USA > Michigan > Hillsdale County > History of Hillsdale county. Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 26
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HISTORY OF HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
This period of the history of Hillsdale is principally memorable as an era of practical joking, and many a traveler and unfledged countryman paid dear for the expe- rience he gained by coming to town. Even the judge upon the bench was not exempt, his judicial ermine being no protection against the banter of his friends. A circuit judge who officiated at that time was accustomed to ask, on coming to open the court, " what new drive the boys had got?" that he might be prepared to meet their jest. A circuit preacher, who was rather a favorite with the young people, rode into town one pleasant Sunday morning on his lean, half-starved horse, minus saddle and shoes, and tying . him to a neighboring tree, proceeded to the grove to hold service. The youngsters untied the horse, took him to the nearest shop and had him well shod, and then placing a saddle upon his back, returned him to his previous location. The deed carried with it so much good-nature that the preacher could only gaze with amazement and gratitude upon the metamorphosis in the animal; but the joke was apparent afterward, when he was obliged to combat the charge of having shod his horse on Sunday.
The temperance sentiment was equally as strong in the early days as at the present time. We find that, in 1853, Dr. Alonzo Cressy was appointed " Agent for the sale of alcohol and spirituous liquors for medicinal and mechanical purposes and no other," in accordance with an act prohibit- ing the manufacture of spirituous liquors and the traffic therein, approved Feb. 12, 1853.
The agent aforesaid was to purchase, upon the credit of the village, a sufficient quantity of alcohol and spirituous liquors, and was to receive a sufficient compensation to pay the rent of an office in which to keep and sell the same, and was required to sell it at a sufficient profit to pay the expense of sale, not exceeding fifty per cent. on the cost.
During the latter part of the same year, the project of building a college within the village limits, and designating it as " Hillsdale College" was agitated, and with so much success that, during the following year, the corner-stone was laid with imposing ceremonies and the buildings ultimately completed. A full account of the college is given in the last chapter of the general history.
The authorities took much pride in maintaining the in- tegrity of the village government, and numerous ordinances were passed bearing upon the subject.
One in particular bore upon sundry unoffending ducks and geese that occasionally strayed into the highways, and stated that it should be lawful for any person finding them running at large to drive them to the pound, and for this laudable act the person aforesaid was to receive the sum of ten cents for each duck or goose. Legislation did not stop here, but further decrees that the worthy poundmaster shall "epitomize the aerial apparatus of such geese or ducks so that they cannot escape from the pound," and afterwards offer them for sale to the highest bidder. An ordinance was also passed against drunkenness, making fine or im- prisoment, or both, the penalty to be paid for being drunk on the streets, and all saloons, restaurants, and billiard-rooms were to be closed from ten o'clock at night till six in the morning. The law with regard to the observance of the Sabbath was equally stringent. No store, or shop, or saloon, 13
was allowed to be kept open ; no premises used for public diversion were to be occupied for the purpose on that day, nor should any person be present or take part in such diver- sion with impunity, the penalty to be a fine of one hundred dollars, with imprisonment in the county jail for non-pay- ment. This was not to affect druggists who sold liquors for medicinal purposes.
In September, 1868, a special meeting of the officers of the village was called to manifest their " grief and mortifi- cation at the unprovoked onslaught made the evening before by a band of lawless rowdies upon unoffending citizens of Coldwater and Jonesville, who were present to take part in a public meeting, for the purpose of hearing an address from the United States Senator, Hon. Zachariah Chandler." Measures were at once taken to discover the guilty parties, and visit upon them condign punishment. A committee was also appointed to draft suitable resolutions of sympathy and regret, and forward them to the authorities of the respective towns. We are happy to record the fact that the desperadoes were arrested, and punishment visited upon them according to their deserts.
In April of 1869 the village of Hillsdale obtained a char- ter and became a city, holding an election on the 5th of the month, and choosing as their first city officers the fol- lowing :
Geo. W. Underwood, Mayor; Henry J. King, City Treasurer ; Samuel J. Lewis, Edwin J. March, James G. Brent, Benjamin Fisher, William Wilson, William Pettus, and Spencer O. Fisher, Aldermen ; S. Chandler, City Clerk.
The newly-elected mayor, on assuming the duties of his office, delivered an appropriate and excellent inaugural ad- dress, only a portion of which we have space for :
" Perhaps some inhabitant of Hillsdale in the distant future, in- spired by a spirit of antiquarian research, or perhaps with a view to entertain his contemporaries with a history of the settlement and growth of that little opening in the forests,-as I well remember it, but which I trust shall be to him who shall then occupy that position the prosperous and growing city,-as he shall turn his eye back through the dim and misty past to that little village in the deep woods of Southern Michigan, upon the head-waters of the St. Joseph and its source, then to be, as now, the placid and beautiful Baw Beese. I say that future historian may seek to know who and what manner of persons they were that felled these forests, and drove back from their lairs the wild beasts which here roamed at will, and, if possible, the wilder human inhabitants of these hills and valleys; who they were that early plowed and sowed these fields; that built these nu- merous habitations,-the abodes of industry, of plenty, of civilization and refinement; that laid broad and deep the foundations of these costly structures, devoted to the purposes of commerce, of education and religion, and that at length laid the corner-stone of the nascent city.
" Fellow-citizens, I trust in God the time will never come when the character of the pioneers of Hillsdale, as a whole, will not be known and read in the works which they shall have left behind them,-in the character of their children, and their children's children; and that even 'in their ashes shall live their wonted fires,' to inspire with holy purpose and sturdy resolution all that come after them. For as sure as effect follows cause, and cause precedes effect, so surely may we predict that the seed here planted in these churches, in these efficient graded schools, and in the flourishing college here established, will at length spring up and ' bear fruit an hundred fold,' not only to the glory and honor of those who planted them, but to the glory of God and the blessing of mankind.
"The duties of the office of mayor will be faithfully discharged when, to the extent of his ability, the incumbent shall see that every right and interest of the citizen within the department of the muni-
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HISTORY OF HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
cipal law is fully secured ; when he shall make it his endeavor that the city aggregate and the citizens each and singular shall suffer no injury ; and, moreover, that he shall equally endeavor to secure to each and all every possible advantage within his power to promote. Of course there will be evils and calamities which, with all of his en- deavors, and those of his associates, he will not be able to avert. The devouring element, as we have often witnessed, in its resistless course, may not, with the best endeavor, be stayed until it has laid in ruins our fairest structures, and borne away, as on the wings of the wind, the accumulations of patient industry through toilsome years.
"' The pestilence that walketh in darkness' may invade our dwel- lings in spite of sanitary regulations and health officers. The thief and incendiary may pursue their nefarious work and yet escape de- tection and punishment, maugre police regulations and the best en- deavors of magistrates. He will not have done his duty, however, nor will any other officer, when any honestly-disposed citizen can justly cast upon him the reproach and say, 'When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedest with him,' whether that thief had his hands upon his neighbor's goods or in the public purse-whether he sought to abstract therefrom positively and directly or indirectly, without having first rendered an equivalent therefor in labor or service per- formed. I am led to these remarks because, as you are fully aware, it is through this method of collusion between officials, or between officials and contractors, that the money of corporations is frittered away, or absolutely stolen. Indeed, it would seem that in certain lo- calities, and with a certain class of persons, it had become the im- pression that city governments and corporate privileges were created for the express purpose of giving support to certain officials and their friends. I am resolved that, to the best of ability, whoever ob- tains the money of the city of Hillsdale shall first have established his right to it by having earned it. While I would not withhold what is due to the faithful laborer, I would not allow it to be offered as an excuse for half-performed labor that the labor was as good as the pay. I am convinced that it is the best economy to make the pay as good as possible-promptly at the close of each week. Then will you be able to bring the kind and amount of labor up the proper standard, where the pay is first rate.
" If your mayor and aldermen be required to serve you during the period of their respective terms of office without pecuniary reward, they will themselves be in a position to demand and insist that those who receive pay shall earn what they receive.
"The weight of these considerations is increased if you will allow me to remind you that, in the establishment of a city government in place of that of the late village, we have not grown larger, more populous, or more wealthy by the change; we have the same re- sources from which to draw that we had while we were yet the village of Hillsdale; and, what is more to be considered, the expiring village, on its deathbed, bequeathed to us a legacy,-on the minus side of the equation, however,-a debt of more than thirty-five hundred dollars.
"I beg leave, in this connection, to remind you of another fact worthy of your consideration : that the machinery of the city govern- ment cannot be run on the same expense with that of the late village, and that while the charter of the city of Hillsdale empowers the officials to assess and collect a larger tax than heretofore, that charter suggests no possible method of increasing the income of the citizen, and so help him to meet the increased burden of taxation. It will therefore, fellow-citizens, always be a matter of deep concern to you whom you intrust with power and the government of the city, or the little finger of the city government may become heavier and more grievous to be borne than the loins of the late village of Hillsdale.
"I am thus led to inquire, lastly, as proposed, how can the duties of the situation best be discharged ; or, in other words, how can the objects and ends of the city government best be secured ?
"I reply, that they can best be secured and discharged in the only practicable method by which they can be secured at all,-by the prac- tical co-operation of the citizens with the Common Council, and the Common Council with the citizens, to secure the best good of the city.
"I should be manifestly wanting in the discharge of my duty on this occasion, did I not give distinct recognition to that numerous- that most useful-but not always sufficiently appreciated class of our fellow-citizens, the firemen of Hillsdale.
"Firemen of Hillsdale, I desire officially to salute you! Your promptness, your valor, your endurance, has been put to the test on more than one occasion.
"Your fellow-citizens have often had occasion to know that when- ever you put forth your best endeavors in the discharge of your perilous duties, that where you failed to go, none others need attempt, and that what you failed to do, none others need try.
"Not only have these characteristics been exhibited at home, in the presence of your fellow-citizens; but you have often returned from the scenes of conflict with the firemen of other localities, bear- ing the trophies of victory, to the joy and pride of your fellow- citizens.
"Firemen of Hillsdale, these laurels must never fade! What you have done on former occasions you are able to repeat, and even to sur- pass, whenever you choose to put forth the effort.
"Suffer no dissensions among you to dim the lustre of your past achievements.
"Let not any neglect, fancied or real, on the part of the late village of Hillsdale, or of its executive officers, dampen your ardor or di- minish aught of your endeavors to fill the useful and honorable posi- tion which you have so long occupied. The work which you are called upon to do is sturdy work, and yours are sturdy natures ; with occasional outbreaks of irregularity, it is true, or sallies of juvenes- cence, the invariable concomitants of great natures ; you are equal to the position you occupy. If you were less than what you are, you would not have been what you have been to the late village of Hills- dale and its inhabitants, their shield and defense in the hour of peril. If your wants have not been heeded as you thought they ought to have been, if your services have not always been appreciated, you yourselves must know why it has been. Involved in litigation, the late village of Hillsdale, from no fault of its own, but to vindicate jus- tice and right, had not the means to attend fully and promptly to your wants and other pressing necessities. If you have been ne- glected, so have other paramount interests for the same reason.
"You cannot afford now to throw away your own bright record, but you must illustrate it with another and a brighter page. So much of your lives has been already passed in Hillsdale, and so much of what you have done for good has been done here, that you cannot now, if you would, break it off and hope to graft it on to any other locality.
"You must here, with us, finish up your begun work. And you cannot afford to do it in any other manner than that becoming your- selves.
"You, in connection with your fellow-citizens, have called me to this position. I have responded to your call to be your chosen leader. Respond now to my call, rally round your old standards. Fill up your ranks, and stand shoulder to shoulder, ready for your appropriate work. Strive to surpass all that you have ever done before, by con- quering your prejudices, your dissensions and grievances, and fill up the yet unwritten page of your honor and your usefulness."
The city was divided into four wards, with the following boundaries :
"The First Ward shall contain all that portion of said city bounded as follows: Commencing at the intersection of the centre of North Street with the centre of Hillsdale Street, as continued through Central Plat; running thence easterly and southerly through the centre of North Street and Railroad Street to the centre of Bacon Street to the east line of the city; thence north on east line of the city to the east and west quarter line of section twenty-three (23), in township six (6), range three (3), west; thence west on said quarter line to the southeast corner of the west half of the north- west quarter of section 23 aforesaid ; thence north on the east line of the said west half of the northwest quarter of section 23 to the north line of the city ; thence west along said north line of the city to the centre of Hillsdale Street ; thence south along centre of Hills- dale Street to the point of beginning.
" The Second Ward shall contain all that portion of said city bounded as follows : Commencing at the intersection of centre of Howell Street with centre of North Street; running thence west through centre of North Street to west line of West Street ; thence north along said west line of West Street to the north line of south half of lot one hundred and fifty-four (154) of old plat of the village of Hillsdale; thence west on said line to lands of Robert B. Sutton and Oliver C. Sutton ; thence north to the northeast corner of said Suttons' lands; thence west on north line of said Suttons' lands to the northwest corner of said Suttons' lands; thence north to the centre of the Angling road, running through section twenty-seven (27); thence southwesterly along the centre of said Angling road to west line of said city ; thence
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HISTORY OF HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
north on west line of city to the southwest corner of the north half of the northwest quarter of section twenty-two (22), township six, south of range three west; thence east on the north line of said city to the north and south quarter line of said section 22; thence north on said quarter line to the north line of the city; thence east on said north line to the centre of Hillsdale Street; thence south along the centre of Hillsdale Street to the place of beginning.
" The Third Ward shall contain all that portion of said city bounded as follows : Commencing at intersection of centre of North Street with centre of Howell Street; running thence west through the centre of North Street to the west line of West Street ; thence north along said line of West Street to the north line of the south half of lot one hun- dred and fifty-four (154) of the Old Plat of the village of Hillsdale; thence west on said line to lands of Robert B. Sutton and Oliver C. Sutton ; thence north to the northeast corner of said Suttons' lands ; thence west on the north line of said Suttons' lands to the northwest corner of said Suttons' lands ; thence north to the centre of the Angling road running through section twenty-seven (27) ; thence southwesterly along the centre of said Angling road to the west line of said city ; thence south along said west line of city to the south line of said city ; thence east on said south line of city to the centre of Howell Street; thence north along the centre of Howell Street to the place of beginning.
" The Fourth Ward shall contain all that portion of said city bounded as follows : Commencing at the intersection of the centre of North Street with the centre of Howell Street ; running thence easterly the centre of North Street through the centre of Railroad Street to the centre of Bacon Street; thence easterly through the centre of Bacon Street to the east line of the city ; thence south on the east line of the city to the lands of the Michigan Southern and Northern In- diana Railroad Company; thence northwesterly along lands of said railroad company to the east line of the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter of section thirty-five (35) ; thence on a right line to the southeast corner of the northwest quarter of section thirty-five (35); thence west on the south line of the city to the centre of Howell Street; thence north along the centre of Howell Street to the point of beginning; all of said wards being in township six (6), south of range three (3), west, in the county of Hillsdale, State of Michigan."
Nothing of special interest transpired during the suc- ceeding years until 1872, when a project was begun for boring an artesian well within the city limits A commit- tee of three was appointed in April of that year to solicit subscriptions. An appropriation of fifteen hundred dollars was made, and the location having been decided upon, work was begun, but without immediate prospect of success. Upon funds being required a further appropriation of five thousand five hundred dollars was made; but after boring for a depth of nearly a quarter of a mile the undertaking was abandoned.
As in mechanics so in finance, the people of Hillsdale have not succeeded in finding the source of an artesian fountain, the overflow of which would carry them on to metropolitan greatness; yet they seem at length, despite the difficulties of the last few years, to have reached the shore of a calm stream of moderate prosperity. All around them a fertile country, with a steadily-increasing population and production, responds liberally to the labors of the husband- man. Its products come to Hillsdale as the central location of the county, and though that youthful city cannot hope to equal the grandeur of Toledo, Detroit, or Chicago, yet its people may confidently look forward to a steady and sturdy growth, rivaling that of almost any inland town in Michigan.
With this brief sketch of the general course of events in Hillsdale, since the inception of the woodland hamlet of 1835, we turn our attention to numerous details which could not conveniently be embodied in that sketch, but the record of which forms an important part of the village and city history.
THE BAR.
The first lawyer in the village of Hillsdale was Henry S. Mead, who came about 1840. He was an able and popular man, was at one time a representative in the Legis- lature, and was a successful practitioner in the village for nearly twelve years, dying in 1851 or '52. He was speed- ily followed by William T. Howell, who also became a rep- resentative in the Legislature and State senator. After a large practice, extending over twelve or fourteen years, he removed to Jackson, in 1853.
These were followed by E. H. C. Wilson and Wolcott Branch, who both settled in Hillsdale before 1845. Mr. Branch was made treasurer of the county. Mr. Wilson was a young gentleman from the Eastern Shore of Mary- land, a man of liberal culture, brilliant intellect, and re- markable delicacy of feeling, -" as finely moulded as a woman," said one who knew him well. He, too, had a good practice, and was for one term judge of the Circuit Court.
Daniel L. Pratt came in 1845, and soon made a place for himself at the Hillsdale bar, of which he is now the oldest surviving member. He achieved his objects by devoted industry, by the exercise of sound judgment, and by the most unwavering adherence to whatever he attempted to do. As is well known, he is now serving his second term as judge of the Circuit Court.
Many others came, practiced, or tried to practice, a short time, and then withdrew. After those before mentioned the next prominent one who remained permanently was Christopher J. Dickerson, who settled here about 1850, and rapidly acquired a large practice. He was the soul of honor, and was noted for his great affability, geniality, and generosity,-possibly he was too generous for his own wel- fare. As appears in the chapters devoted to the military history of the county, he became a brevet brigadier-general in the war for the Union, and was afterwards a judge, but died in 1872 in the prime of life.
George W. Lombard and George A. Knickerbocker came in 1855, and began practice in partnership. Mr. Knick- erbocker has achieved decided success as a lawyer. Mr. Lombard was a man of great natural ability,-perhaps not extremely inclined to strenuous exertion, but, when roused, able to enter the legal tournament as the peer of the strong- est champions. He, too, was a man of very genial, and even jolly, temperament, and was very much beloved by the people among whom he dwelt. Responding instantly to the first call of his country, he went to the front as cap- tain of the first company raised in Hillsdale for the sup- pression of the Rebellion, fought in nearly a score of bat- tles, was promoted to colonel for gallant conduct, and fell at the head of his regiment, in the battle of the Wilder- ness. There were few indeed in Hillsdale County who did not mourn his loss.
Cephas B. Dresser was an early lawyer, and has been a justice of the peace in Hillsdale for a long period.
Clement E. Babb attained a good practice, and served a term as prosecuting attorney, but lay down the legal robe to assume the theological, preached for several years in the pulpit previously occupied by Beecher, in Indianapolis, and is now editing a religious newspaper in Cincinnati.
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HISTORY OF HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
We have now reached a period when we begin to meet the names of some who are still in practice here, but in this series of very slight sketches we do not care to touch on the characteristics of those who are yet active in the professional arena.
Ezra L. Koon was admitted in 1858. His success is too well known to need comment here.
William S. Edwards came about the same time, and re- mained a few years. He is now practicing in Detroit.
Richard W. Ricaby also achieved good success as a Hills- dale lawyer, was a lieutenant-colonel in the army, and is at present practicing in Chicago.
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