History of Berrien and Van Buren counties, Michigan. With biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 53

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 53
USA > Michigan > Berrien County > History of Berrien and Van Buren counties, Michigan. With biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 53

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PHOTOS. BY I.B.IVES.

MRS. S. IRELAND.

SILAS IRELAND.

RES. OF SILAS IRELAND, BERRIEN Te, BERRIEN CO., MICH.

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TOWNSHIP OF BERRIEN.

with fears ; privations and hardships attended upon every hand ; and only stout hearts and unfaltering determination enabled them to hold to their purpose.

Luke Webster was a settler of 1831, in Cass County, but did not locate in Berrien until 1833. In September, 1831, he started from Franklin Co., Va., with his wife and six children, for Michigan, with his family and effects in a wagon drawn by six horses. With them came also David Sink and family, with a four-horse team. They reached Niles township on Christmas Eve, and there Mr. Webster remained until 1833, when he moved, with his family, to Berrien, and settled on section 32, where his son, W. C. Webster, now lives. Mr. Webster died in 1841. Four of his children-W. C., Ezekiel, Adeline File, and Arbelia Wright-live in Berrien township.

In the autumn of 1830, Adam Michael, of Green Co., Ohio, started from that place with a youth named Isaac Murphy, and two other men, for Lafayette, Ind., where they proposed to locate land. Reaching there they disliked the country, and kept on westward. They reached Pokagon Prairie, Mich., in October of that year, and there wintered. In the spring of 1831, Michael took young Murphy with him into Berrien, and concluded to locate a farm upon sec- tion 21. Adam Michael brought his family out soon after- wards, and set up a blacksmith-shop, in which he was assisted by Murphy. Michael died upon that place in 1835. Two of his daughters-Mrs. Silas Ireland and Mrs. John Kibler-live in the township.

The first preaching in the township was heard at the house of Adam Michael, whose friend, Rev. Thomas P. McCoole, a Methodist Episcopal preacher of Cass County, used to hold services there quite often.

As before related, Isaac Murphy worked in Adam Michael's blacksmith-shop. After passing two years there- in he entered a farm upon section 15, where he still resides.

In 1834, William Michael, father of Adam, moved from Ross Co., Ohio, with his family, to Berrien, and took a farm on section 21, adjoining Adam's. He was an old man of seventy when he came to Michigan, and died a few years after reaching his new home. A son, B. H. Michael, resides in Berrien, on section 22.

Eli Ford, a native of Pennsylvania, and a settler in Erie Co., Ohio, left the latter place in the summer of 1826, and on the 10th of July reached Pokagon Prairie, with his wife and four children. Wintering at Pokagon, he re- paired, in the spring of 1827, to a place near Niles, where he passed the summer, returning in the winter to Pokagon. In the spring of 1828 he put up a grist-mill on Dowagiac Creek. In 1832 he sold his possessions there and moved to Berrien, where he had previously located land, on section 18, near the river. Directly afterwards he put up a.saw- mill on a creek flowing through section 17, and, after sawing sufficient lumber to build a house, rented the mill to Abram Puterbaugh, and devoted himself chiefly to farming. He engaged occasionally in lumbering, and after taking his rafts to Chicago, used to walk back home by way of Niles. He built, in 1833, on the bank of the river, near the east end of the present bridge, a grain warehouse, in which Lyman A. Barnard first, and Thomas L. Stevens afterwards, carried on a considerable trade in shipping and receiving supplies

of all kinds, destined either for transportation down the river or into the interior. That point was a favored one for river business, and there the agricultural products of the neighboring country were taken for shipment to market, and goods brought to the country in exchange were landed there. After a brief but busy career, Mr. Ford died on his farm in 1839. His children now living in Berrien are Ephraim (on the homestead) and a daughter, Harriet. His widow married Hugh Marrs, and still resides in Berrien.

Hugh Marrs, of Virginia, started from that State in the fall of 1829, with his family, for Pokagon Prairie. He wintered in Preble Co., Ohio, and April 6, 1830, reached Pokagon, with just $10 in his pocket. Locating 80 acres on the St. Joseph, in Berrien, opposite the Shaker farm in Oronoko, he remained there until January, 1832, when a flood drove him to the bluff, and selling out in the spring, he entered 80 acres five miles east of Berrien Springs, on the Pokagon road. Soon afterwards he entered an adjoining 80 acres, and of these 160 acres he managed, with the assistance of his sons, to clear 100 during the en- suing twelve years. In 1856 he changed his location to the old Ford farm, where he passed his days, and died Aug. 19, 1878, aged eighty-one. Benjamin F., his son, occupies with his father's widow the farm upon which Mr. Marrs died. Of his other surviving children, Thomas, a son, and two daughters-Mrs. Richard Webster and Mrs. T. B. Snow-reside in Berrien.

Shadrach Ford, of Ohio, located on Pokagon Prairie, in 1827, and commenced trading with the Indians. In that pursuit he continued until 1832, when he settled upon section 19, in Berrien township, where he resided until his death, in 1874.

William Lemon, a Virginian, settled in Stark Co., Ohio, and in 1831 left there, with his wife and eleven children, for Berrien township, where he and his son Henry, with the latter's family, had passed the previous year in clearing land and preparing the place for future residence. This was on section 19, upon what is known as the B. D. Townsend farm. After residing upon the farm a few years, during which-in 1832-he built there the first saw-mill erected in the township, Mr. Lemon removed to Oronoko, where he died. Henry, who had located 40 acres adjoining his father's farm, removed also to Oronoko, and there ended his days. The only child of William Lemon residing in Ber- rien is Mrs. John Tate.

In October, 1828, John Burke, of Virginia, moved, with his family of six children, to Cass Co., Mich., where he settled, and there died in 1838. Andrew L., one of his sons, bought a farm on the river, in the southwestern part of Berrien township, from Lawrence Cavanaugh, and still lives there. William, the eldest son, who entered the farm, in section 24, upon which his father lived, died there in 1869. Besides Andrew L., the surviving children of John Burke living in Berrien are Mrs. John Smith and Rebecca Burke.

In 1834, David Riggin, a young man, came from Vir- ginia, and located land on section 14, in Berrien, north of Riggin Lake, but did not settle upon it until two years later, working meanwhile for other settlers. In 1861, David moved to the farm now occupied by his widow. He died in

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HISTORY OF BERRIEN COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

1873, aged sixty-eight. His father, Thomas, came to Ber- rien in 1834, with his family, and for a year or two lived with his daughter, the wife of Hugh Marrs. He then settled with his family upon section 23, on the Pokagon road. He remained there until 1861, and trading his farm for one in Cass County, moved to the latter place, where he died.

James Gillespie, of Champaign Co., Ohio, was a young man when he moved to Niles township. He worked sub- sequently at Carey Mission, and in 1832 entered a farm in what is now Berrien township. For the ensuing two years, however, he boated on the St. Joseph River, and in 1834 he went back to Champaign County, to assist in moving his father, Mathew M. Gillespie, who, with his wife and four children, made the journey to Michigan. Upon his arrival Mathew settled, with his family, upon the farm of his son James, with whom he remained more than two years. At the end of that time John, one of James' brothers, located a farm on section 31, and took his father and family there to live with him. There the elder Gillespie lived until his death, in 1842, and there John still resides. James died on his old place in 1851.

In 1836, John Gillespie made a trip to Champaign Co., Ohio, to assist Jonathan Knight and Nathan Fitch in moving with their families to Michigan. Knight settled in Oronoko. Fitch located land in Berrien, upon section 31, but worked some time in Berrien Springs, at his trade as a plasterer, before finally settling upon his farm, where he now lives.

Hiram Hinchman came at about the same time with Thomas Riggin, and located on section 24. He removed subsequently to Missouri, where he died.

James Jenkins set out from Virginia in the fall of 1831, with his family, for Michigan, and wintering in Ohio, re- sumed his journey in the spring of 1832. Reaching sec- tion 24, in Berrien township, he found a small clearing, and built on it a log shanty, in which his family found tem- porary shelter while he looked about in search of land. He found such a spot, and entered 120 acres, but did not settle there until about a year later. Mr. Jenkins died there in 1875. His children now living in Berrien are John, Isaac, Mrs. Joel Layman, and Mrs. Solomon Cudde- back.

In the fall of 1832, Andrew Tate and a Mr. Hogshead, of Ohio, visited Michigan in company to locate land. Mr. Hogshead entered a farm near White Pigeon, and Mr. Tate a 200-acre tract in Berrien township, on section 17. Tate returned to Ohio, but even after entering his Michigan land hesitated to make the venture of a settlement there with his family. This indecision kept him in Ohio until 1834, when he conveyed his wife and three children to the Michigan wilderness, and, obtaining a temporary home at Adam Michael's house, erected meanwhile a log cabin upon his own place, and six weeks after his arrival in the coun- try took his family there. Andrew Tate became a man of some note, and lived upon the farm until his death, in 1865. Before his death he sold the place to his son John, who died there in January, 1879. Mr. John Tate was conspic- uous in the administration of local affairs, having served his township as supervisor for a period of sixteen years.

He also filled the office of county treasurer. The only liv- ing child of Andrew Tate is Mrs. James Essick, of Berrien Springs.

Julius Brown moved in the autumn of 1829, with his wife and two children, in a wagon drawn by one ox-team, from Chagrin Falls, Ohio, towards Michigan, and reaching Tecumseh when the snow began to fall, tarried there during the ensuing winter. In the spring he came to Niles, and halting there April 1st, examined the country, but, not find- ing it to his liking, constructed a raft, and placing his fam- ily and household goods aboard, floated down the river to St. Joseph. Dividing his time during the next two years between St. Joseph and Niles, working meanwhile at the trade of carpentering, without having a fixed purpose as to settlement, he finally, in 1832, located in Berrien township on section 17. He continued to work at his trade as a car- penter for some time after that at Berrien Springs and other places, but also managed his farm. He died there in 1860, at which time he had increased his landed possessions to 210 acres. Julius Brown was a man of some consequence in the spring of 1832, when, upon the alarm being given that the Sauk Indians were approaching Chicago, he was placed in command of the militia, although, as it turned out, there was no occasion for the mustering.

Richard, a brother of Julius Brown, and by trade a shoe- maker, settled in 1834 in Berrien, on section 21. He farmed in the summer and made shoes in the winter sea- sons until 1845, when he went to Cass County, and re- moved thence after a few years to Royalton township, residing in the latter place until his death.

Philander V. Huston, a brother-in-law to Julius Brown, came with the latter to Berrien. He was a carpenter, and labored here and there at his trade in the vicinity of Ber- rien for ten years or more, when he removed to a place near Elkhart, Ind., and there died.

Martin Friley, David Moore, Elias Parker, and Theron, his brother, were settlers in Berrien in 1834, but as they passed farther west about two years afterwards, they may be dismissed with a brief notice.

E. W. Walker, from New York State, located about 1834 on section 9, and lived there until 1855, when he moved to Van Buren County and died there.

Richard McOmber settled in 1835 upon parts of sections 16 and 17. In 1847 he sold his place to the county for a poor-farm, and moved to Buchanan.

In June, 1834, Henry Rush, of Greene Co., Ohio, made the journey on horseback from that section to Berrien, where he located 100 acres, upon section 5. Mr. Rush intended to bring his family out as soon as possible, but on the very night before he set out (in June) to return to Ohio there came a heavy frost that nearly destroyed the growing crops; and looking forward with distrust to the prospect of pioneer existence in a country where the crops were blasted by sum- mer frosts, he deemed it wiser to defer the transferring of his family, and so did not bring them out until the autumn of 1835. He domiciled his wife and four children at An- drew Tate's house a few weeks, until he could provide a log house for them. Upon the creation of the Eau Claire post- office, in 1861, Mr. Rush was appointed postmaster, and continued in the possession of the office until 1874. He

VIEW OF BARNS.

I. P. HUTTON.

MRS. I. P. HUTTON.

RES. OF ISRAEL P. HUTTON, BERRIEN TP., BERRIEN CO., MICH.

207

TOWNSHIP OF BERRIEN.

resided upon the place of his first settlement until 1878, when he removed to the village of Berrien Springs, and is now living there.

John Powers moved from Greene Co., Ohio, to Pokagon Prairie in 1829, and remained there until the fall of 1834, when he settled upon section 15, in Berrien township, on a farm which he had entered in 1832. Prior to settling, he had come over from Pokagon, put up a log cabin on his place, cleared some land, and set out an orchard, so that when he brought his family he had affairs pretty well ar- ranged for their comfort. Among the members of his family when he came to Berrien was H. S. Robinson, now township clerk, who was Mr. Powers' stepson. Two years before he died Mr. Powers became totally blind and help- less. He lived on his farm until his death, in August, 1879. His old place is still owned and occupied by his children.

Francis R. Pinnell, now living in Berrien, at the age of ninety-four, came to the township in 1835. With a large company of 27 people (including himself, wife, and eight children; Wesley Pinnell, wife, and nine children, and Cyrus Hinchman, F. R. Pinnell's son-in-law, with his family), he started from Virginia for Indiana, where it was his pur- pose to settle. When they reached Indianapolis, and had viewed the country, they concluded that Indiana was not a place to their liking, but, pending a move farther westward, they were detained in Indianapolis by the illness of Wesley Pinnell, his wife and child, and Rebecca Linegar,-all of whom died there. Nearly all the members of the company were more or less fever-stricken at Indianapolis, where they remained from July to September. On the 4th of Sep- tember the remnant of the little band traveled together in wagons towards Michigan. Without further mishaps they reached Berrien, where Francis R. Pinnell settled on sec- tion 14. He lived there four years, and then moved to a place near Morris Chapel, whence, in 1854, he moved to his present location, on section 35.

Ralph Denn, from New York State, came to Berrien, with his wife and five children, in 1836, and stopped on the place known as the B. D. Townsend farm, where he labored a few years, and in 1839 bought 40 acres of land on sec- tion 9. He lived there until 1869, when he removed to Kansas, where he died in 1877. Four of his children live in Berrien, to wit : Mrs. H. S. Robinson, Mrs. Church Cox, Mrs. Asher Webster, and William Denn.

Thomas Easton, a settler in Southern Indiana, and origi- nally from Kentucky, left Indiana in the summer of 1838, with his wife and ten children, and reached Berrien in the fall. Mr. Easton had entered 40 acres on section 11, but had to find temporary shelter for his family until he could put up a cabin. This home he found with Campbell Mc- Coy, who had come from Indiana in 1835 and located upon section 11. McCoy, it may be noted, lived upon that farm until about 1850, and then removed to Pipestone township, where he died. After settling upon his new location, Mr. Easton added to it 40 acres, for which he gave a brown mare, and subsequently added 40 acres more. Upon the 120 acres thus acquired his son, A. J. Easton, now lives. Thomas Easton died there in 1871.

Silas Ireland was a young man when he came from Ohio

to Berrien, in 1839. He worked for farmers in that sec- tion until 1843, when, having married and located a farm of his own, he moved upon the place now occupied by him.

Abram Puterbaugh was one of the settlers in Berrien in 1836. He moved, with his family, consisting of his wife and seven children, from Ohio to Niles, early in 1834, and there leased George Boon's mill, which he carried on until 1836, when he went to Berrien township and there leased Eli Ford's saw-mill, putting up also near the mill a log cabin for a family residence. After operating Ford's saw-mill two years, Puterbaugh built a saw- and grist-mill on the same creek nearer the river, and bought there 200 acres of land of Robert E. Ward. During the early spring of 1841, Mr. Puterbaugh went to Berrien Springs for a mill-iron, and upon his return, in attempting to cross the frozen river, broke through the ice and was drowned. He had made only a partial payment upon his land, and his sons not caring to retain it, the property reverted to Mr. Ward.

Ford's mill, already spoken of, stood at the foot of the hill covered by the John Tate place, and traces of it may yet be seen near the roadway at the creek crossing. David, one of Abram Puterbaugh's sons, moved to Pipestone about 1838; Jacob, another son, lived in Berrien until 1855, when he too moved to Pipestone.

Brief mention may be made of Lawrence Cavanaugh, who settled upon section 26 in 1830, and of Peter Hick- man, who located on section 30 at an early date. Cava- naugh moved farther west shortly after becoming a resi- dent of Berrien. Hickman died on his farm in 1840.

Cyrus Hinchman, who has already been mentioned as having come to Berrien, in 1835, with Francis Pinnell, located upon section 14, and was the most extreme north- ern settler in the township. Hinchman started from Vir- ginia without any decided view as to a settlement in Mich- igan, but was persuaded that way by his brother Hiram, who made his home in Berrien in 1834. Cyrus became known afterwards as the man who raised the largest pump- kin ever seen in the township. How large it was cannot now be said, but it was large enough to be worth a barrel of salt, for which Hinchman traded it at Niles. Mrs. J. C. Runkle, of Pipestone township, is a daughter of Mr. Hinchman, and recollects that when her father reached the wilderness of Berrien with his family, all the money he had was a five-franc piece. One cold winter day, when the ground was covered with snow, Mr. Hinchman began to chop a large tree that stood near his cabin, and fearing the tree might fall upon the cabin, he conveyed his young chil- dren to a safe spot, and sat them upon a freshly-taken deer- skin, which he had spread on the snow. There the little ones sat while he felled the tree, and well it was too that he had taken the precaution, for the tree fell upon the cabin and damaged it badly.

Mr. Hinchman lived in Berrien until 1865, when he moved to Montcalm Co., Mich., and is still living there.

After 1840 settlements began to multiply rapidly. The population, which was 543 in 1840, was nearly double that in 1854. Among the early settlers of whom special men- tion has not already been made were Joel Layman, Israel P. Hutton, T. K. Clyburne, William and John Nye, and B. D. Townsend.

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HISTORY OF BERRIEN COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

One may yet encounter in a day's drive, many hearty old men, who still remain as reminders of the pioneer his- tory of Berrien, and who tell the stories of Michigan's early days in a way that awakens a deep interest. The remembrance of a nearly fifty years' experience upon Mich- igan soil is the valuable legacy which time has left to many of Berrien's pioneers ; and now, in the enjoyment of com- fort and ease, they are pardonably proud to rank themselves with the rest of that noble band, whose members were the advance-guard in the march to the Western wilds in the days when that region was a stranger to the tread of the white man. The first birth in Berrien was that of John Johnson's son, Isaac, who was born Dec. 20, 1828. The first death is supposed to have been Peter, son of Wm. Lemon. He was buried on his father's farm. Mention has already been made of Eli Ford's warehouse, which was built in 1833, upon the river-bank, near the east end of the bridge at Berrien Springs. That point was at one time a place of considerable trade. Thomas L. Stevens kept store there until his removal to the village opposite, and John Defield kept tavern awhile near at hand, but the business activity was soon transferred thence to Berrien Springs.

EARLY ROADS.

The first roads of consequence were the ones extending from Niles to Berrien Springs, and from the latter point to Pokagon, both being laid out in 1832.

April 24th of that year the township was districted as follows : " The public road from Brown's Ferry across the St. Joseph River, thence west to the line of said town- ship, on the road to Newburyport, to be District No. 1. All the land in said township lying south and west of the said road and river to be District No. 2. All the land in said township lying east of the said river to be one district, and numbered three." Then follows a list of the names of the persons, April 24, 1832, as liable in April, 1832, to work on the highways in the three districts. They were as follows : District No. 1, Clark Pennewell, Wm. Williams, Daniel Williams, Jacob Shoemaker, William Wilson, Stephen Purdee, Martin Hoffman, F. B. Murdock, Michael O'Harra, Pitt Brown, Horace Godfrey; District No. 2, Wm. Barlow, Wm. C. Webster, Samuel Salee, Hezekiah Hall, Wm. T. St. John ; District No. 3, John Johnson, Eli Ford, Shadrach Ford, Wm. Lemon, Henry Lemon, Geo. H. Claypool, Adam Michael, Michael Hand, Lawrence Cav- anagh, Hugh Marrs, Daniel Marrs, James Jenkins, Alex- ander Marrs, Elias Parker, John Smith, Isaac Smith, Wm. Ferguson.

TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION.

In the month of April, 1832, Calvin Britain, represen- tative in the Legislature from Berrien County, presented to the Legislature the following petition :

"TO THE HONORABLE THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL OF THE TERRITORY OF MICHIGAN :

"The undersigned, citizens of the County of Berrien, in said Terri- tory, residing between the nine-mile post from the mouth of the St. Joseph River to the nineteenth-mile post, respectfully represent that heretofore the township of Niles has embraced the whole county of Berrien ; that that part of the County of Berrien designated is settling with remarkable rapidity ; that the citizens thereof experience much inconvenience in being obliged to resort to Niles, situated near the

southern line of the County, to exercise the invaluable right of par- ticipating in the election of township officers; that, independent of this consideration, the citizens residing within the boundaries desig- nated feel greatly the importance of electing their own township offi- cers from among themselves,-men who feel an interest and a pride in opening and improving roads within the boundaries aforesaid, and of performing all of the other duties that may be required of them as township officers.

"The undersigned, therefore, respectfully pray your honorable body to pass a law setting off from the township of Niles all that part of said County situate North of township seven, and extending as far North as to include two tiers of sections in township five, and the east and west lines to extend from the west line of Cass County to Lake Michigan.

(Signed) " F. B. MURDOCK, " HUGH MARRS, " WILLIAM C. WEBSTER, MICHAEL HAND, PETER HICKMAN,

JOHN JOHNSON, ELI FORD,

" WILLIAM F. ST. JOHN,

" HEZEKIAH HALL, JR., DANIEL JOHNSON,

" WILLIAM BARLOW, " WILLIAM LEMON, " ADAM MICHAEL,

MICHAEL O'HARRA, SHADRACH FORD, WILLIAM FERGUSON,

" GEORGE H. CLAYPOOL,

" HENRY LEMON, " WILLIAM MICHAEL,

PITT BROWN, ELIAS PARKER."

Upon the foregoing petition, the township of Berrien was erected and organized in 1832, its territory-originally a part of Niles township-including what are now the town- ships of Berrien, Oronoko, and Lake. In 1837, that por- tion of Berrien extending from the river to the lake was set off into a separate township, by the name of Oronoko, although the river was not made the boundary line until 1847. (See history of Oronoko.)

The first election in the new township was held at the tavern of Pitt Brown, on the west bank of the St. Joseph River, on the 1st of April, 1833. The persons elected, together with the votes cast for each, were as follows : Su- pervisor, Pitt Brown, 20; Township Clerk, Francis B. Murdock, 16; Assessors, William F. St. John, 21 ; Heze- kiah Hall, Jr., 21 ; Julius Brown, 21; Commissioners of Highways, William F. St. John, 21; Hezekiah Hall, Jr., 21; Julius Brown, 21; Constables, Stephen Purdee, 19; Henry Lemon, 15; Fence-Viewers and Poundmasters, John Johnson and William C. Webster, 8; Overseers of Highways, District No. 1, Stephen Purdee, 4 ; District No. 2, Hezekiah Hall, Jr., 4; District No. 3, William Lemon, 4; District No. 4, Lawrence Cavanaugh, 4; District No. . 5, Eli Ford, viva voce, in place of Julius Brown, who de- clined to serve; Collector, Stephen Purdee, 19.

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History of Berrien and Van Buren counties, Michigan. With biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 53

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