History of Berrien and Van Buren counties, Michigan. With biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 120

Author: D.W. Ensign & Co. pub; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Johnson, Crisfield
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, D. W. Ensign & Co.
Number of Pages: 821

USA > Michigan > Van Buren County > History of Berrien and Van Buren counties, Michigan. With biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 120
USA > Michigan > Berrien County > History of Berrien and Van Buren counties, Michigan. With biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 120

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

JOHN H. COLLINS.

Prominent among the thrifty and prosperous farmers of Hamilton township, Van Buren Co., Mich., is John H. Collins, who was born in Erie Co., N. Y., Nov. 6, 1846, and came to Decatur, Mich., in 1859, with his father, Henry Collins. He was engaged in farming until 1871, when he entered business as a grocer at Grand Junction,

J. H. COLLINS.

MRS. J. H. COLLINS.

RES. OF J.H. COLLINS, HAMILTON, MICH.

477

TOWNSHIP OF KEELER.

Van Buren Co. At the expiration of three years he rented a farm in Hamilton township, and occupied it three years. In 1878 he purchased the farm of one hundred acres, in the same township, on which he now resides. In 1873 he was married to Miss Ellen M. Beattie, daughter of Isaac and Jane Beattie, who was born in Van Buren Co., Mich., Nov. 20, 1845, and by her has two children,-Fannie J., born May 10, 1875, and John Guy, born Oct. 17, 1876. Mr. Collins acts with the Republican party in political affairs, but is a quiet worker, and not a man who desires publicity. In his religious views he is liberal. Mr. Col- lins, who was but a small boy when he came to this State, and began life without capital and is still a young man, has been remarkably successful in business, and is one of the most prosperous and enterprising farmers in the township. Everything on his premises evinces taste and thrift.

CHAPTER LXII. KEELER TOWNSHIP .*

Location, Surface, and Waters-Early Settlements-Territorial Roads -Township Organization and List of Officers-The Village-So- cieties and Orders-Religious Societies-Schools-Forest Home Camping Ground.

LOCATION, SURFACE, AND WATERS.

KEELER, the southwestern corner township of Van Buren County, is composed of 36 full sections, and is known and distinguished on the United States survey as township 4 south, range 16 west. It is bounded on the north by the township of Hartford, on the east by Ham- ilton, on the south by the township of Silver Creek, in Cass County, and on the west by Bainbridge township, Berrien Co. The surface of the township is generally level. Originally a large part of the township was burr- oak openings, but in some parts was covered with scrub- oak. For agricultural purposes the township is in advance of any other in the county. Its soil is a fine sandy loam, and is particularly adapted to the successful cultivation of wheat, and is all in a high state of cultivation, having no waste lands. Steady, persistent industry and energy, with the richness of the soil, have brought to its fortunate owners an abundance of this world's goods, as is shown by the ex- cellence of their farm residences and buildings.

The township is watered by small streams rising in the cen- tral part and flowing west and joining branches that flow into the Paw Paw River, and one that rises in the east and flows easterly through the south part of the township. There are a number of lakes, among the largest being Round and Crooked Lakes that lie near together in the southwest part, on sections 31 and 32; Magician Lake, in the south part of section 34; Keeler Lake, in the east part of section 23; Brown Lake, in the east part of sections 20 and 29; and two in the west part of section 17.

EARLY SETTLEMENTS.

The townships along the lake-coast having accessible har- bors and landing-places were visited by persons in search of

lumber and wood and eligible locations for mills, and whose object was not permanent settlement, but simply the cutting and manufacture of lumber.

The townships lying back from the coast were not even sparsely settled till about 1833-34, when emigrants began to come in from the East to look for lands and to locate farms ; Decatur leading the townships in the county and having the first settlers in Dolphin Morris and Henry Swift, who remained two or three years before they were joined by any others. The first to come in this township were John and James Nesbitt, natives of Ireland, who bought 120 acres of government land, in the southeast quarter of section 14, in the summer of 1834. They built a tent of two crotched sticks driven into the ground, a pole placed across the top and poles down the sides, all covered with marsh hay. Here they lived until the middle of the sum- mer of 1835, when they sold to Wolcott H. Keeler. John Nesbitt is still living, and resides in Porter.

The next to locate was Tobias Byers. He was a native of Pennsylvania, and when young went to Sparta, Livingston Co., N. Y., with his parents. In February, 1835, he left home for Michigan, traveling by stage and private convey- ance through Buffalo, Cleveland, and Coldwater to Illinois, where he remained four months, and came to what is now the township of Keeler, examined the country, and went to the land-office at Bronson (now Kalamazoo) on foot, and located 120 acres of land on the east half of section 19 and 240 acres on the east half of section 13. He cut logs for a house on section 19, then went back to New York, and remained till about the last of October. Isaac De Long and David Byers (his brother) came with him, and raised the log house for which he had made preparations in the spring. David Byers soon returned to New York, but afterwards settled in Bainbridge. Isaac De Long hired out to W. H. Keeler to work by the month. Tobias Byers worked one month for John B. Freeman, near Prospect Lake, and boarded most of the time with Mr. Keeler. His early life in the country was passed in locating land for settlers, and in clearing and breaking up land for others, a business which he followed for about fifteen years. In 1850 he built a frame house on section 13, in the east part of the town, and carried on the farms in both places at the same time, living the most of the time on section 13 after the house was built. In 1856 he married Jeannette Wilson, and they now live on the east farm. Mr. Byers has been elected justice of the peace several times, and has held other township offices.

Wolcott H. Keeler was a native of Vermont, and on the last day of June, 1835, came into the township a week after Tobias Byers, and bought of Nesbitt the 40 acres in the southeast quarter of section 14, and 80 acres on the southwest quarter of section 13, at five dollars per acre, and then went to Bronson and located the west half and north- west- quarter of section 24 at 10s. per acre, this making a total of 480 acres of government land. He returned to Vermont, but in the fall of that year came back with his son Eleazer and his daughter Almina. They erected a log house, afterwards building to it a frame addition. This house was built where the brick dwelling of John Rose- velt stands. Mr. Keeler returned to Vermont after the

* By A. N. Hungerford.

478

HISTORY OF VAN BUREN COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

house was built. His son Simon, in the winter of 1835- 36, drove through from Vermont with a team and a load of household goods, and in the spring of 1836 Mr. Keeler and his wife and daughter Ursula came round by the way of the lakes to St. Joseph, and then came in on the newly- surveyed track of the Territorial road.

Mr. Keeler laid out a village at the place where he built his house. The house was made a tavern. The stage- route passed through here, on the Territorial road, and for a time it bade fair to become a village; but, like many others, it was simply on paper. The Keeler family remained here till in 1850 and sold 570 acres to John Rosevelt, who now lives on the place. Eleazer Keeler was the first town clerk of Keeler, in 1839, and filled other positions of trust in the township. A store was kept here also by the Keel- ers in 1836. Harlow Wright was a blacksmith in 1837.

James Hill, a native of Vermont, emigrated to New York when twenty-one years old, and to this place in May, 1836, with his wife and his children,-Whiting S., Lyman G., James A., Mary, and D. Clinton Hill. Mr. Hill bought the west half of the northwest quarter of section 11. Mr. Hill was supervisor in 1839; Lyman G., his son, was su- pervisor from 1848 to 1852, and from 1854 to 1856. At that time Tobias Byers was living on section 19, and Keeler was on section 14. His son, Justus Hill, came from Ver- mont in 1840, and settled on part of his father's farm, in the east half of the northwest quarter of section 10. In 1865 he removed to the present village of Keeler, where he still lives. In 1840, when Justus Hill came in, the place was still a wilderness. In the north lived Henry Hammond, Peter Williamson, R. B. Everett, these being in the town- ship of Hartford. Theodore Phelps lived south and east, on section 25. South and west was William Earle, on the southeast quarter of section 28, where William Warren now lives. On the south, beyond Keeler Centre and on to Cass County, no one was then located.

Willard Dodge, a native of Jefferson Co., N. Y., in the winter of 1835-36 located government land as follows : the west six lots of section 26; all of section 27; the east half of southeast quarter of section 21; the north half of the southwest quarter of section 2; and 160 acres of the south part of the north half of section 3; and also lands in Hartford township. Ira Foster, a native of Madison Co., N. Y., with his wife and child and brother Truman, came into the township, bought land of Wolcott H. Keeler, on the northwest quarter of section 15, and, on the 7th day of April, 1837, commenced to chop and to build a log cabin. He worked alone for seven years with two yoke of oxen, breaking up land. He was one of the first to form a Methodist class, in 1840. His nearest neighbor was James Hill, on section 11, on the north ; on the south was Samuel Treat, at Silver Creek, in Cass County ; Keeler on the east; and Tobias Byers on the west. Mr. Foster lives on section 16, across the road from his first settlement. Benja- min Hungerford came from Livingston Co., N. Y., in 1837, with his wife and a large family of children, and moved first into the house of Tobias Byers, on section 19. That house was used by many of the early settlers till their own cabins could be built. Mr. Hungerford bought of Henry Byers 640 acres of land on the Territorial road, the east

half of section 28, part of the northeast quarter of section 20, and the southeast quarter of section 17. On the place where Mrs. Andrew Klett now lives he built his cabin, and occupied it with his wife and thirteen children. They lived here for many years, and Benjamin and his son Stephen filled several town offices. The family have become scat- tered, like many others, and none of them are now living in the town.

Zenas Sikes, a native of Westhampton, Mass., was a student of the Thompsonian practice of medicine before he came here, in 1836. He located the south half of section 18, the northeast quarter of section 19, and northwest quarter of section 20. On the 15th day of June, 1837, he arrived at the place, with his son Orendo M., and built a frame house, buying the lumber of Robert Nesbitt, in Ham- ilton township, who had the only saw-mill in a large section of country, and supplied the early settlers with lumber. In November of that year the wife of Dr. Zenas Sikes, with several sons, came in. Orendo M., Samuel, and Pliny P. are now living in the township. The children were Orendo M., Lorin W., Lucina G., Pliny P., Samuel J., Zenas, Charles L. W., and John F. Dr. Sikes practiced his pro- fession until his death, in 1861. Orendo M. Sikes lives on the old homestead.

Adrian Manley came in 1836, about the same time with Thomas Conklin and Burrell Olney, and settled on the northwest quarter of section 4. The family came on in 1837. Calvin Hathaway, of Oneida County, came in with Ira Foster in 1837, locating on the southeast quarter and the west half and southwest quarter of section 10, where L. D. Robinson now resides. The family are now all gone. Jeremiah Johnson, a native of Ohio, in the winter of 1835-36 located in the southeast corner of the township, on section 36. His son Daniel now lives in Hamilton.

While the laborers were at work clearing and breaking up the land along the line of the Territorial road, one of the men was taken sick and died. He was buried at St. Joseph. In the winter of 1835-36 one Mathew Fenton, a cousin of W. H. Keeler, was killed by the falling of a tree, and was the first person buried in the town.

Samuel Pletcher, from the eastern part of New York, came here in 1838, and located in the west part of section 19. His wife was a sister of Tobias Byers. With them came Mattie Byers, afterwards well known as Aunt Mattie, who settled in Bainbridge, on section 24, on the Territorial road. She had on her place a never-failing well, and the stages all stopped there and made it a general watering- place. David Byers, a brother of Tobias, located in 1838 in Bainbridge, just west of Aunt Mattie's, on the Territorial road. Mr. Pletcher died in 1845. His daughter married Dr. J. Elliott Sweet, now of Hartford.

Capt. Marshall Lewis was a native of Southington, Conn., and a civil engineer by profession, which he followed in that State and Pennsylvania. He came to New York, and was employed by De Witt Clinton as engineer and placed in charge of important work in the construction of the Erie Canal. He designed the plans of the locks that were accepted for the Welland Canal, for which a premium of $1000 was offered, and was employed by William Hamil- ton Merritt, general manager of the project, to superintend

CHAS. DUNCOMBE.

MRS.CHAS. DUNCOMBE.

RESIDENCE OF CHAS. DUNCOMBE, KEELER, MICH.

479

TOWNSHIP OF KEELER.

the construction of the locks and bridges. Later, he came to Monroe, Mich., and superintended the construction of the Raisin Canal, under Gen. Henry Smith. In 1837 he came to Lawrence, with Gen. Chadwick, and in 1838 re- moved to Keeler.

Gen. Benjamin F. Chadwick, who was a native of Mas- sachusetts, moved to Cayuga Co., N. Y., with his parents, when quite young, and remained till twenty-one years of age, when he went to Canada, and built a furnace at Chip- pewa. Soon afterwards he erected a foundry at St. Catha- rine's, in partnership with Capt. Lewis, whose daughter he married. In 1836 he came to Michigan, and located 320 acres of land, in two different sections, in what is now Lawrence township, and on the 13th day of April, 1837, Gen. Chadwick and his family, and Capt. Lewis, arrived at Judge Keeler's, at Keelersville. They remained overnight, and the next day went to the land they had bought, and purchasing a few boards from Judge Haynes at Brush Creek, erected a board shanty 12 feet by 12, cleared about three-fourths of an acre, and lived there until the fall of that year, and then sold to Judge Broughton. Gen. Chad- wick then located and bought 160 acres on section 25, in Keeler township, where S. M. Conklin now owns, in the northeast quarter. Jeremiah Johnson lived on the adjoin- ing quarter-section south ; Anson Barney was half a mile east, in Hamilton township; Philotus Haydon was also in Hamilton township, on the Territorial road.

Capt. Lewis and Gen. Chadwick were residents of Keeler township about three years, when the property was ex- changed with Theodore Phelps, for mill property on section 22 and one-half of section 27, and they removed to that place. Capt. Lewis died in 1844. Gen. Chadwick was appointed in 1852, by President Pierce, superintendent of public works at St. Joseph, during the repairs and extension of the piers. He remained two years, and was appointed light- house-keeper, a position which he occupied six years. He is now living with his son-in-law, William Anderson, in Hartford.

Palmer and William Earle located in the township about 1839. Palmer settled on the southwest quarter of section 35, and William on the southeast quarter of section 28, when William Warren now lives. About 1842, Ira Gould, a native of Cherry Valley, N. Y., came from Cold- water, Mich., with an Englishman by the name of John Duncombe, in 1842. Gould purchased the Palmer Earle farm at the east end of Lake Magician, on section 35, and Duncombe the west half of the northwest quarter of the same section, where Henry Keith now lives. The Goulds still occupy the farm. John Duncombe left here in 1846, by overland route for California before the gold excitement. He bought 40 acres of land where San Francisco now stands, and soon after died, leaving a wife and three little girls. A few years later the value of the land was enhanced by the wonderful growth of the city, and the sale of it gave them an independence which they are still living to enjoy.

Daniel J. Osborne came from Western New York about 1842, and settled on section 17, where he still lives. Marvin Palmer settled on the southeast quarter of section 36, where he built a barn. He sold out and went to California, where he was successful, and returning to Michigan, bought a farm

on Mckinney's Prairie, Cass Co., but again sold out and went to California.

About 1840, Thomas Arner located on the north-and- south Centre road, near Ira Foster, where P. D. Peters now lives.

Linus Warner located on section 31 ; Ebenezer Lyon, on section 29 ; and Samuel Robinson on section 5; William and Thomas Green, on the same section ; James Lee, a son- in-law of one of the Greens, on section 2, where Henry Shepherd lives.

In 1844 not a road had been opened on a quarter-section line in the township. The Territorial road was run from east to west through the township in about 1835, and as early as 1838-40 a diagonal road ran from Sikes', on sec- tion 20, southeast to the east end of Lake Magician, and a year or two later, one about a mile from Hungerford's diag- onally southeast. A mail-road also was opened from Keel- erville to Cassopolis.

In the year 1844 quite a number of emigrants came in, among whom were Ormon Rosevelt, of Monroe Co., N. Y. He was a single man and lived at Linus Warner's, on sec- tion 31. He bought the southwest quarter of that section. Afterwards (in 1845) bought the place now owned by George I. Sherman, on sections 26 and 27.

John Buck and Lucius O. Buck, from Livingston Co., N. Y., came in the spring of 1844, and settled on the north- east quarter of section 15, where Lucius Buck now lives. John S. Buck, their father, came in 1846 and settled on the southwest quarter of section 22, where W. Jolly now owns. Samuel Gordon also settled on section 27.

Henry S. Keith, from Jefferson Co., N. Y., bought, in 1843, of Willard Dodge, of that county, the south half of the southeast quarter of section 27, in Keeler, this being part of the lands Mr. Dodge purchased in 1835-36. In June, 1844, Mr. Keith arrived here with his wife and four children. They lived a few days with John Duncombe, and built a small frame house on the farm where his son Fleury now resides. Mr. Keith now lives on section 35, where Mr. Duncombe lived.

Dr. George Bartholomew, of Jefferson Co., N. Y., emi- grated to this township in 1846, bought the north half of the southwest quarter of section 26, remained there two years, and then went to Paw Paw, where he spent three years, then moved to Decatur, where he lived two years, and from that time was in the employ of the Panama Rail- road Company for five years in Central America. He re- turned from there and lived in Berrien eleven years, and returned to the village of Keeler, where he has been in practice from that time to the present. At the time Dr. Bartholomew came in, the log cabin of Moses Duncombe stood where the village of Keeler now is. Mr. Duncombe came from Canada in the spring of 1844 to Grand Rapids, and located land which is a part of the village site. His two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, came with him, and they began housekeeping in a log cabin of James Hill, on section 11, and in the fall went into a house he built at the centre. Mrs. Duncombe, Charles, Caroline (now Mrs. Wheeler), William, and S. W. Duncombe came in after- wards. Charles and Mrs. Wheeler are still living at the

480

HISTORY OF VAN BUREN COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

centre. S. W. Duncombe resides at Paw Paw. Charles Duncombe was a member of the Constitutional Convention in May, 1867. John V. Rosevelt, from Monroe Co., N. Y., purchased of Wolcott H. Keeler, the 27th of June, 1850, 547 acres, where he still lives. He has been for several years and is still supervisor of the town.

The residents of Keeler township whose names appear on the tax-roll dated May 25, 1839, were the following : H. Hammond, Peter Williamson, R. Everett, Ruel Wilcox, A. Newton, F. Ruggles, J. Ruggles, Thomas Conklin, Rus- sell A. Olney, Henry Miner, Alba De Long, Ferdino Olds, Smith Johnson, Adrian Manley, John Palmenter, Thomas H. Green, William Green, William B. Green, Benjamin Hungerford, Hiram Hungerford, Stephen Hungerford, Ze- nas Sikes, Orendo M. Sikes, Tobias Byers, Samuel Pletcher, William Earle, Palmer Earle, Benjamin Chadwick, Wolcott H. Keeler, Eleazer H. Keeler, W. H. and E. H. Keeler, W. S. Hill, Coloni Hathaway, Ira Foster, Lyman G. Hill, James Hill, James Lee, James Spinnings, and Marshall Lewis. The assessors of the township were Benjamin F. Chadwick, Lyman G. Hill, and E. H. Keeler. Of those included in the above list, only three are now living, viz. : Tobias Byers, O. M. Sikes, and Palmer Earle. The total real and personal assessment of residents of the township in that year was about $15,000.

To give an idea of the settlement of Keeler, the names of the settlers are given as they were living on the differ- ent roads in the township in 1850. On the Territorial road, running from east to west, lived Tobias Byers, on the east part of section 13; Wolcott H. Keeler, Simon Keeler, and John Brown, at Keelersville, on the west part of the same section where J. V. Rosevelt resides ; Mrs. Rider, on section 14, where John Baker lives ; John S. Buck, on section 22, where Wilson Jolly lives ; Moses Duncombe, on section 15; D. M. Thomas and Lysander Bly, on section 21, at the village ; Benjamin Hungerford, on section 20, where Widow Klett now lives; Zenas and Orendo M. Sikes, on the same section ; John Campbell, on section 19. On the road running through the centre of the town north and south, commencing at the north, was Truman Fowler, on the northeast quarter of section 9; Ira Foster, on section 15 ; and Thomas Ames, on section 15. South of the centre were Mrs. Earle Benjamin and Daniel Sill, and Stephen Gregory.

On the first east-and-west road south of Hartford, com- mencing at the west end, were Ephraim Warren and Gilbert Leach, on section 8; Justus Hill, on section 10; Elder Rowe, on section 11; and Ozam Abbott, on 12. On the first north-and-south road east of the centre were James and Adrian Manley, on section 2; Lyman G. and James Hill, on 11; John and Lucius E. Buck, on 15; John S. Buck, on 22 ; Mrs. Farnham, Orman Rosevelt, Samuel Gordon, and H. S. Keith, on 27; and Ira Gould, on sec- tion 35.

TERRITORIAL ROADS.

The Congress of the United States passed an act to con- struct a road from Detroit to Chicago, in 1824, to pass through the lower counties in the State. Afterwards branches were surveyed and laid out. One of the branches came through the township of Keeler to St. Joseph, and

was commenced about 1834. When the first settlers came, in 1835, the workmen were still at work breaking up, clear- ing, and grading. The road ran in a straight course south- westerly, entering the town about the middle of the south- east quarter-section of 13, passing through 14, intersecting the section line on 15 and 22, passing through 22 and 21 and 20, intersecting the quarter-section line at nearly the west end of it, and about half-way across section 19 de- flecting northwesterly, passing into Bainbridge near the centre of the west line of the northwest quarter of sec- tion 19.

In 1835, John Allen, of Brush Creek, now Lawrence, took a contract for carrying the mails from Lawrence to St. Joseph, and in January, 1836, he established a stage-route from Lawrence to Keeler, where his route struck the Ter- ritorial road and passed on to St. Joseph. John Reynolds carried the mail through Dopp Settlement and Keeler before a post-office was established,-which was, however, done in that year, at Keelerville. William Taylor afterwards drove the stage. About 1838 the first change was made in the route, and was from the intersection of the road with the south line of section 15, following west along the section line to what is now the centre of the village, thence south about sixty rods, striking the old line of road. This change was made by the commissioners of the township. Still later a change in the route was made in the line from the intersection of the road on the south line of section 20, near where O. M. Sikes now lives, and following the section line west to the intersection of the deflecting line north- westerly. John Allen built a road from Reynolds' tavern, on the east line of Lawrence township, near Lake George, to Brush Creek, and from there to Keeler. The road was long a stage-route, and as many as ten coaches each way were run every day in the year. Upon the completion of the railroad from Kalamazoo to Niles the coaches were mostly withdrawn.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Berrien and Van Buren counties, Michigan. With biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 120

Author: D.W. Ensign & Co. pub; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Johnson, Crisfield Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia, D. W. Ensign & Co. Number of Pages: 821

Author: D.W. Ensign & Co. pub; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Johnson, Crisfield
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, D. W. Ensign & Co.
Number of Pages: 821