USA > Michigan > Branch County > History of Branch county, Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 9
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Sauquett's skillful management gave him a decided ad- vantage over Cush-e-wees, notwithstanding the legitimate descent of the latter. Even during the life of old Moreau, Sauquett was generally recognized as the head of the In- dians on the reservation at Coldwater, which was commonly called "Sauquett's Reservation." After Nottawa-seepe was made the headquarters of all the Pottawattamies, etc., of Southern Michigan, and especially after his father's death, the exact date of which is not known, Sauquett became practically the head of the band, though a minority still adhered to Cush-e-wees. The feud between the rival factions generated much bad blood, and, in connection with other matters, afterwards caused considerable blood- shed.
Notwithstanding the exchange of Sauquett's Reservation for an addition to that at Nottawa-seepe, the Indians, who had dwelt in the territory of Branch County, still continued to occupy their old homes, at least during a large portion of the time. It is impossible to say how many there were who might fairly be considered as Branch County Indians, as they were closely connected with those at Nottawa-seepe, and many of them were frequently going back and forth between the two localities. All of the band usually moved at least twice a year; raising their corn and beans in this locality in the summer, and removing to some distant hunt- ing-ground in the winter, where the game was entirely undisturbed. Generally they came back in the spring to the localities they had left in the fall, but not always.
There was a small village at Mick-kc-saw-be or Cold- water, and another on Cocoosh Prairie, now Girard. The latter locality must have been occupied by them many years, as there were several well-grown apple-trees there. The writer has tried several times to obtain from old set- tlers a description of the lodges or houses of the Potta- wattamies in this vicinity, but they were of such a nondc- script character that the task has been extremely difficult. They seem to have been made of anything that came to hand. Sometimes, though rarely, a few logs were piled up and a bark roof placed upon them. More often some crotched poles were set up and others laid upou them to make the frame ; the structure being completed by a bark roof and bark sides. If a piece of tent-cloth had been obtained anywhere, it usually supplied the place of bark as far as it would go. Sometimes one of the smaller cabins was occupied by a single family, but more often they were built twenty or thirty feet long and occupied by several families together.
Around these, on a summer day, might have been scen the Indian braves lying at ease in the sun, while their patient squaws worked in the patches of corn and beans and pumpkins, which were usually fenced in with a row of stakes fastened together with strips of bark, to keep out the Indian ponies ; sometimes as many as ten acres being thus iuclosed. Here, too, might be seen " cight little, nine little, ten little Indian boys" running about with miniature bows and arrows, shooting with remarkable accuracy at the
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HISTORY OF BRANCH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
birds which flitted around. Here, too, were still smaller children, naked as they were born, playing in the sun, while bright-eyed papooses, strapped upon boards (to insure the straightness of the future warriors ) and leaned against trees, watched the animated scene around.
Despite the apparent indolence and selfishness with which the Indians watched the labors of the squaws, it should by no means be understood that the former shirked all the duties of life. In accordance with immemorial eustom, the work of the field devolved upon the weaker sex, but then there was little labor to be done in the field, and the toils of war and the chase were supposed to include " the whole duty of man." Of the pleasures of war the Pottawattamies had been largely deprived since their complete conquest by the United States, but the chase still remained. When the leaves of the forest assumed their myriad hues beneath the breath of autumn, and still more when the white mantle of winter covered all the land, the Pottawattamie brave girded his loins for the severest toils. Over hill and dale, over ice and snow, through chilling stream and tangled undergrowth, he pursued the track of the deer with unwavering patience and unflinching endurance.
Arriving at length in the vicinity of his intended vic- tim (the nearness of which he could discern with extraor- dinary sagacity), his approaches were made with a skill surpassing that of the profoundest military strategist. Creeping slowly and stealthily, with half-frozen feet, a mile or more to gain the side of the doomed animal away from the wind ; lying prone in a snow-bank to lull the half- aroused suspicions of the quarry ; standing so quiet behind a tree that he seems frozen to it, he at length gains the wished-for opportunity, and a bullet from his rifle brings the stately monarch of the forest to the ground. With a yell in which lingers some of the glory of the old sealp- hunting times, he bounds forward to cut the throat of the victim, and then, after hanging the carcass on a tree, out of reach of wolves, presses on with undiminished ardor to fresh toils and fresh conquests. Perhaps he returns and carries the carcass to camp, but quite as likely he merely informs his squaw (or squaws) of its whereabouts, who skin and quarter it, and carry it home.
Though accustomed to the most distant and most uneer- tain excursions in search of game, yet in traveling from one well-known locality to another, the Indians usually fol- lowed one trail in all its windings, marching in the well- known " Indian file," and with their own and their ponies' feet wearing a hard deep path into the earth. Besides the great Chicago trail before mentioned, another ran northwest from Fort Wayne to Lake Michigan, crossing the former ou the site of Coldwater. Fifteen years after the settlement by the whites, the Fort Wayne trail could still be seen, barely wide enough for an Indian pony to walk in, but worn six inches below the surface of the ground. Still another ran from the Nottawa-seepe Reservation in St. Jo- seph County through Bronson and Gilead to Suscopicon Prairie in Indiana, and there were others of less importance in various parts of the county.
Having given an outline of the condition of affairs at the time of the first settlement of Branch County by the whites, we now turn to note the arrival of the pioneers.
CHAPTER VIII.
FROM SETTLEMENT TO ORGANIZATION OF COUNTY.
The First Settler-Bronson and Bronson's Prairie-Phineas Bonner, the Wandering Welshman-First Settlement in Girard-The First Mail-The First School-Formation of Branch County-Derivation of Name-Attichel t. St. Joseph County-Formation of Green Township-It. Imperial Dimensions-First Town-Meeting-First Officers-First Justice and Postmaster-Toole's Saw-Mill-Bolton and Morse-First Physician-Navigating the St. Joseph-First Record of Green-Locating the County-Seat at Old Coldwater-A Serious Informality-New Arrivals-The First Stages -- Wales Adams, Allen Tibb'is, and Harvey Warner-First Frame Build- ing-Marsh's Trading-post-Columbia-Lancaster-Second Town- Meeting-New Land-district-Relocation of County-Seat-Sticking the Stake in the Wilderness-Laying out of Branch Village-In- crease of Population-Old Records-Establishment of Road Dis- tricts-First Road Record-Dispute with an Indian-The Squaws an 1 the Apple-Trees-The Indian Boy and the Horses-Tho First Merchant-Third Town- Meeting-Supervisor's Account-Record of tho Meeting-Record of Town Auditors-Bishop Chase -- Ex- tract from his Autobiography-His Residence in Gilead-The Black Hawk War-Militia Called Out-Jones's Battalion-Copy of the Roll-Pottawattamies at Orangeville-Another Draft of Militia-Check on Emigration-Green Township Divided-First Grist-Mill-Hotels and Wolf. Scalps-Law Organizing Branch County.
IT was in the spring of 1828 that the first permanent white settler located himself within the limits of the pres- eut county of Branch. This was " Jabe" Bronson, for so he always signed his name,-not Jabez as it has sometimes been printed. Mr. Bronson had already reached middle age, was a ship-carpenter by trade, and had previously built vessels on Lake Erie. Ile had made his way to White Pigeon, St Joseph Co., the year before (1827), where he had raised a crop of corn, but in 1828 he made a permanent location on what was long known as Bronson's Prairie, a little south of the present village of Bronson, in the township of the same name. There he built a log house and opened a tavern.
Ilis wife had been a widow-a Mrs. Potter-previous to his marriage with her, and they were accompanied to Branch County by her four children, John, Abial, Emma, and Laura Potter, all adults or nearly so. John Potter soon established an Indian trading-post at Bronson's Prairie. Ile seemed to have a peculiar faculty for that business, and ere long be- came able to speak the Pottawattamie language with con- siderable facility.
It is believed that Seth Dunham also located at Bronson's Prairie in 1828, though perhaps not till the next year. Hle was also a ship-carpenter. llis residence was at the west end of the present village of Bronson, his place being now owned by Mr. Ruggles. It had previously been occupied by a " squatter," but his name is unknown, and as he only remained a short time he can hardly be considered as a " settler," though he might pass as a pioneer. Either Dunham or his predecessor set out there the first orchard in the county.
Another emigrant who scarcely comes within the defini- tion of a settler,-in fact, a very unsettled person indeed,- was a Welshman named Phineas Bonner, who with his family located himself' on Four-Mile Creek, in the present township of Batavia. It is not known exactly when he
40
IIISTORY OF BRANCH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
came into the county, and he may possibly have preceded Bronson ; but as the time of the advent of the latter is known, and as Bonner was as much Indian-trader as any- thing else, Bronson is put down as the first settler, Indian- traders not being counted iu that category. Ile is said by Wales Adams, Esq., who knew him, to have been a man of considerable intelligence, who had perhaps been a sailor. Ile told of many travels on the Old Continent, of coasting along the shores of the Mediterranean, and visiting the imperial city of Constantinople, and was currently reputed to have run away from a school which he was teaching in Ohio, with oue of his female pupils, whom he made his wife.
While here, he acted the part of both farmer and trader, raising corn, which he sold to the Indians for furs, and sending the latter where they could be sold for money. In a short tique he removed to a point in the woods, a mile or two east of the site of Coldwater. But his restless, wandering disposition still clung to him. Ile made no attempt to acquire land, and when, after a few years, the county con- tained thirty or forty families, he considered it as too crowded for him, and moved ou to some more roomy loca- tion.
The first settler in the county (except Bonner), away from Brouson's Prairie, was Richard W. Corbus, who came to the present township of Girard in the year 1829. He was accompanied by his mother and his niece. The latter, now Mrs. Sarah Ann Smith, is still living at Quiney, and is the earliest surviving resident of the county. They lived several months in a deserted wigwam; then moved into a log house and lived there a year or more, without a single white neighbor in the township.
In the spring of 1829, Jeremiah Tillotson located him- self near Bronson, and also began keeping tavern. By the fact of two taverns being opened close to each other, it may reasonably be presumed that there was considerable travel over the Chicago road. This is also known from other sources. There was already quite a settlement at White Pigeon, and during the summer of this year, the first mail-route was established west of Lenawee County. It was from Tecumseh, in that county, to White Pigeon. The contractor was John Michell, of the latter place, and his contract required him to carry the mail once a week each way in the summer, and once every two weeks in the winter. During 1829 the method of transportation was on horseback.
John Toole was another emigrant of 1829, who located at Bronson, and there were probably five or six families there in all, as in the winter of 1829-30. Toole taught a small school there,-unquestionably the first in the county. In fact, there was uo one living in the county, away from the vicinity of Bronson's Prairie, except our Pottawattamie friends, the occupants of the French trading-post on Cold- water River, Mr. Corbus' family in Girard, and the wan- dering adventurer, Phineas Bonner.
Up to this time, the territory of Branch County, and indeed the whole southwestern part of Michigan, had com- prised the township of St. Joseph's, which was a part of the county of Lenawee. On the 29th day of October, 1829, however, a law was passed by the Legislative Council of
Michigan, and approved by the Governor, forming the counties of Washtenaw, Ingham, Eaton, Barry, Jackson, Calhoun, Kalamazoo, Van Buren, Hillsdale, Branch, St. Joseph, Cass, and Berrien. The tenth section read as fol- lows :
" That so much of the country as lies west of the line between ranges four and five, west of the meridian, and east of the line between ranges eight and nine west, and south of the line between townships four and five, south of the base-line, and north of the boundary-line, between this Territory and the State of Indiana, be and the same is hereby set off into a separate county, and the name there- of shall be Branch."
This name was derived from that of Hon. John Branch, of North Carolina, who, on the preceding 4th of March, had been appointed Secretary of the Navy of the United States by the new President, Gen. Andrew Jackson. The formation of a county, however, as our readers are prob- ably aware, by no means indicated the immediate existence of a county organization ; it merely showed that, in the judgment of the legislative council, the district thus desig- nated, bounded and named would make a very good county at some future time. These inchoate counties were usually attached to more populous ones for all legal purposes until sueh times as they should themselves have a sufficient number of inhabitants to justify their being provided with eounty organizations.
In the present case an act was passed on the 4th day of November, 1829, six days after the establishment of the thirteen counties before named, organizing two of the num- ber, St. Joseph and Cass. Branch, Kalamazoo, Barry, and Eaton Counties, together with an immense unorganized and unoeeupied tract extending north nearly to the Strait of Mackinaw, were attached to St. Joseph County. The next day (Nov. 5, 1829) an act was approved forming several new townships of imperial extent. The fifth section read as follows :
" That the connties of Branch, Calhoun, and Eaton, and all the eouutry lying north of the county of Eaton, which are attached to and form a part of the county of St. Joseph, shall form a township of the name of Green, and the first township-meeting shall be held at the house of Jabez Bronson, in said township."
Thus the log tavern of " Jabe" (for we adhere to his signature in spite of the law) Bronson became the capital of an empire reaching from the boundary of Indiana to the southern line of the county of Mackinaw.
There are no original records extant showing when that first township-meeting was held, but from a copy of the account of the supervisor of the township of Green, in- serted in the forepart of the oldest town-book of Coldwater, there is reason for believing that it was held on the 10th day of February, 1830. At all events that account de- clared that it ran from the 10th day of February, 1830, to the 1st day of April, 1832.
But whether held in February, or at the usnal time, in April, there is no reasonable doubt but that the first town- ship meeting in the county was held at the house of Jabe Bronson, in the forepart of 1830, instead of at the Po- cahontas (or Black Hawk) Mill, two years later, as has
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HISTORY OF BRANCHI COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
often been asserted. A full set of township officers was elceted. The record of their election is lost, but the above- mentioned account corroborates this statement, and Wales Adams, who came in September following, found them ex- ercising the duties of their office. They are not all known, but Seth Dunham was elceted supervisor, John Morse township elerk, and John G. Richardson constable and col- leetor. About the same time Jabe Bronson was appointed the first justice of the peace in the county by the Gov- ernor, and the first postmaster by the President. His jus- tiee-office and post-office were both, of course, at his log tavern on Bronson's Prairie.
In the spring of 1830, Schoolmaster Toole began the erection of a saw-mill on the west branch of Coldwater River, a short distance above where the village of Branch was afterwards laid out. The location was for several years called Pocahontas Mills, but has since been known as Black Hawk Mills. This was the first enterprise of the kind undertaken in the county. The work moved slowly, as Mr. Toole was not very well supplied with funds. During the sminmer he admitted to partnership with him Seth Dunham, John Allen (from Allen's Prairie, Hillsdale County, brother of the original settler there), and one or two others. Later in the season Toole became discouraged and left the county. The others continued the work, but the mill was not completed till the spring of 1831.
In March, 1830, Abram F. Bolton and John Morse came with their families and built a log house on the Chi- cago road, where it crossed the line between sections twenty- three and twenty-four, in the present township of Coldwater. As soon as it was built, Morse began keeping tavern in it. He was in Bolton's employ. The latter, who was a man of some means, soon after bought the land east of Cold- water River, and north of the Chicago road, now included within the limits of Coldwater City. The same summer Lemuel Bingham established a blacksmith-shop near Bon- ner's residence in the east part of township 6, range 6 (Coldwater). Dr. David M. Henry, a relative of Bolton, came with him. Ile was the first physician in the county. Ile immediately began practice, boarding with Bolton, but remained only about a year and a half.
Another event of the spring of 1830, which may, per- haps, be worth noticing, was the first attempt made by white men to transport freight on the St. Joseph. J. W. Fletcher and John Allen (the latter being then at work for the former in the present township of Sturgis, St. Joseph Co.) went to Allen's Prairie, in Hillsdale County, and bought ten bushels of seed potatoes and fifteen bushels of seed oats. They constructed two whitewood canoes, loaded in their oats and potatoes, ran down Sand Creek from the Prairie to the St. Joseph, and set out on the navigation of the latter stream.
Until they reached the mouth of the Coldwater, they found their way seriously impeded by shallow places, dams of flood-wood, and similar obstacles. But they made bass- wood "skids," on which they slid their canoes over the dams, while at the shallows they promptly jumped into the water, and each helped the other lighten his boat. Deer and other game were frequently seen on the banks of the river, but the rocking of the canoes prevented the rifles of 6
the navigators from furnishing them with venison. They had, however, plenty of baked potatoes, and a bee-tree which they found on the bank supplied them with wild honey. Below the mouth of the Coldwater the water was high and the way clear, and they had no serious difficulty in reaching their destination. The return trip occupied ten days.
The affair would hardly be worth mention, in a com- mercial aspect, for the navigation of the upper St. Joseph has never assumed proportions of any importance, but the enterprise of Messrs. Fletcher and Allen illustrates very forcibly the difficulties of land transportation in 1830. The distance from Fletcher's residence to Allen's Prairie, by land, was only about forty miles, yet he preferred to take his hired man with him on foot, build canoes, and then make a return journey of ten days, rather than trust a team to the tender mercies of the Chicago road, and the still more hopeless trails which led from that road to Not- tawa Prairie.
In June of this year (1830), we find the very first record relating to the township of Green, after its organiza- tion. It is to be found in what appears to be the original township book of Green, now in possession of the township clerk of Girard. It seems that when, in 1833, Green was divided into Coldwater and Prairie River, the clerk (John Morse) resided in the former township. He kept the book and used it for Coldwater.
The next year Joseph C. Corbus, who lived in the present township of Girard, was elected clerk of Coldwater. Before his term expired Girard was taken off, when he kept the book and used it for that township.
Unfortunately, the first two leaves, probably containing the records of the town-meetings of 1830 and 1831, have been torn out. In another part of the book. however, are some miscellaneous records, among which is one dated June 6, 1830. It relates to the car-marks of sheep and cattle, a matter about which people had to be careful when stock of all kinds generally ran loose in the woods. It reads as follows :
" Ju. 6. 1830. "Seth Dunham, his mark, a square crop off the left ear, and hap- peny under the right.
" JOHN MORSE, Clerk."
This shows plainly that the township of Green was in working order and had a town clerk as early as June, 1830, thus corroborating the law of 1829, providing for a town- meeting, and the statement of Mr. Adams. Many old records of Green Township are also to be found in the first township book of Coldwater; and it is therefore presuma- ble that the Girard book is the original one.
During the summer of 1830, commissioners were ap- pointed by the Governor to locate the county-seat of Branch County. These commissioners were Musgrove Evans, of Tecumseh, Lenawee Co .; Dr. Reuben Pierce, of Clinton, Lenawee Co .; and James Ohls, of Jones- ville, IHillsdale Co. Mr. Bolton explained to them the beauties of his location, which he called Coldwater, situ- ated just where the Chicago road, the great highway of the county, crossed the principal river, and the commis- sioners "stuck the stake" there. This "sticking the
42
HISTORY OF BRANCH COUNTY, MICIIIGAN.
stake" is an expression frequently met with in accounts of the location of county-scats, and was a very important part of the proceedings. Very frequently the embryo city chosen as a county-seat had but one or two houses in it, and sometimes none at all. Consequently it was not suffi- cient to establish the county-seat in a certain village, but the commissioners must " stick a stake" to designate the exact location of the county buildings.
Unfortunately for Mr. Bolton, however, there was another part of the proceedings quite as important as " sticking the stake," which the commissioners neglected to perform. This was the " swearing in" of the worthy officials. Not having taken the oath of office, their pro- ceedings were of no legal foree. The result will be shown in the annals of the following year.
The same year (1830) the brothers William H. and Robert J. Cross located themselves a mile east of the site of the court-house. IIugh Campbell bought an "eighty" of the government in the southwest corner of section 15, in the centre of the present city of Coldwater, being the first resident of that flourishing burg.
During the same season the population of the present township of Girard was increased by the arrival of Henry Van Hyning, Edward Hanchett, and perhaps one or two others.
In September, 1830, there came from the city of New York to the county of Branch a young man who is now, so far as we can learn, the earliest surviving male resident of that county. A native of New England, he had a natural tendency toward mechanics, and was particularly desirous to find a good place for the erection of a mill. Passing, therefore, by the prairies at Coldwater and Bron- son, he followed the Chicago road to the point where it erossed Prairie River, five miles southwest from Bronson's tavern, and there, in partnership with his friend, Willard Pierce, began the erection of a saw-mill.
Mr. Adams, whose clear mind retains a vivid recollection of the events of that day, states that at the time of his arrival there were twelve families in Branch County. Bronson, Tillotson, and Morse were then keeping tavern. Dunham, Toole & Co. were building their mill at Poca- hontas, and the prospects of Branch County were eon- sidered to be decidedly encouraging. That summer two- horse stages were put upon the Chicago road, running twice a week as far west as Niles; yet that road was not opened by the government till two or three years later. A few small trees had been eut by emigrants, so that a wagon could barely pass, and a few of the worst places were repaired by the owners of the stages, but it must indeed have been " a hard road to travel."
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