USA > Michigan > Branch County > A twentieth century history and biographical record of Branch County, Michigan > Part 18
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 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110
The next issue contained the climax of the story. "What our citizens have looked eagerly for during the last twelve years is at last accomplished. and the Michigan Southern is finally completed to Coldwater. For the first time, on Tuesday (December 10, 1850). the iron horse made his appearance in this village. A freight train arrived at noon and commenced taking on a load of flour at the depot. 'About 4:15 a large number of our expectant citizens witnessed the arrival of a passenger train from the east." That was a red letter day in the history of Coldwater. In the evening a ball was held at the old Franklin House in honor of the event, and on the following
132
HISTORY OF BRANCH COUNTY
Friday, when a train load of visitors from Adrian, Toledo and other points along the line came to the Coldwater terminus, there was a second cele- bration and rejoicing, all the homes in the village were open to entertain the strangers, and there was another dance in the evening. These social gratulations, however, were mere incidental manifestations of the intro- duction of an epoch which closed the pioneer era of Branch county.
Construction work did not stop at Coldwater. By the middle of Feb- ruary, 1851, track had been laid to the county line, thus giving Bronson communication by rail, and on March 13th a train ran through to Sturgis. A year later, in March, 1852, the road reached Chicago, and the distance of two hundred and fifty miles between Toledo and Chicago was open to traffic without the use of the stage for any portion of the way.
AIR LINE RAILROAD.
The Air Line branch of the Michigan Central, which enters the county at Union City and crosses the county diagonally out through Sherwood township, was projected almost entirely by local capital and enterprise, the corporate name being the Michigan Air Line Railroad Company. The peo- ple of the counties of Cass, St. Joseph, Calhoun, Branch and Jackson were the ones most vitally interested. In the latter part of the sixties the town- ships of Union and Sherwood were thoroughly canvassed for contributions to the enterprise, the promoters sending a man of address and eloquence all over this section to hold meetings and to use personal suasion in the interest of the project. The following item from the first copy of the Union City Independent, in October, 1867, indicates how local interest and finan- cial support were worked up for this railroad.
" We understand that Dr. H. F. Ewers and E. Perry, Esq., are can- vassing the townships of Union and Sherwood for stock subscriptions and right of way for the railroad, and that thus far they have met with good success. Nearly or quite enough stock has been taken east of Jackson to prepare the road-bed for the iron, and we understand that on that portion of the route, the contracts are to be let this fall."
Jackson county subscribed nearly two hundred thousand dollars to the undertaking, and the principal officers of the original organization were citizens of Jackson. The line was opened to travel from Jackson to Homer in the summer of 1870, to Three Rivers in the autumn of the same year, and was completed to Niles in February, 1871. Almost coincident with the completion of the road it was leased to the Michigan Central Railroad Com- pany, and soon became the property of that company. The Air Line has been of special value in upbuilding Union City and was the foundation of the village of Sherwood.
OTHER RAILROADS.
The Fort Wayne, Jackson and Saginaw Railroad, which crosses the southeast corner of California township, was completed and opened for traffic from Jackson to Angola, Indiana, in January, 1870, about the same
133
HISTORY OF BRANCH COUNTY
time the Michigan Air Line was constructed across the northwest corner of the county.
The futility of forecast even in such a substantial matter as railroad building is well illustrated in the Branch County Atlas published in 1872. With this as his only guide we might conceive of a traveler planning to take train at California postoffice and riding thence north through Coldwater and Girard and leaving the county about the center of the north boundary. For this is the designated route of the Mansfield, Coldwater and Lake Michigan Railroad, over which, unfortunately, no train of cars ever ran through Branch county. None the less, the map makers were not open to censure on that account, for they merely indicated the line which it was confidently believed at the time would soon be in operation, and which was even graded and ready in some portions for the laying of the iron. And now, as one unacquainted with this chapter of Branch county history rides over the county, he would be puzzled in places to account for the grass-grown cuts and ridges which are all that remain of the ambitious attempt.
The Mansfield. Coldwater and Lake Michigan Railroad was largely a Coldwater project. The report of the state railroad commission for Decem- ber, 1872, gave among the list of officers of the corporation the names of H. C. Lewis as vice president (who soon after became president). David B. Dennis, treasurer: Justin Lawyer, assistant secretary, and F. V. Smith. register of transfers, all of Coldwater, and besides these the late Gen. J. G. Parkhurst was a director. It was planned to build this road from Mans- field. Ohio. to Allegan, Michigan. In 1875 eleven and a half miles were in operation from Allegan to Monteith, and the official railroad map of 1875 shows it as a stump line projecting east of Monteith a few miles and under lease for operation purposes by the Grand Rapids and Indiana. August 28. 1877. the road was sold under foreclosure of mortgage, the name then changing to the Allegan and Southeastern R. R. Co. Its subsequent history is not pertinent to present consideration.
Contemporaneous in origin and perhaps connected in other ways with the above enterprise, was the Marshall and Coldwater Railroad. This road was projected to run from Coldwater to Elm Hall in Gratiot county, and a map of the time indicates its line as parallel to the Mansfield road as far as Girard village. whence it goes directly north towards Marshall. "That part of the line from Coldwater to the Peninsular Railroad, a distance of forty miles, was, January 1. 1873. substantially graded, bridged and tied." Such was the railroad commissioner's report, but no track was ever laid, and the name and record of the corporation disappear from the reports after 1873. Nearly all the officials named were citizens of Marshall.
It is within the province of this history to record the status of electric lines in the county. About three years ago the Toledo and Michigan Elec- tric Railroad was "in course of construction " through the county, the designated termini being Toledo and Elkhart. Along the highway between Coldwater and Quincy for nearly the entire distance can now be seen the
134
HISTORY OF BRANCH COUNTY
grade that was made for this road. But so far this construction is for nothing, although it is expected that a new corporation will utilize the grade.
Furthermore, at the time of this writing, a company is in the field acquiring right of way and other concessions along the route of the old Cold- water and Mansfield route from Coldwater to Battle Creek, with the inten- tion of constructing an electric line that will cross the county at right angles to the steam roads and furnish much-needed transportation between por- tions of the county that are now practically isolated.
It remans for a later historian to describe the improvements which these proposed electric lines will accomplish. No doubt many things that are now novel or tentative will be obsolete or thoroughly founded twenty- five years from now.
POSTAL SERVICE.
One of the first improvements sought after actual home and shelter and means of subsistence were provided was a postal service, such as all the settlers had been familiar with in their former homes in the more settled regions. We have seen how the government early made provision for the establishment of a great post road from the east to the west. But the actual transportation and distribution of mail was a very uncertain matter for many years, and depended largely on the provision that each community could make for that purpose. The mail stage began running in the early thirties along the Chicago road, and the various stations along that highway were the distributing points from which mail was carried to the settlements in the remote townships. Some convenient settler's cabin was selected as the postoffice, and there the neighbors would gather to receive a chance letter or hear the reading of a newspaper brought in by the last mail. Since the establishment of a postoffice usually marked an important stage in the history of a village or hamlet, the individual postoffices of the county have received appropriate mention in connection with the account of the different localities.
Letters were a luxury in pioneer times. They were written on foolscap paper and so folded that one side was left blank, so as to form its own' envelope, it being sealed with wax or a wafer. This latter custom was followed for many years, and some of these sheets folded according to the usual manner, with some of the wax of the seal still adhering to them, and with the post-mark "Mic. T." showing that they were sent during the territorial days, may ,be seen in some of the first miscellaneous files in the county clerk's office.
Posta! advantages were centralized formerly. To get one's mail it was necessary to go where it was distributed, whether that was at the settler's cabin above mentioned or at a permanent office fitted up for the purpose, as is the case with larger places. The most striking change in postal service was effected when mail matter began to be carried to the persons addressed instead of those persons calling at a central place where the mail was kept. Mail delivery marks a great step of progress, not so much in the case of the cities, as in the country, where the system of rural free delivery has undoubt-
135
HISTORY OF BRANCH COUNTY
edly effected more for the welfare and intelligence of the rural population than any other factor of recent years.
In the history of the grange movement something has been said con- cerning the beginnings of rural delivery. The first routes were established from the Coldwater postoffice in 1901, and since that time the entire county has received these facilities, there being sixteen carriers over as many routes, with Coldwater city and each of the four villages as centers, with one or more routes also from Batavia and Kinderhook.
TELEPHONE.
Communication by telephone is now in such general and familiar use in the county that it is difficult to realize that this invention is modern. There is probably not a person in Branch county who does not at least know of the telephone, and in hundreds of homes and in nearly every business house will be found one of these instruments. Every road has its line of poles and strings of wire, binding together separate homes. communities. villages and distant cities. Less than thiry years have sufficied to effect this condition. Mr. A. Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, was suc- cessfully conducting experiments in the early seventies, but the first time his invention was exhibited in a practical form to the general public was at the centennial exposition at Philadelphia in 1876. A standard encyclopedia, published in 1877, in describing this invention, speaks of it as " telegraphic transmission of articulate sounds." and further goes on to state as the climax of the wonderful discovery that " we may confidently expect that Mr. Bell will give us the means of making voice and spoken words audible through the electric wire to an ear hundreds of miles distant."
Branch county began using this invention in 1882. The Coldwater Republican of September 1. 1882, states that " the labor of putting up a line has commenced. The central office will be located in the third story of the F. V. Smith & Co.'s building. About forty instruments have been ordered, and connection will also be made with Quincy and Union City." How the invention was regarded is best told in an issue of the same paper published in October, 1882. The telephones by that time were in operation, and the writer declared that " a person standing at any telephone in the city can converse with parties at the State School in an ordinary tone, and many times can distinguish the voice of the speaker. It is certainly a wonderful and useful instrument, and we hope to see our city connected this fall with Union City and Quincy."
This was the beginning of telephone communication in Branch county. The first telephones were operated by the original Bell company, but not long after the system of which they were a part was formed under the sepa- rate name of the Michigan State Telephone Company, which is now virtually a Michigan company, run by Michigan men and capital, and with long-dis- tance connections.
The Michigan State Telephone Company now has 950 subscribers to
136
HISTORY OF BRANCH COUNTY
the Coldwater exchange; in 1889 there were 39. The headquarters of the company are in Detroit. The Quincy exchange of this company was opened about 1901, and that in Union City about fifteen years ago. In Quincy there are about 60 subscribers, and in Union City 300 subscribers, two-thirds of these being farmers. Three hundred of the Coldwater subscribers are farmers. In Sherwood is an exchange with 75 subscribers, and at East Gilead Mr. F. J. Conklin is a sub-licensee with 50 subscribers. An exchange is also to be opened in Bronson.
The Wolverine Telephone Company was. the first independent telephone company in Branch county. It began operating in the county March 25, 1904. December 29, 1905, this line was consolidated with the Southern Michigan Telephone Company. whose main office is at Burr Oak, and which was formerly known as the Himebaugh line.
The Quincy Independent Telephone Company began operating May 15. 1904. Though a separate line, it works in connection with the Southern Michigan Company. and service from one to the other of these lines over the entire county is free. The establishment of these independent lines has brought about reduction of rates from the older company and both lines have been stimulated to offer better service. Besides these, there are three or four farmers' private lines in the county, the best known being the Dollar- hite line, working south of Quincy, with some eighty subscribers. Mr. John Babcock, now of Quincy, was the original promoter of the independent lines east of Coldwater. In 1902-3 he was living about four miles east of Quincy. In 1903 lie and eight other farmers formed a line of their own. Mr. H. W. Noble, Mr. A. L. Bowen and Mr. Samuel N. Swan were associated with him in the management. The Quincy Independent Line now has 130 subscribers in the village and 250 in the country about it.
PRESENT CONDITIONS.
One other aspect of communication deserves mention. The rapid progress in this department of human affairs is almost bewildering, and the events follow in such succession that at this time it is difficult to designate each one with date and results. In June, 1906, there were 107 automobiles owned by citizens of Coldwater. a remarkable number considering the size of the city and comparing favorably with the number in cities of twice the size. There are also several machines in each of the villages.
In the year of this writing the automobile measures the highest develop- ment of what may be termed " individual conveyance," that is, means of transportation apart from the organized and systematic facilities furnished by the railroad or steamship companies. Ten years ago the bicycle repre- sented that highest development. Wagons and carriages drawn by horses, which have been most depended on throughout the period of this history. have not been superseded, but it remains a matter of interesting speculation what the subsequent decades will bring about in this matter of communica- tion. What roads have done in directing the settlement and upbuilding of
137
HISTORY OF BRANCH COUNTY
this county has been described at length, and easy communication has been emphasized as a dominant factor of our development. But with the improve- ment of roadways in keeping with the progress in means of conveyance, the civilization of the next quarter century may be entirely rearranged.
138
HISTORY OF BRANCH COUNTY
CHAPTER XIX.
THE COUNTY'S NEWSPAPERS.
Something should be said concerning the general character and make- up of the early newspapers. An examination of newspaper files dated during the forties and fifties and published in various parts of the country, leads one to believe that there was little individuality in the pioneer press. A uniform method was followed in arranging and selecting matter thought to be suita- ble for the public's reading. Cut off the title head and the place of publica- tion, and it would require considerable search to discover the exact locality where the paper was issued.
Of local news scarcely any is to be found in the papers of sixty years ago. For that reason the historical investigator is usually disappointed so far as large returns for his study of the files are concerned. Here and there, lodged between an account of a political campaign in another state and a continued story, may be found an item of value, like a bit of gold quartz buried in worthless drift. Of the columns of personal mention and local happenings, which are the real life of the modern newspaper, nothing can be found in the early files in Branch county, which is no exception to the rule in other counties. As a veteran Michigan editor says, the old-time publisher would delightedly seize upon a letter from Europe containing news three months old, giving it several columns on his front page, while matters of local concern would be disregarded entirely.
The most graphic illustration of these facts about the old-time news- paper is to be seen in a description of the contents of the first number of the Coldwater Sentinel, which was issued April 16, 1841, and which is no doubt typical in form and content of three-fourths of the local newspapers pub- lished throughout the country in that week.
The first two columns of this old Sentinel are filled with advertisements of medicine, of the magazine New World, the millwright Jeremiah Case of Bronson, an insurance company, a list of letters, and some legal notices. The third column begins with some selected poetry, and is filled out with paragraphs of wit and humor. The fourth, fifth and sixth columns, half of the front page, are devoted to foreign news, which is also continued in the first column of the second page, followed by two columns of news from the state legislature. All the column rules of the two inside pages are inverted in token of the death of President William Henry Harrison, which occurred on April 4th. An account of this fills the remaining columns of the second page. Page three is entirely filled with political news, legal notices, advertisements, with a few miscellanies intermingled. On page four
139
HISTORY OF BRANCH COUNTY
begins the story. " The Banker's Daughter," and her interesting fate is told in three and a half columns. The story, by the way, was clipped from a London paper. The rest of the page contains advertisements of " household magazines " and a certain brand of pills. In the entire sheet the only items of local interest are a few advertisements inserted by business and profes- sional men, and a brief account of the formation of a county medical society.
Michigan Star.
The first newspaper published in Branch county was the Michigan Star, by the Branch County Printing Company, the first number being issued at the old county seat at Branch village in May. 1837. Charles P. West was the first and only editor and publisher, for the career of the Star was ended in less than a year, and it was the only paper that Branch village ever had.
Coldwater Observer.
The rivalry between Branch and Coldwater during the thirties is in no way better illustrated than in the history of this paper. The Observer was established to offset the advantage that accrued to Branch from having the Star to advertise the county seat village to the world and thus focus atten- tion upon its location. Dr. Thomas N. Calkins and E. G. Fuller were behind the enterprise, circulated the subscription paper, and when the paper was started acted as editors and managers. How shrewdly they engineered the enterprise to the detriment of its rival is shown by the fact that they procured the foreman of the Star to act as publisher of the Observer. The first number was issued July 18. 1837. and its appearance was an occasion of rejoicing among the people of Coldwater. Dr. Calkins was soon called to a higher place in journalism!, becoming one of the editors of the Detroit Free Press. Another physician, Dr. Bement. succeeded him, some time in 1838, and changed the paper to the Branch County News. In the meantime the old Michigan Star had discontinued, and the necessity for a paper in Coldwater was no longer so great. The publication was soon suspended. therefore.
The material remained, however, and two young men named Jocelyn and Horton originated and gave a brief existence to the Branch County Democrat.
Coldwater Sentinel.
April 16, 1841, Mr. Albert Chandler, so long and prominently identified with the newspaper and business interests of Branch county, published the first number of the Coldwater Sentinel, announcing that he had bought the Horton printing equipment, so that in a sense the Sentinel was a continua- tion of the first/Coldwater paper.
The Sentinel had an existence of nearly twenty years, and its bound volumes, which are preserved practically complete until 1854, contain the most exact and detailed data on Branch county history of that period that can be found anywhere. Various firm names appeared as publishers through
140
HISTORY OF BRANCH COUNTY
this time. Chandler and Haynes (John T.) were publishers in 1844. In 1846 it became Chandler and Stillman, the latter being Dr. H. B. Stillman, and in September of the same year the firm was Chandler and Waterman (David). In 1849 Elihu B. Pond became editor and proprietor. He was one of the most forceful of early Branch county editors, and made his paper a practical and decided influence. He began what he called the " new series " of the Sentinel, the issue of December 7, 1849, being numbered as Volume I, No. I. In June, 1854, S. W. Driggs and H. C. Gilbert became proprietors and conducted the Sentinel two years. Barrett and Reynolds conducted it two years longer, from the fall of 1856, and it then passed into the possession of Judge J. H. Gray, who soon sold the plant and it was re- moved to Port Huron, where it was used to print the Port Huron Press. The Sentinel was the upholder of Democratic principles on all occasions.
Branch County Journal.
In the meantime Coldwater had another paper. B. F. Thompson estab- lished and issued the first number of the Branch County Journal on Novem- ber II, 1851. This was the first Whig paper in the county. In June, 1852, the proprietors became C. A. and B. F. Thompson, the former being the father of B. F. March 8, 1853, E. J. Hard and H. B. Robinson became proprietors, two years later Barnes and Way, and it then passed through the hands of Bates Dewey and Clinton B. Fisk to E. B. Dewey, who moved the plant to Elkhart about 1856.
The Branch County Republican.
This paper, the first in Branch county to become the outspoken exponent of Republican party principles, was established at Coldwater in the fall of 1857, by Messrs. Eddy and Gray. Judge J. H. Gray has already been men- tioned in connection with the concluding history of the Sentinel. About a year and a half after its establishment the Republican became the sole prop- erty of Judge Gray, who conducted it with his son Horace J. Gray, until 1861.
In the latter year F. B. Way bought the Republican and changed the name to the Branch County Gasette, although it was conducted loyally to the Republican party and to the Union cause during the succeeding Civil war. During this period two well known men in county politics were editors for a time, J. H. McGowan and C. P. Benton. The next event in the history of the Gazette brings us to the consideration of
The Republican.
August 23, 1866, Major D. J. Easton, later the founder of the Union City Register, published the first number of the Republican at Coldwater. In the following December Dr. P. P. Nichols, another well known news- paper man of the county, purchased an interest and became one of the editors of the Republican. Easton and Nichols sold out after a year to W. J. and
141
HISTORY OF BRANCH COUNTY
O. A. Bowen. The Republican was growing as the leading Republican paper of the county, and in 1868 the firm bought its only rival for the patronage of that party, the Gazette, the history of which paper ends at that time. W. J. Bowen continued as one of the proprietors of the Republican for several years. and the firm at one time was Bowen, Rose and Skeels, the latter being F. L. Skeels, the Coldwater lawyer.
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.