USA > Michigan > Kent County > Grand Rapids > Grand Rapids and Kent County, Michigan: History and Account of Their Progress from First. Vol. I > Part 9
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In passing, it would be well to say a few words of Mr. Ryerson, who was one of the first to realize the large possibilities of the lumber trade. Eight years in Michigan woods as a "timber cruiser," had made him familiar with the forestry, of which Hon. C. W. Garfield said: "There is probably no area on the earth's surface of the size of our southern peninsula of Michigan that has contained such a wide range of trees in its forest growth. No wonder that the early Catholic
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pioneer voyagers mentioned the beauty of this peninsula; no wonder that Cadillac emphasized the wealth there was in the Michigan forest. That was a wondrous growth of pine, not equalled by any country in the world, that we had in a belt across Michigan." Mr. Ryerson was in the employ of Louis Campau and Richard Godfry at different times, and as a young man he married, with Indian rites, a young woman of the Ottawa tribe. She died, but left him a daughter, whose birth was later legitimized by special act of the State Legislature. Entering the employ of Mr. Ferry, Mr. Ryerson married the daughter of Pierce C. Duverney, of Grand Haven, and his Indian wife. Her life also was brief, and Mr. Ryerson later married a daughter of Antoine Campau. Mr. Ryerson's great wealth came from the timber of Michigan at a later day, but at this time he was one of the poor but enterprising young men whose energy was to aid in the develop- ment of the Grand River Valley.
Thus, with the opening of 1834, Grand Rapids was ready to enter into the second phase of its existence, and, by March 7, there was sufficient population so that Kent township was organized, to include all of Kent County then ceded to the United States, which was that part south of Grand River. The first meeting for the political organi- zation of the township was held on April 14, and there were but nine voters present. The pioneer, Rix Robinson, was chosen Moderator, and Jonathan F. Chubb acted as Secretary. There were enough offices to go around, and in fact some of the voters were honored with two official positions. The officers elected were as follows: Eliphalet H. Turner, clerk; Rix Robinson, supervisor; Barney Burton and Joel Guild, assessors; Ira Jones, collector ; Luther Lincoln, poor master ; Ira Jones and Myron Roys constables ; Jonathan F. Chubb, overseer of highways ; and Gideon H. Gordon, Jonathan F. Chubb, and Luther Lincoln fence viewers ; it having been voted that a fence five feet high and a distance between rails of three fet and six inches should be a lawful fence. Leonard Slater, as Justice of the Peace, administered the oath to Clerk Turner, who in turn swore in the other officers, with the exception of Luther Lincoln, who, as a Quaker, simply affirmed. There is no record that any matters of great importance were trans- acted by this elaborate village government, and while there was a steady growth, the developments were not startling.
The first plowing on the site of Grand Rapids took place in the spring of this year; Joseph S. Potter began the construction of the first hotel, which succeeded the Guild Tavern, and was known as the Eagle House. Mr. Potter began the work of building this hotel, but it was finished by Louis Campau. This was built on Market street, where its successor, the modern Eagle Hotel, now stands. What was known as the "Old Yellow Warehouse" was built by Richard Godfroy. This was first built on the west side of the river, but was moved across on the ice, in the spring of 1834, and located on the east bank, not far from the Eagle Hotel. Other buildings, in 1834, were a log house on the east side of Division street, built by Josiah Burton; a store build- ing by Louis Campau for the Indian trade, near the river banks on Pearl street; a dwelling, also built by Campau, at the corner of Monroe and Market ; a store on the east corner of Monroe and Ottawa streets for the use of Zenas G. Winsor, who was backed by Rix
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Robinson. The Red Warehouse, another Campau structure, located near the Yellow Warehouse; and the dwelling of Mr. Winsor, on the corner of Fountain and Ottawa streets, practically completed the list of buildings for that year. The winter was noted for its severity, and teams were able to cross the river on the ice, late in March, while during the remainder of the year passage was largely by canoe, and an extremely temporary foot bridge was erected. The canoe and the pirogue were still the chief means of river transportation, and it is reported that Giles D. Slocum paddled down the Grand River in a canoe, from Jackson to Grand Rapids. Among the visitors at Grand Rapids was Bilius Stocking, whose name is commemorated in a West Side street, who came on foot from Kalamazoo to view the country. He saw that the valley was good and continued with the same vehicle of travel, to St. Joseph and Chicago, only to return to Grand Rapids as a rail splitter, two years later. Another arrival was Hiram Jenni- son, who located at Grandville and began Michigan life as an axe- man in the woods. Of importance to the community was the arrival of Ezra, Lewis, and Porter Reed, in honor of whom Reed's Lake is named. They settled on section 33, Grand Rapids township, and soon had a settlement which almost rivaled Grand Rapids. That Grand Rapids was becoming a settled community is shown by the fact that 1834 witnessed the first marriages and the first births among the new settlers. The first wedding was that of Barney Burton, a young farmer of Paris township, and Harriet Guild, daughter of Joel Guild, whose coming with the Dexter Colony has already been told. This ceremony was performed by Rev. Leonard Slater, on April 13. The second wedding was that of Toussaint Campau and Emily Marsac, Nov. 27, 1834, and the third wedding took place, March 13, 1835, with Asa Fuller and Susan Dwinell as the contracting parties. It is gen- erally conceded that Eugene Winsor, yet living as this is written in 1918, whose parents came with the Dexter Colony, was the first white child born in the Grand River Valley, with the exception of the Slater children. The first birth at Grand Rapids was that of Therese Carn- nell, on June 21, 1834. She was a daughter of Antoine, who came to Grand Rapids in 1833 as a blacksmith, in the employ of Louis Campau. It is related of the first bridegroom, Barney Burton, that he came to the Grand River Valley overland from Ypsilanti with three hired men, and the outfit consisted of a wagonload of provisions, a horse, a cow, and five yoke of oxen. Becoming separated from his men while in search of his horse, which had wandered off, Burton was lost in the woods and it was not until the third day that he found himself at the home of Rix Robinson, at Ada. The fact that he was lost had been reported by his men and had caused much excitement, Louis Campau sending Indians with provisions in search of him. He immediately set to work, clearing a farm, and it was at the Guild Tavern that he met, wooed and won his pioneer bride. Another im- portant development was the erection of the second saw-mill at Grand Rapids. This was commenced by Luther Lincoln, but was completed by Abraham S. Wadsworth. It was on the east bank of the river and the power was furnished by a low dam, built from the head of what was called Island No. 1. It had an over-shot wheel and an upright saw. The output of this mill was not large and it was de-
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stroyed by the high water of 1838. Three other saw-mills were erected in this year in the township of Wyoming, just south of the city, and a first attempt was made to use the inexhaustible supply of superior limestone found in the valley. W. McCausland built and operated the first lime-kiln in the county. This was erected near the foot of Huron street, on the river bank just below Campau's post. Abraham S. Wadsworth, who caused the second saw-mill at Grand Rapids to be built, was an Eastern capitalist, who bought land both at Grand Rapids and at Grand Haven. He was a visionary character and did not make a success of the undertaking here. By the end of 1834, Grand Rapids had established itself with a name, a village or- ganization, the beginnings of different industries, competition in mer- chandising, and had become known as one of the most promising settlements of West Michigan. It was now ripe for the boom days of the following two years, with the great activities inaugurated by Lucius Lyon and the inrush of many settlers.
The year 1835 was the first of the boom years at Grand Rapids. The first Constitutional convention was called at Detroit, and at this time Lucius Lyon and John Norvell were elected as the first United States Senators from Michigan. Their position was equivocal, as Michigan was not recognized as a State by Congress, and they were not admitted as members of the Senate. The question of the south boundary was the main one at issue. This struggle has no particular part in the history of Grand Rapids, but it was at this time that Lucius Lyon, who owned one-third of the town-site of Bronson (Kalamazoo), and all of the site of the town which he named Schoolcraft, in honor of the northern peninsula explorer, became more actively interested in Grand Rapids. He formed a company, as has been already men- tioned, and through his agency N. O. Sargeant came with a gang of the first Irishmen known to the county, to dig a canal to utilize the water power of Grand Rapids. This was a great day for the new settlement. Alanson Cranson was the bugler who led the little army of workmen, and it is said that the Indians thought this was a war-like invasion and proffered their help to Louis Campau to drive out the intruders.
The interest which Mr. Lyon took in Grand Rapids at this time is shown by his letters to his sister Lucretia, then in Vermont. He wrote from Kalamazoo, in October, 1835, as follows: "I am con- structing, or rather paying one-half the expense of constructing, a canal, sixty feet wide on the water line, five feet deep from the surface of the water of the dam and about a mile and a fourth in length, around the rapids of Grand River, where I own a part of the land. It is intended to furnish an excellent water power and also to facilitate the passage of steam-boats up and down the river, and will cost about $8,000. I have, besides, negotiations to pay $1,000 toward building a steam-boat to run on the Grand River next summer."
A few days later he wrote to Arthur Bronson, of New York: "N. O. Sargeant has with him an excellent engineer and about fifty men who are prosecuting the work on the canal, around the falls of Grand River, vigorously, and will probably have the excavations nearly completed before winter sets in. The expense of the excava- tion alone is estimated at $5,000 (herewith inclosed a rough and im-
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perfect diagram of the canal and lines adjacent and drawn by John Almy, the engineer, from which you will be able to form a tolerably correct notion of the situation of the place and works). The length of the canal as at present projected is something over a mile. It now is intended to terminate above the mill which you see laid down, but as soon as we make any satisfactory arrangement with Mr. Campau, who is a jealous, selfish, and troublesome Frenchman, we design to construct a dam across from the lower end of the islands of his land. I allude to the foot of the two upper islands. To this point steam- boats of light draught can at all times come up, and if we should not succeed in making an arrangement with him we shall excavate a channel between or around the islands to our work. The whole fall below the mill dam in low water is about three feet-in high water, nothing. This dam, with a saw-mill and about a third of an acre of ground where the mill stands, Mr. Sargeant and myself have lately purchased from Wadsworth, Frost and James H. Hatch, of your city, for $5,500. We deem it better to buy than to have a law-suit with Wadsworth, who, by raising his dam near our line, had flowed the water about three and a half feet deep in front of our land. Beside, I think the property can easily be made to pay double the interest on the money. * *
* We mean to excavate a tail race along the margin of the river above, so as to use the water from the canal under a head of twelve feet, all of the way along the bank from the place marked 'first privilege' down to the lower lock, as the canal is 60 feet wide on the water line and the water in it at its lowest stage will never be less than four feet deep. This will afford sites and power for a great many mills, as there is an inexhaustible quantity of pine up the river on the north side, and an excellent grain growing country on the south; a great many will be needed. Nearly all the water power will be used on the fraction owned jointly and wholly by you and myself. We also own an undivided third part of the long fraction of 135 acres above it and a third of the fraction of 48 acres below Campau's. N. O. Sargeant owns the other two-thirds of the last named fractions, or rather did own them, but his partners were reluctant to make the improvements which we are now doing unless they have a joint and equal interest in the whole. Please advise me whether you consent to this.
"Mr. Almy has concluded to wait till the leaves fall before he finishes the survey of the village plat, and that is the reason I do not send you a more complete map. In the winter he is to superintend the building of a steam-boat at the rapids to run on the river. I have agreed to take $500, and we hope you will subscribe that sum or more. The boat will cost about $6,000. Another such boat must be built next year to form a daily line with stages from Detroit across the peninsula. * * *
"P. S .: I had forgotten to mention that we design to erect next spring a large and commodious public house on the corner where the site is marked in pencil on the north side of the 100-foot street leading down to the canal. Such a house is much needed. I ought also to inform you that the wife of Louis Campau, Jr., of whom I purchased the fraction which we own together, has never relinquished her right of dower in said land and refuses to do so. I am about to commence
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suit to compel her husband to perform the covenant in his deed to me."
The above indicates the extent of the improvements planned by Mr. Lyon, and also the bitter feeling which then existed between the "Kent Company" and the Campau interest, who had platted Grand Rapids. A few days later, Mr. Lyon wrote to Arthur Bronson as to the advisibility of erecting a saw-mill near the mouth of the Thorn- apple river, and, still later, he said, writing again to Mr. Bronson:
"The canal we are constructing is the first ever made in Michigan and is turning public attention a good deal to this point. When it is completed, and a good public house and two or three mills erected, our town lots will be in demand. You will recollect when. I first saw you I was confident that lands at the Rapids, at the mouth of the Thornapple, and at the mouth of the Maple river, would some day be valuable."
Mr. Bronson did not agree to Mr. Lyon's plans for the improve- ments at Grand Rapids, and, in December, Lyon wrote to N. O. Sar- geant, from Washington, saying that Bronson did not assent to the agreement and that he had bought all of his interest at Grand Rapids for $2,100.
While these improvements were being inaugurated by the Kent Company, the little colony at Grand Rapids was interested in its own affairs. The last of March, 1835, the highway commissioners reported that they were in debt for two and a half days work done by Rix Robinson, that the "commute money" had been expended for labor, and that the assessment had amounted to 3201/2 days work, of which 174 were paid in labor, 109 commuted, and the balance uncollected. There were three highway districts reported, covering the territory between the river and Plaster Creek, and thence to the neighborhood of the Thornapple river. The new American settlers inherited a fondness for politics from their New England forbears, and there was a large turnout at the special election held for the purpose of choosing delegates to the State Constitutional convention. The vote was as follows: Lucius Lyon, 11; Lyman J. Daniels, 41; Lovell Moore, 40; William H. Welsh, 32; Joseph Miller, 12; Hezekiah G. Wells, 21; Isaac Burns, 21. For the first time also the residents of Grand Rapids enjoyed the privilege of voting for county officers, but these were for Kalamazoo county. The first Monday in April, also, they voted for town officials, electing Darius Winsor clerk, and Lewis Reed, Luther Beebe, Darius Winsor, and Richard Godfroy as justices, while Rix Robinson was re-elected as supervisor, going on foot to serve his constituents at Kalamazoo. The first school district was also estab- lished, in May of this year, with boundaries described as follows : Commencing at the southwest corner of fractional section 34, town 7, range 12, thence east to the southeast corner of section 31, town 7, range 11, thence north to the northeast corner of section 7, town 7, range 11, thence west to Grand River. This included all the city limits on the east side of the river. Following this, the first tax for school purposes was levied. The first school, outside of the mission schools, was established at this time. Miss Emily Guild, afterward Mrs. Albert Baxter, conducted school in the Yellow Warehouse, exclusively for white children. The pupils were Olive and Elvira E. Giuld, Maria, Phoebe, Marion and Peter Clark, and Louisa, Marion, Erastus and
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Austin Guild. A school was also established at Reed's Lake, in the upper part of a log house, with Euphemia Davis and Sophia Reed as teachers, and what was probably the first school house in the county was built near Reed's Lake, in 1835, with Francis Prescott as the first man teacher in the county. Later, in 1835, Miss Day, who had been employed at the Slater Mission, opened a school in Grand Rapids in the upstairs of the new residence erected by Darius Winsor, who had recently moved to Grand Rapids from Ionia. This school existed about three months.
It is stated that Dr. Jason Winslow, of Gull Prairie, who was called by Richard Godfroy, on Jan. 18, 1835, to set a dislocated hip of Joel Guild, was the first physician to practice his calling at Grand Rapids. The first regular physician to locate was Stephen A. Wilson. Like the Dexters, he came from Herkimer county, New York, and was a graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Western District of New York, at Fairview. He was impoverished when he reached Grand Rapids, but through the kind offices of Louis Campau was enabled to buy instruments and a small stock of medi- cines. He formed a partnership with Dr. Charles Shepard, in 1837, and his career was ended by his untimely death, in 1839. Dr. Shepard, also of Herkimer county, New York, and a graduate of the same school as Dr. Wilson, was the second resident physician, coming Oct. 20, 1835, residing in Grand Rapids until his death, March 8, 1893, and becoming one of the important factors in the community. His first call is said to have been to Ada, where he vaccinated 150 Indians and he earned his first notoriety as a surgeon, in 1837, by successfully operating on the badly frozen sailors who were wrecked near the mouth of the Muskegon river.
The first funeral in Grand Rapids took place in 1835, when George Sizer was killed by an Indian who mistook him for a deer ; and this year was also marked by the formation of the Grand River Methodist mission, with Rev. Osbond Monette as circuit rider and Rev. Henry Colclazer as presiding elder. The preaching stations were at Portland, Ionia, Grandville, Grand Rapids, and Grand Haven, and the members at Grand Rapids were Mehitable Stone, William C. Davidson and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Knowlton S. Pettibone, and Mrs. Eliphalet H. Turner. The meetings were held at the home of Henry Stone, on Kent street. This was the first Protestant organization outside of the Baptist mission. Among the newcomers of this year was John Almy, who came as engineer with N. O. Sargeant and who became one of the most prominent residents of the village.
There was also William G. Henry, who first came to Michigan from Bennington, Vt., as an agent for the Vermontville Colony, with S. S. Church and W. J. Squier ; but Mr. Henry did not join the colony, selecting Grand Rapids as his home and establishing a general store on Monroe street. He was one of the founders of the Congregational Church, and his daughter was married to Gov. Russel A. Alger, well known to Michigan history.
Myron Hinsdill came to Grand Rapids in this year. He was from Hinesburgh, Vt., and settled first at Gull Prairie. His daughter, Mrs. S. L. Withey, said of the coming of the family to Grand Rapids :
"The winter of 1835, father made a trip on horseback to the.
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Grand River country. Here, the spring before, Hiram Hinsdill had come with his family. Father seemed to have been captivated by the prospect ; the fine rapids, the river, and the high hills seemed more like his old New England home, and he fancied it would be more healthy. Accordingly, he let his farm and started for Grand Rapids. This journey was made through the woods by blazed trees ; no sign of a road, and took several days. On the way, as we were stopping for the night where we found a log house without roof or floor, the first stage passed us with George Coggeshall and family, bound for the same haven. Temporarily we staid at Hinsdill's till the building known as the "Old National Hotel," which father had purchased of him, could be made habitable. Our first move was to a new barn, just in the rear of the new house, for, be it remembered, just as fast as people could find a place to shelter they must make way for later comers. As soon as a few rooms neared completion we moved in the "Old National Hotel," although it was first called Hinsdill's Hotel."
The first home of Hiram Hinsdill to which reference is made in the above, was a log house on Pearl street, built in 1835. Another arrival was Maxime Ringuette, who was followed the next year by his brother, John. They were shoemakers and were of French Canadian origin. It is related of Maxime that, in 1834, he walked from Quebec to Detroit and went by pony to Ionia, and there traded his pony for a canoe, by which he came to Grand Rapids and was the first to engage in the trade of a shoemaker in the new settlement.
This was also the year of the coming of Judge Jefferson Morrison. He was born in New York, in 1805, and his earliest experience was in the tanning trade. This business brought him to Detroit, and in 1834 he was appointed inspector of leather for Wayne county, by Gov. George B. Porter, and in 1836 he was commissioned as a justice of the peace for Kalamazoo County, which then included Kent County, my Gov. Stevens T. Mason. The same spring he came to Grand Rapids and established the first general store opened at what is now Campau Square. He soon gained the confidence of the Indians, by whom he was called Poc-to-go-nin-ne, which means "Man-of-the-Rapids." In 1836, he brought his wife with him from Detroit, coming from the Thornapple river in a canoe, which capsized and his wife was barely rescued. He also became prominent in the later history of the city, Wealthy street being named in honor of his wife, and Jefferson and Morrison streets also being named for him.
Thomas D. Gilbert also saw Grand Rapids for the first time, in 1834, and of his coming he said in a paper read before the Pioneer Society and published in Volume 17 of the Pioneer Collections: "At the time of my arrival in this favored region, the western half of Michigan, from the St. Joseph river to the Straits of Mackinac, was an almost unbroken wilderness. A small village at Bronson, now Kalamazoo ; a few families in and around Grand Rapids, Ionia, Grand Haven and Saugatuck, constituted the white population in the terri- tory lying between the Grand and St. Joseph rivers, while the whole region between Grand river and the straits, a distance of 225 miles, belonged to the Indians and was an unknown land except to the few Indian traders, like Rix Robinson, Louis Campau and William Lasley
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(venerated names in all that region), who had operated there many years. Early in the period of which I have spoken, it was known that salt could be found in the vicinity of Grand Rapids, and the gypsum beds in and near that city were developed, and everyone knew that there must ultimately be great wealth in the vast forests of pine and other timber that covered the whole region. As early as 1835 there were two small saw-mills near Grand Rapids that sufficed to meet all demands. The contrast between the primitive mill of that day, when the sawyer might start his saw and go to dinner, well assured that it would not get through the lumber before his return, and the modern circular saw that requires twenty men to feed and care for the lumber, forcibly illustrates the progress of the time in that business."
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