USA > Michigan > Hillsdale County > History of Hillsdale county. Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 64
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Section 10 .- Moses Allen, Ichabod H. Burdick, Benja- min Allen, Daniel Rice, Ambrose Burdick, Ammi Whitney, -640 acres.
Section 11 .- Richard W. Corbus, Abram F. Boulton, Reuben, Edwin, and Nathan Stiles, Newell Kane, David Stiles, Everett Schermerhorn, Marcus N. Mulliner,-640 acres.
Section 12 .- Newell Kane, John Ewell, Everett Scher- merhorn, William B. Coryell,-640 acres.
Section 13 .- Isaac Burge, Charles M. Giddings, H. Collins, O. W. C. Brown, Horace Thatcher,-640 acres.
Section 14 .- Stillman Hedge, B. S. Clark, Emanuel Bentz, Edward A. Wright, Jerusha Whipple, John De Mott,-640 acres.
Section 15 .- Ichabod H. Burdick, Henry Clark, William Lindley, Watson Prentiss, Daniel Oakley,-640 acres.
Section 17 .- John S. Reed, Thomas S. Reed, Aaron B. Goodwin, Ammi Layton, Robert Bell, John Jones,
Samuel T. Sheriff, Robert McClelland, Charles Butler,-640 acres.
Section 18 .- Warner Wing, Thomas H. Vinton, Elijah H. John, Moseley Dunham, Michael Walsh, John Jones, Joseph Wells, John R. Willis, Robert McClelland,-634.58 acres.
Section 19 .- Oliver Johnson, Franklin Johnson, Charles H. Abbott, William , Dan B. Miller, John R. Willis,-610.19 acres.
Section 20 .- P. and Z. Kirkham, Michael Walsh, Archi- bald Garfield, William Burt, Silas Kendall, Watson Prentiss, -640 acres.
Section 21 .- P. and Z. Kirkham, John McConnell, Daniel Oakley, Samuel H. Gale, Franklin Strong,-640 acres.
Section 22 .- Arzen Purdy, Watson Prentiss, Emanuel Barts,-640 acres.
Section 23 .- Lewis Baxter, Charles M. Giddings, Stephen Warren, William Prentiss,-640 acres.
Section 24 .- Lewis Baxter, Charles M. Giddings, John L. Eastman, William Sprague, Patrick Donahoo, Stephen Warren,-640 acres.
Section 25 .- Abram Keefer, Norman L. Osborn, Stephen Warren, William Wilkinson, Thomas G. McCulloch, Frank- lin Mulliner,-640 acres.
Section 26 .- Isaac Burge, Abram Keefer, John De Mott, Stillman Elman, Stephen Warren, Ira Ingalls,- 604.80 acres.
Section 27 .- Horace Purdy, Ira Purdy, Joseph Fellows, -640 acres.
Section 28 .- Ammi Whitney, Samuel W. Gale, Jerome & Fenton, O. H. Blandin, John W. Sheriff, Samuel T. Sheriff,-640 acres.
Section 29 .- John Cook, Abigail H. Trask, Charles Butler,-579.66 acres.
Section 30 .- A. Mosher, William Larzelere, John C. Waleman, J. Nottingham, Charles Butler,-612.33 acres.
Section 31 .- Seba Murphy, Solon Pierce, William Lar- zelere, Caleb Moore,-600.49 acres.
Section 32 .- John Cook, Jerome & Fenton, Charles Butler,-590.82 acres.
Section 33 .- Joshua M. Lindsley, Ammi Whitney, Jerome & Fenton,-535.68 acres.
Section 34 .- Ammi Whitney, Joel Newton, John W. Sheriff, Edward Hollam, Isaac Thompson,-638.46 acres.
Section 35 .- James Leonard, Isaac Thompson, Nathan Monroe,-640 acres
Section 36 .- Edward Hollam, Isaac Thompson, Isaac Trask, Horace Thacher, Dilla & Elwell,-640 acres.
All the taxable land, amounting in the aggregate to 22,153.45 acres, had been taken at the date given, so rapidly had the sales been effected and the country filled up with settlers. Much land has since been reclaimed, thereby increasing the amount several hundred acres. Hog Lake received its name probably from the mire surrounding it being so suggestive of "hog wallows." Most of the marshes in this region-when not open-were covered with a dense growth of tamarack, which wood has been found excellent for fence-posts, telegraph-poles, and railroad cross- ties.
253
HISTORY OF HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
EARLY SETTLEMENT.
" We cross the prairie as of old The Pilgrims crossed the sea, To make the West, as they the East,
The homestead of the free.
*
*
" We're flowing from our native hills As our free rivers flow ; The blessing of our motherland Is on us as we go.
" We go to plant her common-schools On distant prairie swells, And give the Sabbaths of her wilds The music of her bells. * *
*
" We'll sweep the prairies, as of old Our fathers swept the sea, And make the West, as they the East, The homestead of the free."
Thus sings the poet Whittier over the flood of emigra- tion rolling towards Kansas, and the words are equally ap- plicable to the days when Michigan was the goal which the thousands from Eastern lands were striving to reach,-the " promised land" where homes for all comers could be had for almost nothing.
The township of Allen is entitled to the honor of having been the home of the first white man who located within the limits of Hillsdale County. This person was Moses Allen. It is said that he was living at Flat Rock, near Wyandotte, on the Detroit River, below the city of Detroit, when the government agent was appointed to survey a road across the then Territory of Michigan, to connect Detroit and Chicago. Mr. Allen joined the surveying-party in 1825, and went through to Chicago with them. On the route he noticed the prairie which now bears his name, and was much pleased with it. He selected a piece of land, and, after reaching home, returned with his family and settled upon it, entering it at the land-office as soon as it came into market (1829). His widow-afterwards Mrs. Hunt-is now living on the old farm at Flat Rock, in the neighborhood of ninety years of age.
From James M. Burdick, Esq., of Quincy, Branch Co., Mich., we have received the following items, kindly fur- nished by him. They will prove interesting from the fact that few, if any, now in Hillsdale County are conversant with the history of Mr. Allen, and his settlement at Allen Prairie :
"QUINCY, Dec. 25, 1878.
" MR. P. A. DURANT, St. Charles, Ill.
"DEAR SIR :- Yours of the 20th inst. is at hand, and for your benefit hasten to reply. In the first place, I will answer the questions you ask in your letter.
" Moses Allen settled in the township that now bears his name, in the month of April, 1827; he was formerly from the State of New York. Before the war of 1812-he then being a young man-he went to Canada, where he was pressed into the British service. As soon as opportunity favored him he left them and enlisted under Gen. Hull; and when that traitor sold his army at Detroit, Mich., he (Moses Al- len) with the rest was sold for British gold, and would have been hung had it not been for the aid and sympathy of the captain of the boat (prompted by their both being Masons) that carried off the Ohio Volunteers.
"After the war of 1812 he settled in Brownstown, in the then Ter- ritory of Michigan. He there married Polly Barnes (my aunt). He lived there until the spring of 1827, when he removed to the place
that now bears his name, or the Indian name of ' Mscootah Siac,' meaning ' Sand Creek Prairie.' He died in Allen, in the month of October, 1829, that being the cause of my leaving my Eastern home and coming to this wild, unsettled Territory on the 18th of April, 1830, to assist my widowed aunt.
" I found four families in the township of Allen ; three of them had but a few months preceded me. Moses Allen's widow, Joseph Corbus, Samuel Craig, and Thomas Reed comprised the white inhabitants of the township.
" At Jonesville, one family,-Benaiah Jones ; at Moscow, one family, -Silas Benson, composed the white population of the county. In 1830 other families came and settled in the county, among whom were Thaddeus Wight, Stephen Hecock,# and Ambrose S. Burdick,-who settled in Jonesville,-and a few others.
" I spent my first two years in the counties of Hillsdale and Branch. Four months of the time I spent a solitary life in the woods, two miles north of what is now the city of Coldwater, my only neighbors being the red men of the forest.
" In the year 1830 I followed the Sauk trail from Detroit to Mott- ville, St. Joseph Co., with an ox-team, camping out forty-two nights, sleeping mostly under my wagon, or up a tree to keep away from the ravenous wolves.
"In the fall of 1831 my father came to the township of Allen, and entered his land. My father, self, and brother put up a rude log house, and on the 4th of February, 1832, my father and myself started for the State of New York, with a horse and cutter, leaving brother in possession of the new house. After a two-weeks' hard drive, and many narrow escapes from death,-the consequence of crossing Lake St. Clair on the ice,-we arrived at the home of my boyhood. On the 28th day of March, 1832, I was married to Miss Eunice Laughlin, my present wife, and on the 10th of May we started to return to our Western home, accompanied by my father and family, my brother-in- law-Abijah Mosher-and family, and Daniel Stanton and family. We arrived on the 22d of the same month, and all moved into the log house (16 by 20), 28 of us in number, and there lived until other houses could be erected.
"On the day preceding our arrival at our new home in Allen, I was met by an officer who warned me into the Indian war against Black Hawk, and I left my young wife the next morning to meet that warrior, with whom I had become personally acquainted, and drive him back across the Mississippi River, which our army succeeded in doing. . . .
" When we first settled in Hillsdale County, it was attached to Lenawee County for judicial purposes. The first town-meeting was held at Jonesville, where every voter of the county met to put in their officers ; and every voter held an office, and some of them three, in order to fill every office.
" Now I can tell what no other man now living can tell. I helped to bury the second white man that was buried in Hillsdale County,- he being Mrs. Craig's father, an Irishman, by the name of Dowd,- and helped to raise the first frame bent, it being a saw-mill, built up the river from where Jonesville now stands, by Lieut. Sibley, of the regular army. I also helped to bury the second white man and raise the first frame bent in Branch County ; so, you see, I have seen the entire up-building of the country.
"I have been asked several times who the first postmaster was in Allen. It was Hiram B. Hunt, who married the widow Allen. He was the first justice of the peace, and four years after his appoint- ment died with hydrophobia, having been bitten by a mad dog seven years previous.
"I could think of many more incidents that would never disgrace the pages of history,-such as first mill, which was a hole burned in the top of a stump, with a spring-pole over it, which served as the first mill of Allen for the whites and Indians to pound corn in, etc. . .
" Very respectfully, "JAMES M. BURDICK."
Mr. Burdick was from the town of Parma, Monroe Co., N. Y., and when he started on his first trip to Michigan (1830) he walked to Buffalo, leaving home April 2. At Buffalo he engaged passage on a steamer, which was all day
* Hickox.
t Ichabod H. Burdick.
.
254
HISTORY OF HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
pushing its way through the ice to open water. The boat in due time arrived at Detroit, and Mr. Burdick reached Allen Prairie on the 18th of October, as he has stated. He was one of a family of twelve children.
The " stump mortar " mentioned by Mr. Burdick is said to have been originally fitted up by an Indian trader named Campau, before there were any white settlers in the neigh- borhood. It was a large white-oak stump, and was some years ago removed by Mr. Howard, the present owner of the place, to the roadside, and afterwards, while improving the road, it was moved away and burned up, being to the last in a very good state of preservation.
After the death of Moses Allen, which occurred in Octo- ber, 1829, his widow built a " block" tavern on the Chicago road, east of the present village of Allen. The work upon the building was performed by her brother-in-law, Reuben Cornish, who lived in a small shanty next west. This was late in 1829. The tavern was constructed of whitewood logs, hewed on two sides, and the rough sides placed to- gether, in order to have a smooth wall both on the inside and outside of the house. Mrs. Allen was afterwards mar- ried to Hiram Hunt, who kept the tavern for some time. In 1835 it was occupied by Alvah N. Jones.
Hiram Hunt was a blacksmith by trade, also a gunsmith, and an excellent workman. He owned the first blacksmith- shop in the township, which was located half a mile east of the corners. The first coal used in town was burned at his forge. Mr. Hunt was a man of fine education and pleas- ant manners, and was much esteemed by all who knew him. As has been mentioned, his death was caused by the bite of a mad dog.
The stump mentioned as having been the first mill of any kind in the township, was extensively used by the settlers, and it has been known that such a crowd was present to pound small quantities of corn each, that some were obliged to await their turn until midnight.
The farm taken up by Moses Allen is now owned by Goodwin Howard, who came with his father, Phineas How- ard, from Allegany Co., N. Y., in 1835, arriving in Allen on the 12th of May. The elder Howard had been a farmer and "shingle-weaver " while living in New York. Good- win Howard has been engaged for over twenty years in stock dealing and raising, and with good success financially. His present residence stands some distance south of the site of the old Allen house and " Hunt's tavern," which have passed away and left no trace of former existence.
Moses Allen, the date of whose death has been men- tioned, was the first white man who died in the county, and no boards could be procured wherewith to make a coffin. A black-cherry tree was therefore felled, and the log hewed flat. Lines were marked at equal distances on both sides, four " crotches" set up and poles laid on for cross-pieces, the log rolled upon them, and sawed by two men, one standing above and the other below it. The boards manufactured in this primitive saw-mill were made into a coffin, and Mr. Allen was buried in it. It is not now recollected who fashioned the coffin.
Henry Clark, a native of England, came to America when a young man, and located at Washington, D. C. He was married during his residence there, and subsequently
removed to Richland Co., Pa., where he resided for three years ; his wife's father, Thomas Reed, being a resident of the same county. From there the Reeds moved to Rich- land Co., Ohio; thence to Dearborn, Mich., near Detroit ; the Clark family following first to Ohio, thence to Michi- gan, at the solicitation of Mr. Reed (arriving in Dearborn in 1827).
In 1829, Thomas Reed removed to Allen township with his family, and located at the " White Marble Springs," one and a half miles west of Allen village, on the Chicago road. These springs, 10 or 12 in number, are very clear, pure, and beautiful, and a great advantage to the locality. Mr. Clark followed with his family in 1830, reaching Allen on the 18th of September, and locating on the farm which Moses Allen had originally taken. After the death of the latter the farm was rented to Samuel Craig, who was oc- cupying it when Mr. Clark came. A son of the latter (Robert Clark) is now living at Allen village, as is also Thomas Reed's son, John S. Reed.
Mr. Reed states that his father moved into this township with his family, about harvest-time, in the year 1829. He purchased 160 acres of land from the government, and afterwards gave 80 acres of it to his son (John S. Reed), who purchased 40 additional acres of government land. The old homestead is now owned by John S. Reed's son, John T. Reed. John S. Reed has been a resident of Allen village since 1873, and of the township almost half a cen- tury. He says that although he was but a boy when his father came here, he was obliged to perform a man's work. He is at present in the sixty-third year of his age, and has undoubtedly been a resident of Hillsdale County longer than any other person now within its limits.
When the Reeds came to this township, they brought their household goods in a lumber-wagon, drawn by two yokes of oxen, and had also two cows. They followed the old trail, now the Chicago road. This trail was remarkable (as are Indian trails in general) from the fact that, although it had a uniform general direction, the dusky warriors who trod over it had carefully avoided every log or stump, turning to one side for them and coming back to the direct course as soon as they were passed. The pathway was nar- row, and, from being so extensively traveled, was well worn and beaten. As it was a highway only for footmen, the task of following it with a team and heavy wagon, through woods and swamps, and over hills and around fallen trees, can better be imagined than described.
Wolves were exceedingly plenty, and although no instance is given of the loss of human life through their agency, yet many were the frights received by various settlers when on their way through the dark forest, and without adequate means of defense. On one occasion John S. Reed was walking home at night from Jonesville, and the hungry brutes followed him to within 40 rods of his house, being finally driven away by the dog. Mr. Reed admits that he was a trifle alarmed, and very likely did not wish for a repetition of such an experience.
Many tales are related by the survivors of the pioneer days of adventure and escape, of sports in woodland and "o'er prairie green and fair," of anxious occasions when they became lost in the forest within a short distance of home,
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CHARITY.
ALLEN'S GLOSTER. RESIDENCE OF ROSCIUS SOUTHWORTH , ALLEN. HILLSDALE CO., MICH.
255
HISTORY OF HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
of dealings with the dusky inhabitants who had so long occupied the land before they came, and of many things interesting to both themselves and those of the present generation ; and these tales, if preserved, would make vol- umes of printed matter. To the settler in his age, sur- rounded by plenty, and with everything to make him com- fortable and happy, the recollections of the days when he was young and hardy aid him to pass pleasantly the hours of his declining years, and he takes pleasure also in relating his experiences to attentive and appreciative listeners.
On the farm now owned by Edwin Howard-originally taken up by Moses Allen's brother-in-law, Ichabod H. Bur- dick-was a locality known as the "popple thicket," con- taining about two acres, and covered in the early days of the settlement by a thicket of plum and poplar trees. This and the adjoining prairie were famous resorts for the Indians until long after the advent of the whites, and it is thought that possibly an Indian village was at one time located here. Near the thicket was a small pond. The trees were all cleared away years ago by Daniel Nichols and Goodwin Howard, and the land has been long under cultivation.
Upon the Allen place, when occupied by Mr. Clark, was a small pond, immediately west of the buildings and near the road. The water usually froze in it early in the winter, and the grain when cut was stacked around it, and threshed out on the ice by Mr. Clark and his sons during the winter. The solid ice made an excellent threshing-floor. People passing often stopped and purchased grain for their teams from the men when at work.
The first sheep owned in this part of the country were brought in by Moses Allen, and were only a few in num- ber. They were quite often noticed as belonging to emi- grants passing through, and from one of these Henry Clark afterwards purchased some. For a number of years, however, it was not deemed expedient to attempt to raise sheep, as the bloodthirsty wolves did not disappear until about the same time the last of the Indians left. Southern Michigan has since become a great wool-growing region, and, from the census returns, it will be seen that Allen township ranks among the foremost in the number of sheep raised and amount of wool sheared.
It is not easy to determine who owned the first swine in the township, as hogs ran wild in the woods, and in order to secure a supply of pork it was only necessary to shoot one of them. During the hot weather some of the settlers used smart-weed and gunpowder with which to pre- serve their pork, and fried it in mutton-tallow,-the wild meat being insufficiently fat to fry itself. Pork, even of that quality, however, was deemed a luxury, and many in other portions of the county, who were not fortunate enough to get their meat in the same manner, often suffered for the want of it. Pork has long been a staple article of food among the farmers of the State of New York, and those from that State who settled in Michigan and elsewhere early knew not how to manage without it.
Richard and Joseph Corbus settled on the bank of Sand Creek, probably in the fall of 1829. Joseph was a mar- ried man, and brought his family with him. Richard was unmarried ; he returned to Cuyahoga Co., Ohio, and taught school that winter. While there he was married, at Euclid,
and returned to Michigan with his wife, on horseback, in the spring of 1830. He was an esteemed citizen of the town- ship, and held numerous offices therein. He was the first person buried in the cemetery at Allen, his death occur- ring from dropsy, some time in 1835.
Moses Allen and the wife of John Allen-the first per- sons who died in the township-were buried on their own places, but some years afterwards taken up and removed to the cemetery. John Allen was a brother of Moses Allen, and probably came with him to the prairie in 1827. He owned no land in this neighborhood ; the first saw-mill at Coldwater, Branch Co., was built by him in 1833.
The first frame house in the township was built on Sand Creek, in 1835, by Richard Corbus, the carpenter work being done by Daniel Bostwick. It was on the place now owned by Thomas Nash, near the residence of John T. Warn, east of Allen village.
The first orchards in this township were set out by Richard Corbus and Thomas Reed, and the first one in the adjoining town of Fayette probably about the same time, by Thaddeus Wight, who had settled in 1830.
Thaddeus Wight,* who settled in what is now the town- ship of Fayette, in April, 1830, was the father of Wash- burn and Ira Wight, Mrs. L. L. Southworth, and Mrs. Jesse Pomeroy, now residing in Allen, and Mrs. Daniel Bostwick, of Argentine, Genesee Co. When they reached the St. Joseph River the latter,-whose name is Har- riet,-then fifteen years of age, was the first one of the family to cross it, the day being the 16th of April. There were but very few young people in the township or county at that time. Miss Wight was married to Daniel Bost- wick on the 3d of November, 1832.
Mr. Wight's son, Washburn Wight, now of Allen, was one of the first settlers of Quincy, Branch Co., and is one of the earliest arrivals in Hillsdale County now residing within its borders.
Miss Rosamond Wight, now Mrs. Jesse Pomeroy, of Allen, was born in Fayette, Nov. 6, 1830, and was un- doubtedly the first white female child born in the town- ship or county. Two daughters of Moses Allen-Aurelia and Cordelia-were born previously, but not in Hillsdale County, their mother having gone at the time of their birth to the old Allen home, near Dearborn, on the river Rouge, in order to secure necessary aid and care. She re- turned each time to Allen after the birth of her child.
The sugar used by the early inhabitants was largely made from the sap of the maple-tree by the Indians. Mr. Wight procured his sugar of them, always receiving the best from the chief, Baw Beese. The other " natives" made very dirty sugar, and in some unaccountable manner it always appeared full of feathers, sticks, dirt, or leaves, and was scarcely fit for use. That made by Baw Beese was very good. This chieftain acquired a great liking for Harriet Wight, and for a number of months strenuously endeavored to persuade her to become his " squaw." Her tastes, however, were not of the character which sought happiness in such a union, and, to the great sorrow of the Indian, she declined. His " un- tutored mind" doubtless could find no reason why she
# See Fayette township history.
256
HISTORY OF HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
should refuse so mighty a man as he, when acquainted so well with all his noble qualities. Mrs. Bostwick, the heroine, delights in relating this experience of her pioneer days.
In the month of August, 1832 or '33, Benaiah Jones, Thaddeus Wight, and others from Jonesville, started for a ride toward Coldwater Prairie in the stage. William Stew- art, one of the drivers, but not driving at the time, spoke to Luke Spafford, who was, when they reached the prairie, and told him to " drive on to the river." The party was in high spirits. Jones, who did not wish to go so far, at- tempted to jump out, but was stopped by Stewart; the con- sequence was that Mr. Jones caught his left foot in the wheel and broke his leg. They immediately turned round and drove back to Wight's house. Stewart, who had some knowledge of surgery, called to the women to "bring him their corset-boards," and by using them for splints he set the broken limb, and the next day Mr. Jones was removed to his home. In some way the splints must have become loosened, for the leg was never straight after it healed, and Mr. Jones was slightly lame in consequence.
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