USA > Michigan > Allegan County > A twentieth century history of Allegan County, Michigan > Part 6
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BLACK HAWK WAR.
This war must be mentioned in a history of Allegan county although the hostilities took place several hundred miles away, and so far as known no one from this county participated actively in the war. But the impor- tant result, so far as the development of Allegan and other Michigan coun- ties was concerned, is set forth in the following extract from the Detroit Journal of August 29, 1832:
"The Indian disturbances on our frontier have no doubt operated ex- tensively in retarding emigration to this territory. Though emigrants might have come here at any time during the present season without any possible danger from hostile Indians, we are happy to say that there is now no cause of alarm from the depredations of those deluded people, even in the most distant parts of our territory, where their ravages have been confined. That portion of Michigan which is settled, and to which emi- gration is chiefly directed, has not been molested. The settlements are quiet and prosperous, and the same inducements to those who wish to better their circumstances, by locating on the fertile plains and prairies of the west, are still held out."
The presence of bands of Pottawatomies and Ottawas in Allegan and surrounding counties gave the principal cause of anxiety to Michigan set- ters and caused a check of migration among those who feared to leave security in the east and cast their lot with a country whose Indian inhabit- ants might be aroused to outrage and war. These conditions are well out- lined in a letter from one of the militia leaders to the commanding general, written at White Pigeon in St. Joseph county :
"The injury done to this part of the territory by the exaggerated re- ports of danger from hostile bands of Indians will not be cured for two years to come, and the unnecessary movements of our militia is calcu- lated to spread far and near this alarm. I will venture to assert, and in making this assertion I am supported by the best of evidence, that there has not been a band of hostile Sacs within one hundred miles of our western boundary, and that the Rock river swamp to which the main body of the hostile force has fled for security is more than two hundred miles. The stories that are told of suspicious movements amongst the Pottawatomies and that a Sac chief has lately been to some of their villages is truly
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ridiculous, and I trust you are too well acquainted with the situation of the Indians here to turn a listening ear to such idle trash. The Indians are like ourselves, they see an unusual movement amongst us and like other idlers they flock together to talk the matter over. The fact is, two years since the small parties of Indians scattered over this part of the territory were directed by me, as agent, to collect themselves on their reservations out of the way of the white people. This they are now doing, being fright- ened by our movements, and this is the cause of all the suspicion towards them.'
EARLY SETTLEMENT.
The first permanent settlement in Allegan county was made at the mouth of the Kalamazoo river. We have referred to the course which some of the pioneers of western Michigan followed, making the entire journey by water instead of coming from Detroit overland. If the settle- ment of the counties bordering on the lake shore had been generally effected in this manner, we should find the bulk of the pioneers located along the shore and gradually extending inland along the river and most eligible sites. Actual history shows the reverse to be true, population having pushed its way down the river from the southeast.
SAUGATUCK.
However, the motives that brought William G. Butler and family around the lakes and induced him to build his cabin on the site of Sauga- tuck village in the spring of 1830, makes his location an exception that only proves the general rule of the direction of settlement in the county. Mr. Butler was a Connecticut Yankee, and his first object in locating at the mouth of the river was not permanent settlement, but the Indian trade. In this he was merely the successor of various other American and French traders who had carried on their business with the natives at this location for the previous ten years.
The mouth of the Kalamazoo river was doubtless known to explorers during the eighteenth century, and it is possible that Marquette and La- Salle and the Jesuit priests who followed them may have noted the river at that point. Hunters and traders passed over all the Michigan country from an early date, and there were several posts in Allegan county during the twenties. Louis Campau, a Frenchman, had a post at the mouth of Rabbit river, east of New Richmond. The American Fur Co. established a post at Peach Orchard on the Kalamazoo about 1825, this location later being known as McCormick's landing, about four miles above Saugatuck. The trade with the Indians was quite profitable. and the trading post remained a feature of the county's early history until the Indians were removed.
When Mr. Butler came he established a store in his log cabin, which stood about the center of the present village, at the intersection of Mason and Butler streets. Being the only white settler in the neighborhood, he was engaged for several years in trading with the Indians. But it seems that Mr. Butler was more than a trader, and perhaps from the first had entertained hopes of founding a village at this point, since it clearly pos- sessed many advantages that would give it importance as a commercial and industrial center when the country should be settled. Though he may
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HISTORY OF ALLEGAN COUNTY
have located here for the temporary purposes of other traders, who usually moved on as soon as the tide of civilization caught up with them, he soon resolved upon permanent settlement, and for this reason is to be regarded as the earliest of Allegan county's pioneers. His isolation from all society except the Indians during the first years was almost complete, and it is said that on one occasion he journeyed as far as Elkhart, Indiana, to get a supply of flour.
Originating in an Indian trading post, the settlement at Saugatuck grew and reached a permanent basis of prosperity, first, as a warehouse and shipping point for river and lake traffic ; second, as the location of several early mills, and tanneries; and later as a lumber and shipbuilding center. During the period that we are now considering the importance of Sauga- tuck was based on these enterprises.
Edward Johonnett and R. R. Crosby are mentioned as the next settlers after Butler. They established the first industry, a tannery on the banks of the river, and from this time for over half a century tanning was one of the leading industries of the west portion of the county. With the estab- lishment of the tannery in 1834, other settlers came to the place. Daniel Plummer was a carpenter whose services were naturally much in demand in a new community. He put up a house on Hoffman street that stood for many years.
The tannery and three dwelling houses stood on the low shore on the east side of the river in July, 1834, when Stephen D. Nichols and H. H. Comstock came up the river on a prospecting trip from St. Joseph, Mich., having come up the lake by boat. These two men realized the advantages of the location, especially since settlers had begun arriving at the mouth of the river on their way to the inland settlements. Nichols, besides taking up a quarter section of land in section 17, made a contract with his partner to erect a warehouse and pier at the mouth of the river. After deciding on his location and plans Nichois brought his family from the east and in the same year made settlement on the north bank of the river near its mouth. The construction of the warehouse and dock was begun at once. It is an interesting fact that all the sawed lumber for this and the other structures at Saugatuck and the mouth of the river up to this time were brought down the river from the sawmill at the mouth of Pine creek, a settlement that must attract our attention next after that at Saugatuck.
The establishment of a warehouse and dock at the mouth of the river was an event of great consequence to that portion of the county, and is furthermore interesting for the light it throws on the causes of the settlers not coming into the county by this route in greater numbers. The voyage around the lakes was at any time dangerous, as already indicated, but previous to the building of dockage facilities only a few boats would ven- ture into the river to land passengers and freight. Had the same induce- ments been held out to the lake traffic at the beginning of the county's his- tory as were at a later period, it is likely that a much greater per cent of settlers would have entered the county by this route and also would have increased the prestige of the settlements along the lower course of the river at the expense of those further up. The building of Nichols' warehouse was the beginning of the river and lake traffic, and from that date Sauga- tuck and vicinity came into prominence as an intermediate shipping depot
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HISTORY OF ALLEGAN COUNTY
where the traffic from the river and that from the lake converged. As soon as grist and lumber mills began producing more than a local supply along the upper courses of the river, the surplus product was sent down the river and here was embarked for transportation around the lakes.
Nichols also built a store near his warehouse, and his location took on a commercial aspect that excited some jealous fears in Butler and his asso- ciates up the river, who feared the rivalry of the enterprise at the mouth. Hoping to secure a share in the proceeds of the warehouse business, Butler first established a dock and a warehouse about two miles from the mouth of the river, and when that failed because of its unfavorable location, he put up a similar establishment on the south side of the river opposite that of Nichols. This was in 1842, and but for unforseen developments during the next few years the locality at the river's mouth might have become an emporium of no small importance. The river traffic was then at its height, and the products of much of the inland country as far as Otsego found their way to market by the river and lake transportation. Then in 1846 the railroad reached Kalamazoo, from which point it pushed on to Chicago within the next four years, and from that time the trade of the eastern half of the county was directed over the roads south to this new trunk line of transportation. The river traffic, while it still maintained a great volume for many years, originated mainly along the lower course of the river, and no longer had the peculiar importance of the early years.
While this portion of the history is devoted to a general survey of early settlement and growth, leaving the detailed history of the villages for later consideration, one result of this period of commercial enterprise at the mouth of the river was so peculiarly the outgrowth of the time that some facts relating thereto will aptly illustrate the very matter just re- ferred to.
The lost and forgotten village of Singapore seems to have originated and experienced its chief phase of prosperity during the thriving days when the settlements at the mouth of the river were the depot and shipping cen- ter for the greater portion of the county. Oshea Wilder and sons, of New York, were the promoters of the village. They built a saw mill, induced a number of settlers to come and buy lots, and, in the flush of local and gen- eral prosperity of the time, went so far as to found a bank, which belongs among the wild-cat enterprises of the time, though no stigma attached to its conduct. But it failed in the general crash of the late thirties, and the other enterprises of Wilder and sons went with it. All village activity and life was soon snuffed out, but the mill remained until the supply of timber for any profitable business was exhausted, and in 1875 it too was removed. James G. Carter & Co. had succeeded the original firm of Wilders and conducted the chief interests of the place.
The plat of the village of Singapore was laid on the north bank of the river at the horseshoe bend in section 4, and only a short distance north of the new government cut into the lake. It extended north to the section line, and was half a mile wide. The physical map acompanying the plat in- dicates the "sand hills 80 to 100 feet high" south of the village on the penin- sula, and also "sand hills 50 to 60 feet high" between the river and the lake.
It is unnecessary to describe the usual features of such a plat. But block 27, located on the bank of the river where it bends south, was desig-
:
SINGAPORE VILLAGE IN 1869
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HISTORY OF ALLEGAN COUNTY
nated as "containing three acres, owned by the New York and Michigan Company, on which a steam saw mill is now erecting."
The plat is dated "Singapore, February, 1838, surveyed by O. Wilder." This quotation is also of interest : "This map adopted by the subscribers. trustees of Singapore City Co., April 16, 1838. (Signed) Sam Hubbard. Witness: Edmund S. Munroe. Pliny Cutler, Franklin Brown." The map was recorded in Allegan February 5. 1839.
Singapore was not the only village laid out in this vicinity during those thriving days. A navigable river, expanding into a spacious lake harbor, facilities for what then seemed an ever increasing trade, magnificent ship-building timber and lumber : bcsides a copious supply of tan bark- these were the most promising bases of wealth production and naturally attracted commercial enterprise. Moreover, it was in the spirit of the times, so buoyantly active and trustful of the future, to found banks on paper currency, to lay out village plats in the wilderness and depict them on paper as a coming metropolis, and to engage in all enterprises as though there was no limit to their possibilities. It is merely an interesting item of antiquity that such villages as Kalamazoo Harbor, near the river's mouth ; Naples, near Singapore; City of Breese, probably ncar Brecse Point landing, several miles above Saugatuck, were once platted, but never had either enterprise or inhabitants. Rightly studied. it appears that all thesc village speculations were but phases of the national and peculiarly Michigan frenzy of promotion and speculation, which collapsed into the calamitous panic of 1837.
Leaving aside thesc village speculations, there was and always has been substantial industry at the mouth of the river. Even with the opening of the new government channel and the improvement of the harbor the shipping industry has not attained the importance it had in the years fol- lowing the building of Nichols' warehouse. Lake boats then began making regular stops and carried away the flour, the hides, lumber and other products. Flat boats were poled up and down the river, even as far south as Kalamazoo. Rafts of lumber were floated on to the lake and towed away to the larger centers. But the outside ship-owners did not long have a monopoly on the lake traffic. Lake boats were built at Saugatuck, begin- ning with the lumber vessel Crook, constructed by James McLaughlin. a ship carpenter, who settled at the village about 1837. After the failure of the Wilders, Carter & Co. built the Octavia at Singapore, and at the same place Porter & Co. constructed the C. C. Trowbridge in 1842. a flat-bottomed stcamboat, intended for river navigation, but soon found too large for that purpose and transferred to the lake trade. It is not difficult to conceive the magnitude of the shipping industry at the mouth of the river when there were no railroads anywhere in this part of the state, when the market-stuffs from Wayland. Otsego, Allegan and inter- mediate points were hauled overland or brought by river to this port.
The government early recognized this as a lake port by the erection, in 1838, of a stone lighthouse on the south side of the entrance. Stephen D. Nichols being the first keeper. It was replaced in 1859 by a brick structure. and in 1875 a wooden tower was built on the end of the south pier.
The earliest of productive industries of this vicinity was, as we have seen, the Johonnett & Crosby tannery. The country was noted for its
1134189
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HISTORY OF ALLEGAN COUNTY
hemlock bark. The opportunities for tanning brought to Saugatuck one of its most prominent citizens. Stephen A. Morrison came here from Vermont in 1837 to start a tannery, but instead bought the Johonnett & Crosby plant, and later moving it to the south side of the village on the lake, continued its operation for forty or more years. This was the only tannery in the vicinity for some years. A tannery northeast of Saugatuck, in section 3, was established in 1844 by A. S. Wells and O. R. Johnson, who conducted it until 1854. The Wallins, C. C. Wallin and FF. B. Wallin, who came here during the fifties, bought this tannery in section 3, at the little place afterwards called Wallinville, and later bought the tannery established in the early sixties at Douglas by Daniel Gerber.
Allegan county resources of pine and hardwood timber were its greatest asset during the pioneer era. These great forests in this and other counties proved a serious obstacle to the development of agricultural interests so long as the fertile timberless prairies west of Lake Michigan remained unoccupied. In this we see one chief reason why Illinois was settled and developed in advance of Michigan. But in a few years the people of Illinois and other prairie regions began to import lumber, and then the lumber industry of Michigan became a source of wealth, continuing as long as the forests lasted. Until the railroads were built the practicable means of transporting lumber to market was by water. The Grand, the Kalamazoo and the St. Joseph, with their tributaries, penetrated far inland over southwestern Michigan, rendering a vast timber area accessible to market. The creeks and small streams were available for carrying timber only during the high-water season, but the Kalamazoo and other rivers had enough volume for use nearly all the year round. Hence all along the Kalamazoo we find the lumber industry developed into a leading activity.
The vicinity of Saugatuck, while not the first in the county to produce lumber, soon became a center of the industry, both as a producer and as a lumber shipping point. In 1836 Benjamin Plummer built a dam across the little outlet of Goshorn lake, in section 3 of Saugatuck township, and put up a sawmill, which he and Edward Johonnett began operating the next year. This doubtless cut lumber only for local supply at first. Mr. Plummer, who abandoned the mill in 1846, was long afterward a resident of Ganges.
In 1846 M. B. Spencer built a steam sawmill in Saugatuck village. He also had a lumber yard at the mouth of the river, evidently for the easy transfer of lumber to lake vessels. Wells & Johnson succeeded to his business in 1850. In 1856 H. D. Moore invested capital at Saugatuck and for twenty years was an extensive lumber manufacturer and dealer, his plant being located on the north side of the village along the river. Another mill was built in Saugatuck in 1852 by Dunning & Hopkins.
The sawmill at Singapore has been mentioned. A mill was built about 1851 by Jonathan Wade as the nucleus of the village which he was then promoting on the south side of Kalamazoo lake. William F. Dutcher later bought this mill and the site has ever since been covered by milling interests, the Douglas basket factory being on the ground at present. This mill, together with one built on the east side of the village plat about 1861. and the tannery were the nucleus of Douglas' early industrial activity.
It was natural that few grist mills would be found along the lower
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HISTORY OF ALLEGAN COUNTY
course of the river while the lumbering industry remained supreme, and a large proportion of the mill products of the interior villages were trans- ported to market via Saugatuck. The first such mill in Sauagtuck was built by George P. Heath in 1866 and was burned in 1879. It was situated on the river between Hoffman and Main streets and was the only grist mill in the village. During the sixties a grist mill was also added to Douglas industries, Crawford McDonald being its first proprietor. In 1892 a roller mill was built at the south end of the village, and it was operated as such for about seven years, when the machinery was moved to Allegan, now being used in the Chaffee building. The mill building was then converted into the Butler House by Capt. Phelps, a veteran of the lake marine, its present proprietor.
Saugatuck has many objects and persons associated with the lake transportation service. The business no longer retains the importance it once held. A loaded lumber schooner passing down the river now would attract attention from all sides, though forty years ago that was an every- day occurrence. The lumber business has gone, and though fruit has taken its place, the transportation of the latter is not concentrated at this point, Holland, New Richmond, Fennville, Glenn and other railroad stations and lake ports each taking a share in the business.
The lumber carrying trade ceased about 1878, and since then shipping has been confined to fruit and farm products. In this business Saugatuck has a rival in Glenn Pier, in this county, which, it is claimed, is as impor- tant a shipping point for fruit as South Haven, and draws to it much of the product of Casco and Ganges townships.
One of the veterans of the lake service still living at Saugatuck and vicinity is W. G. Phelps, proprietor of the Butler House at Saugatuck, and who came to the village in 1868. At that time the two steamers, Helen Marr and Aunt Betsy, were still running on the river between Saugatuck and Allegan, and the river traffic was of considerable importance. Some of the vessel owners and masters and their boats as recalled by Mr. Phelps are as follows :
Capt. Ed. Castain, who died in Chicago last year, was a son-in-law of Ira Chaffee of Allegan, and owned and operated the "Ira Chaffee." An- other well known figure was Dr. L. B. Coates, a nephew of the doctor of the same name of Otsego. He owned the La Vinda, Hattie Earle, and, in partnership with Stockbridge & Johnson. the O. R. Johnson, which was built in 1868. The latter firm during the seventies built some of the largest vessels on the lakes. Their shipyard was located near the south end of Butler street in Saugatuck.
Capt. R. C. Brittain, who was an extensive seafarer in early life, came here about 1870 and established a shipyard in which were built many well known boats-the J. S. Severns, J. C. Suit, H. A. Root, Frank Woods, O. E. Parks. R. C. Reed, R. C. Brittain, several river boats that ran to New Richmond, besides several tugs.
Others who should be mentioned were Ami Coates, owner and master : Charles and Thomas McVea, and Capt. Robert Reed, who died last summer. Of those veterans of the service still living in the county, mention should be made of Capt. Richard Ames, who lives near the interurban road; Capt. Johnson, a resident of Ganges, formerly a prominent owner and master.
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HISTORY OF ALLEGAN COUNTY
who is one of the best informed men in the county on matters relative to this subject ; Capt. Alex. Gibson, living southeast of Douglas, and with him Thomas Snow, a typical sailor, on whose water and weather-worn consti- tution age seemingly makes no impression.
Of the other interests about the mouth of the river during the period under consideration little need here be said, since the disappearance of the timber supply and other developments were productive of changes that are properly considered under what we have denominated the Railroad era. The fruit business had not assumed any commercial importance until the seventies, although peaches and other fruits were grown for home con- sumption at an early date in this part of the county. Purely agricultural pursuits were not followed to any large extent. The beautiful country along the lake shore and away from the river in the south part of the township was owned in large blocks as late as 1870. Of the adjacent county on the north, especially in southern Laketown, hardly any settle- ment was made until the sixties, and it is more properly considered with the Hollanders' colony. And the settlement further up the river about New Richmond will be described on later pages.
SOUTHEASTERN ALLEGAN COUNTY.
An account of the settlement and carly development of that portion of Allegan county lying within a radius of a few miles of the villages of Plainwell and Otsego presents many different features from those adorning the early history of the Saugatuck region. Containing the bulk of the pioneer population, whose activities found a varied scope in transforming the new country into an abode of civilization, southeastern Allegan is most characteristic in those processes and events by which southern Michigan became a rich and populous part of the commonwealth.
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