USA > Michigan > Van Buren County > A History of Van Buren County, Michigan: A Narrative Account of Its Historical Progress, Its. > Part 52
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South Haven, where he was identified with large business interests and became one of the prominent citizens of the county, serving at one time as a senator in the state legislature. He subsequently removed to California, where he resided until his decease.
STATISTICAL, AND PHYSICAL
According to the Federal census of 1910 Geneva contained 1,420 inhabitants, being the twelfth among the townships of the county in point of population.
In 1854, the year the township was organized, its assessed valu- ation was $72,361, and the entire amount of taxes levied was the sum of $1,106.10. The valuation of the township in 1911 was $514,640, being the fourteenth township in point of wealth. The tax levied for all purposes in the latter year amounted to $11,855.51.
The surface of the township is generally level, or somewhat un- dulating, and the soil is fertile and well adapted to fruit, especi- ally to the culture of the peach, large quantities of which have been grown, and some of the finest peach orchards in the county have been located in the township. A few years ago a severe and unusual October freeze injured the peach business, practically de- stroying many of the orchards; but new orchards have been planted and the business is again flourishing.
VILLAGE OF LACOTA
There is no incorporated village in the township of Geneva. In November, 1870, Almon J. Pierce, county surveyor, at the request of Enoch M. Pease, the proprietor, surveyed a village plat on the northwest quarter of section one, consisting of seven blocks, and named the proposed village Irvington, by which name it was known for some twenty years, and, indeed, is still so called on the official records of the county.
In August, 1892, Varnum H. and Marshall Dilley caused an- other plat, consisting of five blocks, to be surveyed on the north- east quarter of section two and adjoining the previous plat. This new survey was named Lacota, by which the two surveys are usu- ally known. This is also the name of the railroad station and the postoffice. The village is an enterprising, prosperous little town, and has one good, general store, one hardware store, two groceries, a livery, a cider and vinegar factory, a blacksmith and wagon shop for the manufacture of fruit wagons, a lumber and wood yard, a postoffice, a railroad depot, and two churches (the Christian and the Methodist Episcopal). The Methodist church was instituted about the same time that the township was organized. A house of worship was erected at Irvington in the summer of 1876. The Chris-
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tian, or Disciple church, is of a later date. That society also has a good meeting-house. Both these churches are in very prosperous condition.
There is also a school in the place which is a credit to its en- terprising patrons. There were ninety-two pupils in the district at the last enumeration. The school property is valued at $3,000. Two teachers were employed during the last school year, each of whom taught nine months of school and were paid salaries amount- ing to $945.
VILLAGE OF KIBBIE
There is another little burg in the township, on the line of the railroad about midway between the village of Lacota and the city of South Haven, being four miles from the latter place. It has a postoffice and one general store.
GENERAL TOWNSHIP PROGRESS
Although Geneva did not become an organized township until at a comparatively late date, only the township of Covert succeeding it, its progress has been rapid and its improvements of the most substantial character. To one who was familiar with it in its orig- inal state when it was covered with dense forests of giant hemlocks and other varieties of timber, the change is indeed wonderful and the labor required to effect it is almost incomprehensible. Instead of forests there are now orchards and cultivated fields; instead of the log cabins of the pioneers, the landscape is dotted with modern farm houses, convenient and up-to-date; instead of the scream of the panther and the howl of the sneaking wolf is heard the roar of the railroad train and the whistle of the locomotive; and in- stead of the roving red man the land is occupied by a happy, thriv- ing prosperous people, who are in the enjoyment of many modern necessities and luxuries of life that had never even been dreamed of when the first settlements were made in the township. Great as the progress has been, none can tell what the future will de- velop. Doubtless the changes of the twentieth century, although along different lines, will be as wonderful and as marvelous as have been those of the nineteenth.
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CHAPTER XXVII
TOWNSHIP OF HAMILTON
CIVIC AND POLITICAL MATTERS-PHYSICAL FEATURES-TAXPAYERS AND TAXES OF 1839-FIRST BUILDING AND FIRST PERMANENT SETTLER-ALSO SETTLED PRIOR TO 1844-ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE PIONEERS AND THEIR TIMES-SCHOOLS, THEN AND NOW-THE HAMILTON TOWNSHIP FAIR.
When the' county of Van Buren was organized in 1837, it con- tained seven townships. By act of the legislature of that year, townships four south, or ranges fifteen and sixteen west, as they were officially designated in the United States survey, were organ- ized into a separate township by the name of Covington. Just why Covington, does not appear, and the name was not of long duration and is remembered by very few of the inhabitants of the county at the present time.
CIVIC AND POLITICAL MATTERS
Pursuant to the legislative act organizing the county, an elec- tion was held on the second Monday of April, 1837, for the purpose of choosing county officers. The statute organizing the township of Covington provided that this first election should be held at the Keelerville postoffice, which was situated at about the center of the west half of the township, which was subsequently organ- ized as a separate township under the name of Keeler. Twenty- seven votes were cast at this election. There seems to have been but one ticket in the field; at least, there was but one set of candi- dates voted for. The official records recite that at this election James Conklin, Robert Nesbitt, James A. Hill and George S. Bishop were elected as justices of the peace, and E. H. Keeler as township clerk. No other local officers are mentioned. A subse- quent entry for the same year recites that at a special election, Benjamin F. Chadwick and Philotus Haydon were elected justices of the peace, in place of James A. Hill, deceased, and James Conk- lin, removed.
The poll list for this election is not preserved among the rec- 502
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ords, but at the general election held the next November, the fol- lowing named persons exercised their right of suffrage: Philotus Haydon, E. Lombard, W. H. Keeler, E. Staples, A. Barney, Ben- jamin F. Chadwick, Lyman Hill, R. Johnson, W. S. Hill, Lewis Johnson, Freeman Foster, S. A. Keeler, S. T. Howell, M. Lewis, E. Geer, C. Bartlett, Robert Nesbitt, Tobias Byers, John Comley, R. Comley, G. Geer, W. S. Sanart, C. Field, Jr., J. M. Lombard, L. T. Ball, Zebina Stearns, E. Smith, A. W. Ensign, H. S. Wright and Ira Foster.
The township of Covington had only a two years' lease of life. The legislature of 1839 passed an act providing that township four south, of range fifteen west, which was the east half of Covington, should be set off and organized into a township by the name of Alpena, and that the first town-meeting in the new township should be held at the house of Henry Coleman in said township. The records of that meeting show that Henry Coleman, Ralph Mason, Calvin Fields and Robert Nesbitt were elected justices of the peace; Henry Coleman, township clerk, and Ebenezer Lom- bard, collector.
The first general election in the newly organized township was held on the fourth and fifth days of November, 1839. At this election thirty-four votes were cast, equally divided between the Whig and the Democrat parties.
At the first presidential election which was held on the second and third days of November, 1840, there were thirty-nine votes polled in the township; twenty for Martin Van Buren, Democrat, and nineteen for William Henry Harrison, Whig.
At the presidential election of 1908, the voters of the township cast 183 ballots : ninety-eight for Taft, Republican ; eighty-one for Bryan, Democrat; two for Chafin, Prohibitionist ; and one each for Debs, Socialist, and Hisgen, Independent.
The name "Alpena" did not prove satisfactory to the citizens of the township, and in 1840 the legislature, on request, enacted that "The name of the township of Alpena, in the County of Van Buren, shall hereafter be altered and changed to that of Hamil- ton." Not a very happily worded statute, but it accomplished its design, and Hamilton it has ever since been, in honor of Alexander Hamilton, one of the great American statesmen of early days.
The first township officers chosen after the division of the town- ship of Covington were George A. Bentley, supervisor; Henry Cole- man, clerk; Marcus Merriman, treasurer; Ralph Mason, Philotus Haydon and Henry Coleman, assessors; Ebenezer Lombard, con- stable and collector; Ralph Mason, Calvin Fields, Jr., and James Nesbitt, school inspectors; Joshua Comley and Aaron Barney, di- rectors of poor; Jackson Pratt, Philotus Haydon and Zebina
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Stearns, commissioners of highways; Henry Coleman, Robert Nes- bitt, Calvin Fields and Ralph Mason, justices of the peace.
The following named gentlemen have officiated as supervisors of the township: G. A. Bentley, Philotus Haydon, Palmer Earl, Henry Coleman, Robert Nesbitt, Truman Foster, George G. B. Yeckley, Calvin Fields, Solomon B. Hagar, Abram S. Wise, John H. Collins, James E. Maxwell, James M. Weeks, M. F. Phillips, C. W. Byers, Amos B. Wagner, Austin D. Conway, and Waldo E. Phillips (who is now serving his second term).
Those supervisors who served more than two years were M. F. Phillips, three years; Bentley and Foster, each four years; Nesbitt and Collins, each five years; Conway, six years; Yeckley, seven years; Hagar and Byers, each eight years, and Haydon, ten years.
PHYSICAL FEATURES
The surface of the township is generally level or slightly undu- lating, and the soil is rich and productive. The northern part was originally covered with heavy timber, while the southern por- tion was mostly what is termed "oak openings." In the south- eastern part there is a considerable low land, originally somewhat swampy, but this has practically all been reclaimed by an extensive ยท system of drainage and is now among the valuable, high-priced lands of the town.
There are several creeks and small streams within the township, the principal ones being Brush creek, a branch of the Paw Paw river which crosses the northwestern corner of the town in a north- erly course, and a branch of the Dowagiac creek which takes its rise in the Lake of the Woods and crosses the southeastern corner of the town in a southerly direction. There are also several small lakes, the principal one being Lake of the Woods, which lies partly in Hamilton and partly in Decatur. The name seems, at the pres- ent time, to be somewhat of a misnomer, as the "woods" by which it was originally surrounded have all disappeared and in their stead are cultivated fields with the village of Decatur within a quarter of a mile of its eastern shore. Originally this was a handsome sheet of water, but its beauty has been somewhat marred by having been partially drained, thus lowering its surface and diminishing its area. However, there is some compensation for this in the increased area of arable land rendered tillable by the draining of the lowlands adjacent to the lake. Other lakes in the town that have been considered of sufficient importance to bear distinctive names are Pond Lily, Pine, Knickerbocker, Osborn, and Johnson.
The southeastern corner of Hamilton is crossed by the line of
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the Michigan Central Railroad, but there is no station within its limits. Hamilton has no village, no postoffice, and neither store nor church building. Its nearest market town is Decatur, situated within about a mile of the eastern boundary of the town, although considerable trading is done in other places. The city of Dowagiac is about six miles south of the southwest corner of the township; the village of Lawrence, four miles north of its north line; the little town of Keeler, three miles west of the west line, and the village of Hartford, about six miles northwest. So that the people do not have to travel far in any direction to find a market place. The population of the township, as given by the census of 1910, was 952, Almena being the only township in the county with a less number of inhabitants.
TAXPAYERS AND TAXES OF 1839
The resident taxpayers of the township in 1839, when the first assessment was taken were as follows: George S. Bishop, Calvin Fields, Aaron Barney, Marcus Merriman, Samuel Bradt, Elisha Geer, John Comley, Daniel Evans, Samuel Gunton, W. H. Keeler, Truman Foster, G. W. Geer, F. Pitcher, A. W. Broughton, James Brooks, William L. Butterfield, William Lake, James Nesbitt, Ralph Mason, Jackson Pratt, Joseph Pratt, Colcott Pratt, Joseph McClintock, James M. Lombard, G. A. Bentley, Henry Coleman, Zebina Stearns, Sidney Stearns, Hale Wakefield, Caleb Bartlett, Silas F. Howell, Lewis Johnson, Robert Nesbitt, Philotus Haydon and Alexander Sloan.
The assessment of the above named residents was the sum of $19,642, of which $15,962 was on real estate and $3,680 on person- alty. Non-resident lands, which comprised by far the greater por- tion of the town, were assessed at the sum of $54,456, making the total valuation of the township $74,098. Practically all lands were assessed at four dollars per acre, which was a liberal valuation for those days. The total tax levy for the year was $522.94.
The valuation of the township at the assessment taken in 1911 was $621,600 and the tax levy was for the sum of $9,613.36. The town ranks as eleventh in wealth among the townships of the county.
FIRST BUILDING AND FIRST PERMANENT SETTLER
It is said that the first building ever erected within the present boundaries of Hamilton was a hunter's cabin on section thirty- three, built by Benjamin Reynolds and Joel Clark, two Kalama- zoo county Nimrods who were accustomed to visit the vicinity oc- casionally on hunting excursions. The story is related that Reyn-
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olds intended to make a settlement in the township and that in 1834 he brought his wife with him to the cabin with the intention of remaining. Shortly afterward, while the lady was looking for their cow that had strayed into the forest, she became lost in the woods. Her cries for help were unheard and it was not until the following morning that she was discovered several miles from home in an adjoining township. Her experience was so unpleasant that she declared she would not stay ; that she would not live where she could not take a walk out of sight of the house without getting lost. She was as good as her word, and, notwithstanding the en- treaties of her husband, she shook the dust of Hamilton from her feet and, of course, that ended his plan to become a permanent resident of that locality. Not long afterward, they settled in the township of Porter where the forests were not quite so dense, and there spent the remainder of their lives.
The first entry of land in Hamilton was made by Robert Nesbitt, who located a tract on section four in the spring of 1835, and at once settled there and began his improvements The history of Hamilton with no mention of Robert Nesbitt, would be like the play of Hamlet with Hamlet left out. Previous to coming to Ham- ilton with his brothers, John and James, he had been living in Kalamazoo. Mr. Nesbitt had theretofore been interested in the building of mills in the state, and one inducement for the selec- tion of his new location was the fact that Brush creek ran through his land and afforded an eligible site for the construction of a fairly good water power. He lost no time in taking advantage of the situation and at once proceeded in the erection of a saw-mill. He had to haul all his lumber and other supplies from Prairie Ronde, but so energetically did he proceed with his undertaking that his mill was ready to begin operations early in the summer of 1836. For a number of years this mill was the only one for miles around, and when the Michigan Central Railroad was built through the county it did a rushing business and was kept running night and day to supply material for the railway construction. For many years thereafter the mill continued to do a profitable busi- ness.
In 1856 Mr. Nesbitt erected a flouring mill on the same site and continued to operate as long as he lived. To his other extensive business interests, he added that of a land agent and in that ca- pacity bought and sold thousands of acres of land, being himself, at one time, the owner of upwards of 2,500 acres. Mr. Nesbitt died at his Hamilton home, on the 11th day of April, 1888, at the age of seventy-eight years. The people of the township are now enjoy- ing the fruits of his pioneer labor. He was a man of great energy ; an excellent business man, honorable and upright; a good all-
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around man and citizen. His life was a fine illustration of the char- acter of the sturdy pioneers who transformed Van Buren county from a wilderness into a garden, from an almost impenetrable forest into a land of beautiful farms and elegant homes.
ALSO SETTLED PRIOR TO 1844
In 1835, Zebina Stearns came to Hamilton, taking up his quar- ters in the Reynolds hunters' shanty. Mr. Stearns afterward en- tered land on section seventeen and remained a resident of the town until his death in 1846. He was joined by his son Sidney, who had previously been engaged in the business of driving stage in the eastern part of the state. He remained a resident of Hamil- ton until his decease which occurred on the 4th day of May, 1885, in the seventy-second year of his age.
James Nesbitt, a brother of Robert, removed from Keeler in 1835 and located lands on sections thirteen and fourteen. He lived there until 1849, when, one day, he was found dead at the bottom of his well. There were some suspicions of foul play, but investi- gation failed to throw any light on the manner of his death, the mystery of which was never solved.
In 1835 Lewis Johnson came to Hamilton from the eastern part of the state along with his father and Zebina Stearns. He settled on section eighteen and remained and continued to reside there until he died in 1872. The elder Johnson returned to the state of New York, which had been their former place of residence, after remaining in Hamilton for about three years.
Aaron Barney, from the state of New York, was also a settler in the township in 1835. He located on section thirty-eight. He lost his wife in 1838 and he, himself, died in 1858.
A man named Lyon, who also came to the township in 1835, remained but one year. He sold his possessions to Philotus Hay- don, who became a man of prominence, not only in Hamilton but in the county. He was somewhat eccentric and many anecdotes are related of him, some of which may, perhaps, be genuine, but, as is apt to be the case, it is probable that most of them are imaginary. Mr. Haydon took quite an active part in the politics of his day and served at different times in the state legislature, both as a rep- resentative and as a senator. He died at his farm on section eight- een, in 1866. He was probably the most prominent and noted man that ever lived in the township. His son, Arthur W., is yet a resi- dent of Hamilton and is well and favorably known throughout the county, and, like his father, is somewhat prominent in political circles.
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Other settlers of the township, who came in 1836, were James M. Lombard, Henry C. McClure and his son, Henry ; John Comley ; George Geer and his brother, Elisha; S. T. Howell, Hale Wake- field, Caleb Bartlett, and Joseph McClintock. In 1837 other set- tlers were Henry Coleman, Samuel Bradt, Jackson and Colcott Pratt, George S. Bishop, Marcus Merriman, Calvin Fields and James Brooks.
Fields removed to Kansas and Merriman eventually took up his residence in Paw Paw, where he died on the 22d day of January, 1892, at the age of eighty-eight years and nine months.
James Brooks, with his wife and two children, settled on sec- tion thirty-three, where he resided on the same place until his death in 1876. It is related of him that he was once so completely lost in the forest that he could not find his way out and that he was rescued by a searching party after wandering four days in the woods. Leonard Tisdale and Solomon B. Hagar were also promi- nent among the carly settlers of the township. The latter served as its supervisor for eight consecutive years.
George A. Bentley, Alexander Sloan, and Palmer Earl were among the settlers of 1838-9. Truman Foster came in 1840. He was both farmer and school teacher. He taught in the adjoining township of Lawrence and was the second teacher to be employed in that town.
Thomas Harris came from the state of New York in 1842, with a Rooseveltian family of fourteen children. He died in 1863.
George Bennett was also an early settler of the town. He removed to the village of Decatur where he died at an advanced age.
Stephen Osborn settled in the town in 1843, just north of Os- born Lake, together with his wife and ten children. The lake takes its name from the Osborn family. He died in 1853.
The first white child born in the township was Mason Wake- field, whose birthday was the fifth day of July, 1836. The sec- ond birth was that of Miss Mary, daughter of Robert Nesbitt, in September, 1837. She died in the morning of life, just before reaching the age of twenty years.
The first marriage of Hamilton residents was that of Robert Nes- bitt and Maria, daughter of John Comley. The ceremony was per- formed in the township of Lawrence, on the first day of December, 1836, by John D. Freeman, a justice of the peace.
ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE PIONEERS AND THEIR TIMES
The first death was that of Mr. Knickerbocker, who with his family located on the bank of the lake that bears his name in 1835. He died as the result of exhaustion and exposure and the hard-
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ships endured, within a few days after he had occupied his un- finished pioneer cabin. The circumstances connected with this death were peculiarly harrowing. Hearing of the matter, Robert Nesbitt and Zebina Stearns went to the premises and found a most distressful scene. The dead man lay in one corner of the floorless, roofless shanty, while the weeping widow and children, gathered around a smouldering fire in another corner of the hut, completed a picture of utter wretchedness. Stearns at once started for Paw Paw, some fourteen miles distant, and in due time returned with Peter Gremps of that village and Elder Junia Warner, who preached the funeral sermon. Mr. Gremps provided the coffin and in accordance with the request of the dying man, he was buried on the island in the lake which bears his name, and there his bones still rest. After her husband's decease, the widow returned to her friends in the east.
A story related by Sidney Stearns is illustrative of the indomit- able energy and pluck that characterized those hardy settlers of early days. There came along one day, said Mr. Stearns, to his father's cabin, two foot travelers, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Johnson; he carrying an axe on his shoulder and leading a cow, and she carrying a bundle, which, with another bundle borne by her hus- band, represented the entire worldly possessions of the worthy couple. It was but a limited outfit for the beginning of strenuous pioneer life, but, like many others under similar circumstances, they did not fear hardship or short allowances. Johnson knew that with his good axe, he could, if health was spared, hew his way to success and prosperity, and, with the help of his equally brave wife, he struggled for even the commonest necessaries of life until at last grit and perseverance won success.
In 1837 Henry D. Coleman built a tavern in the township on the line of the Territorial road some four or five miles from the present village of Decatur. Travel by stage was very brisk along that highway prior to the completion of the Michigan Central Railroad, and as long as the stage route was continued Coleman did an extensive and profitable business. He had put all his means into this enterprise, but shortly afterward borrowed a few hun- dred dollars, with which he purchased a small stock of goods and opened up a mercantile business on a limited scale in one corner of his tavern. He then turned his attention to the matter of @b- taining a postoffice for the town, which he succeeded in doing and was himself appointed postmaster. When the stage route was abandoned, the office was abolished and Coleman removed to a farm on section four, where he died in 1857. He was a man of some prominence and was elected as associate judge of the circuit court in 1842. After his removal, the tavern became known as Brown's
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