU/REKA,4 1141 /korCAUL CO. MICHM. MRA HENRY VANALLEN. HENRY VANALLEN. """'"~i._?-''-~ —~-)~+;c;isi."i~c-;1~,,.? si~,,,,,? ii —. —; -~-~ ~- -—: -~ ~~ ~; r-~~ 2s_ `-~=i I -;;-I - 'Z I i iI I~ I M^s SAMt MONROE. SAM L MONROE. I~ -, p,~ ;~!~,i ~ctt.-2,, J; r —51. * 1' ' C-— L ~ I'.~ —. lrr- r~. i;-z ''' ' -'-.C" if ~rs~ —. r ~-' E F` '"i -"; - - c - ~ '' ~- i ~`-~ -_ z;-~ i ~-, ---II: CI c _ — —r f --- =-.f - _r- -- - c EX RES. OF SAMUEL MONROE. EUREKA TP. MONrCALM Co. /ICH. EUREKA. 403 T. Miller. She died February, 1876. Leander L. occupies the old home and works the farm. Effie L. lives with her parents. Mr. Vanallen, wishing to be relieved from the cares of the farm, has erected a fine residence near the old home, where this pioneer couple propose to enjoy their well-earned competency. Mr. Vanallen is a man of strong common sense. In all the relations of life " honesty and economy" has been his motto. SAMUEL MONROE. Samuel Monroe was born in Essex Co., N. Y., Feb. 11, 1820. His father, Royal Monroe, came from New Hampshire, and settled in Crown Point soon after 1800. He raised a family of eight children, was a soldier in the war of 1812, and in his latter days came to Montcalm County and lived with the subject of this sketch, where he died in January, 1873, in his ninetieth year. He never accumulated much property. As soon as the boys were old enough they went out to work. When Samuel was twenty years of age he bought his time, for which he paid seventy-five dollars. In June, 1841, he was married to Miss Martha Perkins, daughter of William Perkins, a well-to-do farmer of Crown Point, Essex Co., N. Y., where he settled when a young man. Mr. Monroe remained in Essex County five years after he was married, working at such jobs as came in his way. By this means he had saved some four hundred dollars. He then took his wife and two children and started for the far West. Arriving in Macomb County, he purchased seventy acres of heavily-timbered land near Mount Clements, where he remained nine years. These were nine weary years of pioneer life. His money only made a partial payment on the land. To procure the necessaries of life he was obliged to go out to work by the day. To add to their discomfiture was sickness; frequently all four of the children were sick at the same time. Notwithstanding these drawbacks, he paid for his land, made comfortable improvements, and in 1855 sold out for eighteen hundred dollars and came to Eureka and purchased eighty acres of land, where he now lives. Here this pioneer couple have diligently worked for a quarter of a century, and have added other lands, until they now have more than three hundred acres of land with large improvements, have raised a family of five children, and accumulated an ample competency by farming, which has been the business of their life. He is a member of the grange, and treasurer of the subordinate grange. BELVIDER E.* BELVIDERE is bounded north by Mecosta County, east by the township of Home, south by Douglass, and west by Cato. It is designated as town 12 north, range 7 west. In the northern part the soil is a sandy loam, and pine is the prevailing timber; towards the south the soil becomes heavier, and the dense pine of the north gradually gives way to a heavy growth of beech and maple. In these parts the agricultural interests are mostly located, the northern half of the township being still devoted largely to lumbering. Belvidere is drained by Flat River, its surface in general sloping towards the source of that stream on the northwest quarter of section 15, where it serves as the outlet of a system of six lakes, situated on sections 12, 14, and 15, and of several streams of considerable importance from the north, east, and south which flow into them. The whole system serves as an extensive reservoir, in which, by a dam, the waters are retained for the purpose of raising the river when large quantities of logs are to be rafted to the mills at Greenville, Grand Rapids, and Grand Haven. There are a number of other fine lakes in the township,-Town-Line Lake, situated on the line of Cato and Belvidere, being the largest. Horse-Shoe Lake, named from its peculiar form, and in which is the corner of the adjoining sections 19, 20, 30, and 31, Wysel Lake, Penny Lake, and Long Lake are all connected with Flat River. EARLY SETTLEMENTS. William Goodwater, who as early as 1855-56 settled near the south line of section 33, is regarded as the first white man who with his family entered the wilds of Belvidere. Aside from this fact, and that he subsequently became a resident of Douglass, little is known of him. He built a small log cabin, but made no other improvements of importance. Being of small stature, and owing to some business transaction with a party of settlers from the south part of the county who stopped at his cabin while on their way to fish in the lake on section 28, he was thenceforth known as Penny Goodwater. Although the circumstance which occasioned this singular use of the word has passed from the memory of men, and even the location of his cabin can no longer be designated, the lake before referred to on the southeast quarter of section 28, as well as the smaller one in Douglass, near which he subsequently lived, received their names from this circumstance, the former being known as Big Penny and the latter as Little Penny Lake. He remained in Belvidere but a few years, when, selling his claim, he removed to Douglass. Many years elapsed before another settler came in. William Gardner, from New York, who entered the north half of the northeast quarter of section 35 in the fall of 1864, was probably the next. He built a log cabin, and the following February brought his family,-a wife, two sons, and two daughters. To clear a piece of land was his first work after safely housing his family. But to do this in the heavy timber, alone and without a team, was a slow and severe task. The large trunks of trees could not be removed from the place where they fell, and were reduced with the axe to such dimensions as enabled them to be carried away or burned where they fell, and, being green, at times they required an almost infinite amount of labor and patience. By spring, however, constant effort had not only cleared but prepared nearly two acres ready for planting to corn, potatoes, and smaller vegetables. The following winter both sons died within a week of each other, theirs being the first deaths in the township. They were named respectively Guian H. and Willie S. Gardner. There was no funeral service, there being at this time neither minister nor neighbors in the township. They were interred at the cemetery at Westville. William Gardner and family still reside in the township, and from his entry dates its permanent settlement. In 1866, William Taylor and George Wysel came in. George Stevenson entered land about the same time, but the wilderness did not retain him long, and he did not settle permanently until some years after. George Wysel settled on section 27, near the lake which still bears his name. Both built cabins and brought families to the township, where they lived until their deaths. The same year William Wysel and William Buck came in. The former settled near his brother George, on section 27; the latter did not become a permanent settler, although he lived here for a time. William Wysel raised the first frame house in the township, but it was a small and unstable building. The first frame barn was built at Six Lakes by the lumber company, and is still standing. The first grain-barn was built by William Gardner as late as 1875. The next settler was John Hammel, who built a cabin near the banks of Flat River, in the central part of the township, but, finding subsequently that he had made im'provements on land held by another, owing to a mistake in taking the minutes of his land, he abandoned this claim and entered or purchased a claim on section 32, where he built the first frame farm dwelling-house in Belvidere, and where he resided until his death, in 1879. Among first settlers also were Milo Rhodes, George Stevenson, John Brennon, Roderick Kennedy, Julius Rhodes, and Lyman Gredy. Although the township was organized the year previous, * By George A. MoAlpine, who also prepared all other historical sketches of Montcalm County townships, except those of Eureka and the city of Greenville. 404 BELVIDERE. 405 no school was taught until the summer of 1868. In the spring of this year the first school district, which comprised one-fourth of the township directly south of the centre, was set off, a meeting called, and the necessary officers elected. The rough boards of which the school-house was made were bought with money raised among the inhabitants by subscription. When the material had been collected and the shakes for the roof prepared, they assembled, and the work of construction was of short duration. The house stood near the south quarter-post on section 22. This district and that including Six Lakes are the only whole school districts in the township, considerable territory being attached in fractional school districts to other townships. ORGANIZATION AND CIVIL LIST. The township of Belvidere was erected in the winter of 1866-67, and the first election was held at the house of William Gardner, on the 1st of April, 1867. The meeting being called to order by George Stevenson, William Gardner was appointed moderator. The whole number of votes cast was nine,* and, as there was but one ticket in the field, it was unanimously elected. The following is the list of officers elected at this meeting: Supervisor, George Wysel; Clerk, William Wysel; Treasurer, William Bock; Highway Commissioners, John Hammel,-George Wysel, George Stevenson; Justices, William Gardner, William Taylor, George Stevenson, William Wysel; Constables, Samuel Smith, George Wysel. It was voted to raise two hundred dollars for highway purposes, and also that the next township-meeting be held at the house of William Wysel. The following gives the names of the supervisors, townclerks, treasurers, and justices from 1867 to 1880: SUPERVISORS. 1867-68, George Wysel; 1869, no record; 1870-72, George Wysel; 1873, William Gardner; 1874-75, L. C. Sumner; 1876-77, C. H. Corlis; 1878, William Gardner; 1879, John Van Curen; 1880, William Gardner. TOWN CLERKS. 1867, William Wysel; 1868, George Stevenson; 1869, no record; 1870 -71, Alonzo Wysel; 1872, L. C. Sumner; 1873, Nathan Kent; 1874-75, L. C. Grady; 1876-77, John C. Feehan; 1878, Albert Sage; 1879, Roswell Fleck; 1880, J. P. Fox. TREASURERS. 1867-68, William Bock; 1869, no record; 1870-71, William Wysel; 1872, no record; 1873-74, John H. Dudbridge; 1875-76, no record; 1877, William Gardner; 1878, C. M. Hunt; 1879, William Gardner; 1880, Henry C. Stark. ' The ballot-box used at this time was a box made of rough boards, in which a hole was bored for their reception, after which formality the lid was knocked off. JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. 1867, William Gardner, William Taylor, George Stevenson, William Wysel; 1868, William Taylor; 1869, no record; 1870, William Taylor; 1872, W. S. Dudbridge; 1873, John Hammel: 1876, William Sanders; 1877, Eli Nichols, Elliott Curtiss; 1879, Henry C. Stark, Hercules Burns; 1880, Samuel N. Shove. SUMNERVILLE. Sumnerville, the first village platted in the township, was laid out by L. C. Sumner upon his land in 1873. Several lots were at once sold and a number of business places opened, the first being that of C. M. Hunt, who built a store and opened a stock of drygoods and groceries. He subsequently sold and removed to Edmore, where he still continues in trade. The village became a place of considerable business importance, but when the Chicago, Saginaw and Canada Railroad was completed and located its depot near the foot of Six Lakes, the superior advantages of this place for a village caused Dr. J. B. Daniels and Hiram Clark to purchase seventy acres of land and lay out a village, which they named Six Lakes, after that system. This land comprises the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter of section 16, and the northeast quarter of the southeast quarter of the same section, and was purchased from government by Robert S. Kelsey and son, who owned two thousand two hundred and ninety-six acres, mostly pine-lands, in the township of Belvidere. Dr. J. B. Daniels became a permanent resident of his village, where he continues to reside and practice his profession. Hiram Clark opened a picture-gallery, but did not reside in the village. The water-power at this place, after the death of the elder Kelsey, passed into the possession of his son, P. B. Kelsey. At the death of Richard Roberts, who had been taken in as partner, the property passed into the possession of Boyden & Ackley, of Grand Haven, who still own it and every year do an immense business in lumber. The aggregate amount of logs which will be placed in Six Lakes during 1881 will reach many millions of feet, and, although the timber in their immediate vicinity is very nearly exhausted, railroads already connect them with the more remote districts of Mecosta County and Cato township. One of these tracks, belonging to Henry Smith, is five miles long, cost eleven thousand eight hundred dollars, and has a capacity for carrying one hundred thousand feet per day to the reservoir. The firm of Stinchfield & Co. places on an average one hundred and sixty thousand per day in Penny Lake, James Darrah averages forty thousand per day; Moses & Co. during the winter will add ten millions. B U S HN E L L. g..ad BUSHNELL township is bounded, on the north by Evergreen, on the east by Bloomer, on the south by Ionia County, and on the west by Fair Plains. It is described in the survey of the State as town 9 north, of range 6 west. It was organized in the spring of 1850, and was named after a young man named Bushnell. clerk of the House of Representatives at that time. At the time of its organization it included the four towns now known as Evergreen, Crystal, Bloomer, and Bushnell. As a township Bushnell presented many interesting features to the pioneer. Its heavy beech and maple forests indicated a strong and productive soil, and this has been abundantly verified wherever it has been well tilled. From the lowlands (designated in the original survey as swamplands) there is a gradual ascent to a divide which extends north and south nearly parallel with Prairie Creek through the eastern part of the township. Upon the eastern and western slope of this elevation are some of the finest lands of this section. From the creek to the west the ascent is more gradual, and in many places the land is level and not so well drained. Prairie Creek receives no tributary from the east, but three small streams flow into it from the west. The southernmost branch is the outlet of Snow Lake, near the centre of which is the corner of sections 29, 30, 31, 32. The central branch, which is usually known as Bacon's Creek, drains a small pond on the northwest quarter of section 12. Another small stream rises on the farm of H. Soule, flows northeast, and in the neighborhood of Dean's mills unites with a small stream from the north. The stream thus formed flows eastward, and, on the farm of D. H. R. Newcomb, unites with another from Evergreen to form Prairie Creek. There are several small bodies of water near this stream. One-Allen's Lake, so named from the first settler in the township-is in the southeast quarter of section 23. Pickerel Lake is on the northwest quarter of section 26. It will thus be seen that almost the entire township of Bushnell forms a basin sloping towards the western half of section 26, where the waters are collected, and, passing through Prairie Creek, flow into Ionia County. This is a part of the Grand River system. ORIGINAL LAND ENTRIES. The following list contains the names of those who purchased from the general government and the State lands situated in this township: Section 1.-Jesse Stump, Benjamin Casey, George S. Griffin, N. D. Hart, Levi Trim, George Bartholomew, Columbia Page, Joseph Hartwick. 406 Section 2.-Andrew S. Philips, N. S. Benton, John W. Dunn, L. H. Smith, Caroline Brotherton, Benona Dickinson, Almon Charles, John Arntz, Charles Brown, Thomas Cornell, L. P. Taylor. Section 3.-Caleb Mills, John C. Blanchard, James R. Griswold, John Gillett, Zerah Willoughby, D. A. Elliott, Linus W. Vickery, Norman Firmby, Ira Haws, Doctor F. Barnes. Section 4.-Caleb Mills, Frederick Hall, Absalom Gillenwater, John C. Blanchard, Cornelius C. Darling, J. Gilfin, Orin Knapp, Austin P. Gallup, George Holland. Section 5.-Joel Soule, Samuel C. Kinyon, Tobias C. Haynor, Frederick Hall, Noah Bennett, Austin P. Gallupp, Clark Harrington, Erastus P. Brown. Section 6.-Nathaniel Foster, Asaph Belcher, Christopher G. Tyler, Levi Brainard, Americus Smith, S. Moore, George L. Weed, Fred Hall. Section 7.-Whitman Stoddard, Nathaniel Foster, Chancey Beckwith, Edward Soule, Joel Soule, John Wabesis, Joseph P. Powell, Americus Smith, George D. Van Alstine. Section 8.-Jerold Bander, J. Howard, Whitman Stoddard, Hezekiah McDaniels, Howland Soule, James L. Jennings, Henry Hull, William Terrington, Jedediah Austin, John C. Dexter, Hannah Burgess, Clarinda Van Keuren, Noah Bennett, Roswell Nettleton, Orson Cheeny. Section 9.-Rufus Wells, Dexter Smith, Maria Pitcher, A. Gillenwater, William Bush, Alexander D. W. Dodge, Royal J. Perkins. Section 10.-Mary Hill, John Grinnels, John C. Blanchard. Section 11.-William Knox, Andrew L. Phillips, Stephen F. Page, Willard Corser, John C. Blanchard, Albert Kent. Section 12.-Joseph Stephens, John G. Eckert, Anthony Hill, Jesse Stump, Joseph L. Clock, William Cooper, Charles A. Umbenhauer, Calvin Lyons, D. F. Barnes. Section 13.-Frederick Hall, Joseph Clock, Philander R. Howe, James Clock. Section 14.-Isaac Pennington, Alvin Bartholomew, Samuel Rose, Julius Jennings, Stephen Page, Lewis J. Trim. Section 15.-Thomas Arthurington, John M. Lamb, Lewis J. Trim, Stephen F. Page, John C. Blanchard. Section 16.-P. Hall, E. Hall, William Bush, John H. Williams, George P. Tyler, James Sharp, Thomas Worthington, William Bush, Charles Lamb, N. S. Wood. Section 17.-John C. Snow, Hosea Bennett, Josiah Bennett, Moses Bennett, George R. Lamb, Orson A. Cheeny, John E. Morrison, Edwin Hall, Caleb M. Wade, Christopher Tyler. BUSHNELL. 407 Section 18.-George R. Lamb, Artemus Gleason, Roswell R. Edwards, John A. Rosbach, Chauncey Beckwith, Henry J. Cheeny, Artemus Gleason, Leonard Kirby. Section 19.-Albert Deitz, William Adams, Roswell R. Edwards, Edward Decker, Sanford Yeomans, E. M. Cheeny, Caleb M. Wade, James Henderson. Section 20.-Albert Deitz, Daniel Kellogg, James Fitch, Moses Bennett, Isaac Randall, Benjamin Hamilton, David Hall. Section 21.-James S. Bacon, John Dickerson, John J. Hammel, James Bacon, Mary Bacon. Section 22.-Moses T. Bennett, William Husker, Jason Mills, Joseph Gallup, Peter Tucker, Jason Mills, Moses T. Bennett, William Husker, Jason Mills, Joseph Gallup, Peter Tucker, Alonzo Curtis, Frederick Sapp, Peter Tucker, Jason Mills. Section 23.-Henry A. Allen, Charles S. Smith, James A. Clock, Joseph Gallup, Jr., Alonzo Curtis, Stephen Page, John J. Hammel, Frederick Sapp. Section 24.-James Whitaker, Charles Rich, Charles Stevens, Orin Green, William S. Smith, Isaac Philips, L. Griffin. Section 25.-Thomas White, Levi Cox, Jeremiah Barringer, William Whitaker. Section 26.-Jacob Bargy, Albert Van Vleck, Isaac Herrington, Morris W. Maine, Daniel Heath, Isaac Jason, George Jason, William Castel, Isaac Shurte, D. F. Barnes. Section 27.-William H1. Weed, Joseph Young, William Castel, Joseph Stevens, Lyman Stevens, S. Dickinson, Chauncey W. Olmsted. Section 28.-Solomon Myers, Albert Van Vleck, Franklin Herrick, Christopher G. Tyler, Jeremiah Taylor, John M. Cole, Joseph P. Powell, Gotlieb Haytlauff, Lewis H. Ranson. Section 29.-Godfrey Wohlben, Philip Slaght, James Fitch, Olive Hall, William E. Alchin, Louis S. Lovell, Stephen F. Page, David F. Ferguson. Section 30.-Alonzo Wood, Mansfield Harrison, E. B. Soule, Covington Blanchard, Stephen Page. Section 31.-Edwin Comstock, Boswell Bennett, Solomon Bacon, John West, Andrew Benedict, John C. Ferguson. Section 32.-George W. Stevens, George W. Hewett, Edwin Comstock, William Campbell, Cyrus Gilbert, W. M. Youngs, Richard B. White. Section 33.-Thomas Magrath, Philip Shaffer, Jeremiah Mabie, Moses Wells. Section 34.-William Devore, William H. Weed, Edwin H. Stevens, Leander Millard, Joseph Stevens, Jeremiah Mabie, Julia Olmstead, Lyman Stevens, L. White. Section 35.-John Van Vleck, John B. Welch, Jeremiah Mabie, Peter Van Vleck, Adaline Bolton, John B. White, Joseph B. Miner, Rebecca Schute, D. T. Barnes. Section 36.-John B. Welch, Oscar F. Gladding, Aaron Sloan, Thomas Covell, Caroline Sloan, Dennis Cranson, Roderick H. Wood, William Tyler, Sally P. Taylor, Stephen Ackles, Orin Hoisington, William Howarth, Harvey Howarth. EARLY SETTLEMENTS. As near as can now be ascertained, Henry A. Allen, who came to Bushnell and built a small log cabin near the lake on the north half of the southeast quarter of section 23, was the first settler in the township. Of his nativity and life previous to his settlement here, but little is known. He was a man of little energy, and, to use the expression of an old settler, "he hunted, fished, and made staves alternately," and, on the whole, lived an easy life. His wife died about the year 1850, and he subsequently sold his farm to John J. Hammel and removed from the township. Mr. Hammel became a resident of the township in the winter of 1851 -52, and was elected clerk of the township in 1852. He remained here a number of years, and then moved to the northern part of Michigan. William Dcvore was the second settler in the township, and the first on the west side of Prairie Creek. in Bushnell. He remained but a few years. A brother-in-law and wife came to the township soon after, but the sisters became very much depressed, and persuaded their husbands to return to New York, which they accordingly did, about the year 1848. As early as the summer of 1843 a young man named William Weed came to the hospitable cabin of Elder John Van Vleck, in the north part of Ionia County. He was of prepossessing appearance, and his ready conversation soon secured him admission to the hospitalities of this home on the very edge of civilization. The good deacon not only gave him much information in regard to desirable lands, but volunteered the following day to show him some choice pieces near at hand. One of these, the west half of the southeast quarter of section 27, was a beautiful plain sloping to the northeast. It is told even at this late day that this piece was intended by the deacon as an inheritance for some son-in-law whom heretofore he had only seen when his eyes were closed. However this may be, William Weed entered it and then returned to his home at Salem, Washtenaw Co., where he still resides. He soon induced his father-in-law, Joseph Stevens, to visit the township, and he, being well pleased with that section, purchased this piece of Mr. Weed, and a considerable tract in addition, on the north part of section 34. Mr. Weed did not return to Bushnell. The purchase of Mr. Stevens ultimately resulted in a large settlement in the township, and his relation to the early settlement in connection with a number of others deserves brief mention in these pages. He was born in Connecticut, and after living a number of years in New York came to Ann Arbor (then a settlement of two houses) in 1825. The next year he entered eighty acres of government land in the township of Salem, in Washtenaw County, where he is thought to have been the first resident. He cleared up his farm, built a saw-mill, and resided there until he came to Bushnell to settle upon land already located, as before stated. The party consisted of Joseph Stevens, a wife and four children, and his son-in-law, E4win Stevens, who located one hundred and sixty acres on the south half of section 34. Joseph Stevens immediately built a temporary shelter, and then commenced the log house which is still standing near the north side of the 408 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. road, on the land entered by William Weed. The same day that this house was raised William Devore raised his log cabin on the farm now occupied by J. Snyder. These were the first cabins raised west of Prairie Creek. Lyman Stevens, who was at that time a young man, and who accompanied his father, Joseph Stevens, now resides on section 25. Of the scenes and incidents of those early days he still has a vivid memory. At one time, while driving towards Ionia through a narrow road, and where it was impossible to turn aside, he came suddenly upon a huge bear quietly lying in the road. It arose, looked around, and then started off ahead of him, but it soon sat down, fairly blocking the way. The two women who accompanied him were extremely terrified. He could not turn around, and to advance was perilous. He drove nearer and shouted at the top of his voice, but it only brought growls and a display of a fine set of teeth from Bruin, who evidently proposed to stay. After a while, however, he moved leisurely on, and the young man succeeded in driving around him, the wheels of his wagon passing within two or three feet of the bear's body. When Mr. Devore, who has already been spoken of, left the township, in 1849, he employed Lyman Stevens to assist in the journey, who when he returned brought his brother-in-law, Chauncy W. Olmstead, and family. Mr. Olmstead had married Joseph Stevens' eldest daughter, Julia, in Washtenaw County. He at once became a resident of Bushnell, and settled on the east half of the northc: st quarter of section 34. Lyman Stevens subsequently married Miss Eunice Bacon, whose parents became settlers in 1849. J. S. Bacon was a native of Stafford, N. Y., whence he came to Michigan in May, 1834, and settled in Rollin, Lenawee Co., being among the first settlers in that section. He came to Bushnell May 5, 1849, and bought the east half of section 21, and brought his family, which at this time numbered six, in August following. lie left them all at the house of his father-in-law, Joseph Stevens, while he built a log house, which he covered with boards brought from the saw-mill on Dickinson Creek, in Fair Plains township, which was then owned by - Burrington. He immediately began clearing with a team of horses which he had brought to the township, but he soon disposed of them and procured a yoke of oxen. The next spring he sowed a small piece of ground to spring wheat,the first sowed in the township,-but it proved a failure. The year previous Joseph Stevens had sowed a field to winter wheat, which was the first in Bushnell, and which yielded a fair crop. Mr. Stevens also set out the first orchard in the township, he having been engaged in the nursery business in Washtenaw County. He brought trees with him and set them out in the spring of 1848, at which time he also planted some spring crops. Mr. Bacon and wife are still living in the township. The settlement thus far, with the exception of William Mulnix, who came in soon after his brother-in-law, Henry A. Allen, with whom he stopped, and who now resides in Bloomer, had been in the central and southern parts of the township west of Prairie Creek. But the fine lands east of that stream were destined not long to retain their prime val solitude. James Clock and his son, Joseph L. Clock, came to the township, and after looking around selected the eastern half of section 13. The former took the southeast quarter, and the latter the northeast quarter. Joseph L. Clock still resides on the farm selected at this time, and his brother, James A. Clock, occupies the quarter entered by his father, who died in 1866. His two sons married the daughters of Harley Bump, an early settler of Bloomer. In the spring of 1850, William Castel, another son-inlaw of Joseph Stevens, came to Bushnell. He afterwards went to work in Olmstead's mill, in Evergreen township, where he remained until February, 1851, when he entered the northeast quarter of section 27, and soon after built a log house, near where he now lives. Mr. Castel has been closely identified with the public interests of the county, he having been a member of the board of supervisors many years, and to his exertions while serving in this capacity is the early organization of the townships in the east part of the county mainly due. Shortly after locating in the township James Bacon called at the house of Mr. Castel, and, as he signified his intention to return home, Mr. Castel took his rifle, and the two walked along together until coming to a piece of timber around which were small clearings. Here they separated and passed around, intending to meet at the opposite end of the wood. Mr. Bacon, who was in a great hurry, wishing to get home with his cattle, which he had set out to find, walked on rapidly. As he passed under a wild cherry tree a peculiar sound attracted his attention, and, looking up to the top, he saw five bears eating wild cherries. He hallooed to Mr. Castel, but before he came Mr. Bacon had brought one down, shot through the head. Mr. Castel shot another, which was lodged in the forks of the tree. It was now found that they had not enough powder to load another piece, and while Mr. Bacon went to the house for ammunition, Mr. Castel remained to watch. Another bear soon after came down, and while the party by this time collected, assisted by a large dog, pursued and killed it, the other two escaped from the tree. However, they secured three large bears out of the five. Many other instances are reported, which, with the reminiscences of the sufferings, hardships, and dangers which everywhere surrounded the pioneers of Montcalm County, would fill a volume. Many who came were poor, with no experience in frontier life and no supplies to sustain them until the first crops could be secured. To go to Ionia to trade, when so fortunate as to have the wherewith to procure goods, through the terrible roads of those early days, was a hardship not now to be appreciated or understood; but with those who had not the means the struggle was long and severe. Many came with high hopes, but few remained to realize them. Those who went away frequently lost the little they had invested. Others who remained are among the substantial and wealthy citizens of Bushnell to-day. David'Hall, of Herkimer Co., N. Y., came to the south part of Ionia county in 1841. He settled in the township of Ronald, where J. Minier now resides, in 1846. In 1851 lie came to Bushnell, where he lived on the farm now occupied by his son, William J. Hall, until his death, in 1873. BUSHNELL. 409 I Mrs. David Hall still resides in Bushnell, at the age of seventy-three years. They moved into the log cabin before the fireplace or floor was completed. William J. Hall relates that in the fall of 1853 there was but one half day in two weeks in which there was no raising. Among the early settlers of Bushnell also were Howland and Joel Soule, brothers, from New York. The fornmer entered the west half of the southwest quarter of section 8 and the east half of the southeast quarter of section 2, on which he still lives. Joel Soule, now a resident of Fair Plains, entered the south half of the northeast quarter of section 7. They cleared a road nearly the entire distance from their farms to David Hall's, who was at that time their nearest neighbor. In the year 1853, Dr. R. R. Edwards and Artemus Gleason, with their families, came to Bushnell. The former settled on one hundred and sixty acres on sections 18 and 19. He was the first physician to locate in Bushnell, and one of the first in Montcalm County. He still adheres closely to his profession (which at present, as from the first, extends over a large extent of country), and now lives on the south half of the northeast quarter of section 32. Mr. Gleason is a native of New York, and settled near Cleveland, Ohio, in 1831. He came to Bushnell, as before stated, in 1853, and settled in the north part of section 18, where he still lives. Richard Low and wife, to whom he was married in 1826, landed in New York from England, April 21, 1847, and then came to Lodi, Washtenaw Co. He had at this time a large family. At the time of setting out for the New World his youngest child was but four weeks old, and the hardships of the journey to the mother can well be imagined. On the way from Buffalo to Detroit the little one was completely drenched with water by the sailors who were scrubbing the deck above where its mother had for a few moments laid it. It took cold, and after reaching Detroit died. But they could not stop there, and, as she wished to bury it somewhere near the home to which she had so long looked forward and for which she had left all, she carried it, closely wrapped in a cloak, for two days; but, as they did not then reach their destination, she was prevailed upon to relinquish it, and it was then buried in a rude box by the side of the road. In 1853 his son, William Low, then a young man, was shown some lands near Grand Rapids and also some in Bushnell by Philander Howe. The young man was most pleased with the latter lands, and his father subsequently purchased the northwest quarter of section 13 from Mr. Howe, for whom he worked a number of years. They came to their new house in 1856, and now enjoy the fruits of years of patient labor and waiting. Of this family four sons and one son-in-law served in the Union army in the Rebellion. David Low was instantly killed on the 11th of May, 1864, in the battle of the Wilderness, and Joseph was severely wounded. Another son narrowly escaped by having his mother's picture, about which twelve large sheets of letter-paper were wrapped, in his vest-pocket. A large ball pierced through the entire mass and inflicted a slight wound. Among other early settlers of Bushnell were W. Bush, the 52 Burnetts, and the Alchines in the west part of the township, Thomas Atherton on section 15, and R. S., J. V., G. W., and E. Comstock, whose father settled on section 32. William Husker, the first town clerk of the township, settled on the west half of the southwest quarter of section 22. EARLY ROADS, ETC. The first road, or rather the first opening in the forests resembling a road, led from Palo northward to the saw-mill in Evergreen township. It was completed gradually, many different persons contributing to the work. It led past the farms of Joseph Stevens and James Bacon, and was con-, structed the greater part of the distance through the township during the year 1849. Soon after, a road was underbrushed in the east part of the township, and part of the way on the line between Bushnell and Bloomer. The first frame building in Bushnell was a barn built by Erastus Brown for Joseph Stevens in 1849. It was completed in the month of August of that year. The first frame dwelling was built for Calvin Crippen, on the southwest quarter of section 25, in 1852. He opened a small stock of goods, but trade was not profitable, and the store soon closed. The next frame buildings erected were by Joseph Stevens and James Bacon in 1855. The first wedding was that of Charles Bacon to Miss Rebecca Stevens; she is still living in Clare County. The first birth was that of a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Chauncey W. Olmstead, and the death of George Hunt, who was killed by a tree falling upon him while at work on the county-line road, was probably the first in the township. He was buried in Fair Plains. The first post-office was opened at the house of William C. Griffin about the year 1856, and was retained by him a number of years. About the year 1855, Lora C. Jenks settled in the northeast part of the township, and soon after David Husker built a saw-mill at this place, after which Edward Tineby built a store-room and opened a small stock of goods. The village of Vickery Corners was platted by John Vickery; a store, post-office, and blacksmith-shop comprise its present business interests. At the time of the settlement of the northwest part of* the township several families of Indians under John Wabasis resided here. They were a remnant of the numerous bands of Chippewas who formerly inhabited this section. They were engaged principally in hunting and making maple-sugar in the spring of the year, and also carried on a considerable traffic with their birchen- and bead-work with the inhabitants of the early-settled districts. In the forest fire of 1857, which raged through Evergreen, one of their number was suffocated, and perished in the intense smoke. In 1853 a man named Stevens in the township attached for debt a rifle belonging to one Osterhouse before Justice Covey, of that township. John McKelvy, of North Plains, appeared for the prosecution, and William Castel for the defense. When ready to proceed the bond given for costs was not to be found, and the counsel at once began to accuse each other of stealing it. This was a mistake, how ever, and the opinion now prevails that the defendant ate it, thus effectually putting an end to the suit for the time being. But Justice Covey said the law must take its 410 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. course, bond or no bond, and rendered a decision in favor of the plaintiff for seventy-five dollars, which was fifty-nine dollars more than the bill claimed. The rifle was sold at auction, and bid in by the plaintiff. Osterhouse, however, disposed of a cow, and with the proceeds, after the lapse of three months, replevined the gun. Again the learned counsel came face to face. The course taken to sustain the suit was that the gun had now been in the possession of said Stevens three months, and that its use was worth twenty-five dollars per month as a means of procuring provisions for the plaintiff's family. The jury returned that the position was " well taken," and that the gun belonged to Osterhouse on those grounds. But the end was not yet. The famous suit was carried on by one process or another until sixteen decisions had been rendered, at a cost of between two and three hundred dollars to the parties. Of the sixteen decisions "one only was according to law." The conclusion finally reached was, " no cause of action." The first saw-mill in the township was built by G. L. Dean in the fall of 1865, and commenced sawing the following winter. The one now standing is the fourth on this site, three others having been burned. In 1868, John Hitchcock opened a drygoods-store near this mill, which was purchased the following year by William M. Thomas, who has since built a grist-mill in the south part of Evergreen township. SCHOOLS. At a meeting of the school board held April 10, 1850, -District No. 1 was formed by Chauncey W. Olmstead and William Husker, members of the board. This district comprised sections 20, 21, 22, 27, 28, 29, 32, 33, and 34. A school-house was soon after built on the farm of Joseph Stevens, just south of the south branch of Prairie Creek. This school-house served the purpose of town-house, meeting-house, etc., for the whole township for a number of years. The first election held in this building was for the purpose of electing county and State officers, on the 10th of November, 1850. Miss Jane Ransom, whose people had settled in Ronald, Ionia Co., taught the first school in Bushnell. Pursuant to an application of persons interested, on Nov. 12, 1852, the school board again met, and set off District No. 2, which included sections 13, 14, 23, 24, 25, 26, 35, and 36. It will be seen that this district included all the settlement in the township east of Prairie Creek. A schoolhouse was immediately built of logs on the site now occupied by the Methodist Episcopal church, on the northwest corner of the northeast quarter of section 25, and for a number of years served as a meeting-house for all denominations, and filled a want, on this side of the stream, similar to the school-house on the other side. District No. 3 was formed by the board on the 17th of November, 1853, at which time it comprised sections 5, 6, 7, 8, 17, 18, and the western half of sections 4, 9, and 16. This district comprised all the territory within the present limits of District No. 3, and also parts of Districts No. 7 and 9. On the 8th day of December, following, the board set off District No. 4, which included the southwestern part of the township. Its boundaries were soon more or less changed, as were those of the other districts. The record of examination bears date Nov. 8, 1854, at which time Joseph W. Metcalf and Julia Coates applied and were given certificates. A report entered Feb. 10, 1855, shows that schools had been taught in Districts 1, 2, and 3. It also indicates the apportionment of the mill-tax in the several districts to have been as follows: District No. 1 received $18.90; No. 2, $8.53; No. 3, $11.60. The number of children attending in District No. 1 was 60; in No. 2, 29; No. 3, 37. ASSESSMENT ROLL OF BUSHNELL FOR THE YEAR 1850. Acres. Henry A. Alien, section 23................................. 40 Janes S. Bacon, section 21....................... 240 Joseph Clock, section 13.................................... 160 William Husker, section 22................................ 160 George Hewett, section 32................................. 100 Leander Millard, sections 34, 35....................... 120 J. M abie, section 35......................................... 40 Jay Olmstead, sections 20, 21.............................. 520 Joseph Stevens, sections 27, 34.......................... 240 Edwin H. Stevens, section 34............................. 200 George Stevens, section 32...........s............ 80 Charles Rich, section 24............................. 80 James Whitaker, section 24............................... 80 LymanStevens......................................... Personal All the above-named parties lived within the present limits of Bushnell, with the exception of Jay Olmstead, who resided in town 10 north, range 6 west, or Evergreen township, and was at that time the only resident tax-payer in that township. CHURCHES. The first religious meetings in Bushnell were held by Richard Evans, a member of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, at the house of Joseph Stevens,-in what year it is impossible, from the diversity of opinion which exists, to ascertain, but thought to be in 1849. The members of this organization, however, did not establish a class or a church here. The first distinct organization in the township was formed by Elder Hervey, a representative of the Baptist Church, in 1851. Previous to that time the friends of this denomination attended service in Ronald, Ionia Co. Mr. Hervey united the two societies and divided his time between them, having services alternately in each. Their meetings in Bushnell were held in the school-house in District No. 1. EAST BUSHNELL METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. Occasionally, during the latter part of 1852 and in 1853, Elder Wilsey, a resident of Bloomer township, preached in the little log cabin of Asa Pennington. In 1854 this property was purchased by Harley Bump, and, soon after, Rev. McKnight, who was there on the Bloomer Circuit, organized a class in this place, which was known as West Bloomer. At the time of organization the class was composed of nine members, whose names were as follows: Henry Fowler, Mary Fowler, Charles Fowler, Chauncey Fowler, Harley Bump, Catharine Bump, Almeda Bump, Rachel Bump, and Mr. Henry Smith. Mr. McKnight had previously formed a class in Bloomer Centre. The first leader of the class at West Bloomer was Henry Fowler, and Harley Bump was steward. In about a year this place of meeting was changed, from Ilf, Z.72 ". !,.,,.",",l.":pp"lr,-","""-,."". -v, I - 7,77'..;' '. 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I 4 0 BUSHNELL. 411 I the house of Mr. Bump, to the log school-house in District No. 2 in Bushnell, and the charge was thereafter known as East Bushnell. This school-house was used by the society until their church was built, which was commenced in 1867, and which, when completed, cost twelve hundred dollars. Charles Fowler, George Stevens, Henry Fowler, Alfred Udell, and Peter Boughey composed the building committee. Peter Boughey, Charles Fowler, Joseph Fowler, Henry Fowler, and James Mitchell are now the trustees of the church, and Rev. Van Antwerp presides over the circuit. METHODIST EPISCOPAL CIURCII OF SOUTH BUSHNELL. This class was formed in 1859 by Rev. Charles Chick, who at that time was associated with Rev. Carpenter on the Palo Circuit. Mr. Carpenter was the first minister located here after its formation. Louis Ransom, who died in the army, was the first class-leader. The names of the early members of this class were as follows: Louis Ransom and wife, Jared Comstock and wife, Edwin Comstock and wife, Israel Comstock and wife, S. S. Sherwood and wife, John Bacon and wife, S. Lake and wife. The church was built in 1876, and cost one thousand dollars. Rev. Joy conducted the dedicatory services. PATRONS OF HUSBANDRY. The first to agitate the organization of the grange in Bushnell was Joseph Minier, in the spring of 1875. In June the lodge was formed, having one hundred and sixteen charter members and being the strongest ever organized in the State. It still retains its superiority, having two hundred and five members in good standing. The following persons were elected to fill the several offices: James Wescott, Master; Lyman Lamb, Overseer; Smith C. Bell, Chaplain; Joseph Minier, Sec.; Edward Alchine, Treas.; George Collins, Steward; A. C. Hanchett, A. S.; Stephen Wheaton, Gate-Keeper; Libbie Collins, L. A. S.; Mary Jennings, Ceres; Ellen Hull, Pomonia; Flora Minier, Flora. In the fall of the same year a hall was built at a cost of five hundred dollars. Edward Alchine and R. W. Hoy were building committee. ORGANIZATION AND CIVIL LIST. On the 12th of April, 1850, the voters of the newlyformed township of Bushnell met at the house of Joseph Stevens for " the purpose of choosing officers of said township."* C. W. Olmstead was chosen moderator, James Clock clerk, Edwin H. Stevens and Jeremiah Mabie inspectors of election. The polls were closed at three o'clock, when it was found that the greatest number of votes cast was twelve, and the following persons were declared elected: Supervisor, Chauncey W. Olmstead; Clerk, William Husker; Treasurer. Edwin H. Stevens; Justices of the Peace, James S. Bacon, Henry A. Allen, Edwin H. Stevens, Chauncey W. Olmstead; Commissioners of Highways, Jeremiah Mabie, James Clock, Joseph Stevens; School Inspectors, Chauncey W. Olmstead, William Mulnix; Directors of the Poor, James Clock, William Mulnix, Joseph Stevens. After voting to pay a bounty of one dollar for every wolf killed in the township, and also that no license for the sale of intoxicating beverage should be granted, the meeting adjourned, to meet at the same place the next year. CIVIL LIST. CLERKS. 1850, William Husker; 1851, no record; 1852, John J. Hammel; 1853, Moses Bennett; 1854, Joseph Young; 1855, John J. Hammel; 1856, William C. Griffin; 1857, Moses T. Bennett; 1858-60, William C. Griffin; 1861, Smith C. Bell; 1862-63, William Townsend; 1864-65, William C. Griffin; 1866, Jacob M. Dickerson; 1867-68, Smith C. Bell; 1869-72, William M. Thomas; 1873, Joseph Hanchett; 1874-75, Walter E. Kingsbury; 1876-78, George Eitelbuss; 1879-80, Frank Bennett. SUPERVISORS. 1850, Chauncey W. Olmstead; 1851, no record; 1852, W. Castel; 1853, Chauncey W. Olmstead; 1854-55, William Castel; 1856, Chauncey W. Olmstead; 1857-60, William Castel; 1861, Stephen Alchine; 1862, William Castel; 1863, John K. Gillet; 1864-65, William Castel; 1866, Lora C. Jenks; 1867, William Castel; 1868-70, Lora C. Jenks; 1871-72, George Howarth; 1873-80, Robert W. Hoy. TREASURERS. 1850-52, Edwin H. Stevens; 1853-54, Edwin Comstock; 1855, George W. Stevens; 1856, Asa L. Griswold; 1857, John J. Hammel; 1858-60, C. G. Tyler; 1861, Albert B. Barnes; 1862, John H. Gillet; 1863-65, James R. Griswold; 1866-70, George Howarth; 1871-74, Joseph V. Minier; 1875-78, Joseph Hanchett; 1879-80, Asa Sinclair. JUSTICES. 1850, James S. Bacon, Henry A. Allen, Edwin H. Stevens, Chauncey W. Olmstead; 1851, no record; 1852, Jeremiah Mabie, C. W. Olmstead; 1853, Moses T. Bennett; 1854, George W. Stevens, J. J. Hammel; 1855, William Bush, Henry A. Allen; 1856, Chauncey W. Olmstead, Charles K. Mitchell; 1857, John J. Hammel; 1858, Joseph E. Morrison; 1859, Edmond Cross, Ira Decker; 1860, Lora C. Jenks; 1861, William Pratt; 1862, J. K. Griswold, John H. Gillet; 1863, Edmond Cross, Ira Decker; 1864, Joseph E. Morrison; 1865, Ira Decker; 1866, Thomas Gally; 1867, Jacob M. Dickerson; 1868, Henry N. Miller, Edward P. Tineby; 1869, Zerah Willoughby, Joseph V. Minier; 1870, Edwin P. Fintz, Joseph V. Minier; 1871, Robert W. Hoy, Daniel Keisler; 1872, James R. Griswold; 1873, Moses Hulin, Zerah Willoughby; 1874, Daniel W. Keisler; 1875, R. W. Hoy; 1876, Zerah Willoughby; 1877, Moses W. Hulin; 1878, Daniel W. Keisler; 1879, Robert W. Hoy; 1880, Joseph Dasef. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. ARTEMUS GLEASON. Among the earliest settlers in the northwest corner of Bushnell township was Artemus Gleason, who was born in the township of Durham, Greene Co., N. Y., Feb. 7, 1826. He is of Irish extraction, his ancestors having been born in the Emerald Isle, from whence three brothers by the name of Gleason emigrated prior to the Revolutionary war and settled in the New England States. Jeremiah D. Gleason, the father of our subject, was born in the land of wooden nutmegs (Connecticut) in 1793. While he was yet a small boy his parents emigrated to the State of New York, where he grew to manhood, finally settling in Greene County. He married Catherine Deidrick. After his marriage (and before) he worked at the carpenter's trade until 1831, when he moved to Cuyahoga Co., Ohio, and near the then village I * Town record, p. 3. 412 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. of Cleveland bought a piece of wild land which he cleared and on which he died in 1868. There were born to him seven children, of whom Artemus was the fourth. He grew to manhood on the farm in Ohio, where he remained until he reached his majority, when he commenced life on his own account, working at the carpenter's trade or at anything by which he could earn an honest dollar. On the 18th day of September, 1851, he was joined in marriage to Miss Amanda Brainerd, daughter of Harvey H. and Sarah (Millard) Brainerd. Mrs. Gleason was born in Brooklyn, Cuyahoga Co., Ohio, Dec. 12,1831. Her father was born in Connecticut, Aug. 10, 1800. From Connecticut he moved to Ohio, and where the city of Cleveland now stands bought a piece of wild land. Not being able to pay for it he was obliged to let it go back. His wife was born in New York, from whence her parents emigrated to Cuyahoga Co., Ohio. They finally came to Kent Co., Mich., and settled in Wyoming township, where they died,-Mr. Brainerd in 1867, his wife in 1865. To them there were born ten children, of whom Mrs. Gleason was the second. After their marriage Mr. Gleason continued working at his trade until the spring of 1852, when he came to Michigan, in company with Dr. Edwards, in search of a home which could be bought cheap. Coming to Montcalm County, they bought together of the government the east half of the northwest quarter and the west half of the northeast quarter of section 18, and one hundred and sixty acres, part of sections 18 and 19. When they came to divide each preferred the latter, and to decide who should have first choice they threw up a half-dollar and the doctor won, and selected the land on sections 18 and 19, only to find in after-years that he had selected the poorest piece. The following September, with his wife, child, and household goods in a covered wagon drawn by a yoke of oxen, Mr. Gleason started for the new home in tile wilderness. After a tedious journey of three weeks they arrived on a Saturday evening at the home of Mr. Stevens, five miles from their land. With him they stayed over Sunday, and then on Monday morning, after a severe storm of wind and rain, again renewed their journey. There was no road to his land, and all day Monday was consumed in making four and one-half miles, he being obliged to stop and remove logs from his road. Late in the afternoon of that long-to-be-remembered Monday, they arrived at a shanty on the farm of Mr. Cheeney, which had been used by maple-sugar makers. It had been raining, and nature had on its most sombre hue. The floor of the shanty was of bark and split logs, and they were resting in water which came through the floor at every step. To them it was a gloomy time, and both were very homesick, though they kept the fact from each other until long afterwards. The next day the sun came out and dispelled the mist from their eyes as well as from the atmos phere. They at once set to work to make the shanty homelike. Bedsteads were made of crotches driven in the ground and poles laid across them. A table was made of shakes and poles, and they soon felt that they were provided for. And Mrs. Gleason looks back upon the days in her shanty home as among the happiest of her life. A log house on his own land was erected that fall, into which they moved the next December. The lumber was hauled only eight miles, yet the trip to the mill took an entire day. The nails, stove, and other articles were bought in Lyons, and each trip used up a day and two nights. The Indians were then living in the neighborhood, and during Mr. Gleason's absence often made Mrs. Gleason unwelcome visits. She was very much afraid of them, hence their demands for food were always complied with. When the family were moved into the new house but a portion of it was finished, and in a room that would be thought very small by them now they lived during the winter. At that time game was very plenty, and the rifle of Mr. Gleason kept their table well supplied with venison, with now and then a wild turkey by way of change. Wolves also occasionally made them a visit and awoke the echoes with their howling. The first winter Mr. Gleason chopped off and the next spring cleared ten acres, which he put into crops that year. But for several years the early frosts cut off their crops and times were very hard, and then he would resort to shingle-making and thus keep the wolf from the door. His market for shingles was Ionia, and the trip was made in twenty-four hours, starting in the night and returning in the night. Their milling was done in Greenville, and he would be gone until late at night, and at times when the nights were dark he would have to stop when he came to the dense pine woods and wait for daylight, passing the hours asleep in his wagon-box. But time has made a wondrous change in all this. Cleared fields have taken the place of the forests; the steam-engine sends forth its shriek where the only sound then was the stroke of the woodman's axe; while the schools, churches, and the homes of the well-to-do citizens of Montcalm County arise on every hand, and in all these changes Mr. Gleason has borne his part. His farm now consists of two hundred and forty acres, two hundred of it under good cultivation, with good buildings, orchards, etc., the result of the untiring industry of Mr. Gleason and his wife, who has ever done her share. In politics, he and his family are stalwart Republicans. In religion, liberal. Their union has been blessed with ten children,-viz., Augusta, born Aug. 19, 1852; Silas M., March 6, 1855; Eleanor, Oct. 8, 1856; Jared, Dec. 29, 1858; Laura J., July 24, 1860, died in infancy; Reuben, Jan. 11, 1863; Warren, Dec. 6, 1865, died Oct. 10, 1871; Walter Gleason, Jan. 29, 1870; A. Wilder, Aug. 17, 1873; and Earl L., Aug. 22, 1876. BUSHNELL. 413 WILLIAM M. THOMAS. MRS. WILLIAM M. THOMAS. WILLIAM M. THOMAS. William M. Thomas was born June 3, 1835, in Cardiganshire, South Wales, where his ancestors had resided for many generations tilling the soil and wishing for no other home, no better country. In his native town Mr. Thomas grew to manhood, receiving a good common-school education. He learned the shoemaker's trade, but has only followed it at intervals. In 1857, in company with a party. of his countrymen, he embarked at Liverpool on a sailing vessel for Quebec, Canada, where they arrived after a passage of twenty-four days. From Canada he went to Youngstown, Mahoning Co., Ohio, where he had friends. He soon engaged in the boot-and-shoe business, which he followed six years; then he sold out and for a time was in the produce business. In 1867 he sold out his entire interests in Ohio, and came to Montcalm Co., Mich. He had a family of children growing up, and it was in their interest that he came to Michigan. He purchased twenty acres of land on section 4, and in a building which he bought commenced in a small way business in the general merchandise line. His pay was largely in shingles, which he had to dispose of in Muir and Ionia. In 1874, Mr. Thomas bought two hundred and forty acres of fine land in Bushnell and Evergreen townships, and on it built the mill known as " Thomas' Mill," in which he has since been engaged in the manufacture of lumber, which, with the shingle business, has taken his entire time. As soon as he became a citizen of this country he allied himself with the Republican party, their principles being in perfect accord with his own. He at once took an active part in politics, and soon became a leader in Bushnell as well as in the county. He has been clerk of his township three times, and has held other offices. In the fall of 1880 lie was nominated by his party for the office of county treasurer, and, though his opponent was on the ticket of both the Democratic and Greenback parties, he was elected by a good majority,-receiving in his own township twothirds of all the votes. Mr. Thomas took possession of the office on the 1st of January, and will administer its duties in the thorough. capable manner which has marked all his business undertakings. On the 30th day of November, 1858, he was married to Miss Julia A. Stewart, who was born in Ludlow, Vt., Nov. 30, 1835; she is the daughter of Stephen and Hannah (Sargent) Stewart. There have been born to them the following children,-viz., Ormond A., Nov. 5, 1859; Myron I., Aug. 3, 1861; Mary L., Dec. 25, 1862; Willis R., Nov. 16, 1865; Gilbert L., Jan. 30, 1870; Jay B., Oct. 10, 1871; and Lelia A., July 22, 1873. 414 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. I WILLIAM CASTEL. William Castel was born in Gorham, Ontario Co., N. Y., June 2, 1812. His grandfather was born in England, and emigrated to America and settled in New England, where Amos, William's father, was born, and from where he moved to Ontario County prior to the birth of his children. From Ontario he went to Monroe County, where he cleared up a new farm, on which he spent the remainder of his days. efforts in trying cases, which he has done for years. He was married, Feb. 23, 1841, to Miss Betsey Ann Stevens; she was born May 22, 1819. Their children are Francis M., born Jan. 7, 1842; he enlisted in Company F, First Michigan Cavalry; served his term, then re-enlisted as a veteran; he was at Winchester, Gettysburg, and in many other battles, and was a prisoner of war at Belle Isle. Harriet F., born Aug. 17, 1844; burned as above set forth. William H., born March 19, 1846; enlisted in Company F, First Cavalry; was wounded and discharged. Jerusha, Aug. 16, 1848, and Melvin R., Aug. 7, 1853. CAPT. ROBERT W. HOY. Capt. Robert W. Hoy was born in Canton, Stark Co., Ohio, Feb. 26, 1824. He was the son of Robert Hoy, who emigrated to Plymouth, Richland Co., Ohio, at an early day, and bought one hundred and sixty acres of wild land. Six years later he died, leaving a wife and five children. Robert W. was the youngest. His brother, leaving home soon after the death of the father, left Robert at the age of thirteen in charge of the farm. The family continued the work of improving which had been pushed forward during the life of the father until it was a well improved farm, with good buildings, orchards, etc. Robert's time was so taken up with the duties which devolved upon him that he did not get the advantages received by most of the boys of his day, receiving but a limited education. On the 29th of January, 1844, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Wilson. To them were WILLIAM CASTEL. William's chance for an education was very limited, receiving hardly a common-school education as then taught. In 1835 he came to Michigan and settled in Washtenaw County. There he bought a new farm and cleared it up, and upon it built a nice house, and was doing well when, in 1843, his house caught fire, and with its entire contents and an infant child was burned. This, with the failure of a wheat-crop of fifty acres, gave him such a set-back that he could not recover his footing, and he lost his all. He then for several years bought and sold land, and followed different kinds of business until 1850, when he came to Bushnell and located one hundred and sixty acres of land, on which he now resides. Here he has again cleared, up a new farm, and undergone the discomforts and hardships of a pioneer life. Mr. Castel is a man of very positive character, a warm, true friend, and an implacable enemy. Although a Democrat, he never votes a straight Democratic ticket, but supports with might and main the best men. He was elected supervisor in 1851, and held the office many years, and, it is said, at times controlled the board. He was very much in favor of Stanton as the county-seat, and did more than any other man towards establishing it there. During the late war he was a War Democrat, and did much towards filling the different calls for men, two of his own sons helping by enlisting for three years. It was through his means that Bloomer and Evergreen were organized, and he named them both. He has never been admitted to the bar, but the attorneys find him well worthy of their best CAPT. ROBERT W. HOY. born Elizabeth A., Dec. 29, 1845; George W., Oct. 29, 1847; John W., Jan. 29, 1850; Robert F.,Jan. 2, 1853; Eliza J., Feb. 5, 1855; and Walter L. F., April 21, 1857. Mrs. Hoy died May 4, 1857. They had, after their marriage, remained on the Hoy homestead until 1853, BUSHNELL. 415 when they moved to Lisbon, Noble Co., Ind., where Mr. Hoy engaged in the mercantile business, which he followed with fair success for three years. Failing health compelled him to leave the store, and then for a time he traveled for a manufacturing company. Then again settled down in Lisbon as its postmaster, which, connected with justice business, afforded him a comfortable living until August, 1863, when he raised a company, which became Company IOne Hundred and Twenty-ninth Indiana Infantry, and Mr. Hoy was chosen its captain. The regiment left the State in March, 1864, and at Murfreesboro' joined the Twenty-third Corps, which became part of Sherman's army in its Atlanta campaign, and they took part in the battles and skirmishes which resulted in the capture of Atlanta.,They then went back with Gen. Thomas to Franklin, where they fought a hard battle, then fell back and were in the battle of Nashville, after which they joined Sherman, and at Kinston, N. C., saw their last battle. Soon after this, Capt. Hoy, who had ever been with his regiment, went home on leave of absence, returning to his regiment only to be mustered out Sept. 9, 1865. In the summer of 1867 the captain came to Bushnell and bought twenty acres of land, which has since been his home. He was a Democrat until 1860, when the Democratic State convention of Indiana, under the leadership of Vallandigham, Voorhees, et al., passed resolutions which he could not indorse, and he then became an active member of the Republican party. In the fall of 1866 he removed with his family to Wood's Corners, Ionia Co., Mich., and engaged in the carpenter and joiner business. Having purchased a small farm in Bushnell, Montcalm Co., he removed there on the 13th of July, 1867, and in the following spring was elected justice of the peace, which office he has held to the present time; also the office of supervisor continuously for nine years, to the entire satisfaction of his townsmen, with whom he is very popular. Before leaving Ohio he served two terms as sheriff of Richland County; was also elected county assessor and town assessor for a number of terms. In Indiana was twice elected trustee, four years justice of the peace, and five years postmaster. For his second wife, Mr. Hoy married Miss Jane R. Wilson. She died Sept. 5. 1860, leaving one child, Emma E., born Feb. 7, 1859. Oct. 26, 1865, he was married to Miss Mary L. Grace. She died Sept. 9, 1867. Mr. Hoy was again married, to Mrs. Sarah A. Lang, daughter of Bennett and Mary Grace, of Mercer, Pa., on the 2d of January, 1869. By her first husband Mrs. Lang had four daughters, who became members of Mr. Hoy's family. They are Gertrude E., born Nov. 25, 1855; Emily M., born March 1, 1857; Mary Adaline, born Jan. 1, 1862; and Sarah A., born July 10, 1864. BLOO M ER. THE township of Bloomer, designated in the United States survey as township number 9 north, of range 5 west, is the southeastern division of Montcalm County. It is bounded on the north by Crystal, on the east by Gratiot County, on the south by Ionia County, and on the west by Bushnell. Tile surface is moderately undulating, and is well watered and drained by Fish Creek and its branches. Originally the entire township was covered with a heavy growth of beech and maple timber, which, up to the time of settlement, and, in fact, many years after, was the retreat of all kinds of wild game peculiar to Michigan. From this source the early settlers secured a large part of their winter provisions, and without it, in some instances, severest want and suffering must have ensued. Although Epaphroditus Ransom entered the south half of the northeast quarter of section 1 and the south half of the northwest quarter of the same section on the 26th of June, 1835, the larger part of the township remained undisturbed until the year 1849. From this time, and during the years 1850-52, the most of the land was taken, although there was no permanent settler until 1850. ORIGINAL LAND-PURCHASERS. The following is a list of persons who entered lands in the township of Bloomer: Section 1.-Epaphroditus Ransom (June 26, 1835), Ira Armstrong. Section 2.-Epaphroditus Ransom, John N. Fowler, Sylvester Bronson, Ira Brooks, Thomas J. Smith. Section 3.-John M. Gordon, E. L. Davis, John N. Fowler. Section 4.-Thankful Albro, James Cross, E. L. Davies, John N. Fowler. Section 5.-Thankful Albro, Daniel W. Clark, Edward Robinson, William P. Johnson, Simeon S. De Camp, John G. Williams, John N. Fowler, Amos A. King. Section 6.-James Donovan, John Shilling, Jr., Stephen F. Page, Levi Trim, Christopher Rice, Mortimer Gilleo, Lorenzo D. Mason, Joshua Bogart, Harvey D. Mason, Newton Gilleo, Alvin Groner. Section 7.-William W. King, Susan E. Clock, William Headland, Rebecca Headland, Benjamin Carey, Cyrus Dickinson, Alfred D. Isham, Harvey D. Mason. Section 8.-Evander Spaulding, John P. Nellis, John Norris, Jr., Job B. Norris, Levi Smith, John G. Williams, John N. Fowler. Section 9.-John B. Allison, James Cross, Benjamin F. Holmes, George Tibbitts, David Aldrich. Section 10.-James A. Dickinson, Ira Armstrong, George H. Dennis. Section 11.-Thomas R. Brand, John Herrick, George 416 Winsor, Benjamin Fuller, John N. Fowler, William F. Bigelow, Thomas J. Smith. Section 12.-Epaphroditus Ransom, John M. Gordon, Robert McClelland, Joseph Roop, Abram Ely, Ira Armstrong, John Kipp, William Chaffin. Section 13.-John M. Gordon, Robert McClelland, James R. Langdon, Darius C. Larkins, Joseph Roop, Abram Ely. Section 14.-Israel Gillett, Peter B. Casler, Anthony Cornue, Joseph P. House, C. P. House, Samuel Clark, John T. Cornue, Cornelius Bigelow. Section 15.-John Johnson Thomas Allen, Gary C. Fox, Sidney Thomas, John Cave. Section 16.-Moses Bean, P. Barrister, Mary Jane Carl, J. G. Bright, W. H. Chapman. Section 17.-Charles Benjamin, Hannah Graves, William Huffle, Joseph Urie, Sidney H. Sherman. Section 18.-Isaac Pennington, Charles H. Potter, Matilda Adams, John Smith, Hugh Adams, James A. Clock, Alexander Adams. Section 19.-Isaac Pennington, Seth M. Root, Joseph L. Clock, John Richards, Sr. Section 20.-Seth M. Root, William Fancher, John Weaver, Robert McGill, Daniel F. Perky. Section 21.-John Fish, Ira Wilder, Catharine Post, Betsey Tubb, Jonathan Boyer, Isaac Piper. Section 22.-Nathaniel Benton, Abraham Shafer, Elizabeth Cronkrite, Peter Clock, Daniel Bellinger, Heman Pratt, Jay Olmstead, Mark Wilsey. Section 23.-James R. Langdon, Robert McClelland, James Covill, Silas Everest, George Covill. Section 24.-John M. Gordon, Darius C. Larkins. Section 25.-James R. Langdon, John M. Gordon, Daniel Barker, Samuel J. Goff, Isaac Braman. Section 26.-James R. Langdon, John G. Welsh, Jeremiah Wilson, Asa Ward, Louis Lovell. Section 27.-John G. Welsh, Roswell Paine, Alden Giddings, Seth Roberts, George H. Dennis, Lester C. Bennett. Section 28.-Anderson Miner, Henry Fargo, Alden Giddings, Thomas Bainborough, Henry F. Brown, Amasa Aldrich. Section 29.-H. Turrell, William M. Gardiner, John Richards, Thomas Bainborough, Jedediah W. Lane, H. Bump, John C. Blanchard, William Dorton, John W. Pew. Section 30.-Francis Budine, Jonathan Cole, Thomas Covel, Harvey D. Allen, Polly Fowler, S. M. Cornell, A. E. Lindeley. Section 31.-Seth M. Root, Charles Knapp, John N. Fowler, Calvin Peters, Richard Sinkey, William Patrick, George Robinson, Nelson Covell. BLOOMER. 417 BLOMER 417 Section 32.-Seth M. Root, Alpheus Hawley, Abigail McKelvey, Thomas Stafford, Charles W. Owen, Melvin Laverty, Calvin Peters, Louis Lovell, Gilbert F. D. Wilson, N. Ferris. Section 33.-John S. Decker, Stephen Stafford, John S. Hunt, William Ayers, Horace Beebe. Section 34.-Benton Bernard, Henry Innes, Henry Chaffee, John Minich, John Hunt, John C. Blanchard, Louis S. Lovell. Section 35.-F. Smith, D. C. Hawley, Benton Barnard, Philip Cling, Ezekiel Ferrington. Section 36.-F. Smith, D. C. Hawley, Daniel Barker, John Lowry, John Snyder. EARLY SETTLEMENTS. The township of Bloomer was a wilderness until the year 1851. On the town-line between Bushnell and Bloomer a man named Francis Beudine* had built a shanty, and occupied it some six months previous to this time. He entered the south half of the southwest quarter of section 30, but at the expiration of that time sold it to Asa Hawley, who was the second settler in the township. He came from Jackson County, and remained about two years, when he sold to Charles Knapp, who still resides on this place. In the summer of 1851, Jonathan Cole and Sylvester Pennington settled in the township. The land, which consisted of the southwest quarter of section 19, was entered in the name of Isaac Pennington, while Cole took up the northwest quarter of section 30. Pennington remained in the township a number of years, and then went to St. John's, Clinton Co. This quarter is now owned by Harvey Bump, who came to the township in 1854. The land entered by Mr. Cole is now occupied by A. Boyer. The first to penetrate the heavy beech and maple forests of the interior of Bloomer for the purpose of making a permanent settlement was Anderson Miner. As has been intimated, this region had long since been visited by land-speculators, or their agents, and, as a consequence, considerable portions of land had already been entered. An abundance of game, which at almost all seasons roamed through the forests or found retreats in its dense and almost impenetrable thickets, had for many years made it the favorite resort of both Indian and white hunters. Among those of the latter race was Asa Hawley, whose favorable reports induced Anderson Miner, in company with his son, Winfield Miner, to visit the southern part of Montcalm County in June, 1851. It is unnecessary to add that they found it even surpassing in beauty and fertility reports heretofore hardly credited. Mr. Miner accordingly took the description of the northeast quarter of section 28, and with a soldier's land-warrant, which he had received from government as a recognition of his services in the war of 1812, and proceeded to Ionia, where the government land-office was then located, in charge of Stephen Page and Frederick Hall. He soon received a duplicate of his land, but, owing to the great rush of emigration for a number of years, the office at Washington had steadily fallen behind in its work, and the patent con-O0r Bendine. 53 veying his land did not reach him until a year and a half after the entry was made. In the following November, accompanied by his sons, John and Winfield, and their families, Mr. Miner, with three yoke of oxen and as many wagons, set out from their homes in Jackson County for the wilds of Bloomer. The " ups and downs" of that trip can never be described. The wagons, loaded down with the women and children, provisions, household goods, cooking utensils, farming implements, and a blacksmith's outfit, the crossing of streams over which there were no bridges, the almost impassable roads, made it a journey common enough, perhaps, in those days, but one now known only in story, and realized only by those who participated in it. In about eight days the little company reached the cabin of Asa Pennington, who kindly offered them its shelter and accommodations. Here, then, it was decided to leave the women and children while the men cleared a road to the farm entered by Mr. Miner, which was situated one mile south of the centre of the township. To complete a passable road to this place from the house of Mr. Pennington occupied nearly a month of hard labor. The distance in an air-line was only three miles, but the natural obstructions in the way made it necessary to cut the underbrush and timber a long way around at times, in order to avoid them. In this work Mr. Miner and his sons were assisted by Elder Wilsey, who also became a permanent settler of Bloomer. After completing the road a small log cabin was built, which stood on the land now occupied by an orchard, between the present residence of Martin J. Miner and the corner. This land has never been plowed. The trees were subsequently purchased, and as soon as the surface could be sufficiently cleared were transplanted. The cabin was one story, twelve by fourteen feet, and was the first, aside from a hunter's shanty on Fish Creek, erected in Bloomer. The orchard is also thought to have been the first in the township. These preliminary steps being taken, Mr. Miner went back to Jackson County, whence he returned with the rest of his family in January, 1852. Mr. Miner remained in Bloomer, one of its most esteemed citizens, until his death, which occurred in 1878. His wife, who shared his toil, his hardships, and his successes for sixty-two years, is still living. His sons, Winfield and Martin J., reside in the township, -the former near Carson City, and the latter on the old homestead. Soon after Mr. Miner brought his family another settlement was commenced in the eastern part of Bloomer, the leading members of which were Joseph Roop, Hiram Hunt, and William Sherman. These with their families settled on land now in the limits of Carson City or vicinity. They immediately built cabins and settled down to earnest work, and have been among the best citizens of the township. Mr. Roop settled on what is now known as the Goolthite addition to Carson City. He cleared this land and placed it in a good state of cultivation, after which he sold it to Thomas Hoag. His son, Clark Roop, who afterwards mar ried Miss Clarinda Hunt, came to the township with him, and also cleared a farm. Mr. Hunt came from Erie Co., N. Y., and settled near 418 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. Pewamo, whence he moved to Bloomer, as stated. He settled on the north half of the southeast quarter of section 12, now owned in part by S. Stone. His family at this time consisted of a wife and two children. William Sherman settled the south half of the southeast quarter of section 12, now owned by R. M. Abbott. He also entered land afterwards owned by John Miner. Mr. Sherman and Mr. Hunt still reside in the township. The latter relates that at an early day a little company consisting of ten or twelve individuals resolved to visit Crystal Lake, which had already become somewhat noted. None of these, however, had ever been there, and, without knowing its exact location, started early one morning in the direction indicated by a gentleman who had entered a tract of land in the vicinity, and whose glowing description made them still more impatient and desirous to see it. When near the Bloomer and Crystal line the entire company were brought to a sudden halt by one of their number, who, being a little in advance, held up what appeared to be the bones of a human hand. In a few moments, when the amazement gave way somewhat to curiosity, the opinion of a young man from Gratiot County who represented himself as a physician was demanded. He turned the immense "hand" over several times, and then, with two or three nods and a long breath (in the manner of an experienced physician who has made out a satisfactory diagnosis of his case), handed it back, and, as he did so, said, " Yes; that's what it is." "' What is it?" came from half the party. "A man's hand," replied our would-be doctor. He had the elements of a great physician: he asserted with confidence something about which he knew nothing whatever. Then came the search for the body, or any clue to solve the manner and mystery of death. All efforts were unavailing. The party, which up to this time had been one of extreme merriment and hilarity, became at once the counterpart of a funeral procession, and as they passed on their way the moody silence was occasioned, not through fear for personal safety, but melancholy theories with which each tried to satisfy his own mind. Some of these were advanced for the good of the rest. " Some one had lost his way, had wandered about until exhausted, had sunk down, and had been devoured by bears or wolves, with which the woods were infested." The theory that some one had first been shot by a lurking savage or border ruffian was less credited. But they kept on their way, and when in the vicinity of the lake came to a level space, evidently not long since the camping-ground of a large band of Indians. Here, after a successful hunt, they had gorged themselves on bear and venison, the bones of which were scattered in every direction. On one side there was a little stack of the bones of bears' feet that would fill an ordinary wagon-box, evidently the collection of several years, and upon examination it was found that they corresponded exactly with those found on the way. They concluded, therefore, that they were thrown away by some Indian who had made a repast of tender roast bear's paw. In the fall of 1853, C. R. Dickinson, a native of Addison Co., Vt., came to Bloomer and purchased the east half I of the southeast quarter of section 28, this being part of the entry made by Alden Giddings. Mr. Dickinson subsequently married Miss Hannah Terrell, whose parents settled on the east half of the northeast quarter of section 35. The next year her father, F. J. Terrell, having collected and prepared material for a commodious log house, was requested by Mrs. Terrell (preparatory to raising the same) to go to lonia and procure meats for the occasion. The morning before the raising, however, he and his sons Reuben and James went into the woods (which, w.are assured, were not far distant), and in less than an hour each killed a fine deer. In 1854, Hiram Roop, from Fulton Co., Ohio, became a resident of the township. He now resides just west of Fish Creek, near Carson City. The same year a Mrs. Bishop came to Bloomer and bought the southeast quarter of section 13 and the northeast quarter of 24. She was a lady of most estimable character, and still retains the gratitude of many and the respect of all who knew her. In the fall of the same year John and Paul Murray, who afterwards purchased a part of this tract, came to the township; they were from the " Province of Quebec, County of the Two Mountains, Scenery of the Argent Isle, Town of La Chute, Canada." In May, 1855, H. M. Robinson, brother-in-law, came in and bought the farm of John Murray upon which he still lives. Paul Murray paid for his first cow by felling the timber on five acres of ground, and gathered his first harvest on a sled. G. W. Palmer, a native of England, settled on the farm opposite his present residence on the 19th of May, 1855. This was a part of the tract owned by Mrs. Bishop, as was also the land at present occupied by J. Barrett and Peter Goolthite. Mr. Palmer also bought forty acres from John M. Gordon, who had entered four hundred acres in this vicinity. Isaac J. Burt, who also settled in this vicinity, married the daughter of William Sherman. He first settled in the town of North Shade. The land originally settled by Daniel Parker is now occupied by H. F. Blanchard, who opened the first stock of goods in Matherton. In the mean time, while these settlements were being made in the eastern and southern part of the township, other localities received many additions, some before and some later, in the person of such men as R. Bogart, C. E. Decker, in the south; Jonathan Boyer, T. Cliffe, J. Grace, A. A. Richardson, and C. Smith, in the centre; N. S. Otis, A. Boyer, S. T. Richardson, J. Mitchell, C. Fowler, and H. H. Fowler, in the west; and C. King, A. R. Isham, E. Long, and E. Benton, in the northwest. These immediate localities, and especially in the vicinity of Miner's Corners, were hives of industry and activity. Mr. Miner had opened a blacksmith-shop (the first in Bloomer), and often he and his son Winfield were pounding away from early morning till late at night. To repair the chains and other implements necessary in clearing and improving a new country is an important item in its welfare. Schools had been started in the eastern and central parts, and religious meetings were regularly attended, but these were not the only indications of permanent prosperity. A saw-mill was built in the township of Crystal (then a part BLOOMER. 419 of Bloomer), from which timber was drawn in considerable quantities, and improvements from this time were more rapid. We have also to record the marriage of James Covel to Miss - Fairbanks, which was the first wedding in the township, and also the birth of the first child, Nathan W. Cole, son of Edward Cole, who had settled on the northwest quarter of section 30. The next birth was that of Frances, daughter of Winfield S. Miner. The first post-office was kept by A. K. Richardson, in a little cabin which stood on the southeast corner of section 21. The mail was carried (on foot) from Greenville to Ithaca by a man named Godfrey 0. Morgan. He was subsequently killed in a dense undergrowth by a hunter who mistook him for a deer. From the list of early settlers should not be omitted the name of George Benjamin, an engineer from Chicago. He was the first supervisor of the township. After two or three days' hard labor he succeeded in felling a large tree (probably the first in his lifetime), and after endeavoring as much longer to convert it into ashes, with hands blistered and clothes torn, he concluded that farming for one's health was a failure, and left the township. EARLY SCHOOLS. As to where the first school in Bloomer was held, or by whom it was taught, there is much diversity of opinion and contradictory statements; we can therefore state that which seems to us to be the most authentic. It seems that, in the fall or winter of 1852-53, Miss Alvira D. Miner opened a school in the little log cabin built by her father upon his settlement in the township, he in the mean time having erected a more commodious one for the family. The names of the pupils in this school were Emma G. Harley, Martha Wilsey, Bertram Wilsey, Olive Miner, Onella Hawley. The next summer the settlers who lived in the eastern part of the township held a school-meeting and concluded to build a school-house. They accordingly put up a log building, which was nearly square (about twelve feet). It had two half-windows, or single sash of six lights each. The benches were split from basswood logs, and set up on pins. It had a fireplace, such as was common in those days, made of stones and mud, and a stick chimney on the outside. Alvira Miner was secured to teach this school also, and it is said by some that she received one dollar per week for her services, but others seem to doubt the ability of the early settlers to raise so munificent a sum. The next term was also taught by her. She was much esteemed as a teacher. She still lives in the town, and is now the wife of Wallace St. Clair. The log cabin referred to now forms a part of the southeast corner of Hine's Hotel, in the village of Carson City. The same summer when Miss Miner taught her first school in this cabin the spirit of enterprise seized the settlers in the vicinity of Miner's Corners. A school-meeting was called, Anderson Miner was elected director, while David Siebrig and Mark Wilsey were called upon to fill the responsible positions of moderator and assessor. It was then resolved to build a school-house. Accordingly, a I i I body of logs was raised, making a room sixteen by twenty feet. It was finished much after the description of that in the east part of the township. Which was built first it is impossible to say definitely, but it was probably the one at the centre. The first teacher was Miss Ruth Dodge, from Ionia County. PRESENT STATUS OF SCHOOLS. There are at present in the township of Bloomer eight whole school districts and two fractional districts. The names of the directors in the several districts for 1879 were as follows: District No. 1, Thomas Cliffe; District No. 2, G. M. Barney; District No. 3, J. H. Savage; District No. 4, J. W. Mitchell; District No. 5, Heman Horton; District No. 6, John W. Howarth; District No. 7, P. C. Goolthite; District No. 8, Guy J. Chandler. There are eight frame school-buildings in the township, worth, in the aggregate, five thousand five hundred dollars. The following table exhibits the number of sahool-children enrolled in the several districts, and the total amount of resources, for the school-year ending September, 1879: Children. District No. 1............................ 41 2........................... 256 3............................ 71 4........................... 39 5............................ 62 It 6.. 39 7........................... 22 8............................ 54 Resources. $986.98 1536.10 223.11 236.39 275.06 168.64 173.71 153.44 NAMING THE TOWNSHIP. The incidents which led to adopt the word " Bloomer" for town 9 north, range 5 west, were, as near as can be learned, as follows: At a dance held at the cabin of Isaac Pennington, in the winter of 1851-52, several ladies astonished the good deacons of the Puritanic school (who had stopped there for the night) by appearing in bloomer dresses. When their surprise abated, the dresses were the occasion of some mild jokes, and the term became something of a by-word in the infant colony, and when, in the spring of 1852, a name was needed for the township this one was adopted. This statement is discredited by some, and it is said that a number of citizens desired the township to be called " Bloomingdale," but, as there was a township in Van Buren County of this name, it was named Bloomer. The weight of testimony is entirely with the first explanation. ASSESSMENT ROLL FOR 1852. Anderson Miner, sections 21, 28........................ Ira Brooks, section 35...................................... Jeremiah Willson, section 26............................. James Covill, section 23.................................. Joseph Roop, section 13................................... 'William Sherman, section 12............................. Hiram Hunt, section 12............................ S. H. Pennington, section 30............................. T. B. Colton............................................... Mark Wilsey................................................... George Benjamin....................................... G. H. Dennis.................................................. Acres. 320 80 160 160 160 80 80 160 The total valuation of personal property in the township of Bloomer, which at that time comprised also town 10 north, range 5 west, was two hundred and seven dollars. The aggregate valuation of real and personal property was sixteen thousand three hundred and twenty-seven dollars. 420 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. FIRST ELECTION. The first election in the township was held at the house of Anderson Miner, in April, 1852, at which time there were present Anderson Miner, James Covil, Jonathan Cole, Ira Brooks, Edward Cole, John Richards, Francis Cole, George Benjamin, Sylvester Pennington, Zadock Heath, Hiram Hunt, William Sherman, Joseph Roop, Jeremiah Willson, John E. Miner, W. S. Miner, David Sebrig, Mark Wilsey, Dr. T. D. Colton, George H. Dennis. At this election the ballot-box consisted of a soda-box furnished by Mrs. Miner. She also prepared dinner for the entire company. OFFICERS FROM 1852 TO 1880. The following is a list of the supervisors, town clerks, treasurers, school inspectors, and justices of the peace from the organization of the township to 1880, inclusive: SUPERVISORS. 1852, George Benjamin; 1853, Mark Wilsey; 1854, Asa Ward; 1855 -57, William Patrick; 1858, Benjamin F. Fuller; 1859, William Patrick; 1860-61, Aaron Lyon; 1862, John T. Irish; 1863-64, Benjamin F. Fuller; 1865, William Patrick; 1866, C. C. Forbush; 1867, Alfred W. Holmes; 1868-76, Charles R. Dickinson; 1877, no record; 1878-1880, Charles R. Dickinson. TOWN CLERKS. 1852-53, Winfield S. Miner; 1854-55, George H. Dennis; 1856-59, Aaron Lyon; 1860, Willson C. Colby; 1861-62, Corydon S. Hunt; 1863, C. C. Forbush; 1864-66, John B. Allison; 1867, Samuel Andrews; 1868-73, John B. Allison; 1874-76, Benjamin F. Sweet; 1877, no record; 1878-80, W. H. Thayer. TREASURERS. 1852-53, John A. Miner; 1854-55, George Covill; 1856-58, John A. Miner; 1859-60, Charles R. D ickinson; 1861-62, J. T. Barrett; 1863, Hiram Barrett; 1864, Mark Wilsey; 1865, C. C. Forbush; - 1866-67, Charles R. Dickinson; 1868-75, John H. Savage; 1876, L. W. Burgderfer; 1877, no record; 1878, John H. Savage; 1879 -80, Paul Murray. SCHOOL INSPECTORS. 1852, Mark Wilsey; 1853, no record; 1854, John T. Cornoe; 1855, Benjamin F. Fuller; 1856, H. H. Fowler; 1857, Benjamin F. Fuller; 1858, Julius T. Barrett; 1859, Nathaniel Ward; 1860, Julius T. Barrett; 1861, Nathaniel Ward; 1862, John B. Allison; 1863, Aaron Lyon; 1864, C. C. Forbush; 1865, John McDonald; 1866, Alfred W. Holmes; 1867, Iomer J. Smith; 1868, Joseph E. Haw; 1869, Homer J. Smith; 1870, Aaron Lyon; 1871, Homer J. Smith; 1872, C. S. Cranson; 1873, H. M. Robinson; 1874, Homer J. Smith; 1875, H. T. Sherman; 1876, William Richardson; ]877, no record; 1878, John B. Bessequie; 1879, John Temant; 1880, H. T. Sherman. JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. 1852, Anderson Miner, James Covill, Ira Brooks, Sylvester Pennington; 1853, no record; 1854, Benjamin F. Fuller; 1855, Henry 1I. Fowler, Theodore L. Everest; 1856, Henry H. Fowler, Anderson Miner; 1857, John S. Hunt; 1858, Hiram Barrett; Joseph Roop; 1859, Salem Richardson, Harvey Bump; 1860, Benjamin Fuller; 1861, John T. Irish; 1862, Hliram Barrett, Sr.; 1863, Salem T. Richardson; 1864, John B. Allison; 1865, John T. Irish; 1866, Hiram Barrett, Sr., Thadeus W. Fancher; 1867, Addison H. Mack; 1868, A. H. Hemmingway, Thomas Scott, Thomas Jolly; 1869, Thadeus W. Fancher; 1870, Thomas Jolly; 1871, Benjamin H. Bates; 1872, Thadeus W. Fancher, Aaron Lyon; 1873, Alfred W. Holmes, Asa Martin; 1874, James P. Graham, William A. Sweet, Jr.; 1875, no record; 1876, Asa Martin; 1877, no statement of election; 1878, James P. Graham; 1879, 0. R. Goodno; 1880, G. B. Bartholomew. CARSON CITY. This village is situated on sections 12 and 13, on land originally entered in part by Joseph Roop, who on the 2d of July, 1850, took up the west half of the southeast quarter of section 12. The patent was granted May 8, 1851. Abram Ely entered the east half of the same quarter Dec. 20, 1851. These lands are now occupied by R. M. Abbott. The east half of the southwest quarter of section 12 was entered on Nov. 2, 1836, and the patent therefor received dated Nov. 2, 1837. Robert McClelland's patent for the west half of the same quarter bears the same date. It was entered Nov. 8, 1836. The northwest quarter of section 13 was entered by James R. Langdon, Dec. 16, 1836, and by Darius C. Larkins, Aug. 13, 1849. The northeast quarter of section 13 was also entered by Joseph Roop and Abram Ely. The former took the west half and the latter the east half. The village was platted on land owned by R. M. Abbott, Delia Miner, and H. T. Sherman, Oct. 10, 1866, and recorded Feb. 28, 1872, but since then eight additions have been made. The first lot was sold to Thomas Scott and John and Thomas La Due, who, under the firm-name of Scott & La Due, built a saw-mill in the fall of 1868. It was the first in the village. They also built the grist-mill in about two years after. These enterprises gave the village an impetus, and the building and business interests in general grew up very rapidly. Addison H. Mack, who bought a lot and built a small store-building near the mill, opened the first stock of goods in the village. Mr. Mack was soon succeeded by H. P. Miller, who opened a good assortment of general merchandise. He is now in the hardware business. The first hardware-store was opened by Sullivan E. Felch in the large building usually known as the Proctor store-building, from Alonzo Proctor, who purchased it. The first hotel was built by Hiram Hunt and his son Daniel. Augustus Barnum, Elmer Lewis, and Anson Davenport were connected with the early business interests of the village. Brower & Howe built a planing-mill and sash-and-blind factory, which was subsequently owned by Lacy & Acker, in whose possession it burned. This was a serious loss to the little town. This last firm also erected a saw-mill, which proved a failure and resulted in the dissolution of the partnership. A siding- and shingle-mill was built by John Taft, which was subsequently moved to the north of Edmore. In 1878 another sash-and-blind factory was built by H. T. Sherman, which is equipped with machinery and modern appliances. A steam saw-mill and oar-factory, which was a valuable addition to the village, has since been moved to Saginaw. The large apiary owned by Hiram Roop should not be omitted. When the meeting was called in the interest of the Marshall and Northern Railroad, the citizens of Carson City and vicinity responded liberally to the project, in full faith that the company would complete and equip the road. The bed was graded many miles immediately, but the road has not yet been finished. BLOOMER. 421 SOCIETIES, CHURCHES, ETC. The First Sabbath-School in Carson.-In 1854, through the efforts of Mrs. Bishop (already referred to), the first Sabbath-school in the eastern part of the township was organized. It met in the little cabin before spoken of in connection with the schools of this vicinity. Rev. Charles Chick, Hiram Hunt, and Gains Lullum (who at that time lived in Gratiot County, but who now resides in Bloomer, on section 1) were teachers, as was also Miss Alvira Miner,,who at that time was teaching her second term of school here. This Sabbath-school has never been discontinued, the organization being permanent, until the union Sabbathschool was formed in Carson City. Methodist Episcopal Church at Bloomer Centre and ~Carson City.-The church history of Bloomer commences with the organization of a Methodist Class at the house of Anderson Miner in May, 1854. Previous to this, however, religious meetings had been held at this place and in the eastern part of the township. The first of these was conducted by Elder Wilsey, who was the first class-leader. The Rev. Charles Chick, who came from England and settled in the western part of Gratiot County, near the line of Bloomer, preached the first sermon in the eastern part of the township, also occasionally at Bloomer Centre. The class referred to was composed of the following-named persons: Rev. Mark Wilsey, Francis Wilsey, Anderson Miner, Delilah Miner, Elmira Miner, Mary E. Miner, Elvira Miner, Mary Willson, Phebe Ann Cole, William Fargo. After the resignation of Elder Wilsey, Anderson Miner became class-leader, a position which he filled many years. The Rev. William McKnight was the first preacher in charge of this circuit, and it was during his stay that the class was formed. From the little beginning made in May, 1854, dates the. permanent organization of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Bloomer Centre. The circuit has been many times remodeled, and many ministers have successively filled the appointment. Some of those whose names we have succeeded in collecting are as follows: Revs. William McKnight, Moses Carpenter, Charles Chick, N. L. Otis, John Braggins, Hiram Law, Charles Sprague. The society at Bloomer Centre has now a neat and commodious church, which was built in 1879 at a cost of seventeen hundred dollars, and is comparatively free from debt. United Brethren Church.-The first class of this church was formed under the supervision of Rev. - Stone, who at that time was a local minister at Matherton. The following are the names of the persons who composed this class: Mrs. Harley Bump, Abram Lampman, Cenith Lampman, Hannah Smith. It was soon augmented by Harley Bump, Jonas Clark and wife, Charles Smith and wife, Mrs. Dalton, and Lyman Stevens and wife. They resolved to build a church, and a site was selected on the farm of Harley Bump, of whom they bought the land for this purpose. The trustees of the church were appointed a building committee. Their names were as follows: Lyman Stevens, Nathaniel Ferris, Harley Bump. The church was completed, at a cost of seven hundred dollars, in 1867. 0. O. Osborne is the present pastor. The membership is thirty-eight. First Methodist Episcopal Church of Carson City.This society was organized at the Annual Conference held at Coldwater in 1870, Bishop Clark presiding. East Bushnell had formerly belonged to Palo; Bloomer Centre and Carson City had been included in the Hubbardston District, at which time Rev. N. L. Otis had been appointed to this circuit. He conducted the first revival in the village, and by his efforts placed the society upon a more permanent basis. Rev. D. F. Barnes was presiding elder when the Ionia District and Bloomer Circuit was formed. In 1870, Rev. E. Hays was appointed to the Bloomer charge. Revs. W. Prouty, S. Snyder, J. J. Jenkins, N. Saunders followed. In 1869, Bloomer was included in Crystal Lake charge, Rev. E. Treadgold being pastor at that time. In 1875, Rev. Kitzmiller was appointed. He remained three years, his ministry being very successful; he added the names of eighty probationers to the roll of the church. In this year three lots were secured as a building-site for a church. Two of these were given to the society by Robert M. Abbott and his wife. A fund also of five hundred dollars was raised at this time for building-purposes. The Baptist Church.-The first meeting of this society was held at the house of William Everest (who lived on section 27), in the year 1856. A number of friends who had previously belonged to this denomination in the East met and organized under the direction of Elder John Van Black. The following names were entered on the record: William Everest and wife, Milton Baldwin and wife, Hiram Hunt and wife, Theodore Everest and wife. The meetings were held in the school-house on section 26 for a number of years. The one on section 10 subsequently became the place of worship, after which Carson City became the usual place of meeting of the society, where in 1876 the meeting-house was built. The names of the building committee were John Savage, A. W. Holmes, and William Acker. It is a substantial and well-arranged edifice, costing about three thousand dollars. It is the present place of worship of the Methodist Episcopal Society of Carson City, and the union Sabbath-school, conducted by the two societies, is an interesting feature. Since the completion of the Baptist church in Carson City, the members of the Methodist Episcopal Society have held their meetings in this edifice. A church-building will soon be erected, however, for which fifteen hundred dollars has already been subscribed. The Methodist Episcopal Church at East Bushnell was completed and dedicated by Rev. D. F. Barnes in 1877. The Society of the Congregational Church is of recent organization, but has already become firmly established. It has a fine church-building, which was completed in 1876. The society was organized June 3, 1872, at the house of T. B. Colton. Evangelical Association.-In 1858, Christian Ude and Martin Speck came to Bloomer and formed this association. The members are principally of German descent, and the exercises are still conducted in the German lan guage. The membership of the society is twenty-three, and in addition is a well-conducted Sabbath-school. The place of meeting is the school-house in Carson City. 22 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. SOCIETIES OF CARSON CITY. Carson City Lodge, 1o. 262, 1 0. O. F., was organized Sept. 9, 1875. A dispensation was granted by George Dean, M. W. G. M., to P. Martin, W. C. Martin, P. G., E. H. Brown, G. B. Pitts, S. W. Burgdurfer, W. A. Sweet, P. G., W. N. Sever, and George Knickerbocker, as charter members. The first meeting was held on the date above given, at which time the following officers were elected: S. W. Burgdurfer, N. G.; E. H. Brower, V. G.; W. C. Burke, R. S.; W. A. Sweet, Jr., Treas.; P. Martin, Warden; G. B. Pitts, Conductor. Anderson Chestnut, R. P. Davis, and S. H. Caswell were the first candidates initiated. The present officers are W. G. Shutter, N. G.; W. A. Palmer, V. G.; O. R. Goodnoe, R. S.; E. H. Brower, P. S.; Isaac Kipp, Treas. Pioneer Lodge, No. 4, A. O. U. W., was organized Jan. 4, 1877, since which time the membership has increased to forty-seven in good standing. The following-named persons are trustees of the society: William Richardson, O. H. Heath, John Murray. Carson City Lodge, F. and A. M.-Carson City Lodge, No. 306, F. and A. M., was organized Nov. 1,5871 (1871), with the following charter members: Martin Miner, Lewis II. Wilsey, Charles Ambrook, John H. Savage, Daniel H. Sinkey, Jacob D. Boyer, Winfield S. Miner, William S. Everest, Henry P. Miller, Hiram Roop, James M. Proctor, Perry Patton, Thadeus Fancher, Aaron Lyons. The society has a fine hall, neat and tastefully arranged, a membership of fifty-three in good standing, and is in a prosperous and flourishing condition. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. CHARLES R. DICKINSON. There are none who better deserve to be written up in history than the citizen-soldiery of our country, who left home and families when the Slaveholders' Rebellion broke upon the startled people of the North to go forth and, if need be, give their lives in the vindication and preservation of our republican form of government. Such a one was Charles R. Dickinson, who enlisted as a private in Company K, Twenty-first Michigan Infantry, Aug. 12, 1862. He was ever with his company, and participated in all its skirmishes and battles, the principal ones being Perryville, Ky., Stone River, Chickamauga, and tle " March to the Sea." At Savannah he was severely wounded in the leg by a shell. Mr. Dickinson, for good conduct, was promoted to corporal and sergeant, and was discharged with his regiment at Detroit, June 8, 1865. He was born in New Haven, Addison Co., Vt., May 24, 1825. His family was of old New England stock, his ancestors on both sides having emigrated from Connecticut to Vermont prior to the war for independence. His grandfather on his mother's side (Simon Smith) was a soldier in that war. The father of Charles R., Julius C. Dickinson, was also born in Vermont, where he grew to manhood. He married Miss Betsey Smith. He worked at blacksmithing until 1832, when he moved into Genesee Co., N. Y., where he remained until 1838, when he, with his family, came West and settled in the town of Hanover, Jackson Co., Mich., where he bought two hundred acres of wild land, which he improved and owned until 1852, when he sold out and moved into the city of Jackson, where he still resides. Charles, being a lad of thirteen when the family went into the new farm, was at once, with the rest, put to work clearing and improving the farm, and was thus early taught that work was one of God's ordinances, and that he was no exception to the rule. Arrived at his majority, he started out in life on his own account with no wealth but health and strength. For a time he took jobs, thus getting a small start, with which he, in 1850, joined a party and made the overland trip to California, where for two years he worked in the mines, meeting with fair success. He then returned to Michigan, and in 1853 came to the town of Bloomer, where he bought of a Mr. Giddings the east half of southeast quarter of section 28, and west half of southwest quarter of section 27; also eighty acres in section 34, which he soon sold. There was only a slashing of four acres on his farm, and no roads to it. But, nothing daunted, he at once went to work, and soon cleared fields took the place of the forests, buildings went up, and to-day his toil is rewarded by a fine farm, ninety acres of which is cleared, and mostly by his own hands, with buildings, orchard, etc., a view of which is given on another page of this work. In politics he is a stalwart Republican, and among his townsmen very popular, having been elected supervisor thirteen years in succession; also for four years treasurer, and two years a highway commissioner. Mr. Dickinson was married, Jan. 27, 1855, to Hannah Turrill, daughter of Truman J. and Cornelia (Covill) Turrill. She was born in Canada in May, 1835. Their children were Charles F., born March 2, 1857; Ettie V., July 18, 1859; and Harmon R., March 4, 1863. Mrs. Dickinson died March 10, 1866. On the 1st day of September, 1868, he was again married, his bride being Miss Mary Turrell, born Sept. 1, 1848, who died soon after. For his third wife Mr. Dickinson married, on the 18th day of March, 1869, Miss Kate Sullivan, who was born Dec. 25, 1827, daughter of Cornelius Sullivan. BLOOMER. 423 BLOOMER. 423 THOMAS R. LA DUE. THOMAS R. LA DUE. Thomas R. La Due was born in the town of Cato, Cayuga Co., N. Y., Feb. 27, 1846. His family, as the name indicates, are of French origin, his ancestors having fled from France during the persecution of the French Huguenots by the Roman Catholics, and settled in America. The father of Thomas, Abraham La Due, was a farmer, and on the home-farm his youth was passed, receiving only a common-school education. At the age of eighteen he enlisted in Battery A, Third New York Light Artillery, and served one year, most of the time in North Carolina with Gen. Schofield's command, which opened communication with Gen. Sherman's army in his march to the sea. On the 6th day of June, 1865, he was discharged, and at once returned home, where he remained until the next spring, when he, in company with his brother John, went to Albion, Mich., where their uncle, Thomas Scott, resided, and worked at the carpenter's trade one summer. In August, 1866, the three came to Bloomer, and on Fish Creek improved the water-power now used in the Carson City Mills. There was then no village of Carson, but the want of a grist- and saw-mill had long been felt by the people of the surrounding country,-a want they at once proceeded to supply. A saw-mill was first built, followed in 1868 by the erection of the Carson City Grist-Mill, putting in two run of stone, to which has since been added another run. The mills did a prosperous business, and formed the nucleus of the present village of Carson, of which the three gentlemen above named may be, and are, called the fathers. In 1877, John La Due sold his interest to Mr. Young and moved to Saginaw. The mills are now owned by the firm of La Due & Cummings. 424 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. JOEL A. PROCTOR. JOEL A. PROCTOR. Joel A. Proctor was born in Mesopotamia, Trumbull Co., Ohio, Feb. 22, 1842. He is the son of Alonzo and Leah B. Proctor. When quite small he went to live with his uncle, Benjamin Long, with whom he resided until the 1st day of June, 1861, when he enlisted in Company B, Twentythird Ohio Volunteer Infantry, to serve three years. From Camp Chase his regiment was sent to West Virginia, where it remained during the summer of 1861, doing picket and outpost duty. In September, 1862, the regiment joined the Eighth Corps at Alexandria, and soon after took an active part in McClellan's Maryland campaign. After Antietam the regiment returned to West Virginia, where they remained until 1864, when they joined Gen. Crook in the Shenandoah Valley, and soon after, in an engagement with the rebel Gen. Early, near Winchester, they were drawn into a trap, and in attempting to fall back were captured. There were two thousand of them corralled in a pen for five days, fed only on three-fourths of a pound of bread and half a pound of beef. On the fifth night of their capture, Mr. Proctor, who had been for two or three days laying plans to escape, knowing, as he did, that to remain meant Andersonville with all its horrors, got into a small brook which run through their camp, and, lying down flat in the shallow stream, crawled slowly along towards the rebel guards, who were standing within a few feet of each other on each side of the stream. The night was dark, and, covered by the shadow of the banks and the darkness, he drew himself cautiously along. A single miss move, the slightest noise, and he would be seen, and discovery meant instant death. He had reached the most dangerous part of his route when the officer of the day came to the guards and cautioned them to be more vigilant, as several attempts to escape had been made, and an example must be made of some of them. As the officer crossed the creek on his way to the next sentry he passed within three feet of the escaping soldier, who lay nearly sub merged in water, waiting with bated breath for the danger to pass. He was not seen, and he again moved forward, an inch at a time, as it were, until a distance of several yards from the guards had been reached, when he arose to his feet and cautiously but swiftly made his way towards North Mountain. Reaching the summit of the mountain about daylight, he dropped down in an old bear-trail and sought the rest he so much needed after the excitement of the night. About 10 A.M. he awoke, and then learned that he had stopped on the very brink of a deep gorge, down which he must have plunged had he taken another step in the direction he was going. Standing there on the mountain-top, he could see the rebel cavalry scouring the country in all directions. He made his way down the mountain until he came to a small clearing, where he made a meal of dewberries, the first thing he had eaten for many hours. At the foot of the mountain he laid down in the bushes and passed the day in sight of a road over which rebel troops were continually passing. After dark he again resumed his way, going through the woods and fields, his guide being the North Star. He had been traveling but a short time when he came to the edge of the woods, and to his dismay found himself within a few rods of a large rebel camp. As he stood behind a tree debating what to do he saw two rebels approaching, and so near that retreat was impossible; but his presence of mind saved him. He commenced gathering wood and putting it in a pile, which made the men think he was one of them, and they passed him by unnoticed. The danger past, he made a wide detour, and soon left the camp in the rear. Tired and hungry, he dragged his way along until nearly morning, when he again lay down and slept until noon, then resumed his flight, reaching the Union lines near Pawpaw Station about 5 P.M. He was at once taken under guard as a suspicious character, but soon satisfied them he was a genuine Yank, and he was set free. Here he met David Hunter, who had made his escape the night before he left, and ~1. 5;::7:1"3.1:'i,~t, ~~i:9; i~i"-" '"' "' `" '' r i cr-:$i.;,~~~,~~~ */r ~~s. ~s r: ':* (~.~:I-x';:YII~IIC,r '~Lg, "i~i~', ii;`~i"~,:.....:.'l;_:i I'." 'k:p$3.i.9ii, i.P ii r~\ i i "' `i J'~' r ~.*,~il,I~ 'ilC31 ~~." " i,-; ~~~~~i tl. Ii:~, i~2 11: *~ ''* 'i" 'b ~ I PB, e-, I 'O dr 'o GEo qw W PALMERI LOo - F M CvTCALM CO. MICH INV LI; BLOOMER. 425 BLO R 4 together they came home to Ohio, where Mr. Proctor remained three months, then returned to his regiment, where he was joyfully received by his comrades, and by his officers promoted to corporal for the courage and tact displayed in his escape. At the expiration of his time he re-enlisted, and was finally discharged July 25, 1865. Mr. Proctor was in the following battles: Carnifax Ferry, Giles Court-House, South Mountain, Antietam, Cloyd Mountain, Winchester, Cedar Creek, Berryville, and Fisher's Hill. After the war he came to Bloomer and located eighty acres of wild land on section 25, which he has cleared and improved. On the 24th day of October, 1867, he was married to Miss Clara L. Worden, born in Wayne Co., Mich., April 29, 1849, daughter of Albert and Aurelia Worden. Their children are Maud L., born Aug. 31, 1870; Emma J., Dec. 2, 1875; and Rutherford J., April 24, 1877. GEORGE W. PALMER. Of the foreigners who leave their homes beyond the sea to find in America a home and competency, there are none who make better citizens or who are more gladly welcomed than the hardy, honest sons of Old England. Reared in a land where the people are taught from childhood that labor is honorable, and that all men's allegiance should be given to the government which protects them, they at once become industrious and law-abiding members of the government of their adoption. Such a one is George W. Palmer, who was born in East Kent, England, July 22, 1824. His ancestors had long been tenant-farmers. His father, Joseph E. Palmer, was at the time of George's birth living on a farm which was rented by him and his father for more than forty years. On this farm Mr. Palmer, Sr., resided until too old to work, when he retired to a cottage in County Kent, where he died at the age of seventy-eight years. George W. was the ninth of a family of ten children, and remained with his father until he was fifteen, when he went to work for a farmer named Thomas Noakcs, with whom he lived five years. He then bought a passage for New York in the sailing-vessel "American Eagle." This passage was a long and stormy one. Being blown out of their course by contrary winds, they were compelled to go on short rations, coming down to three crackers and a half-pint of water per day. This continued for two weeks, when they made the Western or Portuguese Islands, where they ran into harbor for repairs, having lost a mast and being otherwise damaged. Here they also supplied the vessel with stores, and then again continued their voyage, finally arriving in New York City after a long and tedious passage of sixteen weeks. We now find Mr. Palmer, in January, 1844, a stranger in a strange land, with but a few dollars in his pockets. He at once turned his face inland, and soon brought up in Rome, Oneida Co., where he worked for a time in the lumber woods. We next find him in a glass-factory in New Bridge, where he remained for some time, then went to Ellisbury, Jefferson Co., N. Y., where he labored at anything he could get to do until the winter of 1855, when with four hundred dol54 lars in his pocket he came to Michigan, and in the town of Bloomer bought eighty acres of wild land. The next May he brought his family, whom he soon took into a log house, the work of his own hands, and life in their own home had commenced. The eighty-acre farm has been added to until he now owns a fine farm of two hundred and eighty acres, one hundred and eighty of which are under splendid cultivation, and constitute one of the finest farms in Montcalm County. The log house and barn have long since given way for a large house and fine outbuildings, a view of which is shown on another page. Mr. Palmer stands high as a citizen and as a model farmer,-a man whose word is as good as his bond. He is a Republican, but not a politician. He was married, March 7, 1855, to Esther A. Nutting, born in Henderson township, Jefferson Co., N. Y., Jan. 20, 1822, daughter of Ezra and Abigail (Hall) Nutting. Their union has been blessed with the followingnamed children: Cora A., born Jan. 10, 1856, married to John W. Myers, Aug. 15, 1876, and died Sept 1, 1880; Beatrice A., born April 5, 1858; Joseph E., born March 27, 1860, died April 29, 1860; and Alden, born March 11, 1861. JOSHUA TENNANT, M.D. Dr. Joshua Tennant was born in the county of Lanark, Ontario, Canada, Aug. 25, 1838. He is of Irish descent, his parents, John and Jane Tennant, having first seen the light of day in the Emerald Isle, in the county of Kilkenny, from whence they emigrated to Canada about the year 1812. They bought a tract of wild land in Lanark County, on which they passed the remainder of their days, and which Mr. Tennant cleared and improved, and where he built fine buildings. Dr. Tennant grew to manhood on the home-farm, working summers as soon as old enough and attending the district schools winters, making such good use of his opportunities that in his eighteenth year he commenced to teach, which he followed twelve years. He then entered the office of Dr. William Sloan, in Blyth, Ontario, Canada, and commenced the study of medicine. He remained with Dr. Sloan two years, then went to Ann Arbor, Mich., and entered the State University, taking the medical course and graduating in the spring of 1872. The doctor then went to De Witt, in Clinton Co., Mich., and opened an office, remaining there eight months. Carson City was then in its infancy, with good prospects of being a railroad town, and, believing it to be a good opening, we find him in the fall of 1872 hanging out his shingle in that village, where he has since remained, and where he now has an extensive and increasing practice. Dr. Tennant came to Carson City in very limited circumstances, but close attention to business and economy have had their reward, and he is now the owner of one of the fine homes of Montcalm County, a view of which appears on another page of this work. In politics an ardent Republican, but not a politician. Mr. Tennant and wife are both members of the First Congregational Church of Carson City. On the 28th day of October, 1873, he was married to Miss Jane Taylor, who was born in Northeast Hop, Canada, April 10, 1851. She is the daughter of Rev. J. B. and 426 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. Christina (Bain) Taylor. Mr. Taylor was born in the lowlands of Scotland, Mrs. Taylor in Nova Scotia. There have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Tennant two children,viz., John S., born June 27, 1877, and William O., June 12, 1880. HARLEY BUMP. Harley Bump was born in Greenfield, Saratoga Co., N. Y., Jan. 15, 1815. His parents, Humphrey and Phoebe (Baker) Bump, were also born in Saratoga County, from whence they, in 1819, moved to Cayuga County, and finally to Genesee County, where they resided until the death of Mr. Bump, Sr., in 1846. Mrs. Bump died in Hillsdale hbout 1870. Harley grew to manhood in Cayuga and Ontario Counties, receiving only a common-school education. He was early taught to work, as were all farmers' boys of that day. Arrived at his majority, he commenced life on his own account by working his father's farm on shares. On the 7th day of March, 1837, he was married to Miss Catherine Richards, who was born in Windham, Greene Co., N. Y., July 8, 1819. She was the daughter of Uriah and Esther (Keeler) Richards. They were Connecticut people, whence they emigrated to Greene County. Mr. Richards came to Michigan to visit friends, and while visiting around very mysteriously disappeared, and, though diligent search was made for him, he was never found. The married life of Mr. and Mrs. Bump has been made happy by the following children: Almeda, born May 14, 1838, died January, 1878; Henry, Jan. 7, 1840 (he was drafted into the army and'assigned to the Fourteenth Michigan Infantry, and while on his way to his regiment was taken sick and died); Rachel, Sept. 6, 1841; Caroline, Feb. 16, 1845; and Martha E., June 3, 1851. After his marriage Mr. Bump worked land on shares for six years, by which means he got a small start, with which the family came to Michigu, in October, 1843, and in the town of Wheatland, Hillsdale Co., bought seventy acres of land. It was nearly new, its only buildings being a log house with the old-fashioned fireplace and stick chimney. They remained on the Wheatland farm eleven years, clearing up forty acres of it and building a good house and barn and raising a fine orchard. Wishing to get more land, they in 1854 sold out for two thousand dollars and again turned their faces towards a new home, this time settling on section 19 in the town of Bloomer, Montcalm Ca. There were then but few inhabitants in the township, ani the country was very new. Mr. Bump bought two hundred acres of land, of which ten acres had been chopped off. The roads to the farm had only been underbrushed, and to them it was again going into the wilderness. But they were equal to the demands of the time, and a few years again saw them with a comfortable home, the work of their own hands, and on which, surrounded by the comforts assured them by more than a competency, they are passing away the eventime of life respected and esteemed by all who know them. In politics Mr. Bump is a Republican. He has been a justice of the peace one term, also highway commissioner one term. He helped organize the first school in his part of the town. The first class-meeting was organ ized in his house, as was the first meeting, services being held there over a year. They were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church twenty-four years. Mrs. Bump is now a member of the Church of the United Brethren. CHARLES CROSS. Among the names of the enterprising, successful farmers and business men of Bloomer township we find that of Charles Cross. His parents, William and Hannah (Merry) Cross, were Connecticut people, and owned a farm in that State, on which they lived until their death. Charles was born in Windsor Co., Conn., Sept. 21, 1833. He remained on the old farm until he was sixteen years old, when he started out in life on his own account. He remained in Connecticut a couple of years, when he came West, and in Pulaski, Jackson Co., Mich., remained eighteen months, working at whatever he could get to do until 1852, when he set out for the El Dorado of the West, where he hoped to reap a golden harvest. He went by water, arriving in San Francisco in November, after a voyage of twenty-six days. He went at once to the mines, and for four years worked at mining, meeting with varied success, at times being up and then down. With the money saved from his labors in the mines he returned to Syracuse, N. Y., where he thought of locating, but land was too dear, and he came West, and in the town of Bloomer bought two hundred and thirty-four acres of wild land. It was unimproved, and was four miles from any road. During the winter of 1855 he made his first beginning on the new farm. The following summer he spent in Jackson Co., Mich., where he was married, on the 30th day of October, 1856, to Miss Nancy Reinsmith. She was born in Northumberland Co., Pa., April 29, 1835, daughter of Samuel and Catherine Reinsmith, who were Pennsylvania people. After their marriage the young couple came to the farm in the woods, and in a log house commenced housekeeping in the most primitive manner. Around their home the deer, turkey, and smaller game were found in abundance, while bears and wolves occasionally made them a visit. The clearing and improving went steadily on until 1865, when Mr. Cross went West and enlisted, Feb. 28, 1865, in Company C, First Nebraska Veteran Cavalry. For a time they were connected with the Union Pacific Railroad. The balance of the time they were scouting in the Indian service. On the 19th day of March, 1866, he was discharged fi'om the service and came home, and again the work of clearing and improving went on. The result of his labor and good management is a fine farm, one hundred and fifty acres of which are under improvement, with a fine orchard, good house and outbuildings, and all that pertains to the home of a wealthy and prosperous farmer. Mr. Cross is not a politician, but votes, and generally the Democratic ticket. He is one of whom his fellow-townsmen speak only words of praise. To Mr. and Mrs. Cross there have been given two daughters,-viz., Ida L., born Dec. 26, 1858, married, Aug. 3, 1879, to Godfrey Crouse, born in New York, June 10, 1854 (they reside in New Haven, Gratiot Co., Mich.); Mary F., born May 21,1862. ~~~,r l''il 3 ~~., ~,"'~ ~;~ P~'. r l,.i.~ ~ T:, '" 'r'"l `:r "'' '.:~ ~ *. "~'~~ :. '' ii I:i, "" '~':': ':t~"',:;~ +: R' r'? '"u! r'. '~ i~.1 .::c~'"~U rB :;'' ' ''' F~~ ~I.' r'b Lb.:' 'I ~I 1.* ' i~' 6 I: t i:' ' ' II a~' ~,~~~ ~~!! '~~i~ i,.iEi ".,~ " A " ~;1..,.. `~~ CI )* i::~il.r" i.ll I~ I Lj(( -.r:I~IL ii.,.,,.~"' n~ '(~~~*.r. "~ 8 ~~~''~i~' i.l ~~r. ~~~ ~~~ -~ 'i~~,~-" ~ ~~;~~ 1 r, r ':.'~Y ~;:~ ',i.,I ~' ** '(,~.r ~\: ~:.i', ~:~'.~.-~.:Ri ~'~~: i ,~;a~i~~~i,:, ',;~ ":~~r-slLR; : liM |S;-; ^ '^ '" 'I ' p.., RESIDENCE OF HARLEY BUMP, BLLOOMEPR TP MONTCALM CO MICH. BLOOMER. 427 1.:\~ ~~~ JOHN H. SAVAGE. JOHN H. SAVAGE. Prior to the Revolutionary war there were three brothers by the name of Savage who emigrated from England and settled in America. Daniel Savage at the breaking out of the war espoused the cause of the colonies, while his two brothers remained loyal to the king, and left Chenango Co., N. Y., where they had all settled, and were never heard from afterwards. Daniel Savage served through the war, and at its close again returned to Chenango County, where he bought a farm, on which he lived and died. His family consisted of two boys, Minor and Giles. Minor was born in Chenango County, where he grew to manhood, receiving a much better education than farmers' sons of that day generally received. As soon as old enough he commenced teaching, which he followed until failing health compelled him to stop. In October, 1834, he came to Van Buren township, Wayne Co., Mich., and located a piece of wild land, on which he built a log house, into which he took his wife and children. The farm was improved, and fine buildings which were his home until his death, in December, 1860, took the place of the log ones. In his family were eleven children, of whom John H., our subject, was the eighth. He grew to manhood on the home-farm, receiving only a limited education, as schools were then few and far between. Mr. Savage remained with the family until he was twenty-four, when he came to Bloomer, and on section 23 bought forty acres of land on which there was not a stick cut. The war breaking out soon after, he went to St. Louis, Mo., and on the 12th day of November, 1861, enlisted in Capt. William S. Boyd's Company A. First Western Sharpshooters, afterwards known as the Sixty-sixth Illinois Regiment, Col. Burge. Mr. Savage was in the battles of Fort Donelson and Shiloh, and many lesser engagements. His health failing him, he was discharged at Evansville, Ind., Jan. 19, 1863. After his discharge Mr. Savage returned and commenced the work of clearing and improving his farm, to which he has added until he has now one hundred and twenty acres of fine land under splendid improvement. While Mr. Savage is pronounced a model farmer, he cannot work as he could were it not for the ill health he continues subject to from his service in the army, and which will follow him to his grave. In politics he is a radical Republican, and enjoys the confidence of his fellow-townsmen to such an extent that he has been eleven years treasurer and has held other minor offices. March 8, 1863, he was married to Miss Sarah Turrill, daughter of Truman J. and Caroline Turrill. She was born May 1, 1843. Their union has been blessed with four children,-viz., George, born Feb. 15, 1864; Addie, born Nov. 29, 1865; Burton, born July 30, 1868; and Darward, born Dec. 17, 1872. 9 428 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. TRUMAN J. TURRILL. MRS. TRUMAN J. TURR1LL. TRUMAN J. TURRILL. Truman J. Turrill was born in Wyoming Co., N. Y., March 29, 1809. His father, Ebenezer Turrill, was a Vermonter, and when quite young emigrated to Wyoming County, where he married Miss Hannah Brundage; moved from there to Yarmouth, Canada, and located on some wild land, which he improved. In the wilderness home they saw very hard times, and only kept the wolf from the door by the strictest economy. The farm was paid for by selling black salts and potash, both made from ashes. On this farm he remained till his death, living to see a well-improved farm and good times. There were eleven children, Truman J. being the fifth. He grew to manhood on the home-farm, which he helped to improve, as he had previously done a leased farm. Arrived at his majority, Truman set out in life with only a knowledge of life in its hardest aspect, and well endowed with health and strength. He for a time worked a rented farm, then bought a lot of the Canadian government, which he improved, and on which he lived twenty years. His farm proved to be a poor one, and in 1853 he sold it for six hundred dollars, and with that amount came to the States, and in Bloomer, where his wife's brother had previously settled, he bought one hundred and sixty acres of new land on section 35, and in May of that year, with a yoke of oxen and a noble pair of horses before covered wagons, they moved into the new home in the woods. Part of the way there were no roads, and they cut their way through. A log house, then the largest one in town, was built, and life in the new home was begun. The first year Mr. Turrill was well, and he made a good start in clearing. Then came five years of sickness, caused by a fit of apoplexy, and for a period only hard times and suffering were known by the family. Debts were incurred which made it necessary to sell off part of the land. After a time returning health brought strength, and the work of clearing was again pushed on, assisted by the children who were large enough, and numbered eleven. Mr. Turrill was one of the best shots and hunters for many miles around, and supplied his table with the best game the for ests afforded. In politics he is a Republican, as are all his boys, but he has never sought office. March 8, 1830, he married Miss Caroline Coville, daughter of James and Marebee (Dillingham) Coville. She was born in Otsego Co., N. Y., Jan. 25, 1809. Left an orphan at the age of eleven, Mrs. Turrill has seen much of the rough side of life. To them have been born the following children: Hiram, born Aug. 15, 1831, married to Margaret Huff; Maria, born June 5, 1833; Hannah C., May 31, 1835, died March 10, 1866; Reuben, July 9, 1837; James, Feb. 10, 1840, died in the army July 25, 1863; Sarah, May 1, 1842; Franklin, July 12, 1844; John, April 4, 1846; Mary, Sept. 4, 1848, died Oct. 5, 1867; Isaac, born Sept. 30, 1850, married, June 22, 1879, to Miss Amy A. Smith, who was born June 2, 1861; and Julia Ann, Aug. 3, 1852. Four of Mr. Turrill's sons were in the army, and three of his sons-in-law, and all saw active service. His sons were Reuben, who enlisted in the fall of 1861 in Company H, Sixteenth Michigan Infantry, and served four years; went out as a private, and for bravery was made first lieutenant; he was in thirty-three battles. Hiram was in the Third Michigan Infantry, and was in many engagements, as was John, who was also in the Third. James was for eighteen months in Berdan's Sharpshooters, and saw much hard fighting. This is a record few families can equal, and shows the patriotism of Mr. Turrill and his noble family. PAUL MURRAY. Paul Murray was born in the town of La Chute, in the Province of Quebec, Jan. 21, 1834. His family are of Scotch origin, his ancestors having been born in the Highlands of Scotland, where they were for many years tenantfarmers. His father, William Murray, was born in Northumberland, on the line between England and Scotland. Arrived at manhood, he emigrated to Canada, where he met and married Jane Doig. iHer parents were natives of Scotland, from whence her mother and her family emi $4 ~~-~ ~~?1 LCp`i' qi \1.1. o '= F/I S DWELLING. BLOOMER TP. MONTCALM CO. M/CH. I rr-.' --- ( t -7 (a z z z 't:Z el..) w C*QZk ~,mi.. I. 1:03 NL (a - - \ z I - 'k —. z z ZI I — U (i kLi 000-*'O' BLOOMER. 429 grated to Canada after the death of her husband. After his marriage William bought two hundred acres of land, mostly new. This he improved and made into a fine farm, on which he lived and died. Paul, who was the fourth of nine children, grew to manhood on the old homestead, receiving only a common-school education, obtained at the winter schools, his summers being devoted to work on the farm. In October, 1854, in company with his brother, John M. Murray, he came to the United States in search of a home. They came to Bloomer township, and bought each an eighty-acre lot in section 13. There were a few acres chopped on Paul's lot, but none cleared. For the land he ran in debt three hundred dollars, which at that time was considered a very large sum. When not working out by the month he made his home with his brother, who was married, until his own marriage, on the 5th day of March, 1860, to Miss Martha F. Warner. She was born Oct. 7, 1839, in Lyons, Ionia Co., Mich., where her parents, Thaddeus 0. and Philancy (Hutchinson) Warner, were among the earliest settlers, having settled on East Plains when there were but three families in that part of the township. They were from Lyons, Wayne Co., N. Y. To Mr. and Mrs. Murray there have been born the following children: William Henry and Sarah J., born Jan. 18, 1861 (William H. died July 28, 1873); Lawson W., Sept. 26, 1862; Thaddeus 0., June 4, 1864, died Aug. 12, 1864; Paul, Jr., Oct. 27, 1866; Emily, May 1, 1868, and one who died in infancy. Lawson is now attending the college in Hillsdale, while Sarah is, and has been for nearly three years, a teacher in the Carson City school. After his marriage Mr. Murray at once built a log house on his farm, during which time they lived with Mr. Robinson. The house built and ready for occupancy, the newly-married pair started for the new home, each with an armful of household goods, and this was their wedding-tour. Their chairs were a couple of stools made by Mr. Murray, as were their table and bedstead. But it was home, and its occupants were animated by bright hopes of the future, which have been more than realized in the fine farm and beautiful house of which they are now the happy owners. The eighty acres have been added to until the farm now embraces one hundred and thirty-one acres, one hundred being under improvement, the work and result of Mr. and Mrs. Murray's industry and economy. In politics he is a Rep.ublican, and has always been since he became a citizen. He has been two terms town treasurer, three terms highway commissioner, and for years one of the school board. They have been for many years consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. E. C. CUMMINGS. E. C. Cummings was born in the town of Collins, Erie Co., N. Y., April 16, 1838. His family on both sides were of Scotch origin, his great-grandfather having been born in Scotland. His father, James Cummings, was a native of Pennsylvania; his mother, Mary Davis, of Erie Co., N. Y. Our subject, E. C. Cummings, was, at the age of two years, bound out to a Mr. Edmund McClelland, of Washington township, Erie Co., Pa. With him he re sided until thirteen years of age, when he struck out for himself. The first summer he worked for Davis McClellan, and was to receive what he could earn. He labored hard and faithfully until fall, and was then turned away without a dollar, with winter before him and only summer clothing with which to face the cold blasts. This was discouraging; still, he considers it a lesson of great value, as he has always since then, when entering into a business engagement, insisted upon a full understanding. The succeeding summer he worked on a farm at five dollars per month, and the next for seven dollars per month, and worked as hard and faithfully as ever in later years. Up to the breaking out of the Rebellion he worked around Waterford, Pa. His chances for an education were limited to a few winter terms at the log school-house of that day. During the winter of 1860-61, Mr. Cummings passed his time in Oil Creek, and was an eye-witness of the first great fire in the oil regions. It was on the Buchanan farm, and resulted in the death of Mr. Rouse, the then most wealthy oil-dealer, and fifteen others, while many were seriously injured. Immediately after this came the news of the firing on Fort Sumter, when he enlisted in Company E, Eighty-third Regiment Pennsylvania Infantry, to serve three months, and was discharged at the expiration of his term of enlistment. The regiment was commanded by Col. McLain. They saw no active service. After his marriage, in 1862, he for a time followed farming, then again returned to Oil Creek, and for six months had charge of an oil-refinery. Then, owing to the ill health of his wife, he went to Erie, Pa., or near there, and engaged in shipping poultry and butter East and chestnuts West. This proved a disastrous enterprise, and he lost his all. Then he went back to the creek and engaged in transporting oil to the railroad with teams, at times by the roads, then up the stream in boats, the horses following the creek-bed. Hard labor and exposure caused his health to fail, and for the third time he left the creek, much against his wishes, as his prospects at that time for gaining wealth rapidly were better than ever before or since. After nearly recovering his health, he spent a year and a half driving a wholesale wagon for Messrs. Barmer & Burgess, of Erie, Pa., through the northern part of that State, and through Eastern Ohio and Western New York. In the fall of 1866 he moved to Ithaca, Gratiot Co., Mich., and in company with B. F. Shepherd entered into the mercantile business. He remained in this business until 1870, when he sold out and spent one summer in Wyoming and Colorado in search of health. In the spring of 1871 he same to Carson City, then in its infancy, and started a general store. The foHowing January he took his half-brother, Geo. A. Thayer, as a partner, and they at once enlarged their business. They -were in business together until Jan. 1, 1875, when Mr. Cummings sold out to his brother, and then spent several months settling up, and in St. John's learning the banking business. In September, 1875, Mr. Cummings started in Carson City a private bank, which he managed in connection with the post-office, to which he was appointed in the fall of that year, and which position lie has held up to the present time. As a banker, Mr. Cummings has the entire confidence of' the people of Carson City and the surround 430 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. ing country, and is, and has been, doing a successful business. He is also two-thirds owner of the Carson City Grist-Mill, but for two years past has rented his interest to his partner, Mr. La Due. He also owns other property in the village. In 1876, Mr. Cummings erected in the village a beautiful house, which, surrounded by large and tastilyarranged grounds, makes a pleasant and desirable home, a view of which adorns another page of this work. In all that pertains to the improvement of the village he has always taken an active part. He is not a member of any church, but has taken an active part in building the Congregational church, towards which he was, and is, a liberal subscriber. In politics he is an ardent Republican, but has never sought political advancement. Commencing life as he did in an humble way, he has by a course strictly honest and upright, and by close attention to business, gained a position among the leading men of his county, and sets an example the young may well follow. He has been twice married. His first wife, to whom he was married Jan. 9, 1862, was Miss Huldah Ann Parsons, born Sept. 9, 1844, in Summit township, Erie Co., Pa., daughter of Timothy L. and Sarah (Brown) Parsons; she died Jan. 13, 1870. Their children were Carrie M., born Sept. 16, 1863; Morton P., March 15, 1867; and Berton F., Dec. 17, 1869. On the 12th day of April, 1871, Mr. Cummings again married, his choice being Miss Laura H. Barton, born in Portage Co., Ohio, March 10,1848 (daughter of William and Catharine (Stickles) Barton). Their union has been blessed with three children,-viz., Ira, born Nov. 15, 1873; Ora I., Sept. 23, 1875, and Lottie B., Sept. 12, 1878. I la B - Mi "IT M I- * N o-N BLOO1mER rp MoAn '. ---- - -- a s r -: - 7 to CRY S TAL. TOWNSHIP 10 north, of range 5 west, is bounded north by Ferris, east by Gratiot County, south by Bloomer, and west by Evergreen. The fertile belt (originally covered with beech and maple timber) lying in the east part of Bushnell, and comprising the greater part of Bloomer, extends into Crystal, reaching to and bounded generally by Fish Creek, although to the north and east of this creek the timber is of a mixed variety. This tract is the most productive and best-tilled part of the township, and comprises the more wealthy portion of its inhabitants. The township, on the whole, however, will compare favorably with any in the county. Fish Creek, the largest stream, enters from Evergreen, flows in general in a southeasterly direction, and enters Bloomer from section 35. It receives a number of small tributaries, the most important of which is the outlet of Mud and Crystal Lakes, which are properly a part of a small system extending southeast to Evergreen township. There is a great contrast between these two lakes, as their names indicate. The waters of the one are turbid and filled with floating particles from the muck and decaying mould beneath. Its shores, low and level, are lined for the greater part with sedge and rushes. It is indeed a mud lake. Its name, however, is not more appropriate than that of its fair sister, originally known as Silver Lake. But even in an early day, owing to one of those mysterious changes which can be accounted for only by the general consent of all parties, it received the name by which it is now known,-namely, Crystal Lake. Its waters are clear and beautiful. Its shores, usually firm, in some places rise to elevations of considerable height, covered with oak and pine. A small island accessible from the 'shore next to the village of Crystal furnishes grounds often resorted to by picnic-parties and excursionists. Crystal Lake covers about eight hundred acres, and is about one and one-half miles in length. ORIGINAL LAND-ENTRIES. Following are names of those who purchased from the general government and State of Michigan lands situated in this township, showing also the sections upon which they located they purchases: Section 1.-Aaron W. Roby, John D. Trowbridge, Martin Baer, Robert Brown, Joseph Rounds, Philip Krain, Samuel Burtch, John W. Osterhouse. Section 2.-Harvey Westfall, Valentine Williams, Samuel Spencer, Benjamin McCloskey, Hiram C. Buck, Henry Parker, Jacob Houseman. Section 3.-John White, Edward Hogan, James J. Belden, Darius Bogart, Charles Richardson, Jesse Stewart, Emma Ripley. Section 4.-A. L. Soule, George Fox, Elmore Burrows, Henry Burrows, Bartlett Clark, Francis Hawkins. Section 5.-Chauncey Stebbins, Thomas Cornell, James Culver, Levi Harrod, Daniel S. West, H. Davis, Andrew J. Tissue. Section 6.-Mary and George Edick, Patrick Fox, Levi Harrod, Samuel Kemp, George Gideon. Section 7.-James R. Langdon, Patrick M. Fox, Erastus Wilcox. Section 8.-James R. Langdon, Mathew H. Fox, John N. Fowler, Henry Kemp. Section 9.-Michael Lane, E. Drake, Eli Davis, Daniel A. Cornell, Charles Hazzard, F. E. Perrine, Levi Eaton. Section 10.-James R. Langdon, W. S. Coon, Daniel A. Cornell, James J. Belden, Franklin S. Ferris. Section 11.-Eli Drushell, John C. Blanchard. Section 12.-John F. Gilkey, Myron Kendall, Michael Fry, Oliver Cunningham, Floyd Palmer, Joshua Bogart, John C. Blanchard, Barber Dickinson. Section 13.-John F. Gilkey, Myron Kendall, William W. St. Clair, M. Gingevy, Joseph Rounds, John C. Blanchard, Bezaleel Lock, J. B. Taylor, William Erey. Section 14.-Zimmerman Watts, Solomon Drushell, Peter Snyder, Francis H. Brown, Richard Sinkey. Section 15.-James R. Langdon, Joel Parker, Adam Ilosteter, Ira Stewart, Ezra Stewart. Section 16.-Augusta Bean, Alfred A. Proctor, Joseph F. Proctor, Benjamin F. Proctor, Augusta Proctor, Anson Sherwood, Richard L. Robinson, Henry Morgan, Aaron Brown, Henry F. Brown, John F. Steffey, Samuel Burtch, H. H. Steffey. Section 17.-James R. Langdon, John N. Fowler, Peter B. Stiven, Jud Hall. Section 18.-James R. Langdon, Daniel Harter, Stephen F. Page, May J. Hill, John N. Fowler, Asa Ward. Section 19.-James R. Langdon, Frederick Hall, John N. Fowler, Daniel Hill, Asa Ward, Hiram Bowen, Thomas S. Pew. Section 20.-James R. Langdon, Jonas Ashley, William R. Page. Section 21.-James R. Langdon. Section 22.-James R. Langdon, Jesse Tenney, Solomon Drushell, John C. Blanchard, Frederick Hall, Warren Sherwood, Francis Brown, Peter Burke, B. F. Fuller. Section 23.-John M. Gordon, Sally M. Cornell, Simon D. Defuy, Martin Eckart, Joseph Kneer, John A. Stout, V. E. Casper, V. B. Luce, Emma A. Ripley. Section 24.-John M. Gordon, F. Smith, Zadock Heath, John McIlwain, David Tryon, J. B. Taylor, Wm. Erey. Section 25.-S. L. Stone, Sylvester Bronson, F. Smith, David Alverson, G. Wilmarth, John C. Blanchard. 431 432 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. Section 26.-John M. Gordon, James L. Shinabarger, Jesse Tenny. Section 27.-James R. Langdon, John M. Gordon, Harvey Westfall, Isaac Morse, William Hatfield, Jacob Huffinan. Section 28.-Don C. Hawley, David B. Webster, Sally Fish, Lucius B. Irish, Harvey Westfall, F. Hall, James Kennedy. Section 29.-James R. Langdon, Harvey Westfall, Fred Hall, Stephen Page, Jonas Aslley, William S. Goff, Harvey W. Rice. Section 30.-Harvey W. Rice, Alonzo Rice, William Goff, W. R. Page, Warren Brown, William Case, John Vaughn, John L. Smith, Chauncey Case, John N. Fowler, David Hill. Section 31.-Abel C. Ross, T. R. Butler, Thomas Coulson, John Bancroft, Parmcnio Long, Edward Murray, John N. Fowler, George Bogart, Joln Bancroft. Section 32.-James Forman, Edward and George Robinson, Joseph Green, Abel Ross, Jonas Ashley. Section 33.-James L. Glenn, Daniel Falk, Henry Getman, Dennis Wolverton, Thomas H. Arnold, Jonas Ashley, Richard Sinkey, David Hoffman, Hannah Slauker. Section 34.-Clifford S. Phillips, M. W. Alvord, Jesse M. Beck, William Hatfield, Philander Wood, John Sinkey, Thomas S. Pew. Section 35.-W. H. Smith, Sylvester Bronson, Langdon Bentley, James L. Shinabarger, D. Alverson. Section 36.-Epaplroditus Ransom, William H. Smith, S. L. Stone, Sylvester Bronson, James R. Langdon, Thomas Iubbard, Jr., John C. Blanchard. TtIE SETTLEMENT OF CRYSTAL. In the month of June, 1852, John W. Smith and his brother Humphrey came to Montcalm County in the employment of A. Rust & Co., who at the time were engaged in the lumber trade in Marine City, and for whom they were looking up pine-lands. The brothers traveled through the eastern part of Montcalm County, and, coming to the shore of Crystal Lake, were delighted with the beautiful sheet of water, and camped and remained here from Saturday until the following Monday. This journey led John W. Smith to return and take up his permanent abode in the township the following year. IHis life previous to this time had been somewhat checkered. He was born in Onondaga Co., N. Y., whence he came to MIichigan in 1830. He stopped in the town of Superior, Lenawee Co., five years, and then came to Grand Rapids. The first time he visited Jackson it consisted of but one house. Grand Rapids had one frame house completed and two in the course of construction on the east side of the river, and on the opposite side the Indians, who were afterwards removed under their missionary to Prairieville, in Barry County, had a little village, built for them by the government. Mr. Smith remained but two years in Grand Rapids, and then came to Easton, Ionia Co., where he subsequently married the widow of George Case, who had settled there in 1834. Mr. Case had already begun to lay out a village on his land bordering Grand River, when, in endeavoring to ford the river to go to Grand Rapids, he was drowned. Mr. Smith remained in Easton until he came to Crystal, as before stated, in 1853. He built a log house on the west half of the northwest quarter of section 28. This was the first house in the township, and is still standing. About the same time George and Edwin Robinson, brothers, came in and built a cabin on the southwest quarter of section 32. It is asserted that these young men, not being accustomed to the howling of wolves and the other accompaniments of frontier life, made neither door nor window in their cabin, but covered the roof partly with shakes, leaving an opening in one end which served as both, and through which they passed by means of a ladder. George Robinson still resides in the township; Edwin resides in Illinois. During the spring of 1853, John W. Smith cleared up about an acre of land and planted it to potatoes and other small crops. All but the potatoes were a failure, these yielding one hundred bushels, which, considering the ground planted and their importance the following winter, was a valuable crop. On the 27th of September his wife and her three sons came to the township. They were young men, and each located eighty acres of land side by side on section 29. Mrs. Smith was the first resident white woman in the township of Crystal. Chauncey Case, who is still a resident of Crystal, settled upon the east half of the northeast quarter, and on adjoining farms west his brothers William and James settled. This land was entered by Frederick Hall, of Ionia, of whom it was secured in exchange for the farm settled by George Case in Ionia County. James Case now lives in the village of Crystal; William lives in Ionia County. Late in the fall of 1853 the family of John Bancroft and a man named Colton came to the township. They entered three forty-acre lots on section 31. Colton remained but a short time, and then returned with his family to Jackson County. John Bancroft remained until his death. Robert Bancroft, who was born in January, 1855, was the first white male child born in the township. The same day a daughter was born to Mr. and Mrs. Judge Stillson, which was the first girl born in the township. Judge Stillson and James Beck had reached the township in the early spring of 1854. Stillson settled on the east half of the southeast quarter of section 23, but he subsequently returned with his family to Jackson County. James Beck entered the southeast quarter of section 34 by means of a land-warrant received by his father for services in the Mexican war. He divided the land with his sister, who was the wife of William Swarthout, and who remained in the township but one year, and then returned to Jackson County. Mr. Beck still remains in Crystal. He was treasurer of the township from 1865 to 1872. Mr. Stillson and Mr. Beck together built a temporary shelter on the latter's farm, into which the two families moved until Mr. Stillson's house, which was the second in the township, was completed. George Fox and his son-in-law, John White, arrived in 1855. The former entered the south half of the northeast quarter of section 4 and the north half of the southeast quarter of the same section. He died in the village of Crystal CRYSTAL. 433 in 1879. John White took up corresponding parts of section 3, upon which he still lives. The farm settled by Mr. Fox is now owned by Abner Lew Allen, who came to the township in 1858. His father was in the war of 1812. Hiram C. Stewart, a native of New York, but a resident of the southern part of Michigan for a number of years, came to Crystal in the fall of' 1855 and completed a log house commenced by Chauncey Case, into which he moved and lived until he could build one for himself. He was the first town clerk of Crystal, and held the office until his death, which occurred in 1859. He purchased a farm on section 28 from a Mrs. Bunnell, of Lyons. Mr. Stewart had a wife and seven children, none of whom now remain in the township. John Sinkey was one of the first settlers in the south part of the township. H. L. Parker, now a resident of Roscommon County, was among the first to settle in the northeast part. John Burke, from Wayne Co., Mich., to which place his parents came in 1826, and where he lived until his twentyseventh year, came to Crystal in July, 1856, and bought the northeast quarter of section 34 of W. C. Oliver, of Ronald. He was accompanied by his parents, who lived with him until their death. The tract upon which he settled was entirely new and without any improvements, and in order to reach his land he was obliged to make a road from the centre of Bloomer, about three miles distant, there being at this time only a trail leading north from this place. Barber Dickinson was among the early settlers in the northeast part. He was born in New York, whence he came to Eaton Co., Mich., in 1853, and afterwards lived successively in Bushnell and Bloomer, coming to Crystal in 1856. He entered forty acres of government land, and continued to reside in the township until his death, which occurred in 1869. RESIDENTS IN 1856. According to the assessment roll of Crystal township in 1856, the resident tax-payers were as follows: Acres. Henry Burrows, section 4................................ 80 Elmore Burrows, section 4........8.................... 80 John Bancroft, section 31.................................. 38 Darius Bogert, section 3.............................. 109 James Beck, section 34........................... 80 Daniel Cornell, sections 9, 10............................... 202 James Case, section 29.................................... 80 William Case, sections 29, 30............................ 120 C. Case, sections 29, 30............................ 120 Eli Davis, section 9.......................................... 80 Enos Drake, section 9....................................... 190 William Edlin, section 13.................................. 80 George Fox, section 4.................................... 80 Artemus Grinnell, section 31.............................. 80 Charles Hazard, section 9............................. 80 Barney McCloskey, section 2............................ 120 Henry L. Parker, section 10............................ 160 J. F. Proctor, section 16............................ 40 A.A. Proctor, section 16................................ 40 A. G. Proctor, section 16................................... 40 Martin Raien, section 1.................................... 80 Charles W. Rockwell, sections 29, 30................... 160 Edward Robinson, section 32............................ 200 Samuel Spencer, section 2.................................. 80 11. Stewart, section 28...................................... 80 John L. Smith, sections 28, 30............................ 200 Judge Stillson, section 33................................... 80 John Siukey, section 34.............................. 80 William Swarthout, section 3j.......................... 80 John White, section 3.............. 160 Zimmerman Wott, section 14........................... 160 Asa Ward, sections 18, 19............................. 160 Samuel Wardwell, section 30............................ 80 55 I C ISAL 3 INCIDENTS. In 1854 the people of Crystal made preparations to celebrate the Fourth of July, and at the appointed time assembled with baskets filled more with substantials than with delicacies, and crossed over to the island in Crystal Lake in an Indian's skiff. The fame of this lake had already been carried far by hunters and land-seekers, and the people of Bloomer not infrequently visited it for pleasure. Upon this occasion two men equipped to fish entered a boat, and upon nearing the island were hailed and invited to share the hospitalities of the occasion. Upon landing, Asa Ward, of Bloomer, one of the men, introduced his companion as Elder William Evarts. The people thought it in keeping with the occasion to dedicate the beautiful island by an oration, and Elder Evarts was prevailed upon to mount a platform of sticks and bark and speak, which he did to the satisfaction of the entire company. Mr. Ward soon after became a resident of Crystal, and at the time of his death was treasurer of the township. The oration of Elder Evarts on the Fourth of July led to the first religious meeting in the township, which was held at the house of John W. Smith in September following. Mrs. Smith invited Mr. Evarts to come and hold meetings there whenever convenient, but, being at the time a resident of Bloomer and engaged in farming, the distance, the almost impassable condition of the roads at certain times, and other duties prevented him making any permanent arrangements at Crystal, although he conducted services here several times subsequently. The next year Peter Burke, a member of the United Brethren Church, preached in the same place. The first frame building in the township was a small barn built by John W. Smith in the fall of 1854. His house was among the first frame structures in the township. On Christmas Eve of 1856 the first wedding in Crystal was celebrated, the contracting parties being Mr. Henry L. Parker and Miss Sarah Jane Davis. Justice Smith performed the ceremony. Henry Parker had come to the township in 1853, and devoted much of his time to hunting. His skill with the rifle was proverbial, and by means of it he supplied the little settlement with venison. Once, in company with another hunter, on the shore of a small lake between Crystal and Evergreen townships, he made an extraordinary shot and killed a loon far out in the water. From this incident the lake known as Loon Lake took its name. He pre-empted land in the south part of the township, but sold subsequently and removed to Isabella County. Mr. Eli Davis, father of the bride, settled on section 9 in 1854. The night of the wedding the ground was covered deep with snow, and, the roads being passable, several sled-loads from Ionia came to the ball, which lasted until the " wee sma'" hours. The justice and his wife came on a sled made of planks and drawn by a yoke of oxen. Music for the occasion was furnished by A. A. Proctor and his brother, F. J. Proctor, who had previously settled on section 16. The large log house just built by Mr. Davis had not yet been partitioned, and furnished a good room for the ball, which was one long remembered. The Proctor boys opened the first blacksmith-shop in the township. 434 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. The first death was that of Eli Davis. He was buried near his house, on section 16, but his remains have since been removed. The funeral sermon was preached by Peter Schlappie, of Ferris. At the town-meeting of 1857 it was decided to raise twenty-five dollars for the purpose of buying or leasing suitable grounds for burial-purposes, these grounds not to exceed four in number; and the town board was authorized to select and pay for the same. The committee selected four cemeteries, but two only were put in use, and at the town-meeting held at the house of A. A. Proctor the work of clearing the one on section 18 was gven to Asa Ward, and the other, on section 30, was let to William B. Gamble. These were bought and put in order at a cost of fifteen dollars each. At the time of the settlement of Crystal, Hubbardston was the nearest post-office. On July 4, 1857, Alanson Snow, after whom Snow's Corners, in Ronald township, Ionia Co., was named, took the contract for carrying the mail from Ionia to a station in Isabella County then known as New Albany, but now called Salt River. He followed this route nearly four years, most of which time he carried the mail himself, but was occasionally relieved by his son, Richard Snow. The trip was made on foot, the impassability of the roads rendering it impossible to use a horse. He left Ionia with the mail Tuesday afternoon, and reached Snow's Corners the same night. He took dinner with John W. Smith Wednesday, and finished the trip to New Albany and returned home by the next Saturday. The first post-office in the township was kept by A. A. Proctor in his house, where Mr. Gee now lives. When Mr. Proctor removed it was kept by his brother, Fernando Proctor. SCHOOLS In the fall of 1856-57 a school-meeting was called at the house of Ephraim Hatfield, and after some preliminaries he was chosen director. There is no record of this meeting, and the persons elected to fill the other offices of the district are not now known. A vote to build a school-house prevailed, and it was decided to build it on the northwest corner of the southeast quarter of section 34. This land at this time was owned by James Beck, from whom it was leased. The people were not taxed, but members assembled and built a house of logs about twenty feet square with two windows, a fireplace, and a door in the side. In the fall the first term of school was commenced by Maria Lindsay. She taught three months, and received two dollars and a half per week, and boarded around in the district. The school was not large, numbering about twelve at most. Miss Lindsay subsequently taught one term in Gratiot County, and was married to Henry Gee. They settled in the village of Crystal, where she died and where Mr. Gee still resides. The following summer Anna Richardson, whose parents were early settlers of Bloomer, taught one term in this house. The school-house now in use on section 34 was then built, and a school was taught by John Burse, who was the first male teacher in the township. The first school in the northern part of the township was taught by Miss Eveline Roop, whose parents were residents of Bloomer township. A log cabin had been nearly com pleted by a man who had pre-empted the southwest quarter of the northwest quarter of section 1. It stood on the rise near the line of the section, just north of the little stream that crosses the road near by. Another term was taught in this cabin by Miss Maria Ward. The school-house was then built which stands near Spencer's Corners. Previous to this time, John W.'Smith and the inhabitants of this neighborhood met and laid up the body of a log house near the road on the north part of section 29, but, as the country was very wild here at this time, the project of having a school here was abandoned, and the children of this district who were large enough attended school in the Burke district. A school was opened here, however, in about two years. TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION. The township of Crystal was organized, and the first meeting appointed to be held at the house of Eli Davis on the 7th of April, 1856. This meeting was duly held, and called to order by the inspectors of the election. Eli Davis was appointed moderator of said meeting, and A. A. Proctor and Asa Ward clerks. The result of the election was as follows: Supervisor, Daniel A. Cornell; Clerk, H. C. Stewart; Treasurer, A. A. Proctor; School Inspectors, Asa Ward and Eli Davis; Overseers of the Poor, John L. Smith, Barney McCloskey; Commissioners of Highways, H. S. Parker, Chauncey Case, James M. Beck; Justices of the Peace, John L. Smith, Asa Ward, Eli Davis, Samuel Spencer; Constables, William Case, J. F. Proctor, D. Bogart. After these parties were declared elected it was voted to raise a highway tax of one hundred and fifty dollars; also, that a bounty of four dollars should be paid for every wolf killed within the precincts of the township. A vote to raise a contingent fund of seventy-five dollars also passed. At the general election, held at the house of John L. Smith, on Tuesday, Nov. 4,1856, the whole number of votes cast for the electors for President and Vice-President of the United States was twenty-one. The vote at this time stood in favor of the Democrats in the ratio of thirteen to eight. CIVIL LIST. SUPERVISORS. 1856, Daniel A. Cornell; 1857-58, A. A. Proctor; 1859, no record; 1860-62, John L. Smith; 1863, Isaac Morse; 1864, John Burke; 1865-70, James M. Beck; 1871-73, Gilbert Ward; 1874, James M. Beck; 1875-76, Gilbert Ward; 1877-80, Abraham Mench. TOWN CLERKS. 1857-59, H. C. Stewart; 1860, Gilbert Stover; 1861, J. F. Proctor; 1862-63, H. J. Parker; 1864, H. F. Brown; 1865-67, George W. Sheffield; 1868, William H. Trowbridge; 1869, Ira Stewart; 1870, William Herrick; 1871, William H. Trowbridge; 1872, John P. Young; 1873, George Martha; 1874, Charles C. Purdy; 1875-76, Jeremiah Herrick; 1877-80, George H. Lester; 1880, Albert S. Oliver. TREASURERS. 1856, A. A. Proctor; 1857-58, J. F. Proctor; 1859, no record; 1860, J. F. Proctor; 1861, Asa Ward; 1862, Enos P. Drake; 1863-64, Chauncey Case; 1865, Asa Ward; 1866, Chauncey Case; 1867-69, A. L. Smith; 1870, William 0. Moryridge; 1871-73, Gilbert Stover; 1874, John P. Young; 1875-76, Hiram Steffey; 1877, Martin Barger; 1878-79, Martin Kickland; 1880, George H. Lester. CRYSTAL. 435 CRYSTAL. 435 JUSTICES. 1856, John L. Smith, Asa Ward, Ely D ivis, Samusl Spencer; 1857, Asa Ward, Samuel Spencer; 1858, H. C. Stewart; 1860, J. F. Proctor, Gilbert Stover; 1861, Asa Ward, J. M. Hauseman, I. Stewart; 1862, Isaac Morse; 1863, A. T. Wilkins; 1864, P. Long, John Burke; 1865, Asa Ward, II. F. Brown; 1866, A. L. Smith, Osro Richardson, Ira Stewart, Alonzo Woodruff; 1867, Burdet Mason; 1868, William Eavey; 1869, Ira Stewart; 1870, A. L. Smith, C. M. Woodman, Parmeno Long; 1871, Parmeno -Long, William It. Trowbridge; 1872, Henry Clark, P. Long; 1873, John M. Kirvin, Samuel T. Burtch; 1874, A. L. Smith, E. L. Hill; 1875, John M. Kirvin, William Sterns; 1c76, J. M. Kirvin, W. Stearns; 1877, Henry Clark, William Stearns; 1878, William D. Fay; 1879. Ililliard Mench; 1880, George G. Brail, Charles McCloskey. CRYSTAL VILLAGE. The village of Crystal is situated near the east shore of Crystal Lake. The first settlement in this vicinity was made by Enos P. Drake, who in the year 1857 built a small dwelling-house and saw-mill, the latter on the outlet of Mud Lake, and occupying the site upon which the steammill of Starkey & Rup now stands. The mill in Evergreen known as Rider's Mill had already been built a number of years; nevertheless the one built by Drake served a want long felt by the settlers here, as the roads to the older mills were circuitous, and at times almost impassable. Mr. Drake also built the first dwelling within the present limits of Crystal. It is now occupied by John Fuller. The first framed building was the Eagle Hotel, commenced by Samuel Burtch and completed by Hiram Steffey. The village, which is still small and of minor importance as a business centre, was laid out by Asa Ward, on land owned by Samuel Burtch and Enos P. Drake. There are at present three general stores, one boot-and-shoe store, one drug-store, two hotels, a grist-mill, saw-mill, and a number of smaller business places, ITS RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES. First Congregational Church of Crystal.-On May 13, 1877, the friends of this society met at the school in the village of Crystal and organized, under Rev. N. L. Otis, of Bloomer. Chauncey Case, Dr. B. S. Frisbie, C. L. Smith, William Waragan, and Dr. John P. Young were elected trustees of the society. Dr. B. S. Frisbie, W. T. Dunshee, and William Steere were elected deacons. Rev. N. L. Otis was the first minister. The society soon after erected a substantial meeting-house, which cost two thousand dollars. The membership now numbers twenty-seven. John Moore was the first superintendent of the Sabbath-school. The United Brethren organized a class in the spring of 1880, which now numbers fifteen members. They have no permanent place of meeting... - BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. CHAUNCEY CASE. George Case was born in Hartford, Conn., June 13, 1808. His parents were also Connecticut people, from whence they moved when George was two years old to Camden, N. Y. When he was sixteen he ran away from home, and, going to Buffalo, took passage on the steamer "Superior" for Michigan. While on the passage he met Miss Emeline Doty, and " love at first sight" was the result. Soon after landing in Datroit he followed Miss Doty's family to Oakland County, where he bought of the government eighty acres of land in Farmington, which he partly cleared. On the 8th day of October, 1827, he married Miss Emeline Doty. She was born Nov. 14, 1812, and was daughter of Elisha and Rachel (Allen) Doty. In 1833 they sold their farm, and the next spring moved to Easton township, in Ionia County, and bought one hundred and three acres of government land. A log house was built, into which they moved, and another new home was begun. Mr. Case had been on the farm but two years when, in going to Grand Rapids, he was thrown from his horse while attempting to ford Thornapple River and drowned. Mr. Case was thus stricken down in the prime of life, leaving a wife and three children, of whom Chauncey was the oldest. He was born in Farmington, Oakland Co., Mich., March 12, 1833. Mrs. Case was married in 1838 to John L. Smith, and the family was kept together. In 1853 they traded the farm in Oakland County for four hundred acres of land in Crystal township, Montcalm Co., and in September of that year the whole family moved into the Crystal land. There were no neighbors nearer than six miles, and this was the first family in the township. Tie land was divided among the family. To Chauncey fell the east half of northeast quarter of section 29. This land he at once commenced to clear, and after a couple of years he built a log house and frame barn, and then it began to look like a farm. But it would never be a home without a mistress, and on the 1st of January, 1857, he led to the altar Miss Mary E. Tissue, daughter of James and Maria (Neff) Tissue. She was born in Alton Co., Ohio, July 15, 1837. Her father was born in Wayne Co., Pa., Aug. 10, 1810, his wife in Seneca Co., Ohio, April 21, 1815. Two weeks after their marriage they moved into the log house, which has long since been replaced by one of the best in Crystal. Mr. Case had only the eighty acres bought with the old home. But, though this was a small start, it was made bright by the hopes of the future, which have been more than realized. Then their effects consisted of one chair, one bed, a few other household goods, a yoke of steers, and two cows. They are now surrounded by all the comforts of life, and have a farm of one hundred and eighty acres, one hundred and fifty of it under improvement, all the result of good management and industry. When Mr. Case's parents moved into Ionia County their only neighbors were Indians, and Chauncey's playmates were Indian children, with whom he held converse until he could only talk Indian, and his parents at one time were going to send him back to Oakland County to learn his native language, where he could hear nothing else used. In politics Mr. Case is a Democrat, and has been supervisor, treasurer, and highway commissioner, and many times a delegate of his party to county conventions. To Mr. and Mrs. Case there have been born the following children: Em ma M., Dec. 15, 1857; Seymour J., April 27, 1860; Manie N., Feb. 29, 1863; Stella May, June 19, 1869; and Minnie B., March 23, 1873. 9 C AT 0. THE township of Cato is situated upon the northern border of Montcalm County, or that portion which was the northwest corner township of the county as originally formed, and for its boundaries it has Mecosta County on the north, Belvidere township on the east, Pine on the south, and Winfield on the west. Its surface is generally level, and forms the divide between the Flat and Muskegon River-systems, the former draining to a slight extent the eastern part, and the latter receiving the waters of the western portion through a branch of Tamarack Creek, the outlet of Tamarack Lake. This body of water, which upon the north and west shore was bordered by a growth of tamarack,-a variety which also covered several small islands that dotted its surface,-is situated principally upon sections 9 and 10, extending also slightly into sections 15 and 16. Upon its southwest margin the thrifty village of Lake View is beautifully located. A belt of lowland extends through the north part of section 32 in a northwesterly direction. It varies from a half to three-quarters of a mile in width, and is mostly swampy and untillable. The black sandy soil of the south, central, and western parts is of exceeding fertility, and is already highly developed by a thrifty and industrious class of people. Other parts of the township, especially the northeastern part, are covered with a heavy growth of pine. SETTLEMENT OF CATO. The first settler of Cato, as near as can now be determined, was Edmond Smith, from Geauga Co., Ohio, a native of Connecticut. After coming to Michigan he stopped for a time near Grand Rapids, but, being anxious to get a piece of land, lie came to Cato in the spring of 1855 and located on the east half of the southwest quarter of section 21. He did not bring a family at this time, but built a mere shanty of logs and boughs for a temporary covering, and then began a small clearing, which, without a team, farming implements, or the tools necessary for clearing land, rendered his task in this direction doubly difficult. A small piece at length, however, was prepared and planted to those vegetables which he deemed would be most acceptable the following winter. The yield was abundant. Edmond Smith was a minister of the Disciple Church, and officiated at the first funeral in the township, being that of a child which died in the west part some months after his settlement here. He returned to Cedar Springs, where he died in 1873. In the fall of 1855 his brother, Scth Smith, reached the township with his family, and settled on eighty acres adjoining on the east. He too determined to make a home in the wilderness, and under similar disadvantages went to work to make an opening in the forest. Soon the supplies 436 were nearly exhausted, and the wants of his family demanded that he should leave home and seek work. He succeeded in Greenville, and at the close of the week con. verted his entire earnings into provisions, which he carried a distance of eighteen miles to his family. Some years later, while at work in Greenville, two ministers came to Cato and stopped with Avery Pool, where they remained some time. As there was no building in the township considered of sufficient dimensions and warmth in which to hold public meetings, they called at the unfinished house of Seth Smith. It had a roof on but one side, was not chinked between the logs, nor otherwise completed. But there were boards near by and shingles at a distance in the woods. With the permission of Mrs. Smith, they at once began to finish the cabin. It was in the month of December, and to assist in the work Mrs. Smith hauled the shingles from the woods on a hand-sled. The work was completed, and the surprise of Mr. Smith, who upon coming home on Saturday night found a cosy cabin with a shingled roof on both sides and the walls chinked and mudded, can well be imagined. The next day, being Christmas, the first of a series of meetings was held here. Seventeen evenings the meetings continued, and in the spring of 1859 the first church society in the township was organized. The next settler in Cato following the Smiths was David King, a young man from Ohio, who, with his wife,-also young and with no adequate ideas of pioneer life,-settled on the east half of the northeast quarter of section 33. He was well educated and had already made considerable progress in the study of medicine, and may, from the services which he rendered during his short stay here, be considered the pioneer physician of Cato. His daughter, born in the early spring of 1855, was the first child born in the township. He exchanged farms with E. B. Gallea and returned to Ohio, where he has since creditably followed his profession. Mr. Gailea came to the township probably in 1857, and remained until 1876, when he moved to Indiana. In December, 1855, Samuel P. Youngman, a native of Pennsylvania, came to Cato. He had previously been to the township and entered the northeast quarter of section 29, and had built a cabin, into which he moved his family. Mr. Youngman cut his road through the woods from the house of Mr. King, —a distance of nearly one and a half miles. He set out the first orchard in the town in the spring of 1856. When he came to Cato first, in the spring of 1855, in company with a man named Robins, he picked up a small quantity of potatoes which had been spilled from a wagon on its way from Greenville to Langston. Upon reaching Cato they found a small Indian clearing, upon CATO. 437 - which now stands the residence of his son; they chopped through the heavy sod and planted the potatoes. In the fall, Franklin French, a prominent land-dealer of those days, who passed through here, found a fine crop of potatoes. Whether the Indians, of whom there were a number of families in the vicinity, cultivated them is not known. The heavy maple-groves here and the small clearings that abounded had probably been used by them many years,-the former in making maple-sugar, and the latter probably tilled from time immemorial. By the spring of 1857 these hard-wood belts were all more or less occupied, and the settlement of the township may be considered as fairly begun. Abel French had settled on the south shore of Tamarack Lake, James Owen near the centre of the township on section 28, James Edgar on section 18, Elam Sanborn on section 7. These men still live in the township, having seen the marvelous change wrought in less than a quarter of a century. Daniel Gallop, who now resides in the township of Bushnell, had also settled on section 21. Mr. Summers, who settled on section 7, was one of the pioneers. He was killed by the limb of a tree falling upon him; the limb had been chopped off by Indians. His remains were the first interred in the cemetery in Winfield township. He was buried first, however, on his own farm. His was the first death of an adult in Cato. George Sanborn entered the east half of section 7 in December, 1854, at the time being a resident of Langston, where he and his brother, Elam Sanborn, were employed at the saw-mill. In the spring of 1855 Elam came to this land and built a cabin, which was the second in the township. He also planted some garden-vegetables preparatory to the entry of his brother's family, which came in March, 1856. George Sanborn lived in Cato until 1865, when he removed to Orleans, Ionia Co. Hiram Hull, another pioneer of Cato, and at the time advanced in years and much afflicted with rheumatism, entered the northwest quarter of section 20. Notwithstanding his physical disabilities, which at times were very severe, with no team or any farming implements, and all the difficulties which surrounded him, he succeeded in making a home for his family and placing his farm in a fair state of cultivation. KNOT MAUL. In 1855, James Taylor entered the east half of the northeast quarter of section 28. He resided here a number of years, and then moved to Indiana, but subsequently returned to Greenville. Upon his land stood the first cabin used as a school-house in District No. 2. He was the first settler at the corners known as Knot Maul. The next settler here was Ellsworth H. Stryker, who entered the southwest quarter of section 21 in the fall also of 1856. Mlr. Stryker was an early and-earnest Abolitionist, and for years the favorite and successful candidate for the office of township clerk on the Republican ticket. From an incident in which he was the leading spirit the corners near which he lived received its singular name. During the Presidential canvass of 1860, when the several political parties were extolling the virtues of their respective candidates, and the superiority of the Republican candidate as a I rail-splitter was represented in every conceivable way, Ellsworth H. Stryker, with his brother, Uriah Stryker, now of Coral, and William, now a resident of Petoskey, brought from the woods a most singular growth in the form of the body of a tree. The trunk, which at the base was scarcely more than a foot in diameter, about fifteen feet from the ground suddenly enlarged into a huge knot several feet in diameter, above which it again assumed its normal growth, and several feet above branched into limbs. The trunk was severed just above the knot, and the contrast rendered more striking by taking the bark from the handle of what was intended to represent a huge maul. When completed it was placed in the ground at the corners where the roads cross on section 28, and the peculiar sign was at once understood as it was intended,-a declaration of principles. The people of the township, heretofore in need of a name for this place, which in the mean time had grown to be of some business importance, began to refer to it, some as the Knot, others as the Maul, and, the union of these words probably being the only natural compromise, it has for years been known as Knot Maul. The knot was subsequently chopped down by James Ward and others who represented opposite schools in politics. It was again raised and again hauled down. It now hangs in a well, in which it was placed upon some timber. In 1863, Charles Wright purchased twelve acres of James Taylor and built the public-house known as Knot Maul Hotel. The accommodations were good, and the house was well patronized until other routes took the travel. Mr. Wright also kept a small stock of drygoods and groceries. The first store here, however, was opened by Louisa Fredeiickson. The first steam-nill in the township of Cato was built at this place by the Stryker Brothers. They also kept the hotel and a general store in connection. TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION. At the time of its organization Cato included the territory now comprised within the townships of Pine, Douglass, and Belvidere, in addition to its present dimensions. It was divided in 1862. The south half received the name of Pine, which at the time included the present township of Douglass. As divided, Cato then comprehended, in addition to its present territory, the township of Belvidere, which was erected in the year 1867, thus leaving Cato its present dimensions, being one-fourth of the original township. In its earlier record will therefore be found the names of men who did not then reside within its present limits. The township of Cato was erected early in the winter of 1857, and the first election was appointed and held at the house of Samuel P. Youngman on the 6th day of April following. The board of inspectors of election appointed to act at this meeting consisted of Samuel P. Youngman, Hiram Hull, and Harvey E. Tucker, William R. Martin being chosen clerk. "After being sworn according to law," a committee of five was appointed to make the necessary nominations, and after an absence of five minutes reported as follows: Supervisor, Harvey E. Tucker; Clerk, Ellsworth Stryker; Treasurer, William R. Martin; Justices of 438 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICEIIGAN. I the Peace, Seth Smith, Stephen Aldrich, Louis Conkling; Commissioners of Highways, Samuel P. Youngman, William Hart, James Owen, Leonard Buckey; Overseers of the Poor, Daniel Gallop, William Persons. Although no declaration of election is entered in the minutes of this meeting, the report of the committee was accepted, and the candidates recommended by them were unanimously elected. As there was no other ticket presented, the balloting was a mere formality, after which several resolutions passed, as follows: "' Voted to raise fifty dollars to defray the expenses of the township." When it is considered that this sum was intended to defray the current expenses of one-fourth of the original county of Montcalm, some idea can be reached of the change which twenty-three years has effected. It was also voted to pay a bounty "of two dollars on wolf-scalps;" also," two dollars to satisfy S. P. Youngman for the use of his house during election." The township was next divided into four wards or road districts, D. Lang being appointed overseer in No. 1, James Taylor served in District No. 2, Stephen Aldrich in No. 3, and Franklin Kniffin in No. 4. These districts now each constitute a township. At this meeting, also, it was moved and carried that the next annual township-meeting be held at Russell's Mills. These mills were located near the village of Langston, and were the first in this part of Montcalm County. At the first meeting of the town board the following accounts were audited: Ellsworth E. Stryker, $10.52; Hiram Hull, $5.20; Daniel Gallop, $2.50; James Edgar, $2.00; S. Kelley, $2.00; Samuel P. Youngman, $2.50; D. K. Hart, $9.00; H..E. Tucker, $19.62; Myron Ryder, $1.30. RESIDENTS IN 1857. The following is a list of resident tax-payers in 1857, as shown by the assessment roll of that year: Acres. Stephen Aldrich, sections 9, 10........................... 160 William Burt, section 36................... 40 Lorenzo Buekley, section 5................................ 86 Edwin Breese, section 26........................... 40 James Edgar, section 18.................................... 160 William Goodwater, section 4............................. 40 Daniel Gallop, section 22.................................. 40 II. K. Hart, section 35...................................... 80 Franklin Kniffin, section 32........................ 120 Charles King, section 22.................................... 80 David King, sections 33, 34............................... 160 George Main. section 7........................ 160 D. WNeil, section 33...................................... 160 James Owen, section 21........................ 80 Jameat )r tt, section 33.................................... AiB ajab Persons, section 5............................... 43 S Smith, section 21..................................... 120 Sa born, section 7.................................. 320 Rliworth Stryker, sections 21, 22.................... 120 James Taylor, section 28,...........8.................... 80 S. P. Yongman, section 29................................ 60 Samuel Stewart, section 18..................... 120 TOWNSHIP CIVIL LIST. Thi a-lif comprises the supervisors, clerks, treasurers, and justiees elected annually from 1857 to 1880, inclusive: SUPERVISORS. I-8lHi. Tucker; 1858, David RL Hart; 1859-63, Albert S. - ~ 41-69, SEllsworth H. Stryker; 1870, George W. Crabb; 3lJ orh H. Stryker; 1872, Ellas H. Heath; 1873-76, E. -.= iiwood; 1877, Aaron Amidon; 1878, Oscar A. Adams; I=#XJh *. Jensen,. TOWN CLERKS. 1857-61, Ellsworth H. Stryker; 1862, James M. Orcutt; 1863, Ellsworth H. Stryker; 1864-66, Hiram Hull; 1867, James A. Bryant; 1868, Hiram Hull; 186, James A. Bryant; 1870, H. Irving Garbutt; 1871, James A. Bryant; 1872, Warren Pond; 1873-76, Calvin S. Vining; 1877, Charles G. Dickinson; 1878-79, Charles W. Hatch; 1880, Edwin R. Saxton. TREASURERS. 1857, William R. Martin; 1858, no record; 1859, James -Taylor; 1860-71, William R. Martin; 1872, Allen McNumber; 1873-78, J. H. Jenson; 1879-80, Lewis L. Bissell. JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. 1857, Seth Smith, Hiram Hill, Stephen Aldrich, Louis Conkling; 1858, Daniel Long, Evert Gallea, George Sanborn, Stephen Aldrich; 1859, David Long, Albert S. French, Hiram Hull; 1860, Hiram Hull; 1861, Conrad R. Friesh; 1862, Albert S. French, Thomas Rae; 1863-64, A. H. Butler; 1865, Conrad Friesh; 1866, James R. Briggs, Hiram S. Barton; 1867, Hiram Hull; 1868, Lysander De Clare; 1869, Orvin C. Eno; 1870, C. A. Stebbins; 1871, Hiram Hull, Aaron Amidon; 1872, Edwin Anthony; 1873, Clarendon Briggs, Edwin Anthony; 1874, Lysander De Clare, Oscar A. Adams; 1875, Calvin S. Vining; 1876, Edwin Anthony; 1877, J. N. Wood; 1878, Calvin Reynolds; 1879, John Frederickson, Merrill W. Staples; 1880, Merrill Staples, Augustus T. Call. SCHOOLS. In the year 1857, after the organization of Cato, that part which constitutes the present township was divided into two school districts, which probably comprised the greater portion of its inhabitants, although the boundaries of these districts cannot now be definitely stated. They were, however, numbered 1 and 2, according to the time when they were organized, but it is believed that school was first opened in District No. 2. The inhabitants in District No. 1, which at that time comprised the northwest portion of the town, made a bee, and with their united effort a school-house of logs, twentytwo by twenty-four feet, was soon erected on the north part of the land owned by James Edgar. Miss Mary Hull, the daughter of Hiram Hull, who settled in tlhe township the year previous, taught the first school here. She also taught several other terms, and subsequently died of consumption. In District No. 2 the school-house, which the people also built, was of a more primitive pattern. It too was made of logs, but the roof was covered with bark, and the floor was entirely wanting during the first term. It stood just across the road from the site now occupied by the schoolhouse in this district. The first term was taught by Pearly Gallea, who had come to the township a short time previous. She taught three months, and, in default of money sufficient to pay her pittance for these services, she received a calico dress bought for her by the director of the district at Greenville. She returned to her former home in Ohio. The following are the names of the scholars who composed this school: Clara Gallea, Elizabeth Taylor, Phebe Butler, Samuel J. Youngman, Ellsworth Gallea, Uriah E. Stryker. School Distrit No. 3 was set off by the school board on the 7th of March, 1858. It at this time included the southeast quarter of the township, but no action was taken by the inhabitants to organize, and no school was opened here until some years after. These school districts have all been rearranged from time to time. MRIALLEN MA COMBER. ALI-EN MA COMBER c ct ~~~,;~,, ~~:;.;~~r`- -,-, --'=-5 sr 1.1-5- r 1 -— fT ~ .PP ls-,' ~~~. ' Y"p;-'i'. F-" —i 1 C.- 1.1i... ~-.izr — i -- 2=~~C--,i r r.*511.;4:ISIIyy.- r R~Es. OF ALLEN MACOMBER. LAevI/EW. CATO T. MONTCALM Co. MtC. II II I~I CATO. 439 VILLAGE OF LAKE VIEW. The village of Lake View occupies the site of an Indian village near the shore of Tamarack Lake, on the southwest quarter of section 9. The Indian village referred to, when first visited by white men, consisted of perhaps fifty lodges, and contained a population of several hundred. The wigwams were arranged in two rows, which formed a street, the outlines of which corresponded with those of the main street in the present village. It was the scene of the exciting games of the Indian youth as they strove for tribal popularity. Here also the children engaged in their milder sports, while the elderly members of the tribe smoked their pipes in stolid indifference. It was the scene of public festivities, and here they conducted their ancient and revered ceremonies. This peculiarity of the Indian disposition-their rigid adherence to ancient customs-is illustrated in the burial of one of their number, a hunter of considerable renown, in the winter of 1855-56. The weather being extremely cold, and several days elapsing before the corpse was removed, it became rigidly frozen. When the appointed time arrived the dead warrior was bound tightly with bark ropes to the back of a pony, and a party numbering at least one hundred proceeded to the Indian cemetery north of Greenville. The trail led through the forest, underbrush and trees closely bordering it all the way. The almost impossibility of fastening the frozen body to the pony rendered many stops and rearrangements necessary, but Indian custom demanded that it be interred precisely at noon, and, in order that this custom be observed, great haste was necessary. As they passed rapidly on their way the feet would strike a tree or bush and the head would swing forward; next the head would come in contact, while now and then, as the way became narrow and both extremities struck, a helping hand was necessary before the journey could be resumed. The warrior's journey to the tomb was doubtless not the smoothest through which he had passed during his earthly career. Albert S. French, the first settler in Cato in the vicinity of Lake View, who platted the village, and has otherwise been intimately connected with its growth and the development of the township, is a native of New York. When he first came to Michigan he located in Grand Rapids, and began the practice of law. He subsequently moved to Vergennes. Desiring a more active life, however, he came to Cato in 1856, and settled where he now lives. One of the first saw-mills in Cato was that of Allen Macomber at Lake View, where it was the first business place of any importance. It was built by H. C. Smith, of Winfield. Several years elapsed before the village made any rapid improvements. After the completion of the railroad the village and country around it increased rapidly in population and business importance, the growth of its several branches of business being simultaneous. It now has a population of eight hundred, and contains several hotels, two planing-mills, one shingle-mill, and one saw-mill. There are a number of fine stores, and in all about twenty business places. I I CHURCHES. The First Methodist Episcopal Church of Lake View was organized in September, 1873, at the school-house. Rev. N. H. Hull was the first minister appointed to this charge, it being formed under his supervision. The ground upon which the building stands was formerly owned by M. French, who donated it to the society. The church was erected in 1879 at a cost of two thousand two hundred dollars. The parsonage and lot are valued at nine hundred dollars. The society now has a membership of twenty. The Seventh-Day Adventist Church was organized in Lake View in 1877 at the house of Isaac Deal. The class was composed of forty members, and was formed under Elder A. O. Burrell, who now resides in St. Louis, Mich. The present membership is thirty-five; the place of worship was built in the winter of 1877-78, and cost two thousand dollars. First Congregational Church.-Through the influence of S. L. Palmer, the society of the First Congregational Church of Lake View was organized Oct. 15, 1880, at which time seventeen names were enrolled. Among its members are some of the leading business men of the place, and the society is already well established. SECRET SOCIETIES. Lake View Lodge, ANo. 294, I. O. O. F., was organized on March 24, 1877, with the following charter members: George A. Reed, W. M. Pixley, John M. Wood, C. P. Niles, A. T. Call, A. S. French, Silas Moore. The society has now a membership of forty-eight, and is in a prosperous condition. Lake View Lodge, No. 330, F. and A. M., was instituted under a dispensation granted by William L. Webber, M. W. Grand Master, and the first meeting was held Dec. 22, 1874. The charter members were Albert S. French, George O'Donnell, L. L. Bissell, Daniel W. Martin, Charles F. French, George Rossman, J. S. Vining, and B. F. Kibbey. The society now has a well-furnished hall and a membership of sixty-one in good standing. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. ALLEN MACOMBER. This gentleman-an only son, and one of two children in the family of George Macomber and wife (the latter's maiden-name was Barnes)-was born in Perry township, Genesee (now Wyoming) Co., N. Y., April 27,1831. His parents were both natives of that State, and his father was, in his younger days, a manufacturer of cradles, scythesnaths, etc., and a large farmer and dealer in stock. At an early day he invested in " prize lands" in this State, which he finally sold at a good profit. In 1846 he removed with his family to Michigan, locating in Macomb County. He subsequently settled at Greenville, Montcalm Co., where he died in 1879, his wife having died about two years pre viously. After his death his estate, amounting to one hundred and sixty thousand dollars, was divided between his two children. 440 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. Allen Macomber began business for himself at the age of twenty-four, engaging in lumbering, in which he is considered as one of the pioneers in this section of the State. In 1859 he purchased lands near his present home, and in 1869 bought a saw-mill on Tamarack Lake, which he sold, after operating a few years, to Mr. Anthony, and contracted to furnish stock for three years for a larger mill, which is the one at present in the village. He has been a prominent mill man, and has speculated to some extent in pine-lands, having sold over two thousand acres in the past two years, and being the present owner of one thousand acres. He has also invested largely in Colorado mining-stock, which yields good dividends. His present home is one of the finest in this part of the State. Sept. 21, 1866, he married Miss Esther Swarthout, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1843, being the second in a family of four children, two boys and two girls, in the family of Moses Swarthout and wife (the latter's maidenname being Reynolds). Moses Swarthout and wife were born in Seneca Co., N. Y., and in 1833 were married and removed to Erie Co., Pa.,-the birthplace of Mrs. Macomber,-where Mr. Swarthout engaged in farming. In 1856, Mr. Swarthout (with his family) became a pioneer in the then unbroken wilderness of Northern Michigan, and settled in Montealm County at a time when almost their only neighbors were the dusky denizens of the pine forests that surrounded them. Mr. and Mrs. Macomber are the parents of three children, now living,-Nora, born Sept. 21, 1871; Georgiana, born Oct. 15, 1873; and Allen, born Oct. 8, 1875. Mr. Macomber is a Republican in politics, of the stalwart kind, but not an aspirant for office, preferring the peace and quiet of his home and the peaceful avocations of life to the heated strife of political contests. He held the position of treasurer of the township where he resides. His early educational advantages were good, and, being of studious habits and a careful observer, he has acquired a fund of practical knowledge embracing a broad field. Mr. and Mrs. Macomber, having settled at Lake View at a time when the grand pines of the primeval forests towered above the site of their beautiful home, where they slept to the music of "The soughing of the winds Among the moaning pines, And the cry of the wild beast at their door," have witnessed and been active in the development of Lake View and vicinity. Mr. lMacomber, although the wealthiest man in the community where he resides, is not an aristocrat. He is liberal in aid of all public and charitable enterprises, and considerate of the rights of others in his business relations. He spent the summer of 1880 in Colorado, where he invested largely in mining-stocks, and intends to spend the summer of 1881 there, looking after his interests. ALBERT S. FRENCH. This gentleman was born Feb. 1, 1828, in Ellicottville, Cattaraugus Co., N. Y., and was the younger of two children (both sons) born to Abel and Angeline (Rust) French. His father was born at Brattleboro', Vt., in 1804, and his mother in Northampton, Mass. The two were married about 1825, in Ellicottville, N. Y. Mrs. French died when Albert was but three months of age, and, in 1830, Mr. French a second time entered the marriage relation. His business was that of a merchant, and was continued until about 1867, when he exchanged his business in Chicago for a farm in Colon township, St. Joseph Co., Mich., where he died in 1868. Albert S. French at the age of fourteen sought and found employment in Grand Rapids, where he remained three years, part of the time working in a brickyard and part in a store. From Grand Rapids he shipped on the lakes, and sailed for three years, when he returned to the home of his boyhood in New York. - Dec. 31, 1848, he married Miss Amanda M. Bryant, daughter of Samuel and Anna Bryant. She was born also in Ellicottville, N. Y., April 18, 1827, and was the tenth in a family of eleven children. Her parents were natives of Northampton, Mass., and died on the farm at Ellicottville, on which the daughter was born,-the father's death occurring in 1849 and the mother's about 1867. Mr. French, after his return to New York-from the lake service, engaged in manufacturing lumber, and after his removal to Michigan with his family he located at Greenville, Montcalm Co., in 1854, built a house, and worked at the trade of a carpenter, which he had learned when a boy. After a residence of three years in Greenville, he purchased a portion of his present farm in the township of Cato, moved his family upon it in the spring (March) of 1857, and began improvements on his land, which he had bought from government. In 1865 he platted and laid out the village of Lake View, and has continued his residence here, engaging in farming, lumbering, and dealing in pine-lands. Of the latter he now owns about two hundred acres, besides his farm of one thousand acres. Eight children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. French, as follows: Franklin H., Nov. 14, 1849; Charles F., Sept. 15, 1851; Albert D., Aug, 7, 1853; Truman R., June 27, 1857; John W., April 27, 1859, died Feb. 24, 1863; Ida A., Sept. 7, 1861; Stanley S., Sept. 24, 1866; Anna M., Nov. 26, 1871. All are married, except the youngest two, and settled near home. One son is in the real-estate business at Stanton. Mrs. French is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. French's views upon religion are liberal. He has met with severe losses, but has a fine property remaining; is a Republican in politics, and has been treasurer of his county eight years, during which time he lived with his family in Stanton; was supervisor six years, and postmaster four years, and is a gentleman of liberality and enterprise. ALB-ERT S. FRENICH, MRS ALBERT S. FRENCH, RrI It*,w -t.4 4. 4 RE&' OF ALBE/i-S. FRENCH. LAKEVIEW McfrA17-A4i CO. MICH. I/ DOUGLASS. DOUGLASS, township 11 north, range 7 west, is bounded north by Belvidere, east by Day, south by Sidney, and west by Pine, of which it formed a part until its organization in 1864. The northern part of the township is drained by Flat River and its numerous small branches. This part contains the most of the good farming-lands of the township, although there are several hard-wood belts in other localities. Clifford Lake, a beautiful body of water over a mile in length, is situated on sections 30 and 32. Upon its banks several residences are building, and the groves are being utilized as picnic grounds and places of summer resort. The principal portion of the pine timber of the township is located in the southern and eastern parts. A track extends from Flat River, on section 20, reaching back several miles into the timber, upon which by means of trucks large quantities of logs are annually brought to the river, thence conducted to Grand Haven, the river at times being covered with logs for miles in extent. Hiram Weller was the first settler in Douglass, but the exact date of his arrival is not definitely known. It was probably the fall of 1853, as in the following year he sold his claim and removed to Langston, where the John Green Company were erecting a saw-mill. He remained there several years working for the company, when he removed. Peter Johnson, who purchased the claim of Hiram Weller, was the second settler in the township. Soon after taking possession he built a more commodious cabin, cleared a small piece of land, and sowed the first spring crops. About the time of his arrival Uriah Stout and Messrs. Covey, Murray, Bradford, and a number of other settlers pre-empted land in the vicinity, but none of these remained long enough to make any permanent improvements, and none brought families except Uriah Stout. William Goodwater, who settled just over the line, on section 32 in Belvidere, came in about the same time. He soon after came into Douglass and built a cabin near Little Penny Lake, which was named after a nickname applied to him. He also subsequently moved to the mills below on Flat River, where he died. James Farnsworth pre-empted eighty acres on the east half of section 9, but within a year he sold to Stephen Aldrich, who in the summer of 1854 came into the township to look for government land. HIis wife, formerly Miss Rebecca Stewart, whose parents settled in the township of Gilead, now the township of Noble, Branch Co., and became permanent settlers there with the family, came to the township of Douglass in the fall of 1854. They still reside on the farm purchased at this time, and are the only couple now living in the township who settled here in -that year. 56 Mr. Aldrich went to work immediately to clear and improve his farm. The following spring he set out the first fruit-trees in Douglass. In 1862 he enlisted in the Seventh Regiment of cavalry, continuing in the army and participating in the campaigns of that regiment during the war. In the year 1854, also, Benajah Persons and his family came in and settled in the northern part. He purchased forty acres of land, and lived here until his death. Mrs. Persons and several children still reside in the township. David R. Hart, Alphonso Brundage, and Stephen Whitmer came in soon after the settlement of Mr. Persons. Alphonso Brundage had been a resident of Ann Arbor, whence he came to Douglass and bought the north half of the northeast quarter of section 11, where he built a cabin, and where he has since continued to reside. David R. Hart sold a part of his land to S. L. Smith, who, with Aaron Hunt, came in in 1863. The former, a native of McKean Co., Pa., came to Michigan first in 1847, and lived a number of years at Jackson. He subsequently returned to Pennsylvania, where he lived until he came to Douglass, as stated above. At the first township-meeting he was elected supervisor, and, when justice, officiated at the first wedding after the organization of the township, being that of Jacob Miller and Mary Hunt. Mr. Miller came to Michigan from Monroe Co., N..Y., in 1856. Aaron Hunt entered one hundred and sixty acres, which was the south half of the northwest quarter and the east half of the southwest quarter of section 15, where he resided until his death, in the spring of 1867. His son, Eli Hunt, served in the Union army during the Rebellion. George W. Entrican, another early resident of Douglass, was born in Oakland County, to which place his parents came in 1836, being among its first settlers. He came to Easton, Ionia Co., in 1847. He was among the first to enlist from Douglass, and served two years and six months in Company K, Twenty-first Regiment Michigan Infantry, participating in the campaigns of the Army of the Cumberland under Gen. McCook. For two years he has been clerk of the township. Joseph and A. Ellsworth were the first permanent settlers in the southwest part, where they still reside, having cleared and improved farms. Clifford Lake is named after - Clifford, a feeble old man who settled near it, and who was found dead beside an oak log, having been taken sick suddenly while at work. Although as early as 1853 the settlement of Douglass commenced, and from this time until 1864 many additions were made, but few became permanent settlers in the township. The great obstacle to its prosperity was the total lack 441 442 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. I of highways and the consequent inconvenience to travel. The general routes to the north had been through the township to the east and Pine and Cato to the west. A State road was early located along the east bank of Flat River, but when the saw-mill at Langston and a bridge across the river at that place were completed, and this route to the Big Rapids made passable, no further attention was given the route through Douglass until many years after. As it became necessary, the settlers each as they came underbrushed the road where it appeared the most feasible, and, as a consequence, it wound about all conceivable obstacles. After the organization of the township it was considerably improved, S. L. Smith doing a large part of the work. The improvements in other parts of the township were rapid, large sums of money being raised by taxing land held by speculators. The river road originally followed as near as possible an Indian trail which extended along the east bank of the river to the Indian settlement near the central part of Douglass. It contained about forty families under Shogwogino, who built and occupied a house still standing on the farm of S. L. Smith. In 1860 the entire tribe with the exception of three families were removed to the North by the government. It appears from the clearing made and the land which they tilled being free of stumps that they had lived here many years previous to the entry of the whites. There are still a number of their graves and several apple-trees which they planted. About three years after his settlement in Douglass, Peter Johnson, already referred to, went to Greenville to find work, as was his custom, to procure the necessary provisions for his family. It was the year so long remembered on account of the late frosts, when the little pieces of corn and garden-stuffs of the settlers, so important to them, were totally destroyed, when want and suffering abounded on every hand, and had it not been for aid voted by the State and sent gratuitously from older settled districts absolute famine must have prevailed. Game, which to this time had been plentiful, suddenly became scarce and almost impossible to be secured, and when obtained was lean and unpalatable. The following spring little children barefooted scoured the banks of streams before the fiost had fairly left the ground to find succulent plants to be boiled and eaten. To find work was almost impossible; nevertheless Peter Johnson left his famtily and went to Greenville, as before stated. While absent, his wife, who in a recent illness had been attended by Mrs. Stephen Aldricll, who lived nearly two miles distant, and who had walked that distance through the forest many times to see her and administer to her wants, went to the house of Mrs. Goodwater to ask ler to come and stay with her clildren, which she had left sleeping in a cradle near the fire, while she called on Mrs. Aldrich, who was now ill. The two women returned and found the cabin enveloped in flames and the roof just falling in. The mother was almost paralyzed, but was taken away from the spot by Mrs. Goodwater, and by her conducted to the house where she had intended to call. The children, the elder of whom was two and one-half years of age and the younger a babe, perished in the flames. Their charred remains were gathered the following morning, placed in a box, and buried near the site upon which the cabin stood. It is said the parents did not visit the spot, but removed to the south part of the county. Olive, the elder of the two, was the first white child born in the township, and it was proposed to name it in her honor, but owing to a similarity of this name with another in the south part of the State it was abandoned. The first marriage in Douglass was at the house of Leonard Buckley, on which occasion William Goodwater was married to Mrs. Julia Buckley. The cemetery on the farm of Stephen Aldrich was the first public burial-place in Douglass, and the first person interred here was William Entrican. The first orchard was probably set out by Aaron Hunt in the spring of 1864, and contained one hundred trees, but one of which is now living. James Lee built the first framed dwelling in the winter of 1865-66, and about the same time Moses Hunt built the first framed barn, on the northeast quarter of section 14, both of which buildings are still standing. SCHOOLS. On the 17tlh of September, 1863, the first school-meeting of Douglass convened at the school-house, which was at this time in process of building, on section 9. This township, it will be remembered, yet formed a part of Pine, and the school-house had been built through the direction of the school board of that township. At the meeting referred to two new settlers who had just reached the town that day were present, S. L. Smith and Aaron Hunt. The latter was elected director, the former assessor, and Benajah Persons moderator. H. L. Smith was subsequently elected director, and served nine years. No arrangements for a school were made until the next spring, when Mr. Hunt canvassed the township and found it practicable, the settlers subscribing one dollar per scholar for the purpose of ema ploying a teacher. As there were but seven scholars in the district the sum was not large. Miss Elizabeth Aldrich was engaged to teach, for which the district agreed to pay one dollar and fifty cents per week, board not included. The scholars' names were Margaret Aldrich, now a teacher, Phoebe Smith, Byron Smith, Albert Hunt, Cornelius Hart, Ida Whitmore, Agnes Whitmore. Miss Aldrich, at the time she taught this school, was sixteen years of age. She taught three months, the parents in the district making up by subscription the necessary fund. She was also employed to teach the next school here, wages being increased to two dollars and fifty cents per week. She subsequently became the wife of C. V. Kilborn, but is not now living. The next school was opened in District No. 2, a log school-house being built there in 1868. It stood on the northwest quarter of section 13, and has since been appropriated as a dwellinghouse. The first term was taught by Miss Vina Cory. This building was used until 1876, when a new one was erected. The school-building in District No. 1 was built in 1878. WESTVILLE. The village of Westville was laid out by Daniel West, who owned one hundred and twenty acres, which included part of the west half of section 7 of Day. Upon this, in anticipation of the Detroit, Lansing and Northern Rail DOUGLASS. 443 road, he platted a village, which naturally thereafter took his name. He gave ten acres of land for depot purposes and five hundred dollars in cash to the company as an inducement for them to extend their line to this place. The citizens also raised nine hundred dollars for the same purpose, which, as it appears, was paid to the company in full; but the road passed to the east some distance, and the village has not therefore reached the importance hoped by its founders. It contains a shingle-mill, hotel, one store, and a few business places of lesser note. The first business place opened was a general store owned by Jordan & Allen, who continued in trade several years. The founder of the village was born in New York and died in 1877. TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION, ETC. In 1863, town 11 north, range 7 west, having a sufficient population, was erected into a separate township under the name of Douglass, in compliance with a petition circulated by Aaron Hunt. The name was selected in honor of Stephen A. Douglass, the Democratic Presidential candidate in 1860, and for whom a majority of its electors voted. The first township-meeting convened at the house of Aaron Hunt on the first Monday in April, 1864. Alphonso Brundage, S. S. Whitmore, and Benajah Persons were appointed to act as inspectors of election. The appointment, dated at Stanton February 26th, was signed by G. F. Case, deputy county clerk. At this election Alphonso Brundage was chosen clerk, Benajah Persons moderator, Stephen Whitmore and Aaron Hunt inspectors. The following is the result of the election: Supervisor, S. L. Smith; Jus tices of the Peace, Benajah Persons, Alphonso Brundage, S. L. Smith; Highway Commissioners, S. S. Whitmore, Aaron Hunt, Benajah Persons; School Inspectors, S. S. Whitmore, S. L. Smith; Constables, S. S. Whitmore, Adam Shaffer. TOWNSHIP OFFICERS. This list contains the names of those elected annually as supervisors, clerks, treasurers, and justices from 1864 to 1880, inclusive: SUPERVISORS. 1864-66, S. L. Smith; 1867, T. J. Scidmore; 1868, no record; 1869 -70, S. L. Smith; 1871, James Lee; 1872, S. L. Smith; 1873 -78, Charles W. Bloomberg; 1879, Silas L. Smith; 1880, Charles Bloomberg. TOWN CLERKS. 1864-66, Alonzo Brundage; 1867-68, Churchill V. Kilborn; 1869, L. R. Vaughn; 1870, C. V. Kilborn; 1871-73, U. Austin; 1874 -75, C. V. Kilborn; 1876-78, William H. Jacobs; 1879-80, George W. Entrican. TREASURERS. 1864-66, S. G. Whitmore; 1867, Andrew J. Persons; 1868-70, James Lee; 1871, J. Bennett; 1872-78, A. M. Hunt; 1879-80, Joseph L. Lamb. JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. 1864, Benajah Persons, Alphonso Brundage, S. L. Smith; 1865, S. L. Smith; 1866, Benajah Persons; 1867, J. Scidmore; 1868, A. Brundage; 1870, D. P. Blood; 1871, M. Hunt; 1872, Alphonso Brundage; 1873, Amos R. Briner, James Lee; 1874, James Lee; 1875, Moses Hunt, Andrew J. Wheeler; 1876, Albert L. Entrican, Alphonso Brundage, L. R. Vaughn; 1877, William Wollaver; 1878, James Lee. DAY. DAY is designated in the United States survey as town 11 north, of range 6 west, and is bounded north by the township of Home, east by Ferris, south by Evergreen, and west by Douglass. The greater part of the township was formerly covered with a dense growth of pine, shading to beech and maple in the northern part, where, on the rise of ground extending east and west, the best farming lands are located. There are few lakes or streams in the township, which is drained by small streams flowing towards the Flat and Saginaw Rivers. EARLY SETTLEMENTS. The first settler of the township was John A. Dyer, now a resident of Ferris, who came in in 1854 and settled on the southeast quarter of section 12. He built a good log house, set out an orchard, planted the first crops, and made the first improvements of note long before any other settler came in. His wife, who died subsequently, is regarded as being the first to die in Day. About the year 1862 several families came to the township and entered small tracts on section 8. They all built small cabins, but soon after, selling their claims, removed. The next settler and the first permanent one in that vicinity was Alonzo Darling, who, under the State homestead law, entered one hundred and twenty acres, principally on section 8. He made some permanent improvements, conspicuous among which was building a large barn and clearing forty acres. He now lives in Hastings, Mich. Sebastian Martin was the first settler in the west part of the town, having entered land and built a cabin on section 6 as early as 1862. With his wife he lived here for a time, making shingles by hand; but at length be, too, sold for one thousand dollars, and removed. His wife was subsequently drowned in Grand River. The oldest resident of Day at this time is H. E. W. Palmer, a native of Allegany Co., N. Y., and later a resident of St. Lawrence County. In May, 1864, accompanied by his cousin, Marcellus Palmer, he came in, and with him purchased two hundred acres of Jacob Lemasters for three dollars and fifty cents per acre. H.E. W. Palmer was formerly a regular minister of the Baptist Church, but his health failing sought the pine-lands of Michigan in hopes of restoring it. After purchasing, Marcellus returned to Ionia, and in about eight months brought his family to Day, where he continues to reside. In 1865, Conrad Rouash settled on section 7, where he remained a number of years, when he moved to Douglass. Some time after the settlement of the Palmers, Norman Webster came in and bought the northeast quarter of section 8, for which he paid a team of horses, a wagon, and 444 some minor consideration. He also sold out and removed to Kent County, thence to Texas. John Harrington came from Hillsdale Co., Mich., in 1864, and settled on section 19, where he now remains. It will be seen, from these brief references to the early settlers of Day, that few now live in the township who are cognizant of its earliest history and those reminiscences which make the first settlement of a township novel and interesting. The first settlers were of that class that does not remain long in one place. Those who remained were of a better class, and to them the rapid development of the, agricultural resources of late are to be attributed. In the spring of 1866 the school board formed the northwest quarter of the township into a school district, the general outlines of which were similar to those of this district at present. The first school-meeting was held at the house of H. E: W. Palmer, he being chosen director and Samuel Butts moderator, Marcellus Palmer assessor. The first school was taught by Mrs. H. E. W. Palmer, in an unoccupied room of her dwelling. Arrangements were made to build a log school-house, but the motion was reconsidered by a vote of the district, and it was decided to erect a frame one, which was accordingly done. The second term, however, was taught by Miss Lodema Palmer in the log house of Samuel Butts, before the school-house was completed. She became the wife of E. M. Mallet, and now resides in Little Traverse. The second school was taught in the northeastern part of the township; but, as the inhabitants mostly soon after removed, the district formation was dropped. The fractional school district at Stanton was next perfected. The first public religious meeting in Day, so far as is known, was conducted by Rev. H. E. W. Palmer, in his house in 1864. The first Sabbath-school was organized by Marcellus Palmer at his house, and of which he was elected first superintendent. VILLAGE OF McBRIDE. This village is named after Alexander McBride, a native of Wayne Co., N. Y., who came to Day, and in 1874 purchased the saw-mill built by Emery Mallet the year previous. The following year it burned, being a total loss, but it was at once rebuilt by him, and from this time the locality was known as McBride's Mill. When the railroad company established its station near by, it adopted the name which has accordingly been applied to the village. It is situated principally upon the southwest quarter of section 9, on the farm of D. L. Jacobs, who platted it in 1877. About the same time Phipps Waldo laid out the east half of the northeast quarter of section 8 in village lots, which he named Custer. Several lots were sold, and a DAY. 445 number of buildings erected; the first completed was the blacksmith- and wagon-shop of Dean Wilber, being the first business place in the village of Custer, which is now properly considered a part of McBride. Phipps Waldo came to Day in 1864, and entered the southeast quarter of section 2, where he resided until February, 1872. C. A. Chillson opened the first store in the village. The sales for the first six months amounted to eight or ten thousand dollars. In 1880 the sales will amount to twenty-five thousand dollars, the stock in general being composed of ready-made clothing, drygoods, boots, shoes, etc. Soon after J. A. Waldeon opened a stock of ready-made clothing, being the second in the village. The sales amount to ten thousand dollars per year. The firm of Wood & Thayer commenced business in McBride in the spring of 1878. The stock was the largest in the village, and the sales for the first six months amounted to twenty thousand dollars. The stock is now composed of a complete assortment of drygoods, boots, shoes, groceries, hardware, etc., and the sales are among the heaviest of any firm in the county, amounting in 1880 to eighty thousand dollars. This firm also deals extensively in lumber. There are seventeen saw-mills now in active operation in the vicinity of this village, and the shipments of lumber and shingles at times are enormous. In July, 1880, the freightage received at this station amounted to $639.73; in August to $1087.22; and in September it amounted to $894.73. The tickets sold in July amounted to $466.85, August to $450.70, and September to $518.25. Although the Methodist Episcopal and Baptist Churches have societies here, no meeting-houses have thus far been erected. The first school was taught in a little shanty near her father's mill by Miss Cora McBride. She also taught the first school in the village school-house which was erected in 1876. TO WNSHIP ORGANIZATION. In the winter of 1864-65 a petition was circulated whereby the Legislature* was prayed to erect town 11 north, of range 6 west, into a separate township. The name was selected by a mere accident. While a number of its citizens were debating and unable to select one from the many names proposed, some one suggested that action in regard to it be postponed until another day. It was then proposed that all other names be dropped and the word " Day" inserted in the petition, which was accordingly done, and, in compliance with an appointment made by the Legislature, the electors of the township met to hold their first townmeeting at the house of Henry Kretzinger, on the 3d day of April, 1865. This meeting was called to order by H. E. W. Palmer, one of the inspectors appointed by the board of supervisors. The other two inspectors being absent, George F. Case and John D. Harrington were appointed by the electors present to fill their places. George F. Case was chosen chairman of the board of inspectors, H. E. W. Palmer clerk. These preliminaries being completed and the constitutional oath administered, the election proceeded, which resulted in electing the following-named persons to the several offices: Supervisor, Sylvester Derby; Town Clerk, Edwin K. Wood; Treasurer, H. E. W. Palmer; School Inspectors, G. F. Case, H. E. W. Palmer; Commissioners of Highways, John D. Harrington, John K. Marston, Henry Kretzinger; Justices of the Peace, George F. Case, John D. Harrington, Samuel Butts, Albert Register; Constables, Aaron F. Lee, Phipps Waldo, H. E. W. Palmer, John J. Owen. The township at this time was divided into two road districts, of which Aaron Grosh was appointed overseer in District No. 1, and H. E. W. Palmer in District No. 2. It was then voted to raise two hundred and fifty dollars for highway purposes, and one hundred dollars to defray the expenses of the township the ensuing year. It being necessary at this time that all bonds, notes, etc., bear the revenue stamp of the United States, it was voted to raise money to procure the stamps required for the " official bonds of the officers elect." It was then resolved to hold the next annual meeting at the house of H. E. W. Palmer. TOWNSHIP OFFICERS. The following is a list of the supervisors, town clerks, treasurers, and justices of the peace from the organization of the township to the year 1880 inclusive: SUPERVISORS. 1865, Sylvester Derby; 1866-68, George F. Case; 1869, Edwin K. Wood; 1870, George F. Case; 1871-72, E. D. Finch; 1873, George F. Case; 1874-75, George Howarth; 1876, Asa Morse; 1877-79, Henry H. Hinds; 1880, A. F. Gardner. TOWN CLERKS. 1865, Edwin K. Wood; 1866-69, Harmon Smith; 1870, James M. Zinkbam; 1871-72, James K. Brown; 1873-74, John Englebeck; 1875-79, A. F. Gardner; 1880, Fred E. Moffatt. TREASURERS. 1865, H. E. W. Palmer; 1866, Marcellus Palmer; 1867, H. E. W. Palmer; 1868, Edwin A. Shaw; 1869-70, Gideon Dingman; 1871-74, Jacob A. Bradford; 1875, E. D. Hawley; 1876-78, Oscar Fenn; 1879, Norman Shepherd; 1880, George F. Case. JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. 1865, George F. Case, John D. Harrington, Samuel Butts, Albert E. Register; 1866, John D. Harrington; 1867, Mills Dingham, J. D. Valds; 1868, Marcellus Palmer, James Eakright; 1869, Nelson M. Turner; 1870, James Eakright, Francis Palmer; 1871, Jacob M. Dickerson; 1872, Alonzo Darling, Oscar Fenn; 1873, George F. Case, Stephen M. Miles; 1874, Robert Bamber, Galusha Lamb; 1875, Asa Morse; 1876, Marcellus Palmer; 1877, C. E. Soule; 1878, James G. McGarry; 1879, C. Ellis Ellicott, O. E. Ellicott; 1880, Joseph L. Moffatt, Alpheus M. Beebee. * This township was organized by order of the board of supervisors. See page 360, Part Third.-ED. EVE R G R E E N. THIS township, one of the interior divisions of Montcalm County, is situated southeast from Stanton, the county-seat. Its surface presents no peculiar natural features, the northern part being undulating and the soil a sandy loam, while the southern part is more level, the soil and timber resembling that of Bushnell. A system of lakes, properly a continuation of those in Crystal, extend nearly across the township, and, although nearly parallel with Fish Creek, are not directly connected with it, nor with each other. The greater part of Evergreen was originally covered with a heavy growth of pine, which fbr years has furnished employment to many men. It is now nearly exhausted, and it is estimated that at the present rate of decrease it will not last more than two years. Fish Creek, the largest stream, serves as an outlet by means of which large quantities of logs every year reach the mills below. A number of mills also are engaged in the manufacture of lumber in various parts of the township. From the Weatherwax mill a railroad is now constructing by which several valuable tracts of pine in the east part will be connected with the markets of the South and East. The agricultural interests are still comparatively unimportant, except in the southern part, where the best land is located, and where the first settlement was made. This locality contains also the principal public improvements. Since the completion of the Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad this industry has increased rapidly in extent and importance. Sheridan, partly situated on section 31, and Stanton, the corporation of which partly includes section 6, furnish a ready market for all kinds of produce. Evergreen is bounded on the north by Day, east by Crystal, south by Bushnell, and west by Sidney, and is designated as town 10 north, range 6 west. ORIGINAL LAND ENTRIES. The first purchases of lands in the township were made upon the various sections as here indicated: Section 1.-Henry Crapo, William Crapo, David Montross, Lorenzo D. Montross, Israel E. Richardson, Aaron Clark. ection 2.-Philip H. Martz, Henry H. Crapo, Robert Gregory, Ancel C. Hinds, Emily J. Hinds. Section 3.-Ambrose L. Soule, Henry H. Crapo, John W. Abbott, Emily J. Hinds, Henry J. Kingsbury, Levi Harrod, David Curtis, Elisha L. Hill. Section 4.-Amnbrose L. Soule, John Walters, Alfred Richardson. Section 5.-P. H. Chapin, Ambrose L. Soule, Frederick Hall. Section 6.-Ambrose Soule, Frederick Hall. 446 Section 7.-Charles Bean, Ambrose L. Soule, Frederick' Hall, Benjamin Fowle, William Patterson. Section 8.-Charles Bean, Ambrose L. Soule, Eastman Colby, Horatio Peck, Philander Bennett, Richard Morgan, Sylvester Spencer, William Boyer. Section 9.-Ambrose L. Soule, Frederick Hall, Alfred Richardson, John Walters, E. L. Frazer, P. R. Howe, G. B. Isham, Samuel Besseguie. Section 10.-P. R. Howe, George B. Isham, Henry H. Crapo, John Wilkinson, Charles A. Cook, Louisa E. Richardson, Emily J. Hinds, Jerry Buckley, Henry Kingsbury, James Case, David Carter, Elish L. Hill. Section 11.-Philip H. Martz, Henry H. Crapo, William H. Corbin, Charles A. Cook, Orlando Goolthite, Jacob B, Smith, William H. Whipple. Section 12.-Oliver H. P. Goodwin, Joseph McCurdy, William S. Bills, F. M. Hinds, William Cramer. Section 13.-Frederick Hall, Stephen F. Page, Oliver' H. P. Goodwin, David G. Hoag, Lorenzo D. Smith, Chancey Case, William H. Whipple. Section 14.-Frederick Hall, P. H. Martz, Samuel Greenhoe, Orlando Goolthite, William H. Whipple. Section 15.-Stephen F. Page, David D. Hoag, Henry' H. Crapo, Frederick Hall, John Wilkinson, Ezra Burgess, Levi Farbell. Section 16.-Albert Van Vleck, Eastman Colby. Section 17.-Jay Olmstead, Charles Bean, Charles Merrill, Ambrose L. Soule, David R. Chandler, Colby & Co. Section 18.-Charles Merrill, Charles Bean, Colby & Co.,' Thomas Patterson, Ralph Colingwood, Isaac T. Baker. Section 19.-Charles Merrill, Charles Bean, Jeremiah D. Gleason, L. B. Townsend, Jane Rodgers, Joseph D. Burgess, Margaret Decker. Section 20.-Jay Olmstead, Charles Bean, Wallace Gleason. Section 21.-Fitz Robinson, Stephen Robinson, Jay Olmstead, John T. Sherman, Stephen Page, Mary E. Case. Section 22.-Jay Olmstead, Joseph Scott, Ambrose L. Soule, Stephen F. Page, H. F. Deal, O. W. Holly, John Wolverton, C. C. Darling, Joseph Hanchett, A. C. Hanchett. Section 23.-Frederick Hall, Peter Carr, Joseph Begole, Joshua Begole, L. B. Jennings, Gilbert Stover, John P. Place, Benjamin Soule, William Blake, S. P. Loomis, W. R. White, M. Greenhoe. Section 24.-Aaron Brown, Persis Robinson, John MI. Phelps, Jeremiah Van Nest, Frederick Hall, Benjamin Soule, Daniel Morton. Section 25.-Daniel Morton, Jacob Fake, Charles Rawlson, Ira Lothrop, Louis S. Lovell, Charles Merrill. Section 26.-Louis S. Lovell, Christopher Rice, Christo EVERGREEN. 447 pher Greenhoe, Charles Conklin, H. N. Jenks, William Morgan, William R. Evans, John Arntz, Hampton Rich. Section 27.-Emma Ripley, Ambrose L. Soule, Henry Arntz, George F. Case, Sanford North, Christopher Greenhoe, Vinsion Darling, David Iall, William Scott, Albert Van Vleck, William E. Balcon, Hamilton Rich. Section 28.-Jay Olmstead, Ambrose Soule, John B. Utter, Charles Richardson, Isaac Allen, George F. Case, Vinsion Darling. Section 29.-Jay Olmstead, William Thompson, Stephen F. Page, William Phinesey, Frederick Hall, John B. Utter, Robert Bennett. Section 30.-Charles Merrill, Frederick Hall, William H. Waterhouse, Erastus P. Brown, Alfred C. Mitchell, William Goodwin, C. C. Darling, Henry W. Lewis, William'Eaton, Edmond Hall. Section 31.-Edwin Merrifield, Joseph P. Powell, Jeremiah D. Gleason, Frederick Hall, Thomas Bywater, Darwin Cleveland, Erastus P. Brown, C. C. Darling, Gilbert Cook. Section 32.-Erastus P. Brown, William Tillotson, Frederick Hall, Richard Derrick, Thomas Bywater, Horace Caswell, Thomas L. Post. Section 33.-William Morgan, F. Hall, R. D. Smith, Alfred V. Roosa, Thomas Bennett, W. F. Drake, John E. Morrison, Thadcus Hickok, Abel Bywater. Section 34.-William F. Drake, William Morgan, Thadeus Hickok, William D. Carter, Imri Kinney, Oscar Talcott, Albert Van Vleck, Silas P. Loomis, E. M. Davis. Section 35.-Nathaniel S. Benton, Louis S. Lovell, William Stone, Nathaniel Benton, Hiram Dunn, Sylvester Arntz; Thomas Dickinson, John Tyler, Silas P. Loomis. Section 36.-John W. Prosser, Jonathan McElroy, Mortimer Gilleo, Hugh Callahan, Louis S. Lovell, Am-brose L. Soule. EARLY SETTLEMENTS. The settlement of Evergreen began properly in 1848, when a saw-mill was commenced on section 21. It is asserted that the land upon which it stood was entered by Fite Rossman, and that he was the prime mover in the enterprise. Although he may have been connected with the mill he entered no land, and his connection with the company at most was of short duration. Even before this, and years after, he is remembered to have taken cattle to the rush-beds of Gratiot County to winter, and from this fact probably sprang the impression of interest in the mill. Jay Olmstead became connected with the mill property as early as 1849, and employed a man named Patrick to over-.see it and his wife to keep the boarding-house, which was the first dwelling-house erected in the township. At one.time, while looking for the cattle, Patrick became belated in the woods. As night came on the distant howling of wolves gradually came nearer, and increased until he was aware that he was being surrounded. As it became more difficult to pick his way homeward, he could see them crossing and recrossing his way in front, while a hungry pack were steadily coming nearer behind, Deeming, in view of these circumstances, discretion the better part of valor, lie took to a tree, and through the night listened to the chorus of their voices. With the first break of day they dispersed, and he returned home, much to the relief of his wife, who had watched his coming all night and had been similarly entertained. This family soon after left the mill, and William Castel, now of Bushnell, was employed. The mill next came into the possession of Ira Ryder in 1854, who became one of Evergreen's most prominent citizens, and who owned it during the settlement of the most of this part of the county. He brought a wife and three children to the township, one of whom-Myron Ryderresides in Greenville, where his parents died. On the 21st of October, 1854, William Morgan and his brother-in-law, R. D. Smith, came in and found employment at the mill referred to. They worked here and at other mills until September, 1855, when William Morgan entered the east half of the northwest quarter of section 32. He built a cabin here, but, owing to a mistake in the description or minutes of his land, lost his claim and improvements the following spring. He at once entered another piece, upon which he still resides. R. D. Smith returned to the township and remained until entering the Union army. The next settler was Robert Bennett, who settled on the southeast quarter of the southwest quarter of section 29, and built his cabin in September, 1855. His house was the second built in the township aside from those at the mills. He did not bring his family from his former home in North Plains until the following spring. Mr. Bennett died and was interred on his own farm. In the winter of 1855-56, William Phinesey, from Orange, Ionia Co., came in and built a small "shingle shanty" on land adjoining Mr. Bennett, to which he brought his family the following spring. He was a soldier of the Mexican war and also of the Rebellion, He now lives in Isabella County. The township was regularly organized in the spring of 1856, and the first assessment-roll bears only the following names: Ira Ryder, William Phinesey, Amos Setter, Robert Bennett, William Morgan, During the summer several new settlers reached the township, among whom were Joseph Allen and two sons,Zeno and Samuel, —who located on section 28. He remained in Evergreen about fourteen years, when he disposed of his property and went to Bloomer, where he still resides. In September, Mortimer Gilleo, from New York, came in and settled on section 36, where he now lives. His two sons, who were then small, now reside in the vicinity. Hugh Callahan settled on the same section a little later. William Thompson moved from North Plains, where, with his family, he had resided a number of years. Iis wife died on the way from England and was buried at sea. His family consisted of five children, four of whom were daughters. They settled near Phinesey Lake, on the farm now owned by George Holland. William Thompson died in 1862, and his remains were the first interred in the cemetery on section 32. This cemetery was laid out on land owned by Augustus Derrick, from whom it was purchased by the township for twenty-five dollars. This sum was raised by direct taxation, and the condition upon 448 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. I which the vote passed and mentioned in the deed was that any resident of the township shall have the privilege of selecting a lot when needed for burial purposes. Augustus Derrick and his two sons came in 1856, and settled on section 32, where they resided a number of years. They subsequently moved to Muir. About this time Philemon Hoisington, Joel Washburn, and George F. Case became residents. The latter is now a resident of Stanton and is engaged in lumbering. John Arntz settled in Bushnell in 1857. He had been a soldier of 1812, in the Pennsylvania Volunteers under Capt. Culverson, and stood guard over the magazine at Baltimore forty-eight hours in succession during the campaign there. In common with the soldiers of that war he received a landwarrant, with which he, in company with four sons, sought the frontier and located land on section 2, as before stated. In the late war his sons, John and Henry Arntz, took part. Sylvester Arntz, another of the four, came to Evergreen and purchased land of William Stone, on section 35, upon which he now lives. George Holland, a native of England, and formerly engaged in the mercantile business in Toronto, came to Evergreen for his health, since which time he has been extensively engaged in the lumber business. He now occupies the farm entered by William Thompson. Andrew Greenhoe a native of Summit Co., Ohio, and who had served in the Sixteenth Michigan Infantry during the war, came to Evergreen June 7, 1867, where he has since lived on the farm enteredfrom government by Alfred V. Roosa. Henry Miller, a native of Medina Co., Ohio, came in 1866, since which time he has cleared and improved the farm upon which he now lives. Evergreen did not escape the windfall of 1855 nor the frosts and fire of 1856. The consequent suffering which nearly depopulated other townships was experienced here -in all its severity. True, these times are not now often referred to, for those who endured the toil and privations have nearly all passed away; but, although twenty-five years have elapsed, the bare and blackened trunks of pine, scattered over many hundreds of acres in various parts of the township, still attest the extent and intensity of the fire. It swept through the township, and, ere checked by the rains and snows of winter, destroyed nearly all the improvements of the settlers. The frosts of August left them without provisions for present wants, and without means to procure, even when possible, sustenance for themselves and cattle. Many families at once left the county, others had invested all their means in land and the necessary farming implements, and were compelled to remain. The wild hay and underbrush, upon which the cattle heretofore had wintered, was burned, and as a consequence the stock nearly all perished during the winter. Month after month wore away; provisions were very dear. A farm could not be mortgaged for sufficient to sustain a family a month. In many households cornmeal and water was the only food for many weeks, until at last the State voted aid, and the suffering wasrelieved. At this time Sylvester Arntz went to Ohio, south of Toledo, and collected a small debt due his father, walking the entire distance both ways. For several years Ionia, Palo, and Greenville were the places patronized by the inhabitants of Evergreen. When the mills and stores were built at Amsden, that place, being nearer, received considerable trade. The first store in the township was the one opened in Sheridan by Jonathan Forbes. The first blacksmith-shop, and the only one for many years in Evergreen, was that of William Bells, who settled on the shore of Loon Lake in an early day. The first sermon preached in the township was by Elder John Van Vleck, of the Baptist Church, at the house of Robert Bennett. He was followed by Elder Randall, who preached in the school-house. This society did not then, however, form a church. The Methodist Episcopal Church organized a class a number of years after, Elder Swim being on the circuit, but it continued only a short time. In the fall of 1868, as the result of a long series of meeting conducted by Elder Moffatt, a Baptist society was formed, composed of Elder Moffatt, his wife, and daughter Lilly, Mrs. P. M. Washburn, Laura Ann Zimmerman, Alexander Storrs. This class also disbanded. In 1877, Elder Baldwin, of the United Brethren Church, conducted a series of meetings in the school-house, and at their termination organized a class composed of three members,-Henry Greenhoe, John Greenhoe, George Greenhoe. The following year it received a number of new names, since which time the society has been considered permanently established. In January, 1878, the society erected a neat church-building at a cost of about one thousand dollars. SCHOOLS. On the 23d day of October, 1856, Ira Ryder, in compliance with a resolution passed at the first school-meeting in Evergreen, addressed a letter to William Phinesey, commanding him to notify the qualified electors interested that the board had formed a school district to be known as School District No. 1, and to include sections 19, 20, 21, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33. The first meeting of the district was appointed to be held at the house of Robert Bennett, on the 9th day of November, 1856. There were then five voters in the district, as appears from the return letter, which asserts that the following-named parties were personally notified of said meeting: Ira Ryder, William Morgan, Charles Richardson, Robert Bennett, William Phinesey. At the meeting held in accordance with this notice, it was unanimously resolved to have a three months' school by a female teacher. Another meeting was held on the 22d of November, and the site selected upon which stands the school-house, near the residence of W. A. Stearns, on section 29. In accordance with a vote of the district, a neat framed school-house, which cost one hundred and seventy-five dollars, was erected by Charles H. Randall, who now lives in Jackson. Upon its completion, Maria White was employed as teacher, her school numbering six scholars, representing three families. Their names were Louisa Morgan, Harriffa Morgan, Theodore Phinesey, John Phinesey, Hattie.Bennett, and David Bennett. She received one dollar and fifty cents per week, which for her services amounted to six dollars from each family. Miss White subsequently became the wife of Nathan EVERGREEN. 449 EVERGREEN. 44 Heath, and now lives in Roland. The next school in this district was taught by Mary Callaghan, who taught a number of terms in succession. She became the wife of James Donavan, and resides in Bloomer. School District No. 2 was formed some years later, and included the territory in the vicinity of Mud Lake. The inhabitants at once erected a log school-house, and the district has continued with slight changes to the present time. The southeastern part of the township was formed into a fractional school district with the adjoining towns in an early day. TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION. The township of Evergreen was organized in 1856, the petition being presented to the Legislature by Ira Ryder, at the time a representative from Washtenaw County, though a resident of this township. As the name indicates, it was selected on account of the prevailing kinds of its timber. Even at this early day the inhabitants of the county were contending over the permanent location of the countyseat. Those in the eastern part were intent on removing it from Greenville, while those in the western part generally favored that locality. The board of supervisors being nearly divided, the organization of every new township was looked upon with favor or disapproval, accordingly as the vote of its supervisor would be cast for or against these propositions. This strife to secure a majority on the board by the various localities sometimes led to the organization of the township even before it had the number of permanent residents required by law. It is darkly hinted that this was the case in Crystal. There were, however, seven resident voters, aside from those at Ryder's saw-mill, any requisite number of which could be obtained. It is also stated that some anxious citizens in Bushnell lent their signatures to the petition, though nothing definite is known in this regard. The result of the first township-meeting is also involved, in mystery, as the township records were entirely destroyed by fire in 1864. The following is a list of supervisors, town clerks, treasurers, and justices of the peace from that year until 1880, inclusive: SUPERVISORS. 1864, Aaron Abbey; 1865, Mortimer Gilleo; 1866, Jonathan Forbes; 1867, Mortimer Gilleo; 1868, Thomas E. Dunn; 1869, no record; 1870-71, Charles If. Stanton; 1872, John S. Maning; 1873-74, George Holland; 1875, John S. Maning; 1876-79, George Holland; 1880, Ephraim Follett. TOWN CLERKS. 1864, Nelson Reed; 1865, William F. Drake; 1866-67, Thomas Dunn; 1868, 0. S. Stebbens; 1869, William Morgan; 1870-71, J. S. Maning; 1872, Thomas Hickock; 1873, George W. Markee; 1874, John C. McWain; 1875-76, Andrew H. Greenhoe; 1877, Charles Dosen; 1878, Ephraim Follett; 1879-80, Andrew J. Greenhoe. TREASURERS. 1864, William Morgan; 1865, Legrand Abbey; 1866-72, George Holland; 1873, Mortimer Gilleo; 1874-75, Joseph WV. Marsh; 1876 -78, Sylvester Arntz; 1879-80, Henry Miller. JUSTICES OF TIIE PEACE. 1864, Nelson Reed, William Morgan; 1865, Loyd F. Smith, Benjamin Soule; 1866, William T. Drake; 1867, Wallace W. Wetherwax, W. T. Drake; 1868, Mortimer Gilleo, Oliver S. Keene; 1869, 57 William Morgan; 1870, Jacob Lowe; 1871, Mortimer Gilleo, John S. Maning; 1872, Jerry Ross; 1873, Myron Tryon, Charles A. Cook; 1875, Sylvester Arntz.SHERIDAN VILLAGE. The village of Sheridan is located upon a part of section 36 in Sidney, section 31 in Evergreen, and section 6 in Bushnell townships. It was surveyed by E. C. Jones, county surveyor, by the authority of L. F. Smith, J. H. Forbes, J. W. Winsor, and E. P. Brown, who signed articles of agreement thereto Aug. 25, 1865. The business portion of the village lies on both sides of the State road which separates the townships of Evergreen and Sidney. The corporation includes a part of the north half of the southeast quarter of section 36 in Sidney, entered from government by Theodore Lampman, March 23, 1860, and John G. Williams, IMay 31, 1859, and the north half of southwest quarter of section 31 in Evergreen. This tract was entered by Louis Lovell, Oct. 28, 1851. Previous to this time several business enterprises had been set in active operation. The first was a saw-mill built and run by John W. Winsor. It stood on the east shore of Bass (now known as Pearl) Lake. It was destroyed by fire in a number of years, when Mr. Winsor built another which he sold to Ham Stanton. A company was subsequently formed by him with Charles and George Stanton. It was afterwards dissolved, however, and the mill was bought by D. T. Fargo, who still owns it. E. P. Brown, in the mean time, had built a shingle-mill, and subsequently a saw-mill. In 1864 the first drygoods-store was opened by Jonathan Forbes in a little room in the wing of his dwelling, which was the first frame building in Sheridan. Mr. Forbes was appointed postmaster, being the first in the village. He subsequently enlarged his house, for the accommodation of travelers, which he sold afterwards to --- Keene, who finished it, and called it the Keene House. This was the first hotel in the village. In the mean time Lyman Smith, who owned the lands where the principal part of the village stands, had begun the sale of lots, which from this time was rapid, and the business interests quickly developed. lie also commenced to build a hotel on the site now occupied by the Potter House, so named from William T. Potter, who bought it. A store was next opened in the building now occupied by Lewis as a hardware-store. It was kept by O. S. Stebbins, who was also appointed postmaster. The building was built and owned by Jonathan Forbes. Among the early business interests of Sheridan were those of W. B. Stone, who opened a store, and later built a shingle-mill and saw-mill. The business interests now comprise a saw-mill, planingmill, flouring-mill, twelve stores of general merchandise and groceries, and the usual complement of small business places. The village was incorporated March 30, 1877, and the first election was held April 9th following, at which time the following-named persons were elected: President, C. H. - The record of justices from 1875 is very deficient. 450 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. Stanton; Trustees, L. D. Tarbell, J. Barkham, R. F. Lunn, J. W. Prestel, William Patterson, D. G. Barden. CHURCHES OF SHERIDAN. FIRST METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF SHERIDAN. In 1871 the friends of the Methodist Episcopal Church, who had for some time held a series of meetings under the direction of Rev. A. D. Newton, at that time located at Stanton, met in the school-house at Sheridan and organized a Methodist Class, of which R. D. Howell was the first leader. The first regularly located minister in the village was J. F. Wallace. During his day a meeting-house was commenced, the frame erected and inclosed. But the work did not progress rapidly. A heavy wind loosened the upper part of one end, and for some time it continued to swing back and forth with every breeze. During the stay of Rev. D. C. Riehl the work was again resumed. He not only endeavored to raise the necessary funds, but assisted in the labor on the building. It was completed during his stay and cost three thousand five hundred dollars. It was dedicated by Rev. H. F. Hildreth. The Sabbath-school in connection with the church was organized in 1869 by J. S. Manning, and until the organization of the Congregational Church it was conducted as a union Sabbathschool. FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. In 1876 the Rev. S. P. Spelman, at that time located in Stanton, began preaching in Sheridan. He was succeeded in the middle of February, 1877, by Rev. J. F. Otis, who came to the village, and began his labors. No definite organization took place until April 9, 1877, when the society was formed with eleven members. The church was organized Sept. 22, 1877, with the following as members: Rev. J. T. Otis, Mrs. D. J. Barkham, Mrs. J. T. Otis, Mrs. Emma C. Bean, Mrs. Sarah Stoddard, Mrs. Caroline Collins, Mrs. Sarah Ann Burton, Mrs. Fransa Munroe, Mrs. Eliza Barnes, Mrs. Sarah Jane Holland. In the month of June previous the society purchased and began to repair and rearrange the school-house as a place of worship. It was completed at a cost of about nine hundred dollars, and is a neat and pleasant room. The membership is now thirty-three. Mr. Otis still presides. The trustees first elected still continue to serve. Their names are E. J. Barkham, H. H. Stoddard, W. B. Stone. SCHOOLS OF SHERIDAN. On the 9th day of June, 1862, the school inspectors of Sidney, Evergreen, and Fair Plains met and formed of the adjoining parts of these three townships a fractional school district to be known as Fractional School District No. 4, and addressed a letter to Loyd F. Smith, commanding him to call a school-meeting of the legal voters in this district at his house, on the 16th day of June, 1862. In compliance with this notice a meeting was called, at which Spencer Skeels was elected moderator, Theodore Lampman director, and Loyd F. Smith assessor. This district included all of the territory now comprised in the village of Sheridan except a small tract in Bushnell. The first school was taught in a small "shingle shanty" which stood on the southeast corner of the lot opposite the Potter House, by Miss Louisa Skeels, now the wife of William Patterson. After several terms in this building, the district erected the school-house, which has since been remodeled, and is now used as a meeting-house. It was completed in the winter of 1875-76. The present school-building cost three thousand dollars. The total expenditure for this district in 1879 was two thousand six hundred and thirty-six dollars and two cents, one thousand six hundred dollars of this being on the bonded debt of the district, and one hundred and two dollars being interest on the same. FAI R FAIR PLAINS, otherwise known as town 9 north, of range 7 west, is bounded on the north by Sidney, on the east by Bushnell, on the south by Ionia County, and on the west by Eureka. It consists of timbered tracts on the northern, eastern, and southern portions, while the plains, rendered almost circular by the general direction of Dickinson Creek, consist of the most fertile and productive oak-openings. These plains are among the fairest and most fertile tracts of Michigan. They extend west into Eureka township and are settled by an energetic and thrifty people, as the highlycultivated farms, good public buildings, and comfortable homes everywhere indicate. The only stream of importance is Dickinson Creek, which enters the township from the west on section 6, and, flowing east, south, and west, leaves the township near the southwest corner. A small stream enters the township from Sidney and unites with Dickinson Creek, thus furnishing a good water power on section 10, where is situated the little village of Amsden. FIRST AND OTHER EARLY SETTLEMENTS. In the month of April, 1844, Benjamin Hamilton, assisted by his son, John Hamilton, set out from Lyons with five yoke of oxen and three wagons, loaded with the families and household goods of William Hamilton (another son) and George Gibson, both married, the latter having a large family of children. Previous to this time they had visited the township, and it is not strange that they were delighted with the beautiful plains which afterwards gave the township its name. A large tract of land had been entered by Ira D. Porter, a lawyer in Ionia and connected with the land-office in that place. To him they applied and purchased, Gibson buying the south half of the southeast quarter of section 18, and Hamilton taking the west half of the southwest quarter of section 17. These lands were bought on part payment, a bond being given for the balance to be paid in three years. After purchasing the land the two men raised the body of a log house near the southwest corner of Hamilton's land. They then returned to Lyons. When the party before spoken of reached Kiddville the road terminated, and from this place their journey was slow and wearisome. During the last day of their journey the rain poured down almost incessantly, and the entire party, drenched and uncomfortable, the men wading along through the mud and slush of April, the women and children shivering in the wagons, reached the body of the house before referred to in the middle of the afternoon. The house was without a roof, floor, door, window, or fireplace, and the bare logs promised little shelter from the inclemency of the weather. It was a gloomy prospect for the whole party, and a cold and P LAIN S. cheerless one for the women and children. But while some were engaged in taking the wagon-boxes apart and placing the boards in one end of the cabin-if such it may be called-as a shelter for them, Mr. Hamilton succeeded in building a large fire in the middle of the cabin. He watched it all night, adding fuel when necessary. The next morning being clear, a team was dispatched to get a load of lumber, which had been brought to the township by a man who had purchased a part of the northwest quarter of section 19, now owned by B. B. Crawford. This man had purchased this land intending to build a house, marry, and fetch his young wife to Fair.Plains. But being aware, it seems, of the uncertainty of matrimonial bonds, he concluded to marry first and build a house afterwards. His misgivings seem to have been well founded, for his wife refused to become a pioneer. He therefore disposed of this lumber, which furnished means to partly cover the cabin of William Hamilton. The lumber to complete it was brought from Kidd's mill, which had been in operation but a short time. This was the first dwelling built by a settler in the township. The two families lived in the cabin and the men generally worked together. They cleared and broke up a small piece of ground for a garden, and later planted a small lot to corn. The garden yielded abundantly, but an early frost killed the corn, which was not yet mature, having been planted late in the season. The same summer (1844) Silas Ward, who had entered the west half of the northwest quarter of section 21, came in and boarded with them while he prepared a considerable tract, which he sowed to wheat in the fall, but, not being fenced, was entirely destroyed the following spring by the deer, which sometimes in herds roamed over the plains. The land at this time sowed to wheat is now owned by N. Johnson, and his buildings now stand where the first wheat grew in Fair Plains. In the spring of 1845, George Gibson built a cabin on his land and moved his family into it. This cabin was the second built in the township. Mr. Gibson died in 1851. His wife subsequently moved to Lyons, where she died. Hiram and Richard are the only members of the family living who came to this township with their parents. William Hamilton remained but three years, when he removed to Orleans, Ionia Co., where he still resides. His brother, John Hamilton, who had been to the township several times since the eventful night of the first settlement, came in the month of March, 1845, with a wife and four children, intending to remain permanently. IIe occupied the same house with his brother. The Hamiltons subsequently sold their claim to this land to T. M. Burley, who came in in 1846, and who still resides upon the place. The barn built here was the first frame barn in the township. John 451 452 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. Hamilton and wife now live on the south part of section 7, and are the oldest residents of the township. The next settler was Jerry Halford, who, with his family, came in in 1845, and settled on land now owned by J. P. Shoemaker, and described as the north half of the northwest quarter of section 15. Halford built a cabin and improved land around it, which is now occupied as an orchard. The same summer Joseph Decker and his sons, Oliver and Freeman, who were married, and Edward and Jesse, single men, reached the township. They settled on the northeast quarter of section 21. Oliver and Freeman, with their families, occupied a house which stood near where the house of P. Barnes now stands, while the other family dwelt in a house near the site occupied by the house of Charles Barnes. In the month of June, 1846, a daughter, the wife of Samuel Johnson, who came with them, died, and was buried near the line between the farms of the father and the sons, and about forty rods from the road. It is believed her remains were afterwards removed. This was the first death in Fair Plains. Of this family Oliver is the only member now known to be living. He resides in Orleans, Ionia Co. William Porter, who settled near the town-line, on section 7, and whose brothers settled in Eureka, came in among the first in the western part of the township. A part of this land subsequently came into the possession of A. J. Russell, whose father, at a very early day, built or was connected with the building of the first mill in Greenville. He sold his interest in this, and then came to Fair Plains and bought large tracts of land; but the family remained only a few years. From 1845 to 1850 there was a continual inflow of people until the greater part of the fertile plains became permanently settled. Tyler MI. Burley and his brother Myron came in, in the spring of 1846, and purchased their interest in the quarter upon which they had settled. Myron Burley married Miss Alice Wilcox. This was one of the first weddings in Montcalm County. He went to California during the gold excitement of 1849, and died there. His widow subsequently married, and lives in Grand Rapids. In the same spring Roswell Dudley came and settled, with his wife and family, on the south half of the southwest quarter of section 15. Of his three children none now remain in the township. The following summer Mrs. Betsy Wilson, a widow lady, with a large family of children, four of whom were boys, named respectively David, John, Thomas, and William, came and entered the west half of the northwest quarter of section 8, while her son John and son-in-law, Myron Lavery, entered the south half of the southeast quarter of section 6, now owned by James Griffith, who came in and settled in 1859. Mrs. Wilson remained until the spring of 1880, when she went to Red Cloud, Neb., with her sons. Caleb Kniffen also came into the township this year from Macomb Co., Mich., and settled on land now occupied by John Rasmussen. He reared a large family of children, of whom but one remains in the township. It is thought that Joel Saunders and William Weed also came this year. Saunders bought a half section now partly occupied by C. Miller. Weed settled on section 7. After the death of his wife he moved with the remainder of his family to Ionia County. Conspicuous among the names of those who came the following year are Ebenezer Salyer and George Lunn. The latter was from England. His voyage to this country in an old sailing craft which was condemned on its return to England as unseaworthy was fraught with dangers now unknown on the sea. The trip, owing to contrary winds, lasted thirteen weeks. He came to Detroit fifty years ago (1830). It was then a promising village of a few hundred inhabitants. The streets were almost impassable, and the little log shanties of the French and Indians presented a sorry spectacle. He remained in Wayne County for a time and subsequently in Macomb and Oakland Counties, where he purchased a farm, and in course of time exchanged it with William Tann, who owned the south half of the southeast quarter of section 20. With his wife and family, Mr. Lunn reached the township on the 8th of June, 1847. Soon after, being an authorized local preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church, he organized and conducted the services of the first religious society in the township, and has been ever since closely identified with its interests. Ebenezer Salyer settled the east half of the southeast quarter of section 21. It is believed that Thomas Seeley, who had entered a tract of land, began during the summer of 1847 to erect the first saw-mill in the township. It occupied the site where the mill in the southeast part of section 5, on Dickinson Creek, now stands. But it was very different from it in its mechanical structure, machinery, etc. The saw was not circular but perpendicular, and sawed as if there was a danger of an oversupply of lumber. It had a capacity, if kept at its best, of three to four thousand feet per day. But it answered for a time every purpose, and furnished lumber for the cabins of the early settlers, which have long since become pleasant and prosperous homes. The mill subsequently passed into other hands and was destroyed by fire. The power has been owned by several different firms since then. As has been intimated, the settlement of Fair Plains from 1846 was rapid. But many settlers came into the township, and, after making slight improvements, removed, some from discouragements; but usually the finer portions of the township were entered by speculators, who sold them at an advance to settlers, taking almost their last dollar as first payment and allowing them three years in which to pay the balance. It was usually impossible to meet this payment, and, as a consequence, many lost not only what they had paid, but also the improvements which they had been obliged to make in order to live, and then left the township poorer than when they reached it, while the speculators always profited by these losses, as the lands reverted to them and they placed an additional per cent. to the selling price. But the abundant crops which the fertile soil produced when fairly tested, the ease of clearing and tilling, were qualities soon appreciated, and men of means were soon attracted to make their home permanently within its limits. In 1848, John D. Fargo and his brother, James Fargo, who is now a resident of Eureka, came to the township from New York, of which State they were natives. They purchased two hundred and forty acres of land from William Kitts, who had entered it, but-who was not a resident of the township. Eighty acres of this land was sit FAIR PLAINS. 453 I uated on section 30. The balance, on the southwest quarter of section 13, is now occupied by L. H. Pratt, one of the earliest settlers in Montcalm County. John D. Fargo, who still resides on section 30, and his brother, Gibson S. Fargo, who arrived shortly after, built the first permanent school-building in the township, which was known until it was destroyed as the "Red SchoolHouse." Gibson S. Fargo died Dec. 28, 1850, and was interred in the little cemetery on the west line of section 20. The ground comprised in this cemetery was given to the township in 1850 by Josiah Russell, an old settler in that vicinity. He was county judge. In 1849, David F. Spencer, the sonn-in-law of George Lunn, became a resident of the township. He was a native of New York, but his people were among the pioneers of Oakland County. The land upon which he settled, and which he subsequently bought, was owned by George Loucks, from whom he purchased it. He still resides on this place. During the war he joined and served three years in the First Regiment of Michigan Engineers and Mechanics. William Rasmussen, from New York, came to Fair Plains on the 6th day of June, 1849. He came to the log cabin of Mrs. Willson with a wife and eight children, three of whom were boys, named William, John, and Henry. He bought the west half of the northwest quarter of section 17, and also the east half of the northeast quarter of the same section, now owned by William Porter. Mr. Rasmussen bought of John Knapp, who had intended to settle in Fair Plains, but when he returned to New York his wife refused to come to " faroff Michigan." Knapp, therefore, sold to Rasmussen, whose three sons yet remain in the township. In 1851, B. B. Crawford, a native of Livingstone Co., N. Y., arrived. Mr. Crawford became a settler of Maconlb Co., Mich., in 1834. When he settled in Fair Plains lie purchased two hundred acres of land from Dewitt C. Chapin, upon which he now lives. George Loucks, Rufus K. Moore, Fite Rossman, Richard C. Miller, Luther Jenks, Josiah Russell, Joel Hall, Mark Diffen, Josiah Bradish, and Orra B. Stiles were among the pioneers reaching the township during the years 1849 to 1853. Rufus K. Moore and George Gibson built a saw-mill below Amsden, on Dickinson Creek, at what is now known as Podunk, about the year 1850. Richard C. Miller purchased the west half of the northwest quarter of section 18. He was treasurer of Fair Plains from 1855 to 1865. He now resides in Greenville. In 1855, Elijah Pierson settled upon the east half of the northeast quarter of section 27, now occupied by A. W. Terry, who came in 1854. 0. Bradley, now a resident of Fair Plains, settled in Ionia County in 1850. He was at one time engaged in the lumber business, and purchased the McGinley mill property. He is now farming. James Griffith, one of Fair Plains' best citizens, purchased the south half of the southeast quarter of section 6, which he has highly improved. RESIDENTS IN 1850. The following comprises a list of the resident tax-payers of the township in 1850, according to the assessment-roll: Acres. Alanson Adams, sections 5, 8........................ 81 Hiram Amsburg, section 15........................ 80 Josiah Bradish, section 15........................ 40 David C. Church, section 9................................. 120 Nelson Cole, section 9................................ 40 W. M. Clark, section 35..................................... 16 Dewitt Chapin, sections 8,18.......................... 204 Tyler M. Burley, sections 15, 17........................ 120 Myron Burley, sections 15, 17............................. 120 Marquis T. Brower, section 8............................. 3 Roswell Dudley, section 10................................ 80 Edward Decker, sections 15, 21........................ 80 Oliver Decker, sections 15, 21............................. 80 Fremont Decker, section 21............................... 40 John Fargo, sections 19, 30, 31......................... 286 Daniel Fargo.................................. Personal John Hamilton, section 7................................ 80 Joel Hall, sections 8, 3................................... 42 W illiam Iall, section 5.................................... 40 Spencer Hewitt, section 35.......................... 90 David Jenks, section 35.................................... 155 Luther Jenks, sections 21, 22.............................. 114 Caleb Kniffen, sections, 15, 20............................ 200 Austin Kinney, section 7............................ 80 W. V. Kendrick, sections 4, 5, 8......................... 312 George Lunn, sections 20, 28.............................. 160 Gibson & Moore, section 23................................ 80 Rufus K. Moore................................................ George Gibson................................................. William Porter, section 7............................. 120 William Rossman, section 17.............................. 160 Datus Russell, section 4..................................... 80 Ebenezer Salyer, sections 21, 28......................... 120 Myron Savery, sections 5, 6........................... 100 Joel Saunders, sections 13, 18..........2............... 240 Westley Swager, section 6................................. 40 Chancey E. Shepard, sections 3, 4, 10, 15............. 809 Philo Townsend, section 9.................................. 80 Nelson Towsley, section 8................................... 77 Edward Sherwood, section 7............................... 40 Abijah Peck, section 9................................... 40 Orin Phelps, section 5.......................... 40 David Willson, section 7................................... 80 William Weed, section 7......................... 40 Davis Wilmouth, section 17......................... 160 These lands were all situated in town 9 north, range 7 west, except one hundred and sixty acres belonging to Joel Saunders, being the northeast quarter of section 13, town 9 north, range 8 west, now the town of Eureka. ORIGINAL LAND ENTRIES. Those who purchased from the general government lands situated in this township are shown in the following list. Many did not become settlers, others did, but remained only for a brief period, while among others are the names of some of the most respected citizens of the township at the present time. Section 1.-Chester Coates, Alanson R. Cornell, Levi Brainard, Spencer Skeels, Erastus P. Brown, Edmond Hall. Section 2.-Erastus P. Brown, Merritt Wade, Velancourt Northrup, Norman Hamilton, Daniel L. Welch, Emanuel Royer, David Ford, David M. Hickok, Peter Thompson. Section 3.-E. Hall, John Snow, Clayburn Harris, George W. Gregory, R. Helton, David Balde, Lydia B. Taylor, Joel and William Hall, Frederick Hall, David Ford. Section 4.-Joseph C. Bailey, John W. Anderson, E. B. Burrington, John Porter, Osmond Tower, Henry F. Brayton. Section 5.-Henry F. Brayton, Joel and William Hall, Thomas Seeley, Charles 0. Reed, Daniel R. Hartwell, Myron Laverty, Daniel Tomlinson. Section 6.-John S. Willson, Betsey Willson, James 454 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. Grant, Charles 0. Reed, Edward B. Reed, R. Hilton, C. B. White, Wesley Snaggard. Section 7.-William M. Porter, George Loucks, Norman Hamilton, E. H1. Sherwood, David Wilson, F. Rossman, Benoni Bentley, John S. Wilson. Section 8.-Myron Laverty, David R. Hartwell, De Witt C. Chapin, David Morris, Francis K. Getter, James B. St. John, Miner Porter, James Porter. Section 9.-Mathias Smith, James Grant, Philo Townsend, Henry Holford, Henry M. Moore, Abel Avery, George Mathews, F. B. Peek. Section 10.-George Mathews, Asa Houghton, Osmond Tower, Frederick Hall, Enos T. Peck, Aaron A. Dudley, E. B. Barrington, Daniel Austin, David Balde. Section 11.-David Balde, Aaron M. Gaylord, Martin Follett, T. G. Amsden, Simon E. Allen, Abijah Noyes, Erastus P. Brown, Nathan Johnson, C. E. Shephard, William R. Bates, Isaac Throop. Section 12.-Chancey Beckwith, Aaron M. Gaylord, John Shilling, Thomas Patterson, Calvin Palmer, Thomas Cornell, Walter H. Wright, David Balde, Hiram Hathaway. Section 13.-James Gould, John A. Rashbuck, David Balde, Henry H. Scovill, Moses M. Hull, Alonzo Hubbell, John Shilling, Henry Holford, Humphrey Holford, Charlotte M. Gould. Section 14.-Abel Avery, Louis Smith, Isaac B. Cadwell, Alonzo Hubbell, David Balde, John W. Balde. Section 15.-Asa Houghton, E. B. Barrington, Frederick Hall, Orin Chapin, Caleb Huffin, Edward G. Decker, Freeman A. Decker, Zimri Moon, Henry Holford, Tyler M. Burley, Ebenezer Salyer, Gerard Willson. Section 16.-Josiah Bradish, John N. Voorhies, John Lindell, David Barnes, William M. Shephard, N. J. Shephard, Mary Ann Rose, David Balde, Josiah Bradish. Section 17.-John P. Knapp, Darius A. Wilmarth, Ira Porter, Christopher Cormic, Richard Porter. Section 18.-James Porter, Minor Porter, Ira Porter, Dewitt C. Chapin. Section 19.-Daniel W. Tomlinson, William Kitts, Sarah Case, George W. Sherwood, Ira Porter. Section 20.-Ira Porter, Caleb Kniffin, Richard Porter, Sarah Case, Richard Tom, Adam Roof. Section 21.-Adam L. Roof, Samuel P. Youngman, Ebenezer Salyer, Ira Porter, Luther R. Jenks, James Grant, Freeman A. Decker, Edward G. Decker. Section 22.-John F. Wyman, Caleb Kniffin, J. Willson, Marietta Clark, John Patrick. Section 23.-Erastus Brown, George Mathews, George W. Paul, Sylvanus Weed, Philo Beers, Joseph P. Powell, Miles Porter, Charles Chambers, Charles Bisby, Seth C. Barnes, John H. Child. Section 24.-William P. Johnson, Edward Cheny, Edward Decker, William H. Hall, Thomas Patterson, Calvin Palmer, Thlmas Brown, William F. Goff, William H. Leman, Stephen Brown. Section 5. —William H. Linfield, David J. Gleason, George B. Fuller, Daniel B. Hibbard, Thomas J. Blackwell, W. H. Rumsey, David Gristwood, Mathew Gore, Simon Gristwood, Moses Bennett. Section 26.-C. Shepard, D. Bald, Charles Chambers, Charles Bisby, John C. Ball, Joseph B. Powell, Hiram Clark, Ald Avery, Norman J. Shepard, Hiram Bristol, Sally Harrington, Clarence Gavitt. Section 27.-James J. Breese, Hiram Bristol, Ira Porter, Cyrus Lovell, Joseph P. Powell, Joseph C. Bailey, James Grant, George Mathews. Section 28.-James Grant, Gerard Willson, John F. Wyman, Joseph C. Bailey, Samuel P. Youngman. Section 29.-Samuel P. Youngman, James Grant, Daniel W. Tomlinson, Charles Grant, Samuel Dowley, Sarah J. Noyes, Lewis E. Smith. Section 30.-Francis Crawford, William Kitts, Ira Porter. Section 31.-William Wells, Richard Dye, Frederick Hall, John Almy, Thomas Cornell, Alexander N. Loomis, Ira Porter, William Meguiernon. Section 32.-0. Smith, W. Tompkins, James M. Kidd, Ira Porter, Clarence Gavitt, Joseph C. Bailey, Charles A. Smith, Bostwich Leech, Jesse Leech, J. L. Fields. Section 33.-Charles Alchin, 0. Smith, George Davis, Henry McGlockine, Ira Olds, George W. Paul. Section 34.-Samuel King, George W. Paul, John P. Salyer, Louis Smith, Norman G. Cornell, Abel Avery, William J. Face, Sally Harrington. Section 35.-David S. Jenks, John Knowlton, Abel Avery, William Osterhaut, William M. Clark, Spencer Hewitt, Joseph P. Powell. Section 36.-Solomon Bacon, Samuel C. Alderman, Ora B. Stiles, Hawley White, Lucinda Schambling, Rosalier Comstock, Joel Soule. SCHOOLS. In the summer of 1847 the citizens of the northwest part of the township decided to organize a school, and, in accordance with this resolution, they met and built a small cabin of boards, on the southwest quarter of section 5, opposite the place now occupied by a school-house on section 7, and Miss Alice Wilcox, whose people lived in Eureka, was secured as a teacher. She afterwards became the wife of Myron Burley, and now lives in Grand Rapids. As has been said, the building was a little frame structure, and stood on the corner of the southwest quarter of section 5, where it was used a number of terms. But continued additions to the school soon rendered a larger room necessary, and a neat frame building was erected on the same site, the old one being torn down. This was not, however, considered a favorable site for a school-louse, and the ground now occupied was selected and the school-house moved from its old location to the new, where it was subsequently burned, after which the one now standing was built. A little later in the same summer a board shanty was erected near the site now occupied by the school-house on section 2, and Caroline Wilcox, sister of Alice Wilcox, taught in this building. Early in the spring of 1848, John and Gibson Fargo, brothers, built the first substantial school-house in the township. The lumber for it came from Greenville. Caroline Wilcox also taught the first school in this building. It was important iu the early affairs of the township as FAIR PLAINS. - - I - 455 being the place of holding all the elections and political meetings of note, as well as being a place of worship for the various religious denominations, who were endeavoring to establish their respective societies in the township. It was known for many years, from a liberal coat of red paint which it received, as the " Red School-House." It stood on land owned by Joseph Russell, on the west line of section 20, about eighty rods north of the quarter-post, and was subsequently destroyed by fire in January, 1861. Jacob King was the first male teacher in the township. He taught in this building during the winter of 1848-49. He is now a farmer in Ionia County. James Snow, who taught the school in the winter of 1849-50, is now a resident of Grand Rapids. Sarah Jane Rasmussen, who was among the early teachers, still resides in the township, and her sister Mary, who also taught, married and removed to New York. We will see, therefore, that previous to the organization of town 9 north, of range 7 west, there had been several terms of school taught, and several districts formed while it was yet a part of the township of Montcalm, which at that time really included the whole county. But when the board met at the house of Roswell Dudley, on the 29th day of April, 1850, they made some slight changes in the boundaries of these districts and numbered them " according to the time in which they were formed." Thus District No. 1 included sections 5, 6, 7, 8, and District No. 2 included sections 17, 18, 19, 20, 29, 30. These districts were first set off by the county school board in 1847, and the first schools were taught as before stated. At this first meeting of the school board of Fair Plains a petition, signed by Freeman A. Decker, Oliver Decker, Edward Decker, Jesse Decker, Joseph Decker, Ebenezer Salyer, and Luther R. Jenks, was presented, and in compliance with it the board formed District No. 3, the limits of which, as with the others, have been since considerably changed, although the body of the district occupies about the same relative position. During the first year (1850) of the organization of the township the primary school-fund for all the schools amounted to eighteen dollars and thirty-six cents, and was divided among the several districts as follows: District No. 1 received $9.18; District No. 2 received $5.78; District No. 3 received $3.40. On May 5th, 1851, the school board met at what was then known as the " Red School-House," in District No. 2, and examined teachers. Miss Catherine Satterlee received a certificate, and on November 8th James Snow also received one. District No. 5 was formed April 10, 1852, at which time it comprised sections 24, 25, 26, 34, 35, 36. Notice was forwarded to William Clark, instructing him to call the first district meeting at his house, April 17, 1852. Among the early teachers also were Miss P. A. Root, Miss Rosetta Jenks, and Miss Rachel King. RELIGIOUS. THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. The first class in the township was organized by George Lunn, at the house of George Gibson, in June, 1847. Mr. Lunn was the first leader, while George Gibson and wife, Rufus K. Moore and wife, George Loucks and wife, and Caleb Kniffen and wife were the first members. The charge was then on the Ionia Circuit, and the first minister who traveled here was V. Boynton, who preached in the Red School-House." Lyman Chatfield was presiding elder. In 1878, when Rev. Hallenbeck was pastor, the society resolved to build a church, and, with Henry Kent, Samuel Gibbs, and Lester Miller as building committee, the work was commenced, and was completed and paid for with a balance in the treasury sufficient to arrange the grounds. The church was dedicated in the fall of 1878 by Rev. Reid, from Greenville. The building, which was architected by Rev. Hallenbeck, cost sixteen thousand dollars. TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION, ETC. In the fall of 1849 the inhabitants of this township met for the purpose of selecting a name, preparatory to being organized into a township the following spring. As is usual in such gatherings, there were a multiplicity of names, and, as is usual also, each person thought his name the most appropriate. A committee was appointed, however, to draw up a petition, and signers to it were secured, whereby the Legislature was prayed to set off town 9 north, range 7 west, as the " Township of Ringgold." It was intended, when this name was proposed, to name it after Maj. Ringgold, whose bravery in the Mexican war was still fresh in the minds of the people. But the committee, intentionally or otherwise, omitted one g in order to gain time, as a motion would then be necessary to change the name. At a subsequent meeting this motion was passed, but the- chairman of the committee, Nelson Cole, by the advice of several parties, among whom was John Hamilton, instead of inserting the missing letter, inserted the name Fair Plains. The petition was forwarded, and in due time, to the astonishment of nearly every one, the township of Fair Plains was erected, and the first election called on the first Monday in April, 1850. The board of canvassers at this meeting was George Gibson, a justice of the peace, who administered the constitutional oath to Joel Hall, who was appointed inspector, and to Roswell Dudley and Nelson Cole, clerks of said board. The whole number of votes cast was fifty-four, and the following persons were declared elected:* Rufus K. Moore, Supervisor; Myron H. Burley, Clerk; Daniel Fargo, Treasurer; David Jenks, Tyler M. Burley, Joel Hall, Justices of the Peace; Joel Saunders, George Lunn, David C. Church, Highway Commissioners; Roswell Dudley, William Rasmussen, School Inspectors; Spencer Ewell, Ebenezer Salyer, Constables. At the close of the meeting one hundred dollars was voted for contingent expenses the ensuing year. It was also voted that the next annual townmeeting be held at the school-house in District No. 2. At the meeting in 1851 they voted to raise thirty dollars to build a crossing on the north line of section 21, on Mark Dibben's land. At the Presidential election of 1852 the electors on the Republican ticket received a majority of ten votes, the Democrats casting twenty-four votes, and the Republicans thirty-four. The electors who received - The records do not at all times definitely state which candidates were elected. 456 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. a majority were John S. Barry, William McAneley, Daniel Campan, and Solomon Sharpe. TOWNSHIP CIVIL LIST. The supervisors, clerks, treasurers, and justices of the peace from 1850 to 1880, inclusive, are shown as follows: SUPERVISORS. 1850, Rufus K. Moore; 1851, Josiah Russell; 1852, Charles H. Miel; 1853, Mark Dibben; 1854, C. W. Miel; 1855, Daniel Fargo; 1856, Bradley B. Crawford; 1857-58, Quartus Joslyn; 1859-61, Martin P. Follett; 1862-66, John D. Fargo; 1867, William M. Porter; 1868-69, Elijah Coffren; 1870-71, Henry Kent; 1872, John D. Fargo; 1873, Tyler M. Burley; 1874, James II. Moon; 1875-77, N.H. Evans; 1878-80, Henry Kent. TOWN CLERKS. 1850, Myron H. Burley; 1851-53, Daniel Fargo; 1854, Mark Dibben; 1855, Jason W. Canfield; 1856-57, 0. S. Key; 1858, B. B. Crawford; 1859-60, O. S. Key; 1861, Lynch Beardsley; 1862-63, B. B. Crawford; 1864, Henry Kent; 1865-66, B. B. Crawford; 1867-68, Henry Kent; 1869-70, Nathan F. Starks; 1871-73, Lewy A. Starks; 1874-75, B. B. Crawford; 1876-78, N. F. Starks; 1879-80, William P. Lunn. TREASURERS. 1850-52, Daniel Fargo; 1853, George Lunn; 1854, Daniel Fargo; 1855-64, Richard C. Miller; 1865-66, Andrew J. Russell; 1867 -68, John Lunn; 1869, J. N. Voorhies; 1870-71, Tyler M. Burley; 1872-78, James Newton; 1879-80, Hebron H. Dilly. JUSTICES. 1850, David Jenks, Tyler M. Burley, Joel Hall; 1851, Mark Dibben, Josiah Bradish; 1852, Charles H. Miel, Ora B. Stiles; 1853, Ebenezer Salyer; 1854, Mark Dibben, C. E. Shepherd; 1855, William Lampman, J. Arnold; 1856, C. H. Miel, D. O. Blake; 1857, D. 0. Blake, O. S. Key; 1858, 0. S. Key; 185., Martin Joslyn, John W. Kent; 1860, Henry Kent; 1861, John Hamilton; 1862, J. P. Shoemaker; 1863, 0. S. Key; 1864, L. R. Miller; 1865, John Hamilton, R. W. Keeny; 1866, William Starks; 1867, B. B. Crawford; 1868, Moses Bennett; 1869, Octavius S. Key; 1870, W. Y. Starks, Joel Soule; 1871, B. B. Crawford; 1872, Joel Soule; 1873, Octavius S. Key; 1874, William Y. Starks; 1875, Benjamin Lorn; 1876, Joel Soule; 1877, George Miller; 1878, N. Y. Starks; 1879, Octavius S. Key; 1880, Nathan H. Evans. AMSDEN. The village of Amsden was not regularly laid out until 1867, although for many years previous to this time considerable business of various branches had been successfully carried on here. A saw-mill was first erected about the year 1850. In 1859, J. P. Shoemaker and M. P. Follett built the grist-mill at this place. It was the first flouring-mill (outside of Greenville) built in the county, and for a number of years gave Amsden a decided advantage over other prospective towns springing up in the vicinity. The settlers for many miles from the north came here to mill and to trade. This was the prosperous period in its history, and the principal part of the village was built at this time. When, however, the railroad was constructed from Ionia to Sheridan, and another from Greenville to Gowen, the prospects of Amsden, like those of Langston, were considered much less promising. The village now contains a hotel and several places of business. The sawmill of R. H. Roice & Co. has a capacity of thirty thousand feet per day, while the shingle-mill in connection with it has a capacity of fifty thousand. J. P. Shoemaker, the founder of the village, was born in Herkimer Co., N. Y. For over twenty years he has been a resident and identified with the business interests of the township, being the present State senator of this district. SH4NTY PLAINS. This settlement, located in the southeastern part of Fair Plains, did not commence until several years after the settlement on the west side of the river. It received its name from the many frail dwellings which, during one summer, were erected here. It is now impossible to determine who was the first settler, as a number came in and remained but a short time and then removed. But it is probable that William M. Clark, who settled on section 35, was the first. He sold a piece of the land upon which he settled to a Mr. Conkwright who remained a few years. Wells Clark, who also came in early, sold a piece of land to Peace Robohen, who died some years after. Ora B. Stiles settled where Joseph Soules now lives. About the year 1850 a little cabin of tamarack poles was built where the district schoolhouse now stands on section 35, and several terms of school were conducted in it. But when or by whom is shrouded in the mist of forgetfulness. This cabin was used until 1854, when the one now standing was built. The oldest settler now living in this vicinity is Mrs. Rosalier Comstock, who, with her husband, settled where she now lives in 1853. Mr. Comstock died in 1878. Hawley White, whose parents settled in Jackson County in 1835, entered the east half of the northeast quarter of section 36 in 1853. His log cabin is still standing. The next year he brought his wife and two children. Mrs. White died in 1863. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. BRADLEY B. CRAWFORD. Bradley B. Crawford was born in Rush, Livingston Co., N. Y., July 6, 1826, and is of Scotch descent. His grandfather, Robert Crawford, emigrated to this country before the Revolution and served in that memorable war, for which he received a pension in his latter days. Bradley B. Crawford was the oldest of seven children, five daughters and two sons. In 1835, Mr. Crawford came to Michigan with his father, who settled in Macomb County, where he lived some forty years, made himself a good farm, and moved to Lansing in his old age, where he died. Bradley B. lived with his father until he was twenty-four years of age, when he started for himself; he was married Jan. 1, 1851, to Mary Jane Dicken, daughter of John Dicken, who emigrated to this country from England in 1800, and settled on the Hudson River, in Greene County, where Mrs. Crawford was born Dec. 28, 1827. The family removed to Michigan, August, 1832, and settled in Macomb County, where he took government land in the town of Ray. Here he raised a family of seven children, cleared up a good farm, where he now resides at the advanced age of eighty years. His companion died January, 1856. Mr. and Mrs. Crawford are representative pioneers. When they were married their only capital was their strong arms M.f B. BB. CRAWFORD. B. B. CRAWFORD. - ".l" -"M",,,,,iS- IE~ldPI6 — 17-'2%-;V17YT-:(rr-'lr: 'uii~ij I:l1:-J-;-~-j;. -yy ir=~i-in.-;r;~~jZi;l 7j- -211 ''-'~,s......,..~-;c-.ri;~d:li':i-;'il,~. — ij~.l;'r":.:r ~:' -e~i;. ~;,2~I, -;~- ~" '~.~" ; ~c" '' "~,3 ~-~ ~ P'~r;: ii -r 2 cr-,, I;L "f - — L i RA WFORD. FAI/ PLAINS MONTCALM Co. M/CH. I I FAIR PLAINS. and resolute wills. They went out to work by the month, and, two years later were proud owners of two yoke of oxen, a wagon, a cow, and a few household goods. With this outfit they left the scenes of their youth to find a home in the then frontier of Montcalm County, and in March, 1853, took possession of two hundred acres of land where they now live, which Mr. Crawford had purchased entirely on credit. A small house was soon erected and the improvements commenced. Here they have diligently worked for more than a quarter of a century. Additions to the small house have been made, other lands purchased until he now has three hundred and fifty acres under improvement, and it is recognized as one'of the finest farms in the county; Mr. Crawford is a man of fixed principles, and a leading man in the county; is a Republican in politics and largely identified with the affairs of the county, being frequently called upon to fill some office, among others justice of the peace, township clerk, supervisor, and for seventeen years has been county superintendent of the poor and secretary of that body. Mr. Crawford has been the father of eight children, four of whom are now living: Elnora, married Clarence Johnston, a farmer in Fair Plains; John A. is attending Olivet College; William and Emmet are the youngest, and live at home. I JOSEPH P. SHOEMAKER. Joseph P. Shoemaker was born at Mohawk, N. Y., Aug. 30, 1820. He attended the district school until 1837, when the family removed to Joliet, Ill., where he attended select school, such as the country afforded at that early day. In 1840 he joined his brother at Sandusky, Ohio, who was chief engineer of the Mad River and Lake Erie and the Little Miami Railroads, then in course of construction, and remained with him one year; was with the engineers in locating the road. In 1842 he was engaged in merchandise and buying grain at Republic, Ohio, and in 1852 went to Covington, Ky., and engaged in the manufacture of iron, having charge of a rolling-mill. In 1855 he came to Michigan and engaged in farming at Jackson. In 1859 was appointed postmaster at Jackson, which office he held until 1861, when he removed to Fair Plains, Montcalm Co., and engaged in farming and lumbering. Having purchased a half-interest in sixteen hundred acres of land with Martin P.F.olltt, upon 58 which there was a saw-mill, they at once erected a gristmill. In 1863, Mr. Shoemaker purchased Mr. Follett"s interest in the property, and continued the improvements until he now has two hundred acres under a good state of cultivation. In 1867, Mr. Shoemaker laid out the village of " Amsden," had a post-office established there and a number of buildings erected. In 1872 he built a large mill for the manufacture of lumber, which was destroyed by fire in 1877, together with a large quantity of lumber. This was a heavy loss to Mr. Shoemaker, and a severe blow to the small village, yet the enterprising founder continues in the even tenor of his way. Politically, Mr. Shoemaker was a Democrat until 1878, when he joined the Greenback party, was nominated and elected to the State Senate, and discharged the duties of that office to the satisfaction of all. In all local affairs of the town Mr. Shoemaker takes an active part, his name usually appearing in the roll of officers. He was married in 1845 to Sarah A. Amsden, daughter t 458 HISTORY OF MONTCAL CQOUNTY, MICHIGAN. - - - of T. G. Amsden, an early settler in Bellevue, Ohio. To them have been born seven children, five of whom are now living,-three sons and two daughters. The oldest daughter married G. W. Cummings, and lives in California; Thomas is a farmer in Macomb County; Elizabeth lives at home; Robert is a railroad man, and lives in Kentucky; Randolph is in California. Mr. Shoemaker is one of the substantial citizens of the county. He bears an unblemished reputation and a character for unimpeachable integrity, and is respected by all who know him. JOHN D. FARGO. Among the truly representative pioneers of Montcalm County, few, if any, have been more intimately associated with the early settlement than John D. Fargo. He has witnessed the transformation of a trackless wilderness into a populous and highly cultivated community. He was born in Herkimer Co., N. Y., Nov. 14, 1817, and was the oldest of ten children of Daniel Fargo. When John D. was seventeen years of age he left the paternal home to learn the trade of shoemaker and tanner with his uncle, Arial Chapman, in Trumbull Co., Ohio; here he remained five years. In 1840 he was married to Miss Lucy C. Borden, of Hartford, Trumbull Co. Being without means, and ambitious to secure a home, the young couple concluded to try a new country; accordingly came to Ionia in the spring of 1853, where they remained a year or two working as best they could, when Jerome, a brother of Mr. Fargo, came on, the two brothers taking a job of logging in the then remote frontier of Montcalm County. Mrs. Fargo, being a true helpmeet, accompanied her husband to the cabin in the forest and cooked for the men. This was beyond the pale of civilization, and she did not see the face of a woman for five months. To procure provisions Mr. Fargo made shingles nights, and hauled them to Ionia, thirty miles, where he sold them for one dollar and twenty-five cents per thousand. In this semi-civilized way they lived two or three years, when, in 1847, the brothers purchased a tract of land in Fair Plains, paying the little money they had saved, and running in debt for the greater part. They worked together on the land a few years, when a division was made, John D. taking the land * where he now lives, and soon after building the substantial house where he has since resided, having a large, well-improved farm, with pleasant surroundings. They have been the parents of four children, three of whom are now living. Densel P. is deputy warden in the House of Correction at Ionia, James P. is a farmer in Dakota, and Mara Adella is a teacher in the school at Greenville. Politically Mr. Fargo is a Republican, has held several offices of trust and honor, was supervisor for five years, and has represented his district in the Legislature. As this pioneer couple look back over a married life of forty years, they have the satisfaction of having acted well their part as they enjoy their comfortable home and the respect of all LESTER R. MILLER. Lester R. Miller has a large, well-cultivated farm, and probably the finest and most expensive farm residence in Montcalm County. The passer-by would naturally infer that this estate, this elegant home, had been erected by the munificent gift of some wealthy ancestor, which is not the case, but is the result of the energy, economy, and most persistent industry of Lester R. Miller, who was born Aug. 27, 1827, in the State of New York. His father, Isaac D. Miller, moved to Detroit in 1830, remained five years, went to Oakland County, where he settled, cleared up a farm, raised a family of ten children, eight of whom are now living. When twenty years of age Lester R. went out for himself. Three years later (1850) he came to Montcalm County with a team and two hundred and fifty dollars, purchased one hundred and sixty acres of unimproved land, which is a portion of his large farm in Fair Plains, where he now resides. The following winter he returned to Oakland County for a wife, and was married, Dec. 25, 1850, to Louisa Kent, daughter of John Kent. She died October, 1857, leaving two children,-George W., a farmer in Fair Plains, and Della, who lives at home. Mr. Miller was again married in 1860 to Sarah L. Cole, daughter of James W. Cole, of Ionia County, by whom he has two children living, —John C. and Aggie; Mabel died in infancy. At that time they adopted a bright boy, now seven years of age. When Mr. Miller commenced the improvement of his land the country was new, and the few settlers all poor. The great question was to break up their land, and Mr. Miller made a specialty of that, and in this way earned money to improve his own land. Realizing that time was money he lost as little as possible. As a sample of his economy of time he relates an incident: the coulter of his plow needed sharpening; not willing to have his oxen idle, he took the coulter on his shoulder and walked to Greenville, five and a half miles; finding the blacksmith yet in bed he called him up, had the implement repaired, and walked back in time to have the plow at work by seven o'clock in the morning. By this kind of industry we account for the elegant residence, broad and fertile fields, and the abundance of this world's goods. LYMAN H. PRATT. Among the names which are inseparably connected with the annals of Montcalm County is that of Lyman- H. Pratt. He has been prominently identified with its progress and prosperity from the earliest settlement. He, was born in Paris, Oneida Co., N. Y., May 12, 1822. When fourteen years of age his father died, leaving a family of four children, of which Lyman was the oldest. The family were poor, and the only support of the widowed mother was the fourteen-year-old boy, who went out to work until the younger children could earn their own support. In 1843, being then twenty-one years of age, Mr. Pratt started out in quest of a home and independence. He came to Kent Co., Mich., where he spent one winter in the town of Paris, which was then a wilderness. The howl of the wolf was no. unusual sound, and attracted Mr. -Pratt. Ir II f4 Mf J. D. FARGO. J. D. FARGO.;r — -- - - l - ~- - Tq "- ~ n- - 1-1 - - —; ~:, " T 7 7 ~ 71 11 rn -TRm -A = ~ 1.. h t.- ~~ ~ — 51CP;-YrU r rlC pt — c.,~ '' " ~i a ~,2- "l'r u: '* zl~, :'f -- 7 ,e r I- --,, UL =- r~ I _.,i,,cI- Si ~i ~- `- 'I '? -~ ~~? -, -- -- - ~r rZ I —~ -r i,,. cr - r.-i.EC ~ie h` 2 CI/L` g$i -AI, ANP RESIDENC- OF J. D. FARGO. FAIR PLAINS MONTCALM CO. /I CH. LESTER R. MILLER., M^s LESTER R. MILLER.,, "i:;i! i-(...;: "z 2-ii-, i.l -'~: F. --- a ~t.':'' '4 --- 1;3j c '--~..Z - ~d ''.: ': ~~ —9~ c.- ` i 5= hT f.;i i ~ ii. i;' r~-l" `";-?,c'rc;-t~~ C;I,-, i,;r~~ ~T-el ct _`- I -,Ei CP' i9.-321~ 1.."C t'- 6-'-- c'-i --- ~-~:,' 2';rl -i. ~--" -'i- --- ' --- —- i I_. - . "1~': i-I4 ~' -ic-5*: I -i - i~ ~,an Qr~-?7% I': RESIDENCE OF LESTER R. MILLER, FAIR PLAINS MON TCA LM Co MICH. 1: I JA MWES GRFFETH, M.fs JAMES GREFFETH. _L; c;I, if T ----- f' ~p5- ', 14 r J — ~-L- '' r ` ` — -— ',-. ---.r -d t -r 9;= '- -= = I-I~c i' " " y'F J- ~ - - J- d tC RESIDENCE OF JAMES GREFFETH. FA/IR%/lNS MONTCALM Co MC4H. 1FAIR PLAINS. Taking a rifle he soon brought in a wolf-scalp, for which there was a bounty of twelve dollars. He then procured traps and caught six others, making seven in all that winter, which was a paying business. In the spring of 1844, Mr. Pratt and his brother-in-law, S. D. Barr, purchased the "Lincoln Saw-Mill," at the mouth of Black Creek, Montcalm township, this county. This mill had then just been erected, was the first and only mill in Montcalm County, and was of the most primitive kind. Mr. Pratt then returned to New York and brought his mother to the wilderness home. At that time their g WFLYMAN H. PRATT. nearest neighbor was eight miles distant. The only white family in the county was that of R. K. Divine, residing on the south line of the county, where the city of Greenville now stands. No white man had disturbed the primitive forest or obstructed the waters of Flat River. Indians were numerous and frequent callers on the new settlers. Mr. Pratt relates many interesting incidents of their peculiarities. The lumber manufactured at this mill was run in rafts to Grand Haven, where it commanded only a small price. About this time settlers began to come in, and in 1846 a mail-route was established from Ionia to " Lincoln's Mill," JAMES GREFFETH. James Greffeth was born in Montgomery Co., N. Y., Aug. 16, 1828. When a small boy the family moved to Genesee Co., N. Y., and in 1840 to Oakland Co., Mich. When sixteen years of age James went to Pontiac to learn the trade of carpenter and joiner, which occupation he fol lowed until 1858. He was working in Madison, Wis., in 1852, when he was married to Mary Kelly, formerly from Perrington, Monroe Co., N. Y., where she was born in 1821. Soon after they were married they moved to Michigan City, Ind., where Mr. Greffeth worked at his trade until and "Montcalm" office established, Lyman H. Pratt, postmaster, appointed by Cave Johnson, Postmaster-General. This was the first post-office established in Montcalm County. After operating the mill four years Mr. Pratt sold his interest. In 1850 was married to Mary A., daughter of Nathan Walker, of Oakfield, Kent Co. Mrs. Pratt, by her industrious and frugal habits, has aided her husband, and in their early pioneer days was never found wanting as a helpmeet. In 1855, Mr. Pratt purchased the hotel in Greenville MRS. LYMAN H. PRATT. (now Kieth's Exchange), built the upright part, and kept it as Pratt's Exchange for some years. Was engaged in various business operations until 1866, when he engaged in mercantile business in Mecosta County, and where he was also interested in the construction of the Greenville and Big Rapids State road until the fall of 1868, when he returned to Greenville until 1874, when he purchased the farm in Fair Plains where he now resides; but he has other important interests which call him in different parts of the country, and has spent several winters in Florida. He is a man of strong common sense, charitable to the poor, and always pays a hundred cents on the dollar. 1858, when he came to Fair Plains and purchased one hundred acres of land, upon which there had been a few acres chopped and a small log house erected. The country was sparsely settled, all new beginners, and as poor as himself. Under these circumstances the improvements were made with the greatest difficulty; but, by industry and perseverance, year by year the clearing has been enlarged, other lands added, until he has a fine farm of two hundred acres under a good state of cultivation, and a substantial house, with large and commodious outbuildings, has been erected. Mr. Greffeth, although not raised a farmer, takes a deep interest 460 HISTORY OF MONTCA-LM -3ONTY, MICHIGAN. in agricultural matters. He makes a specialty of blooded stock, and was the first to introduce the shorthorn cattle in this county, and of which he has a fine herd; usually exhibits at the county fair, and never fails to receive premiums. He has been the father of two children; one died in infancy, ANDREW J. RUSSELL. ANDREW J. RUSSELL. Andrew J. Russell, son of Judge Russell, one of the early settlers and prominent business men of Greenville at an early day, was born in Cortland Co., N. Y., February, 1828. He moved from Cortland to Oakland County in 1837; remained there a few years and came to Montcalm County before Greenville had been laid out as a village, purchased a tract of two hundred and seventy acres of land, which comprises all that portion of Greenville east of Main Street and running to the river. In the early history of Greenville Judge Russell figured prominently. Was interested in the early mills and building up the town generally. He subsequently removed to Oceana County, where he died. Andrew J. Russell came to Greenville with his father, and was interested with him in the early days of Greenville. the other, a daughter, is-married, and occupies a portion of the farm. Politically, Mr. Greffeth is a Republican; is a man of fixed principles and sound judgment, commanding the respect of all. MRS. ANDREW J. RUSSELL. Subsequently he owned the flouring-mill in that city, which he operated for several years, during which time he was married, Dec. 25, 1855, to Julia A. Sanborn, who was born in Oxford Co., Canada, and came to Greenville with her mother in 1853. Some two years after they were married Mr. Russell disposed of his mill interest and purchased two hundred and forty acres of land in Fair Plains, which under his practical and judicious management soon became one of the fine farms for which that tbwn is famous. Mr. Russell died Sept. 1,1873, leaving a wife and three children, two sons and one daughter,-James W., George F., and Cora D. Andrew J. Russell was a man highly esteemed for his sterling qualities and high moral standing. Politically he was a Republican; had filled several offices of trust and honor, among them that of treasurer of the town. F E R R I S. TOWNSHIP 11 north, of range 5 west, is bounded on the east by Gratiot County, on the west by the township of Day, on the north by Richland, and on the south by Crystal. It was set off under.the township name of Perris in 1856. This township, from that time until its subdivision, contained the four towns now known as Ferris, Day, Richland, and Home. The township of Ferris is divided into two nearly equal parts by a ridge or water-shed, which in places is well defined, extending north and south through the centre of the township, thus producing on either side distinct basins. Pine River, a tributary of the Chippewa, drains the eastern part, while Carpenter Creek rises in the central portion and flows south into Crystal, thence northeast into Gratiot County, and unites with Pine River. The western part is drained by Fish Creek, a tributary of the Grand River. Thus the waters of Ferris township flow in opposite directions, and finally reach Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. There is a tract of land extending north and south, and being widest in the central part, which is usually known as the swamp. In the southeastern part the surface at first rises gradually, then abruptly, in hills. These having a heavy, rich soil furnish the:best wheat land. There are also some oak-belts in the township which produce excellent wheat. On the whole, Ferris presents many varieties of soil and timber, and is rapidly improving. FIRST SETTLEMENTS. Elijah Ferris was the first settler in town 11 north, range 5 west. He had formerly resided upon a farm in Geauga Co., Ohio, and was very much inconvenienced for the want of water. For this reason, when he sent his representative to select land in Montcalm Co., Mich., in 154, his express directions were that a running stream must be one of the favorable considerations. This may account for the peculiar selection of his land upon which he lived and died. In the fall of 1854, well equipped for the frontier, with a good team of horses, which soon after his arrival he exchanged for a yoke of oxen, with farming implements and household goods, he brought his wife, four sons, and one daughter to the township of Ferris. He entered, with several other tracts, the northeast quarter of the northeast quarter of section 23, on which he built a log house. This was the first residence of a settler erected in the township. At.this time the road known in those early days as the Old Pine road was located, but not completed but a short distance above the lumber camp, which had already been located near the present site of Carson City. From this place to the land which he had entered, a distance of eight miles, Mr. Ferris, with tho help of his sons, cleared a road. The distance was about eight miles in a bee-line, but his road, winding as it did through the forests and around every conceivable obstacle, traversed at least a third of the distance farther. Of this family none now remain in the township but a nephew, Henry C. Ferris. After the death of her husband Mrs. Ferris returned to Ohio. Archibald Connor, Robert Husker, Thomas and Rodolphus Burns, and Samuel T. Burch came in the winter of 1854-55. Burch and Husker were married men, the others were single. But all became residents of the township for a longer or shorter period. The Burns were natives of Ireland. Rodolphus is still a resident of Ferris. Burch settled first on section 36, but subsequently cleared and lived upon a farm on section 24. He remained in the township until 1877, when, with his family, he removed to Idaho. He built a large part of the village of Crystal. Archibald Connor settled the north half of the southeast quarter of section 11. Robert Husker settled on the east half of the northeast quarter of section 36, where he still resides. Nathan B. Scott, a native of Berkshire Co., Mass., came with his father to Washtenaw County in 1830, where he lived until he came to Ferris in 1855 and entered the northwest quarter of section 22, paying seventy-five cents per acre. He built a temporary house to which he brought his family, which consisted of a wife and four children. Mr. Scott made one of the first clearings, and planted some of the first crops in the township. He was drafted and served his time in the late war. Peter Schlappie built the first saw-mill in the township. It stood on Schlappie Creek, on section 12. Previous to this time the lumber used by the settlers had been brought from Ryder's mill in Evergreen township. Christopher Hare, from Lancaster Co., Pa., came to Sandusky Co., Ohio, in 1835, whence he came to Michigan in 1843, and settled in Portland, Ionia Co. From this place he came to Ferris and entered the southeast quarter of section 16, for which he paid four dollars per acre. In October, 1855, he brought his wife and nine children to the house previously built, where he has since continued to live. He cleared the road from the cabin of Nathan Scott to this place. At the first town-meeting Mr. Hare was elected clerk of the township, an office which he filled creditably many successive years. In 1880 he was the nominee on the National ticket for the office of county treasurer. Wm. Carpenter also reached the township in 1855. His house was made on a novel plan. Two large oak-trees which stood about twelve feet apart were felled so that they lay nearly parallel. Into the trunk of each a row of holes were bored, and into these posts high enough to make the walls of the house were driven. Split shakes were nailed over them, and the roof made of the same material, his house, with a large fireplace in one end, was 461 462 HISTORY OF MONTOALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. ready for occupancy. At one time Mr. Carpenter killed a bear, and invited two young men named H. C. Ferris and William Boody to dine with him. One of the logs, which in the mean time had been hewn to as near a fiat surface as could be conveniently done with an axe, served as a table. Upon this in due time the smoking ham of a young bear was placed, and the guests, who sat on the outside of the house, regaled themselves through the window to their entire satisfaction. H. C. Ferris, the nephew of Elijah Ferris, came to the township with William Boody from Geauga Co., Ohio. The latter, who was a splendid shot, came with only sport in view, and killed a great deal of game. He became poisoned while hunting in a swamp, and soon after left the township. Ferris remained until the next May, and then returned to Eaton County, where he married Miss Louisa Blodgett, and in about two years again returned to Ferris, where he still resides. Micajah Douglas came to Ferris in the fall of 1854, and entered four eighty-acre sections, namely, 11, 12, 13, and 14, on one of which he now lives. He was born and reared in Monroe Co., N. Y., and was not married until just before coming to the land which he had previously entered. He married Miss Laura Sherman. They moved into the township on the 22d day of March, 1856, and have since been permanent residents. Mr. Douglas was elected justice at the first town-meeting. His daughter, Lydia Jane Douglas, was the first white child born in Ferris. She married Thomas J. Blair, who is in the mercantile business in Elm Hall, Gratiot Co. In the year 1856, also, Jacob Klees, a native of Germany, came to Ferris. His family consisted of wife, two sons, and one daughter. He located on section 36. It is said that in an early day, when the family had walked to Matherton for the purpose of purchasing store-goods and groceries, Mrs. Klees carried a barrel of flour to her home in Ferris. The tradition, no doubt, has not suffered from repetition; the fact which gave rise to it being that after father and son had been loaded with the flour taken from the barrel, Mrs. Klees, feeling that it would supply a want when added to the scanty furniture of her cabin, took it with what flour remained upon her shoulder and carried it the entire distance. The family are residents of the township. David Eschliman came to Ferris in 1867. He was born in Lancaster Co., Pa. His ancestors purchased one thousand seven hundred acres of land from William Penn, and his relatives, who have become numerous, now live in that county. In 1834 his father moved to Stark Co., Ohio. He owns three hundred and eighty acres, one hundred of which he has cleared since it came into his possession. The present supervisor of Ferris, Orville F. Mason, was a native of Cortland Co., N. Y. Previous to enlisting in Company F, One Hundred and Fifty-second Indiana Volunteer Infantry, he came to Ferris, and spent some time hunting. After the expiration of his time in the army he came to Ferris and purchased the farm entered by A. L. Soule, of Muir. RESIDENT TAX-PAYERS, 1857. The resident tax-payers in 1857, and the sections upon which their lands were situated, are hereby shown: Acres. Myron Austin, sections 32 and 33........................ 120 Richard Bailey, section 32................................ 160 Samuel Bailey, sections 10, 15......................... 120 Perry Bailey, section 31.................................... 160 Ashael Buck, section 33.................................... 40 L. Barrett, sections 31, 36............................... 170 D. Byron, section 34......................................... 80 F. Byron, sections 27, 34.................................. 160 Samuel Burtch, section 24.................................. 40 William Carpenter, section 27........................ 40 Thomas Crawford, section 13.............................. 80 Archibald Connor, section 11.............................. 120 Levi Camburn.................................................. John Dyer...................................................... M. Douglass, sections 11, 12, 13, 14...................... 320 Luke Flint, section 35....................................... 160 Merrit Flint, section 35..................................... 120 H. Hubbell, section 15....................................... 120 Robert Husker, section 36................................. 80 Jacob Klees, section 25..................................... 120 Wilson Lee,* sections 19, 24.............................. 160 William Moore, section 9................................... 160 John Miller, section 19..................................... 160 John M aurer................................................... Lucius Lewis, section 19.................................... 200 Eli Smith, section 18........................................ 60 Ferris estate, sections 23, 13........................... 120 Robert Southwell, section 13........................... 40 Franklin, section 18.......................................... 80 Nathan B. Scott, section 22............................... 160 Peter Schlappie, sections 1, 12, 14....................... 600 James Tissue, section 32................................. 80 David W oner, section 32.................................... 120 Albert Washburn, section 3................................ 80 Christopher Hare, section 16..................... 160 ORGANIZATION, OFFICERS, ETC. The township of Ferris was erected in the year 1857, and at the time comprehended towns 11 and 12 north, ranges 5 and 6 west, or all that territory now contained within the limits of Day, Home, Richland, and Ferris. The following is a list of the supervisors, town clerks, treasurers, and justices of the peace of Ferris since its organization: SUPERVISORS. 1857-61, Peter Schlappie; 1862, Micajah Douglas; 1863-64, Egbert L. Heath; 1865, John D. Throop; 1866, Egbert L. Heath; 1867 -68, Calvin M. Woodard; 1869-70, Egbert L. Heath; 1871-72, Calvin W. Dalloff; 1873, H. Douglas; 1874-75, Egbert L. Heath; 1876-80, 0. F. Mason. TOWN CLERKS. 1857-65, Christopher Hare; 1866, Francis Seymour; 1867, Christopher Hare; 1868, Egbert Heath; 1869-70, C. W. Dalloff; 1871 -72, Arthur Hamlin; 1873, Egbert L. Heath; 1874-75, David Eschliman; 1876-78, William Yates; 1879-80, David M. Carroll. TREASURERS. 1857, Nathan B. Scott; 1858-62, E. L. Heath; 1863, Henry C. Ferris; 1864, M. Douglas; 1865, Erastus D. Throop; 1866, N. B. Scott; 1867-72, H. Dalloff; 1873-74, Loren V. Eggleston; 1875, Samuel Shaffer; 1876, Loren Eggleston; 1877, David M- Carroll; 1878, Loren Eggleston; 1879-80, Christopher Hare. JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. 1857, Perry Baily, William Lee, M. Douglas, H. Hubbell; 1858,Levi Cameron, Robert Southwell; 1859, Perry J. Bailey; 1860, John D. Snyder; 1861, Michael Douglas; 1862, N. B. Scott; 1863, Calvin M. Woodard, Perry J. Bailey; 1864, John A; Dyer; 1865, D. 0. Lewis, S. Shaffer; 1866, M. Douglas, David L. Baryer; 1867, H. C. Ferris; 1868, George Haynes, C. W. Dalloff; 1869, M. Douglas, C. M. Woodard; 1870, Perry T. Bailey, Daniel Hammond; 1871, Daniel Hammond; 1872, Mason A. Dyer, Samuel Walters; 1873, Francis H. Seymour, Lawson Stearns; 1874, Russell H. Mason; 1875, Perry T. Bailey, Russell H. Mason; 1876, G. L. Chatfield; 1877, Mason A. Dyer; 1878, Henry C. Ferris; 1879, George A. Baker, Horatio Stearns; 1880, Clark Whitbeck. * Present town of Day. 4 * H. C - FERRIS. Mfts H. C. FERRIS. ppr WWIM~' M'5 ` tt, 'i 4` 1 5~F,~"~ -~~','r-;r"5 ~-~ RES/DENCE OF H. C. FERRIS, FERRIS T7R MONTCALM GO MICH., FERRIS* 468 I SCHOOLS, REMINISCENCES, ETC. The first school in Ferris was taught at the centre of the township, in a log school-house which stood on the southwest quarter of section 15. This house had three windows, and a Dutch fireplace in one end. The seats were made without backs, of planks into which legs were driven. Sticks driven into the walls on which boards were laid served as desks. The first school was taught by Esther Ann Hare, in the summer of 1857. She received one dollar per week and boarded herself. There were but three families in the district. Miss Hare taught but one term here, and is now dead. The next school-house was built in District No. 1. It was a neat frame building, which cost about four hundred and seventy-five dollars, and is still in use. The lumber of which it is built came from Hubbardston and Alma. Miss Margaret Luscombe was the first teacher in this building. She afterwards married, and lives in Estella. On the second Saturday in April, 1857, the board of school inspectors met to examine candidates wishing to teach. But, as no candidates appeared, the board proceeded to lay out the township in school districts, commencing with the northeast part of the township. The boundaries then laid out bear but little resemblance to those of to-day, and have been so frequently changed and were of such duration that they were scarcely recognized. On the 9th day of October following (1857) a second meeting was held, at which time a report to the township treasurer shows that there were then twenty-two scholars in District No. 5, which corresponded with District No. 1 of the present day, which is the central district of the township. The money voted for school purposes was twenty-two dollars, with six dollars for incidental expenses. The only books mentioned were Webster's Dictionaries. On the 7th day of November the first candidate appeared before the school board in the person of Maribee Macomber, to whom a certificate was granted. At the meeting of the board in 1858 the town clerk was ordered to inform Perry T. Bailey that School District No. 3 had been formed, and that the first meeting would be held at his house on the 27th day of November, 1858. The returns show that Mr. Bailey notified the following persons, according to law: James Tissue, Henry Grim, Hezekiah Davis, Myron Austin, Ashel Buck, Richard Bailey, Levi Camburn, and William Davis. At the next meeting of the board Esther Hare received a certificate to teach. The first meeting in School District No. 1, in the northeastern part of the township, was at the house of Micajah Douglas, Jan. 1, 1858. The letter calling this meeting was directed to Peter Schlappie, and the returns show there were then in the district A. Conner, M. Douglas, E. Sherman, S. Burtch, Lawson Sherman, Henry Ferris, Gilbert Ferris, John Rank. These were the first schools in the township. In June, 1856, David Buck and Phoebe Moore were married at the house of William Moore, who had come to the township in the spring of 1855. This was the first wedding in the township. Daniel Strayer, a minister of the United Brethren Church, officiated on this occasion. He was a.resident of Elm Hall, and came on foot with a rifle to perform the ceremony. Mr. Strayer 'had occasionally preached in Ferris, previous to the wedding, at the little cabin of Hezekiah Hubbell, who had settled just east of the centre of the township in the fall of 1855. This cabin was so low that when the minister stood up his head would be between the poles which served as joists. Mr. Strayer died at Elm Hall in the fall of 1864. Frank J. Scott was probably the second white person born in Ferris. He now lives on the southwest quarter of the southwest quarter of section 22. The first orchard in the township was set out by Peter Schlappie, who brought trees from Ohio in 1855. He preached the first funeral sermon in Crystal township, and was a local minister of the United Brethren Church. He settled on the northeast quarter of section 12, where he lived until his death. Elijah Ferris, the first white man to make his home in this township, was also the first to die and be buried here. He had the consumption when he came to Michigan, but during the first year the change seemed very beneficial, but in the second spring after his arrival he died. John Maurer and Micajah Douglas made a rough coffin with boards taken from the loft of the cabin of Daniel Strayer, who at this time lived in the township. The boards were nicely planed, and hot water was then poured upon the sides, by which means they were bent and then made into proper shape. It was then stained with a mixture of Venetian red and sweet milk. Mr. Ferris had desired to be buried on high ground, and as Nathan Scott had offered ground for a public cemetery, he was buried near where the residence of that gentleman now stands. There was at that time no road, only a trail, through the swamp from the east to the west side. The remains were therefore placed upon a litter and carried by six men to the place prepared for them. Erastus Larnard opened the first blacksmith-shop in Ferris at the centre of the township. He remained several years, and his shop filled a want long felt. He subsequently purchased a farm which he supposed to be unincumbered, and paid for it in full. But, a number of years after, a mortgage given by the former owner was foreclosed, and he lost his entire property. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. HENRY C. FERRIS. John Ferris was born in the State of New York, Dec. 11, 1810. From New York he moved to Newberry, Geauga Co;, Ohio, where he bought a piece of wild land, which he cleared up, and on which he died May 1, 1846. On this farm his son, Henry C., was born, June 26, 1835. The death of his father left him to shift for himself, and for three years he lived with an aunt. Then until his marriage he worked at whatever he could get to do. In 1853, with the idea of locating in a new country and growing up with it, he came to Michigan, and in the town of Ferris, Montcalm Co., worked one year for his uncle, Elijah Ferris, who was the first settler in the township. He worked out by the day and month until 1856, when, with the little means left him from his father's estate, he bought the northwest quarter of the northwest quarter of 464 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. section 24, in Ferris township. On the 16th day of March, 1857, he was married to Louisa M. Blodgett, who was born April 24, 1839, daughter of Luther and Lucy (Ford) Blodgett. There have been born to them Lucy L., September 30th, died July 17, 1871; Emma L., March 1, 1861; and Carrie M., June 24, 1866. The next fall after his marriage Mr. Ferris brought his wife to Ferris, and (in the shanty built by his uncle when he first came) commenced housekeeping. Here they lived until the next fall, by which time he had made a start on his land and had built a log house. It had a floor of split logs, and was the result of his own handiwork. Out of the little shanty, which was many times used by new-comers, they moved into their new home, in which they passed many happy hours. They were poor in purse, but rich in health and strength and determination. After getting into his house Mr. Ferris had but five dollars left. He at once cleared and put in a couple of acres of wheat, but it was a failure, and to keep the wolf from the door he worked in the woods, and in this way got a start. The most of the first winter's work was lost, and this made the times very hard; but splitting rails at fifty cents per day bought flour at six dollars per hundred, and prevented hunger. Their milling in those days was done at Matherton, and the trip, made with oxen, required three days' hard work, and then three days' work for the use of the team. By dint of hard work, coupled with good management, Mr. Ferris has now one hundred and ten acres of fine land, with a good house and outbuildings. Of the farm sixty-two acres are under good improvement, while he ranks as one of Ferris' best farmers. In politics a Republican of the radical type, he has many times held township offices. In 1863 was treasurer of four towns in one, also a justice of the peace, and many years highway commissioner and school officer, having been the first assessor of his school district. ORVILLE F. MASON. Orville F. Mason was born in Homer, Cortland Co., N. Y., Sept. 18, 1842. When Orville was eight years of age his father, Russell H. Mason, moved to Pennsylvania, finally settling in Potter -County, where Orville grew to manhood. He received a good common-school education, and when sixteen years old commenced teaching, and taught five terms. In the spring of 1864 he came to Adrian, Mich., and worked around by the day and month until the fall of 1864. He then went into Montcalm County on a hunting trip, and in one day, within two miles of where the countyseat now stands, killed five deer. In the spring of 1867 he came to Ferris and bought one hundred and twenty acres of land, on which there had not been a tree cut. During that summer he cut off twenty acres, then returned to Pennsylvania, and the next spring, with his father and brothers, Coville G. and Ceville D., came to Ferris, where they now reside. Orville was married, Aug. 20, 1871, to Miss Mary E. Lewallen,.daughter of Abner and Nancy E. (Gunniser) LwilJen. She was born Jan. 10,. 1844. Mr. Mason has cleared up sixty acres of his farm, and has built a good house, barns, etc. In politics was a rRepublican until 1878, when he cast his lot with the Nationals. When ORVILLE F. MASON. but sixteen years old he was made deputy township clerk, which position he held until of age, when he was elected to the office. After coming to Ferris he was elected school inspector, which he held two years; then highway commissioner four years. In 1875 he was made supervisor, which position he has since held to the entire satisfaction of his constituents. He was the first town superintendent of school under the present law, and held it four years. He was a charter member of the Ferris Grange, No. 440; is also Master of Mount Gilead Lodge, No. 285, F. and A. M., and is now N. G. of Joy Lodge, No. 298, I. O. O. F. On the 15th day of February, 1865, Mr. Mason enlisted in Company F, One Hundred and Fifty-second Indiana Infantry, and was mustered out Aug. 30, 1865. To Mr. and Mrs. Mason there has been born one child, Eliza May, born Dec. 25, 1872. MICAJAH DOUGLASS.Orlin Douglass was born in Addison, Vti.He was of Scotch descent, his grandfather having been B in Scotland, from whence he emigrated to America. Wen Orlin was fourteen years old his parents moved to Ontario Co., N. Y., where he grew to man's estate. Arrived at his majority, he moved to the town of Rush, Monroe Co., N. Y., where he cleared up a farm. He afterwards came to Michigan, and settled in Kent County, where he died. His son Micajah was born in Rush, Sept. 24, 1828. After becoming of age, he struck out in life for himself, working by the month at farm labor. In 1851 he built, in company with his cousin, a saw-mill in Steuben Co., N. Y., which they ran for a couple of years or more, when Mr. Douglass sold his interest to his cousin and, as soon as he could get his money, came to Michigan. This was in 1854. -He went to his brother-in-law. in- Ket County, with-whom he ;` Q -C cs..,. a - is "'r-mc; 'I=" ';: i i." P ""'' .ci~`-; B ;B i$b; =;d: w~s ;:.4.s '=- ~- t;-:=i " ~r, ~-~ it.: fflt, ~ d nr."- -": i t I-" 1 i`;c P-. ':12~ ~,: c~ -.r.~ i.~ d -i~ k i r ?3 ::''-.a f ~_i-s, 4.*: C: s ~ --- '1 - i I t,I 5_ -,d iO 4 t 5, s L5 iEj ,:-, C3 c,,r F gl \ T LZZ.~ s `'CSI- `~~-, a I I '17 J1 ae w, rll~li ~:~ Q" 1 RESIDENCE Of DAVID ESCHLIMAN, F~Rss TP., MONTCALM Co., MICHIGAN. FERRIS. 465. FERRI.. started out in search of land in a new country. They came to Bloomer township, in Montcalm County, and from there through the woods to the township of Ferris. There was then no white man living in the town, and but one entry had been made, that of Mr. Ferris. Arrived at the corner of section 12, he saw a tract of land that suited him, and he started back, and on his way met Mr. Ferris cutting his way in. He went to the land-office and bought three hundred and twenty acres of the government. This took all his means, and we next find him in the lumber woods at Grand Haven, then in a saw-mill at Grand Rapids, where he worked until compelled by illness to quit. He was sick all summer. Getting better, he went the next October into the woods, and on his farm erected in the most primitive manner a-log house. He then went to Fallisburg, where he was married to Miss Laura J. Sherman, daughter of Ebenezer and Almira (Rosebrook) Shermam, born in Monroe Co., N. Y., June 3, 1836. The result of this union was five children, -viz., Lydia Jane, born Dec. 4, 1856; Ida F., April 23, 1861; Nellie A., Oct. 26, 1866; Alona M., Jan. 22, 1869; and Mary, Aug. 1, 1871, died Sept. 5, 1871. Mrs. Douglass died Jan. 11, 1872. On the 3d day of March, 1872, Mr. Douglass again married, his bride being Mrs. Malviria L. Aldrich, born in Tompkins Co., N; Y., Nov. 14, 1835, daughter of Royal and Delight (Aldrich) Jacobs. On the 22d of March after his first marriage Mr. Douglass moved on to his farm. The snow was two feet deep, and it was very cold. His house was not chinked, and had neither doors nor windows. The first night they stayed with Archibald Collins. The next day he chinked up one corner and put in a floor, and that night was passed in their own house with blankets for doors and windows. A few days' work made them comfortable, and for ten years it was to them a happy home. With never-ceasing industry he plied the axe, and to-day the result of his toil is one of the fine farms of Montcalm County, two hundred and twenty acres under improvement, while a fine house, grounds, and outbuildings meet the eye of the passer-by. Hle has engaged in lumbering winters, and is esteemed and looked up to as a successful and honorable business man. A. Republican of the stalwart kind, he has been many times the standard-bearer of his party in his township. He has been supervisor, treasurer, justice, and has held with credit most of the offices in the gift of his townsmen. He was the first Master of Sumner Grange, and has many times represented his town and county at party conventions. N. B. SCOTT. MRS..N. B. SCOTT. N. B. SCOTT. Among the first settlers.in the town of Ferris was N. B. Scott, who was born in the town of Cheshire, Berkshire Co., Mass., Sept. 18, 1825. He was the fourth child of Lemuel S. and Nancy (Bowen) Scott. Mr. Scott, Sr., came to Washtenaw Co., Michigan Territory, and bought of the government two hundred and forty acres of land, which he improved, and-where he died in his eighty-first year. N. B. grew to manhood in a new country, becoming the kind of a man from whose ranks the pioneers of America have ever been recruited. A man inured to toil, and afraid of no living thing, and of iron constitution,- he was just the one to lead the van in the onward march of civilization. He was married to Miss Caroline Beach, June 25, 1845. She was born in Marion township, Genesee Co., N. Y., 59 Aug. 15, 1828; daughter of Sheldon and Mary Ann (Bean) Beach. Mr. Scott -made his start working his father's farm on shares. In 1845, Mr.- Scott, Sr., divided part of his farm among his children, and with the proceeds of his share N. B. came to Ferris in 1855, and in April bought of the government one hundred- and sixty acres of land for seventy-five cents per acre. The old snot was then on the ground fourteen inches deep. Mr. Scott's selection proved a good one, as there can be no better land., The next June he came on with his wife and four children, and until he could build lived in the Ferris shanty. As soon as his house was built, the shanty was deserted and life-in the new home commenced. With the help:ofhis boys, Mr. Scott has cleared up ninety acres of land, thus doing his share towards clearing up the town. The first town - 466 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. meeting was held in his house, and he was elected treasurer, which position he held four times; has also been highway commissioner and justice of the peace. He was the first postmaster of Ferris, and held the office ten years. He has also been secretary of Ferris Grange, No. 440, three years. On the 28th day of September, 1864, he was enrolled in Company B, Fourteenth Michigan Infantry, and was discharged July 1811865. He was attached for a time to the Fourteenth Corps Battalion, and was in the battle of Nashville. Soon after, was sent to his regiment at Goldsboro', N. C., and took part in the capture of Gen. Johnston. To Mr. and Mrs. Scott there have been born the following children,-viz., Fidelia H., Oct. 21, 1847, died June 21, 1867; Orlando F., Feb. 18, 1849; William W., Dec. 24, 1850; Amanda J., Jan. 21, 1853; Frank J., Dec. 9, 1856; Mary E., Feb. 6, 1859; and Lydia S., Aug. 6, 1861. And they have an adopted daughter, Caroline, born May 31, 1867. SAMUEL SHAFFER. John Shaffer was born in Baltimore Co., Md., Nov. 9, 1801. In 1825 he was married to Miss Elizabeth Seymour, who was born in Pickaway Co., Ohio, March 8,1806. Her grandfather, grandmother, and aunt were murdered by the Indians at the time of the Indian massacre in Richland Co., Ohio. When John was sixteen years old his father settled in the then almost unbroken forests of Richland Co., Ohio, packing his goods on horseback sixty miles. On the farm then settled John grew to manhood. After Ihis marriage John went on to a new farm, on which he resided until 1835, when he sold out and again went to a new country, this time in Fulton Co., Ohio, where he bought three hundred and thirty-three acres of land on Bean Creek, seven miles from any white person. For his supplies he went to Maumee, forty miles away. He had money, but could buy nothing with it nearer than Maumee. His son well remembers his offering three dollars per bushel for potatoes, but could not get them at that. He had five boys, and with their aid clearing went rapidly on for a few months. Then came the fever of that time, and there were no well ones to care for the sick. For many years they saw the sickly seasons come and go until clearing up the land made a change for the better. SOo& after his arrival Mr. Shaffer was told that he had a neighbor seven miles away. So he at once set out, in company with his son Samuel, to make their acquaintance, which they did, and Samuel saw for the first time his future father-in-law. In 1863,-Mr. Shaffer again sold out and again sought a new country, this time in Ferris township and on a new farm. Again he went many miles for his flour, etc., and again saw the inconvenience of pioneer life. On this farm he remained until his death, Jan. 1, 1870. He had a family of nine children, of whom our subject, Samuel, was the eldest. He was born in Richland Co., Ohio, Feb. 14, 826. His childhood and early manhood, and, in fact, the greater part of his life, has been passed in the forests, and few men have seen as much of pioneer life as he. He had, one might say, no school advantages, and is almost wholly self-taught. Dec. 19, 1852, he married Miss Susannah Rings, born Feb. 17, 1836, in West Unity. She was a daughter of John Rings, a native of Westmoreland, Pa., born Sept. 2, 1804, and married to Miss Anna Brinker, Dec. 8, 1831. They moved in April, 1835, to Brady townshipwhere now West Unityville stands, in Williams Co., Ohio, and were the third settlers there. On this farm Mr. Rings died April 18, 1855, his wife having died in April, 1840. They left three children. Soon after his marriage Mr. Shaffer moved to Pike township, Fulton Co., Ohio, and entered forty acres of wild land. It took all his means to buy his land and a yoke of oxen, and to him for several years life was no holiday. His material for his house was hauled twenty miles, and the house then built by himself. He added forty acres to his farm and cleared sixty acres of it, Mrs. Shaffer doing more than her share. In 1864 he came to Michigan and again bought a new farm of one hundred and sixty acres, with log house and its pioneer accompaniments. He has now a handsome farm with a good house and outbuildings, which makes a little village of itself. Mr. Shaffer is called one of the most successful business men in Ferris. He has dealt largely in land and has made a fine fortune. In politics a Democrat until 1876, then and now a National; has been justice of the peace, highway commissioner, township treasurer, etc. To Mr. and Mrs. Shaffer have been born the following children: John R., born in West Unity Dec. 10, 1853, and is a graduate of Ann Arbor, and now practicing medicine at Elm Hall; Maggie A., born Nov. 9, 1855; and Alice E., born Aug. 26, 1858,-all married, the daughters living close by. CHRISTOPHER HARE. Christopher Hare was born in Lampeter township, Lancaster Co., Pa., Jan. 27, 1816. His family are of German descent, their name being originally pronounced " Herr." His great-grandfather, John Herr, emigrated to America from Fatherland prior to the war for independence and settled in Pennsylvania. His son, also named John, enlisted in the patriot army when but sixteen, and served until the close of the war. He then went to Lancaster County and settled on a new farm, which he cleared and improved. Just before the war of 1812 he moved to Qanada, then came to Indiana, where he died. His son David, the father of our subject, was born in Lancaster Co., Pa., where he lived until Christopher was sixteen, when he too went to Canada, where he remained four years, then moved to Elkhart Co., Ind., where he passed the remainder of his days. At the age of seventeen Christopher left the old home and commenced life on his own account. He went to Ohio, and during the next five years worked at whatever lie could get to do. His first wages were four dollars per month. On the 3d day of May, 1840, he was married to Elizabeth H., daughter of Adam and Mary (Carny) Neff. She was born in Circleville, Ohio, Dec. 31, 1813. AU'M 0 -P1P zz co pi'I 7h 2 Cp) pN I I CHRISTOPHER HARE. MRS. CHRISTOPHER HARE RESIDOECEOF CHRISTOPHER HARE, FERRS TP., MONTCALM CO., MIcH. FERRIS. 467 The result of this union was nine children, as follows: Edwin B., born Oct. 3a, 1840; Edmon, same-date; Cecelia, April 8, 1842; Esther A., Dec. 7, 1844, died June 26, 1862; Franklin D., April 17, 1847; Daniel F., June 28, 1849; Mary A., Oct. 10, 1851; Sarah M., Aug. 1, 1853; and George W., Aug. 31, 1855,-all born in Ohio, except George; he was born in Ionia Co., Mich. Mrs. Hare passed away Oct. 3, 1880, mourned by a large circle of friends and acquaintances. After their marriage Mr. Hare worked for a time in a saw-mill, and clearing land, then, in 1853, came to Ionia Co., Mich., and in Portland township bought fifty acres of land, partly cleared. This he sold, and then bought a new farm, on which he made a small beginning, then sold it and, with the savings of years,-and a small sum it was,-came to Ferris township, Montcalm Co., and bought of the State one hundred and sixty acres of land. After paying what he could and getting settled he owed two hundred and fifty dollars on his farm, and as much more in other debts. But he was in no wise discouraged, but with energy and industry at once com menced clearing his farm. They then had a large family, and but little crops could be raised, and times were very hard with them; and, though they never went hungry, their fare was of the plainest kind, while luxuries were things unknown to them. These times lasted nine or ten years, then better days dawned,-the farm began to look like home; fields of waving grain took the place of the forests, and then proceeds brought comforts, and Mr. Hare became one of the well-to-do farmers of his town. He has cleared one hundred and thirty acres for himself, and a great deal for others, doing his share as a pioneer. He has been a Democrat, and in his party prominent. He has been three times his party's candidate for county treasurer, but the opposite party had too large a majority for him to overcome. Was first town clerk of Ferris, which office he held nine years; also justice of the peace one term, and two terms town treasurer. He has been for many years a member of the Disciple Church, and one of its elders. He is a Granger; for twenty years'a Freemason, and two years an Odd-Fellow. HOME. —... THE surface of Home is generally undulating, rising gradually towards the centre, where it forms a divide north and south between the Flat and Pine River-systems. The streams are all small and of little importance, furnishing no water-power in the township. The lakes are few in number and inconsiderable in extent. The soil is of that peculiar mixture of sand and clay which produces both the hard and soft varieties of wood. Pine, however, predominates in fully three-fourths of the township. A large proportion of these lands are still held for lumbering purposes. More particularly is this the case in the northern part, where a few firms early purchased the more valuable tracts. Whitman & Highland held two thousand one hundred acres in one body, and nine hundred and sixty acres in another. Stinchfield & Whitney held fourteen hundred and eighty acres, besides a number of smaller tracts. This part of the township, although an unbroken forest until a few years since, is now rapidly developing both its lumbering and agricultural interests. Every year adds new mills and the men necessary to run them; every year many acres are added to the tillable land of the township. As rapidly as it is stripped of its timber, venturesome and hardy pioneers build their cabins and start on the most laborious but surest way to wealth. The southern part of the township is better developed, owing to its having been first settled. The pioneers avoided as detriments any land upon which pine predominated. The township has in general a productive soil, and the demand for all kinds of home produce is stimulated, on account of its extensive lumbering interests; and the ready means of access to the markets of the East and South by means of its railroads, which form a junction at Edmore, have of late years rendered agriculture a lucrative employment, and to this source in no slight degree is the rapid development of this interest to be attributed. Home is designated as town 12 north, of range 6 west. It is bounded on the north by Isabella County, on the east by the township of Richland, on the south by Day, and on the west by Belvidere. EARLY SETTLEMENT. Edward Wolbert, who settled in the extreme southwest corner of Home, was probably the first man to build a cabin within its boundaries, aside from the hunters who now and then penetrated its solitudes and built temporary shelters. His cabin stood near the State road, and, besides being a dwelling-house, it made, in addition, some meagre preparation for the accommodation of travelers on their way from Ionia to Millbrook. This route became, as soon as properly opened, one of the favorite roads of travel to the north. Mr. Wolbert's cabin was the last one for many miles, and 468 the road, if such it may be called, stretched through miles of forest unbroken by a single clearing. The townships of Douglass, Day, Belvidere, and Richland also were comparatively unbroken wildernesses at this time. Mr. Wolbert remained here but a short time, when, with his family,-a wife and one child,-he removed to the South. About the year 1862 a party of ten, consisting of John Peoples and his family, his brother-in-law, Frederick Bishop, and family, and Hugh Peoples, an unmarried brother, came to the cabin of Edward Wolbert. The men had been here previously and entered land, and while preparing temporary shelters left their families here a few days. John Peoples entered the southwest quarter of section 21, upon which the railroad station at Ednore and much of this village is now situated. Frederick Bishop settled on the adjoining quarter west, on section 20. Hugh Peoples entered the adjoining quarter east. They all built cabins and commenced clearing lands. The struggles with want and privation which followed were long and severe. The nearest mill was at Amsden, to which place those settlers who had no teams were obliged to carry their grain on their backs. Stanton was then a flourishing village of three houses. One was a small court-house, another Roosa's log hotel, and the other a dwelling-house built by Levi Camburn. After making some improvements, Bishop exchanged his farm for one near Charlotte, where he still lives. John and Hugh Peoples still reside in the township. One of the first marriages in Home was that of Hugh Peoples to Miss Maria Wysick, whose parents were among the pioneers in the east part of the township. The first white child born in Home was Anna Peoples, daughter of John Peoples, born Jan. 15, 1863. The first death was that of a Mrs. Rapp. She was buried on the west side of the road, and just outside the present limits of the cemetery at Edmore, where her remains still rest. The following are also names of old settlers of Home: F. A. Goldsmith, R. B. Nichols, who settled on the east half of the southeast quarter of section 28, James C. Gillson, W. W. Woodard, Oliver Aiken, Z. Rice, William Stevenson, who occupies the farm entered by Edward Wolbert, Thomas Forguer, Oscar D. Moot, Andrew Neiswanger, John Carroll, Thaddeus Tibbels, Edwin Wells, Jeremiah Myers, William S. Eaton, and Paul Wilkins. No school was taught in Home until the spring of 1865, when the people in the south part of the township met and organized a school district, and built a small log house on the southeast part of section 28, and employed Orlando Evans as teacher. He was a nephew of Josiah Fair, with whom he resided at the time. He now lives in Stanton. The next summer a site for another school-house was selected one and one-half miles east of the first. A house HOME. 469 was erected, in which a school was opened by Mrs. James Brown, whose husband taught at the same time in the cabin before referred to. The first frame school-house was built on the east line of section 30, in District No. 3. There are now six school districts in the township, and a neat frame school-building in each. The most of them have been built within the last five years. In 1866 a post-office was established at the house of Thomas Forguer, who was appointed postmaster. The office was known as New Home post-office. Previous to this time the nearest office was at the village of Stanton. Dr. Jackson was the first physician to come to Home. He settled in the south part of the township, on section 26, where he remained several years, and then removed to the West. lIe subsequently, however, returned to Home, where he died. The next physician was Dr. White, who entered a piece of land, but, like his predecessor, remained a short time and then went West. The following scrap, taken from one of the town books, needs no explanation: " The town board met at the clerk's office July, 5, 1872. Full board present. The meeting being called on account of the clerk's office being burned on the morning of' the second day of July, 1872, the board proceeded to examine the books saved and found the following: book of registration, the accounts with the township treasurer, the financial accounts and school record, records of the commissioners of highways and board of health." The records of election were not saved, and the town clerk's office contains no connected or definite record of the officers of the township before or since this time. EDMORE. Edmore is situated principally upon the south half of the southwest quarter of section 21, and the north half of the northwest quarter of section 28. The original plat, however, contained but one hundred and twenty acres, several additions having been made from time to time. The name is derived from Edwin B. Moore,-the name of its founder, -who platted it, and who, on the 28th day of April, 1878, caused the survey to be made. The first lot was sold to William Cronkite, who at once erected a small building and opened a shoe-shop, for, although few improvements had been made in this vicinity, the completion of the railroads the fall previous, forming a junction at this place, had marked it as an important busi-.ness centre for the future. There were also several families, who had settled here a number of years before, and who had made some slight improvements in agriculture. One of these, that of James Gillson, settled here in 1865. He is a native of Scotland, whence he came to America in 1828. He served in the Union army in the late war, and for disabilities received was awarded a pension. He built the first hotel in the village of Edmore, soon after it was platted. On May 28th E. W. Kitchen purchased a lot, built a house, and opened a general stock of drygoods, boots, shoes, groceries, etc. These were the first business-places in the:village. About this time a portable saw-mill was secured, and the lumber for building purposes, which heretofore had I I been brought from a distance, was now manufactured from the timber taken from the site of the village. After the manufacture of lumber began in Edmore, its growth was exceedingly rapid; but few villages in Central Michigan will compare with it in this respect. In the winter of 1878 -79 the village, having a sufficient population, was incorporated, and the first election under the charter was held March 8, 1879,'at which time the following persons were elected to the several village offices: President, E. B. Moore; Trustees, R. S. Robson, H. G. Johnson, C. S. Knight, C. W. Stafford, E. S. Wagar, H. Austin; Clerk, F. M. Burbank; Treasurer, O. S. Tower; Street Commissioner, H. J. Chaeney; Assessor, A. M. Wolaver. The following is a list of officers for 1880: President, E. B. Moore; Trustees, H. G. Johnson, C. W. Stafford, A. V. Rowlison; Clerk, F. W. Harrison; Treasurer, H. C. Umbenhaur; Street Commissioner, J. K. Train; Assessor, A. M. Wolaver. Edmore contains at present a population of nine hundred. It has over forty business-places, including a number of good hotels, a foundry and machine-shop, and a grist-mill in process of construction. During the month of September, 1880, the C., S. and C. Railroad shipped 225,491 pounds of freight, the freightage upon which was $173.19. The number of pounds received aggregated 5,207,544 pounds, and the charges collected were $1642. The receipts for the telegraph department were $55.04.The report of the Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad for the same month is as follows: Total freight shipped from this station, 8,506,597 pounds; charges, $5804.14. Freight received, 1,098,928 pounds, upon which charges were collected to the amount of $2190.95. The tickets sold over this route amounted to $1036. School District No. 2 was formed by the school board Sept. 3, 1878. The first school-meeting was held on the 20th, and was called to order by J. C. Gillson, when the following officers were duly elected: Director, William Cronkite; Moderator, J. C. Gillson; Assessor, C. A. Knight. On the 30th another meeting was called for the purpose of selecting a site for a school-house and raising the necessary funds for the ensuing year. The site selected were lots 247 and 248, being the corner of Third and Gillson Streets. One thousand dollars was voted for a building fund, three hundred and twenty dollars to pay teachers, one hundred dollars for incidentals; also two hundred dollars for furnishing, and seventy-five dollars to hire or build a temporary room. George Briggs, E. W. Kitchen, and S. Harter were elected as a building committee. Eight months' school were taught by Miss Lizzie Borden, afterwards a teacher in Ionia. The report of the director for the year ending September, 1880, contains a flattering statement in regard to the condition of the schools, as follows: "During the first year we have erected and paid for a substantial two-story school-house, and have furnished it with seats, desks, and curtains, a large clock, and a Web ster's Dictionary. We have paid for the lots that now comprise the school-grounds and dug a well. From the proceeds of the sale of the old school-house we have had 470 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. the stumps extracted, and have yet of this fund on hand forty-three dollars and fifty cents, which is to be spent in removing stumps and grading the grounds. " In the beginning of the year there was in the treasury $1006.26, and have received in appropriations $1301, making a total of $2392.26. We have expended $2197.48, leaving a balance on hand of $194.78. The school board was composed of L. Merriam, Director; J. C. Gilson, Moderator; 0. S. Tower, Assessor. RELIGIOUS. The First Congregational Church of Edmore was organized, under the Rev. S. R. Roseborough, Aug. 12, 1879. He had held meetings in the school-house of the village since the April preceding. At the first meeting, held for the purpose of organizing a society, he enrolled the following names: S. R. Roseborough, Nathan Coleman, S. W. Whittlesey and wife, J. S. Sanford, Mrs. S. Hunt, Mrs. --- Coney. The first three persons named were the first trustees of the church, J. S. Sanford being clerk. Rev. Roseborough remained one year, when he was succeeded by Rev. Henry Marsh, under whose efforts, in continuation of those of Rev. Roseborough, the society is erecting a neat and substantial place of worship, which, when completed, will cost about two thousand dollars. The membership in 1880 is seven. The friends and members of other societies contributed to erect this building. BAPTIST CHURCH. On April 15, 1880, by invitation, the Rev. C. C. Miller, of Stanton, and those persons desirous of forming a society of this church, met at the house of E. O. Longfellow, when the initiatory steps to that effect were taken. The society was duly organized May 4, 1880. The membership is now ten. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. E. B. MOORE. E. B. Moore, the youngest in a family of six children, was born in Gilford township, Medina Co., Ohio, Nov. 29, 1830. His parents, William and Sarah (Stough) Moore, were natives of Pennsylvania, and were the third family to settle in Medina Co., Ohio, where they died;-the father in January, 1865, and the mother in August, 1862. E. B. Mowe, who had previously assisted on the home-farm, began at the age of twenty-one to deal in stock. He purchased a farm of one hundred and twenty acres, and continued in business until 1864, when he sold out and spent a year traveling in the different States, looking for a new location. Finally, in 1865, he settled in Stanton, Montcalm Co., Mich., and engaged in the real estate business, which he has since continued, including pine-lands in his list. In 1871 he purchased one hundred and sixty acres, and in 1878 four hundred and twenty acres, where the village of Edmore now stands. In October, 1878, he disposed of most of his property at Stanton and removed to Edmore, having platted the village in May of that year. The place was incorporated the following winter. Since locating here he has endeavored in every way to further the interests of the place and build up a prosperous town. He also assisted in laying out Stanton and Mecosta, and is one of the most enterprising citizens of this portion of the State. His business has been carried on without aid from others, except during a ten years' partnership with Mr. Shepard, of Stanton. Before the -construction of the railroad, he was for four years proprietor of a stage-line between Stanton and Ionia, and was instrumental in securing both the railroads which pass through Edmore. The name of the village was conferred by the engineer of the Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad in honor of Mr. Moore, from whose name (E. B. Moore) it is taken. The early educational advantages enjoyed by Mr. Moore were limited to the common schools of his neighborhood. March 4, 1864, he married Mrs. Lucy A. Wilson, a native of Germany, who came to America with her parents when but five years of age, the family (named Rettig) settling in Crawford County, and afterwards in Henry Co., Ohio. Her mother is still living; her father is deceased. To Mr. and Mrs. Moore has been born one son, Melford B. Moore, whose birth occurred April 11, 1865. He is now attending school at Stanton. Mrs. Moore was born Oct. 19, 1837. She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Moore, although liberal in his views, donates largely to the aid of churches. Politically he is a Republican, and is now president of the village of Edmore, which position he has held two years. He is not a seeker after office, but has been tendered numerous more or less important positions. He is in all respects a worthy citizen, and one who seeks for the best interests of the community in which he resides. ALONZO M. WOLAVER. Alonzo M. Wolaver, the fifth in a family of eight children, was born March 17, 1838, in Huron Co., Ohio. His father, Jacob H. Wolaver, was a native of Pennsylvania, and his mother, whose maiden-hame was Lucy M. Johnson, was born in Auburn, N. Y., and married Mr. Wolaver in Huron Co., Ohio. The elder gentleman was a shoemaker by trade, and earned the support for his family on the bench. In 1853 he removed with his family to Michigan, locating on eighty acres of unimproved land in Ravenna township, Ottawa Co. Three years later he removed to the village of Lamont, in the same county, where he died in the spring of 1861. His widow is living with a son at Muskegon. Alonzo M. Wolaver, at the age of eighteen, found employment in mills, and became an expert engineer. Aug. 14, 1862, he enlisted as a private in Company B, Fifth Michigan Cavalry, which regiment rendezvoused at Detroit. Before it left the State Mr. Wolaver was promoted to fifth duty-sergeant. The regiment was sent to the Eastern Department, and assigned to the noted "Custer Brigade," composed of the First, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Michigan Cavalry. He was with his regiment until the close of the war in 1865, participating in all the engagements of the brigade,-Winchester, Cedar Creek, Gettysburg, Wilder ELOR B. MOOE. MELFORD B. MOORE. MRS. E. B. MOORE. E. B. MOORE. I I WILLIAM S. NELSON. William S. Nelson, a prominent lumberman of Cedar Lake, was born in Palmyra, Lenawee Co., Mich., July 6, 1837. His father, Francis Nelson, was one of the pioneers of Gratiot County, where he located as early as 1854, and of which county he held the office of judge of Probate twelve years. The subject of this sketch enjoyed the advantages of a good common-school education, and also pursued selected studies for several terms in the colleges at Hillsdale and Kalamazoo. He was married to Harriet McHenry, of St. Louis, Mich., Oct. 28, 1860. Bought and improved a large farm in the township of Arcade, Gratiot Co., where he resided sixteen years. Disposing of his farm in 1876, he removed to Cedar Lake, and went into a business partnership with James T. Hall, under the firm-name of Nelson & Hall. This firm built a saw-mill on the banks of Cedar Lake, and engaged in lumbering on an extended scale. Afterwards Mr. Hall sold out to Mr. Bates, of Oswego, N. Y., and the firm-name was changed to Bates & Nelson. Their mill was burned in the spring of 1878, and the firm dissolved, since which time Mr. Nelson has conducted the lumber business alone. In connection with this business he manages a general store, and his various enterprises give employment to a great number of men. His energy and integrity, as well as his uniform courtesy to his employees and all others with whom.he has business or social relations, merit the success he has achieved. Mr. Nelson is the eldest of three brothers now living,-Hon. Wilbur Nelson, a prominent merchant of Ithaca, Gratiot Co., and Rev. Theodore Nelson, of East Saginaw. HOME. 471 HM 471 ness, Five Forks, and the surrender of Lee, etc.,-about sixty altogether. He was promoted step by step to orderly sergeant, second lieutenant (both in 1864), and first lieutenant (in April, 1865), and was mustered out with his regiment at Fort Leavenworth, June 19, 1865. He had been three times slightly wounded by spent balls. Returning home, he purchased forty acres of land, and kept riage. For a year after marriage Mr. Wolaver continued, at his trade, and then purchased a saw- and shingle-mill in Bushnell, Montcalm Co. This was burned six months afterwards, but was rebuilt and operated two years, when Mr. Wolaver rented it and returned to his former home at Burch Station. Two years later he moved his mill and family to Home township, where he has since remained, A. M. WOLAVER. MRS. A. M. WOLAVER. house with his mother. A year later he sold out and worked again at his trade of engineer. Dec. 25, 1869. he married Miss Martha J. Horton, who was born in Kent Co., Mich., Oct. 21, 1852. Her parents were natives of New York, but settled early in Michigan. Both died in 1858, leaving three children, who are now living. Mrs. Wolaver, when eight years of age, was adopted into the family of Z. Rood,.and remained with them until her mar and been engaged in the manufacture of lumber and shingles, employing eighteen men. His present mill, iat Edmore village, is cutting thirty-five thousand shingles daily. He owns also eighty acres of pine-land. He has interested himself always in the welfare of the place, and is a desirable citizen. Politically he is a Republican; has been four years supervisor of his township, and assessor of the village since its incorporation. His religious views are liberal. M O N T C A L M. MONTCALM township is bounded on the north by Pine, on the east by Sidney, on the south by Eureka, and on the west by Kent County, and was designated in the United States survey as township 10 north, of range 8 west. It presents all the varieties of soil and timber common to this section of Michigan, pine being the leading variety of the latter, and sandy loam the prevailing quality of the former. The plains or oak-openings of Eureka township extend into the eastern part of Montcalm, furnishing some of the best soil and best-improved farms in the county. The western part is more hilly, especially in the vicinity of Flat River. Certain localities at an early day were densely covered with pine. An old settler asserts that in 1854 he passed up Flat River and entered a pine-forest which was so dense that at noonday he could not see to read the Detroit Commercial Advertiser. This cannot be considered an exaggeration, for in the few timber-tracts yet remaining, from which every year since the settlement of the township began the finest trees have been selected, the decaying stumps, and those bearing marks of a more recent date, bear witness of the former heavy growth of these forests. To future generations this majestic growth will seem incredible. Flat River for thirty years has borne its countless millions of logs to the mills in the older settled districts. In a single year, exclusive of the logs manufactured into lumber at the mills of Montcalm, Pine, and other townships, one hundred and fifty-four millions of feet passed through the shute at the little village of Gowen to the mills below. The yield in 1881 will even exceed the average. Hundreds of men, horses, and cattle are necessary to subserve this interest. But already that period of stagnation in business which inevitably follows the exhaustion of natural resources that have for a long period furnished constant and profitable employment to large bodies of men is being felt. The lumbering interests of Montcalm, like those of other localities, are being pushed to their utmost, and at no distant day a large proportion of its inhabitants must turn their attention to other departments. Already the agricultural interests have been well developed in certain localities, but large tracts of fertile land yet remain to reward the industrious husbandman. This industry must soon become the real and only basis of wealth for its people. There are several lakes of considerable size in the township, and many smaller ones, most of which are drained by small tributaries of Flat River. This stream, which enters the township on section 4, after a very tortuous course, flowing through sections 4, 9, 16, 17, 18, 1>, 30, 31, and 32, enters Eureka from the southwest quarter of section 33. The steep and precipitous banks along its course and 472 the rapid fall of its current furnish excellent water-power, which in three places has been improved. LAND ENTRIES. Among those who purchased from the general government lands situated in this township were the following: Section 1.-J. B. Barr, Jacob A. Davis, Thadeus A. Laurence, Henry M. Caukins. Section 2.-Richard M. Patrick, Jacob A. Davis, David R. Hart, William Burt, George Rossman, T. A. Laurence, Henry M. Caukins. Section 3.-George Rossman, Richard Patrick, Benjamin Joy, Marshall Stark. Section 4.-David Carpenter, James Davis, Joseph Fellshaw, Samuel B. Peck, C. Crane, D. F. Clark, Samuel Peck, C. A. Worden, C. P. Morse. Section 5.-George Loucks, Jacob Davis, C. Crane, Samuel B. Peck, Benjamin Joy. Section 6.-Jacob A. Davis, John Clark, C. Crane, Claudius B. Nichols. Section 7.-George Loucks, Eliphalet Gregory, Greenville 0. Holmes, Levi B. Gregory. Section 8.-Warren S. Felt, Charles Seymour. Section 9.-Joseph Fellshaw, Allen Thompson, Robert H. Smith, William Degulice, Solomon Elyah, A. Godfiey, James Davis, Charles Seymour, Henry M. Moore. Section 10.-Fite Rossman, George Rossman, Hiram Rossman, Enos T. Peck, Samuel B. Peck, Jacob Chapman, Charles E. Vanderburg, William Atwill, Thomas N. Stevens. Section 11.-Benjamin Osborn, James Brown, George Rossman, Thadeus Laurence, Samuel B. Peck, John G. Morgan, Henry Osman. Section 12. —Thadeus A. Laurence, John W. Kent, Harmonius Brower, Edward H. Jones, D. Towsley, Philip Leech, Peter Brown, George Bower. Section 13.-Hiram Rossman, Leonard Rossman, Michael McCabc, Joseph B. Murphy, Christian Sodtman, E. H. Jones, D. Towsley, Martin Sebalt, C. Sodtman. Section 14.-Abel Hawley, Ebenezer Balcom, James F. Brown, James Felton, Hiram Rossman, John G. Morgan, James R. Brown, John Devier. Section 15.-Enos T. Peek, Rebecca Pierson, James Felton, H. Rossman, Samuel B. Peck, J. A. Peck, S. Kent. Section 16.-Chapin & Booth, O. Loomis, Anson Bellamy, John Temp, H. M. Fuller, George W. Bellamy, Joseph Burgess, John Breitzmer, George Fick, C. Vogle. Section 17.-Abel French, Henry Moore, Charles Seymour, Whitney Jones, Robert Smith, William Degalia, Ezra Jones, Wilson Moiier, F. W. Worden, H. M. Fuller, H. A. Smith. MONTCALM. 473 Section 18.-Horton Wilcox, George Loucks, E. Gregory, Samuel Gregory, Whitney Jones, William Kitts, Allen Thompson, John Shaw, Frederick W. Worden. Section 19.-Legrand Cannon, Daniel Jones, John Alma, Ira Porter, J. B. Dickinson, Martin Shearer. Section 20.-Samuel HI. Combs, John Miller, Ira Porter, Alfred B. Miller, John Ball, E. Ransom, W. C. Ransom, Charles Seymour, James Davis. Section 21.-E. & W. C. Ransom, Leander Cole, Charles Seymour. Section 22.-Elias Small, James Grant, Enos T. Peck, Robert Burdick, William Cook, Robert Burdick, Jr. Section 23.-Caleb Cooper, Joseph Whitbeck, James Grant, William Toby. Section 24.-Josiah Todd, Edward Straley, Hiram Rossman, Sidney Todd, William McCrudy, Michael McCabe, Eliza Williams, Martha Rossman, Garrett J. Van Allen, Edward H. Jones, William II. Johnson, William Sanderson. Section 25.-Enos Wetherell, Nathan High, George Rossman, Henry Osmon, Charles Cross, Stephen Cupp, Potter Kelley, A. E. Fuller, Obadiah E. Fuller. Section 26.-Michael Gordon, Enos Wetherell, John Kent, Harvey Allen, William H. Ellsworth. Section 27.-Joseph D. Stearnes, Isaac Miller, Richard W. Wells; Dennis Arnold, John Churchill. Section 28.-Charles Seymour, Whitney Jones, William Degalia, George M. Pierson. Section 29.-Alfred L. Driggs. Section 30.-Luther Lincoln, Ira Porter, John Almy, J. L. Morse, V. Belding, Legrand Cannon, Edmund Bostwick, Philo Beers, Ira Porter, J. L. B. Kerr, A. L. Briggs. Section 31.-William W. Baker, H. F. Smith, Andrew P. Crowell, Hilton & White, Winslow Dodge, Henry Hilton, Richard Hilton, Ira Porter, Edwin A. Hayden, Louis Merrifield, John D. Wilson. Section 32.-John D. Wilson, Jacob W. Petty, Chauncey Cole, John Ball, John Green, Jerome Pease, Abel Avery, William Degalia, Francis Potter, Samuel Demorest. Section 33.-Samuel Hamilton, Whitney Jones, Ransom E. Wood, N. E. Horton, Martin Shearer, Samuel B. Peck, Jacob W. Petty, Henry M. Moore. Section 34.-Jacob W. Petty, Sarah Vanderhoof, John Churchill, Lewis E. Smith, Chauncey B. Miner, Abram Mann, William Harris. Section 35.-Levi J. Allen, Lewis Buck, David K. Goodman, George Rossman, Fite Rossman, Barney Bigler, Thomas H. Hartwell. Section 36.-Charles Hubbs, Jacob Rebman, John G. Reker, Henry B. Tlpp, Squire M. Newberry. EARLY SETTLEMENTS. Luther Lincoln, who entered the land at the junction of Black Creek and Flat River, was the first settler in Montcalm 'township, and one of the first in the county. His entry at this time comprised the northwest quarter of section 30, upon which, near the junction referred to, and south of Black Creek, he built the first cabin in the township, and, with a son, he continued to reside here and in the vicinity many years. He is said to have been peculiar 60 and eccentric in many particulars, but, upon the whole, a man of many estimable qualities. During the first years of his stay here he cleared a small piece of land and raised several crops before any other settler entered the township. Some years later he dammed the river and built a small mill with an upright saw, which occupied the site of the present one on section 30. It employed two men, who, besides Mr. Lincoln and son, were probably the only ones in the township. This property passed into other hands before his death. His mind for several years before this event is regarded as having been clouded, and it is to this fact that his business reverses and disasters are attributed. His son, who subsequently removed to Kent County, was. killed by lightning. In 1844, L. H. Pratt and his brother-in-law, S. D. Barr, bought an interest in the mill-property of J. L. Morse, and one Belden, who had previously been taken into partnership by Luther Lincoln. The wife of S. D. Barr, a sister of L. H. Pratt, was the first resident white woman in Montcalm township. Her daughter, Sarah Dett Barr, was the first white child born in the township. It was about the year 1815 that an incident occurred which shows the strong reverence of the Indian for his ancient custom and superstitions. In the spring of that year the band known as the Blacksmith family, being a branch of the Ottawa tribe, went, as had been their custom, to the far North for the purpose of making maple-sugar. While engaged in this avocation one of their number, a woman, was taken suddenly ill and died. The band set out at once to return to deposit the corpse in the cemetery of their forefathers, located near Greenville. In the northern part of Montcalm County-probably in the region of Six Lakes-they secured a canoe, and by means of it descended the river as far as Lincoln's mill, known then as Barr's mill. here they desired L. H. Pratt to take his team and wagon and convey the corpse to its destination, manifesting a great anxiety that the ceremony of burial should take place just as the sun reached the meridian. The horses were soon attached, and the corpse, wrapped in a cloak, placed in the centre of the wagon-box, while the mourners arranged themselves on either side. Therough corduroy roads seemed to forbid rapid travel, and, through respect for the dead, Mr. Pratt curbed his team to a moderate pace. But the Indians, watching the sun as the hour of noon gradually drew on, manifested every symptom of impatience, and finally urged the driver to drive more rapidly. To their infinite relief the horses took a swifter pace, the corpse bounded from side to side, and they retained their places with diffculty. It is probable they had never before been in a wagon, and their glee was unbounded. Upon reaching the burial-place they dug a shallow grave, and, with a spoon, knife, and bowl as an introduction of a faithful squaw to the happy land, they interred the corpse. This tribe subsequently moved to the North. S. D. Barr is now a resident of Belvidere township, while L. H. Pratt, who was one of the frst postmasters in Montcalm County, now lives in Fair Plains. On June 19, 1844, Frederick W. Worden entered the south half of the southeast quarter of section 18, upon 474 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. which the village of Gowen is situated. It has been asserted that Lieut. Worden, of the United States navy, and celebrated as the commander of the " Monitor" during its action with the rebel ram "Merrimac," was born here. This, however, is not authentic, although he lived here when a child with his parents several years. The house built by Mr. Worden as a dwelling for his family stood across the road from where the large brick hotel built by James Gowen now stands. On Aug. 26, 1844, Mr. Worden sold an interest in the water-privilege to Volney and Thomas Belding, and the company immediately erected a saw-mill, which, with many repairs and changes, has continued in active service to the present day. It was owned by this firm but a few years, and since has been under the proprietorship of many individuals and firms. The present owner is James Gowen. About the year 1844, Anson Ensign came in and purchased the water-privilege on the northwest quarter of section 30, at which place he built a dam and saw-mill and gave employment to a considerable force of men. In a small house built near this mill and owned by him the first township-meeting in the county was held, in the spring of 1845. This mill subsequently passed into the possession of D. Underhill. It is now owned by Henry Watson, who came into the township in 1857, and worked in it for one dollar per day. The mill now employs thirteen men and has a capacity of thirteen thousand feet per day. In 1843, John D. Wilson, a native of Huddersfield, England, came to Michigan, and in 1844 to Montcalm, and entered land in the south part of sections 31 and 32. He cleared the brush from thirty acres, which he plowed during the summer. He was unmarried and boarded in Eureka while doing this work. This was the first improvement made in the township, aside from that made by Luther Lincoln. Mr. Wilson subsequently disposed of his land and started for Australia, since which time nothing definite has been heard of him. In 1845 his brother, Joe Wilson, with his wife and three children, came to Ionia County and settled in Otisco, where he lived until the winter of 1846-47, when he entered eighty acres of land on section 6 in Eureka township and built a cabin, into which he moved soon after. In 1846 he sowed to wheat a part of the tract in Montealm broken up by his brother two years previous. It was the first piece of any considerable extent sown in the township. Having secured eighty acres of his brother's land, he took down the cabin which he had built and removed it to this land, where he again set it up. It was the first house, aside from those at the mills, and its occupant was the first in the township to engage exclusively in agricultural pursuits. He traded his land in Eureka for eighty acres on section 34, owned by John W. Petty, built a house upon it, and resided there two years. In 1848 his son, William Fountain Wilson, died and was buried beside his sister in Otisco township. This was probably the first death in the township, as Sarah, the youngest child of John Wolverton, whose death is usually considered the first, did not die until some weeks after. She was, however, the first interred in the township, the cemetery being situated on the east line of her father's farm, and directly south of the quarter-post. It has since become a public burial-place, and was the first in the township. About the year 1848, John Wolverton settled on the southwest quarter of section 31, having at the same time entered land adjoining in Eureka township, upon which he built his barn. This section of Montcalm previous to this time was known as Lincoln's Plains, but from this time to the present has been called Wolverton Plains. His family at this time consisted of a wife and six children, only one 'of whom now remains in the township. Mr. Wolverton died many years since, and his widow, now the wife of John Smith, still lives at an advanced age. John Hocroft and Joseph Brown were the next to reach the township. They settled on section 32, built cabins, and made some further improvements, but, selling out soon after, they moved away. In 1849, Jacob Carr, who had entered land on section 33, came to reside permanently in the township. At this time, being single, he boarded with Joe Wilson while making some improvements on his land. Among other things, he cleard an acre of ground and sowed it to wheat for a deer-bait, and upon which he succeeded in killing many deers. Mr. Carr subsequently married Miss Lamberton, of Oakland County. He still resides in Montcalm, being one of its few first settlers now remaining. During the first years of his stay he was in the lumber business. Joseph D. Stearns, the next to reach the township, also a single man, boarded with Mr. Wilson, as did Jacob Carr, while improving his farm, which comprised the southwest quarter of section 27, where he still resides. Mr. Stearns has also been extensively engaged in lumbering, having owned several mills in various localities. Levi J. Allen, Harris Goodman, Louis Ruch, and John Churchill are among the pioneers in the south part of the township. Churchill settled on the west half of the northeast quarter of section 34; Allen on the west half of the northwest quarter of section 35; Ruch on the south half of the northeast quarter of the same section, and still resides in the township. Among the earliest settlers in the central part of the township was Robert Burdick, who had been a soldier of 1812, and who, with a government land-warrant, entered the northwest quarter of section 22, where he built a good log house, and where he lived until his death. His family, several children of whom were married and lived in New York, came a few years after his arrival. In 1855, James Brown, with his sons, J. R. and Silas, and four daughters, two of whom were married, as were also his two sons, reached the township. The two remaining daughters were married to William and Robert Burdick, Jr. The latter still resides on land entered by his father, while William occupies land entered by his father-in-law, James Brown. Another son-in-law, James Toby, entered the northwest quarter of section 23. Michael McCabe was the next to penetrate the wilderness in the northeast part of the township. His family, which at that time consisted of a wife and three children, still reside on the old homestead. Michael McCabe died in 1875. MONTCALM. 475 N L At the time these settlements were made there was no clearing to the north in this township. James Brown cleared a road from the State road to his place in 1855, there being at that time no settlement between him and the mill at Langston. A road was soon after completed to the saw-mill started by James Powers in the school section north of the lake. This mill was subsequently burned, and was never rebuilt. These families lived here a number of years before any other settlements were made in the northeast part Qf the township. This locality, being covered with pine, offered many obstacles to rapid development, and there are some tracts still held for lumbering purposes. Section 23, however, received two families about this time,-Sylvester Jackson and Austin Barret, neither of whom remained long. Barret went into the army, and was reported killed. I. Underwood purchased the south half of the northeast quarter of section 22 from Joe Wilson, who was acting as agent for Joseph Mott, of Schuyler Co., N. Y. William A. Brown was among the first to settle in the north part of Montcalm. He entered the north half of the northwest quarter of section 14, and made the first improvements in this part of the township. He removed, but afterwards returned with his brothers, George F., James S., and Alexander, all of whom became permanent settlers and made the principal improvements on their respective farms. In 1850, John Wolverton and Joe Wilson, assisted by other settlers in the vicinity, built a little board schoolhouse on Mr. Wolverton's farm, and hired Miss Harriet White, of Kent County, to teach. She died in her youth. This was the first school taught in the township. The next school-house was built on section 34, and resembled the former in its construction. RESIDENTS OF 1851. The resident tax-payers of the township in 1851, the sections upon which their lands were situated, and the number of acres owned by each were (according to the assessment roll of that year) as indicated in the following list: Acres. Samuel Barr, sections 20, 30............................... 77 Burrington & Rockwood, sections 17, 18, 19, 20...... 427 A. L. Briggs, sections 29, 30.............................. 694 E. B. Burrington, section 26.............................. 40 Beers & Ensign, sections 19, 30........................... 213 French & Moore, section 30.............................. 205 Jacob W. Petty, sections 30, 31, 32..................... 153 Joseph Stearns, section 27................................ 160 John Wolverton, section 31............................ 80 Jacob W ise, section 31..................................... 160 Joseph W ilson, section 34.............................. 80 John Wilson, section 34................................... 160 Chauncey B. Miner, section 34........................... 40 Lewis Ruch, section 35...................................... 80 David K. Goodman, section 35........................... 160 CHURCHES. There are three churches in the township, two of which were organized by the Swedish element. The other is a Methodist Episcopal Church, the class of which was organized in 1878 by Rev. J. W. Hallenbeck, and consisted of the following persons: Harrison Fuller, James Taylor, Richard Van Ness, and a few others. The society, assisted by friends who contributed liberally, erected a very neat meeting-house, which was freed from debt the day of qedication. GOWEN VILLAGE. Among the early residents in the western part of Montcalm was William Potter, who in the year 1847 opened a small stock of drygoods and groceries at Worden's Mills. This was probably the first store in the township, and from that time to the present this locality has been a business centre for the immediate vicinity. For nearly twenty years Mr. Potter resided in this place and continued in the mercantile business. He subsequently removed to Greenville, where he engaged in the lumber trade. He is now a resident of Lowell. Soon after locating at Worden's Mills, Mr. Potter engaged Miss Jane Wilcox to teach school in a shanty pertaining to the mill. Miss Wilcox became the wife of Ezra Bement, and lived in Orleans. There were at this time no persons engaged in agriculture in this section of the township. The first minister who preached in this section was Rev. - Allen, who for some time visited the mills regularly every two weeks and conducted religious services. The mill had in the mean time passed through many different hands, but had been but little changed. In 1870, James Caward built an addition to it, which was the first improvement made on it for many years. The same year Henry Smith and J. M. Fuller opened a store in a building previously built by James Caward for a repair-shop. Alexander Hewitt succeeded them in about a year. In 1871 the Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad was completed through the township, and James Gowen, having purchased the mill-property from the Flat River Boom Company, platted the village which bears his name. The first train that passed over the road after its completion brought brick for the large hotel at this village. It was the first brick hotel in the county, and with its furniture cost fifteen thousand dollars. James Gowen, who may properly be considered the founder of the village, was born in Lancaster Co., Pa. Previous to his settlement in Montcalm he had been engaged principally in taking contracts on large public improvements, among which were the tunnel under the lake at Chicago, and several other similar works at Cincinnati and in the East. The village now has three general stores and a drugstore, a grist-mill, saw-mill, planing-mill, and two shinglemills. The saw-mill has a capacity of forty thousand feet per day, fifteen thousand lath, and fifty thousand shingles. The power is ten feet head, two sixty-six-inch Lapel's turbine-wheels, and is one of the best and most substantial powers in Central Michigan. The reservoir covers over six hundred acres. TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION, ETc. In 1845 the township of Montcalm was organized, and the first town-meeting held at the house of Anson Ensign, April 7, 1845. The minutes of this meeting are as follows: "A record of the proceedings of the first township-meeting, holden in the house of Anson Ensign, in said town. Stephen Warren was chosen moderator, George Gibson, Josiah Russell, Ethan Satterlee, Rosekrans K. Divine were severally phosen inspectors of said meeting, between the hours of 476 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. nine and ten o'clock in the forenoon. And, after being duly sworn, the said Josiah Russell and Rosekrans K. Divine were duly chosen clerks of said meeting, and the polls of said election were duly opened, and the result was as follows, to wit, the whole number of votes polled for any one office was thirty-six." The following persons were elected: Frederick Worden, Supervisor; Josiah Russell, Clerk; Rosekrans K. Divine, Treasurer; George Gibson, Stephen H. Warren, John Green, and Elihu Fortner, Justices; Samuel D. Barr, Ethan Satterlee, Assessors; Westbrook Divine, Edward Petty, Lyman H. Pratt, Commissioners of Highways; H. N. Stinson, Josiah Bradish, Ananias Worden, School Inspectors; Volney Belding, Josiah Bradish, Directors of the Poor; Henry S. Halford, Jonathan Gould, Lorenzo Whitney, Lyman H. Pratt, Constables. TOWNSHIP OFFICERS. The following are the names of those elected annually as supervisors, clerks, treasurers, and justices of the peace for the years from 1845 to 1880, inclusive: SUPERVISORS. 1845, Frederick W. Worden; 1846, Ananias Worden; 1847-48, Josiah Russell; 1849, Rosekrans Divine; 1850, Volney Belding; 1851-52, Elihu Burrington; 1853, W. T. Potter; 1854-55, Frank S. Peck; 1856, William T. Potter; 1857-60, Stephen Rossman; 1861, Newell J. Pratt; 1862-63, Daniel S. Smith; 1864-66, Thomas Spencer; 1867-69, Stephen Rossman; 1870, Frederick Spencer; 1871, Henry Smith; 1872, H. S. Sharpe; 1873-78, Horace J. Pixley; 1879, Isaac Underwood; 1880, Horace J. Pixley. CLERKS. 1845, Josiah Russell; 1846, Abel French; 1847, George Van Ness; 1848, John Porter; 1849, Newcomb Ireland; 1850-51, William T. Potter; 1852, Charles Kent; 1853, Chester Lilly; 1854, N. J. Pratt; 1855, W. T. Potter; 1856-57, Harvey Allen; 1858, Erastus Fisher; 1859-62, Harvey Allen; 1863-66, Robert Burdick; 1867-68, D. H. Fuller; 1869, Horace J. Pixley; 1870, Harvey Allen; 1871, Daniel L. Welch; 1872, Harvey Allen; 1873, Clarence A. Crosby; 1874, William Lincoln; 1875-79, Robert Burdick; 1880, Henry Watson. TREASURERS. 1845-46, Rosekrans Divine; 1847-48, George Loncks; 1849, Enoch Wilcox; 1850, Charles Hecox; 1851, John Wolverton; 1852, William T. Potter; 1853, Harvey Allen; 1854, Ansel Wolverton; 1855, Harvey Allen; 1856-57, Ansel Wolverton; 1858-59, Henry Sanford; 1860-62, Peter De Spelder; 1863-66, James Brown; 1867-69, David Goodman; 1870, Iorace J. Pixley; 1871, George Bellamy; 1872, Henry M. Bower; 1873-74, George F. Brown; 1875, George Bellamy; 1876-77, Isaac B. Schemerhorn; 1878-79, William Wise; 1880, A. Wyckoff. JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. 1845, George Gibson, Elihu Fortner, Stephen H. Warren, John Green; 1846, John Green, Norvel Church; 1847, Charles Hubbs, Alexander Satterlee; 1848, George Gibson, Rosekrans Divine; 1849, Ethan Satterlee; 1850, John Wolverton, A. L. Driggs, Frederick M. Marten; 1851, John W. Riceley, John Wilson; 1852, W. Goodman, John Churchill, William T. Potter; 1853, N. J. Pratt, Anson Ensign; 1854, Harvey Allen, N. J. Pratt, W. T. Potter; 1855, W. T. Potter, James Powers, O. E. Fuller; 1856, Newell J. Pratt; 1857, William Clark; 1858, Erastus Fisher, James S. Mann; 1859, H. Barrett, Erastus Bates; 1860, 0. Slawson; 1861, Michael Gordon, Alonzo Driggs; 1862, James L. Mann; 1863, Uriah Stout; 1864, Alonzo Driggs, Jacob Osman; 1865, Anson Bellamy, Peter Johnson; 1866, James L. Mann, Henry M. Hale, John Hanson; 1867, Erastus R. Bates, Harvey B, Tripp; 1868, Jacol} Osman, Lucius E. Pillows; 1869, II. B. Tripp, J. K. Richman; 1870, Isaac Underwood, Isaac B. Schemerhorn; 1871, Alonzo Driggs, Seth W. Crosby; 1872, Adam Brown, 1. H. Hanson; 1873, Harvey Allen, Thomas B. Story; 1874, James Gowen; 1875, David Soper, James L. Mann; 1876, Thomas D. Story; 1877, Seth W. Crosby; 1878, James L. Mann; 1879, W. D. Coons; 1880, Peter De Spelder. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. HENRY WATSON. Henry Watson, one of the enterprising self-made men of Montcalm County, was born in Nottinghamshire, England, Jan. 29, 1836. When nine years of age his father died, leaving a wife and three boys, of whom Henry was the oldest. In 1850 the mother with her three children came to Oakfield, Kent Co., Mich., where she was married to Joseph Denman, an old acquaintance from the same place in the old country, who had preceded her to this country. His wife had died, leaving a family of small children. By this marriage the two families were united. Henry then, being fourteen years of age, struck out for himself, and from that day has been entirely upon his own resources, first working at such jobs as a boy could secure in a new country. Being energetic and reliable, he soon secured a position as sawyer in a good mill, which position he occupied until July, 1857, when he was married to Mary Vedder. From this time the progress of Mr. Watson was marked and steady. The wise counsels and fiugal habits of Mrs. Watson aided her husband, and have contributed largely to his success in latter years. The fall after he was married Mr. Watson made his first purchase of real estate, which was forty acres of unimproved land in the town of Oakfield, Kent Co. At that time he had saved seventy-five dollars, with which he made tle first payment on the land. From this small beginning, by diligence and perseverance, he has kept steadily on, and the forty acres of wild land has expanded to a fine farm of two hundred and thirty acres, with large improvements, fine buildings, and pleasant surroundings. Yet the business of Mr. Watson is that of a lumberman; first running a mill by the thousand, then leasing a mill, finally buying the mill-property known as the " Underhill mill," which he has rebuilt with all modern improvements. In connection with the mill-property he has some six hundred acres of land, with one hundred under improvement. He also has a lumber-yard at Brighton, Livingston Co., where he retails his lumber. Politically, Mr. Watson is a Republican; in that, as all matters, he takes decided grounds. In all local public affairs he takes an active part; on the school board has occupied some position for many years; is justice of the peace and town clerk. On all questions of reform he has a deep interest; is an outspoken temperance advocate, and chairman of the township temperance committee. Mr. and Mrs. Watson are active and consistent members of the Baptist Church, of which he is deacon, and superintendent of the Sunday-school, They are the parents of five children, two sops and three daughters. They have lost two children. f HENRY W/ATSON MRs HENRY WATSON. RES. AND SAW M/LLS OF HAENRY WA TSON, MONTCALAW MONTCALM CO MCIH. I MAPLE THIS township is the southeast quarter of the original township of Pierson, of which it formed a part until 1864 It presents much diversity of soil and timber. The hardwood varieties are confined principally to the north half of the township, while the south half contains large tracts of pine, which are being rapidly exhausted. The water systems which drain the township flow north into Tawarack Creek and south into Flat River. There are a number of lakes, of which the largest is the Muscalonge, which is situated principally on section 26, and whose outlet furnishes a water-power just below the village of Trufant. Into this stream flow the waters of Cranberry Lake, on section 26, and the small lake on section 22. The two lakes are connected by a small stream. On the latter lake is the saw-mill of Barnard & Co., which has a capacity of forty thousand feet of lumber per day. A tramway is used to convey the lumber fromn the east part of the township to the mill. Two small lakes in the southwest part empty into Black Creek, on section 30. This and section 31 are almost entirely covered with low land. A part of sections 24 and 25 is also low and swampy. Black Creek, which drains the west part of the township, rises on the south part of section 9, and flows southwest and south and enters Kent County, and finally reaches Flat River in the township of Montcalm. Near the village of Coral, on section 8, are also two small lakes. There are several other small bodies of water in various parts of the township, some of which are drained by a stream which flows in a northwesterly direction and empties into Tamarack Creek. The Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad runs diagonally through the township, furnishing ready means for the shipment of produce from its four stations, which are Colwell, Maple Valley, Trufant, and Coral. The latter is largest, having a population of about seven hundred. The township is bounded on the north by Winfield, on the east by Pine, on the south by Kent County, on the west by Pierson, and in the United States survey was designated township number 11 north, of range 9 west. ITS SETTLEMENT. The permanent settlement of Maple Valley began in 1858, when Heber Cowden, with his family, settled on the northwest fractional quarter of section 11. He was a native of Washington Co., N. Y., whence he came direct to Jackson Co., Mich., in 1835, where he continued to reside until 1858. On coming to Maple Valley he built a cabin and began a clearing, and continued to reside on this land until his death, in 1862. His death was the first in the township. Mr. Cowden was a well, hearty man, but one day, coming in the house from his work, complained of feeling ill, and in five minutes he died of heart disease. VALLEY. The funeral took place at his cabin, which still stands on the bank of Cowden Lake. He was buried on his own land, near the lake, in a beautiful spot, now marked by a few rails, which are a part of the fence by which it was formerlyinclosed. Of his children, of whom he had five, none how remain in the township. His wife now resides with one of her daughters. Michael Whalen came to the township about the same time. He entered the southwest quarter of section 31 and the west half of the southeast quarter of the same section. Soon after his brother Simon came in. Neither was then married, and both are now dead. Ii June, 1858, E. J. Blanding, of Livingston Co., N. Y., and his father-in-law, Howland Soules, of Vergennes, Kent Co., came to Maple Valley, which was then a part of Pierson. The latter selected several tracts of land, but did not become a resident. Two of his sons, James P. and Benjamin Soules, subsequently settled in the township, but-at the time they entered their land several settlements had already been made. James and Jacob Ferguson, John, James, William, and Patrick Cody, and Patrick Lynch all settled in the township previous to 1858, and all became permanent residents. James Ferguson settled on section 18, his brother Jacob on section 7, the Cody brothers, who were direct from Ireland, on section 15, where they still reside. Patrick Lynch settled on section 8. His daughter Mary, who was born in the summer of 1861, was the first white child born in thie township. She still lives with her father. In the fall of 1860, E. J. Blanding came in and settled on the land which he had entered two years previous. The lumber of which the floor of his cabin was made was hauled from Denmark, seventeen miles distant. In 1863, Mr. Blanding enlisted and served in the Tenth Michigan Cavalry as sergeant, and was subsequently promoted to lieutenant. In the mean time several other families had reached the township. Daniel Appleby settled with his family on section 7, and Peter Wood located just beside him. Neither now lives in the township. VILLAGE OF CORAL. In the fall of 1861, Charles Parker came to the township and settled on section 7. He bought also the west half of the northwest quarter of section- 9 from Charles Wilson, who settled in Pierson. Mr. Parker bought this eighty acres for the pine which grew upon it, intending to float it down Tamarack Creek, and, in pursuance of this plan, he put a considerable number of logs in the river. But the mill company of Howard City, considering this an imposition on them, brought suit against the lumber cqnpany for damages, and the practice of rafting logs was prohibited. Hence, when the saw-mill of Morris and Henry 477 478 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. Stump was completed, Mr. Parker commenced the manufacture of lumber. And when the Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad was completed through here he laid out the village, which he called Coral. Wilson had cleared about an acre of land and built a log cabin, which is still standing. This was the first house in this vicinity, and was built when the country was a mere wilderness. The next was a log house built by Parker for his men while he was engaged in taking out log. This mill, which had a capacity of twenty thousand feet per day, was the beginning of the business interests of the little village. It was burned, however, in 1874. Clayton Wood soon after bought a lot, built a small house, and opened a light stock of goods. This was the first stor in the township. But he soon failed in business and turned his attention to farming, but subsequently removed to Dakota. The development of the village from this time was rapid. James Parks came from Indiana and opened a blacksmith-shop. Frankinberger opened the next store. The saw-mill and dryer built by J. Potter Hart in 1872 had a capacity of forty thousand feet per day. It continued in full operation, turning out ai immense quantity of lumber and employing from forty to sixty men, until the pine was exhausted and the mill removed, in 1880. It is now owned by Clark, Hinkle & Morse. The stavefactory, now in active operation, was first built for a shinglemill, and as such was used until, as before stated, the pine was all made use of. The flouring custom-mill was built by George Highlander. It has one run of stone for feed and one for flour. Coral now has a population of seven hundred, and, besides the business-plices already mentioned, has three hotels, several general stores, and other small places of business. Charles Parker, its founder, remained in the township until 1880, when he removed, with his family, to Oregon. RELIGIOUS. Covgregational Church of Coral.-On Thursday, Nov. 7, 1872, the first meeting having for its object the organization of a Congregational Church at Coral met at the house of Deacon Harvey Woodruff. After due deliberation in regard to the expediency of forming a society, in which were discussed the probabilities of success, it was decided by those present to make the effort. It was also decided to call an ecclesiastical council to meet in Coral on the 23d of November following Charles Parker and James R. Taylor were appointed a committee to invite the societies at'Croton, Greenville, and Portland to take part in the exercises. In the mean time, these and other preliminaries being completed, on the 24th of November, 1872, the society was organized and the following names enrolled: Charles Parker, Mrs. Isabella Parker, Isaac Mattison, Mrs. Adriance Miles, James R. Taylor, Mrs. Mary E. Taylor, Mrs. Sarah McDonald. The next day the officers were elected: J. R. Taylor, Isaac Mattison, J. C. Richards, Deacons; J. R. Taylor, Secretary; Isaac 'Mattison, Treasurer. J. A. Worden was invited and served the first year as pastor for the society. The chapel was erected in 1875, at a cost of fifteen hundred dollars. It was dedicated by Rev. Eaton, Nov. 26, 1876. Rev. S. Snyder I I T I preached the closing sermon. The present membership is fifty-eight. The church-property is valued at fifteen hundred dollars. Methodist Episcopal Church.-The society of this church was organized in the fall of 1862 by Rev. David Gilbert, of Oakfield, Kent Co., and consisted of the following members: E. J. Blanding, Mrs. Jane Blanding, Elias R. Ferguson, Jane Ferguson, Martin Phillips and wife, James Ferguson. These persons held their meetings at the house of E J. Blanding, and Mr. Gilbert continued to conduct the services. He was the first minister having a regular appointment in the township. This class has continued its exercises, with an intermission of but a few months, until the present time, for the present organization may properly be considered but a continuation of that class. In the spring of 1872, Rev. J. W. Faucett was assigned to this charge. He at once agitated the question of building a church, and succeeded so far as to get a building up and inclosed. But it was not finished until 1879. Rev. Mr. Joslyn, of Albion College, preached the dedicatory sermon in February, 1873. A collection was taken at that time for the purpose of completing the edifice. Rev. Mr. Haviland is the present pastor, and the membership is twenty-four. SCHOOLS. The first school district was set off by the school board of Pierson in the fall of 1860. It comprised the northwest quarter of the township. The first school-meeting was held at the house of E. J. Blanding, on section 7. He was elected director, Clayton Wood moderator, and James Ferguson assessor. No school was taught during the winter. In the following spring a log cabin eighteen by twenty-four feet was built on the southeast corner of the northwest quarter of section 7, on land owned by Howland Soules. Elizabeth Parker, now the wife of Peter Taylor, taught the first school, which lasted three months. She had seven scholars from the families of James and Jacob Ferguson, Charles Parker, and Clayton Wood. She received three dollars per week, and boarded around with the patrons of the school. A grand Fourth-of-July celebration was gotten up during this summer, at which Charles Parker and E. J. Blanding orated, while their families were the interested audience. This was the only district formed previous to the organization of Maple Valley. The next district formed comprised the central portions of the township. The school in the village of Coral was first taught in a little frame building which stood on the south side of the railroad. But the rapid growth of the village rendered this impossible to accommodate the scholars. Accordingly the question of building a-new house was agitated, and culminated in calling a meeting, at which a building committee of five citizens was appointed, and three thousand dollars was voted to build a house, which was completed in 1873, and cost between three and four thousand dollars. The school is graded, and is now in charge of Charles Tucker. FIRST TO WNSHIP-MEETING. The first township-meeting of Maple Valley was held in the shingle shanty of Seth Moen, on section 1. The meet MAPLE VALLEY. 479 ing had been appointed tb be held at his house, but he having moved away it was adjourned to the place above mentioned. Maple Valley at this time comprised town 12- north, of range 9 west, now the township of Winfield. There were at that time eighteen voters in the two townships. PRINCIPAL TOWNSHIP OFFICERS. The supervisors, clerks, treasurers, and justices of the peace elected annually for the years 1864 to 1880, inclusive, are as follows: SUPERVISORS. 1864 —67, Charles Parker; 1868, Philo B. Ingham; 1869-70, Henry Stamp; 1871, Samuel Wiseman; 1872, D. L. Shook; 1873-74, Charles Parker; 1875-79, A. C. Fisher; 1880, William Birkett. TOWN CLERKS. 1864, Charles Parker; 1865, James S. Ferguson; 1866, R. Rain; 1867, J. B. Fletcher; 1868-69, Alvin Davis; 1870, Henry Cowden; 1871, Alvin Davis; 1872, E. J. Blanding; 1873-80, John Halcomb. TREASURERS. 1864, James Cody; 1865, Jacob Ferguson; 1866, Isaac Mattison; 1867, Peter Kain; 1868, William Cody; 1869, Peter Kain; 1870, Isaac Mattison; 1871, Henry Cowden; 1872, Edwin Meads; 1873-74, J. C. Richards; 1875-76, D. L. Shook; 1877, Isaac Morris; 1878, Richard Kearney; L879, T. G. Northrup; 1880, R. Kearney. JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. 1864, Michael Whalen, William Cody, Charles Parker, William Sheehan; 1865, William Sheehan; 1866, Charles Parker; 1867, Charles Condon, William Cody; 1868, E. R. Ferguson; 1869, James S. Morrison, Cyrus Hinchman; 1870, Emory J. Blanding, James I. Parks; 1871, Rev. R. M. Wright, Andrew Aeker; 1872, J. P. Taylor; 1873, T. H. Stimpson, Samuel Wiseman; 1874, S. Belgrave, C. M. Slawson; 1875, E. J. Blanding, J. D. Van Tassel; 1876, Charles Baldwin; 1877, Sylvester Belgraves, John Skech; 1878, G. B. Lewis, W. M. Parsons; 1879, J. R. Taylor; 1880, James Starks. TRUFANT VILLAGE. This village is laid out on land entered from government by Mr. Trufant, who built a saw-mill here in 1872, which was the first run by water in the township. He sold out to J. l I I B. Hileman and Jacob Hesser, who built a steam saw-mill on the site of the old one. They have since added a shingle- and planing-mill, and now employ eighty men. They average forty thousand feet of lumber and forty thousand shingles per day. Their planing-mill is one of the best in the county. There are now four mills in the vicinity of Trufant, some of which will not continue in operation more than a few years. The firm of Hileman & Hesser laid out the village in the year 1874, and named it after Mr. Trufant, the first settler of this land, who removed to Mount Clemens and there died. The first building erected was a boarding-house built by this firm and run by Samuel Barr. In 1872, T. H. Stimpson put up a building for a hotel. He was a member of the United Brethren Church, and subsequently went to preaching. The first store was opened by Herrick Fox. He built a small house and' opened a light stock of goods, but did not remain long in the business. Philip Wilson opened a stock of goods in 1873, and remained in business but four years. Frank Seymour started in the mercantile business in Trufant in 1875, and closed out in 1880. George H. Cowin opened a stock of drugs in 1877, and still continues in this business. Dr. J. T. Joslyn was the first physician to locate in Trufant. He remained but a year, and then returned to Guernsey. He was succeeded by Dr. Hammond, who is still a resident of the village. The death of Elmer Howey in 1872 was the first in the village. MAPLE VALLEY VILLAGE. This hamlet is situated principally on land owned by William Fitzgerald, in section 15. He sold eighty acres to R. Kearney, who laid out the village in 1872. The sawmill at this place had been built by Babcock & Ferguson in 1870. Soon after the village was laid out, Dr. Slawson, who was also the first postmaster, built a store-room and opened a stock of goods. He remained in business some years. The hotel was built by Horace Sturtevant. There are now one hotel and one general store in the village. The population is about fifty. P I E R S N. THE township of Pierson originally included the three townships now known as Reynolds, Winfield, and Maple Valley, in addition to its present territory of town 11 north, of range 10 west. In the eastern part is a low and wet portion of land, covering the greater part of a number of sections and extending northwest towards Wood Lake, which is situated on section 15. This low wet land is usually known as Bear Swamp, from a large bear which had his retreat here and is supposed to have escaped the hunters for several years. The western part of the township contains a system of lakes which are drained by a branch of the Tamarack River. The best farming-lands are situated in the southern and northeastern portions of the township. Pierson is bounded north by Reynolds, east by Maple Valley, south by Kent County, and west by Newaygo County. It was named after the family-name of NIartin Pierson, several members of which were its first-settlers. EARLY SETTLEMENTS. In the year 1852, Stephen R. Pierson settled in the township of North Plains, lonia Co. He was a native of Ontario Co., N. Y., where his parents and a large family still reside. Two years later, influenced by favorable reports from him and a gentleman from Cortland, Mich., two other brothers, David and Orson Pierson, and their father started from New York with a team of horses, by which they journeyed to Buffalo, where they took passage for Detroit, Mich. Upon reaching this place they again had recourse to their' team, and drove through to the home of their brother in Ionia County. As government or State lands were the object of their visit, they came to town 11 north, of range 10 west, and entered one hundred and sixty acres on sections 27 and 28. Although other tracts were soon entered, it is thought to have been the first entry made in the township. They built a cabin twenty by twenty-four feet in dimensions, one story high, with a roof sloping one way, the ceiling being so low as to allow a man scarce room to stand erect in. This cabin stood on the farm of Orson Pierson, and was the first built in this township. On the 14th of December, 1854, George M. Pierson, having sent on some household goods, with a wife and four small children, left his home in New York and set out on his journey to join the settlement commenced by his brothers in Michigan. Kalamazoo was at that time the nearest railroad-station. They therefore took the stage at that place, and, Grand Rapids being the end of the line, made the rest of the journey in a lumber-wagon. The cabin of his brother, being the only one in the township, was already filled to overflowing. The new party increased the company to eighteen. A wagon-box served as one bed, while 480 those not so fortunate were stowed away as best they could be. The different families, however, soon built cabins on the land, which they at once secured. In the latter part of January,.1855, Milford Pierson was born, being the first white child born in Pierson township. He is at present a resident of Walla Walla, Washington Territory. George M. Pierson built the next cabin in the township. It stood just in front of the place where his present residence stands. Having no team, the work of clearing, which he soon began, was necessarily slow and difficult. In addition, he was compelled to spend much of his time away from home, in order to procure the necessaries of life. The farm which he now owns is one of the best improved and productive in the township. When he moved into his cabin it had neither door nor window, blankets, hung before the openings, serving this purpose. The snow lay several feet deep. On the 6th day of March Charley MA Pierson was born, being the second child born in the township. He is now a resident of Hersey, Osceola Co., where he settled in 1878. During the first winter George M. Pierson made shingles, which he hauled to Rockford and sold for ten shillings per thousand, and at the same time paid five dollars per hundred-weight for flour; but the woods abounded in game, deer especially being abundant, and from this source supplies were secured. Round Lake, also, on the southeast quarter of section 33, as well as the larger bodies of water more remote from the settlement, abounded in schools of fish, which with little, trouble could be secured at all times. George M. Pierson, during the greater part of the time, for five years was absent, except during Sunday, his work being about sixteen miles distant. He carried home on each successive Saturday night provisions for his family the week following. He dug up the ground with a mattock, upon which he raised one hundred bushels of corn and sixty bushels of potatoes. The first year a large bear carried off a hog to the woods and devoured it while Mr. Pierson was absent from home, since which time six others have been lost in the same way. At the time of settlement the nearest trading-post was Rockford. Mrs. G. M. Pierson resided in the township eight years before visiting a dry-goods store. Her sister, Miss Polly Malvina Peck, who came to the township with her and lived here during the first years of its settlement, removed to the south part of the State. Their father, Thomas Peck, came to Pierson some years later and settled on section 27, and here he resided until his death. The first death in Pierson was that of a young man named Fish, who was accidentally shot in the arm by Hardy Cram. He was interred on the farm owned by George Pratt, from which he was removed to the cemetery at a later day. PIERSON. 481 P4 The first wedding in Pierson was in 1856, when Isaiah Alley and Naomi Barker were married. Squire Punches, of Nelson, officiated. Dr. Daniel Shook, now of Coral, was the first resident physician. He was born in Dutchess Co., N. Y., and, after practicing in his native county and Canada, settled in the north part of Pierson in the year 1862. He removed to Coral in 1877. Caleb Rice was one of the first settlers in the north part of Pierson. He was born in New York, whence he came to this township in the fall of 1855. His father, Amos L. Rice, entered the southwest quarter of section 2 the spring previous. He settled here permanently, and resided here until his death. Caleb Rice now resides upon the homestead entered by his father. The spring following their settlement here they set out the first fruit-trees in the place. George M. and John Fields settled on the southeast quarter of section 12 in February, 1856, where they still reside. Rufus Reed entered the west half of the southeast quarter of section 2. Soon after Mr. Rice had built his cabin his son-in-law, G. M. Pratt, came to the township. He chose a location on section 5 and commenced to erect a mill, which he subsequently sold to Harvey Porter, who completed it some years after. It was the first grist-mill in Pierson. RESIDENTS TN 1858. Following is a list of resident tax-payers (according to the assessment roll of that year) of the township in 1858: Acres. O. N. Andrews, sections 6, 31......................... 81 Elias Andrews, section 6.................................... 4 Elias Alley, sections 5, 9, 10............................ 440 Seth Beal, section 12......................................... 80 Ira Carpenter, section 6.................................... 120 Simon Daggett, section 18................................ 40 James Allen, section 7...................................... 40 Samuel Allen, section 7............................... 40 John Day, section 11........................................ 160 S. De Clair, section 6........................................ 125 Benjamin Ensley, section 7................................ 96 John Fields, sections 12, 22................................ 120 Jeremiah Fields, section 2................................. 80 Isaac Gilleo, sections 12, 1................................. 160 George F. Gillmore, sections 5, 6......................... 80 Eli 1ialleck, section 20..................................... 40 Aaron Halleck, section 20.................................. 40 William Harris, section 6................................... 135 Caleb Johnson, section 1.................................... 80 Indian Johnson, section 13................................. 40 John Lynch, section 19.................................. 120 Patrick Lynch, section 19................................... 96 John Moore, sections 6, 31................................. 186 George A. Page, sections 10, 12.......................... 400 William R. Page, section 18............................. 83 George M. Pratt, section 21................................ 80 David S. Pierson, sections 27, 28......................... 160 0. Pierson, section 28................................... 160 George M. Pierson, section 33............................. 185 R. Steven Pierson, section 27.............................. 160 Robert R. Dingley, section 7........................... 89 Samuel Rose, sections 1, 12................................. 120 John Rose, section 12...................................... 80 William Rose, section 12.................................... 80 Caleb Rice, section 22...................................... 160 Amos L. Rice, sections 2, 3................................. 320 Rufus Reed, section 2....................................... 40 Indian Scott, section 13.4.................................. 40 Joshua Stevens, section 20.................................. 120 Indian Sauba, section 13.................................... 40 Moses Swarthout, section 14............................... 120 Byron H. Weed, section 33................................. 1QQ Richard Whalen, sections 30, 31...................... 160 TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION, The township of Pierson was erected in 1857, but the records in the clerk's office reach back only to 1862, the 61 records preceding this time having been lost, if the various business of the township was ever entered in permanent form. The following is a list of the names of persons elected since 1862 to the offices designated: SUPERVISORS. 1862-63, M. C. Purdy; 1864, Henry M. Carpenter; 1865, 0. A. Pierson; 1866-69, Henry M. Carpenter; 1870-79, James D. Parker; 1880, Joseph R. De Wolf. TOWN CLERKS. 1862, James Coleman; 1863, Henry M. Carpenter; 1864, Zadock Ingel; 1865, Thomas S. Peck; 1866-69, Daniel Shook; 1870-71, Thomas S. Peck; 1872, Henry M. Carpenter; 1873, Smith W. Osterhaut; 1874-80, Henry Martin. TREASURERS. 1862, David Pierson; 1863-65, George M. Pratt; 1866-69, Luther M. Carpenter; 1870, Isaiah Alley; 1871-72, George P. Gates; 1873, Hepry Hinkle; 1874-75, Henry A. Wood; 1876, Cyrus Hawley; 1877-78, Thomas S. Peck; 1879, Henry Hinkle; 1880, Sherman E. Bush. JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. 1862, Rufus Reed; 1863, M. S. Cary; 1864, William Rogers; 1865, Elisha Pangborn; 1866, Daniel Sltqok; 1867, George I. Gates; 1868, Oriop A. Pierson; 1869, Elisha Pangborn; 1870, Daniel L. Shook; 1871, William Walter, William Rogers; 1872, Silas Price; 1873, William S. Briggs; 1874, William Rogers; 1875, Orin L. Ray; 1876, Isaac I. Barker, William Freeman, Dewitt C. Peck: 1877, Olnpy H. Richmond, Henry M. Carpenter, Dewitt C. Peck, John Hammill; 1878, William Rogers; 1879, Dewitt C. Peck; 1880, Dewitt C. Peck, Edison 0. Shermerhorn. VILLAGE OF PIERSON. The village of Pierson is located on land entered by Pavid S. Pierson and Dexter Clark, who were many years residents of the township. The former is npw a resident of Los Angeles, Cal.; the latter died, and is interred in the township cemetery. When the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad was completed through Pierson, this village and another in the north part of the township were laid out. Neither has attained any special importance or size. O. H. Richmond opened the first store here, in 1867. The building which he erected stood on the southwest corner of the northwest quarter of section 27. This building was destroyed by fire. In 1868, C. O. Taylor built a hotel, usually known as the Taylor House. Some years later he built an addition, and then sold it to Otis Buck. Dr. H. F. Kilborn is a native of Canada, and came to Pierson in 1869. He was the first physician in the village, but remained only a short time, when he removed to New York. Drs. D. Everett, H. S. Holden, and Col. D. Johnson followed. The Pierson Hotel was built by Richard Qage. In 1870, IMcConnell & Sons, of Elkhart Co., Ind., built a saw-mill at this place. It has turned out, on an average, three millions of feet per year. The work of the present year will exhaust the lumbering interest at this village. In 1877 this firm erected the Empire FlouringMills of Pierson at a cost of ten thousand dollars. The mill has a capacity of seventy-five barrels of flour. The village of Pierson now contains a population of between four hundred and five hundred. There are two general stores, a drug-store, and confectionery-store, two churchbuildings, and a good union school-house. 482 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. RELIGIOUS. METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. The history of Methodism in Pierson begins with a sermon preached in 1879 by Rev. Crane, of the Wesleyan Methodist Church. From that date Rev. Thomas Peck, a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and an incessant and successful Christian worker, preached on each alternate Sabbath until the spring of 1860, when he organized the first society in the place, numbering seven probationers and one full member. Their names were 0. A. Pierson, leader, Mrs. 0. A. Pierson, Nancy E. Pierson, Farella J. Pierson, Naomi A. Peck, George M. Pratt, Harrie N. Clark, probationers, and Nancy A. Peck, member given by letter from Plainfield, West Wisconsin Conference. George M. Pratt was the first appointed steward. The health of Mr. Peck failing, the society was not reported to any Quarterly Conferenee until the summer of 1862. It was then made a part of Laphamville Circuit. The appointment was then supplied with preaching by Rev. D. Gilbert, a local preacher, and Mr. A. Agel, exhorter, both of Oakfield. The first revival meeting was in 1863-64, by Rev. Daniel Rush. The appointment was made a part of Courtland Circuit in 1863, while Rev. J. W. Carothorne was pastor. Rev. F. Freeman followed as pastor in 1864-65, in which year Pierson became a part of Cedar Spring Circuit. Rev. B. W. Smith was appointed preacher in charge in 1866, and Rev. F. M. Deitz assistant. From this time until 1870, Revs. J. H. Tanner and John Graham were successively appointed to the charge. Pierson Circuit was formed in September, 1870, and consisted of the following appointments: Pierson, Maple Valley, Reynolds, Marble's, and Coral, Rev. N. Saunders pastor. Howard City was added in 1872. In this year Rev. D.-M. Ward was appointed pastor, followed by J. W. Hallowell in 1873. In 1874, Howard City was detached from Pierson charge, and under the new arrangement it took the name of Pierson and Coral Circuit, consisting of Pierson, Coral, and Marble's, with Rev. W. I. Cogshell as pastor. Maple Valley was added the following year. A parsonage and lot was purchased in Pierson, at a cost of five hundred dollars, on April 3,1872. An addition was built in the winter of 1873-74, making a comfortable and commodious house. At a meeting of the board of trustees, April 6, 1874, it was decided to build a church-edifice during the coming year. A site was immediately secured, and something over one thousand dollars raised for building funds. The building was not commenced, however, until Aug. 23, 1876. The building, a neat and substantial church, was completed and was dedicated by Rev. D. F. Barnes. A subscription of eleven hundred dollars was aised at this time, which was two hundred dollars more than the debt. The present membership is fifty. CHURCH OF CHRIST. On February 25th this society was organized by Elder E. H. Brooks, and the following names were enrolled: Alfred Driskell, Sally Driskell, Sarah Goodwell, Alvin P. Stringham, John Boyer, John F. Carr, Albert Stringham, Daniel Boyer, Catharine Boyer, Maria Miller, Emily Williams, Laura Parker, Henry Lewis, Sarah M. Lewis, Elizabeth Brown, Mary Gokey, Lucretia E. McHenry, Sarah J. Holcomb, Socrates Sheldon, Henry Pomeroy, Mary J. Webster, Erepta Gates, and Electa Brackbill. Albert Stringham has been pastor of the society from its formation until the present time. The church-edifice was built in 1879, and the opening exercises were conducted by Elder E. Sears, of Dowagiac. The edifice, which has cost eight hundred dollars, is not yet completed. There is a Sabbathschool in connection with the society. When the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad was projected through Pierson, in compliance with a petition signed by the requisite number of voters, a meeting was appointed to be held at the house formerly owned by Orson Pierson, for the purpose of voting on a proposition to aid the railroad company by issuing township bonds in its favor. The decision rendered by the inspectors at this time was as follows: " We, the inspectors of election held in the township of Pierson, Montcalm Co., Mich., on Tuesday the 7th day of December, 1865, for the purpose of voting aid, or no aid, to the Grand Rapids arid Indiana Railroad, do hereby declare that the whole number of votes cast was (48) forty-eight; that the whole number of votes cast For aid for Railroad, No, was thirty-five;' that the whole number of votes cast for ' Aid for Railroad, Yes, was (13) thirteen.' We therefore declare it carried, ' Aid for Railroad, No."' This board consisted of Orson A. Pierson, William Rogers, Julius Fields, and F. S. Peck. The project, however, did not rest here. Another petition was directed to the town clerk on the 20th of December, 1867, and in compliance therewith a meeting was appointed on Jan. 7, 1868. At this meeting, which was held in District No. 2, forty-seven votes were cast in favor of granting aid, and thirty-two votes were deposited against it. This declaration is signed by William Rogers, Daniel L. Shook, and D. Shook. It will thus be seen that the township of Pierson, which at the time included also town 12 north, range 10 west, decided to issue bonds on the township in the sum of six thousand dollars, and bearing interest at seven per cent., in favor of the railroad company. One of the conditions upon which these bonds were issued was that they should be delivered to the railroad company when said road "shall be completed from the village of Cedar Springs, Kent Co., to the north line of Pierson township," which at this time is the north line of Reynolds, It thus seems the provision and understanding was that the entire territory included at the time in the township of Pierson was to be benefited by the road, and accordingly be considered held responsible for the insurance and redemption of these bonds. Town 12 north, of range 10 west, having been set off under the name of Reynolds, and no mention of bonds having been made at the time of settlement between the two townships, the bonds coming due against the township of Pierson have been entirely ignored by the township of Reynolds. Thus between them a most burdensome lawsuit has been commenced. PIN E. THE township of Pine, otherwise designated as town 11 north, range 8 west, is bounded north by Cato, east by Douglass, south by Montcalm, and west by Maple Valley. The soil in general is a light sandy loam, and, as the name indicates, the prevailing timber is pine, with a mixture.of beech and maple. The south part is hilly, and in places so rough as to be of little value for farming purposes. In the northwestern part the surface is more level, the timber consisting principally of the hard-wood varieties, and the soil clayey and better adapted to the pursuits of agriculture. On the southwest quarter of section 26 the Flat River, which flows in a southwesterly direction across the township, entering on section 24 and leaving it on section 34, is dammed, and furnishes an excellent water-power. The outlet of the small lake on the southeast quarter of section 21 forms a power in the same locality. Near the centre of section 28 the outlet of Horseshoe Lake furnishes another good power. Thus the south part is furnished with three good motors, which for many years have been utilized in the manufacture of lumber. These, in connection with several steam-mills now in active operation, and others that have operated from time to time, and the Flat River, which heretofore has borne large quantities of logs from its immediate vicinity, have nearly cleared the township of its once beautiful and extensive tracts of pine, which were among the finest in the county. ITS SETTLEMENT. The development of the lumbering interests was the occasion of the first improvements in the township of Pine. About the year 1851-52 an association of men known as the John Green Company, and composed of John Green, Abel French, Josiah Russell, and Charles C. Ellsworth, came into the township, and with a force of men at once began preparations for erecting a saw-mill. There was at this time no settler nor human habitation, aside from those of the Indians, within its confines. It was necessary, therefore, that cabins for the men be first built, which, when erected, were only of a temporary character, as the company purposed building more permanent quarters as soon as lumber could be manufactured. The river was soon dammed, though not substantially, as it subsequently washed out, a frame was erected, and one saw set in operation. The cabins built at this time were the first in the township, and stood east of the mill, near the bank, none of which now remain. The following Christmas another saw was added, and the force of men was increased. Isaac Hart, who died in the late war, was the sawyer of the upright saw; -- Smead, foreman of the circular saw. The company failed in about two years, and the mill passed into the hands of Eastern parties. Of the members of the John Green Company, but one, Charles C. Ellsworth, is living. After the dissolution of the company he moved to Greenville, where he still resides, a member of the bar and one of its oldest attorneys. Josiah Russell, who was a man of considerable means and owned large tracts of land in various localities, subsequently removed to the North, where he died. John Green was a resident of Greenville, and is spoken of more fully in another part of this work. His son, John Green, Jr., owns a saw-mill in the western part of Sidney. Abel French afterwards became a resident of Cato, where he lived many years. Among the many who owned the mill-property at Langston were George Saux, of Greenville, and Edwin Breese. It next came into the possession of a firm in Grand Rapids. It is now owned by D. J. Brown, who contemplates erecting a grist-mill, to run in conjunction with the saw-mill, and for which there is an abundant power. It will supply a want long felt, and will be a material help to the village and the surrounding country, the nearest mill at this time being at Gowen, six miles distant. The first settler who came into Pine intending to engage in agriculture was Alfred Wakeman, who is now a resident of Oakfield. He settled on the south half of the southwest quarter of section 6, some years after the settlement in the southeastern part of the township began. He was followed soon after by James Starks, who is still a resident, and T. O. Berry, both of whom settled on section 6. While the mill before referred to was yet in possession of Edwin Breese, Daniel Lang, from Steuben Co., N. Y., came in to take charge and oversee the work. But scarce a year had elapsed when Mr. Breese failed, and Mr. Lang was compelled to look about, as were all the employees, for occupation elsewhere. It was not in Montcalm in those days as at present. Work could not always be secured for the asking; indeed, in the earlier years of its settlement work at times could not be secured on any terms. The State road from Greenville to Big Rapids had already been established, and travel over this route had become steady, and constantly increasing. Daniel Lang therefore put up a small frame building, and commenced keeping hotel on a small scale. It was the second frame house in the township, the first being built near the mill by the mill company. The enterprise was entirely successful, and increased patronage rendered it necessary that Mr. Lang should soon build an addition, which he accordingly did. The more additions he built (and they were attached, additions upon additions, until, as is remarked, his house, in the twilight, looked like a castle on 483 484 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. I the Rhine), —and he despaired of furnishing ample accommodations at all times,-the more popular the hotel and its proprietor became. When, anticipating that the travel would possibly shift to another route, he decided to build no more, his hotel was the largest between Greenville and Big Rapids. When the highway from Grand Rapids to this village became the general line of travel, and other routes connected with it, the decline in business anticipated by Mr. Lang came in fact, and this thoroughfare to the north, upon which at all hours of the day, and lasting late into the night, the halloo of teamsters and the crack of their whips could be heard, became almost deserted. The completion of the railroads to the northeast and west also tended to this result. Daniel Lang died in 1869. Henry Caukins, now a resident of Greenville, was also prominently connected with the early development of this township. He was considered the best informed in regard to land boundaries, section-lines, etc., of any man in this section of the State. He became a resident, and lived here a number of years, filling the office of town clerk several terms in succession. He surveyed nearly all the land in this section, and also platted the village of Langston. Nathan H. Briggs, and his elder brother Hiram, who now resides in Kansas, was a native of New York, whence, with his parents, he came to Medina Co., Ohio, when that county was yet comparatively new. In 1837 the family moved into Livingston Co., Mich., then an almost unbroken wilderness, the nearest neighbor being several miles distant. Here his parents settled permanently. In 1851 the brothers referred to came to Pine, intending to spend a part of the winter hunting game. Nathan W. was at this time twenty-one years of age and unmarried, and had no thought of making it his home. By Christmas forty-four deer had fallen by his rifle, and he estimated that he has killed no less than two hundred within the confines of the township of Pine since his stay here. Another brother, Zenas Briggs, who came in in 1862 and engaged in lumbering, of late years has been engaged in farming. In November of 1861, Joseph Wilcox came to Pine from Greenville, where he had settled four years previous. He has since been a constant resident of the township, and prominently connected with its official interests, being elected supervisor at the first town-meeting, an office which he has held more than half the time since. The first post-office in the township was kept in the house of Nathan W. Briggs,-Henry W. Caukins being postmaster and Mr. Briggs deputy,-in 1863. Previous to this time the most convenient office for this section was Greenville. The mail-route at this time extended from that village to Big Rapids, over which the mail passed once a week, being carried on horseback. When the roads became impassable, it was taken on foot. The office was subsequently removed to Daniel Lang's hotel, and next to the store of Mr. Gage, who came in and rented a store-building erected by Zenas Briggs. Gage opened a general stock of goods, but in a single year removed his stock from the township. In 1857, Charles Palmer started a blacksmith-shop. He soon sold to Christopher Lipscomb, a gunsmith. The second store was opened by 4. D. Norton and R. F. Sprague. Norton, who is now a bnlker in pontiac, soon sold to Sprague, who conducted the business very successfully for about three years, when he sold out to Bennett & Mills and removed to Greenville, where he is still in business. The sales of Norton & Sprague were immense, considering the times, aggregating fifty thousand dollars per annum. The large store-room on the northwest corner was built by Thomas K. Ward, and is known as the Ward Block. It is sixty by eighty feet on the ground, and three stories high. The lower floor was intended for store-rooms, the second floor for offices, and the third floor for a large hall. The building was not, however, entirely completed according to original designs. The Briggs Hotel was built by Benjamin Briggs, who came to the township in 1866 and engaged first in the mercantile business. A small hotel had been erected by Christopher Lipscomb on the site now occupied by the fine hotel known as the Briggs House, after its first proprietor. It cost about five thousand dollars. When these buildings were erected there was strong anticipation that the railroad which passes through to the westward would come to Langston. In the fall of 1865 the firm of Price & Kendall erected a saw-mill in the north part of the township, their lands lying principally on sections 5 and 8. They started with a small portable mill and employed but few men. Soon, however, they enlarged the mill and introduced new and improved machinery and employed twenty-five men. The mill with its surroundings had the appearance of quite a village, and received the name of Kendallville, by which the locality is still known. The first school in Pine was taught by Miss Jennie Lang, in an unoccupied room of David Hart's house, in the summer of 1858. The building is still standing, east of the river, at Langston, and is now occupied as a dwelling by Henry Clark. Miss Lang received one dollar and fifty cents per week. The term lasted three months, and the attendance was ten. Joseph Wilcox built the first school-house in the township. It stood just east of the site now occupied by the residence of Zenas Briggs. Miss Mattie Brown taught the first school here, in the fall of 1863. TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION, ETC. Until the year 1862 town 11 north, of range 8 west, was included in the township of Cato. At the time of its organization it comprised the territory now known as Douglass township, town 11 north, of range 7 west. The name was selected from the leading variety of its timber, and was suggested by one of the committee appointed to draft a petition to the Legislature, but the exact formality of the occasion is shrouded in considerable obscurity. The first election was held in April, 1862, at which time nineteen votes were polled, and of which election the following is the result: Supervisor, Joseph Wilcox; Clerk, Daniel Lang; Treasurer, Stephen Aldrich; Justices of the Peace, Stephen Aldrich, Benajah Persons, Alfred Wakeman; Highway Commissioners, Alfred Wakeman, Isaac Hart; Constables, Benjamin Persons, Sylvester Rockafellow. TOWNSHIP OFFICERS. The principal officers of the township have been elected in years as indicate4 as follows; PINE. 485 SUPERVISORS. 1862-70, Joseph Wilcox; 1871, John E. Bloomburg; 1872-74, Zenas Briggs; 1875-77, Joseph Wilcox; 1878-79, William D. Bellows; 1880, Joseph Wilcox. TOWN CLERKS. 1862-66, Daniel Lang; 1867-70, Henry M. Caukins; 1871, Rufus T. Sprague; 1872, Henry M. Caukins; 1873, George L. Crawford; 1874, Hugh T. Hubbard; 1875, Elliott O. Bellows; 1876, Loren C. Fales; 1877-78, George L. Crawford; 1879-80, Christian H. Fredrikson. TREASURERS. 1862, Stephen Aldrich; 1863, Charles Surriss; 1864, Joseph Wilcox; 1865-70, Nathan H. Briggs; 1871, Christopher Lipscomb; 1872 -73, Rufus S. Sprague; 1874, Benjamin H. Briggs, Jr.; 1875-77, William D. Bellows; 1878-79, Zenas E. Briggs; 1880, Thomas B. Winter. JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. 1862, Stephen Aldrich, Benajah Persons, Alfred Wakeman; 1863, Benajah Persons, Daniel Lang, Alfred Wakeman; 1864, Joseph Wilcox; 1865, Harvey E. Price, Nathan H. Briggs; 1866, Harvey E. Price, Ienry M. Caukins; 1867, Truman C. Berry; 1868, Daniel Lang; 1869, Nathan H. Briggs, Ienry P. McLaughlin, Henry T. Clark; 1870, Joseph Wilcox, Henry T. Clark; 1871, Truman C. Berry; 1872, Benjamin H. Briggs, William H. Randall; 1873, John H. Crawford, Robert P. McLaughlin; 1874, Zelotes E. Bloom, Frank A. Stevens; 1875, Nathan H. Briggs, Joseph Look, Truman C. Briggs; 1876, Lawrence W. Sprague, James E. Stark; 1877, David N. Paddock; 1878, W. H. Randall; 1879, Nathan H. Briggs; 1880, C. C. Sayles. The number of votes polled increased from fifteen, the number cast on April 4, 1870, to one hundred and eight, cast April 4, 1871. This rapid increase was due to the platting of the village of Langston, and the many men employed in building, lumbering, etc. The number of votes cast April 5, 1880, was one hundred and sixty-seven. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. AMBROSE ATWOOD. Ambrose Atwood, a very prominent citizen of Montcalm County, died at Kendallville, in that county, Feb. 5, 1879, and the following extract is from a biographical sketch of him, read by Dr. Avery after his death: " The death of a man like Ambrose Atwood deserves more than this passing notice. He was in the prime of life. He was engaged in active business that made large numbers dependent upon him for employment and support. He leaves a young and interesting family, a devoted and exemplary wife, an aged father, and a large circle of personal and business friends to mourn his loss. Probably the most eloquent tribute we can pay to his memory is a plain, truthful record of the prominent traits of his character, and of the leading events of his industrious life. He was born in Alcaster, Canada West, October, 1830, and came to Michigan, when he was sixteen years of age, with his father, who settled in the township of Vergennes, Kent Co. Ambrose remained on the farm until he was of age, when he started in life for himself, with only his hands, his brain, and his energy for his capital. His education was limited to that furnished by the district schools of that early day. Always a hard worker himself, he early developed the fac ulty of utilizing the labor of others: first, as the welldigger, employing from one to three men, and then as the lumberman, giving employment to fiom one hundred to three hundred men, and from fifty to one hundred teams. "In 1857 he was married to Miss Henrietta Weeks, daughter of the late Hiram Weeks, of Otisco, Ionia Co., Mich., to whom he leaves five children,-three girls and AMBROSE ATWOOD. two boys, a son and daughter grown. In 1859, partly with a view to get relief from a painful affliction from which he had suffered from his youth up, he made an ocean trip to California. Returning in 1869, he engaged at once in lumbering, and has since made his home in the pine-woods of Michigan. He has been one of the hardest workers of all that hard-working class whose mission it is to convert the forest to the use of man. In common with most men who have carried on extensive jobbing operations in lumbering, he has had his 'ups and downs;' but he has always paid his workmen, and no man has ever questioned his downright honesty. In 1872 he bought what was known as the Price & Kendall mill, together with a large tract of pine-land in the township of Pine, Montcalm Co., where he has since been engaged in business, and where he died. And, though he has suffered heavy losses in the depreciation of property, in the burning of his mill last summer [1878], and in the failures of parties to whom he had sold lumber, he has struggled through these last years of business depression, preserved his credit, and is believed to have left a fair competency for the support of his family. The present winter he has delivered at Colwell, a distance of six miles from his mill, five million feet of lumber, and put into the lake at his mill for his next season's sawing seven million feet of logs. A community has grown up around his mill of more than ordinary intelligence and thrift, and, while his mind has been engrossed in business, he has not been unmindful of the wants of the little community he has called around him. Largely by his efforts and means, a neat school-house has been erected, and one of 486 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. I the best schools in Northern Michigan is steadily maintained. The minister has followed the school-teacher, and religious services are regularly held,-all showing that he has not lived and labored for self alone, but has guarded with considerate care the interests of the little neighborhood of which he was the centre. "As an employer, while he was exacting, he was kind, thoughtful of the interests of, and thoroughly honest with, his men. When he died, he had men in his employ who had been with him through all the years he had been engaged in lumbering. As a business man, he was a believer in the scriptural injunction, Whatsoever thy hands find to do, do it with all thy might.' As a friend, he was social and generous. His home was always open to his friends, and an asylum for the unfortunate among his relatives. He was a devoted husband and a kind and indulgent father. He was made a Mason while in California, and at the time of his death was a member of the Blue Lodge and Chapter in Greenville, of the Grand Rapids Commandery, and of the Detroit Consistory, A. and A. R., 320.... He led an active, honorable business life. He died in the midst of his activity and usefulness, and leaves a vacant place in the order of which he was so distinguished a member, in the business community, in the social circle, and in his family, not easily filled. That he had faults argues his humanity. His virtues and good works will live after him to encourage and instruct others. We bow in silence to the providence which has removed him from among us." Resolutions of respect to his memory were unanimously adopted by Greenville Lodge, No. 96, F. and A. M. Since his death Mrs. Atwood has purchased a fine farm of one hundred and twenty acres in the township of Ronald, Ionia Co., where she is living, surrounded by her children, except her oldest son, who is tallyman for McPherson, Birkett & Co., lumbermen, in the north part of the State. Mr. Atwood's father makes his home with her. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Atwood are Llewellyn W., born Nov. 20, 1858; Ina M., born April 16, 1862; Eda M., 'born Oct. 16, 1866; Eva A., born Feb. 8, 1870; and Guy W., born Aug. 3, 1874. In politics Mr. Atwood was a Republican, and, although not an office-seeker, was always interested to a great extent in the Republican cause, and aided it in every way in his power, often taking his team and carrying his employees to the polling-place. In his younger days he was a Baptist; at his death he was a member of no church, and was a Universalist in belief. Mrs. Atwood is a native of Genesee Co., N. Y., where she was born, Feb. 17, 1840, being the oldest in a family of seven children. Her parents removed to Michigan when she was but eight years of age, and settled in Otisco, Ionia Co. Her father died at Greenville in 1872; her mother is still living in Otisco, Ionia Co. R EYNOL D S. TOWNSHIP 12 north, of range 10 west, is bounded on the north by Mecosta County, east by Winfield township, south by Pierson, and west by Newaygo County. The entire surface of the township, as the streams indicate, slopes in general to the westward towards the Muskegon River, into which empties Tamarack Creek and Little River, which streams drain the township of Reynolds. The latter of these enters the township on section 3 from Mecosta County and flows in a southwesterly course across sections 3,10, 9, 17, and 18, from which it enters Newaygo County. It also makes a slight curve into the northwest quarter of section 16. Stephen Creek, the outlet of the small lake on the line of Reynolds and Cato, enters Little River on section 17. Tamarack Creek, entering on section 36 and passing into Newaygo County on section 30, flows through sections 23, 26, 27, 33, and 32. It receives two small streams from the south which flow through sections 32 and 33. Another stream flows through sections 1, 2, 3, and 10. The township is, therefore, well drained and watered. The soil of the greater part is a light, sandy loam, and in places is not productive. There are, however, some good farming-lands, but they were originally covered with a heavy growth of pine, and no considerable advance was made in agriculture until the completion of the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad. Until within a few years the company controlled large tracts of land here, and still owns considerable. Howard City, which since the completion of the Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad has become a village of considerable importance, furnishes a good market for all kinds of grains and farm produce. The Chicago and Saginaw Railroad, already completed to Lake View in Cato township, is looked upon by the inhabitants of Reynolds as favoring Howard City as its terminus. Such an addition to its railroad communication cannot fail to make it one of the most important shipping points and, perhaps, business centres on this line. The settlement of Reynolds had made no considerable progress previous to the platting of Howard City and the organization of the township, it having been a part of Pierson until the year 1869. At that time there were but thirty-two resident voters in the township, and the larger portion of them were engaged in lumbering or working in the saw-mill built by Harvey R. Stevens on section 32. This was the first mill in Reynolds. The long distance over which the settlers were compelled to haul lumber for all building purposes previous to the building of this mill, and the ready means it afforded for clearing land, by making the labor necessary to that end profitable, rendered it of particular benefit to the settlers who now began to come to the township. Its growth has since been comparatively rapid. This mill passed into the possession of Conner & Aimy, and was operated until 1873, when it burned. Another, built on the same site, was also destroyed by fire, and-has never been rebuilt. In 1869, A. R. Stevens commenced a shingle-mill also, but before completing it he sold a half interest to David Lord. This gentleman, with J. K. Kipp, built a saw-mill on section 33. The streams at this time were being made use of by mill companies at Muskegon for the purpose of rafting large quantities of logs from Reynolds and other townships to the East and North. For this purpose the streams were dammed, and thus large tracts of land were overflowed and rendered practically worthless. The firm of Kipp & Lord were the first to declare war against what they considered an imposition, and when the Muskegon companies commenced to raft logs they very promptly signified their intention to dispute the usurpation. The Boom Company of Muskegon sent men, it is asserted, to tear away the dam of the mill company. Mr. Kipp, with some instrument at hand from the mill, took his position above the men who were about to remove some of the timbers. His resolute demeanor was so suggestive of what they might expect if they persisted in trespassing upon his property that they went away for reinforcements. The case was taken into the courts, and passed from one tribunal to another, until the township was finally freed from this nuisance of raising and lowering the waters in its streams. The malaria arising fiom covering large tracts with water, and then exposing them to the suns of summer, almost universally resulted in fever and ague. The mill company has, however, since allowed rafting to be done at certain times of the year. There are now eleven shingle- and saw-mills in the-township. TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION, PRINCIPAL OFFICERS, ETC. Through some misunderstanding the voters of the township did not assemble at the time appointed by the Legislature, and the organization was not therefore completed until May 17, 1869, when, in accordance with a notice duly given, the electors assembled and elected the necessary officers according to law. J. H. Maze and John Moore, who had been regularly appointed inspectors of election, being absent, Harry Stevens and Abel F. Stevens were appointed in their stead. David Swarthout was appointed chairman, and Horatio L. Wheeler clerk. The whole number of votes cast was thirty-two. In 1880 the whole number of votes cast was two hundred and twenty-two. SUPERVISORS. 1869, David Swarthout; 1870, A. F. Stevens; 1871.75, Amos R. Mather; 1876, Austin C. Leonard; 1877-78, William F. Thompson; 1879, Solomon Lisk; 1880, Albert P. Thomas. 487 488 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. CLERKS. 1869, Horatio L. Wheeler; 1870-71, Walter D. Sabin; 1872, Stafford L. Gates; 1873-74, Wayne E. Morris; 1875-76, Frank Underhill; 1877, Wayne E. Morris; 1878, Daniel A. Murray; 1879, Otto J. Wolfe; 1880, Justus L. Hissong. TREASURERS. 1869-70, William H. Ames; 1871, Jerome L. Reynolds; 1872-74, Chester S. Rockwell; 1875-76, James L. Billiard; 1877-78, William H. Lovely; 1879, R. M. O'Donald; 1880, Joseph T. Jones. JUSTICES. 1869, Abel F. Stevens, Levi Leonard, John C. Williams, A. L. Courier; 1870, Charles O. A. Adams; 1871, Joseph T. Jones; 1872, Sidney Granger, John G. Carpenter; 1873, James Barley; 1874, Jacob Smith, David H. Lord; 1875, John C. Williams; 1876, John G. Carpenter, Solomon Lisk; 1877, Erasmus D. Robinson; 1878, Solomon Lisk; 1879, J. C. Williams; 1880, Michael Keef. SCHOOLS. In June, 1869, the school board, elected at the first town-meeting, met and divided the township into six school districts. District No. 1 contained sections 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and the north half of sections 17 and 18. No. 2 contained section 16, the south half of 17 and 18, sections 19, 20, 21, and the north half of 28, 29, and 30. No. 3 contained the south half of sections 28, 29, 30, the east half of section 32, and all of section 33. No. 4 contained sections 25, 26, 27, 34, 35, and 36. No. 5 contained sections 13, 14, 15, 22, 23, and 24. No. 6 contained sections 1, 2, 3, 10, 11, and 12. There are now seven school districts in the township, one of which is fractional, with the school-house in Newaygo County. There are six schoolhouses in Reynolds, five of which are frame and the other log, with an aggregate valuation of $3850, divided among the districts as follows: District No. 1, $150; No. 2, $500; No. 4, $2000; No. 5, $350; No. 6, $250; No. 7, $600. The total number of scholars who attended school during the last year was three hundred and twenty. The total taxes and resources of the several districts for the year ending Sept. 1, 1880, are as follows: Edmonson, who, with his family, occupied the depot, and who, seeing that travel was constantly increasing, prepared to entertain as many guests as his limited accommodations would allow. This branch of the business seems to have been both agreeable and remunerative to him, since in the fall he built (for a hotel), a small house which, with many modifications, now serves as the wing of the Coburn's Exchange. It was not originally a pretentious edifice, or very comfortable in winter, but it answered the purposes for which it was intended, and was the first business place in Howard City. The village, however, had an early rival. In the winter of 1869-70, J. K. Kipp, Harvey R. Stevens, and a man named Blaisdell formed an association, intending to start a village on the south half of the southeast quarter of section 23, on the line of the railroad and about one mile north of Howard City. This land was owned by Harvey R. Ste-. vens. Blaisdell being a conductor on the railroad, it was thought that through his influence they would be able to secure a station and switch. These preliminary arrangements were entirely successful. The State road to connect with a similar highway from Grand Rapids to Big Rapids had already been completed some distance east from Muskegon, and the projectors of the new village at once set about to secure it. In this, too, they were successful, much to the disappointment of those interested in the prosperity of Howard City, and lots in Reynolds began to be in demand with those seeking business locations. Several were sold, and one purchaser, Orin Andrews, erected a store-building. In the mean time the company were not idle. They began active preparations to receive and set a portable sawmill in operation in order to supply with lumber those wishing to build. This being done, the success of the enterprise was looked upon as insured, while the prospects of Howard City were regarded as correspondingly depressing. Unfortunately for Reynolds, however, a mortgage* now began to be troublesome, and rendered a clear title to the village lots impossible. The collapse of the undertaking was as complete as it was sudden, and the success of Howard City was at once insured. The second place of business opened in this village was the little grocery of W. D. Sabin, who came to Howard and began to erect a small building soon after William Edmonson opened his hotel. Mr. Sabin subsequently added drygoods, and later built a large store-building and opened a stock of hardware. The sales for 1879 aggregated from. eighteen to twenty thousand dollars. Mr. Sabin has severed his connection with this store, the firm-name now being Robbie & Denton, established July 7, 1880. One of the first business places opened in Howard City also was the hardware-store of John F. Chubb, which stood across the road from the hotel built by Edmonson. He remained in trade but a short time. The first saw-mill was built by David Botsford; it is now owned by Henry Hinkle, of Pierson township. The tub works were added, and have been in active operation several years. They have a capacity of three hundred firkins per day, and employ forty men. Taxes. District No........................ $167.00 2....................... 168.59 " " 4.......................1580.00 " "f 5....................... 210.05 " " s 6.................... 337.38 " " 7............ 269.59 Resources. $239.01 215.15 1816.47 245.94 329.43 287.14 HOWARD CITY. The village of Howard City was platted in 1868 by E. W. Muencher, the civil engineer of the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad. The principal part of the village is situated on the north half of the northeast quarter of section 35, and the south half of the southeast quarter of section 26. Benjamin Ensley, an early settler near the east line of Muskegon County, and who at the time the railroad was completed owned a number of tracts of land in this vicinity, was the original founder of the village. The side tracks of the railroad were completed and in August, 1869, the depot erected. This was the first house built within the limits of the village, and besides these improvements there was no sign of a settlement here or break or clearing in the primeval solitudes. The company stationed a man named Spencer at this place, but re was soon superseded by William * This mortgage was unknown to the principals of the enterprise. REYNOLDS. 489 RENLS 489 - Howard City now has several fine stores, two good hotels, and in all nineteen business places and a weekly newspaper. The Howard City Record was established in 1871 by Wayne E. Morris. In 1872 he sold it to V. W. Bruce. In May, 1878, it came into the possession of J. L. Hissong. The office is well equipped and the paper is well established. In 1873, Howard City, having attained the requisite number of inhabitants, was incorporated. The first election under the charter was held on the 7th day of April, 1873, at which time one hundred and nineteen votes were cast, of which, for the office of president of the village, Albert P. Thomas received one hundred and eighteen. The following persons were elected trustees: John F. Chubb, Donly L. Coon, John L. Shattuck, Duncan C. McKinnon; Clerk, George H. Segar; Assessor, R. Mathews; Treasurer, David Botsford; Marshal, Joseph F. Jones. RELIGIOUS. First Free- Will Baptist Church.-This society was organized by Revs. Wm. H. Smith and D. H. Lord, at a meeting held in the school-house at Howard City, on the evening of May 3, 1874, and its original members were named as follows: David H. Lord, Samuel J. Pulsifer, Arthur Scott, Eugene L. Brown, Annetta M. Lord, Arvilla A. Pulsifer, Electa Scott, Louisa Lord, Helen P. Pulsifer, Emma Strong, and Ellen Hickok. S. G. Hickok joined soon after. Rev. David H. Lord, its founder, remained in charge six years. He preached the first sermon in Howard City in the waiting-room of the depot in 1870. The society continued to meet at the school-house during the summer. In the fall of 1874, David H. Lord built a house twenty-four by thirty feet, which cost over five hundred dollars, and now constitutes the vestry of the church. In March, 1875, the society commenced the body of a brick building thirty-six by fifty-five feet, with a spire and belfry. It is a substantial and commodious building, and has cost in the aggregate one thousand five hundred dollars, but is not yet quite completed. It was dedicated May 30, 1880, by Ransom Dunn, D.D., of Hillsdale, at which time a collection was taken amounting to five hundred dollars, which cleared the society from debt. The present membership is forty-seven. The church property is valued at three thousand dollars. In the month of May, 1870, the first Sabbath-school was organized in Reynolds in the dining-room of the small hotel, now a part of Coburn's Exchange, then kept by Wil62 liam Edmonson. On the first day of meeting there was an attendance of seventeen scholars. Rev. David H. Lord was superintendent, and was assisted principally by Mrs. William F. Thompson, who named it the" Star of Hope" Sabbathschool. After meeting at the hotel a few times the place of meeting was changed to a little carpenter-shop owned by Samuel J. Pulsifer, which in the winter was so cold that they again resorted to the hotel. This shop was also at times used as a meeting-house. It stands south of the depot, and is now used as a dwelling-house. In the summer of the next year Amos R. Mather became the teacher of the first Bible-class organized in Reynolds. This Sabbath-school was the germ of the union Sabbath-school, which was so well attended until two churches were erected, when it was divided. The school in connection with the Free-Will Baptist Church still retains the name " Star of Hope," and averages about seventy-five in attendance. First Baptist Church.-This society was organized Feb. 16, 1873, Rev. N. Stillwell officiating, and under whose labors the friends had been brought together. He was invited and consented to preach to the society every alternate Sabbath. The society built a. church, but soon after, through various causes, disintegrated. It was subsequently reorganized by J. J. Martin, and the following officers were elected: C. V. Howe, Deacon; C. Walling, Clerk; A. A. Edburge, Treasurer; Trustees, E. Simmons, V. Skid, E. Edburge, E. Halleck. SECRET BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATIONS. Howard City Lodge, Vo. 329, F. and A. M., was instituted Nov. 16, 1874, under a dispensation granted by Grand Master William S. Webber. The first meeting was held Nov. 23, 1874. On Jan. 6, 1876, the charter was granted, the members at that time numbering twentyfive. The present membership is sixty-seven in good standing. The lodge has a room neatly furnished, and is free from debt, with a surplus fund on hand. Howard City Lodge, No. 220, 1. O. O. F., was instituted March 4, 1874. At the first meeting eleven candidates took the scarlet degree. The encampment in connection was instituted Feb. 22, 1876, with a membership of twelve. It at present has twenty-two members in good standing. The lodge of the Knights of Honor, No. 1830, was organized Oct. 23, 1879, with nineteen charter members, E. Newkirk, of Bay City, officiating. R I C LAN - D. RICHLAND is the northeast township of Montcalm County. It is bounded north by Isabella County, east by Gratiot County, south by the township of Ferris, of which until 1868 it formed a part, and on the west by the township of Home. It is known as town 12 north, of range 5 west. The Pine River, the source of which is in the northeast quarter of section 17, where two small streams, known respectively as the north and south branch, unite to form it, flows eastward across sections 16, 15, 14, and 13. The only bodies of water of any considerable size are Deaner Lake, named after the first settler in the township, and situated on the north part of section 35 and the south part of section 26, Bass Rock Lake, and Pickerel Lake, both partially situated on section 29. The township presents every variety of soil, as is indicated by the great variety of timber. In the southwestern part it is light and sandy, and the timber is almost exclusively pine. This part of the township has been the scene of several severe forest fires, by which much valuable timber was destroyed. Nearer the river the soil becomes a black sandy loam of wonderful productiveness. North of the river beech and maple are the leading varieties, and the soil, though in places light, is generally excellent. The lumbering interest is the principal source of employment, and the demand for farm produce has consequently furnished a good market for home production. The township is still comparatively new and unsettled, there being but a small proportion of its land under cultivation. ITS SETTLEMENT. Charles Deaner was the first settler in the township of Richland. He was born and reared in Wurtemburg, Germany, whence he came to New York City in 1849. Here he remained several years, and, having acquired a slight knowledge of the English language, ventured to remove to Erie Co., N. Y. After a number of years he came to Ionia Co., Mich., and by frugality saved sufficient means to procure a yoke of oxen, a year's provisions, and eighty acres of land at seventy-five cents per acre, which he entered in the summer of 1860, and which was situated on the south part of section 26, in Richland township. In order to establish his claim it was necessary that he build a cabin and pass one night in it. Being entirely unacquainted with the use of the axe, this cabin was an exceedingly primitive structure, comprised as it was of poles laid up something in the form of a corn-crib, with a small opening for a door, and covered with brush. After remaining in this cabin the required time he returned to Ionia, where he remained until the next May, when he employed two teams to fetch his family and goods to the new home. Upon reaching 490 Bell Town the drivers unloaded his goods and, on account of the bad roads, would go no farther. Mr. Deaner then employed others to complete the journey. Upon reaching the house of David Strayer, in Gratiot County, this being the end of the road, Mr. Deaner was compelled to underbrush a road from this place to the land which he had entered. Mrs. Deaner walked the entire distance, carrying the youngest child, then but six months old, and leading a little boy of five years. Nearly exhausted they reached their destination, the land of promise in a wilderness of woods, three miles from their nearest neighbor. But their troubles were not yet ended. The teams, which were soon unloaded, set out immediately to return. They were scarcely out of hearing when the cabin, in which everything of use had been stored, took fire and was destroyed. With much difficulty a barrel of pork and some other articles were saved from the flames. As it was, their bedding, wearing apparel, dishes, and household utensils were destroyed, which was a most serious -loss to them in their limited means. The accident occurred from a fire which had been kindled by Henry Meller, the father of Mrs. Deaner, who, wishing to light his pipe, had indiscreetly applied a match to a brush heap near the house. From this the fire spread rapidly, and threatened at once to envelop the neighboring timber, but after the destruction of the cabin it was checked. The first night passed by a white family in Richland, therefore, was one of extreme hardship. The air was cold, and the rain at intervals poured down in torrents. With no covering or shelter the situation may better be imagined than described. The inability of Mr. Dcaner to use the axe has already been referred to, but by the assistance of Joshua Strayer, who helped him at first in getting a description of his land, and who ever after proved a sincere friend, he stretched some sheets over poles, thus making a passable hut in dry weather, but a very poor protection from wind and rain, In about three weeks he succeeded, without a helping hand, in raising a cabin and covering it with shakes. It served without a floor during the summer. The first season Mr. Deaner planted some potatoes and garden-vegetables, but being planted late they barely returned the seed. The next spring he set out the first fruit-trees in the township, and planted corn and potatoes which yielded abundantly. Having as yet no plow, and the ground being full of roots of trees and brush, he chopped with an old axe little square holes in the ground and thus planted each hill of corn and potatoes. The next winter several parties of men having camped in the vicinity and engaged in getting out logs for the Saginaw market, he found a ready sale for all he could spare. Thus, while many others have made their homes within the limits of Richland, and have soon RICHLAND. 491 become discouraged and removed, thus losing time and the benefit of several years of labor and privation, Mr. Deaner has closely adhered to his original purpose and has been entirely successful. He now has a farm of two hundred and forty acres, one hundred of which is in a good state of cultivation. Some years after his arrival a great many settlers came to the township, but comparatively few remained long enough to make any permanent improvements. A man named Waterman pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres and built a cabin, but soon sold his claim to Elias Corder, who also soon after sold and removed from the township. George IIaynes settled on the southeast quarter of section 23, and remained long enough to girdle the splendid pine-trees on about twenty acres and sowed it to wheat among the standing trees. He remained but four years. The next two settlers, Joshua Painter and John E. Evans, were more permanent, and still remain in the township. Painter entered forty acres on the southeast quarter of section 15; Evans took the adjoining forty acres on section 16. They also together purchased a number of other tracts. Since his stay here Mr. Evans has been extensively engaged in lumbering, having put in the Saginaw market, in the aggregate, twenty millions of feet. He joined the army from Ohio, being in the One Hundred and Twentyeighth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry more than two years. Mr. Painter is now engaged in business in Vestaburgh. Another settler, Levi Watkins, settled in the east part of the township in 1866. Samuel Zink came in shortly after, and now resides in Vestaburgh. SCHOOLS. After the organization of the township the board met and divided it into school districts. There were at the time, however, scarcely scholars enough for one district, and but one therefore organized. This was at the centre of the township. The few families in the south part attended school in Ferris, sometimes walking several miles for that purpose. The people of District No. 1 met at the house of Joshua Painter, in the spring of 1869, and elected the necessary officers and resolved to have three months' school. Joshua Painter, being appointed director, employed John Henry as teacher, who fulfilled his engagement and taught - in a little unoccupied log house which had been built on the farm of Rufus Saunders. In the fall the log house on the east side of the road and on the northeast corner of section 21 was erected. This was the first school-house in the township, and the first school in it was taught by Miss Anna Woodard. TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION. The township of Richland was set off from the township of Ferris in accordance with a petition circulated in the fall of 1869. The first election was held at the house of Joshua Painter, at which time the following persons were elected: Supervisor, Jacob Schonover; Clerk, John E. Evans; Treasurer, Samuel Zink; Justices of the Peace, Samuel Zink, Joshua Painter. I I I TOWNSHIP OFFICERS.* SUPERVISORS. 1876-79, Samuel Zink; 1880, James W. Robinson. TOWN CLERK. 1876-80, G. W. O'Donnell. JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. 1876, William Murray; 1877, Henry S. Fisk; 1878, William H. Purdy; 1879, George W. O'Donnell, H. L. Vorhees; 1880, Isaac H. Clymer. TREASURERS. 1876-77, Isaac M. Freeman; 1878-79, Henry S. Fisk; 1880, John D. Skidmore. VESTABURGIH. The village of Vestaburgh was named after the wife of its founder, G. W. O'Donnell. It is situated on the northeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section 23, on land formerly owned by Morris Dunn, a lumber merchant of Seville, Gratiot Co. In August, 1874, Mr. O'Donnell purchased this quarter, and came with his family to the township and started a lumber camp, rafting the logs to Saginaw by means of the Pine River, which is about two miles north of the village. After establishing a camp and putting up buildings for his men, he applied and was commissioned postmaster under Marshall Jewell, on Sept. 14, 1875. This was the first post-office in the township. In the winter of 1876-77 Mr. O'Donnell employed Miss Eliza Andrews to teach a school, which was the second one taught south of the river and the first in the village. The railroad was completed in the fall of 1875, and, in the month of October, Mr. O'Donnell platted and laid out the village of Vestaburgh. The first business house established was a shingle-mill by Starkweather & Alger, to whom Mr. O'Donnell gave a block for a location for their mill. It was burned after coming into the possession of George W. Parmer. William Starkweather soon after opened a small stock of drygoods and groceries in the building now occupied as a store by James W. Robinson. The post-office was removed from the lumber-camp to this place. The present business interests comprise one drug-store, three grocery- and provision-stores, four hotels, three shingle-mills, and two sawmills. There are no churches in the village, and no religious societies with a definite organization except the United Brethren. The school-house now in use was commenced in 1878, and when completed will afford abundant facilities for the present wants of the people. George W. O'Donnell, the founder of Vestaburgh, was born in Rutland Co., Vt., whence he came to Saginaw in 1854, since which time he has been engaged in lumbering. He is now in the real-estate business in Vestaburgh and vicinity. * Previous to April 5, 1875, no minutes of the annual town-meetings were entered in any permanent records. The notes and minutes of the several elections were taken from the township and have not been returned, and are supposed to have been destroyed. We are unable, therefore, to make out a list of officers previous to the date given above. The work of the town clerks since 1876 is commendable, and the records will compare favorably with those of any in the county. STANTON VILLAGE. As early as 1856 a strong desire to change the countyseat from Greenville to some place nearer the geographical centre of the county manifested itself, and later, as other centres of trade became more clearly defined, and some became places of considerable business importance, as Langston, Amsden, and Sheridan, the contest grew in proportion, and each locality had its numerous and earnest advocates. To unite the various factions, in view of the contending interests, though difficult, was earnestly sought by the representative men of the county not directly interested in the growth of the thrifty village of Greenville. Among the men most prominent in bringing about unity of action in this regard were John Smith, of Crystal; William Castel, of Bushnell; Aaron Lyon, of Bloomer; and George F. Case, of Evergreen, now of Stanton. At several meetings of the board of supervisors the subject of removal was discussed and voted upon, but the west half of the county having a majority in the board all efforts for the time were unavailing. In 1857 the township of Pierson, then comprising towns 11 and 12 north, of ranges 9 and 10 west, was severed from Mecosta County and annexed to Montcalm, with the ostensible reason (as is asserted by old settlers) of favoring Greenville. While the inhabitants of the eastern part of the county looked with exceeding disfavor upon this act of the Legislature, by which it broke the outline of counties to favor a particular-locality, apparently for political purposes, they endeavored to counterbalance it by organizing new townships. In this, however, they, as well as the west part of the county, were unsuccessful, for the rival factions each held the other in check. At the meeting of the board of supervisors in 1861 a petition was presented to divide the township of Pierson and organize two new townships. The members from the eastern townships persistently refused to favor this petition unless the supervisor of Pierson should vote to remove the capital to the eographical centre of the "old county." To this he finally consented; at least, with this understanding the proposed new townships were favorably disposed of. The board, however, still refused to remove the county-seat unless a deed be first executed conveying to the county the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter of section 1 in Sidney, which Fred. Hall, of Ionia, had agreed to donate should the seat of justice be located here. John Smith, the member from Crystal, declared that the board should have the deed before sunrise, and forthwith set out in company with Aaron Lyons, of Bloomer, for Ionia, reaching the residence of Fred Hall about eleven o'clock at night. He was roused from his bed, and the deed properly made out. At an early hour the following morning the board convened, the deed was read, and their votes claimed. There 492 was no chance for evasion now. The supervisor of Pierson, however, refused. The board immediately reconsidered its action in regard to the new townships. He then promised to vote for the measure if his townships would again be organized. The motion for removal was this time first presented, and having passed, new townships were erected without any serious inconvenience. The county-seat by this action was established in a forest of pine, four miles from the nearest white habitation, the nearest being probably the log cabin of Hiram Amsburg, in Sidney. Whatever means may have been resorted to to bring about this removal, the benefit to the county on the whole cannot be questioned. At the next meeting of the board the new capital was called Fred, in honor of Fred hall, of Ionia, and already referred to. In compliance with his earnest solicitation, however, the name was changed to Stanton, in honor of the Secretary of War during the Rebellion. After the new location was decided upon, the contract for felling the timber on twenty acres being let to John Wilson, of Fair Plains, and a contract to build a courthouse was entered into with M. P. Follett, of Amsden, the clearing was at once begun and the court-house was soon completed. At the first meeting of the board in the new building the members brought provisions and blankets with them, as there was at that time in the county-seat no other building or accommodations whatever. But M. P. Follett had foreseen this emergency, and had taken some steps to provide for the board, and had secured the services of Dr. Sylvester Derby and wife, who lived near Derby Lake, in Sidney. Rooms were temporarily fitted up for them in the court-house, and necessary arrangements for cooking introduced. But there were no beds, and at night the members arranged themselves in two rows on the floor. But slumber did not visit them readily, and Westbrook Divine, who was a large, heavy man, rolled himself over the entire line of prostrate and half-sleeping forms. This he called " equalizing the roll." As he continued in this equalizing process, M. P. Follett, the chairman of the board, requested the clerk to call the roll. As he proceeded to fulfill this duty every member, thinking it only a continuation of the order already observed, answered promptly to his name, expecting to be called to a sham session of the board. In this, however, they were disappointed; the session was called, but for a different purpose. When the roll was called, Mr. Follett, bringing his gavel down heavily on the table, said, " Now come to Limerick." They roused up by degrees, and when in their order the usual formalities were duly observed, the regular business commenced. After a session lasting fiom one o'clock until three in the morning, they adjourned, and, entirely exhausted, betook them ;~;bi-ye A JAMES W. W1LLETT. MRS. JAMES W. WILLETT. JAMES W. WILLETT. James W. Willett was born in the city of Auburn, N. Y., March 13, 1839. He received a commonschool education, and at the age of seventeen came to Michigan, and settled in the town of North Plains, Ionia Co., where his brother, the Hon. A. Milan Willett, had previously settled. He learned the trade of a carpenter and joiner, which avocation he followed several years. Upon the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion he enlisted in Berdan's Sharpshooters, and went to the front. He remained in the service until 1864, when he returned to North Plains and engaged in farming. In 1872, in company with his brother, he engaged in the manufacture of sash, doors, and blinds in the village -of Muir. Here he suffered the loss of his property by fire, and in 1876 removed to Stanton and built the mill he now operates. He is at present engaged in lumbering in connection with his planing-mill, and owns twelve hundred acres of farming and pine-lands. In 1864 he was married to Miss Mary Annette, daughter of the Hon. G. W. Germain, of North Plains, one of the pioneers of that town and for many years one of its prominent citizens. She was born in North Plains, June 18, 1845. They have five children. In his political and religious affiliations Mr. Willett is a Republican and a member of the Church of the Disciples. He is a man of pronounced temperance principles, and the cause finds in him an earnest advocate and a strong supporter. Since his removal to Stanton Mr. Willett has identified himself largely with its growth and development, and has left his mark upon the architectural features of the most prominent business structures and residences of the place. Altogether, he is one of those enterprising, energetic business men whose identification with any community is always productive of good. STANTON VILLAGE. 493 selves quietly to sleep. At this meeting it was decided to remove the county offices. Levi Camburn, the county treasurer, thought the prospect of living here very limited. To obtain material for building purposes was next to impossible. Ryder's saw-mill, in Evergreen, which was the nearest, was four miles distant, but the only route was by way of Sheridan, and the road north from that village was scarcely passable more than half of the distance. The weather was extremely cold, and the action of the board seemed to be very premature. They voted, however, to allow Mr. Camburn the use of part of the court-house for a dwelling. This avoided present difficulties, and the offices were soon transferred. The family of Levi Camburn was therefore the first to settle in Stanton, or, as it was then called, Fred. The first business place was opened by Abram Roosa, who, in the summer of 1862, built a log house one story and a half and twenty-four by thirty feet, in which he commenced keeping hotel. This, having received a number of additions, is now lost in the Stanton House, of which it forms a part. In 1865-66, Alexander Vinecore built the Bailey House. The first dwelling-house was that of Levi Camburn, built in August, 1862, and is still standing, and is the first house just east of the court-house. In 1863, E. K. Wood opened the first stock of groceries, and soon after D. M. Gardner opened the first stock of drygoods. Starkweather built a small saw-mill, which was a most valuable addition, as it furnished an abundant supply of lumber for building up the village. From that time the development of the lumbering and business interests of the village and the agricultural interests of the immediate vicinity was rapid. The village of Stanton was incorporated in 1867, and the first election under the charter was held on the 7th day of November of that year. The following is a list of the several presidents of the village from 1867 to 1880, inclusive: 1867, Jenson P. Beers; 1868, Jenson P. Beers; 1869, Levi Camburn; 1870, Jenson P. Beers; 1871, W. G. Wilkinson; 1872, Lyman C. Moore; 1873, John C. Mattison; 1874-76, Oscar Fenn; 1877-78, Norman Shepherd; 1879-80, Charles W. Hawley. The locating of the county-seat at Stanton did not settle the question permanently. Greenville, in the mean time, had grown rapidly in wealth and population, and certain prominent men from that part of the county earnestly advocated it as the only proper location, and at the meetings of the board of supervisors this question was not infrequently tile cause of exciting debate. It is probable, in view of the favorable inducements offered by that village, that action adverse to Stanton would have sooner or later been taken had it not been for the magnanimous conduct of her leading citizens and tax-payers generally. By special act of the Legislature the village was permitted to issue bonds to the amount of ten thousand dollars, in order to secure the requisite loan. Accordingly, on the 20th day of May, 1879, in compliance to a petition, a town-meeting was held and the loan decided upon by a vote of one hundred and twenty-six in the affirmative to three in the negative. The action of the village in this respect and in the matter of issuing its bonds and raising the money has been prompt and commendable throughout. The court-house was com pleted and dedicated in the summer of 1880, at a cost of twenty-two thousand dollars. The statement of the Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad for the month of February, 1880, shows that the freight forwarded during that month weighed 648,737 pounds, being 326 car-loads; the charges amounted to $5167.44. The freight received amounted to 1,243,296 pounds, and the charges collected to $2250.77. Local passenger tickets sold, 89Q; receipts for the same, $770.50. Foreign tickets sold amounted to $275.80. Total receipts for the month, $8464.51. The report for April, 1880, is as follows: Freight billed, 9,653,956 pounds; charges collected, $8781.16; freight received, 2,212,583 pounds; charges on the same, $2550.95; 912 local passenger tickets sold, amounting to $667.75; 75 foreign passenger tickets sold, amounting to $290.70; aggregate from this source, $958.45. During four weeks in this month the freight billed and shipped from this station consisted of 289 cars of lumber, 81 of shingles, 20 of staves, 6 of lath, and 3 of feed; making 399 cars. In addition to its large mercantile interests, Stanton has two good flouring-mills, two planing-mills, a saw-mill, a foundry and machine-shop, and two weekly newspapers. The population is two thousand. In the fall of 1880 a fire destroyed about one-fourth the business portion of the village and entailed a loss of fifty thousand dollars. The burnt district is rapidly rebuilding. EDUCATIONAL. The first school was taught by Miss Nancy Green in the court-room in the summer of 1863. There were five scholars, and she received ten shillings per week for her services. The next winter Mrs. Levi Camburn taught a school in her own private house. There were then seven scholars. This was the first taught by a regularly inspected teacher, and it secured the organization of the district and the school fund. These first two schools were paid for by private subscription. The school district which includes Stanton is No. 3 fractional, and includes a part of the four adjacent townships of Sidney, Evergreen, Day, and Douglass, and was organized by the school boards of the respective townships May 9, 1863. At the first meeting Abram Roosa was chosen moderator; Levi Camburn director, and D. O. Cornell assessor. On September 9th the board voted to raise one dollar per scholar and five dollars for immediate expenses. The school-house site was established and two hundred dollars voted for building purposes. The board was appointed building committee, and the house was erected and accepted in 1866. E. K. Wood, now a prominent merchant of the village, was the first teacher in it, and was the first male teacher in the district. It was organized as a graded school in 1866, and is now in successful operation. The first board of trustees under the graded system were Oscar Fenn, Asa Morse, J. P. Beers, Harmon Smith, Aaron Lyon, and E. K. Wood. CHURCHES. FIRST FREE-WILL BAPTIST. The society of this church was organized under the supervision of Rev. H. E. W. Palmer, Oct. 26, 1866. H. 4t94 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. I E. W. Palmer, Cornelia H. Palmer, Nancy Davis, G. F. Case, Mary E. Case constituted the first organization. Mr. Palmer was elected pastor, G. F. Case clerk, and David Morse, G. F. Case, and J. P. Beers trustees. This society erected the first place of worship in the village, which was dedicated Jan. 3, 1869. Elder Van Vleck was pastor at this time. A. E. Mather and S. B. Fish assisted in the dedicatory service. The church cost three thousand dollars. The lot upon which it stands was donated by George F. Case. The present membership is one hundred and three, with C. C. Miller as pastor. The society has a neat and commodious parsonage, which cost fifteen hundred dollars, and was purchased in 1878. FIRST METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF STANTON. The first class of this-church was organized Dec. 12, 1865, and consisted of ten members, five of whom were residents of the village. Their names were as follows: Mrs. A. H. Camburn, Mrs. A. French, Mrs. P. Meach, Miss M. E. Meach, Mrs. Lavina Hunt, M. Beebe, N. Beebe, Mrs. A. Waters, Alphonso Brundage, Elizabeth Brundage. Mr. Brundage was elected first class-leader of the society. The first board of trustees was composed of Gideon Dingham, Miles Dunham, Sheridan Forward, Peter Lee, James Lee, R. W. Paling. F. A. Swan was pastor at the time of formation. The vicissitudes through which the society passed were of a severe and trying character. During its first years it, as well as the other religious denominations, held meet-, ings in the school-house until upon the completion of the Baptist church, the first in the village, the school board refused the society the use of the room. They then met at the court-house until refused it by the board of supervisors. They next had recourse to two halls, which were both destroyed by fire. Mrs. N. H. Turner, in a reminiscence of the early days of the society, says: "These were dark days for Methodism. With a membership of sixteen, of whom ten were women, it did not look much like building up a church, or even supporting one." At the Conference of 1872 the matter was talked over. It was a doubtful place. A young man, a number of years a successful teacher, had joined the Conference. He wanted work, and offered to go to Stanton. He thought he had clothes enough for the year and could live somehow. He arrived at Stanton Sept. 27, 1872. The first member to whom he introduced himself looked at him pitifully and said, " You do not know what kind of a place you have come to." He replied that he had come to build a church. The same day he visited the school and gave out an appointment for the next Sabbath, and looked up a choir. The next day, Saturday, he swept and mopped the school-house floor, cleaned the hall and stairs, filled the lamps, and dusted the seats. He found favor. Services were held every Sabbath morning and evening to a crowded house, many at times failing to get seats. He at once commenced to build a church. At the end of seven weeks a surprise-party was given the minister, at which time eighty dollars was paid him. The work of building was prosecuted so energetically that on the 25th of May, 1873, the church, which cost three thousand dollars, was dedicated. The membership increased from sixteen to about one hundred. Rev. R. V. Rook, for his energy and noble qualities in this trying time, still retains the gratitude of the society. FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. The following account of the organization of the Congregational Church is entered on the records of that society "Agreeable to previous appointment, the members communicant of the Presbyterian Church of Stanton and a number of resident Christians of the same place (not being members of other church organizations in the village), as well as beloved friends of the proposed organization, met at the Baptist church in said village on the 4th day of March, A.D. 1874. The meeting was opened by prayer by Leroy Warren, superintendent of the Home Mission Society of Northwestern Michigan, after which Levi Camburn was chosen moderator, Hiram Smith secretary. On March 7th, Levi Camburn and Andrew B. Nevins were elected deacons, Harmon Smith clerk, Wealthy B. Vinecore treasurer. On March 9th, after the organization of the society had been duly recognized in the usual way, Edwin R. Wood, Brayton H. Payne, Andrew B. Nevins, Levi Camburn, Alexander Vinecore, and Andrew J. Sterling were elected trustees. During the latter part of 1875 the society built a church, which was dedicated on Jan. 30, 1876. SECRET BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATIONS. STANTON STAR LODGE, No. 250, F. AND A. M. Organized in 1868 under a dispensation issued by S. C. Coffinbury, M. W. G. M., the charter of this lodge bears date Jan. 15, 1869, and was issued to the following persons: Robert Wallace, Levi Camburn, Ira C. Horton, J. P. Beers, William F. Turner, Henry L. Parker, J. Morris Zinkham, Seymour Underwood, Alexander Vinecore; with the following as first officers: Robert Wallace, W. M.; Levi Camburn, S. W.; Ira C. Horton, J. W.; William F. Turner, S. D. PINE GROVE LODGE, No. 202, I. 0. O. F., was organized in Stanton on Feb. 7, 1873, with the following-named persons as charter members: F. A. Goldsmith, George F. Case, M. P. Baker, A. Walker, M. Jay, George W. Stoneburner. The following officers were duly elected: F. A. Goldsmith, N. G.; George F. Case, V. G.; G. W. Stoneburner, Sec.; M. P. Baker, Treas. The membership is now eighty-five in good standing. The hall is well furnished and arranged. The encampment was organized Feb. 1, 1879, with W. J. Fairbanks, H. P. Morton, A. Jennings, Martin Jay, Thomas Earine, M. T. Tenney, and R. Sawtels as members. The membership is now twentyfour. STANTON LODGE, No. 63, A. O. U. W., was organized March 18, 1879, with the following charter members: S. W. Richards, M. A. Bradford, W. P. White, James F. Datson, T. E. Powell, George W. Rudolph, F. B. Sweeney, William C. Stcere, N. W. Newhouse, and Sam-. uel IHurd. The present membership is twenty-four. S p A THE HARDWARE ESTABLISHMENT OF JOHN W. S. PIERSON, 108 WEST MAIN ST., STANTON, MICH. I II STANTON VILLAGE. 495 HON. HENRY HARRISON HINDS. Henry H. Hinds, one of the pioneers of Stanton, was born Oct. 9, 1840, near Montrose, Pa. His father, Preserved Hinds, was a native of Connecticut. He was a farmer and carpenter by occupation, a man of temperate and industrious habits, and one of the pioneers of that county. Henry H. received a common-school education. In 1861 he enlisted in the Fifty-seventh Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and was made first sergeant of Coinpany A. In the spring of 1862 his regiment was attached to Gen. Kearney's division and joined the Army of the Potomac. Mr. Hinds took part in the battles of the Peninsula campaign in 1862, and received a commission as second lieutenant in the fall of the same year. He participated in the second battle of Bull Run and the battle of Chantilly, where Gen. Kearney was killed. He was wounded at the battle of Fredericksburg, and soon after was commissioned first lieutenant. He was again severely wounded at Chancellorsville in the spring of 1863, and was wounded and taken prisoner at the battle of Gettysburg. He was confined in Libby Prison, and was one of the party that escaped with Col. Streight. He was recaptured and confined in a dark dungeon for fifteen days. He was a prisoner for a period of twenty months, during which time he was con'fined at Danville, Va., Macon, Ga., Charleston and Columbia, S. C., and Charlotte, N. C. He was paroled at Goldsborough, N. C., March 1, 1865. During his imprisonment he was placed under the fire of our own guns in the city of Charleston for a period of six weeks, by order of the rebel Secretary of War. He was commissioned captain in 1864, and was mustered out of the service in July, 1865. In the fall of the following year he emigrated to Michigan and settled in Stanton, where he engaged in merchandising and lumbering. He is at present largely engaged in real estate and farming. In his political affiliations Mr. Hinds is an active Republican, and has identified himself largely with town, county, and State politics. He has occupied many positions of trust. He has been supervisor of his township, and chairman of the board of supervisors, and member of the village board of Stanton for several years. He has always taken a deep interest in educational matters, and is a member of the board of education of Stanton. In 1876 he was appointed by Governor Bagley a member of the board of control of the State public school, and in 1877 reappointed to the same position by Governor Crosswell, which position he still holds. He is president of the Montcalm County Agricultural Society, and a member of the board of directors of the People's Mutual and the Home Mutual Insurance Companies of Ionia, Montcalm, and Clinton Counties. In 1872 he was elected senator for the Twenty-seventh District. He served two years, and was a member of several important committees. He is a prominent member of the Ionia Commandery of Knights Templar, and has been for a number of years Master of the Stanton Star Lodge, No. 250, F. and A. M. In December, 1861, Mr. Hinds was married to Miss Mary E. Sherwood, of his native county. They have two children,-Edna, born Sept. 17, 1875, and Alma, born Feb. 15, 1877. Mr. Hinds is one of the early settlers of Stanton. He has witnessed its transition from a wilderness into one of the important villages in this part of the State, and in his own person typifies many of the agencies that have wrought these changes. His name is connected with nearly all the initial events in Stanton's history, and he may with propriety be considered one of its founders. SIDNEY. TIE township of Sidney, designated in the original survey as township No. 10 north, of range 7 west, is bounded on the north by Douglass, on the east by Evergreen, on the south by Fair Plains, and on the west by Montcalm, all being townships of Montcalm County. Originally, Sidney was densely timbered, pine, beech, and maple being the principal varieties, and until 1855 its forests were comparatively free from underbrush, but in that year a terrific tornado swept through portions of the township, destroying the heavy timber on thousands of acres. The fire which raged (for several months) the following year also destroyed much valuable timber, and, as a result of these devastations, a second growth soon made its appearance everywhere, which (in places) is now almost impenetrable. Although the marks of this tornado and fire are still plainly visible, there were many large tracts of pine remaining uninjured, and in consequence the pine-lumber interests of Sidney have been for many years its principal industry. With the destruction of its pine forests, however, the inhabitants of the township are gradually shifting from the pursuits of lumbering to those of agriculture, and rapid developments in that direction are now going forward. Generally the soil is good, and, though somewhat low in places, is well adapted to agricultural pursuits, and eventually Sidney will be named as one of the best among Montcalm County townships. EARLY SETTLEMENTS. In an early day the fine timber-belts of Sidney attracted the attention of shingle-makers, and a number of their cabins were erected before there was any permanent settlement in the township. The persons thus engaged were generally men who paid no attention whatever to propertylines, regarding as public property any timber-lands which were not closely guarded, and did not scruple to pitch their tents or build their shanties wherever they considered themselves safe from interruption or discovery. In the summer of 1854 the first regular settler, Phineas Swift, came into the township and built a cabin on the northwest part of the southwest quarter of section 27. He was a native of New York, but of him little else is known, as he removed from the township before many others came in. His son Eugene was the first white child born in Sidney. Swift built a shanty in which he made shingles, and also made a small clearing and set out some fruit-trees before removing from the township, which he did after a stay of seven years. In the fall of 1854, Henry Gillmore, a native of New York, came to Sidney. His father, Joseph Gillmore, with his wife and four children, removed to Nelson, Portage Co., Ohio, in 1818, where he lived until his death. He was 496 among the pioneers in that county. Henry Gillmore was married to Miss Lucy Merwin, daughter of Dr. Merwin, and remained in Ohio until he came to Sidney in 1854, as before stated. He settled on the north half of the northwest quarter of section 28, and entered also eighty acres on the southwest quarter of section 21. He built the first permanent dwelling in the township, and during the winter and early spring, assisted by his sons, George W. and Noble H., the former being then seventeen years of age, built a large shingle-shop for the purpose of making shaved shingles. They also cleared about three acres of land, which fn the spring he planted to corn, potatoes, and vegetables, together with a small piece of flax, the seed for which he had brought from Ohio. During the summer he cleared seven acres, which he sowed to wheat in the fall. To Henry Gillmore, therefore, must be attributed the honor of planting the first garden and sowing the first grain in the township of Sidney. The following spring he set out the first orchard. Theodore Gillmore, one of the contracting parties of the first marriage in the township, was a member of this family. He was married to Miss Eunice Dow. Homer Miles, a justice of the peace in Fair Plains, officiated. It is said that the justice, when asked what the fee would be, replied, " About a dollar." Dollars were exceedingly scarce in those days, and the bridegroom so informed the worthy squire. But the field was full of pumpkins, and the fee was paid with a wagon-load, which Mr. Gillmore hauled to Fair Plains. Neither party to this marriage is now living, Theodore Gillmore having been killed in battle in the late war. Mr. and Mrs. Henry Gillmore still reside in Sidney, and are the oldest residents of the township. In the fall of 1854, Orin Phelps and John Flake also came to the township. The former brought a wife and three children, and settled on section 9. He now lives in Sheridan. John Flake settled near Derby Lake, where he remained until his death. Calvin Mason was also an early settler, but did not remain long. In the fall of 1855, J. B. Noah, with his son Josiah and a hired man named James Jewell, came in. They cleared and underbrushed a patch for crops the following spring. Mr. Noah brought his family to the township in the month of May, 1856. William Noah, who was married,.came at the same time. On the 14th of February, 1855, Lyman Johnson, with his wife and four children, came from Trumbull Co., Ohio, and stopped at the house of Nelson Townsley in Fair Plains, where he remained three months. He then came to Sidney Centre, where he pre-empted eighty acres of land on section 19, now resided upon by Joshua Noah. Here Mr. Johnson built a good, comfortable log house, made a clearing, SIDNEY. 497 and the following spring set out a number of fruit-trees. He afterwards purchased the place entered by Phineas Swift, on which Mrs. Johnson still resides, Mr. Johnson having been dead many years. The same winter, 1855-56, George Van Ness, William Fields, and Edwin Lafferty came to Sidney. They all settled on section 20, where Van Ness lived until his death. He brought a large family, none of whom now remain in the township. One son, Nelson, was killed at home by the accidental discharge of a gun. Edward was almost instantly killed in the army, being shot through the neck. William Fields remained in Sidney until 1862, when he removed to Kansas. Edwin Lafferty returned to New York. In February, 1856, Ira Barlow settled, with his wife and two children,-a son and a daughter,-on the northeast quarter of section 35. He secured this land in 1850 with a land-warrant, having served in the Mexican war under Gen. Scott. Mr. Barlow was born in Livingston Co., N. Y., in which place his father was an early settler. They came to Wayne Co., Mich., and settled in Van Buren township in 1835. Here he was married to Miss Ann McIntosh. They still reside on the place in Sidney entered in 1840. At the first town-meeting he was elected supervisor and held the office seven years. At the same time he came to Sidney, his brother-in-law, John Brown, entered forty acres on the southeast quarter of section 35. He remained in the township but a short time. Dr. S. Derby, who came from Fair Plains (in which township he was the first physician), settled on section 10, near the southeast shore of the lake which now bears his name. He built a cabin and remained a number of years. He was one of those characters sometimes met with on the frontier,-a genius in his way. Besides being a good physician for those days, he was a gunsmith, could repair a watch and clock, and was, in fact, a jack-of-all-trades, He subsequently went North, where it is said, after having moved for the fortieth time, he settled down and is now keeping hotel. Dr. John Bradish was also one of the first physicians in Sidney, and, although his methods were peculiar and strongly given to superstition, he is considered, on the whole, as having been successful in his profession. He moved to the West, where he died. William Lampman and Abner Hall came to Sidney in 1856. The former settled on the southwest quarter of section 36. He served in the army during the late war, and after its close he continued to reside in Sidney until 1880, when he returned to New York, his native State. Abner Hall came from England in the fall of 1856. He also served in the army, and was wounded at the battle of Hatcher's Run. Mr. Hall still resides in the township. At one time he worked for James Cheffin, of Fair Plains, for fifty cents per day, when potatoes were one dollar and fifty cents to two dollars per bushel. Among the pioneers of Sidney also were Sylvester Barrett, who settled in the western part of the township, and who, joining the army, was killed in battle, Calvin Mann, Alanson Snow, and West Drake. Snow entered one hundred and sixty acres on section 34, with a land-warrant given for the military services of his son, who died in the Mexican war. 63 The first death in Sidney was that of Mrs. John Ryan, who, with her family, in the year 1855, settled on the east half of the southeast quarter of section 21. Here she was buried, but her remains were removed to the cemetery at the centre in the spring of 1880. Dr. Chauncey E. Shepard, who resided in Fair Plains, was among the early physicians who practiced in this township. He usually made his rounds on foot, accompanied by a dog and carrying a gun. An instance is related in which he is said to have killed a large bear near the cabin of a settler in the south part of the township. Finding the family absent, and having no means of conveying it to his home, he dragged it to a wagon which stood, near the rude barn. Into this he finally succeeded in placing it, where it lay as if ready to spring upon the first to pass by. The next morning Archie Smith, then a lad of twelve years of age, now a resident of Orleans, with several playmates, were passing the time to the best possible advantage to themselves, when he, followed by a companion, ran up the wagon-tongue into the box where Bruin had been placed the evening before. As if paralyzed with the sight, he walked straight out of the wagon, without any regard whatever as to where he placed his feet. When Dr. Shepard returned with a team to take his prize home, he found a patient who required his closest attention for several days. Dr. Shepard also subsequently lived and practiced medicine in the township of Evergreen. Until 1862 there was no post-office in Sidney, the one at Stanton being the nearest. On the 29th day of September of that year Montgomery Blair, then postmaster-general, appointed Joshua V. Noah to the office, which he retained at his house for nine years. THE YEARS 1856 AND 1857. As has been stated, in 1856 large tracts of timber were prostrated by the wind. On the 22d and 23d days of August, 1857, severe frosts killed the corn and all gardenstuffs, except cabbage and turnips. The grass also was killed. The leaves changed color, and soon began to fall from the trees, and in a short time the ground was covered with them to a depth of several inches. Soon a fire, which spread with wonderful rapidity, broke out in the timber. The dry, crisp leaves were soon burned, but the fire did not stop here, but worked its way down into the mould and fallen timber, and day after day, during August, September, October, and part of November, the crash of falling trees was heard almost incessantly. At times the smoke hung like a pall over the whole land, shutting out the sun and rendering the air almost irrespirable. Nearly everything of value to the settlers was destroyed. Fences, stacks of hay, wagons, and everything prepared for winter were swept away, and it was often with the greatest difficulty that the cabins themselves were saved. The suffering that followed in many instances was intense, but was alleviated by help from abroad. The fires continued until the late rains of the fall and winter set in and checked them. M. P. Follett was appointed to distribute goods to settlers in want. These goods were secured from government by Jacob Ferris, who introduced a bill for that purpose. He still retains the gratitude of many families. Some idea can be gained of 498 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. I the suffering of these times when it is known that it was almost impossible to get a day's work on any terms. Abner Hall cleared ten acres of land, laying up the brush ready to be burned, for ten shillings per acre. Pork at this time was twenty-five cents per pound, corn two dollars per bushel, and other things in proportion. Ira Barlow worked for Josiah Bradish, in Fair Plains, for three shillings per day, and took as pay a small sheep valued at four dollars. Many left the township at this time. Most of those who remained have now comfortable homes, and it is probable that, with its fertile soil and rapidly developing resources, the want and privation of earlier years will never again be known in Sidney. LAND ENTRIES. The original purchasers of lands in the township are shown in the following list: Section 1.-Hugh H. Crapo, W. W. Crapo, Frederick Hall. Section 2.-Augustus Paddock, Henry Crapo, W. W. Crapo, Frederick Hall, John G. Williams, G. A. Wilcox, W. H. Trowbridge. Section 3.-Augustus Paddock, David Beard, Theodore P. Hoyt. Section 4.-H. H. Crapo, W. W. Crapo, G. F. Noah, George A. Wilcox, Martin Beebe, Albert Dorr, Edwin Dorr, Joshua V. Noah, Asa D. Sherwood, Wood & Gilbert. Section 5.-Stephen F. Page, Jacob A. Davis, H. H. Crapo, W. W. Crapo, James M. Soverhill. Section 6.-Stephen F. Page, Sarah S. Peck, David Henderson. Section 7.-George Rossman, H. H. Crapo, W. W. Crapo, George A. Wilcox, Philetus Kuhn, John Henderson, W. A. Pickney, Charles Madison, John Green. Section 8.-H. H. Crapo, W. W. Crapo, George A. Wilcox, John Fleck, W. Coffey, W. R. Bates, William Messler. Section 9.-Orin Phelps, H. H. Crapo, W. W. Crapo, Gustavus P. Hosmer, Abigail Hadley. Section 10.-Augustus Paddock, George A. Pillsbury, Gustavus P. Hosmer, S. F. Page, Sylvester Derby, Levi Camburn, E. K. Wood. Section 11.-John Trisler, H. H. Crapo, W. W. Crapo, Jacob Smith. Section 12.-Charles Merrill, H. H. Crapo, W. W. Crapo, Frederick Hall, George A. Wilcox, Edwin Cheesbro. Section 13.-Charles Merrill, H. H. Crapo, W. Crapo, James Terwilliger, Silas Quiggle, Levi Gleason, Lyman Gray, Eliada Babcock, Mark Gardner, Wood & Gilbert, Royal Harrington. Section 14.-William H. Chapman, George A. Pillsbury, H. H. Crapo, W. W. Crapo, Levi Gleason, Moses Gardner, Royal Harrington, R. H. Bennett. Section 15.-Benjamin F. How, C. Crane, Giles Gilbert. Section 16.-Joshua V. Noah, Charles Kellogg, A. B. Amsburg, Richard Amsburg, Ranson D. Smith, Amos L. Frenk, B. F. Bailey, John Brown, Henry Courter, Joseph Courter. Section 17.-David H. Elliott, Norman Hamilton, Henry Courter, Joseph H. Stearns, William Harding, Wr. R. Bates, Elias Steel, Elmore Fullmer, Cornelius Courter, Emma A. Ripley. Section 18.-John Porter, Hiram Rossman, Sarah S. Peck, Leonard D. Huhn, John D. Smith, Philetus Kuhn. Section 19.-H. H. Crapo, W. W. Crapo, Edmund Laferty, George Van Ness, William Thilds, P. J. Hardy, William L. Van Slyke, John H. Van Ness. Section 20.-William Lampman, George Meginley, Z. B. Grover, A. R. Grover, John H. Van Ness, Martin T. Hawley, S. W. Tupper, M. M. Sanford, William R. Bates, J. B. Barr. Section 21.-Samuel Monroe, George Ditmars, John Lampman, J. V. Noah, Lyman Johnson, Henry Gillmore, L. O. Smith, Ezekiel Gabel, Hezekiah Fist, William Noah, William Shepard. Section 22.-Charles Merrill, Samuel Monroe, George A. Pillsbury, John H. Van Ness, Stephen Tucker, Isaiah Jervin, William E. Lacy, Thomas Wilson, S. Spaulding, Emma Ripley. Section 23.-Charles Merrill, Charles Bean, George A. Pillsbury, Erastus P. Brown, William H. Chapman, Gilbert Cook, Samuel Starr, Helen A. Ayers, W. D. Legg. Section 24.-Charles Merrill, Charles Bean, Louis S. Lovell, Albert G. Sinclair, William H. Chapman, C. C. Darling, Erastus P. Brown, Luther Bennett. Section 25.-Charles Merrill, Horace Bennett, Benjamin Roosa, William B. Stone. Section 26.-Charles Merrill, Abner Hall, Nelson Tous. ley, Joseph Pitcher, John Abbott. Section 27.-Adam Ackler, Jacob Ackler, Jacob Portussen, James Fox, George Spoon, John Dager, Charles Merrill, Samuel Monroe, D. Towsley, Phineas Swift, Jr., George Macomber, Chester L. Mann, William D. Brown, L. Towsley. Section 28.-Paul Kendrick, Joseph C. Bailey, George A. Pillsbury, Charles Miel, Henry Gillmore, Albert Lobell. Section 29.-George Rossman, Edward B. Edwards, Chester H. Miel, Daniel Swift, John Bates, Charles J. Colt, George Hall. Section 30.-Silas Hamilton, George Rossman. E. B. Edwards, Henry B. Tripp, Hiram Rossman, Norman Ferris, W. S. Patrick. Section 31.;-David Pierson, George Rossman, E. B. Edwards, Charles Baker, Asa D. Starkweather, Nathaniel Ferris, Ezra Hamilton, Lorenzo D. Palmer, Jacob Ferris, Louisa Ferris, P. R. Howe, George B. Isham, William R. Bates. Section 32.-William R. Bates, Alden A. Jenne, John Wheeler, Joseph C. Bailey, E. B. Edwards, Samuel Gillmore, Lyman Johnson, Caleb J. Barnes. Section 33.-Ira Davenport. Section 34.-Franklin S. Freeman, Ira Davenport, Joseph C. Bailey, Welcome Butterworth, Christian Fox. Section 35.-Welcome Butterworth, Ira W. Barlow, Edward McIntosh, Charles Merrill. Section 36.-Rhoda A. Lampman, Elias Peterman, Mary Delong, Theodore Lampman, John G. Williams, Francis Smith, Leroy Forbes, Erastus P. Brown, William D. Legg, J. W. Fairfan. SIDNEY. 499 SI SCHOOLS. The first school of Sidney was taught in 1858, in a log school-house which stood on the north line of the southeast quarter of section 20, on land now owned by Jera B. Grover. It was taught by Miss Martha Newberry, whose parents lived in Montcalm. The school consisted of but seven scholars, who represented three families. Their names are as follows: Orange Noah, Ruth Noah, Abbie Noah, Richard Vaness, Nelson Vaness, Nancy Vaness, and Helen Vaness. Miss Newberry received one dollar and a quarter per week. She subsequently married Lute Griffith, and lived in Montcalm township. The next term of school was taught by Duwane Townsley. The next school-house was built at Sidney Centre, and the first term in it was taught by Nancy Lyons, in 1862. She afterwards married William Kelly and removed to Clam Lake, where she still resides. There are now in Sidney four whole school districts and one fractional. The directors for the respective districts in 1880 were Henry Courter in No. 1, William Harding in No. 2, Asa Morse in No. 3, G. A. Minard in No. 5, William Dunn in No. 7. Sidney Centre had sixty-three scholars; District No. 2 had forty-nine; Stanton (in Sidney), five hundred and eighty-four; and Sheridan (in Sidney), seventy-two. No. 7 has no report. The total resources for the year in District No. I was $324.67; in District No. 2, $361.75; in Fractional District No. 3, $6804; in District No. 5, $199. The value of school property, according to the assessment in the township, was $8800. There were one male and six female teachers employed during the year. RELIGIOUS. The first religious meetings held in Sidney were by the society of the United Brethren. Services were conducted by Revs. Piper and Ezekiel Rossman at the house of Henry Gillmore. A society was formed when the school-house was built, and services were held in it about a year. They were then held in the log school-house at the centre. The society consisted of the following members: Joshua Noah and wife, Mrs. Van Ness, Roswell Gillmore and wife, John Ryan, Henry Gillmore and wife, Noble Gillmore, and George Gillmore. There was no meeting-house built, as the society was eventually broken up. The only religious societies now in Sidney are those of Stanton and Sheridan. TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION, ETC. Town 10 north, of range 7 west, was erected into a township in the year 1857. The word Nelson was at first proposed as a name for the new township, but, owing to its similarity to the name of another township in this State, the selection of a name was left with the board of supervisors. The first town-meeting was held in the house of Daniel Swift, which at the time was unoccupied and stood near the centre of the township. The records of town-meetings, with other books pertaining to the township, are not in the town clerk's office, being, it is asserted, taken from the township as evidence in a lawsuit. We are therefore unable to give but a partial civil list, commencing with the year 1871: SUPERVISORS. 1871-74, William F. Turner; 1875, Franklin H. French; 1876, Harvey W. Rill; 1877, Franklin H. French; 1878-80, William F. Turner. CLERKS. 1871-72, Warren G. Wilkinson; 1873, John C. Mattison; 1874, Frank H. French; 1875-76, Norris J. Brown; 1877-78, George W. Childs; 1879-80, Erastus J. Stanton. TREASURERS. 1871-72, Norman Shepherd; 1873-74, Henry Spley; 1875, Joseph E. Morrison; 1876, Montgomery A. Reynolds; 1877-78, William Noah; 1879-80, George W. Stanton. JUSTICES. 1871, Stephen Tuttle, John C. Mattison; 1872, Edwin B. Moore, George W. Stanton; 1873, Nelson M. Turner, George W. Stanton, L. D. Kuhn; 1874, John C. Mattison, Walter V. Smith; 1875, Henry Furguson, Leonard D. Kuhn, William Noah; 1876, George W. Stanton, Edwin D. Childs; 1877, Edwin Porter, George A. Smith, Julius Jennings; 1878, George N. Lunn; 1879, Julius Jennings; 1880, D. A. Densmore. RESIDENTS IN 1857. The resident tax-payers of the township in 1857, as shown by the assessment roll, were as follows: Acres. Ira Barlow, section 35....................................... 160 John Brown, section 35................................. 40 Elizabeth Butterworth, sections 34 and 35...... 160 H. Benett, section 25................... 40 William P. Brown, section 27.............................. 40 Francis Borden, section 9............................ 40 Jacob Ferris, section 30.................................. 80 Samuel Gillmore, section 32.............................. 120 Henry Gillmore, sections 21 and 28.................. 160 Abner Hall, section 26....................................... 80 Lyman Johnson, section 21........................... 80 Charles Kellogg, section 16................................ 40 William Lampman, section 36.........8....0........... 80 Chester F. Man, section 27.......................... 40 George F. Noah, section 4........................... 120 Joshua V. Noah, section 16.............................. 40 Elias Peterman, section 36................................ 40 Orin Phelps, section 9...................................... 160 Nathaniel Pharis, section 31............................... 40 Norman Pharis, section 30.............................. 119 Aaron Potter, section 31............................. 120 John Ryan, section 21.......................... 40 Phineas Swift, section 27................................... 40 Daniel Swift, section 29............ 9................ 80 Henry Trip, section 31.................................... 80 Edmund Lafferty, section 19.............................. 80 George Neginley, section 20..................... 80 WI NFIELD. THis township, described as town 12 north, range 9 west, is bounded on the north by Mecosta County, east by Cato, south by Maple Valley, and on the west by the township of Reynolds. Tamarack Creek drains the township, entering near the northeast corner of section 1 from Mecosta County, and flowing with a number of large curves to near the northwest corner of section 31, enters the township of Reynolds. In its course it crosses, in whole or in part, sections 1, 12, 13, 14, 15, 22, 27, 21, 28, 29, 32, 31. On section 12 it receives its largest branch, being the outlet of Tamarack Lake, in Cato. Three other streams enter it from the east and south on sections 13, 22, and 31, respectively. On sections 14 and 21, also, small brooks enter it from the north. These streams are all small, some Were rivulets, and, excepting Tamarack Creek, none are of importance for rafting purposes; but they serve to drain the township, and furnish at all times a constant and accessible supply of water, so necessary to stock-raising. Town-Line Lake, situated between Winfield and Maple Valley, principally on section 34 in the former, is tle largest body of water. Bordering it on the east is a swamp of considerable extent. The surface of Winfield is undulating, but presents little variety of landscape. Its timber consists generally of well-defined belts of hard and soft wood, the former varieties being situated mostly in the northern part. The soil in these localities is heavier, and the sub-soil approaches a yellow clay. The soil upon which the pine-timber predominates is lighter, and usually considered less productive. Upon these hard-wood belts the first settlements were made. EARLY SETTLEMENTS. Although the first settlement of Winfield is involved in some obscurity, there is little room for doubt that Isaac and Chauncey Gilleo were the first to locate permanently within its borders. On the 7th of June, 1855, assisted by William Russell, who owned the saw-mill at Langston, and by whom they had been employed, these young men came to Winfield, then a part of Pierson, and entered land on sections 1 and 2. Many selections had been made and much land entered in the township previous to this time for the purpose of actual settlement, but none of the parties had yet returned to attack the heavy growth of pine, beech, and maple. And, although the land pre-empted by the Gilleo brothers lay in the north part, it is not to be inferred that there was no government land to the south. The hardwood belts, it is true, had nearly all been entered, but valuable tracts of pine were passed by as worthless. The young men referred to selected a very fine slope of land, and built a cabin of poles and bark, the first in the township. They also at once commenced a clearing, a part of which they 500 soon after planted to potatoes and turnips. Owing to the lateness of the time of planting, however, the yield was not large. Previous to this time (when is not known) the Indians had made a partial clearing by underbrushing and cutting all the smaller trees on a considerable tract in the west part of the township, to the south of this place, and it is probable that they had raised several crops. In the spring of 1856 they made sugar here, but subsequently went to the north, where they remained. The clearing commenced by the Gilleos grew to a field of more than four acres during the winter of 1855-56, which in the spring they planted to corn and vegetables. Thus they lived, cleared land, made shingles, shot deer, of which there was no lack, occasionally a bear, did their own household work, and carried their provisions from Langston or Greenville, the former fifteen and the latter twenty-five miles distant. In the fall they sowed the field to wheat, and the crop, which when threshed with a flail amounted to eighty bushels, they sold for sixteen dollars, and with this they started on a visit to friends in Pennsylvania, between four and five hundred miles distant. In the summer of 1855, William Rose came to Winfield. He built a small hut, in which he and three children and a grandchild lived some years. When, subsequently, Mr. Rose offered his farm for sale, it was spoken of (to H. C. Smith) as having a dwelling-house upon it. When he called, he found a cabin about ten by twelve feet. A few boards laid down on the ground served as a floor. The door was also made of rough boards. There was but a single pane of glass in the whole cabin, and from a dilapidated old stove a small pipe reached but part way to the hole in the roof, and the smoke, which, when the elements were at peace, filled the cabin nearly to suffocation, in the slightest wind made it unendurable to its inmates. Mr. Rose was a very intelligent and well-educated gentleman, who had been brought to extreme poverty by business reverses. He was anxious to sell his farm with the slight improvements. H. C. Smith became the purchaser, and in 1863 moved into the township, where he has since resided. He was the first carpenter to locate in this part of the county, and hewed the timbers for the first mill in Lake View, for Allen Macomber, and built the first frame barn in Cato township, for Albert French. The third settler in Winfield was Caleb Johnson (a brother-in-law of Isaac Gilleo), who in the fall of 1856 came in with his family and entered land on section 1. He moved into the log house which the Gilleos had built the year previous, and the next summer he commenced a clearing on his own land. He also built a house, and set out the first orchard in the township. He is now a resident of Bushnell township. William C. Johnson, his son, who was WINFIELD. 501 born in April or May, 1857, was the first child born in Winfield. In the spring of 1860 the invalid sister of Isaac Gilleo, who had been brought from Pennsylvania when the brothers returned to the township, died, and was buried on their farm, but was subsequently removed to the cemetery on section 1, which was deeded to the township by Nicholas Whiterell, upon whose land it was located. This was one of the first deaths in the township. This farm is now owned by Judge J. M. Dickerson, a native of Yates Co., N. Y., who came to Michigan in 1863. He was elected judge of Probate in 1868, and became a resident of Winfield in 1873. Moses Swarthout was an early settler in the east part of the town. He located on section 14, where he cleared a farm and placed it in a good state of cultivation, upon which he lived until about the year 1871, when he became a resident of Cato. The farm settled by Henry Macomber is now occupied by William W. Kelsey, who came to Winfield in an early day, but did not become a permanent resident till the lapse of several years. He was in the Union army, and, it is said, was condemned to die for sleeping on his post, but, through many extenuating circumstances, was pardoned, after which he was wounded in battle. He has served as town clerk a number of years. In the winter of 1860-61, Revs. Ardridge and Church came to the township and held a series of meetings at the house of Henry Macomber. They remained several weeks in the vicinity, and, although a number were baptized, no regular organization was effected. The weather was extremely cold, and an opening was made through the ice in Tamarack Creek, in order to perform the immersions, which were the first in the township. The first saw-mill and store were in the northeastern part, on the farm now owned by Judge Dickerson. The mill was built by Mailen Harrington and John Hyatt, who brought in a portable engine and mill. E. H. Garbutt and William Kelly opened the store, which was one of the first in the north part of the county. These supplied wants long felt, and were a valuable addition to the business interests of this locality. This store was afterwards purchased by Samuel and Abner Weeks, the former being appointed postmaster, and the first office being opened at this place. Seth Beal, an early settler, located on section 9. He was a man of great strength, and at one time he carried eighty pounds of sugar to Croton, which he traded for eighty pounds of flour, and, in addition to this load, brought home several tin pans and some smaller articles, and made the entire distance of thirty-six miles in twelve hours. He subsequently moved from the township to Missouri. A part of the land entered by Mr. Beal is now owned by John Gaffield, who came to Winfield from Canada some years since. H. L. Barton, who located on the southwest quarter of section 9, still resides in the township. James Stevenson settled on the north half of the southwest quarter of section 32 in 1860. He was among the first settlers in this part, and still resides on the land. He served in the army three years. i FIRST TOWNSHIP ELECTION. The following is a list of the names of persons elected as township officers for the township of Winfield in the year 1862, at the first annual meeting of said township, held on the 7th day of April A.D. 1862: Supervisor, E. B. Ellinwood; Clerk, E. J. Blanding; Treasurer, L. Rossman; Commissioners of Highways, E. R. Ferguson, J. F. House, D. E. Knight; Justices of the Peace, C. Parker, H. Cowden, Isaac Gilleo; School Inspectors, J. R. Briggs, C. Parker; Constables, R. W. Smead, C. C. Johnson, W. Cowden, 0. N. Bradley. SUBSEQUENT OFFICERS. SUPERVISORS. 1863-64, no record; 1865, Andrew J. Macomber; 1866-69, Eben R. Ellinwood; 1870, D. E. Knight; 1871, no record: 1872, I{. C. Smith; 1873-79, J. M. Dickerson; 1880, L. L. Church. CLERKS. 1863-64, no record; 1865, Albert D. Rust; 1866-67, James B. Firman; 1868-70, William Kelly; 1871, no record; 1872, William Kelly; 1873, Jasper E. Gilleo; 1874-75, Martin W. Kelsy; 1876, James Stevenson; 1877-78, Edgar J. Royce; 1879, James Corkey; 1880, E. J. Royce. TREASURERS. 1863-64, no record; 1865, Isaac Gilleo; 1866-70, Leonard Rossman; 1871, no record; 1872-73, Leonard Rossman; 1874, Nicholas H. Johnson; 1875-76, Leonard Rossnan; 1877, James R. Briggs; 1878-79, L. L. Church; 1880, John Rushby. JUSTICES OF TIE PEACE.* 1865, Albert Rust, Seth B. Smith, Andrew J. Macomber; 1866, Benjamin F. Coe, Hiram C. Smith, Jacob H. Swarthout; 1867, H. Irving Garbutt; 1868, J. B. Firmin; 1869, omitted; 1870, B. F. Coe, 11. C. Smith; 1871, no record; 1872, George Beckley, H. L. Barton; 1873-74, Lucius L. Church; 1875, H. S. Barton, Isaac Gilleo; 1876, George Beckley, Henry A. French; 1877, L. L. Church; 1878, J. E. Gilleo; 1879, H. L. Barton; 1880, Orville Ball. The following is a statement of taxes assessed for the various purposes during the year 1879: State tax................................. $272.20 County tax............................................... 959.55 Township tax............................o.......... 500.00 Returned highway tax................................ 232.75 School tax................................................ 966.00 Total, with the excess of roll....... $2931.50 SCHOOLS. District No. 1, of Winfield, was formed in the fall of 1860, and the contract to build a school-house was taken by Henry Macomber, who at once prepared log for that purpose. The building, however, was not completed until the fall of the following year. This house was made of well-hewn logs, from which it received the name of blockhouse, a term applied to it until it was superseded by a frame building some years later. It was well furnished with board-desks and seats, and soon became the place of holding political and religious meetings of all parties and sects, and really answered as town-house, church, and schoolhouse for the whole township. Miss Swarthout, who subsequently became the wife of Henry Clark, and is now a resident of Mecosta County, * No record of justices until 1865. 502 HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN. is believed to have taught the first school. In the year 1862 there were but two regularly-formed school districts in the township. District No. 1 contained the greater part of the northeastern quarter, and District No. 2 the northwestern quarter. The south half had been divided by the school board, but the inhabitants, being few and scattering, had taken no steps towards permanent organization. For the year ending Sept. 1, 1880, the total township tax for school purposes was nine hundred and sixtysix dollars. There are four school districts, one of which is fractional, the others being whole districts. The names of directors and the number of children were as follows: Directors. Scholars. District No. 1.............................M. W. Kelsey. 49 < " 2.................... George Clink. 56 " " 3.............................John T. Finch. 34 t " "t 4..............................James Freeman. 26 The district libraries contain thirty-one volumes. There were eight qualified teachers, three male and five female. The total resources for the year were: District No. 1, $312.29; District No. 2, $275.39; District No. 3, $304.87; District No. 4, $359.80. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. ISAAC GILLEO. David Gilleo, father of the above, was a native of New York, as was also his wife (mother to Isaac), whose maiden name was Reynolds. They were farmers by occupation. Mrs. Gilleo died about 1845, and her husband afterwards removed to Michigan, in which State his death occurred in March, 1880. Isaac Gilleo was born Aug. 9, 1832, in Seneca Co., N. Y., being the oldest son in a family of seven childrcn. After attaining his majority he found employment a short time " by the month," but finally, in November, 1854, in company with his brother, he came to Michigan, and the two engaged in lumbering on Flat River. In Maty, 1855, Mr. Gilleo purchased the place upon which he now resides, consisting originally of one hundred and sixty acres. It was taken up by him for himself and his brother. The latter was not yet of age, and a division was made when he reached the period of legal manhood. Isaac Gilleo is the present owner of one hundred and twenty acres, of which one hundred acres are finely improved. June 24, 1860, in Erie Co., Pa., he married Miss Ellen Gordon, who was born in that county Jan. 21, 1841. Her parents were natives of the " Old Bay State." When she was but eight years old her mother died, and her father's death occurred afterwards in Minnesota. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Gilleo came to their home in Michigan, and here have been given to them five children, as follows: Clarence C., born Oct. 11, 1861; Joseph D., born May 30, 1863; Lettie E., born Jan. 31, 1867, died Sept. 2, 1875; Lela E., born May 27, 1873; Porter A., born April 19, 1876. Mr. Gilleo has for many years been devoted to the interests of his farm. In politics he is a Republican, and has held offices of township treasurer, justice of the peace, etc. He has taken great interest in educational matters and institutions, and in everything that tended towards building up the interests of his township. He entertains liberal views upon religious matters. His early school advantages were limited, and the means of his parents were not adequate to give him a finished education. (2..4I MRS.ISAAC GILLEO. 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