USA > Michigan > Cass County > A twentieth century history of Cass County, Michigan > Part 14
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The same power that took away gave back again. The Grand Trunk Railroad was completed through Edwardsburg in 1871, and with the establishment of communication with the world and with facilities at hand for transportation there followed a revival of village life. Ten years later the population had increased from 297 to 500. There were about twenty stores and shops and a list of professional and business 111e11.
Since then Edwardsburg has held her own. There is good reason in the assertion that the village is the best grain market that the farmers of the south half of the county can find. The large grain elevator along- side the tracks is of the most modern type, replacing the one burnt down a few years ago, and a steam grist mill is a very popular institution among the farmers of this section. Edwardsburg has never organized as a village, and hence is still, from a civic point of view, a part of the township of Ontwa. The village improvements have been made in only a small degree. The bucket brigade still protects from fire, and the con-
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veniences and utilities which are only possible in an organized community are still absent.
A review of the present status of the village would include men- tion of the Walter Brothers' store, the principal commercial enterprise of the village: half a dozen other stores and shops; and two physicians. The Methodist. Presbyterian and Baptist churches all have buildings, and the Methodists have a strong organization. It is a center of fraternal activity, the following orders being represented here: Masons, Odd Fellows. Knights of the Maccabees, Modern Woodmen of America, the Royal Neighbors, the Ancient Order of Gleaners, a farmers' organiza- tion, and the Patricians.
It is always of interest to record the names of those who have been identified with a locality in the past or who are still living there but at the close of active service. One of the first old-timers to be mentioned is Eli Benjamin, who is eighty-two years old and one of the oldest resi- dents of Edwardsburg. Edward Hirons, from whom many of these notes were obtained, was born in Milton township seventy years ago and has been in Edwardsburg thirty-seven years. John C. Carmichael and Cassius M. Dennis are other old-timers. Dr. Griffin, who died recently, was a physician practicing here for many years, and another doctor, John B. Sweetland, died only a few years ago.
The Griffin House, on the north side of Main street, west of the alley, in which the postoffice was for so many years and at different times located, is said to be the oldest building in the village. When Edwardsburg was a flourishing station on the stage lines it supported two hotels, one situated on the south side of Main street on the site of R. J. Hicks' store, the other on the north side of Main street on the site of Dr. Criswell's residence. The vacant lot at the north end of Walter Brothers' store was the site of a hotel erected by John Earl. its first landlord, in 1856. Immediately preceding the building of the Grand Trunk the village was in communication with the world by a daily stage between Elkhart and Dowagiac.
Edwardsburg has been the home of many prominent men in the county's life. Dr. Israel G. Bugbee is well entitled to a place among the leaders in county affairs. Judge A. J. Smith was an early resident of this place and taught school here, and Judge H. H. Coolidge, also teacher and lawyer, and his son, the present Judge Coolidge of Niles, was a boy among Edwardsburg boys before he ever dreamed of judicial honors. George F. Silver, who has lived here seventy years, is a son of
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Orrin Silver, a pioneer. Other names that readily occur are those of Dr. Henry Lockwood, Dr. Edgar Reading, Dr. Levi Aldrich, Dr. Daniel Thomas, J. L. Jacks, J. W. Lee, W. K. Hopkins, who served as super- visor several times, "Squire" Dethic Hewitt, and his two sons, Daniel .A. and John P., blacksmiths, H. B. Mead, J. W. Bean, J. H. Williams, J. D. Bean, postinaster, Jacob R. Reese, one of the biggest merchants of the village. William and Isaiah Walter have been longest in the mer- cantile business among the present merchants.
ADAMSVILLE.
Traveling east along the Chicago road, about five miles east of Edwardsburg one crosses the Christiann creek at the site of a once am- bitious village. A cluster of houses on either side of the road, most of them weatherbeaten and old, are almost the sole indication of village life. However, there are two grocery stores, and the last census gave the number of inhabitants on the village site as 207.
Adamsville, or Adamsport, originated in the water power of Chris- tiann creek. A mill very often is the nucleus for population to concen- trate. "The Sages made the town," was the statement of one who knew the past history of the place. The Sage family, of which Moses Sage was the first and principal member, with his sons, Martin G. and Norman, has for three-quarters of a century been prominent in manu- facturing, financial and business affairs of this part of the country, their interests being now centered in Elkhart, where Norman and other mem- bers of the family reside. The water power at Adamsville is now owned by Mr. H. E. Bucklen, formerly of Elkhart, now of Chicago, who bought it from the Sage estate and who owns all the water power on the Chris- tiann from Elkhart up. The grist mill is the only manufacturing concern now at Adamsville, though formerly there were a stave factory and a sawmill.
The first plat of Adamsport was filed for record March 21, 1833. "Appeared before Ezra Beardsley, justice of the peace, Sterling Adams, who acknowledged that he had laid out the within town of Adams Port and also acknowledged that the lots and streets are laid out as described." The platted ground was on the east side of the creek and was bisected by the Chicago road, the other streets being laid out at right angles to this main thoroughfare. On May 5. 1835, the plat was received for record of the village of Christiann, laid out by Moses Sage on the op- posite side of the creek. Within a year plats of "Stevens' addition"
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and "Johnson's addition" were filed. It was evidently the purpose and the hope of the founders to make Adamsville, with manufacturing as a basis, the foremost center of south Cass county, rivaling Edwardsburg.
Moses Sage built the first grist mill in 1835, and with the mill running night and day for several years, it is not surprising that a con- siderable community soon grew up at this point. But as soon as the railroads were built and established new relations between centers, Adamsville began to decline, although its manufacturing enterprise has always been valuable. A postoffice was established here in an early day and continued until rural free delivery made it no longer necessary. There is a United Brethren church in the village.
In describing the centers of population in this chapter we make especial mention of the groups of population which take the forms of hamlets or villages. It is necessary to say that the institutions of edu- cation and religion are centralizing influences of great power, and a church or a schoolhouse is often the heart of the social community. But the consideration of churches and schools must be left to a later chapter, where it is our purpose to give an adequate account of these institu- tions in their relation to the county.
KESSINGTON (SAILOR).
Mason township has many churches and its proportionate share of schools, but of other centers it is practically destitute. In the register's office will be found a plat, recorded July 23, 1872, by Moses McKissick, of a village site in the northeast quarter of Section 14. To this he gave the name Kessington or Sailor. The plat comprised nineteen lots. Al- though one might drive over this site and notice nothing more remark- able at this country crossroads than a church and a school, at one time Mr. McKessick kept a general store and there was also a blacksmith shop.
UNION.
One other center along the old Chicago road remains to be de- scribed. On the west side of south Porter township is beautiful Bald- win's prairie, one of the most delightful landscapes in Cass county and its citizenship among the most prosperous. Baldwin's prairie, ages be- fore the earliest fact of history recorded in this book, was the bed of some large lake, similar to many in this county. The processes of nature finally drained the waters off into the St. Joseph river; the swamp in time gave place to prairie, and as the Indians and the first settlers knew the
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locality the grass and wild flowers spread their carpet over its level area.
A plain so beautiful, with fertility so deep and so prodigal of prod- ucts, did not escape the eye of the practical pioneer, and settlement and development were naturally followed by a concentration of population. Sections 7 and 8 of south Porter were among the first entered in this portion of the county, and such well known pioneers as Elam Beardsley, James Hitchcox, Othini Beardsley, John Baldwin, Chester Sage, Jacob Charles. Nathan and William Tibbits had taken up land on this prairie, hone later than 1831.
John Baldwin kept tavern in his home for the accommodation of the travelers along the Chicago road, and Othni Beardsley was another pioneer mn-keeper. In 1831 Jacob Charles became the first postmaster for this vicinity, distributing the mail at his house. The Beardsley tav- ern, erected in 1833, was one of the regular stations on the stage line and hence an important point. This house was burned in 1836, and Jarius Hitchcox then opened up his house as a tavern and stage station. The Hitchcox house was on the north side of the road on the east side of Union village. The brick house now standing there, and the present residence of Mrs. Montgomery, was built over sixty years ago and was the tavern until the traffic of the road ceased with the beginning of the railroad era. This house is accordingly one of the most historic places in Cass county, having sheltered hundreds of emigrants during the pioneer period. When the stage station was located here extensive sheds in the rear accommodated the vehicles and horses of the stage company. Mr. S. M. Rinehart, whose pleasant home is just across the road, lived here while the stages were yet running and many a time heard with boyish eagerness the blast of the horn which announced the arrival of the stage.
The postoffice and stage station were the beginning of the village of Union. Union has never been incorporated, and its commercial import- anee is quite overshadowed by Bristol and Elkhart, and yet it has con- tinued from pioneer days as a focus for the interests of a large and pros- perous surrounding country.
Situated on the northwestern edge of Baldwin's prairie, with its houses at the foot of the hills which encircle the plain on the west and north and from which one overlooks the village and beyond to the blue haze of the range on the south side of the St. Joseph river. Union makes no claims to metropolitan features, yet is a supply center for a consid-
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erable area. Two stores, a blacksmith and repair shop and implement house comprise the business enterprise. The rural mail wagons bring the mail for the villagers, but, contrary to what we have seen happen in many such centers, the postoffice is still maintained in the village. The postmaster is William Eby, son of Gabriel Eby, who at the age of eighty- seven is the oldest man in Union and by reason of fifty years' residence one of the oldest citizens. Nelson Cleveland. of this neighborhood, is also about eighty-seven years old.
Mr. S. M. Rinehart, who contributed much of the information con- cerning Unien, was born near the James E. Bonine place in Penn town- ship, near Vandalia, seventy-five years ago and has lived on the east side of Union village since he was twelve years old, so that he is the longest resident. He is at this time president of the Cass County Pioneer Society.
Union now has a population of about 150. Whether the future holds growth and development in store for this community, must be left to a later historian to record. But the citizens are sanguine over the pros- pects which the promised early completion of the South Bend-Kalamazoo electric road through the village unfolds.
WILLIAMSVILLE.
July 5, 1849. Josiah Williams, as proprietor, filed a plat of a village to be known as Williamsville, the site being in the southeast quarter of Section 7 in North Porter township. AAn addition was recorded to this plat September 14. 1850. Mr. Williams was also proprietor of the first store. The "Williamsville neighborhood" has been a distinctive name for many years, and as the center of this locality Williamsville is worthy of a brief history. Its population has never reached much beyond the hundred mark. Twenty-five years ago it had two stores, two blacksmith shops. a grist mill and a sawmill, and one physician. At the present time its general activity consists of the following: A telephone ex- change of an independent company. It may be remarked that there are more telephones in use on the south side of the county than on the north side. Here in 1854 the late William R. Merritt engaged in the mercan- tile business and for twenty years kept one of the best stocked country stores to be found anywhere, equaling, if not excelling, many general stocks kept by village merchants. His store was the trading place for miles around and many of his customers were found among those who hought on their promise to pay, not having any visible property to make
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the promise good. Few indeed were the people who could not obtain credit with him. After removing to Bristol, Indiana, the business was continued for a number of years by his son, J. Fred Merritt.
It was in this little hamlet that Dr. Greenberry Cousins, on the 16th day of August, 1870, came to his death at the hands of Andrew J. Burns, who, after being tried twice on the charge of murder, the jury each time failing to agree upon a verdict, was discharged and given his liberty after being confined in the county jail for about one year await- ing these trials.
BROWNSVILLE.
Calvin township has had numerous centers, such as churches, schools, mills, at different times and different situations. The hamlet of Browns- ville alone may be considered in this part of the history, since Calvin center will be mentioned in connection with the negro settlement.
Christiann creek, flowing for a considerable part of its length across this township, early afforded the best mill sites in the south part of Cass county. \ sawmill was built in section 19 about 1832 and in the following year a distillery at that point began the manufacture of pure whiskey which was sold at twenty-five cents a gallon. But before this, in 1831. Pleasant Grubb had constructed a grist mill in section 9. This was one of the first flour mills in the county and its product was eagerly sought. David and William Brown, brothers who had come from Scot- land, soon purchased this mill. and the little community which grew up around the mill honored them by giving the name Brownsville to the place. No plat was ever made, hut enough village activity has prevailed to distinguish the locality from the general rural district. When the former history of the county was published, twenty-five years ago, its enterprise consisted in a flour mill, a general store, two blacksmith shops, a cooper and a shoe shop, a millinery store, pump factory, harness shop. two carpenters and two physicians. At the present time there are the grist mill, run by water power, a steam sawmill, a blacksmith shop, and the postoffice has been discontinued since rural free delivery was estab- lished. The population has remained at about one hundred. Levi Gar- wood, Williams Adamson and James Hybert (colored) are named as the oldest residents of this community.
DAILEY.
Jefferson township, midway between the county seat and Edwards- burg, although traversed by two railroads, has never developed any
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important center. Redfield's mills on Christiann creek on the eastern edge of the township at one time had a store and postoffice, a sawmill and grist mill, the latter run now for grinding buckwheat and feed only. It still has a general store. The only other place that can be dignified by distinct reference in this chapter is Dailey, in section 6. The citi- zens of this locality, among whom was Israel .A. Shingledecker, who proposed the name of Itasca, desired a station when the Air Line rail- road passed through that part of the township, and by donating three acres of land to the company secured a freight and passenger house. There being opposition to Itasca, the station was given the name of Dailey, in honor of A. H. Dailey, roadmaster of the railroad. A post- office was established in 1872, with M. T. Garvey as first postmaster, and two stores with a blacksmith shop soon supplemented the business activity of the place. In March, 1880, Levi M. Vail filed a plat of lots laid out on land just west of the depot site. A cornet band was at one time an institution of the place. The population at the last census was about a hundred.
The progress of our narrative brings us now to the center of the county, but instead of describing the growth and present status of Cass- opolis it seems best to reserve the county seat village for a separate chapter, as also will be done in the case of the city of Dowagiac.
GENEVA.
In the story of the county seat contest the founding of the now ex- tinct village of Geneva has been described. Some additional facts are of interest in preserving to memory of future generations the site of what might have become the central city of the county. The plat of Geneva, which was recorded May 1, 1832, shows that the village was laid out on the north side of Diamond lake. The owners of the site, whose signatures are affixed to the plat, were Colonel E. S. Sibley, H. L. and A. C. Stewart, H. H. Fowler and Abner Kelsey. With the proviso that Geneva be constituited the county seat, "the public square is given to the county on which to erect county offices," besides certain other lots. The traveled road going east from Cassopolis passes along the main street of Geneva about where it reaches the north bank of Dia- mond lake. Geneva never had the institutions of school and church, but the business enterprise was considerable until Cassopolis absorbed it all. A store was established in 1830. Nathan Baker about the same time established a blacksmith shop, and several years later a furnace
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for the manufacture of plow castings, this being the first industry of the kind in the county, and the "Baker plow" gaining a reputation far beyond the limits of the county. II. H. Fowler, the principal promoter of the village, did not relax his efforts for building up the village even after the county seat had become permanent, as is evident from the fact that in October, 1836, he recorded the plat of an addition to the original site. Nothing now remains of Geneva, and only those who delve into matters of the past would know, as they passed over the site, how much enthusiasm and effort were once expended toward making a village rise on the high shores of Diamond lake. The village site and vicinity are now known as "Shore Acres."
PENN (JAMESTOWN ).
In the register's office is a plat of the village of Jamestown, which was recorded by Isaac P. James, November 12, 1869. This site was located on the east side of section 16 in Penn township. On November 25, 1884, Jesse Wright recorded an addition, taken from land that ad- joined in section 15. Jamestown is an unfamiliar name, and many per- sons would not recognize in it the name of the center of Penn township.
The founder of the village bestowed upon it the name of Jamestown for himself, the same as he did on the village plat. The postoffice depart- ment refused to adopt that name for the proposed postoffice there, as there was at that time a Jamestown postoffice in Ottawa county, and es- tablished the office under the name of Penn, and gradually that name became the common designation for the hamlet.
There were hopes in the minds of the founders that, with the com- pletion of the line of the Grand Trunk railroad through the site, a con- siderable village might rise at this point. Parker James, a son of Isaac l'. James, established a store, and later a sawmill was built and one or two other shops opened. It now has a resident physician, two churches, a school house with two departments. Its principal enterprises are a sawmill, two general stores and a blacksmith shop. One of the stores, in addition to the stock usually kept in country stores, keeps on hand agricultural implements, coal, lime, etc. Penn had, according to the last census, a population of two hundred.
VANDALIA.
A grist mill built on the banks of Christiann creek along the state road in section 27 of Penn township was the enterprise which served as the nucleus for the village of Vandalia. This mill was built in 1849
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by Stephen Bogue and C. P. Ball, both valiant Quakers and notable pioneers in Penn township. February 21, 1851, a plat of the village of Vandalia was filed by these two men, the land which they chose for the proposed village being on the east side of Christiann creek, and compris- ing a portion of the southeast quarter of section 27. The original site has been expanded by eight additions, and the incorporated limits of the village now extend across the creek on the west side and the larger part of the plat lies in section 26.
In the days of beginnings Abraham Sigerfoos was the village black- smith, Asa Kingsbury of Cassopolis the first merchant, he having estab- lished a branch store there with the late Judge A. J. Smith as manager. and T. J. Wilcox the first postmaster. The principal impetus to growth was, of course, the Air Line railroad, which placed the village in connec- tion with the outside world in 1871. This was followed by incorporation in 1875. and Vandalia is now one of the three incorporated villages in Cass county.
HOWARDVILLE.
Few names are more completely lost to memory than the above. The proximity of Howard township to Niles, not to mention other causes. has never fostered the growth of villages in the township. But in the pioneer years, when immigration was setting in at full tide, George Fosdick, an enterprising settler, endeavored to found a village, to which he gave the name Howardville. The plat was recorded Octo- ber 8, 1835, the site being in section 21, on "the north bank of Lake Alone," the plat being two blocks wide and running north from the lake shore four blocks. To the present generation it is necessary to explain that Lake Alone is the familiar Barren lake. Its remoteness from any other body of water, and the absence of surface outlets, gave this lake its first name. Fosdick's village did not prosper, and in a short time the plow furrows passed without distinction over the platted as the unplat- ted land. and Howardville was forgotten.
In more recent years, since the Air Line railroad was built, a sta- tion was established, called Barren Lake station. The town hall is near by, also a school. This is as far as the township of Howard has gone in the formation of a central community.
LA GRANGE VILLAGE.
The road leading north and west from Cassopolis toward Dowa- giac passes for the first few miles over some of the most rugged land-
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scape in Cass county. This is the highest point of the watershed which interposes a barrier-like group of hills between the courses of the Dowa- giac creek and Christiann creek. But on arriving at the crest of the last hill the broad valley of the Dowagiac creek seems, by reason of the contrast, as level as a chessboard and a scene of quiet and gentle beauty. One is not surprised that this fertile and reposeful plain was early sought as a habitation and place of activity by the pioneers. The beauty of the natural surroundings, the rich and productive soil. and the advantageous sites for mills and industries were recognized by the first settlers, and were the chief prerequisites for the development of a flourishing city.
And vet the present aspect of LaGrange brings up the picture of the "Deserted Village." The main street leading north to the millpond is lined with weatherbeaten houses which bear every indication of iden- tity with the past. Some of these buildings have long been unoccupied. and, uncared for, have become prey to the wind and rain. "Arrested development" seems to characterize the entire place. The last store building, from which the stock of goods was removed several years ago, is almost the only reminder of commercial activity. Rural free deliv- ery caused the disestablishment of the postoffice in February, 1901. The Methodist church is the only active religious organization. The two-story, brick district school, on the south edge of the village, shows that the decline of commercial prosperity has not affected the progress of education. The water power, on the opposite side of the village. which once turned grist mills and factories, now turns a turbine wheel of the plant that partly supplies Dowagiac with electric lights.
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