USA > Michigan > Kent County > Grand Rapids > Grand Rapids and Kent County, Michigan: History and Account of Their Progress from First. Vol. I > Part 15
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we are not only a reading but a writing people. We are also a work- ing people, and if we go on increasing our products as we have for the last three years, the next census will show such an increase of wealth as it will be hard to beat. Michigan is the Garden of the Great West and the Grand River Valley is the garden of Michigan."
The interests of the Senator were many and varied, ranging from the progress of his salt well to Presidential politics, and without ef- fort at continuity of narrative there are here given illuminating ex- tracts from his correspondence which bear upon Kent County history, and which (as many of the quotations already given do) present names which later were most frequently and honorably presented in the current history of the community. In September, 1842, he wrote that the State salt well was down to a depth of 770 feet, but that difficulties in construction were being met with. In October, of the same year, he recommended the establishment of a postoffice at Caledonia, with Henry C. Foster as postmaster, and also expressed the hope that James M. Nelson would not be removed as postmaster at Grand Rapids, as the only thing that could be said against him was that he was a Whig. He also recommended Peter R. L. Peirce for enrolling clerk of the Michigan Senate, but in this letter he qualified his endorsement on account of Mr. Peirce's Whig inclinations. He also recommended Digby V. Bell, of Ada, to the President and to Daniel Webster, then Secretary of State, for appointment as consul. In 1843, he wrote that he had seven, and sometimes ten, men employed in cutting and binding fagots, for use at the salt works. Another letter to George H. Lyon tells of the cost of the farming operations in Michigan and is of such value that it is quoted in full, as follows: "The average cost of cutting the grub and clearing off an acre of common oak opening here, ready for the plow, is about $5, and four yoke of oxen with a large, strong breaking- up plow and a man to hold it, and man and boy to drive will break up on an average about an acre per day, perhaps a little more. This makes the cost of the first plowing or breaking-up about $3 per acr. and for wheat crop the breaking-up should all be done by the 10th of July. The crop, plowing and harrowing can be done with less than half the teams necessary for breaking and will not cost more than $1.75 per acre. As fencing timber can always be found on the ground in oak openings, a fence of good oak rail will not cost more than 25 cents per rod, and for a ten-acre field in a square form $40, or $4 per acre, making the whole cost of clearing, fencing, plowing, and sowing oak openings with wheat about $13.75 per acre, besides the cost of seed, which will be from 50 to 75 cents per bushel. Most people, however, do not incur the expense of taking off the timber for some three or four years, or until the limbs begin to fall. They girdle the trees and let them stand, which renders the first expense of clearing not more than $2 per acre. The price of working oxen at this season of the year is from $45 to $60 per yoke. The average price of wheat within thirty miles of the lake has been about 50 cents per bushel for three years past, but it is now at least 60 cents. The average yield per acre, both in Michigan and Wisconsin, is not far from 17 bushels, sometimes as high as 30. It always commands cash price, and is the only article raised by the farmers in this country that will always sell
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for money ; though on account of the scarcity occasioned by the past . hard winter, corn, oats and potatoes will all command money now. The average prices for the past four years have been-for corn, about 30 cents ; oats, 18; and potatoes, 15 cents per bushel. Wages for men to work on farms by the month, during six months of the warmest season, is about $12 per month; in Wisconsin, about the same, per- haps a little more."
In June, his financial condition was such that he considered ask- ing an appointment as public surveyor in Iowa, although his name was then mentioned as a candidate for Congress. In this connection he stated : "I formerly spent ten years of my life in surveying public lands. Every line was run by myself personally, and in running them I have walked in the woods more than 50,000 miles." This was about equal to a journey on foot twice around the world at the equator. At this time he reported that the State salt well was down to a depth of 876 feet, and that further work would be more expensive; and, in July, he was forced to report that the State salt well was hopelessly obstructed.
Political conditions engrossed him during the next month and his attitude was that he would be glad to accept the nomination, but did not wish to interfere with other candidates. He was nominated and returned thanks to General Fitzgerald, who withdrew his own candidacy, and at that time he stated that he did not expect to be a candidate for re-election. In this letter he referred to his own finan- cial condition, saying: "All the property in St. Joseph which you purchased for me and I paid for with money obtained from Isaac Bronson, I reconveyed or rather conveyed to his executors, and they have, besides, my farms in Kalamazoo County, this county and at Lyons to pay the balance that I was owing them on account of in- vestments made for Isaac Bronson. These investments and my guar- antee to refund the money invested and interest, over and above all costs and taxes, ruined me. I have, to be sure, been helped down the hill a good deal by being endorser and surety for my friends, but my dealings with the Bronsons injured me more than anything else. It will require ten years of diligent attention to business and the strict- est economy on my part to enable me to pay my debts. I have been hard at work since 1839 to effect this object, but make slow prog- ress." In October, he gave his earnest approval to the effort to im- prove navigation on the Grand River as far as Jackson, and in a let- ter to Allen Goodrich, Nov. 14, he told of his election to Congress : "In this Kent County," he said, "where I thought I should do exceed- ingly well to get one hundred, I received two hundred majority." To his father he wrote that his majority was about 2,300, and he naively stated, "I shall avail myself of the franking privilege to write you somewhat oftener." He further said: "My salt works, which are now nearly complete and ready for operation, will be left in charge of George A. Robinson and G. S. Deane, the former keeping the books and accounts and the latter looking after the works. Lucius A. Thayer will attend school at the academy in this village during the coming winter and Lucretia will take care of his clothes, etc. Truman H. Lyon keeps the Mansion House, near the foot of Monroe street, down in the middle of the village, about 100 rods from my office, and is do-
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ing and is likely to do a very good business. Sidney Smith has just been elected treasurer of this county, an office worth some $300 per annum, and will remove here from Ada in a few weeks and occupy the house about half way between my office and Truman Lyon's, so that we shall be all together in this village."
To Samuel Etheridge, of Coldwater, he wrote: "Daniel Ball, a merchant of this place and owner of a steamboat and other boats running on Grand River, and also owner of the plaster mill on Plas- ter Creek, two miles below here, talks of building a flour mill here next year, and E. B. Bostwick, of this place, who was a candidate for the office of Lieutenant Governor two years ago, is now erecting a grist mill of two runs of stone on Plaster Creek, about three miles distant, and is about to erect another on Bear Creek, which falls into Grand River on its north side, about 14 miles above this place." A very human touch is given when he thanks A. Roberts & Son for the gift of a "very beautiful and excellent coat which fits to a T. and is just the article that I happened to be most in need of."
Leaving Grand Rapids, Dec. 11, 1843, he said: "Stayed that night at McNaughton's; Tuesday night reached Kalamazoo'; Wednes- day night at Battle Creek; Thursday at Jackson, and Friday reached Detroit, where remained until Monday." He took the stage through Canada, reaching Buffalo the 22d, leaving on the cars the next morn- ing, expecting to reach Washington the 27th, via New York. From Washington, he wrote, Dec. 31, 1843, of the Michigan crop as fol- lows: "Wheat-the crop, taking the whole State together, is greater than last year by at least ten per cent. Barley-about the same as last year, little raised. Oats-crop injured by cold weather in the spring and the excessive heat in the latter part of June and July, and less than last year by ten per cent. Rye-about the same as last year, little raised. Buckwheat-about the same as last year. Indian corn-better than last year by five per cent. Potatoes and hay-about the same. Sugar [maple]-almost an entire failure, at least eighty per cent. less than last year, because the snow was so deep the ground did not freeze."
An early official act was to recommend that the name of Kent postoffice be changed to Grand Rapids to "correspond with the name of the village in which it is located." "The office," he said, "was established and received its name before the village of Grand Rapids began to grow much. The village now has upwards of one thou- sand inhabitants, and persons abroad are often much puzzled to know how to direct their letters on account of the village bearing one name and the postoffice there another." He was modest in his expendi- tures, as is shown by his statement in a letter to Edward Lyon, Feb. 2, 1844, "I pay $9 a week for board, lodging, room, fire and light, and 25 cents a week for bootblacking. When I was here four years ago the same board, etc., would have cost at least $12 or $14 a week. The price has fallen about 25 per cent. and is now 25 per cent. too high, as everything but flour is as low here as in Detroit."
Another letter of value is one to E. J. Foote, of the same date, in which he tells of lands near Grand Rapids, saying: "Good lands can be purchased within 3 or 4 miles of Grand Rapids for from $2.50 to $6 per acre, according to situation. Within two miles of Grand
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Rapids I know very little land that can be bought as low as $6 per acre, but within ten miles there is plenty to be had for $1.25. Farms that have been improved bring more, according to the value of the improvements, but no improved farm would sell for more than $10 or $11 per acre, unless it lay near the village, so as to be valuable for other purposes than farming."
To W. H. Sherwood he wrote: "As you have joined H. R. Wil- liams in the purchase of the plaster mills of D. Ball, I hope you will go to Grand Rapids to reside. I should be much gratified to have you there for a neighbor. I should think the purchase at $8,000 a very good one, though as there is no snow there this winter you will not be able to sell much plaster until spring." In another letter to Hiram Moore, relative to patents on harvesting machines, he mentioned the fact that Cyrus McCormick, of Rock Ridge County, Virginia, took out a patent for cutting grain by a machine with a sickle-edge saw, June 21, 1834. This was the first patent for the great McCormick harvester still in use upon thousands of farms. Among his communications were ones inclosing a petition from Kent County, asking that mail be sent from Battle Creek to Milwaukee by way of the mouth of the Grand River and steamboat, thus cutting the time 24 hours, and another asking that a postoffice be established in the town of Walker, with James Davis as postmaster. He ack- nowledged the receipt of a letter from E. B. Bostwick for the estab- lishment of a postoffice to be called Cannonsburg. To Bishop Le- fevre, of Detroit, he wrote as to the settlement of the mission lands, that they were to be sold as soon as the value of the improvements made by both missionary societies should be ascertained, and that Robert Stewart, of Detroit, had been instructed to appoint an agent on the part of the United States to appraise the improvements, act- ing with the persons selected by the missionary societies. He was active in the attempt to secure appropriations for government im- provements at the mouth of the Grand and the Kalamazoo Rivers, but Congress refused to appropriate for new projects. In April, 1844, he sent power of attorney to George A. Robinson, authorizing him to do what might seem best as to building a bridge across Grand River, favoring the Bridge street site. In relation to this bridge he wrote to G. S. Deane, also, as follows: "Mr. Richmond wants a bridge built over the canal at the foot of Bridge street. I have written to him that I will authorize Mr. Robinson, and I do now authorize him, or you, to make the best arrangement you can for paying my portion of the expense of building such bridge, according to the proportion which the water power which I use from the canal bears to the whole amount used by others. This is as much as I ought to be required to do. I hope you will do all you can to get the bridge finally located on Bridge street. I will give the right-of-way there, but will not give it at any other point below the basin." He also gives instructions for carry- . ing on the work at the salt well. At this time he was deeply inter- ested in politics, and his attitude as to renomination was that other candidates had been very kind to him and that he would not then stand in their way, but that if the convention failed to agree upon a nominee he would be glad to accept. He was also one of the chief promoters of the candidacy of Lewis Cass for President and wrote
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illuminating letters to Cass relative to his attitude on the annexation of Texas and the details of the National Democratic convention at Baltimore. He was very hopeful of Cass' nomination, but was forced to write, with regret, that "Cove" Johnson had suddenly sprung the name of James K. Polk, of Tennessee, and stampeded the convention. Even during this excitement he found time to attend to local matters and urged the postoffice department that mail be carried from Grand Rapids to Grand Haven by steamboat. He also said, in a letter to Nathanial Emery: 'I am glad to hear that immigration to our coun- try has commenced this spring in a flood like that of four years ago." He also urged Charles Butler to go to Washington to aid, with his influence, in passing a bill granting to Michigan alternate sections of public lands along the Clinton & Kalamazoo Canal, from Rochester to the Grand River. His letter congratulating James K. Polk shows his intimate acquaintance with the Presidential nominee, and his large influence is shown by his activities, one of which was to urge that the office of Surveyor-General be removed from Cincinnati to Detroit, as most of the unsurveyed lands were in Michigan, and the work could be managed from Cincinnati only at great expense. He also asked the appointment of a sub-Indian agent on the Grand River, saying : "There are several thousands of Ottawas and Chippewas scattered through that part of the State who have no means of communicating their wishes and wants to the government, short of going to the agency at Detroit, a distance of more than 200 miles."
As the Congressional convention approached, in August, 1844, he wrote Gen. J. Burdick: "The delegates from Kent County are Thom- as B. Church and S. G. Harris. From Ottawa the delegates originally appointed could not attend and they have substituted F. M. Johnson and George M. Mills, of this place; but I believe Ottawa County is entitled to only one delegate, so Johnson and Mills will have to settle the matter between themselves as to who shall act. I will not go into a scramble for a nomination and have requested them not to bring me out or vote for me unless first perfectly sure that a ma- jority of delegates or other portions of the district will support me. He was not nominated, and in a letter to Gen. Thomas Fitzgerald he said : "I have no regrets on this account, but I do regret that I was brought forward and voted for against my expressed request. I have learned that the first thing George Mills did after his arrival at Kala- mazoo, before the convention, was to meet J. S. Chipman and Gen. Burdick and there lay a plan to have me brought forward as a candi- date on the first ballot for the double purpose of injuring me before the convention and also with reference to any other occasion that I might be a candidate hereafter. This arrangement was entered into without the knowledge of the other delegates from Kent and Ottawa Counties and Mills had address enough to induce them to fall in with his views, though they did not know his motives and supposed him friendly to me.'
In October, 1844, in a communication to the commissioner of patents, he reported the condition of Michigan crops as being an av- erage yield, and that at least ten times as much sugar was made from the maple trees last Spring as was made the Spring previous. "One young man, Mr. Coon, of Kent County, made seven hundred pounds from one hundred trees."
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At this time is opened another unfortunate episode in Mr. Lyon's career when he writes to Henry R. Schoolcraft, the well-known Indian scholar, saying that judgment for nearly ten thousand dollars had been rendered against him and O. Newberry as sureties on School- craft's bond and begging the latter to make provision to save him from paying his share of the verdict. He closes: "If you do not, I must of course be utterly ruined beyond all hope of recovery."
At the close of this year, a great temptation was presented Mr. Lyon, as General Cass had resigned from the Senate when a candi- date for the Presidential nomination and his successor was to be chosen by the next Legislature. There was a question among the friends of General Cass as to whether he should be a candidate for the Senate, accept a cabinet appointment if proffered, or remain in private life as best furthering his chances for the Presidency in 1848. Mr. Lyon urged that Cass be a candidate for the Senate, and after he had done this his own friends strongly urged that Mr. Lyon be a candidate. W. A. Richmond, of Grand Rapids, one of Mr. Lyon's closest friends, urged that he be a candidate, even in opposition to General Cass. In reply to this Mr. Lyon said: "The prize is almost too tempting to be rejected, and if I could secure it without being placed in opposition to General Cass and his wishes and interest, I should of course be glad to do so; but as I understand his views and wishes, I do not see how this can be done. I expressed to the General when I last saw him in Detroit a wish that he might be elected to the Senate. I can do nothing that shall be inconsistent with these profes- sions, not even to secure a seat for six years in the Senate of the United States." Cass was re-elected and Mr. Lyon expressed his pleasure that his name had not been brought forward.
His last days in Washington were spent in an effort to be useful to his friends and in this he was successful to a marked degree. "Cove" Johnson was the new Postmaster General and to him he rec- ommended the appointment of Truman H. Lyon as postmaster of Grand Rapids, in place of Mr. Nelson, saying that Mr. Nelson had himself signed a petition in favor of T. H. Lyon. He also recom- mended W. A. Richmond as superintendent of Indian affairs for Mich- igan and S. M. Johnson [Simeon] for a consular appointment. In the meantime, through General Cass, he urged his own appointment as Surveyor-General, and in a letter to Cass, dated March 31, 1845, he said : "I have not yet received my appointment, but for an accidental allusion to it the other evening when conversing with the President I should have lost it, and a man from Ohio would have been appointed. The President had forgotten that he made you any promise in my behalf." He also recommended John Almy as agent at New York to direct immigration to Michigan, and said that Judge Almy had de- voted six months in Boston and New York to turning the tide of im- migration to Michigan. Before leaving the Capitol his efforts were crowned with success. Mr. Richmond was appointed Indian agent for Michigan and S. M. Johnson consul at Matanzas, Cuba, at a sal- ary of about $1,600, and Lyon was appointed Surveyor-General. Writ- ing to General Cass, June 3, 1845, he said: "S. M. Johnson has heard of his appointment, and if there is any happier man alive than he is this day I should be glad to see him. He attributes his success en-
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tirely to your letter, as he ought, and his feelings are all right." It was at this time that he gave permission to James Scribner to procure for the purpose of constructing a bridge across the rapids of Grand River "any stone belonging to me on said rapids, excepting such as have been laid into the wing wall at the head of the canal or into the wall built by Daniel Ball."
In reference to Michigan prospects he said, July, 1845: "We have fine crops of all kinds in this part of Michigan now on the ground and the prospects warrant the belief that the wheat crop here will be better and more abundant than ever before. Everything here at Grand Rapids looks prosperous and the whole Grand River Valley is increasing in wealth and population, and also in political impor- tance." One of his first acts as Surveyor-General was to offer his friend, John Almy, a position as clerk, at $1,000 per annum, and soon after taking office he went, with the State geologist, Dr. Houghton, and others, for a trip of exploration to investigate the copper region of Lake Superior. Returning from this journey, in October, 1845, he wrote to S. M. Johnson that they had personally examined three loca- tions and found them to cover one of the most extensive and valuable deposits of micaceous or specular iron ore that had ever been found in the world. He said that he doubted if such a deposit could be found elsewhere, either in Europe or America, for richness and abundance, and the facilities with which it might be quarried and worked.
The "published letters" of the Senator end at this point, but he continued as Surveyor-General, aiding greatly in the development of the State, and maintaining a constant interest in the welfare of Grand Rapids. The salt works were finally abandoned, and Mr. Lyon was never able to realize the fortune which had always been just beyond his grasp. But, undoubtedly, that effort and the talk it occasioned had a persisting influence which resulted later in the wondrous salt production of Michigan, now much larger than that of all the other States of the country combined! His beautiful philosophy of life and death enabled him to withstand all the arrows of fortune with mag- nanimity and death, in 1851, did not find him a soured or disappointed man.
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CHAPTER VII. GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT
EXODUS OF THE INDIANS-ORGANIZATION OF THE VILLAGE OF GRAND RAPIDS-FIRST COURTHOUSE-THE LYCEUM-BEGINNING OF THE LUMBER INDUSTRY-PROMINENT ARRIVALS-MURDER OF AN IN- DIAN CHIEF-FIRST GERMAN SETTLERS-THE HOLLAND COLONY- INCORPORATION AS A CITY-DISASTROUS FLOODS-PLANK ROADS AND RAILROAD PROJECTS - DISASTROUS FIRES - AGRICULTURAL FAIR.
Before the close of 1837 the Indians had quite generally left the immediate vicinity of Grand Rapids, some following the Rev. Slater, others going to Pentwater and others to the new territory opened to them in the West. This probably gave rise to the often repeated mis- take that the settlers found here a "deserted Indian village." The village was deserted, however, by 1838, as during that year General Harrison completed the treaty with the Indians by which the great majority of them moved West. While the Indians did not live here, many came to trade, and the Hon. Frank Little, of Kalamazoo, speak- ing of the village in 1838, says that "it swarmed with Indians who were spearing sturgeon in the river."
Among the events of chief importance during 1838 was the or- ganization of the village of Grand Rapids, which was incorporated by act of the Legislature on April 5, 1838. The boundary of the in- corporation began with Fulton street and the river; thence east to the southeast corner of Hatch's addition (later the Kendall addi- tion) ; north to the line of Hastings street; west to the west line of the old Canal street ; south along that street to the river, which at that time was at the foot of Pearl street, and thence down the river bank. By this act a full set of village officers was provided for, with a board of trustees as the chief governing power. An election was held at the little court house on Monday, May 1, 1838, and the trustees elected were Louis Campau, Richard Godfroy, William A. Richmond, Charles I. Walker, G. R. Coggeshall, James Watson, and Henry C. Smith, who was chosen by the trustees as their President. Louis Campau received the highest vote, which was 141. Other officers were John W. Peirce, clerk ; Charles I. Walker, treasurer ; and Gideon Suprenant, marshal. The board of trustees organized at the office of Charles I. Walker, on May 14, and a week later the by-laws of the village were adopted. In these first ordinances much attention was paid to the morals of the village, and the keeping of game houses or ball alleys was stopped and the discharge of firearms was prohibited within the village. It was also provided, although this was not enforced, that licensed tavern keepers only should sell liquors. Steps were taken to drain the swamp which existed in the neighborhood bounded by Foun- , tain and Ionia, Lyon and Division streets. The first public well was authorized, when citizens were permitted to place one at the corner of Monroe and Ionia streets. It was also proposed to open Bond
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