USA > Michigan > Kalamazoo County > Compendium of history and biography of Kalamazoo County, Mich. > Part 9
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Kalamazoo Village .- From President E. W. De Yoe's exaugural address at the last meeting of the village trustees, we extract the following : "With the coming of your board came through a committee of the citizens a request of a commis- sion to draft a charter providing for a city gov- ernment to be submitted to the legislature of the state for enactment. In compliance therewith, a committee was appointed, the charter prepared, carefully revised and submitted to the people, who by an informal ballot adopted and recommended its passage. The preparation and review was a matter in which you manifested a deep concern. Upon you has devolved the duty of setting up the machine of a city municipality, nothing remains to be done but 'pulling the throttle' and starting out from the station heretofore known as the 'Big Village,' which we trust will be run on the same lines of general prosperity that has characterized our village for several years. In 1836 the legis- lature passed an act 'that from and after the 31st of March inst. the name of the township of Ar- cadia be changed and allowed to that of Kalama- zoo.' Those days were, comparitively speaking, prehistoric. The education, culture and refine- ment of our people have contributed in no small degree to spread the fame of our enterprising vil- lage. The pleasant, cheerful homes, the well-or- dered churches, the fine schools and seminaries of learning, the beautiful place of public amuse- ment, the extensive public and private libraries,
the several charitable institutions, all betoken a spirit of enterprise reflecting credit that touches the pride of every Kalamazoo man, woman and child. This happy, thriving and prosperous con- dition we turn over to the new city as a legacy from the village for their fostering." In the financier's report of Thomas R. Bevans, of the same year, we extract thus: "Today we stand practically out of debt and the financial record of our village from 1842 to 1884 shows clearly that the men governing us have been economical and prudent. Unlike many other places, no rings have ever been formed for the purpose of depleting the public treasury and our trustees have always evinced a desire to work for the real interest of our beautiful village. It should be remembered that careful legislation makes a strong factor in the matter, inducing outside capital to seek investment where it exists and this explains why parties are prospecting here with a view to investments in our midst. Kalamazoo as a city should certainly be entitled to some of the floating capital and will have it soon. The importance of careful legis- lation by our successors at the birth of the new city will be apparent to, all and the past financial record for prudence and economy we trust will be maintained in and under the new form of city government."
Kalamasoo in 1891 .- From the exaugural ad- dress of the Hon. William E. Hill in 1891, we extract as follows: "During the past fiscal year there has been purchased and paid for, real estate to the amount of about seventeen thousand dollars, fifteen thousand dollars of which was paid for the Howard lot, which was selected by Dr. E. N. Van Deusen and wife as their choice of a site for a public library, they having donated the magnifi- cent sum of fifty thousand dollars toward paying for the library building. We should appreciate this whole-souled gift, coming as it did from two of our most respected citizens. It grieves me that a few of our people forget and allow themselves to grumble at the extra tax they had to pay in con- sequence of the purchase of the library lot.
"They should look at it in this light, that while our citizens only had to pay fifteen thousand dol- lars in extra taxes, two citizens, Dr. and Mrs.
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Van Deusen gave fifty thousand dollars, other private citizens paying one thousand dollars, we, as taxpayers, paid fifteen thousand dollars and got sixty-six thousand dollars' worth of property. This library, when completed, will belong to our citizens and it is for each one's benefit. It is not only for those living now in Kalamazoo, but for all who may be citizens for all time to come.
"During the past year the city has purchased the triangular piece of land (known as the flat- iron) located west on Main street, near the Mich- igan Central Railroad crossing, at a cost to the city of one thousand dollars, private citizens pay- ing one thousand six hundred dollars. The build- ings have been removed, the lot graded and cement walks laid, thereby making it pleasing to the eye and a great source of gratification to our citizens, and this is not all. It is a matter of great safety to all who pass over that railroad crossing. If this had been accomplished three years ago, that terrible railroad accident that occurred at this crossing in which the lives of five of our citizens were lost, would in all probability not have oc- curred. We have in the past year purchased a new pumping engine, a duplicate of the one we have been using in our new pumping house, at the cost of sixteen thousand dollars for machinery, foundation and connection. It has been located alongside of the old one and in conjunction with it, thereby doubling our pumping capacity and the two are a source of much pride to citizens, as well as a great source of safety to their property."
Titus Bronson .- The first settler on the soil of Kalamazoo city was Titus Bronson. In June, 1829, he came from Ann Arbor, following the great St. Joseph trail and fording the river at the trading station, continuing along the trail until he reached the mound now conspicuous on the grounds of Bronson Park, where he camped for the night, placing a pine torch in the ground before the door of his little tent to keep away the wolves. The next morning he made a close ob- servation of the valley and concluded to make his home here at once.
During the season he erected a rude cabin and entered the land. In Mr. Van Buren's sketch of Bronson he says that Bronson's practical dis-
cernment recognized not only the beauty but the utility of the location, saying to himself, "This will be a county seat." On the site he chose for his home he built a hut of tamarack poles which he brought from the neighboring swamp, and covered it with grass. He passed the winter of 1829 and 1830 at Prairie Ronde, in 1830 going to Ohio for his family. With his wife and eldest daughter, he came to Kalamazoo with a wagon drawn by a yoke of oxen. Anxious hours, weary days and shelterless nights were spent upon their journey hitherward.
They were the first inhabitants of Kalamazoo, the beginning of what has become a great, pros- perous, as well as a very beautiful city. On account of the illness of his wife, the tamarack hut was not considered a suitable home for the cold weather, hence the winter was passed by the family and Stephen Richardson, a brother of Mrs. Bronson, who had come with them to the new home, at the little settlement of Prairie Ronde.
Early in the spring of 1831 Mr. Bronson erected a log house on the northwest corner of the present Church and Main streets. In June, 1831, he entered the east half of the southeast quarter of section 15 in his wife's name, Mr. Richardson at the same time entering the west half of the same section. Mr. Bronson also entered land in other parts of this county. During this time he had laid out the village of Bronson, and se- cured the location of the county seat here. He very generously contributed to the public the land extending from the corner of Rose and Bur- dick streets west to Park street and south to south street, including one square of sixteen rods as a court house site, and one square of sixteen rods as a site for a jail, one square of sixteen rods for an academy, one square of eight rods for a com- mon-school building, also four squares of eight rods each to be given to the first four religious denominations that were incorporated in the vil- lage. These tracts include what is now Bronson Park. To these gifts he added a lot of two acres for a cemetery.
In the latter part of 1831 General Justus Burdick, a Vermonter, purchased a portion of Mr.
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Bronson's village property. In 1836 other parties acquired a controlling interest and the name of the village was changed from Bronson to Kala- mazoo, which so depressed Mr. Bronson that he soon sold all of his interests here, removed first to Davenport, Iowa, then to Henry, Ill., and finally in 1852 to Connecticut, where he died, a poor man, in January, 1853. The more probable reason for the change of name to Kalamazoo is that a much more populous township in Branch county was named Bronson.
Abolitionism .- Nothing in the early history of the county more clearly shows the advanced thought and liberality of New England than the number of strong men who came here from that section and were carly of the despised class called abolitionists. The "underground railroad" had many stations in Michigan and some of the most prominent of the citizens of Kalamazoo countv were its conductors. Dr. Nathan M. Thomas, the first regular physician in this county, located at Prairie Ronde in June, 1830. By heredity and by education he was a strong anti-slavery man at the time when it required a hero's fortitude to proclaim that doctrine. Believing it to be a great moral as well as a political question, he considered it would be best met by a high moral stand in politics, thinking moral suasion insuffi- cient to remedy the evil of slavery.
In 1837 Dr. Thomas, with four hundred and twenty-two other voters of Grand Ronde and Brady, sent a petition to congress asking its op- position to the admission of Texas, a slave-hold- ing republic, as one of the United States. This was the first memorial sent from Michigan on this subject. So Kalamazoo was prominently a pioneer in the cause of freedom for the blacks. At later periods this strong body of men sent nu- merous petitions to congress asking for the abo- lition of slavery in the District of Columbia and against the admission of any more slave states into the Union. In 1838 and 1839 Dr. Thomas took the matter into politics and in 1840 he active- ly aided in the formation of the Liberal party, for whose presidential candidates he cast his ballot.
There is at the present writing residing at his home near the asylum building in Kalamazoo
city one of the strongest men of the carlier period, Henry Montague, who has passed his ninety-first year of life and is of sound mentality and pos- sessed of physical powers equal to many of thirty years less his age. He was from carly youth an advocate of temperance and anti-slavery. Be- fore he attained his majority he was battling for personal liberty in his native Massachusetts against the proslavery element in the town of his residence, headed by a leading deacon in the church.
Coming to Michigan in 1836, he was a dele- gate to the first temperance convention of the state, which was held at Ann Arbor. The senti- ment of the majority of the delegates was for an abstinence from distilled liquors, but Mr. Mon- tague tried strongly to have the convention de- clare for total abstinence. In January, 1837, he located in Oshtemo, and in February was a del- egate from Washtenaw county to the first aboli- tion convention of Michigan, twenty-five dele- gates meeting at Ann Arbor.
The first fugitives from slavery came to Kal- amazoo county in the spring of 1837, they being a man and his wife who were escaping from Vir- ginia and a young man from Alabama. They came to Mr. Montague's house, tired, hungry and in dread of being captured by their form'er own- ers, who were hot on their trail. Mr. Montague took them to a neighbor's house, where a warm meal was hastily prepared for them, and then Mr. Montague drove them to Galesburg and was relieved of his charges by Hugh M. Shafter, the father of General Shafter of the Spanish-Ameri- can war. From this time Mr. Montague, so long as need existed, kept an open station of the under- ground railroad.
In 1839 the abolitionists of this county aided liberally in the establishment of an anti-slavery newspaper in this state, and in 1845 Dr. Thomas was the cadidate for lieutenant-governor on the ticket of the Liberal party, James G. Birney heading the state ticket. The anti-slavery party then cast three thousand five hundred votes. In 1848 the Free Democratic or Free-Soil party ab- sorbed the Liberal party and the abolitionists of the county were found loyally supporting the new
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organization. In 1852 Dr. Thomas was one of the presidential electors, John P. Hall being the can- didate for President. The abolitionists were in hearty accord with the views of the state mass meeting held at Jackson on July 17, 1854, at which the Republican party was organized.
The anti-slavery men of this county were largely in evidence at the state mass convention of the Free Democrats held in Kalamazoo at an earlier date, and where a committee of sixteen members was chosen to go to the Jackson meet- ing and as accredited agents to merge the Free Democratic party of Michigan in the new organ- ization, if the platform adopted was of a satis- factory character. This was found acceptable, and the new Republican party thus received a valuable element of strength. In November, 1861, one hundred and sixty-seven citizens of School- craft and vicinity sent this petition to Congress : "To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: In accordance with justice, the spirit of the age, and to meet the approval of the good and true throughout the world, and with a view of restoring four million native Americans to their rights, and bringing the war 'in which we are now involved to a speedy termi- nation, the undersigned, citizens of Kalamazoo county and state of Michigan, respectfully pray your honorable body to so exercise the right with which you are invested, under the war power of the government, as to declare slavery by act of congress totally abolished."
The "underground railroad" had several sta- tions in Michigan, a prominent one being in Schoolcraft. The first train that arrived brought but one fugitive, an escaped slave from the far South. He entered Michigan in October, 1838, and passed through Schoolcraft, Battle Creek, Marshall, Jackson and Detroit. Other fugitives soon followed along this route, which became the main line of this travel for many years, the rail- road extending from the borders of the slave states north and east to the Canada line. Its cars ran for nearly twenty years and the number of es- caping slaves had been variously computed from one thousand to one thousand five hundred, and some of these became useful citizens of this state, most of them, however, passing over into Canada.
During the Civil war many of these fugitives were mustered into the service of the Union army and made brave soldiers. One incident is worthy of being handed down to coming generations to incite loyalty to freedom. Four young negroes came from Kentucky on the underground line to Schoolcraft in 1856. Here they settled. After the Civil war commenced they all desired to en- list, but on account of the race prejudice existing they had a hard time enlisting, finally doing so in different regiments. At the capture of Charles- ton the four met, and, as they marched through the streets of the captured metropolis of the South Carolina, in unison they sang the stirring strains of Julia Ward Howe's grand anthem of freedom, "John Brown's body lies moldering in the grave, but his soul goes marching on."
Children's Home .- One of the laudable in- stitutions of Kalamazoo is the Children's Home, which was incorporated under the state law gov- erning incorporations on April 28, 1888. The good people who had originated the home had labored zealously in a quiet but eminently useful way for several years and by this time the work had advanced to such proportions that a legal or- ganization was demanded. As stated in the char- ter, the object of the home is "the maintenance of homes for vagrant children without friends and for the instruction of indigent children gen- erally in the various occupations of the life by training them in virtue and usefulness and for finding them permanent homes in suitable fam- ilies, and also to give them a common-school education and a moral religious training." Ad- mission to the home is confined to females. None are ยท debarred entrance from inability to pay, but when parents and friends of the applicant are able to pay, a charge of twenty-five to fifty cents a week is made to provide food and clothing. Many of the inmates of the home are full or part orphans, having no relatives to care for them. As often as it is possible to do so, good homes are provided for the children, the managers of the home reserving in all cases the right to oversee, protect and care for their wards.
The incorporators were William C. Deming, David Fisher, Henry Bishop, Francis B. Stock- bridge, Mary J. Kent, Jane A. Deming, Kate
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W. Hitchcock, Cynthia Brooks and Fanny E. M. Strong. William C. Deming was the generous donator of the ground upon which the home was erected at a cost of nearly eleven thousand dollars. The necessary furnishings of the home have been mostly contributions from friends of this good cause. The home receives its support from a small endowment fund and liberal donations. The use- fulness of this wise institution is manifest in the number of children who are here given the ad- vantage of a Christian home, the average number of inmates being twenty-eight. Frequently, how- ever, there have been forty children receiving its benefits. A matron and a housekeeper are em- ployed who are responsible for the good care of the inmates of the home. The officers are assisted in their labors by a board of managers composed of ladies of influence who visit the home weekly for consultation and concerted action con- cerning its needs.
Fire and Water Works .- In 1881 the village published a history of the fire and water works from their first introduction on April 10, 1843, to April 18, 1881. We extract from this as follows :
The very capable committee having this work in hand were the following gentlemen : William R. Coats, George H. Chandler, James H. Hopkins. They found that in the early days of the settle- ment each citizen could obtain excellent water by digging a well of from ten to sixteen feet in . depth. The water was found in a stratum of sand and gravel and was amply sufficient for domestic purposes. Fires becoming frequent as population increased, other and greater water supplies were needed.
The beautiful Arcadia creek, a small stream, entering the village from the southwest, had its source of supply at an elevation of one hundred feet above the outlet, and its waters, though not sufficient to propel heavy machinery, were classed as valuable water rights. It was used as the power of numerous small enterprises, turning- lathes, chair and cabinet works, planing mills and wood-carving machines. Thus the village could not change the course of the stream to take the water from its users and was forced to be
content with the water after it had passed the last mill.
The Swazey wool carding plant, on the south side of Main street, was impelled by water brought from the Arcadia in a race or flume, which ran close to the sidewalk, and which had a gate, which closed for the limited operations of the "bucket brigade," that dipped up the water in buckets at the time of fire. Similar arrangements were made for the same use at different points along the Arcadia, which latter were used as sup- plies for fire engines. The Michigan Central Railroad, when building its station, laid pipes to the Arcadia through which it brought water for the tank at the station.
Superintendent Brooks of the company offered the overflow from the tank to the village and the first reservoir of the village was built to receive it in the court house yard, the water coming from the railroad in wooden pipes. How long the res- ervoir was used we do not know, but in 1854 George N. Bollen put in a dam on the Arcadia between Rose and Burdick streets and there built a woodworking shop. In 1860 it is recorded on the village journal that he in that year agreed to pump water into this reservoir from his shop. This water was brought in iron pipes and a force pump provided by the village filled the reservoir. After the Bollen dam was removed the pump was operated at the Lawrence and Gale foundry, later at the Kalamazoo Iron Works, and until the Holly system was introduced in 1869.
A brief summary of the official action in this direction will be of interest. On June 5, 1843, a village ordinance was passed requiring all occu- pants of buildings to provide two ladders and two buckets or pails to be kept especially for fire pur- poses. On October 7, 1844, it was ordered that the burning of bonfires, etc., be prohibited from sundown until sunrise; also the firing of anvils, cannons, etc., within the village limits. December 14, 1844, the first fire wardens, N. A. Balch, L. W. Whitcomb, Charles . E. Stuart, L. H. Trask and Israel Kellogg, were appointed and instructed to expend five dollars out of any funds on hand and to solicit from citizens additional the amount
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needed for the purchase of a good and sufficient fire hook," which was the first remembered "im- plement" for fire purposes purchased by the vil- lage.
The "Kalamazoo Hook and Ladder Company" was organized on March II, 1846, with Alexan- der J. Sheldon as foreman. This was the pioneer fire company of the place. During 1846 fifty- nine dollars and three cents was appropriated and expended for "hooks, ladders, ropes and other articles." One hundred fire buckets and a suitable wagon or truck and other apparatus were also bought. Mr. Sheldon was later advanced to be the chief engineer of the new fire department.
On May 3, 1847, a petition was handed to the board of trustees asking for an appropriation of one thousand dollars, to be raised by tax, to buy , man's Hall Association organized and built a hall. a fire engine and needful apparatus. Nothing was done, for on May I, 1848, D. S. Walbridge, Horace Mower and T. P. Sheldon were on the committee to consider the same subject. Their report advising the expenditure of seven hundred dollars was "laid on the table." On October 2, 1848, a tax of three mills on the dollar was or- dered and a committee chosen to confer with the owner of water rights on Arcadia creek for the use of the water of the stream. In November the above tax order was rescinded. On February 5, 1850, the marshal was instructed to purchase six ladders. The first important fire of the village occurred on February 9, 1850, when were burned all the houses on the north side of Main street, from the site of the Burdick House west to the building on the northeast corner,-five stores, three carpenter shops and the office of the Tele- graph newspaper.
On March 9, 1850, the "Rescue Hook and Ladder Company" was organized, with Benjamin F. Orcutt, foreman, and forty-one members. Au- gust 7, 1850, Alexander Buell, L. H. Trask and William E. White were appointed a committee "to examine and report upon the probable expense of bringing water into the village." This is the first action on record concerning supplying the place with water for domestic purposes.
In 1851 William R. Watson and Alexander Buell were as a committee in negotiation with the
Michigan Central corporation for the reservoir in the courtyard spoken of before. On May 19, 1851, the construction of this reservoir was favor- ably reported by the committee, Kellogg, Watson and Clark; hydrants to be placed at the corner of Main and Burdick, and Main and Portage streets. The reservoir was put into use in the summer of 1851. On May 5, 1851, White & Turner's foun- dry and machine shop were burned, loss eight hundred dollars. On July 7, 1852, an ordinance was passed organizing and regulating a fire de- partment. On January 5, 1852, a vote of thanks was passed by the village board to J. J. Perrin, Henry Colt and Moses Ward for personal skill and bravery in extinguishing a fire in the loft of Parsons & Wood's store. In 1852 also The Fire- In May, 1853, the Michigan Central Railroad sta- tion, Henry Cook & Company's warehouse and several other buildings were burned, one life, the first by fire in the town, being lost. On June 6, 1853, H. S. Gage and J. C. Hays were made a committee to procure ground whereon to build an engine house, etc. On July 8, 1853, one thousand one hundred dollars were appropriated to buy a fire engine and apparatus, Allen Porter being ap- pointed to do this business. Four cisterns, each having a capacity of from one hundred and fifty to two hundred barrels and to cost twenty-five dollars each, were ordered built in front of Gov- ernor Ransom's residence, Dr. Abbott, N. A. Balch, B. Hoskins and Ira Burdick being chosen to superintend the work, but they were never made.
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