USA > Michigan > Van Buren County > A history of Van Buren County, Michigan a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests Volume I > Part 43
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a rail with which to pry the coach out of the mud. On his arrival at the latter place he was very much surprised to see an old Quaker who had been his fellow passenger across the lake to Detroit and with whom he had parted at Detroit. "Why, my friend," said Mr. Fitch, "how did you get here so soon? They told me in Detroit that there wouldn't be a chance in the stage for a week."
"Well," said he of the broad brim and drab garments, "I waited until ye were all gone from the stage office, when I said to the clerk 'If any of thy friends conclude they will not go today, thee mayst save a seat for me; I hand thee here two dollars, not for my ticket, but for thyself; my ticket I will pay for beside,' When I came around at time for the stage to start," continued the sly Quaker, "I found the man had a seat ready for me."
Nathaniel L. Surdam and his wife came to Antwerp in 1837 and settled on section three where they lived out the remainder of their days, both living to a good old age. Mr. Surdam was a man of remarkable vitality and longevity. He died at his farm resi- dence on the 8th day of March at the unusual age of a little over one hundred years.
The pioneer blacksmith of Antwerp was William Taylor, who also came to the town in 1836 with a Rooseveltian family consisting of a wife and twelve children. He was brother-in-law of Reason Holmes and his first residence was a "rail pen" on Holmes place, which he occupied until he could secure a more permanent dwelling place. He located on section three on the Territorial road, where he established his forge and where he lived until his death. He was a very industrious man, but was possessed with the crazy notion that he could invent a "perpetual motion machine," upon which subject he became a monomaniac. He worked secretly for fear that some one would steal his plans and forestall him in procuring a patent, and on one occasion his invention was, as he inferred, actually stolen. He immediately filed an application at the patent office in order to head off the thieves ( ?). After a time his beloved machine was returned to its accustomed place as mysteriously as it had disappeared, much to the joy of its inventor. The affair was but the prank of some mischievous youngsters. Like many another who has been possessed with the same insane idea, Mr. Taylor lacked but one thing to make his machine a great success. It wouldn't go!
James Ferguson came to Antwerp in 1836 and died there a few years later. During the same year John Lyon settled on section three. He died during the sickly season of 1838. In June of the same year, Daniel Van Antwerp and family, consisting of his wife and four children, together with his father (Harmon) and his mother, came from Geneseo, New York. where he had exchanged his
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farm for twelve eighty-acre lots in township number three south, of range number thirteen west, afterward to bear the Van Antwerp name. Mr. Van Antwerp's land lay near the center of town on either side of the Paw Paw and Schoolcraft road. So well pleased was he with his location that he bought one more eighty-acre tract in the same locality. The first adult death in the township was that of his mother, who died May 4, 1837; the first death was that of a child of John Lyon's, who died the previous year. Mrs. Van Antwerp was buried in the Van Antwerp cemetery which is lo- cated on sections ten and fifteen.
The next year, 1838, was a sad time for those early pioneers, as seven new made graves in that cemetery silently testified. Chills and fever in aggravated form prevailed and four persons-John Lyon, a Mr. Whittel, John Barber and Benjamin Markle-suc- cumbed to that disease, the treatment of which, at that time, was but little understood. That same year Daniel Woodman, son of Joseph Woodman, a youth of eighteen years, died of brain fever and was buried in the same cemetery. Mrs. Wells Gray was also one of the pioneers who passed away that year. Daniel Morrison was also one of those who died that same fatal year.
It is said that the reason that this cemetery was laid out on two sections was to prevent the road from Paw Paw to Mattawan pass- ing through the Van Antwerp domain, and that in consequence of such opposition the road was laid half a mile farther south.
Another cemetery was afterward laid out on section two. Bodies that had been buried in different places were disinterred and bur- ied there. Among those who have been buried there was Elizabeth Quackenbush, who at the time of her death was one hundred and one years of age and who had one hundred and twenty-one de- scendants, to-wit: fourteen children, sixty-nine grandchildren, thirty-four great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren. Harmon Van Antwerp died in 1849, and his son Daniel in 1875. His daughter, Ann, was Mrs. P. Nary Smith. Her son, John Smith, is now a resident of the village of Paw Paw.
Jacob Plank located near what is now the village of Mattawan, in 1837, and James Murray in the same locality in 1838.
Solomon Phillips, a bachelor, was one the early land owners in the township, but he did not become a resident until after it was well settled. He and his brother, Benjamin Phillips, built the first flouring mill in the township, utilizing a now dismantled water power on the Paw Paw river on section twenty-two.
E. B. Dyckman, in 1838, exchanged his farm near Syracuse, New York, for Antwerp lands on sections four and nine, taking as part of the consideration in the trade one hundred barrels of salt, at the agreed price of one dollar per barrel. He was very reluctant
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to accept the salt part of the bargain, but was finally prevailed on to do so. He shipped the salt to St. Joseph, where he realized from six to ten dollars per barrel for the same; and Michigan was fairly underlaid with salt, but nobody knew it. O! Those good old times that so many people long for! "Distance lends enchantment to the view." With Mr. Dyckman also came Philip Hinckley and P. Nary Smith, above mentioned.
Oliver Warner settled on section six in 1836 and lived there until his death. A. M. Lane came to the county the same year and lived in the vicinity of Paw Paw for a while and then became an Antwerp settler on section five.
SETTLERS IN SOUTHERN ANTWERP TOWNSHIP
Most of the parties that have been mentioned settled in the north- ern part of the township which was fairly well filled before many improvements were made in the southern portion. One of the earliest settlers in that part of the town was Levi Savage who lo- cated in 1835. on section thirty-six, but who soon afterward disposed of his land to Samuel Lull and, himself, moved to a farm in the Van Antwerp neighborhood. Lull eventually became a Mormon and went to Salt Lake City.
In 1836, John Cooper, from Ohio, located on section thirty-six, but moved away a few years afterward. The same year Daniel Bird settled on section twenty-four. He removed to Prairie Ronde where he died. J. B. Wildey was another early settler on section twenty-four. He died at the village of Lawton. Mr. Whittel set- tled on section twenty in the fall of 1837 and died the next year. The Markle family, consisting of a widow and her four sons, Jacob, Benjamin, Elias and David, settled on section twenty-two in the spring of 1837.
As in other parts of the county, game was abundant. Wolves and deer were especially so. Most of the men and the boys who were old enough to carry a gun were hunters, and as the finding of game was an easy matter, abundant returns invariably rewarded the efforts of the hunters. Venison was more plentiful than pork, and much less highly prized. Wolves were a constant menace to the farmers' stock and great vigilance was necessary for its protec- tion. It is related that young William Van Antwerp, who was given to playing the flute, used to tune up his instrument nearly every evening. and as soon as he began to play the wolves would be- gin to howl; when the music ceased, the howling stopped, only to be renewed with greater vigor when the young man resumed his playing.
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POST OFFICES, ROADS AND HOTELS
The first post office in Antwerp was at the tavern of Reason Holmes on the Territorial road and Mr. Holmes was the postmaster. He was succeeded by Philip Williams. On the completion of the Michigan Central Railroad the office was removed to Mattawan.
In April, 1837, the commissioners of highways divided the town- ship into four road districts, cutting the township into quarters in the division and putting nine sections of land into each district, which was certainly a systematic division, although it is doubtful if any other township was divided in a similar manner. Immedi- ately afterward the following roads were surveyed. The Long- street road April 11th, the Center road April 12th, the Paw Paw road April 13th, the Cooper road April 13th, the Bangs road April 14th.
The large traffic that soon began to pass over the Territorial road gave rise to the establishment of many public houses which were dignified by the name of taverns. On that portion of the road that passed through Antwerp, Jesse Abbe was the first person to open a place of public entertainment. Like most of those primitive "hotels" it was merely a log cabin and contained the kitchen and dining room on the first floor and a couple of sleeping rooms above. One of the principal things in evidence in those primitive hostelries was the whiskey bottle. There was no thought of total abstinence, local option, prohibition or other phase of the temperance question in those early days, and the travelers were generally thirsty when- ever they came to any place where liquor was to be had. Mr. Abbe kept this tavern until the construction of the railroad put the stage route out of business.
Mr. Abbe was a very eccentric man and also very religious. Nu- merous anecdotes of these traits are related of him. Calling once on Mr. Hunt and finding that gentleman hoeing his corn, he said "Mr. Hunt, this is a fine field of corn, but you don't deserve it; you don't pray enough." "Very well," replied Mr. Hunt, "you pray and I'll hoe, and we'll see who has the best corn," Calling on one occasion upon Jonathan Woodman, he remarked : "Jonathan, you are altogether too fine a fellow for the devil to have." He had at one time in his employ a youngster who preferred resting to working, and often, when the boy wanted to do a little loafing on the job, he would say to his employer "Hadn't we better go into the grove and have a season of prayer?" and, pleased beyond meas- ure at the young scapegrace's religious turn of mind, the old man would leave off work and pray for an hour or more with the lad in the grove, never dreaming that the young raseal was simply
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imposing on him in order that he might enjoy a loafing spell. Late in life Mr. Abbe embraced spiritualism and died in that faith.
Reason Holmes built a frame house on section one, the first frame house in the township, which he conducted for several years as a tavern. This place was but a short distance east of Abbe's and, just over the line in Kalamazoo county, Samuel Millard kept an- other tavern, so that within a distance of less than three miles there were three public houses. That would have been a good place for the governor of South Carolina and the governor of North Caro- lina, as it was no very "long time between drinks." Between Abbe's and Dodge's tavern in Paw Paw there was dry stretch of five long, thirsty miles.
PIONEER MILLS
The first saw mill built in the township was put up by Samuel O. Miller on section twenty-six, through which flows a tributary of the Paw Paw river. This property subsequently came into the pos- session of Cowgill, MeKeyes & Company, who put a flouring mill on the old saw-mill site. In 1838, John Bingman built the second saw-mill in the township, on section twenty-one. The site of this mill was afterwards occupied by the Rix flouring mill. Messrs. Solomon and Benjamin Phillips built the pioneer grist mill on this same stream in 1858. In 1869 Asa Landphere built quite a large flouring mill on the Paw Paw, about half a mile east of the village of Paw Paw, but this structure, like the others mentioned, has gone out of existence. None of these water powers are in use at the present time. The clearing up of the surrounding country has so affected the flow of the streams, that none of them, except the latter, is of any great value, although, perhaps, they might be used as auxiliary to some system for the development of electric power.
TOWNSHIPS ELECTIONS AND OFFICIALS
The first town meeting in the township of Antwerp was held at the house of Philip Williams on the first Monday in April, 1837, at which the following named officers were chosen: Supervisor, An- drew Longstreet; township clerk, John K. Bingham: assessors, Theophilus Bangs, Reason Holmes, Joel Tomlinson ; commissioners of highways, Joshua Bangs, Jesse Abbe, Joel Tomlinson; con- stable and collector, John Hill; directors of the poor, Jesse Abbe, Patrick Johnson. At a special town meeting held May 4, 1837, the following additional officers were elected: Justices of the peace, Reason Holmes, Joseph Woodman, Philip Williams : school inspect- ors, John Cooper, Samuel O. Wells and John A. Lyon.
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The following named gentlemen have served the township in the capacity of supervisor : Andrew Longstreet, Morgan L. Fitch, Theophilus Bangs, Joshua Bangs, I. S. Borden, Peter Harwick, John Hunt, Lyman A. Fitch, Harman Harwick, Daniel Van Ant- werp, John Smolk, Nathan H. Bitely, Henry Fitch, Oliver H. P. Sheldon, Orrin Buck, Jonathan J. Woodman, Asa C. Glidden, Napoleon B. Mckinney, John Ihling, Juan McKeyes, Franklin B. Adams, Charles D. Lawton, William H. Stainton, George H. Rix, Harlan P. Waters, Alonzo S. Mitchell, Elmer W. Hall. Oscar J. Williams, Sheldon Coleman, J. W. Mitchell and Charles S. Shaefer.
Of the above named supervisors the following served for more than two years: Waters, ten years; Hunt, seven; McKeyes, five; Theophilus Bangs, Stainton, A. S. Mitchell, Shaefer and Coleman (the present incumbent), each four years.
At the general election held in November, 1838, there were thirty- eight votes polled in the township, which shows the rapidity with which it was being settled, the first settler coming only a little more than three years before.
At the first presidential election, held on the 2d and 3d days of November, 1840, sixty-three ballots were cast, thirty-two Demo- cratic and thirty-one Whig.
At the presidential election of 1908, 553 votes were polled, as follows: Taft, Republican, 374; Bryan, Democrat, 153: Chafin, Prohibitionist, fifteen ; Debs, Socialist, seven ; Hisgen, Independent, four.
EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS
The first school teacher in Antwerp was Miss Ann Van Antwerp, and the first schoolhouse was the log cabin of Joshua Bangs, on section seven, in the second story of which Miss Van Antwerp taught a private school and had, perhaps, a dozen scholars. The next season a slab schoolhouse was built, near where the " Steeple" schoolhouse now stands, which did duty as a "temple of learning" for some considerable time. On May 4, 1837, the township was di- vided into four school districts and shortly afterward two additional districts were formed. On February 26, 1839, there was apportioned to the township the sum of $14.08, primary school money. The annual report of the board of school inspectors for that year showed that reports had been received from but two of the six districts in the town, and that the text books used were the Elementary Spell- ing Book, Smith's Grammar, Adams' Arithmetic, English Reader and Olney's Geography.
The official reports for the school year of 1910-11 show that there are six schools in the township, two of them graded schools: total number of persons of school age, 591; number of volumes in school
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libraries. 1,446; number of schoolhouses, seven; value of school property, $23,050; total district indebtedness, $2,500; number of qualified teachers employed, nineteen ; aggregate number of months of school taught, 143; amount paid for teachers' salaries, $7,555 during the past year; the township received from the state pri- mary school fund the sum of $4,372.50.
GLEN SPRINGS TROUT HATCHERY
There is one unique enterprise carried on in the township that should not be passed by without special notice, the Glen Springs Trout Hatchery, situated on the east side of section twenty-two, about three miles from Lawton, and conducted by Messrs. Bassett & Son of Paw Paw. The hatchery is located in a glen, encircled on three sides by high banks and groves, the fourth side being laved by the waters of the Paw Paw river. From under the bank flows a spring of cold water as clear as crystal, at the rate of about 2,000 gallons per minute, making it an ideal place for fish culture. The company have twenty tanks or ponds containing speckled trout (the only variety of fish bred by them) in all sizes. from the tiniest minnows up to fish of marketable size: about a million of them on hand at the present time. The season's yield of eggs, just closed, was about 4,000,000. Eggs and fry as well as fish of larger size are shipped to various parts of the country. It is the most complete hatchery of the kind in the state of Michigan. and one of the largest and best of any in the entire United States.
VILLAGE OF LAWTON
In 1849 Nathan Lawton of Watertown, New York. owned the land on which the business portion of the village of Lawton is situated. When the place was selected as a station on the line of the Michigan Central Railroad, Mr. Lawton laid out a village there. Ile gave ten acres of land for railroad depot buildings, which were erected in 1848. It was at first known as Paw Paw station and that name adorned the passenger house for a considerable num- ber of years. A post office was established there in 1851 and by Colonel Longstreet christened "Lawton," in honor of the proprie- tor of the town, and that became not only the name of the post office, but of the town as well; and the railroad eventually adopted it as the name of the station.
Andrew Longstreet was the first postmaster. His successors in the office have been Henry McNeil, Livingston MeNeil, Albert H. Thompson, Richard Finley, Napoleon B. Mckinney, Andrew Long- street (second appointment), William Harvey Smith, Otis Rider, James H. Hall, Al MeElheny, James H. Hall (second appointment),
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GLEN SPRINGS TROUT HATCHERY
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Pliny A. Hubbard, Milton F. Lawton, Elmer W. Hall, who died while holding the office, and Minnie Hall, the present incumbent, widow of Elmer W. Hall.
Nathan Lawton, himself, never became a resident of the village, but his two sons, George W. and Charles D., spent their lives there and became prominent, not only in the affairs of the village and township, but in county and state affairs as well. Major George W. Lawton was a veteran of the Civil war, wounded in action, and brevetted major, as the record says, "for gallant and meritorious conduct in action." He served the county as judge of probate for eight years, from 1868 to 1876, and also held various other official positions. He was one of the prominent attorneys of the county and was, at one time, the nominee of the Republican party for the office of circuit judge of the judicial circuit of which the county formed a part. but owing to party dissensions between the two counties composing the circuit-Van Buren and Kalamazoo-he was defeated and a candidate of the opposition party elected. Mr. Lawton owned a fine home in the village of Lawton, where his widow, Mrs. Isabella Lawton, yet resides. Judge Lawton died on the 7th day of February, 1887, in his fifty-fourth year.
Hon. Charles D. Lawton was a surveyor and civil engineer by profession. He was commissioner of mineral statistics for the state of Michigan from 1885 to 1891 and regent of the Michigan Univer- sity for a period of eight years, beginning January 1, 1898, and had also served two terms as county surveyor. The brothers were both ardent Republicans and were reckoned among the advisers and leaders of that party. Charles D. departed this life at Lawton on the 24th day of August, 1909. His widow, L. Lovina Lawton, still occupies the fine homestead in that village left her by her late husband.
When the Michigan Central Railroad was being constructed through what is now the village of Lawton, Henry McNeil opened a store in a log cabin on the west side of what is now Main street. He supplied the laborers with merchandise, such as they required, and, as was customary in those days, it is said that a considerable part of such merchandise .was "wet." He made quite a bit of money out of his venture and removed to Minnesota. While Me- Neil was still in the mercantile business, Andrew Longstreet, who had been living on a farm, moved into the embryo town and started a shoe-shop. About the same time Gilbert Johnson opened another store, calling it the "Farmers' Head Quarters." From these small beginnings the village began to show signs of improvement.
Horace Sebring erected a hotel where the "Hotel Giddings" now stands. Other business places were started and the town began to grow, but for a number of years such growth was very moderate.
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With the establishment of the Michigan Central Iron Company, in 1867, the town took a long stride in advance. This company con- tinued in business until 1875, during which period Lawton was experiencing its palmy days. When that institution went out of business there was a decided decrease of population and a falling off of business and for some years it looked as though the place would not be able to recover its lost prosperity, but with the advent of the grape industry throughout the region roundabout, the town again took on new life and at the present time is one of the pros- perous go-ahead towns of the county.
While it lasted the Iron Company did a large and profitable busi- ness. It had a capital stock of $150,000 and employed about 150 men. Among the stockholders were General U. S. Grant, Generals Gillmore, Barnard and Porter, and others in the military service. General Gillmore was the president of the company. The ore was shipped from the Lake Superior region by lake to Michigan City, thence to the works, by the Michigan Central Railroad. A de-
TOWN HALL, SOLDIERS' MONUMENT, MUNICIPAL PLANT, LAWTON
pression in the business of manufacturing iron caused a suspen- sion of the establishment and the work was never resumed.
The village of Lawton was first platted by Nathan Lawton, on the 6th of September, 1853. The original village embraced but a small plat of six blocks lying between the railroad and Union street and west of Main street. Since that time, however, there have been eleven additions to the town, almost any one of which is larger than the original plat, and the town is now nearly a mile in width from east to west and a little more than a mile from north to south. It was first incorporated by a resolution of the board of supervisors,
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on the 15th day of October, 1858. It was reincorporated by act of the legislature in 1869 (S. L. 1869, Vol. 2, p. 160). This act of incorporation was amended by the legislature 1893 (L. A. 1893, p. 393).
Lawton is well represented in the line of ladies and gentlemen of mystic signs, grips and passwords.
Lawton Lodge No. 216, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, was instituted January 19, 1867, with Grove C. Love as master, H. P. Robinson as senior warden and John Ihling as junior warden. It now has 101 members.
There is also a flourishing lodge of the Eastern Star.
Lawton Lodge No. 83, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, was instituted on the 14th day of February, 1861. It has had somewhat of checkered life, but at the present time has seventy-four members and is prospering. Its oldest member is David Powell, who united with the lodge in 1864.
Vineyard Rebekah Lodge, No. 305, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, was instituted September 8, 1909, and has a membership of sixty-four.
The Order of Maccabees is represented by Lodge No. 307, K. O. T. M., organized on the 6th day of June, 1890, with twenty-six charter members and which now has a membership of ninety. The ladies branch of the order is represented by Lawton Hive, No. 427, L. O. T. M., which was instituted November 9, 1893, and now has 120 members.
Lawton Lodge No. 256, Mystic Workers of the World, was or- ganized May 19, 1900, and now has seventy-four members. There are also more or less flourishing lodges of the Modern Woodmen of America and its ladies' branch, the Royal Neighbors, and also of the Knights of Pythias, the Grand Army of the Republic, and the Woman's Relief Corps.
The Isabella Club is an organization of the ladies of the place and is one of the prosperous, interesting and profitable institutions of the village. It is affiliated with the State Federation of Women's Clubs. Through the instrumentality of the ladies of this club the village has been for several years past, provided with a first class lecture course.
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