USA > Michigan > Hillsdale County > History of Hillsdale county. Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 76
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The second settler was a man named Timothy H. Wil- kinson, from Seneca Co., N. Y., who was a son-in-law of Frederick Perring. Frederick Perring, of Huron Co., O., entered 280 acres of land in section 4, in October, 1835, and his son, Stephen C. Perring, at the same time entered 120 acres in the southeast part of section 5. Wil- kinson settled on the south part of his brother-in-law's land in the winter or spring of 1836. Between this time and the summer of 1837 the two Perrings ; Hiram, Oren C., and Philander Wilkinson, brothers of Timothy H. Wilkinson; Nehemiah Wilkinson, their father; and Murray Knowles, another son-in-law of Perring, all came and settled on the lands taken up by the Perrings. The little settlement thus commenced received by common consent the name of " Per- ringburgh," by which it was known until the post-office was established there, some thirty years ago, with Murray Knowles as the first postmaster, when it was changed to Edinburgh. Though now no more thickly settled than any other part of the town, the locality is still known as " the Burgh." The Wilkinsons were, during the early years of the settlement, quite prominent in town affairs; but about 1850 they be- came involved in some questionable transactions, and ac- quired a somewhat unsavory reputation in consequence. The Perrings were not, however, involved in this affair, and always retained the confidence and respect of the commu- nity. Frederick Perring built the first saw-mill in town, in the year 1838.
In the fall of 1836, James Holcomb purchased of Abra- ham Wortman the southwest fractional quarter of section 6, giving him the price he had paid the government ($1.25 per acre), and, in addition, a bonus of $50. This was two
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HISTORY OF HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
miles west of Perringburgh, on the line of Branch County. James Holcomb was a native of the State of Connecticut, in which he lived until reaching manhood. He married Hannah Bentley, of Rhode Island, a daughter of Col. Bentley, who served his country as a soldier during the Revolution, and they emigrated to the then wilderness of Western New York, and settled in the town of Sweden, in the western part of Monroe County. There they lived until the fall of 1836, when, on the tenth day of October, with their family of eight children they started for the West. They took passage at Buffalo on the steamer " De Witt Clinton," then starting on its second trip, and reached De- troit five days afterwards, having experienced very severe storms, and been beaten back by a fierce westerly gale. Reaching Brooklyn, in the south part of Jackson County, he left his family at the house of a relative while he came on to look up his land and prepare a place to live in. On his return they again started, and got as far as Sand Creek, some four miles south west of Jonesville, and there they were obliged to make another stop while he and his oldest son took their axes and cleared a road to his place. The season had thus worn away until winter had come, and not until Christmas-day, Dec. 25, 1836, did they finally reach their home and move into their new house. Mrs. Holcomb was taken sick on the road, and from Perringburgh was carried to her home on a bed. During the winter quite a piece of land was cleared, and in the spring he sowed a field of wheat, paying for his seed $3 a bushel. The yield was good, but, when he came to sell his surplus crop, it was worth but 50 cents a bushel. He built a barn in the sum- mer of 1839 which is still standing and in use. It was the second frame barn erected in the town. It is said that this frame was raised in one hour, and that considerable inerri- ment was had at the expense of some people who came from a distance to participate in the "raising," and did not arrive until it was all up. Mr. Holcomb's family met with the usual hardships incidental to all pioneer life, were fre- quently visited by wandering Indians, and sometimes by predatory animals. On one occasion a large wolf came into the clearing after daylight in the morning, jumped into the pig-pen, and carried off a pig in spite of all their efforts to prevent it. Black-snakes were very numerous, and often in the morning one or more of them would be found coiled up in the fireplace, enjoying the heat of the warm ashes or the smouldering fire. The first death in this family was that of Mr. Holcomb, which occurred April 9, 1864, and the next was that of his wife, who survived him a few years, and died Aug. 7, 1871. The family of eight children are all living. Harriet married Azem Purdy, and resides in Kinderhook, Branch Co .; Mary A. married Jesse Doyle, and lives at Independence, Iowa ; Benjamin married Sarah L. Beach, and is living at Fremont, Ind .; Charlotte mar- ried Dr. L. M. Jones, and has her home at Brooklyn, Jack- son Co .; Susan married William Worden, and lives at Cold- water, Mich .; Myron married Susan Phinecy, and removed to Olathe, Kan., where he now resides ; George W. mar- ried Amelia A. Hughes, and remains on the homestead ; and Roxy married Charles Travis, and is now living at Laramie City, W. T.
George C. Lewis, some time previous to the spring of
1837, settled on land lying in sections 4 and 5, in the north part of the town.
Soon after Holcomb came Samuel Seamans, some time in the winter of 1836-37, and settled on' land in sections 14 and 15, about one mile and a half north of Camden. He was an ardent Baptist, and when " Millerism" began to be preached immediately embraced the new doctrine. He was also a noted bee-hunter, and very successfully " lined" the bees to their hidden stores of sweets, and appropriated the delicious fruits of their labor to his own use. He was one of the first highway commissioners of the town, also one of the first overseers of the poor, and was repeatedly re-elected to these positions. He was accompanied here by his sons, Olney and Samuel, Jr., and his son-in-law, George Cummins.
James Hall, from Lenawee County, settled in this town in the spring of 1837, on 40 acres in the northeast corner of section 9. His son, Cheney W. Hall, was the first white male child born in Camden.
The spring of this year (1837) brought quite a number of new settlers into town. A company composed of Gur- don Chester and wife, and family of seven children; his son, Eason T. Chester, and his wife ; his son-in-law, Oliver R. Cole, and his wife; Samuel S. Curtiss and family, and Timothy Larrabee and family, came together at that time, and took up lands near the centre of the town.
Gurdon Chester was a native of Windham Co., Conn. While he was but a child his parents removed with him to Whitestown, Oneida Co., N. Y. Upon reaching maturity he was married to Catharine Darling, by whom he had three children,-Eason T., Lucy A., and Freelove; and they lived in Mexico, Oswego Co., N. Y., till they came to Camden. His first wife having died, he married a second time, his second wife being Anna Rathburn, of Connecticut, and by her he had four sons and three daughters. Of his children, Lucy A. married James Hamlin, Esq., and died in Allen, Mich. Freelove died in childhood. Jonathan was killed on the 27th of February, 1838, while chopping on his brother Eason's land. His is believed to have been the first death of a white resident in this town. He went out one morning to chop on a job he had taken, and felled a large basswood, which, in falling, lodged in a blue-ash tree. He was engaged in cutting this, to let both fall, when the weight of the larger tree broke and split the ash, and the end of the broken piece struck him with great force in the side. He cried out, and thus brought help, but it was of no avail, and with a few convulsive gasps life fled away. Charles went to California during the excitement caused by the discovery of gold in that State, and is supposed to be still living there. Frederick married Martha L. Fowle, a daughter of James Fowle, Esq., and is living in Camden. He has served two years as town treasurer, and sixteen years as justice of the peace. Eliza married Stephen Lev- ings, and died in Jonesville, in September, 1854. Abby married Oliver R. Cole, came with him to Camden, and died here in 1845. William married Susan Marquitt, and lives in Camden. He has served as town clerk and town treasurer, and is at present a justice of the peace. Catharine married Peter Anderson, and both she and her husband died in Camden. Of the oldest son we shall speak farther
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HISTORY OF HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
on. Gurdon Chester died in Camden, Aug. 30, 1854, having survived his second wife nearly ten years.
Eason T. Chester was born at Mexico, Oswego Co., N. Y., on the 3d day of March, 1807. When eighteen years old he went to live with Jonathan Wales, at Whitestown, Oneida Co., N. Y. There he worked on a farm for three or four years, and then accepted the agency for a paper- mill run by Messrs. Olmstead & Isbell, a position which he retained until the winter of 1837. In February, 1835, he was married to Emeline, a daughter of Walter Olmstead, one of the proprietors of the mill. On the 16th of Febru- ary, 1837, he, in company with his father and brother-in- law, and their families, left the State of New York, bound for this place, where he had previously purchased 400 acres of land. They traveled in two wagons, each drawn by one span of horses, and came through the State of Ohio. Reaching Huron Co., Ohio, they found the roads so deep with mud as to be almost impassable, and renting a log house in the town of Florence for a month, they unloaded their goods, and leaving their families there with ample store of provisions for themselves and the horses, the men started out on foot, with their axes on their shoulders, for their new homes. They passed through the Maumee and Cottonwood swamps, and when nearly at their destination, found James Fowle living in his shanty, and stopped with him a couple of days while they marked the lines of their farms, when they built a small log shanty, covering it with split logs, and occupied that in company, while they cut logs and built their houses, four in number. The flooring for these buildings was all split out of logs, and the roofs were made of the same material, covered with "shakes." The houses were built as near together as practicable for the comfort, convenience, and safety of their future occu- pants. Then they returned to Florence, and came on with their families, arriving here on the 24th of April. Eason T. Chester the next day took his team and started west in search of potatoes and flour, which he found at White Pigeon. While there he traded his team and harness for a yoke of oxen and $65. Oats at that time were worth twenty shillings per bushel, and were not to be found in this vicinity even at that price. Of his pioneer life, with its privations and hardships, it is not necessary to speak, for to all early settlers these experiences are familiar. Suf- fice it to say that his experience was like that of others. The journeys to mill, often extending to White Pigeon, or to English Prairie, near Lima, Ind., were generally made with ox-teams, and occupied from four to eight days' time. Mr. Chester built the first frame barn of any size that was erected in this town. It was built in 1839, and having been repaired and enlarged, is still standing. His first child was born in Camden, April 26, 1838, and was the second white male child born in this town. He was named Orson D., and is still living in Camden, being engaged in business with his father. The other children were Juliette, who married Samuel Huggett, and resides in this town ; Ellen L., who married George Worden, and lives at Read- ing; Clement L., who died in infancy ; and Delphine C., who married Jirah I. Young. Her husband died in 1873, and she, with her two children, M. Ophelia and J. Idell Young, resides with her father on the old homestead. Mr.
Chester's wife died May 20, 1877, and is buried in the cemetery at Camden.
The second saw-mill in this town was built by Mr. Chester in 1849, and, after having been rebuilt once in the mean time, is still standing. It was run by water-power, fur- nished by the Little St. Joseph River, and has sawed a large amount of lumber, a good share of which has been black-walnut lumber, in which article Mr. Chester has been an extensive dealer, having shipped some $200,000 worth of it from this town. He also built a carding-mill, and in 1850 leased it, together with the water-power, to a man by the name of Ballard, who ran it a couple of years, and being unsuccessful, abandoned it, and it again passed into Mr. Chester's hands. It was then converted into a grist- mill, and was used till Jan. 4, 1864, when it was burned, and a large quantity of wheat and flour it contained was also consumed. It was then rebuilt upon an improved plan, and commenced running in the spring of 1865. It is fitted up with four runs of stone, and with all the im- proved machinery to enable it to do first-class work, and is one of the best mills in Southern Michigan. The stream furnishes a head and fall of 12 feet, and the power is applied by means of 4 turbine-wheels, of an aggregate capacity of 60 horse-power.
From the time of his first settlement here Mr. Chester has been a land-agent, and has negotiated the sale of many thousands of acres in this and adjoining States. He is the largest land-holder in town, owning over 1400 acres within its limits, besides considerable in other sections. He is the oldest surviving first settler in the town, and has been a prominent man throughout its history. He has served in the most prominent town offices, having been supervisor ten years, and justice of the peace nine years, and was a member of the State Legislature in 1844.
Of the others who accompanied Mr. Chester on his journey here, Oliver R. Cole remained here several years, and then removed to Jackson, where he now resides ; Tim- othy Larrabee lived here several years, his father Lebbeus Larrabee residing with him, and then he removed to Union City, Branch Co., where he died some years after ; Samuel S. Curtiss came from some place on " the Ridge" road, a little east of Rochester, N. Y. He was a teacher by pro- fession, and a thoroughly well-educated man. While living here he practiced surveying, and laid out a great many farms and roads in this and adjoining towns. After re- siding here a few years he returned to his former home in New York, from thence went to Virginia, locating in the vicinity of Washington, D. C., where he died. He was the first treasurer of this town, and also one of the first justices of the peace.
Zachariah Jackson settled on the northwest quarter of section 35 in June, 1837, and in the fall of the same year a family of hunters, consisting of George Swiger, his son . Leonard, his sons-in-law John Flake and Enoch Thompson, together with their respective families, came from the State of Ohio, where game was beginning to get too scarce to ren- der hunting a profitable business, and settled here. Their rifles and snares furnished meat for many families in this vi- cinity during the early life of the settlement. They have all passed away with the advance of that tide of civilization
A. J. WIGENT.
MRS. A.J. WIGENT
RESIDENCE OF A . J. WIGENT, CAMDEN, MICHIGAN.
PHOTOS. BY CARSON & CRAHAM.
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HISTORY OF HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
which so relentlessly pushes the picturesquely-dressed hunter and his romantic existence from the scenes of progress into the shadow and solitude of the yet unsubdued forests. But their names and the memory of their achievements still remain a pleasant tradition in the minds of the present generation.
The year 1838 brought in another lot of settlers. In November, 1835, a company of four men, consisting of Ben- jamin C. Bradley, Robert B. Sutton, Charles W. Westfall, and Benjamin Fisher, the two latter sons-in-law of Sutton, started out on the post-road leading from Toledo to Lima, via Adrian and Jonesville, looking for a good place to locate some land. They intended to go farther West, but had noticed from the maps of the government surveys that this section around Hillsdale seemed to be a fountain-head for streams running in all directions, and they judged from that that it would be a very healthy locality. So when they arrived in this vicinity they took a careful look about them, noting the character of the soil, the course of the streams, and the general lay of the land, and were so well satisfied with what they saw that they at once abandoned the idea of going any farther West, and selected farms and entered them as soon as possible, each taking up 160 acres, in sections 33 and 34, the farms all adjoining one another. Two of these men moved their families here in the spring of 1838, and a third in the fall of 1839, but the other one (Sutton) never became a resident here.
Benjamin Fisher, some eight years later, removed to a farm a little south of Hillsdale, where he is still living. He was from Wayne Co., N. Y.
The first one of the four mentioned, Benjamin C. Brad- ley, remained in this town, and is now the second oldest surviving settler. He was born in Litchfield, Conn., July 5, 1806, and when he was nine years old his father moved his family to Western New York, locating at Lyons, Wayne Co., where they arrived on the 9th day of January, 1815, having traveled with teams and been eight days on the road. Here he lived until the time when he came here, in March, 1838. At the age of twenty-three he was mar- ried to Catharine W. Cole, of Auburn, N. Y. Their oldest child and only son and oldest daughter were born in Lyons. Upon his arrival here, he immediately set to work to clear a piece of ground and to build a log house. The house was 18 by 26 feet, and stood just west of the present residence. It was not finished till the following fall. He cleared about three-quarters of an acre, planted it to corn, potatoes, and garden-sauce, hired a man to attend to it during his absence, and then returned to bring his family. They arrived in July, and found their garden doing well. He continued his clearing through the summer, and in the fall sowed four or five acres to wheat. This piece of wheat, har- vested by the somewhat primitive methods then in use, yielded about 40 bushels per acre. The old log house furnished a home for the family until the present house was erected, in 1850. Mrs. Bradley died Dec. 27, 1860.
Mr. Bradley has served three times as supervisor (once by appointment), twice as justice of the peace, three times as treasurer, and several years in other capacities in the town, and has lived to see the rapid-almost marvelous- development of this country, to which he came, forty years
ago, as into a wilderness. Amid all the hardships of the pioneer's life he has preserved a cheerful, uncomplaining spirit, and now is reaping the comfort and enjoyment in his old age to which the labors of his well-spent life entitle him.
His children were five in number,-James C. came with his parents from Lyons, at the age of six years ; married Ellen Thompson, and is engaged in mercantile business at Camden. Margaret W. was two years old when she came to this State. She married George S. Crane, and resides on a farm near her father's. Jane married Charles B. Johnson, and lives on the farm adjoining her father's on the east. Her husband died in 1875. Julia married Ormal Crane, and is a resident of Parker's City, Pa. Esther married Henry Crane, who died in 1872, and she is living with her father on the homestead. The three last mentioned were born in this town.
In the fall of 1837 a settlement was made in the south part of the town by Chester Hills and his three sons, -- Chester, Jr., Joseph M., and Levi. They purchased 320 acres in sections 4, 9, and 10, of township 9 south, range 4 west, of Alfred Brown, of Wayne Co., N. Y., who had entered it Oct. 24, 1835.
Two years later, in the autumn of 1839, Charles W. Westfall and Richard Huggett, both from the town of Phelps, Ontario Co., N. Y., moved into town. Westfall had taken up his land at the same time that Bradley did his, and also came here in 1838. But, after contracting with Mr. Bradley to build him a log house and to clear five acres of ground ready for sowing in the fall of 1839, he returned East and remained a year. Upon his arrival here he found things in quite comfortable shape, but he did not remain many years before he sold out and went to live in the South.
Richard Huggett was a native of Brenzett, Kent, Eng- land, and with his wife (Eleanor Piall) and three children emigrated to this country in the spring of 1828, locating first at Phelps, N. Y., where he worked land on shares for eleven years, and then came to this State and settled on 80 acres he had purchased of Robert Sutton, on section 33. He was a man of the strictest integrity, and merited, as he received, the esteem and confidence of his neighbors and fellow-townsmen. He died Dec. 8, 1860. His wife sur- vived him about thirteen years. His children were ten in number. Four of them died in childhood. Charles and Richard live in the town of Reading, and Samuel, William, Celia (Mrs. G. H. Derr), and Silas W. still live in Camden, the latter on the homestead.
Eli Westfall moved into Camden in 1841, and lived here until about 1865, when he removed to Hillsdale, where he now lives. He was from Ontario Co., N. Y.
John G. Mc Williams was the next settler. He was born in Charlton, Saratoga Co., N. Y., Aug. 9, 1822, and came to Blissfield, Lenawee Co., Mich., with his father's family in the fall of 1832. In March, 1842, he started out in life by taking up 107 acres in the southwest quarter of section 29. He commenced his work of clearing the land, and worked at it one year, boarding with James Fowle and Eli Westfall. During the following year he worked in Lenawee County, and in 1844 again returned to his farm
39
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HISTORY OF HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
and continued his clearing, boarding with Eli Westfall. In the spring of 1845 he built a log cabin, and on the 27th of April was married to Westfall's sister, Sally. At that time he had 15 acres cleared, of which about 10 acres were under cultivation. The log house was replaced in 1867 and 1868 by a fine frame building, which stands on the same site. Mr. McWilliams has served the town in the capacity of treasurer, highway commissioner, and is now serving his second term as justice of the peace. His family consisted of three children,-Abner, who lives with his parents ; Estelle, who married Silas W. Huggett, and lives in this town ; and Albert W., who died in Camden while in his second year. Mr. McWilliams is the third oldest surviving settler, now a resident of this town.
In the same year with Mc Williams came Harvey Osborn, who settled on section 1, of township 9. He was an early settler in Lenawee County, having located there in 1832.
Among the later settlers we mention, as nearly as possi- ble in the order of their arrival, Ivory Woodman, 1839; Levi Barber, Joshua Myers, 1841; Morgan McCarty, Thomas Mcknight, Samuel Wilds, Dewey Barber, James R. Mason, Salmon Wheeling, 1842; Francis D. Youngs, John W. Stewart, Nahum Shaw, A. B. Goodwin, William Parlamene, 1843; Robert Seeley (from Steuben Co., N. Y., on section 4, south part of the town), Addison T. Pound (from Wayne Co., N. Y., on the same section), Erastus Keyes, John W. Robbins, John Trim, Jeremiah Peck, G. Campbell, D. L. Thompson, Ebenezer Youngs, 1844; Nel- son Palmer (from Herkimer Co., N. Y., on section 2, south part of town), Hezekiah Barber, John Lords, Jacob I. Marquitt, William R. Montgomery, Elijah Campbell, Jo- seph Seeley, 1845 ; William P. Kingman, Daniel Graves, Samuel Whaley, Potter C. Sullivan, William R. Worden, 1846; Elisha Y. Palmer, from Herkimer Co., N. Y., settled in Brooklyn, Jackson Co., in 1838, and on section 2, of township 9, in the spring of 1847 ; Isaac Baldwin, Simeon O. Whaley, Elihu Braman, David Steel, Grant Lester, Thomas Pierce, 1848; Parley Brown, Thomas Fitzsim- mons, Linden Cummings, 1850; Andrew Blair, Adam Beaver, 1853.
The first town-meeting was held at the house of Samuel S. Curtiss, on the 1st day of April, 1839. The circum- stances attending this meeting were as follows: the town was then Reading, and the annual town-meeting was called to meet at Perringburgh, near the present boundary between the two towns. The citizens gathered together, but did not open the meeting because James Fowle, who was one of the Town Board, had not arrived. Mr. Fowle was also post- master, and he, knowing that the bill to divide the town was before the Legislature, determined to wait till after the mail arrived, to see what action, if any, had been taken on the bill. When the mail arrived, it brought the official notification of the erection of the town. Mr. Fowle at once repaired to the place of meeting and reported, and the citizens separated according to their locations, the residents of Reading going north, and the residents of Camden coming south, to the respective places at which the bill de- signated their first meetings were to be held. Arrived at Mr. Curtiss' house, the meeting was organized by electing James Fowle, Moderator; Eason T. Chester, Clerk ; and
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