USA > Michigan > Kent County > Grand Rapids > Grand Rapids and Kent County, Michigan: History and Account of Their Progress from First. Vol. I > Part 30
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CHAPTER XIII. VERGENNES TOWNSHIP
BOUNDARIES-FIRST WHITE SETTLER-FIRST TOWNSHIP MEETING- RODNEY ROBINSON - EARLY SETTLERS - PHYSICAL FEATURES - VILLAGE OF FALLASSBURG-LIST OF SUPERVISORS.
Vergennes is bounded on the north by Grattan, on the east by Ionia County, on the south by Lowell township and on the west by Ada.
Sylvester Hodges was the first white settler. He was born in Jefferson County, New York. His education was acquired in the com- mon schools and he followed farming all of his life. He came to Kent County at an early period, 1836, and "took up" 160 acres of land be- longing to Uncle Sam. He was a member of the "Knock Down So- ciety," organized in Vergennes, in 1836, for the protection of the squatters from the land sharks. It is said that Mr. Hodges trans- planted the first apple trees put out in the township of Lowell, and that he also assisted in building the first house where the village of Lowell now stands. He was married in 1836 to Martha Gould, born in Tompkins County, New York. Mrs. Hodges learned the tailoress' trade in her native State, and for many years she was the only one of the calling nearer than Grand Rapids, her services being in constant demand among all classes. In the earlier days she spun, wove and made the family clothing, and she also made clothes for the Indians. She spun the first flax on the Flat River and the lint was brought by the Robinson family in 1836.
The township of Vergennes was organized in the year 1838. The first township meeting was held on the second day of April, of the same year, when the following persons were chosen as the first town- ship officers: Supervisor, Rodney Robinson; clerk, M. Patrick; as- sessors, Lewis Robinson, T. I. Daniels, and John M. Fox; collector, Porter Ralph; school inspectors, Everett Wilson, Lewis Robinson, and George Brown ; directors of the poor, Everett Wilson and Charles Newton; commissioners of highways, Lucas Robinson, Henry Daines and P. W. Fox; constables, Porter Ralph, A. D. Smith, O. H. Jones, and James S. Fox.
Rodney Robinson was a native of New York State, a brother of Rix Robinson, and he settled in Vergennes in 1837, taking up land from the Government. At the organization of the township he was
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elected supervisor, his brother Lewis was chosen assessor, and an- other brother, Lucas, was elected commissioner of highways. The family of Robinsons has been a noted one in Kent County. Those of the pioneer generation were stalwart, muscular men, and as fa- mous for their kind hearts as for strength, and many incidents of their lives are still remembered and told among their descendants of the present day, or the descendants of their neighbors.
John M. Fox came to Vergennes in 1837, but after 1846 resided many years in Grand Rapids; where he was well known and re- spected as a citizen, business man and a public officer. During the last ten years of his life he resided at Lowell, where he died, Jan. 4, 1873, aged 62 years.
Philip W. Fox was born in Herkimer County, New York, in 1812. He early learned the trade of wool-carding and cloth-dressing, which he followed from the age of 18 to 22. He was among the ear- liest settlers of Vergennes township, coming in 1837, when the forests were unbroken and Indians more plentiful than other kinds of neigh- bors. He followed the occupation of farming exclusively after com- ing to Michigan. In Vergennes township he held the offices of com- missioner of highways and township treasurer.
It is said that at the time of this first election there were only about nineteen families in the township. A gentleman who went to Vergennes in 1838 said that, as he passed through the township of Lowell, on his way from Canada, he counted but three houses. For several years the farmers in that vicinity were obliged to take their grists to Ionia, to Grandville, or to Kalamazoo, to be ground. Con- sidering the poor roads which the scattered communities were then tor- tured with, and the bridgeless streams to be crossed, such jour- neys undoubtedly seemed most uninviting. The entire country was then a howling wilderness. Grand Rapids could boast of but half a score of houses, with most of them owned by one man; and two stores, one kept by "Uncle Louis," and the other by a man named Watson. Among the early settlers in Vergennes may be mentioned the following: Silas S. Fallass, who settled in the year 1838; J. Wes- ley Fallass in 1837, Lucas Robinson in 1837, Thompson I. Daniels in 1837, James Wells in 1842, A. R. Hoag in 1841, Sylvester Hodges in 1836, James S. Fox in 1836, William P. Perrin in 1837, Alexander Rogers in 1838, Alanson K. Shaw in 1839, Emery Foster in 1837, Newcomb Godfrey in 1838, Amos Hodges in 1838, Eliab Walker in 1838, Christopher Misner in 1838, Morgan Lyon in 1838, Benjamin Fairchild in 1838, John Branagan in 1837, Alfred Van Deusen in 1838, and Adam Van Deusen in 1840.
J. Wesley Fallass was a native of Madison County, New York. He came to Kent County when a young man, in 1837, and located at what has since been known as Fallassburg, where he built a mill and early began the manufacture of lumber and flour. Going back to his native State, in 1842, he there married, and with his bride returned to Vergennes township, and until the year 1875 continued to operate his mill. In that year he disposed of it to his sons and turned his atten- tion to his farm, which he cultivated until his death, Nov. 5, 1896. He was the father of the late Henry B. Fallass, long a prominent lawyer in Grand Rapids.
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A. R. Hoag was born in New York in 1817. He was educated in the subscription schools of New York and Michigan, his parents be- ing pioneers in Ulster County, New York, as well as Washtenaw and Kent Counties, Michigan. Mr. Hoag came to Kent County in May, 1841, and thus was familiar with the entire role of pioneer life, in- cluding wolves, Indians, etc. He was among the first in the move- ment to organize the Kent County Insurance Company, served four years as its first president and afterward as director.
Alexander Rogers was born in Lewis County, New York, Aug. 4, 1809. He was reared on a farm until 19, when he learned the ma- son's trade, which he followed five years, and the remainder of his life was spent upon a farm. In 1835 he came to Redford, Wayne County, Michigan, and entered 160 acres of land in Livingston Coun- ty. In 1838 he came to Lowell and later was numbered among the pioneers of Vergennes township.
Newcomb Godfrey was born in 1806, in the Empire State. He attended the common schools of Canada and New York and followed farming all of his life. He was a noted pioneer and brought to his work the strength and determination necessary to his circumstances. As a rail-splitter he became a well-deserved celebrity, being able to cut and split 250 rails daily, between sun and sun.
Eliab Walker was born in New York in 1797. Upon coming to Vergennes township he took up a farm from the Government and built a log cabin which differed little from other structures of the kind at that period. It had at first no floor, but one of elm bark was soon placed in position.
Christopher Misner was born in Canada in 1806. He was edu- cated in the subscription schools and followed the vocation of farm- ing all of his life. The Indians were very numerous at the time he made his residence in Vergennes, but they were friendly and valuable assistants to the pioneer.
Morgan Lyon was born at Norwich, Chenango County, New York, Oct. 16, 1810. When he was young the family was poor, strug- gling with farm life and pioneer privations in a newly and thinly set- tled region. His early education was only such as could be gained in country district schools of that period. In 1836, looking forward for a chance of bettering his prospects, he emigrated to Howell, Living- ston County, Michigan, where he settled upon a farm of 160 acres. A year or two later he sold that and moved again, into the almost un- broken wilderness of Vergennes, where he entered, in June, 1838, upon 160 acres of land on Section 20 of that township, where he made his home. About 1865 he moved to the village of Lowell and lived there some. three years, but meantime retained his farm to which he re- turned. In Vergennes he held the offices of justice of the peace and supervisor.
The Van Deusens were natives of New York and of German descent. Some of their descendants still reside in the vicinity of Lowell.
The soil of Vergennes is mostly heavy, yet along the banks of Flat River is found some quite light and sandy. The greater portion of the township consists of what might be called oak openings. A belt of timbered land originally extended south from Murray Lake, one and one-half miles wide, and four miles in length, reaching into
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Sections 20 and 21 ; also a short strip of timbered land lay on the west side of the same lake. The township is well watered by Flat River and numerous little tributaries through the easterly and central part, and Honey Creek, which passes through three sections on the wester- ly tier. Flat River passes into Vergennes from the east, three-quar- ters of a mile south of the northeasterly corner of the township, when it curves and passes back into Ionia County at a point about three- quarters of a mile south of the place of entrance. It re-enters on Sec- tion 13, and, meandering southwesterly, passes out near the quarter post on the south line of Section 35. It forms a junction with the Grand at the village of Lowell. The lakes in Vergennes are nearly all small. Murray Lake, formerly called Eagle, or Nagle, or Horse Shoe Lake, projects a short distance into the township. Eagle was once the most familiar name. It was thus christened after a bird of that species which built its nest in a large oak on an island or penin- sula in the lake. From its resemblance to a horse shoe it sometimes passes by that name. It has an outlet called Lake Creek, which is a tributary of Flat River. Odell Lake is situated near the center of Section 29. It is fifty rods in width and has an average depth of thir- teen feet. The lake and surrounding swamp cover about eighty acres. Cole's Lake, situated on the east half of Section 30, is a shallow sheet of water, covering about ten acres. Miller's Lake, situated on the west half of Section 29, is quite deep and covers four or five acres. Long Lake, situated on Section 19, is a fine body of water, about three-quarters of a mile in length, with an average width of thirty rods. It is frequented by pleasure seekers in both summer and win- ter.
Vergennes has good educational facilities. Its schools are well organized and are supplied with competent teachers. The school buildings are generally good, though not costly, and present a tidy appearance.
The village of Fallassburg site was settled upon about the year 1838, by the family or families from which it derived its name. Two mills and a hotel were erected there before the present thriving vil- lage of Lowell had commenced to be built up. The Fallassburg grist mill, a three-story wooden building, situated on Flat River, was erect- ed in 1840 by J. Wesley Fallass ; and Hecox's saw-mill, a three-story wooden building, with the upper part occupied for years as a chair factory, was erected in 1839 by Charles Hecox. Mercantile houses were also opened, but the growth of Lowell was the death knell of Fallassburg and its industrial history is now but a memory.
The following is a list of supervisors for Vergennes township from its organization in 1838 down to the present time: 1838, Rodney Robinson ; 1839, John M. Fox; 1840, John J. Devendorf; 1841, Alan- son K. Shaw; 1842, Thompson I. Daniels; 1845, Arba Richards ; 1846, Henry M. Brown; 1848, John B. Shear; 1849, Thompson I. Daniels ; 1850, Morgan Lyon; 1851, Lucas Robinson; 1853, Orlando J. O'Dell; 1856, Philip W. Fox; 1857, Thompson I. Daniels; 1859, Silas A. Yerkes ; 1861, Alex. McLean; 1863, Jacob W. Walker; 1892, Fred L. Hodges; 1898, Owen J. Howard; 1901, Edmund M. Alger ; 1912, Allen S. Bennett; 1916, Delbert D. Krum, present incumbent.
Alexander McLean was born in the State of New York in 1816,
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and was on his father's farm at Caledonia, Livingston County, that State, until he was twenty-four years of age. His first venture for himself was teaching school, which he commenced at twenty years of age. After he was twenty-one he worked on the farm summers at $12 a month and taught school winters for $14 to $18 a month. With a little means thus accumulated, and a small sum given him by his father, he came to this county in 1838, and bought between 200 and 300 acres of land in Bowne township. The same fall he returned home and remained there until 1841, when he again came to this county and entered 160 acres in Vergennes township, where he resided the remainder of his life. After a year or so he sold his land in Bowne township and used the proceeds to improve his home place, which was then an oak opening and utterly wild. For the next three years he devoted all his energies to the clearing and improvement of this place. In 1844 he built his first house, which was of logs, 18x24 feet in dimensions. In breaking his land Mr. McLean used four to six yoke of cattle, sowed the land to wheat, raised fifteen to twenty bushels to the acre, hauled the crop to market at Grand Rapids by ox-team and obtained 50 cents per bushel for his grain, many times being obliged to take his pay in "trade." For recreation in the fall of the year, with rifle in hand he would hunt deer, turkey, etc., which were then abundant. He devoted the winter time to cutting and clearing. He served as township clerk three or four years in the ear- ly period of settlement, was justice of the peace about eight years, and served as supervisor for two years.
Jacob W. Walker was born in Canada in 1827, and was a son of Eliab Walker, mentioned in the foregoing as one of the early settlers of Vergennes township. Mr. Walker held the office of supervisor for thirty consecutive years.
CHAPTER XIV. WALKER TOWNSHIP
TOPOGRAPHY AND WATER COURSES-EARLY SETTLEMENTS-SAMUEL WHITE-ROBERT HILTON-FIRST ELECTION - EARLY INDUSTRIES -RICHARD E. BUTTERWORTH-LIST OF SUPERVISORS.
Topographically, this township is quite diversified. The Grand River and its tributaries drain the territory. These tributaries con- sist of several streams, perhaps the most important one of which is Indian Creek, formerly known as Indian Mill Creek. It derived its name from a mill which was erected near its mouth by the Indians, or for them, many years ago. The site of this mill was near the pres- ent junction of the Detroit & Milwaukee with the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad, on Section 13, and is now within the city limits of Grand Rapids. The source of the stream is in Alpine township. It enters Walker from the north, at the northeast corner of Section 4, and passes through Sections 10, 15, 14, and 13, and unites with Grand River near the Detroit & Milwaukee Railroad bridge. There was once considerable pine along its banks, and during the first ten years of the early settlement of the township, five saw-mills were erected.
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In the year 1850, three of them remained. Now, the pine is gone, and gone also are the mills. Brandy Creek, which is a branch of In- dian Creek, rises on Section 16 and, flowing northeasterly, enters the latter on the south side of Section 10. Black Skin Creek-said to be so called after an Indian chief of that name-rises in the south- ern part of the original township and flowing south enters Grand Riv- er on the south side of Section 5. Sand Creek flows through the northwesterly part of the township and passes out into Ottawa Coun- ty on the west. There are several other small creeks in the town- ship, but none demanding particular notice.
The valleys or bottom lands adjacent to the streams are especially fertile, highly improved, and very valuable. . The higher lands are not so rich for agricultural purposes. On the east and south, along Grand River, is a tract of low land, from eighty rods to a mile in width, extending from the northeast to the southwest corner of the township, as it was before the encroachment of the city, which is un- derlaid with a strata of limestone, lying from two to ten feet below the surface. Above this is a gravelly loam, which, in some parts, is filled and covered with large boulders. Back of this is a series of hills and sandy bluffs, rising to a height of fifty or sixty feet. The sandy belt also extends diagonally across the township from the northeast to southwest, and varies in width from one-half to two miles. The original timber of the low land described was elm, black oak, soft maple, hemlock, cedar, etc., and of the bluffs, pine and oak. In the remainder of the township the principal varieties of timber, which abounded in almost exhaustless supply and excellent quality, was chiefly beach and sugar maple, with considerable valuable oak interspersed through some portions. The surface of the remainder of the township is generally rolling, but no elevations of any consid- erable magnitude appear. At the time of the first white settlement, the woods abounded in game of all kinds known in the country. Deer were exceedingly plentiful and afforded the principal meat supply of the early settlers. Every man and boy, and some of the female popu- lation, were expert hunters, and many are the tales told of hair- breadth escapes from, and single-handed contests with bruin, the arch enemy of the young domestic animals about the settlers' cabins. Wolves and wild-cats also made night hideous and nocturnal travel precarious, with their prowling, stealthy and deceptive methods of at- tack.
The first settlement of the township of Walker antedates its or- ganization by at least two years. The township organization was ef- fected in the month of April, 1838, the first township meeting being held at the Mission School House, which stood on the west bank of Grand River on ground now occupied by the street railway ter- minal building. The records indicate that this was the only school house then in the township, for it was spoken of as "the School House of Walker."
It is not definitely known as to who was the first actual perma- nent settler of the township of Walker, but it was settled mostly by people from the State of New York. In the year 1837 Samuel White, then a man fifty-six years of age, came with his family from Canada, and settled on Section 23, all of which section is now included within the city limits. Mr. White was a native of New York, born April 1,
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1781, and he claimed to have been descended from Peregrine White, the first white child born in America. Before coming to Michigan he lived for a number of years in Canada, but in December, 1836, he came to Kent County with a team of six yoke of oxen, and spent New Year's Day at Gull Prairie. In the spring of 1837 he settled in Wal- ker, where he took up 160 acres of land on Section 23, and he con- tinued to buy land until he owned about 400. On the west side of the river there was yet no trace of civilization, and Mr. White cut the first road and drove the first team into the wilderness of Walker township. The family numbered nine persons-four sons and three daughters. The father was a practical miller and his sons acquired a knowledge of the business that proved useful in a new country, and the eldest stopped at Gull Prairie to work in a mill. They brought eighteen head of cattle with them and took up their quarters in an Indian hut on the river bank, where the whole family sickened with the measles except one son, Jonas M., who took care of the stock, brought lumber from Mill Creek, six miles up the river, rafted it down, drew it out to the claim and built the cabin. Mr. White built the first frame barn west of Grand River; and soon after this, with the assistance of his sons, Milo and James, erected a saw-mill on In- dian Creek, on the north side of Section 15. Another son, Samuel, was the first volunteer for the Civil War in Walker township, and he attained the rank of second lieutenant. The father died at his home in Walker township, March 4, 1873.
At about the same time, Jesse Smith, who was also from Canada, settled on what is now Bridge street, about two miles west of the river. He had a large family of sons and daughters, some of whom were married and who settled in different parts of the township. One of the elder sons, Benjamin, commenced at an early day on the south side of Section 10, where he built a small grist-mill and machine shop on Indian Creek.
And also, about the same time, a Frenchman, by the name of John J. Nardin, who had served in the French army under Napoleon the First, came from Detroit, with a large family, and settled in the southern part of the township, west of the site of the old Eagle Plas- ter Mills.
Then came Zelotis Bemis and Robert Hilton, who went still fur- ther south and located on the north bank of the river, two or three miles below the plaster mills. A portion of the Bemis farm was for- merly an "Indian Planting Ground." Soon after he settled, Mr. Bemis commenced raising wheat quite extensively, the harvesting of which furnished employment for some of those who came a year or two later.
Robert Hilton-characterized by an early local writer as "a stanch-made, thorough-rigged, live-oak individual, with several knots and branches on him"-was born in Mt. Vernon, Me., Dec. 2, 1799. Coming to Grand Rapids in 1836, a carpenter by trade, he first se- lected a piece of land for a farm, on the right bank of the river, some miles below the Rapids. He paid $2 per bushel for seed wheat, bringing it from Gull Prairie, and when he harvested his crop it would only bring 50 cents per bushel. While on the farm he worked much of the time in the village at his trade, coming and returning
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by canoe on the river; also superintended the erection of the light- house at Grand Haven, going down in the morning and returning in the evening by steamer. There were many Indians about him, but as a rule they were friendly. An incident illustrating his quickness in judging of savage human nature is related. Coming home one day he found a dog worrying his pigs and near by an Indian leaning upon his gun and watching the animals. Hilton leaped from his horse, seized that gun, shot the dog, and handed the weapon back with the simple, terse remark in the native's own language, "Bad Indian," re- mounted and rode away without another word. That Indian never troubled him again, but seemed to admire his Yankee courage. After a few years he moved into Grand Rapids, where he resided until his death, in 1885. Some of his first work in the city was on the old Na- tional Hotel and on Judge Morrison's house. He built for the Nelson Brothers a building of two stores where now is the Grinnell building. He was also the master workman in the erection of the Swedenbor- gian Church, which stood on the corner of Division and Lyon streets, just north of the United States postoffice building ; also on the wood- work of the Catholic Church, which stood so long at the southwest corner of Ottawa and Monroe streets; also St. Mary's (Catholic) on the west side, a Gothic structure.
The following named persons settled in the township soon after those already mentioned: Henry Helmka, William W. Anderson, Joseph Danton, John Hogadone, and Harry B. Munro, from Cana- da; John Harrington, of Vermont; and Patrick O'Brien, Stephen O'Brien and James Murray, from Ireland. The family of Edisons also came at an early day and settled on what is now Bridge street.
Joseph Danton was born in Nova Scotia in 1809. The family re- moved to Upper Canada in 1818, and two years later the father died. Mr. Danton learned the carpenter's trade before attaining his ma- jority, and in 1838 came to Grand Rapids. He arrived on the Fourth of July in the midst of a celebration, participated in by fifty persons, a considerable crowd for that period. His trade made him a wel- come comer among the settlers, and he made himself useful putting in doors, windows, floors, roofs, etc. He bought eighty acres of land in Walker, in 1839, and cleared seventy, then sold and bought 106 acres in Section 2.
John Hogadone was a native of New York, born May 7, 1785. In 1811 he moved from Albany County, New York, to Canada, where he resided until 1839. In the spring of 1838 his son, Peter, came to Kent County, and the next year the remainder of the family-includ- ing five sons, ranging in age from twenty-two to nine years, and three daughters-set out with three two-horse wagons and drove through to Walker township. They started on Nov. 1 and arrived on Nov. 16. The family located on a tract of land in Section 28, and cleared about 120 acres. Mr. Hogadone died June 6, 1863.
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