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 4
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HISTORY OF CALHOUN COUNTY
called, to Fort Gratiot with an occasional settlement as far north as Mackinaw and even to Sault Ste Marie. With the exception of some venturesome traders, the inhabitants were almost wholly French. The interior to the west, south and southwest for two hundred miles was an unbroken and, save by the savages, an uninhabited wilderness. There were no roads worthy of the name west and north of the Ohio, while no steamboats navigated the waters of the Great Lakes. All these were serious obstacles to overcome, but the greatest blow to the governor's ambition came from an unexpected quarter and from within the house of his friends in the shape of a report by Surveyor General Tiffin to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, in November, 1815.
The Congress, in anticipation of war and as an inducement to men to enlist, had, in 1812, provided for a government survey of six million acres of land "suitable for cultivation," two million of which was to be located in the territory of Michigan and to be known as military bounty lands for the reward of soldiers who cared to make entry.
To Edward Tiffin, a former Governor of Ohio and afterward Surveyor General, was committed the task of having the surveys made and reports upon the same transmitted to the government at Washington. In his report he says: "I annex a description of the country which has been sent me and which, I am informed, all the surveyors concur in # * * I deem it my duty to give you the information, believing that it is the wish of the Government that the soldiers should have, as the Act of Congress proposed, lands fit for cultivation and that the whole of the two million acres appropriated in the Territory of Michigan will not contain anything like one-hundredth part of that quantity, or is worth the expense of surveying. Perhaps you will think with me, that it will be proper to make this representation to the President of the United States, and he may avert all further proceedings by directing me to pay off what has been done and abandon the country."
Then follows a description of the military lands in Michigan terri- tory, a part of which, in view of what is now seen, is deemed of sufficient interest to reproduce here. "The country is, with some few exceptions, low wet land with a very thick growth of underbrush, intermixed with very bad marshes, but generally very heavily timbered with ash, cotton- wood, oak, etc. From these, continuing north and extending from the Indian boundary line eastward, the number and extent of swamps increase with the addition of the number of lakes from 20 chains to two and three miles across, many of them having extensive marshes adjoining their margins, sometimes thickly covered with species of pine called 'Tamarack,' and other places covered with a coarse, high grass and uniformly covered from six inches to three feet, and more at times with water. The margins of these lakes are not the only places where swamps are found, for they are interspersed throughout the whole country, and filled with water as above stated and varying in extent. The intermediate space between these swamps and lakes, which is prob- ably near one-half the country, is, with a very few exceptions, a poor, barren, sandy land on which scarcely any vegetation grows except very small scrubby oaks. In many places that part which may be called dry land is composed of little short of sand hills forming a kind of deep
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HISTORY OF CALHOUN COUNTY
basins, the bottom of many of which are composed of a marsh similar to those above described. The streams are generally narrow and very deep compared with their width, the shores and bottoms of which are, with a very few exceptions, swampy beyond deseription and it is with difficulty that a place ean be found over which horses can be conveyed."
Ilow different is the description written 114 years earlier by Cadillae, the founder of Detroit. Referring to the scenes along and adjacent to the Detroit River, this native son of France said: "The borders of the strait are vast prairies and the freshness of the beautiful waters keeps the banks always green. Natural orchards soften and bend their branches under the weight and quantity of their fruit toward the mother earth which has produced them. The ambitions vine, which has never wept under the pruning knife, builds a thiek roof with its large leaves and heavy elusters, weighing down the top of the tree which receives it and often stifling it with its embrace. The woods are full of game; the forest trees are straight as arrows and of prodigious size; above them the courageons eagle soars looking fixedly at the sun; the swans in the river are so numerons that one might take for lilies the reeds in which they crowd together and the fish are none the less delicions for their great abundance." The latter is not only much the prettier but much the truer picture. Her forest trees, "straight as arrows and prodigions in size," converted into boards and shingles and lath, until approximately exhausted, long placed her among the foremost of lumber produeing states. The product of her orchards and her vineyards, in quantity and quality, have carried her fame as a fruit prodneing state to every part of the home land and even beyond the seas. Her "poor, barren and sandy land in the intermediate spaces between the swamps and lakes" has produced more wheat per aere than any other state in the Union, while in quantity she has ranked fourth among the great wheat growing states of the Nation. This land. of which not more than one aere in a hundred, would ever be "fit for eultivation" has given Michigan a most creditable rank among the leading cereal states, while neither Cadillae nor Tiffin dreamed of the uneounted millions of dollars that lay sleeping the centuries away in her beds of iron and copper ore and in her deposits of salt and eoal.
Cass knew something of the possibilities of the embryo state and that knowledge laid under tribute all the resources of his being, personal and official. Though the soil of the state had been aspersed and the govern- ment's official seal of condemnation put upon it, though the tides of emigration sweeping westward were deflected and passed by Michigan, he was nothing daunted. He put forth his best efforts to seeure govern- ment aid to the territory to build roads, where only Indian trails traversed the wilderness. These efforts were rewarded by roads, crude it is true, but nevertheless roads surveyed and somewhat improved, leading through the forests to the westward and southward, eastward and northwestward. He eaused to be made known the territory's many advantages and when inquiries from home seekers began to multiply, seeured the establishment of a Government Land Office in Detroit, the first in the State.
Following these successful efforts within the territory was the intro-
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HISTORY OF CALHOUN COUNTY
duction of steam navigation on the Great Lakes above the falls of Niagara. One steam boat followed another until there was a daily line between Buffalo and Detroit. About this time the Erie Canal was put in com- mission and an all water route was open from New York and western New England to Michigan. The tides of emigration, which now set toward the peninsular territory, caught in their flow much of the best blood and brains of the northeastern states of the Union. Intelligent, resolute and courageous young men and women in large numbers came into Michigan to lay the foundations of a new commonwealth.
MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT
While material development and improvement was going on in a most gratifying way, Governor Cass was not unmindful of the necessary political changes that should accompany them. Out of the original Northwest Territory, of which Michigan was a part, Ohio had been made a State in 1802; Indiana in 1816 and Illinois followed two years later. From 1818 to 1836 the Territory of Michigan embraced all of Michigan and all the territory now known as Wisconsin and Minnesota east of the Mississippi.
From 1810 to 1820 the population of the territory nearly doubled. When Governor Cass came into office, the first system of government under the Ordinance of 1787 was still in vogue. Under that system the Governor and Judges, all appointed by the President, were supreme within the limitations of the Ordinance of 1787. In 1823 the second step in territorial government was taken when the people elected by popular vote eighteen councilmen from which nine were selected by the President and by him recommended to the Senate for confirmation. The territory remained under the Governor and Council, appointed and confirmed as stated, until 1827 when the exclusive power of choice was given to the people. This last step carried the people to the third grade in territorial government. In 1819 the Territory was given the privilege of electing a delegate to Congress.
William Woodbridge, of Detroit, was chosen. He was succeeded, after one term, by Judge Solomon Sibley, of the same place, and he in turn by a Catholic priest in the person of Gabriel Richard, who took his seat December 8, 1823. Father Richard was born in France and educated for the priesthood. He came to Detroit in 1798, where he built St. Ann's Church. He was popular with all classes. He was not only a loyal and devoted churchman but an energetic and public spirited citizen. He published the first newspaper ever printed in Michigan, was much interested in education and helped to lay the foundations of the State University. While he served but one term in Congress, he proved in Washington, as in Michigan, a useful friend of the new and rapidly developing territory. In 1832 he fell a victim of the cholera epidemie which that year raged with great virulence in Detroit and other parts of the territory. Father Richard is the only Catholic priest in Michigan that ever served in the Congress of the United States and though nearly ninety years have passed since that service was rendered,
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his memory is still fragrant to all Michigan people who know of his worth and works.
Another evidence of the growth and development of the Territory was evidenced by the organization of new counties. Wayne was the first county organized by Governor Cass in 1813, and at that time embraced the whole territory of Michigan. In 1817 President Monroe paid a visit to Detroit and soon after, Monroe County was organized and named in honor of the then chief executive. A year later Macomb was organized and named in honor of the General. Then followed in quick succession Maekinae, Oakland, St. Clair, Lenawee, Sanilac, Saginaw and Shiawassee, all up to 1822 inelusive. These county organizations tell better than anything else the trend of population, very little of which had to that time penetrated the interior, but followed mainly the water courses of the eastern seetion. The influences were at work, however, which would soon change this. The building of
THE TERRITORIAL ROADS
did much to open up the new Territory to settlers in the interior. The first of these ran from Detroit to the foot of the rapids on the Maumee River at what is now Perrysburg, Ohio, at that time considered as a part of Michigan.
The bill authorizing the survey and construction of this road was gotten through Congress during the term of Father Gabriel Richard and was the first of the territorial roads built in Michigan. In 1826 the Government made provision for the survey and construction of additional roads, notably from Detroit to Fort Gratiot, from Detroit to Saginaw Bay, and from Detroit to Chieago. One territorial road ran from Detroit west via Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, Jaekson and Marshall ; another passed through the southeastern counties. In 1832 Congress passed an act to authorize the surveying and laying out of a road from Detroit to the mouth of the Grand River on Lake Michigan. Laterals were constructed running from different parts to intersect with the main lines. Settlers in large numbers followed the opening of these new roads, postoffices were established at many points in the interior and new counties were organized. Here again, by the names of the new counties formed, do we see the course of the immigrants seeking homes in the territory. Jackson, Calhoun, IHillsdale, Branch, Cass, Berrien, Kalamazoo, Van Buren, Saint Joseph, Ingham, Eaton and Barry were organized by 1829. It will be seen that this gave two tiers of organized counties entirely across the lower part of the State and a third one nearly so.
The federal census of 1832 gave the population of Michigan as 32,538. Governor Cass in 1831 was made a member of Jackson's cabinet. George B. Porter, of Pennsylvania, was appointed to succeed him, while John T. Mason, of Virginia, was named as Secretary to succeed William Woodbridge, who had long held the office under Governor Cass. This latter office of Secretary derived its importance in a large part from the fact that in the absence of the Governor the Seere- tary acted in his place. Governor Porter did not arrive in Michigan
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HISTORY OF CALHOUN COUNTY
for nearly a year after his appointment and in the interval Mason acted as Governor, but he soon resigned and went abroad and President Jack- son appointed Stevens Thompson Mason, the Secretary's son, to succeed his father and so it came about through favoritism in appointments that Michigan's acting Governor was under twenty-one years of age. Pro- tests to the administration at Washington were made in vain. The younger Mason held his place as Secretary and continued to act as Governor notwithstanding his youth. Subsequently he was appointed Governor of the Territory.
In the meantime the desire for statehood was growing among the people and in 1834 took form in the shape of a memorial to the Congress by the Territorial Council for the passage of an act to enable them to proceed to form a state constitution and organize a state government. A long drawn-out controversy with Ohio over the southern boundary of Michigan, which involved during its course the President, his cabinet, both Houses of Congress, together with the Governors and people of the two states as parties to the controversy, not only delayed the admis- sion of Michigan into the Union but at one time threatened a serious collision of arms by the immediate disputants. Congress finally settled the difficulty by granting Ohio's claim of the ten mile strip in dispute and giving to Michigan in lieu thereof the Upper Peninsula. In the meantime Michigan had held her convention, framed a constitutton, elected a Governor and other state officers, a legislature, two United States Senators and a member of Congress. The machinery of state- hood was all constructed and set up but could not be put in motion until Congress said the word. This was done on the 26th day of January, 1837, when Michigan was duly admitted as the twenty-sixth State into the Federal Union.
CHAPTER VI MICHIGAN IN ITS PRIMITIVE STATEHOOD
CALHOUN AND CALHOUN COUNTY-IMPORTANT YEAR FOR THE COUNTY AND MARSHALL-RAPID GROWTH OF COUNTY AND COUNTY SEAT- PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS-FIRST COUNTY COURT HOUSE-A NEW COURT HOUSE NEEDED A NEW JAIL-THE CALHOUN COUNTY HOME-COUNTY OFFICERS.
It is doubtful if any state in the great middle west was more fortunate than Michigan in the character and quality of her pioneers. Except the French, wnose holdings were almost entirely confined to the river front from Monroe to Saint Clair where they had existed for more than a hundred years with little of material progress and comparatively slight increase in numbers, there were few foreigners. Nearly all the new comers after the second war with Great Britain were from New England, New York and Ohio. Among these were many men and women of education and refinement who sought to better their material condition in the new State bordered by the Great Lakes. Nearly all were without means, who had everything to make and little to lose; hence they were willing to subject themselves to the hardships, privations and toil inseparable from pioneer life in the first half of the last century.
The French settlers may be said to have constituted a class by then- selves and of these the late Chief Justice Cooley has given the following interesting picture: "French farms may almost be said to have lined the river from the mouth of the Detroit to Lake St. Clair; their houses fronted upon the road which ran along the river bank, and there was only a narrow belt of cultivation behind them, bordered by dense forest in which wolves, bears and other wild animals still offered pastime to the sportsmen. The agriculture of the farmers was of the most primitive character, the plow, except the share, was of wood, with a wooden wheel on either side of the long beam; the one small to run on the land side and the other larger to run in the furrow. Oxen were attached to this plow by a pole which had a hinged attachment; they were not yoked but the draught was by thongs or ropes fastened about their horns. A little two wheeled cart into which was fastened a pony, or perhaps a cow or steer, was the principal farm vehicle. The early farmers did not appreciate the value of manure in agriculture and removed it out of their way by dumping it into the river. The houses for the most part were a single story with a plain veranda in front and here in pleasant
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weather would gather the household for domestic labor and social recrea- tion. The houses of the wealthier classes were of hewed logs, with a large chimney occupying the space of a room in the center and a garret hung with festoons of drying or dried fruits, pumpkins, garlic, onions and medicinal and culinary herbs. The family wash was done at the river and the pounding of the clothes was with a little hand mallet, after the method of their ancestors from time immemorial. Everywhere the spinning wheel was in use and the madam, with just pride in her deft- ness, made the clothing for the family. The kitchen was a common gathering-room for the family, who liked to see the cookery going on with pots and kettles and spiders in an open fire place. Around many of the old houses and yards were pickets of cedar, ten or twelve feet high, which were originally planted for defense against the Indians. The only fastening to the front door of the house was a latch on the inside which was raised to open the door by a strip of leather, or deer's hide, run through a lrole in the door and hanging down on the outside. When the latch string was drawn in, the door was fastened; but so marked an indication of distrust or inhospitality was seldom witnessed as no one, not even an Indian, would be guilty of so great a breach of propriety as to lift the latch and cross the threshold without permission of the owner. The family, when leaving the house temporarily, did not therefore deem it necessary to fasten the door."
The Yankees, as all Americans were called, found their way into Michigan by the Erie Canal to Buffalo, thence across the Lake to Detroit, or by the military road up through the wilderness from Ohio. The entire household effects were generally conveyed in a single wagon drawn by oxen. The wife and mother with the small children rode while the husband and older children trudged along on foot. If fortunate enough to possess a cow, she was carefully tended and gently led by some member of the family. A canvas covering extended over the entire length of the wagon, usually projecting outward both in front and rear and supported by wooden bows or stays. This covering protected the household effects and during storms served as shelter for those members of the family fortunate enough to get under it.
With this outfit many families came into the wilds of Michigan seventy and eighty years ago, whose descendants are among our most successful and prominent citizens. At that time the main roads were at best but an excuse for highways. Oft times the team or wagon or both would sink into the mire, necessitating long delays in getting extricated. A week or ten days were consumed in journeying as far west from Detroit as Calhoun County.
When the "location" was finally reached, the wife and smaller children slept in or under the wagon while the logs were being cut and built into a cabin. Shingles were rived from blocks or bolts of wood and laid in place for a roof without nails, held down by the weight of poles laid transversely to the pitch of the roof. A fireplace that occupied the larger part of one end of the cabin was built up of mortar and stone with the flue constructed of sticks made into a sort of crib or stack laid up in mortar and plastered on the inside to protect from fire. The fireplace served for heating the house and cooking the
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HISTORY OF CALHOUN COUNTY
food. A crane fastened at one side of the fireplace swung forward to receive its burden of pots and kettles and then back over the blazing fire that the contents might be boiled. Spiders and skillets were placed on the hearth in front where they were heated by means of coals drawn from the fire. No more delicious bread was ever eaten than that baked in the skillet with its close fitting cover protecting the contents within while the live coals were drawn beneath and piled on top. Potatoes were baked by covering them with ashes and piling on these the hot coals. To get the delicious flavor of the tubers, no better way of cooking them has ever heen devised. Salt pork was the staple meat for which * fish and game were occasionally substituted. A floor for the cabin home often awaited the ereetion of a mill, the entting and hauling of logs and their conversion into boards. This, sometimes required months of time and in the meanwhile the family lived and ate and slept on the ground floor.
While without stalwart arms were felling the trees, entting and rolling the logs into heaps and piling the brush for burning preparatory to plowing and seeding, within loving hands were rocking the cradle and getting the meals for hungry and happy husband and children who with each setting sun saw the pioneer's ambition for a home more nearly realized.
The elothing, both for adults and children, was made at home and from the plainest material. For outer garments Kentucky jeans met the requirements of the men and ealico of the women. Children went bare-footed from the time frost left in the spring until it came again in the fall.
Mails were both infrequent and irregular, while it cost twenty-five eents in postage to carry a letter from Michigan to New England. There were no daily papers. The weeklies were small in size, unattractive in make up and meager in contents. The schools, supported by rate bills, were of short duration, usually three months in a year, and primitive in every way. Reading, writing, grammar and arithmetic were looked upon as the essentials, more than these as superfluous. In winter, spelling and singing schools were common sources of community profit and amusement. Quiltings for the women, husking bees and raisings for the men and dancing parties for both sexes were utilized for recrea- tion and social development.
Churches were few and far between. The log school house served as a place for both intellectual and religions instruction. The circuit rider usually made the rounds of his preaching places once in four weeks and then only for a single service. To the appointed place of worship, people would come up in every direction from out of the woods, some on foot, some on horseback and some in wagons or carts drawn by oxen.
The young people conrted, loved, married and were given in mar- riage. Almost every wife became the mother of children. Domestie seandals were very rare. Divorces were practically unknown. Health, happiness and a reasonable degree of prosperity attended the pioneers who felled the forests, cleared and fenced the fields, planted the orchards and vineyards, constructed the highways and bridges, built the homes Vol. 1-2
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and schools and churches and in these laid the foundations of the civil- ization which the later generations have inherited.
CALHOUN AND CALHOUN COUNTY
Anticipating the early completion of the public surveys of the south- western part of the State and the final extinguishment of the Indian claims to some portions of the unsurveyed lands, the Legislative Council of 1829 set off twelve counties, which included all the land west of the principal meridian and south of the fifth township north of the base line.
The names given to most of these counties clearly indicate the ruling party at the time, both at Washington and in Michigan. One was called Jackson after the then President of the United States; another Calhoun after the Vice President; Van Buren was named after Jackson's Secre- tary of State; Ingham was named for the then Secretary of the Treas- ury ; Eaton, for the Secretary of War; Branch, for the Secretary of the Navy; Barry, for the Postmaster General; Berrien, for the Attorney General and Cass, for the then Governor, but, who in 1831 became Secretary of War under Jackson.
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