USA > Michigan > Kent County > Grand Rapids > Grand Rapids and Kent County, Michigan: History and Account of Their Progress from First. Vol. I > Part 13
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John T. Holmes, who was one of those delivering addresses at the unveiling of a monument to Rix Robinson, in 1887, was himself a newcomer, fifty years before. He took a prominent part in the young men's debating club in the early forties, and was one of the founders of St. Mark's Episcopal Church. He was prosecuting attorney in the early fifties. His first work was as a clerk, but he was soon associated with William G. Henry in the mercantile firm of Henry & Holmes. During this time he studied law and was admitted to the bar, in 1843, and served as justice of the peace and master in chancery. He was a leading Democrat and, in 1860, was the unsuccessful nomi- nee of his party for state senator and, in 1862, for Attorney-General of the State. His career as a judge began in 1875 and continued until the early nineties. He was one of the Union Democrats and during the war was strong in his advocacy of the Union cause. He grew to be extremely popular with the people of Grand Rapids and was noted for his kindliness and high standard of honor.
William Morman was one whose services were in great demand with the pioneers, as the first maker of lime. He was but twenty-two years of age when he reached Grand Rapids, having been born in England, in 1815. He built the third lime-kiln, by the west bank of the river, and remained in the business for fifty years, being suc- ceeded by his son, S. A. Morman. Samuel F. Butler lived first on Bond street and was one of the early cabinet-makers. He was one of
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the incorporators of the Grand Rapids Academy, in 1844, and one of the first deacons of Park Congregational Church. He was also one of the founders of the First Reformed Church and one of its first elders, and was a party to the stormy early history of that organiza- tion. He was a prominent member of the Bible Society and assisted with the Bible census of the city, in 1849, reporting that he had "found four persons destitute and unable to purchase Bibles who were ten- dered a supply." He was a justice of the peace in 1850 and held other minor offices, among which was that of street commissioner. His early cabinet shop was located near the old Bridge Street Hotel, and he was popularly known as "Colonel." John Friend and Eli Johnson were active in the new community, and Noble H. Finney was one of the early real estate men, spoken of as "Colonel Finney" by John Ball in his reminiscences of 1837, and he was an early nominee for representative on the Democratic ticket. He was one of the school committeemen, in 1837, and his early location was at the corner where the Morton House now stands. One of the most im- portant of the new settlers was Truman H. Lyon. He was a cousin of Lucius Lyon and was early known as the host of the Bridge Street Hotel and also of the tavern at Lyons. He was one of the early asses- sors and his name is frequently mentioned as one of the licensed tavern keepers. He was a native of Vermont and became prominent in the politics of the city, serving as postmaster and in the State legislature. The brick block which he erected on old Canal street, in 1856, was the pride of Grand Rapids in its day, and was the home of the Masonic fraternity, of which he was a prominent member. During the Washingtonian movement, in 1842, he created a great sensation by closing the bar of the Bridge Street Hotel, running it ever after as a temperance house, which was very unusual at that date. He was a member of the School Board when the first stone school- house was built, in 1849, and was an incorporator of the Grand Rapids Academy, in 1844. He served as postmaster from 1845 to 1849, and from 1853 to 1857. He also served as a member of the Board of Supervisors and was interested for some time in the manu- facture of salt. Another venture was his purchase of the Grand Rapids woolen factory from Stephen Hinsdill, in 1845, manufacturing "cassimeres, satinetts, flannels and other cloths." He enlarged the factory but sold it, in 1853, to D. P. Nickerson. His cottage, erected in 1845, on Fulton street near Lafayette, was one of the most attrac- tive of the early dwellings. In 1857, he erected a four-story brick block on Lyon street which was considered a real skyscraper. An important addition to the Grand Rapids settlement was Charles I. Walker, who came as a young New Yorker, twenty-three years of age. He was well educated and had made his first journey to Michi- gan, in 1834, stopping at St. Joseph. His first operations in Grand Rapids were in land investments. He suffered with other victims of hard times. He succeeded Mr. Pattison as. editor of the Grand River Times, held many city offices, and was representative from Ottawa, Ionia, and Kent counties, in 1840. He returned to Massachusetts, where he lived for ten years, when he again came to Michigan, living at Detroit, where he became noted as a jurist, historian and philan- thropist. He was an early Democrat, but was always known as an
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anti-slavery man, and during his stay in Grand Rapids was one of its most influential citizens. He was the first treasurer of Grand Rapids and his first study of law was in the office of George Martin. But little of importance seems to have happened in the early town gov- ernment of 1837. Meetings of the board were held at the home of Hiram Hinsdill. Sylvester Granger was clerk and George Martin was justice of the peace.
Andrew Watson, later a supervisor, was one of the pioneers of Cannon township, while Alexander Clark was a pioneer of Gaines township. In Alpine township, Solomon Wright, a graduate of Wil- liams college, in Massachusetts, pre-empted eighty acres in the south- west part of the township, and with him came his sons-Benjamin, Solomon, Noadiah, Andrew and Jeremiah. They were the first American settlers in this township, but were preceded by Peter La- belle, Joseph Genie and another French settler who located a mill on Government land. James and Francis Blood were also pioneers of Alpine, this year. At Ada, the new settlers were J. W. Fish, Digby V. Bell, John and Willis Craw, Putnam Hill, Rix and Lot Church, Enoch Price, Minos Gypson, William Slawson, Perry and Loan Bill, and Charles Robinson. A village was platted at the mouth of the Thornapple river and the town was booming although, in the years immediately succeeding, many of the lots were sold for taxes. In Paris township, Solomon White, later president of the Agricultural Society, was a settler of this year, as was also H. H. Allen, who ex- perienced many difficulties in establishing himself, and of whom it is related that, in the winter of 1842-43, he chopped oak trees for his cattle to browse on and thus by spring had not only saved his cattle but had a number of acres of land partially cleared. He was super- visor for Paris township, in 1842, and one of the county supervisors of the poor in the early sixties. John Kirkland, later of Grand Rapids, first settled in Paris township, in 1837. At Plainfield, George Miller was the pioneer, being later joined by James Clark, Thomas Friant and Warner Dexter. The Indians were their only neighbors and they lived Indian fashion, pounding the grain into flour or grind- ing it in a coffee mill, and secured their meat by hunting. They were soon joined by C. Friant, Zena Whitney, and Daniel North, and the village became noted for the manufacture of shingles and lumber. The town of Walker was created by the legislature, Dec. 30, 1837, and included all of Kent County north of Grand River, but its organiza- tion was not effected until the following year. The new steamer, Governor Mason, was running on the Grand River for the first time, this year, and the great feature of the Fourth of July celebration was an excursion to Grandville. The Governor Mason was built by James Short for Richard Godfroy, and this was her initial trip. Governor Stevens T. Mason, for whom the boat was named, presented it with a stand of colors. William Stoddard was its first commander. The trip up the river to Lyons was the occasion of great rejoicing, and Alanson Cranston, the bugler who announced the coming of the canal workers, in 1835, awakened the echoes along the river on this memor- able journey. The engine of this boat was taken from the wreck of the ship, Don Quixote. Other boats on the river this year were the Owashtanong, owned at Grand Haven and commanded by Capt. Thomas W. White, and the Cinderella, a pole boat, built at Grandville.
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The custom of a river excursion on July Fourth became one of the features of the annual celebrations, and it should be noted in passing that in the early days no anniversary of the United States birth was allowed to go uncelebrated. Louis Campau and Joel Guild were the first celebrants on record, in 1833. In 1834, Robert M. Barr with his fiddle led the parade. Many Indians, among whom was Chief Blackskin, joined in the rejoicing. They also had a river excur- sion, but in bateaux and not a steamer. Speech-making and general merriment were the features of the celebration of 1835, while the whole settlement joined in the Fourth of July dinner, in 1836. Much interest was taken in politics, and at the election the steamboat, Governor Mason, brought the voters from Muskegon and Grand Haven, and of this election Thomas D. Gilbert said: "I well re- member making the journey from Grand Haven to Grand Rapids, in 1835, to cast my first vote at the election that enrolled Michigan in the sisterhood of States. I do not think Muskegon was represented in the boat load of about fifty Democrats and three Whigs, who attended the election. Stevens T. Mason, the first Governor of Michigan, was elected by an overwhelming majority."
No public provision was made for the poor, as all were rich, either in money, or energy and youth. The plaster industry had not been developed, but the Big Mill was put in operation, as was the first saw-mill on the east side of the canal, which was built by R. H. Bridge and James M. Nelson, at the north end of the Big Mill. It was the intention to make this a very considerable concern, but the panic of 1837 prevented. W. H. Withey had a mill, constructed by H. H. Ives, above the Rapids; Samuel White & Sons and James M. and George C. Nelson also built saw-mills. The foundry established by W. S. Levake on the corner of Mill and Bridge streets was the only one in operation. W. N. Haldane established himself on the corner of Pearl and Ottawa streets and at his home began to make furniture which he "swapped" for other necessities. This year Sam- uel F. Butler, on Bridge street, and Archibald Salmon, on Prospect Hill, started as cabinet makers, and these three may be considered as the pioneers of the great furniture industry of Grand Rapids. There was practically no ready-made clothing and Charles H. Taylor was the pioneer tailor of the community. The ranks of this trade were soon joined by Edward S. Marsh, William A. Blackney, H. K. Rose, J. M. Stanly, John Mathison, B. S. Hanchett, J. C. Lowell and James W. Sligh. John Beach was the house-painter, John Davis and Solo- mon Withey, the brick makers, and the Ringuette brothers the shoe- makers. Isaac Watson began the making of harness and John Kirk- land was the cooper. The boat building industry was well represent- ed, by such ship carpenters as Parish, Short, Corbin, Meddler, Mc- Allister and Jennings, while Abel Page, Truman Kellogg and John Almy were the envy of all for their fine gardens. There was much talk of improving highways, but little was accomplished, and the roads were chiefly trails. An appropriation of $3,500 had been made by Congress, in 1832, for a road from Detroit to the mouth of the Grand River, but this was entirely insufficient and the work was chiefly done by the pioneers themselves. The river was crossed on the ice in winter and at the Fulton street ford at times of low water
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in the summer; a foot bridge, made by stringing planks on wooden horses, providing a rather unsafe passage. Concerning the early roads and trails, Mr. Baxter says in his history: "Naturally, the first wagon roads to the village came in, by or near those paths which the Indians had trod, and were correspondingly crooked; and for some years little or nothing was done to straighten and improve them except by private enterprise. The Thornapple road came in by the trail to Fulton street and down a rayine toward the junction of Jefferson avenue and State street. The Bostwick Road, as it was called, came in from the direction of Green Lake, its entrance being about where now is the State street line. From the southward, the early farmers drove in by way of the present site of the fair ground, and along the edge of the dry land some distance east of Division street. A road from the southern part of the county, or that portion of it west of the Division street line, proceeded southward, joining another that came up the river, and formed the one which is still known as the Grandville Road." The streets of the village could be called roads, by courtesy only. In front of business houses which centered on what was then Monroe, old Canal (from the northerly portion of Monroe avenue), and Waterloo streets, there were plank walks, some of them as much as eight feet wide, but in wet weather the roads were practically impassable. Monroe street was platted diagonally, as Louis Campau insisted that it follow the old Indian trail as nearly as possible, and it led to the foot of the vanished Prospect Hill. This plat was for the village of Grand Rapids and was made in 1833, comprising the south half of the northeast quarter of section 25, and was bounded on the west by the river, on the south by Fulton street, on the east by Division street, and on the north by a line between Pearl and Lyon streets. The village of Kent was platted by John Almy for the Kent Company, in 1836. This tract rested upon the river to the west and was bounded on the south by Wealthy street, on the east by Ransom street and on the north by Coldbrook. Old Canal street was laid out 100 feet in width, from Pearl to Michigan street, and beyond that at ninety-two feet. East Bridge, now Michi- gan street, was 100 feet wide to the top of the hill, and Monroe street was to be a trifle over eighty-two feet wide; the width of the re- maining streets was sixty-six feet. Kent and Grand Rapids plats did not "jibe," and on account of the antagonism there was much dispute, neither side being willing to change its plat. This accounts for the irregular streets in the central part of the city. Real estate prices boomed during this year and the pioneer builders, including Eliphalet H. Turner, W. H. Hilton, Leonard Covell, J. M. Haldane, H. H. Ives, David Burnett, Kendall Woodward and David Covell were kept busy, as were also the masons-James McCrath, Patrick McGurrin, Louis and William Davidson, S. S. Stewart, Ebenezer Anderson, Josiah H. Wheeler, Isaac Leonard, and others. The population of the county, according to the census of 1837, was 2,022. Ottawa, Kent, Ionia and Clinton counties were in one representative district and there were but five organized townships in the four counties. In Ottawa there were no organized townships; in Kent, Byron township was com- posed of townships five and six north, and Kent township comprised the rest of Kent county, south of Grand River. North of the Grand River the lands were still unsurveyed. In Ionia County, Maple was the
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only township, and in Clinton, DeWitt. It was during the boom days that Judge Jefferson Morrison built the residence on Monroe and Ot- tawa streets which he dubbed "Morrison's Folly." He is said to have gone in debt to the extent of $5,000 to erect this fine home which he sold to Louis Campau for $6,000, taking in paying four lots at $1,500 each, and Capt. Gunnison, who was the purchaser of the home, bought it of Campau for $700. With this we may well close the history of the year 1837, which was but a continuation of the boom of 1836, and saw Grand Rapids well established as the leading settlement of Western Michigan and the scene of the most extensive private im- provements which had then been undertaken in Michigan, west of Detroit.
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CHAPTER VI. LUCIUS LYON AND HIS ACTIVITIES
LYON'S CHARACTERISTICS-AN ATTRACTIVE FIGURE-LETTERS-INTER- EST IN INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS-POLITICAL SUCCESSES AND DE- FEATS-HIS INTERESTS IN GRAND RAPIDS-SUGAR BEET CULTURE -FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES-SALT WELLS - OFFICIAL ACTS - MICHIGAN PROSPECTS IN 1845-LYON'S DEATH.
It is to be hoped that some day someone will write an adequate biography of Senator Lucius Lyon. He was a great man; one of those who look so far and so clearly into the future that they vision it as the present. Here was his error and his undoing. It took many years for the march of events to catch up with him. In the meantime, his personal interests were lost, although the objects which he sought, and the possibilities which to him were certainties, were accomplished. Next to Lewis Cass no man did more for the development of Michigan than Lucius Lyon. Many of his letters are in existence, some pub- lished and some unpublished. They show how very human he was, how friendly, how true, how trustworthy. They show a wonderful versatility and a curious blending of the practical and the impractical. Who, but Lucius Lyon, would have sent men to dig a canal, suitable to furnish power for a city of many thousands, into a wilderness and to a village whose inhabitants numbered less than one hundred ? Who, but Lucius Lyon, would have persisted in the development of the salt wells where the State had failed? Who, but Lucius Lyon, would have foreseen the possibility of the harvesting machine, and of sugar beet culture? He traveled through the wilderness of stream and forest, which was the Northwest, and everywhere his imagination clothed it with the habiliments of the future. He saw cities where wigwams were; filled the upper peninsula with rich and inexhaustible mines ; and, undoubtedly, saw Grand Rapids as it is today, the premier city of Western Michigan-one of the first fifty in this great country of considerably more than one hundred million population. This led him to invest in many ventures, for his eye was single to the future. He was right, but he was almost as far ahead of his times as the man who first declared the world was round. He suffered the penalty. Genius often goes wrong (Mark Twain lost a fortune on a typesetting machine, which was the forerunner of the successful machines of today).
Lucius Lyon presents a most attractive figure to the historian. Still a young man, he had tasted poverty and hardship as well as success and adulation. As a representative of a new State in the United States Senate he was received, and made much of, by the best society which the Republic afforded. He was the friend of Presidents, the companion of cabinet ministers and ambassadors, the associate of statesmen, and the beaux ideal of the fair women who constituted the young society of the Nation's capital. At the same time he had fellow-
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ship, sympathy and friendship with the hardy pioneers, and his active brain was ever busy with plans for the development of his beloved State of Michigan.
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It is characteristic of this man, who lived almost wholly in the future, that he never married; that he failed of re-election; that his great plans either failed or were carried out by others; that he died in comparative poverty ; and that he lives only as a memory, with the name of a city and the name of a street, to remind us of the greatness that was his. As a force for publicity, Lucius Lyon was by far the greatest single factor in Grand Rapids' early development. His posi- tion as United States senator gave weight and prestige to his words, and he was thus able to direct the attention of many enterprises and many men, not only to Michigan, but to Grand Rapids. There are many references to Grand Rapids in his published letters, all of which throw strong sidelights upon history, give vivid views of persons, conditions and possibilities in the region then so little known, now one of the best known in the whole country, and at the risk of digression and somewhat in anticipation of the story of Grand Rapids' develop- ment there are here included a number of his references to the Grand River Valley.
In a letter to his sister, in 1838, speaking of Michigan towns, after assuring her that there was no occasion for fear of Indian raids at Lyons, he said: "One of these is Grand Rapids, the county seat of Kent county, on the Grand River, about fifty miles below Lyons. The first house was built about four years ago, and it now contains a pop- ulation of about one thousand persons, or is about one-third that of Burlington [Vermont] ; and within ten years it will unquestionably be larger than Burlington ever can be. I am one of the proprietors of the town. There is already an Episcopal society organized there. The society is very good and it is daily improving. A branch of the State University has lately been located there, and there is a department in it for the education of young ladies in the higher branches. There is a society of Roman Catholics and a church erected for them."
Mr. Lyon wrote to David Carver, Feb. 28, 1836: * * * I am glad to learn that you have made arrangements to run a vessel weekly from Chicago to the mouth of the Grand River. I have no doubt a steamboat would do very well next summer on the same route. N. O. Sargeant and Richard Godfroy, of the village of Kent [Grand Rapids], and some other gentlemen are now making provision for a steamboat to run regularly next summer from Kent to the mouth of the river. Another light steamboat will be placed on the river above the falls, some time next summer, so as to form a regular line of travel from Detroit to the mouth of the Grand River and thence to Chicago, Milwaukee or wherever the lake steamboats or vessels can be found to carry passengers."
To General Burdick, of Detroit, he wrote relative to the internal improvements : "We want very much some way of getting out east from Grand Rapids, and I hope the first portion of the Northern rail- road put under contract will be that from the timbered land from Lyons east about twenty-five miles. I suppose it will be necessary to com- mence the road at the east and work on west." On Feb. 5, 1838, he
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transmitted to the postoffice department a certificate that John Almy had carried the mail between Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo up to the first of January.
Mr. Lyon was defeated for re-election to the Senate, in 1839, and, quite naturally, his letters lose some of their optimistic tone. He wrote to W. A. Richmond, of Grand Rapids, March 10, 1839: "I am sorry to inform you that the bill to create an additional land office in Michigan and to remove the Ionia office to the Rapids of the Grand River, though it passed the Senate in the early part of the session, has failed to pass the House. All our other bills for the benefit of Michigan have also failed in the House after having passed the Senate." In a letter to James W. Taber he encloses a small package of sugar-beet seed, to- gether with seeds of two kinds of English beans and four watermelon seeds, thus becoming one of the pioneers of an industry which is now so important.
To Nathan Rice he wrote, soon after his defeat for the Senate: "I mean to attend to my own business now, make money, and then in three or four years live like a gentleman, unless, in the meantime, the people elect me to some rascally office, which folly I hope they will avoid." At this time he became interested in a harvesting machine, shipping one of the machines by the brig Virginia, from Rochester to St. Joseph. He also purchased a quantity of sugar-beet seed from France, intending to plant from twenty to twenty-five acres. He became greatly interested in Moore & Haskell's harvester, which he said "har- vested sixty-three acres of wheat on Prairie Ronde in a very superior style, at the rate of twenty acres per day."
In December, 1839, he executed a contract relative to his interest at Grand Rapids, as follows: "I will assign my right to build a dam across Grand River to Mr. Ball and his assigns, and will deed to him sufficient land at some proper and convenient place on which to erect said dam and to construct a canal or race for it to a proper site for a flouring mill; and will deed to him, at such site, land sufficient for the erection of said mill, and also land equal to six village lots in the village of Lyons, on which he may erect other buildings; and I will convey to him the right of using water to turn as many pairs of mill- stones for flouring as he may wish to run, not exceeding six in number, on condition that he will construct a good, substantial and permanent dam across said river, high enough to have at least six feet fall of water at ordinary times, where the mill will be erected, and will con- struct a good canal or race from said mill and will erect said mill in a good, substantial, permanent and workmanlike manner and finish it off complete, so that it will do as good work as any flouring mill on Grand River-the mill to be painted and to be at least three stories high, and the dam and race to be so constructed that whenever I or my assigns may want to use the water power created thereby the whole water of the Grand River in an ordinary stage of the river may be used through said race, if necessary, without any expense on our part. The lock shall be constructed at the expense of said Ball, whenever it may be required by the public, all to be so completed that one good run of stone shall be in operation for grinding grain within one year and three run of stone shall be in operation within two years."
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