USA > Michigan > Calhoun County > History of Calhoun county, Michigan, With Illustrations descriptive of its scenery > Part 66
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IRA A. WARREN.
Ira A., son of Stephen and Samantha Warren, old and respected pioneers of Emmett township, was born at Clarendon, Orleans county, New York, September 13, 1819. He commenced life on his father's farm, and there acquired the habits of industry and economical self-reliance that have tended so materially to his subse- quent prosperity. On the assumption that the teachings of early youth form the basis of after-life, his parents were careful to instill into his mind practical knowl- edge, in the absence of intellectual, which in the days of his youth was difficult of acquisition. However, he found time, principally during the winter months, to attend the school in his native village, and afterwards the public schools of his new home.
In May, 1833, he accompanied his parents to Michigan, settling in Emmett township, where he has ever since resided. In 1835, when still comparatively strangers in a strange land, the family sustained the loss of the husband and father, and of necessity a part of the duty of maintaining the widowed mother and orphaned children devolved upon him. He accepted the duty cheerfully, and fulfilled it faithfully. His excellent mother still survives, having lived to see her family assume positions of honor in the communities in which they reside respectively. The filial love of her children has been a source of great joy to her, and she bears serenely the advances of time, passing smoothly over the temporal stream to the eternal shore, her life made happy, and her old age comfortable.
On the 7th of May, 1844, Mr. Warren married Miss Susan J., daughter of Robert Henderson, M.D., a well-known physician of Washtenaw county, Michi- gan, and father of Judge Henderson, of Marshall. They had but one child, Adeline B., born September 9, 1845 ; married Orson Avery, May 5, 1867, and has one son, Elmer W., born February 14, 1868. Although affiliated with the Republican party for many years, he never desired or sought office, being content to cast his ballot for the best interests of the country, and for those of his party. In religion, himself and wife are Baptists, having belonged to that denomination for more than a quarter of a century. He has always led a temperate life, and now, at the age of nearly threescore years, he enjoys health unimpaired, a robust
constitution, and an easy conscience; looking cheerfully back on the past, and forward to the future, with a well-grounded hope of an eternal reward. (See illustration and portraits.)
THOMAS KNIGHT.
This gentleman is, in point of settlement, one of the oldest pioneers in Calhoun County, and antedates any other living inhabitant of his township more than a year. He was contemporary with John Bartram, Michael Spencer, Jeremiah Gard- ner, Estes Rich, and other old and respected citizens of Emmett and Marshall, in the latter of which townships he located and resided for over forty years. He lived within sight of his present residence and was identified more or less with the growth and development of both townships; for he saw them both rise from desolate forests and uncultivated plains, uninhabited save by the aborigine, into populous and prosperous settlements, supplied with every blessing of civilization, and crowned with every bounty of Providence. And having been an eye-witness of all this, and having contributed his full share of toil and hardship towards its consummation, does he not form a part of the history of the township, and so deserve more than a passing notice ?
Thomas Knight was born at Hessle, on the banks of the Humber, five miles west of Hull, Yorkshire, England, December 21, 1805. He spent the first twenty-five years of his life in his native town, attending school for a brief period, but commencing at an early age to practically fulfill the scriptural injunc- tion, "Thou shalt earn thy bread by the sweat of thy brow."
On the 13th of April, 1830, he left Hull docks, and after a voyage of fifty- six days landed in Quebec; and on the 25th of June, the same year, arrived in Detroit, where he remained until February 15, 1832, when he took up his resi- dence on sections 18 and 19, in the township of Marshall. Here he remained until November, 1872, at which time he moved to his present dwelling in Em- mett, leaving his son in the old homestead.
On the 8th of June, 1831, he married Miss Ann Wass, who was born at Clee- thorps, near Grimsby, Lincolnshire, England, October 15, 1805, and still survives, and is a very active lady. They raised a family of ten children, all of whom were born on the old homestead, in Marshall township. Their names and the dates of their respective births are as follows :
Charles T., born January 26, 1833; Thomas J., born October 31, 1834; Eliza J., born February 27, 1836; William W., born December 6, 1837 ; Godfrey H., born August 20, 1839 ; George W., born July 5, 1841 ; John H., born March 18, 1843; Jesse G., born February 13, 1845; Sarah A., born September 8, 1847; Frank A., born October 18, 1850.
Mr. Knight has served his township in various offices, having been assessor one year and highway commissioner twelve years. He is Republican in politics, and in religious sentiments a free-thinker. He commenced life with less than ten dol- lars, and to-day is classed among the most substantial men of his township. He owns five hundred acres of land in Marshall and Emmett townships, all of which he secured by fair and honorable purchase. As a man and neighbor he is de- servedly very highly respected.
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CLARENDON TOWNSHIP.
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CLARENDON township is known on the government surveys as town 4 south, and range 5 west, and was originally organized as a part of the township of Homer. In 1838 it was organized as a separate township under the name of Clarendon. The name was probably given to it owing to the fact that many of its settlers were from the town of Clarendon, Orleans county, New York.
Clarendon is strictly an agricultural township, and contains many excellent farms, all well improved. Southern Michigan is well known as a fine fruit region, and the quality of the pomological products of Clarendon is equal to that of the fruit raised in any part of the county. Thrifty orchards are seen on every im- proved farm, their rapid growth having given them the size of older trees in re- gions where the soil is not equally as good.
The township contains a large body of heavy timber, and was originally covered with a thick forest, except on the plain in the northeast part known as Cook's prairie, and a few other localities. The timber is of the various kinds peculiar to southern Michigan. Originally the sugar-maple was abundant, and the early settlers manufactured large quantities of the delicious sugar and syrup. For several years after their settlement some families used no sugar except that which was the product of this noble tree. The experience of some of the younger members of the community was similar to that of persons in the days of the early settlements in southern Ohio and Pennsylvania, inasmuch as they had be- come so used to the maple that any other sugar was a great novelty to them. There are localities where tea and coffee were never used, and the experience of the novice with his first cup of either of these beverages was extremely ludicrous. Doddridge, in his " Notes on the Early Settlements," etc., in western Virginia and Pennsylvania, speaks of the first time he ever tasted coffee, and mentions the fact that it was terribly nauseating to him, and it was with difficulty he could drink it. It is to be supposed that the early settlers of Clarendon did not go without their rations of tea and coffee, even though they were obliged to make a long trip to Detroit to get them. Possibly, however, some of them may not at first have been in circumstances to indulge in such luxuries, and went without for a time. The hardships of the pioneers of the country can only be fully appreciated by them- selves, after forty years' life in the country they chose to make their home, and in which they have nearly all prospered to a remarkable degree. The many excellent improvements we see have sprung up in a comparatively short space of time, and will put to the blush regions which have been settled half a century longer. But the industry and enterprise is largely in the west, and people live longer and through more varied experiences than the staid and quiet inhabitants of older regions, who have but little thought for the future except to enjoy themselves in a good, old- fashioned way.
Clarendon township is well watered, being supplied by the St. Joseph river and numerous small branches. Homer lake lies partly within its limits, and dis- charges its waters through a short outlet into the St. Joseph. By far the greater portion of the land is susceptible of cultivation, there being but a small area of wet or swampy region. A few tamarack swamps are found, but of no great ex- tent. The river here is comparatively small, but quite rapid, and in places out of the township is utilized for water-power. Its banks are generally low, and the lands along it rich and productive.
The air-line division of the Michigan Central railway was opened for travel in the fall of 1870, and a station established two miles north of Clarendon Centre. Thus a means of transportation for stock, grain, and other products is afforded the inhabitants, who are, by means of the railway, brought into direct and quick communication with the great markets both east and west. The township sub- scribed ten thousand dollars' aid to the railway in 1869, the vote on the question standing one hundred and ten for the subscription and ninety-six against it. This was at a second meeting held for the purpose, the project having been defeated at the first one. Since the road has been completed, and the iron horse thunders over the rails with loads of precious freight behind him, the people are not sorry they made the investment.
EARLY SETTLEMENTS.
The settlement of Clarendon dates back nearly half a century, to the time when the red man occupied the country ; when the fierce wolf, the prowling bear, and other wild animals abounded in large numbers, and before the " beautiful penin-
sula" forming southern Michigan, with its sister peninsula on the north, became a State. The never-ceasing march of time has witnessed the removal of most of the members of the red race to make room for the influx of the white; the wild beasts have disappeared to more remote regions; the timid deer has fled affrighted from the encroachments of the whites upon his pasture-grounds, and the wilder- ness made to " blossom as a rose." Where erst the forest stood in its grandeur, or the prairie bore its annual wealth of flowers and perfume, the axe and the plow have created wondrous changes ; and we now see the fields rich with the product of man's labor, the fine dwellings and convenient and commodious barns, and every improvement incident to a country settled by a thrifty, energetic, industrious class of people. Truly theirs has been a fitting labor, and its results are certainly satisfactory to the pioneers who expended time, labor, and patience to bring them about. The township of Clarendon to-day, with its many cosy residences, broad highways, fields teeming with the manifold products of the soil, thrifty orchards, and ever-recurring evidences of prosperity, bears a striking contrast to the same territory as it appeared to the pioneer of forty-five years ago, and with the excep- tion that the contour of the surface remains the same the change in its aspect has been almost a complete revolution.
The first settler who located in the township was Anthony Doolittle, who came in May, 1832, in company with Deacon Henry Cook. The latter located in what is now Eckford township. These two men purchased four hundred and eighty acres of land at an advance of fifty per cent. from government price, paying one dollar eighty-seven and a half cents per acre. The land had been entered the previous winter by Dr. Hays, of Marshall. Mr. Doolittle located on section 1, on "Cook's prairie," as it was afterwards called, a name it has ever since re- tained. Mr. Doolittle has been dead a number of years, and none of his family are now living in the neighborhood. He came with Mr. Cook from Washtenaw county, where they had stopped the previous winter. Mr. Cook was from Cayuga county, New York, and Mr. Doolittle was also from that State.
The farm now owned by Hon. William Cook was originally located by John Kennedy, an unmarried man, who came about the same time Cook and Doolittle arrived. Mr. Cook has lived upon it since 1840. He came to the county with his father, Henry Cook, in 1832. He has been a prominent man among the citizens of the township and county. Was for many consecutive years supervisor of the township, and at present represents Calhoun County in the State senate. The farm is one of the best in the vicinity, and is finely improved, rich, and pro- ductive, as indeed are all those on Cook's prairie.
The next person who ventured to locate on the then frontier, and build for himself a home in the wilderness, was David L. Hutchison, who came from the town of Sullivan, Madison county, New York, in the month of October, 1832. He left the region of the historic Oneida lake and pushed boldly into a country but thinly populated, and only a short time known to eastern people as a place where white beans might possibly grow. There is no doubt but that the weary immi- grants had their sight gladdened by the beauty of the country they came into, and whatever fears they may have possessed as to the poor quality of the soil were quickly dispelled on arriving at their destination. Mr. Hutchison was a young man when he came. He at first located one hundred and seven acres of govern- ment land, partly on section 35, in what is now Eckford township, and partly on section 2, in Clarendon. The land was located near the site of the Free-Will Baptist church, which stands on the southwest corner of section 36, in Eckford township. The land he located first he kept until the 7th of June, 1833, when he sold it to Isaac Hopkins, who immediately settled upon it. Mr. Hutchison then purchased the southwest quarter of section 10, Clarendon township, upon which he built a log house and made other necessary improvements. In this house Mr. H. "kept bach." for a little more than four years, and occasionally some pioneer family would move in with him and stay until a house for their own use could be erected. In April, 1838, Mr. Hutchison was married to Huldah Maria Bennett, this being one of the first marriages in the township. Miss Bennett's parents lived in Kalamazoo county, whither they had emigrated from Wayne county, New York. Mr. Hutchison is still living on his farm, on section 10, and his broken health and shattered system bear witness to the labor he per- formed in making his home comfortable. By his own exertions he cleared over a hundred acres of heavy timber. When he first came he engaged extensively
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RESIDENCE OF GEORGE BORN, CLARENDON, MICHIGAN.
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AG.S. DEL.
RESIDENCE OF HON. WILLIAM COOK, CLARENDON, CALHOUN CO., MICH.
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HISTORY OF CALHOUN COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
in hunting up land for settlers. He was also fond of the chase, and numerous deer have fallen before his rifle, and, in his own language, he was "death on wild turkeys," which abounded in immense numbers. A few of them are yet left, but are exceedingly shy, and it is a rare occurrence to procure a shot at one. He speaks of seeing thirteen deer in one day.
Bears were very plenty, and many are the exciting stories told by old settlers of encounters with those shaggy beasts. Samuel Bently, now living at Clarendon Centre, was a great hunter, and though now advanced in years ean handle a trusty rifle almost as well as ever. He had a shoe-shop in South Albion in an early day, and on one occasion while at work was roused by a terrific noise from a pack of dogs. Taking down his ever-ready rifle, and stepping to the door, he could see across the fields a huge black bear in rapid retreat, followed by a pack of hounds in full cry. Behind the dogs came a number of men bent on Bruin's destruction. Mr. Bently walked to a certain point which the bear must pass, and, as he came up, gave him a bullet back of the shoulder, which dropped him. Bently stepped up to the bear to cut its throat, and about the time he reached it it arose to its feet,-and then there was a sudden change in the programine, and Bently ran for dear life, as he had not loaded his gun after firing. Finally his bearship was treed by the dogs, and a couple of shots through his head from Bently's rifle ended his earthly career, and he fell to the ground dead. He was very large and fat, and Mr. Bently was justly proud of his exploit.
Anthony Rogers came from Washington county, New York, and in the fall of 1832 purchased two eighty-acre lots on section 2, on one of which his son, Alonzo H. Rogers, is now living. Old Mr. Rogers lived a number of years on his farm, and died at the age of seventy-three or seventy-four. Alonzo H. Rogers, origin- ally from Washington county, came out in 1833, the year after his father located. Mr. R. had a wife and one child, and brought them with him to the farm on which he now lives. They arrived on the 6th day of May, 1833. A. H. R.'s second child, Albert N. Rogers, was born November 9, 1838, and a daughter, Mary Louisa Rogers, January 4, 1843. The only child now living is Albert N. Rogers, who occupies the old homestead with his father. This farm is also on the beautiful " Cook's prairie," and lies next west of the one owned by William Cook (the old John Kennedy farm). Mr. Rogers is one of the few old settlers now living in the township, and has reached an advanced age to find himself com- fortably and pleasantly situated, with the fruits of his handiwork thriving about him.
Loren Keep and Erastus B. Enos came out in 1832, arriving in Clarendon July 15, 1832. Mr. Keep was from Homer, Cortland county, New York, and Mr. Enos from Spafford, Onondaga county. Mr. Keep located the west half of the northwest quarter of section 18, and two " forties" on the southeast quarter of section 7. Mr. Enos located the east half of the northeast quarter of section 18, and the west half of the northwest quarter of 17. After locating their land they went home, and on the 8th of June, 1833, came back to their claims, and erected small shanties. Mr. Enos built a log house on his place the same year, and Mr. Keep built one the next year (1834). In May, 1833, Mr. Keep was married to a lady who came on the same boat with him from Buffalo, and who stopped in Washtenaw county, in the " Bend of the Raisin." He left her there, came and made his improvements, and went back after her subsequently. Mr. Enos sold out in 1853 and removed to Washtenaw county, where he afterwards died. In 1853, Mr. Keep built the frame house in which he is now living. Mr. Keep's wife and children are buried in the cemetery just east of his residence. When the log house was built on Mr. Enos' place (1833) a large stone chimney was erected at one end, and this was the means of dangerously injuring Mr. Enos' sister, Polly Enos, a maiden lady, who, while engaged in some household duty, was suddenly buried beneath the ruins of the chimney, which fell without an in- stant's warning. Miss Enos was finally extricated from her dangerous position, badly injured, and with several bones broken. It was almost miraculous that she escaped being crushed to death. Her broken bones were carefully reset, and, after a long and painful sickness, she recovered. This accident reminded the settlers that the country in which they had located was by no means exempt from trouble, and it was some time before they recovered from their fright and excitement.
Early in the spring of 1833, Oliver Lynch located on Cook's prairie and built a shanty ; and either this year or the next, John Keith also settled in the town- ship, somewhere near the site of the old saw-mill now standing on the farm of Aaron B. Bartlett.
John Blake was born in the State of Maine, and from there went to New York. In the fall of the year 1833 he came from Clarkson, Monroe county, New York, where he was then living, and located four miles east of the then village of Marshall, in Marengo township. He stayed in Marengo one year, and then came to the farm on which he now resides, in Clarendon, on section 10. His brother- in-law, William R. Howe, came with him, and the two located one hundred and twenty acres of government land, and afterwards purchased more. Of the early
settlers of Clarendon, Mr. Blake is the oldest now living in the township, being eighty-five years of age. He was out with the militia about two weeks during the war of 1812, and participated in the battle of Black Rock. He is the father of eleven children, of whom four are now living,-two sons and two daughters. The two sons, John R. and Hiram, served during the war for the Union, the former in the Seventh Ohio Infantry and the latter in the Twenty-fifth Michigan. At the time John R. Blake enlisted he was attending school at Oberlin, Ohio. He served six months and his brother three years. Mrs. Blake is also living, and has reached a hale old age.
Timothy Hamlin came in late in 1832 or early in 1833, and located on Cook's prairie. He married Eliza, a daughter of Anthony Doolittle, theirs being the first marriage in the township .* Mr. Hamlin taught school in 1833, in a log school-house which stood on the prairie, in the northeast corner of the township. His wife was Mr. Doolittle's oldest child.
The first white child born in the township was a daughter of Mr. Doolittle's, and hers was also the first death, unless perhaps that of Mrs. John Keith was earlier. Mrs. K. died in May, 1835, and Mr. Doolittle's child died some time during the same year. Among the early deaths were also those of a Mr. Hayes and a Miss Cummin.
The first road in the township was the Jackson and White Pigeon Territorial road, which was laid out as early as 1830, and was the main highway for people coming into the country or passing farther west. It was marked for a long time solely by blazes on the trees. With few exceptions its course is the same at present as in the days of weary pioneer travel, forty years ago.
In the spring of 1833, Calvin Rogers came from Orleans county, New York, with his wife and five children, and his father, Anthony Rogers. They located at first in Clarendon township, where they resided until 1851 or '52, when they removed to the farm on section 26, Eckford township, now owned by George Hays. The house which Mr. Rogers built in Clarendon was one of the com- mon log type, with stick chimney, mud-daubed cracks, " shake" roof, etc. They raised flax, which Mrs. Rogers spun and wove into garments for summer wear, while for their winter clothing the wool of a few sheep they possessed afforded the material. Calico was not introduced into the settlement for a number of years, and the only sugar used was that manufactured from the maple, which timber is now comparatively scarce.
In the spring of 1834, A. B. Bartlett and Isaac Wells came to the township, Bartlett locating on section 7 and Wells on section 9. Mr. Bartlett brought a thrashing-machine with him, which was an article much needed by the farmers, and a great improvement over the process of thrashing their grain with the flail or tramping it out with horses on the barn floors.
Mr. Bartlett afterwards built a saw-mill on the St. Joseph river. It is yet standing, but considerably decayed.
The St. Joseph river is here a somewhat insignificant stream, although its banks are higher than in many other places, where they overflow extensively in the rainy season.
In the year 1834, Cyrus Heath came from Madison county, New York, and located one hundred and sixty acres of government land in Clarendon, including the west half of the southwest quarter of section 2, and the east half of the southeast quarter of section 3. After locating his land he went back to New York after his family, and on the last day of September, 1835, arrived on the place the second time. The family then consisted of himself and wife and one son, Cyrus V. Heath, then only a year and a half old. During that fall (1835) he built a log house on the place, his family stopping in the house of David L. Hutchison until he could get his own cabin ready for their occupancy. They moved into it in January, 1836, and lived in it until the next October, when Mr. Heath sold his place to Elijah Andrus and Cornelius Putnam, and removed to the farm upon which he now lives, on section 2. The land on which he now resides was originally entered by Linard Born. Mr. Heath after purchasing the place moved in with Mr. Born, and lived in the log house until and after the re- moval of Mr. Born. In 1858, Mr. Heath built the frame house in which he now resides. When Mr. Heath brought his family from New York they came on the Erie canal to Buffalo, thence by the steamer " Commodore Perry" to De- troit, where they loaded their goods upon a wagon, and made a five days' trip of the remaining distance-about one hundred miles. Mr. Heath's father and brother-John Heath and Jolin Heath Jr .- came through Canada instead of coming by water, and joined him at Detroit, from which point they made the journey in company.
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