USA > Michigan > Van Buren County > A History of Van Buren County, Michigan: A Narrative Account of Its Historical Progress, Its. > Part 13
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We welcome you, our brothers, as men of good renown. We welcome you from Keeler, our southwest corner town; From Hamilton and Hartford, Bangor and Waverly too, Columbia and Geneva, we gladly welcome you. You're welcome from South Haven, the town of boats and oars; You're welcome, too, from Deerfield, where Thunder mountain roars- From Arlington, from Lawrence, the home of Judge Monroe, Who settled in this county some forty years ago. You're welcome from the hilltop, you're welcome from the vale- From Porter and Almena, Antwerp and Bloomingdale. Our brothers from Decatur, we're glad to meet you here; The pioneers of Paw Paw all hail you with a cheer.
We meet today in friendship, as in the days of yore. We meet today as neighbors to talk our conquests o'er. We meet today as veterans who have subdued the land. We meet today as brothers to clasp the friendly hand. We meet to live in memory those early stirring scenes, Through which we passed together, becoming Wolverines.
Among the early settlers it very soon was found We had a modern Egypt ( 'twas Big Prairie Ronde) On which we were dependent and thither had to go, Whenever flour was minus or meal was getting low. The wheat there grew abundant, potatoes large and fine, And like the land of promise, it yielded corn and wine. The father loved his children-for bread he heard the cry- He yoked old Buck and Brindle and went for fresh supply. The corn he had to husk, 'twas standing on the hill, The wheat he helped to thresh, then took it off to mill. The tiresome road was long, the mill was far away, And when the father would return, he could not set the day. He started early Monday, above him shone the stars, Behind, his wife and children stood weeping at the bars. They saw him drive away, their love for him did burn; Back to the cabin then and prayed his safe return.
There in the lonely forest, with not a neighbor near, The wife and children waited, each day seemed like a year. The week would wear away and Saturday would come Before that absent father could reach his lonely home. Meanwhile, the faithful wife the last crust would divide, Then told her children dear "the Lord must now provide."
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Those quizzing little ones, to their dear mother said
"Has the Lord an oven got, and can the Lord make bread?"
God bless these noble women, our glory and our pride, God bless these noble women who labored by our side! When neighbors were far distant and laborers were few, You helped to build our cabins, did all that you could do. You helped us roll the log heaps, you helped us burn the brush, You baked for us the johnnycake, you cooked for us the mush. You patched our worn-out garments, our trousers and our coats, And some you patched so often that we were left in doubts- The mending was so frequent, the work was done so well, That which was coat and which was patch, it puzzled us to tell. You guarded well our cabins and saved with jealous care The scanty little comforts that we had gathered there. You helped us tend our gardens, you helped us plant the corn, And from such worthy mothers our children all were born. And when the burning fever was coursing through our veins, Or when the shaking ague was racking us with pains, By day and night you watched us and stood beside our beds, Like watchful angels ever, and fanned our aching heads. God bless these noble women, Van Buren county 's pride, We welcome you as equals-you labored by our side!
But some who started with us, I see not here today ; The road was long and weary, they faltered by the way. We stood around their bedside and heard th' expiring breath, And wiped from off their foreheads the cold damp dews of death. We did what e'er we could, their precious lives to save, Then closed their weary lids and laid them in the grave.
Until the current year the association has never missed holding its annual meeting, although the real pioneers of the county have nearly all passed over the "great divide," gone to join the great majority on the other side. A meeting was advertised to be held last summer at the usual time, but other matters caused it to be postponed and afterward it was permitted to go by default.
Judge Monroe continued to hold the position of president of the association until his death, which occurred in the fall of 1876. At the next meeting of the association after his decease, which was held at the village of Paw Paw, the following resolutions in part, were adopted: "Whereas, since our last meeting, our worthy friend and late president, has entered upon that long journey we must also soon undertake; therefore
"Resolved, that in his death we recognize the loss of a good man, a worthy member, an efficient officer of this association and a sturdy old pioneer; that as we see our friends and brothers, full of years, falling around us like the tall trees of the forests they helped to subdue, we realize the fact that ere long our reunions will be held, not in the houses of earth, but in a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."
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The committee that drafted these resolutions was composed of the following named gentlemen: Fernando C. Annable, Samuel H. Blackman, Charles M. Morrill, Eaton Branch and Irving W. Pierce. The first four of the committee have gone to find a home in that "house not made with hands." Mr. Pierce still remains on this side of the stream that divides Time from Eternity.
Eaton Branch succeeded Judge Monroe as president of the as- sociation. He continued to occupy the office until the meeting in June, 1885, at which Charles M. Morrill was chosen as president. Mr. Morrill filled the office for two years, when he was succeeded by Hon. Jonathan J. Woodman, who held the office for the next nineteen years, when he was compelled to decline further service on account of failing health. Mr. Woodman died within a few weeks afterward. His successor in the office of the presidency of the association was Hon. Charles J. Monroe.
The other officers of the association have been as follows: Vice- presidents-Edwin Barnum, Jonathan J. Woodman, Alexander B. Copley, Charles J. Monroe, E. Parker Hill, A. W. Haydon, and O. W. Rowland.
Secretaries-S. Tallmadge Conway, Josiah Andrews, Benjamin A. Murdock, John W. Free, Elam L. Warner, and Israel P. Bates.
Treasurers-Josiah Andrews, Franklin M. Manning, Benjamin A. Murdock, William R. Hawkins, and Albert S. Haskin.
The present officers are Charles J. Monroe, president ; Oran W. Rowland, vice-president ; Israel P. Bates, secretary ; Albert S. Haskin, treasurer.
The association has not only been a source of gratification to its members, but it has also been of great utility as well, by way of preserving for future generations many interesting facts, scenes and incidents of the pioneer days of the county, valuable historical matter that otherwise would have been wholly lost and forgotten.
And while it is true that there is left only here and there a per- son who is entitled to be classed as a real pioneer, it is altogether likely that the association will be continued in remembrance of those brave and noble men and women whose labors and sacrifices gave us this prosperous and beautiful land which is the heritage of those who succeeded them.
OSLERISM REVIEWED
Besides, these annual meetings. are a source of much pleasure and profit to those who attend them. On these occasions they have listened to addresses from senators and representatives, judges and lawyers, state officers and laymen, all of which were interesting and more or less profitable and instructive. Some of these ad-
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dresses were sedate and replete with wisdom, while others were amusing and humorous.
A brief skit of the latter kind was read by the vice president of the association at the thirty-sixth annual meeting held at Bangor in 1906. This was just at the time when the public press was ex- ploiting what was said to be the advice of the celebrated Dr. Osler, that men should be quietly and painlessly passed into the future world on arriving at the age of sixty years, and it was this that inspired the sketch, as follows: "Long, long years ago, when you and I were young. there were no telegraphs, no ocean cables. no electric railways, no automobiles, no lighting of our dwellings by the simple push of a button, no Marconigrams sent through earth and air, no standard oil octopus, no beef trust, no steel trust, no multimillionaries, no financial 'system,' no daring Wellman had conceived the astounding idea of sailing to the pole in a dirigible airship and, strange as it may appear, there was no such fashion- able ailment as appendicitis ; the people did not even know that among them all there was such a thing as a vermiform appendix !
"In those days, people were born as they are today, lived out their three-score years and ten, more or less, as the case might be. and died what was called a natural death. They lived in a simple manner, ate of the fat of the land and recked not of the risk they ran in the consumption of their daily diet. They knew naught of the lurking poison concealed in their daily bread, of the deadly ptomaines lying in wait for them in the meat they ate, or of the fatal tyro-toxicon hidden in the milk they drank. They did not know, as do the so-called scientists of these modern days, that there is not a single article of diet that is not dangerous to life. They only knew that a man would die if he didn't eat. They did not know that he would, if he did. And yet, they seemed to have a glimmering of modern, scientific teaching along this line, for they had, even then. a saying that 'what is one man's meat is another man's poison.' And more than all else, they knew naught of the 'germ theory' of disease. They had not even dreamed of the malignant bacillus and were absolutely ignorant of the deadly bacteria that abound in earth and air and sky, that permeate the food we eat, that pollute the water we drink. Bacteria and bacilli. all lying in wait to seize upon our vital organs and to bring upon us dire disease, suffering and pain and death ! Creatures so minute that if one were magnified so as to appear an inch in length, an ordinary man. under the same magnifying power, would appear to be a towering giant twenty-five miles in altitude! Creatures that possess such marvelous powers of reproduction that, unmol- ested, a single pair would soon fill the whole earth !
"And then there are so many varieties of these diminutive little
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demons-the bacillus of rabies, the bacillus of yellow fever, which is said to be so carefully planted beneath the human epidermis by that villainous little songster, Stegomya Fasciata; the bacillus of diphtheria; the bacillus of small pox, which has as yet eluded capture; the bacillus of tuberculosis, of cancer, of typhoid fever, and nobody knows how many others. The marvel is not that the population of earth does not increase more rapidly, but rather that the human race has not been wholly destroyed by the great multitudes of these malicious mites that are constantly preying upon it. .
"Perhaps the time may come when those scientists who claim that they have originated some of the lower forms of life, will, contrary to the expressed preference of Mrs. Partington, succeed in producing men and women in the chemical laboratory, instead of Nature's laboratory, and in endowing the newly invented race with power to absolutely resist the horde of malignant germs that now seems to have it in for us all.
"Methinks, however, that before that time shall have arrived, some great German savant, born and bred, probably, in the Nut- meg State, will have astonished the world by the discovery or in- vention of an universal germ panacea. In my mind's eye, I can see his initial announcement : 'The Greatest Discovery Since the World Began! A Boon for all Mankind! Professor Von Hom- bogg's Great German Germicide, Bacilli Balm and Bacteria Bus- ter! Warranted to destroy all Disease Germs, Bacteria and Bacilli and to render the Human System Absolutely Immune to all Disease of Whatsoever Kind or Character! One Bottle only is Required to produce the desired result; Satisfaction Guaranteed or Money Refunded !'
"What a rush there will be for Professor Von Hombogg's new elixir of life, and what an immense fortune will be his! No future Rockefeller, or Morgan, or Carnegie, will be in the same class with Von Hombogg. Just think of it! No more pain, no more sickness, no more disease, no more death! Just one everlasting, unending era of good health! This will beat even Bob Ingersoll, who said if he had the ordering of things on this mundane sphere, he would have made good health catching, instead of disease.
"When this time shall have arrived, Oslerization will be the only remaining method of shuffling off this mortal coil. Perhaps, after the lapse of a thousand years or so, life may become a bur- den too grievous to be borne and one may have an insatiable desire to depart and be at rest.
"When trouble and care are weighing us down And pleasures are minimized-
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Oh, then, but one refuge remains, We'll gladly be Oslerized.
"When the burdens of life so great have become That death is a boon to be prized, How cheerfully we'll lay them all down And gladly be Oslerized.
"When life on this earth is no longer desired, A truth by us all recognized, How good it will seem to escape And quickly be Oslerized !
"But, hold! No death save a death by violence will be possible. The guillotine, the hangman's rope, the electric chair, the stilleto or the musket! Which will you choose? Ah, me! Will Prof. Von Hombogg's discovery prove a blessing, or will it prove a curse ? I don't know-do you ?
"And so, old pioneers, farewell, adieu, good bye. Soon there will be none of you remaining. May you all reap a rich reward in the world beyond for the good you wrought in your earthly lives."
Vol. 1-7
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CHAPTER IV
ROADS AND RAILROADS
NOTED INDIAN TRAILS-FIRST MICHIGAN WHITE MAN'S ROAD- TERRITORIAL AND STATE ROADS-THE OLD STAGE ROUTES-
. PLANK ROADS-THE PAW PAW RIVER-RAILROADS-THE MICHI- GAN CENTRAL-KALAMAZOO AND SOUTH HAVEN RAILROAD-THE PAW PAW RAILROAD-TOLEDO AND SOUTH HAVEN RAILROAD (FRUIT BELT LINE)-THE PERE MARQUETTE RAILWAY.
When the first settlers came to Van Buren county there were, of course, no roads other than Indian trails. Certain portions of the county, however, that consisted of what were termed "oak openings" permitted of travel, even with teams, in almost any di- rection, and this was one attractive feature to the pioneer. Other parts of the county were heavily timbered with beech, maple, elm, oak, walnut, pine, hemlock, whitewood and other varieties of tim- ber, so that the making of roads was almost a Herculanean under- taking. Getting rid of this timber was one of the first objects of the pioneer, for upon these timbered lands no crops could be grown until the . timber was removed. On many of the finest farms in the county, now in the highest state of cultivation, the timber would be worth more at the present time, as it stood sixty or seventy years ago, than the same farms, with all their fine buildings and modern improvements, are worth today. Road building was one of the first matters that necessarily engaged the attention of the pioneers. Even in the "openings" it was some- times necessary to clear a way through intervening thickets, to construct some kind of bridges for crossing the streams, or to lay causeways across marshes and low-lands, while in the heavily timbered portions of the county the task of constructing even the rude roads of those primitive days was a stupendous one.
NOTED INDIAN TRAILS OF THE REGION
The first roads were the Indian trails, two of the principal ones passing through the county. One of them, coming from Lit- tle Traverse bay, extended southward and passed through the
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counties of Kent, Allegan and Van Buren to the Pottawattamie villages on the St. Joseph river. Another, starting from the vicin- ity of Saginaw, passed up the Saginaw and Shiawassee rivers to the present location of the City of Ionia, thence southwesterly through the counties of Barry and Van Buren to the same Potta- wattamie villages. Another, and the most important of these great Indian highways, which, however, did not enter Van Buren county, started southward on the west side of Lake Michigan and led toward the south from Green bay and the rivers of Wisconsin, around the southern extremity of the lake, thence northeasterly through the headquarters of Chief Pokagon in the southeastern part of Berrien county and on easterly through the wilderness to the Detroit river. It was over this trail that the warriors of the tribes had passed from time immemorial, and it was along this primitive highway that for many years the red men with their entire families passed to Malden in Canada to receive from the British government the small pension paid them (to men, women and children alike) for services rendered in the War of 1812.
FIRST MICHIGAN WHITE MAN'S ROAD
It was over this route that the old "Chicago road" was con- structed, which was commenced in 1825, under authority of an act of congress, and was the first laid-out thoroughfare that tra- versed the state of Michigan. The road was not completed until 1836, and it was over this thoroughfare that many of the early settlers of southwest Michigan passed, finding their way into Van Buren county, as well as elsewhere.
A mania for the construction of roads seems to have possessed the authorities of the territory of Michigan and this spirit was equally evident after it became a state, as was manifest by the internal improvement clause embodied in the constitution of 1835 and by the acts of the legislatures immediately following. From 1833 to 1840, at least two hundred and fifty territorial and state roads were authorized by legislative enactment.
TERRITORIAL AND STATE ROADS
The road that is known to the inhabitants of Van Buren county and all along the line of the route as "the Territorial road," a highway passing through the state from east to west, was sur- veyed in 1836 and opened the following year. This road enters Van Buren county near the northeast corner of Antwerp and passes through that township and the townships of Paw Paw, Lawrence, Hamilton and Keeler into the township of Bainbridge, Berrien county, thence through that county to the cities of Ben-
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ton Harbor and St. Joseph. It is still the Territorial road, al- though along a very considerable part of the original route it has been taken up and relaid on the section lines, or the east and west division lines of the sections through which it passes.
Other territorial and state roads in which Van Buren county had or might have had an interest, if they had ever been constructed as authorized, are as follows: Authorized by the legislative council of 1833: "A road from the village of Schoolcraft, in Kalamazoo county, on the most direct and eligible route, by Paw Paw Land- ing, to the mouth of Black river." The statute authorizing these roads also appointed commissioners to lay out and establish them. Joseph Smith, John Perrine and Abiel Fellows were so appointed for this road. "A road from Adamsville in Cass county, by the most direct and eligible route to the Paw Paw river, at or near the center of Van Buren county." Sterling Adams, Charles Jones and Lyman I. Daniels, commissioners.
Authorized by the legislative council of 1834: "A road from Marshall, Calhoun county, through Climax Prairie, by the most direct and eligible route to the county seat of Van Buren county." Michael Spencer, Benjamin F. Dwinnell and Nathaniel E. Mat- thews, commissioners.
Although Michigan was not admitted until 1837, the first con- stitution was adopted in 1835 and the first legislature convened on the second day of November, 1835, and remained in session until the 14th of the same month. Two sessions were held in 1836, the first from February 1st to March 28th, and the second from July 11th to July 26th. During the sessions of 1836, quite a num- ber of state roads were authorized to be laid out and constructed. Among them were the following: "A state road from Edwards- burg, in Cass county, via Cassopolis, Volinia and Paw Paw Mills, to Allegan in Allegan county." David Crane, Jacob Silver and John L. Shearer, commissioners.
"A state road from Paw Paw Mills, in the village of Paw Paw, Van Buren county, leading through the village of Otsego, to the Falls of Grand river, in the county of Kent." John Wittenmeyer, Jacob Enos and Fowler Preston, commissioners.
Authorized by the legislature of 1837: "A road from Berrien in Berrien county, through Bainbridge to South Haven, in Van Buren county." Pitt Brown, John P. Davis and E. P. Deacon, commissioners.
Authorized by the legislature of 1838: "A state road from the village of Niles, in the county of Berrien, to the village of Kalama- zoo, in the county of Kalamazoo, making the Twin Lakes in sec- tion sixteen of town five south, in range fifteen west, at Henry
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Barney's, a point on said road." Uriel Enos, Richard V. V. Crane and Isaac W. Willard, commissioners.
Authorized by the legislature of 1841: "A state road leading from Centerville, in the county of St. Joseph, to Waterford, in the county of Van Buren, through the villages of Three Rivers, Little Prairie Ronde and Keelersville." W. H. Keeler, J. Moffit and John H. Bowman, commissioners. (The western terminus of this road was evidently intended to be Watervliet, in the county of Berrien, as that village used to be called "Waterford;" it is not and never was within the boundaries of Van Buren county.)
It should be remembered that a statute directing that a road should be laid out and established-particularly in the earlier years-did not necessarily mean that such road would be promptly constructed. In numerous instances years elapsed after the pass- age of an act authorizing a road and after it was laid out by the commissioners. before it would be made passable for vehicles, and frequently such roads were never opened. The collapse of the "wild cat" banking business seriously crippled the state finances and materially delayed the many plans for contemplated internal improvements.
THE OLD STAGE ROUTES
For many years, in fact until the railroads of the county super- seded them. stages carried passengers from Lawton to St. Joseph and from Decatur to South Haven. Great Concord coaches, drawn by four horses were used and the passenger traffic car- ried on by them was no small item. Until the completion of the Michigan Central Railroad to Chicago the stage lines between the above mentioned towns embraced the most feasible and the direct routes between that city and eastern points. In addition to the passenger traffic, mail was also transported over the same lines which was an additional source of revenue to the proprietors of the routes. The completion of the Toledo and South Haven Railroad, as it was then called, between the villages of Lawton and Hartford, sent the last stage coach in the county to the scrap heap.
As an illustration of the value of the stage routes to the com- munity the following statute enacted by the legislature of 1845 is apropos, and serves to emphasize the changes that time has wrought and to show the different conditions that exist in this twentieth century from those that obtained even as late as the middle of the nineteenth century.
"Whereas, The regular stage road leading from the village of Paw Paw, to the village of St. Joseph, passes through a thinly set- tled district of country where the highway taxes are insufficient to keep the road in good repair ; and whereas, the revenue of the
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Central Railroad depends in a great measure upon said stage road being kept in good repair for the safe and comfortable transmis- sion of passengers to and from the western termination of said railroad :
"Therefore, Be it enacted that all the non-resident highway taxes which shall be assessed upon non-resident lands within one and a half miles on each side of said stage road, between the vil- lage of Paw Paw in the county of Van Buren and the village of St. Joseph in the county of Berrien, be and the same are hereby appropriated to be expended in improving said stage road between the village of Paw Paw and the village of St. Joseph aforesaid for the period of two years from the date of this act."
A similar statute was passed in 1847 appropriating non-resident highway taxes to apply on the road "commencing on the east side of section ten, town three south, range fifteen west, thence west- erly through the village of Brush Creek (Lawrence) in Van Buren county and Waterford (Watervliet) in the county of Berrien," and thence westerly to St. Joseph.
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