History of Genesee County, Michigan, Her People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I, Part 24

Author: Edwin Orin Wood
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Federal publishingcompany
Number of Pages: 861

USA > Michigan > Genesee County > History of Genesee County, Michigan, Her People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I > Part 24

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

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lake was destined to become a favorite summering place and picnicking ground for the surrounding region.

The first meeting in the township for election of officers was held April 2, 1838, at the Fentonville hotel, with results as follows: Supervisor, Walter Dibble; town clerk, Lauren P. Riggs; justices of the peace, Asahel Ticknor, Thomas Irish, John Cook and Elisha Larned; school inspectors, Asahel Ticknor, Charles J. Birdsall and R. J. Gage; assessors, P. H. Mc- Omber, Herman Lamb and Jacob Knapp; commissioners of highways, James Thorp, Seth C. Sadler and H. Garfield; collector, Elisha W. Postal; directors of the poor, James Thorp and E. A. Byram; constables, John Nichols and Morris Thorp; pathmasters, William Nichols, Seth C. Sadler, Elisha Bailey, Perry Lamb, Charles Tupper, William Remington, Philip H. McOmber, John Cook and Hiram Lamb.

ATLAS TOWNSHIP.

Atlas township was originally a part of Lapeer county, being detached from Lapeer and added to Genesee county in 1843. It was organized in 1836 and was one of the earliest townships in this region to receive settlers. The first settler was Asa Farrar, who, in September, 1830, purchased land on section 18 and built a log house upon it the same year. He was a brother of Pearson Farrar, who settled the same year in Grand Blanc upon an adjacent section. They came from Monroe county, New York. The first birth and the first marriage in Atlas township occurred in Asa Farrar's fam- ily, respectively, in. 1833 and 1834.

The second settlement, as well as land purchase, was made by Judge Norman Davison in 1831 on the banks of Kearsley creek in section 8. Mr. Davison and family were from Avon, Livingston county, New York. Soon after his settlement he built a two-story frame house from lumber obtained from Rowland B. Perry's mill. This was the nucleus of Davisonville, orig- inally known as Atlas Postoffice. Here were situated the first postoffice, merchants, mills, workshops and schools. The saw-mill was built in 1833 and the grist-mill in 1836. Mr. Davison was the first postmaster. Elias Rockafellow established here the first blacksmith shop in 1837, and in 1838 Fitch R. Track opened the first store. In 1840 William Thomas opened a tavern, and in the next year Oliver Palmer first began wool-carding and stock-dressing. The first school in the township was taught here by Sarah Barnes, in a lean-to adjoining Davison's house, as early as 1836, the earliest religious services in the township. Judge Davison was a member of the first

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constitutional convention of 1835, the first supervisor of the old town of Grand Blanc in 1833, and while Atlas was still attached to Lapeer county he was one of the judges of that county. He held various other offices and in the discharge of his official duties gave general satisfaction, securing the respect and esteem of a wide circle of friends.

In 1833 also came John and Aaron Brigham, brothers, from Lewis county, New York, settling upon section 5; but in 1836 they removed to Hadley. Nehemiah S. Burpee and Samuel Lason settled in 1834. In 1835 came Alexander and James Lobban, James McCraith and two sons, Ezra K. Paschall, Noah and William Owen, Joseph R. Johnson and son, James G. Horton, Talford and Daniel Powell and Lewis Mentor.

In September, 1835, was founded the nucleus of the village of Good- rich. In that month Moses and Enos Goodrich, brothers, from Clarence, Erie county, New York, purchased more than one thousand acres on sec- tions near the center of the township. After building a log house on sec- tion 20, they returned to Clarence, and in the following year brought out a number of relatives to the new home. The father, Levi H. Goodrich, a native of Hampshire county, Massachusetts, joined the family here in the fall of the same year. From this time the name of Goodrich has been inti- mately connected with all the social, commercial and political history of Atlas township. Shortly after the father's arrival a frame house was built on the corner of what were later Main and Clarence streets, directly east from the later Bushaw Hotel. Here was kept a general store and the "Goodrich Bank." A saw-mill was put in operation in April, 1837. The Goodrich mill, built and equipped by the Goodrich brothers at a cost of eight thousand five hundred dollars, began merchant work in 1845. The first frame dwelling was built in 1838 by Enos Goodrich, which later became part of the home of William H. Putnam. Hon. E. H. Thomson, the first attor- ney and later a prominent lawyer in Flint, first settled here in 1837. For many years Moses Goodrich continued to reside upon the fine farm, which was included in the purchase of 1835, surrounded by an affectionate family and all the comforts which are the reward of an honorable and industrious life.

During the year 1836 many families took up their residence in Atlas township. Among these were Daniel and Manley Swears (brothers), Hiram Fillmore (a cousin of President Fillmore), Albert Demaree and his sons, David, Cornelius, Jacob and Garrett, Daniel Swears, Sr., James Black, James Kipp, Peter Lane, John Mancour, James Burden, Jacob and Thomas Van- tine, John Hosler, William Carpenter, Joseph Russell, Hiram Husted, John

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L. McNiel, Jacob Thomas, Levi Preston and Lewis Cummings. In 1837 Dr. Cyrus Baldwin, the first resident physician, Lewis Van Cleve, his son, Lewis, Jr., Samuel Winship, Elias Rockafellow, the first blacksmith and iron founder in the township; Fitch R. Tracy, the first merchant; Samuel Walker, John K. Pearsons, William Goodrich, Moses Wisner and Michael Bowers. Other settlers who became residents in the early period were Brad- ley Cartwright, Freeman Coolage, John Vantine, Julius Barnes, Amos H. Fisk, Stephen Horton, William Surryhne, Moses Frost, William Roberts, Joseph Tyler, Edward Fortune, Albert Vantine, Charles Vantine Jonathan Frost, Ephraim S. Frost, Ralph C. Atkins, Albert J. Bates, Ira G. Hooton, Peter Vantine, Paul Liscomb, James Vantine, John Perritt, Mathew P. Thomas, Jacob H. Howe, Isaac Carmer, Elijah Carmer, Oliver Palmer, Nathaniel Fairchild, Clark Hutchins, Hiram Maxfield, Marlin Davison and Thomas P. Wood.

The first town-meeting was held in Atlas on April 4, 1836, at "Davi- son's Mills." Twenty-two voters were present, and the result of the elec- tion of officers was as follows: Supervisor, Ezra K. Parshall; township clerk, Norman Davison ; assessors, John Brigham, Asa Farrar and James G. Horton; collector, James Lobban; directors of the poor, Moses Goodrich and Aaron Brigham; commissioners of highways, Moses Goodrich, Paul G. Davison and Asa Farrar; constable, James Lobban; school commissioners for three years, Oliver P. Davison, Levi W. Goodrich and Ezra K. Parshall ; justices of the peace, Norman Davison, Ezra K. Parshall, Moses Goodrich and Alexander Lobban; fence-viewers, Moses Goodrich, Oliver P. Davison, Alexander Lobban and Samuel Lason; pound keeper, Norman Davison; overseer, road district No. 1, Oliver P. Davison, road district No. 2, John Brigham, road district No. 3, Samuel Lason, road district No. 4, Moses Goodrich; school inspectors, Ezra K. Parshall, Oliver P. Davison, James G. Horton, Paul G. Davison and Levi W. Goodrich.

FLUSHING TOWNSHIP.

Rufus Harrison has the honor of being the first white settler of Flush- ing township. He settled on the north side of the river near the south- east corner in the fall of 1835. The second permanent settler in the town- ship was Henry French, who located on section 36 in the same fall. His brother, Ebenezer, came the next year. Probably the only other permanent settler of 1835 was John Evans, of Manchester, England, who came to Michigan after a brief residence in New York. Others who came before

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1840 were Thomas L. Brent, David and James Penoyer, Ezra Smith, Origin Packard and Alexander Barber.

Thomas Brent was one of the most prominent of the earlier settlers, having acquired, before his coming, a national reputation and a large for- tune. At one time he paid taxes on about seventy thousand acres of land in Michigan. He was a Virginian by birth and married a noble Spanish lady with whom he had become acquainted while on a mission to that country in the employ of the United States government. His married life is said to have been unhappy. Before his death he sank his fortune and became "land poor." In 1836 he built a saw-mill near his place on section 3, but a freshet in the following spring destroyed it. This part of the township con- tained a large acreage of pine and a second mill was soon built, up from the river out of reach of freshets. It is said that nearly every man who settled early in the township worked at some time or other for Mr. Brent, clearing up land and earning enough money to pay for homes of their own. The "Brent farm" was widely known throughout the region.

John Paton, a native of Blackford, Perthshire, Scotland, and later a resident of Paterson, New Jersey, purchased lands on section 22 and 27 as early as 1834, but did not settle until 1837. He had come to America in the spring of 1827. In 1843 Mrs. Paton wrote a letter to a friend in England, which is worth repeating as typical of pioneer conditions in Flushing town- ship at that time, being written during the closing days of the famous "hard winter."

Flushing, Near Flint River, April 6, 1843.

I will not attempt to apologize for not writing earlier, but let the simple truth suffice. I have had four letters, I may say, written (one entirely finished), but lacked funds to post them. It is easier to release a dozen letters than to prepay one. For the one they will take produce, for the other they exact cash, and that is a very scarce article here, for our business is carried on mostly by barter. We sold about two hundred dollars' worth of stock in the last year and it was with great difficulty we got six dollars in cash. Times have been very hard and I fear not yet at the worst. According to accounts that can be relied on, we have had the hardest winter that has occurred for fifty-four years. It commenced in October and is now snow- ing; the snow in the woods is from two to three feet deep. But we don't suffer on the timbered land anything like those on the oak-openings, as regards our stock, although we are destitute of anything in the shape of fodder in our barns, for we have the woods to resort to, where there is plenty of maple and basswood, and we cut them down, and the cattle feed on the tops, and look pretty well where they are well attended to. But we hear of cattle dying in all directions and of some farmers knock- ing the whole of their cattle on the head, to save them from a lingering starvation, after feeding out all their store; others sustaining them on flour victuals, all other being exhausted. Last winter (i. e., 1841-42) we had an unusually open season and a very

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early spring. Our fields never looked so well-fruit trees in full bloom-and all seemed cheering in the month of April, but our hopes were soon blighted. We had severe frost in May, which cut off our blossoms, and, what was still worse, our corn; then a tedious drought succeeded, which almost burnt up the wheat-at least stunted it so the straw was worth little; then, to finish, when it was in the milk, there were sunny showers that struck it with rust-the late-sown suffered most. * * * I am happy to say I have enjoyed better health this winter than I have since I came in the woods (over six years), and, if the tormenting ague will keep away, I will excuse it. It is a sin- gular thing to find, one part of the day a person will feel able to go about and do a little work, and another part not able to rise from the pillow and as crazy as can be. Such has been hanging on me four years. New settlers generally have it, but after they get acclimated it is very healthy. Considering the hard times, our county is set- tling very fast. There are six families from Stockport settled near to us and there are several more coming out from there this spring. We have let a brick-ground to two of these. I must tell you we have had the good luck to find a coal-mine on our farm, but we have not been able to ascertain its extent; it is of excellent quality. We sold seven dollars' worth of it last fall when we found it. Things generally prosper with us since I last wrote you.

About 1840 there began to form in the northwestern part of the town- ship the "English settlement." In that fall came John Reed and James Bailey, soon followed by Samuel and James Wood, of Lancashire, and Mary Vernon, who became the wife of Samuel Wood, and her father, John Bailey, who was the father also of James Bailey. Later there settled Thomas Hough, Sr. and J., Richard Bowden, William Bailey and Thomas Newell, all of the same nativity. Most of them had been farmers in the old country, but their newness to pioneering in a western wilderness led to some amusing experiences.

A good story is told by John Reed, who had a fiery temper which was not always under control. On one occasion he became angry with his cow and drove her away into the woods to the north, kicking her at every step, until finally both were tired out. He had tried to turn her back at first, but she was obstinate and that roused his ire. His boot came up at the same time with his ire and when at last he stopped to rest he found himself in a strange neighborhood, lost in the forest. He finally pulled off one of his boots, milked the cow in it, drank the milk and lay down on a log, where he was found the next day by the neighbors, who had instituted a search for him. He had fought mosquitoes all night and looked somewhat the worse for wear.

The beginnings of Flushing village are marked by the purchase of the water power there by Horace Jerome, from St. Clair, Michigan, in 1836. Jerome was working in co-operation with Charles Seymour, of Litchfield county, Connecticut. The frame of the mill was put up in the summer of

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1837 and in 1838 one saw was in operation. In 1840 Seymour, in company with Benjamin Bowers, built the first grist-mill in the place, on the site of the later Flushing mills. In the same year Seymour platted the village, on both sides of the river.

Horace Jerome is connected in Flushing's history with the ill-fated "wild-cat" institution, "The Flint Rapids Bank," of 1838. The experiment resulted in such ill repute for its sponsors that soon after failure Jerome left the region and did not return.

Flushing township was organized in 1838; the early records being lost, no account can be given of the earliest official history of the township.

The first religious society in the township was formed in the English settlement, where the pioneers were mainly Methodists. A class was formed soon after the first arrivals and the first meetings were held in James Wood's log house. Their first preacher was a, Mr. Whitwam and their first class leader James Wood. A church was not built, however, until 1864.

Marshall Talbot taught the first school in the township as it was then, just across the present boundary in Mount Morris. At the English settle- ment a school house was built about 1845.

MUNDY TOWNSHIP.

The earliest land entries in Mundy township were made in 1833 on sections 13, 14, II and 12, respectively, by Daniel Williams, of Lapeer county, Michigan, John Richards, of Niagara county, New York, and Brad- bury Eastman, of Tompkins county, New York. The only lands of the township in the hands of the government at the end of 1836 were forty acres in section 28, which were taken up in 1837.

The first permanent settlements effected in this township were by Dan- iel Williams, Eli Gilbert and Jason L. Austin in 1833 on section 13. Volney tSiles settled soon afterward on section II. In the following year came Morgan Baldwin and George Judson. All of the settlers were from the state of New York.

Among those who had made their homes in Mundy township before Michigan was admitted to the Union are the following: Thomas Glover, David Gibson, Seth Kitchen, Ebenezer Bishop, Josiah Alger and family of ten children, Mr. Barnum, Asa Pierce, William Odell, Jeshurum Leach, Jon- athan G. Firman and others.

The first white male child born in the township of Mundy was Thomas

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Glover's son, Henry Glover, and the first white female child was Hannah Baldwin, daughter of Morgan Baldwin, her birth occurring March 30, 1835.

The township was named in honor of Edward S. Mundy, who was lieutenant-governor of Michigan when the township was organized, March II, 1837. On April 3 the first township meeting was held at the house of Josiah Alger, when eighteen votes were cast, of which only three were from the west half of the township. The following officers were chosen: Super- visor, John Alger; town clerk, Morgan Baldwin; assessors, Jonathan G. Firman, Morgan Baldwin, Benjamin Simmons and Seth Kitchen; collector, George Judson; commissioners of highways, J. G. Firman, George Judson and Jeshurum Leach; school inspectors, Jonathan G. Firman, Ira Dunning and Dudley Brainard; justices of the peace, Benjamin Simmons, one year, Josiah Alger, two years, Morgan Baldwin, three years and Henry M. Thompson, four years: constables, George Judson and Volney Stiles.

The condition of settlement in 1840 is reflected in the vote at the general November election, whose interest was sufficient to bring out the total voting strength of the township. Eighty-nine votes were cast.

The first school district organized in the township was in the Baldwin neighborhood, in the spring of 1837. A school was taught the summer fol- lowing by Miss Mary Gazley in a log school house which stood on the cor- ner of the farm later owned by LaFayette Odell. Mrs. Conant kept school temporarily in her own house in the summer of 1836 before the school house was built. The first winter term was taught by a Scotchman named McClergan, or McClagan. DeWitt C. Leach taught a number of terms afterwards.

In 1837 the Methodists formed a class at or near the Odell school house, but it is was not of long duration there. A Presbyterian society was formed in 1844. The first services were held by Rev. P. H. Burghardt. This church was for many years a mission, receiving aid from the Home Missionary Society. In 1845 a Baptist society was organized near Mundy Center.

ARGENTINE TOWNSHIP.

By far the larger portion of the lands of Argentine township were taken up in the year 1836, and very little was entered before then. As early as 1825 Samuel Dexter, of New York, entered lands in sections 19 and 27, but for speculation rather than for settlement. Two years later Elijah Crane, of Wayne county, entered eighty acres in section 26. In

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1835 James H. Murray and Sally Murray, of Washtenaw county, made entries in lands entered before 1836.

The first white men who became residents of what is now Argentine township were James H. Murray and William Lobdell, in 1836. Mr. Mur- ray, who formerly lived near Rochester, New York, came from Cayuga county, in that state, with his family, and first settled in Washtenaw county. His purchase of land in section 35 of Argentine township, was made to secure a water privilege, and as soon as he moved his family thither, in March, 1836, he built the dam now standing at the village and erected a saw-mill. Two or three years later he built a frame grist-mill, from which flour was drawn to Detroit in wagons. Mr. Murray also built the first store in the village, opposite the grist-mill. He also built the second hotel in the place, the first having been built by Abram Middlesworth. Argentine soon became a village center of considerable importance.

Among the earliest settlers who contributed to the growth of the town- ship may be mentioned William Lobdell, William Alger, William Jennings, William and Henry Pratt, Ira Murray, Israel Crow, Calvin W. Ellis, Benja- min Taylor, Amos Sturgis, David Brooks, Solomon Sutherland, Halsey Whitehead, Asa Atherton, David Brooks and others.

A postoffice was established at the village at an early day and called Booton; but, owing to the fact that there was another office in the state with a similar name, it was finally changed to Argentine. James H. Mur- ray was the first postmaster and to him is given the credit for naming the township. Mail was carried on horseback over a route which extended from Pontiac to Ionia. William Hubbard and Brown Hyatt were among the earliest mail carriers.

A village plat for Argentine was laid out in 1844, but the building of the Detroit & Milwaukee railway through Fenton left Argentine so far to one side as to destroy its prospects of growth as a village.

As in the case of Flint township, the earliest records of Argentine township can not be found. No records exist earlier than 1850.

MOUNT MORRIS TOWNSHIP.

Mount Morris, while being one of the earliest townships to receive settlers, was one of the latest to be separately organized, its lands having formed a part of Flushing and Genesee until 1855. From 1833 to 1836 its territory was. a. part of Grand Blanc township. It was under the juris-

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diction of Flint township from 1836 to 1838, when it was divided between Flushing and Genesee.

The first ripples of the oncoming tide of immigration reached the lands of Mount Morris in May, 1833. In that month "Uncle Ben" Pearson, of Avon, Livingston county, New York, purchased lands on sections 25 and 36. Shortly afterwards there arrived at Todd's tavern on Flint river, which was Mr. Pearson's headquarters, four men-Lewis Buckingham, John Pratt, Isaac N. Robinson and Richard Marvin, from Mount Morris, Livingston county, New York,-who were also in search of lands. Happy in the prospect of securing neighbors, Mr. Pearson guided them to the neighbor- hood of his claims, about four miles north of Flint on the Saginaw road, where all except Marvin entered lands and later settled. This was the be- ginning of the "Cold Water settlement." The first dwelling erected in this settlement on lands in Mount Morris was that of Mr. Pearson, upon the northeast corner of section 36.

In this settlement was kept the first school in the township. It was taught in the house of Lewis Buckingham by Miss Sarah Curtis as early as the winter of 1835-36. There were some eight or ten pupils. In 1836 or 1837 the children of the settlement went to a log school house built on section 31 in Genesee township, in which the first teacher was Miss Harriet Hoyes. Soon afterward another log school house was built on Moses Camp's farm, on section 19 in Genesee township, in which it is claimed Newton Robinson taught the first school. The first school house in Mount Morris township was not built until about 1848.

At this settlement also was formed the earliest religious association of the township, in 1834. Among the prominent Mount Morris members were John Pratt and Charles N. Beecher. The society was Presbyterian, but any- one was counted a member who helped to pay the preacher. A church was built here as early as 1836, where services were held for twenty years. The first pastor was Elder Cobb.

During 1834, 1835 and 1836 the "Cold Water settlement" was con- siderably increased by new arrivals, among whom were Lyman G. Bucking- ham, Alanson and Luther Dickinson, Ashael Beach, Daniel Curtis, Ezekiel R. Ewing, Charles N. Beecher, Edwin Cornwell, Frederick Walker and Henry Parker. Previous to 1840 there had arrived in the east half of the town- ship Rodman W. Albro, Manley Miles, Lyman G. Buckingham, Alanson Dickinson, William Pierson, John Rusco, near Devil's Lake, Jesse Clark, ' Porter Flemings, John Pratt, Daniel Curtis and his father-in-law Bacon, Luther Trickey, who had been here two or three years, Juba Barrows, Elder

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Cobb, of the Presbyterian church, Daniel Andrews, Pratt's brother-in-law, Humphrey Hunt, Charles N. Beecher, who owned a large tract of land, Edwin Cornwell, Linus Atkins, -- Twogood, William Woolfitt, Frederick Walker, Henry Barber, George Schofield, with a large family of sons, Will- iam Bodine and Richard Johnson. In the west half of the township were James Armstrong, Abial C. Bliss, Sylvester Beebe, William Chase, Jacob Dehn, Ezekiel R. Ewing, Nathaniel Hopson, William H. Hughes, Dominick Kelly, Vincent Runyon, Russell Welch and Alvin Wright, who were all there prior to 1840.

The settlement made in October, 1836, by Frederick Walker on section 12, was the first made on the site of the later village of Mount Morris. Mr. Walker was an Englishman, who had lived for some time in Dutchess county, New York. When the postoffice was established he became the first post- master, the office being kept at his house. In the beginning there was little to indicate this as the place for a village, but its destiny was decided when in 1857 it was designated as a station on the Flint & Pere Marquette rail- road.

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History of Genesee County, Michigan, Her People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I, Part 24

Author: Edwin Orin Wood Publication date: 1916 Publisher: Federal publishingcompany Number of Pages: 861

Author: Edwin Orin Wood
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Federal publishingcompany
Number of Pages: 861