USA > Michigan > Lenawee County > History and biographical record of Lenawee County, Michigan, Volume II > Part 1
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48
M.L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
GEN.
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 00827 9843 Gc 977.401 L54WH v. 2 WHITNEY, WILLIAM A., 1820- HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF LENAWEE COUNTY , MICHIGAN
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HISTORY
R
AND
Biographical Record
OF
LENAWEE COUNTY,
MICHIGAN. V.2
CONTAINING SKETCHES OF THE ORGANIZATION AND EARLY SET- TLEMENT OF THE COUNTY,
TOGETHER WITH A
BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF MANY OF THE OLDEST AND MOST PROMINENT SETTLERS AND PRESENT RESIDENTS, OBTAINED FROM PERSONAL INTERVIEWS WITH THEMSELVES OR THEIR CHILDREN.
VOL. II.
WRITTEN AND COMPILED BY
W, A, WHITNEY & R. I, BONNER,
ADRIAN : WILLARD STEARNS, PRINTER. 1880.
7-90
Allen County Public Library F. Wayne, Indiana
TO THE SURVIVING PIONEERS AND
DESCENDANTS OF PIONEERS OF LENAWEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN,
THIS BOOK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED.
1
1835102
PREFACE.
With the completion of this, the second volume of the History and Bio- graphical Record of Lenawee County, our labor terminates, not without some regrets, however, for the work has been attended by many pleasant and very agreeable features To be sure, it has required unceasing labor and energy to accomplish the end, yet by patient adherence we have produced a work that will be of great value in the future. We have made something that will live after us, and be a constant source of information and satisfaction to all persons interested in the county, or the records of those whose lives are here sketched.
Those who read these pages in the years that are to follow should understand that, with very few exceptions, these sketches have been taken from the subjects themselves, by sitting down with them, and receiving from their own lips the statements we have made. There is but very little " guess work " about it, as it was facts and incidents that we sought after and obtained.
There has been no attempt at eulogy, but a plain, straightforward history, depicting the hope, the wearying anxieties and heart-struggles of those brave, generous, noble men and women who came into Lenawee county when it was a wilderness, who, by their industry and frugality, have achieved results so far beyond what they ever dreamed of. It is to be hoped that their posterity will emulate their memory by the lessons they have taught.
Lenawee county is a glorious county, and none better can be found. It is in- habited by a thrifty, intelligent and happy people, prosperous because they are industrious, and industrious because they are temperate and content. On every hand there is comfort and plenty. Nearly all of the farm houses are good, and large numbers of them are beautiful in architecture and massive in size and appearance. Education and refinement is the rule, while the accomplishments are not neglected. In very many houses there is either a piano or organ, with ther evidences of culture and good taste to correspond.
$15.00-P.0.2551-11-21-20MOZ-we
4
PREFACE.
The farmers of Lenawee county now comprise the independent class of the community, and are so estimated in all comparisons, and no person can fully realize their comfortable conditions unless they visit them at all times of the year as we have done, and see the evidences of wealth on every hand that abound throughout.
We have written the records of between five and six hundred of the pioneers of the county in the two volumes of our work, and have traveled in all nearly ten thousand miles to accomplish the task.
We have received many favors at the hands of our friends and patrons, which we gratefully acknowledge, and so close our labors among the pioneers of Lena- wee county.
ADRIAN, MICH., January 1, 1881.
WHITNEY & BONNER.
HISTORY
AND REMINISCENCES OF THE SETTLEMENT OF LENAWEE COUNTY,
BY PIONEER SETTLERS IN DIFFERENT TOWNSHIPS.
T has been deenied best by the publishers of this work to forego all attempts at making any history of the settlement of the different townships of the county, but instead to embody parts or the entire addresses of different individuals who have prepared and delivered them before the County Pioneer Society at their stated meetings. These addresses have been prepared by com- petent men in every instance, who have spent much time and research in their efforts to give a vivid, truthful and "unwritten history" of events since the first , settlement of their township, and it would be futile to attempt to re-write, embel_ lish or condense there valuable, pleasing and able papers. We have, therefore, decided to give them as they are, believing that by so doing we shall preserve the most accurate, entertaining and valuable history of Lenawee county that is pos- sible to be had. It was the idea of the organizers of the County Pioneer Society to procure this history while the men who helped to make it were yet alive, and the object has been well attained so far as the work has been accomplished. Until every township has been "written up" by its most competent resident, tlie mission of the society is unfinished, but the officers are earnest men, and will see to it that it is done.
The Lenawee County Pioneer Society was organized in Adrian, February 27th, 1875, and the first meeting was held at the City Council Room, Dr. D. K. Under- wood, of Adrian, being elected the first President, and William A. Whitney, of Adrian, the first Secretary. The first call was made by William A. Whitney. After the death of Dr. Underwood, Francis A. Dewey, of Cambridge, was elected President, and has held the position ever since. Both Mr. Dewey and Mr. Whitney, who have been residents of the county for over fifty years, have writ- ten much valuable history, and furnished many incidents that have been carefully laid away among the archives of the society.
(2)
LENAWEE COUNTY
ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
WELL written paper read before the Pioneer Society in March, 1876, by Francis A. Dewey, Esq. :
One hundred years ago, before the foot of the white man pressed the soil of the valley of the Raisin, there dwelt in and about what is now Lenawee county, and roamed over the unbounded forests, a powerful tribe of Indians, known as the Pottawattamie tribe. They were feared and respected by the neighboring Indians beyond the west- ern lakes, not so much for their wisdom in government, or greatness in character, as for the skill and prowess they displayed in the savage warfare that was continually being waged by contending chiefs. Ac- customed to dangers and hardships in every form, and taught to con- sider themselves invincible, they had learned to regard life as value- less, if its price was victory. Their hunting grounds were boundless, and game was plentiful from Lake Erie to the Mississippi river. I will here state a few facts about one of the great camping grounds of this tribe, in Tecumseh, which was platted out, as tradition has it; hundreds of years ago, and the remains of the historic embankments can be seen to this day. On a level plat of ground on the east side of the river Raisin, and about half way between Brownville and the Globe mill, there was a large square embankment made which en- closed nearly a quarter of an acre, and near by was a circular em- bankment of about ten rods in circumference. In the centre of the last named enclosure was the bowl, where in years long since passed away, the original owners of the forest assembled their thousands of warriors, filled the bowl of the pipe in the round plateau with the sacred herbs, and lighted it for a smoke. There the painted warriors would sound their war-whoop, sing and dance around the circular en- closure, and take a whiff from the extended rural pipe-stem, for a sav- age war or a united peace, as the braves decided who sat in council in the large square enclosure. At this encampment the great war chief, Tecumseh, was often in council with the tribes of this territory ; here
7
OF LENAWEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
it was, in council in the year 1812, decided by many chiefs, among whom was Tecumseh, that the Indians of the western lakes should aid the British in the war of 1812 to 1815. Here, I would say, on the first of June, for some memorable event, it was customary among the Indians to sacrifice and burn the white dog. From the round en- closure there diverged four trails ; one for Detroit, one for Monroe, one south, and one for Chicago. In later years, as the Indians went annually to Malden, Canada, in the month of June, up to the year 1832, to receive their annuity and presents, hundreds of them yearly encamped on the grounds where Judge Stacy's house now stands. On that memorable camp-ground many Indian war songs have been sung ; many a time has the Indian blood flowed freely, so that the warriors would count less in numbers. Let it be said to the honor of the Indi- ans, the whites were very seldom molested. In the year 1807, at a council held with the dusky sons of the forest at Detroit, November 17th, by Governor Hull, who was then Governor of the Northwest Territory, the Indians ceded the lands in the south part of Michigan to the whites. The tribes in council were the Chippewas, Ottawas, Wyandottes, and Pottawattamies, who were the original owners. The boundaries fixed by that treaty were as follows : Beginning at the mouth of the river Miami of the lakes, running thence up the middle of said river to the mouth of the great Auglaize river ; thence running due north 132 miles until it intersects a parallel of latitude to be drawn from the outlet of Lake Huron, which forms the river St. Clair ; thence northeast the course will lead in a direct line to White Rock, Lake Huron ; thence due east until it intersects the boundary line be- tween the United States and Upper Canada, in said lake; thence southerly, following the said boundary line down said lake, through the River St. Clair, Lake St. Clair and the Detroit river into Lake Erie, to a point due east of the Miami river ; thence to the place of beginning; embracing now about 260 townships of Ohio and Michi- gan. The county of Lenawee was surveyed in the year 1819, by Joseph Fletcher, and by proclamation of the President of the United States, dated March 15th, 1820, was brought into market by a public offering on the first Monday of July following. The above record we get from the Department of the Interior at Washington, D. C.
Forty-five years ago one of the chiefs, Meteaw, was well known in this county. One of his traits of character was that he had a very particular taste for whisky. On a beautiful October morning he placed his packs of fur on his fleet pony and started for market; his adored squaw gave him many instructions what to buy with the sale of the peltries. After an absence of six days he returned to his wigwam ; his admired wife met him with friendship, but soon learned that his belt, tomahawk and blanket were gone, also the furs and pony swept away for a little whisky. Some sharp words were uttered in the Indi- an dialect. Metenw said to his squaw : "I will this day make a vow and record which you and I shall not forget." He took the squaw's hatchet, walked out to a log, placed two fingers on it and cut them off
S
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
Ever after that the promise was kept, and the fire-water was left out of the bill of merchandise.
In the month of June, in the year 1824, a new era dawned in the vast forest solitude of Lenawee county, by which thousands of people were brought into the wilderness to settle, subdue, and bring it under cultivation. It was the dawn of a brighter day, a glorious sunrise for the pioneers of this favored land. The first settler was a most worthy man, Musgrove Evans, a scholar and a gentleman, a native of Penn- sylvania. He was a member of the Society of Friends, and his estimable wife was a sister of Gen. J. W. Brown. He settled at Te- cumseh, 25 miles from any road or white family, and built a log house 20 feet square. Its floor was the bare earth, and its roof was made of strips of elm bark. During the winter of 1824 and '25 it furnished shelter for 16 persons. Beneath the bark roof of this primitive log shanty I have oft times spent a few hours and heard the frontier set- tlers relate the stories of the deer, the night-prowling wolf, and the bear-but better yet was it to hear of a new family coming to improve the lands, and best of all was to hear of a child being born, which showed the prosperity of the country. The first white child born in this county was George Evans. He is now an officer in the army on the Pacific coast in California. The first school house built by Evans and Brown was 12 feet square, of tamarack logs. Mrs. George Spaf- ford taught the first school in the winter of 1824-5. The first saw mill was erected in 1824 by Evans and Brown, and in the summer of 1825. Mr. Evans platted the village of Tecumseh. The first frame house was built by J. W. Brown in 1825, and was then the only pub- lic house in the territory west of Monroe. In the same year Mr. James Knaggs built a store which proved of great value to the Indi- ans and white settlers. In the year 1826 a grist mill was built by Brown, Wing and Evans, the new settlers agreeing to pay Turner Stetson, who was the contract builder, the sum of $200 as part. pay - ment, and I am very glad to say that my father had an interest in the first grist mill in the county. Sylvester Blackman was the first miller, and Jesse Osborne carried the first wheat to mill. Many pioneers brought their grain to this mill, some of them coming a distance of 60 miles. Mr. Evans was the first mail contractor and postmaster. He was appointed by the United States government in the year 1826 to survey a military road from Detroit to Chicago, which proved to be a great and general benefit to the new settlers. The first frame school house of Tecumseh was built in 1826. The county was organized in 1828, with two towns, Tecumseh and Logan. The first judge of the county was J. W. Brown. The court house was built at Tecumseh in 1829, and for a number of years there was so little litigation the court was opened and closed on the same day. Mr. Evans .was appointed assistant marshal in 1830 to take the census. His district included Lenawee county and all the territory west to Lake Michigan. That census shows that Tecumseh, with the territory west to Lake Michi- gan, had a population of 771; Logan, south to the Ohio line, 500 ;
9
OF LENAWEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Blissfield, 145 ; Hillsdale county, 75; making the total population in the territory west of Washtenaw and Monroe counties, 1,491. This valley contains now not less than 80,000 industrious and intelligent people. Well do I remember when it was seven days' journey from Tecumseh to Monroe and return, by the old Indian trail, through dense forests and miry swamps, without a bridge for any stream, and 25 miles without a house. The best and most reliable team was a yoke of oxen. Thus express packages, the mail and freight were carried with safety, and for a considerable time with dispatch.
-: 0 :-
CAMBRIDGE.
PAPER read in Adrian, by Hon. Norman Geddes, before the Pioneer Society, March 1st, 1876 :
Coming to Michigan when a boy, in 1835, with my father, who settled in Cambridge, near Springville, in this county, where he lived until his death, upon the farm purchased from the government in 1833, I.can truly say that I have spent nearly all my life in this county.
I remember very well the long journey from our old home in west- ern New York, in a lumber wagon covered with canvas. We were 12 days upon the road-coming through Canada and crossing the river at Detroit, then a city numbering about half the population that Adrian does to-day. Although I have frequently traversed the same route, in about as many hours as it then required days, I have never since, so thoroughly enjoyed the trip as upon that first journey. All was new. From Lewiston to Detroit was one grand procession of canvas-covered wagons, and in them was the enterprise that has made what was then called the west,-the garden of the world. Arriving at my oldest brother's, who had preceded the rest of the family some two years, we found the La Plaisance Bay turnpike, running from Monroe to its intersection with the Chicago turnpike, some 16 miles west of Tecumseh, in process of construction. This road was built by the United States, while Michigan was yet under territorial government, and it was because of its location that my father purchased, in 1833, the farm upon which he afterwards settled. One living upon the turn- pike to-day can scarcely realize the wonderful changes that have taken
10
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
place upon that thoroughfare since its construction. From 1835 to 1840, there was one continuous procession of movers' wagons. Six four-horse coaches each day, ran over the road, loaded with passengers, and all was life and activity. From 1833 to 1836, that part of the country was settled by a class of people of whom any of its present citizens may well be proud. The great mass of those early settlers were from New York and the New England States, with a few from the old world. They were men of character, intelligence and enter- prise, coming west to better their condition and that of their families.
Among the many pleasant memories of that period, none is more vivid than that of the universal kindly feeling exhibited by all the settlers-one towards another. There were no castes, no cliques, no aristocracy. All were on a common level, and seemed to vie with each other in their efforts to ameliorate the condition of their neighbors. It was no uncommon thing to go three, four, or five miles to assist a set- tler in raising his log house, and there was no hesitation, no hanging back, no trumping up of excuses, but when asked to go, they dropped their own work, shouldered their axes, and worked with a will, and for those, of whose names even, they had never before heard.
Say what we may about the progress, the improvements and ad- vancements that have been made, (and I admit all that can be claimed in this direction), I still claim that never in the history of the State has there been so much of genuine manhood, so much of disinterested benevolence, of kindness of heart, so much of sociality, and in the best sense of the word, of christian good feeling, as was evinced in the early settlement of the country. So far as these things and many others growing out of them are concerned, it was the Golden Age of the State.
With the increase in wealth, with what has been gained in polish, in education, in fine houses, fine clothing and equipage, and in knowl- edge of the world, must be reckoned the reserve, the coldness and the selfish exclusiveness which now too often separate those living in the same neighborhood into cliques and castes, making distinctions in soci- ety unknown in the early days of Michigan.
In the northern part of the townships of Cambridge and Franklin is one of the most charming of the many beautiful lakes of the State. I feel that I can never quite forgive the author for bestowing upon so lovely a body of water, such an unpoetical name. For, while it may be true as a matter of fact that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, yet it is far from pleasant to contemplate such a dire misfor- tune as would be ours if our own loved and favorite flower had been christened by some harsh. unpoetic, inexpressive appellation
He who visits Sand Lake to-day for the first time can have but a faint conception of its beauty 40 years ago. It is true the lake is there, but its surroundings, how wonderfully changed. Then every year the fires ran over the woods, burning off the underbrush and fallen timber, leaving only the large oaks. The view was not as now, obstructed by dense underbrush, but one could see the wild deer as far as the eye
11
OF LENAWEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
could reach, and could ride or drive over the hills in any direction. Then in the months of May and June there was such a carpet of flow- ers as has never since been seen. A gorgeous display, covering almost every foot of what was termed the opening lands, and making the hilly country about Sand Lake a very paradise for the lover of flowers. The lake has no visible inlet or outlet. My friend, Dr. Benjamin Work- man, of whom I shall speak more at length, before closing, informed me some years ago that in 1836, while rowing a boat over the west- ern portion of the lake, he came directly over some very large springs where the water seemed fairly to boil, moving the sandy bottom with great violence. He was ever afterwards of the opinion that he had discovered one of the sources of water supply of the lake. At that time the lake was two or three feet lower than it is to-day, and there was a beautiful drive nearly around it, close to the water, upon a hard, sandy beach. Why the lake is so much higher than at that time, is a question for the scientist rather than the historian.
However, it is not of Sand Lake itself, but of some of the remarkable men, who, attracted by its wonderful beauty, first settled upon its banks, that I desire more particularly to speak. If there are any of the early settlers of Cambridge or Franklin present, the names of Rev. Henry Tripp, Rev. William N. Lyster, Dr. Benjamin Work- man, and James King, Esq., must occur to them as among the more prominent. These were remarkable men, and deserve a more extend- ed notice than it is practicable to give them in the brief limits of this paper, in which I can do little more than allude to them, and to the influences which they have exerted upon the people of the county. Commencing with the first : The Rev. Henry Tripp was an English- man by birth and a clergyman of the Baptist church. In early life he had been a sailor ; had crossed the Atlantic before the age of steam- ships some eighteen times; was for a time in the naval service of the United States, and served under Commodore Decatur, in the war with Tripoli ; was for many years a missionary to Jamaica, and finally, in 1831, when all that part of this county was a solitary wilderness, and the territories of Michigan and Wisconsin combined, numbered only 32,000 inhabitants, he located land upon the southern bank of Sand Lake, upon section 13, in Cambridge, and lived there for many years with his estimable wife and family. When he first came to that lake in the wilderness he felt as if he had found the promised land. It seemed to him the most beautiful spot on this fair earth, and he made haste to secure a home for himself and family upon its southern border.
Among all the distinguished men who have at some period of their lives resided in this county, there have been but few who deserve a more kindly mention than does he. Rough and unpolished in his manners, blunt and plain of speech, he would have been an utter fail- ure as a teacher of etiquette ; yet under that rough and rugged exterior lived one of the noblest and truest hearts that ever throbbed. He was emphatically a man of convictions-and with such a man it was only necessary to be satisfied that a given course was the right course, in
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
order to induce him to follow it at all hazards. Endowed with an in- domitable will, he did not stop to count the cost, but pressed right on- ward in the line of his convictions. Actuated by a conviction of what he believed the right, regardless of all opposition of the opinions of his neighbors and friends, regardless of everything save what he conceived to be duty, he cast, year after year, the only abolition vote in his town, and while we may call him a fanatic, we can but respect the sincerity and the honesty of his fanaticism. Of a religious cast of mind, and with strong convictions of religious duty, he had no sympathy with any mere formalism. He judged men by their fruits, their works, rather than by their profession, His preaching was characterized by the same spirit as was that of Nathan when he said to David, "Thou art the man." He never knew what fear was. While he was him- self rough and unpolished in his manners, his wife was one of the most gentle, refined and cultured of English ladies,-was the type of a true woman. She, too, must have been fascinated with the beauty of the country, or she could scarce have endured the hardships and privations inseparable from its settlement. In those days there were no calendar clocks, almanacs were not as plenty as now, and even clergymen sometimes found it difficult in keeping track of the days of the week. I remember one occasion when the elder had an appoint- ment to preach at the house of Deacon Giles Hubbard, on a Sunday. The people assembled, but the preacher did not come. He was at home serving the Lord by clearing off his farm in the woods. The next day, dressing in his Sunday clothes, he wended his way to the Dea- cons, where, when he arrived, he commenced remonstrating with the good Deacon's wife for her violation of the Sabbath by doing her washing on that day, and thereupon the Deacon's wife felt called upon to administer a little wholesome reproof to the Elder, because of his dereliction upon the day previous, and a somewhat careful examina- tion of the calander, soon convinced him that the weather and the crops afforded much more profitable subjects of conversation than any assumed violation of the 4th commandment.
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