A twentieth century history of Allegan County, Michigan, Part 5

Author: Thomas, Henry Franklin, 1843-1912
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 808


USA > Michigan > Allegan County > A twentieth century history of Allegan County, Michigan > Part 5


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TROWBRIDGE.


Trowbridge. set off from Allegan in 1842, embracing also the area of the present Cheshire, had its first town election at the Prouty school house, district No. 1, in April, 1842. Those elected: John Weare, super- visor ; Sidney Smith, clerk ; John Billings, Sr., treasurer ; J. H. Blackman, John Weare, Walter H. Rood, Leander S. Prouty, justices of the peace ; William Porter, William Granger, John Orr, highway commissioners; H.


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HISTORY OF ALLEGAN COUNTY


B. Seymour, John Billings, John G. Colburn, school inspectors; Richard Weare, Riley Granger, Leander P. Ross, Benjamin Colburn, constables.


CHESHIRE.


Cheshire, as set off from Trowbridge and separately organized held its first town meeting in April, 1852. Omncers: James G. Lindsley ; super- visor; Harvey Munger, clerk; Marcus Lane, treasurer; Marcus Lane, C. W. Lindsley, S. Strong, Dustin Murch, justices of the peace; Marcus Lane, Dustin Murch, S. Strong, highway commissioners; C. Lindsley, S. Strong, school inspectors; Caleb Ward, A. B. Eaton, directors of poor ; Ezra Whaley, A. B. Eaton, constables.


MONTEREY.


Monterey, as organized from Allegan in 1847, had its citizens in the present Salem and Overisel as well as in its own proper arca. The first town meeting was held April 19, 1847, and those elected were: John Chase, supervisor; Noah Briggs, clerk; Frederick Day, treasurer ; James M. McAlpine, Horace Wilson, N. H. Brown, Gil Blas Wilcox, justices of the peace ; Gil Blas Wilcox, James M. McAlpine, George W. Kibby, high- way commissioners; John Chase, Henry Wilson, school inspectors; Thu- rum Ross, Joseph Tanner, directors of the poor; George M. Kibby, Silas Reed, Harvey Kenyon, Horace Dexter, constables.


SALEM.


Salem, as set off from Monterey, October 10, 1855, with its present boundaries, held its first town election at the house of James Burnip, April 7, 1856, with the following results : L. P. Brown, supervisor ; Henry Bear, clerk ; James Burnip, treasurer ; Henry Wilson, John Schwagert, justices of the peace; A. A. Goodman, Robert Pettingall, Aaron Bassett, highway commissioners ; A. A. Goodman, Isaiah Mannes, school inspectors; Thomas Henton, director of the poor; Florida Henton, A. A. Goodman, Abner Hunt, Jacob Brandigan, constables.


HEATH.


Heath, set off from Allegan in March, 1851, held its first town meet- ing in April, 1851, with the following results: James M. Heath, supervisor ; John M. Heath, clerk ; George P. Heath, treasurer ; Simon Howe, Samuel Bigsby, James Albro, James M. Heath, justices of the peace; Simon Howe, school inspector ; L. P. Ross, Harvey Howe, directors of the poor ; Daniel Rhodabaugh, Charles Howe, L. P. Ross, Henry Ammerman, constables.


PINE PLAINS.


Pine Plains, as organized in 1850, had the present Lee and Clyde at- tached to its territory, and even then had a very limited population, as may be inferred from the fact that at the first town meeting held April 1, 1850, only two officers were chosen, namely: Timothy Coates, supervisor; Eli Hathaway, clerk.


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HISTORY OF ALLEGAN COUNTY


NEWARK.


Of the original township of Newark, comprising two columns of town- ships, none of the township records remain, and only the first supervisor, Daniel A. Plummer, can be named.


MANLIUS.


Manlius, which was set off by itself, in 1838, held its first town meeting at the house of R. R. Mann April 1, 1839, with the following persons elected as officers : John Allen, supervisor ; James A. Poage, clerk ; Samuel Town, Orrin Ball, John Allen, assessors ; R. R. Mann, John Allen, Truman D. Austin, commissioners of highways; Orrin Ball, constable and collector ; Samuel Town, Paul Shepard, Isaac Vredenberg, school inspectors; Paul Shepard, treasurer; R. R. Mann, Samuel Town, James A. Poage, J. W. Palmer, justices of the peace; R. R. Mann, Isaac Vredenberg, directors of the poor ; John Allen, James McCormick, overseers of highways; Truman D. Austin, poundmaster. Only ten voters were in the town at the time.


FILLMORE.


Fillmore was a part of Manlius until 1849, and no doubt from 1841, when its area was attached to Manlius, until 1849, some of its residents served as officers in Manlius and voted at its town meetings. The first town meeting was held in Fillmore as a separate town in April, 1849, at which time Isaac Fairbanks was chosen supervisor; Benjamin Fairbanks, clerk : Anton Schorno, treasurer ; Isaac Fairbanks, Anton Schorno, George N. Smith, George Harrington, justices of the peace.


OVERISEL.


Overisel, being attached to Fillmore in 1850. took part in the town meetings of the latter until its separate organization in 1856 gave it power to' hold town meetings of its own. The first meeting was held at the school house in district No. 1, April 6, 1857, when the following were chosen officers: C. J. Voorhorst, supervisor ; Jan Boers, clerk ; Hendrick Brouwers, treasurer ; Lucas Daugermond, Hendrick Brouwers, school in- spectors : Harm Walters, R. Van Dan, Hendrick Bellman, highway com- missioners ; Gerret J. Wolterink, Barteld Vredeveld, justices of the peace ; Egbert Nykerk, Harm Schepers, directors of the poor; Mannes Hulsman, Albert Woerding, constables.


LEE.


Lee, at first a portion of Newark, from 1841 to 1850 a part of Man- lius, and then until 1859 a part of Pine Plains, contributed its township activity in various directions. At its first township meeting after organiza- tion, held April 4. 1859, the officers elected were : Thomas Raplee, super- visor : E. H. Heath, clerk ; H. B. Rice, treasurer ; H. B. Rice, Henry David- son, Thomas Raplee, John Orr,* justices of the peace ; Michael Hoy, David


* Subsequently declared an alien.


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HISTORY OF ALLEGAN COUNTY


W. Matthews, highway commissioners; Henry Davidson, school inspector ; David W. Matthews, Winchester Jenkins, Michael Hoy, constables; H. B. Rice, Winchester Jenkins, Michael Hoy, overseers of highways.


CLYDE.


Clyde, detached from Pine Plains in 1859, held its first town election April 2, 1860, there being thirteen voters present, who cast their ballots for : Ralph Parrish, supervisor; George G. Smalley, clerk; E. H. Heath, treasurer ; C. T. Billings, justice of the peace.


GANGES.


Ganges, taken from Newark in 1847, embracing also the present Casco, held its first town meeting at the house of Orlando Weed, April 5, 1847. with the following results, 27 votes being cast in all: A. H. Hale, super- visor ; S. H. Weaver, clerk; Levi Loomis, treasurer; N. D. Plummer, G. F. Hughes, justices of the peace; Daniel Platt, A. H. Hale school inspectors ; J. W. Wadsworth, Nathan Slayton, directors of the poor ; J. W. Wadsworth, J. B. Goodeve, assessors ; Nathan Slayton, Roswell Daily, J. B. Goodeve, commissioners of highways; John Lutz, Henry Baragar, S. H. Weaver, O. C. Thayer, constables ; Henry Baragar, David Updyke, N. D. Plummer, C. O. Hamlin, Timothy McDowell, pathmasters.


CASCO.


Casco, taken from Ganges in 1854, completed its civil organization at the first town meeting held in April, 1855, when Timothy McDowell was elected supervisor. The records of the meeting and early township af- fairs were destroyed by fire in 1869.


SAUGATUCK.


Saugatuck, really the nucleus of the original Newark, which name it retained until 1861, had a continuous civil history from 1836, but the early records were destroyed.


LAKETOWN.


Laketown, set off from all that remained of the original Newark, in October, 1858, held the first town meeting April 4. 1859, when the fol- lowing officers were elected: John Rouse, supervisor : Gerrit Ruttgers, clerk; A. J. Neerken, treasurer; A. J. Neerken, John Rouse, Harm Rouse, Albert Klomparens, school inspectors; Reinderd Boorenkamp, Gerrit Rutt- gers, John Lucas, highway commissioners ; A. J. Neerken, H. J. Brinkman, John Ruttgers, Harm Klomparens, justices of the peace : Gerrit Heneveld, B. J. Brinkman, Derk Ten Cate. Hendrick Bakker, constables; G. H. Lubbers, Gabriel Rosbach, Harm Bouws, overseers of highways.


CHAPTER II.


THE COUNTY FROM 1830 TO THE CLOSE OF THE CIVIL WAR.


The decade of the thirties was the foundation period of Allegan county. Not only is this true of the county, but this ten years, during which the territory became a state of the Union, marks the actual period of the making of Michigan. For, as another writer has stated, "the real builders of the commonwealth of which we are so proud, were not the French ex- plorers, post traders and missionaries ; they were not the British soldiers and adventurers who followed them; they were not even the mixed popu- lation of Canadian habitants, American fishermen and fur merchants who occupied the territory under the American flag during the first quarter of the century; but the true founders of Michigan were the men who came within its limits during the half dozen years preceding the admission of Michigan into the Union."


The census of 1837, the first census compiled after the admission of the state, and the first census, either territorial or federal, whose returns apply to Allegan county, showed that 1,469 persons were living in the county at that date. The federal census of 1840 increased this number to 1,783. Nearly fifteen hundred people had come into the county during the first seven years of its settlement. If we interpret the word "pioneers" strictly as those who located in the county before 1840, so as to be included in the census of that year, the "founders of Allegan county" would be less than two thousand inhabitants included within its limits at that time. This population has since increased to nearly forty thousand, and there have been correspondingly many developments and phases of the life, institu- tions and industries of the people. But it may truthfully be said that the foundations of the county were laid, and well laid, by the pioneers of the thirties.


Many interesting queries might be made concerning the early popula- tion of the county. What influences directed them hither? From what parts of the Union did they come chiefly and how did their previous en- vironment affect their relations and work in this county? By what routes did they come, overland or by water? Where were the first settlements made, and what were the conditions that favored the grouping of popla- tion and enterprise at one point at the expense of another? How did the pioneers live during the period of semi-isolation from the comforts and usages to which they had been accustomed? These and many other ques- tions must be answered if we hope to get a true picture of Allegan county


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HISTORY OF ALLEGAN COUNTY


during its formative period. Then it will be an easy passage from the prim- itive to those stages of gradual development, first along one line and then another, by which the county and its people have reached their twentieth century culmination of progress and civilization.


ERIE CANAL.


In 1825 the Erie canal, after eight years in building, was opened to traffic, and the waters of Lake Erie flowed across the state of New York into the Hudson river. The dream of Henry Hudson in seeking a north- west passage up the river that bears his name was realized after more than two centuries. Only instead of the spice-laden orient, the new way led to the far more desirable and potentially richer American west. The Jand- bound commerce of the Atlantic seaboard found, in this direction, outlet to the eager west, and, borne along the same channel, the grain harvests of the inland were brought to the markets of the world. It was no uncommon thing for fifty ark-like boats, loaded with passengers and freight, to depart from the eastern terminus of the Erie canal in a single day, passing to the west at the rate of four miles an hour. Before the waters were turned into the "Big Ditch" the toilsome urging of creaking wagon had not carried a fraction of the commerce that passed along this waterway.


The Erie canal not only gave a tremendous impetus to western expan- sion and development, but it changed its direction. Herein lies the sig- nificance of the canal in the history of southern Michigan, including Alle- gan county.


Before 1825 the trend of westward emigration had been down the Ohio valley. The great water courses were fringed with settlements, when the inland country was still an unbroken wilderness. The regions border- ing the riverways and great lakes were populous before a tree had been felled for a settler's cabin on the fertile prairies and woodland of northern Indiana and southern Michigan. In proof of this witness the admission of Indiana to statehood ten years before the first settler came to her northern tier of counties. Southern Michigan was aside from the current of emigra- tion, and its settlement was delaved while settlers were overrunning the country to the south and the prairies of Illinois.


OVERLAND ROADS.


There were no roads in southern Michigan even for several years after the completion of the Erie canal. A map of the highways of traffic of the United States in the year 1825 shows a network of routes along the Ohio valley, but none north of the watershed into the great lakes, which would bring emigrants within many miles of Allegan and its adjacent counties.


The homeseekers who traveled across Lake Erie to its western end would on their arrival at Detroit find one generally used road to the west. That led southwest to Monroe, up the valley of the Maumee, past Defiance. Ohio, through Fort Wayne, Indiana, thence northwesterly around the lower end of Lake Michigan to Chicago or farther west. Fort Wayne was the converging point for several other roads leading from different points along the Ohio river. The great bulk of the pioneers who settled the northern


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HISTORY OF ALLEGAN COUNTY


Indiana and extreme southwest Michigan counties came by way of Fort Wayne. This accounts for the more cosmopolitan character of the popu- lation of that region than is found in most other counties of southern Michigan. Through Fort Wayne passed streams of emigrants not only from the New England states and New York and Pennsylvania, but also from Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas and Kentucky.


Railroads at that time had not become a factor in directing and assist- ing emigrants. In 1830 only 36 miles of railroad were in operation in all the United States. Only two years before had the first mile of the Balti- more & Ohio been built. The decade of the twenties was prolific of rail- road charters and plans, but only the beginnings were made of the rail- road building which soon absorbed the energies of the nation. In fact, the part of the railroad in southern Michigan was that of development rather than settlement. When the first railroad penetrated Allegan county, its population was nearly twenty thousand. The lands had been taken up and the pioneer period was practically over.


It should also be mentioned that a large number of emigrants, instead of debarking at Detroit and taking the Fort Wayne route, made the entire circuit of the lakes by way of Mackinac. This route was long, exposed to many risks, and blocked by ice a considerable portion of the year, hence not so feasible as would seem on first thought. In fact, it can be stated, after an examination of the records of early settlement in this county, that the presence of a large body of navigable water on its western limits played only a minor part in the pioneer settlement of the county. Lake Michigan even during the twenties offered its broad area to a considerable commerce between the east and the west, but carried on its bosom only a small share of homeseekers who penetrated the wilderness of Allegan county. And inasmuch as the first necessities and purposes of the pioneers were home- making and preparation of the country for industry and enterprise, it was not for several years after the first settler came that the river and lake traffic began to develop.


But, with few exceptions, so far as an investigation of the carly rec- ords prove, the first settlers of this county came overland. For those who crossed Lake Erie by boat, Detroit was the point of departure for the in- land. During the decade preceding the settlement of Allegan county, roads were being constructed, as one writer describes it, in fan-shaped direction from Detroit, into the country lying north, west and southwest from that city. Along these highways, each year extended further into the wilder- ness, passed the caravans whose members were the makers of Michigan. Some of these roads were cut from one settlement to another by the parties immediately interested. Many more were orderd laid out by the Terri- torial authorities, many pages of the territorial laws being taken up by these road acts. Foremost in importance of all the roads of southern Michigan, forming the backbone of overland communication, was the De- troit-Chicago road, a military and post road constructed by the national gov- ernment. Most of the other roads of the southern portion of Michigan were constructed with reference to this "trunk line," intersecting it and starting from it as an initial point.


This famous thoroughfare, while it did not touch Allegan county, was of such importance to the settlement of southern' Michigan that it calls for


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HISTORY OF ALLEGAN COUNTY


some description. The "Chicago Road," by which name it is best known, was essentially an overland extension of the Erie canal. It was a national highway built to connect two important strategic points, to afford rapid transportation of military supplies and armies from the western terminus of the waterways at Detroit to Fort Dearborn on Lake Michigan. It was one of the fruits of the Fort Dearborn massacre of 1812, which convinced the authorities that the territory about southern Lake Michigan could no longer be left exposed on an isolated frontier, and that the two lakes must be tied together by a highway across the Michigan peninsula. Empowered by the constitution to establish post roads, the general government de- signed this road as an important section of the postal route between the east and the west, and for the twenty years before the railroad came the New York-Chicago mail was carried by stage over this road. But its char- acter as a government highway was almost lost sight of in the importance it attained as an emigrant route. The coming of the mail coach never lost its novelty or ceased to be the event of the day for the people dwelling along the road, but the almost continual line of settlers' wagons became one of the commonplaces of life at that time and attracted little attention.


In accordance with congressional legislation for the construction of a military and post road between Detroit and Chicago, in 1825 the president was authorized to appoint commissioners to survey and mark the route. In 1827 congress appropriated twenty thousand dollars for the construction of the road. It was originally intended that the road should be built in a straight line between the designated termini, but the commissioners soon found that with the money at hand they could hardly make a beginning of the undertaking on that basis. So they were forced to follow a more his- toric, and more devious, route.


Long before the surveyor with his transit and the contractors with their axmen, bridgebuilders and teamsters had begun a single highway in Michigan, the animals and the Indians had worn practicable trails through all parts of the country. Some of these were short and some extended for many miles. Of the latter was the trail extending around the southern end of Lake Michigan as far east as Detroit. Since the war of 1812 the Indians dwelling in Illinois had been accustomed to make their annual pil- grimages along this route to Canada, where. the British government paid them their annuity earned by loyalty to that government in its war against the Americans. The Detroit-Chicago Indian trail, therefore, had historic importance long before any marks of civilization had been impressed along its course.


Accordingly, when the government surveyors found the appropriation inadequate, they determined to follow this old Indian trail, straightening some of its windings whenever they could, but in general marking the route by its long used paths. The engineers who began the work of mark- ing this road in 1825 did not "make" the road : they merely designated its course by clearing a roadway through the trees. As late as 1829 the pioneers along its middle sections called the road little better than an In- dian trail.


From Ypsilanti this road bent south and passed through the southern tier of counties. It was, from that point, not a direct route to Allegan county. But its historical importance lies in the fact already indicated, that


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HISTORY OF ALLEGAN COUNTY


it was the first continuous overland route planned across the peninsula, and shortly after it was surveyed the territory followed the example of the general government by ordering the survey of numerous other highways into every portion of the territory that was being taken up by settlers. Tap roads reached from the Chicago road in all directions. Many of the earliest settlers of Kalamazoo county came along the Chicago road as far as Branch county, thence turning to the northwest along an old Indian trail made into a highway. But beginning with the thirties roads were marked from Ypsilanti and that vicinity in a due west line, through Jackson, Marshall, Battle Creek, and it was along this route that most of the early settlers reached Allegan county. In 1832, as an example, the legislature ordered commissioners to lay out a road from the mouth of the Battle Creek, via Gull prairie in Kalamazoo county, along the Kalamazoo river to its mouth. The acts of the legislature for the laying out of such roads cannot be taken as authority that they were actually laid out. In some cases the funds were not sufficient, or the commissioners did not begin their work within the specified time, and for other reasons only those roads for which there was a real necessity and active demand were marked. But it is known that a road existed from the carly thirties from Ypsilanti westward through the points above named. From this highway, often called the "territorial road," branched several trails traversed by emigrant wagons in reaching Gull prairie and Allegan county.


The Foster family, one of the most prominent of the pioneer names at Otsego, furnish an interesting example of travel at that time. Their home was originally in Vermont state. After Dr. Foster had investigated this portion of Michigan and made preparations for removal, he and his family went overland and by water to Troy, New York, where they transferred to a boat on the Erie canal, which conveyed them to Buffalo. Thence a steamer took them across the lake to Detroit, where their journey through the wilderness began. With their goods loaded on a wagon, they drove along the Chicago road through Dearborn to Ypsilanti, and thence followed the territorial road to Battle Creek. They were two weeks in passing over the first stage of their route, 142 miles. At Battle Creek Dr. Foster and his party built two log cabins, which were the first houses in that place. After remaining there a short time, they came through the wilderness by way of Gull prairie, and arrived at Otsego in the spring of 1832, being the first family to settle on the site of the present village of Otsego.


No settlements had been made along the roads west of Detroit further than Ypsilanti in 1825 (always excepting the settlement about Niles, re- sulting from the establishment of the Carey Mission). But by 1835, along the territorial road west of Ypsilanti, were the villages of Ann Arbor. Lima, Grass Lake, Jacksonburg, Sandstone, Marshall, Battle Creek, Com- stock, Kalamazoo, St. Joseph on the lake ; while away from the main route were numerous other little hamlets springing up under the rapid progress of immigration.


The question has been asked, what caused the quick settlement of southern Michigan during the early thirties, and what influences directed the population to the confines of Allegan county. The question involves the entire subject of "western expansion," which, beginning shortly after the close of the war of 1812, was the most remarkable epoch in the coun-


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HISTORY OF ALLEGAN COUNTY


try's history during the first half of the nineteenth century. It was a na- tional movement, due to the awakening of the people to their broad oppor- tunities. The restless energy and enterprise of America could no longer be contained within the narrow limits of the thirteen colonies, and henceforth flowed through all the gateways of the eastern slope to the broad areas of the west.


As already indicated, improved transportation was perhaps the great- est impulse to this westward movement. During the decade of the thirties more than seven hundred miles of canals had been opened to navigation in New York, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, and nearly fifteen hundred miles were nearing completion in these and other middle states and Ohio. Canals were in greater favor than railroads, and every state west of the Allegha- nies was bending its efforts to the opening of navigable waterways between all important centers.




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