USA > Michigan > Cass County > History of Cass county, Michigan > Part 34
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Blocke No. 7, 13 and 14, in Range 2 west-7 and 14, in Ranges 1 west and enst. Black : north; the whole of Block 2 north, Range 2 east ; Nos. 6, 7, 8, 9 10 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 in Block 1 north, Range 2 east ; Nos 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 In Block 3 south ; 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12, in Blocks 2 and 3 south, and 6, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16, in Rinck 1, south of Range 2 enat; Nos. 7 and 11, fa Range 3 cast; 7, 11, 12, 13 and 14, Block 2 north, Range 4 casl ; Blocke 2 and 3 south, in Range 4 east, are donated to the county, to he disposed of by their agent.
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
5th and 9th of December, 1 70, and S. F. Anderson laid out the villa of Andersonville upon lands adjoin- ing the town plat, August 26, 1871.
A SOUVENIR.
An interesting memento of the founding of Cassop- olis was received by the corporation officers in 1868, and is carefully preserved. The relic is a cane made from a pole cut on the site of the village in 1831, by Alexander H. Redfield, and used by him and Mr. Sherman in measuring distances. Following is the interesting explanatory letter from Mr. Redfield which accompanied the gift.
" In September or October, 1831, Elias B. Sherman, Esq , of Cassopolis, and 1, came on foot from Edwardsburg to the site of Cassopolis, and stopped at the house of Abram Tietsort, Jr., situated on the bank of the lake. We wished to determine whether it was not a good place for the county seat. We stood upon the beautiful elevation, now the public square, and desired to know the distance from the center of the hill to the first section corner east. With my pocket knife I cut a hickory pole and with my hands, measured off, as near as I could, one rod, and with that pole we measured up from the section corner west to the center of the hill, and found the distance to be forty rods. We theu planted the pole in the ground at or near the present center of the public square. The Commissioners, Messrs. Rowland, Dis- brow and O'Keefe, appointed by the Territorial Legislature. soon after established the county seat at the point selected by us. The pole stood where we had planted it till the village plat was sur- veyed and marked, and clearing and building began. Passing one day across the public square 1 found that a brush heap had been burnel near where the pole stood and that the whole of it had been burned except a small piece from which this cane has been made. I have carefully preserved the stick thirty- seven years, as a memorial of early times an l ol l friends and asso- ciations, and now respectfully request the corporation of Cassop- olis to accept this cane with my warmest wishes that the beauti- ful village, in the founding of which and the building up I took an humble but earnest part during seventeen years in which it was my home, may be blessed and prosperous, and its citizens happy." A. H. REDFIELD.
Dated DETROIT, October 24, 1868.
INITIAL EVENTS.
When the plat of Cassopolis was recorded there was not within its bounds a single dwelling house, but very soon there appeared tangible tokens of the village that was to be. Ira B. Henderson erected a log cabin on the ground in front of which Mellvain, Phelps & Kingsbury's store now stands ; John Parker put up a hewed log house on Lot 5, Block 1 south, Range 1 west, and in the spring of 1832 Messrs. Sherman and Redfield put up a large, frame house on the northwest side of the public square- which is still standing and the oldest house in Casso- polis.
The cabin of Abram Tietsort, Jr., was not included in the original limits of the village, but its site is inside of the present boundaries. Julia Ann Tiet- ort (now Mrs. Gates, of Orleans County, N. Y.)
was born there July 3, 1830, and was the first white child which had its nativity in Cassopolis.
The first death was that of Jason R. Coates, and occurred August 7, 1832. He was killed by being dashed against the limb of a tree by a spirited saddle horse which became unmanageable and ran away with him. The funeral was attended from Henderson's tavern, and the remains were interred where they now rest in the cemetery. A portion of the ground in the burial-place was set apart at that time by Mr. Sherman.
Upon January 1, 1833, was celebrated the first wedding. the parties to which were Elias B. Sherman, and Sarah, daughter of Jacob Silver. Mr. Sherman had arrived at the realization of the great truth that is not good for man to be alone, and, having induced Miss Silver to believe that it was not alto- gether good for woman to be alone, they set the day for the happy event which should make them one. There was no minister in Cassopolis at that time, and none in the immediate vicinity. Miss Silver's especial choice was to have the marriage ceremony performed by an Episcopalian, and learning that Bishop Philander Chase had just located at " Gilead," about sixty or seventy miles east of Cassopolis, Mr. Sherman was sent out to secure, if possible, his serv- ices. Early one morning, mounting a trusty horse, he set out upon his journey and at nightfall arrived at the Bishop's cabin. He was successful in his mis- sion and upon the following morning started upon his return trip. Miss Silver was delighted with the idea of being married by a Bishop, and elaborate prepara- tions were made for the ceremony. The morning of the 1st of January dawned auspiciously. The sun shone brightly and the weather was as mild as May. The Bishop was on hand according to agree- ment, the people of the little hamlet and of the sur- rounding country were filled with pleasurable excite- ment and all went "merry as a marriage bell." The guests assembled in the second story of the building in which Jacob Silver sold goods-since known as " the old red store." The large room had been espe- cially prepared for the occasion and made as pleasant as was possible. The weather was so balmy and warm that the windows and doors were left open. Spring-like breezes floated through the apartment, and wild flowers picked in the morning upon Young's prairie brightenel the costumes of some of the maids and matrons who were present. Benjamin F. Silver and Charlotte Hastings acted respectively as grooms- man and bridesmaid. Not all of the names of those present can be remembered, but among the guests at this first social gathering in Cassopolis were Alexan- der H. Redfield. Dr. Henry H. Fowler, Benjamin F.
Souples. tenho
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Silver, Ira B. Henderson, John Parker, Henley C. Lybrook, David Brady, George Jones, Peter and David Shaffer, Robert Wilson, the McIntosh and Shields families, Joel Wright, Isaac Shurte, Eli P. Bonnell, Job Davis and Abraham Townsend. Almost all of these were accompanied by their wives and families and the company was, considering the time, a very large one. The pair joined in wedlock upon that bright, balmy New Year's Day are still living and surrounded with a circle of warm friends who hope to see them celebrate their golden wedding and many succeeding anniversaries of their marriage.
CASSOPOLIS IN 1835.
The infant Cassopolis attained the age of four years in 1835. A few. a very few, gray-bearded men, look- ing through the picture galleries of their memory, can find a more or less faded representation of the seat of justice of Cass County as it appeared forty-six years ago ; but scrutinize the picture closely as he will, no one of them can detect suggestions or promise of the beautiful and thriving village of to-day.
There was a little clearing in the woods, which con_ tained a straggling group of perhaps a dozen houses and log cabins. Through the forest surrounding this small, new dot of civilization, here and there paths or trails wound away toward other settlements. There was one extending to the southward to Edwardsburg, not where the present road is, but over the hill by Mrs. Anderson's residence. Another led across the ground now used as a burial-place, and northwesterly to La- Grange Prairie, from whence it bore southward to Pokagon. Nearly all the travel between the latter settlement and Cassopolis was by this round about route. Bearing off from the La Grange Prairie road to the northward, was a trail to Whitmanville. Ex- tending eastward from the little hamnlet there was a path by way of Diamond Lake to Young's Prairie. and beyond, and branching from it there was one which led down to Mottville. The road to Niles in those days led through the woods on the high ground west of Stone Lake, where it may still be traced, and forms indeed a beautiful woodland path.
Travelers (and there were many of thein going about the country looking for land locations in the time of which we write), riding into Cassopolis on any one of the winding trails above mentioned, drew up at the tavern kept by Eber Root. This was a framed build- ing, and stood on the ground now occupied by the Cass House. Its exterior was not particularly allur- ing in appearance, but within was a genial landlord and good cheer. The wayfarer and the stranger, if the season were winter, could warm himself before a crackling wood fire in the bar-room, and supplement
the external comfort by internal, through the agency of the honest whisky which Root sold for three cents a glass. One barrel and a few bottles usually con- tained the whole of the liquid stock in trade, but the single barrel was very frequently replenished from the Silver's distillery down by the lake. Whisky was almost universally drank in those days, and Root sel- dom kept any other form of spirits. When court sat, however, there was demand for beverages either milder or more aristocratic, and wines and brandies were im- ported for the occasion. The bar-room of the tavern, however, was not supported entirely by the patronage of the traveling people. The distillery was a home institution, and at that time about the only manufact- uring establishment in Cassopolis, and the " drouthy neebors " of the village gave it a hearty support, even going so far as to sit up nights and dispose of its pro- ducts, and that, too, very often, after devoting the entire day to the same work.
If the stranger who visited Cassopolis in 1835 desired the services of a lawyer, he found Alexander H. Redfield, who was boarding at the tavern, or Elias B. Sherman, who lived in the frame house which still stands on its original site, back of the county offices, and is now owned by Mrs. Caroline Bisbee. This house was built by Mr. Sherman for a hotel, but at the time of which we write, it was a private dwelling house, occupied by Mr. Sherman and " Uncle Jake Silver.'
Rivaling in importance, as a social center, the tav ern, there was Silver's store, " the old red store," which stood where is now the ware room occupied with a portion of French's hardware stock. Here the Silvers dispensed goods in small quantities and great variety, to the few people of the village, and the larger number who dwelt in the region round about, and here lawyer Redfield kept the post office.
Upon the lot back of the present place of business of McIlvain, Phelps & Kingsbury, stood a little log building, originally built by Ira B. Henderson, for a hotel, in one end of which the village smithy had his forge, while the other end was occupied by a family.
Not far away from this building, on the lot now best described as south of the Lindsey planing-mill, was a small log building, with a big, formidable lock upon its door, the county jail, which is elsewhere de- seribed.
Besides these buildings, Cassopolis contained, in 1835. a half dozen others, or, to be exact, seven. There was, to begin the enumeration, the distillery, to which allusion has been made ; a little house where Joel Cowgill now lives, in which resided Catherine Kimmerle, a widow; one in which David Root and his mother lived; the house just west of Lindsey's
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
planing-mill, now owned by James Boyd; a story and a half frame house where Myers' store is ; the small structure still standing east of Joseph Graham's resi- dence; and down near the lake, a one story log cabin, in which dwelt " Deaf Dick " and "Aunt Peggy," both of whom were deaf and dumb.
The village looked very new and crude, stumps ap- peared in all directions, and the huge trunks of trees that had been chopped down still lay prostrate on the ground along what is now Broadway, between Root's tavern and the Silvers' store. Where Joseph Harper now lives was a little vegetable garden, cultivated by · Eber Root. North of this point, the street was not cut through the timber, and, in fact, it bore little semblance to a street south of it, in the very center of the village, owing to the presence of the logs and brush, and the litter of the woodman's ax. Little brown paths, worn through the grass into the sandy soil, led hither and thither across the clearing, the centers of their convergence being the tavern and the store.
Just beyond the village limits, upon the bank of the lake, between the sites of the foundry and bowl factory, was the cabin of Abram Tietsort, Jr., and not far away was a log building in which he worked at his trade, cabinet making. Besides the rude but sub- stantial articles of furniture, for which there was a demand among the pioneers, the solitary workman in the log cabin made occasionally a plain and simple coffin, for death had come already to the infant village, and there were four graves in the little burying-ground in 1835.
SOME LOCAL INCIDENTS OF THE HARRISON CAMPAIGN.
"Oh ! there never was a campaign like that, and there never will be another, never!" exclaims one who hurrahed for Harrison in 1840, and his face grows animated as he recalls the humors of the great partisan contest, and, perhaps, fancies that he hears the faint reverberations of all those thunders of ap- plause and ringing cheers that so long ago made the woods echo. In 1840, the West rose up in its might to honor him to whom honor was due, the hero of Tippecanoe, and of the Thames, and soon the wave of enthusiasm inundated the whole land.
It was a great campaign indeed, that of 1840, re- markable alike for the heat of its partisanship and the quaint and humorous forms in which the super- abundant zeal of the people was expressed. It was interesting as being the first sharp political contest in the West. In character as well as time, it was the campaign of the pioneers. Their enthusiasm was due more to the fact that William Henry Harrison was a high type of their own class than a successful General
in the war of 1812, although his military achievements had first brought him into prominence, and nearly all of the electioneering devices used in the Western .States were of such nature as to keep before them the idea that the Whig candidate was one of them. Hence, the log cabin with the " latch-string out," the barrel of hard cider and the coon skin were in constant use, and were painted on the banners under which Harri- son's forces marched on to victory.
The asperities of the campaign have been softened by the flowing away of forty years, the bitter asper- sions have been forgiven or forgotten, and the old men who shouted for " Tippecanoe and Tyler, too," looking back upon the whole affair, regard it at a dis- tance rather as a prolonged season of uproarious merry-making than as the bitter political contest it really was.
One of the local incidents of the campaign of 1840, is well worth recording in the history of Cassopolis. We refer to the great mass meeting-the first political assemblage of any consequence in the county-and the largest of any kind, excepting only the meetings of the past few years. We have secured the account from an Old-Line Whig (the memory of the Whigs being. it is thought, just a trifle more accurate con- cerning the affairs of 1840 than that of their op- ponents).
A brief digression to touch upon the great mass meeting held at Tippecanoe, Ind., will not be out of place, as it was from the big fire which burned on the old battle ground, that the most earnest Whigs of Cass County, in common with those of Southern Michigan, brought the brands to light their home bonfires for the purpose of warming their colder brethren. The convention was held on the 29th of May, 1840. A sufficient number of men went from Cass County to employ six teams in their transporta- tion. They were gone about a week, took provisions with them and encamped nights along the way as the pioneers did when they came into the country. From Cassopolis and its immediate vicinity, those in attendance were Joseph Harper, Cornelius V. Tietsort, Abram Loux and William H. Brice, and from Young's Prairie, "Big Bill" Jones, George Jones (father of the present Sheriff) and Ephraim aird Samuel Alexander. They heard some very able and eloquent speeches made by Henry S. Lane (mem- ber of Congress and afterward Governor of Indiana), James Brooks, of New York, and others ; saw an im- inense concourse of people, a great many log cabins and canoes ; feasted at the big barbecue ; gazed on a colossal "Johnny Cake," measuring about three by sixteen feet, and came home even more enthusiastic about William Henry Harrison, than they had been
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
when they started upon their journey of more than a hundred miles to attend the meeting.
The memorable day of the campaign in Cass County was July 6. The morning was forbidding and the day wet, but notwithstanding an immense crowd of people assembled and the rain did not seem to put a damper on their ardor. They came from all parts of Cass and the adjoining counties and from Indiana, to the number, it is said, of 5,000, which for the time was certainly a great gathering. Inhabitants of dif- ferent localities and individuals of the same vied with each other in getting up noticeable turnouts and big teams. Several log cabins, one of them quite large and very nicely made, were brought in from the coun- try, and there were a plentiful supply of canoes and the various other emblems of the party. The big cabin was hauled in by a team of five horses, Jonathan Gard riding upon the nigh wheel-horse. From the cabin door dangled a conspicuous latch string, and Col. James Newton, of Volinia (a member of Michi- gan's First Constitutional Convention), rode on top of the cabin, astride of the ridge-pole, holding in his embrace a fine fat coon. Another turnout which at- tracted much attention was gotten up by E. H. Spald- ing and others in Whitmanville and its vicinity. It consisted of a team of twenty-six yoke of oxen, a pair for each State then in the Union, attached to a huge wagon containing a very considerable portion of the population of Whitmanville. W. G. Beckwith was Marshal.
The principal speaker of the day was George Daw- son (for the past thirty-five years editor of the Albany Journal), who held his audience for two hours and a half with argument and wit. He spoke in the pres- ent court house which was then in process of con- struction and had been roofed but not floored. The speaker occupied a stand erected for the occasion and the people in his audience stood closely crowded to- gether on the ground inclosed by the temple of jus- tice. Some disappointment was felt at the non-ap- pearance of Gov. Woodbridge and George C. Bates, of Detroit, who had been expected, but several other speakers were present, and while Mr. Dawson was holding forth to the audience in the court, they ad- dressed another in the Oak Grove, which then covered the lot now known as the Kingman property. The people dispersed at night in the best of humor and filled with a sense of conviction that they had done their duty for the Whig cause.
Later in the season, a ineeting was held at Edwards burg, which was addressed by Jacob M. Howard, of Detroit, candidate for Congress, and Joseph R. Will- iams, of Constantine, who was running for the State Senate. The attendance was surprisingly large, but
the meeting was not to be compared in point of size, merriment, enthusiasm and rude spectacular display with the Cassopolis rally.
The log cabin brought into town by Jonathan Gard and Col. Newton was presented to Joseph Harper, and remained for a long time where it was deposited, in York street, east of Broadway. Mr. Harper, who was then Register of Deeds, had his office where Dr. Tompkins now resides. After the campaign was over, the cabin was moved back in the lot, and converted into a pig sty. After all of the activity of the Whigs in Cass County, the great meeting and their wild en- thusiasm, they gave their candidate a majority of 143 votes ; Harrison received 670 and Van Buren 527.
Cassopolis realized one benefit which was permanent, from the excitement of the campaign. Joseph Harper wagered a village lot with Jacob Silver on the issue in Pennsylvania, and, winning, received a deed for Lot No. 8, in Block 1 north, Range 2 east, which, two years later, he gave to the district for school purposes. Upon it was erected the first frame schoolhouse in the village.
JOB WRIGHT'S PREDICTION-THE EAGLE'S FLIGHT.
What may be termed another incident of the cam- paign of 1840 was the prediction of Harrison's early death by Job Wright, "the recluse of Diamond Lake Island," who, we will remark, had fought under the old General. The account here presented is from a sketch of Wright, by the Hon. George B. Turner .* * " Harrison was elected by an overwhelm-
ing majority. On the 4th of March following, the Whigs of Cass County assembled at Cassopolis in great force to do honors to their chief on the day of his inau- guration. Amongst the many devices to give eclat to the occasion was the letting loose, at a given time. of an eagle that had been captured a few days before. A large crowd had gathered in front of the village tavern to witness the flight of the proud bird. Just as they were about to let it go, the recluse of the Island came along the outskirts of the assembly, and was told how, in a few minutes. this eagle, emblematic of our nation's power and freedom, would be released to seek his mate in the ærie from which he was torn but a few days before.
"Now be it known that the recluse possessed, or supposed he did, the power of divination, accruing to him by virtue of an extra thumb on the right hand. He had two thumbs where ordinary mortals had but one. Ile could not only tell what the future would bring forth, but claimed to be able to read the past with equal facility, though a century had clapsed to bury it from the memory of man.
*Published in the National Democrat August 21, 1873.
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
" As the master of ceremonies was about to give the word which would set the eagle free, the old man, in a solemn and impressive voice, was heard to say : ' So many rods as that bird flies. so many weeks will Harrison, my beloved General live, and no longer.'
" He pulled his slouched hat over his eyes and soon passed on toward his home, disregarding the taunt and jeer that was flung at him by the overzealous friends of Harrison. The eagle was released. It flew to a small, hickory tree, near where the Baptist church now stands, and alighted upon one of its branches, remaining there twenty minutes or more, apparently bewildered by the sounds it heard and the sights it saw.
"Some boys soon came along and brought him down and gave him a prey to some dirty curs in the crowd who rended it in pieces. The distance it flew was some eight or ten rods. The student of Ameri- can history, as he compares this flight with the brief weeks the General enjoyed his proud position, will wonder how inspiration could prompt the old recluse thus surely to name bounds for the life of our Chief Magistrate."
A MILITIA MUSTER.
In October, 1842, occurred the only general militia muster in the annals of Cass County. It was a peculiarly interesting and amusing affair, in all essen- tials equal to the " trainings " so happily and humor- ously described by Tom Corwin. of Ohio, in his reply to Gen. Crary, of Michigan, upon the floor of the House of Representatives.
The able-bodied, white male citizens of the county, between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, were notified to meet at Cassopolis in pursuance of a law enacted by the State Legislature in 1841. This act specified the purposes of the militia assemblage as "inspection, drill-service and martial exercise." These were precisely the elements of human action which were lacking in the Cassopolis training of 1842. Upon the day designated for the gathering of the soldiery, nearly a thousand men assembled upon the public square to go through those military evolu - tions calculated to prepare them for "the trade of death," which, by some remote possibility, they might be called upon to follow.
The Colonel of the regiment was James L. Glenn ; the Lieutenant Colonel, Asa Kingsbury, and the Major, Joseph Smith. The latter was probably the only officer who had any knowledge of the methods of infantry drill or military discipline. He had served in the Ohio militia in former years.
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