USA > Michigan > Calhoun County > History of Calhoun county, Michigan, With Illustrations descriptive of its scenery > Part 3
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THE INDIANS
of the present day were the successors of the Mound-Builders, but yet they pos- sessed no tradition of them, and roamed through the country and gazed upon the remains as they were from time to time excavated, or turned out by the plow-share
of the pioneer, with as much curiosity as did the white man, though probably with less speculation. The Indian successors of the Mound-Builders left no per- manent remains to tell of their occupancy of the soil except their garden-beds, where the squaws cultivated corn while their lazy lords lolled in their tepees or chased the fleet deer as they sped through the oak openings and over the billowy prairie. The Indians who roamed over Calhoun when the first pioneers came were the Pottawatomies principally, though a few Ottawas, commonly called Towas, and Chippewas were incorporated in the nation. They never had any permanent villages in the territory now included in the limits of the county, and remained in it only during the summer months, going to the heavily-timbered regions for pro- tection during the winter season, and consequently their history is not especially striking or interesting. The only thing really worth recording in their occupancy of the county is the settlement of the Maguago family in Athens, which is fully set forth in the history of that township. This was a commendable attempt to improve upon their condition, and as such is worthy of preservation, as it is in marked contrast with the general history of their race. What our ancestors found the Algonquin and Iroquois in their first contact with them on the Atlantic sea- board, nearly three hundred years ago, we find the Sioux warrior, the only fit representative of the Atlantic stock of braves of to-day, the same implacable, un- tamed, bloodthirsty savage, ready to cut the throat and take the scalp of helpless women and innocent babes, with no idea or ambition for useful labor or mental improvement.
The Indians of Calhoun were peaceable and quiet when the white man's fire- water-squiby, as they called it-was out of their reach ; but once in their posses- sion and they were noisy, tyrannical, unpleasant nuisances, frightening the women and children, and offensive in their demands for refreshment. Many incidents are given of their manners and customs in the several township histories, and we shall give but an outline of them here, as they are hardly worth repeating, except to show the worst side of their conduct.
At and before the time of the Black Hawk war, in May, 1832, there were no Indians to be met with about the settlements for weeks, whereas before that time they were always to be seen at that time of the year. They said, after Black Hawk was captured, that they had known of his intended raid for a long time before the whites had any intimation of it, and that runners had been sent among them from the Sacs to enlist their co-operation, but they would not join them by reason of their friendship for the whites. The settlers put their words and actions together, and came to the conclusion that their neutrality arose more from their fear of the government than their love for them, feeling quite sure the war would end in the ultimate defeat of the Indians, and that the Indians were doubt- less willing the Sacs should massacre the whites, but were too cowardly to fight, and so kept out of the way. But the Sacs were the natural and deadly enemies of the Pottawatomies, and it may have been the fear of the Sacs, as well as of the government, that kept them away. The Nottawa-seepe band of the Potta- watomies actually sent warriors to Chicago as scouts for General Atkinson against the Sacs, and expressed themselves as desirous of a coalition with their white neighbors for offensive as well as defensive operations against Black Hawk, if he should come into Michigan. In 1821 the Indians ceded their lands lying south of Grand river and west of Lenawee county, south to the Indiana line and west to the lake, to the general government, except a few reservations, which were sub- sequently purchased by the government ; and in 1840, after several futile attempts, the remnant of the nation was removed to Kansas, from whence they subsequently removed to the Indian Territory, where the few that are left still reside on their own reservation.
Mrs. Dr. A. L. Hays tells of a scare that a great " hulk" of an Indian gave her, while her husband and some of the settlers were gone to Schoolcraft in their quest for Black Hawk. She was alone with her babe, when the door of the cabin opened and in stalked an Indian, one whom she had not seen before, and the first one which had been seen for several days. She could converse in the Pottawat- omie language, and so asked him if he was of that tribe. He said, "No." She then said, " Are you a Chippewa ?" "No," grinned the rascal. "Are you an Ottawa?" asked the now frightened woman. " No, I am a Sac," said the fellow, and the mother caught her babe from the cradle and started for the front door, the Indian standing by the rear one. At that the brave warrior gave a loud laugh, and told the trembling and almost fainting woman he was only trying to frighten her, and that he was a friendly Indian. He succeeded admirably in his cowardly design, for she thought surely the Sacs were upon the settlement, and all the horrors of an Indian massacre rose before her vision.
The trails of the Indians were frequently utilized by the settlers for the lines of their roads; and on the original field notes of the public surveys they are fre- quently noted by the surveyor, and invariably are found to follow the highest and hardest ground, between the fords of the rivers. A short distance from Mar- shall there used to be a summer village of the Indians, where their gardens were
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HISTORY OF CALHOUN COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
cultivated ; and they were frequent and inquisitive visitors at the settlers' cabins, but usually brought berries or game of some sort to exchange for bread (quiskin) or flour (nanponee). There was a reservation at Coldwater, and another on the Nottawa prairie, where there were permanent villages and trading-posts, and around which large numbers of Indians assembled at different times. As early as 1820 there was a trading-post built at Kalamazoo by a Frenchman named Lafrombois. Gordon S. Hubbard, now a heavy wholesale dealer in Chicago, was the trader at that post in the winter of 1820-21, when but nineteen years old. He was a trader among the different tribes of the northwest for twelve years, and his estimate of their capacity for improvement is not an exalted one, and of their willingness to make an attempt in that direction it is much less exalted.
CHAPTER IV.
PIONEER SETTLEMENTS-IMPROVISED SHELTER FOR COOKING-EARLY JOUR- NEYINGS-A BALKY PONY-FIRST HOUSES-FIRST MARRIAGE-AGUE US. MATRIMONY-A JUSTICE BEYOND HIS BAILIWICK-FIRST WHITE BIRTHS- WOMAN LEADS THE COLUMN-FIRST DEATHS-A MIDNIGHT BURIAL-THE FIRST CEMETERY.
.
THE first ripple of the incoming tide of civilization that played among the oak openings of Calhoun County broke therein in the summer of 1830, a Mr. Blash- field being the waif thrown up thereby, who was stranded at the present site of the city of Marshall. He drew a wagon-load of lumber from Beadle's Mill at Flowerfield, in St. Joseph county, in June of that year, secured a pre-emption of the water-power and adjoining lands, and blazed the trees to indicate his boundaries. In August of that year Sidney Ketchum, from Clinton county, New York, came into the county in search of a location. He met, at Ann Arbor, Samuel Camp, who accompanied him on a prospecting tour through the counties of Jackson, Calhoun, and Kalamazoo. The season was delightful, and the prospect at Marshall so pleased Mr. Ketchum that he took minutes of the lands covering the water- power on Rice creek, at its junction with the Kalamazoo, and also at the forks of the latter, where Albion is now situated, the lands not being subject to entry until October following. On their way to Kalamazoo in search of "floats" (surplus certificates of lands squatters or settlers failed to get of their original locations, and with which they were entitled to locate any lands elsewhere found vacant) they overtook Judge Eldred and Ruel Starr, of Kalamazoo, on Bear Plains, three miles west of Marshall, with whom they prospected the valley to Comstock creek. Here Eldred and Starr remained, while Ketchum and Camp went on to Kalamazoo, to Titus Bronson's, familiarly known in pioneer days as "Potato" Bronson, by reason of his introduction of the Neshannock potato into Michigan, of which esculent he raised seven hundred bushels that year on one acre, the avails of which paid for the claim the producer thereof had then made, and on which Kalamazoo was afterwards located, but named Bronson at first. Ketchum bargained with Bronson for his claim, but the " better half" objecting, after one night's consideration the trade was abandoned. At Schoolcraft, Noble Mckinstry was found, who arranged with Ketchum to procure floats and locate two parcels of land in Calhoun County, when the land office opened at Monroe, in October, for a commission of seventy-five dollars. Ketchum and Camp immediately returned to the site of Marshall, calling upon Judge Eldred at Comstock creek, where they learned that Starr had preceded them to Marshall, with eight days' rations, to establish a claim. This news excited Ketchum, who hastened on and found Starr slashing brush and marking trees to secure his claim. Ketchum at once negotiated with the new squatter for his claim, agreeing to give him one hundred dollars and his gun therefor. Camp, in the mean time, had been prospecting about the bush and discovered Blashfield's marks and lumber, and soon after the man himself was found building a log tavern at Slab City, in Jackson county, and a new arrange- ment was effected, whereby Starr received seventy-five dollars, and Blashfield the same amount and the gun. Ketchum, Camp, and Starr soon after returned to Ann Arbor, and later, the first and last named to New York. Starr subsequently located in Porter county, Indiana, where he amassed a fortune, and died at Valparaiso, in the summer of 1875. Mckinstry procured the floats and located the north half of the southeast quarter of section 25, township 2 south, range 6 west, sixty-seven acres, covering the water-power at Marshall, in his own name, October 15, 1830, and on the sixteenth Ephraim Harrison located the south half of the northeast quarter of section 2, township 3 south, range 4 west, covering the water-power at Albion. These tracts were expected, by Ketchum, to have been located in his name, but he subsequently bought them. These were the
only lands entered in Calhoun County in 1830. In February, 1831, Abram Davidson and Jonathan Wood located one hundred and sixty acres on sections 25 and 26, the original plat of Marshall, on which the county-seat was located the following fall.
A Mr. Fuller, in the fall of 1830, built a log house three miles west of Mar- shall, on what afterwards proved to be University lands, and used the lumber Blashfield brought from Flowerfield. It is said that when Mullett and others located the University lands-six sections-he was entertained by Fuller, and when the party had drank up all of his whisky and eaten the principal part of his solid rations, Mullett rewarded his host's hospitality by informing him that his house stood about ten rods inside the line of the University lands. Fuller was so disgusted with his shabby treatment, he abandoned his claim, and gave his house to Mr. Samuel Camp, who moved it off a few rods to a claim he had entered adjoining the State lands.
In April, 1831, the first actual and permanent settlement was made in the county by George Ketchum, of Rochester, New York, who was accompanied by Mr. Lar- cam Ball and wife, H. P. Wisner, Solomon M. Allen, White Ketchum, and John Kennedy. Mrs. Ball slept in the wagon until a log house was rolled up, and cooked on the ground. One night Ketchum held an umbrella over her head while she baked the pancakes for supper. Mr. Ketchum built the first saw-mill on Rice creek, that summer, completing it September 1, which was the first improvement began in the county, aside from Fuller's cabin. In May, Dr. Andrew L. Hays arrived at Ketchum's, and selected three lots on the south side of the river, put up a shanty, and, with the help of a hired man, put in a few acres of corn and potatoes, and raised a fine crop of both, which was probably the first crop of domestic pro- duce raised in the county. After getting his planting done he built a log house, and brought his family on from New Hampshire in September of the same year, where they lived during the winter, being the only family between the Kalamazoo and St. Joseph rivers. During 1831, Peter Chisholm, of eastern New York, Rev. John D. Pierce, Randall Hobart and their families came in, all from New York, and mostly from Clinton county, and located at Marshall. In July, Sidney Ketchum returned with his family, Chisholm and Hobart coming with him; and Mr. Pierce, Samuel Camp, and S. S. Alcott came in the fall. Mr. George Ketchum brought his family on in November, at which time Thomas Chisholm and his wife and brother, George, came,-Thomas Chisholm purchasing the location in Marengo, on which he resided for over forty years previous to his death, which occurred January 1, 1876. John Bertram, Dr. Foster, Isaac Tolland, Stephen Kimball, Henry Failing (1832), Asahel Warner, Tenney Peabody, Wareham Warner, Thomas Burland, Thomas Knight, Thomas J. Hurlbut, Dorrance Wil- liams, Josiah Goddard, Henry Cook, Oshea Wilder, and Isaac N. Hurd came during the year 1831, besides others. Sands McCamley came in March, 1832; L. G. Crossman in February preceding ; Moses Hall, Samuel Convis, Daniel G. Guern- sey, and Pollidore Hudson in June, or thereabouts, and Powel Grover the same year, as also did General Isaac E. Crary and many others. In 1833 and 1834, there was a large immigration into the county, among them Nathaniel Barney and Nebediah Angell, in 1833, and Judge Tolman W. Hall and General Ezra Convis, in 1834.
Bertram bought Camp's location, and the house Fuller built in the fall of 1831, and dwelt therein with Thomas Burland and his family, until the summer of 1832, when he built the first frame house and also the first barn erected in the county. Dr. Foster and Isaac Tolland were the first settlers on the site of the present city of Battle Creek, Tolland preceding the doctor by a month or two. Stephen Kimball located in Marshall, and is now deceased. Henry Failing first located in Marshall township, but subsequently removed to Homer, where he at present resides. Asahel Warner and his father, Wareham Warner, came first to Marshall, where the former at once located, but the latter returned east for a time, and on his return to the county in 1834, located at Albion, where he died. Asahel Warner is now a resident of Sheridan township. Tenney Peabody located at Albion, with the growth and progress of which he was, during his residence there, which continued until his death, closely identified, as also was Mr. Ware- ham Warner. Dorrance Williams and Josiah Goddard located on Goguac prairie ; Henry Cook on what is now known as Cook's plains, so named after him, its first settler. Oshea Wilder and Isaac N. Hurd both located at Marshall at first, and where the latter fell the first victim to the cholera, which decimated the settlement in 1832. Mr. Wilder finally located in Lower Eckford. He was from Rochester, New York, but a native of Massachusetts, and a man of culture and ability. He surveyed and platted many of the early village plats in the county and elsewhere, and it is claimed for him that he originated the idea of canal connection between Lakes Erie and Michigan. His family were intelligent and cultured, his wife being a daughter of a distinguished citizen of New York city, where she was educated. Mr. Wilder died several years ago. Sands McCamley located first at Marshall, but subsequently purchased a half-interest in the site of Battle Creek,
13
HISTORY OF CALHOUN COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
of John J. Guernsey, who entered the lands, but who was never an actual resident thereon, and laid out the village in 1836. He died in 1864. Luther G. Cross- man settled in Marengo, after he brought a wife in 1837 to the county. Follow- ing his trade of a carpenter previously, and assisting in the erection of many of the earlier framed buildings of the county, among them the first one, he still resides on his original location. Moses Hall came from Vermont, as did also his brother, Judge T. W. Hall, both of whom settled in Battle Creek, of which city Judge Hall is still a resident. He has been for many years one of the county superin- tendents of the poor, in connection with which charity his portrait and biography appear. Moses Hall was one of the early supervisors of Milton, as the township of Battle Creek was at first named. He was also an early legislator for the county in the State councils, and a man of ability and influence. He is now de- ceased. Samuel Convis, Daniel G. Guernsey, and Pollidore Hudson all located at Battle Creek, and Mr. Convis is still a resident of the county. Guernsey was the first tavern-keeper in that village, and Hudson the first postmaster. Powel Grover came from Pennsylvania and settled near Homer, in the settlement of citizens of that State. Ezra Convis located near the Battle Creek village site. He was the first representative of the county in the State legislature, 1836-37, and died in Detroit in February of the latter year, while occupying the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives. He was an influential and worthy citizen. Nathaniel Barney and Nebediah Angell located also at Battle Creek, the former opening the second tavern in that place. Randall Hobart was a local Methodist preacher, a very worthy man, and was the register of deeds for the county from 1833 to 1838, receiving the appointment from Governor Porter, in the former year, and being elected the two succeeding terms of 1835 and 1836. Peter Chisholm located at Marshall, was a Scotchman by birth, and the first blacksmith in the county, and more, the father of the first white child born in the county. Dr. Hays was the first physician to locate in the county, though Dr. Foster, at Battle Creek, could not have been far behind him. The Nichols family came to Dry prairie in 1831, and five of them were swept off by the cholera in 1832. Isaac Thomas, of Tioga county, New York, came to Goguac prairie with a family of four or five sons, in 1831, from whence he removed to Illinois, in 1839- 40, for more room to expand with his growing family. John Stewart, Sr., came from New York to Ypsilanti, in 1824, and to Goguac, with several of his sons and their families, in 1831 or 1832. He died in Battle Creek in 1843. Josiah Goddard first saw his location on Goguac, in 1829, on his return from transport- ing Sherman Cornings and family to Toland's prairie. Samuel Camp opened in Marshall the first hotel in the county. S. S. Alcott opened a farm on the south side of the river, at the same place on which the first crops were raised in the county. He was afterwards prominently connected with the history of Marshall, where his works are more fully detailed. Bertram, Knight, and Burland were Englishmen. Knight is still a resident of Marshall township. In 1831, R. B. White came in from New York. and John Ansley from Pennsylvania, the latter locating in Marengo. In 1832, Asa B. Cook and Horace J. Phelps came to Marshall from New York. The former put up the first turning lathe, made the first table, bedstead, and wagon manufactured in the county, and the latter was the first probate judge elected in the county, which position he held for eight years. With the Nichols family (Warren Nichols and family, and his brothers, Ambrose and Othorial) came also, in 1831, Benjamin F. Ferris, Alfred Holcomb, Isaac Crossett, Asahel Stone, and a Mr. Brown, who divided Dry prairie, in Athens township, between them. Holcomb alone resides in the county, of all the company, save a daughter of his, the widow of Mr. Ferris. The Nichols's, Ferris, Crossett, Stone, and Brown are dead. In 1832, Mr. Eleazer McCamly located in Burlington township. He was afterwards elected associate judge of the circuit court, and sat on the bench with Judge Fletcher at the first, second, and fourth terms of the circuit court held in the county. He was a very worthy citizen. Rev. J. D. Pierce, the first minister of the gospel, and General Crary, the first justice of the peace and lawyer, are given their honors in another place, in the history of the church, the school, and the bar.
SIDNEY KETCHUM
is the recognized pioneer of Calhoun County, he having secured the claims of Blashfield, who preceded him, and of Starr, who took advantage of his trip to Kalamazoo, and "jumped" the claim at Marshall. He was a man of great energy and determination. His history appears more at length in connection with that of the city of Marshall.
The manner of transit of the early pioneers to their homes in Calhoun were various and full of incident, and to describe the journeys of all would occupy more space than we can spare for the interesting story, and a few of the more striking ones only we introduce. The principal mode of conveyance was by team from the eastern home, either of horses or oxen, and a slow and tedious journey was the result. The most of the early pioneers came from New England and New
York, and such of them as did not come by the Erie canal and the lakes to Detroit came through Canada as a general thing. The trip usually occupied six weeks to two months ; sometimes a remarkably quick trip would be made in a month. The trip from Detroit occupied ten to twelve days. There were neither roads nor bridges, and marshes were bottomless in effect. Samuel E. Douglass and family came into the county in 1832, traveling with oxen from Detroit. The roads were so bad Mrs. Douglass was compelled to walk the last thirty miles of the journey. George Ketchum brought his family in November, 1831, and was ten days from Detroit. He traveled by the blazed trees, waded the marshes, and forded the streams. At Sandstone his wagons mired, and he took his family on his back, and carried them out to solid land.
O. C. Thompson relates his experiences in getting from Jackson to Marshall in 1831. He attempted the trip on horseback, but, on reaching the Sandstone, his beast, utterly discouraged and exhausted by floundering through the marshes, re- fused to enter the stream down its precipitous banks, and no amount of ingenuity or strategy of the rider could affect his resolution or get him into the water, and he was, per consequence, obliged to return to Jackson and leave his horse, to make the journey on foot, which he did, falling in, on his way, with John D. Pierce, who, with his wife, accompanied by several families, were just moving into Cal- houn. He graphically describes Mrs. Pierce's forlorn appearance, as she sat in the wagon, without covering, drenched through her clothing with the falling rain. That night they found a shanty, without doors, windows, or floors, and but half a roof on, where they all stopped, and cooked a coarse repast on the stove under the roof. The party stowed themselves away on the bedstead and under it, and the men occupied a little more than all of the dry ground in the house. The morn- ing brought no relief; the rain was still falling, but another requisition was made on the potato pile and pork barrel, and breakfast was despatched. During the forenoon the rain ceased, and the party moved on to Marshall, six miles distant, which consisted then of one log house and another in process of erection. These are fair samples of the trials and hardships of a pioneer journey from Detroit to Marshall in the settlement of Calhoun County.
THE FIRST HOUSE
built in the county, as has been before stated, was one built by Mr. Fuller on the Seminary lands, and which afterwards passed into John Bertram's hands through Camp; it furnished Bertram and Burland's family a shelter during the winter of 1831-32, and in it Burland boarded Bertram's mechanics while, during the summer of 1832, they were building for him.
THE FIRST FRAME HOUSE ERECTED IN THE COUNTY.
Mr. Luther G. Crossman was the master mechanic of the house, and also of the first barn erected in the county, which he built also for Mr. Bertram, which was a frame, thirty by forty feet. A grand gathering of all the people for ten miles around was had to raise the barn, and Sidney Ketchum held the foot of one post, General Crary another, John D. Pierce another, while old Michael Spencer took the role of general utility man. This barn was built immediately after the house was covered.
THE FIRST BRICK BUILDING
erected in the county was the National House in Marshall, which was opened with a grand ball on January 1, 1836. It was built by Andrew Mann, who kept the house.
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