History of Berrien and Van Buren counties, Michigan. With biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 74

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 74
USA > Michigan > Berrien County > History of Berrien and Van Buren counties, Michigan. With biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 74

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SETTLEMENTS AND PIONEERS IN PIPESTONE.

The southern and western portions of Pipestone fell into the hands of Eastern land speculators soon after the town- ship survey. Nearly all of these land-owners lived in New York State, among the most prominent being Lawrence, Corning, Bushnell, and Voorhies. As they bought the most of their land from the general government at one dollar and a quarter an acre, and sold it to settlers at two dollars and a half, their investments paid them handsomely. Although the territory now covered by Bainbridge and Watervliet received settlers as early as 1835, that portion of Bainbridge now called Pipestone did not attract much attention until 1837, and for some time after that settle- ments were slow ; while in the north and eastern portions, where the land was swampy, there were scarcely any settlers even as late as 1847.

The first white settler in the township was undoubtedly James Kirk, a Virginian. Mr. Kirk's brother William had moved from Virginia to Niles in 1830, and James Kirk, actuated by a desire to leave a country where slavery pre- vailed, and by the invitation to join his brother, moved in in 1833, with his wife and two children, from his Virginia home to Niles. After residing there four years he deter- mined to seek a home in some newer region, and in the fall of 1836 set out, in company with Robert Newell, of Niles, on a land-prospecting tour. They followed Indian trails and section lines, marked by blazed trees, until coming one day to a cold spring on section 20, in what is now Pipestone, Mr. Kirk determined to locate a farm that should take in that spring. He returned with Newell to Niles, entered eighty acres on the section mentioned, and in April, 1837, set out, with his family, from Niles in a lumber-wagon

* By David Schwartz.

VIEW OF BARNS.

RESIDENCE OF AARON VAN PATTEN, ORONOKO TP., BERRIEN CO., MICH

RESIDENCE OF GEORGE C. HARTMAN, PIPESTONE TP., BERRIEN CO., MICH.

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TOWNSHIP OF PIPESTONE.

drawn by a pair of oxen. Newell, it may be noted, was not impressed with the value of the lands he had seen, and concluded to remain in Niles. Mr. Kirk's family had by this time increased to seven children, and so when the family move was made for the Pipestone country there were in the company nine persons.

The journey was a tedious one of two days, and was made over roads much of which Kirk was compelled to cut for his passage through the woods.

The first night was passed at the house of Henry Rush, in Berrien. The second night saw the family upon their new possession, and there, erecting a cloth tent near the spring, they passed the night, the only civilized tenants of a vast forest resounding with the cries of wolves, and familiar to no human tread save that of the red man.

On the following day Kirk, assisted by his boys, the eldest of whom was but eight years of age, erected a pole shanty. Later in the year neighbors came from Bainbridge and Berrien and assisted Kirk in putting up a comfortable and commodious cabin of split logs. Of the seven children mentioned there are now five living, viz., Mrs. Israel Wil- liams, of Kansas ; Joseph S. Kirk, of Iowa ; John T. Kirk, of California ; Mrs. Sarah Query, of Kansas ; and Joseph A. Kirk, living upon the old farm. Isaac H., the eldest of the seven, entered the military service during the Mex- ican war, and died on his way home. William D. lived in Pipestone until his death, in 1865.

Aug. 20, 1837, while Kirk was still living in the pole shanty, he became for the eighth time a father. The child was a daughter, and enjoyed the distinction of being the first white child born in the township. She was named Mary Ellen, and, as the widow of William Penland, still lives in Royalton township. Although Mr. Kirk took at no time a prominent part in the public affairs of the town- ship, he was well known far and near, and much respected. He was a man of much humor, and numerous stories are in existence of his quaint sayings and love of the ludicrous. He remained upon the place of his first location until the day of his death, and lived long enough to see the wilder- ness of his early days become a country of fruitful farms.

Mr. Kirk was the only settler in Pipestone until some time during the summer of 1837, when Dr. Morgan Enos came from Millburg, with his wife, and located upon 160 acres lying in sections 18 and 19, which he had entered the previous year, while visiting his brother Joab in Benton township. William Boughton, living on the Territorial. road, near Millburg, in Bainbridge, had in 1836 attempted to cut out a road from the Territorial road to section 18, in Pipestone (where he had entered land), but gave up the task before completing much of it.

When Dr. Enos was about ready to set out for his Pipe- stone farm he, with Crawford Hazard and Nathaniel Brant, finished the road that Boughton had commenced, and over it Dr. Enos moved his family and possessions to a log house previously put up there for him by Hazard, Brant, and others, who had cleared also a half-acre of land about the cabin and sown it with turnip-seed. Dr. Enos then em- ployed Brant, Hazard, and two men named Pelch and Van- deveer to cut a road through to Henry Rush's, in Berrien, and from section 18 to Larue's saw-mill, in what is now Sodus.

Brant and Hazard, of whom mention has been made above, were early comers in Bainbridge, and after assisting Dr. Enos to settle in Pipestone continued to work for him, and made Pipestone township their home.

Hazard, who had a family, settled upon a place of his own north of Dr. Enos, and lived there until 1844, when he moved to Hagar and bought out Oliver Sorell. Nathaniel Brant, who was a young bachelor, worked for Dr. Enos a few years, and on April 29, 1840, married Martha, daughter of Crawford Hazard. The wedding cere- mony was performed by 'Squire David S. Rector, at the residence of the bride's father, and is remembered as the first marriage in the township. The occasion had been an- ticipated by the country roundabout, and preparations were made for the entertainment of a numerous company, but almost impassable roads kept many of the promised guests at home, although there were at hand sufficient numbers to have a generally merry time.

Upon Brant's marriage he became a settler in Pipestone, and located upon a farm in section 17. In 1844 he sold out and settled in Bainbridge, the purchaser of his place being Oliver Sorel, who came from New York to Water- vliet, in 1836, to work for Smith & Merrick ; lived afterwards in St. Joseph and Hagar, and selling his farm in the latter place, in 1844, to Crawford Hazard, moved in that year to the Brant farm in Pipestone. He sold in 1854 to William R. Hogue, and moved to the northern part of the township, where he now lives.

Morgan Enos was a skillful physician, and, upon his settlement in Pipestone, practiced medicine whenever duty called him. He was for many years the only physician in that region, and acquiring a business that called him far and near, came to be exceedingly well known. Called in haste one day to attend one of James Kirk's sons, he found that the lad had, while chopping in the woods, completely severed one toe and cut another, so that it hung simply by the skin. The boy's mother, upon answering his alarm, had hastily replaced the hanging toe against the portion whence it had been cut ; and when Dr. Enos arrived he found the toe back in the exact spot from which it had been taken, and cleverly bandaged. " Madam," said he, " what did you call me for ? I couldn't do a neater job than that if I were to try for a thousand years. That's what I call ' healing at the first touch.' "

During his later years, when old age began to tell upon him, Dr. Enos retired from active practice, and lived at his ease until his death, in September, 1868. Two of his children-Mrs. R. L. Webster and Juliette Enos-live at Shanghai, the birthplace of Mrs. Webster, who was the second child born in Pipestone township.

The year 1837 brought a number of other settlers into Pipestone, among whom were Robert Ferry, Elijah Pratt, William Boughton, Stephen Smith, and Loren Marsh.

First in order of settlement was Robert Ferry, who fol- lowed close upon Morgan Enos in the pioneer work. He came over from Ireland in 1835, worked as a farmer's hand in New York State two years (during which time, in 1836, he entered a piece of land on section 27, in Pipestone), and in 1837 entered upon his Michigan estate, and set him- self resolutely at the business of clearing his land. He was

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HISTORY OF BERRIEN COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

a bachelor then, and from 1837 to 1839 lived in his little log shanty, with no companion save his dog. He was alone in the vast wilderness, two miles or more distant from the nearest settler ; he heard no sounds save those of howling wolves, and saw no human faces except such as belonged to the red-skins, who occasionally looked in upon him, always, however, in a friendly spirit. He worked away faithfully, and, managing by occasional trips with government survey- ors to earn a little money, he was enabled to add to his landed possessions. This standard of thrift and industry which he thus early set for himself grew with him through life, gave him at one time the ownership of upwards of 1000 acres of land, and enabled him at his death to leave a farm to each of his five sons.

In 1839, Mr. Ferry married Joanna, a daughter of Jacob Ridenour, a settler in Pokagon in 1837. On the last day of 1839 he brought his wife to his Pipestone home, and there Mrs. Ferry has lived to this day. She says that for three months after she began her pioneer life she saw no woman except an Indian squaw once in a while. Deer, she relates, were so plentiful and so tame that they frequently came past the cabin in herds, without manifesting timidity, and killing a deer was a very simple and easy matter.

Wolves were excessively troublesome, while bears played havoc with small stock. Mrs. Ferry remembers how wolves often came to her very door-step, attracted by the odor of cooking meat ; and that it was not infrequently the case that Mr. Ferry had to chase wolves and even bears from his cabin door. Once he discovered a bear hugging one of his pigs and actually eating it alive. On another occasion a hog which Ferry had brought from Pokagon was attacked by a bear, and being happily delivered by Ferry from death became apparently so thoroughly disgusted with its peril- ous existence that it disappeared that night, and appeared in a few days at the home of its former owner in Po- kagon. Mr. Ferry lived on his old farm until his death, in 1875; and upon the place where his strong energies had put forth their most earnest efforts a marble shaft marks his last earthly home.

Elijah Pratt came from New York, with his wife, and set- tled upon section 21. He went to California in 1850, and died on shipboard while on his return voyage.

William Boughton settled upon section 18, and with Joab Enos subsequently laid out Pipestone village. He was a man of stirring energy and obtained much local prominence. He was the first postmaster, and at the time of his death, in 1864, was serving his second term. None of his descendants now reside in the township.

Stephen Smith, a bachelor of advanced years, and Loren Marsh, his adopted son, came in company from Erie Co., N. Y., to Pipestone. Marsh had a wife and two children, and with Smith settled upon section 21. Marsh died soon after his settlement, and according to the best obtainable authority his was the first death in Pipestone. He was buried on the Smith farm, on section 21, and there the curious may see in a clump of briers the spot where his bones still lie. Thomas, his son, lives in Watervliet. Loren Marsh's widow married David Puterbaugh, and died many years ago. Smith lived to be very old, and died in Pipestone.

David Puterbaugh, now living on section 26, resided in Berrien township with his father, from 1836 until the latter's death in 1838. David then entered 40 acres of land on section 27, in Pipestone, but did no work upon the place until the winter of 1839. After that, for nine years, he lived on the farm in the winter seasons, and during the summers boated on the St. Joseph River, while his place was looked after by his brother Abram. When David finally left the river, in 1848, and became a permanent set- tler, Abram, his brother, bought 80 acres on section 28 of Robert Ferry. Two years afterwards, while clearing his land, he was killed by the fall of a tree. David moved to his place of present residence in 1853. His were the first recorded cattle ear-marks in the township books, under date 1842, and were noted as "a square crop off left ear and slit in right."

Among the settlers of 1840 were Joseph Large, who located upon the northeast corner of section 10, lived there until 1875, and then moved to Texas. Spencer Bishop, a New Englander, settled upon section 7; there he lived until 1858, when he died by his own hand. William M. Abbott located upon section 29, on land owned by Philo W. Boyd, whose sister Abbott had married. He moved from the township after a brief stay. Joseph F. Yaw, a New Yorker, settled in the northern part of the township. He entered the military service during the civil war of 1861- 65, and was killed in action. His wife died soon after their settlement, and was buried at Berrien Springs.

Grist-mills were few and far between in that region in 1840, and as " going to mill" meant a journey of several miles, the settlers were called upon to exert their inventive faculties in more ways than one when the stock of meal or flour ran low. Mrs. Brant says she astonished her neigh- bors one day with a feast of johnny-cake, and when asked to explain how she got the meal, related that she improvised a corn-mill by pounding her corn in a tin pan perforated at the bottom with small holes, and her model, it is said, was adopted by many with gratifying results.

Log-rolling bees were prominent and useful features in pioneer life. Each man took turns in helping his neighbor to clear a piece of land large enough at least to produce a respectable crop. In this way a newly-arrived settler would be enabled to get a clearing in a short time. Sometimes quite a company participated in the " bee," although, as a rule, there were about enough to average four acres a day. All who could, turned out, for in those days fraternal sympathy was the ruling spirit. David Puterbaugh says that when the settlers began to multiply he was engaged twenty-two suc- cessive days at log-rolling bees with his ox-team.

Clearing land by moonlight was a common occupation with some of the settlers. For them the hours of labor could not be too long or too many. 'They were impatient to hurry an enterprise which at best must be slow, and not only on moonlight nights but on nights when the stars only shone did the woodman's axe ring the death-knell of many a forest monarch. Indeed there were some settlers who, having to labor upon other farms during the day, that a little ready cash might be obtained, were compelled to work far into the night on their own places as the only way pos- sible towards the clearing of their land. The emergencies

WM. RIDENOUR.

MRS.WM. RIDENOUR.

FIRST HOME IN THE WOODS

RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM RIDENOUR, PIPESTONE TP., BERRIEN CO., MICH.

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TOWNSHIP OF PIPESTONE.

of the time were of a truth pressing, and only heroic reme- dies would apply.

Mrs. Robert Ferry recalls the fact that in the absence of matches it was imperatively necessary to keep a constant fire. One winter day their fire went out, and there were at hand no means for rekindling it. Their nearest neigh- bor was Martin Friley, living three miles away in Berrien, and for Friley's house Ferry accordingly set out in search of a fire-brand. He returned in good time, waving the brand in triumph, and a cheering sight it was, too, to the eyes of his wife, who had, during his absence, occupied the roof of the cabin, where, in the rays of the sun, she found trifling relief from the penetrating cold. As to the matter of "going to mill," Ferry frequently shouldered his grist, trudged eight miles to Pokagon, and brought back his flour by the same conveyance.

In 1845, eight years after the township received its first settler, Pipestone contained a population of 277. Nine years later, or in 1854, the population had increased to 785.

SHANGHAI VILLAGE.

The village known as Shanghai is set down in the Postal Guide as Pipestone, which has been its post-office name since the office was first established, in 1846. Previous to that time William Boughton and Joab Enos laid out a vil- lage upon the site, called it Pipestone, and disposed of a few lots ; but somehow the growth of the enterprise was ex- ceedingly slow, and for a long time it existed only on paper. Previous to 1846 there were no mail facilities nearer than Berrien Springs, but in that year Wm. Boughton secured the establishment of a post-office at that point and was him- self appointed postmaster. No store was established there until 1856, when John Garrow set up as a merchant.

Meanwhile, in 1853, the village was rechristened and called Shanghai, as a tribute to Morgan Enos' fondness for the Shanghai breed of fowls. The story goes that Dr. Enos, visiting New York to bring his daughter Sophronia back from school, brought also a few Shanghai eggs, and in the chickens raised from those eggs he took such pleasure that some one declared the village ought to be called Shanghai. The idea gaining popular favor at once, the name was by common consent adopted and has been re- tained to this day. Mrs. R. L. Webster, now living at Shanghai, is the doctor's daughter, and the one who con- veyed the eggs in question in her lap all the way from New York State to Pipestone. Mr. Boughton was postmaster from 1846 to 1857, when he was succeeded by Lyman Dunbar, who retired in 1861 in favor of Mr. Boughton's return to the office. The latter retained it until his death, in 1864, from which time until 1866 O. S. Boughton, who had been deputy under William Boughton, had charge. Miss C. C. Sabin was appointed in 1866, and in 1868 gave way to Angelia Webster, who in 1874 relinquished the place to J. F. Haskins, the present incumbent.

The merchants who succeeded Mr. Garrow at Shanghai have been as follows: Ambrose Watkins, Miss C. C. Sa- bin, Charles Walker, Mortimer Quackenbush, Sylvester Parks, Chambers & Tatman, and L. P. Vandenhoff; Mr. Parks and Mr. Vandenhoff being at present the village merchants.

Besides the two stores there are in the village a dozen or more residences, a graded school, and two blacksmith-shops.

EARLY INDUSTRIES.

Although Pipestone Creek furnished, near Pipestone village, excellent water-power when William Boughton laid out the place, no especial effort was made to utilize it. Joab and Morgan Enos built a saw-mill, in 1844, on the creek, three-quarters of a mile north of the village, and later Mor- gan Enos put up a saw-mill at the village. Above the first- named mill Daniel P. Pidge erected, in 1845, a tool-shop, where he did all kinds of blacksmithing and manufactured knives, bells, etc., in a small way. James A. Kirk, of Pipestone, has in his possession one of the "Pidge" butcher-knives. It bears the imprint of " Pidge" in bold characters, but is a poor specimen of a knife for all that. In the second story of Pidge's shop A. D. Snow plied his trade of carpenter, and a little farther up the creek Joab Enos had a turning-lathe. A turning-lathe was also set up at the village soon after by John Enos.

The Joab and Morgan Enos saw-mill was erected for them by Robert Cassiday, a Niles mill-wright, who in 1854 moved into Pipestone and bought the property of Joab Enos. The mill is now occupied by Wm. L. Clark. The saw-mill started by Morgan Enos at the village was allowed in after years to go to decay.

. The first grist-mill was a primitive affair. In 1847, Blandon A. Pemberton built a little log mill on the creek flowing through section 31, and continued its operation about six years. A hand-bolt was in this mill, a useful but simple affair, and the milling business, as may be judged, was limited in its scope, but still a convenience, as it saved many a journey to Berrien.

The second grist-mill in the township, and the only one now there, was put up at Shanghai by William and Samuel Enos and Robert L. Webster. The machinery for it was taken from the old Lacey mill at Niles. The mill property belongs now to the Davidson Gardner estate, and is occupied by E. H. Adams.

Dr. Fowler built a saw-mill on section 1, and sold it to Gilbert Leech, from whose possession it passed, in 1861, to Peter and James H. Nostrand. In 1873 they abandoned the old water-mill, and built near it a steam saw-mill, which they now operate.

The only manufacturing interest now in Pipestone, be- sides those noted above, is the steam saw-mill of James Hawes, on section 15, erected in 1874.

THE GERMAN SETTLEMENT.

The northeastern portion of the township contains many Germans, and is known as the German settlement, although there are in that quarter quite as many Americans as Ger- mans. Dr. Fowler, who built a saw-mill on section 1, and John Rowe, who rented the mill, were perhaps the first comers. Mr. Rowe is still a resident, upon section 12. Isaac Tice, of Cass County, owned about 3000 acres, lying chiefly along the eastern tier of sections in Pipestone and the west tier in Cass County. Of him many Germans purchased lands. The German advance-guard came in 1850, when William Hackstatt, Henry Stevens, Henry

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HISTORY OF BERRIEN COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

Tulker, and - Neimeyer, with their families, journeyed from Cincinnati, in company, to Pipestone. Hackstatt (who, with Fred. Schleipp, had prospected for land in Pipestone in 1847) had bought a soldier's land-warrant for 200 acres on section 12, and of the 200, Henry Stevens afterwards bought 80 acres from William Buck, to whom Hackstatt had sold. Hackstatt found an abandoned log school-house on his place, and he proceeded to utilize it as a residence, and as such it served him some time. Stevens still lives on section 12. Neimeyer returned to Ohio and Tulker settled in Cass County. When the Hackstatt party came in they found a wild and almost unsettled country. The only roads they found were narrow paths through the woods. John Rowe was already there, and opposite him was John Schinefelt, who moved in 1867 to Iowa. On the south was David Walter, and west of Walter was David Moore.

Peter Kramer, the father of Mrs. William Hackstadt, came from Cincinnati in 1851, and after living a year with his son-in-law went back to Ohio, whence he returned to Pipestone in 1854, and settled upon section 11, where he died.

In 1853, J. C. Runkle, of Ohio, bought of Josiah H. Swisher 80 acres on section 1, and entered 80 acres on sec- tions 1 and 2. He settled in that year on section 1, upon which the only other settler then was Gilbert Leech, who owned and operated the old Fowler saw-mill. Campbell McCoy lived on section 2, and died there in 1863. George Srackengast, who came with Runkle, settled upon section 2, and lives there yet.

At that late day, even, there were no traveled roads in that quarter. The roads the settlers used were such only as they cut out themselves.

In 1854, Aaron Claussen came, with his family, from Pennsylvania to Michigan, and remaining awhile in Berrien Springs opened a harness-shop there. That he soon gave up, and in the fall of the same year bought 40 acres of land on section 13, in Pipestone, and located upon it with- out delay. His place was in the heart of the woods, and for a long time, even after he settled, deer used to play about his house and pass in droves. Mr. Claussen entered the military service during the war of the Rebellion, as a member of the 12th Michigan, and died in hospital in Arkansas, in 1865. When the Claussens came in their neigh- bors on the south were Darius Ely and Daniel Trowbridge, and on the north Joseph Walter and Julius Hackstadt.

In the same year James Nostrand came, with his son Peter and the latter's family, from Onondaga Co., N. Y., and made a settlement on section 14, upon a place owned by the widow of David Moore. That farm had been partly cleared, but the neighboring country was generally wild. The elder Nostrand returned to New York, and in 1861 Peter located on section 1, where he had bought land and the old Fowler saw-mill of Gilbert Leech, and where he still lives.

In 1857, Frederick Wolf settled upon the place he now occupies, and in 1858 Frederick Furst located upon a place adjoining him on the east.

Proceeding southward, along the eastern line of the township, note may be made of the settlement, in 1853, of Darius Ely, who in that year started from Ohio for Cali-

fornia. He stopped in Pipestone to visit Daniel Trow- bridge (his wife's father, who had settled in Pipestone two years previously, upon section 23), and was persuaded by Trowbridge to remain as a settler. He bought 160 acres on section 23 and 160 on section 24, and while he was building a frame house on his place lodged his family in an old log cabin on the Widow Moore's farm. When Ely moved in there were, besides Trowbridge, the settlements, near by, of David and Josiah Gano, W. Farrow, and J. De Witt. Trowbridge died in 1858, and Ely in 1867.

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History of Berrien and Van Buren counties, Michigan. With biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 74

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