USA > Michigan > Barry County > History of Barry county, [Michigan] > Part 4
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Barry in the War
No other county in the state of Michigan contributed more liberally to the Civil War than did Barry County. During the Civil War the population of Barry County was at all times less than fifteen thousand inhabitants, yet the county furnished 1,632 men for the Union army, an average of 102 from each township in the county. More than forty of these became commissioned
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HISTORY OF BARRY COUNTY
officers; eleven per cent of the entire population of the county was enrolled as soldiers in the Union army. Not only did the county contribute liberally in men but it contributed liberally in money. At no time during the Civil War did the assessed valuation of Barry County reach two million dollars, yet from 1861 to 1867 Barry County raised and paid out for the support of the families of volunteers who were at the front in the Civil War $86,598.00, and the expenses to the several townships occasioned by the war aggregated $186,641.00, a total expense to the people of the county of $267,239.00, or more than fifteen per cent of the total assessed valuation of all of the real and personal property in the county when the war broke out.
Early Churches
Joseph S. Blaisdell, who came to what is now the township of Assyria as the first pioneer in 1836, was a Freewill Baptist min- ister and it is said that he held public worship in that township shortly after he came there. Whether he did so or not it is cer- tain that he organized a Freewill Baptist church in the township of Assyria, which after his death in 1848 was dissolved. Perhaps the mission church, established by the Rev. Leonard Slater in the township of Prairieville, was the first church in Barry County. It is claimed that religious services were held at the "Mansion House" of William Lewis in Yankee Springs by Rev. Calvin Clark in 1837. Rev. William Daubney, who seems to have been famil- iarly known to the early pioneers as "Father Daubney," in 1839 held religious services in the house of Charles W. Bassett in the township of Yankee Springs. In 1839 or early in 1840, a Meth- odist class was organized at North Pine Lake in the townships of Prairieville and Orangeville. Father Daubney was an itinerant minister and he travelled horseback, visiting all of the settlers. As early as 1840, it is said he held services in Woodland. In Hast- ings undoubtedly the first religious service of any kind was at the funeral of Mr. DeGroat, one of the pioneers in Rutland who died in 1836, and he was the first person buried in the newly laid out cemetery in Hastings then immediately south of the public school buildings in the Fourth ward. Rev. Calvin Clark preached this funeral sermon. In 1839 Father Daubney held services at the house of Slocum H. Bunker, located near where the Hotel Barry
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is situated at the present time. It is said in 1840 Isaac Messer came to Hastings, and stopping at the tavern of Levi Chase, situ- ated immediately west of the south end of the Michigan Avenue bridge, across the river, held religious services there. In the fall of 1840 or in the spring of 1841 Rev. John Ercanbrach, who was then the Presiding Elder of the Kalamazoo district, held a quar- terly meeting in Hastings. As early as 1838 Elder Emory Cherry and Elder York held services in the township of Johnstown. The Congregational disciples of Thornapple, now maintaining a church
Leonard Slater, Founder of the Famous Slater Mission
at Middleville, claimed to have held services as early as 1835. In any event, Calvin G. Hill and Henry Leonard, who came to that township from Monroe, New York, in 1835, belonged to the Con- gregational denomination. In 1843 the Congregational church of Middleville was organized; in 1840 the Carlton Methodist class was organized, and the same year the Rev. Daniel Bush came to Hastings as a missionary, and was the first resident preacher who had regular charge of any church in Barry County.
From this time the churches grew apace. The institutions above named, and many others that have since come into exist-
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HISTORY OF BARRY COUNTY
ence, were Protestant. There was in the community about Yan- kee Springs a large number of Catholics and about 1850 they bought the Lewis McCloud house in the township and converted it into a church or place of public worship, and for a considerable period after that time they had occasional religious services there.
A cemetery was laid out by this denomination in the town- ship of Yankee Springs, and this cemetery still remains. With the removal of the families from the neighborhood the organiza- tion fell apart and Catholic services have long since been discon- tinued at that place, though there are prosperous churches of this denomination in both Hastings and Nashville.
Barry County Newspapers
The Barry County Pioneer, a weekly Democratic paper, was the first newspaper printed or published in Barry County. It was first issued January 24, 1851, Mr. G. A. Smith being the editor and proprietor. In the fall of 1851 he sold this paper to A. A. Knappen, who for some time continued to publish the same weekly except when circumstances were such that he was unable to get the print paper in time for publication. In 1853 Mr. Smith again embarked in the newspaper business in Hastings, publishing the Barry County Review. In June, 1854, Smith bought out the Pio- neer of Mr. Knappen and consolidated the two papers under the name of the Barry County Pioneer; Henry A. Goodyear of the city of Hastings became associate editor of the same. The Repub- lican Banner was the first published in 1856 by a syndicate of men interested in Barry County politics, Norman E. Bailey being the first editor. In the fall of 1856 George W. Mills became the editor of the Republican Banner and remained so until the paper was sold to James M. Nevins in July, 1857. About this time the Barry County Pioneer suspended publication, but during the political campaign of 1860 the Pioneer was resurrected and it strongly sup- ported the election of Stephen A. Douglas as President of the United States and opposed the election of Lincoln. Throughout the Civil War it was most bitter in its attacks upon the adminis- tration. It supported Mcclellan for President in 1864, and the issue of the Pioneer that announced the assassination of President Lincoln also gave notice of the suspension of the publication of the Barry County Pioneer. In the spring of 1867 W. Roscoe Young
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HISTORY OF BARRY COUNTY
took over the material in the printing office of the Pioneer and started the Independent. In 1868 Young's printing office burned and a subscription was circulated and a fund raised for the estab- lishment of a newspaper, of which Mr. Young was the editor. This paper was called the Democrat, a name which was afterward changed to the Hastings Home Journal and later to the Journal. This paper after a publication of about forty years was consoli- dated in 1911 with the Hastings Herald under the name of the Journal-Herald. Since the establishment of these papers there have been many newspapers published in the county ; at the pres- ent time there being weekly papers published in Nashville, Free- port, Woodland, Prairieville, Middleville and Delton, in addition to those published in Hastings.
Postoffices and the Mails
When Amasa S. Parker first came to what is now the town- ship of Prairieville in 1831 there had already been established a postoffice at Gull Prairie. The postoffice at Bronson or Kalama- zoo was not established until 1832. For some time the postoffice at Kalamazoo and the one at Gull Prairie were the places from which most of the pioneer residents of Barry County received their mail. There was no postoffice within the county until 1837, when the first postoffice was established at Yankee Springs, and William Lewis, the proprietor of the Mansion House, was the first post- master. Prior to 1839 the residents of Hastings received their mail at Yankee Springs, Gull Prairie, or Kalamazoo, but in that year a postoffice was established in Hastings on a mail route run- ning from Coldwater to Grand Rapids, and Willard Hayes was appointed the first Postmaster. The same year another postoffice was opened called Middleville, on the stage route running from Kalamazoo to Grand Rapids, and Benjamin S. Dibble was ap- pointed the first Postmaster. This postoffice was erected at what is now known as Gates Corners, about two and one-half or three miles from the present village of Middleville. In 1841 or 1842 a postoffice was established in the township of Assyria at the house of Cleveland Ellis, who was the first Postmaster. The postoffice at Carlton was established in 1844 and J. S. Rogers was appointed as the first Postmaster. A postoffice was established at Irving, on the stage route from Battle Creek via. Hastings to Grand Rapids, in 1846. Albert E. Bull, from whom Bull's Prairie was named,
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HISTORY OF BARRY COUNTY
was the first Postmaster. No postoffice was established in Wood- land until in 1849, when Nehemiah Lovewell was named as Post- master. With the steady increase in population in the county the postoffices increased in great number, and twenty years ago, and immediately before the establishment of rural free delivery, there was in the county probably three times as many postoffices as exist today. This system of rural free delivery has dispensed with the necessity of these local offices and a great number of minor offices have been discontinued.
The early mail carriers who came to Hastings generally trav- elled on horseback, carrying the mails in saddlebags. There was only rarely published in this country a magazine in those days; newspapers were few and the correspondence of the early settlers was not very extensive.
Travelling in Early Days
Prior to 1869 there was no railroad in operation that reached the city of Hastings; there was a stage line established in 1846 running from Battle Creek via Hastings to Grand Rapids and which afforded fairly rapid transit, making the trip in one day either way. Another stage line was operated from Hastings via Yankee Springs to Kalamazoo. Another stage line left the Rath- bone House in Grand Rapids and ran via Yankee Springs, Hast- ings, Charlotte and Eaton Rapids to Jackson. There was also another stage line running from Kalamazoo via Yankee Springs to Grand Rapids. These stage lines were the only means for passenger travel outside of private conveyances, until the opening of the Grand River Valley Railroad in 1869.
Freight to all of the interior of the county was handled by tote teams. The main line of the Michigan Central had been in operation for many years and freight was hauled into the interior from Grand Rapids, to which point it was shipped by boat ; and from Battle Creek, Kalamazoo, Jackson and Marshall on the Michigan Central Railroad. Marketing was an important item in farming. It meant to all of the people living in the county a trip covering one day and most of two nights. Many of the roads were unsafe and ungraded. Frequently the pioneers had to unload in order to get their wagons out of the mud. Halfway houses, local stopping places on the stage roads for the accommodation of passengers and those hauling freight to the interior, were common. It is now
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HISTORY OF BARRY COUNTY
Stage Coach which ran between Hastings and Battle Creek. View taken in Hastings in 1852. Wm. Burroughs, the driver, holds the reins.
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HISTORY OF BARRY COUNTY
difficult to conceive that until 1869 all of the merchandise dis- tributed at Hastings came overland from Battle Creek, Kalamazoo and Jackson, or from Grand Rapids, and that a large number of men were engaged in the freight business alone. Stages and freighters were steady patrons of these early taverns and they flourishd at Assyria, where the Tamarack was celebrated; at Bristol's in Johnstown, and at Yankee Springs, where the Man- sion House of William Lewis was probably the best known of any hotel west of Detroit. With the coming of the railroads, the dis- continuance of the stage lines and freighters, these early taverns gradually disappeared.
Grand River Valley Road Completed
After the original organization of the Grand River Valley Railroad there was considerable agitation periodically for many years for the establishment of a railroad running through Hast- ings. These various projects received considerable check during the Civil War, but immediately after the Civil War the Battle Creek & Grand Rapids Railroad Company was organized, Henry Willis of Battle Creek being its principal promotor; Henry A. Goodyear of the city of Hastings was one of its directors. During the agitation for the building of this road frequent meetings were held by the promoters in various parts of the state, and the town- ship of Hastings at one time voted bonds for the aid of the con- struction of such railroad. In 1866 agitation was taken up for the construction of the Grand River Valley Railroad. Meetings were held in Hastings and at other places along the line and funds were solicited from various individuals and the several townships in Barry County. as well as in the adjoining counties, were asked to vote funds under the Railway Aid Acts. This road was surveyed in 1866 and construction work was commenced in 1867. The road was completed from Jackson to Nashville so that regular service was established January 26, 1869. Regular railway service was established from Jackson to Hastings on February 22 of the same year, and in 1870 the road was completed to Grand Rapids. Afterward the Grand River Valley Railroad Company leased the same on a long term lease to the Michigan Central Railroad Com- pany, who completed its equipment and who have since operated it. The Cincinnati, Jackson & Mackinaw Railroad was built from Dundee to Allegan, crossing the southwestern part of the
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HISTORY OF BARRY COUNTY
county, and opened November 29, 1883. The Chicago, Kalama- zoo & Saginaw Railroad was built from Kalamazoo to Hastings in 1888, and the Grand Rapids, Lansing & Northern, afterward the Detroit, Lansing & Northern, and later consolidated with the Pere Marquette, which runs across the northern part of the county, was open for use between Grand Ledge and Grand Rapids in August, 1881.
History of Local Option
The people of Barry County have quite generally been op- posed to the liquor traffic. In 1853, when the vote was first taken upon the old local option law, 642 votes were cast in favor of the law and 348 against it. In 1887, when the amendment to the con- stitution of the state prohibiting the liquor traffic was submitted to the people for approval, the vote in Barry County stood 3,099 for the amendment and 1,933 against it. In 1908, when the present local option law was submitted to the people for a vote it resulted in 3,498 for the prohibitory law and 2,093 against it, and in 1910, when it was resubmitted the vote stood 3,280 for con- tinuing the law in force and 2,316 against it.
Barry and the Constitution
In the Constitutional Convention of 1835 Barry County, not then being separately organized, had no representative but was represented by the delegate from Kalamazoo County. In 1850, when the question was submitted as to whether or not we should have a general revision of the constitution of the state, the vote in Barry County was unanimous for a revision, standing 745 yeas and no nays.
J. W. T. Orr, who for some time was Supervisor of Irving township, was elected the delegate to the Constitutional Conven- tion of 1850, and this constitution when submitted to the people was ratified and approved and continued in force until 1909, al- though in 1867 the people voted for a constitutional revision and a Constitutional Convention was held, Harvey Wright of Middle- ville and Adam Elliott of Hickory Corners being delegates, but upon the constitution of 1867 being submitted to the people for approval it was rejected, and therefore the constitution of 1850 continued in force.
In 1908 the people again voted for a general revision of the
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HISTORY OF BARRY COUNTY
constitution and Charles H. Thomas represented Barry County in the convention, and this constitution was adopted by a majority when it was submitted and is now in force.
Census Figures
The population of Barry County, which was 512 in 1837, had more than doubled by 1840; according to the Federal census it was 1,078. In the next ten years it increased from 1,078 to 5,072, and in the ten years from 1850 to 1860 it increased from 5,072 in 1850 to 13,858 in 1860. Notwithstanding the enormous drain upon the county in men during the Civil War the population from 1860 to 1864 increased from 13,858 to 14,441. By 1870 the popu- lation had reached 22,199, and 25,317 in 1880, since which time the population has varied somewhat from 22,000 upward, but has never reached at any Federal census so high a point in numbers as in 1880.
Sketch of City of Hastings
The land occupied by the original plat of the city of Hastings was sold by Eurotas P. Hastings to a syndicate of men in Marshall on July 26, 1836, and the purchasers immediately began the organization of the Hastings Village Company and the surveying and platting of the land. The original founders of Hastings saw at once that it would be necessary to erect a saw mill in order to furnish lumber for the proposed town on what was called the "County Seat Purchased" of Barry County. Slocum H. Bunker came to Hastings probably not as the first white person who came here, but as the first to build a home in the future city. This family did not come here with the intention of permanently resid- ing in Hastings, but only for the purpose of boarding the hands who were sent forward by the Hastings Company to erect their saw mill on Fall Creek. The Hastings Company started out pre- tentiously and platted the entire of the original village, but with the financial stringency of 1837 and the years immediately suc- ceeding it went upon the rocks; was in the hands of a receiver and its affairs were wound up by the Chancellor of Michigan through the Court of Chancery at Ann Arbor. Practically all of the deeds in the city of Hastings trace title back to the trustee of the Hastings Company, appointed by the Michigan Chancery Court for the purpose of winding up its affairs and disposing of its assets.
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HISTORY OF BARRY COUNTY
In 1840 Henry A. Goodyear came to Hastings as its pioneer merchant and at once engaged in business. In 1841 Alvin W. Bailey opened a store here and the next year William Upjohn engaged in the mercantile business in Hastings, and in 1843 Will-
Gen. Eurotas P. Hastings, After Whom the City of Hastings Was Named
iam S. Goodyear came here; and in 1844 Vespasian Young located in Hastings and engaged in business and thenceforward merchants have come and gone substantially in the same manner as they have in the other cities and villages of similar size in this state.
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HISTORY OF BARRY COUNTY
The first hotel was occupied by Levi Chase, south of Thornapple river and west of the Michigan Avenue bridge. Chase died in service during the Mexican War. Nathan Barlow, Jr., who had come to Hastings from Yankee Springs as County Clerk of the county in 1843, built a hotel on the present site of the Hastings House.
David M. Dake, who located here in 1838, was the first resi- dent physician. Dr. Upjohn came in 1841 and Dr. John Roberts in 1845, and they were followed in 1851 by Dr. Charles S. Burton and A. P. Drake. Probably the first lawyer to take up his resi- dence in Hastings was Marsh Giddings, who came here from Kalamazoo in 1842. He was afterward elected Representative in the State Legislature, was Judge of Probate of Kalamazoo County, member of the Constitutional Convention in 1867 and at the time of his death the governor of the Territory of New Mexico. In 1843 Isaac A. Holbrook located here and for nearly half a century he was prominently identified with the progress of the city.
Hastings was incorporated as a village by act of the legisla- ture February 13, 1855. Alvin W. Bailey was elected as its first President. On March 11, 1871, it was incorporated as a city; Henry A. Goodyear being the first Mayor.
Hastings is the county seat of Barry County ; its population is in the neighborhood of five thousand.
Other Municipalities
Second to Hastings in size and importance is Nashville, located on the eastern border of the county, on the Thornapple river and the Grand River Valley Railroad. It lies partly in Maple Grove township, but mostly in Castleton. it was platted by Robert Gregg in 1865 and was incorporated March 26, 1869, Lemuel Smith being the first President.
Calvin G. Hill was the first white proprietor of the land on which the present village of Middleville stands. It was probably surveyed and platted before 1850, but the work was so imperfectly done that it is impossible to tell its date. The plat was not recorded until 1859. The name Middleville was transferred to the village after it was platted, it being a survival of the Indian village known as the Middle village which was located on Scales Prairie, and the name given to the first postoffice established at Gates Corners and named by Lucius Lyon, then a member of Congress,
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HISTORY OF BARRY COUNTY
as Middleville. The name Middleville in reality was first attached to the old French block house on the prairie used as a hotel and stopping place on the Battle Creek and Grand Rapids road.
Isaac N. Keeler was the pioneer merchant of Middleville. This village was incorporated in 1867. Isaac N. Keeler was the first President and William L. Cobb, still a resident of Middle- ville, was the first village Clerk.
The first location near the present village of Woodland was in 1847 by John McArthur. In 1849 one Snyder set up a black- smith shop there; Jacob Strauss opened a store at Woodland Cen- ter in 1853. In 1861 J. S. Goodyear started to open a store at Woodland, but he thought the prospects there were too poor and hauled the goods back to Hastings without unloading them. Lawrence Hilbert engaged in trade here and about 1865 lots began to be set off and sold. The place was known as Woodland Center until 1892, when it was incorporated under the name of the village of Woodland under the general village law by the Board of Super- visors of Barry County.
Elated at the prospects of securing a railroad at an early date at Freeport, Samuel Roush in 1874 platted the village. Event- ually it secured railroad facilities, being on one of the branches of the Pere Marquette Railroad. It was incorporated by a special act of the Legislature in 1907.
Special Articles
WHEN THE CIRCUS CAME TO YANKEE SPRINGS By Chas. A. Weissert
The man who has lived longest in Hastings is Oscar Young, a well-known citizen. He has lived here 70 years. Born in Battle Creek on July 1, 1840, he was brought to Hastings by his father, Vespasian Young, who conducted a store here until he died in 1848. While Mr. Young resided in Battle Creek he bought furs which he sold to the firm of Godfrey & Campau, of Detroit. In Hastings his place of business was in a building which stood where John Robert's news room now is. Henry Goodyear had a store on the corner occupied by the National Bank building. There was a hotel kept by Nathan Barlow and another kept by George Fuller. Hastings was accessible by roads leading from Battle Creek, and Yankee Springs. Mr. Young's father bought furs, and sold blankets, bars of lead for bullets and other necessities which the Indians required. He also made buckskin gloves and mittens. He spent his spare time in studying law. There was a number of pettifoggers in Hastings at that time. When Mr. Fuller had an Indian arrested for not returning a kettle which he had borrowed, Dr. Upjohn pettifogged the case for the Indian and won it. At another time James Darling, a Mexican War veteran, was bitten by a dog owned by O. N. Henry. Trouble ensued, and Hemen I. Knappen, who drove the stage between Hastings and Battle Creek, appeared as attorney for Henry. These trials and cases were held in a little office in a building which stood on the corner now occupied by Loppenthien's store. Indian trails and the river made the settlement accessible to Indians. Mr. Young, though only a boy, recalls the visits to his father's store of Chief Sobby, a heavy-set red man, who combined with his Indian costume of skins a unique head-piece, which was nothing but a plug hat with a tin band about it. Chapultepec was another well-known Indian. Sundago, another Indian whose name is familiar to many today, adopted the white man's habits so far that he wore a small beard. Askasaw was the last Indian chief in this vicinity. When he died,
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says Mr. Young, the Pioneer Society, then headed by Daniel Striker, took up a subscription and purchased a head stone for the chief's grave in Barryville cemetery. This is the only existing memorial to any of the red men who used to live here.
Probably the most noted man who penetrated to the remote settlement called Hastings was Lewis Cass, candidate for Presi- dent. In the presence of a great crowd of Democrats he spoke in the grove on the east side of the old court house. There was a great deal of political spirit in those days, and the Democrats here wanted to honor the distinguished visitor in every way they could. They placed a cannon on Grant's hill, and whenever Cass said something which delighted his audience, William Goodyear stand- ing in the court yard, waved a signal flag to the men at the cannon and it was at once fired. This delighted the audience more than it did Cass, for he stopped speaking long enough to inform his guests that he wished they would stop firing that pop gun as it annoyed him. Cass is described by Mr. Young as a stern looking man with a very large head, and a wart on his chin. Cass came and went by stage.
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