History of Ingham and Eaton counties, Michigan, Part 47

Author: Durant, Samuel W. cn
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia : D.W. Ensign & Co.
Number of Pages: 772

USA > Michigan > Eaton County > History of Ingham and Eaton counties, Michigan > Part 47
USA > Michigan > Ingham County > History of Ingham and Eaton counties, Michigan > Part 47

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

Section 19 .- Fractional, 646.68 neres. Frederick Bushnell, James Seymour, Horatio J. Lawrence, 1836.

Section 20 .- Fractional, 607.65 acres. William H. Townsend, 1835. Enst half in city of Lansing.

Section 21 .- In eity of Lansing. Fractional, 591.96 neres. Wil- liam H. Townsend, 1835; Jerry Ford and William Ford, 1836.

Section 22 .- In eity of Lansing. Frnetionnl, 619.36 aeres. Horace H. Comstock, H. Morgan and J. Allen, Thomas Lawrence, all in 1836.

Section 23 .- Fractional, 616.66 acres. A. A. Williams and T. A. H. Edwards, Mortimer E. Martin, 1836; Ilampton Rieb, 1847.

Section 24 .- Full, 640 aeres. John F. Lawrence, 1836; John R. Jewett, Frederick Ilall, 1847; Aaron M. Ilewes, 1848.

Section 25 .- Full, 640 neres. Norman Carrier, Frederick Ilnll, Donald MeIntyre, 1847; Samuel Mosher, 1855.

Section 26 .- Full, 640 neres. Julius Chamberlain, Jesse Crowell, B. F. Hinman, 1837; Hampton Rich, Benjamin Harter, heirs of Calvin Whenton, 1847.

Section 27 .- Full, 640 aeres. HI. Morgan and J. Allon, James Crane, Lewis Rayner, Alanson Sumner, 1836; Alfred A. Williams, 1837.

Section 28 .- Full, 640 acres. Oliver Johnson, James Crane, Lewis Rayner, Alanson Sumner, 1836.

Section 29 .- Full, 640 neres. Oliver Johnson, Joseph W. Brown, 1836; Elibu Elwood, 1844 and 1846; Hampton Rich, 1847.

Scction 30 .- Fractional, 667.81 neres. Ilorntio J. Lawrence, Joseph W. Brown, 1836; Jacob F. Cooley, 1837; Warren Parsons, 1839.

Section 31 .- Frnetional, 674.76 neres. Daniel Buek, Jacob Van Doren, Abram Van Doren, 1837 ; Hampton Rieb, Julia M. Williams, 1847.

Section 32 .- Full, 640 aeres. Hezekinh Ferguson, 1837.

Section 33 .- Full, 640 neres. Warren M. Olmsted, 1836; Joseph E. North, 1837-38; Stephen F. Dexter, 1847.

Section 34 .- Full, 640 acres. George B. Warren, 1836.

Section 35,-Full, 640 neros. Albert Anderson, 1836; Gerardus Clark, 1837; Louisa Buek, Marvin Cole, Champlin Havens, 1847; E. H. Whitney, 1853; Samuel S. Coryell, Sylvanus Ludden, 1854.

Section 36 .- Full, 640 acres. John R. Jewett, Cassius Smith, Donald MeIntyre, 1847; Jacob Stahlmaker, Freeborn Green, 1851.

EARLY SETTLEME N. THE NORTHI FAMILY.

Among the very carliest settlers in Lansing township were the Norths, who were of English origin. Roger North, the progenitor of the family in America, was born in England in 1704. He settled in Pennsylvania probably as carly as 1750. Thomas North, the father of Joseph E. North, Sr., was born in Pennsylvania in 1757. He mar- ried Naomi Davis, who belonged to a prominent family of Philadelphia,-one of the family having been sheriff of

LANSING TOWNSHIP.

191

Philadelphia County about the time of the Revolution. She was acquainted with Washington and Lafayette, and claimed to have taught the latter the English language. Joseph E. North, Sr., was born in the Juniata Valley, Sept. 16, 1791. His father, Thomas North, subsequent to the Revolution, purchased a considerable tract of land in the

twelve children,-nine sons and three daughters; two of these, a son and a daughter, died while young, in New York ; the remainder all settled in Michigan.

The first of the family to settle in this State was Joseph E. North, Jr., the eldest son, who, in September, 1836, located land in the township of Iogham before it was or-

COEG. JONES

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RIVER

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LANSING TOWNSHIP-TOWN 4 NORTH, RANGE 2 WEST.

Plat showing the location of all the actual settlers in the township in August, 1845. Made by James Turner, land-agent. Also showing the wagon roads then laid out or in use.

township of Lansing, Tompkins Co., N. Y., it being a part of the military lands set apart for the soldiers of the Revo- lution. Thither the family removed from Pennsylvania, and from thence Joseph E. North and his sons came to Michigan. He married Christiana Teeter, who belonged to a respectable and well-to-do Pennsylvania family, which was probably of German origin, Dec. 18, 1813. He served in the army during the war of 1812-15, and was taken prisoner on the Canadian frontier, and kept in close confine- ment at Quebec until the close of the war. When captured he was in the act of carrying a wounded comrade (Bruce Packard) from the field. Mr. North was the father of

ganized. In the spring of 1837 he exchanged this land for section 32, in Lansing township, before that township was organized, also. This entire section was entered from gov- ernment early in 1837 by Hezekiah Ferguson .* In Sep- tember of the same year his next brother, Henry II. North, now of Delhi township, came to Lansing. Joseph E. was then at work for Judge Danforth, of Mason. The next day after Henry's arrival, the two brothers started to visit

* On the record at Mason this name is written Forgison, which may be correct, though good authority gives it as written in the text. Ferguson paid as "boot" a gold watch to equalize the trade.

BENJA:

JOHN

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AKORTH SR.

192

HISTORY OF INGHAM COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

the land of Joseph E., in Lansing township. He had already erected a temporary shanty for shelter, and they reached this about four P.M. Near by Henry found an abundance of leeks growing wild, aud they looked so " per- feetly lovely" to the hungry boy that he pulled a quantity of them, and, roasting them, ate heartily of them for sup- per ; but, like the soldier who ate too mauy persimmons in the army, he was awakened by a deathly feeling in the night. A heavy thunder-storm was raging and the rain fell in torrents. It was a bad night for him, and he has never eateu leeks since. Being a stranger to a forest region he very naturally stood in wholesome fear of wild beasts, which certainly then abounded in Michigan. The storm quenched the fire, and he was very apprehensive of an attack from some fierce denizen of the surrounding forest, whose mourn- ful eries he could hear coming ominously on the night wind. He finally awoke his brother and told him his fears, and was laughed at for being alaruned by the hooting of an owl. Heury was quieted, but was not sorry when daylight ap- peared. He had no appetite for breakfast, however, on account of his leek supper; but his brother told him he would not mind such little things after he had been in the county two or three years. Henry did not like the culinary duties of camp life, and declared that if he came to Michigan to reside he should bring a wife with him.

Joseph E. North, Jr., married Miss Emily F. Rolfe, the second daughter of Benjamin Rolfe, on the 1st of July, 1838 .* This marriage is the second one recorded in the county, that of William Coddington and Miss Harriet Wheaton, married by Orrin Gregory, justice of the peace, on the 6th of May in the same year, being the first. In the early part of September, 1838, Joseph E. North, Jr., settled on section 32 in Lansing, and resided there until his death, in 1851 .; He never lost his residence in Ingham County from the time of his settlement in 1836. He probably built the first frame dwelling erected in the town- ship of Lansing.

Subsequent to his first visit to Michigan, in 1837, Henry H. North returned to New York, where on the 16th of December, 1838, he married Almira Buck, in Tompkins County. Joseph E. North, Sr., according to the records, entered land in Lansing township on section 33, in 1837 and 1838. According to the recollection of his son Joshna, he visited Michigan in the fall before his settlement and purchased the land; and according to the recollection of his son Henry H., he left Lansing, Tompkins Co., N. Y., ou the 20th of May, 1839, and reached his land in Lan- sing, Mich., on the 2d day of June following. Joshua, the third son, and Thomas, the fifth, came to Lansing in the fall of 1838, and for a time lived with and assisted Joseph E., Jr., in clearing up his land. When their father eanie, in 1839, they became inmates of his family. The old gen- tleman remained on his farm in Lansing until his death.

Two of the brothers, Ilenry H. and Joshua, now reside in Delhi township, and Jesse D. lives in the city of Lan- sing, but owns the old farm in the south part of the town- ship. The Norths settled in an excellent country, and the condition of their lands and improvements shows that they are thriving farmers.

NAMING THE TOWNSHIP.

The following account of the way Lansing township re- ceived its name is given by Henry H. North :

"In December, 1841, Reswell Everett, Zalmon S. Holmes, and myself met at the house of my father, by appointment, and framed two petitions to the Legislature for the organization of two townships. But one name was suggested for the first,-that of Lansing, my father saying he wanted it named after our old town of' Lansing, in New York. For the second two names were proposed,-Delhi, by Roswell Everett, and Genoa, by myself, not knowing that there was a Genoa in Livingston County at that time."

THE COOLEY FAMILY.

Jacob Frederick Cooley was born in Germany, Feb. 23, 1807. He came of a good family, but with true Ger- man thrift and forethought learned the trade of a tailor in his native country. He lived in one of the German capi- tals, possibly Stutgard, until he came to America. He settled in the State of New York. His wife was Lucy BarDes, who was born in Hartford, Conn., April. 1, 1804. At the time of her marriage her parents were living in Queida County. She was a woman of the real live Yankee stock, and well fitted for pioneer life, as subsequent events proved.

The young couple removed to Leslie, Ingham Co., Mich., arriving there on the 6th of May, 1836. They erected a temporary shanty in the wilderness, six miles from any settlers, but being soon after attacked with sickness, which almost every settler was subject to, they became homesick. Wild beasts and snakes troubled them, and one day, leaving their two children in their cabin, they went out to examine their land and got lost in the woods ; but their faithful dog found them, and they followed him home. The dog was afterwards killed by wolves.

Mr. Cooley was a stranger to everything connected with wooderaft or farm labor, and the prospect of making a com- fortable home in the new country seemed anything but pleasing. Becoming at length siek and disgusted, he re- turned with his family to New York in 1837. But there was something enticing in the West after all, and in Novem- ber of the same year, leaving his family, he returned to Michigan. At Jacksonburg he made the acquaintance of Jerry and William Ford, or, at least, one of them. These men had, in April, 1836, laid out a village on seetion 21, in Lansing township, which they named " Biddle City." Learning that Mr. Cooley was looking for a place to settle, and also that he was a tailor and his wife a weaver, the Fords persuaded him that at or near their new town was the place to settle; that it was sure to be a great city, and that the trades of himself and wife would soon make them comfortable, if not absolutely rich. To this entieing story Mr. Cooley lent a willing ear, and came down to view the country. The nearest government land to " Biddle City" which he could find was on section 30, in the south west

· Mr. North was married hy Peler Linderman, justieo of the peace.

1 Mrs. MeKibbin, formerly Mrs. North, remembers some of the early preachers, Rev. Henry Lester being about the first. Another, Rev. Levanway, seems lo have been an impostor, for be purchased a horse by the aid of Mr. North and others, soon after which he disap- peared and was not heard of afterwards.

193

LANSING TOWNSHIP.

part of the township, lying on Grand River, and about two miles southwest of the new city. It proved to be an ex- cellent piece of land, and the section now includes some of the best farms in the township.

One of the Fords came along with Cooley, but only rc- mained a short time, and then departed and left him alone in the wilderness. Mr. Cooley knew absolutely nothing of the labor necessary to hew out a home in the woods. He had never handled an axe in his life, and in cutting down a tree he hacked on all sides of it, and when he thought it about nearly to fall, ran out of its reach. Ile did not even know how to plant his vegetables after he had managed to prepare a small plat of ground, but planted potatoes, corn, beans, and cabbage promiscuously in the same hill.

In building his first cabin he managed it by felling a tree, letting the butt rest upon the stump, and then cover- ing the trunk with brush and sods. He did not know where the lines of his land were, and employed a Mr. Scott, of De Witt, in Clinton County, to point them out for him, paying him, according to his son's account, fifty dollars for his services. A second time he lost his lines, and had to pay Mr. Scott once more to establish them for him. Ilis land was the southwest fractional quarter of section 30, town 4 north, range 2 west. He purchased deer-skins from the Indians and made himself a full border suit, including a coon-skin cap. His son, J. F. Cooley, Jr., remembers this suit as a great curiosity. Soon after completing his shanty, he followed the river to Jacksonburg, where he purchased supplies for winter, and then, procuring lumber, built a boat to transport them down to his future home. This was in December, 1837.

On his way down the river, not being a skilled boatman, he came to grief in the swift water, opposite where now stands the village of Dimondale, where night overtook him. His craft struck a bowlder, and either broke up or stove a hole, so that his provisions got into the stream and his flour and salt were nearly spoiled. He, however, waded around among the ice and slippery stones and saved a portion. Having no means of making a fire, he ran up and down on the bank of the river to keep from freezing. At length the barking of a dog attracted his attention, and following the sound he came to a wigwam, where he found an Indian and his squaw, who took him in, rubbed his half- frozen limbs, and made him as comfortable as circumstances permitted. For food they set before him the best they had, -boiled or roasted hedgehog and muskrat. On the follow- ing morning be paid the Indian two dollars to carry him down to his shanty. The Indian soon after abandoned his camping-place, and built his wigwam near Mr. Cooley's.

The inexperienced settler now began to clear a spot of ground and build a better cabin of logs. Here he re- mained until the spring of 1838, when he wrote his wife to join him with the remainder of the family. Mrs. Cooley accordingly bade good-by to her parents, and, taking her two boys, Jacob F., Jr., and Lansing J., came to Detroit, where she arrived in safety, though it was in the midst of the Canadian " Patriot war." At Detroit she hired a team- ster to take her to Jackson, but the sheriff followed him for some misdemeanor, and he fled to the woods, leaving Mrs. Cooley with the team, which she drove to Jackson, where 25

it was taken from her. Nothing daunted by the terrors of the road, she started with her boys on foot for Eaton Rapids. After walking several miles she met a man who told her if she would take a certain trail which he pointed out she would save considerable distance ; but the path was so obscure that after a little time she lost it in the woods. Placing her children on a log, she bade them stay right there until she returned, and then proceeded to find her way out. At length she heard a cock crow, and the sound guided her to a settler's cabin occupied by one Blakeslee, who went with her to find her children, which they suc- ceeded in doing after a long search. Mr. Blakeslee then took his team and carried Mrs. Cooley and her children to Eaton Rapids, where she stopped with a Mr. Spicer, who procured an Indian to notify her husband of her arrival. He soon appeared, and building a boat took his family down the river. Night overtook them, and they were obliged to encamp on the bank until the morning, when they proceeded on their way, and before noon on the 15th day of June, 1838, reached the site of their future home.

They had no team or domestic animals of any kind, and Mrs. Cooley assisted her husband to clear a small piece of land, which they sowed with wheat, and planted a few vege- tables. They kept a record of time by marking it every day on a board or log with charcoal. Their first " Independ- ence" day-July 4, 1838-was celebrated on a flat rock near the river, where Mrs. Cooley sang songs, to the delight of the Indians, while her boys played with their dusky friends under the trees along the river-bank.

About the middle of July the entire family were taken sick, and were nearly helpless for several days. A family named Skinner had settled up the river in the township of Windsor, Eaton Co., and Mr. Cooley got an Indian to go and notify them of their troubles. Mr. Skinner came and took them to his house, where they remained for several weeks, and this experience exhausted all the ready money they possessed. Recovering from their sickness, they rc- turned to their home in the fall and found their crops all safe, their old Indian friend having taken care of them during their absence. They exchanged the products of their land with the Indians for fish and venison, and thus opened the famous " dicker" trade of the early days.

In the following winter the family were all again taken sick and lost the day of the month, but a traveler happen- ing along in January set them right again. At length all their provisions were consumed and they were forced to live upon the charity of their early Indian friend, who man- aged to procure sufficient food to keep them from starving. At one time Mr. Cooley was so low that they all expected he would die, and he finally told his wife to lay his body in a bark trough, cover it with dirt, and take her children out of the woods. But he at length recovered.

In the spring of 1839, Mr. Cooley went to Jackson and worked at his trade, leaving his wife alone with her chil- dren. For fourteen months she never saw a white woman. Wild beasts were plenty and exceedingly troublesome. At one time a gang of wolves followed Mr. Cooley, as he was bringing home some meat for his family, for a long dis- tance, but he finally reached home in safety. At another

194

HISTORY OF INGHAM COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

time, when out blackberrying, he was chased by a bear and escaped with the loss of his hat. Occasionally the family would suffer the fire to go out, and then some one would have to travel perhaps ten miles to procure a supply. Some of the Indians were at times insolent, but they were generally friendly. Their insolence never availed them anything, for Mr. Cooley was resolute and defended his rights.

After they began to raise corn he rigged a novel contri- vance, though a common one in those days, to pound it. It consisted of a mortar made by burning a hollow in a stump, and rigging a spring-pole, to which was attached a wooden pestle ; and this answered a very good purpose.

On the 6th of January, 1840, Mrs. Cooley gave birth to a son, which is said to have been the first male child born in the township. He was named Nathan L. Cooley. A friendly squaw performed the offices of physician and mid- wife, and was the only woman present.

In the fall of 1838 they heard of neighbors down the river and to the southeast of them. These were Coe G. Jones, on section 5, and Joseph E. North, Jr., on seetion 32. The Norths made them a visit. The Fourth of July, 1839, was celebrated at the house of Joseph E. North, Jr. His fatber had recently moved into the settlement, and the three families celebrated together.

Their first threshing was done on the ground, and the first wheat-grist was taken to Eaton Rapids by Mr. Cooley, who was gone three days. The children could hardly wait for the first loaf of bread to bake, but when ready for the table they divided it with the dusky Indian children, who enjoyed it as well as they. The earliest mills near them were at Eaton Rapids and Ingersoll's, now Delta. When they patronized the mill at Ingersoll's they took the grist down the river in a log canoe or " dugout," and then went across the country, through the woods, and hanled the canoe and ground grist back along the narrow path, through mnd and water, with an ox-team. The canoe was not a first- class land-carriage, but they managed to hanl it by fasten- ing a log-chain around its nose, though it required great skill and constant attention to prevent the curious vehicle from often overturning in the rough pathway. Sometimes in the winter when they wanted to cross the river with their oxen and the ice was not strong enough to bear them, Mr. Cooley would ent a channel across and swim them over.

When at length they had become the possessors of an ox-team, a cow, a pig, and a few sheep they congratulated themselves upon their improved circumstances; but their joy was short lived, for a great black bear carried off the pig, and the lean and hungry wolves made short work with the sheep.

The hardships and privations of the early settlers of Michigan, save only in one respect, that of Indian wars and difficulties, were certainly as formidable and discourag- ing as were ever encountered by the people of any State in the Union. The country was largely made up of dense and heavy forests, interspersed with swamps, marshes, and lakes; the earliest roads were more horrible than can be conceived of by the present generation ; and then there was the almost interminable labor of cutting down the timber

and clearing it away before anything could be grown for the support of man or beast. In the midst of their labors the deadly malaria fell upon them, and they froze and burned alternately for months and years with the agne and fever. When the first scanty crops were raised, and there was a small surplus, it took weeks sometimes to carry it to an uncertain market, and the cost of transportation ate up all the proceeds. Wild beasts, dangerous reptiles, and per- secnting insects were plenty as snow-flakes in a January storm, and it was literally a struggle between life and death, with the chances in favor of the latter alternative.

In many instances the earliest comers lived for several years without store or school or church accommodations, and the wonder is that men and women did not degenerate into fierce barbarians and abandon all hope of civilization amid the depressing circumstances which hemmed them in on every side. Nothing but an indomitable will, and a most sanguine looking forward to a better day in the future, an undying faith in the power of human intellect over the forces of nature, ever kept hope alive in the hearts of the pioneers of Michigan, and enabled them to work out the mighty problem of reclaiming a most forbidding wilderness and building np a free and prosperous commonwealth. There were a few comparatively sunny places among the "oak-openings" and beautiful miniature prairies of the southern and western portions of the peninsula, but they were only exceptions. By far the greater portion of the State has been won from a state of nature only through almost unparalleled hardships and the most unflinching perseverance.

Within a year or two Mr. Cooley built a second and im- proved log house. The first one stood near the north west corner of his quarter section, and a considerable distance from the river near a copious spring, which latter item no doubt had considerable weight in determining the selection of his land. The first dwelling was built by the labor of himself and wife, and was a rude affair. The only windows were small holes left in the logs, covered with greased paper. The roof was constructed of troughs, the first course laid with the convex side down, and the second inverted and lapping over the edges of the others. This plan, provided the troughs were sound, made a very comfortable covering, impervious to water so long as the material did not warp or crack.

The second house stood about fifteen rods west of the first, nearer the river. When it was all ready to be put up it took all the able-bodied men in five townships to raise it. It had a roof made of heavy stakes, pinned upon the trans- verse timbers with three-quarter-inch ash pins. The im- proved building boasted of a better chimney and sash win- dows, which latter Mr. Cooley whittled out with a pocket- knife.

Mr. Cooley was probably the first settler in Lansing town- ship, having arrived, as we have seen, in the autumn of 1837 .* There is some uncertainty regarding the arrival of the first family, but the probabilities point to Mr. Cooley's family, who reached their destination on the 15th day of

* Joseph E. North, Jr., huilt a shanty on scetion 32 in tho spring or summer of 1837. Sco account of the North family.

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History of Ingham and Eaton counties, Michigan, Part 47

Author: Durant, Samuel W. cn Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia : D.W. Ensign & Co. Number of Pages: 772

Author: Durant, Samuel W. cn
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia : D.W. Ensign & Co.
Number of Pages: 772