A twentieth century history and biographical record of Branch County, Michigan, Part 14

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 14

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During the thirties and forties the people of the middle west were about equally agitated. and divided in opinion as to advisability between ship canals and railroads. Union City declared in favor of canals. That was not unnatural, because in the St. Joseph river the citizens thought they had a natural water way that needed only a little dredging and straighten- ing to become navigable from Lake Michigan to Union City, whence an overland canal would connect with the Lake Erie watershed. Both the Michigan Central and Michigan Southern railroads were in process of con- struction at this time, hut, absorbed in the canal project, Union City let both pass her to the side. The hopes of a canal soon after died and the disappointed villagers had to wait twenty years before opportunity again appeared. This time it was the railroad, the short line that was being con- structed largely by private enterprise and popular subscription from Jack- son to Niles. Union City became a station on this road, and when trains began running over the line in 1870 the problem of transportation was solved and the industrial and business development. so long delayed could now proceed without interruption.

Union City during her early days made no mean efforts to become a manufacturing center. The "Union City Iron Company," which was in- corporated in March, 1847, was the most pretentious of these pioneer en- terprises. Bog iron ore exists in many places in southern Michigan, Butler and Union townships having large deposits in their lake beds, and the company was formed to manufacture this ore into pig-iron. A blast fur-

HISTORY OF BRANCH COUNTY

nace was built at Union City, and the smelting of the ore continued for some years. Finally the plant was converted into a foundry for the manu- facture of plows and other iron work.

Before the coming of the railroad, Union City was incorporated as a village. The petition for incorporation was put before the board of super- visors in 1865, when there were 545 inhabitants within the area proposed to be incorporated. In response to the petition the board incorporated the " Village of Union City," and at the first election, held January 25, 1866, the following were the citizens chosen to direct village affairs: President. Isaac Jones ; Trustees, H. F. Ewers, J. D. Hawthorn, J. W. Smith, Caleb Lincoln, Ansel Knowles, Richard Avery: Clerk, G. W. Buell; Treasurer, C. A. Seymour ; Assessors, E. Barber, Hiram Crissy; Street Commissioners, C. E. Ewers, S. B. Simms, J. S. Rowell. Mr. Jones did not qualify and the vacancy was filled by the appointment of Dr. H. F. Ewers as president. At the regular election held March 6, 1866, the following officers were chosen for the ensuing year: President, S. H. Nye; Trustees, A. P. West, J. C. Leonard, H. F. Ewers, Solomon Parsons, A. B. Aiken, C. A. Whiting; Clerk, C. W. Saunders ; Treasurer, J. T. Leonard; Marshal, M. Morrill; Assessors, Edwin Barber, Hiram Crissy; Street Commissioners, Sindal Mor- rill. Asa Hawley, J. S. Rowell. The village was granted a new charter by the state legislature March 23, 1869, under which affairs were con- ducted until the passage by the state legislature in 1895 of the blanket charter now governing all villages in the State of Michigan.

Union City was a station on the " underground railroad " in the years of anti-slavery agitation. The village was a hotbed of freedom. Many of the citizens had pronounced views on the vital questions then disturbing the country. But the foremost actor in the cause of anti-slavery when it came to practical helpfulness was the late John D. Zimmerman, blacksmith by trade, a pioneer settler of 1838, and one of the strongest and most pictur- esque figures in the early history of the village. He was the " station master " for the "slave railroad," and many a time he would get up from his bed at midnight to carry a slave to the next station at Marshall. He was a man of deep religious and moral convictions, and never once did he murmur at the hardships and actual dangers that this work put upon him.

In public improvements Union City is abreast of the times. . Naturally, one of the first movements would be for efficient fire protection, which resulted in the fire department. The bucket brigade system was superseded when the village council voted an appropriation of fifteen hundred dollars to buy a hand engine and complementary equipment. This apparatus was installed in July, 1872, and on February 4, 1873. the fire company was organized, consisting of 43 members. A new fire company, of 33 members, was formed in January, 1875, and called the " St. Joseph Fire Company of Union City." In 1876 a lot was purchased on High street east of Broadway and the two-story brick engine house was built at a cost of $2,150. This building is still the fire department and municipal headquarters, the council rooms being located on the second floor. A steam fire engine was purchased

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in 1886, but has been little used since the water works were built. The Union City Fire Department now has twelve volunteer members, of which the chief is W. H. Rowe, and their prompt and efficient service is all that is needed to supplement the excellent mechanical equipment.

In 1894 the citizens of Union City voted to build and operate a water works plant and also purchase the electric-light plant which had been there- tofore operated as a private enterprise by Rheubottom and Bond. The proposition provided for the issue of $25,000 of municipal bonds, $20,000 to build the water works and $5,000 for the electric-light plant. In the spring of 1895 both plants were in operation by the city. The original cost of the water works was $21,450, and extensions have been made to new portions of the village at various times since then. The water supply is obtained from deep wells. The pumping station is in the same building with the electric power house, and the two plants are run in conjunction. The electric light plant was entirely remodeled in 1900, a new equipment of the best and latest electrical machinery being installed. For this im- provement additional bonds to the amount of $8,000 were voted.

In describing Union City in 1903, Mr. T. F. Robinson of the Register- Weekly had this to say of some other features of the village, and the de- scription is as true to-day as three years ago :

" The wide streets of the city are remarkably well looked after and there are miles of handsome and durable cement sidewalks and cross-walks. Two public parks are well cared for and they prove most convenient for public assemblages in the summer time. In Monument Park stands a fine soldiers' monument, flanked on either side by cannon which were contrib- uted by the United States government. Thousands of beautiful shade trees line every residence street, and citizens generally take great pride in the appearance of their lawns and grounds. The Union City Opera House has been just recently remodeled by its new owner, Mr. N. E. Tower. The Union City postoffice now occupies a new brick block on Hammond street, and the interior was fitted up expressly for the purpose. The outfit is unexcelled in this section, and patrons feel correspondingly proud of it."

For a list of the important village officers, for a description of the schools, the manufacturing and banking interests, the churches and societies. the reader is referred to other chapters of this volume. This sketch of Union City may properly be concluded with brief notice of some of the men who have for a number of years been connected with the mercantile life of the village.

One of the first to be named would be F. C. Rheubottom, who entered upon his career as manufacturer and merchant at Union City in 1868. H. H. Chase, the jeweler, made the beginning of a large business in 1867 and his is one of the few names of the present that were listed in the old Branch County directory of 1870. One of the long-time merchants now deceased was Horace A. Corbin, who became the partner of Hiram Crissy in a general store as long ago as 1856, and was for about thirty years in business. He died in 1896. The associate of Mr. Corbin in the dry-goods

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HISTORY OF BRANCH COUNTY

business during the later years was John B. Tucker, who died in 1895 after half a century of business activity in Union City.

In the death of George W. Buell in 1905 Union City lost a pioneer business man, who was in mercantile business here during the sixties and was a principal in the old Exchange Bank and in the organization of the Union City National Bank, and in many ways was identified with the in- terests of his village.

Other business men of Union City are Martin F. Buell, now retired, but for twenty-eight years, from January, 1871, station agent at this point. Mortimer Vosburgh has also been in various positions here since 1871. Fred C. Wilkins began the drug and book business here in 1878. James R. Corwin, who established a marble and granite business in 1881 : Samuel Corbin, who began business as wool and grain buyer here before the com- pletion of the railroad : Henry Seymour, who began the grocery business in 1877 and afterward became prominent in other lines as well as public official; M. P. Maxon, whose career as merchant began in 1880: Chauncey WV. Saunders. now deceased, who began a retail shoe business in 1858 and who for years was influential in business and civil life, are names very closely associated with the business life of Union City.

QUINCY.

In time the settlement at the central portion of Quincy township de- veloped into a village. The stores and mechanical and professional activ- ities, already described during the first years, did not stop at the stage which would make a country hamlet, as we have seen to be the case in more than one such nucleus of settlement. No doubt the great impulse to growth was given by the railroad, which was built through the site of Quincy in 1850. It is said that, had not the enterprise of several citizens intervened to prevent, Quincy would not have been made a station on the railroad. but the station would have been located several miles east on the county line. The location depended on the ability of Quincy to build a freight house, and it was owing to the energy and zeal of the late Lucas Joseph. whose career was so markedly identified at all times with the best interests of this village, that the building was erected.

In 1853 the old tavern on the site of the Quincy House, one or two stores, the postoffice. and some professional and mechanical interests were all that Quincy could claim in the direction of village growth. But in the following three or four years a number of business and dwelling houses were erected. In 1856 the village was platted, the plat being signed by the owners of the site, being the well known names of Enos G. Berry, Joseph Berry, John Broughton, William Cole. John Sebring, William Arnold. Cyrus Lusk, Christopher Conley, and Martin Hawley.

Two years later, when it is estimated there were four hundred people on the village plat. the village was incorporated by the county board of supervisors, on October 14, 1858. At the first village election, which was

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HISTORY OF BRANCH COUNTY

held in the following November, the following men were chosen to conduct the affairs of the corporation : Ebenezer Mudge, President; Moses A. Hewett, Clerk: Cornelius Shear, Havens Wilbur, David C. Myers, John Sebring, William P. Arnold, Martin Hawley, Trustees; Alden Gregory, Treasurer; Harlow W. Williams and Julius I. Gregory, Assessors; Allen C. Culver, Marshal. The principal officers of the village for all the years will be found in the official lists.

By 1870 Quincy had become a village of nine hundred population. During the preceding decade its enterprise had been broadened in many ways. A stave and heading factory had been established in 1864, and was one of the cornerstones of the village's subsequent growth. A sawmill had been built in 1855 and a flouring mill in 1863.

An interesting contrast illustrating the growth of the village is found in the character of the buildings. The first brick building was erected on Chicago street in 1855. The business section for a number of years has been composed almost entirely of this class of buildings, and there are only a comparatively few frame structures in use for business. Furthermore, the sidewalks are largely of cement or brick. The change from wooden material to brick and stone has done more than anything else to alter the outward appearance of villages and cities from the conditions of a genera- tion past.

In the direction of public improvements Quincy has much to be proud of. A special election on August 4, 1890, provided for the bonding of the village to an amount not to exceed $6,000 to build an electric light plant. In a short time the old kerosene street lamps, which were the cause of frequent complaint to the council, disappeared in favor of electricity on the streets and in many of the stores and private homes.

Only four years later Quincy made another step in municipal progress, and this by far the most important in its results for the comfort and con- venience of the citizens. There was a special election in the village, August 6, 1894, to vote on the council's resolution to raise not to exceed $18,000 by bonds for constructing and maintaining water works. The proposition was carried by a vote of 203 to 118, and the water works were built. The water is pumped from driven wells adjacent to the power house in the public park north of the depot. Both the water works and the electric light plant are conducted by the city. Municipal ownership and operation of purely public utilities seems to be a well established civic principle in Branch County.

The fire department and council chambers are located in a two-story brick building on Main street north of Chicago. The fire department, with complete apparatus of hose cart, hook and ladder, truck and other appur- tenances, with electric signal alarms, and with a disciplined force of volun- teer firemen, had its origin in some very primitive means of fire protection adopted by the village council over forty years ago. In January, 1863. the council authorized the purchase for village use of eight ladders, fire hooks, and other like equipment, and in 1869 a hundred feet of hose was bought. .

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HISTORY OF BRANCH COUNTY

The Quincy Union Fire Company was organized in January, 1871. but their apparatus at first consisted only of "hooks, ladders and pails." Soon after a house was constructed for the storing of apparatus. In 1873 a second-hand engine, hose cart and hose were purchased from Adrian city, and since then the apparatus has been added to in keeping with the growth of the village.

Leaving for other chapters the mention of specific interests of Quincy, this sketch may be concluded with the mention of the business men who have longest been identified with the trade and other interests that center about the intersection of Main and Chicago streets. D. W. Young. who has recently retired, has been in the grocery business in Quincy for forty- two years. The name Houghtaling is synonymous with the drug business as well as with the public spirit that has been responsible for Quincy's advancement. C. H. Houghtaling has lived in Quincy and been con- nected with its mercantile affairs since 1864, and almost continuously since 1881 has been in business on his own account. the firm now being C. H. Houghtaling and Son. G. J. Fillmore. proprietor of the Commercial Hotel. which was formerly the Fayette House, is another who has been identified with the business affairs of Quincy for a number of years past. H. A. Graves, the present postmaster, who has lived here since 1865, has been in the grocery business nearly a quarter of a century. F. E. Marsh. former postmaster, has lived in the village practically all his life. As stated in the sketch of the First National Bank, C. L. Truesdell has been connected with that institution over twenty years. Mr. M. S. Segur, who occupies the position of cashier with the State Bank across the street, was in the mer- cantile business many years before entering the bank.

The oldest merchant in Quincy is A. L. Lytle, who has conducted a general hardware store since 1866, forty years. In the line of lumber and building material and planing mill products, the name Salisbury has been known for half a century. Thirty-five years ago J. B. Salisbury appears in an old directory as proprietor of a sash, door and blind factory and steam sawmill, and the business is now conducted by his son J. N. Salisbury, who has been a resident of Quincy since 1856. Other business men are J. B. Ganong, who engaged in the hardware business in Quincy in 1882 and for some years has conducted a plumbing business and windmill and gas- oline-engine retail house; also E. H. Kinyon, proprietor of a general store. and C. N. Wilcox, the boot and shoe man.

THE VILLAGE OF BRONSON.

The Bronson in Branch county was not the first village in Michigan to receive that name. In fact, it is probable that the name of the pioneer Jabe Bronson would not have been perpetuated by the Branch county vil- lage had not another pioneer been deprived of a similar honor. Here are the historical facts of the case :

In June, 1829, Titus Bronson, a native of Middlebury, Conn .. came to

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the site of the present Kalamazoo city and soon built a shanty, pre-empted a large share of the plain on which the village was built, the hamlet being called Bronson after its founder. Mr. Bronson laid out the village and set apart land for public uses, and for several years, when people spoke of Bronson, they referred to what we now know as Kalamazoo. But in 1836, the legislature, at the instance of Bronson's enemies, it is alleged, changed the name to Kalamazoo, and in the same year Titus Bronson moved away to Illinois.

A year before Titus Bronson, the founder of Kalamazoo, settled at that place, Jabe Bronson had located on Bronson's prairie. He was also from Connecticut, and it is a reasonable inference that he was a relative of Titus. But as the first settler of this locality he fared better. For not only was the township named for him, but the village of York, as it was first known, became and has since remained Bronson village. This was done by an act of the legislature approved in 1837, and reading as follows :

" All that portion of the county of Branch, known as the township of Prairie River, and the village in said township by the name of York, shall * be known by the name of Bronson.

The village of Bronson has been the continuation of the early settle- ment begun on Bronson prairie in 1828. An account of the beginnings of this settlement has been given in a previous chapter. Though this Bronson community was the first in the county to begin its life, that of Quincy preceded it in becoming incorporated as a village. Quincy was incorporated in 1858. It was not until eight years later, 1866, that the Bronson people applied to the powers that be to become a village. In this same year of 1866, though a few months earlier, Union City had been incorporated, so that of the four villages in the county Bronson stands third in the order of their incorporation. Sherwood, the fourth, did not reach this status un- til 1887.

In 1866 the law relating to the incorporation of villages was the legis- lative act of 1857, which vested authority for it in the boards of super- visors of counties. At the October session of the board of supervisors of Branch county, a petition was presented to them asking that they incor- porate the Village of Bronson. This petition is spoken of in the records of the board in the county clerk's office as having been signed by George F. Gillam, Henry Powers, L. A. Rose and fourteen others. October 10, 1866, the board granted unanimously the petition, and made the persons within a certain tract of land a body corporate and politic under the name of the " Village of Bronson." The tract of land was just a mile square, and lay in sections 11, 12, 13, and 14. It was thus described: The south half of the northeast quarter and the southeast quarter of section II, the south half of the northwest quarter and the southwest quarter of section 12, the north half of the northwest quarter of section 13, and the north half of the northeast quarter of section 14. The area as then defined has remained

...

South Side Main Street, Bronson

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HISTORY OF BRANCH COUNTY

unchanged in its boundaries, and will be observed to stand upon any map of it as a perfect square.

The act of incorporation ordered the first election to " be held in that territory at the hotel in Bronson formerly kept by Marian Thompson, on Monday, the 26th day of November next." At that election officers were chosen as follows: President, Warren Byrns; trustees, Cyrus J. Keyes. Jason Shepard, Augustus Pixley, Lorenzo A. Rose, Leonard C. Clark, Henry Powers ; corporation clerk, Andrew S. Parrish; treasurer, Joseph E. Earl; marshal, Spellman Dennis; assessor, George Gillam; highway commis- sioner, Joseph E. Farl.

In 1871 the village was reincorporated by an act of the state legisla- ture, approved March 2. The first election under the new charter was or- dlered to be held " at the hotel on the corner of Matteson and Chicago streets " on the first Monday of March, 1871. By this new charter the marshal was to be appointed by the trustees and was to hold office for one year.

The number of people who associated themselves together in 1866 to live as an incorporated village was 603. This was the number found by a special census and reported to the board of supervisors in the petition for in- corporation. The volumes of the national census of 1870 and of the state census of 1874 do not give us the inhabitants of the village separate from those of the township. Not until 1880 do the census men seem to realize that the village is distinct and important enough to be reported by itself. But from 1880 on we can give its population according to every census taken by the state and by the general government. It is as follows: in 1880, 826; in 1884, 823 : in 1890, 875 ; in 1894, 864; in 1900. 1, 176; and in 1904, 1, 107. In the 14 years from 1866 to 1880, the population increased from 603 to .826, or about 200. The next 14 years it was virtually stationary at about 850. But during the next six years from 1894 to 1900 it jumped from 864 to 1, 176, an increase of 312. The stationary period of the village from 1880 on is a part of the stationary period of the population of the county as a whole from that year on, exhibited in a previous chapter. The local break and large increase in the population of the village in 1900 is doubtless due to the establishment of the Portland cement plant a mile northeast of it in 1897. That year 1900 was the high-water mark of its population in the census years, the census of 1904 showing a decrease of 69 in the four years following 1900.

A large number of Poles have settled in Bronson township, but only a few have ever lived in the village. In 1884 there were only 45 foreign- born persons in the village in a population of 823. This was only a little more than five per cent, or one in 18.

The more important events that have taken place in the life of Bronson during the forty years of its corporate existence as a village are the fol- lowing: The burning of the store of Powers & Gillam, Jan. 9. 1867; the erection of a fine brick business block on the south side of Chicago street next to Matteson street in 1867; the building of the Methodist Episcopal church in 1871; the building of the first Roman Catholic church and the

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organization of the Bronson Cornet Band in 1877; the organization of the Ladies' Library Association in 1880; the erection of Clark's opera house, the establishment of the bank of L. M. Rudd & Son, and the great fire on the north side of Chicago street in 1884; the fire on Matteson street in which the Hurleys perished in 1886; the introduction of electric light in this same year; the erection of the Congregational church in 1887; the change of the Ladies' Library to the Bronson Public Library in 1888; the burning of J. Francis Ruggles' valuable collection of books and historical material, and the erection of his present building on Chicago street in 1889; the organization of Warren's Military Band in 1892; the erection of the new Roman Catholic church about this time, and later of St. Mary's School ; the establishment of the Portland cement plant and the beginning of Coward Monroe's banking business in 1897 .; the erection of the fine new school building in 1901; and the organization of the Bronson Woman's Club in 1903.

Mr. Wells Knapp has been a business man of Bronson for thirty-nine years, having succeeded his father in the shoe business. He came to a farm in Coldwater township in 1866 and to Bronson in September, 1867, where he opened a shoe store and has been in the same business on the same spot continuously ever since, and his business career excels in continuous length that of anyone in Bronson.

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of Branch County, Michigan, Part 14

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