USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Chronography of notable events in the history of the Northwest territory and Wayne County > Part 32
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49
-305 -
tentatious in manner, but of great firmness of character, governed in its exercise, however, by a due regard for the opinions and rights of others after careful deliberation. He died enjoying the confidence and respect of all who knew him, for his strict integrity, his high morality, his sound judgment and his intellectual capacity.
RICHARD H. HALL.
" He possessed penetration, industry, courage, vigilance, and large benevo- lence."-Hume.
" His office was to give entertainment, And lodging to all that came and went."-Spence.
Richard H. Hall was born at Troy, in the State of New York, in 1816. He was English in descent, and as a boy his educational advan- tages were limited. He, however, would seem to have improved them, as at the age of twenty he possessed a good business education.
After spending some time in Auburn, New York, in 1836 he came to Detroit and immediately engaged in the grocery business, and soon began to extend his trade beyond the limits of the city, as we find that the building he occupied soon became too small, and always having a preference for brick, he erected the first brick store on the north side of Woodward avenue, near the river, which he occupied for a number of years as a wholesale and retail grocery store. Subsequently he built a store on the corner of Woodward avenue and Congress street, where he continued to do business for a number of years. In 1856, he being compelled to take a quantity of land in Springwells for debt, and finding the soil to be clay, and as it seemed to him good for nothing else, started the manufacture of brick. This he continued until his death. Meantime having sold out his grocery business he turned his attention to the making of brick and the construction of buildings. In his brick business the first four years he made only three or four mil- lion per year, but by 1880 his average was over twenty millions and he had erected fine brick blocks in several parts of the city. His business in the wholesale grocery trade gave him an extensive acquaintance all over the State. Governor Baldwin was at that time engaged in the wholesale boot and shoe trade and Z. Chandler in the dry goods. After the fall trade was over the three would start together over the State on collection tours among their customers, and we have listened for hours to the relation of his experience with these gentlemen on their annual trips. Sometimes one and then the other would get all the money the customer had, and on their return they would average up (as Mr. Hall termed it), that is, each would receive his proportion of the entire collection made by the whole.
- 306 -
Mr. Hall was a regular attendant of St. Paul's Episcopal church, and was very liberal in his gifts to it, as well as all other churches in the city; and in all enterprises for the improvement of the city, whether in religious, educational, or in material growth, ever found him an active and generous supporter.
He was not a seeker for political favor, although identified with the Republican party and never withholding his aid. He was as ready to condemn a wrong measure or act committed by its partisans as of those of the opposite party. He was very tenacious in his personal friendships. The late Governor McClelland, Theodore Romeyn, A. II. Frazer and C. C. Trowbridge were among his closest friends.
Mr. Hall was a member of the Pioneer and Historical Society.
In 1844 he married Miss Harriet S. Fullam, of Chelsea, Vermont. They had eight children, four of whom are still living.
He departed this life at Detroit, April 11th, 1886, leaving a wife and five children to sorrow, and a large circle of personal friends to mourn the loss of his presence.
WILLIAM P. GRIFFIN.
William P. Griffin was born in the city of Utica, N. Y., September 27th, 1813. The father of Mr. Griffin, Augustus Griffin, was descended from Welsh stock. His grandfather came from Wales to America and his mother, whose maiden name was Rachel Curtis, was from English ancestors.
Augustus Griffin, the father, died at Redford, Mich., January 30th, 1853, and the mother at the same place, October 13th, 1846. They left six children; a daughter, who married Levi F. Johnson, who settled in the township of Redford in the fall of 1832. Soon after the birth of the subject of this sketch, his parents removed from Utica and located at the following places respectively, in the State of New York: Taburg, near Rome; Rotterdam, Oswego county, and in the town of Constantia, where his father purchased a farm in 1820. In 1833 his father decided to come to Michigan. Selling his farm he placed the proceeds of the sale in a chest, which was subsequently lost and neither it or its contents were ever found. Notwithstanding this he, with his family, started for the west, landing in Detroit July 20th, 1833. They took a canal boat at Syracuse for Buffalo and a steamer for Michigan, commanded by Captain Blake, across lake Erie. Spending a short time in Detroit, his father hired a team and proceeded on their journey to Redford, taking the old Chicago road as far as TenEyk's old stand, and then the territorial to the tavern called the "Cramer House," and
-307 -
from thence north to the house of E. Dains. There being no bridge over the Rouge they were compelled to leave their team and cross on logs, as Mrs. Johnson lived a mile from Mr. Dains on the opposite side of the river. The family remained with Mrs. Johnson for a month, and the father, purchasing eighty acres of land near by, built a log house and removed his family into it.
In those early days they were called upon to endure many hard- ships and privations, but withal were happy in the expectation of soon making a home.
The woods were full of game and the monotony and disabilities incident to their frontier life was relieved by hunting and fishing. Mr. Griffin relates that on one occasion, while going to his sister's, he encountered a pack of seven wolves. Although he had his rifle he did not dare to shoot, for fear that if he wounded one it would make the rest more likely to attack him, so he quietly walked away.
In the winter of 1838 Mr. Griffin taught school, which he con- tinued to do every winter for several years thereafter. January 3d, 1841, he married Miss Mary A. Simmons, who bore one daughter and one son. Both are living. In 1844 he bought, of Harry Dains, a farm of eighty acres, which he still owns.
In the spring of 1846 he was elected a justice of the peace, and was re-elected, and served as such, five terms. In 1859 Peter Fralick, then sheriff, made him his deputy. In 1861 his wife, Mary A. Sim- mons, died. April 30th, 1869, he married Mrs. Mary Delamater. She was the youngest sister of Col. Henry Barnes and died February 18th, 1870, leaving a son and daughter, who are still living. In 1871 he married the third time, Miss Mary A. Gleason. She died October 23d, 1886, leaving no children.
Mr. Griffin is a man of intelligence and integrity and enjoys the confidence and respect of all who know him. He is at present living in Detroit, going to his farm occasionally.
HIRAM GRANGER.
We learn that there was a man named " Hiram" whom Solomon relied upon for devising and superintending the building of the temple. It is said that his abilities were not confined to building only, but extended to all kinds of work, whether in gold, silver, brass or iron, and as an architect, founder or designer, he excelled all others. He was a man of untiring energy and perseverance, full of resources for every emergency, and never discouraged.
- 308 -
Hiram Granger has exemplied in his life that he possesses some of the characteristics credited to him from whom his christen name is derived.
Thrown upon the world at an early age to carve his own way, he learned to depend upon himself. His boyhood and early manhood was spent in Ohio. He was born at Deerfield, Portage county, Ohio, on the 22d day of February, 1813. His father, Thaddeus Granger, was born in Suffield, Connecticut, in the year 1757, and moved first to Greenville, second to the Territory of Ohio, or New Connecticut, as then called, and his mother, whose maiden name was Julia Manley, was born at Granville, Mass., about the year 1780. They were married at Granville, Mass., in 1805, and had five sons and one daughter born to them. Hiram, the subject of this sketch, was the second son. Util- izing the meager educational opportunities afforded him, he acquired a fair English education. Soon after reaching his majority he married and came to Michigan in the year 1839, locating on a wild farm in the county of Macomb. With his own hands he erected his first dwelling and cleared his farm, but farming being not congenial, at the end of six years he came to Detroit and engaged in the tobacco trade with Isaac Miller. Soon after his arrival at Detroit he met for the first time John J. Bagley, whom he took to Mr. Miller, where he found him employ- ment in the business, which John J. Bagley continued to his death.
Mr. Granger's part of the business with Mr. Miller was traveling with a team and selling tobacco from a wagon, through Michigan, northern Indiana and Ohio. This he continued for four years, and then traveled by cars until 1856, when he, with Daniel Scotten and Wm. E. Lovett, established the Hiawatha Tobacco Works. His connection continued until 1862, when he sold out his interest, and then engaged in banking under the firm name of Kellogg, Granger & Sabine. Mean- while he organized what is now known as the Globe Tobacco Com- pany, under the firm name of Walker, McGraw & Co. At the end of eight years he disposed of his interest in this company and established a factory of his own, known as the Granger Tobacco Works, the princi- pal brand being the "Seal of Detroit." He continued to manufacture this brand himself until just prior to the death of the late Governor Bagley, when he consolidated with John J. Bagley & Company, which arrangement still continues, he manufacturing the " Seal of Detroit " as a specialty.
-309-
ALONZO LACEY CHAPMAN.
Alonzo Lacey Chapman, one of the old pioneers of Wayne county, died at his residence in Livonia, on September 19, 1883, at eleven o'clock in the forenoon. He was attacked with a paralytic stroke in April, 1882, but recovered from it enough to walk with the help of a cane. He had been in his usual vigorous and robust health prior to this stroke. A second attack occurred on the evening of Thursday, September 13, 1883, and he lingered till his death, on the 19th. From the moment of his second attack he gradually declined, his life going out peacefully and painlessly.
Mr. Chapman was born in Stephentown, Rensselaer county, N. Y., August 28, 1806. He was the youngest son of Zechariah Chap- man, who was born at East Haddam, Connecticut, and left there when a young man, and settled in Stephentown, N. Y. His mother was Annie Lacey, whose ancestors were also from East Haddam. Mr. Chapman was of English extraction, being descended from Robert Chapman, one of the first settlers of Saybrook, Connecticut. The line of his descent is as follows:
Robert Chapman, the first settler in America, born about the year 1617, in the reign of James I., in Yorkshire, England.
Robert Chapman, Jr., born about the middle of September, 1646, at Saybrook, Connecticut.
Robert Chapman, the third, was born April 19, 1675, at Saybrook, Connecticut; Caleb Chapman, born August 21st, 1704, at East Had- dam, Connecticut; Caleb Chapman, born April 19, 1732, at East Had- dam, Connecticut; Zechariah Chapman, born February 29, 1761, at East Haddam, Connecticut; Alonzo Lacey Chapman, born August 28, 1806, at Stephentown, New York.
The Chapman family is, therefore, as the above record shows, of ancient origin, the branch to which Robert Chapman, the first settler in this country, and the first of the name to settle in America belonged, being located in the County of York, England.
The coat of arms of the family in England, valuable and curious now only as a historic relic of the days of chivalry and knight errantry, is described in the quaint language of that era as a " crescent, the crest being a dexter arm embowed, habited in mail, holding in the hand a broken tilting spear enfiled with a chaplet of laurel, with the motto: 'Crescit sub pondere virtus' "-virtue increases under affliction.
Fifteen years after the Mayflower landed her heroic passengers at Plymouth Rock, and in the month of August, 1635, this Robert Chap- man, the first settler, left the city of Hull, in England, for the new world, and landed at Boston, Massachusetts. On the third day of November, 1635, in company with Lyon Gardiner, and being one of
-310-
the company of twenty sent over by Sir Richard Saltonstall, he sailed from Boston for Saybrook, and helped to establish the fort at that place, and lived there for fifty years, dying October 13, 1687. When he left England he was, as is supposed, about eighteen years of age. He took an active and prominent part in the historic events which group themselves by a chivalric and romantic association around the name of Saybrook. He married Ann Bliss, April 29, 1642. He was a man of influence in the town of Saybrook, and for many years held the office of Town Clerk, and Clerk of the Oyster River quarter, and was elected a representative to the Legislature at Hartford forty-three times, and assistant nine times. The object of the expedition to Say- brook sent by Sir Richard Seltonstall, was to take possession of a large tract of land, and make settlements near the mouth of the Connecticut river under the patent of Lord Say and Seal. After the Indians were subdued, the settlers proceeded to clear up the forests and form a per- manent settlement, and Robert Chapman settled on a large tract of land in Oyster river, about two miles west of the old Saybrook fort, and this land has descended in the line of the youngest son of each family, never having been bought or sold out of the family, and is now occupied, or was until recently, by Hon. George H. Chapman, the youngest of the fifth generation. His parents were Puritans. There is now on this farm a fashionable watering place and popular resort, and advertisements speak of it as the Sea Shore Hotel, Chapman strand, Saybrook, Connecticut, formerly Oyster River House, from which it would appear that this old Puritan has left a home and record to which his descendents look back with pride.
The records of the General Court at Hartford, Connecticut, show that on October 3, 1654, an order was passed to fit out an expedition against the Narragansett Indians. There is the following entry, quaint in every particular, save in the brave, quiet determination which breathes in every line and word :- " The Comittee, chosen by this Courte to press men and necessaryes, in each Towne, for this Expedi- tyon, in each Towne, till it be Ended, is as followeth "-and among the names in the " Comittee " that "followeth " are: " For Seabrooke, John Clarke & Robert Chapman, with the Maior," meaning Major Mason. Other quaint and interesting records follow in quick suc- cession. One at a general session held at Hartford called by the Governor, July 6, 1665, contained the following :
" This Courte haveing by his Maties order been informed that DeRuyter is likely to assault his Mates colonies in these parts of the world, and that it is his regall pleasure, that his subjects here should put themselves in a posture of defence agaynst the common adversary. In pursuance thereof do order that each planta" in this colony should consid of some way for the discovery of the approach of the enemy,
- 311
and that upon the discovery of the approach of the enemy they pre- sently give notice thereof to ye committee appointed by the Courte, who are to act therein according to the power committed to them by this assembly."
One of "ye committee " was Robert Chapman, of Saybrook. Again, at the General Court of Hartford, October 14, 1675: " Mr. Robert Chapman is by this Courte appoynted Capt" of the Train Band of Saybrook during these present commotions with the Indians."
The records of those early days are full of similar entries showing that this, the " first settler " of the family in this country, braved his full share of the dangers, and did his duty well in laying the founda- tions for the future Republic of Liberty, and that in all that made for the welfare of the infant colony he was the active and influential citizen.
Zechariah Chapman, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born as the above record shows, at East Haddam, Connecticut, and was the fifth child of Caleb Chapman, being one of a family of eighteen children. He was a shoemaker at Stephentown, N. Y., at first, after- wards, a farmer, and was a soldier three years in the Revolutionary War. He was with Washington on the Hudson at the time of Arnold's treason and the capture of Major Andre. He took the place of another soldier who was ordered to another duty, and stood sentinel over Andre the night before his execution, and often in relating the circum- stance to his son, Alonzo, in after years, declared that Major Andre was the handsomest man he ever saw.
The birthplace of Alonzo L. Chapman, was about three miles north of Lebanon Springs, on the old VanRensselaer claim, and about one mile from the Massachusetts State Line. Here he passed his boy- hood and young manhood at work on the small farm his father owned, and in teaching school. His longest term in teaching was eleven months at the village of Sand Lake, in Rensselaer county, N. Y. He was fond of narrating his hunting experiences on the Catskill moun- tains, and his feats of skill with the rifle at shooting matches. While engaging with all the ardor of youth in all the sports and exercises of young manhood, he was strictly temperate and of unimpeachable integrity and morality.
September 22, 1830, he married Charlotte Cole, who survives him· On the Saturday of the week he died he had intended to celebrate the fifty-third anniversary of that event at the house of John G. Bennett, one of his sons-in-law.
There were eight children born to them, five of whom are now living, and six of these were present at his funeral, and followed him to his last resting place. His children are given below, with the dates and places of their birth :
Mary Orselia Chapman, born at Stephentown, N. Y., January 27,
.
-312-
1832, died at Stephentown, February 17, 1836; Rosolthe Laura Gil- more, wife of Alexander Gilmore, born at Stephentown, September 28, 1833, resides at Northville, Michigan; Albert J. Chapman, born at Stephentown, N. Y., August 11, 1835; Edwin Alonzo Chapman, born at the town of Cooper, Kalamazoo county, Michigan, May 22, 1838, died at Jackson, Michigan, March 1, 1888; Horace Chapman, born in the township of Livonia, Wayne county, Michigan, April 7, 1841, died in the same place, June 17, 1842; Oscar David Chapman, born in Livonia, May 15, 1843; Louisa Augusta, wife of John G. Bennett, born in Livonia October 3, 1845, resides in Livonia; Lucy Ophelia, wife of Barnabas Mosher, born in Livonia, December 14, 1850, resides at Byers, Mecosta county, Michigan.
About the 6th of November, 1836, he left Stephentown, N. Y. for the township of Cooper, Kalamazoo county, Michigan. He was six days and nights crossing the State of New York on the Erie canal. This was before the days of railroads. At Buffalo, he took passage with his family on the old steamboat Columbus for Detroit, and was four days crossing Lake Erie, a fierce storm driving the boat back twice, once to Dunkirk, and once to Erie. He took great pleasure in recalling this journey, and grew quite enthusiastic in speaking of this passage of Lake Erie. His family then consisted of his wife and two children, Rosalthe and Albert. He was literally going into a wilder- ness, trackless, pathless, and roadless, with brave heart and strong arm, to hew out a home and fortune.
In Kalamazoo county, his life was a hard one, owing to the priva- tions incident to pioneer life, and also of sickness, all save his wife being prostrated for months at a time with fever and ague. He remained three years in that county, and then moved to the farm in Livonia, in the county of Wayne, Michigan, where his subsequent life was spent, and where he died. He reached there March 2, 1840, thus having lived there forty-three years and six months. This farm is situated one half mile south of the little village of Elm, on the Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad.
While he lived in Kalamazoo county, a tribe of the Pottawatomie Indians still occupied their reservation near his dwelling, and his son, Albert J., recalls as one of his earliest recollections, seeing them defile, in true Indian style, across his father's fields, as they started on their long journey to the west of the Mississippi. His attention was called to them by their chief himself, then in full uniform of feathers and paint, waiting in his father's dwelling, while Mrs. Chapman, his mother, was getting him some food.
The farm on which he settled in Livonia was, when he reached it, in 1840, as stated above, but a mere opening in the woods, and the prospect for the future was forbidding and cheerless. Pioneering in
-313 -
Wayne county in those early days meant the hardest kind of hard work. His farm lay along what afterwards was the Plymouth plank road. When this plank road company was organized he was among the first to give it his active support. He subscribed one hundred dollars to its stock, and he paid the first installment into its treasury of ten dollars. The payment was made to Asa H. Otis, who afterwards built the entire road.
He was always a warm and active supporter of schools, keeping his sons in school when they could have been of substantial service to him in carrying on his farm and lightening the burden that always lay heavy on his shoulders.
Mr. Chapman was a man of strict integrity and of fearless, uncom- promising fidelity to his convictions of right and duty. He had a high sense of justice and cared nothing for public opinion or unpopularity when in his opinion the pathway of duty lay before him. He would not knowingly be guilty of any dishonest or dishonorable dealing with his neighbors. He had such an abhorrence of debt that he would not allow himself, save under very exceptional circumstances, to ask credit to the extent of a dollar. He was never known to flinch from any danger or duty in any place.
In politics he was a Democrat, down to the formation of the Republican party, when he went into that organization, and voted the Republican ticket until the opening of the campaign of 1876, when he joined the Independent (Greenback) party and voted for Peter Cooper and Samuel F. Cary.
The writer remembers being present at the annual school meeting in his district in the fall of 1850. The threatening outcome of the com- promise measures then pending in Congress, and which had stirred the country as it had not been before in many a long year, if ever, reached with its influence this small gathering of hard-handed, honest farmers at their school meeting. The regular business was pushed hastily through, the meeting adjourned, and instantly all present were called again to order as a political meeting. Here was seen a practical realiz- ation of the beneficent effect of that wise provision in the first article of the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which guaranteed to the people the right to peaceably assemble and discuss measures and questions which they considered affected the common welfare of the Republic.
Mr. Chapman was made chairman, and then followed a discussion of the questions then pending, particularly the repeal of the compro- mise measures of 1820, and the re-enactment of the fugitive slave law, with very stringent and degrading provisions, which the writer never saw or heard excelled for manly earnestness and honest indigna- tion. Among those who took part were Alexander Blue, afterwards
21
-314-
County Auditor of Wayne county, and Cyrus Ashcroft, both of them residents of the neighborhood. Ashcroft had been a student in the Norwich University, of Vermont, and a member of the Legislature of that State, and was an exceedingly interesting man. He had a manly, independent way of thinking, and was thoroughly aroused in his oppo- sition to, and bitter in his denunciations of the slave power and its aggressions in re-enacting the fugitive slave law. None present, how- ever, were more thoroughly imbued with the spirit of the meeting, or entered more heartily into its sentiments and the discussion than Mr. Chapman.
This was one of those spontaneous indications of the drift of popular thought and sentiment, that are significant as showing that here among the masses at least rests that solid foundation of popular patriot- ism which will be the sure, unfailing safeguard to the Republic in its hour of danger.
He was a great reader, and always took particular delight in read- ing the story of the Revolutionary War. To him the glorious old story was always fresh and new.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.