USA > Michigan > Branch County > History of Branch county, Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 51
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It is said that when the first quarterly meeting was held at Union City there were seareely enough Methodists in the place to entertain their guests, and the hospitality of other families was made manifest when they aided them in their predicament by offering food and shelter to such as were unprovided for.
A Methodist society in the south part of the township is of much later origin, and has a fair membership. A neat brick church has been erected and services are held by the pastor at Union City.
FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, UNION CITY.
In 1844 the manual of this church contained the follow- ing historical items :
* The first school was taught here by Miss Sarah Sargent in the winter of 1836-37, and she taught probably in the summer of 1837.
204
HISTORY OF BRANCH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
" Sixteen persons, having letters of dismission and recom- mendation from other churches, were constituted the ' First Congregational Church of Union,' March 7, 1837. A standing committee was chosen, and the church became connected with the Marshall Presbytery, on the ' Plan of Union,' March 16, 1839, and this relation was sustained until Dec. 5, 1840. Jan. 13, 1841, the church united with the . Marshall Conference of Congregational Ministers and Churches.'
" At the organization of the church, Chester Hammond was elected deacon, and in the July following, Alpheus Saunders was also chosen to the same office.
" In November, 1837, Rev. Charles W. Gurney was em- ployed by the church to labor in the ministry, which he continued to do until June, 1839. During the first year of this period he preached but half the time. In the fol- lowing October, Rev. Elijah Buck was employed, and con- tinned his labors until September, 1840. The ministry of Rev. L. Smith Hobart commeneed the first Sabbath in No- vember, 1840. In the ensuing January he was ordained by an ecclesiastical council, and installed as pastor of the church.
" The house of worship occupied by the church was completed and dedicated Dec. 24, 1840. It was furnished with a bell in May, 1843."
This church stood on High Street; it was enlarged in 1850, and sold in 1869, after the erection of the new church. The latter, a fine brick structure on Broadway, was begun in 1858, and completed and dedicated Feb. 5, 1862. Its cost was about $14,000.
The original members of this society were Chester Ham- mond, Fanny Hammond, Ellen E. Hammond, Alpheus Saunders, Lucinda Saunders, Lewis Hawley, Charlotte Hawley, David Kilbourn, Clarinda Kilbourn, Justus B. Buell, Emeline Buell, Thomas B. Buell, Charles A. Lincoln, Charles HI. Coates, Esther Maxfield, Sarah Jane Hurd, Mary Ann Saunders, Charlotte Bernard. July 22, 1837, the list was increased by the reception of Curtis S. Youngs, Luey Youngs, Caleb Lincoln, Chloe Lincoln, Briant Bart- lett, and Comfort D. Bartlett. Many more of the early settlers became members in the years from 1838 to 1842, and in 1844 the membership was 139. Other prominent members were J. N. Stickney, Alonzo Collins, and Deacon Israel W. Clark.
The successive pastors since Mr. Hobart's time have been Revs. C. H. Morse, from November, 1848, to March, 1853; A. C. Kedzie remained till September, 1854; Mr. Edwards, supply in winter of 1854-55; Reuben Hatch, pastor from late in 1855 to April, 1859; S. W. Streeter came late in 1859, was installed in February, 1863, and stayed until November, 1869; E. G. Chaddock began labors Jan. 25, 1870, and was installed May 5, 1871, during which latter year the church was reseated and the galleries raised and extended. Mr. Chaddock was succeeded by Rev. W. F. Day, and he by the preseut pastor, Rev. HI. H. Van Auken, who came Jan. 1, 1878.
The membership of this church on the 11th of February, 1879, was 240. A Sabbath-school is sustained, with 16 officers and teachers, and 200 members. Horace Corbin is superintendent. The school possesses a library of about
300 volumes. During the past five years the church has raised for various purposes an annual sum of 82800. Its carly records have been destroyed by fire.
GRACE CHURCH (EPISCOPAL), UNION CITY.
'The organization of this society was effected Dec. 23, 1864, in a room in the house of II. F. Ewers, eighteen per- sons (ten males and eight females) becoming members. Late in the same year, or early in 1865, the present frame church was begun, and was finished and dedicated in the latter year. Its cost was about $4000. The first rector was Rev. George Verner, from Detroit, who came in the spring of 1865 and stayed about two years. Lay services were then held until some time in the year 1868, when Rev. S. W. Frisbie as- sumed charge as second rector. He remained about a year and a half, or until early in 1870, and was succeeded, in 1871, by Rev. Charles R. Hughson, who remained also about a year and a half. Since then lay services have mostly been held, with occasional clerical service, and the parish is without a reetor at present.
The church has a capacity for seating about 400 persons. The present number of communicants is about 30,-15 faul- ilies belonging to the parish. Sunday-school has been sus- tained most of the time since the organization, and now has four teachers and a library of some 250 volumes. Its su- perintendent is Dr. II. F. Ewers.
POPULATION-STATISTICAL.
The following figures are from the State census of 1874, and show the growth of the township for its first forty years of existence :
Population (1151 males, 1099 females). 2.250
No. of acres of taxable land. 22,783
.. land owned by individuals and
companies .... 22,920 11,669
.. improved land
land exempt from taxation. 137
Value of same, including improvements
$45,110
No. of acres in school-house sites
church and parsonage sites,
burying-grounds.
R. R. right of way and depot grounds 66
276
20,538
Average number of acres in farms.
74.41
No. of acres of wbeat sown in 1874
harvested in 1873
2,532
corn
1,610 35,246
bushels of wheat " ..
66,710
19,575
potatoes
1,907
tons of bay cut
18,312
pork marketed
158,680
butter made
79,950
fruit dried for market in 1873
24,466
.. bbls. of cider made
446
lbs. of maple-sugar made in IS74.
30,151
acres in orchards
517
46 " bushes, vines, melons, and garden vegetables.
71
bushels of apples raised in 1872. .. in 1873 IS,845
19.155
Value of all fruit and garden vegetables in 1872 in 1873
$7,931
No. of horses, one year old and over, owned in 1874 mules in 1874.
1
work oxen in 1874 ...
26
= milch cows ..
706
neat cattle, one year old and over. otber than oxen and cuws.
S41
swine over six months old ..
694
sheep
4,581
sheared in 1873.
flouring-mills in township.
4,535 3
.
= farms in township
.. acres in farms.
corn raised in 1873
all other grain "
14,157
lbs. of wool shrared
2.887
$8,101
714
205
IHISTORY OF BRANCH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
No. of persons employed in same. Amount of capital invested
$28,200 11
No. of runs of stone ..
" bbls. of flour made in 1873 6,615
Value of products of flouring-mills in 1873 $16,305
No. of saw- mills in operation in 1873 ..
5
personis employed in same, 15
Amount of enpital invested. Nu, of feet of humber sawed.
920,000
Value of products,
$29,750
No. of planing-mills, 1873
1
" persons employed
$5,500
Value of products
$3,600
No. of agricultural implement works and found- ries 2.
1
No. of persons employed. 10
Capital invested
$18,000
Value of products
$20,000
No, of carriage-factories 1 ' persons employed.
Capital invested
$9,000
Value of products.
$11,700
I
Capital invested
$1,000
Value of products ..
$5,000
No. of clothes-pin- and stave factories.
1
' persons employed.
10
Capital invested.
$8,000
Value of products
$10,500
Total number of manufacturing establishments, 1873.
13
Total number of persons employed in same.
amoont of capital invest d
895.700
value of products.
$126,>55
VILLAGE OF UNION CITY.
John Clawson has been mentioned as the first white man who located at the mouth of the Coldwater River, now within the limits of Union City. The place was very early noticed for its elegibility as a village site. As early, perhaps, as 1831, Isaiah W. Bennett, a native of the State of New York, a man possessed of considerable ability, some means, and a roving disposition, passed on a prospecting tour along the St. Joseph River, and was greatly struck with the advantages for a village site which this locality possessed. Here was the junction of the two rivers, both of which would furnish extensive power ; here all the In- dian trails centred ; and here, in all likelihood, would be the point at which a canal from the East would lock into the river. Ile and Jeremiah Marvin purchased a consid- erable tract of government land in the vicinity.t Bennett was the founder of Jacksonburg, now the flourishing and beautiful city of Jackson, in the county of the same name, and had become a man of prominence in that place before coming here. Hle had kept public-house also, both at ,lack- son and Ann Arbor, and was among the earliest settlers in the interior of the State. Ile had the unfortunate habit of occasionally taking rather a larger quantity of liquor than he could carry with ease, and at such times was very loquacious. llis most common remark was, " Boys, I came here on a squaw trail !" Nothwithstanding his faults, however, he was well liked, and was several times elected supervisor of Union township. He was commonly called " Jack" Ben- nett, an abbreviation of "Chemokamin Chief Jackson," which title had been given him by the Indians, on some oc- casion when he had delivered to them an address, in which the name of Jackson, then President, was often spoken. Mr. Bennett kept the old Union City Ilouse a short time
in 1837. Ilis first location was on the flat where the Nye Manufacturing Company's works now are. There he built a log house and lived in it for a time, subsequently moving north of the river, upon property now owned by Thomas B. Buell, and later, to the southeast corner of Broadway and High Streets. lle lived also in numerous other parts of the village. Ile finally removed to Western Wisconsin, where he died. Ilis old log house was used in 1838 as a blacksmith-shop by John D. Zimmerman. Bennett did not settle here till 183-1.
The first permanent settler upon the site of Union City was Justus Goodwin, a native of Lenox, Mass., and after- wards a resident of Oneida Co., N. Y., where he was grad- uated, in 1821, from Hamilton College, afterward reading law for a time, and finally entering into practice. In 1831 he emigrated to Ann Arbor, Washtenaw Co., Mich., where he remained two years. In 1833 he purchased of Jeremiah Marvin 568 acres of land, located on sections 4 and 5 in what are now Union township, Branch Co., and Burlington township, Calhoun Co., paying for the same the sum of $2000. Ile immediately moved here and began improve- ments, his purchase including the site of Union City. Ile built a house -- or small shanty-immediately on the county line north of the village, and lived in it until a muore pre- tentions frame structure was raised on the ground where now stands the residence of Isaac N. Tower. Part of this house is yet in use as a dwelling, having been moved to a location near the entrance to Riverside Cemetery. He dug a narrow raceway from the Coldwater River to the present site of the plow-works and foundry, and there, in the spring of 1834, began building a saw-mill, finishing it that year or the next.
Mr. Etheridge, an early settler at Coldwater. now de- ceased, used to tell of making a trip on horseback from the latter place down the river to see the wonderful village he had heard of, or which, in its prospective condition, had been made to appear to strangers as a very metropolis. Arriving below the mouth of the Coldwater, he saw a man at work upon a building, and approaching him, inquired. the way to the village. Ile was surprised at being told he was then in its midst ! The man was Justus Goodwin, at work upon his saw-mill .*
The following memoranda were furnished by Mr. Good- win to Chester Hammond, about 1846, the latter preparing a history of the place up to that time, which he read before the lyceum which then existed. Mr. Hammond's article cannot now be found. Mr. Goodwin wrote:
"1831 .- Union City, embracing the west half of section 4, and north half of northeast quarter of section 5, in township 5 south, range 7 west, and also the west half of the east hall of section 33, in township 4 south, range 7 west.
" The former location embraces the present site of most of Union City and the farm of Chester Hammond. The latter description is now part of the farm of J. Goodwin. The same year the entire farm of E. Wilder was located by Gentlemen Swain and Marsh. The same year also the east half of southeast quarter of section 5, the west half of southeast quarter and cust half of southwest quarter of section 6. township 5 south, range 7 west, were located hy O. Brown. Tho
& This story is given as related to us. It seems a little out of tho line of exactness, for the saw-mill was begun in 1834, and the village was not laid ont till 1835. Sce forther description.
* This institution is now much more extensive. See description.
+ It is said by some that the whole tract was entered in Marvin's name, to save it from Bennett's creditors elsewhere.
$23,000
Capital invested
No. of farnitare and chair-factories. persons employed
1
206
HISTORY OF BRANCH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
foriner of these descriptions is the present W. P. Hurd lot. These locations were among the early locations made at the White Pigeon office, the patents being from 600 to about 700 of the whole Western land-office. In the same year MeCamly's Prairie was located, em- bracing seven lots.
"In 1832, about July, Eleazer MeCamly bought the MeCamly Prairie of Mr. Stoddard, the original purchaser, and commenced plowing and improving ; built a log cabin,-the one now occupied by F. McCamly,-and in the following fall moved on to it, followed by Mr. R. Tuck, who built another cabin at the present Phelps place.
" In March, 1833, J. Goodwin bought all the Marvin lots, and in May of that year came to Union City to commence operations. With the exception of MeCamly and Tuck, the country from Homer to the farm now occupied by Mr. Kellogg, and a few families on Dry Prairie, was an unbroken wilderness, chiefly government land, and no road made, nor even laid out. Mr. Goodwin in July came on to the pres- ent C. Hammond farm, with a small farming establishment, vader charge of Nahum Sargent, who was hired by the year, assisted by Ilorton Warren and wife, who kept shanty and did the cooking for the first three months. A shanty, the first one in Union City, was made abont sixty rods west of C. Hammond's present residence, by nailing boards to three trees and one post. A few aeres of land were plowed and got into wheat, and in the fall the shanty was torn down and removed to near where C. Hammond resides. In the mean time a small board building was erected in the northeast corner of what is now the Hammond front yard, into which Goodwin put up a small lot, say from $1000 to $1500 worth of staple goods.
" About this time the present French lot was located by L. Fish, and soon after the Parsons place was located by one Hamilton, and the lot west of it by Wm. M. Lamb. The lot where Davidson now resides was located this year by E. Olmstead, who commenced a small improvement ou it in 1833,-in the fall,-and built a cabin on it in IS34. After the commencement of 1834 locations began in Tekonsha, Girard, Sherwood, &c., and also in Burlington, which would require too long a time to mention .- I shall therefore only notice Union City.
" Through the winter, spring, and summer of 1833-34 J. Goodwin went on with his improvement of the Hammond farm, and in that winter the State road was first laid from Jackson to White Pigeon, near the site of the old Washtenaw trail.
" Mr. and Mrs. Warren, above mentioned, were the first white family at Union ; they only resided there two or three months in Goodwin's employ, and the next white family was that of Burr Goodwin, who was hired by J. Goodwin in June, 1834, to cook for the men. Ile resided in Goodwin's shanty, some two or three months and moved away to Ilillsdale County.
Early in the fall of 1834, J. Goodwin, having agreed to build and sell a saw-mill at Union to I. W. Bennett, commenced improving the water-power by making a race and building a saw-mill (the old mill which is now the mechanics' shop near the furnace). In doing this work,-or rather all the first part of it,-though from teu to twenty men were at work, there was no woman at Union. During the same time Goodwin was carrying on the Hammond farm, fifty acres of which were then cultivated, aud also building a large frame house, near the present Hammond House, which was pot up and inclosed during the summer of 1834, and occupied while building the saw-mill and race.
" In September of that year David Dexter and family came to Goodwin's; Mrs. Dexter cooked for abont a month. Dexter then agreed for an acre of land near I. W. Bennett's present place, and in November and December of that year built a small frame house there and moved into it, resided there a few months and left the place and went to Burlington, where the Adams' were just be- ginning.
" About the first of December of this year a post-office was estah- lished, by the name of Goodwinsville, and J. Goodwin appointed P. M., who held that office until 1846.
" On the 28th of December, I. W. Bennett arrived at Union with his family, and immediately the old log house just west of the furnace (uow turn away ) was erected in three days, in the dead of winter, and moved into the third day.
" During all this time there was no bridge across the river, and nothing but a footway, made upon wooden horses. In January, 1835, this foot-bridge was carried away by the rise of the river and anchor ice. The river rose to a great height and froze over. All hands volunteered to build a bridge aud at once went at it, framed and raised
a bridge on the ice in the very coldest of the winter, and covered it with logs, and finished the whole in four days. This bridge stood until 1842.
" In the fall of 1835, Mr. Jeffries came with his wife to the place, and built a log cabin just in front of D. Bnell's house, and occupied it a few months and theo ran away. In November, 1834, the family of J. Goodwin arrived, and occupied his house until he sold to C. G. llammond, which was on the 30th day of Jannary, 1836.
" About this time the mass of the country was absorbed by locations and settlements, which would take a long time to notice, and which are probably kuown to others as well as hy me.
" J. GOODWIN."
The localities mentioned by Mr. Goodwin in this article are now occupied by different persons, but they were mostly within the present limits of Union City, and this faet is sufficient for all purposes.
On the 8th of November, 1833, Mr. Goodwin sold to E. W. Morgan the west half of section 4, township 5 south, range 7 west,-322 aeres, *- and the latter person laid out the village of Goodwinsville in 1835, as the following tes- tifies :
"TERRITORY OF MICHIGAN, } 88
WASHTENAW COUNTY,
" I hereby certify that the 30th day of June, 1835, E. W. Morgan. of the village of Ann Arbor, in said county, personally acknowledged before me that he, as the proprietor of the village of Goodwinsville, executed this plat for the ases and purposes therein expressed.
"Given under my band. " W. R. THOMPSON.
" Justice of the Peace in suid County."
This plat was recorded in the Branch County records Aug. 27, 1835, by Seth Dunham, register. In shape it was much different from that now laid on the same ground. It was located on both sides of the St. Joseph River, extending north to the county line, and south to include a small por- tion of the southwest quarter of section 4.
In the early part of 1836, James Crane, of Elizabethtown, N. J., purchased water-privileges and various tracts of land in this vicinity from E. W. Morgan, William R. Thompson, Heury Potter, and Iliram Thompson, and in January, 1836 (same season), Charles G. Hammond purchased a large traet here, including the site of the village, as agent for a company which had been formed in New York City for the purpose of improving the water-power at this place and founding a village. This firm, Messrs. Crane & Wood- ruff, finally sold to another company from the same place, composed of Messrs. Richard L. Clark, Lyman W. Gilbert, Isaac M. Diamond, and Israel W. Clark. The latter two soon became proprietors, and finally Mr. Clark obtained Diamond's share. Iu time he added to the original prop- erty for the purpose of securing more water-power. Hle also sold a large portion to Crane & Woodruff, and they in turn disposed of it to Col. Thomas Moseley, who became a prominent man in the place.
The four proprietors-the Clarks, Diamond, and Gil- bert-laid ont on the " two-hundred-aere tract," as it was called, the village of Union City, in the spring of 1837, the acknowledgment to the plat being dated April 10 of that year. It was surveyed by O. Wilder, who made the following minutes upon the margin of the map :
"The town is laid out on section 4, in township 5 south, of range 7 west. The Coldwater River is a stream of great power, and with
# See transcribed Record of Deeds, liber AB, pp. 37, 38, 39, 40.
207
HISTORY OF BRANCH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
a dam of two feet high will give a fall of about eighteen feet,-a power equal to the greatest requirements of the country.
" The country around is one of surpassing beauty and of great fertility, wheat being the staple product, but equally good for wool- growing. Climate is healthy ; waters pure, lively, and transparent. "O. WILDER.
" There is also a quarry of building stono of excellent quality, sufficient in extent for all the purposes of the town, in the immediate vicinity."
Messrs. Israel W. Clark and Isaac Diamond came here in 1838, with a large force of men, and began making im- provements. The old saw-mill race was enlarged and length- ened, and a new saw-mill and a grist-mill built. The saw- mill occupied the site of the present one, below the grist- mill, and the latter is yet standing, now the property of Ezra Bostwick. It has been refitted and improved in the interior, while the frame remains the same .* The saw-mill built by the company was burned down. Their master builder was John W. Norton, from Rochester, N. Y., who remained in the village. His death occurred in the fall of 1878, from the effects of injuries received from a runaway team.
Mr. Clark, after getting his improvements well under way, went to New York for his family, leaving John N. Stickney, then in the company's employ as clerk, in charge of affairs. Mr. Clark returned with his family from New York City in the spring of 1839, and has remained here since.
The company had brought on a considerable stock of goods for the use of their men, and after they were dis- posed of Mr. Stickney established a store on his own ac- count, the building he occupied standing very nearly on the present site of Henry Seymour's brick store, on the east side of Broadway. Stickney afterward returned to the East. He is now at Rockville, Conn., editing the Tolland County Journal.
The store of Mr. Stickney was the first one of any note in the village. A man named Hiram Marsh, f who settled here as early, probably, as 1835, owned a small store. The one owned by " the company" stood ou the northeast cor- ner of Broadway and High Streets, opposite the " Union City House." It was a heavy, hewed frame building, and its upper floor was used for school-room, meeting-house, court-room, and every purpose which a public room was needed for at that time. The supply of good money in time became somewhat limited, and a general system of bartering was conducted at the store, which place came to be known as the "Subtreasury," by which name it is yet familiarly remembered.
Josiah Judd, from Cortland, N. Y., settled in Union City in the month of May, 1838, with his wife, two sons, and one daughter. They had stopped a short time in Bur- lington, until they could finish a house in Union City which had been framed. The elder son, Ira J. Judd, was married and brought his wife with him. He died in Sep- tember following their arrival. The younger son, Le Roy,
was then but eighteen years of age. The family lived in the village until 1853, and then moved to the place now occupied by L. R. Judd, half a mile east, at the turn of the Coldwater road. Ilere the latter has since resided. His mother died many years ago, and his father's death occurred in February, 1865. They moved upon this place in July, 1853.
John D. Zimmerman, from Fairfield Co., Conn., came to Union City in the early spring of 1838, bringing with him a set of blacksmith's tools. Isaac M. Diamond, Mr. Clark's partner, had promised that a shop should be all ready for him upon his arrival, but the only eligible building he found on reaching here was the deserted log shanty which had been erected on the flat by Isaiah W. Bennett. In this he began work, and had all the custom of the company, with whatever outside business that happened to come in. After two months' stay he went after his family, returning with them in the following September. In the spring of 1839 he built a shop of his own.
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