A twentieth century history of Allegan County, Michigan, Part 8

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

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It is important to remember that the early settlers located within easy distance of the river. This is proved not only by the land entries, but also finds interesting proof in the school districts. When, late in 1836. Otsego township was divided into three districts, their territory consisted of sections 7, 8. 9. 13 to 26, and the north half of 27, 28. 29-all of which lies within a mile and a half of the river.

So we find all the land entries of 1832 close to the Kalamazoo river. Following up the course of the river from the west, we find on section 17 Abijah Chichester, whose name appears often in the annals of this part of the county. Next comes the name of .Hull Sherwood, who in the fall of 1832 had entered land on section 20. as well as in several other sections adjoining. Of the land entrants of 1832 the Sherwood family figure most prominently. At the Pine creek settlement in section 21 were Giles Scott. Warren Caswell, Henry L. Ellsworth. Horace H. Comstock. there being five different names among the land entries of that year in that section. Hull Sherwood. Jr .. E. P. Hastings and Erastus A. Jackson had land in section 22. Horace H. Comstock entered. in September of that year. the entire section 23. except the island in the river. These were all the entries:

HISTORY OF ALLEGAN COUNTY

of that year along the Kalamazoo river. But it is of interest to note how the land-seekers were attracted by the pine groves and other advantages along Pine creek. Sections 28, 29, 31, 32 and 33 all touch this stream. Turner Aldrich, Charles Miles, John H. Smith and John Gibbs had entered land in section 28. On section 29 was an entry by Hull Sherwood, on section 31 were Royal Sherwood and Thomas W. Barnard, in section 32 were Horace H. Comstock and Eber Sherwood, and in section 33 was John Yeomans, who had come to the county with Turner Aldrich

Since we are not regarding the artificial limits of townships in this discussion of early settlement, we may proceed up the river, crossing the town line into Gun Plains township, and discover who have located land and made settlement in that vicinity in the year 1832. We have referred to the first land purchases having been made here in 1831, and in 1832 there were these additional entries: C. C. White in section 17, Norman Davis in section 19, Orlando Weed in section 20, and Hull Sherwood in section 31. All but the last of these locations were on the fertile Gun Plains.

The settlement on Gun Plains was very small in 1832, and the interests of the settlers were very closely interwoven with those of the pioneers farther down the river in Otsego township. Dr. Cyrenius Thompson, whose name is given first place in the pioneer history of Gun Plains township, was one of the first purchasers of land in this township in addition to those already named as making entries in 1831 and 1832. Dr. Thompson, who was a native of Ohio and a graduate of a medical college in Vermont, had come to Gull prairie in Kalamazoo county in 1830, but becoming dissatisfied with his prairie farm, moved to Allegan county during the winter of 1831-32 and bought a part of the northwest quarter of section 20 in Gun Plains. But at first, as elsewhere mentioned, he turned his attention to milling, he and Charles Miles leasing the Aldrich sawmill on Pine creek in March, 1832, and operating it until its destruction by fire in the following July. He had lived in a cabin near the mill, and after the fire he hauled the boards and timbers with which the shanty had been constructed to his land on Gun Plains and, reconstructing his house, gave the township its first residence. The house was a rude story and a half affair, the boards running up and down and fastened with wooden pins in lieu of nails. The floor was of loose boards laid on the beaten earth. But makeshift of a dwelling though it may seem to this generation, it soon became as important a center to the settlers of this neighborhood as Dr. Foster's house in Otsego. When Calvin C. White and John H. Adams came to improve their land purchases in this vicinity, they boarded at Dr. Thompson's, and when the postoffice was established in 1833 Dr. Thompson was the first postmaster and kept the office in his house.

Most of the settlers came to this neighborhood from Gull prairie, where they had lived a short time. This was true of C. C. White and also of Jonathan Russell, who came from Connecticut to Gull prairie in 1830, but in 1832 sold his land and improvements there and bought land in section 19 of Gun Plains. He cultivated the first land in the township during that summer, and in the fall his and Dr. Thompson's were the only dwellings in the township.

The above forms as complete a description of the settlements in south- eastern Allegan in 1832 as can be drawn from the records of the time.

HISTORY OF ALLEGAN COUNTY

Excepting W. G. Butler in his solitude at the mouth of the river, there were no other settlements in the county at the time. In continuing the narrative of subsequent developments, the first figure to come prominently into the arena of affairs is Gen. Horace H. Comstock, whose land entries have been mentioned, and who for a number of years played an influential part in the upbuilding of Kalamazoo and Allegan counties.

To quote from his biographer, A. D. P. Van Buren, General Comstock came to Kalamazoo county "from Cooperstown, Otsego county, New York, in 1831, an ambitious young man with plenty of money. * He fur- * nished money to build the flour mill at Comstock; associated Judge Eldred with him, who furnished the millstones; made the millwright a partner and set him to building the mill; built a schoolhouse and gave it to the people, who in turn named the township after him. From the first, Comstock's highest ambition was to make the village he had founded a county seat. And although he soon learned that it had been established at Kalamazoo, he directed his best efforts to have that decision changed.

* * * He pushed forward his work. Soon a landing was stretched along the river's bank opposite the town and up sprang a commodious ware- house hard by it; a hotel and flour mill were built at Otsego, while down at the mouth of the Kalamazoo arose a large storehouse for use in receiving goods shipped to and from the busy marts of the new city." The principal object of all these efforts failed and Kalamazoo remained the county seat. He was thrice elected senator from Kalamazoo county, and during a few years' residence at Otsego he was elected in 1849 to the house of representa- tives from Allegan county.

Comstock's career concerns us especially in the part he played to pro- mote business enterprises, and as the capitalist who furnished the money for others to carry out his plans. His visit to Saugatuck with S. D. Nichols in 1834, resulting in the building of the warehouse at the mouth of the river, has been alluded to in this narrative. But the principal field of his enterprise in this county was about Otsego, where, according to the statement just quoted. he erected a mill and hotel, and we have already mentioned his extensive land entries in this vicinity. Comstock was a type of the pioneer capitalists who at different places did very much to develop Allegan county's industrial interests. The pioneer farmer, who improves his virgin acres with his individual labor, seldom has the backing of capital. Through the united labors of many such self-reliant and sturdy tillers of the soil the wilderness in time blossoms and a fair and prosperous community is given to civilization. But in Allegan county capital was needed to convert the forest resources into wealth and develop the manufacturing possibilities. So that those who opened their money chests and laid the plans share in the total achievement with those who actually did the work and bore the burdens of pioneering.

It has been stated that Dr. Foster pre-empted section 23 of Otsego and built the first house on the site of the village. But the land was entered in the name of H. H. Comstock, who no doubt furnished the money for its purchase and entered actively into the work of developing the water power and promoting a village at the rapids of the Kalamazoo. He had a postoffice established, with Dr. Foster as postmaster. The New Rochester settlement. however, for several years held the leading position in population, business

HISTORY OF ALLEGAN COUNTY

and industry. Some well known men had settled in that vicinity. Orsamus Eaton established a store on the village plat in 1834, and in the fall of 1836 John Hawks added a grocery store to the mercantile enterprise of the place. The manufacture of lumber continued along Pine creek. In 1835 J. S. Higgins built a sawmill in section 31, on a branch of the creek, and it is said that the first lumber to construct a frame house in Battle Creek was sawed at this mill. Willard Higgins ( see sketch), who owns the land where the mill stood, hauled this lumber to Battle Creek and returned with a supply of provisions. The importance of New Rochester was furthered by the building of the first bridge across the Kalamazoo river at that point.

In the meantime there was even greater progress in the vicinity of Dr. Foster's residence, and Comstock money and enterprise was making a village center there. After Dr. Foster the next influential settler there was Dr. Lintsford B. Coats, whose name is connected with the professional, the educational, the business and the political affairs of the county, and in a way to suggest that the doctor was a man of solid ability and a leader among his fellows. Since Dr. Foster and Dr. Thompson did not regularly engage in their profession after coming to this county, Dr. Coats is to be considered the first active practitioner of the county. He had a big circuit, riding all over the county. Coming to the site of Otsego village in the fall of 1833, he erected there the first framed house. In the following year three men came to this portion of the township, though they did not settle on the village site, who deserve ze-ing for their long residence and worthy citizenship. One of them was Oka rown, whose name is already familiar to the reader, settling on land a mile east of Otsego on the Plainwell road, and the other two were Albert Eldred, from Vermont, and Jeremy Lindsley, of New York, who settled on sections 25 and 26, respectively.

The first store on the site of Otsego was opened in 1835 by Chester and Lester Buckley. Besides the postoffice, Dr. Foster kept a tavern called "Otsego Hall," which was later enlarged and long known as the Lutkins House, on Allegan street near Farmer street, and is still standing, though not used as hotel for forty years. But the enterprise which undoubtedly formed the basis for village growth originated with the fertile brain of General Comstock and found sanction among the last acts of the territorial legislature. An act approved March 28, 1835, authorized "H. H. Comstock and his heirs and assigns" to construct a dam across the Kalamazoo river at Otsego. It was provided that it should contain a lock not less than 75 feet long and 14 feet wide, and that all craft should have passage toll free. This provision was very necessary at that time when the river was the principal transportation route for its entire navigable length, hardly less for Kalamazoo county than for Allegan. The dam and race were constructed and the power was first used in sawing lumber in 1836. Three years later Mr. Comstock built the flour mill already mentioned by his biographer.

The development of the water power resulted almost immediately in the grouping of population and community affairs about this point. J. S. Higgins, the proprietor of the sawmill on Pine creek, built a tavern near the corner of Farmer and Orleans streets. District No. 2 built its school- house only a few blocks away from the river, and with these enterprises the village of Otsego was fairly started. All that remained was to block off the land into lots and streets, which was done in the latter part of 1836, and

HISTORY OF ALLEGAN COUNTY

another village was born, the subsequent fortunes of which will be described in detail in a succeeding chapter. The second bridge over the Kalamazoo was built at Otsego about 1837.

Having considered the history of beginnings along the Kalamazoo river and Pine creek in Otsego township up to a time when village life had begun and civilization may be said to have been established on a firm basis, it is ' now time to turn our attention again to the triangular region east of and along the courses of the Kalamazoo and Gun rivers above their junction. Here, as already explained, was situated the real agricultural Eden of the entire county, and there are some marked points of difference between the settlements here and those at Otsego and Pine creek. Though a postoffice was established in Dr. Thompson's house only shortly after the opening of the office at Otsego, village life and manufacturing industry for many years held a relatively unimportant place as against agriculture, which flourished on the fertile "plains." Barring the extensive tracts of marsh land along the course of Gun river, it appears that the tillable area of this township was entered and developed by settlers sooner than was true of any other township. The pioneer farmers had many advantages. Of course, even there the clearing of the brush and the breaking of the soil which had been undisturbed for centuries were heavy tasks, but hardly greater than those that confronted all the settlers of southern Michigan. But with a navigable river for trans- portation of their products, with the sawmills a few miles away to furnish them lumber in quantity, and in the same locality grist mills to grind their wheat and corn, the farmers on Gun Plains had a much shorter road to substantial prosperity than the settlers in other parts of the county. Even the marshes were turned into account, and for a long time furnished the year's supply of marsh hay with only the expense of time and labor to cut and store it.

Among the pioneers who took advantage of these resources and oppor- tunities were some men who not alone prospered in the tilling of the soil, but were of the sturdy character and native ability that gave them influence and position in the community. The Ives family, members of which are still prominent residents of this section of the county, was represented by Friend Ives, who entered land in sections 20 and 21 in 1833, and whose name is found in the early records of civil affairs in his township. John Anderson, who was one of the first justices of the peace and long the postmaster of Plainwell, located near the site of Plainwell village in the summer of 1834. The Forbes family has been represented in the township since 1834. William and John Forbes being the first residents. They were among the first of the sons of Scotland to settle in Allegan county, and that race still forms a sturdy element in several parts of the county. William Forbes was a surveyor by profession, doing much work in the county in an official and private capacity. He had first settled on Gull prairie, but in the fall of 1833 purchased part of the land in section 18 previously entered by Lucius Lyon. In the following year he welcomed as neighbor a fellow countryman. James Flockhart, who settled on section 19, and also his brother, John Forbes, who bought a farm in section 18. To William Forbes must be ascribed the first attempt to found a village in Gun Plains township. In 1837 he platted some land in the southwest corner of section 18 and named it Plainfield. Several lots were sold, but nothing ever came of the village, which seems to have

HISTORY OF ALLEGAN COUNTY

had less cause for existence than some other village enterprises that failed. He also built a sawmill on the site, getting power from Gun river. Willard Higgins ran it during the forties, shortly before it was removed.

On the sections bordering the Kalamazoo river in the southern portion of the township were a number of settlers who deserve mention. It was natural that settlers in passing along the road leading north from Gull prairie would fix upon the desirable locations along the route. This road passed through what was known as the Silver creek settlement, in the vicinity of the present railroad station of Argenta. This was one of the most populous parts of the township during the thirties. This was the place of settlement and subsequent residence till the death of John Murphy, who bought eighty acres of land in section 34 in 1835. For forty years he was prominent politically and a successful farmer. He was the first supervisor of his township and the first elected sheriff of the county, and later served one term in the legislature. While building his own house, he and his family lived in the house of Elisha B. Seeley, in section 33. It is related in Mr. Murphy's biography that Mrs. Murphy, while sitting at her spinning wheel, taught her own and the Seeley children their first lessons after reaching this county, and it is claimed that this was the first formal instruc- tion given in Gun Plains township.

About this time, on Silver creek, was built the first sawmill in the township, by Nathaniel Weed. A mile or so up the road from the Murphys, Dan Arnold, of Vermont state, settled in 1833, and on a little farther, in the same year, Silas Dunham built a house on section 32, not far from the present village of Plainwell, and opened one of those pioneer taverns which were found indispensable to the homeseekers. To give the name "hotel" to one of these houses would convey an erroneous comparison to the modern reader. The pioneer tavern had distinctions of its own that must class it with the period of which it was the outgrowth, and both passed away together. Silas Dunham took part in early township affairs and his house was often used as a meeting place for the settlers.

Another early tavern in the township, and the one at which was held the first Plainfield town meeting, was Isaac Aldrich's, who lived in section 35. A neighbor of his, on the same section and near the river, was Justus B. Sutherland, who brought his family from New York by way of the Erie canal and Lake Erie steamer, and during the summer of 1834, while building a log house on his land, lived in Dunham's tavern. Near by lived William Still, also a well known name.

Of the many who came on the high tide of immigration in 1835 and 1836, no personal mention can be made in this general sketch. Yet some of them have continued as honored residents to the present day, among whom might be named the Gilkey family, John F. and William Y. Gilkey locating in the township about 1836, and Tracy, who was living in the Silver creek neighborhood in 1836.

The settlement at Silver creek from almost the beginning was distin- guished by community sentiment. The formation of School District No. I and the building of a schoolhouse, which was the focal point of the neigh- borhood, did much to create common ties among the people, and from that time to this Silver Creek, or Argenta, as the railroad station is known, has been a definite locality in the county. Archibald James, an active citizen

HISTORY OF ALLEGAN COUNTY

from his settlement in the township in 1835, moved his residence to this point in 1861 and for a number of years was a merchant and postmaster of Silver Creek.

The settlements in southeastern Allegan did not extend far away from the main water courses until the pioneer period was well gone. The oak openings of southwestern Martin township have been described as likely to attract some of the early settlers. Yet it was not until the early months of 1836 that Mumford Eldred bought and settled upon land in the northwest corner of section 29. Other early coniers to that neighborhood were Dr. Calvin White, more of a farmer than active practitioner, whose land was on sections 28 and 33, and his home was the first postoffice in the township ; Cotton M. Kimball, who also came in 1836 and built a house near a mill site in section 15. and three years later was elected the first supervisor of the township.

Best known of the early residents were the Monteith family, from whom Monteith station derived its name. Thomas Monteith, Sr., and his sons, William T., Walter and Thomas, moved from New York state to the middle west in the fall of 1835, and the following spring the father purchased the entire section 32 and William T. about half of section 29 in Martin township. The sons settled here and began the work of improvement in the next year. Members of the family have been conspicuous as land owners and citizens in that portion of the township ever since.

DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION.

Having given the main facts in the history of early settlement in south- eastern Allegan, this sketch may be concluded with some figures as to population. Of the three townships considered, Otsego led in population from the first. There were thirty-four taxpayers in June. 1836, and at the close of tlie decade there were about fifty families. By 1850 the population had increased to 818, and there were 158 dwelling houses in the township. This was a sixth of the total population of the county at the time. During the decade preceding the Civil war the number of inhabitants almost doubled in the township, while in the county at large population increased threefold. Gun Plains township, being more of an agricultural district and with no villages until after 1850, in that year had 587 inhabitants, which had increased to 1,068 by 1860. In 1850 Martin township still had a limited population, 329, a very small proportion of the 5,125 inhabitants then living in the county. Sixty-four families were enumerated in that year. In 1844 there were forty-four names on the assessment roll as taxpayers. Population increased to 794 in 1860. In 1850 the three townships, or the area which we have called southeastern Allegan, contained 1,734 inhabitants, or slightly over one-third of the entire population of the county at the time. Ten years later, while the enumeration of the three townships showed 3,291, the number in the county rose to 16,087, showing a relatively greater increase in other portions of the county than in the southeast corner.

DUTCH COLONIZATION.

In 1850 there were fifteen organized townships. The most populous of these were Otsego, Allegan and Gun Plains, the three oldest centers of

HISTORY OF ALLEGAN COUNTY

settlement, and Fillmore township, in the northwest corner of the county, comprising the present area of Fillmore and Overisel. Each of these had more than five hundred inhabitants. Wayland, Trowbridge, Watson and Martin were in about the same class so far as population was concerned.

The large figures for Fillmore township's population in 1850 call for explanation. Until the middle forties this part of the county was hardly settled at all, while five years later more than five hundred people were living in the territory now known as Overisel and Fillmore. The history of this movement holds an important place in the annals of Michigan.

In 1846 a colony of Hollanders, members of the Dutch Reformed church, and led by their ministers, although their immigration could not be termed a strictly religious movement, left their fatherland and came to America. Rev. A. C. Van Raalte, one of their ministers, had visited this country in advance and on the advice of men owning land in western Michigan had examined the country about the mouth of the Kalamazoo and around Black lake in Ottawa county. When he returned with the first colony of about a hundred immigrants in 1846, the center of their settlement was located on Black lake, the site of the city of Holland, and their colony was the origin of that place. Holland has always remained a center of Dutch influence and enterprise in Michigan and its growth and prosperity are in largest measure dependent on this people's presence and activity.

One of the few survivors of the original Van Raalte colony is Mr. Henry Cook, of Allegan, who accompanied his father, Harm Cook, on the migration to Michigan in 1846. In the personal history of Mr. Cook, as also in the sketches of several other residents of the northwestern portion of the county, will be found some interesting details of this settlement.

The first colony was followed by others and soon a large scope of country about Holland as the village center was occupied by the Dutch people. Within a year or so they were buying land and beginning the process of home making in the northern portion of Allegan county, and thus it is that we find a population of over five hundred settled there in 1850.

ALLEGAN: NEW METHODIST CHURCH ON THE LEFT; THE BUILDING IN THE CENTER REMODELED FROM THE OLD "EXCHANGE," BUILT OVER 70 YEARS AGO; AND ON THE RIGHT THE NEW BAPTIST CHURCH

CHAPTER III.

ALLEGAN VILLAGE AND VICINITY.

The beginnings at Allegan are later in time than the other localities of settlement previously described, but owing to the enterprise of the projectors of the village and the advantages of its site, coupled with its selection as the county seat, Allegan soon took precedence among the centers of the county.

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A twentieth century history of Allegan County, Michigan, Part 8

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

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