USA > Michigan > Cass County > A twentieth century history of Cass County, Michigan > Part 7
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At the time of this writing (May, 1906), there lives in Berrien township of Berrien county, some six or seven miles north of Niles, the venerable Isaac Lybrook, who is without doubt the oldest of Cass county's surviving pioneers. Born in 1825, he was a member of this well known Lybrook family, his father being a brother of John Lybrook, and his mother a sister of A. L. Burk, also a pioneer of Cass. Isaac was brought to Pokagon township by his mother in October, 1828, and lived there until he was fifteen years old. He went to Berrien county in 1840 and has followed farming through his active career.
Many other names might be added if it were our purpose to make a complete catalogue of those identified with the occupation of this town-
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
ship. Many of these persons will be mentioned in the later history of the township, and as this account must stop short of being encyclopedic. some familiar names may be entirely passed over. Our purpose here is to indicate the most prominent of the "first settlers" of the county, those upon whom devolved the labor of organizing and setting in mo- tion the civil machinery of the county and its divisions. Of pioneer history and the interesting stories told of men and events of the time. volumes could be written. Even so we could but feebly re-illumine the features and spirit of those times; for, truly,
"Round about their cabin door the glory that blushed and bloomed Is but a dim-remembered story of okl time entombed."
PENN TOWNSHIP.
Another locality that received immigration before the civil organ- ization of the county was Penn township. Here the matter of priority of settlement is uncertain. The first settlers appear to have been of transient residence. During the years 1827 and 1828 Joseph Frakes. Rodney Hinkley, Daniel Shaffer, John Reed and others took claims here, but all except Shaffer left the following year. In 1829 came George Jones and sons, from Butler county, Ohio. He was the largest land- holder in the township. according to the list of original entries. Other settlers of the same year were John Price, John Rinehart and sons, Ste- phen Bogue, William McCleary and Martin Shields. In the person of Martin Shields the township received a representative of the saddler's trade, although, like all followers of a trade in a new country, he based his occupation on land and agriculture. When the residents of the com- munity met to cast their first ballots in the new county, they found his house the most convenient polling place, and perhaps for that reason he was also the first postmaster of the town. He was evidently of a more visionary nature than most of the practical pioneers of this section, for at one time he felt called upon to preach the gospel, although when he opened his mouth to speak no words followed his inspiration and his spiritual leadership was short-lived.
This township bears a name suggestive of the character of its early inhabitants. The co-religionists of William Penn settled in large num- bers not only in the Quaker colony of Pennsylvania, but all along the Atlantic coast. But in the south, where slavery was the predominating feature of the economic system, their fundamental principles of faith set the Friends at variance with the majority of their fellow citizens.
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
Northwest Territory, with its basic principle of prohibition of slavery, attracted to its broad, new lands a great immigration of these simple people, and consequently there is hardly a county in the middle west that has not had a Quaker settlement. Penn township was the locality to which most of the Quaker immigration to Cass county directed its settlement, where they had their meeting house and where their sim- plicity of creed and manner and dress were for many a year the most marked characteristics of the township's population.
To refer at this point to one such settler, who was not the less prominent in the general history of the county than as a member of his sect. Stephen Bogue was born in North Carolina in 1790; in 1811. owing to their abhorrence of slavery. the family moved to Preble county, Ohio. In 1829 he came to the St. Joseph country and entered for his prospective home a tract of land in Penn township. whither his sister. the wife of Charles Jones, had arrived in the preceding year. Mr. Bogue returned in 1831 to a permanent residence in this township until his death in 1868. He comes down to us as one of the clearest figures of the pioneer times. His connection with the "underground railroad" and the "Kentucky raid" of ante-bellum days is elsewhere recorded. He took a foremost part in the organization of the Birch Lake Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends. His name is also mentioned in con- nection with the platting and establishment of the village of Vandalia.
JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP.
Pioneer settlers in the township of Jefferson were the four families whose heads were Nathan Norton. Abner Tharp, whose son Laban turned the first furrow in the township, and Moses and William Reames. These men had learned of the attractions of Cass county through John Reed (related by marriage to Tharp and Norton), who, we have seen, was one of the first settlers in Penn. In the fall of 1828 the four fam- ilies whose heads have been named left Logan county, Ohio, and after the usual hardships of primitive traveling arrived in Cass county. They passed through the site of Edwardsburg, where they were greeted by Mr. Beardsley and Thomas H. Edwards, and after spending a few days with John Reed on Young's prairie, they proceeded to the southwest shore of Diamond lake, and on section 1 they erected the first houses of white man in what is now Jefferson township. In the latter part of 1829 John Reed joined these pioneers, and his date of settlement in the township is placed second to that of the Tharps. Nortons and Reameses.
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
CALVIN TOWNSIIIP.
From this nucleus of settlers in Jefferson in the spring of 1829 de- parted Abner Tharp to a suitable spot in Calvin township, where he erected a log cabin, plowed ten acres on the opening, and by reason of these improvements and the crop of corn and potatoes which he raised that year is entitled to the place of first actual settler in that township. It is said that he was the sole occupant of the township throughout the first summer. He was not a permanent settler, however, for in 1830 he returned to Jefferson, and in subsequent years lived in various parts of the west, only returning to pass his last years in Calvin township at the village of Brownsville.
PORTER TOWNSHIP.
Only a few more names can be mentioned among those of the first comers to Cass county. In Porter township there located in 1828 a settler who varied considerably from the regular type of pioneer. both as to personal character and the events of his career. John Baldwin was a southerner; averse to hard labor; never made improvements on the tract which he took up as the first settler in Porter; but, for income, relied upon a tavern which he kept for the accommodation of the trav- clers through that section, and also on his genius for traffic and dicker. He had hardly made settlement when his wife died, her death being the first in the township. It appears that Baldwin carried to extreme that unfortunate trade principle of giving the least possible for the largest value obtainable. In one such transaction with his neighbors the Indians, he bargained for the substantial possession of certain oxen by the offer of a definite volume of fire water. There were no internal revenue officers in those days to determine the grade and quality of fron- tier liquor, and the strength of the potation was regulated by individual taste or the exigencies of supply and demand. Certainly in this case the customers of Mr. Baldwin were somewhat exacting. Having con- simmed an amount of their favorite beverage sufficient, as they judged from former experiments, to transport them temporarily to the happy hunting grounds, and waiting a reasonable time for the desired effect with no results, they at once waited upon Mr. Baldwin with the laconic explanation that the liquor contained "heap too much bish" ( water). Evidently this deputation of protest proved ineffectual, for a few nights later the aggrieved former owners of the oxen repaired to the Baldwin tavern. and, arming themselves with shakes pulled from the door, forced
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
an entrance, and, pulling the unfortunate landlord out of bed, proceeded to beat him about the head and shoulders in a most merciless manner, not leaving off their fearful punishment until they thought life was ex- tinct. Mr. Baldwin finally recovered, however, but not for a long time was he able to resume business. This event was the subject of much comment among the settlers for many years, and was one of the very few Indian atrocities to be found on the annals of the county. No ar- rests were made, but the Pottawottomie tribe paid dearly for the assault, for Mr. Baldwin filed a bill with the government, claiming and event- ually receiving several thousand dollars in damages, which was retained from the Indians' annuities.
A number of settlers arrived in Porter in 1829, among them Will- iam Tibbetts, Daniel Shellhammer, Caleb Calkins (who was a carpen- ter and joiner by trade), Nathan G. O'Dell, George P. Schultz. With Mr. Schultz came his step-son, Samuel King, then fourteen years old, but who became one of the most successful men in Porter township and at one time its largest land owner.
VOLINIA TOWNSHIP.
The rather remarkable history of Volinia township had also begun previously to organization. During the twelvemonth of 1829 many people located in this portion of northern Cass county, among those named as first settlers being Samuel Morris, Sr., J. Morelan, H. D. Swift and Dolphin Morris. One does not go far in the history of this township, either in pioneer times or the present, without meeting the name Gard. With some special mention of the family of this name we shall close this chapter on early settlement.
Jonathan Gard was born in New Jersey in 1799, was taken to Ohio in 1801, and spent his youth and early manhood in the vicinity of Cin- cinnati and in Union county. Indiana. He was well fitted by nature and training to be a pioneer, possessing the rugged qualities of mind and body that are needed to make a new civilization. While prospecting about southern Michigan in the fall of 1828, in search of a place for a new home, chance brought him together with a party who were bound on a like mission, consisting of Elijah Goble, Jesse and Nathaniel Win- chell and James Toney. They stopped a few days at the home of their old friend, Squire Thompson, on Pokagon prairie, and then proceeded to the region that is now comprised in Volinia township. Little Prairie Ronde was the spot that most attracted them, and there Mr. Goble and
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
Mr. Gard selected farms, while Mr. Toney chose a tract on what later became known as Gard's prairie. In the following spring Mr. Gard, Mr. Goble and Samuel Rich came to take possesion of their new homes. Because of the fact that Mr. Toney had been unable to leave his former home, Mr. Gard took the claim that had been chosen by Mr. Toney. and thus it came about that he was the original settler on Gard's prai- rie and gave it its name. Jonathan Gard spent the remainder of his life at this spot, until his death in 1854. He was the founder of the family which has included so many well known men of Cass county, a grandson of this pioneer being the present treasurer of Cass county.
It is very remarkable that this beautiful region of country should remain absolutely unsettled until the late twenties, and that settlers from different parts of the United States, without any preconcerted action or communication with each other, should begin to pour in at just this time; but so it was. Here different families for the first time met each other, and here their lives were first united in the same community, and in many cases by marriage in the same home.
None of those early settlers whom we have named remain. On the long and weary march they have been dropping out one by one until of the pioneer warfare not a veteran is left. It would be impossible, in a work like this, to trace the life history and describe the end of each one of them, and for this there would not be sufficient space.
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
CHAPTER V.
"PIONEERS OF CASS COUNTY."
"All members of the society who came into or resided in Cass county prior to 1840 shall be deemed 'Pioneers of Cass County.'"
This extract from the constitution of the Pioneer Society has sug- gested an appropriate record of the pioneers, in such a form as to sup- plement the preceding pages and to add many details of personal chro- nology such as the narrative could not present. Therefore it has been determined to bring together, in alphabetical order, a very brief and matter-of-fact mention of the deceased pioneers, considering under that designation only those who became identified by birth or settlement with the county not later than the year 1840.
Completeness of the record is quite beyond the limits of possibility and has not been attempted. Yet it is believed that the pioneers of the county are well represented here, and in a form for easy reference.
Moreover, a study of the following records is extremely instructive, as documents on the early history of the county. Records of dates and localities though they are, they suggest entire stories of immigration and settlement. The sources of the county's early citizenship, and the character of the stocks which determined in large measure the institu- tions and social conditions in the county, are indicated in these annals alinost at a glance.
The first deduction to be drawn is the overwhelming preponderance of New York's quota among the pioneers. Some few well known fam- ilies, notably the Silvers from New Hampshire, were native to the strict- ly New England states. Delaware furnished several worthy families, Vermont is honorably represented, but either directly or as the original source New York state was the alma mater to more pioneers than any other state. New York was the recruiting ground, as is well known. for the western expansion which began early in the nineteenth century. That was true, in large measure, when the practicable route of that im- migration was through the gateway of the Alleghanies at Pittsburg and down the valley of the Ohio. But New York did not reach its full
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
pre-eminence in the westward movement until the opening of the Erie canal in 1825, after which the full tide of homeseekers was rolled along that highway into the untried wilderness of the west.
For a long time Ohio was an intermediate place of settlement be- tween the east and the far west. Also, it was a focal ground upon which lines of migration from New England, from the middle Atlantic and from southern states converged. Ohio occupies a position only second to New York in furnishing pioneers to Cass county. And of Ohio's counties, Logan, Butler and Preble seem foremost in this respect. Ilere the uncompromising abolitionists from North Carolina first settled be- fore Cass county became a goal for many.
Carefully studied, these records tell many other things about the pioneer beginnings of Cass county. The stages by which many families gradually reached this point in their westward migration are marked by children's births at various intervening points. And sometimes the bonds of marriage united families from widely sundered localities, the community of residence which brought this about being now in Ohio, now in Indiana, and perhaps more often here in Cass county.
These are but a few of the inferences and conclusions that may be found in the annals which follow, and besides the historical value they thus possess, this is a means of preserving permanently many individ- nial records which have a personal interest to hundreds in Cass county.
Ashley, Thompson-Born in Penn township in 1831 ; in 1853 went to California, where he died June 8. 1906.
Abbott, Joseph H .- Born near Toronto, Canada, January 12, 1812; came to Howard township in 1834, where he died November 1. 1878.
Alexander, Ephraim-Born in Pennsylvania November 6, 1819; came to Cass county in 1831 : died in Dakota December 9. 1885.
Allen, Mrs. Demarias-Born in 1799: came to Ontwa township in 1835; died in Jefferson township Angust 5, 1887.
Arnold, Henry-Born in Sheffield, Massachusetts, July 25. 1807; came to Cass county in 1835 : died August 25, 1889.
Andrus, Mrs. Fanny-Born in Cayuga county, New York. No- vember 4, 1808; came to Ontwa township in 1835; died in Mason town- ship January 29, 1894.
Andrus, Hazard-Born in New York in 1789; came to Ontwa in 1834; died March 3, 1862.
Anderson, Lemuel H .- Born in Warren county, Ohio, July 20, 1829; came to Cass county in 1833: died in South Bend August 5, 1895.
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
Anderson, Mrs. L. H .- Born in Erie county, New York, in 1831; came to Cassopolis in 1833; died in South Bend May 23, 1883.
Ayers, David-Born in Wood county, New York, in 1829; came to Penn township in 1839, where he died October 30, 1895.
Adams, Uriah M .- Born in Sandusky county, Ohio, November 2, 1832; came to Porter township in 1837; died July 5, 1900.
Alexander, John-Born in Richmond, Indiana, December 22, 1824; came to Young's prairie in 1830; died at Michigan City, Indiana, No- vember 27, 1900.
Alexander, Leah E .- Born in Wayne county, Indiana, April 23, 1818; came to Penn township in 1832; died in South Dakota January 16, 1901, as Mrs. G. H. Jones.
Aldrich, Henry-Born in Smithfield, Rhode Island, May 5, 1813; came to Milton township in 1837, where he died February 8, 1901.
Atwood, Lafayette-Born in Cattaraugus county, New York, March 18, 1824: came to Wayne township in 1836; died at Dowagiac March 18, 1906.
Aldrich, Dr. Levi-Born in Erie county, New York, January 27. 1820; with his parents came to Milton in 1837; died at Edwardsburg December 16, 1892; his wife, Evaline A. Sweetland, born in Tompkins county, New York, September 1, 1822; killed in railroad collision at Battle Creek, Michigan, October 20, 1893.
Aldrich, Nathan-Born in Rhode Island January 24, 1816: came to Milton in 1837; died March 26, 1894; his wife, Harriet M. Dunning. born in New York July 21, 1816; came to Ontwa in 1834; died Jan- uary 24, 1858.
Alexander, John-Born in North Carolina in 1791 ; came to Penn in 1831 ; died in 1850; Ruth, his wife, born in 1785; died in 1845.
Anderson, Samuel F .- Born in Rutland county, Vermont, Feb- ruary 19. 1803; came to Cassopolis in 1835; died April 14, 1877; Mahala Phipps, his wife, born in New York July 10, 1807; died Jan- uary 21, 1877.
Hannah Phelps, wife of John T. Adams, born in Norwich, Con- necticut, April 30, 1808; came to Edwardsburg in 1835 and there died June 20, 1838.
Bement, David-Born at Hartford, Connecticut, October 17, 1813; came to Mason township in 1836: died in Ontwa township December 18, 1879.
Barnard, Dr .- Came to Cass county in 1828; died in Berrien Springs April 6, 1881.
Beckwith, Walter G .- Born in New York in 1810; came to this county in 1836; died in Massachusetts May 18, 1884.
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
Beckwith, Mrs. Eliza A .- Born in Ontario county, New York, December 2, 1811 ; came to Cassopolis in June, 1838: died in Jefferson township June 27, 1880.
Brady. David-Born in Sussex county, New Jersey, in 1785 ; came to La Grange prairie in July, 1828; died in La Grange township July 12, 1878.
Bates, John-Born in Chantauqua county, New York, July 7, 1821 ; came to Summerville in 1839; died May 18, 1879.
Barnhart, Mrs. Casander S .- Born in Franklin county, Virginia; came to Cass county about 1828; died October 12, 1878.
Bonine, Mrs. Elizabeth G .- Born in Penn township in 1833; daugh- ter of Amos Green ; died October 26, 1875.
Bement, Mrs. Jane-Born in Cayuga, New York, September 17, 1824: came to Mason township in 1836, where she died April 2, 1887.
Ball, Israel-Born in Butler county, Ohio, October 2, 1814; came to Cass county in 1830: died in Wisconsin April 30, 1887.
Bosley, Hiram-Born in Ohio in 1829; came to Cass county in 1838; died in Iowa in 1889.
Beeson, Jesse G .- Born in Wayne county, Indiana, December 10, 1807; came to La Grange township in 1830, where he died February 18, 1888.
Bacon, Cyrus-Born in Saratoga county, New York, October 26, 1796; came to Ontwa township in 1834; died October 4, 1873.
Bacon, Mrs. Malinda-Born in Saratoga county, New York, March 15. 1802: came to Ontwa township in 1834, where she died April 3, 1888.
Bacon, David-Born in Saratoga county, New York, September 9, 1827: came to Ontwa township in 1834: died at Niles, Michigan, July 25, 1899.
Bacon, James G .- Born in Saratoga county, New York, November 24, 1834; came to Ontwa township in 1834, where he died Angust 20, 1904.
Barton, Martha A .- Born in Virginia September 16, 1822; came to Cassopolis in 1830; died September 8, 1889.
Baldwin, William-Born in Warren county, Ohio, April 5. 1821 ; came to Cass county in 1828; died in Pokagon township August 28, 1904. His wife, who came to the county in 1835, died in Pokagon Jan- mary 11, 1802, aged 70.
Bigelow, Harvey-Born in New York July 4, 1816; came to La Grange township in 1837; died at Dowagiac November 3. 1893.
Blish, Daniel-Born in Gilsun, New Hampshire, June 17, 1812. came to Silver Creek in 1840; died November 5, 1893.
Breece, Jacob B .- Born in Columbia county, Pennsylvania, March
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
26, 1816; came to Ontwa township in 1836; died in Jefferson January 29, 1896; Sarah M. Wilson, his wife, born January 19, 1822; died May 5, 1885.
Brady, James T .- Born in Ireland March 1, 1802; came to Ontwa township in 1836; died at Elkhart December 19, 1881.
Brady, Mary Ann Jones-Born in New Jersey June 13, 1809; came to Ontwa in 1836; died June 12, 1895.
Blair, William G .- Born in Middlefield, New York, May 1, 1817; came to Edwardsburg in May, 1835, where he died July 17, 1895.
Beeson, Benjamin F .- Born in Indiana in 1832; came to La Grange township in 1832; died in Calvin township August 31, 1896.
Baker, Alfred-Born in 1816; came to Geneva in 1829; died in Iowa February 10, 1898.
Bump, Eli-Born in Urbana, Ohio, March 13, 1819; came to Jeff- erson township in 1837; died in Vandalia May 23, 1899. His wife, Naomi Reames, born in Logan county, Ohio, September 22, 1822; came to Jefferson in 1834: died at Vandalia. Marchi 2, 1904.
Bonine, James B .- Born in Wayne county, Indiana, July 18, 1825; came to Penn township in 1831 ; died November 28, 1900.
Baldwin, Josephus-Born in New Jersey October 15, 1812; came to Cass county in 1828; died in Indiana May 16, 1901.
Brady, Noalı S .- Born in Ontwa March 17, 1839; died July 5, 1902.
Byrnes, Rev. John-Born in Ireland in 1815: came to Pokagon in 1837, where he died March 12, 1903.
Bishop, Joseph C .- Born in New York in 1820; came to Ontwa township in 1832 ; died at Edwardsburg December 26, 1902.
Beardsley, David-Born in Butler county, Ohio, March 31, 1824; came to Mason township in 1832; died December 28, 1903.
Benson, Catherine Weed-Born in Steuben county, New York, September 1, 1816; came to Porter township in 1836; died September 3, 1903.
Beardsley, Hall-Born in New York in 1830; came to Porter township in 1838, where he died December 7, 1905.
Bogue, Elvira-Born in Penn township January 19, 1836; died at Vandalia April 12, 1906, as Mrs. Thomas.
Bacon, William H .- Born in New York in 1809; came to Ontwa in 1834; died October 6, 1856; his wife, Elizabeth Van Name; born in 1820; died February 4, 1897, as Mrs. Starr.
Bugbee, Dr. Israel G .- Born in Vermont March II, 1814: first came to Edwardsburg in 1835: died May 18, 1878; his wife, Eliza- beth Head, born in England September 12, 1817; died June 20, 1903.
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
Bogue, Stephen-Born in North Carolina October 17, 1790; came to Penn township in 1829, where he died October 11, 1868.
Bogue, Mrs. Hannah-Born in 1798; came to Penn township in 1831, where she died December 14, 1891, wife of Stephen Bogue.
Bishop, Elijah-Born at Saratoga Springs, New York, in 1811: came to Mason township in 1838; died
Barney, John-Born in Connecticut; came to Wayne in 1836; died in 1852.
Barney, Henry, Sr .- Born in Connecticut in 1763; came to Sil- ver Creek in 1838: died in 1850.
Blackman, Wilson-Born in Connecticut in 1792; came to Ed- wardsburg in 1829: the county's first postmaster; died
Bishop, Calvin-Born in New York in 1780; came to Cass county in 1833; died in Ontwa February 12. 1867; his wife. Mary Ann, born in 1791 ; died February 26, 1861.
Boyd, James-Born in New York August 3, 1806; came to Ed- wardsburg in 1831 : died at Cassopolis September 9, 1890; his wife, Mary, born in 1796; died 1877.
Beckwith, Sylvanus-Born in New York in 1776; came to Cass- opolis in 1838; died February 24, 1859; Lydia, his wife, born in 1785 ; died September 15, 1875.
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