History of Berrien and Van Buren counties, Michigan. With biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 87

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 87
USA > Michigan > Berrien County > History of Berrien and Van Buren counties, Michigan. With biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 87

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).

Upon his return from California, Stephen Gilson erected a steam saw-mill at Coloma, on the bank of the Paw Paw. After that Ira Wilks began the construction of a grist-mill on Tannery Creek, but got no further than the completion of the frame. Roland Osgood and John W. Knapp fin- ished it, put in the machinery, and started it in 1861. It changed owners several times until 1866, when Sawyer Ball came into possession. In 1876 it was damaged by a flood, and in 1877, Mr. Ball replaced it with the present steam mill, which has three run of stones, and does a flourishing custom business.

The tannery built by Musser and others has been in disuse since 1878. Its last occupant was John Thomas, who carried it on from 1865 to 1878. P. C. Weimer has a saw-mill in Coloma, in connection with which he operates a basket manufactory, and between the two enterprises carries on a lively trade.

Pioneer Blacksmith .- Abram Smith, who opened the pioneer blacksmith-shop on the south side of the Paw Paw, in Hagar, was also the pioneer blacksmith in Coloma. He

settled near the place in 1845, and when Gilson & Osgood built their saw-mill, in 1849, Smith did all the mill black- smithing. He put up the frame of the house built by Ives Wallingford in 1850,-the first frame house in Coloma. The lumber of which that house was built was the first lot sawed by Gilson & Osgood's mill. Mr. Smith is still pur- suing his old business of blacksmithing in Coloma.

The Coloma Post-Office .- Prior to 1857 the people at Coloma and vicinity received their mails at Watervliet vil- lage. In that year an office was established at Coloma, and Dr. H. M. Marvin appointed postmaster. He was suc- ceeded in 1859 by J. H. Marvin, who retired in 1861 in favor of C. C. Perry. Mr. Perry's successors have been J. H. Marvin, A. I. Brush, J. H. Marvin (third term), and Lysander Vincent, who was appointed in 1874.

The Name Coloma .- In 1850, Stephen R. Gilson, his son Warren, and one Anton Timart, a tanner, of St. Joseph, fitted out a team and wagon for California, and at the same time Calvin Dickson, of Watervliet, and Wallis Taber, of Bainbridge, fitted out another, both parties starting in com- pany for the land of gold. When Gilson left for California, in 1850, "Dickerville" contained, besides his own, the families of Gilson Osgood, Ira Wilks, Martin Musser, Abram Coleman, Charles Bostwick, and Abner Crossman. In 1853, Mr. Gilson returned from California, conveyed his family to Benton (they had remained behind in Dick- erville), and after a two years' sojourn there he returned to his old place in Watervliet township, made a purchase of considerable property in that vicinity, put up a. steam saw-mill on the bank of the Paw Paw, platted the village, and setting aside the time-worn and not very euphonious appellation of Dickerville, gave it the name of Coloma, in remembrance of the village near which he lived during his stay in California. Coloma is the Spanish name of a fra- grant and beautiful flower that grows on the Pacific slope.

The Taverns of Coloma .- In 1851, Charles Bostwick discontinued the select school he started in 1849 and sold the school building to Moses Sargent, who converted it into a tavern. One Hibbard was the landlord after Sargent's time, and in 1858 Gilson Osgood bought the property, materially added to and improved it, and opened it as the Osgood House. As such it has been known ever since, and has been conducted by an Osgood ; Marcus, a son of Gilson Osgood, being now the landlord. In 1871, Minot Ingraham built the St. Cloud Hotel at the railway depot, and is still its proprietor.

NEW COLOMA.

In 1869, pending the completion of the railroad to that point, certain land-speculators, to secure the location of the railway-station on its present site, donated the ground for it, and having, in anticipation of such a move, purchased quite a land-tract near there, laid out village lots, and used extraordinary efforts to sell them and to convince prospect- ive purchasers that the building of the railway-station at that point would create a new village which would entirely extinguish old Coloma and enrich those who were fortunate enough to secure their village lots. Some sales were made, dwellings and stores began to embellish the plain, and every- thing seemed to indicate that the new Coloma would really

RES. OF JOSEPH KNAPP, WATERVLIET TP, BERRIEN CO., MICH.

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TOWNSHIP OF WATERVLIET.

eclipse the old town. But its growth was suddenly checked by the reluctance with which the neighboring people pa- tronized the business enterprises of the new town, and by the persistency with which everybody, except owners of lots in the new village, stood by the old town. As a result, New Coloma closed its stores for want of patronage ; people who had promised to pay for lots forfeited them, and the original speculators, having advanced much money to pay for improvements, found them left on their hands. Natu- rally, they were bankrupted, and New Coloma became a barren reminder of promised greatness, which is much its aspect to-day.

SETTLEMENTS IN WATERVLIET AFTER 1842.

The hard winter of 1842-43 is still vividly recollected as a season of exceedingly cold weather and deep snows. Much hardship and suffering were experienced by settlers, and upon their stock especially the rigors of that period entailed considerable loss of life. Traveling about the country was oftentimes a matter of difficult undertaking, for the heavy snows frequently made the roads impassable for days. Game perished for lack of food, and instances are related by dwellers in Watervliet of wild turkeys coming into the village and feeding tamely upon corn thrown to them,-the depth of the snow in the country and its long continuance having deprived them of their usual means of subsistence. One man tells how he went out into the woods one day in search of his cows and found no less than seven deer lying upon the snow, dead of cold and hunger. Altogether the " hard winter" was a memorable one, and will scarcely be forgotten by those who passed through it.

During the hard winter of 1842-43, Alonzo and Austin Beaman came to Watervliet from New York, with their families, and settled on adjoining farms,-Alonzo on what is known as the Yates place, and Austin on section 1, the farm being now known as the Stickney place. Austin sold to Stephen Hastings, moved to Watervliet, where he kept Swain's boarding-house a year, went to Hartford, and in 1865 returned to Watervliet, where he died in 1874. Ste- phen Hastings, above spoken of, was from Massachusetts, and upon purchasing Beaman's farm was joined by his brother Rufus, both of them living on the place together. Stephen afterwards bought another farm on the same sec- tion, and died there in 1851. Rufus now lives in Hart- ford. Alonzo Beaman sold his farm in 1851 to Abram Yates, who lives on it now, Beaman removing to Iowa, where he has since remained. The farm once occupied by Rufus Hastings is now owned by Zephaniah Stickney. When the Beamans settled they had no neighbors nearer than Watervliet village. That part of the country was un- broken, and as to roads they were, of course, out of the ques- tion. Lucy, daughter of Austin Beaman, the first white child born in the township on that side the river, lives now in Watervliet village.

In the summer of 1844, James I. Redding, of St. Jo- seph Co., Ind., came to Watervliet, with his wife and seven children, and moved into a building which Israel Kellogg had been using for a store and dwelling, but which was then abandoned, Kellogg having gone to Kalamazoo to live. This old store just stood west of the present Osgood House,

and there Kellogg lived and traded a short time after he removed from Watervliet village, although from all reports. he could not have traded very extensively since his stock of goods was small, as was his store. Redding had bought his farm of Smith & Merrick through Gilson Osgood, but he did not like the place, and after remaining about a year and a half gave it up and moved to Watervliet, where he rented Smith & Merrick's mill, and afterwards opened a store there, which he continued to keep until his death, in 1849. Of the seven children who came to Michigan with him in 1844, the only one living in the township is Mrs. Russell McKee.

Simeon Hawks, of Franklin Co., N. Y., started for Michigan in 1844, with his wife and eight children. At Rochester the old folks and four of the youngest children halted a while, the four eldest children going on, and the parents following soon afterwards ; all met at Watervliet, according to previous understanding. They lived in the village long enough to enable Mr. Hawks to buy of Smith & Merrick a farm on section 24, east of the village, and to put up a cabin, when all moved out there. In the following year-that is to say, 1845-Erasmus D. Earl and wife, the latter being Mr. Hawks' daughter, came to Watervliet and located on a farm near the Hawks family. The elder , Hawks died on the old place in 1864, and there his son Cortes now lives. Of the eight children who came with the paternal Hawks in 1844, those living in the township are Mrs. Henry Hutchins, Cortes, and Azar Hawks. Mr. Earl moved to Iowa in 1857, and still resides there.

John Merrifield, of New York State, was a settler in Watervliet in 1844, and upon his arrival bought Moses Osgood's 80-acre farm, on section 30, upon which 25 acres had been cleared and broken; Osgood having also set out an orchard of 100 trees. The elder Merrifield died there in 1851. Of the sons who came out with him, William and S. P. now live in the township.

The spring of 1844 brought also Jarrett Ingraham and his family to Berrien County from New York State. They journeyed overland to Bainbridge, where Mrs. Joseph Vin- cent (one of Ingraham's daughters) lived, and remained with her until fall. Ingraham located in Watervliet, where he had bought several hundred acres of land, on sections 4 and 5. At the time of Mr. Ingraham's location there no settlers were on that side of the river except Austin and Alonzo Beaman. Mr. Ingraham had intended half of his land-purchase for his son Minot, who, with his wife and child, joined his father in the fall of 1845, by which time the elder Ingraham had underbrushed a road from the river to his place, and on the latter had put up a log cabin, into which Minot moved for a temporary home. When Minot came, the only roads thereabout were the St. Joseph and Paw Paw road, passing east and west between Coloma and Riverside. In the following spring he was chosen a highway commissioner, and did some effective work in laying out much-needed roads. It is worthy of note that the two-horse carriage in which Minot Ingraham and his family traveled from Detroit to Watervliet (having shipped it via Lake Erie from Buffalo) was the first vehicle of that description ever owned in the township.

In the spring of 1845, besides assisting in laying out

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HISTORY OF BERRIEN COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

roads, Minot Ingraham joined with Stephen R. Gilson in establishing a ferry across the Paw Paw River at Coloma. The elder Ingraham exchanged his Watervliet farm, in 1848, with George Peters for a farm in Bainbridge, where he died in 1852. Peters sold the Ingraham tract to An- drew Pitcher in 1850. Minot lived on his farm until 1869, when he moved to Coloma, where, in 1871, he built a hotel and store, near the railway-depot, and where he now lives. The original 280 acres he bought through his father he still owns, and leases to his sons.

Ives Wallingford, with his wife and four children, moved from St. Joseph Co., Ind., to Watervliet in the spring of 1844, having bargained with Alfred Sensebaugh for land on section 19, which Sensebaugh had taken from Smith & Merrick on contract, cleared and broke 20 acres, and then turned the contract over to Wallingford. The latter moved his family into a log school-house, and lived there until his own shanty was finished. Mr. Wallingford lived on the farm until 1850, when he moved into what is now the vil- lage of Coloma, and there, in that year, built the first frame house erected there. It stands yet, adjoining the Osgood House on the southwest, and is occupied as the residence of Mr. Shaner. Since 1850 Mr. Wallingford has resided in Coloma.

Abner Bratton, of Genesee Co., N. Y .. was a settler in 1844, having moved into Calhoun County in 1838, and from there to Watervliet in 1844. He bought 80 acres on section 19, adjoining William Merrifield on the east, of Smith & Merrick, and after living there three years moved to a farm on section 30, where he died in February, 1876. His son Milo lives in the township, on section 31.

In April, 1845, a party of 13 entered Watervliet in company from Elkhart, Ind., whence they had journeyed in wagons. The party included Crain Valentine, his wife, and five children, Martin Musser (Mrs. Valentine's brother), his wife, and four children. Valentine bought 40 acres on section 28, on the Watervliet and Coloma road, and Musser 80 on the same road half a mile west. Musser put, with Gilson Osgood, Odell, and Clark, a tannery on Tannery Creek, and removing afterwards to 40 acres east, near Watervliet, put up a second tannery. Musser went to Nebraska in 1864, and now lives in Kansas. Mr. Valen- tine still lives upon the place he settled in 1845. When Valentine and Musser settled there was no inhabitant on the east-and-west road passing from Watervliet to Coloma, except the Redding family. The road itself was but a single wagon-track through a wilderness of blackberry bushes, and passable only with considerable difficulty.

In October, 1844, Ira Wilks, of Orange, Cuyahoga Co., Ohio, engaged with William Fairbanks to take a drove of cattle from Orange to Berrien Springs, Mich., and while there he bought 93 acres of land on section 21, in Water- vliet, belonging to one Williams, a lawyer of Cleveland. He visited Chicago, and returning to Ohio, prepared to remove as a settler to his Michigan purchase. In October, 1845, accordingly, he set out from Orange with his father, Nathan, his mother, his brother-in-law, Abram Coleman, and the latter's wife,-the company traveling overland in wagons drawn by horses and oxen. Arriving in Watervliet, they moved into a cabin on land previously occupied by

Martin Musser, and lived there until places of their own could be prepared for habitation. Coleman and the elder Wilks bought of Smith & Merrick 40 acres each on section 28. Wilks died there about a year after his arrival. Cole- man died on his farm in 1870. Ira Wilks lived in Water- vliet until 1870, and then went to Iowa, whence, returning not long after, he resumed his residence in Watervliet, and still lives there. He relates that when he came, in 1845, the only traveled road was the St. Joseph and Paw Paw road, which in Watervliet was at best a rough thoroughfare, con- fined by a high growth of bushes to a single track just wide enough for one wagon, and provided at stated points with " turn-outs."

Harvey Kingsbury was a settler in 1845 upon a farm east of Watervliet village, and in the same year William Duvall, with his family, moved from Bainbridge to section 31 in Watervliet, where he had bought a farm of a Mr. Angell in 1844. At the same time he bought 80 acres south of Watervliet village, which he sold to John Tyler. He lived upon section 31 until his death, in 1878. His children now living in the township are Mrs. Briggs Gould and G. G. Duvall.

Henry R. Holland, originally of St. Lawrence Co., N. Y., went to Chicago in 1844, and in 1846 came to Watervliet village, where he put up a blacksmith-shop opposite the saw-mill, and purchased also an unfinished dwelling-house begun by Cornelius Williams, the house being now the residence of Mr. Van Natter. Mr. Holland became some- what famous as a maker of axes, and people came frequently from Paw Paw and points equally distant to buy Holland's axes. In 1849 he went to California, but soon returned, in 1850, and entered a farm near Watervliet village, on sections 23 and 26, where his son Edward lives. In 1856 he opened a store in Watervliet village, as one of the firm of Holland & Smith, and continued in the trade until 1859. Mr. Hol- land removed to Missouri some time ago, but visits Michi- gan frequently to look after his interests in the State.

Delos Bryant settled in Hagar in 1845, coming from Calhoun Co., Mich. He located in 1847 upon section 29 in Watervliet, and after living there until 1870 removed to Coloma, which is now his home.

W. W. McKee (a brother-in-law of Isaac N. Swain), now a resident on the Watervliet and Coloma road, came in February, 1848, to Watervliet village, with his wife and seven children, having traveled by team from Ohio, in which State he had been a settler two years. Mr. McKee bought a farm of I. N. Swain, but during the ensuing seven years continued to reside in the village, meanwhile cultiva- ting his place. In 1855 he moved there with his family, and since then has made it his home. Mr. McKee says that when he became a resident of Watervliet village, in 1848, there were living there the Reddings, Dr. Wheeler, H. R. Holland, Cornelius Williams, Philo Woodruff, and the Stoughtons. On the present road to Coloma were the Wilks, Valentines, and Colemans. On the east were the Tamlins, Hawks, Kingsburys, and Smalls. On the south the nearest neighbor was distant three miles.

Jesse Woodward, a Vermonter, came West in 1849, and joined his brother Abner in Hagar township. He remained there a few days, and then established his family in Dicker-

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TOWNSHIP OF WATERVLIET.

ville, while he busied himself with the task of clearing a tract of 120 acres of land on section 21, which had be- longed to Griffith, Hoyt & Co. In 1850 he moved his family, and there made his home until 1876, when he changed his residence to Coloma, where he now lives. Ab- ner, his brother, just mentioned, left Hagar in 1854 and settled upon a farm adjoining Jesse, where he died in 1857.

In the fall of 1850, Uriah Harris, of Ohio, settled with his family upon 118 acres of land formerly occupied by Gilson Osgood. He died there in 1865, leaving a widow, who now resides in Coloma. In 1850, also, Andrew Pitcher, of Bainbridge, bought of George Peters 280 acres of land on sections 4 and 5, which Peters had bought of Jarrett Ingraham. Pitcher lived on the place until 1873, when he moved to Coloma, which has since been his residence. When Pitcher settled there the only family in that region north of the river was that of Minot Ingraham, and the only house between Pitcher's and South Haven was that of a Mr. Youngs.

Elkanah Carter, who lives just west of Coloma, was in 1838 a resident of Watervliet, having in that year come from New York State to work for Smith & Merrick. He returned to New York in 1840, and in 1865, making his second trip to Watervliet, became a permanent settler.

SOLDIERS OF 1812.

On section 6, in the northwest corner of the township, lives William H. Shiver, whose father, John, living, at the age of ninety-four, near his son's place, was a soldier of the war of 1812, during which conflict he served as teamster. He was at a later period in the employ of the Hudson Bay Company, and occasionally tells of his rugged experience while in the latter service,-a service, he says, full of dan- ger, hardship, and suffering, although not devoid of a certain kind of interest. William Shiver settled on section 6 in 1858, and at that late day there were but three houses be- tween his place and Coloma,-the houses of Mr. Van Hoe- sen, Charles Roome, and Moses Osgood. Shiver bought his land of Isaac K. Finch, and when he moved upon it it was all a forest except one acre. Deer were exceedingly plentiful, roads were few and poor, and the pioneer's exist- ence in that quarter brought quite as much of privation as it had in other portions of the township fifteen years before.

Another old soldier living in Watervliet is George Smith, father of Sebastian Smith. He came to the township in 1859, since which time he has lived with his son. He served eight months in the war of 1812-15, and although in his eighty-eighth year is a man of fine, commanding physique, promising fair to enjoy at least another decade of life.

PHYSICIANS.

Dr. J. H. Wheeler was the first physician to locate at Watervliet (in 1846), although before his time Dr. J. H. Crawford, the first settled physician in the township, used to practice at Watervliet occasionally, but at no time did he live there. Dr. Wheeler moved subsequently to Coloma.

Dr. B. B. Tucker commenced medical practice in Water- vliet in 1857, and since that time, until recently, he has pursued his profession in the village. He is now virtually retired from active practice, although still conducting a pros-

perous drug business, with which he has been concerned for many years.

Following Dr. Tucker the physicians in Watervliet may be named as Drs. Lamb, Lindsley, Dunning, R. B. Law- rence, L. B. Foster, and S. D. Walden, the latter three being now the practicing physicians of the place.

The first physician to practice in Watervliet has already been named in Dr. J. H. Crawford, who in 1841 settled about a mile south of the site of Coloma, near Becker's Lake. Dr. Crawford did not intend to practice medicine when he became a settler, but circumstances, aided by. fre- quent appeals for his services, led him to take it up, and he soon acquired a practice that employed about his whole time and took him over a wide range of territory. Al- though business was good, the country did not agree with Dr. Crawford,-that is to say, sickness began to fasten it- self upon him as well as upon others, and succumbing even- tually to illness and the loneliness of his situation in a wild country, he returned to Ohio, his place of former residence. So anxious was he to get away that, being too ill to walk or sit up even, he caused himself to be conveyed eastward upon his sick-bed.

Dr. Crawford's successor as a practitioner in the town- ship was Dr. J. H. Wheeler, who settled in Watervliet vil- lage about 1846. Upon the death of his wife he removed to Coloma, and after practicing there for a time occupied a farm west of the village, and not long after left the township.

In 1855, Dr. H. M. Marvin came to Coloma, and with the exception of one year, spent in the government service, has practiced continuously in the village until the present time.

While Dr. Marvin was serving as surgeon in the United States army, in 1864, Dr. Hamilton practiced in Coloma about four months, until his death. The physicians are Drs. Marvin, Wakeman, Ryno, and Baker.

TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION AND CIVIL LIST.

Watervliet, originally a part of St. Joseph township, was set off as a part of Paw Paw township March 7, 1834, at- tached to Bainbridge April 2, 1838, and was set off in 1846 from the latter as a separate township. The township records dating from 1846 to 1868 were destroyed by fire in 1867, and thus much documentary evidence bearing upon Watervliet's early history is lost, while the list of township officials can be given only from 1868 to the pres- ent time. The township was named from Watervliet vil- lage, which was originally known as Waterford; but that name being borne by another postal station in the State, a change was made to Watervliet, a Dutch term signifying " flowing water."

The affairs of the township are directed by a township board, whose members in 1879 were W. M. Baldwin, Supervisor ; W. A. Baker, Township Clerk, and Abram Smith, Justice of the Peace. The school inspectors were R. R. Lawrence, Sawyer Ball, and Wm. A. Baker. The justices of the peace were Sawyer Ball, Abram Smith, Os- car Terry, and E. H. Goldman. The following list is of persons who have filled the offices of supervisor, clerk, treasurer, and justice of the peace from 1868 to the present time :

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HISTORY OF BERRIEN COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

1868 .- Supervisor, James H. Marvin ; Clerk, H. C. Matran ; Treasurer, James W. Weimer ; Justices of the Peace, William Brown, Isaac B. Standish.

1869 .- Supervisor, James H. Marvin ; Clerk, W. M. Baldwin ; Treas- urer, J. W. Weimer ; Justice of the Peace, Austin Beaman. 1870 .- Supervisor, James H. Marvin; Clerk, Charles C. Perry ; Treasurer, J. W. Weimer; Justice of the Peace, J. H. Mar- vin.

1871 .- Supervisor, William H. Merrifield ; Clerk, Charles C. Perry ; Treasurer, J. W. Weimer ; Justice of the Peace, George A. Ray.

1872 .- Supervisor, Joseph W. Weimer; Clerk, Edwin R. Havens; Treasurer, Marcus Osgood; Justice of the Peace, Charles C. Perry.

1873 .- Supervisor, Sawyer Ball ; Clerk, Edwin R. Havens; Treas- urer, Marcus Osgood ; Justice of the Peace, Austin Beaman. 1874 .- Supervisor, S. P. Merrifield ; Clerk, Edwin R. Havens ; Treas- urer, Charles Kennicott; Justice of the Peace, Edwin R. Havens.

1875 .- Supervisor, S. P. Merrifield ; Clerk, Edwin R. Havens; Treas- urer, Charles Kennicott; Justices of the Peace, Elias R. Welsh, George A. Ray, Sawyer Ball.

1876 .- Supervisor, P. A. Bowe; Clerk, E. R. Havens; Treasurer, John W. Knapp ; Justices of the Peace, Sawyer Ball, Oscar Terry.

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History of Berrien and Van Buren counties, Michigan. With biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 87

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