USA > Michigan > Branch County > History of Branch county, Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 54
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THOMAS B. BUELL.
of the district school for about two months in the winter, and finished his education at the Sherburne Academy. At the age of twenty he started iu life for himself, and for a time worked on the Chenango Canal and as a farm hand. In 1836 he resolved to come to Michigan, and the spring of that year, in company with his brothers Chauncey and Justice, came to Union City. With his brother Chauncey he purchased three hundred and twenty acres of land in section 30. In 1840 he was married to Miss Mary E. Blakeman, of Union City. She was born in Burlington, Otsego Co., N. Y., March 20, 1814, and came to Michigan in 1838, with her father, David W. Blakeman. He set- tled in Union City, where he died in 1848, and where his wife died in 1862.
Mr. Buell has been a very successful farmer, and has been prominently identified with Union City. lle was elected president of the Farmers' National Bank of Union upon its organization, which position he still holds. Ile is also president of the Nye Manufacturing Co., of Union City. In political matters Mr. Buell is a Republican. He has been blessed with five children, three of whom are now living.
BRONSON.
THE present township of Bronson ineludes Congressional township 7 south, in range S west of the principal merid- ian of Michigan, and is but a small part of the original town.
By an act of the Legislative Council of Michigan, ap- proved Nov. 5, 1829, the township of Green was organized, including the counties of " Branch, Calhoun, and Eaton, and the country lying north of the county of Eaton, which are attached to and compose a part of the county of St. Joseph," aud the first township-meeting was directed to be held at the house of Jabez Bronson .*
By an aet, dated June 29, 1832, the township of Prairie River was formed, including " all that part of the county of Branch known as townships numbered 5, 6, 7, and frac- tional township numbered 8, south of the base line, in ranges numbered 7 and S, west of the principal meridian," or the west half of Branch County. The first township- meeting was also to be held at Bronson's house.
The stream flowing through Bronson township, south of the Chicago road, was called Hog Creek, or in the Indian dialeet " Cocoosh-sepec." Another stream in Girard bore the same name, and when Mr. Farmer made his early map of Michigan he corresponded with Wales Adams, of Bron- son, asking what name should be given the stream in his township, in order not to confound the two. Mr. Adams wrote him to call it Prairie River, and as such it was put down on the map. The township, being subsequently formed, received the same name. Just when the town- ship was changed to Bronsou we have not been able to learn, but it was doue in honor of the first settler, Jabe Bronson.
Prairie River, or " Hog Creek," furnishes very good power, but as even a small dam eauses considerable over- flow it is but little utilized. Swan Creek, flowing across the northern portion of the township, is a munch better stream in this respect. A grist-mill and a saw-mill have been built upon it near the line between Bronson and Matteson townships, and farther down are the mills of Jonathan Hohes.
The surface of Bronson is usually quite level, although a sandy ridge erosses it diagonally from northeast to south- west. The village of Bronson is located in the midst of what is called " Bronson Prairie," although, strictly speak- ing, the name is inapplicable, from the fact that it was origi- nally a burr-oak plain and not a prairie.
The famous " Chicago road" crosses the township from east to west, and was the first highway laid out within its limits. Along it passed the emigrant trains of the early
days, and in after-years the rumbling of the stage-coach and the merry winding of the driver's horn resounded along its course. The " Chicago road" was for many years the main thoroughfare of this region, but the stream of human freight which passed over it has never been equaled since the time when the West was being peopled by families from New York, New England, and other portions of the East.
Railway facilities are afforded by the main line of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern road. For a number of years the settlers were obliged to go to Adrian, and after- wards to Hillsdale, to find a railroad-market for their pro- duce. Whatever of surplus was raised by the farmers commanded but a very small price, and it was necessary to transport it a long distance to get anything. But the ad- vent of a railroad changed the aspect of affairs, and pros- pects brightened. Priees raised, and market facilities were to be had close at home, and from that time the growth and development of the township have been very steady.
The following statisties from the census of 1874 will give an idea of the present status of the township, although in many respects the figures have changed :
Population (males, 1101 ; females, 1013) 2,114
Number of acres of taxable land.
22,933
.. land owned by individuals and
companies.
23,000
..
44
improved land
9,850
Value of samue, including improvements
$17,200
Number of aeres in school-house sites
34
..
church and parsonage sites
14
burying-grounds
54
farms in township
242
acres in farms.
21,465 88,69
Average number of acres in farms Number of acres of wheat raised in 1874. =
harvested in 1873 46
corn
1873
1,693
bushels of wheat
1873.
33,681
46
all other grains raised in 1873 potatoes raised in 1873
1,130
pounds of wool sheared in 1873
5,684
66
butter muade in 1873.
fruit dried for market in '73
=
barrels of cider made in 1873
pounds of maple-sugar made in 1874 .. acres in orchards in 1874
bushels of apples raised in 1872
4
1873
16
peaches =
1872
IS73
26
.4
=
1872
10
..
4.
1873
51
66
. .
cherries
1872
106
..
.4
1873 ..
144
Value of all fruit and garden vegetables raised in 1872
$4,942
Value of all' fruit and garden vegetables raised in 1872
$5,713
Number of horses in township, one year old and over, 1874.
453
14,010
6,854
tons of hay cut in 1873.
pork marketed in 1873
cheese made in 1873.
61,380 400 43,930
64
11,134 355 300 350 12,484 14,430 141
44
corn
1873. 39,947
land exempt from taxation. 6
R. R. right of way and depot grounds.
2,879
2,619
* According to the testimony of those who knew Mr. Bronson, and by his own signature, it appears that bis name was never written Jabez, but simply Jube, and as Jube Bronxon he was always kuown.
216
pears
217
HISTORY OF BRANCH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Number of mules ...... ..
11
work oxtu
10
= milch cows
438
neat eattle, one year old and over, other than oxen and cows.
991
Number of swing over six months old.
sheep
.. " shearel in 1$73
1,169
¥
flouring-mills in township ..
I
Amount of capital invested ..
$5,000
Number of barrels of flour made. 6,000
Value of products $15,000
Number of saw-mills (including I stave-factory ) .. persons employed in same. 27
Amount of capital invested
$16,000
Number of feet of lumber sawed > 1.795,000
Value of pro luets ....
$21,680
Other saw- and grist-mills had previously been in opera- tion in the township, but from various causes had been discontinued, and possibly there are other manufactories which were not enumerated in the census returns. It will be seen by reference to the figures that a larger amount of lumber was eut in the saw-mills of Bronson in 1873 than in any other township in the county except Quincy, which cut over 2,000,000 feet. The grist-mill given is the one operated by steam at Bronson village.
EARLY SETTLERS.
The first permanent settlement within the limits of the county of Branch was made in 1828, in Bronson township, by the man whose name it bears,-Jabe Bronson. More extended notice of him will be given in another place. The beauty of Bronson Prairie, and its advantages for a village site, together with the fact that it was located on the route of the Chicago road, made it a desirable place at which to locate, and although the surrounding region began soon to fill up, it was not until after many had located at the Prairie or other places along the road. Coldwater was the next township to attract attention, but Bronson was for some time the place of most importance in the county, and from it were chosen many of the first county officers, its settlers being generally men of marked ability.
The following " Historical Sketches of Branch County" were prepared by Hon. Wales Adamus, and inserted in a directory of Branch County published in 1871 :
" About the middle of September, in the year 1830, two young men, travelers, who had experienced varied adversities in the Eastern States, halted for the night at the door of a log house situated two miles east of where the city of Coldwater now stands. The house was occupied by A. F. Boulton and John Morse, and supplied with everything comfortable for the accommodation of man or beast. A lodge of several hundred Pottawattamie Indians was en- camped about one and a half' miles in a northwest direc- tion, to which place the travelers, who had stopped for the night, repaired. The Indians occupied their time in smok- ing, daneing, and speech-making alternately. They were discussing the subject of their removal beyond the Missis- sippi. The carnest appeals of several young orators to their superiors to resist the aggressions of the United States Government were strikingly beautiful. It was a lovely evening ; the moon shed a pale and melancholy light ujwon the wild and picturesque landscape. The occasional
yelpings of the Indians, their guttural chantings, the mo- notonous roll of the drum, and the rattling of bones rever- berating through the forest, added enchantment to the scene. At this time not more than 10 or 12 families lived in the county of Branch. There was not a stream bridged west of the village of Clinton. A solitary log house stood a short distance east of where the city of Coldwater now stands, and was occupied by Mr. Bonner, a Welshman. Mr. Bonner first settled in the town of Batavia, on the bank of Four- Mile Creek, a few miles below where Mr. Shinnamon now lives. Capt. Kirk, a millwright, from the State of Maryland, lived with his family in an evacuated trading-house on the west bank of Coldwater River. lle was a first-class mechanie, a man with fine proportions, with a cultivated intellect. Unfortunately, Capt. Kirk had be- come accustomed to the habit of tippling, and before the elose of the succeeding October he died with the delirium tremens. llis bones now rest on the west bank of the river. Mr. Toole, a gentlemanly young man from the State of Virginia, was then engaged in building a saw-mill on a site now called Black Hawk. He had brought a few hundred dollars with him, purchased 80 acres of land, but before the mill was completed his money was exhausted. He became disheartened and abruptly left the Territory, and never again returned to claim any portion of his property.
" At this date there were 6 families living on Bronson Prairie, to wit: Seth Dunham, supervisor of the town of Green ;* Jabe Bronson, justice of the peace; John J. Richardson, constable and collector; Samuel Smith, Jere- miah Tillotson, and Samuel Ilazlet. A Mr. Snow boarded with Mr. Tillotson, and was cultivating a patch of corn and potatoes without a fence about three miles cast of Brouson, at a place now called ' Snow Prairie.'t
" The following moruing the travelers above mentioned proceeded on their journey. They were in search of some quiet nook or dell, where they hoped to pass the balance of their days in peace, away from bustle and strife. Their natures were the same, and their appearance so similar that one was often mistaken for the other. They had been reared from infancy without the softening influences of parental care. They were orphans. They had become familiar with the cold gaze of the world, and had no desire to mingle with it again. They traveled through the counties of St. Joseph and Kalamazoo, and saw many beautiful and unoc- cupied locations ; but unaccustomed to agricultural pursuits and country life, they knew not in what business to engage. After much reflection they concluded to retrace their steps. Accordingly, about the Ist of October, they left Prairie Ronde in the morning, followed the trail through Nottawa, and reached the Chicago trail about an hour after sunset, five miles west of Bronson Prairie, and near where the Chicago road now crosses Hog Creek. The road to Bron- son was circuitous and difficult to follow ; the moon shed a pale and mellow light through a hazy atmosphere, but the dense forest and thick foliage along their pathway hid the light from their view. They groped their course along the
# The township of Green included the entire county.
t Here Mr. Adams gives a description of Mr. Snow, who made the the first improvements in Bethel township.
# One mill not reported.
28
1,391
persons employed in same.
218
HISTORY OF BRANCH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
gloomy way; no noise was heard except the occasional shrieking of the owl or the hellish yelping of the wolves. They had not proceeded far before they were aroused from their reveries by the tinkling of a cow-bell. They knew from experience that an emigrant family had encamped not far distant; directly they saw a bright light gleaming through the interstices of the forest-trees ; they approached cautiously within a few rods of the encampment in order to take a view of the arrangement. The trunk of a large dry ash was well on fire; the blaze and smoke ascended to mid-heaven, which contrasted beautifully with the surround- ing forest. Two men in red shirts were seated at a respect- ful distance from the blazing mass, earnestly engaged in conversation. One of them was a tall, lank, lantern-jawed man, apparently twenty-five or thirty years of age. The other was of common size, with a sedate and interesting countenance, a few years the senior of the first. A large mastiff lay growling in the rear. Two females also occa- sionally appeared from behind a blanket, which was sus- pended upon two poles. The older, about twenty-five years of age, appeared to be a good, solid, serviceable woman, dressed in linsey-woolsey. The other was about eighteen years of age, and was the exact opposite of the first. Her model figure was robed in the most approved style; the graceful and majestic ease with which she swept along among the foliage, the witching smile which played around her lovely lips, the flushed and dimpled cheeks, the lustrous eye, the profusion of jetty locks which swept her well- developed bust, gave to her, amid the wildness and beauty of the scene, an exceedingly interesting appearance. The artist could not have imagined a more lovely view for his pencil. The two travelers, although they were nearly ex- hausted with fatigue and weak for the want of proper nourishment, gazed from their place of concealuent upon the interesting group before them with wonder and admira- tion.
" They did not remain in that situation long, but emerged from the brush, approached the emigrants, and asked to be supplied with refreshments and for permission to remain by their fire till morning. The men looked upon the trav- elers with unconcealed suspicion. The dense forest in which they were loeated, the gloom of the night, and the distance from habitation, all went to confirm their fears that banditti were lurking around. After a long consulta- tion with the women, it was decided that the request should be complied with, and soon a panful of well-dressed squir- rels was in condition to satisfy and refresh the travelers. Confideuee was restored, the parties became social, and their intentions were made known. The names of the trav- elers mentioned at the commencement of this article were Willard Pierce and Wales Adams. They came direct to Michigan from New York City, where they had lived several years. The names of the emigrant party were Resin Holmes and Thomas Holmes. They were from Marion Co., Ohio.
" The next morning the parties examined the surround- ing country, and before night it was stipulated that Pierce and Adams should build a saw-mill where the Chicago trail at that time crossed Hog Creek, and that the Holmses should settle in the immediate vicinity. Accordingly, in
the course of a few days, Pierce went on foot to Monroe, where the land-office was then located, entered the land, returned by the way of Detroit, purchased the mill-irons, and shipped them around the lakes to the mouth of the St. Joseph River, and from thenee up the river to Mottville. The following July the mill was in operation. Mr. Pierce became dissatisfied with the country and with the business of making himber, sold his interest in the saw-mill to Wil- liam A. Kent, and returned East. Mr. Pierce, in his de- portment, was gentlemanly and dignified. He was a first- class machinist, had been employed in some of the best manufacturing establishments in New England, and was capable of superintending the construction of the most com- plicated machinery. As a draughtsman he could not be excelled. Ile had not been long East before he was em- ployed by a company of rich Quakers, who were engaged extensively in building cotton machinery, at Cumberland, R. T. They soon appreciated his services, and gave him unlimited control of their establishment, and also a large interest in their profits.
" In the course of two years Mr. Pierce married an ac- complished and lovely daughter of one of the Quakers, and at once embraced their nnostentatious form of worship. In the year 1840 he retired from business rich, and the same year came to Michigan with his wife, to show her where he had suffered the inconveniences of frontier life, and to induce Adams to return East and ocenpy the posi- tion in business he had left. Since that time he has not been engaged in any kind of business, except as director of the Pawtucket Bank. . . . There are now not more than four men living within the bounds of the county who recollect him as a citizen. All others who knew him here have emigrated, or their bones are now mingling with mother earth. The names of those four men are Harvey Warner, Allen Tibbets, J. B. Tompkins, and Wales Adams. Resin Holmes the following spring sold the land he had entered, to Enos Gragg, and emigrated to Kalamazoo County.
" The first inhabitants of every new country are generally composed of every variety of character, from those who have moved in the most refined society to those who have never moved in any. The latter are well adapted to the enjoy- ment of a forest life ; they have no wants except such as are within their grasp, and seldom any aspirations except such as are connected with the chase. They are bold, gene- rons, and sympathetic. Although they will avail themselves of the opportunity to make an honest penny out of a traveler, they will not turn from their doors those who are destitute. They look with unutterable contempt upon those who assume consequential airs, unless they are fully satisfied that they are abundantly supplied with peenniary means. The real pioneers have received but little, and perhaps no book edu- cation, but their conversational powers are often good. They cultivate from infancy a propensity to relate long, prosy, egotistical yarns, and whatever may be the character or taste of their auditory, they will not willingly submit to in- attention during the rehearsal. The natures of the females are similar to those of the men ; they are generally coarse and masculine in their appearance, but, nevertheless, are exceedingly prolific, and produce a vigorous progeny. The loud, sharp voices of many of them contrast horribly with
219
HISTORY OF BRANCH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
the soft, musical accents of' city and village bred females. But they have good lungs; they know nothing about dys- pepsia nor neuralgia, nor any of the fashionable and high- sounding diseases which now prevail in high life. Many of them are industrious and frugal, but the large families by which they are surrounded occupy their whole attention and prevent them from cultivating a desire for dress and adorn- ment.
" The writer was acquainted with a pioneer woman who lived in Branch County in the year 1830. She was born and raised in the woods in the State of Ohio. She knew nothing about society. She cared but little about the color or cut of her dress, whether it was long or short waisted, high or low neck ; whether it was drawn suug around her person so as to expose her real form like a squaw's petti- coat, or hung with a graceful and lovely swell; whether it concealed or exposed her extremities; whether her feet were bare or shod. But she had an unconquerable desire to be the possessor of a clean, white cap, peculiarly con- structed ; none of the close-fitting, comely caps which so often adorn the heads of females in fashionable life would answer, but the crown of hers must be of gigantic dimen- sions, which would sweep, as she walked, the beams of her log house, and when she had her cap fairly adjusted and placed upon her head, she assumed airs which no prude of the present day could imitate. She had no objection to boys receiving some education,-it would not be improper for them to read and write,-but no pedagogue should fret the heads of her girls with books; they had enough else to attend to.
" As soon as the country begins to fill up and organiza- tion takes place the pioneer becomes restless. There is no range for his cattle and hogs; he suffers severely from the restraints and annoyances of society ; the itinerant promul- gator of Divine laws, with his black coat and elongated countenance, designates a place for meeting; the tax- gatherer haunts his house ; a disciple of Galen appears in the neighborhood with his stove-pipe hat, capacious pill- bags and fiddle-back pony ; the peddler, with his tin trunks filled with nostrums and tape, solicits patronage; the petti- fogger, with his head filled with quotations from Blackstone, is clamorous for a client. The pioneer will stand it no longer, his peace is at an end ; he sells at the first opportu- nity, and doparts for a Western Territory.
" The county of Branch was organized into a township by the name of Green, in the year 1829, and was attached to St. Joseph County for judicial purposes. The county-seat was located at White Pigeon, where all legal business was transacted for the two counties. The law made it obligatory upon the Territorial Governor to appoint justices of the peace. Jabe Bronson received the appointment from Governor Cass, and was consequently the first judicial officer in Branch County. Esquire Bronson located in the county of Branch, on the prairie hearing his name, in the year 1828. The thin, gray locks which hung in disorder over his shoulders, his furrowed checks and dimmed eyes, furnished unmistak- able evidence that he had seen at least half a century. He was small in stature, and walked with a firm and measured step. He was unostentatious in his bearing, and possessed no prominent traits of character. In firmness he was wo-
fully deficient, but, like many great men of a more modern date, 'he watched the breeze and set his sails accordingly.' Esquire Bronson was born in the State of Connecticut, and had received a very limited education. He learned the trade of a ship-carpenter, and followed it for nearly a quarter of a century. Hle had been employed several years in some of the best ship-yards in New York, and had helped caulk and repair many an old hulk in the dry-dock. Situ- ated as he was, he permitted the fire of his youth to ooze out without joining in wedlock. At length he commenced rambling, and in the course of time reached Canada, where he met a buxom and wholesome-looking widow who had four children with her, and he soon contracted a perma- nent matrimonial engagement. They turned their faces West, lived several years in Brownstown, in the Territory of Michigan, and finally landed in Branch County. Esquire Bronson was not studious. He seldom opened the lids of his Territorial Statute, unless his attention was directed to some particular section or act. Ile presumed that he should not have been appointed to a responsible situation had he not been fully fitted by nature to discharge the duties of his office. He relied more upon his judgment and sur- rounding circumstances than upon written law ; conse- quently, in the course of his official acts, he committed many amusing blunders.
" The early settlers of Branch County were fond of liti- gation. They would not submit to the slightest real or fancied wrong without appeal to a legal tribunal. Indeed, justices' courts in a new country are manifestly indispens- able. They operate as theatres, or places of amusement. No class of people, whether savage or civilized, Christian or Pagan, can live contented without excitement, and the man who has lost all relish for amusements and exciting scenes becomes indiffereut to the cares of life and waits impatiently
"' Until just death, kind umpire of men's miseries, With sweet enlargement doth dismiss him.'
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