USA > Michigan > Hillsdale County > Compendium of history and biography of Hillsdale County, Michigan > Part 3
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 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77
The year 1828 passed in great activity in many parts of this territory. Immigrants with their wagons and a little stock were penetrating the forests by the aid of their compasses, leaving the trees blazed behind them, as a trail for others to follow, and as a line of retreat, if that became necessary. In the record we find nothing of spec- ial interest pertaining to this locality.
The year of 1829 opens with marked interest to us. Our lands had been surveyed and put in market. The great Chicago road had assumed an identity sufficient to indicate where the trail would be. A reaction was taking place in the castern states, especially in New York, as to Michigan. They could not believe it to be such a vast expanse of sand hills and quagmires as it was represented to be by some of its early ex- plorers, who had been sent to examine it when the government contemplated setting it apart for the benefit of our soldiers of the Revolution and of the War of 1812. And they were strongly forti- fied in these doubts by a long series of articles in the North American Review, evidently from the pen of one who knew well what he was talk- ing about, and familiar with the country. These articles were extensively copied by the presses of the country. They were historical, in showing the struggles that the territory had passed through ; they were statistical in setting forth the resources and capabilities of each and every part of the country with the familiarity of an eye- witness.
They were also convincing to the general government that it had done a great wrong in withdrawing the military arm of protection from around her borders which had ever served as a shield of defense against the savages of the wil- derncss. The forts of the lakes from Detroit to Chicago were strengthened at once. Appropri- ations were made by Congress for the opening up of the highways so long prayed for. Day be- gan to break in the cast and as the rays of the sun began to shoot through the sky, we find the young men of the east following in its light. As
27
HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
their eye takes in the vision of their imagined Eldorado of the West, their feet strike the trail of what was to be Michigan's great thoroughfare.
On the 8th of June in this year we find Ed- mund and Benaiah Jones, Jr., pitching their tent on the northwest quarter of section No. 4, where Jonesville now stands, and obtaining title thereto from the government. On the same day, Moses Allen secures title to the southeast quarter of section No. 10, it being on the east side of Allen's prairie, a part of the same being later owned by Goodwin Howard, Esq. On the 18th of the same month John S. Reed secures title to the east half of the northeast quarter of section No. 17, in the same town and range. On the 26th of October S. N. W. Benson secured title to the lands on section No. II, where the village of Moscow now stands. On the 29th of this October Gen. Lewis Cass, as governor of Michigan terri- · tory by proclamation organized by boundary and name the county of Hillsdale, thereby carrying out the provisions of an act of the legislative councils.
But it must not be inferred that we became a community then, a fullfledged and independent nation governing and being governed ; for, mark you, our Uncle Sam had parted with but 480 acres of his domain within the county, and this to five individuals, hardly enough to "keep house" with, therefore the providence that was watching over us, deemed it wise to exercise tutelage awhile longer. And in six days after, on the 5th of No- vember, we were christened, as is the custom of all Christian people with their children, and given the name of Vance, as a token of esteem on the part of the officiator to a valued friend, then conspicuous in an adjoining state. We were put under the guardianship of our elder brother, the county of Lenawee, until further orders, with the one provision that we might, on the first Monday in Aprilof each year, meet at the house of Benaiah Jones, Jr., and hold high carnival in the ceremony of dividing the spoils of office as should seem meet to us without let or hindrance. In all other particulars we were dependent upon our guardian, Lenawee. To him we must report the result of our political sprees : If we wished to get married
we must get his permit; if a land title was to be perpetuated, or difficulties between parties adjudi- cated by the courts, we must go to Tecumseh to have it done. If we desired to number our popu- lation Sheriff Patchen must come up and do it.
In 1830 an act was passed by the legislative council authorizing Shubel Conant of Monroe, Jared Patchen of Lenawee and Judge Sibley of Detroit to act as commissioners to locate and es- tablish the county seat of Hillsdale county. On their report we find that the governor, by procla- mation dated Feb. 15, 1831, fixes it at Jonesville ; and now with a county and a county seat it might be inferred that we had come of full age and ready to put on our majority. Such, however, was not the fact.
A little cloud was springing up in the western horizon, no bigger than a man's hand, and spreading its blackness over Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan.
In the northern wilds of the first-named ter- ritory lived the powerful and warlike tribes of Sacs and Foxes, and as their names imply, they had sacked and spoiled many a peaceful settle- ment, even of their own race. These Indians had taken umbrage at some of the treaties heretofore made with them, and they would be revenged. Standing at their head was the renowned warrior and chief, Black Hawk, and his able brother, the Prophet. In solemn council these tribes resolved on war to recover their old possessions, and to drive from the land all of the white intruders. The news of this declaration spread as upon the wings of the wind. It applied to Michigan as well as other territory, at least our people thought that it did. The greatest excitement prevailed. Some gathered their household goods and started for the east, but the greater part kept their powder dry and flints well packed, "awaiting the result."
The result was very disastrous to emigration, which received such a blow that it took fully four years to recover from it. Looking at the farce in after years one but car conclude that the fright was uncalled for, and not worthy the consider- ation of Americans whose sires had bravely met threats like these and resulting war in a former day.
28
HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
What were the facts in this great scare ? Three thousand boisterous fighting savages had declared war against the scattered settlements of a territory more than five hundred miles from their home, without allies or resources only as they could secure them on the warpath. What were their prospects of success? It had been more than a year since they made their declar- ation ; they had tried for allies among other tribes and failed. They had, by declaring war against the settlements, pronounced against the Federal government, at the head of which stood General Jackson, an adept in Indian warfare, and his war minister, General Cass, who was personally acquainted with Black Hawk and all of his tribe and families, with every inch of terri- tory which would suffer. Who that was familiar with these facts could doubt that the war would be closed sharply and quickly if a step should be taken? As the sequel shows the Indians had hardly moved from their stamping-grounds be- fore Generals Atkinson and Dodge laid the prowess of the United States army upon them and the Black Hawk War was at an end.
As the clouds rolled away in the west new de- sires sprang up in the east. Many of her hardy sons were anxious to secure homes from the cheap lands of the western states and territories ; a home they had never heretofore enjoyed fully. With these desires they acted, thousands taking their little all, sallying forth with no definite point in view, but trusting to their good judgment to stop when they reached the point destiny had se- lected for them.
So great was this tide, this pushing forward for the land of their hopes in the spring of 1835, that one familiar with sacred history could readily see the panorama of the moving of Israel to the promised land.
But we must bring this preliminary history to a close. We have followed acts and incidents until we find we have come to the year 1835. We find also that Sheriff Patchen has been here and enrolled our people, that we number 519, all told ; and that he has reported his doings to the legis- lative council, and that they, through the gover- nor, have notified us that we are of age on this
IIth day of February, 1835 ; and that henceforth we must take care of ourselves as one of the inde- pendent counties of Michigan.
Hillsdale county was granted political and municipal privileges on Feb. 11, 1835. Its geo- grapical position is on the southern border of "the state, nearly equi-distant from the Lakes, Eric and Michigan, and definitely described as embracing townships 5, 6, 7, 8, and part of 9, south of the base line, and ranges 1, 2, 3 and 4 west of the principal meridian, as established by the U. S. survey, in the subdivision of Michigan territory."
It is bounded on the north by Jackson and Calhoun counties, on the east by Lenawee county, on the south by Ohio and Indiana and on the west by Indiana and Branch county, and compris- es 617 square miles, of 640 acres to the mile, or 394,880 acres. The soil is variable, the north part being mostly a gravelly loam with clay subsoil, while in the southern part a clay loam predomi- nates. It was originally a timbered county, abounding in beech, maple, oak, elm, hickory, basswood, whitewood, black-walnut and cotton- wood in all of the towns, and there was not one but had its belt of "oak openings" or "burr-oak plains."
The surface is rolling but not hilly, forming a high table-land, the highest in the state, it being 630 feet above Lake Erie, and 616 above Lake Michigan. It is the source of all the principal rivers of southern Michigan, Grand Kalamazoo, St. Joseph, Little St. Joseph, Tiffin and Raisin, that find their feeders in the numerous and beau- tiful lakes which dot the surface of the county. These lakes, although small, are generally of great depth, with beautiful gravelly bottoms and fine pebbly shores, abounding in the fish usually found in western inland waters. The rivers all have prominence on the maps of our country. The first three traverse the state in a northwest- erly direction, discharging into Lake Michigan. The fourth and fifth run in a southerly course un- til they join hands with the Necaine of the lakes, there to swell its bosom as a feeder to our inland ocean, while the sixth steadily pursues a due east course until it reaches Lake Erie. This is Hills-
29
HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
dale county as it was when its boundaries were established, and given its name on the 29th of October, 1829. This is also as it was when or- ganized in 1835, excepting the changes made by the frontiersman, which will be noted under a dif- ferent heading.
By act of the legislative council in 1834, a census of the territory was taken, looking to the formation of a constitution and becoming a state of the Union when the population was sufficient. Eighty thousand was the number this required. Upon canvassing the returns it was found to be more than was required, and, on the 26th of January, 1835, the same council passed an act calling a convention to form a state constitution also dividing the territory into election districts, determining their boundaries, and giving a mem- ber to each thousand inhabitants as near as prac- ticable. In this assignment we find Hillsdale and Branch counties constituting the Ninth District. The election was fixed for Saturday, April 4, 1835, throughout the territory.
On the IIth of February following, by an- other act of the council the county was organized by the appointment of county officers as follows : Sheriff, James D. Van Hoevenburgh ; clerk, Chauncey W. Ferris ; register, James Olds ; treas- urer, John P. Cook; judge of probate, Lyman Blackmar, and circuit judge, William A. Fletcher. These constituted the county officers then and to these appointees were committed the trusts and interests of the county in a limited sense as pro- vided by statutes. But by the same statute the full management was to be vested in a board of supervisors consisting of one member from each town.
On the 17th of March in this year the legis- lative council passed an act dividing Hillsdale county or the town of Vance, as it had heretofore been called, into four parts and organizing them as separate townships. The first comprised the territory lying in Range 2, which they named. "Wheatland," and appointed the first town meet- ing to be held at the house of Thomas Gamble on Saturday, April 4, following. The second com- prised all the territory lying in Range 2; they named it Moscow, and appointed the first town
meeting at the house of Lyman Blackmar, to be held on Saturday, April 4, following.
The third comprised the territory lying in Range 3. They named it Fayette and appoint- ed the first town meeting at the house of James D. Van Hoevenburgh, to be held April 4 follow- ing. The fourth comprised the territory lying in Range 4. They named it Allen and appoint- ed the first town meeting at the house of Richard Corbus, to be held April 4 following.
At these annual meetings we find our people exercising the elective franchise for the first time in the county, and selecting their delegate to the constitutional convention. We find, on canvass- ing the ballots of this election with the returns from Branch county, that the district made choice of Judge Lewis T. Miller of Moscow as its dele- gate to the constitutional convention, a man of years, of fine talent, of quick perception, a farmer by occupation and held in high esteem. The first supervisors who constituted the county board were Herman Pratt, of Wheatland; Benjamin Fowle, of Moscow ; Brooks Bowman, of Fayette, and Richard Corbus, of Allen. To these belonged the prerogative of raising revenue for county pur- poses, and through them and by their order must the same be disbursed. To them was committed the county's wards, and by them must refuges of safety be provided by which the reckless could be restrained and the poor and infirm cared for.
The convention to form a state constitution met on the 2nd Monday in May in the city of De troit, concluding their duties and adjourning on the 24th of the same month. In giving their boundaries they made their southern one the same as recognized by the ordinance of 1787, and as understood when the territory was found. This constitution was submitted to the people and by them approved and sent to congress for its action, they not doubting the admittance of Mich- igan as a state as soon as congress assembled. To this boundary Ohio entered protest in con- gress, and by her legislature and executive, and at once organized her civil and military powers through and over the disputed territory, which was a strip of land about six miles wide on the Indiana line and eight or nine miles wide at the
30
HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Maumee river. Congress rejected the Michigan application on the 15th of June. 1836, and submit- ted a proposition to the people of the territory July 25 of the same year, fixing the southern boundary where it is now. In consideration for the change the following grants were to be made : First. Section 16 of every township for the use of schools. Second. Seventy-two sections for a state university. Third. Five sections to build a state capitol. Fourth. Twelve salt springs, with six sections of land surrounding each, for the general uses of territory. Fifth. Five-twenti- eths of the net proceeds of the public lands (when sold) for public roads and canals. Sixth. Alter- ation of the northern boundaries to include the upper peninsulas. This proposition was consid- cred by a new convention authorized by the people and held at Ann Arbor, and was accepted on Dec. 15, 1836, and duly certified to congress, which on the 26th of January, 1837, passed an act admit- ting Michigan into the Union on an equal foot- ing with the original states.
In the meanwhile, through all of this compro- mising and delaying action of the general govern- ment and territory, other scenes were transpiring which looked ominous of difficulty. Ohio had placed commissioners in the field to ascertain and establish her northern boundary "from the most northerly cape of Miami bay, to a point on the cast line of Indiana, where it would intersect a line drawn due east from the most southerly point of Lake Michigan."
This action fixed the heart of young Acting Governor Stevens T. Mason, whose loyalty and zeal would not brook such an insult. The militia at his disposal was called into requisition early . in the spring of 1835 and was put upon the trail of the commissioners, whom they actually routed, taking several of the party prisoners on the line ten miles east of Morenci.
These they held for a few days, then discharg- ed some on parole and others on bail to answer in the district court. But the end was not yet ! A majority of those living on the disputed terri- tory in Monroe county were late emigrants from Ohio and Pennsylvania, and they were thorough- ly impressed with the importance to them of being
a part of Ohio. There was the Port of Toledo just opening to the traffic of the lakes. There were the states of Ohio and Indiana ready to bring in the great Wabash canal, provided it could tap the lake on Ohio's soil, and. besides this, Ohio was an old state and would be able to develop the territory much quicker, that in fact the territorial interest was all centered at Detroit and Toledo, and if it remained to Michigan, would only be a dependency paying tribute.
With the sentiments prevailing the governor of Ohio was easily induced to put in force the laws of the state, and issued a proclamation, de- fining the boundaries of towns and counties in the disputed tract and for the election of officers to complete their organizations. These were quickly held and military companies began to drill in preparation for civil war. The impulsive govern- 01 of Michigan promptly ordered General Brown, of Tecumseh, to assemble the entire brigade of his militia, numbering fiom 1,200 to 1,500 men, with which they marched to Toledo and held the place. the Ohio troops wisely halting at Perrys- burgh.
The situation was serious and much bloodshed must have occurred if the national commission- ers, hastily sent.from Washington, had not intro- duced delaying measures. The Michigan troops went home. Ohio was allowed to resurvey the "Harris line," the basis of her claim, and, after frequent display of troops on cither side of the controversy and numerous arrests, in 1837 the people consented to accept the terms of congress and receive admittance into the Union. (F. M. Holloway, so long a citizen of Hillsdale, was a captain in this "Toledo war," as it was termed. in the Ohio troops.) Thus it was that Hillsdale county failed to be twenty-eight miles long in- stead of twenty-five and one-half ; and thus, too, it happened that the southern boundary of the county is not an, east and west line, but a line bear- ing north of cast, diverging from a true east line about half a mile in the width of the county.
But we have anticipated and must return to the period when Benaiah Jones. Jr., laid out the village of Jonesville January 31, 1831. Judging
31
HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
from the light we now have, these first pioneers were men of great hope, living in expectations, reasoning from precedent that every county must have its capital, every community its centre ; hence a village was a necessity, although there was but I.280 acres of land sold in the county, and this held by about twelve individuals, and these stretched out on a line of seventeen miles. We give the names of these twelve nearly in the order in which they came: Moses Allen, Edmund and Benaiah Jones, Jr., John S. and Thomas S. Reid, S. N. W. Benson, James Olds, Abram F. Boulton, Richard W. Corbus, E. J. Sibley, Martin G. Shell- house and Benjamin F. Larned, the last named were probably non-residents. There were a few who had not yet located ; among them Thaddeus Wright, Stephen Hickox and others.
All of the dwellings up to this date were con- structed entirely from logs as there were no mills in the country. In 1832 E. J. Sibley built a saw- mill two miles south of Jonesville, on the St. Joseph river, and three years later James Olds and others built another one a mile above the first on the east branch of the same stream. These mills were of incalculable benefit to the people. Im- proved residences and an impetus to the growth of the village was at once manifest.
At the close of 1833 we find but 10,280 acres of land yet located in the county. This was dis- tributed as follows: In Somerset, 1,040 acres to James D. Van Hoevenberg, Horace White, He- man Pratt, Elias Branch, Elias Alley, David Her- rington, Ebenezer Gay and Charles Blackmar. In Wheatland, 1,200 acres to Silas Moore, Rich- ard M. Lewis, Mahlon Brown, Edwin Brown, Lydia Kaniff, Thomas Lewin and Stephen Rus- sel. In Pittsford, 1,760 acres to Charles Ames, Thomas Herdsman, Jesse Smith, William B. Ames, Curran White, Stephen Wilcox, John Gus- tin, William Flowers, Thomas J. Pannock, Isaiah French and Alpheus Pratt. In Moscow. 3.320 acres to Benjamin Fowle, S. N. W. Benson, Samuel Aiken, O. B. Blackmar, Pontius Hooper, Stephen Scott, David Hiller, Thomas Watts, John Simmons, James Winters, T. C. Delavan, Louis T. Miller, Simon Jacobus, Charles T. Delavan,
Lucius Lyon, Alonzo Kies, Mary Miller and Charles Stuck. In Scipio, 300 acres to William H. Nelson, Dexter Olds, S. N. W. Benson and Nathaniel Bacon. In Fayette, 1,980 acres to Benaiah and Edmund Jones, James Olds, M. G. · Shellhouse, Abel Olds, Thaddeus Wight, E. J. Sibley, Benaiah Jones, Sr., Peter Martin, B. F. Larned, Artemedorus Fuller, Nelson and Lyman Nethaway, Alvin Niece, Lemuel White, Stephen Hickox, James Bloss. In Allen, 1,720 acres to Moses Allen, John S. and Thomas S. Reid, Rich- ard W. Corbus, Abram F. Boulton, R. E. and N. Stiles, John Ewell, Newel Kane, David Stiles, Ichabod Burdick, Henry Clark and Hiram B. Hunt, making but seventy-five landowners in the entire county, and being less in amount than sev- enteen sections, and not quite equal to a half- township.
In the summer of 1834 John P. Cook and Chauncey W. Ferris came to the county and open- ed in Jonesville the first stock of goods offered for sale in the state west of Tecumseh, except by Indian traders. In the same year Levi Baxter and Cook Sisson commenced to build the Jones- ville gristmill, finishing it the next year, it being the first of the kind west of Tecumseh. Many im- provements were being made in the village and country. The Fayette House, a large and com- modious hotel, had been built by Benaiah Jones in the village. A second stock of goods was opened in the fall by Charles Gregory. A school dis- trict was organized in 1833 and the first school- house was built in the county, a small log build- ing, 12x14 feet in size, standing on the grounds west of where the Episcopal church now stands.
A private or select school was opened as early as 1831 by Miss Ora Nickelson who, being taken sick, her place was filled by Dr. William Mot- tram, later of Kalamazoo. He was succeeded by Dr. Chase, who removed to Coldwater, and he was succeeded by Benjamin L. Baxter, later of Te- cumseh, then but seventeen years of age. Taking the position of teacher in the public school on its organization, he became the first public teacher in the county. Civilization had now established here a strong picket line. .
32
HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
CHAPTER III. .
EARLY PIONEER CONDITIONS.
Immediately after the opening of the Chi- cago road Jonesville presented daily the appear- ance of a pioncer camp. All around the little log house of entertainment, where Benaiah and Lois Jones made so comforting a welcome as to cause the wayworn travelers often to forget the discom- forts they had experienced in the tangled under- growth and deep mires of the Cottonwood and Black swamps, which their wearisome journey from the cast had compelled them to cross. White-topped wagons were thickly packed to- gether, and men, women and children engaged in carnest conversation.
A scene typical of life here will stand for the daily occasions at most of the little wayside taverns scattered along the Great Trail. Emerg- ing from the forest, coming from the East, would appear a hardy and stalwart pioneer in the prime of life, guiding the oxteam, or teams that bore along all of the family's personal effects. His boys followed, driving perhaps a cow or two and a few pigs and sheep. His wife and daughters, tired of their long tramp of many weary miles through the woods and swamps and over rough roads, trudged scatteringly behind. Sometimes a hale, white-haired patriarch, staff in hand, with head erect and firm steps, would walk at the head of the teams or among his grown-up and married sons and daughters, undaunted by the privations and hardships that he knew so well from former experiences, must be their lot in their new homes. But, with powers still vigorous, he had elected "to go west along with the children" to aid in the starting and the development of their new home in Michigan, or perhaps that his bones might rest in the center of the little plot which eventually would be the final resting-place of every member of the little caravan. Following these might be seen others, and more favored immigrants, who had passed less time on the way. for they rode in covered wagons, drawn by sleek, well-groomed horses, indicating owners in pros- perous circumstances.
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.