History of Berrien and Van Buren counties, Michigan. With biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 86

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 86
USA > Michigan > Berrien County > History of Berrien and Van Buren counties, Michigan. With biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 86

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to remove, for Sumner utterly refused to sell his land to the mill firm at any price, and thus, unable to prosecute their work, Griffith & Co. were compelled to abandon it. Upon first beginning operations they surveyed and laid out a town near the proposed mill-site, and sought to induce settlements, with the implied understanding that the canal and mill would make the neighborhood a lively and valu- able business point. One of the first to act upon the promise of future advantage held forth by Griffith & Co. was Levi Ballengee, who bought of Mr. Brown, of St. Joseph, 80 acres of land near the site of the new town, and put up, first, a log cabin and then a frame of consider- able size, of which he proposed to make a house in which to board the men to be employed by Griffith & Co. The failure of Griffith & Co. (their lands, etc., being transferred to the Farmers and Mechanics' Bank of St. Joseph) left Mr. Ballengee with his boarding-house frame on his hands as a piece of useless property. Being there, however, he resolved to remain, and thus it happened that, being in St. Joseph in search of a workman, he found Mr. Gilson, and entered upon the business of shingle-making as the founder of "Shingle Diggings."

The narrative returns now to the time-November, 1834-when Gilson joined Ballengee in shingle-making. Ballengee and Gilson worked industriously at that busi- ness through the winter, visiting St. Joseph occasionally, by way of the river, in canoes. During the winter, Rumsey Christy of St. Lawrence Co., N. Y., came to the Dig- gings, with his wife and three children, " squatted," put up a cabin, and commenced making shingles on his own account. In the spring of 1835, Hiram Ormsby, with his family, joined the little colony, and shingle-making began to be lively. About this time Mrs. Christy died. This was the second death in that locality, and the first in the Diggings proper. Job Davis' wife had died soon after his settlement, in 1832. Her remains were at first deposited near the mill-site, but afterwards conveyed to the Sumner- ville cemetery. The next shingle-maker was Isaac Youngs, who came in with his family in 1835, followed by Erastus Barnes, Henry H. Selter, and others.

In 1835, Gilson went back to New York State for his family, brought them without delay to the Shingle Dig- gings, and becoming a resident there, commenced making shingles on his own account ; he, like a majority of the shingle-makers, " squatting" where it suited him, and mak- ing shingles where he could find desirable timber. For three years the business of shingle-making was carried on with much spirit, quite a number of people were engaged in it, and the Diggings grew to the dignity of an impor- tant settlement. In 1837, Gilson had prospered so well that he purchased that year all the shingles made in the Dig- gings. He bought at one time 1,300,000, and employed Indians to run them down the river to St. Joseph, upon reaching which place he had a force of 20 redskins, whose performances in taking the shingles out of the river and landing them on the dock are said to have been very lively and interesting. All the shingles made at the Diggings were thus transported to St. Joseph to market, and as there was a good demand for them the Diggings became a thriv- ing place.

EDWARD BRANT

MRS. EDWARD BRANT,

RESIDENCE OF EDWARD BRANT, WATERVLIET TP., BERRIEN CO., MICH.

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TOWNSHIP OF WATERVLIET.

So well did it flourish as a settlement that in 1837 a school was desired, and the inhabitants of the Diggings ap- plied to the township (St. Joseph) for assistance in support- ing a school. The application being denied, the shingle- makers remembered that E. P. Deacon had agreed to clear the " school land" near the Diggings, and that he had failed to complete the work. They proceeded therefore to take possession of the timber remaining on the land, worked it up into shingles, and, with the proceeds of the sale thereof, started a school by engaging Mary Youngs (a daughter of one of the shingle-makers) as teacher. She taught about six months in the log cabin used by Job Davis as his resi- dence when he first settled there. Lydia Kingsley, of St. Joseph, was afterwards engaged, and taught in a log school- house put up in the woods. That school, however, was the last one taught in that neighborhood.

The Diggings was not without the benefit of public re- ligious teachings. In 1837, Simeon Woodruff, a Presby- terian minister and settler in Bainbridge, preached occa- sionally at Mr. Gilson's house. The first child born in the Diggings was Mr. Christy's, the second was Mr. Ormsby's, and the third Mr. Gilson's.

In 1838, the material for shingles being exhausted, the shingle-makers departed for other places,-Mr. Ballengee to Missouri, Gilson, Youngs, and Selter to Bainbridge, and the others farther east and west. Shingle Diggings became therefore an abandoned settlement, and at this point drops out of the history of the township.

Moses Osgood, living at Perch River, Jefferson Co., N. Y., in 1836, engaged that year to accompany Isaac Moffatt-Smith & Merrick's land-agent and manager-to Michigan, and upon his arrival in Watervliet worked about the mills. In the following year he sent for his family, and after that continued to live in Watervliet village about two years, working meanwhile for the mill firm. He then bought 40 acres of land on section 19, a mile and a half west of the site of Coloma, and after living there five years sold out, in 1842, to James Paul, who had just come from Chautauqua Co., N. Y., and who lived upon the place until his death, in 1872. The farm occupied by Paul is the one now owned by William Merrifield.

Upon selling out to Paul, Mr. Osgood bought a place directly opposite, and in 1844 sold that to John Merrifield, of New York State, just then arrived. Mr. Osgood then moved to a farm a half-mile east, changed again a mile farther east, went to Schoolcraft, Mich., where he remained about four years, returned to Watervliet township, where he settled, near the Coloma burying-ground, and lastly moved to a place on section 20, where he died, in 1876. His widow lives on the place now with her son-in-law, Mr. Glidden. Mr. Osgood was the pioneer of the territory into which he moved in 1838, after leaving Watervliet village, between which place and his farm there was not a single settler.

WATERVLIET VILLAGE.

The first improvement made at what is now known as Watervliet village was effected in 1833, by Sumner & Wheeler, who put up a saw-mill on Mill Creek, near the present site of Swain & Olney's saw-mill. It will be re- membered that in the history of Shingle Diggings, reference

is made to Mr. Sumner as having interfered materially with Griffith & Co.'s mill-building enterprise. After that affair Sumner & Wheeler built the saw-mill on Mill Creek, and employed two brothers named Van Dusen, from Prairie Ronde, to run the mill for them. The mill was a small one, propelled by a " flutter wheel," but managed to turn out considerable lumber, some of its first work being the timber for the boarding-house frame which Mr. Levi Bal- lengee erected at Shingle Diggings. The Van Dusen brothers lived in a slab shanty near the mill, and were, beyond question, the first white inhabitants at that point. The Van Dusens managed the mill until 1835, when one Crocker, a mill-wright, rented it, and moving, with his family, upon the place, took possession.

In 1836, Jesse Smith, of the firm of Smith & Merrick, of French Creek, Jefferson Co., N. Y., visited this section to make arrangements for clearing large tracts of land which the firm owned in what are now the townships of Bainbridge, Watervliet, and Hagar, the greater portion being in Bainbridge, in that district now covered by the German settlement. Mr. Smith was accompanied by Israel Kellogg and several laborers, the latter of whom, under the direction of Mr. Kellogg (who acted then and afterwards as Smith & Merrick's representative and land-agent), did some work at clearing land and built a saw-mill near Sumner & Wheeler's, which latter Smith purchased, and leased that, as well as the new one, to Crocker. Lumber was low, and as Smith preferred to turn his attention to clearing land and putting in wheat,-which he did to a great extent, - he paid but little heed to the firm's milling interests.

Smith returned to New York in 1836, leaving Kellogg to look after the firm's interests, and in that same year Smith & Merrick sent out Isaac Moffatt with thirty-two Frenchmen to finish the work on the Michigan lands. Moffatt and his men sailed from Buffalo in a vessel belong- ing to the firm, and loaded with all sorts of supplies for the new settlement. Moffatt got his men and supplies safely to Watervliet, and at once put up a store about op- posite where Walden's store now stands. He built also a grist-mill, which, with the saw-mills, he rented to Crocker. His men were set to work digging a tail-race (the one now used), building a dam, and clearing land, and as his force numbered upwards of forty, there was already a community worthy the name of a settlement. It is said of the thirty- two Frenchmen brought out by Moffatt that they used to eat a barrel of pork every three days. Of them only two are known to be living in the vicinity of Watervliet,-Edward Eber, a farmer, in Hartford township, and Felix Rossette, a tavern-keeper, in Hartford village. A third-John La- deaux-died in the county almshouse in 1879.

The mills soon passed from Crocker to John Stronner, who was, in 1846, succeeded as tenant by James Redding, who was running them in 1848, when Smith & Merrick sold out their entire mill property to Isaac N. Swain, then living in Concord, Jackson Co., Mich., but previously of Jefferson Co., N. Y. Besides the mill property, Mr. Swain bought 960 acres of land thereabout, and further converted a tannery building that had been put up at that point by William Tilman, into a grist-mill, into which he put two

342

HISTORY OF BERRIEN COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

run of stones, the old grist-mill being abandoned and af- terwards moved into the village, one-half being now used as a residence and the other as a cooper-shop.

Mr. Swain soon found an opportunity to sell his mills to Medbury & Aldrich, and removed then to Monson, Mass. Medbury & Aldrich replaced the saw-mill with the large mill now used by Swain & Olney, and during their pos- session the grist-mill was destroyed by fire and rebuilt. They sold out to Jason Carr, who in turn sold the saw-mill to a Mr. Shanks, and continued to operate the grist-mill himself. In 1858 there came a great flood that washed away the dam, bulkheads, etc., damaged the mills seriously, and overflowed the surrounding country. When Carr saw the ruin that had been wrought to the mill property he was so affected that he fell down and died. Shank was made a bankrupt, and became, it is said, a fish-merchant (the first available business he could turn his hand to), in his desire to do something.

Carr & Shanks having carried the property along under mortgage to Mr. Swain, the latter was compelled to take it back after the disaster, and from 1858 to 1862 he permitted it to remain in the condition brought about by the flood. In the last-named year, however, he organized the firm of Swain, Olney & Fisher, who built a new dam, made neces- sary repairs, and set the mills in motion once more. Mr. Fisher sold his interest to Parsons & Baldwin, when the firm-name was changed to Swain, Olney & Co., and as such remained until 1874, when Parsons & Baldwin retired, leaving the firm of Swain & Olney to continue the business, which they have done until the present time.

The firm have at times employed as many as 40 or 50 men in their mills, but have at present a force of only 15. Their saw-mill is fitted with 52 saws, including 1 gang and 1 slabber, capable of sawing 30,000 feet of lumber daily. At present the cut is about 6000 feet per day. The grist-mill has three run of stones, and is devoted chiefly to custom work.

In 1856, H. R. Holland built a saw-mill on Mill Creek, east of the village, and in 1870 sold it to Justus Sutherland, who added a grist-mill with three run of stones, which began to grind wheat March 4, 1873. These mills have been operated by Mr. Sutherland since 1870.

Jonas Ivery was the pioneer blacksmith at Watervliet, the date of his settlement being 1837. His daughter was married to Martin Tice, of Bainbridge, in 1838. Ivery moved from Watervliet to Millburg, and afterwards to the far West.

Stores .- The first store opened in Watervliet was the one started by Isaac Moffatt in 1836, when he came to the country with his company of 32 Frenchmen. His store was called the " Mill Store," and the stock put into it was the cargo of supplies Moffatt brought in his vessel from Buffalo. This mill store was kept by Moffatt and Israel Kellogg, in the interest of Smith & Merrick while that firm controlled the mill property, and when they sold out to Swain of course Swain took the store also. When Swain came in, Redding retired from the mills, and started in a store known as the " Variety Store." Thus there were two stores-this was in 1848-for the first time in the history

of Watervliet. When Redding died (in 1849) he was succeeded by Clay & Ensign, and after a time Ed. Good- ale, who had been a clerk at Swain's, commenced on his own account as a storekeeper. He sold to Wheeler & Gates, and afterwards the succession of storekeepers was Holland & Smith, W. W. Allen, H. C. Matran, Matran & Burnside, and Parsons & Baldwin. The mill store was continued by Swain until Swain, Fisher & Olney came in, and after that Parsons & Baldwin took it,-the latter firm opening their present store when they retired from the mill business.

The general stores now in the village are those of L. D. Walden, Parsons, Baldwin & Co., and W. W. Allen. Tucker & Jaffrey have a drug-store, Pierce & Welsh a hardware-store, Daniel Woodward a meat-market, A. G. Wigeant a furniture-store, Silas Tooley a harness-shop, and Mrs. Pierce a millinery. Besides these stores, there are blacksmith shops, cooper-shops, shoe-shops, etc.

Taverns .- The first house of entertainment in Water- vliet was a boarding-house for mill hands, opened by W. W. McKee in a building which stood opposite the site of Walden's store. This building was afterwards sawed in two, and is still doing duty,-one-half as Bradt's black- smith-shop and the other as Mr. Teetzel's residence. When Mr. Swain became the mill proprietor, he built a store and tavern upon the lot now occupied by Walden's store, the mill store having to that time been on the opposite side of the road. The tavern built by Mr. Swain was, like Mc- Kee's house, primarily intended as a boarding-place for the mill hands, but as both places accommodated travelers they were taverns, although not called so. In 1867, Swain's store and tavern were destroyed by fire. The store only was rebuilt, and it is still standing.

The public-house now kept in the village by Samuel Wolcott was built for a tavern by John Lake in 1847, but not opened as such until ten years afterwards. Andrew Bartlett was the first landlord. His successors have been Abram Smith, Hibbard, - Pockett, William Brown, and Samuel Wolcott, the present proprietor, who has been in possession since 1870.

Post-Office .- The post-office at Watervliet village was established in 1849, when Isaac N. Swain was appointed postmaster. Prior to that time Mr. Swain had a contract with such of the inhabitants as favored the arrangement to obtain their mail at the Bainbridge post-office twice a week. At the close of the first year of the contract, Mr. Swain succeeded in inducing the government to establish the Watervliet office. James B. Lindsley succeeded Mr. Swain, and in 1856, B. B. Tucker took possession of the office, to relinquish it, in 1860, to Wm. Brown, the tavern- keeper. W. W. Allen was appointed in 1868, and kept the office in his store until 1877, when he resigned, and E. R. Welsh, the present incumbent, received the appoint- ment.

Railway Depot .- Upon the completion of the Chicago and Michigan Lake Shore Railroad, to Watervliet, in 1869, L. A. Mason was appointed depot agent. In 1871 he was succeeded by W. E. Walden, who still occupies the place. In 1869 a grain-elevator was attached to the depot. Large quantities of grain are annually shipped from this station, while the shipments of fruit during the season are consid-

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TOWNSHIP OF WATERVLIET.

erable, one shipper alone having forwarded 2000 barrels of apples in 1878. Peach shipments have risen to such an aggregate that 3000 baskets were sent out on one train during the busy era. In 1878 about 15,000 baskets were shipped to Chicago from Watervliet.

The Village Plat .- Smith & Merrick laid out the vil- lage, and gave to it originally the narrow strip occupied by Main Street between the creek and the river. Mr. Swain made several additions, notably the addition south of the railway-track known as " Newtown," where great im- provements in the way of a blast-furnace and other manu- factories were promised. For some reason the schemes failed, although the town lots were sold and improvements to some extent were made there.

COLOMA VILLAGE.

About 1840, John Williams, of St. Lawrence Co., N. Y., made his appearance in Watervliet with his family, and being unable to purchase a farm, agreed with Israel Kel- logg, resident land-agent for Smith & Merrick, to work a tract of land on what is now the site of Coloma village. Kellogg put up a log house for Williams upon the spot now occupied by Dr. Baker's house, and built for him also a frame barn, which stood a little west of where the liberty- pole stands. Williams worked the place about two years, but with little success. He afterwards removed to Bain- ' bridge, and died there. Adam Prouty took the place after Williams' departure, but remained only two years and then moved away. George Becker, of Jefferson Co., N. Y., who had traveled with his wife and six children from Buffalo to St. Joseph by way of the lakes, happened along about the time Prouty moved out (May, 1844), and took possession of the cabin. He purposed, however, remaining there but a short time, as he had before leaving his New York home exchanged his farm there with Smith & Mer- rick for 80 acres in the southern portion of Watervliet, near Michael Humphrey's farm. To that place Becker soon moved his family, but shortly afterwards exchanged it for a farm south of Coloma, where he died in 1873, and where his widow now lives.

James S. Johnson (a tailor), of Yates Co., N. Y., settled in St. Joseph Co., Ind., in 1837, and in May, 1844, in company with George C. Merrifield, of that place, visited Michigan. In partnership they bought of Smith & Mer- rick 320 acres of land, that embraced the tract upon which Williams and Prouty had worked, and of which they had cleared about 140 acres. Johnson and Merrifield sowed the land to grain and returned to Indiana for their families. Merrifield's family refusing to move, he sold his interest in the Michigan farm to Johnson, and the latter packed up, and with his wife and three children set out for Watervliet. Upon their arrival they occupied the log house in which Williams, Prouty, and Becker had lived, and there they continued to reside until Johnson's death, in 1847. Abner Crossman, of Bainbridge, took a portion of Johnson's farm, married Johnson's widow, and after living on the place a little while, moved to a farm just east of Watervliet, where he died, and where his widow still survives him.

Stephen R. Gilson, of whom mention was made in the history of Shingle Diggings, who turned the first furrow in

Watervliet, and who in 1838 became a settler in Bain- bridge, went afterwards to Chicago, and in 1844 returned to Watervliet, where, on section 20, he bought of Arthur Bronson, of New York, 60 acres of land, upon which tract (at Coloma) he is still living. When Gilson settled there the only inhabitants in the vicinity were George Becker and his family, to whom allusion has already been made. The Johnsons did not come on until a little later, and lived there until 1847. In 1849, Stephen R. Gilson and Gilson Osgood made the first important improvement there in the erection of a water saw-mill on "Tannery Creek." In 1850, Gilson sold out his interest in the mill to Austin Boyer, who sold in turn to Gilson Osgood, who, becoming then sole proprietor of the concern, changed it to a steam- mill.

Gilson Osgood, alluded to in the foregoing, was a man of considerable importance in the early settlement of Water- vliet, and was connected in an especially conspicuous way with the history of Coloma. He moved from Ohio to Battle Creek, Mich., in 1839, and in 1841 left that place to settle in Watervliet township, in response to the solicita- tions of his brother Moses, who had preceded him. Gilson came on with his wife and three children, bought 60 acres of land of Smith & Merrick, adjoining his brother Moses' place on the south, in section 30, and remained with him until his own log cabin was completed. While living on his. farm he undertook, in 1849, the erection on Tannery Creek of a saw-mill, in company with S. R. Gilson, and at the same time removed his family to a place near the mill. He had been appointed the agent for Israel Kellogg, who had been the representative of the land-owning firm of Smith & Merrick, but had removed to Kalamazoo. Osgood also joined Martin Musser, Odell, and Clark in building a tannery on Tannery Creek, and put up a shanty, into which he put a small stock of goods, and called it a store. Al- though not a very extensive one, it was nevertheless a great convenience to the neighboring settlers, and deserves, more- over, distinct mention as the first store opened in the place now known as the village of Coloma. Israel Kellogg kept a store in that neighborhood before Osgood opened business, but Kellogg's store was a quarter of a mile or more west of the site of Coloma.

Dickerville .- The story goes that when Gilson Osgood opened his store his first day's trade was a heavy one, for the announcement had gone forth, and many gathered from far and near. Money was at that time an exceedingly scarce article in the backwoods, and the customers brought generally an assortment of farm produce to exchange with Mr. Osgood for his " store-goods." Indeed, fully nine- tenths of his business on that first day was in " dicker," and the idea being started that the just budding village should be called " Dickerville," popular opinion recognized the appropriateness of the designation, and " Dickerville" it was christened, and so remained until 1855, when Stephen Gilson changed it to Coloma. Mr. Osgood's store stood near the present Osgood House, and in time was replaced by a store of much more elaborate pretensions, in which Mr. Os- good carried on business some years. The Osgood House property he bought in 1858, and materially improved, since which time it has remained in the possession of the family,

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HISTORY OF BERRIEN COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

-his widow and son (Marcus) now residing there. In 1867, Mr. Osgood removed to the village of St. Joseph, where he was landlord of the Perkins House until his death, in 1868. Prominently identified, during his residence in Watervliet township, with the history of that portion of Berrien County, he occupied a conspicuous place in the local events of his time, and as the agent for the sale of Smith & Merrick's extensive landed property, he came to be widely known, and much respected.

Merchants .- Israel Kellogg has already been mentioned as having kept a store at Watervliet village, and later near the site of Coloma village ; but, as he was not on the site of the village, he cannot be considered as one of its pioneer traders. Gilson Osgood opened the first store, which, with his saw- mill, gave " Dickerville" a start in 1849. The storekeepers at Coloma, dating from Mr. Osgood's time, may be named in their order of location, as follows: Henry L. Harris, B. F. Osgood, Perry & Marvin, Redding & Gilson, J. H. Marvin, G. W. Longwell & Co., Dickinson & Stoddard, Marvin & Osgood, Marvin & Woodward, William Stoddard, Minot Ingraham, A. D. Allen, John Sherman, Hamilton & Miller, Luce Bro.'s, Alonzo Vincent, John Brough, John Thomas, Theodore Russell, R. Hewsons & Co., T. J. West & Co., Lysander Vincent, Hewson & Grant, Vincent & Gammer, H. W. Peck & Co., R. R. Hewson, Ryno & Gil- son (drugs), Mrs. I. T. Howe, H. W. Peck, Mrs. Miller. The storekeepers of Coloma are now Minot Ingraham, John Thomas, Ryno & Gilson, Vincent & Gammer, R. R. Hewson, Mrs. Miller, Mrs. I. J. Howe, H. W. Peck.

Mills and Tannery .- It has already been observed that Stephen R. Gilson and Gilson Osgood put up a saw-mill on Tannery Creek, at Coloma, in 1849, and that Martin Mus- ser and others built a tannery on the same stream. Osgood put steam-power into his saw-mill in 1850, and in 1852 the explosion of its boiler, April 19th, entailed a sad calam- ity in the killing of two children,-Charlotte Osgood and Shumway Musser,-who, with other children, were playing about there at the time. Other people were injured and the mill was badly damaged, but no further loss of life was occasioned.

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History of Berrien and Van Buren counties, Michigan. With biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 86

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