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 57
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The population of the township is given by the census of 1910 as 1,764, being the sixth in point of numbers outside of the city of South Haven.
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The assessment rolls of those earlier years, as returned to the county treasurer, contain only a list of the non-resident lands, which embraced by far the greater part of the township and which were uniformly valued at three dollars per acre and the tax assessed being at the rate of four cents and a fraction per acre. The total assessed valuation of the township in 1911 was $950,650 and the total tax levied on the same, $19,064.30. In point of wealth Lawrence ranks as the sixth township in the county.
The first schoolhouse erected in the township was on the east side of what is now known as Paw Paw street in the village of Lawrence and was erected by James Gray in the spring of 1837. The building was subsequently converted into a blacksmith-shop. The first school was taught by Miss Elizabeth Camp in the sum- mer of 1837 and she was followed by Truman Foster the next winter.
There are now eight schoolhouses in the township; and the estimated value of the school property is $11,900. There were 420 persons of school age at the last enumeration and there are 1,928 volumes in the school libraries. The amount of school district indebtedness is less than $200. Fourteen teachers were employed during the last school year, an aggregate of one hundred and twenty-four months was taught, and $6,320 were expended for teachers' salaries. The township received from the state during the year the sum of $3,060 in primary school money.
At the first presidential election held after the organization of the township, in 1840, there were forty-eight votes cast, equally divided between the two political parties, Harrison, Whig, and Cass, Democrat, each receiving twenty-four votes. At the presi- dential election of 1908 there were 410 votes cast: 239 for Taft, Republican ; 157 for Bryan, Democrat; twelve for Chafin, Pro- hibitionist ; one each for Debs, Socialist, and Hisgen, Independent party.
With the last few years, various localities in Van Buren county have become somewhat noted as summer resorts and Lawrence, not to be left out of the procession, has put in her claim for recogni- tion along that line. "Sleepy Hollow" has been heretofore men- tioned, and on the north shore of Reynolds' lake Mrs. Ellen Van- derveer has platted an embryo resort under the somewhat ambi- tious name of "Ocean View." To be sure the ocean is not large, nor are its waters disturbed by any of the great steamships of the world, but nevertheless it is a pleasant spot and will doubtless come into a degree of popular favor.
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LOOKING BACKWARD
Only about three-quarters of a century has elapsed since Law- rence township was an unbroken wilderness, as it had been during all the ages that had gone before. There are yet men living who were born before its soil had ever been pressed by the foot of a civilized man; and in this comparatively short space of time it has been changed into one of the most productive townships in Van Buren county ; and when we say in Van Buren county we mean in the state of Michigan as well, for as an agricultural and horti- cultural county Van Buren has no superior in the entire state. In place of the giant trees that constituted the forests that covered the face of the land, there are now cultivated, fertile fields, or- chards and vineyards; in lieu of the trails of the aborigines there are now fine graveled highways, and instead of the howl of the wolf and the screech of the panther is heard the whistle of the locomotive and the hum of busy marts of trade. And all this wonderful change has been wrought in such brief period of time that it seems but yesterday.
VILLAGE OF LAWRENCE
In June, 1835, John Allen of Ann Arbor, Michigan, entered a forty acre tract of land on section ten in the township of Law- rence, upon which he laid out a village, naming it Mason in honor of the then governor of the state. Its location was on the south side of the Paw Paw river near the junction of Brush creek with the river, either of the two streams being available for a good water power. At that time, Mr. Allen entertained no idea of becoming a resident of his new paper town, the plat of which was never placed on the official records of the county. He employed one Ephraim Palmer to go to the premises and look after the improve- ment of the same. Palmer put up a log cabin, but did not long remain, going with his wife farther west. After Palmer's de- parture the cabin was next occupied by John Reynolds and his brother George. On the 15th of November, 1835, a delegation of eleven persons arrived to settle in the new location. These people were Mr. and Mrs. Eaton Branch ; Mr. and Mrs. Dexter Gibbs. with five children ; John Allen and William Williams. They all stopped with Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds, because there was no other place where they could stay. The room they occupied was twelve feet square, so they were somewhat crowded. The only other room was "all out doors," and that the gentlemen occupied for a dress- ing room.
They did not remain long without other accommodations, for Allen soon put up a double log house and called it a tavern, which
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LAWRENCE TOWN HALL AND WATER WORKS
THE BIG BEECH, LAWRENCE
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was afterwards known as the "Gibbs Tavern." Allen built a saw-mill on Brush creek in 1836 which was a help to the village, but the town grew so slowly that in 1843 it contained but ten families, to-wit: John Allen, its proprietor; Watson Poole, car- penter; Alexander Newton, farmer; Norman Bierce, cabinet maker ; John R. Haynes, miller; Joseph Haynes, farmer; Israel Branch, cooper; Alexander H. Phelps, fur trader; John P. Fisk, black- smith; Benjamin Dunning, blacksmith; and Rodolphus Howe, stock dealer.
At that time the village was generally known as "Brush Creek" and the name Mason was passing into oblivion. Indeed, not many of its present inhabitants are aware that it ever bore that name, but all remember Brush Creek. John R. Baker, a Paw Paw lawyer, who had come into possession of a large part of the vil- lage by foreclosing a mortgage given by Allen, replatted it in 1846 and christened it Lawrence. A characteristic anecdote is re- lated of Lawyer Baker as follows: Being asked by a traveler for directions to find Brush Creek, he directed the inquirer to Chad- wick's mill, which was located on the creek some miles south of the village. "I'll teach him," said Baker, "not to call my pretty little village by the ugly name of Brush Creek." And in this connection, it might be noticed that Chadwick used to say that people spoke of his mill indifferently as "Chad's old mill" or "old Chad's mill."
Since the original plat by Baker, there have been four additions : Phelps', in 1849; Gage's, in 1860; Phelps & Ridlon's, in 1870, and Ryan's, in 1911. These additions are all on section nine, the original plat being on section ten, the section line running north and south through the village and dividing it very nearly into two parts. When Mr. Baker made the original plat he devoted block number six to public purposes, calling it the Public Square. This was subsequently made the subject of a bitter litigation between the village and Baker, which ended in the supreme court of the state, the village retaining title to the square, which is now the beauty spot of the town and the pride of its citizens.
The village was first incorporated by act of the legislature in 1869 (Laws of 1869, vol. 3, p. 996). It was reincorporated in 1879 (Local acts of 1879, p. 31). This latter act was amended in 1887 (Local acts of 1887, p. 292).
The population of the village, as shown by the last United States census, was 663.
One of the fine high schools of the county is located in this en- terprising little village, which, according to the latest school census, contained 186 persons of school age. There were fifty. three non-resident pupils in the schools during the last year and
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the average daily attendance was 172. Two schoolhouses, one of them a fine brick structure, accommodate these pupils. The esti- mated value of the property is $4,500. The district is entirely out of debt and has 642 volumes in its school library. Eight teachers were employed during the school year, taught an aggregate of seventy-two months, and were paid the sum of $4,145 in salaries.
Dr. J. L. Marvin was the first physician to locate in the village. He came there in 1844. Previous to that time the nearest medical assistance that could be obtained was at Paw Paw. A few years later came Dr. Nelson Rowe, Dr. Sylvanus Rowe and Dr. Joel Camp, followed still later by Dr. Albert S. Haskin, who is the only survivor of these earlier physicians.
CHURCHES AND SOCIETIES
There are four churches in the village, the Congregational, Baptist, Methodist Episcopal and Free Methodist.
An old church record of August 19, 1837, recites that at a meeting duly called it was resolved "that the time has arrived when it is our duty to organize ourselves into a church." The name chosen was the First Presbyterian church of Lawrence, and it continued to be known as such for the first seven years of its existence when the name was changed to "Congregational." The original members were: John R. Haynes, Margaret Haynes, Will- iam Haynes, Vine Branch, Abigail Branch, Betsey Branch, Eaton Branch, Amanda Branch, Peter Dopp, Isabel Dopp, James Dopp, Margaret Dopp, Harriet Bateman, Thomas S. Camp, Elizabeth Camp, Horace Stimson, Cynthia M. Stimson and Anna Mellen. Rev. Luther Humphrey was the first pastor of the new church. Meetings were held in the schoolhouse and in the Baptist church until 1858, when the society built a commodious brick house of worship with a seating capacity of 300, which they still occupy. The present membership is sixty-five.
A Baptist organization was effected at Paw Paw on the 21st day of April, 1838, under the name of the First Baptist church of La Fayette. In 1841, at a meeting held near the village of Lawrence, Mr. and Mrs. Orrin Sutton, Peter Clark and Simeon Brooks, all of Lawrence, were received into membership and the name of the church was changed to "Van Buren County church, located at Paw Paw and Brush Creek." The following resolution in part, adopted at that meeting, is worthy of preservation as an expression of those early Christians on the question of the liquor traffic : "We believe it to be inconsistent with a profession of religion to vend or use any intoxicating liquors, except as a medi- cine or for mechanical purposes." In 1851, the name was changed Vol. 1-36.
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to the First Baptist Church of Lawrence. A house of worship was begun in 1853 and opened for services the next year, but it was not dedicated until 1865. It is a frame structure and has a seating capacity for 200 people.
The early records of the Methodist church are not to be found, if any were ever kept. The church was organized somewhere in the forties and its early meetings were held in the schoolhouse. When the village district built a new school building, some forty years ago, the old schoolhouse became the property of the Method- ists, remodeled for religious purposes and used for such for a con- siderable number of years. As the society increased in member- ship and in financial ability, however, a new, modern brick house of worship was built with seating room for 400 people, one of the finest church structures in the county. The present membership of the church is about 150.
The Free Methodists have a church building capable of seating about 100 people. The organization has been in existence since the early seventies, but has never had a large membership. At the present time it has but ten members.
The Masonic bodies of the village are Rising Sun Lodge, No. 119, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, with about 125 members ; Lawrence Chapter, No. 93, with about 100 members; Lawrence Council, No. 43, which has a membership of about 140, and Law- rence Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star, No. 256, with about 150 members.
The Independent Order of Odd Fellows have a prosperous lodge, Shady Grove, No. 499, organized in 1902, with 117 members.
Maple Grove Rebekah Lodge, No. 388, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, was organized not long after the subordinate lodge, and has been prosperous from the start. It has about seventy-five members.
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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HISTORY OF VAN BUREN COUNTY
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.
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