USA > Michigan > Van Buren County > A History of Van Buren County, Michigan: A Narrative Account of Its Historical Progress, Its. > Part 58
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A lodge of Modern Woodmen was organized in 1895 and at present has eighty-two members.
Wadsworth Post, Grand Army of Republic, was organized in 1882, and has twenty-three members.
Wadsworth Women's Relief Corps was organized in 1889 and has a membership of thirty-two.
Maple Camp of Royal Neighbors, which now has fifty-four mem- bers, was instituted in 1897.
A lodge of the Knights of the Maccabees, was instituted in 1889 and has a present membership of eighty-eight.
The Ladies of the Maccabees lodge was organized in 1892; present membership eighty.
Besides the foregoing secret organizations, there should be men-
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tioned the Ladies Longfellow and the Woman's Literary clubs, each of which has about forty members; not secret.
BUSINESS AND GENERAL FEATURES
The following is a list of the business establishments in the vil- lage: Creamery, cider and jelly factory, bakery, harness shop, garage, wagon shop, blacksmith shop, planing mill, saw and head- ing mill, flouring mill, pickle factory, elevator (stock company), canning factory, lumber yard, two telephone lines (the Kibbie and the Mutual), two department stores, two hardware stores, hotel (the Lawrence House), grocery and clothing store, drug store, notion store, grocery, crockery, boot and shoe store, furni- ture and undertaking establishments, implement store, trading company, produce and coal dealer, two cooper-shops, livery, two shoe-shops, photograph studio, two millinery establishments, meat market, candy kitchen, bank (Farmers and Merchants), two bar- ber shops, newspaper (the Lawrence Times), real estate dealer, four physicians and surgeons, dentist, veterinarian and two pool rooms.
The village has a fine town hall, built of brick; an excellent sys- tem of water works installed in March, 1894, the water being supplied by wells and being pure and of excellent quality ; and a system of gas lighting, both public and private, was in- stalled at the same time. The village likewise has a base ball park and an excellent team of amateur players, the delight of the local fans. With all these modern accessories and improvements, and with her hustling business men, the village is fully abreast of the times. Indeed, the towns of its size are not numerous that can compare with it in enterprise, push and prosperity.
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CHAPTER XXXI
TOWNSHIP OF PAW PAW
ORIGINAL TOWNSHIP OF LA FAYETTE-BECOMES PAW PAW TOWN- SHIP-LAKES-THE HARDY PIONEERS-"MR. AND MRS." PE-PE- YAH-DAVID WOODMAN'S PIONEER PICTURES-THE PAW PAW IRREVOCABLY CROOKED-STATISTICAL, POLITICAL, HORTICULTURAL -VILLAGE OF PAW PAW.
The county of Van Buren was first described and set off by its present metes and bounds by act of the legislative council of the territory of Michigan approved October 29, 1829, and it thus re- mained without further organization, except that by another act of the same year it was attached to and made a part of the county of Cass and as such remained until its complete organization by act of the legislature of the state approved March 18, 1837.
ORIGINAL TOWNSHIP OF LA FAYETTE
Two years previous to this latter act, the legislative council de- creed that the entire county of Van Buren should be a township by itself and was given the name of that illustrious patriot, the Marquis de La Fayette, and that the first township meeting should be held at the schoolhouse near Paw Paw Mills. On the 4th day of April, 1836, at this, the first township meeting that was ever held in Van Buren county, Peter Gremps was chosen as supervisor, Daniel O. Dodge as township clerk, and Edward Shultz as collector.
By act of the legislature of the newly created state, approved March 11, 1837, township number three south, of range number fourteen west, was made one of the seven original townships into which the county was divided at its organization and retained the name of La Fayette. This is the same territory that is embraced within the present township of Paw Paw, except that by resolu- tion of the board of supervisors at their October session of 1871, they detached section thirty-one and the west half of section thirty- two from the township of Waverly and attached the same to Paw Paw. thus making it the largest township in the county.
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BECOMES PAW PAW TOWNSHIP
The name La Fayette was retained until it was changed by leg- islative enactment in 1867, to Paw Paw, taking the name from the village, which was named from the river, and the river from the pawpaw fruit and trees that formerly grew in great abundance along the banks of the stream.
The township is watered by the Paw Paw river, the west branch of which enters the township on the south side of section thirty- three and flows in an easterly and northerly course to the village of Paw Paw where it unites with the east branch of the same river, and continues its flow northward, leaving the township near its north-east corner, whence it takes a westerly course across the township of Waverly, being joined on its course by another stream, the north branch of the river, and again entering the township of Paw Paw, it flows across that portion that was annexed from the township of Waverly, as above noted.
LAKES
Paw Paw has a number of the handsomest of the numerous lakes in the county, the principal ones being Maple, Three Mile, Eagle and Lake Cora, or as it was originally named and is more fre- quently called, Four Mile lake, and Pugsley's lake.
Maple lake is an artificial lake, created by a dam across the Paw Paw river. It lies partly within the limits of the village of Paw Paw. It is irregular in shape, with hard banks all around it and is nearly two miles in length, with the Paw Paw river flowing through it. It is situated on sections twelve and one in Paw Paw and section thirty-six in Antwerp. The citizens of Paw Paw, with good reason, claim it to be the handsomest body of water in Van Buren county.
Three Mile lake is about a mile and a quarter long by a mile in width. It lies on portions of five different sections, sixteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-eight and twenty-nine. In recent years it has become a favorite summer resort and numerous beautiful cottages have been built along its finely shaded eastern shore.
Lake Cora covers portions of sections eighteen and nineteen and is also another highly prized place of resort. Many handsome summer cottages adorn its high wooded banks all of which are occu- pied in summer time, largely by people from Chicago and other cities who have purchased building lots on the margin of the lake.
Eagle lake, which covers a part of sections twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-one and thirty-two, is another pretty body of water and is also a place of summer resort.
Pugsley's lake is on the north line of the township and is situated
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on portions of sections two and three. On the east side of this lake is another popular summer resort known as Lake Park, which is largely patronized by local people as well as by people from abroad.
All of these lakes are well stocked with fish of various varieties, bass, perch, pickerel and sunfish, popularly called "blue gills," be- ing the principal kinds, and which afford fine diversion to such as take pleasure in piscatorial sports, and who does not ?
THE HARDY PIONEERS
In 1832, Rodney Hinckley and family, from the state of New York, located on a tract of land now covered by the northern part of the village of Paw Paw. Mr. Hinckley was a kind of tinker, a handy man with tools, and he erected a slab shanty calling it a blacksmith shop. Previous to this a sawmill had been built by out- side parties, which was situated near where the Briggs mill elec- tric power is now located.
Not long afterward this mill property passed into the hands of Lyman Daniels of Schoolcraft and Peter Gremps of the state of New York. After the purchase of the mill property and a quan- tity of land in the vicinity, Mr. Gremps returned to the east, where he remained until 1835, when he came back to Paw Paw, bringing his family with him.
In 1833 Enosh L. Barrett located on the west side of the Paw Paw. Mr. Barrett put up a small frame dwelling-probably the first one in the county-which, in 1835, he sold to Dr. Warner, who moved it to a place adjoining the village of Paw Paw on the east, just across the line in the township of Antwerp, where it is yet standing and occupied as a dwelling house. Mr. Barrett took es- pecial pride in oxen and one time owned a "breaking team," con- sisting of nine yoke of cattle with which he yearly broke a large acreage of new lands. As there were no pastures, except the wild ranges, breaking teams had to be turned loose at night that they might forage in the forest. A large bell was strapped around the neck of one of the oxen, by means of which the team could be lo- cated in the morning, possibly a couple of miles, more or less, distant. It certainly was a "man's work" to tramp miles through the wet brush in the early morning hours and get the team together for an- other day's plowing.
Few of the present generation have ever seen a "breaking team" of from six, eight or ten yoke of oxen, hitched to a mammoth break- ing plow, one man to hold and one to drive. The motive power was slow but sure and strong. It took power to turn for the first time the virgin soil that had lain in a state of nature for untold ages,
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filled as it was with the tough roots of trees and "grubs" as the young second growth oak and other young trees were called. And to hold and guide the plow was a task that tried the strength and muscle of the hardiest of the hardy among those early settlers. The breaking up of this new land was a complete and per- fect exemplification of the proverb that
"He who by the plow would thrive, Must either hold the plow, or drive."
Captain Barrett, as he was known, drove the first team from Paw Paw to Little Prairie Ronde and while returning had the exciting experience of being chased by a panther. He also drove the first team from Paw Paw to Breedsville. After living a few years in the village, he located on his farm north of the town, subsequently settling on section thirty-six.
In 1833 John Agard located on section one east of the Paw Paw river, where he established a trading post and did a thriving busi- ness trading with the Indians for furs, maple sugar, etc. He had on his place a dozen or more log huts in which he stored his goods, and as long as he lived his post was a famous Indian resort and usually presented a busy scene. In 1835 Mr. Agard died suddenly of heart disease and was buried on his claim.
In 1833 William Gunn and William Ackley settled on section one, south of Agard's, near the brook on the Allegan road north of the village of Paw Paw, which was the outlet to a small lake on section six, in the township of Antwerp. The brook bore the name of Ackley brook and the lake the name of Ackley lake, until they were merged into Maple lake a few years ago by the erection of the dam across the river below the mouth of the brook. It was Ackley and Rodney Hinckley who dug the race for the "big mill" known as the Paw Paw Flouring Mill, in 1838, and which is still one of the thriving enterprises of the village of Paw Paw.
In 1833 or 1834 Archibald Buys settled a short distance north- east of the village on land afterward owned by the late Hon. Jonathan J. Woodman. Mr. Buys was a shoemaker by occupation and was the first of that trade to settle in the township. His son, Simeon Buys, was the first white child born in Paw Paw and is yet a resident of the township where he has resided all his life, except when a soldier in the Civil war. He is now seventy-five years of age.
In 1834 Daniel O. Dodge opened a tavern on what is now block No. 7, of the village of Paw Paw. He began business in a small, rough building, which he subsequently replaced with quite a com- modious structure, which, in these modern days, would be digni- fied as a hotel, although in those primitive times it was simply a
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tavern-"only that and nothing more." Two years later his wife died, hers being the first death in the village and the second in the township. Some years afterward the tavern was burned and Mr. Dodge went out of business.
In June, 1835, John Lyle and John K. Pugsley, who lived near Utica, New York, started together for that great unknown region known at that time as "the West," intending to look for a loca- tion in the state of Illinois. They journeyed by way of the lake to Detroit, whence they traveled on foot over the Territorial road to Paw Paw. Just before they reached Abbe's tavern east of Paw Paw, in the township of Antwerp, they overtook Edwin Barnum, who was bound for that place. They stopped at Dodge's tavern for the night. Barnum remained in Paw Paw, and after a while settled on lands a mile and a half west of the village, and opened up "bachelor's hall," while Lyle and Pugsley kept on for Illinois, skirting the lake and finally reaching Chicago. They were not pleased with the appearance of the prairie country. around Chi- cago and came back to Paw Paw where they both took up govern- ment lands on section two.
Pugsley, who was a bachelor, proceeded at once to build a cabin, while Lyle returned to the east for his family, which he brought to Paw Paw in 1836, moving into Pugsley's cabin, where they found Hugh Jones who was in Pugsley's employ and who shortly after- ward entered a tract of land just west of Pugsley's, where he lived until his death.
Pugsley's cabin consisted of but one room, but within that room Pugsley, Jones, Mr. and Mrs. Lyle and nine children, thirteen per- sons in all, managed to live until Lyle could put up a cabin for himself.
Both Pugsley and Lyle remained residents of Paw Paw until they died. Lyle died on the 4th day of December, 1869, aged sev- enty-eight years, and Pugsley passed away January 29, 1882, at the age of eighty-five years.
The Lyle children, ten in number (one having been born in Mich- igan), five sons and five daughters, were all among the most highly respected and influential people of the township.
Edwin Barnum, above mentioned, who married a daughter of John Lyle, became a man of prominence, not only in the town but in the county. He was a minister of the Christian church, and served the county from 1866 to 1872 as county treasurer. Politi- cally, he was a stalwart Republican and was regarded as one of the leaders of that party in the county. He died at Paw Paw on 24th day of August, 1875, aged sixty-one years.
Anthony Labadie and his wife came to Paw Paw in 1836 and during the next year lived in a house previously occupied by
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Lawson Grout, who moved to section twenty-two, where he died. Mr. Labadie and his wife settled on a farm on section twenty-two, belonging to Williamson Mason, a brother of Mrs. Labadie, where they resided until 1842, when Labadie purchased a farm of Peter Gremps, on section twenty-one, where he lived until his death in 1860.
In June, 1835, Asa G. Hinckley of New York, with his wife and five children came to the township of Paw Paw and settled on sec- tion fourteen, the land having been previously entered by his father, Elder Jonathan Hinckley, who came a few months before and set- tled in Breedsville. In 1846 Asa moved to a farm near Eagle Lake, where he died in 1871.
In the spring of 1835, there were seven families living in La- Fayette-now Paw Paw. In 1836 eleven families settled in the township and the total number of inhabitants was between seventy and eighty.
In the summer of 1835 Richard Hutchins, with his wife and two children, located on section two, where he lived until his death which occurred in 1870. Henry W. Rhodes was also among the settlers of that same year. He located on section eight.
John Barber, a Vermonter, located on section eight in 1836, and died two years later.
Loyal Crane and family, from Cayuga, New York, settled in Paw Paw in 1837, his father having been in the town the previous year and made a location of land. Loyal settled on sections ten and eleven where he lived until 1865, when he took up his residence in the village where he spent the remainder of his life. His widow, Jane Crane, his second wife, is yet a resident of Paw Paw. Mr. Crane's father, James Crane, became a settler of the town in 1840, and kept a store in the village in 1842. IIe died in 1869 while on a visit to friends in the state of Pennsylvania.
Alonzo Crane located on section ten in 1840 and died there in 1847.
Oramel Butler came from western New York in 1836 and made his home on Prairie Ronde until 1843, when he removed to Paw Paw and settled on section ten. His son, William K., settled on section eight. The father died in Paw Paw on the 12th day of September, 1869, aged eighty-three years. The son died on the 4th day of June, 1893, at the age of seventy-eight.
Nathaniel M. Pugsley, under the advice of his uncle, John K., who was already located in Paw Paw, came directly from England, his native country, and located on section ten. Subsequently, he removed to the village of Paw Paw, where he lived until his death, which occurred on the 21st day of November, 1893, at the age of seventy-seven years. His brother, Henry M. Pugsley, settled on
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section seven and remained a resident of the township for the remainder of his life. He died April 22, 1903.
Albert R. Wildey first came to Paw Paw in 1835 and eventually settled on section nine. He was a man of some prominence, both in business and political circles. He died on the 20th day of May, 1904, at the age of eighty-five years. Two of his sons are still residents of this vicinity-William C. Wildey, who is the manager of the Paw Paw Fruit Growers' Union, and Edwin A., who was at one time commissioner of the State Land Office.
Benjamin F. Murdock came to Kalamazoo in 1836 and to Paw Paw in 1842. Mr. Murdock was a school teacher in his youthful days. When he came to Paw Paw he worked at the carpenter's trade. He died in the village of Paw Paw, on the 29th day of November, 1895, aged eighty years. His widow still resides in the village at the advanced age of eighty-seven.
Abraham Ball came to Paw Paw in 1837 and started a brick yard on the farm of Edwin Barnum, the first attempt at the manufacture of brick in the county. He followed that business, making a most excellent article, until 1849. He died in 1855, while on a visit to Coldwater, Michigan.
Edmond Hayes, a tailor, and Rufus Currier, a carpenter, made a trip. from Pennsylvania to Paw Paw in 1836, returning east the same year. They were so favorably impressed with the country that in the fall of 1838, accompanied by William H. Lee, they returned to Van Buren county. They proceeded by way of the lake to Detroit and then by the most primitive means of locomotion, their own stalwart legs, to Paw Paw. Hayes and Currier remained in the village to ply their respective trades, while Lee went to Asa G. Hinckley's place and engaged to work for him-threshing wheat and having for his remuneration every eighth bushel. Of course there were no threshing machines in those days, the usual method being to prepare a smooth place of earth, spread out the bundles of grain thereon and then use the flail and "elbow grease" to ac- complish the work. Lee returned to Pennsylvania in the winter of 1839 for his family, coming back to Paw Paw in the month of. February of the same year, making the entire journey by wagon and arriving at his destination with a foot and a half of snow on the ground. Mr. Lee departed this life on the 22d day of February, 1883. His father, James Lee, and his mother, and his brother, Uriel C. Lee, came to Paw Paw in 1841. The father died in 1852. The brother Uriel C., died October 28, 1894.
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"MR. AND MRS." PE-PE-YAH
Mr. Lee related the following anecdote of his early life in Paw Paw: He was accustomed to get sugar for his family use by doing plowing for Pe-pe-yah, an old Indian, who was said to have been at one time a prominent Pottawattamie chief, and who had a farm on section twenty-two, which is known to this day as the Pe-pe-yah farm. Some of the Indians owned small pieces of land, but Pe-pe-yah was about the only one that approached the dignity of being a farmer, and his operations were confined principally to making maple sugar and growing small crops of corn. Lee was accustomed to take his dinner with him when he went to work for the old chief. One day, at noon, he discovered that the dogs had got the start of him and had devoured his luncheon. Going to the "wigwam" he told Mrs. Pe-pe-yah that her dogs had stolen his din- ner and that he must have some from her. Handing him a wooden ladle, she pointed to a kettle of boiled corn and told him to help himself. Pretty soon the dogs joined him in his repast. He un- dertook to drive them away, but they would not be driven. Lee was hungry, and the lady ( ?) of the house assured him that it was customary for the dogs to eat from the same dish as the fam- ily, and so he proceeded to finish his dinner, regardless of his un- accustomed and unwelcome messmates.
When the government was endeavoring to procure the removal of the Indians of this vicinity to the west, Pe-pe-yah conceived the idea that he would be compelled to remove, despite the fact that he was a landholder, and fled to Canada with his wife and child. He died there and his widow returned to the farm with her child. She afterward sold the place to John R. Baker, a Paw Paw lawyer, and moved to the township of Hartford, where there were consid- erable numbers of the Pottawattamies. Some of their descendants still reside in the same vicinity, but they have become thoroughly civilized and are now recognized as citizens.
David Woodman, a brother of Elder Joseph Woodman settled in Antwerp in 1838, afterward becoming a resident of Paw Paw where he resided until he was about ninety years of age and then re- moved to Kansas where he died, being at the time of his death within a few weeks of one hundred years of age.
DAVID WOODMAN'S PIONEER PICTURES
David Woodman 2d, as he was called during the life of his Uncle David, came to Van Buren county in May, 1835, and was at first a resident of the township of Antwerp, where his father, Elder Joseph Woodman, had located on section 7 of that township. The young man, however, soon struck out for himself. His experience,
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told in his own words, as follows, was not different from that of others of the first settlers of the township.
"I commenced," said Mr. Woodman in a paper read before the Van Buren County Pioneer Association, June 14, 1899, "on what is now my old farm on the west side of Three Mile lake, in the spring of 1839, and made the first beginning in southwest Paw Paw, and I have had some experience in keeping 'bachelor's hall.' While it was not the most desirable way of living, in some cases it became a necessity; and so the young man marches bravely into the forest where he erects his little cabin. As the sound of his axe and the crash of falling timber resounds through the forest, they seem to arouse the occupants of the wilderness, who warn him to desist from disturbing their peaceful abode. The owl wants to know 'Who, Who' this intruder is? The partridge notifies him to 'Quit.' The old moderator, Mr. Bullfrog, seems to say 'Get out, Get out.' The catbird says 'You can't stay here.' The crows says 'If you do, I'll pull your corn.' The ague promises to shake him, and the fever to roast him, and the mosquitoes are on hand to serenade him; immediately afterwards sending in their 'bills.' Finally, the jay birds call out 'Caleb, Caleb,' and the blackbirds make friends with him by calling him 'Uncle Ebert,' after which he is lulled to sleep by the sweet notes of the whippoorwill."
"The cabin of our bachelor was usually adorned with a mud chimney and furnished with a wild-cat bedstead, a rough table, a stool, perhaps a chair, a kettle, a frying pan, tea kettle, 'Dutch' oven, a few dishes and bed clothes, all of which completed his house- hold outfit. He had his keen axe and knew how to use it. This lone man was a kind of Robinson Crusoe. He was monarch of all his surroundings; he was 'boss' and all hands. He was chief cook, housekeeper, chambermaid, wash woman, barber and cobbler. Let not the young man of today imagine there was much fun in swing- ing the axe all day, except while doing his housework, and I opine he would cry out 'may the good Lord deliver me.'
"There being no necessity for highways at that time, there were none laid out. The first settlers were guided to their cabins by 'blazed' trees or by following some Indian trail.
"But the glory of conquering the wilderness, belonged not to the men alone. Their wives and children stood bravely by, ready to lend a helping hand, or to submit cheerfully to the hardships they had to encounter. If it was necessary that the family should live in a little log cabin, miles from neighbors, contentment dwelt there also. If they had to climb a ladder to reach the loft in their humble dwelling, it was all the same as though they ascended by a winding stair. If they reposed on 'wildcat' bedsteads, their sleep was just as sweet as though they rested on walnut or mahogany.
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