History of Berrien and Van Buren counties, Michigan. With biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 62

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 62
USA > Michigan > Berrien County > History of Berrien and Van Buren counties, Michigan. With biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 62

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).

In the northern part of the township, near the lake-shore, there is much timbered land which is being industriously cleared by lumbering firms, one of which employs 80 men. The assessed valuation of this township is but $95,385, the least of any of the townships of Berrien. The presence of considerable tracts of unimproved land-indeed fully one- half if not more of the territory in Hagar is timbered- gives reason for this, but according to the way in which the country is being cleared, the assessed valuation will show a material increase within five years.

Hagar is well supplied with schools, but has no church edifice within its limits, although two church organizations maintain public worship in school-houses. The township has neither grist-mill nor saw-mill, and has had but one of the latter, long since, however, in disuse.

That portion of St. Joseph township now known as Hagar failed to invite the attention of pioneers until after 1840, and even then only to a very moderate degree. The first white man to locate upon that territory as a settler was

* By David Schwartz.

MR. R. B. HUSTON

MRS. R. B. HUSTON

RESIDENCE OF R. B. HUSTON, GALIENTA, BERRIEN CO., MICH.

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TOWNSHIP OF HAGAR.

Henry Hawley, a Canadian, who entered 160 acres on sec- tion 23, where Oscar Damon now lives. He conveyed his family to the place in the spring of 1839, and worked for a while in the midst of an uninhabited region, as if he really intended to make a permanent home in the wilderness, but his courage failed before the loneliness of his situation and the rather gloomy prospect before him. Settlers from St. Joseph had given him a helping hand at the outset, and gathered in force to put up a log cabin for him. He started cheerfully upon the task of clearing his land, and made up his mind to fight his way stubbornly against the disadvantages of a life in an unbroken country, but he grew tired of the business before he had cleared an acre of land, and, packing up his goods, took them and his family off to Indiana, where he lived until his death.

In the summer of 1839, Charles Lamb, a Vermonter, came West with a young wife, and, tarrying a short time in St. Joseph (working meanwhile on the docks), moved with his wife and infant child upon what is now known as the Bundy Place, in Hagar, the northeast quarter of section 23. As there was no road to his new farm, he made the journey up the Paw Paw River in a canoe. The road from Hagar to Benton Harbor, Mr. Lamb helped to lay out some time after he became a settler, and that was the first road laid out in the township. Hawley was gone when Lamb moved in, and the latter's family was therefore the only one at that time in the territory now covered by Hagar. Mr. Lamb may therefore be called Hagar's first permanent settler.

From Jan. 1, 1841, to July 4, 1842, Mr. Lamb kept a daily journal, and endeavored to note therein the progress of events in his new settlement. That journal, now in the possession of his daughter, Mrs. Anderson, of Hagar, is an interesting record, apart from its value as a memorial, and from its pages have been copied a few extracts, as follows :

"Jan. 3, 1841, Sunday .- Had a great time comparing my present circumstances with those a year ago. Then alone here in the woods, with great horrors of mind from various causes ; pecuniary circum- stances the great disadvantage; no team, cattle to winter, and doubts of my success in getting a living here; no speedy prospects of a settle- ment so as to have neighbors. Within the past year four families have settled,-Pannel, McCrea, Bundy, and Farnum. Prospects look better; doubts gone.

"Sunday, January 10th .- Tried to keep the Sabbath. Worked four and a half days for Johnson. Received for pay chain, hoe, and gun. "Sunday, January 17th .- Chopped some; sick some; snowed some.

" April .- Went to town on a raft.

" May 30th .- Helped Bundy make his brush fence two and a half days. He helped me hoe corn one a half days.

"June 20th .- William Allen came ; glad to see a Vermonter.

"Sunday, July 4th .- National anniversary independence; great thing to be truly independent; hope to be in part; gaining slowly ; some different from two years ago ; came from St. Jo with my axe, felled one tree ; not a person here; now several.

"July 25th .- Pannel moved from the settlement.

" August 15th .- Had the dumps.

" August 20th .- Mrs. Bundy died; for the first time the neighbor- hood came together to bury one of them.

"September 24th .- Snowed all night and day ; two and a half feet deep.

" September 31st .- Snow all gone.

"November 15th and 16th .- Made boots.

"Jan. 1, 1842 .- The old year has gone, and my prospects and cir- cumstances are a little better than a year ago; shall try it another year; the settlement is progressing ; Pannel's family gone ; Oliver Sorrell's come; prospects of more; one has died.

" February 13th .- Daniel Brant and family came into the neigh- borhood.

"July 4th .- Hoed corn all day ; not quite independent yet, but, to look it all over, think I am a little more so than I was a year ago; have some doubts whether there can be such a thing as perfect in- dependence."

A few years after his settlement (in 1845) Mr. Lamb moved across the Paw Paw River to where John Brown now lives, and resided there until his death, in 1846. Two of his daughters-Mrs. Roome and Mrs. Anderson-re- side in Hagar. Mrs. Anderson is now the oldest settler in Hagar, although she was but a babe when she became one of its population.

The second permanent settler in Hagar was Mathias Farnum, who made his first Michigan settlement in St. Joseph, in 1836, and there he was one of the first to work upon the docks constructed there. In the winter of 1839 he entered 160 acres of land, on what is now section 13 of Hagar. Mr. Farnum, with other residents of St. Joseph, had gone out into the woods and assisted in building cabins for Hawley and Lamb, in Hagar, and when Farnum de- cided to become a settler there also, his St. Joseph neigh- bors assisted him in putting up his log cabin. In December 1839, Mr. Farnum moved upon his new place, with his wife and child, and no doubt his coming rejoiced the heart of Lamb, who from that time forward emerged from his lone- liness into the cheerful conviction that he had a neighbor, although that neighbor was more than a mile distant. Mr. Farnum lived in Hagar until 1860, when he removed to Watervliet, thence to Iowa, and later to the village of Benton Harbor, where he has resided since 1864.

The settler who followed Farnum into Hagar was Na- thaniel Bundy, who in 1840 started from Huron Co., Ohio, with his wife and four children, for Michigan. He halted at St. Joseph, and after working about the neighborhood a year, bought 160 acres, on section 14, in Hagar, of Robert Hollywood. Leaving his family at St. Joseph, he went into the woods with his axe and put up a log cabin, which being done, he moved his family into it, and in the spring of 1841 the new settlement included three families, and Chas. Lamb boasted two neighbors. Mr. Bundy lived on his place until his death, in 1872. James Bundy, Nathaniel Bundy's son, is the only child of the latter now living in the township.

William McCrea was Hagar's fourth settler. He mi- grated from Canada to St. Joseph, Mich., about 1838, lived there until 1841, married a daughter of George Mills (a settler in St. Joseph in 1838), and moved then to Hagar, where he had entered 120 acres on section 14, built a log cabin, cleared two acres, and put in a crop. McCrea's nearest neighbor was Charles Lamb, who was three-quarters of a mile away. At the time of his settle- ment the road from Hagar to St. Joseph had been laid out, but the track was a narrow one through the woods, and extremely rough, as well as but faintly marked, except as an extended opening in the forest. Mr. McCrea lived upon his Hagar farm until Aug. 15, 1849, when he was killed by the fall of a tree. His widow married Mr. Anthony S. Bishop, and still lives in Hagar.

Before McCrea came Francis Pannel, an Englishman, who remained but two years, when he sold out to Joseph

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HISTORY OF BERRIEN COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

Stratton, and moved to Benton township, where he died. Stratton stayed in Hagar but a few years, when, with his family, he moved to California. Crawford Hazard settled in 1841, but became afterwards a resident of Bainbridge, where he died.

Lacy Brant and Daniel Brant, his brother, settled origi- nally in Pipestone, whence they moved to Hagar, leaving there, after a short stay, for Pipestone. Oliver Sorrell was also an early settler in Hagar, but moved to Pipestone, where he now lives. Leonard Lull bought out one of the Brants, but soon sold out to Wm. Ferguson, and moved away.

The Finch family settled in Hagar in 1845. Isaac Finch, with his wife, five children, and Mrs. Kimme, his grandmother, moved from Madison Co., Ind., to Niles township, in Michigan, and after residing there until 1845, changed their residence to Hagar township, where Isaac Finch, Jr., entered 40 acres of land on section 12. The Finches stopped with Matthias Farnum until they erected a log cabin upon their place. Alexis D. Finch, another of the sons, bought at the same time 50 acres of Mr. Farnum, on section 13, and there he still resides. The elder Finch lived with his son Isaac until his death, in 1853. Of Mr. Finch's five children who came to Hagar with him, those living in Hagar are Alexis D., Sarah Finch, and Mrs. William Huyck. When Mr. Finch set- tled in Hagar the only families residing on the west side of the river were the Bundys, Farnums, McCreas, and Lambs. Mr. Isaac Finch's grandmother, Mrs. Kimme, reached the advanced age of ninety-two, when she died in Hagar. She was buried upon the Farnum place. Her father, who died in New York, was one hundred and four- teen years old when he died.

In 1848, William Flood, with his family and James Flood, his brother, left Ireland for America, intending to settle in the State of Wisconsin. They journeyed westward as far as Kalamazoo, Mich., where they remained two weeks, during which James and William worked on the Michigan Central Railroad. They proceeded thence to St. Joseph, where they were induced by a fellow-countryman, James Murphy, to see Col. Fitzgerald, a Michigan land-owner, and from him William bought a quarter of section 27, in Hagar. Of course the Wisconsin project was abandoned, and William, with his family and brother James, went out to Hagar. Considerable timber had been taken off the land for the docks at St. Joseph, and fortunately finding a lum- berman's shanty upon the place, the Floods were enabled to proceed to housekeeping without delay. Even at that late date the country was very new, and about the only road in the vicinity of the Flood place was the St. Joseph road. James lived with his brother until 1852, when he moved upon 65 acres in section 34, that he had purchased in 1850. There he lives now. William lived on his place of first settlement until his death, in 1873, and there his widow survives him.

Philip Lynch, with his sister and Philip Farley, came from Ireland in 1848. While on the way Farley and Miss Lynch were married at Albany, N. Y., and in a short time Farley and Lynch settled in company upon section 27, in Hagar township, where Farley still lives. Lynch purchased land on section 28, and is now living upon it.

Sylvanus Cook, an early settler in Niles, moved to Wis- consin, whence, in 1849, he returned to Michigan and lo- cated in the northeast corner of Hagar township. He married a daughter of Isaac Finch, and died in Hagar in 1863.

A. S. Bishop, now living in Hagar, settled in Bainbridge with his father, in 1844, and in 1850 removed to Hagar, where he married the widow of William McCrea, one of Hagar's earliest settlers.

In June, 1848, Benjamin Harris and Uriah Harris, his father, of Morgan Co., Ohio, entered 160 acres each on section 12, in Hagar, at $1.20 per acre, and conjointly en- tered 36 acres on the same section, at $1.25. In October, 1850, Benjamin, with his family, migrated from Ohio to his Hagar farm, in company with his brother Abram, who settled upon a portion of the 160 acres entered by the elder Harris, the latter settling in Watervliet township. Both families were guests of Mathias Farnum until their own cabins could be erected. Benjamin Harris had a family of a wife and seven children, and shortly after they got into their new cabin all except Mrs. Harris and her infant babe were stricken with ague. Between taking care of her child, nursing the seven helpless ones, and attending to her house- hold duties, the mother must have had a weary time, but she worked bravely through it all. At one time, being without flour in the house, she slipped hurriedly away, leaving the invalids to themselves, walked through the woods to Sprague Bishop's house, borrowed a sack of flour, and hurried home with it on her back, in season to cheer the suffering ones with renewed timely attentions. Physi- cians were scarce and hard to get, but Dr. Lindsley was persuaded to come over from Watervliet and look after the afflicted family. His bill for attendance was $80, and Mr. Harris says that it almost staggered him when he was told how much it was, for $80 in those days in the woods of Hagar was an immense sum of money. "However," says Mr. Harris, " I paid it after a while; but it was a tough struggle, I can tell you, to scrape that amount of money together then." Abram Harris died in Hagar in 1864. Benjamin still lives where he first settled.

The region along the lake-shore was not settled until a comparatively late date, and even now there is much wild · land in the north, especially on section 11, which contains scarcely any settlements. Quite a large tract in that region is owned by lumbering firms, who are rapidly making clear- ings, and shipping considerable timber and cord-wood to Chicago and other lake points. On the road running from the lake-shore to Hagar Station, William Edinborough and his brother Thomas, of Benton, were among the earliest settlers, in 1852 and 1854, respectively. When they came no one was living in the vicinity and the region was a wil- derness. The first road thereabouts was the road just men- tioned, which the Edinboroughs themselves laid out. Fol- lowing the latter, the settlers were Asahel Hayes, J. T. Wisner, and Stephen Cook, and after them settlers began to multiply quite rapidly.

The first settlement on the south side of the Paw Paw River, or, more properly speaking, in the southeastern por- tion of the township, was made by William Allen, who

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worked for Charles Lamb a while in 1841, and removed soon to the south side of the river, upon the bank of which, not far from the present railway-bridge, he put up a shanty and kept bachelor's hall, where he was subsequently joined by Michael Smith, who, in 1838, at the age of fifteen years, left Cayuga Co., N. Y., via canal, and reached Buffalo, with 75 cents in his pocket. At Buffalo he shipped aboard a vessel bound for Chicago, and thence traveled to St. Joseph, Mich., where he arrived in October. He worked there until June, 1839, then engaged as a deck-hand on one of the steamers running on the St. Joseph. He lived in In- diana eighteen months, and there joined a hunting-party, which penetrated in 1840 into the territory now occupied by Hagar township. He lived in that vicinity with Gilson Osgood until 1842, when he purchased, of Smith & Mer- rick, 163 acres of land on section 26, in Hagar, for $3 per acre. He made no effort, however, towards settling upon it or clearing it, but finding William Allen living on the bank of the river, took quarters with him, and there the two continued to live for eighteen months, during which time they hunted and lived a free-and-easy life, while they also made an occasional clearing on Allen's land. They also " underbrushed" a road from Allen's cabin a mile southward on the section line. That road was afterwards improved, and is the one now on the line between sections 25 and 26.

While Smith and Allen were living in their bachelors' cabin they did not suppose that there were settlers on the other side of the river, and one Sunday, hearing the bark- ing .of dogs and reports of guns from that direction, they went over, expecting to meet with a band of Indians. To their surprise, however, they found white settlers, in the families of Charles Lamb, Nathaniel Bundy, and Joseph Stratton, the latter then running the ferry at St. Joseph, and visiting his family in Hagar only on Sundays.

Neither Smith nor Allen did much towards clearing their respective farms until 1844, when Jeremiah Smith (Mi- chael's father) came to Hagar from New York State, with his wife and family, and located upon Michael's 163 acres, Michael having previously put up a frame house upon it and cleared a few acres. As soon as he saw them com- fortably settled, Michael went to Kalamazoo, where he made his home for the following fifteen years. He then returned to Hagar and took possession of his farm, where he yet lives. Upon Michael's return, his father bought 40 acres on the opposite side of the road, and resided there until his death.

In 1844, Allen turned his attention energetically to cul- tivating his land, and lived upon it afterwards until he died. He married Sophia, daughter of Jeremiah Smith, that marriage being the first one celebrated on the south side of the river. His widow married Roswell Curtis, and still lives in Hagar.

In 1844, James Stewart settled upon section 26, south of Michael Smith. He lived there until 1861, when he moved to Bangor. There he now resides, aged ninety-two years.

The next settler was Roswell Curtis, who located upon section 25, opposite James Stewart. He married William Allen's widow, and still lives in Hagar.

Wells Crumb, who followed Curtis, settled on section 26, and built a small saw-mill on Crumb Creek. Mr. Crumb moved afterwards to Coloma, in Watervliet township, where he is now living.

Jeremiah Smith's two married sons, Abram and Henry, came to Hagar, with their father, in 1844, and located farms on section 24. Abram opened there the first blacksmith- shop on that side of the river, and not long afterwards re- moved to Coloma, where he was also the pioneer black- smith, and where he continues to this day to work at the forge. Henry is living in Hagar.

William Scott, an early settler, sold out, about 1856, to George Patterson, and removed to California, where he now lives. George Patterson lives now in Coloma. James, his brother, who bought Abram Smith's place, changed his hab- itation to the northern part of the State, where he is now living. Robert Merrifield was a settler upon the south side of the river about 1843, but afterwards left for Berrien.

Alfred Sensebaugh, who was an early settler on the south side of the river, was a preacher, and preached for some time, on both sides of the river, before the appearance in the township of any other minister.

The first white child born in the township was William McCrea's daughter, Mary Jane, the date of whose birth was May 16, 1841. She is now living in Hagar, and is the wife of Thomas Muldoon. The first couple married were Oliver Sorrell and Malvina Brant. The wedding cer- emony took place at the house of Mathias Farnum, and was performed by Dr. Lillibridge, of St. Joseph. Mr. Farnum, who relates the incident, does not remember that the wed- ding was attended by any demonstrative celebration such as sometimes marks a first marriage in a new settlement. He recollects, however, that there were at that time so few settlers in Hagar that there was not much of a chance for a hilarious time.

The first saw-mill in Hagar, and the only one to the present time, was set up by Mathias Farnum and Alexis D. Finch, near the Farnum place. They bought the machi- nery in Watervliet and moved it to Hagar, where it was operated some time as a steam-mill. It was, however, dis- mantled a long time since, although the building, in a some- what dilapidated condition, still remains.

Until 1869, when the Chicago and Michigan Lake Shore Railroad was completed to that point, Hagar had no post- office. Previously the mails for the township people were sent to Coloma or Benton Harbor.

Mathias. Farnum says that when he moved into Hagar, in 1839, there were no roads in the township, and the only thoroughfares of any kind were Indian trails or routes, by way of blazed trees, marked by his predecessors. The river, although shallow, served nevertheless a useful purpose to the Hagar pioneers, for by its aid they were enabled to journey to and from St. Joseph village much more conve- niently than by the overland route through the woods. By reason of this convenience the want of a road to St. Joseph was not as sorely felt as it would have been otherwise, and indeed it was not until 1841 that a road to St. Joseph was laid out and made fit for travel.

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HISTORY OF BERRIEN COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION AND CIVIL LIST.

Hagar was originally a portion of St. Joseph township, and was set off as a part of Paw Paw township March 7, 1834. In response to a petition urged by a considerable number of inhabitants, it was set off as a separate town- ship April 6, 1846. Hagar was named in honor of Wil- liam Hagar, of St. Joseph, whose son-in-law, John N. Rogers, a justice of the peace, performed certain services in obtaining the organization of the town, and as a compensa- tion claimed the privilege of naming it. The first town- meeting was held in the school-house of District No. 1, known as the Bundy school-house. At that meeting the inspectors of election were Wells Crumb, William McCrea, Alfred Sensebaugh, Mathias Farnum, Leonard Lull, and Charles Lamb, Jr. The clerks of the election were William Scott and Roswell Curtis. The town officials chosen on that occasion were as follows: Supervisor, Alfred Sense- baugh ; Clerk, William C. Allen ; Treasurer, Charles Lamb, Jr. ; Justices of the Peace, William Scott, Joseph Stratton, Isaac K. Finch, Charles Lamb, Sr .; Assessors, William Scott, Joseph Stratton ; School Inspectors, Alfred Sense- baugh, Joseph Stratton ; Directors of the Poor, Crawford Hazard, Charles Lamb, Jr .; Commissioners of Highways, Nathaniel Bundy, A. D. Finch, Abram Smith ; Constables, A. D. Finch, Samuel Hardenbrook, Henry Smith.

Following is a list of those who have been elected super- visors, clerks, treasurers, and justices of the peace of Hagar from 1847 to 1879, inclusive :

1847 .- Supervisor, Alfred Sensebaugh; Clerk, William C. Allen; Treasurer, William Scott; Justice of the Peace, Roswell Curtis.

1848 .- Supervisor, William Scott; Clerk, Wells Crumb; Treasurer, William Scott ; Justice of the Peace, Joseph Stratton.

1849 .- Supervisor, Isaac K. Finch; Clerk, William C. Allen; Treas- urer, Roswell Curtis; Justices of the Peace, Isaac K. Finch, Leonard Lull.

1850 .- Supervisor, Isaac K. Finch ; Clerk, Abram Smith; Treasurer, William C. Allen ; Justices of the Peace, Isaac K. Finch, Alexis D. Finch, Charles Lamb.

1851 .- Supervisor, Isaac K. Finch ; Clerk, Abram Smith ; Treasurer, William C. Allen; Justice of the Peace, Wells Crumb.

1852 .- Supervisor, Isaac K. Finch ; Clerk, William C. Allen ; Treas- urer, Sprague Bishop; Justices of the Peace, George John- son, A. D. Finch.

1853 .- Supervisor, George Johnson ; Clerk, William C. Allen ; Treas- urer, Sprague Bishop ; Justices of the Peace, William Scott, Sprague Bishop.

1854 .- Supervisor, George Johnson ; Clerk, Abram Smith ; Treasurer, Sprague Bishop; Justices of the Peace, Crawford Hazard, A. D. Finch.

1855 .- Supervisor, George Johnson ; Clerk, A. D. Finch; Treasurer, Sprague Bishop; Justices of the Peace, A. D. Finch, Wells Crumb, Asahel Hays.

1856 .- Supervisor, Asahel Hays; Clerk, Wells Crumb; Treasurer, Sprague Bishop; Justice of the Peace, George S. Andrews. 1857 .- Supervisor, George S. Andrews; Clerk, Alonzo Hyde; Treas- urer, Albert Swift; Justice of the Peace, N. L. Bird.

1858 .- Supervisor, Sprague Bishop ; Clerk, Wells Crumb; Treasurer, Michael Smith ; Justice of the Peace, Roswell Curtis. 1859 .- Supervisor, Sprague Bishop ; Clerk, Roswell Curtis; Treasurer, Michael Smith; Justice of the Peace, Chester Curtis.

1860 .- Supervisor, Sprague Bishop ; Clerk, Thomas Roome; Treasu- rer, Cornelius Williams; Justices of the Peace, Roswell Curtis, C. C. Williams.

1861 .- Supervisor, Sprague Bishop; Clerk, Thomas Roome; Treas- urer, Cornelius Williams; Justice of the Peace, Thomas Roome.

1862 .- Supervisor, Sprague Bishop; Clerk, Thomas Roome; Treas- urer, William Ferguson , Justice of the Peace, S. G. Parker. 1863 .- Supervisor, Sprague Bishop ; Clerk, Thomas Roome; Treas- urer, T. D. Pitcher ; Justice of the Peace, Abel Barnum. 1864 .- Supervisor, Stephen Cook ; Clerk, Thomas Roome; Treasurer, T. D. Pitcher ; Justice of the Peace, James Flood.

1865 .- Supervisor, A. S. Bishop; Clerk, Thomas Roome; Treasurer, Lyman Cole; Justice of the Peace, Thomas Roome. 1866 .- Supervisor, Albert Swift ; Clerk, A. D. Finch.

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History of Berrien and Van Buren counties, Michigan. With biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 62

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