USA > Michigan > Cass County > History of Cass county, Michigan > Part 50
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Ritter, John M. Wright, Clara Wright. The school was held in a cabin a few rods south of the spot where Gamaliel Townsend's house now stands. Henly C. Lybrook taught the second school in a log „house on the east side of the prairie on the John Ritter farm. Another early teacher was an individual rejoicing in the name of James Harvey Cornelius Smith.
It is worthy of note that the settlers soon took measures to provide themselves with fruit. As early as 1831 the Townsends, Isaac Shurte and William R. Wright, set out apple orchards near their respective cabins. Their trees were procured of John Jones, who brought trees from Niagara County, N. Y., and planted them on the place where Gamaliel Townsend now lives. This nursery was, not long afterward, removed to White Pigeon. The same season that these orchards were planted Thomas McKenney and Asa Sherwood planted apple seeds from which fine trees were grown.
The settlement had become so considerable by the year 1830, that a trading-place was deemed a neces- sity and so Martin C. Whitman erected a building just west of where Orlean Putnam's house now stands, in which he opened a store. This, the first frame structure in La Grange Township, now forms a part of Gamaliel Townsend's dwelling.
In the same year the settlement was granted the boon of a post office. Gamaliel Township was the first Postmaster. Other needs were met as they arose. Among them was that of religious communion. It is probable that the first meetings were held in the year above mentioned, at the house of Thomas Simp- son, on the west side of McKenney's Prairie. They were led by Martin Baker, a Baptist preacher. After Martin C. Whitman removed his stock of goods, in 1832, to the place now known as La Grange Village, the vacated store building was used for religious gatherings for a number of years.
Civil organization was effected in the spring of 1830. The tract of country of which this chapter treats, to- gether with the whole of the present township of Wayne and the north half of Jefferson had been by act of the Legislative Council of the Territory of Michigan, passed November 5, 1829, erected, as one of the four original townships of the county, under the present naine, which, by the way, was that of La Fayette's country place in France. In pursuance of the act which has been cited, the first election was held at the house of Isaac Shurte, on April 5, on which occasion there were present eighteen voters.
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY, MICHIGAN
was chosen Moderator; Martin C. Whitman, Clerk ; James Petticrew, Assistant Clerk, and Abraham Townsend and William R. Wright, Judges. The officers elected were the following : Supervisor, Joseph S. Barnard ; Clerk, Martin C. Whitman ; Assessors, William R. Wright, James Dickson and Ira H. Putnam ; Collector, Eli P. Bonnell; Commissioners of Highways, James Petticrew, Isaac Shurte and Abraham Townsend; Constables, Eli P. Bonnell, Michael T. McKenney ; Commissioners and In- spectors of Common Schools, Abraham Townsend, Abraham Tietsort, William R. Wright; Overseers of Highways, John Lybrook and Thomas McKenney ; Pound Keeper, Gamaliel Townsend; Fence Viewers, Abraham Townsend and James Dickson.
The territory now known as Wayne remained a part of La Grange until 1835, and the north half of the present township of Jefferson was not detached until March 29, 1833.
Five elections subsequent to the first were held at Isaac Shurte's house ; but, by 1836, the settlement had become so large, and the voters increased to such a number, that it was thought best to make a change, and the election of that year was held at the school- house, on Abraham Townsend's farm.
A novel spectacle was afforded the settlers on La Grange Prairie in the spring of 1832, by Joseph Bar- nard. Many miles from navigable water, he built a boat, the keel of which afterward and for several years plowed the billows of Lake Michigan. It was capable of carrying a cargo of about fifteen tons. When the boat was completed, Mr. Barnard and his son took it to the St. Joseph River upon a wagon drawn by oxen, and successfully launched it. The first trip which the little craft made to Chicago netted the owners about $250.
EARLY RESIDENTS OF LA GRANGE.
After 1830. the settlement of the township in- creased quite rapidly. Of many of the families which emigrated subsequent to the year mentioned we shall give an account, but first, however, let us return to those who have already been merely mentioned, and present a few facts in regard to them and their im- mediate descendants.
Reverting to Abrahamn Townsend, the first settler of the township, we may state that he died at his home in La Grange, ¿after a long and useful life, in June, 1855. The only unmarried children who came to the township with Mr. and Mrs. Townsend were two daughters-Amy, who, as has been stated, married James Cavanaugh, and Eliza, who marriel Michael I. McKenney, and now resides in Iowa. Townsend's son-in-law, Loux, did not long remain in the township.
William R. Wright and his wife, Sarah (Baldwin), both lived to a good old age, and ended their days on the place where they originally settled, the former in the summer of 1850 and the latter in 1868. The dates of their births were, respectively, 1755 and 1777. Their eldest daughter, Susan (who was married first to a Web- ster, and after his death to a Mr. Vail), did not come to Michigan when her parents did, but emigrated in later years. The next oldest was Mary (wife of Isaac Shurte), who still resides in the township, and is one of the oldest persons in it, having been born in 1801. The other children were Dennis, David L .. Elizabeth (wife of Eli P. Bonnell), Lucinda, Rachel, Stephen D., Clarissa (wife of Stephen Ball) and John Miller. Of these all are deceased, save Stephen D., who lives upon the old homestead.
David Bonnell died in 1857, and his wife in 1881. They had five children-Mary, Sarah, Angeline, Emma and David. All are deceased but the last named, and he is a resident of Kansas.
We have heretofore mentioned the fact that the McKenney and Dickson families settled on McKenney's Prairie in the fall of 1828. The exact date was Octo- ber 25. Mr. McKenney had come out (from Pokagon) in the spring and built a cabin, and in August " broke up " five acres of ground in which he sowed wheat. Capt. Joseph Barnard, for the use of the cabin until such time as the owner should need it, had agreed to "mud and chink " it, and when the families arrived they found him very comfortably domiciled. Barnard moved out and took shelter in a tent (until he built himself a house), and both families and two young men, sixteen persons in all, moved into the little cabin. Mr. McKenney and his wife Dorcas (Inman) with their six children came to Michigan from Wayne County, Ind. A portion of the way they drove their teams along the trail inade by the Rev. Isaac McCoy, when he came to the site of Niles in 1822, to establish the Carey Mission. Mr. McKenney, after making his preliminary trip to Cass County, in 1827, reported so favorably upon the country that a number of his neighbors were induced to follow him in his emi- gration. He was one of the best known citizens of the county, and a man universally liked and respected. He received appointment as the first Judge of Probate, but did not qualify. In 1850, he re- removed to Council Bluffs, and died there in June, 1852. He was born in Washington County, N. Y., in the year 1781, and removed to Cayuga County, when sixteen years old, where he remained until 1813. During the war of 1812, he acted as a home guard and was at Sodus Bay when that place was surren- dered by the British. From New York he removed to Huron County, Ohio, and from there to Wayne
HOMER WELLS.
MRS. HOMER WELLS.
RESIDENCE OF HOMER WELLS, LA GRANGE, MICH.
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
County, Ind. Mrs. McKenney died at the home on the prairie in 1845. Their children are all deceased except Micajah B., who resides in California. Michael I. died in Iowa, 1858; Lyllis, the wife of James Dick- son, died September, 1881. The other children were Laura, wife of James Cuppe Lovina; Esther, wife of David Brown ; Jane (Loomis) and Julia.
James Dickson, son-in-law of Thomas McKenney, was born in Washington County, Penn., in 1794. He emigrated to Huron County, Ohio, in 1811, and from there to Wayne County, Ind., where he was married. He died September 16, 1866, in Dowagiac. Their children are Edwin T., a resident of Berrien County since 1849; Robert J., of Pokagon Township ; Dorcas A., wife of Ira Brownell, of Dowagiac ; Laura, wife of G. C. Jones, of Dowagiac, (deceased); Levi, in California; A. M., in Wisconsin ; Hannah A., wife of Henry Snyder, and Jane, wife of William Houser, both in Dowagiac; and William in Nebraska.
Isaac Shurte and his wife Mary (Wright) are still living where they settled in 1829. The former was born in 1796, and is consequently five years older than his wife, of whom we have already spoken. Their descendants are mostly living. Elizabeth, the eldest (Mrs. Henry Ritter), is deceased. Margaret (Hardenbrook) resides in Wayne Township; Francis is in Oregon ; Susan, deceased, William, Sarepta (wife of Don A. Fletcher), and Henry are all residents of this township.
The members of the Ritter family, the tragic death of whose head has already been mentioned, continued to reside in Cass County. Hannah, the eldest, and Joseph K. still live in Cassopolis. Three others are deceased-Henry L., who died in 1872; David M. in 1865, and Eve, who died as an infant when the family first came to the State. John Ritter, the father, was born in Virginia in the year 1793.
John Lybrook, of whose experiences we have given a somewhat extended account, lived until May 25, 1881. He was married March 26, 1840, to Mary Hurd, who, with three children-Henry Lybrook, now a resident of Texas, Joseph and Arminda Lybrook, of this township-survive him. He was born in Giles County, Va., October 25, 1798. His father, Henry Lybrook, who was born in Pennsylvania, April 2, 1755, died in 1839, at the age of eighty-four, and his mother in 1849.
Thomas, John and Elias Simpson, sons of John Simpson, of Scotland (who came to America before the Revolutionary war, and fought in that struggle on the side of the Colonies), emigrated from Ohio and settled near each other on McKenney's Prairie, in 1828. Thomas, the eldest, died in recent years, at an advanced age. Ilis wife was Elizabeth Baker, and
their children were Elias, deceased ; Sarah (Mrs. Lilley, a resident of this township) ; James and Cath - erine (True), in Pokagon ; Thomas, who was a soldier in the late war, Company A, Twelfth Michigan In- fantry, now resident in the State; Martin, in Iowa ; Mary (Shurte), and Matilda (Platt), in Oregon ; Malinda, deceased ; Harriett (Morris), and Andrew, both now living in Volinia.
John Simpson removed to Missouri and died there. He had a large family of children, one of whom, Anne (Mrs. P. Dewey), now lives in Pokagon.
Elias Simpson died in 1841, aged forty years, and his wife Rachel (Taylor) in 1860. Their children living, are Margaret (wife of Norman Jarvis, of this township); Thomas, in California ; and Elizabeth (Crowell), in Indiana. Four of their descendants- John, William, Rebecca and Catherine, are deceased.
One of the settlers of 1829, on Section 21, was Robert Wilson, an emigrant from Ohio, born in Penn- sylvania in 1771. His wife's name was Rebecca Henderson. Their children were Margaret, John, Samuel, James HI., Robert W., Daniel, Martha, Elizabeth. The father of this family died on his farm in La Grange in 1852.
A well-known character who arrived in the town- ship this year was David Brady, a hard rider and great hunter, noted for his fondness of pursuing Rey- nard and other game. His pack of hounds did much to clear the county of wolves and the various other animals which were pests to the pioneer farmers, and were usually designated as "varmints." He rode a horse which could clear any fence in the country. Brady, who was originally from New Jersey, and born in 1785, went into the war of 1812, and in 1816 settled in Marion County, Ohio, from whence he came to Michigan. He stopped for a short time in Kalamazoo County and a township was there named after him. He lived in La Grange, on Section 21, until his death in 1878, at the age of ninety-three. He had many eccentricities, some of which might be emulated to the good advantage of the people in gen- eral-and others not. Among the former class we may cite his kindly treatment of the poor and his liberality to them, a trait which is very often spoken of by the old settlers who knew him. It is related that when corn was very scarce and high priced and many poor farmers in want of a sufficient quantity to carry them through the winter, he refused to sell out his crop to speculators or to let any of his applicants have large lots, but sold to those who were in need at half price. It was a common thing for him to send provisions to poor widows in his neighborhood and to assist deserving young men. There were few men of kinder heart than David Brady-and few of rougher
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
exterior or manners. He was a man of great native intellectual ability, but uneducated. His natural shrewdness, wit and strength of mind drew around him many admirers from other walks of life than that which he followed. Nearly all of the eminent lawyers of the State who had business in Cassopolis were in the custom of paying Brady a visit before they departed for their homes, and the best of them found a congenial companion in the rough, unlettered pioneer farmer. He was a man whom education would undoubtedly have developed into as great a giant intellectually as nature had made him physically. Mr. Brady was married several times and reared a very large family of children-over twenty-of whom, however, only one, Mrs. Phebe Merwin, is now living in La Grange. His widow married Thomas Moore, and is a resident of this township.
Abram Tietsort, Sr., who has been mentioned as a settler of 1829, came in December and located where Hiram Jewell now lives. He exchanged farms after- ward with Mr. Jewell, and until his death in 1847, resided where the Air Line depot now is. He was born in New Jersey in 1777, was in the war of 1812 and soon after its close, settled in Butler County, Ohio, from whence he and his family came to Michi- gan, and located on the site of the city of Niles in March, 1828, where he remained until coming to Cass County. He and his eldest son, Abram Tiet- sort, Jr., among other occupations, ran flat-boats upon the St. Joseph River. The family of Mr. Tietsort consisted of his wife, Margaret (Banta), who survived him seven years, and his sons, Abram, Levi, Henry, Cornelius B. and Squire V. Of these, one only is living, Henry, who is in this township. He has fol- lowed all his life the trade of a mason, has been very industrious and numerous examples of his handiwork appear in Cassopolis and its vicinity. Abram, the eldest son (of whom we have already had considerable to say), died in 1842; Levi, in 1865; Cornelius B., in 1870 ; and Squire V., upon the old homestead in 1852.
The Vanderhoofs-Thomas and his wife, Rebecca (Furguson)-came into the township in 1829, locating where Asa Kingsbury, Jr., now lives. Mrs. Vander- hoof died a number of years before her husband, and he married as his second wife, Mrs. Silvia Van Antwerp. He died in 1851, aged sixty-two years. His children by his first wife were: Amelia (wife of Orlean Put- nam), who died in November, 1881; Arminda, also deceased ; David, resident in Iowa; Darinda, Julia Ann and Perry, all three deccased ; Thomas F. and Jacob, in lowa; Ann (Ball), in Wayne Township; and Henry, deceased. By his second wife, Mr. Van- derhoof had two children-Hannah (Beckwith) and Emma (Sherwood), both now resident in Dowagiac.
Yoakley Griffin, of Wayne County, Ind., was among the settlers of 1830. He located on McKenney's Prairie, where he had previously purchased eighty acres of land. With him came his family, consisting of his wife and their children-Melinda, Margaret, Zadoc, Perlina, Elizabeth, Mary, John and Elethe. Mr. Griffin resided in the township until his decease. His daughter Mary, in 1838, married Jonathan Dewey, who was one of the early settlers of Pokagon Township, where he died in 1878. Mrs. Dewey is still living, and resides with her son, Henry C. Dewey, in Pokagon.
At the same time Griffin made his settlement, his son-in-law, Jonathan Prather and his wife Rebecca arrived, bringing with them their children-William, James, Fanny, Lovinia, Elizabeth and Eli.
Ira H. Putnam (a brother of Uzziel Putnam, the pioneer of the county) and his wife Polly (Markham), who had settled in Pokagon in 1826, moved into this township in 1830. They went to Jefferson in 1834, and Mr. Putnam died there in the summer of 1847. Their son, Ira J. Putnam, who is undoubtedly the oldest native-born resident of the county, now resides in Cassopolis. He was born in Pokagon Township, on the place where J. McAllister now lives, Septem- ber 21, 1827.
William Renesten and his wife Elizabeth (Harter) came to the township in 1830, and located in the northwest corner, near the site of Dowagiac, or at what has since been known as the Spalding Mill property. Here Mr. Renesten set up a carding ma- chine, and subsequently a grist mill, but he sold out to Erastus H. Spalding in 1834, and removed to a farm in Section 17, where he lived until recent years, when he removed to Berrien County, where he now lives with his daughter. He has been noted for his industry and economy, and was a good farmer. He followed that occupation steadily from the time he sold his mill property. He was born in Mifflin, Penn., in 1796. He settled in Southern Indiana in 1818, and lived there until he removed to Michigan. His chil- dren are Melinda (the widow of David Ritter), now living in Berrien County, and Mary E. (Mrs. E. Spalding), of La Grange Township.
Hiram Jewell, born in 1805 in Monmouth County, N. J., five miles from the famous battle-field ; a settler in Butler County, Ohio, in 1817, arrived in La Grange in September, 1830, and located where the Air Line depot now is in Cassopolis, which farm he exchanged with Abram Tietsort, Sr., for the one he now lives upon, in 1837. His wife's name is Martha (Waldron). Their children are Miriam (Mrs. Quick) and Eldridge, who live in this township, and Edith (wife of Henry Goodrich) in Jefferson. Several of Mr. Jewell's
RESIDENCE AND FRUIT FARM OF B. F. ENGLE, LA GRANGE, CASS CO.MICH.
B. F. ENGLE.
B. F. Engle was born in Allegany County, N. Y., April 5, 1833, and was the fifth child of a family of seven, the children of Silas and Mercy Engle. In June, 1844, he removed with his parents to Van Buren County, Mich., where he grew to manhood's estate, and where the opportunities afforded him for obtaining an education were very meager, because the necessities of the family required that he devote his youthful energies in obtaining a livelihood. He, however, acquired habits of industry, perseverance, and a spirit of hopefulness, which have been put to a severe test, for upon two occasions the fruits of his patient and intelligent labors have been swept away, and he left unaided to retrieve his fortunes, burdened with fam- ily sickness and other obstacles which would have discouraged many. While the major portion of his life has been spent in agricultural pursuits, they have not commanded his entire attention, for he devoted five years to mercantile business in Lawton, and from there removed to Whitmanville in 1865, and engaged in trade, and one year subsequent re-
moved to the farm on which he now resides, and commenced for the third time to build himself a home, being at this time below the bottom round of the lad- der of fortune. In addition to farming. he devoted much attention to fruit culture, and to this latter fact he is indebted for his financial success, for from this moment misfortune ccased to follow him, and in this instance the Latin phrase, Fortes fortuna juvat, is applicable.
Mr. Engle is now the most extensive and successful fruit-grower in the county, and notwithstanding the fact that he lost one hundred peach trees during the past year by disease, will set out one thousand four hundred this season (1882).
The above illustration of his place shows in a incas- ure what he has accomplished. On the 23d of De- cember, 1855, he was united in marriage to Mary Lovina, daughter of Jonathan Elliott, who was born in Ludlow, Vt., January 22, 1834. They have been blessed with five children, four of whom, Franklin, May, Silas and Hattic, are living. and Laura, de- ceased.
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY. MICHIGAN.
brothers came to Cass County at dates subsequent to his own settlement, James and William W., who came respectively in 1831 and 1832, are both deceased. Elias is in Wayne Township, and Archibald, who set- tled in the same township, while Daniel resides in Kansas.
Abram V. Tietsort (Big Abe), who came also in this year, located on land adjoining Hiram Jewell's present farm, in Section 26. He removed soon to Wayne Township, and from there to Iowa, where he died. He was from Butler County, Ohio, from whence it will be observed came very many of the La Grange pioneers, and, for that matter, those of vari- ous other townships in the county.
Another family which made its advent this year was the Hass family-Henry and his two sons, Charles and IIenry. They were from Germany, but came to Michigan from Butler County, Ohio. The father located where William Shurte now lives, on Section 15. His son Henry, who afterward married Polly Lybrook and removed to Pokagon Township, lived with him. Charles Hass settled on land now owned by Samuel Graham, in the present limits of Cassopo- lis, and spent the remainder of his life there.
The Petticrew and Hain families were prominent arrivals in 1831, and at least one member of the former family, James Petticrew, came to the township in 1830. John F. Petticrew, the patriarch of this family of pioneers, was one of those characters whom all have delighted to honor-a Revolutionary soldier, and fought through the whole seven years. He had emigrated from Pennsylvania to Rockbridge County, Va., and from there to Clark County, Ohio, before coming to Michigan. After the settlement in La Grange, he made his home with his children until his death in 1837. His sons, James and John F., lived on Section 30. A nephew, John Petticrew, who was a soldier in the war of 1812, located over the line in Jefferson Township. Joseph McPherson, a son-in-law of the senior Petticrew, located on Sec- tion 31, but moved away to Indiana. His son John, however, lives in Jefferson. At the same time as the above, Mrs. Elizabeth Lowe, a widow, daughter of John F. Petticrew, settled over the line in Pokagon Township.
The Hains were closely connected with the Petti- crews-two of them being sons-in-law. John and David Hain were born in Lincoln County, N. C .; came from there to Clark County, Ohio, with their parents and from there to this township, locating on Section 31. Their brother, Jacob, who came on in 1846, is now living in Iowa. Both of the early emi- grants of this family had experience in the Sauk war -that is, they obeyed several calls to Niles when
it was feared the Indians were approaching. David was a blacksmith and opened a shop the year after he arrived, which was probably the first one in the town- ship. His plows were much sought for by the pioneer farmers, and he had customers from the region round about extending ten to twenty miles. In 1837, he made for Daniel Wilson the first steel plow manufact- ured in the county. John Hain was an active and enterprising farmer. In the year 1837, he set out an apple orchard, which was one of the earliest planted in this part of La Grange. The trees are still stand- ing and bear excellent natural fruit. From the apples of this orchard was made the first cider in the town- ship. Both of the Hains reared families, and John Hain quite a large one. His wife was Jane Petti- crew. Of the five children who came with them to Michigan, Elizabeth is deceased. Rosannah (Con- don) resides in Jefferson Township ; Margaret (La- throp) and Sarah (White) are in California, and John lives upon the old homestead. The father died in 1879, in his eightieth year, and Mrs. Hạin in 1860. David Hain, who died in 1878, and his wife Mar- garet (Petticrew), who died in 1845, left two children who reside in the township, viz., William H. and Mary J. (Kimmerle).
Jason R. Coates and his wife, Jane (Barney), from Genesee County, N. Y., settled on the farm where Jason B. Coates' their son now lives, in the year 1831. They arrived late in the fall, and Mr. Coates was killed August 17th of the following year, his horse dashing him against the limb of a tree in the village of Cassopolis. His widow, who at first thought of returning to their old home in New York, concluded to remain in Michigan, for the sake of her children, and brought up her family upon the farm her husband had purchased. She died in 1844, leaving five chil- dren, viz .: Laura (Arrison), now resident in Iowa; Jason B., who lives upon the homestead farm ; Jane (Allen), formerly the wife of Dr. B. F. Gould, in Cassopolis ; Eliza, the widow of John Powers (who was killed by Indians in Idaho, in 1864), also in Cassopolis, and Harriet (Sharpe) in Iowa.
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