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 45
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In 1840, Alvinsy Harris located on section nineteen. He was a man of much force of character and of good judgment and was elected by his fellow citizens to numerous local official positions. His son, the late Jefferson D. Harris, succeeded to the homestead after the death of his father and added to it by the purchase of adjoining lands. He represented his township on the board of su- pervisors for a number of years and was regarded as one of its most valued citizens.
Morrison Heath was likewise one of the early pioneers of the town, coming with Mr. Harris in 1840, and locating on section thirty.
OTHER NEW YORK MEN
That same year brought several other additions to the little band of hardy pioneers that had selected homes in the primeval forests of the township. William Bridges, who came from Livingston county, New York, in 1837, and first located in the adjoining town- ship of Columbia, settled on section eight and, like those who had preceded him, built a log cabin in the midst of the forest.
James Stevens, the step-father of Allen Briggs, came from the same county in the same year and made his home with Mr. Briggs. Mr. Stevens was an old man of some four-score years and to him was accorded the honor of naming the township. He died in 1847.
Joseph Ives was another immigrant from the state of New York who settled in the same township in 1840, locating on section twenty-nine. He was one of the electors at the first town meeting held in the newly organized township and was chosen as one of its first assessors.
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HISTORY OF VAN BUREN COUNTY
James M. Bierce soon afterward settled near Mr. Ives and built the customary pioneer log cabin, which he followed in after years by a comfortable and commodious farm house. The com- piler of this work, in his younger days, was an employe of Mr. Bierce upon this same land after the proprietor had converted it into a rich, cultivated and highly productive farm. Mr. Bierce became a member of Company C, of the Fourth Michigan Cavalry, in the Civil war, giving up his life for his country. He died at Nashville, Tennessee, in the month of January, 1863, less than six months after his enlistment. For a considerable number of years his father, Norman Bierce, whom the people familiarly called "Unele Norman," lived in the same vicinity.
James G. Cochrane was another man from Livingston county, New York, who settled in the next township north in 1838 and shortly afterward located in Arlington. A very sad incident oc- curred in the pioneer life of Mr. Cochrane. Samuel Watson, Mrs. Cochrane's father, had been to Paw Paw, and on his way home lost his way in the forest and died before he could be found by parties searching for him. Andrew M. Cochrane, son of James G., was the first white child born within the limits of the present town- ship of Arlington.
William Dyckman was another of the 1840 settlers of the town- ship. He settled on section twenty-four, where he cleared up and occupied a fine farm on which he lived for many years. He died at Bangor in the summer of 1909, at the advanced age of ninety- three.
At about the same time Evart B. D. Hicks located on section twenty-five. Mr. Hicks became one of the most successful and prosperous farmers in the township.
THE HOGMIRE FAMILY
The Hogmire family, while not among the first settlers of the township, nevertheless are entitled to be counted among the real pioneers. Daniel Hogmire left his home in western New York in 1842, coming to the Van Buren wilderness, selecting Arlington as his future dwelling place, and making an entry of forty acres on section nine. Of course he at once constructed the usual pioneer log cabin which was, without exception, the kind of architecture adopted by the first settlers. Indeed, there was little opportunity for any other style of dwelling. Mr. Hogmire was a carpenter and worked at his trade for a time, but soon returned to New York after his family. He afterward became interested in the pineries of Columbia township and engaged in the manufacture of shingles for which there was a continually increasing demand as the popu-
431
HISTORY OF VAN BUREN COUNTY
lation of the county increased in numbers. He later purchased eighty acres of land on section twenty-one, where he erected a fine brick mansion which he occupied during the remainder of his life.
Conrad Hogmire, another resident of Livingston, county, New York, came to Arlington in 1842, and located on section eight, but did not long survive after coming to Michigan.
Henry Hogmire also located on section eight, cleared up the land and eventually erected a fine residence. He afterward removed to Paw Paw, at which place he died.
John, another member of the Hogmire family, came to Arling- ton considerably later, in 1850, and settled on section twenty. He purchased eighty acres, which he converted into a fine, productive farm.
The Bigelow family was also quite prominent in the annals of the township. Rufus Bigelow came in 1843 and Calvin J. and Samuel Bigelow in 1845. Calvin bought eighty acres on section twenty, and Samuel purchased an eighty on section twenty-one.
Among other early settlers of the township were George Mea- bon, Homer Adams, Ira Orton, Melancthon Gage, Daniel Gage, Henry Earl, Samuel Hoppin, Amos Hamlin and James F. Kidder.
During the earlier years there were no mills in Van Buren county and to procure a supply of provisions required a journey of upward of forty miles and return. It took seven days to go to mill and get home with the supplies.
RUGGED WORK OF THE PIONEERS
The present generation can scarcely realize the vast amount of labor that was required to convert the densely timbered lands of the township into cultivated farms. Simply to cut down those monarchs of the forest that covered an eighty-acre tract of land, or even forty acres, was no light task, but after they were laid low the work of burning them, which was all that could be done with them before the days of saw-mills, was enough to discourage any but men cast in the heroic mold of the indomitable pioneers ; men who never feared any amount of hard labor and to whom there was no such word "fail." And then after the lands were cleared of the timber it was covered so thickly with the remaining stumps that it was a difficult matter to find room to cultivate sufficiently for planting any kind of a crop. But the soil was fertile and only required to be tickled with the rude implements of husbandry of those early days to respond with a bountiful return for the labor bestowed upon it. Very few horses were to be found in the pio- neer settlements, the work of breaking up the virgin soil being much
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HISTORY OF VAN BUREN COUNTY
more easily done with oxen, which in these modern days are so scarce as to be real curiosities.
The earlier religious services were held at the residences of the first settlers, Elder Knapp being the expounder of Gospel truths.
The earliest surveyed highway in the township was known as the "Monroe Road" and passed diagonally through the township, connecting South Haven and Paw Paw. Soon afterward the Bridges and the Brown and Taylor roads, with others, were sur- veyed and eventually made passable, but it was a considerable number of years before the township was possessed of really good highways.
Through the labors of those indomitable pioneers of early days, Arlington for years has been one of the best townships in the county, and it is hard to realize that three-quarters of a century ago it was an unbroken wilderness where the foot of the white man had never trod, and where the red man and the wild beasts of the forest had roamed at will from time immemorial.
The township is devoted almost wholly to agriculture and horti- culture; it has no postoffice within its limits but is amply covered by rural mail routes. It has only a piece of a village, Monroe's ad- dition to the village of Bangor being on section seven of the town- ship.
The Pere Marquette Railroad crosses its extreme northwest cor- ner, but there is no station within its borders.
OFFICIAL RECORDS
Following is a list of the names of the gentlemen who have served at different times as supervisors from the date of the organ- ization of the township to the present time: Major Heath, Isaiah F. Hunt, Abram Lewis, Homer Adams, Alvinsy Harris, Sidney Fuller, Emory O. Briggs, Marquis Woodward, Arvin Heath, JJef- ferson D. Harris, Mitchell H. Hogmire, Hiram K. Wells, O. E. Cox. Frank H. Fuller, H. B. Smith, Levi DeHaven, S. E. Monroe and Frank G. Cleveland. The greater number of these gentlemen served more than one term, some of them several terms in succes- sion. Mr. Cleveland, the present supervisor, is now serving his seventh term.
The census of 1910 gives the number of inhabitants of Arling- ton as exactly fifteen hundred. In point of population it ranks as tenth among the townships of the county.
At the first presidential election after the organization of the township, held on the 5th day of November, 1844, twenty-four votes were polled, to-wit: twenty for James K. Polk, Democrat, and four for Henry Clay, Whig.
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HISTORY OF VAN BUREN COUNTY
At the last presidential election 282 ballots were deposited, as follows: Taft, Republican, 183; Bryan, Democrat, ninety-three ; Chafin, Prohibitionist, four; Debs, Socialist, and Hisgen, Inde- pendent, each one.
The assessed valuation of the township in 1842 was $19,025 and the taxes levied were $520.80. The non-resident land, and that in- cluded by far the larger part, was assessed at $1.25 per acre. No personal property appears on the roll. The system of those early days seems to have been the much debated single-tax plan of these modern days, a tax on land values only, which tends to the verifi- cation of the adage that "there is nothing new under the sun."
The assessed valuation of the township for 1911, $824,040, places it as the eighth in rank among the townships of the county, in point of wealth.
The first school within the limits of the present township was taught by Mehitable Northrop in a log schoolhouse located on the southeast corner of section twenty-five.
The official school reports for 1910-11 give the following sta- tistics : Number of pupils of school age, 455; volumes in district libraries. 898; estimated value of school property, $11,300; num- ber of schoolhouses, ten; indebtedness, none; teachers employed, eleven; aggregate months school taught, ninety-five and one-half ; teachers' salaries paid, $3,858.75. From the primary school fund of the state the township was apportioned the sum of $3,367.50.
M. H. HOGMIRE ON PIONEER TIMES
The following quoted paragraphs are taken by permission of the author, Mitchell H. Hogmire, from an interesting paper read by him at a meeting of the County Pioneer Association, at Bangor, in 1906: "Arlington's natural wealth could hardly be told or cal- culated. It certainly had more valuable timber than any other township in the county, such as whitewood, ash, elm, blackwalnut, birch, maple, basswood, oak, pine and sycamore. On one forty acres on section nine, one hundred and twenty-three whitewood trees could be counted that would measure from two feet up to four feet across the stump, with a body from sixty to eighty feet in length. We could boast of having the largest walnut tree in the county. It grew on section seventeen, and measured thirty-five feet and ten inches in circumference, two feet from the ground.
"In addition to this was the game with which the forests abounded, such as deer, bears, turkeys and all small game, which, with the two streams that passed through the town, and its num- erous lakes, furnished the early pioneers with an abundance of meat and fish.
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HISTORY OF VAN BUREN COUNTY
"The soil is all that could be wished, from a heavy clay loam to a black, sandy loam; also deposits of muck that have proved to be of great value. Arlington, with the rest of Van Buren county, furnishes as great a variety of products as any other county in the United States.
"The early settlers were all poor. Many of them, when they came here, owed debts in the east, and I know of many who paid them after they were outlawed, thus showing their honor.
"A large per cent of the early pioneers came from Livingston county, New York. They were the sons and daughters of the early settlers of that county, which was heavily timbered, so they were no novices at the task that was set before them. While the natural wealth of timber was great, it was a burden, for it had to be cleared away before the settlers could raise crops on which to live. Even yet there are to be seen fence rails that were split out of the best of walnut and the finest of whitewood, while the rest was burned to get it out of the way. I do not think that an acre of the heavy timbered land in Arlington was ever cleared at an expense of less than from sixteen to twenty dollars, and this did not remove the stumps. Those who came later were not so inconvenienced, for as the town developed there was a market for lumber, which helped to pay the expense of clearing. To illustrate: The first walnut log sawed at Breedsville was hauled to the mill by my father, Con- rad Hogmire. It was worth $1.25 per thousand in the log, or $2.50 as lumber. Some of this lumber was used as panels in the doors to the house he built and some of it was used to make the coffin in which he was buried. After he had been buried twenty-four years, I removed his remains to the cemetery. The coffin was in perfect condition showing the lasting qualities of the timber. The same lumber would sell for sixty dollars per thousand at this date.
"The early settlers were of a hardy class of men and women. who had come to this new country to build homes for themselves and their children, and they went at the matter with the will and the courage that win. All being poor, there was not the envy and strife that now exists. All were interested in each other's welfare. and as a whole, they were morally good, God-fearing citizens, and lived to better their neighbors as well as themselves. Let me illus- trate this old feeling and the new : I was two years old when my father came from Livingston county, New York, in 1840. Six years later he died, leaving my mother with three small boys to care for, the first orphans in our part of the town. Mother lived with my grandfather, William Briggs. When he killed his last and only shoat-and it was not corn-fed either-it was divided up and I carried portions to the neighbors three or four miles away. It was just the same when a deer was killed; but how is it now? All
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HISTORY OF VAN BUREN COUNTY
we get from one who butchers his hogs, even if it be just across the way, is the squeal !
"At the first township meeting, held at the residence of Allen Briggs, on the 5th day of April, 1842, there were fifteen votes cast, of which thirteen were Democratic and two Whig. The township remained Democratic until the adoption of the fifteenth amend- ment to the constitution, which gave it thirty-three additional voters. Since which it has been Republican, but the people have always been patriotic, believing that the majority should rule.
"During the Civil war Arlington's sons responded and some of them were among the first to enlist. Some died in southern prisons; others died of disease; some were killed in battle; others lived to return home to enjoy the fruits of the victory that was so dearly won. Your humble writer was one of the last mentioned and let me say that it took no little nerve to kiss a wife and a five- months' old habe good-bye, and bid adieu to life-long friends, and go forth to fight the battles of one's country. But we only did our duty as all loyal men should. I am thankful that the All-wise Ruler has permitted me to live in this, the most eventful period this na- tion has ever known. When I look back sixty-six years and see Ar- lington as it was at that time, and compare it with its present condition, a veritable 'Garden of Eden,' I feel that it is glory enough for us old pioneers, and that we can truly say that the world is better for our having been here.
"Arlington has never sent a president to Washington, nor a governor to Lansing, but she has furnished some very good jurists, sent some capable law-makers to the state capital and has given, according to its population, the largest vote in favor of temperance at the last two local option elections, of any township in the county. As 'Uncle Abe' said 'we are just honest,' and Arlington is on the side of the right."
NEW TIMES BETTER THAN OLD
In a letter accompanying the foregoing sketch, Mr. Hogmire says: "Arlington has developed her resources and has demon- strated her progress by her enterprising inhabitants. We can boast of our fruits, such as apples, peaches, pears, plums, cherries, and in fact all varieties, except tropical fruits, and their flavor is not to be excelled. There are farms in our town at the present time that would pay good profit on $300 per acre, land that once sold for $1.25 per acre. We have peppermint lands that produce from sixty to seventy-five pounds of oil from a single acre, worth from $2.00 to $3.50 per pound, land that will produce 1,200 bushels of onions per acre, and celery lands that cannot be excelled. We
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HISTORY OF VAN BUREN COUNTY
have raised on some of our lands as high as sixty bushels of wheat to the acre, in a forty acre field. I myself raised last year a crop of corn on reclaimed swamp land that produced thirty tons of sil- age and 206 bushels of corn per acre. This may seem large, but we have the corn."
Accompanying this communication, was a letter written by Mr. Hogmire's mother in 1842 to her New York relatives. The follow- ing prices quoted by her are of interest in these days of the high cost of living. She says: "It is a first rate time for those who have provisions to buy. Wheat is two shillings (that would be twenty- five cents-Editor) per bushel, oats eighteen cents, corn eighteen cents and pork one and a-half cents per pound."
Ah, well, the times have changed since those good old days that so many people long for and glorify, but it is distance that lends enchantment to the view. If it were possible for those who have such love of the "old times" to be placed in the same conditions as those early pioneers were placed, they would soon be praying to be restored to these twentieth century days, the best days in the world's history. O tempora! O mores!
CHAPTER XXI
TOWNSHIP OF BANGOR
NATURAL FEATURES-EARLY SETTLERS-PIONEER TAX PAYERS- CIVIL AND EDUCATIONAL-SKETCH BY HON. JOHN S. CROSS-IN THE CIVIL WAR-PROGRESS AND PROSPERITY-VILLAGE OF BAN- GOR-VILLAGE OF DEERFIELD.
Bangor is one of the interior towns of the county, and is des- ignated by the United States survey as township number two south of range number sixteen west. The adjoining townships are Geneva on the north, Arlington on the east, Hartford on the south and Covert on the west. The northwest corner of the town- ship approaches within four and a half miles of Lake Michigan and it has convenient railroad connection with two harbors on that body of water, St. Joseph and South Haven ; with the former, via the Pere Marquette Railway, a distance of twenty-seven miles; with the latter, via the Pere Marquette and the South Haven divi- sion of the Michigan Central, a distance of seventeen miles.
NATURAL FEATURES
The principal stream in the township is the Black river, which in its course to Lake Michigan enters the township at the east side of the village of Bangor and passes across the northeast corner of the township, diagonally through sections number one and two. There are also a number of smaller streams and numerous small lakes, those large enough to be dignified by a name being Rush, Van Auken, School Section, Pleasant and Duck. Rush and Van Auken lakes are beautiful sheets of water, each being about three quarters of a mile in length and well stocked with fish of various varieties.
The surface of the township is undulating, with few abrupt declivities, smooth and easily tilled land prevailing. It was origin- ally heavily timbered with beech, maple, whitewood, walnut, elm, ash, pine and hemlock, but these primeval forests have prac- tically yielded to the woodman's axe and comparatively little timber remains. The soil is variable, being in some places a gravelly loam,
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HISTORY OF VAN BUREN COUNTY
in others on the sandy order, elsewhere a heavy clay loam and in some localities black muck, originally the beds of swamps which have been drained and converted into rich, productive, tillable land. This muck soil is peculiarly adapted to the cultivation of peppermint, which is extensively grown in the southern part of the township in the vicinity of the village of McDonald. The grower sometimes realizes from thirty to thirty-five pounds of peppermint oil per acre, which is worth at the present time about $2.70 per pound and has sometimes been as high as $4.00, thus making it a very profitable crop to raise. Large quantities of onions and other vegetables are also produced on this kind of soil.
EARLY SETTLERS
Charles U. Cross was the first man to locate lands within the limits of the present township of Bangor. He settled on section twelve, in the month of March, 1837, although he first came to the county in 1834. At the time of his settlement in the town- ship he was its sole resident. Mr. Cross was a man of prominence in the affairs of the new settlement and did much toward the development of the township and of the village of Bangor which was subsequently founded and of which he remained a resident until his death, which occurred in 1872.
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The second party to locate in the township was John Smith, a native of Orange County, New York, who settled upon section eleven in June, 1837. He remained for some time with Mr. Cross, while clearing up his land and building for himself a pioneer cabin, into which when completed he moved with his wife and son, who had joined him in their new wilderness home.
John Southard, another New Yorker from Cayuga county, was the next of Bangor's pioneer settlers. He came in November, 1837; entered a large tract of land on section twenty-five and proceeded at once with the business of preparing a home for himself and his family, for whom he returned to New York the following spring.
Caleb Northrup was another of the pioneer settlers of the township that arrived in the latter part of the year 1837. He located on section thirty-six where, after the manner of those early settlers, he proceeded to make a home for himself and family and where he resided until his death.
Mansel M. Briggs came to Michigan in 1836 and settled in Ban- gor in 1838. At first he became an employe of Mr. Southard, taking a contract to clear a tract of land for that gentleman. On the completion of his contract, he purchased a farm on section
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HISTORY OF VAN BUREN COUNTY
twenty-four and built upon it a very comfortable log house, where he and his family resided for about fifteen years.
Near the close of the year 1837 Daniel Taylor, from Monroe county, New York, located on section fourteen. Charles A., one of Mr. Taylor's sons, had previously entered a half section of land of which he had sold all but hundred and twenty acres which he reserved for himself.
Mr. Taylor, not having any near neighbors, built his pioneer cabin entirely with his own hands. Like the other early settlers, he had to go to Schoolcraft, thirty-six miles distant, for grain and then take it to Kalamazoo to be ground. Mr. Taylor was the first man in the township to start an orchard, which he did by planting seed that he brought with him from the state of New York.
Perrin M. Northrup was another pioneer who located in the township at an early date and who was prominent among the settlers of those early days.
PIONEER TAX PAYERS
The tax roll for 1839 shows that there were eight taxpaying residents in the township at that time, viz :-
Names.
Section.
Acres.
Tax.
Charles U. Cross
12
80
$ 1.35
Daniel Taylor
14
160
3.59
Charles A. Taylor
14
160
3.20
John Smith
11
40
.65
John Southard
25
467
10.02
P. M. Northrup
36
141
2.83
Caleb Northrup
36
40
.78
Mansel M. Briggs, personal estate.
.20
On the assessment roll of the township for the current year the valuation is placed at the sum of $1,062,700. The total sum of taxes assessed for the year was $21,115.81.
Other early settlers of the township were Thomas and William Kemp (brothers), Mason Wood, S. W. Bancroft, Orlando S. Brown and William Jones.
In 1845 there were twenty-two taxpaying residents in the town- ship : Thomas Kemp, William E. Kemp, S. W. Bancroft, H. Pot- ter, J. L. Northrup, Perrin M. Northrup, Mansel M. Briggs, J. Ball, John Southard, William Jones, Charles A. Taylor, Daniel Taylor, John Smith, William S. Camp, Mason Wood, William Henry, Charles U. Cross, S. Hoppin, Calvin Cross, Orlando S. Brown, William H. Hurlbut and Hial Swan. From this time for-
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HISTORY OF VAN BUREN COUNTY
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