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 46
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62
ward the township continued to have a moderate growth and in 1856 it contained nearly a hundred taxpayers.
CIVIL AND EDUCATIONAL
The first town meeting was held on the third day of April, 1854, at which the following officers were elected : Mansel M. Briggs, supervisor ; Charles U. Cross, township clerk; Perrin M. North- rup, township treasurer; John Smith and Daniel Van Auken, high- way commissioners; Charles B. Hurlbut, school inspector; Man- sel M. Briggs and William H. Hurlbut, justices of the peace; David I. Taylor, Henry Goss, John L. Northrup and Francis Burger, constables.
The following named gentlemen have served as supervisors of the township : Mansel M. Briggs, William H. Burlingame, Charles U. Cross, William H. Hurlbut, Moses S. Hawley, Daniel Van Au- ken, Samuel A. Tripp, Ephraim P. Harvey, Joel Camp, Charles E. Heath, Enoch S. Harvey, Peter J. Dillman, John Mutchler, and Frank A. Burger, the present incumbent, who is now serving his fourth term. Mr. Dillman had the honor of serving longer than any other of the gentlemen named, although he was a Democrat coming from a strong Republican precinct. He was first elected in 1883 and then served for ten successive years. He was again elected in 1897 and served until his death, twenty years altogether. He died July 28, 1907. Other somewhat lengthy terms of service were Charles E. Heath, nine years, and John Mutchler, four years.
The first general election was held in the township on the fourth day of November, 1856, at which seventy-five presidential votes were cast, fifty of them being for John C. Fremont, the Path- finder, and twenty-five of them for James Buchanan, the bachelor president. At the last presidential election held on the third day of November, 1908, there were 532 votes cast for president, as follows : William H. Taft, Republican, 303; William Jennings Bryan, Democrat, 196; Eugene W. Chafin, Prohibitionist, eleven ; Eugene V. Debs, Socialist, twenty-one; Thomas L. Hisgen, Inde- pendence party, two; Gilhaus, Socialist Labor, one.
The first school in the township was taught by Miss Adelia Barnes, now Mrs. Allen Rice, who is one of the very few of the remaining pioneers of Van Buren county. A description of this school, written by Mrs. Rice herself, appears in the chapter of this work devoted to educational matters. Another school was opened in 1845, of which Miss Mehitable Northrup was the teacher. Neither of these teachers could have considered school teaching as a "get-rich-quick" scheme, as they received a weekly wage of eight shillings, which means in Uncle Sam's currency one dollar
441
HISTORY OF VAN BUREN COUNTY
per week, or sixteen and two-thirds cents per day-truly a munifi- cent remuneration for teaching the "young idea how to shoot."
The last school census of the township shows that there were then 699 persons of school age in the township, nine school houses, 2,782 volumes in the several district libraries, estimated value of school property $32,800, district indebtedness $2,000, teachers em- ployed eighteen, aggregate number of months of school 153, paid for teachers' salaries $8,860.65. There was apportioned to the township from the primary school fund of the state, for the cur- rent year, the sum of $5,250.
SKETCH BY HON. JOHN S. CROSS
The following interesting historical sketch of the township and village of Bangor, was written by the late Hon. John S. Cross, and read by him at a meeting of the Pioneer Society of the county, at Bangor in June, 1898 :
A few days ago from my office window I saw one of the original pioneers of this county. He had been picked up along the roadside by a farmer and brought to town. He was an Indian; I do not know his name. I only know that he was poor, sick, decrepit, aged and nearly blind; that he was cared for by the authorities, fed, warmed and sent to the county poor house-a bit of driftwood on the current of civilization. There are men and women here to- day who were alive when the stately forests of pine, oak, maple and hemlock which covered this region, knew no other owner than this man, his colleagues and ancestors; when no voices but theirs and the beasts of the forests waked the echoes of our inland lakes. One generation has not wholly passed since the treaty of Chicago extinguished the Indian title to southwestern Michigan, and the strokes of the axe of the pioneer broke the primeval silence which had rested upon these gloomy forests from time immemorial.
If the mound builders developed a scheme of civilization, and it is certain that they possessed some knowledge of the arts, their work, except as indi- cated by tools and fragments of pottery in their burial places, has been over- grown and obliterated by the growth of the dense forests of later ages.
We must, perforce, begin our story where the original pioneers left off, for their records are silent and forgotten. It is fitting, too, that this meeting should be held upon this historic ground. Here was the home of Orlando Brown, the second settler to locate within the limits of the present village of Bangor. His log cabin stood yonder near the bank of the little brook, sur- rounded by trees upon which it is said the first apples were grown in this township. A little above the cabin was the first brickyard. Mr. Brown and C. A. Taylor were the joint owners of the first threshing machine and the hum of the harvesting machine was first heard upon this farm.
A half mile westward, on the bank of Maple Creek, stood the first temple of learning, the "little red school house." There on the 3rd day of May, 1858. was organized the first church society, a class of Bible Christians con- sisting of nine members under the leadership of E. P. Harvey, the founder and first pastor.
In 1840 the only other apparent sign of civilization was the Cross homestead a half mile to the northwest, and blazed trees then marked the Monroe road,
-
442
HISTORY OF VAN BUREN COUNTY
which was surveyed by Jay R. Monroe and Charles U. Cross in 1835 and was undoubtedly the first act toward the improvement of the township. Here Mr. Brown lived and labored for forty years. He was an enterprising man, a loyal and consistent Christian, a kind and obliging neighbor. At the time of Mr. Brown's location, there were eleven residents in the township, viz: Chas. U. Cross, Daniel T. Taylor, John Smith, John Southard, P. M. Northrup, Caleb Northrup, Samuel Bancroft, A. S. Brown, Mason Wood and William Jones. Together they owned 1,500 acres, about six per cent of the entire township. The aggregate tax on their property for the year 1839 was $22.92. C. U. Cross' proportion on eighty acres, comprising what is now the principal business part of the village of Bangor, was $1.55. (The total amount of taxes assessed on the citizens of Bangor, including both township and village, for the year 1911, was $26,423.91 .- Editor.)
The township of Bangor has the distinction of being the first township in the county to be organized by the board of supervisors. It was first named Marion, but on October 14, 1853, five days after the passage of the original resolution, the name was changed to Bangor. The name Marion was unsatis- factory to the people of the proposed township. The name Bangor was sug- gested by a member of the board who had been a citizen of Maine, and after consultation with residents of the township was accepted and adopted by Mr. Hurlbut, who was the author of the original resolution. At this time there were less than one hundred people residing in the township, and then, as now, agriculture was their principal occupation.
The only manufacturing industry in the township at that time was a little sawmill owned by Calvin Cross and W. H. Hurlbut, with its old fashioned, single, upright, sash saw, concerning which it is said the sawyer would start it in the morning, then go to his breakfast and get back in time to wind it up for a new start.
The sole mercantile business was conducted by M. P. Watson and Albert Comstock in the front part of Watson's dwelling, afterward a part of the Sebring House.
The advent of Joseph H. Nyman, who purchased the Watson property and moved to Bangor with his family from Niles in 1856, marked a new era in the history of the town. Mr. Nyman soon made his means and influence felt in the improvement of the water power. He built a saw mill and in 1857 erected the first grist mill, followed by a woolen mill in 1865. He caused to be es- tablished the first post route and was the first postmaster.
J. D. Kingston has the distinction of having been the pioneer hotel keeper. He purchased the Watson store building and converted it into a hotel in 1862. He subsidized the stage drivers by making them "star" boarders, thus insur- ing the patronage of passengers. He did a thriving business until the death of his wife in 1864. He was followed by Russell, Breed and Palmer; in 1869 Horace Sebring became the proprietor, and in his family the property has since remained. (It has passed into other hands since the above was written .- Editor.)
Samuel P. Cross was the first white child born in the township, but John Southard is the oldest native born child who has been a continuous resident.
Among the many enterprises that have contributed to the prosperity of Bangor was the coming of the railroad in 1870, in aid of which the citizens contributed the sum of $15,000 as a bonus. This was like the dawning of a new day. The Bangor blast furnace which followed the railroad was a valu- able aid in the development of the resources of the township. In the eighteen years of its existence, nearly half a million cords of wood in the form of
443
HISTORY OF VAN BUREN COUNTY
charcoal was consumed, the product of twenty sections of land. More land was brought under cultivation in those eighteen years than in all the preceding forty years of the history of the township.
The first grain elevator was erected by G. W. Smiley and O. E. Goodell in 1871. In 1872, Horace Sebring and Mitchell H. Hogmire built the Overton elevator and opened the stockyards.
The chemical works erected by H. M. Pierce for the manufacture of wood alcohol and acetic acid were at that time the largest in the world.
The first bank was established by E. M. Hipp in 1872, under the name of the Bank of Bangor.
The first blacksmith shop was conducted by Charles B. Hurlbut.
The pioneer newspaper was the Bangor Journal, established by Charles Gillett in 1872.
The Methodist Episcopal church was organized in 1865, and in 1868 the society built a church on the north side. This property was lost to the church by foreclosure of mortgage in 1868. The present building was erected and dedicated in 1873.
IN THE CIVIL WAR
Bangor was well represented in the Civil war. The first man who entered the service from this town was Sergeant Joseph War- ren Craw, who enlisted April 26, 1861, in the Lafayette Light Guard, subsequently Company C, Seventieth New York Infan- try. He was also the first Bangor soldier to give up his life for his country. He was the color bearer of his regiment and died of wounds received at the battle of Williamsburg, May 5, 1862. He was a man of splendid physique, six feet four inches in height, broad shouldered, a little awkward, and a "perfect devil in a fight." The first general enlistment of soldiers from the town- ship was on the 17th day of September, 1861, when the following Bangor boys became members of Company C, of the Third Michi- gan Cavalry : R. C. Nyman, Orrin W. Cross, James B. Travis, William Worallo, Samuel P. Harvey, Clark G. Russell, Lyman S. Russell, John P. Goss, Daniel Wood, Archibald Abbott, Lemuel C. Mallory, Benjamin F. Ewing, and Daniel S. Camp.
These names are mentioned here only because they were among the first to enlist. Before the close of the war fully one-half of the men liable for military duty, that is between the ages of eight- een and forty-five, were fighting for the "Flag and the Union." The names and service of the others will, in-so-far as the records disclose, be found in the chapters of this work devoted to the military history of the county.
PROGRESS AND PROSPERITY
Although Bangor was one of the last townships in the county to be organized, it now takes rank as one of the best and most prosperous. In point of population, it is third, being exceeded
444
HISTORY OF VAN BUREN COUNTY
only by Paw Paw and Hartford, and in assessed valuation stands as fourth. The number of its inhabitants, according to the last federal census, was 2,424.
Forests have given way to magnificent orchards; swamps have been drained and reclaimed and now yield rich reward to the husbandman; forests have disappeared under the sturdy blows of the woodman's axe, for in those early days the woodman knew naught of the command that bade the "woodman spare that tree," and in their stead are, in season, beautiful fields of waving grain and the most delectable of fruits. Civilization has succeeded bar- barism, the wigwam of the Indian and the cabin of the sturdy pioneer have been replaced by the comfortable, elegant and luxuri- ous residences of those who followed after them. Marvelous, in- deed, have been the changes wrought in a period of time that is but as yesterday.
VILLAGE OF BANGOR
The village of Bangor lies partly in the township of Bangor and partly in the township of Arlington. It was first platted in No- vember, 1860, by Joseph Nyman, and surveyed by Almon J. Pierce. This original plat was wholly within the boundaries of the town- ship of Bangor and was situated in the southeast corner of sec- tion one. Since that date there have been platted six different ad- ditions to the village-Cross' addition, platted in 1867; South Ban- gor, otherwise known as Morrison's plat, in 1872; Morrison's addi- tion in 1874; Monroe's addition in 1880; Funk's addition in 1909; and Hasting's addition in 1910. All of these several additions, except Monroe's, are in the township of Bangor-that is in the township of Arlington.
Charles U. Cross, who was the first settler within the boundaries of the township, was likewise the first man to locate upon the present site of the village. A son born to Mr. and Mrs. Cross was the first white native child of the township. The site of the village was originally covered with very heavy timber of various varieties, some of the trees, especially the walnut and whitewood, being of enormous size.
Calvin Cross, a brother of Charles U. Cross, was very prominent in the development of that part of the township which subse- quently was embraced within the limits of the village. He be- came a resident of Bangor in 1844. Mr. Cross was a millwright and in 1846, in connection with his brother, Charles U., he erected a saw mill on Black river, of which he became the sole owner four years later. He operated this mill for a period of six years, when he conveyed it to M. P. Watson and in 1856 it became the prop-
445
HISTORY OF VAN BUREN COUNTY
erty of Joseph H. Nyman, the original proprietor of the village where it was located. Mr. Cross, after disposing of his mill prop- erty in Bangor, removed to Paw Paw, where he built another mill. Afterward he became a resident of Hartford and erected a mill on the Paw Paw river, just north of the village of Hartford in that township. Finally he settled in the township of Lawrence, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits. His attention was early attracted to the practice of the law, and for many years there were few suits in the inferior courts of his neighborhood in which he was not engaged. He eventually became a full fledged lawyer and was admitted to the practice of his profession by the circuit court of the county. He departed this life at South Haven on the 20th day of November, 1894, aged seventy-seven years.
In 1852, M. P. Watson, in connection with Albert Comstock, opened the first general store in Bangor, but there was so little trade that they soon closed out their stock and abandoned the venture.
The village of Bangor was incorporated by a special act of the legislature of 1877 (found on page 62 of the volume of local acts for that year).
The census of 1910 gave Bangor a population of 1,158, which is exceeded by only three villages in the county, Paw Paw, Decatur and Hartford.
One of the notable high schools of the county is located in Ban- gor. At the school enumeration of 1911 there were 336 persons of school age residents of the village district. There were eighty non-resident pupils in attendance of the school during the school year of 1910-11, and the average daily attendance was 300. There were 1,650 volumes in the district library. The village has two schoolhouses and the value of the school property is estimated at $25,000. There is a bonded indebtedness on the district of $2,000. There were eleven teachers employed during the school year and they taught an aggregate of 105 months of school and received as salary the sum of $6,077.90.
The present officers of the village are as follows: President, Samuel Martindale; clerk, Charles E. Cross; treasurer, James A. Yates; assessor, Willard S. Northrup; trustees, Edson V. Root, Lewis Mckinney, Burtes M. Sherrod, Lemuel J. Branch and Frank W. Palmer.
There are four churches in the village-Methodist Episcopal, Disciple (sometimes called Christian) Congregational and Advent- ist. There is also a society of Christian Scientists. The Methodist society is the oldest, having been organized in 1865. Its present house of worship, a frame structure with a seating capacity of about 400, was erected in 1873 and was remodeled and enlarged
446
HISTORY OF VAN BUREN COUNTY
in 1900. During the past year the society has built a new, modern parsonage at a cost of about $2,500. The membership at the present time is about 180. The present pastor is Rev. C. S. Risley and he presides over one of the leading Methodist churches of the county.
The Disciple (or Christian) Church was organized in the spring of 1876 by the late Rev. John H. Reese, who was its first pastor and under whose ministrations the church soon became a power in the religious life of the town. Its house of worship, a brick struc- ture, was remodeled and reconstructed in 1905 and is the finest church building in the town. It will seat about 450 people. The Rev. F. Z. Burkette is the present pastor.
The Congregational society is also well represented in the town. They have a fine church edifice, constructed of white brick. The church is prospering in all its departments, under the ministra- tion of its present pastor, Rev. H. G. Kent. The society also has a parsonage adjoining the church property.
The Adventist church (Seventh Day) was built through the per- sonal effort of Rev. L. J. Branch, who has been a long-time resi- dent of the place, and is its pastor.
Outside the limits of the village there are several other churches : The Adventists (Sunday) have a neat little chapel about two miles west of the village; the Congregationalists, a very active church about four miles west of the town; the Methodist Epis- copal society, a neat church building in what is known as the Hawley district ; and there is an Evangelical church in the north- west corner of the township.
The village has a very efficient and satisfactory municipal elec- tric light and water system. The water is obtained from two eight-inch wells, sixty feet in depth, and is very clear and pure. As a result of these public improvements, the town is bonded in the sum of $25,000.
The business houses of the place are five large department stores, two drug stores, one furniture and undertaking establish- ment, one jewelry store, one hotel, two bakeries and restaurants, two harness stores, three meat-markets, one weekly newspaper (the Bangor Advance), one large pickle processing plant, one vinegar factory, two flouring mills, one lumber yard and planing mill, one bank (the West Michigan Savings, with deposits of upwards of $400,000), one saw-mill, one implement depot and other smaller business plants. There are three resident physicians, one dental surgeon and one attorney.
The two strongest secret societies in the place are the Masons and the Oddfellows. Coffinbury Lodge, No. 204, A. F. & A. M., has a membership of 132; Bangor Chapter, No. 105, R. A. M., has
447
HISTORY OF VAN BUREN COUNTY
fifty-seven members and Golden Rule Chapter, No. 339, O. E. S., 160. Tillotson Lodge, No. 165, I. O. O. F., has upwards of 150 members and Sunnyside Rebekah Degree Lodge, No. 28, about 125. In addition to these, there are the Modern Woodmen, Grange, A Lincoln Post, G. A. R., and a lodge of the Royal Neighbors.
The business men have organized as the Bangor Business Men's Club and the ladies have several literary and social clubs, the principal one being "The Argonauts."
The township of Bangor is one of the fruit-growing townships of the county, being especially adapted to the raising of that king of fruits, the apple, which crop alone, during the season of 1911, brought into the Bangor markets approximately the sum of $100,000; and no better quality of apples is produced in America. There were shipped from the town, during the past season, 753 full carloads of various kinds of commodities, of which 304 car- loads were fruit, forty-one potatoes, twenty-two grain, 101 hay, forty live-stock, twenty pickles, thirty-eight cider stock and eighty- three miscellaneous produce.
VILLAGE OF DEERFIELD
Deerfield is a small unincorporated village; a station on the line of the Pere Marquette Railway, midway between the villages of Bangor and Hartford. It is more generally known by the name of McDonald and is so called on the railway map, possibly because there is another Deerfield in the eastern part of the state. How- ever, it was platted as Deerfield and is known only by that name in the official records of the county. It was laid out in the spring of 1871 by Henry Goss and James J. Clark, and since that date there have been three additions to the little embryo city, to-wit : Goss' addition in 1874, Hubbard's addition in 1890, and Goss' second addition in 1891. While the town is small, it has ample room to grow. It is situated in the midst of a rich agricultural region and has a railroad station, a telephone station, a creamery, a saw-mill, a plant for the distillation of peppermint oil (which is produced in considerable quantity), and two prosperous general stores. There is also a flourishing Baptist church at the place.
CHAPTER XXII
TOWNSHIP OF BLOOMINGDALE
FIRST SETTLEMENTS AND SETTLERS-TAXES AND TOWNSHIP GOVERN- MENT-POPULATION AND EDUCATION-VILLAGE OF BLOOMING- DALE-MR. HAVEN'S SKETCH OF THE VILLAGE-CHURCHES AND SOCIETIES-VILLAGE OF GOBLEVILLE.
We acknowledge our indebtedness to Hon. H. H. Howard for a considerable portion of so much of the following sketch as re- lates to the early history of the township of Bloomingdale.
Bloomingdale is one of the northern tier of townships of the county and is designated by the United States survey as township number one south, of range number fourteen west. It is bounded on the north by the south line of Allegan county, on the east by the township of Pine Grove, on the south by Waverly and on the west by Columbia. The territory embraced within its limits, to- gether with the townships of Pine Grove, Almena and Waverly. comprised the old township of Clinch. It became Waverly in 1842 when the township of Clinch was divided, the east half being named Almena and the west half Waverly. In 1845 the township of Waverly was divided, the north half thereof being called Bloom- ingdale. The surface is rolling and was originally heavily tim- bered with pine, hemlock and various kinds of hardwood, such as are indigenous to this latitude. The soil in some places is sandy and in others consists of a clay loam, exceedingly fertile and well adapted to the growing of grain and the production of fruit. A considerable number of lakes diversify the landscape, beautiful sheets of water, well stocked with different varieties of fish, and affording excellent sport to the disciples of Izaak Walton. Those which are of sufficient size to be dignified with a name are Great Bear, which extends into the township of Columbia, and Muskrat, each of these being nearly a mile in length; Sweet, Twin, Three- legged, Mud, Lake Mill, Thayer, Little Brandywine and Smith's.
Mr. Howard says that the first township meeting in the new township was held at the residence of L. Jackson Lacy, which is probably correct, although the statute required that it should be held at the house of Elisha G. Cox. There were seventeen votes
448
449 .
HISTORY OF VAN BUREN COUNTY
polled at this election and the following named officers were elected : Supervisor, Mallory H. Myers; township clerk, Hiram T. Hough- ton; township treasurer, Ashbel Herron; assessors, Harviland Thayer and Orlando H. Newcomb; highway commissioners, Mal- lory H. Myers, Joseph Brotherton and Orlando H. Newcomb; school inspectors, William H. H. Myers and Dennis C. Whelan; overseers of the poor, Ashbel Herron and L. Jackson Lacy; jus- tiees of the peace, William H. H. Myers and Ira S. Frary.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.