USA > Michigan > Van Buren County > A History of Van Buren County, Michigan: A Narrative Account of Its Historical Progress, Its. > Part 48
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The line of the railroad was located through the village in 1869 and the depot site selected in May, 1870. The very day that the site was definitely decided upon, Mr. Kendall purchased sixteen acres of land on the southwest corner of the northwest quarter of section sixteen. Mr. Killefer, in the meantime, had bought a few acres on section seventeen, and on the 23d day of May. 1870, they platted the village.
The first passenger train arrived on the fourth day of July, 1870, and was the occasion of great rejoicing among the inhabitants of the village and the surrounding country. On the completion of the road, the village was imbued with new life, wide awake busi- ness men located and engaged in various pursuits, and the town has continued to prosper ever since.
The village became an incorporated town by act of the legisla- ture in 1881. The present officers are: Thomas H. Ransom, president; Charles E. Merrifield, clerk; Sherman D. Smith, treas- urer; Edwin J. Merrifield, assessor; Edwin J. Merrifield, Roy D. Perkins, Gardner L. Stewart, Charles A. Weidenfeller, Charles E. Trim and Charles Linton, trustees.
The village schools are a credit to its enterprising citizens, rank- ing among the best in the county. The last school census shows that there was 169 persons of school age residing in the village district
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HIGH SCHOOL, BLOOMINGDALE
and that during the last school year there was an enrolment of thirty-five non-resident pupils. The district library contains 233 volumes, and the value of school property is reported at $6,500. Six teachers were employed and the amount paid for teachers' salaries was $3,703.75. The aggregate number of months taught was seventy-two and three-quarters.
CHURCHES AND SOCIETIES
There are three churches in the village, the Methodist Episcopal, the Christian and the Baptist. The Methodist society was organ- ized in the winter of 1856. The names of the original members were: A. Miller, W. C. Wait, F. Miller, H. E. Miller, J. A. Wait. E. Caughey, Wm. J. Merwin, T. Merwin, L. E. Cook, M. Cook and M. S. Miller. The church now has thirty-five members and church property worth $4,000. There are fifty persons members of the Sunday school. W. R. Kitzmiller is pastor.
The Christian church was organized in April, 1858, and held its early meetings in a schoolhouse on section fifteen. The original members were Harrison Cooley, Azubah Cooley, Austin Melvin, Frederick Melvin, Eli Bell, Margaret Bell, Russell Loomis, Re- becca Loomis, W. D. Ensminger, Polly Ensminger, George Pierce, Henrietta Pierce, Augustus Haven, William Armstrong, Abby Killefer, Corintha Strong, Lucretia Brown, Marinda Loomis, Lou- isa Loomis, Margaret Corning, M. L. Healy, Maria Healy, R. F. Loomis, Mary F. Loomis and Julia M. Paxon.
A house of worship was erected in 1871. The church now has
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a membership of 125 and a Sunday school of 120 members. The church property is valued at $4,500. G. W. Daines is the present pastor.
The Baptist church, W. A. Johnstone, pastor, has a membership of 122, with a Sunday school of 100. The church property is valued at $4,900. This church sprang from a very small begin- ning. In 1853 the Allegan Baptist church granted to A. B. Eaton, Maria Eaton, Ann E. Palmer, M. E. Eaton and L. J. Cannon, members of that society, the privilege of associating together, as a branch church. For many years they met in the dwellings of the members, and were occasionally privileged to hear ministers who happened among them. The first baptism was administered in April, 1854, when Elder H. Munger baptized his son, Harvey, and Orrit Lane in Eagle lake. From this small beginning the work has gone forward until the church has become one of the prominent religious organizations of the denomination in the county.
The following are societies that have an organization in the village : Lodge No. 221, F. & A. M. has 130 members. The lodge has about $3,000 worth of property. Its members are building a fine hall, the upper story of a fine new brick building that is in process of construction by Trim, Hodgman & Company for a store building. The expense to the lodge will be about $4,000, and will give them one of the finest lodge rooms in the county.
Bloomingdale Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star, was organized August 6, 1895, with a charter membership of twenty-seven. It now numbers 104.
Bloomingdale Lodge No. 161, Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows, 140 members, has property valued at $3,000.
Bonnefoi Rebekah Lodge was organized March 25, 1902, with five charter members. It now has a membership of 102.
Encampment No. 176, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, has twenty-five members.
Bloomingdale Camp, No. 8159, Modern Woodmen of America, has seventy members.
The Maccabee Lodge has thirty-five members.
Edwin Coldwell Post, No. 23, Grand Army of Republic, has twelve members.
A Detroit firm at this place, during the past season, put up 52,793 gallon cans of fruit, plums, peaches, cherries and small fruits, made 1,083 cases of grape and currant jellies, converted 33,185 bushels of apples into cider, shipped eleven carloads of apples in bulk, made 420 Weir jars of apple preserves, salted 16,- 000 bushels of cucumbers, paying upwards of $7,000 for help and $28,000 for stock.
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NORTH VAN BUREN STREET, BLOOMINGDALE
711 111
SPRING STREET, BLOOMINGDALE
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The Bloomingdale Creamery (successors to the Haven Cheese factory ) has 225 patrons, with a yearly output of 185,000 pounds of butter, selling for $50,750.
Shipping live-stock has been a thriving business. Over $100,000 has been paid during the year for cattle, sheep and hogs shipped to outside markets; $6,000 has been paid for apples, and the farm- ers have received about $8,400 for their potato crop. The pros- perity of the place is indicated by the following list of business houses, all prosperous and each one a credit to the village: One general mercantile store; one department store; one clothing, shoes and grocery establishment ; one hardware and grocery store; two groceries; one barber-shop ; one investment company ; one gran- ite works; one meat market; one produce and lumber company ; one hardware, implement and undertaking establishment; one livery ; one hotel (the Park View) ; one blacksmithing and wood- working establishment; one millinery shop; one papering and deco- rating firm; one jewelry store; one milling company; two physi- cians; one newspaper (the Bloomingdale Leader) ; one photograph studio; one bank (the Peoples) ; two telephone lines (the Kibbie, with 123 members, and the Citizens, with 200 members) ; one band, a good one; and a base ball team that is noted as being one of the very best amateur clubs in the entire state.
And last, but by no means the least, is a commercial club that is interested in the prosperity of the town and that misses no op- portunity to advance the interests of its citizens-an organiza- tion that has already accomplished much and which is expected to accomplish much more.
VILLAGE OF GOBLEVILLE
The village of Globleville derives its name from the Goble family who were quite early settlers in the vicinity and the proprietors of the original plat of the village.
The hotel known as the Central Hotel, which was destroyed by fire since this chapter was first written, was the first building erected within the limits of the present village. It was built by John Goble about the year 1864, on the highway then called the Allegan state road, and being about midway between the village of Paw Paw and the village of Allegan, in Allegan county, it made a very convenient and desirable stopping place for travelers along that route, of whom there were a considerable number in those early days.
In 1867 Hiram E. Goble built a store near the hotel and Fessen- den & Hayes followed with a blacksmith shop. Dr. A. E. Bulson was the first resident physician.
The place continued to grow somewhat moderately until the
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RESIDENCE STREET SCENE IN GOBLEVILLE
:5 PROST
BUSINESS STREET, GOBLEVILLE
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railroad from Kalamazoo to South Haven was built, which was completed to this point in 1870 and which gave a new impetus to the embryo village.
A postoffice was first established at "Lake Mills" and Arch W. Bishop was appointed postmaster. In 1867 the office was removed to the village and was christened "Gobleville," Hiram E. Goble becoming postmaster ; his successors in that office have been G. B. Boughton, Edward Keeler, George W. Myers, Arvin W. Myers, David D. Wise, Arthur Webster and Lewis E. Churchill (the present incumbent).
The village is situated partly in the township of Bloomingdale and partly in the township of Pine Grove. It was first laid out and platted, on the sixteenth day of April, 1870, by Hiram Goble and his wife, Susan A. Goble. This original plat was of lands on section twenty-five in the township of Bloomingdale. On March 12, 1872, an addition called Goble's was platted by Warren Goble and his wife, Cordelia E. This addition is situated on section thirty of the township of Pine Grove. Another addition on sec- tion twenty-five of Bloomingdale, called the Lewis addition, was platted on the 14th day of March, 1889, by Nathaniel Lewis and his wife, Celinda Lewis, and afterward, on the 30th day of July, 1894, William Killefer and his wife, Emily Killefer, platted a third addition called Killefer's addition, situated on section nine- teen in the township of Pine Grove.
Gobleville is entitled to be classed as one of the prosperous and thriving villages of the county. The two most important towns on the line of the South Haven division of Michigan Central Rail- road are Gobleville and Bloomingdale.
According to the United States census of 1910 there were 537 inhabitants in the village of Gobleville, thirty-six more than in Bloomingdale. Gobleville is situated five miles by rail southeast of Bloomingdale. Being in the same township, of so near the same population and in such close proximity, there is quite natur- ally a considerable spirit of rivalry existing between the two vil- lages.
Gobleville is distant eighteen miles from the city of Kalamazoo on the east and twenty-one miles from the city of South Haven on the west. It became an incorporated town by act of the state legislature in 1893. Its present officers are Charles Overacker, president ; John T. Bernius, clerk; Edward W. Howard, treasurer ; Robert E. Vickers, assessor; William Day, Othello E. Scarlett, Michael Dorgan, William Miller, Edwin Covey and H. E. Elheny, board of trustees.
One of her institutions of which the village is justly proud is the village school, which is one of the eleven high schools in the
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county. At the last enumeration of the district there were 165 persons of school age, the average daily attendance during the school year was 158. There were fifty-nine non resident pupils enrolled. There were 273 volumes in the district library. The value of the school property is $15,000 and there is a bonded in- debtedness of $6,000. Six teachers were employed and the ag- gregate number of months taught was fifty-four. There was paid for teachers' salaries the sum of $2,947.50.
A disastrous fire visited the town in 1901, destroying eighteen of the business places, but like many other instances of the same character it proved a blessing in disguise. The enterprising busi- ness men of the place proceeded at once to rebuild and in a com- paratively short period of time the burned buildings were re- placed with new ones, much better than the old.
There are two churches in the place, the Freewill Baptist and the Methodist Episcopal. The former was organized about the year 1866. They have a commodious frame house of worship which was completed in 1877, and which has a seating capacity of 350. The present membership is 120. C. D. Thornton is the pastor.
The Methodist church was organized in 1880 and has a present membership of 122. The house of worship is a frame structure with a seating capacity of 200. G. W. Hawley is the pastor.
Hudson Lodge, No. 325, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, located in a commodious hall over the Frank Company's store, is in a flourishing condition and has a present membership of about 150. Easter Lily Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star, No. 230, is adjunct of the Masonic Lodge.
Gobleville Lodge, No. 393, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, own their hall, which is large and commodious and fitted up es- pecially for lodge purposes. Hazel Dell Rebekah Lodge, Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, is another branch of the order that is in a very prosperous condition. Both of these lodges of Odd Fellows have a large and increasing membership. The Macca- bees are also represented in the village by organizations of both ladies and gentlemen. There is also a prosperous Lodge of Mod- ern Woodmen, Camp No. 9132.
The Grand Army of the Republic also has an organization and adjunct thereto is the Woman's Relief Corps.
Two telephone lines have exchanges in the town-the Kibbie and the Mutual companies.
The village contains these business establishments: One marble company; two produce dealers, shippers and coal dealers; one opera house, seating capacity 400; one grocery, drug and crockery store; one boot and shoe store; one jewelry store; one restaurant
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and soda fountain; one meat market; one general hardware and farm implement store; one hardware, carriages, wagon and imple- ment dealer; one department store; one bank, the Gobleville Ex- change; one general dry goods, boot and shoe and clothing store; one furniture and undertaking establishment ; one barber shop ; one millinery establishment; one drug store with soda fountain; one agricultural implement store; one feed store; one grocery store ; one harness shop ; two blacksmith shops; three physicians; one den- tist, and one shoe shop.
LAKE MILL, NEAR GOBLEVILLE
The Gobleville Creamery, which does a large business, manu- facturing from 1,500 to 1,700 pounds of butter per day during the summer season, besides selling a large amount of cream to Kala- mazoo ice cream dealers.
ยท The Gobleville milling establishment which is equipped with modern machinery and does a large business.
The enterprise and push of the business men of this flourishing little village is a credit not only to themselves, but to the county in which it is so pleasantly located.
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CHAPTER XXIII
TOWNSHIP OF COLUMBIA
PHYSICAL FEATURES AND RAILROADS-SITE OF BREEDSVILLE SETTLED -PROPERTY HOLDERS AND TAXES (1839)-SETTLERS PRIOR TO 1845-CIVIL AND POLITICAL-PRESENT VILLAGE OF BREEDSVILLE -BERLAMONT-COLUMBIA-GRAND JUNCTION.
When the county of Van Buren was first organized, Columbia formed a part of the township of South Haven, indeed, at that time nearly all of the inhabitants of that township resided within the present boundaries of Columbia. It was not until 1845 that, by act of the legislature of the state, it was set off and organized into a separate township under its present name. It is the central one of the north tier of townships of the county and is bounded on the north by Allegan county, east by Bloomingdale township, south by Arlington and west by Geneva. It is officially designated as town- ship number one south, of range number fifteen west.
PHYSICAL FEATURES AND RAILROADS
The surface of the township is generally what would be termed rolling, being diversified by irregular ranges of low hills and also by numerous lakes, of which Saddle lake (so named from its pecul- iar shape) is the largest. This body of water lies partly on four different sections-ten, fifteen, sixteen and twenty-two. From its eastern extremity to its northern end is a distance of about a mile and a half. The other lakes that are dignified by a name are Jeptha's (commonly called Jap) lake, which is one and a half miles in length, but narrow, varying in width from a few rods to a quarter of a mile; Lakes Fourteen and Eleven, so named from the sections on which they are located; North lake, Munson, Dollar (or Silver as it is called on the later maps). Coffee. Base Line, Deer, Mud, Little Bear and Great Bear lakes, the last named ly- ing partly in the township of Bloomingdale.
The outlet of Great Bear lake forms the south branch of Black river and is the principal stream in the township. It flows diagon- ally across its southern part, forming a considerable water power
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at the village of Breedsville, which was utilized at a very early date in its history.
The township possesses a variety of soil, ranging from light sand to heavy clay, but in general it is fertile and productive, yielding abundant crops of hay, grain and fruits.
Like the entire northern half of the county, Columbia was orig- inally covered with a growth of heavy timber of different kinds, pine and hemlock being the predominating varieties. As a natural consequence the manufacture of lumber and shingles was the pre- vailing industry of the earlier years, but the forests have prac- tically all disappeared and in their stead are fine farms and or- chards and the usual accompaniments of prosperous modern rural life.
The township has excellent railroad facilities, the line of the Pere Marquette crossing it from south to north and the South Ha- ven division of the Michigan Central passing through its northern part from east to west. The two lines intersect at the village of Grand Junction. Both these roads were completed through the town in 1870. Breedsville and Grand Junction are stations on the Pere Marquette, and Berlamont, Columbia and Grand Junction, on the South Haven line.
SITE OF BREEDSVILLE SETTLED
In May, 1835, Rev. Jonathan N. Hinckley, in company with Barnard M. Howard, both from Monroe county, New York, vis- ited the region that afterward became a part of the township of Columbia and made entries of a considerable acreage of lands near the site of the present village of Breedsville. At this time they built a cabin on their new location, preparatory to its occupation, and then returned to New York. In the fall of the same year, a party of some twenty-five persons, all from the county of Mon- roe, New York, left their eastern homes with the intent of settling on the lands purchased by Messrs. Hinckley and Howard and of making for themselves new homes in the Michigan wilderness, which was then considered to be in the "far west." Their route was by way of the Erie canal to the city of Buffalo; thence by way of Lake Erie to Detroit. At the latter place they purchased a yoke of oxen, and a wagon upon which they loaded their house- hold goods and children, and thus equipped started for Paw Paw by way of the Territorial road, the major portion of the party making the journey on foot. Although their destination was only about eighteen miles from the last mentioned place it took them two days to reach it. The party consisted of Rev. Jonathan N. Hinckley, William N. Taylor ; Mr. and Mrs. Silas Breed and their Vol. 1-30
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four children-Stillman, Phoebe Ann, Hinckley and Joshua-and Sarah Taylor, an adopted daughter; Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Watson and his three children-Leonard, Lyman and Sarah-and a grand- son ; Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan N. Howard; and Mr. and Mrs. Amos S. Brown and their five children-Elizabeth, Amos S., Jr., Wells G., Minerva and Jesse R.
The cabin which had been erected the previous spring was soon made habitable. The next domicile was built for the Brown fam- ily and immediately afterward a cabin was constructed for the occupancy of the Watson people. These three primitive dwellings served to shelter the entire colony during the first winter, includ- ing William A. Babbitt who had joined them. About the first of January, however, Elder Hinckley returned to the state of New York and it was not until several years later that he took up his permanent residence in Van Buren county. The first death in the little colony was that of Sarah Taylor, who passed away during that first winter. The next year Mr. Howard and others erected dwellings for themselves, and Silas Breed built the first saw-mill in the new settlement.
The following season, 1837, the settlement was augmented by the arrival of Elijah Knowles, William Bridges and George Coch- rane, from Livingston county, New York; Dr. Hervey Manley from Ashtabula county, Ohio, and Myron Hoskins from Paw Paw, who had settled in that place a couple of years before. In later years Mr. Hoskins again became a resident of Paw Paw, where he died, November 7, 1900, at the ripe age of eighty-nine years. He was followed by his widow, Sarah, on the 13th day of January, 1903, who was eighty-seven years of age at the time of her decease.
The first child born in the new settlement was Nancy, a daughter of Jonathan N. Howard and wife, and during the fall of the same year the second death occurred. Samuel Watson, who was then a man of some sixty years of age, had gone on foot to Paw Paw, to obtain some needed medicine for his family. On his return journey he died alone in the forest, where after a diligent search, his body was found.
The first marriage solemnized in the little colony was that of James G. Cochrane and Miss Sarah Watson. The wedding took place on the 10th day of June, 1840. 'Squire Silas Breed was the officiating magistrate.
In 1838 Elijah Knowles and John Barrows erected a tannery, the abundance of hemlock bark making it an ideal locality for that purpose. Indeed, for many years thereafter, the traffic in hemlock bark was one of the leading industries of the township, large quan- tities being hauled to tanneries located in Lawrence, Decatur and Paw Paw, or to South Haven and shipped across Lake Michigan.
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The colony was augmented in that year by the arrival of Jeph- tha Waterman, John Barrows, Horace Humphrey and quite likely by a few others.
For quite a number of years Paw Paw was the nearest postoffice, so it may be well be believed that mails were rather irregularly received and that the pioneers knew little and probably cared less about receiving a newspaper every day, or even once a week. How- ever, a postoffice was eventually established at Breedsville and Amos S. Brown became the first postmaster, Jesse R., his son be- ing the first mail carrier between the new office and Paw Paw.
PROPERTY HOLDERS AND TAXES (1839)
The resident taxpayers of the township in 1839, the number of acres assessed to each and the sum of their taxes on both real and personal estate, were as follows:
Names
Acres
Tax
Silas Breed
80
$7.04
Elijah Knowles
160
4.65
Hervey Manley
240
4.98
J. N. Howard
240
4.56
J. M. Babbitt
160
3.33
320
5.69
Myron Hoskins
40
.91
Leonard Watson
160
4.94
Luman Brown
80
1.55
J. Waterman
69
.79
H. Humphrey
40
.78
J. Peck
80
1.55
D. C. Ackley
80
1.55
This shows that the total amount of taxes paid by the resident taxpayers for that year was $42.32.
Of the above named parties, one-Joseph Peck-was not actu- ally a resident of the township, as he lived across the line in the township of Bloomingdale. The next year, 1840, the only changes that appear on the resident tax roll are that the name of J. M. Babbitt is left off and the names of William A. Babbitt, Henry Bab- bitt and Dustin Murch are added, making the number fifteen. The taxes paid were even less than in the previous year, being only $26.48.
For the year 1911, the valuation of the township was the sum of $453,790, and the total tax levy was $11,725.96. In point of wealth Columbia is at the foot of the list of townships of the county.
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SETTLERS PRIOR TO 1845
Thomas P. Page settled in the village of Breedsville in 1841, where he kept open house for the accommodation of travelers as did others of the early settlers. When the stage line was estab- lished between Paw Paw and South Haven, which was about the year 1848, Page opened a hotel or, as it was called in those days, a tavern. There are yet a considerable number of people living in the county who have a vivid recollection of the old Page tavern and of the hilarious scenes that occasionally-or oftener-trans- pired therein.
Charles W. Luce settled on section twenty-three the same year. Alexander Lytle, who became a man of prominence in the affairs of the township, at different times being elected as township treas- urer, settled in the township in 1842.
Other settlers prior to 1845 were Peter Smith, Lyman Loomis, Jethro Barber, Amos E. Barber, Edmund Sawtelle, David Barker, Hiram Chappell, James Richards, S. N. Pike, A. Bugsbee and James Moore.
The first grist-mill in the township was built by Mr. Heath in 1858. The northern part of the township was but slightly settled until about the time the railroads were projected and built.
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