USA > Michigan > Calhoun County > History of Calhoun county, Michigan : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 29
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In the summer of 1831, Messrs. Hurd and Smith, the owners of two thirds of the county seat, procured a survey and platting of the same. The government required that before the proclamation should be is- sued declaring this point the seat of justice for Calhoun, that the following conditions should be complied with; the relinquishment on the part of the owners of the land, for public use of the alleys, streets, and squares to be used for public buildings. Upon Mr. Ketchum's return from New York this was arranged. The new seat of justice was named Marshall in honor of John Marshall, then chief justice of the United States, who was a warm and respected friend of Mr. Ket- chum's. Among the property released was the court house square
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(now the West End Park), four church lots, for the Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists and Episcopalians; also a lot was put aside for a seminary and one for a jail.
The first settler to arrive was Mr. George Ketchum. He was a man of strong frame and well balanced mind, accustomed to carrying on a diversity of business and of control of men. He arrived in Marshall the ISth of April, 1831, accompanied by a gang of men to build mills. These were Horace P. Wisner, Solomon Allen, White Ketchum, a cousin, John Kennedy, and Larson Ball. Mr. Ball brought his wife, and she was for some time the only white woman here. The journey out from Detroit over the Territorial Road was made with ox-teams, over almost impassable, bridgeless highways, and took eleven days. There was no house in the county at the time, the place being a veritable wilderness. Mrs. Ball slept in the wagon and cooked on the ground till a house could be built. This first house in Calhoun county was of logs, twenty- six feet long, 20 feet wide, and one and one-half stories high, and was located on Rice creek.
After the erection of the house, work was commenced on the saw mill ; this was on Riee creek somewhat cast of where the "White Mill" now stands. The building of this saw mill was in progress when Dr. A. L. Hays arrived the next month, May, 1831. Dr. Hays 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 to corn and potatoes. The planting being accomplished, he built a log house, and returned East for his family.
Of the first religious service in the new settlement we have the ac- count from the pen of Rev. John D. Pierce who writes; "Arriving at Marshall the last of June, I found one or two shanties, and a double log house partly done. Next day. being the Sabbath day, July 1, 1831, by consent of the owner the meeting was appointed. The entire com- munity assembled, not one of the settlers was absent. When the con- gregation came together it numbered about twenty-five. Some present were non-residents in search of locations, land lookers they were called. The novelty of the scene induced all to attend. There was one con- gressman, and one judge from the East, and others were men of learning and intelligence. At that time there were three white females in the county, two in Marshall and one twelve miles west. I never preached to a more attentive congregation. This was the first Christian assembly, and the first sermon ever preached in that region for hundreds of miles in extent, where the red man and his companion hunter, the wolf, had roamed free for ages."
Mr. Sidney Ketchum returned in July with his family, consisting of his wife, five children, parents, and a young sister. Here in this true camp in the wilderness, did this little band of men and women labor assidously, hewing the forest trees to make themselves homes, wrest- ing from nature the wherewithal to live.
Sidney Ketchum is described as a man of commanding presence, an air of confidence and honesty, and a ready command of most convineing language. He was called by the Indians "The Great White Chief." Marshall, in its building, owes much to Mr. Ketchum's ability and enter-
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prise. In September, 1831, Dr. A. L. Hays arrived with his family, his house being on the south side of the river, between the stone brewery and the quarry. They harvested the erop of corn and pota- toes that the doctor had planted before leaving in the spring, and had a plentiful erop of each. This was the first raised in the town. Peter Chisholm had a shanty abont a mile further down on the same side of the river, but after the birth of his little daughter, Helen M., the first white ehild to be born in the county, he removed to the town (or where it was to be), thus leaving the Hays the only white family living between the Kalamazoo and St. Jo rivers. Ilere they lived during the winter of 1831-32, and here their son Luther HI. was born January 17, 1832. the first white male child born in our county.
Photo by J. H. Brown
ONLY OLD STYLE SAW MILL LEFT IN COUNTY
On the third of September, 1831, the saw mill was finished, and its benefit to the settlers can hardly be estimated. Up to that time the pioneers were living without floors, and often without doors, to their houses. The houses were covered with bark, shakes (split shingles) or split logs. This, too, be it remembered when the woods swarmed with Indians and wild beasts. On the completion of the mill, George Ketehum returned to bring out his family. Mrs. Ketchum writes: "We were ten days coming from Detroit in a lumber wagon. At Sandstone creek Mr. Ketchum carried us across on his baek. On the evening of November 2, we arrived in Marshall, a howling wilderness. Wolves and bears were our nightly visitors."
During 1831, Isaac N. Hurd, Lueius Lyon, II. H. Comstock and John Bertram located twelve parcels of land in Marshall township, and during that year John I. Guernsey, Stephen Kimball, Sidney Aleott, Thomas and Peter Chishohn, Henry Cook, Henry Faling, Ezera and Samuel Conors, Nathan Pierce, Nathan Barney, Polodon Hudson,
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Thomas J. Hurlbert, Asabel Warner, Thomas Burland, Thomas Knight, S. G. Crossman, Oshea Wilder, Dowena Williams, Josiah Godard, Rev. John D. Pierce, and many others came to the county. Upon Rev. Pierce's return with his family the community urged them to make Marshall their home instead of proceeding farther west as had been their intention, and Mr. Pierce writes, "as an earnest of their good- will and wishes they gave me one of two village lots on which the double log house was built. (This lot was the second from the north- east corner of Mansion street and Kalamazoo avenue.) I paid the man who built it a fair compensation, and in this house, for two years, meetings were held nearly every Sunday. There remained during the winter about sixty persons." Since the double log house was the most commodious in the little settlement, it speedily became a stopping place for travelers and land lookers. With all her aristocratic training Mrs. Pierce was a frugal house wife, and she saw a way to add a honest dollar now and then to the income of her missionary husband, and many were the settlers who paid tribute to the good accommoda- tion of the Pierce home.
Among the arrivals in 1832 were Rev. Hohart, a Methodist preacher, Dr. Luther Wells Hart, a physician, Isaac E. Crary, George E. Fake, Marvin Preston, Charles D. Smith, Reuben White and others.
In May 1832, an historical event was the founding of the Con- gregational ehureh, formed with seven members, Stephen Kimball be- ing its first deacon.
During this month of May, too, there occurred a terrible fright to the settlers when the alarm was given that the fierce "Black Hawk" with his "braves" was on the war path, and that death and destruc- tion would mark their trail. It was indeed appalling news to the little band of colonists all unlearned in Indian warfare. A meeting was called, and it was decided to send forth all available men to meet the savages. Accordingly, two days later, twelve men, armed with rifles, their blankets packed and provisioned, started forth. George Ketchum was chosen first in command, Isaac E. Crary, second. On the company's arrival at Prairie Ronde, they found Col. Daniels, com- mander of the district, and learned to their relief that there was no immediate danger. This ended the "Black Hawk war" as far as Marshall was concerned, but the fear and feeling of insecurity caused, remained long with the settlers.
In July, 1832, the cholera scourge broke out in the little settle- ment, out of the seventy inhabitants eight died, and many were stricken. The first victim of the dread disease was Isaac N. Hurd. He died at the home of Mr. Pierce about sundown, and was buried that same night, by torchlight, on his own land. The seven other cholera victims (among whom was the gifted Mrs. Pierce) were buried by him. This land was deeded by Mr. Hurd's heirs to the village for burial purposes and was used as a cemetery till 1839. It was located west of Linden street, between State and Hanover.
Despite these gloomy events the town had advanced in improve- ments, and continued to grow.
The mail was received from Detroit regularly once a week, and
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George Ketchum was the first postmaster. It is said the mail was kept first in the clock and then in a cigar box.
In the spring of 1832 the first school house, a frame building, was erected, and stood on the second lot west of the Presbyterian church (northwest corner Eagle and Mansion streets) and Miss Eliza Ketchum was its first teacher. However, during the previous year, when a loft was the best school room that could be provided, instruction had been given the few children of the settlement by a Miss Brown, who had been called from Ann Arbor for the purpose. The first pioneers, being people of learning and culture, recognized the importance of early in- struction for the young, and had thus provided for it. The new school house was also used for religious meetings, Mr. Pieree and Mr. Hobart preaching alternately.
In 1832, the first dry goods store was established by Charles D. Smith. He arrived with a box of dry goods, and used the same box for a counter in a little room ten by twelve feet.
In 1832, also, the first regular tavern was built in Marshall. (Rev. Pierce's having been a "house of hospitality" as boarding houses were then called). It was a frame building built by Sam Camp the pro- prietor, who called it the "Exchange Hotel." It was located where the stone barn now stands, and was afterwards destroyed by fire.
In 1833, Sidney Ketchum laid out an addition to the village, recorded as the "upper village of Marshall" which was directly east of the village first planned; this ineluded all land east of Division and Jefferson streets, from that time there existed, in the rapidly growing town, a sharp rivalry between the two factions; everything was fought over, the location of hotels, school house, mills, bank. An amusing incident of the rivalry is related regarding the starting of the first bank in 1836. The west end magnates were Dr. Hays, Sam C. Camp, Charles D. Smith, S. S. Alcott and others; those of the east end were the Ketchum brothers. The books were opened at the National Hotel, and stoek was being subseribed by the west enders quietly, no one appearing from the east end till toward evening, when, just before the closing of the books, George Ketehnm came. in, took up the book, and began to subscribe for himself and his friends various amounts of stock, and to pay into the hat, the receptacle for the first eash instalment the five per cent. of the subscriptions demanded on the same. The subserip- tions grew apace, the money accumulated in the hat till the west enders began to grow alarmed as they saw the Ketebums and their adherents getting control of the stock. Whereupon Smith snatched the book from under Ketchum's arm, but Ketchum reached for the deposits which he retained, and the work was suspended. The matter was compromised by Ketchum's securing a controlling interest. The bank was built just inside the line of the plat of the lower village. It was chartered under the safety fund system. Sidney Ketchum was the first and only president, and George S. Wright was its first cashier. Its capital was $100,000, and it continued to do business till October 15, 1840, when it ceased opera- tions.
Marshall was a lively, and interesting place in those booming days before the panic of 1837. The town, which had a good chance of be-
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coming the capital of the state attracted large numbers of college bred men, and was long considered the most intellectual place outside of Detroit. (The bill to locate the state capital at Marshall actually passed the senate by a majority of fourteen, but by undue influence it was thrown out of the lower house by a majority of two). The town also derived no small amount of prospective importance from the fact that a college was incorporated, and steps were taken to prepare for its early erection. A beautiful tract of land was purchased, a primary building put up, and for a short time occupied for school purposes. The Rev. John D. Cleveland was elected president of the college, was upon the ground, devoted to the enterprise, and surely deserved suc- cess. (The primary building was located on the second lot north of the northeast corner Mansion and High streets.) An institution was incorporated about the same time for the higher education of females, and a building erected on the lot east of Sidney Ketchum's, called a Female Seminary, which was occupied some two or three years, and then with the college, utterly failed. Neither came to their end from want of appreciation of their advantages, but because they were pre- maturely started.
The two centers of the town's activity were the court house square in the lower town, and the Marshall house square in the upper. On the former, in 1836, was erected the first brick building in the county, the National hotel, built by Andrew Mann. who opened it with the first formal ball ever held in Marshall, on January 1, 1836. (Messrs. George Bentley and Nathan Benedict came on in 1834 to do the carpenter work on this hotel.)
Isaac E. Crary built, on the court house square, the first pretentious house in Marshall. It was a frame building, the first to be plastered in the county. In 1836, Chauncey M. Brewer and Charles T. Gorham, opened a general store on the north of court house square and carried on a thriving business here till 1838 when they bought the lot on the northwest corner Eagle and State streets and erected the first brick store in the lower village. This was called the Eagle store, and gave the name to the street passing east of it. This partnership lasted till 1840, when Mr. Gorham retired to establish a bank, which is still con- tinued under the name of the First National Bank, by his son and is the oldest continuons banking business in the state. Upon Mr. Gor- ham's withdrawal Mr. Brewer took in his two brothers-in-law, John Dusenbury and Edward Butler, and the firm continued under the name of Butler, Brewer and Dusenbury, till 1845. Mr. Brewer con- tinued it alone till 1870 then his sons C. D. and E. G. Brewer took the business. It bore this firm name till 1890 since which time Mr. E. G. Brewer has continued the business with the exception of the 'years 1897-98. A wonderful set of ledgers are in possession of Mr. Brewer, having been kept continuously since 1836. They are of his- torical value to the town, as it was Mr. Chauncey Brewer's enstom, to jot down under the proper dates anything of town importance that had taken place.
Other merchants of 1836 were Charles P. Dibble, afterward owner of Sidney Ketchum's Mansion House, Schuyler and Wallingford, H. H.
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Comstock (drugs), Butler and Dusenbury. Mr. MeC'all was the first tailor, and Rev. Hovart his first customer.
On December 7, 1836 the first newspaper of the county made its appearance, called the Calhoun County Patriot, edited by H. C. Bunce. In 1840 it was changed to the Democratic Expounder.
December 16, 1836, the Marshall Times came out, edited by G. J. Greves ; it was the first Democratic, but subsequently changed its politics, took the name of The Republican, and afterwards that of The Statesman. (Both papers continne to the present day, the Expounder being known as the Chronicle and the Statesman by the same name.)
Marshall was incorporated into a village, October 28, 1837. with the following officers. Sidney S. Alcott, president; Cyrus Ilewitt, recorder, and Chauncey M. Brewer, treasurer.
Another historical event of 1837 was the dedication of the Episcopal church which was finished in the autumn of that year. The church occupied the site where now stands the Lutheran church, and was the frame structure now used as a blacksmith shop on Hamilton street.
During the stirring times when Michigan was being admitted to statehood, occurred the formulating and founding of Michigan's public school system, by two of Marshall's talented men of learning, Rev. John D. Pierce, and General Isaac E. Crary. It had its inception one summer afternoon when the two men, warm friends of education, sat on a log discussing the future of the new state to be.
The spot where occurred the birth of the idea of our wonderful school system is appropriately marked with a boulder placed by the Mary Marshall Chapter, D. A. R .. It is on Chas. E. Gorham's lawn, which at that time, was a wooded hill, north of the court house.
The improvement of the upper town went on with the same rapidity. In 1838 the Marshall House Co. (Sidney Ketchum, president, Geo. S. Wright, secretary) built the Marshall House, a very elegant and pre- tentions hostelry, planned by the architect who built Trinity church, N. Y. This was by far the finest hotel in Michigan. Much improvement. having been made in the passes over marshes and streams on the Terri- torial road, a line of stages had supplanted the wagons, and these made three trips out from Detroit each week for delivery of mail and passen- gers. Zenas Tillotson ran the stage line from Jackson to Niles, and it was indeed an event, when these coaches, gay with yellow paint, and drawn by four and six horses, with great tooting of horns and flourish of whip, drew up before the hospitable doors of the Marshall House.
In 1838 Mr. Sidney Ketchum built his beautiful Mansion House, which has given the name of Mansion to the street on which it stands, and also the same year, built for the Methodists a fine stone church on east Green street. The first service was held in this church in December, 1838. Previous to that the service had been held at Mr. Ketchum's home and later in the school house.
Calhoun county was organized for judicial purposes by an act of Territorial legislature, March 6th, 1833. The first session of the circuit court, held in November, 1833, was presided over by Judge W. A. Flet- cher, and Eleaser MeCamly, associate. A grand and petit jury was summoned, with Oshea Wilder foreman. All discharged for want of
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COURT HOUSE, MARSHALL
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business. This session and those following, were held in the frame school house, until the first court house for Calhoun county was erected, in 1838. This was a substantial and pretentious colonial brick structure, built with an expense of from $25,000 to $30,000. It stood in the court house square, now the West End park, faced east, and had, at front and rear entrances, the colonial portico with pillars. The roof was topped by a square cupola. Unfortunately, the foundation used was the soft Marshall sandstone, which proved inadequate for its support, so that, in the late sixties, it was condemned and abandoned. The fol- lowing is an extract of the sketch made of the statistics of the county, and placed in the cornerstone of the first court house, July 22, 1837. "In the village of Marshall there are at present two printing offices, seven lawyers, seven physicians, four clergymen, two surveyors and civil engineers, three churches, Methodist, Episcopal and Presbyterian, three taverns, seven drygoods, four grocery stores, one drug and medicine store, two bakeries, two jewelry shops, one chair factory, one fanning mill factory, one cabinet factory, one tin and copper, one furnace, four blacksmiths, two wagons and carriage, two tailors, one millinery, two shoemakers, one livery stable, one flour mill and one sawmill in operation, and one of each in building."
From its organization the Calhoun county bar was composed of men of rare intellect and brilliancy. It is said of Marshall that no town of its size in the world has had so many notable men practice before its bar -men who were to occupy places of eminence and honor in state and nation. Many of the finest political speakers lectured within the old court house walls, or, in times of great mass meetings, from under the giant elm before its portals. This tree still stands, and is rightly re- garded by Marshall's citizens as an historic elm, as sheltered by its branches, such men of renown have spoken as Cassins M. Clay, Thos. E. Hendrix, of Indiana ; Benjamin Butler ; Wm. E. Seward also addressed a politieal meeting, but from the poreh of Mr. Sidney Ketehum's house. It was a great event, the day had been elaborately arranged, and Mrs. Kingsbury writes of how her father, the proud marshal of the day, was discomfited by the running away of his horse, who bore the irate officer far from the gala scene and threw him into the marsh, where the high school now stands.
Because of the culture and intellect of its settlers, Marshall's social life, from the very beginning was characterized by a refinement and ele- gance not usually found in frontier life. We have an interesting account of a social event in 1839, from the pen of Mrs. Joseph Frink, who was Miss Bellona Pratt. "In November, 1839, two weeks after our arrival in Marshall, Mr. Sidney Alcott, a former Rochester man and a friend of father's (JJudge Abner Pratt), and of Judge Lee's, who came west with us. gave a very large party in honor of father and Judge Lee. The guests were composed of old and young. Among the number were three young married couples, the brides in their bridal robes. Mr. and Mrs. Chas. T. Gorham. Mr. and Mrs. David Wallingford and Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Frink. I must say that I have never seen any more style and refinement at a party since. At eight o'clock, coffee and cake were served in the parlors, and at eleven o'clock a game supper was served in the
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dining room below. The game consisted of "wild turkey, prairie chicken, quail, etc. All the serving was done by colored waiters." Mr. Alcott's house still stands north west corner Mansion and Grand streets.
In 1841 the town was again visited by a scourge, this time in form of a fever, which was attributed to the overflowing of the millpond, causing malaria from the stagnant pools. Application was made for the removal of the dam, but the indignant owner refusing, the people took the matter into their own hands. On Sunday morning, the day and hour being chosen with the idea that the owner would be in church, it was demolished. The irate owner appeared on the scene while the work was in progress, and trouble ensued, but at last a compromise was effected, a race dug, and the cause of illness destroyed.
An important building erected in 1843 was the Presbyterian church, located on the north side of main street, in the center of the block be- tween Eagle and Division streets. It was of colonial design, built of briek, with pillars in the front. Here many brilliant ministers preached the word. Rev. Calvin Clark, J. P. Cleveland, John Wilder, Samuel Hall, Jas. Trowbridge, Wm. McCorkle, Livingston Willard. F. F. Ford, and others.
The next step of importance in the town's development was the en- trance of the Michigan Central Railroad in 1844. The railroad, then owned and constructed by the state, had reached Jackson in 1841 At that date negotiations were started for the grading and bridging of the road from Jackson to Marshall, but the road was not completed to this point till August, 1844. On the 10th day of that month, amidst great excitement, the first train came in to town. Mr. John Bean remembers the occasion distinctly. The conductor of the first passenger train was Zenas Tillotson, who, upon the advent of the railroad, discontinued his stage line.
It 1848 the first telegraph office was established by the Erie and Michigan Telegraph Company.
The famous old frame school house, so long the seat of intellectual life, scholastic, theological and judicial, having served as schoolhouse, church and court house, was deemed to have outlived its usefulness, and a new school house decided upon. The question of location was settled by placing it exactly between the school districts, which had been com- bined, even though that position was in the midst of the marshiest marsh possible. So, in 1847. a new red brick school house was built, where now stands the Central building.
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