USA > Michigan > Hillsdale County > Compendium of history and biography of Hillsdale County, Michigan > Part 5
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Toil in these men developed bone, muscle and brain for the struggle of existence. They had not studied men through the mists of centuries in the schools, but met them face to face, and looked di- rect into their souls. They never read of classic groves, but passed their daily lives among groves just as divine, whose beauty and lessons had sunk deep into their hearts. Some pale trembling be- ings go forth to the struggle of life with much learning and no health. These men went forth with health and a giant's strength to the battle-
field. We do not condemn the polish of the schools, but we admire the man endowed by God with power, no matter if its development be rude. We may safely assume that these sterling men of the early day are now all passed away, but some of their faces, preserved by art, look down upon us from the walls of their former homes, their voices yet linger in our ears, the works of their hands are present with us in the fruitfulness, bloom and beauty of the lands they aided in re- ' decming on every hill and dale, oak opening and prairie.
CHAPTER IV.
LESSONS AND VICISSITUDES.
Every fable has a moral, and all history should have. There are many impressive social lessons to be learned, even in the changes of events in Hillsdale county during the years that have passed since Captain Allen became the forerunner of the long concourse of westward immigration, which here found abiding homes. They are not lessons peculiar to this soil, but such as our common hu- manity everywhere teaches. One is the solemn lesson that men do not bear prosperity ; that power and capacity for achievement come only from the toil and discipline of sorrow; that men of one generation become strong, and make life too easy for the next. In many cases in this county we have seen the sturdy pioncer come to the annual fairs with his cereals, his flocks and his herds. His children appear with fast horses and costly equipages, while the third generation is seen on foot, empty-handed and hopeless, and the family name is no longer upon the tongues of men. While this has been going on, toiling boys, denied opportunities, have been working their way to opulence and place, to curse their posterity with too much unearned wealth.
In physical achievement, since the surveyor's chain first gave the settler freedom to here acquire a home, the dreams of the poet have been sur- passed. The achievements of six thousand years have been cumulative and multiplied, or the tree taking root in all of the centuries, fed by the toi!, endurance and suffering of all, has at last sud-
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denly blossomed and borne fruit. How helpless was the pioneer in the flower-covered wilderness, but his descendants are now citizens of the world, sharers in all of its luxury and glory. Every con- tinent and every sea ministers unto them. It took months for the pioneers to hear from across the sea, yes, even from their old homes in the East ; now the world's history of each day is read at every fireside. For years a few horseback carriers conveyed all the mail coming to this county and going past it into the West. Now the almost hourly railroad trains transport tons of mail daily.
If the great object of life was splendid struc- tures, the multiplication and diffusion of luxur- ies, well might men rejoice, but the solemn ques- tion, here or elsewhere, is whether all these things are making men better or happier. Every con- tinent is strewn with the voiceless wreck of the works of men's hands and with graves. Nation- alities and languages have disappeared. This has not been from convulsions of nature, but from the degeneracy engendered by prosperity. In this very territory are the relics of the Mound Build- ers. The pioneer planted with hope above their warning graves. The same natural, moral and social laws that gave them life and wrought their destruction, should remind us that there is no exemption from social corruption. The greatest trouble of the civilization of to-day is the power of monopolies, the restlessness of labor, the wild- ness of the scramble for gold, the violence and blindness of party spirit, and the character of the politicians, who look to their own interests and forget' their country.
The safety of the land lies in an intelligent agricultural population, which cherishes with wise conservatism the good of the past, and will so value their homes as to make them ever loyal pat- riots in the lines of national honor. The republic cannot last without the stability of an agricultural interest, which can hold the balance of power and cry "Halt!" whenever the hosts of corruption seem marching the land to political ruin. One successful demagogue, reeking with corruption, yet elevated to place, followed by popular ap- plause and worshiped for successful stealing, while virtue is ridiculed and a drug upon the
market, will do more to demoralize young men, than the example of a thousand saintly lives can do to lead them to a better life. All history warns us that Nature has not among its possibilities greater woe than may yet come to Hillsdale coun- ty, if men forget God and his laws. No matter what fields may be reclaimed, what temples may be reared, if men and women are not growing better, the pomp and splendor of civilization is as sad as the flowers that embellish graves.
To indicate the vicissitudes incident to the pio- neer life, which we have written about as existing in this county in the primitive age, we append a few personal illustrations.
Jesse Hill, from Wayne county, New York, settled in Wheatland, June 2, 1834. He possessed $200, which he invested in land. He was unmar- ried; built a log house, 12x14 feet, covered it with bark. The novelty of bachelor life soon wore off, and he married. He and his bride began housekeeping with a tea-kettle, a skillet, and a tea- pot, for cooking utensils; and for furniture, a pole bedstead, a set of three-legged stools, and a table, which he manufactured out of a log with the aid of his axe. For stock he owned a cow and a yoke of oxen.
The following from the pen of Charles C. Fowler, who died in 1874, is copied from the rec- ords of the Hillsdale County Pioneer Society: "I came in the fall of 1836, with my uncle, Ransel Wood, and with but $10 in my pocket. When we arrived at Monroe, we had to pay a sixpence apiece for the privilege of lying on the floor of a deserted grocery store. We remained there three days, waiting for a team to take us to Adrian. I did not stay long, but started for Tecumseh, and there took the Chicago turnpike, and came to Gambleville, in the township now Somerset. I then left the turnpike, determined to go to the southern part of the town, now Wheatland. I came as far as Francis Hill's, who lived on the faim later owned by Charles Doolittle. There was no road, and our only guide was blazed trees. I was now at the end of my journey ; had spent my $10 and owed $1.00 more. I immediately set to work chopping and logging for Deacon Bailey.
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I followed this business for several years, and have helped to clear nearly every farm in this vicinity. I also helped to clear the track for the Michigan Southern Railroad. I helped to build the first sawmill in this vicinity, and many of the first dwellings. My first farm was opposite Charles Doolittle's, later owned by John Wilson. In 1843 I built a log house, and cleared four acres. I did most of my chopping evenings, and days I helped some one else."
When Charles and Bradford Carmichael built their pole shanty in Wheatland in October, 1835, they were somewhat fearful of sleeping in it, as the wolves howled around them in such chorus that Charles Carmichael said: "It seemed as if there were a thousand of them." His brother was much frightened, but the elder told him to take the rifle and shoot among them and disperse them, while he lay snugly in his place, pretending not to be alarmed. These animals were the large, gray "timber wolves," and abounded in great numbers. Bears were also plenty, and extremely unscrupulous about making off with stray pigs, sheep or calves. An old sow belonging to Charles Carmichael came in the way of a huge black bear one morning, soon after sunrise, and Bruin coolly captured her and carried her off. While building their homes they boarded with Eli Eastman, and the food consisted of the universal "johnny cake" baked in a "bake-kettle," and jerked venison, which was cut into small pieces when fresh, laid in brine a few days and hung up on pegs in the house when ready for use.
John W. Johnson came to Woodbridge in Jan- uary. 1840, to make a home on land previously purchased. His two nearest neighbors were four miles away, one north, the other southeast. The nearest gristmill was at Jonesville and it took three days to make the round trip with the ox- teams. The log house, built after his arrival, was occupied before it was completed, a huge fire in the mammoth fireplace was continually burning, to temper the cold air circulating through the un- chinked sides of the house. The first winter he cut the timber from ten acres, planting five acres in the spring to potatoes and securing a fair crop. The next fall the ten acres were seeded with
wheat purchased at Jonesville at three "York" shillings a bushel. When this grain began to ripen the numerous children of the family were kept busy in the daytime, frightening away the immense flocks of wild turkeys that would other- wise have destroyed the entire crop. Deer were so tame that they came in numbers during the first winter to browse on the fallen tree tops while the chopper would be at work on the same tree.
One of the early settlers of Ransom desiring sash for the windows of his new log house, walked to Jonesville, bought five sash, paid all his money, lashed the sash to his back, and returned without having a mouthful to eat. Another man, desiring some seed-oats, started out, accompanied by his thirteen-year-old boy, in search of some. He bought three bushels three miles west of Hudson. Two bushels were put in one bag, one bushel in the other. The bags were shouldered respectively by father, and son, and carried the whole distance home."
Horace P. Hitchcock started from Mayville, Chautauqua county, N. Y., in January, 1834, for Michigan. Leaving his family, he then walked through Pennsylvania and Ohio to the land of lakes, hills and dales and entered eighty acres of government land on section 25, Pittsford town- ship. He then returned to Mayville, purchased an ox-team, and with his family drove through to their new home, the trip occupying twenty-two days. Upon arriving in Pittsford he had but $22 left, and no house wherein to find shelter, but soon a rude log dwelling appeared in the midst of a small clearing. The cooking utensils of the family consisted of a skillet, or spider, a dish ket- tle, and an iron tea-kettle. Some time in 1835. Mr. Hitchcock sold his place in Pittsford and moved to section 26 in Adams, in February, 1836. When coming to Adams, he trimmed out the un- derbrush for a mile and a half, in order to clear a passageway."
"Norman S. Sharp once went to Tecumseh to procure grists for four families. He was gone so much longer than usual that the families used up what little flour they had and then took some bran, sifted the "middlings" out of it and used that, and still the flour came not. One day three
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preachers came to Mrs. Sharp's, and were given supper and lodging. Mrs. Sharp told them she had given them the last food she had in the house, and unless her son came that night they would have to go without breakfast in the morning. The son arrived with his grist within two miles of liome that evening, unhitched the oxen and turned them out, walked home and went to bed, and early in the morning walked back and drew the load home in time to have some of it for breakfast."
An experience of the family of Joseph L. Farnham, a pioneer settler of Wright, in 1836, shows the value attached to cows as a means of subsistence. A local historian has thus described it. "The cows strayed off, and had been gone for several days. Mr. Farnham had vainly tramped many weary miles through the woods. The fam- ily, deprived of their principal article of food, were reduced to the verge of starvation. At last Farnham and his wife started out for another look, and, after several hours of weary search, found that instead of finding the cows, they had lost themselves. Sitting down, they talked the matter over, and, as the helplessness of their situ- ation became more and more apparent, as they saw more and more clearly that either in the woods or at home they were seemingly doomed to die of starvation, for not a mouthful of food did they possess, is it any wonder that the horror of their situation overcame them, and that, clasped in one another's arms, they wept many bitter, de- spairing tears ? But the thought of the old mother and those loved daughters spurred them to re- newed action, and they at last, tired and hungry, arrived at their cabin. While they were gone, the grandmother looked about to find some scrap or crust that might have been overlooked, which might for a time satisfy her craving for food. Rummaging in an old trunk, she found the string ends of several pieces of dried beef, left after the more edible portion had been shaved off and used. These had been forgotten, and the old lady gath- ered them, chopped them very fine, soaked them soft, and, by adding a little salt and a few savory wild herbs, succeeded in making a very palatable mess of pottage, and had it just ready for the table when the lost cow-hunters appeared.'
, In 1834 Samuel Riblet became a pioneer set- tler of Litchfield. Just across the river from his log house was a deers "runway" and they were often pursued by the hungry wolves. There is quite a variety in the howls of these animals ; one being the command of the leader of the pack, the old wolves long howl, the cry of the whelps, and yet another one, that sounds like a human voice or like boys shouting to the cows they are driving. One evening, soon after Mr. Riblet moved into his log cabin, as he was driving his cattle home from the marsh, his wife met him with her face beaming with delight. "Samuel," said she, "I have news to tell you." "Well," said he, "I should judge it was good news from your looks." "Yes, it is good news, for we have neigh- bors just across the river, they will help to support a school, for they have boys, and I heard them driving cattle and the dogs barking. They have one big dog and a number of little ones." Mr. Riblet said she must be mistaken, for no one could cross the river without calling for assistance. Mrs. Riblet thought they came down from the turn- pike and did not cross the stream. Mr. Riblet answered that was not probable, for it would take them a week to cut their way through the dense, tangled mass of vines and bushes. "Well, they are there, for I heard the boys plainly." Then she stopped and added : "There, listen, don't you hear them?" Mr. Riblet laughed, he had heard wolves before.
One evening, as Elijah B. Seeley and his fam- ily of Pittsford were picking over huckleberries gathered during the day, they heard a commotion in the pigpen, accompanied by a frantic squealing. Seizing a lighted fagot, Mr. Seeley at once start- ed for the scene, and found a large bear trying to carry off one of the pigs. Seeing the light, Bruin suspended operations and started for the woods, followed to the edge of the clearing by Mr. Seeley. A party of men were in the woods hunting coons. They had with them a small dog. and hearing the shouts of Mr. Seeley they has- tened to him, and, learning the cause, followed after the bear, led by the dog. The bear was soon found up a small tree, and, being fired at by one of the party, he began to descend the tree.
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As soon as he came within reach, he was attacked in the rear by the dog, and to escape his teeth again climbed up the tree. He was again fired at, and the same performance repeated several times, until he fell dead. It was found that every one of the nine bullets had taken effect.
In May, 1834, Robert and Dudley Worden and Samuel Day, with their families, made their homes in this county, Dudley locating in Hudson, the others in Pittsford. Of their pioneer life Robert Worden has very graphically written as follows: 'I built me a house without a single board, except what was made with an axe. I split logs for a floor. The chamber floor was bark peeled from elm logs. Our roof was bark, as were also the gables or ends. Our door was plank, made with an axe, two inches thick, pinned to wooden hinges, fastened to the logs so it would swing inside. With an auger a hole was made in the logs, so it could be pinned on the inside to protect us from the bears and wolves, of which there were a plenty. We had a window hole cut out for a sixlighted window, but had no window to put in it. The principal light came down the chimneyhole. One night the wolves commenced to howl. There were so many of them and so near I became frightened. We were sleeping on the floor, not having even a bedstead. We went up the ladder with our bed, pulled the ladder after us, made our bed on the bark, and should have con- sidered ourselves secure from the wolves, only that we were fearful that the bark would give way and let us fall. And all this fear within two miles of two villages. One village had double the number of houses the other had, and that had two. Currant roots or sprouts were in great de- mand. I went out to the settlement to obtain some and all I could get were ten pieces about eight inches long, and felt myself fortunate and thank- ful. I got them of Richard Kent, a little north of Adrian, and from the sprouts I obtained I have supplied many new beginners with roots. The first settlers had an enemy in the deer-mouse. They would crawl through an incredibly smail hole, and were very destructive. Before we were aware of it they had got into our trunks, and seri- ously injured our clothing. We had no place of
security for anything they wanted. My wife had brought with her some starch done up in a paper. One day, wanting to use some, she found the paper that had contained the starch, but no starch. It had been carried off by the micc. and it could not be replenished short of a trip of twenty miles ; but some time after we had occasion to use an empty bottle stored away, and in the bottle we found our starch, put there by the mice ; it was not possible for them to get into the bottle. We were in great want of a cat to destroy the mice, and they were very scarce. I took a bag and started for Adrian, on foot, to procure a cat if possible. I could find none in Adri- an, but heard of some kittens three miles south of Adrian, at Colonel Bradish's. I went to Colonel Bradish's, but they had let the last one go the day before. I then started for home, came about two miles this side of Adrian, and stopped over night with a family of English people. I told the lady of the house of my unsue- cessful efforts to find a cat. She sympathized with me, and said they had been similarly situated. When morning came the lady said : "I have been thinking of your troubles all night. I have but one cat, a neat, nice one, and I have concluded to lend it to you.' It brought it home, but it was not long before it was killed."
From the narration of Mrs. Roscius South- worth, a daughter of Thaddeus Wight, preserved by the Hillsdale County Pioneer Society, we ab- stract enough to show the difficulties then en- countered in journeying to the West. From Ge- auga county, Ohio, Mr. Wight, who had sent most of his household goods to St. Joseph by wa- ter, started in the early spring of 1830 with a bed. cooking utensils, his wife and seven children in a wagon drawn by four oxen, the eldest son fol- lowing on foot, driving the four cows and some young cattle. On the journey the six-year-old boy fell from the wagon, and two of the wheels in passing over his body, caused internal injuries and a fractured shoulder. Fortunately a physi- cian resided in the nearest house, where they stayed a week. He set the fractured limb and fixed a swinging cot in the wagon for the lad and the journey was renewed. To save a long dis-
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tance Mr. Wight went through the "cottonwood swamp," his being the first wagon to penetrate its recesses. Two men with oxen, axes, and guns accompanied the family to help them. The first day one of the children was lost in the dark, gloomy woods, but was found after a hunt of two hours. Four large fires were built at night around their tent to keep away the wolves and the men stood sentinel until morning. The second day the brothers and three sisters waded all day long through the water and mud driving the cat- tle ahead of the wagon. They reached the end of the swamp trail at dark and met a hospitable re- ception at the little log tavern there located. Rest- ing a day they again went forward. From Te- cumseh they had only marked trees to guide them along their roadless way and arrived at Jonesville on the fourth week of their journey. They could go no further, for Mr. Wight's money had dwin- dled to one dollar and fifty cents and eight chil- dren were dependent on him for a livelihood. He soon "squatted" on a place where trappers the fall before had built a cabin twelve feet square. Locating his family here he commenced to plow that he might get in an early crop. While he was doing this his wife and two daughters cut the logs for a larger house, which was "raised" later in the season. Mrs. Southworth goes on thus : "Previous to raising the house, father went for the goods which had been sent by water. There was no road, only an Indian trail, and no bridges. His feet became sore with walking, and for the last three days he had to be helped on and off his wagon. Mother had waited long and patiently for these goods, to make her children comfortable for the coming winter. The boxes were opened. Alas! Everything was mildewed and spoiled. Nothing of all these precious things she so much needed was left except a large box of dishes. The boat had been wrecked, the goods wet, and laid in that condition three months. Now dishes were plenty, but food was often scarce, especially when father would be detained at Tecumseh in getting grinding done. Mother would then send me and my brother five miles to the prairie with a small bag of corn to pound it in a stump dug out for the purpose. The pestle was like a well-sweep. We
would mount the stump and with our combined strength pound out the little grist and hasten . home before sundown, before the wolves began to howl. We would often meet them, and always carried a club to defend ourselves with. Many times the first season we should have suffered for food had it not been for the Indians bringing in venison or turkeys."
In 1839 Warren Smith came to Cambria and his statement of conditions then and for some years existing in that town tells the story for the new lands of the entire county. A bounty of $3 was offered for every wolf's skin, afterwards in- creased to $5.00. Deer were plentiful, and would eat with the cattle, showing no timidity. They soon became pets and very seldom were any harmed. Wild turkeys were also occasionally seen feeding with the domestic fowls, and they also enjoyed the same immunity from the bullets of the hunter. Mr. Smith once traveled three days on a round trip to the nearest mill and he worked three days for a bushel of potatoes, and occasionally indulged in a dish of oysters when in Detroit, for which he paid one dollar and a half. He also paid the same price for a bushel of very poor apples."
CHAPTER V.
PROGRESS OF THE COUNTY.
In 1840 the pioneer era practically ended, al- though there was much pioneering still to be done, for, with the passing away of hard times and the incoming of numerous settlers, the early difficul- ties and deprivations ceased to exist and a course of rapid and prosperous development ensued. The State Gazetteer of 1838, with other things, says of the county : "This is a new county, and, as yet, but few improvements are made. Various mills and manufactories are going up, and, from the abundance of millstones on the St. Joseph and Kalamazoo rivers, it may in time become a manu- facturing region of some note. This is an admir- able section for oats, which grow in the greatest possible luxuriance. In some instances great crops of grass are raised, but in general it is not as good a county for grazing as some others. It
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belongs to the Monroe land district. It sends one representative, and belongs to the second senator- ial district, which sends three senators to the legis- lature. Population, 4,729."
The second of the five principal state, or rath- er territorial, roads, since the statehood period had not arrived when they were constructed, "the Chicago road," is the one so often alluded to in these pages and the cause of much of the early development of the county. It ran from Detroit to Chicago, 254 miles, and it is probable that the travel on this road was equal to, if not greater, than that on any other road in the United States of equal length, but this did not satisfy the people. Railroads were building in many places and, if the county only had a railroad, the climax of prosper- ity would be attained. The state legislature held to the theory that the state could profitably build and manage any kind of public works that might be deemed necessary. Accordingly, in March. 1841, a law was passed granting $200,000 to build the Southern Railroad as far west as Hillsdale village. Work was begun along the line between Adrian and Hillsdale, but not very rapidly. In February, 1842, another law was passed author- izing the board of commissioners of internal im- provement to pledge the net proceeds of the Southern road for five years, in order to iron the road and to build it from Adrian to Hillsdale. Through 1842 the work was continued with much . energy. In the spring of 1843 the road was com- pleted as far as Hudson, close to the castern bor- der of Hillsdale county. Renewed efforts were made, and in the autumn of .the year it was fin- ished sixteen miles farther, to Hillsdale, and the first locomotive began regular trips in the county. In 1846 the state sold the Southern Railroad to a company, which, by the assistance of the people of Jonesville, built the road to that village, com- pleting it in 1849.
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