USA > Michigan > Calhoun County > History of Calhoun county, Michigan, With Illustrations descriptive of its scenery > Part 19
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INCIDENTS.
Rev. Calvin Clark, at the picnic gathering of the Pioneer Society, in June, 1873, said most of the people who came to Marshall in 1835-36 came to get corner lots, and that one of his brother ministers walked to the land-office at Kalamazoo and bought nine tracts of land in Branch county, for the benefit of his children, but thought he was disappointed in the results. Mr. Clark spent his first year in Eckford, in a log house built by Henry Cook, the only board in it being used for a door. It was covered with shakes, and had puncheon floors above and below. He had known as many as thirty-eight souls stay in it over night at one time. One day he came home and found his wife in tears, the snow sifting all over the
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HISTORY OF CALHOUN COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
floor, but he soon fixed matters by taking a blanket and spreading it on the puncheons overhead, and when the storm was over threw the drift out of the window. This was not an uncommon incident, and his wife soon got used to that way of living. One day, George Ketchum gave him five dollars to give to poor people whom he was about to visit; and Deacon Cook had his granary full of wheat, which he kept all winter, and refused to sell to the mill, preferring to dis- pose of it among the needy. He (Mr. Clark) often walked a log to get into Albion and Battle Creek, there being no bridges in the year 1835. There was not at that time a single frame house in either place. Hon. Chas. T. Gorham, at the same meeting, said he and Mr. Brewer came in together, on foot, in 1836, carrying a valise and overcoats. Brewer had the valise, and Gorham the coats, which the latter found was a mistake on his part, and desired Brewer to exchange ; but the latter claimed he was carrying the mail, and could not lawfully make the exchange of burdens. Mr. Mann was then in The National. The new arrivals were duly notified that Marshall was to be the future capital of Michigan, and they soon found out that the town had two ends, east and west ; and on looking it over found a portion of Kalamazoo avenue under water, and full of logs and stumps. He thought if Marshall was not quite all they expected, Calhoun was. Rev. Jabez Fox said, when he was interested in the Expounder, a plenty of the persons whom he saw before him in the audience always wanted to pay their sub- scriptions in potatoes. Mr. J. D. Cuykendall, who came in 1835 and opened a chair-factory, said his first work was for Samuel Camp; then he worked for Dr. Hays, and made a ladder in the corner of a log house for the present Mrs. Gor- ham to go up to her bed-chamber, which was the only way of getting to the second story of the house in those days. Mr. Cuykendall said he was religiously inclined, and attended a series of revival meetings held by Father Sabin and Wil- lard Calhoun. Calhoun, the exhorter, came to him and talked with him (Cuy- kendall), and asked as to the state of Cuykendall's feelings, and was answered that no particular change was discovered. One evening afterwards he came again, and, receiving the same reply to his question, pressed the matter further by asking Cuykendall if he loved the brethren, and was answered that nothing was laid up against any one. "But," persisted Calhoun, " do you love the sisters ?" "Yes, sir !" responded the young man, with startling emphasis. "Glory to God ! you are already converted !" broke out the exhorter, and Cuykendall " went for- ward" with the rest.
The Patriot of November 16, 1838, had the following in its columns :
" THE BEARS !- On Tuesday afternoon of this week, our usually quiet and sober village was thrown into the greatest hubbub imaginable by the unexpected and somewhat startling appearance in our midst of four wild bears ! Had a horde of yelling savages pounced upon our peaceful village at midnight, our citizens could not have been taken more by surprise than when these black monsters of the forest boldly, and in broad daylight, marched into the heart of the village. 'To arms ! to arms !' was the cry, and then commenced a scene for our sportsmen as amusing as it was rare. The largest one of the four was soon shot down, and the others, after having been hotly and closely pursued over fences and through swamps, were finally compelled to 'knock under' to the merciless peltings of brick-bats, stones, and clubs, which they received on every side and every corner. The largest one, and parent of the others, measured five feet from the tip of its nose to the end of its tail, and weighed one hundred and fifty pounds."
AN INTERESTING RELIC.
Hon. Preston Mitchell has in his possession an ancient pack of playing- cards, which were found in the secretary of his father after the latter's death, the children knowing nothing of them till then. The cards are over one hundred years old. Their peculiarity consists in the fact that the four suits represent the four divisions of the world. Hearts represent Europe; spades, Asia ; clubs, Africa; and diamonds, America. The face of the cards carry a condensed his- tory of the world up to the date of their printing; their material being vellum. The different cards in the same suit have the history of the respective division they represent, each card having a subdivision historized thereon. No other pack of cards like them has as yet been discovered. The Historical Society of Mich- igan had them on exhibition during 1876.
THE VILLAGE PLAT
of Marshall (the lower village) was surveyed August 26, 1831, and recorded in Kalamazoo (the county of Calhoun being at that time attached to Kalamazoo county) August 29, 1831. It was located on the west half of northwest quarter section 25, and east half of the northeast quarter of northeast quarter section 26, township 2, range 6 west. On the 1st day of October, 1833, Sidney Ketchum laid out the plat of the upper village of Marshall, located on the east half, north- west quarter, and west half of northeast quarter section 25, township 2, range 6 west, and the plat was recorded October 2, in liber A, page 21, miscellaneous
records of the register's office of Calhoun County. The site of the city, from the river north to Mansion street, was a level plain. At Mansion street, which is a most charming avenue, the ground rose to a beautiful rounded summit, now covered with comfortable and elegant residences. Between Rice creek and the Kalamazoo, and on the south side of the latter to the eastward, the land is broken up into rather bold bluffs, more particularly the cape-like headland between the two water-courses. Capitol Hill commands a fine view of the city and surround- ing country, and would have been a most admirable location for the capitol had the fates proved more propitious. Marshall avenue is a broad way running through from the south side to the northern limits of the corporation. State street, the main business thoroughfare of the city, is a fine wide street, and quite solidly built up with three-storied stone and brick business blocks, the most noted being Mitchell block, an elaborate cut-stone and iron front, pillared and porticoed profusely, with costly French plate windows. It was built in the year 1870-71 by Mr. Wagner, and is now the property of Hon. Preston Mitchell. J. Cro- nin's and Cronin's blocks, Masonic block, the First National bank building, the. latter a cut-stone front, and the Eagle Opera House, Hyde and Crane's block, C. P. Dibble's block, Central block, Academy of Music block, Martin's block, Hern- don block, Perrin's bank, cut-stone front, Thos. Cook's block, and Brewer's build- ing are all fine structures.
There are three commodious public halls situated on the street : the Eagle Opera House, corner Eagle and State, which has a capacity of one thousand seats or more; Mitchell Hall, in the same square, which will seat five or six hundred ; and the Academy of Music, which will seat nearly as many as the Mitchell. The Eagle Opera House is fitted up with a commodious stage and good scenery.
MANUFACTURES.
The first manufacturing establishment erected in Marshall was a saw-mill, built by George Ketchum, in the summer of 1831, on Rice creek, just above its junc- tion with the Kalamazoo, near the site of the present flouring-mill of H. J. Per- rin. Mr. Ketchum erected the next year a grist-mill at the same site, a frame building twenty-five by thirty-five feet on the ground, with two rows of burr- stone; Benjamin Wright being the mill-wright. These mills were the first manu- facturing establishments also in Calhoun County. The first stone flouring-mill was built in 1837, on the Kalamazoo, on the site of the ruins of the stone mill now in Perrinville, by Asa B. Cook, Arza Robinson, and Sidney Ketchum. It was equipped with four runs of stone, and had a fine line of business. It after- wards fell down, and was rebuilt, and then burned in after-years, and rebuilt by H. J. Perrin, and again consumed, the walls, now partly fallen, having an un- sightly and dangerous appearance. Comstock and Halsey succeeded to the owner- ship of the first Ketchum mills, and operated the flouring-mill for some years successfully. Soon after the stone mill was built, S. Newton Dexter and Ben- jamin W. Raymond, of central New York, the former now deceased, and the latter a wealthy retired merchant of Chicago, erected a saw-mill, which was burned down on November 21, 1839. In 1839, Lewis Wilson and Darius Clark built an oil-mill (flax-seed), but it was operated but a few years. It was the first mill of the kind in the State, and cost, with its equipment, some six thousand dollars.
In 1843, E. W. Lathrop and G. S. Wright built a woolen-factory on the Kal- amazoo, but which was conducted only for wool-carding and cloth-dressing. No goods were ever manufactured in it. In 1836, during the spring of the year, Lansing Kingsbury and Josiah Lepper built the first foundry erected in Calhoun County, in Marshall, on Rice creek, which was burned afterwards. Colonel Charles and W. C. Dickey began the manufacture of fanning-mills in Marshall in 1836, and carried on the business for many years. J. W. Crandall, in 1840, was also engaged in that business. In 1839, Nelson Church began to make sash, doors, and blinds without power, and afterwards, in 1848, built up a large factory for steam-power, and continued the business until 1874, when he made a change, and began the manufacture of wagons, which business he is still engaged in in the city.
In 1833, H. W. Pendleton began the manufacture of furniture, chairs, and cabinet-work in a small way, but closed out the next year, and was succeeded by James Cuykendall, who continued the business. F. A. Kingsbury, however, was the first to do an extensive business in that line, and he began in 1835. On the 18th of April, 1840, his factory burned down, and was immediately rebuilt by him, and the business continued until the present. His first extensive venture was stock for three thousand chairs. In 1844-45, H. J. Perrin erected a framed flouring-mill, opposite the stone mill, which was afterwards destroyed by fire and rebuilt, and, in 1872, again destroyed by the same agency, which also destroyed a sash- and blind-factory and a plaster-mill, both of which were erected subsequently to the framed mill. They were owned by Mr. Perrin. Mr. Perrin also built a
DAVID HANOHETT, JR.
The subject of our present sketch, David . Hanchett, is one of the worthy citizens of the beautiful city of Marshall, noted far and near for its cultured and intelligent people. He was born in Weedsport, New York, November 18, 1806. His father, David Hanchett, emigrated from Connecticut, of which State he was a native, to Weedsport in 1800. David, Jr., was married February 10, 1830, to Mary Hopkins, and resided in Conquest, Cayuga county, New York, until February, 1837, when he and his family removed to Marengo, Calhoun County, Michigan, traveling by ox-team through Canada, the trip occupying twenty-one days. Three children accompanied them,
6
DAVID HANCHETT.
the youngest being but six months old. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Hanchett are as follows : Emeline G., Robert H., and Minerva E., all now living. Mrs. Hanchett died June 26, 1861, and Mr. Hanchett finding a lonely life insupportable, brought to his desolate home another companion, Hannah Hamilton, to whom he was mar- ried November 7, 1861. She was a daugh- ter of Dr. James Hamilton, of Weedsport, New York. Mr. Hanchett's first location was on section 1, in Marengo township, on which he resided until the fall of 1869, when . he removed to the city of Marshall, where he built a good home for himself and wife, and is now enjoying the ample fruits of a useful and honorable life.
RESIDENCE OF DAVID HANCHETT, MARSHALL, MICH.
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HISTORY OF CALHOUN COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
saw-mill, which was also destroyed. About 1860-61, Mr. Perrin began an ex- tensive improvement of his water privilege on the Kalamazoo, erecting a distillery, foundry, and machine-shop, and afterwards (1862) changing the former into a paper-mill ; but the paper-mill is the only one of the extended improvements now in operation, the same having been leased by the Rock River Paper Company in 1869, who repaired it, and have been operating it ever since. The present flouring-mill on Rice creek was built in 1854, by Shepherd and Etheridge. It is now owned and operated by Mr. Perrin. Thrashing-machines were manufac- tured in Marshall about 1844 and afterwards by Etheridge & Co., Baker & Nichols (Mr. Nichols, now of Shepherd & Nichols, of Battle Creek), by Camp- bell, and by Comstock & Halsey. Steam-engines were also attempted, but not extensively. In 1847, there were some twenty to thirty men employed in the manufacture of such machines. Two foundries made stoves, mill-gearing, and hollow-ware. Plows were made by Nichols, and also by Etheridge & Co. In 1844, Mr. W. C. P. Hunt built a steam-furnace, at which a good business was done.
In 1845-46, shortly after the Michigan Central railroad was completed to Mar- shall, the company built their shops in the city, where they remained until 1873, when they were removed to Jackson, the people of the city not acceding to the demand made upon them for a bonus of sixty thousand dollars as the price of the retention of the shops at Marshall. The loss of them, however, was a hard blow to Marshall's prosperity. Nathan Holland, Adams, and Rymes were wagon- makers after 1840, and were rather extensive manufacturers. In 1868, Mr. Perrin built a stone shop for spring- and axle-works, which was operated a short time by Gibson, but soon ceased its operations, and is now lying unused. No cars were ever built.
.
PRESENT MANUFACTURES.
The Novelty Iron Works, John Adams proprietor, began business in 1866, on Marshall avenue, near the railroad crossing, until 1874, the works being destroyed by the great fire of 1872. In 1874, when the railroad shops were removed, Mr. Adams removed to his present location on Exchange street and Marshall avenue. Until the removal of the railroad shops, he manufactured largely for the company. He does now a general foundry work, makes all of the iron-work for the Wind- Engine and Pump Company, and a fine business in edged tools, pruning-shears, etc., and also in plows. He employs twenty men on an average during the season, and his sales average two hundred and fifty dollars per day from March to Decem- ber, and he has about twenty thousand dollars capital invested.
The Marshall Steam Mills were built in 1857, by C. S. Crane and John Hurd, the present proprietors. The building is fifty by seventy feet, and is a three- storied frame, with a brick engine-house, has six runs of stone, and does merchant work exclusively. Its product in 1876 was thirty-six thousand barrels of flour shipped, besides which the firm do a general traffic in grain, pork, etc. Mr. Crane's home is in Marshall, and Mr. Hurd's in Connecticut. J. M. Servoss is superintendent and chief miller.
The Rock River Paper Company leased the Perrin paper-mill property in 1869, and rebuilt the engine-room and rag-mill after the fire, which had destroyed everything to the first floor, repaired the old machinery and added new, and have operated it ever since, in the manufacture of building and carpet paper, and dry felting. The company makes a specialty at this mill of red cedar carpeting, which, by its pungent and yet not unpleasant odor, is " death to moths." It is manu- factured from the offal of saw-mills in the manufacture of lumber of that variety. It is patent measured and marked in the roll. In 1876 the mill's product was 1,431,098 pounds of roofing paper, 509,136 pounds of carpeting, and 100,000 pounds of dry felt. The mill is running out just at this present writing (May, 1877) 240,000 pounds of dry felt for the Singer Sewing-Machine Company of South Bend, Indiana, for packing purposes. W. H. H. Minot is the resident superintendent at Marshall.
The planing-mill and sash-, door-, and blind-factory of T. Edgerton & Sons (Sidney and George) occupy the building erected and operated by Nelson Church. The senior Edgerton has been in business in Marshall for twenty-two years. The firm have been in the planing-mill five years. They do a large contracting and building business, and deal in lumber. Employ twenty-five men on an average during the season.
The Emerald Mills were built in 1848, about two miles west of the city hall, by S. S. Alcott, on Bear creek, and operated for a time by water-power, but subsequently steam-power was introduced, by which they have since been run. The mills have four runs of stone, and do an exclusively merchant business. George Ingersoll operated the mills from 1852 to 1858, as agent. In 1860 he and his brother Chester bought them, and have operated them ever since. Their product in 1876 was fifteen thousand barrels.
The Peters Brothers' Manufacturing Company organized for business August ,
21, 1872 ; George B. Peters, president, George B. Murray, vice-president, C. P. Dibble, treasurer, with a paid up capital of forty-five thousand dollars. The company makes a specialty of the Warren hoe, of which a large product was turned out in 1876, valued at forty thousand dollars. Twenty-seven persons are employed during the season.
The Marshall Wind-Engine and Pump Company, P. A. Spicer, C. S. Crane, and M. J. Alexander, was organized January 1, 1872, and employ from fifteen to eighteen hands. Their total sales for 1876 were four hundred and fifty of their celebrated pumps and engines. Jonathan Miller is the general superin- tendent.
J. L. Dobbins is engaged in the manufacture of hot-air furnaces, having begun the business in 1872, after having had his sash-, door-, and blind-factory de- stroyed by fire in Perrinville. He employs five persons, and sold fifty-four fur- naces in 1876, at two hundred and fifty dollars each.
M. J. Alexander, planing-mill and lumber dealer, has been eleven years in the business of lumber, and six years in the mill ; employs five persons, and manu- factures mouldings, etc.
George A. Bullard-foundry-employs four men, and began in 1871 to build up a business on his own efforts. He does a fair business in agricultural imple- ments.
Hindenach, Bestel & Hoffman are engaged in the manufacture of wagons, carriages, sleighs, etc., and have been in the business as a firm five years, and employ eight persons. They sold sixty vehicles in 1876.
John Hindenach and Alexander Skinner have been engaged twelve years in wagon and carriage manufacturing. They employ six men.
A. Rimes has been twenty years a wagon-maker, and carries on his trade in Marshall, and employs from five to eight persons.
Nelson Church, after thirty-seven years in the sash, door, and blind manufac- ture, in 1875 began to manufacture wagons, and employs in the busiest season from sixteen to twenty men.
C. E. Brooks owns and operates a flouring-mill in the city, principally confined to custom-work, grinding from three hundred to four hundred bushels per day, and doing a large city and country trade. Mr. Brooks shipped extensively in 1876.
The present flouring-mill on Rice creek was built in 1854, and is now owned and operated by H. J. Perrin, exclusively for merchant-work.
BREWING.
The brewing business of Marshall is a factor in the city's prosperity. There are three breweries in operation and one malt-house. Thomas Boffing com- menced brewing in a small way ten years ago, and now has a fine establishment, solidly built of brick, and capacious and conveniently arranged. He keeps in stock eight hundred barrels of beer. His vats are of peculiar construction and immense size. One of one hundred and eighty-five barrels carried off the first award at Philadelphia, at the International Exposition. The vats are made with heads at both ends, the beer being pumped into the same through the bottom.
Nunneman & Lutz are lessees of the Myers brewery, and make about four hun- dred barrels per year. Myers began twenty years ago, and the establishment, though small, is very complete in its details.
Effinger Brothers occupy the old Morse brewery, built in 1853, the first one built in the city, but which lay idle for several years, until the present proprie- tors came into possession, in 1875. They handle from five hundred to six hun- dred barrels per annum.
Swarthout & Briggs own the malt-house, which has been in operation about five years. Five hundred bushels of malt are manufactured there per day during the season, which is shipped to all parts of the country. They are heavy buyers of barley.
Arthur & Kennedy built a brick brewery near the iron bridge, for the manu- facture of ale, in 1869, and operated it some four or five years, but it is now idle.
The Marshall Gas Company was organized in 1872, under the name of the National Building Company of St. Louis, and in 1874 the name was changed to its present designation. Three miles of mains are laid down in the city, and about one hundred and twenty-five thousand cubic feet of gas are manufactured annu- ally. J. M. Woodson is president of the company, George W. Updike, secretary, and George T. Phelps, treasurer. The capital stock is forty thousand dollars. Several private gas-making machines are in use about the city, put in by this company.
COOPERAGE.
Edward Magee has the most extensive cooper-shop in the city, and has been the longest in business. He came from Boston to Marshall to take charge of the cooper-shop of Alcott & Morse in 1855. Alcott & Morse were extensively en-
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HISTORY OF CALHOUN COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
gaged in milling at the time, and Mr. Alcott had been so engaged since 1838 in the county. The firm had connected coopering with their milling business, and Mr. Magee worked for them until the summer of 1857, when he commenced the business for himself in his present stand on Green street, between Eagle and Jef- ferson, where he has continuously carried on his trade. He employs nine men the year through. His manufactures for the year 1876 were thirty thousand flour barrels, one thousand cider and packing barrels, and some four hundred butter tubs, the whole, together with a large repairing business, footing up a value of some sixteen thousand dollars.
Messrs. Town & Beals, on the south side, carry on a small business, being the successors of Filkins, who used to employ ten to twelve men.
FURNITURE.
Martin Weimer employs ten men in the manufacture of furniture and fine cabinet work. His bank furniture is very finely wrought indeed, one of his jour- neymen, Jacob Burkel, excelling in that line. He succeeded J. F. Gans in March, 1877, who was in the furniture line for fourteen or more years previously. F. A. Kingsbury, the old pioneer furniture-maker, is also in business yet.
THE CIGAR-MANUFACTURERS
are G. T. Beebe, J. S. Benjamin & Co., and J. W. Freed. The New England Cigar Company have been engaged in the business for many years, but are not at present manufacturing.
MUSIC-PUBLISHERS.
J. S. White & Co. have been engaged in music publishing since 1870. The house was established as music-dealers in 1860. They have now about one hun- dred copyrights, and issue two each month. Major Joseph Barton, now deceased, has been their most popular composer, his piece, "Gently Down the Stream of Time," having reached a sale of fifty thousand copies, and the tide of its popular- ity has not begun to ebb yet. Another composition of this writer, " Are we For- gotten when we're gone?" is also very deservedly popular. Prof. C. N. Colwell also has composed several pieces which are well received by the musical public, among them " A Sigh," and "I will Remember Thee," being the most popular. Charles Grobe is another popular composer whose productions are issued by this house. The rooms of the firm are at 84 State street, the publishing department being on the third floor, the music-rooms on the second, where musical instru- ments are exhibited and kept in stock, while the retail salesrooms occupy the first floor.
PIONEER AND PRESENT TRADE.
The first merchant to open a stock of goods in Marshall was Charles D. Smith, who came to the village in 1832 with a small stock of general merchandise, and began trading on the west side of the public square, in the south end of Engel's present dwelling-house. Smith came from Lansingburg, New York. He was after- wards clerk of the courts from 1833 to 1836. Charles Winslow, from Brock- port, New York, came in in the spring of 1833 with a stock of goods, Trowbridge & Babcock conducting the business as Winslow's agents. Trowbridge is now in Kalamazoo. The stock of Winslow was more extensive than Smith's. Winslow was on the same side of the square, two doors south of Smith's. Winslow came on again in the winter of 1833-34, and closed his business out in the spring of 1834, and returned east. He sold his goods to Sidney Ketchum, who removed them to the east end of the village, on the east of the square. The third stock was bought by Henry Hewitt, who came in 1834. Boville Shumway started in trade on Rice Creek in 1835, George S. Wright being engaged with him as clerk. This year, too, the first hardware-store and tin-shop was opened by S. S. Burpee. Charles P. Dibble opened his first stock of goods in the spring of 1836, and continued in the same line of business until January, 1877, when he retired, and was succeeded by his son, Charles A. Dibble, who at present represents the old and firmly-established house.
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