USA > Michigan > Hillsdale County > History of Hillsdale county. Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 9
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There was a constant stream of emigrants flowing west-
38
HISTORY OF HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
ward through the county, and every little while one " dropped off" within its limits. This year a land-office was established at White Pigeon, in St. Joseph County, for a district which included this county.
It was also, as near as can be ascertained, in 1831 that the first school-house in the county was built, a small, rude log structure, situated at Allen's Prairie. Hiram Hunt was the teacher.
In the spring of 1832 the population had increased so that it was thought a saw-mill would be supported. E. J. Sibley, of Detroit, accordingly began the erection of one on the St. Joseph River, two miles up stream (nearly south) from Jonesville,-the pioneer mill of the county. It was completed the same year.
At this time the Chicago road had been opened by the government so as to be fairly passable, though still very rude, as far west as Jonesville. It was opened westward through the county in 1832. The same year a Territorial road was established from Port Lawrence (now Toledo) west through to the ninth townships of the various ranges to the eastern line of Indiana. This was opened soon after, and became the principal thoroughfare by which emigration reached that part of the county.
But in May of that year an event occurred which startled from their propriety all the people of Hillsdale County, to- gether with most of those throughout Southern Michigan, and for a short time seemed likely to put a stop to all the improvements so rapidly being planned and prosecuted. This was the outbreak of the celebrated " Black Hawk war." The scene of actual strife was far away in Illinois and Wisconsin, but the white population was very sparse from here there, and Indians bent on vengeance have long arms. Besides, no one could tell whether the Pottawatta- mies scattered through Southern Michigan might not make common cause with the warriors of Black Hawk, and turn their tomahawks upon their white neighbors. No hostile disposition, however, was manifested by these ancient en- emies, and the whites seem generally to have trusted to their friendship.
Scarcely had the first news of the troubles arrived than a dispatch went through from the government agent at Chicago, asking for the aid of the Michigan militia to de- fend that place, then an insignificant hamlet in a marsh at the head of Lake Michigan. The brigade of militia in the southern part of the Territory was commanded by Brig .- Gen. Joseph W. Brown, a near relative of Maj .- Gen. Jacob Brown, the hero of the war of 1812 and at one time com- mander-in-chief of the United States Army. Gen. J. W. Brown possessed much of the martial fire of the soldier of Lundy's Lane, and promptly responded to the call. He ordered his brigade to take the field, the rendezvous being at Niles, in Berrien County. The militia regiments of Mon- roe and Lenawee Counties readily obeyed his orders, and in a few days company after company was to be seen marching westward over the Chicago road, each man clad not in bright blue clothes with brass buttons, but in the rude garb of a backwoodsman, with rifle, or musket, or shot-gun on his shoulder, as chance might determine, and with accoutre- ments equally varied at his side.
Benaiah Jones, Jr., at this time was major, commanding
a battalion of militia, consisting of one company in Hills- dale County and two in Branch. On the 22d day of May, he received orders from Gen. Brown to call out his bat- talion and march westward to repel the enemy. The order must have been very promptly obeyed, for the men were called out, got together in companies, and marched to Niles by the 25th of that month. We are indebted to Harvey Warner, Esq., of Coldwater, for a copy of the muster-roll of the battalion, furnished him by Dr. Enoch Chase, form- erly of Coldwater, who was both surgeon and adjutant of Maj. Jones' command. The other staff-officers were Abial Potter, quartermaster (also of Branch County), Ambrose Nicholson, and John Morse (another Branch County man), who sustained the honorable position of fife-major.
We give below a copy of the roll of the Hillsdale County company, both as an interesting relic of itself and as show- ing the growth of the county up to that time:
"James Olds, captain of second company.
"Silas Benson, lieutenant.
" Hiram B. Hunt, ensign.
"Non-commissioned officers : Daniel Atkin, first sergeant ; John G. Reed, first corporal; Osborn Blackman, second corporal; Dexter Olds, third corporal.
" Privates : Abel Olds, John Stewart, William Lancaster, Morris Earl, Rufus Van Pool, William Bell, David M. Dunn, Jerome Jewell, Peter Benson, Henry Clark, Zachariah Crook, Washington Thurston.
" Absent: Joseph Hartsough, second sergeant; Stephen Hickox, third sergeant; Ambrose S. Burdick, third sergeant; sick.
" Absent without leave : O. G. B. Aiken, James Winter, John Wall, John Hartsough, David Hartsough, Elisha Hartsough, Clark Baker." Note on margin : "This company was mustered into service May 24, and dismissed June 4, 1832."
" The above is a true copy of the returns made by the captains of the several companies to me.
"ENOCH CHASE, Adjutant. " COLDWATER, June 4, 1832."
It will be seen that, according to the above roll, there were in May, 1832, thirty persons (including Maj. Jones) capable of bearing arms and supposed to be between eighteen and forty-five years of age. The women, children, and old men left behind were for a few days in a state of great dis- may lest their friends should be destroyed by the bloody Indians, and terrifying rumors flew through the scattered settlements by the score. Scarcely, however, had the militia reached Niles, when messengers from the West brought the welcome news that Black Hawk and his bands had been utterly defeated and that all danger was over. As appears by the roll, the troops returned and were mustered out at Coldwater on the 4th of June.
Black Hawk, the cause of all this trouble, is said by Drake, the Indian historian, to have been a Pottawattamie by birth, but to have been brought up among the Sacs. The Black Hawk war caused the people and the government to be all the more anxious to have the Indians removed be- yond the Mississippi. Another treaty was made in October, 1832, by which nearly all the lands to which the Pottawat- tamies had any claim in Michigan were ceded to the United States, except the Nottawa-Seepe reservation. This treaty provided for an individual grant of a square mile to " To- penibee, the principal chief," and another to " Pokagon, the second chief."
Emigrants continued to make their way into the county with increasing rapidity. At the close of 1833 there were
39
HISTORY OF HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
ten thousand two hundred and eighty acres sold within its limits. This land was distributed among seventy-five owners, and was located as follows: In the present town of Somerset, a thousand and forty acres ; in Wheatland, twelve hundred acres; in Moscow, three thousand three hundred and twenty acres ; in Scipio, three hundred acres ; in Fayette, nineteen hundred and eighty acres ; in Allen, seventeen hundred and twenty acres.
In 1833 the first railroad charter was granted by the Legislative Council of Michigan, and its prescribed course led into the county of Hillsdale. It was to run from Port Lawrence (now Toledo), then considered to be in Michigan, to the " head-waters of the Kalamazoo River." This was somewhat indefinite. If it ran to the head-waters of the main or south branch of the Kalamazoo it would pass through Somerset into the township of Moscow. If it ran to the present village of Albion, where the two branches unite, it would still pass through Somerset and Moscow. But the road was never built farther than Adrian, and is now a part of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern line.
In September of this year (1833), also, the last reserva- tion kept by the Pottawattamies in this vicinity, that of Nottawa-Seepe, was ceded by the chiefs, or a part of them, to the United States, the Indians being allowed to remain two more years before removing to the far West. Many of the Indians were bitterly opposed to the sale, and claimed that the chiefs who signed the treaty had no authority to do so. One of the malcontents, on the day of the first payment on the reservation, tried to murder Sau-au-quett, the chief who had been most prominent in effecting the sale, and only failed because his pistol missed fire. Sau-au-quett was several years afterwards murdered by one of his tribe, in a feud arising, as was supposed, from the same cause.
Nevertheless the treaty was sustained by the govern- ment, payments were made, and business proceeded upon the assumption that the Indian title was extinguished in all this part of the Territory. But Baw Beese and his band still continued to roam over the hills and dales of Hillsdale County, especially through the central and eastern portions, and around the lake which still bears the chieftain's name.
The veteran pioneer, Frederick M. Holloway, mentions coming into the southern part of the county with a party looking for land, in the summer of 1834. Soon after their arrival, while they were eating dinner near the site of Morganville, in the present township of Amboy, the chief, Baw Beese, appeared. He was asked to partake of the meal with them, and very promptly did so, and a very full meal he made, too. The party remained exploring in that part of the county some weeks. Baw Beese made them many visits during the time, and almost invariably appeared about noon.
In 1834 the first stock of goods in the county was opened for sale at Jonesville by the firm of Cook & Ferris (John P. Cook and Chauncey W. Ferris). During the same year Levi Baxter and Cook Sisson began a grist-mill at Jones- ville, the first in the county. It was not finished till the next year. The second school-house in the county was built at Jonesville this year. It was made of logs, and is said to have been only twelve feet wide by fourteen long. It stood where the Episcopal church of Jonesville now
stands. Besides its educational uses it was also employed as a church by the Methodists and Presbyterians, the two denominations who first held religious services in the county.
It was in the spring of 1834, also, that the first settle- ment was made in the present town of Litchfield ; the pio- neers being Henry Stevens and Samuel Riblett, who located themselves about three miles east of the village.
Hitherto, notwithstanding its broad dimensions on the map, and the possession of a county-seat, Hillsdale County had been for all municipal purposes only the township of Vance, attached to Lenawee County. It was now thought desirable to have an actual county organization. A town- meeting for Vance was held on the 13th day of December, 1834,-apparently a special election to choose commis- sioners of highways to fill vacancies. As the record of that meeting, which is preserved in the town-book of Fayette, is the only record of Vance township (aside from its creation by the legislative council) which we have been able to dis- cover, we transcribe it in full :
" At a legal and special meeting of the inhabitants of the township of Vance, on the 13th day of December, 1834, at the house of James D. Van Hoevenbergh. Henry Stevens, Moderator; Lewis T. Miller, Supervisor; John Taylor, Justice of Peace, forming the township board. James Olds chosen Township Clerk pro tem. Board duly sworn.
"James Winter and Timothy Gay were chosen Commissioners of Highways.
" Attest : CHARLES GREGORY, Town Clerk."
After the regular business of the meeting was concluded, the voters present proceeded to take measures to secure the organization of the county and the subdivision of the town- ship. The following is the record of their proceedings :
" At a meeting of the voters of the county of Hillsdale, convened at the house of James D. Van Hoevenbergh, on the 13th day of De- cember, 1834, Lyman Blackmar was chosen Chairman, and James Olds Secretary. First : Resolved, unanimously, That the inhabi- tants will petition the Legislative Council to organize said county. Second : Resolved, unanimously, To divide the county into four town- ships, each township to consist of one range through the county ; range 1 to be called Wheatland, the first township-meeting to be held at the house of Elias Banch ; range 2 to be called Moscow, the first township-meeting to be held at the house of L. Blackmar ; range 3 to be called Fayette, the first township-meeting to be held at the house of J. D. Van Hoevenbergh ; range 4 to be called Allen, the first town- ship-meeting to be held at the house of R. W. Corbus. Third : Re- solved, That the following persons be recommended for the officers of the county : Lewis T. Miller and Henry Stevens, Associate Judges ; Chauncey W. Ferris, County Clerk ; James D. Van Hoevenbergh, Sheriff; Newel Kane, Judge of Probate; James Olds, Register or Re- corder ; David Harrington, County Commissioner; Aaron B. Goodwin, Surveyor ; E. P. Champlin, County Treasurer.
" Adjourned to Wednesday, the 17th instant, at Lyman Blackmar's. Chairman, Lyman Blackmar ; Secretary, James Olds.
" Attest : CHARLES GREGORY, Township Clerk."
Of the proceedings of the adjourned meeting we have no record. It is certain, however, that the legislative council looked favorably on the petition of the inhabitants, though it did not entirely coincide with them in the selec- tion of officers. On the 11th day of February an act was passed detaching the county from Lenawee and organizing it, with the following officers : Sheriff, James D. Van Hoevenbergh; Clerk, Chauncey W. Ferris; Register, James Olds ; Treasurer, John P. Cook ; Judge of Probate, Ly-
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HISTORY OF HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
man Blackmar. The other officers are believed to have been the same as those recommended by the meeting in December, viz. : Lewis T. Miller and Henry Stevens, As- sociate Judges ; David Harrington, Coroner; Aaron B. Goodwin, Surveyor.
On the 17th of March another act subdivided the town- ship of Vance into four new townships, with the names and boundaries recommended in the resolutions before given,-the survey townships of range 1 throughout the county forming the civil township of Wheatland; those of range 2, the civil township of Moscow ; those of range 3, the civil township of Fayette; those of range 4, the civil township of Allen. The first town-meetings were all held on the 4th day of April, 1835, and all at the places designated in the resolutions, except that the meet- ing in Wheatland was directed to be held at the house of Thomas Gamble.
The first supervisors of the organized county, elected at the time just specified, were Heman Pratt, of Wheatland ; Benjamin Fowle, of Moscow ; Brooks Bowman, of Fayette ; and Richard W. Corbus, of Allen.
At the same time measures were in progress to form a State government for Michigan, and secure its admission into the Union. A convention was called by the legislative council to form a State constitution. The Territory was divided into districts, containing, as near as might be, a thousand people each, and each district was entitled to one member in the constitutional convention. Hillsdale and Branch Counties constituted the ninth district. An elec- tion for members of the convention was held at the time of the annual town-meeting, in April, when Judge Lewis T. Miller was chosen to represent the ninth district.
Not only was the county government started in the spring of 1835, and the first movements made towards a State gov- ernment, but this was the period when the people were startled by the great "Toledo war." The result of this celebrated tragi-comic contest had a direct though slight effect upon Hillsdale County. If the claim of Michigan had been recognized, this county would have extended from two to three miles farther south, increasing its area between fifty and sixty square miles. A brief account of the causes of the controversy, therefore, will not be out of place here.
The ordinance of 1787, passed by the old Confederate Congress to provide for the government of the Northwest Territory, and confirmed by one of the first acts of the United States Congress after the adoption of the Federal constitu- tion, declared that the territory in question should at some future time be divided into three States, the line between the first and second (counting from the east) being the present east line of Indiana, and that between the second and third being the present west line of the same State, both lines to be extended north to the British dominions. But it was also provided in the same act that Congress might form two other new States north of a line running east and west through the southern extremity of Lake Michigan. It did not say that the two northern States should go south to that line, but inferentially, at least, that they should not go be- yond it.
In 1802, Congress passed an act enabling the people of Ohio to form a State constitution, and locating the northern
boundary of the new State on the line laid down by the ordinance of 1787, viz., one running east from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan to Lake Erie. But the Con- stitutional Convention of Ohio, desiring to secure to that State the trade of the Maumee River, inserted a provision in the constitution that if the east and west line before mentioned should strike south of the mouth of the Maumee, then the northern boundary of the State should be a line from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan, not due east, but running straight to the northernmost cape of Maumee Bay. The constitution was not submitted to the people, but under it Ohio was admitted as a State by act of Congress.
In 1805 the Territory of Michigan was detached from Indiana by Congress, embracing all north of the east and west line before mentioned. But as Indiana desired a little shore-line on Lake Michigan, Congress granted it a strip about nine or ten miles wide north of the line, thus causing the notch made by that State into this county,-a tract a mile wide east and west, and about six miles long north and south, being carved out of the southwest corner of the township of Camden by the Hoosier State.
From the last mentioned year until 1835 nothing was done to settle the title. The disputed strip, about six miles wide at the eastern end, and about three and a half at the western boundary of Ohio, was included in the latter State by its constitution, and in Michigan by the law of Congress. It was, however, mostly a wilderness, and when settlements were made in the eastern part of it, the settlers, who were largely from Ohio, generally yielded voluntary obedience to the laws of that State. But when Michigan took steps to form a State constitution the disputed boun- dary at once became a question of importance.
In February, 1835, the Legislature of Ohio passed an act asserting its jurisdiction over the disputed territory, organizing townships, and directing the people to elect offi- cers in April following ; also directing Governor Lucas, of that State, to appoint three commissioners to resurvey and mark the old " Harris line,"-that is, the line as claimed by Ohio,-beginning on the 1st of April. Forthwith the legislative council of Michigan passed an act making it punishable with fine and imprisonment for any one on the disputed territory to accept office from Ohio or exercise official functions under that State. The acting Governor of Michigan at this time was the Secretary, Stevens T. Ma- son, a fiery young Virginian, about twenty-five years old. He promptly ordered General Brown, of Tecumseh, who has before been mentioned in connection with the Black Hawk war, to call the militia of his brigade to arms. Brown sent out the necessary orders, and soon there was mustering in hot haste and hurrying to and fro and all the due preparation for war in the counties of Southeastern Michigan.
We regret that we are not able to give, as in the case of the Black Hawk war, a list of the heroes from Hillsdale County (if any there were) who took part in the Toledo war.
There was from the first a certain element of the farcical in all this pomp and circumstance of war, and yet it was a farce which might easily have been turned into a tragedy by
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HISTORY OF HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
any reckless demagogue on either side. To all appearances the contest was a very unequal one between the populous and wealthy State of Ohio, having already nearly a million inhabitants, and the forest-covered, ague-smitten Territory of Michigan, with less than a hundred thousand ; yet the dis- crepancy was to some extent balanced by the nearness of the settled parts of Michigan to the scene of trouble, and by the greater promptness, or rather recklessness, of its Governor. Mason and Brown soon raised a force of a thousand to twelve hundred men, with which they took pos- session of Toledo, already a rising young port, and the chief bone of contention. Meanwhile, Governor Lucas, of Ohio, had only obtained five or six hundred men, with whom he came to Perrysburg, but halted there when he found his opponents in possession of Toledo, wisely hesitating to pre- cipitate the shedding of blood.
Meanwhile the government at Washington had been ap- prised of the impending war, and sent commissioners to endeavor to avert it. These proposed to the belligerent Governors that the Ohio commissioners should be allowed to run out the " Harris line," but without gaining any new rights thereby ; that the people of the disputed district should obey whichever officers they pleased until the end of the next session of Congress, which would endeavor to settle the matter. Governor Lucas agreed to this, and dis- banded his force. Mason partly disbanded his troops but, as he claimed, did not agree to the proposition.
President Jackson, on hearing of the trouble, had re- ferred the question to his attorney-general, who reported favorably to Michigan.
Governor Lucas' commissioners proceeded to resurvey the " Harris line," beginning at the northwest corner of the State, being the southwest corner of Hillsdale County. In the woods there was no trouble, but as the officials and sur- veyors reached the more settled districts, several of their party were arrested by the under-sheriff of Monroe County, Michigan. The commissioners escaped. Governor Lucas sought the interposition of the President. Governor Mason continued to order arrests, employing a large part of the people of Monroe County in doing so. One of the Michigan officers was stabbed by a man bearing the curious name of "Two Stickney." This we believe was the only blood shed during the " war." Stickney fled to Governor Lucas, and was protected by him.
Matters were really approaching a crisis. The President recommended, as his commissioners had done before him, that Ohio be allowed to run her line. But this had no effect upon Mason, whose blood was up and who was deter- mined to win at every cost. At length the President removed him from the secretaryship, and appointed Charles Shaler in his place. Shaler declined, and John W. Horner was appointed ; being the last territorial secretary and acting Governor of Michigan. After this the " war" raged less furiously, though there was still a frequent display of troops on the part of the belligerents. F. M. Holloway, Esq., of this county, was then a resident of the disputed territory, and like almost all the rest of the inhabitants was friendly to Ohio, in whose forces he held the rank of captain.
Without following the " war" through all its vicissitudes, 6
in which letters and proclamations played a much more influential part than bullets and bayonets, suffice it to say that when Congress met they decided that Ohio should have the land in dispute, and that Michigan should be con- soled with what has since been known as the " Upper Peninsula," and with the cession of the title to large tracts throughout the State for educational and other purposes. Although the value of the territory thus yielded by Con- gress was far greater than that claimed, yet the passions of the people had been so aroused that a convention chosen to consider the proposed terms promptly rejected them. Zach- ariah Van Duser, the member from this county, however, voted in favor of accepting them, as did Harvey Warner, of Branch County, a still-surviving resident of Coldwater. It will be observed that these two counties each had a rep- resentative in the convention, instead of having one in common as before. But as Congress persistently refused to admit the new State on any other terms, and as the inhab- itants at length reluctantly made up their minds that they couldn't fight both the State of Ohio and the United States of America, they elected a second convention, called some- what informally, which accepted the terms, and Michigan became a State, though not until the beginning of 1837, more than two years after the first movement was made in that direction.
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