USA > Michigan > Cass County > A twentieth century history of Cass County, Michigan > Part 15
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This diversion of the only remaining permanent resource of La- Grange to the benefit and use of Dowagiac is the final fact of a series of similar events by which LaGrange has been reduced to its present status among the centers of the county. With all the natural advantages which gave promise of a thriving city, the course of events took other direc- tions. First, LaGrange, though an active competitor for the honor, failed to gain the county seat. Its business enterprise was at the time superior to that of Cassopolis or Geneva, but its location was not central enough to secure the decision of the commissioners. The loss of the county seat might not have prevented LaGrange becoming what its promoters ar- dently desired. But with the building of the Michigan Central rail- road four miles to the northwest, a powerful and resourceful rival came into action. With the railroad furnishing transportation as a basis for unlimited production and industry, Dowagiac rapidly became a center
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of business and manufacturing. LaGrange could not compete on equal terms, its manufactures dwindled and were moved to the rival town, and with the diverting of the water power to supply Dowagiac with electric lighting, the last chapter has been written in the decadence of a village that has played a large part in early Cass county history. La- Grange might now well be considered a suburb of the city of Dowagiac.
Such is a general outline of the rise and fall of this village. The details may be briefly recorded. The millsite had first been developed by Job Davis, who built a sawmill there in 1829. This mill was bought by Martin C. Whitman in 1831. In the following year he erected a grist mill at the same place, this being one of the first mills in the county for supplying the pioneers with flour.
August 4, 1834, Mr. Whitman, as "proprietor and owner," filed the first plat of the village of Whitmanville. The site was on the north side, about the center, of section 15. Erastus H. Spalding, who owned land adjoining, in the southwest quarter of section 10, platted an addi- tion April 16, 1836, to which he gave the name LaGrange. On July I. 1836, Mr. Whitman platted a part of his land on the southeast quarter of section 10 as an addition to LaGrange, and in September following platted some land in section 15 as an addition to Whitmanville. It seems, therefore, that the site that lay in section 10 was originally des- ignated as LaGrange, and that in section 15 as Whitmanville. The lat- ter name was commonly used until the legislature, by an act approved February 12. 1838, formally changed the name Whitmanville to La- Grange.
In the meantime E. H. Spalding had become proprietor of the grist mill, and the business activity of the place became considerable. There were four large stores in the place besides the mills. The large. shallow millpond, however, caused much malarial sickness, and this, with the loss of county seat prospects and the destruction of the grist mill by fire, caused a setback to the prosperity of the village.
In 1856 there was a revival. Abram Van Riper and sons Charles and Garry bought the millsite, constructed a flour mill and also a woolen mill. The latter was an institution of great importance to the commu- nity. It furnished labor to many persons, both women and men, and also children, and thus attracted a considerable population to settle in the vicinity. Besides the Van Ripers, the late Daniel Lyle of Dowagiac was interested in the woolen mill. In 1878 a stock company, known as the LaGrange Knitting Mills Company, purchased the mill property
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and converted it into a knitting factory, principally for the manufacture of underwear.
There were other manufactures. Hervey Bigelow had begun the manufacture of furniture here in 1836 and continued it until 1851. when Dowagiac offered him better opportunities and he moved to that village. William Van Riper established a basket factory in 1868. There was a small foundry twenty-five years ago. All these industries have gone out of existence or been moved away.
MECHANICSBURG.
On the north side of the public road that passes along the south side of section 30 in LaGrange township, about where the school house stands and near the Pokagon creek, was once platted a village called Mechanicsburg. The plat of this village was filed March 29, 1837. by John Petticrew, the proprietor of the site. Several years later he built a tannery there, but aside from that and a blacksmith shop. the village had nothing to justify its platting.
SUMNERVILLE AND POKAGON.
These two little villages, a mile and a half apart, belong, the one to the pioneer period, the other to the railroad era. We have taken pains to show the various influences at work in the development of the county, how localities favored by nature have received the first impulse of settlement ; and how roads, streams, railroads, acts of the legislature, and personal enterprise have all been pivotal factors in the history of communities. The history of Summerville and Pokagon is an excel- lent study in these shifting processes.
Summerville is located at the junction of the Pokagon creek with Dowagiac creek. The heavy timber growth in this locality favored the improvement of the water power at this point, and in 1835 Isaac Sumner built a sawmill here, and two years later a grist mill. These two industries were all-important at that time, and were a substantial basis for a vil- lage. Mr. Sumner and Junius II. Hatch accordingly platted a village here in August, 1836, giving it the name of Sumnerville. About the same time Alexander Davis became first merchant and Peabody Cook the proprietor of the first hotel. From this time forward the village increased slowly in population and business. Its population by the last census was about one hundred and fifty. In 1880, according to a gaz- etteer of that year, it had a population of 184, and its industries were a flouring mill and a woolen mill.
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Pokagon, on the other hand, although located on the prairie where the first settlement was made in Cass county, and where the first post- office was established, was, as respects its business importance, the prod- uct of the railroad which was constructed through in 1846. William Baldwin, the noted pioneer whose death was chronicled in August. 1904, laid out this village June 15, 1858. The original site, to quote thie rec- ord, was "situated on the west side of the railroad, in the southwest quarter of section 28." Three additions have since been made, expand- ing the village into section 33 and to both sides of the railroad. A grist mill had been built in 1856, and several stores and shops soon gave the business activity to the place which it has retained ever since. The population has been at about two hundred for thirty years.
SHAKESPEARE.
Of all the forgotten village sites in Cass county that of Shake- speare has had most reason to be remembered. Situated "at the Long rapids of the Dowagiac river," as the record reads, Shakespeare was platted June 17, 1836, by Jonathan Brown and Elias B. Sherman, the latter the well known pioneer of Cass county, the former somewhat of an adventurer, to judge from this transaction. The site of the village was on the Dowagiac, including land in sections 8, 9 and 17 of Pokagon township. Sherman owned forty acres at this point and Brown a sim- ilar tract. They decided to plat and promote a village. The water power could be utilized to develop splendid industries, and the eyes of the pro- moters could see nothing but roseate prospects for a city at this location. A lithographed prospectus of the proposed village was got out illustra- ting in most attractive style all these and other advantages, and was cir- culated in distant cities. The prospectus and personal representations of Mr. Brown sold a number of village lots. Mr. Sherman withdrew from the partnership as soon as he saw that the representations were overdrawn, and the principal promoter soon left the country without ever having done anything to develop the enterprise. During the next few years more than one sanguine investor in Shakespeare lots. after toiling through the woods and brush to the wilderness that covered the "city," was brought to realize the folly of speculation in unknown quan- tities. But now, outside of the office of register of deeds, where "Shake- speare" still presents tangles in the records, few know that such a vil- lage ever existed.
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NEWBERG.
Another village that was platted without substantial reason for an existence and which belongs in history because of the plat on file at the register's office, was Newberg. Spencer Nicholson, an early settler of Newberg township, was the proprietor, and the village plat was filed May 15. 1837. The site was on the south shore of Lilly lake, its ex- act location being the north end of the east half of the northwest quar- ter of section 32.
JONES AND COREY.
Born of the Air Line railroad were the two villages above named. Jones, the main street of which is the section line between sections 34 and 35 of Newberg township, at the present time has four general stores, one grocery, shoe store, two hardware stores, one saloon, har- ness and blacksmith shop, and a population approximating three hun- dred. The plat of the village was recorded October 19, 1897. by Alonzo P. Beeman, but the first business structure at this point of the newly built Air Line railroad was a store put up in 1871 by H. Micksel. The postoffice for this immediate vicinity had been established at the house of Mr. E. H. Jones, on section 34, in 1870. The first postoffice in the township was located at Lilly lake as early as 1838, and an office at different points in the township had existed and been kept in farmers' houses from that time, with different postmasters, until the founding of the village of Jones. Other early business men were David Fairfield, hotelkeeper and merchant : H. B. Doust, and A. L. Dunu. Mr. Frank Dunn, present supervisor from Newberg, has been in business at Jones since 1879. Ed H. Jones, founder of the village of Jones, is still liv- ing, and other old-timers of this vicinity are William Young, perhaps the oldest man in the town; William Harwood, Myron F. Burney, Alonzo P. Beeman, ex-supervisor and ex-county treasurer, and Nelson Hutchins.
Corey, which is situated on the county line, in section 36 of New- berg township, was surveyed into a village site in April. 1872. Hazen W. Brown and C. R. Crawford were the first merchants. Its popula- tion is still less than a hundred, and its business interests necessarily small.
WAKELEE.
In the south part of the county the building of the Grand Trunk railroad revived the decadent village of Edwardsburg and partly re-
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stored the commercial prestige which it had known in the days when the Chicago road was the great trunk line of communication. In the north- east corner of the county the same railroad caused the founding of two villages.
Wakelee, which is situated, like Dowagiac, on the corner of four townships, Marcellus, Volinia, Newberg and Penn, and being unincor- porated, divides its civic functions with the four townships, was named in honor of C. Wakelee, the first treasurer of the Peninsular or Grand Trunk railroad. The first plat of the village, which was recorded De- cember 12, 1871, was made by Levi Garwood, on land in section 36 of Volinia township. April 10. 1873, George W. Jones and Orson Rudd platted an addition which extended the site into the other townships. A steam sawmill at this point converted much of the lumber woods of this part of the county into merchantable lumber and the station be- came noted as a lumber-shipping point.
MARCELLUS.
While the Grand Trunk railroad no doubt had most to do with the founding of the village of Marcellus, now one of the three incor- porated villages of the county, one or two other influences working to that end should be noticed. Marcellus township, as will be remem- bered, was the last to be set off and last to be settled. Its inhabitants were long without communication, and did not have a postoffice until 1857, when Harrison Dykeman began carrying the mail, at irregular intervals, from Lawton, on the main line of the Michigan railroad in Van Buren county, to his home on section 14. On the establishment of a regular mail route in 1860, the postoffice was located in a residence on section 16, and was transferred from place to place until Thomas Burney built and opened the first store on the site of Marcellus village, the mail then being distributed in his store. The first permanent post- office of the township was, therefore, one of the institutions that served as a basis for the village of Marcellus.
To the private enterprise of George W. Jones is due in large meas- ure the honor of founding the village. In 1868, knowing that the rail- road would be completed through this point in a short time, and confi- dent of the prospects presented for village growth at this place, he bought over two hundred acres and prepared to lay out a village. The site in sections 15 and 22 was surveyed and the plat recorded by Mr. Jones April 23, 1870, he adopting the plan of Cassopolis as to blocks and
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ranges, getting the idea, no doubt, from his father-in-law. E. B. Sher- man, one of the founders of that village. Since that date the area of the village has been increased by six additions. The original name of the village was Marcellus Center.
Regular trains began running about the same time with the plat- ting of the village, and the business beginnings of the village were most auspicious. Some of the first merchants were Thomas Burney, already mentioned, John Manning, Daniel Morrison, Herman Chapman and Lewis Arnold.
Within less than ten years from the founding of the village it was incorporated in 1879, and the citizens who first took control of the village affairs were the following: David Snyder, president ; Leander Bridge. Kenyon Bly, W. O. Matthews, Byron Beebe, Alexander Beebe, trus- tees: L. B. Des Voignes, clerk, now judge of the circuit court; Dr. E. C. Davis, treasurer ; and W. R. Snyder, assesor. The list of subsequent officials will be found in the proper place on other pages.
CENTERS IN VOLINIA TOWNSIIIP.
Volinia township has been as prolific of inland village sites as any other township. Charleston, an insignificant little place on the cross roads between sections 3 and 10, was laid out and the plat recorded June 25, 1836, the proprietors whose names are signed to the plat be- ing Jacob Moreland, Jacob Charles, Elijah Goble, Alexander Fulton and David Fulton, all pioneers of the township. The principal encour- agement to the founding of this village was the stage road from Niles to Kalamazoo that passed through this place, and Elijah Goble kept a tavern for the accommodation of passing travelers. After the build- ing of the Michigan Central in the forties the business enterprise of the village soon failed. Charleston is now the name of a community rather than of such organization as the word village implies. Perhaps time will entirely obliterate the name, except as a historical record.
Only two miles from Charleston, and also in the year 1836, Levi Lawrence, David Hopkins, Ohed Bunker and John Shaw platted the village of Volinia on sections 11 and 12. The plat was recorded Sep- tember 20, 1836. Such is the record as it appears in the register's office. But this locality has had a variety of names. The name of the post- office as it appeared in the Postal Guide is Little Prairie Ronde, and under that title it was described in a gazetteer of 1880. Jonathan Nich- ols conducted the first hotel in this place, and from him the name Nich-
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olsville was given to the village. But the only plat recorded of a village at this site was the above, and under the name given.
GLENWOOD.
Glenwood, in section 10 of Wayne township, was platted and re- corded in December, 1874, by Craigie Sharp, Jr., Thaddeus Hampton and Edwin Barnum. Glenwood's importance originated as a shipping point, and that is its sole claim to prestige at the present time. The Hampton stock farm and the barrel-hoop industry are the principal in- dustries of the place. Several years after the building of the Michigan Central the railroad company constructed a sidetrack which was long known as Tietsort's Sidetrack. A steam sawmill was built there in 1855, and to the postoffice that was soon after established in the hamlet was given the name Model City postoffice. Thus it remained until a village plat was made and the name changed to Glenwood.
CUSHING CORNERS.
The Cushing family, among whom is Dexter Cushing (see sketch), came to Silver Creek township in the early fifties, and for many years have lived and been extensive land owners on the west side of the town, especially in sections 19 and 20. At the intersection of the east and west road through the center of these sections with the north and south high- way there has grown up a focus of a community known as Cushing Corners. There is a store, kept by William Cushing, son of Dexter Cushing. The school house is located at that point. A postoffice was established there, but beyond these elemental institutions there is little to justify the place with the name of village.
SUMMER RESORTS.
The many beautiful lakes of Cass county are each year attracting an increasing number of summer visitors. Cottages are built around the shore, a hotel is perhaps the central structure, the social community peculiar to the summer resort is formed, and we have one form of cen- tralization, the more permanent and substantial examples of which have already been described. The summer resort is a development of the modern age, as characteristic of it as the log house was of the pioneer epoch. It marks the reaction from the extreme concentration of so- ciety which has produced the crowded cities; it is made possible by bet- ter facilities of transportation. Thus the same influence which in earlier
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years tended to concentrate population, now, in its higher development, diffuses society and enables it to enjoy the benefits of organization with- out the close crowding made necessary in the cities.
Several of the lake resorts in Cass county are well known to the inhabitants of the cities, Magician lake and Diamond lake, to mention no others, being familiar names to thousand of persons who have never been permanent residents of the county. Most of the resorts have been platted into regular village lots, and without noting any of the particular features of each place it will be proper in this historical volume to give the record of these plats as they are found in the register's books.
The oldest and largest of these resorts is Diamond Lake Park, on the west side of Diamond lake, and half a mile from each railroad sta- tion in Cassopolis. The plat was filed May 8, 1891, the signers being C. S. Jones, Henly Lamb, LeRoy Osborn, proprietors. Many cottages have been built on this plat, the northwest shore of the lake for the dis- tance of about half a mile presenting the appearance in summer of a well populated village. A number of the cottages are owned by loeal people, but the resorters from the cities and distant points are increas- ing every year, and during the summer season the presence of a large number of strangers gives the county seat village an air of gayety and stir that is not found in the quieter months of the year.
Forest Hall Park, situated along the shore of the lake a little to the east of Diamond Lake Park, but still in section 36 of LaGrange township, was platted in June, 1898, by Barak L. Rudd, proprietor. The inception of this resort was due to H. E. Sargent, superintendent of the Michigan Central railroad; Nathan Corwith and J. P. Smith, business men of Chicago, who in 1872 erected a large club house on the high north shore of the lake and laid out the grounds with a design of mak- ing a resort for club purposes. This was the beginning of the now pop- ular resorts on the shores of the lake.
The most recent addition to Diamond lake platted summer villages is Sandy Beach, on the north shore of the lake. The plat was recorded by Mary Shillaber January 30, 1906. These plats by no means define the limits of occupation for resort purposes. The island in the center of the lake, where the eccentric Job Wright made his home and grudg- ingly watched the eneroachment of the settlers on his wild abode, is now well filled with cottages. Other parts of the shore line are being taken, and the extension of this sort of settlement finds its best example about Diamond lake.
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Eagle lake, in Ontwa township a few miles east of Edwardsburg, has also become popular among sportsmen and summer residents. Lake View Park, on the northwest shore of the lake, has been frequented for a number of years. A plat of the site was filed February 24, 1899, by Cora M. Stryker.
Oak Beach, in section 3 and near Lake View, was platted by Henry J. French April 7, 1906.
On the south side of Eagle lake is "Brady," located in section 2 of Ontwa, the plat being filed by John M. Brady August 7, 1895.
Magician lake, up in the northwest corner of the county, in Silver Creek township, though remote from railroad facilities, presents some of the best pleasure grounds to be found in the county. The first plat to be laid out was that made by the Maple Island Resort Association, the president of which was W. F. Hoyt, and the plat filed January 14. 1896. Maple Island Resort is located on an island in Magician lake.
Magician Beach, on the north side of the lake and in section 3, though used for resort purposes a good many years previous, was platted on November 5, 1901, the proprietors being Albert E. Gregory and wife.
Highland Beach is a resort on the north end of Indian lake in Sil- ver Creek township. It was platted into lots and the plat recorded May 29. 1905, Talmadge Tice, proprietor.
Fish lake in Marcellus township and Barren lake in Howard town- ship are becoming popular resort places and are being utilized by city as well as by local residents.
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CHAPTER IN. CASSOPOLIS.
The genesis of every village should be an interesting story. How one section of an erstwhile wilderness is chosen, almost by natural laws, from all those adjoining and becomes the seat of population and indus- try and social institutions is a theme lacking none of the interest that attaches to the development of a great human character. A village is an achievement which the combination of circumstances and human purpose has evolved, and to find out and state the principal steps of such accomplishment is a labor worthy of any historian.
The description on the foregoing pages of the many village sites of the county is proof of how easy a matter it was in pioneer times to found a village on paper, yet quite beyond the bounds of human fore- sight to know what the course of events would bring as destiny. Some village plats .never had inhabitants and long since reverted to the sectional system of land demarcation. Others experienced early growth and later, through the shifts of events already described, stopped grow- ing and often began to decline. The fates of the various villages re- mind us of the parable of the seed that fell on different soils, some to be destroyed before germination had begun, others to wither after a brief time of growth, and a few to live and flourish and produce abundantly.
The early fortunes of Cassopolis undoubtedly hinged on the loca- tion of the county seat. The series of endeavors which were necessary to gain that point found some strong and enterprising men ready to carry them forward to success. On the east shore of Stone lake Abram Tietsort had built his cabin in 1829. and among the original land en- trants his name appears in the records of section 35 and several adjoin- ing ones. A little east of Tietsort's house, in section 36, was the home of the Jewell family, so conspicuous in the history of this part of the county from pioneer times to the present. Two others whose names deserve mention for their part in the founding of Cassopolis were Oliver Johnson in section 25 and Ephraim McCleary in section 26. The most conspicuous workers in this little drama, however, were Elias B.
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Sherman, a lawyer settler of 1830, and Alexander II. Redfield, whose name belongs in the forefront of lawyers and public men of Cass county.
It must be remembered that at the time of the events now narrated the county seat had already been located at Dr. Fowler's village site of Geneva. By fraud, so said many people, and the dissatisfaction with the commissioners' choice of location was strongly expressed.
It seems necessary to refer to the exact chronology of the events comprising this initial episode of Cassopolis' history. The data not being complete to verify and classify every detail, it is possible that the location of the county seat and the founding of Cassopolis may have been brought about with some slight variation from the usually accepted account.
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