A twentieth century history and biographical record of Branch County, Michigan, Part 12

Author: Collin, Henry P
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: New York : Lewis Publishing
Number of Pages: 1198

USA > Michigan > Branch County > A twentieth century history and biographical record of Branch County, Michigan > Part 12

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In the southwestern part of the township there settled beginning with 1836 a very prominent group of men, including Alpheus Saunders, Lewis Hawley, David Kilbourn, Archibald and W. M. Mitchell. Two other names that have been closely identified with this part of the township as well as with Union City are those of Lincoln and Buell, Thomas B., Chauncey and Justus Buell came to Union City in 1836, their original home having been Chenango county, New York. Thomas and Chauncey purchased land in sec- tion 30. Justice Buell came to the township with Charles A. Lincoln, who was also from Chenango county and became a well known and useful citizen in this county. He was a carpenter and helped build the first Union City House and the Red Schoolhouse, and spent many years of his life on section 17. Caleb Lincoln, his brother, is also well remembered as one of Union's pioneer citizens.

In April, 1837, the first town meeting was held in the town of Union, and the names of the official participants no doubt represent the principal heads of families who were enumerated under the census of 1837. Chester Hammond was moderator of the meeting, while Briant Bartlett was clerk,

HISTORY OF BRANCH COUNTY

and the inspectors of election were Alpheus Saunders, Isaiah W. Bennett and Lewis Hawley. Then the list of officers chosen for the succeeding year in- ciuded, besides these, the following pioneers : Solomon Parsons, James Pen- dell. Henry Reaser. Rufus Hill, Thomas Buell, Henry W. Potter. Archibald M. Mitchell, Carpenter Chaffee, Gideon Smith, Chauncey Buell.

SHERWOOD TOWNSHIP.

The pioneer history of Sherwood township has more in common with Calhoun county than with Branch. Here the influence of topography and means of communication upon settlement is seen with peculiar em- phasis. The north tier of sections in Sherwood belongs, topographically, to "Dry Prairie," which is also a conspicuous feature of Athens township in Calhoun county. From a reference already stated in the history of Union township, it is known that Dry prairie was one of the early settled regions. It had a considerable group of settlers as early as 1832, though nearly all lived in Calhoun county.

This region of oak openings and arable land was not the only reason for early settlement. The "territorial " road that pursues an angling course from Union City westward along the northern part of this township into St. Joseph county was laid out about 1834. An old Indian trail was its basis. This was a much traveled route, and many emigrants along its course chose homes in Sherwood township. Another important early road was that which followed approximately along the northern bank of the St. Joseph river.

It was in the northern sections of the town, therefore, that the first settlers located. The first was Alexander E. Tomlinson, who in the spring of 1832 left his home in " Sherwood Forest." England, and in the following July arrived at Dry prairie. When this township was organized four years later he was allowed to give it the name which suggested his English home.

In section 2, Mr. F. C. Watkins located a farm in 1835. and on the terri- torial road kept for eighteen years what was well known as the " log tavern." The settlement increased rapidly and Sherwood had a considerable population before its neighbor, Union, had fairly started. Among the names of early pioneers may be mentioned Joseph D. Lane. Clement Russell, Robert Wal- dron, who came in 1833: Joseph Russell and William Minor, in 1834: Thomas West. Geo. Moyer. Benjamin Blossom, in 1835: followed in the next few years by John Giltner. Thomas Lee. John and Nahum Sargent, David Keyes. David R. Cooley, Ira Palmer, and many others. I. D. Beall, afterward so well known in the public affairs of his township, settled along the St. Joseph road in section 30 in 1837.

All these settlers were north of the St. Joseph river, and the central group was on Dry prairie. John Onderdonk and Ephraim Plank were probably the only settlers living south of the river who were enumerated in the census of October. 1837, at which time Sherwood township had 217 inhabitants. This number was only slightly less than the similar census figures in Union. The latter township began to be settled at a later date,

HISTORY OF BRANCH COUNTY

but grew more rapidly each succeeding decade, until in 1870 it showed twice as many inhabitants as Sherwood.

The first township meeting of Sherwood (with the government town- ship of Union attached) was held in 1836. The records for the first years have not been preserved, and no deductions can be drawn from the first civil proceedings. The second, and perhaps the first, supervisor of the township was the late Hiram Doubleday, conspicuously successful for many years in Sherwood and Union as farmer, business man and public-spirited citizen. He had come to Calhoun county in 1832, and moved into Sherwood four or five years later, purchasing land in sections 2 and 4.

The history of the village of Sherwood, which belongs to a later period, is given in another part of this volume.

MATTESON TOWNSHIP.

In common with the other townships of the county, Matteson has been " settled " for many years. Only its oldest residents can remember the time when the land was not all taken up and farm houses and tilled fields were not to be seen in every direction. With a knowledge of present conditions only, the casual obseryer would with difficulty select any portion of the township that is historically older than the rest; for the superficial aspects, the evi- dences of material development, are generally the same throughout the town. The settlement of a country has often been compared to an overflood of water. Like all similes, this cannot be applied too exactly. Settlement does not proceed like a tide, covering all points in its course and in regular order from the source. It is rather a selective process, much as a winged seed is carried in the air miles from its parent stalk, finally lodges and germinates and becomes a new source of plant life and its distribution. The pioneers did not, on finding one section filled up, always pass to the next contiguous one and thus always keep in close touch with the main nucleus. But rather, as has been repeatedly illustrated in this history, considerations of soil, topog- raphy, communication and other grounds would induce one or more home- seekers to press on beyond a community that had already been established and break out a place of habitation in some new locality, perhaps miles away . from other settlements. Such was true of Matteson township, and the his- tory of its early settlement has some individual features that are interesting and instructive.

Entering the western side of the township in section 18 was, at the time the first white men knew this country, an Indian trail, often called the " Kal- amazoo " trail. The course of this trail southeastwardly through Bronson township and thence to the state line has elsewhere been alluded to, also its prominence in connection with the settlement. This trail has been partly preserved and adapted to modern conditions, for the angling road that passes out of the township in section 18, toward Colon in St. Joseph county, follows approximately this Indian trail, which originally continued its course south of Matteson lake. About 1837 a state road was laid out over part of this

HISTORY OF BRANCH COUNTY

trail, this being the well traveled highway leading west from Coldwater through Matteson postoffice and out of the township and county by the angling road just mentioned. Not only this state road but the Indian trail played a large part in the early settlement of Matteson, and because of their significance this brief description is an apposite preface to the pioneer set- tlement.

Along the Indian trail, in section 18 and adjoining portions of the town- ship, lay a large area of oak openings, always attractive to the pioneers as places of settlement. In the fall of 1834. Robert Watson, from western Pennsylvania, was seeking a home in Michigan and, passing through this region, chose to make his land entry on section 18 in the southwest quarter. In September, 1835, he brought his family from Pennsylvania to Detroit and thence followed the Chicago road until he could branch off on the trail which led him to his new location. He built a story-and-a-half log house near the trail, along which during the first years of his residence it was a common sight to see large bands of Indians passing from one camp ground to another.

By the time Mr. Watson ( who continued a resident of this township until his death in the eighties) had arrived to begin actual residence, two other settlers and families had come and taken up land on the same section. These were Nathaniel Turner and Abiathar Culver, both of whom were identified closely with the upbuilding of the town and left descendants who are well known in the county. They were from Ontario county, New York, and the date of their settlement in Matteson was in the fall of 1835, shortly before the return of Mr. Watson. The three of them assisted each other in establishing themselves according to pioneer fashion and in erecting their first houses. Mr. Watson rendered especially valuable assistance, being trained to the trades of millwright, cabinet-making and carpentering.

That was the beginning of settlement in the west part of the town- ship. In the spring of 1836 Amos Matteson, a native of Rhode Island but directly from Otsego county, New York, came to Branch county and settled on the west shore of the lake which now bears his name. A man of mature years and with the natural worth and experience which made him influential among his fellow citizens, it came about that when a name was sought for the newly organized township his friends honored him by transferring the name of its leading citizen to the town.

In the fall of 1836 Mr. Matteson obtained a neighbor in the person of Hiram Gardner, who settled about a mile north on section II. Mrs. Gard- ner was a daughter of Amos Matteson. The Gardner family has also been prominent in the township from pioneer times to the present, both Hiram and his son Amos having served as supervisor at different times.

On the east side of Matteson lake at this time there was another settler, John Corson, whose family was long well known in that vicinity. In the same neighborhood, but in section 13, James K. Bennett, of Ontario county, New York, located in 1838. His log house about a quarter of a mile east of the " corners " was doubtless the first structure in the settlement that has since become dignified with the name of Matteson postoffice. His son, C. C.

HISTORY OF BRANCH COUNTY

Bennett was the second postmaster at the " corners," the office having been established at that point about 1855. A saw mill, a store, blacksmith shop, etc., have at various times given a business aspect to this spot, but it never attained the dignity of a village and a few years ago, when rural free delivery was extended over the county, even the postoffice was discontinued.

It will be noticed that the early settlers were mostly located along the State road through the central part of the township, and until the inflow of settlers became so great that little distinction as to location could be made the population of the township was very noticeably concentrated along this road. No statement as to the number of inhabitants in Matteson in 1837 can be made, for at that time the township was a part of Bronson, which then had 635 population. Just what share of this number lived in Matteson cannot be determined, but it was small, for when the town of Matteson was formally organized in the spring of 1838 there were hardly enough active citizens to fill the official positions.

The first township meeting was held in April, 1838, at the house of Abiathar Culver, located, as we know, at the western side of the township. Nearly all those who took part are familiar to the reader from the preceding narrative. Amos Matteson was moderator of the meeting, with Robert Wat- son as clerk; John Corson, James Gillis and Hiram Gardner were inspectors of election. Those elected, besides the ones just named, to fill the various offices were, Joseph Rudd, Ephraim Cline, John Vaughan, Lazarus Everhart. John Stailey, Charles F. Jackson, Ashley Turner (son of Nathaniel), Thomas B. Watson, James L. Gillis, Abiathar Culver, Nelson Washburn.

KINDERHOOK TOWNSHIP.

With reference to the early history of Kinderhook township the follow- ing extract from a letter written by Mrs. Chase to Bishop Chase on October 21. 1835, furnishes some interesting though not necessarily literally accurate information : "How many thousands," she exclaims, "are flocking to this land of promise, without a shelter or any provision for the coming season! The Indian village Episcopiscon, six miles east, had not a white inhabitant when you left this May ; there are now more than forty families. And I hear from Coldwater that sixty families often pass through in a single day bound west."

Many continued along the Indian trail that led Bishop Chase into Gilead, and found advantageous sites for settlement in the region that later became Kinderhook township. As Mrs. Chase said. settlement did not begin there until 1835, but in that and the following year it is probable that more than half the land of the township was taken up. The presence of the Indians in the vicinity of the present Kinderhook postoffice, as also the large amount of water and marshy surface which was a more marked feature of the town in the early days than now, may have combined to retard settlement.

Some of those who entered land in this township in 1835 were George Tripp, Boaz Lampson, David Tift, Hiram Canwright, George Matthews, Joshua Baker, Sherldon Williams, Joseph Hawks, Oliver Johnson, Jacob Hall,

HISTORY OF BRANCH COUNTY

Hiram Baker. The sections adjacent to the old Indian village were most favored by the pioneers. When George Tripp, whose name is one of the most familiar among those of Kinderhook pioneers. arrived in 1835 he found only three settlers who had preceded him, namely. Joshua Baker, Sheldon Will- iams and Boaz Lampson. Others came during that year, although it is hardly possible that there were forty families here at the time Mrs. Chase wrote.

Of those who came the first year George Tripp became very prominent in township affairs and successful in private business. His brother David came to the township in 1836. In the same year came John Waterhouse, from Oswego county, New York, and purchased the land where in time the hamlet of Waterhouse Corners grew up. this afterward being changed to Kinder- hook Postoffice.

Joseph S. Hawks, who was a native of Otsego county. New York, lo- cated his land on the banks of Silver lake, in sections 10 and 15. Almeron W. Case. of Livingston county. New York, came in 1837. locating in section 3. half a mile from the Corners. Others who belong among the prominent pioneers. either assisting in the organization of the township or being identified with its life through a long period. were William Chase, who came to the township in 1841 : O. B. Clark, who was an early settler but whose career was mainly identified with the city of Coldwater; Oliver D. Colvin, and others.

As elsewhere stated. Kinderhook was one of the last townships to be organ- ized, the legislative act for that purpose being dated in February. 1842. The township received its name from the birthplace of Martin Van Buren, then presidential candidate, and not because any considerable proportion of the settlers were of Holland extraction or were from Kinderhook. New York, or vicinity.

The first town meeting was held in April, 1842, and the official list com- prises in the main those who were foremost in the affairs of the township at the time. Oliver D. Colvin was the first supervisor, and the other offices were filled by George Tripp. Almeron W. Case. William Chase. Ira Bonner. David Tripp. Ellery Patterson (who entered land in 1841). Isaac Eslow. John D. Depue (a settler of 1836), Arba L. Lampson, Bentley Reynolds. Lathrop G. Fish. Hiram Canwright, John Waterhouse. Jr .. John Bradley.

Kinderhook has always been an agricultural community. Aside from the settlement at Kinderhook postoffice, which has experienced the usual business activity and general importance of a rural center, and leaving out of consid- eration the several mills for the manufacture of lumber or flour which at various times and in different locations have existed in the township. the occupations of the people of Kinderhook have been essentially agricultural. and the progressive men and the leading citizens have with few exceptions been farmers.

OVID TOWNSHIP.

It is a remarkable fact. therefore one permitting repetition, that certain townships of Branch county were settled within a year or so after the first

HISTORY OF BRANCH COUNTY

land entry was made; by a "settled" condition would be meant that on nearly every section in the town would be found one or more families, and that the time of blazing pathways through the wilderness and groping about in un- certainty for homes was past.

This was true of Ovid township. Coldwater village was an ambitious village, with an energetic though small population, and with several busi- ness enterprises, before the first permanent settlers had located in the wilder- ness to the south and become pioneers in what was organized by the legisla- ture in March, 1837, as Ovid township. But in 1835, 1836 and 1837 such a number of immigrants came in that when the census of October, 1837, was taken Ovid township (which then included the as yet unorganized town of Kinderhook) contained 209 inhabitants.

The proximity of the villages of Coldwater and Branch no doubt had some influence in directing this settlement, the more so from the fact that the early settlements of Ovid were grouped in the northwestern corner of the township, largly in the sections traversed by the Coldwater river. In this part of the town Howard Bradley and Richard and Nelson Salsberry settled about 1834, being the first settlers, and their land being located in sections 6 and 7. In 1835 several prominent men located in that vicinity, among the best known being Uriah Lockwood and his son Henry, whose large landed possessions were also in sections 6 and 7.

The others who entered land in 1835 were William T. Green, Horatio J. Olcott, Silas Hutchinson, Elisha Spencer, Alexander Marshall, Charles M. Marshall, Isaac T. Dudley, Oliver Johnson, Moses Hawks, Charles Fox, Joel L. Putnam, Reuben Wilson, William Bockes, John Wilson, Don A. Dewey and Amos Hough.

The northwest corner of the township continued to receive the large share of the immigrants. In 1836 Samuel M. Treat, a native of Oneida county, New York, located in section 8 and with eighty acres of land as a nucleus began a successful career which in time made him one of the large land owners of Ovid. Henry Treat also located in this vicinity, as also Jared G. Brooks and Stuart Davis. The south side of section 8 was the site of a sawmill, built by Gardner Scofield during the early forties. Stephen Bates was another early settler in this vicinity.

A little further east, sections 3, 4 and 10 furnished homes to the well known families of Baldridge, Smith and Willets. That the bulk of the first settlers were in the northwest corner of the township is further indicated by the fact that the first school of the town was established in section 6.

One of the best known later settlers was Dr. Daniel Wilson, whose home for many years was in section 28. His father, Reuben Wilson, was one of the earliest settlers in this portion of the township, much of his land being in section 21. Dr. Wilson located permanently in this township in 1839, and became noted as a physician, farmer, sheriff of the county and in many ways identified with public interests.

The part of the township lying east of Coldwater lake was also early settled, the Quimby family being perhaps the best known.

HISTORY OF BRANCH COUNTY

One other locality should be mentioned-Parley's Corners, which at one time had business activities almost sufficient to dignify it with the name of village. Parley Stockwell, mentioned in the history of Coldwater township, settled in the northeast corner of section 16 about 1842, and established an ashery for the manufacture of potash. A little later a postoffice was estab- lished there, with Mr. Stockwell as postmaster. He usually kept the mail for the community in one of his pockets. A schoolhouse was also built at this point, a blacksmith shop and tavern opened. But little growth toward vil- lage proportions was made, and Ovid has always continued an agricultural community. In recent years the attractions of Coldwater lake as a summer resort and the building of numerous cottages around its shore have made it a center for social life, but the business center for the people of the township is at Coldwater.

ALGANSEE TOWNSHIP.

From the history of early settlement in Branch county certain conclu- sions might be deduced that would obtain almost with the force of laws. One is that those portions of the county which bore the topographical definition of "oak openings" were almost invariably the first spots to be taken in settle- ment. It would also seem true that where water power has been advantage- ously situated it has been made the object of enterprise on the part of one or more of the earliest settlers. In the case of Algansee township we find very pertinent illustration of these historical observations.

Algansee was one of the later townships. No settlements were made until after 1835. The census of 1837 did not name it, and the inhabitants then residing within its present boundaries were included with those of Quincy township. Algansee was set off from Quincy in April, 1838. as already ex- plained, but even then included, until March, 18446. what is now California.

When the first settlers came to this township they found its southwest corner the only considerable area that was not densely timbered. It is not surprising to find, therefore, that the resident landowners in the township in 1837 were mostly grouped on sections 28. 29. 30. 31, 32 and 33. In the very corner of the town, with his residence on the State road through section 31. we find in that year the pioneer and prominent citizen, Asahel Brown, who had entered and purchased land here in 1836 and lived here in active useful- ness until his death in 1874. He was town supervisor twenty-one years, a member of the state constitutional convention of 1850 and later of the state senate, and easily the foremost citizen of his part of the county.

Near him, on section 33, lived E. S. E. Brainard, another pioneer name that evokes many personal associations in that part of the county. He had also come to the town in 1836, making the journey overland from Detroit with ox team. He was prominent in the organization of the township, and his name will frequently be found in the list of township officers.

Owning land in sections 28 and 29 was Horace Purdy, at whose house was held the first township meeting in 1838, in accordance with the act of legislature. Section 29 was also the home of David Tift, who on coming

HISTORY OF BRANCH COUNTY

to Branch county in 1836 had first settled in Kinderhook but in the same year located in Algansee, where he lived until his death in 1859. His two sons Roswald and Jerome B. were long residents of this part of the township.

Other settlers in the southwest corner of the township, according to the census of 1837, were Jesse Craft and James Nichols, on section 29; Isaac George, whose land was in sections 19, 28 and 29; Thomas Pratt, who had located on section 33 only a few weeks after his brother-in-law S. E. Brainard ; and Nathan Austin, on section 32.

The only other settlers in the township in 1837, so far as the records show, were Leonard Nelson and Almon Nichols, on section 25; Ludovico Rob- bins, who owned a large tract of land in sections 15 and 22; and Morris Crater and Luther Stiles.

The last two settlers deserve some special mention. Luther Stiles shares with Ludovico Robbins the honor of being the first permanent settler of Algansee, both arriving, though not as companions, on the same day. Morris Crater came from Livingston county, New York, to this township in July, 1836, his land entry being on section 13, while that of Stiles was in section 9, bordering on Hanchett creek. In the fall of 1836 Crater and Stiles began the construction of the first sawmill in the township and completed it for operation in the following February. This mill was located on the creek in the east half of section 9, at the site so long utilized for mill purposes. Mr. Stiles left the township in 1837 and Mr. Crater moved to Quincy a few years later, but in establishing this mill they did an important pioneer work.

This was the status of settlement in Algansee in 1837. From that time on population increased steadily and in time even the heavily timbered portions were cleared and occupied and beginnings were made in the work of drainage which, as explained elsewhere, was of first importance to the proper agri- cultural development of this township. Two of the prominent settlers of 1838 were Seth E. and Samuel B. Hanchett, both locating on section 9. An- drew Crater located on section 15, and the settlement in the southwest corner was increased by Daniel Bickford, whose land was in section 29. In this lo- cality and in 1838 was taught the first school, a summer term by Miss Jane Woodard. Jasper Underhill, the first town clerk, settled in section 31 about this time.

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of Branch County, Michigan, Part 12

Author: Collin, Henry P Publication date: 1906 Publisher: New York : Lewis Publishing Number of Pages: 1198

Author: Collin, Henry P
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: New York : Lewis Publishing
Number of Pages: 1198