History of Ingham and Eaton counties, Michigan, Part 94

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 94
USA > Michigan > Ingham County > History of Ingham and Eaton counties, Michigan > Part 94

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).

Of course the jury acquitted the defendant. A few days after the acquittal word came from Chester that the people there, upon carefully looking up the date of the barn- raising, had ascertained that it occurred upon a different date from the one supposed and relied upon without ques- tion during the trial, so that it was not at all impossible for the defendant to have been seen driving the ox and at the barn-raising.

The defendant's alibi has been established in at least three important criminal cases tried in our circnit within the knowledge of the writer, all of which crumbled away before popular investigation shortly after the trials. And yet there is no better defense than the fact, if fact it is, that the accused was elsewhere when the alleged crime was committed. Honest witnesses are so easily made to re- member that such and such events took place upon a cer-

379

THE PROFESSIONS.

tain date, that the alibi has properly won the name of the rogue's defense.

The following is a list of applicants admitted to the bar of this county. Those marked with an asterisk are yet practicing. Those in italics are dead :

Residence. Date of Admission.

Chester C. Chatfield.

Eaton Rapids. March 26, 1845.

Joab Baker.

Clinton County. Sept. 30, 1845.

D. Darwin llughes.

Bellevue ... .April 1, 1846.

Henry A. Shaw".

Eaton Rapids .. .Sept. 30, 1846.

John W. Longyear. Lansing Sept. 30, 1846.

Orlando M. Barnes.

Mnson, Ingham Co ..... Aug. 27, 1851.

Thomas W. Loring. Charlotte .. . Oet. 8, 1856.

H. A. Pattison Bellevue. Oct 6, 1857.

1. H. Corbin Charlotte.

May 22, 1858.

Ezra D. Burr. Eaton Rapids May 22, 1858.

May 22, 1858.

Edmund S. Tracey* Charlotte

Anson Brunson. Eatun Rapids

May 22, 1858.

Charles Il. Marsh .. Charlotte May 25, 1859.

Dec. 8, 1860.

John W. Nichols ...

Charlotte

Charles P. Brown

Bellevue.

E. A. Foote# Charlotte

Martin V. Montgomery#

Eaton Rapids

Charles F. Hutchings.

Charlotte

.Oct. 4, 1866.

. April 2, 1867.

A. L. Wheaton Charlotte

June 22, 1867.

H. F. Pennington* Charlotte ...

April 21, IS68.

Clement Smith. Charlotte April 21, 1868.

Ansil R. Patterson* Grand Ledge April 29, 1869.

Albert Coe ... Grand Ledge.

April 29, 1869.

1. E. C. Hickok. Charlotte.

.Sept. 29, 1869.

John M. Corbin*

Eaton Rapids

. Dec. 15, 1870.

Richard A. Montgomery. Eaton Rapids .June 14. 1871.

George W. Ilayden. Charlotte

. April 3, 1872.

Byron F. Lockwood Charlutte. Aug. 15, 1872.

Otis E. MeCutcheon Charlotte Aug. 15, 1872.

Charles K. Latham Charlotte

Dec. 10, 1872.

Parm S. De Graff # Charlotte Dec. 10, 1872.

Charlotte. April 18, 1873. Otto J. Wolfe.

Frank L. Prindle

Charlotte

.April 15, 1873.

HIenry J. Felker.

Charlotte April 18, 1873.

Eaton Rapids June 10, 1873.

T. F. Powers ..

Charlotte .. .June 10, 1873.

Charles H. Ilowell

Eaton Rapids. Feb. 17, 1874.

Dec. 14, 1875.

Frank L. Fales Charlotte

Aug. 10, 1877.

Ang. 10, 1877.

II. S. Maynard* . Charlotte

Aug. 10, 1877.

H. G. MePeek *. Grand Ledge. Oet. 15, 1877.

Charles T. Russell Grand Ledge Oct. 15, 1877.

S. O. Griffith .. Grand Ledge. Jan. 14, 1878.

Manly C. Dodge. Charlotte. Jan. 14, 1878.

Residence.

Date of Admission.

James M. Powers*

Bellevue. April 13, 1878.

Frank L. Dodge*

Eaton Rapids April 16, 1878. Michael Kenney#

Philip T. Colgrove.

Charlotte. April 18, 1879.

Frank A. Dean=

. Charlotte.

Feh. 4, 1879.

James J. Baird, Charlutte

Feb. 4, 1879. 64

Total number of admissions.

In addition to the above there are now residing in the county the following attorneys, who were admitted clse- where : Frank A. Hooker, Circuit Judge; Daniel P. Sag- endorph, practicing at Charlotte ; George W. Mead, prac- ticing at Charlotte, examined and admitted in Supreme Court ; Addison J. Comstock, now practicing at Charlotte ; Ralph E. Stevens, now practicing at Vermontville. Mr. Comstock graduated from the Law Department at Ann Arbor, April 5, 1879. He formerly practiced at Reed City, Mich., and came to Charlotte in May, 1879.

Charles S. Cobb, of the law firm of Corbin & Cobb, of Eaton Rapids, who is a younger brother of Horace Cobb, of Charlotte, is a graduate of the Ann Arbor Law Depart- ment. He came here in 1878, and, like his brother, is working into a good and steady practice.

From those forms of dissipation which years ago beset our bar, the present members now in the county are remarkably exempt. Nearly all of them, perhaps every one of them, may be classed as temperance men. Some of them are tem- perance workers. All are satisfied that nfental energy is the only safe stimulant for the brain and nervous system. They all clearly see the difference between dissipation and recreation ; that one is death and the other life to mind and body. Therefore, I consider them all entitled to success and good standing in their profession.

It would be a great pleasure to me had I the leisure and room in this county history to trace the mental growth and development of several more of those upon the roll of my associates, but I find this article has already grown beyond its allotted bounds. I yield up the manuscript to the printer with much regret, because so little mention is made of several whom my own personal interest and friendship would prompt me to dwell upon with satisfaction both to myself and others.

Isaac M. Jlarpster ...

Delta

Dec. 14, 1875.

Charles W. Merritt. Grand Ledge.

April 12, 1877.

Elmore Scott *. Charlotte

Horace H. Cobb# Charlotte.

Eaton Rapids .April 21, 1876.

Russell F. Tinkham #

April 21, 1876.

Robert W. Sbimer#

Charlotte

.Oct. 6, 1862.

Osear F. Price ..

Eaton Rapids

Isaac M. Crane *.

Eaton Rapids.

Dec. 8, 1860.

.Oct. 6, 1863.

.Oct. 5, 1865.

P. T. Vnn Zile. Charlotte

.June 20, 1870. George Iluggett* Bellevue.

John Wood#

Dimondale.

.April 16, 1878.

CITY OF CHARLOTTE.

NEARLY in the geographical centre of the county of Eaton, upon a gently-sloping plain or prairie, is located Charlotte, the seat of justice for the county and queen among her generally prosperous sister towns. This beau- tiful city is one of the best built, most active and euter- prising among those of its population in the State of Michigan. It is surrounded by a fine agricultural region, peopled by a thrifty and prosperous class of farmers, whose broad acres teem with the products of a fertile soil, and whose improvements are generally of a high order of ex- cellence.

A stranger, upon first visiting Charlotte, is impressed by its lively air of business, its fine location, broad and well- shaded streets, the number, size, and style of its business edifices, and the general " wide-awake" look of its inhab- itants. Perhaps no city in the State, of the same size, ean boast of as great and substantial development in as short a time. Although the place was settled at an early day, its growth did not really commence until subsequent to 1860, when the building of the Grand River Valley Railway* opened a route to the world "outside." A few years later the Peninsular Railway was built, and the place received fresh impetus.

ORIGINAL LAND ENTRIES .- EARLY SETTLE- MENT.

It has been stated, and is believed to be true, that the beautiful prairie on which Charlotte is located was discov- ered by George Torrey, an early resident of Kalamazoo, and a companion. These men, in looking for a site which possessed advantages for great future improvement, came upon the prairie, and at once noting its beauties, started for the Kalamazoo land-office. On their way they met a man with an utterly woc-begone expression on his countenance, who in conversation stated that he was a shoemaker. They inferred that he was a poor, hard-working man, seeking a place to locate his family, work at his trade, and cultivate a small " patch" of ground. They told him of the prairie, and the poor shoemaker's eyes brightened. By an exercise of ingenuity unlooked for, he obtained priority in being allowed choice of lands, and for several days kept the many anxious speculators and others from entering. He was a poor shoemaker no longer, but a man of wealth, intrusted besides with a considerable amount of funds to invest for friends in the East. The prairie, or its outskirts, claimed

his own immediate attention, while he located lands for his friends in various portions of the State. His name was IIannibal G. Rice, and he was afterwards well known among the settlers, although he did not settle for several years after he had made his eutries, which was in 1833.

But the popular belief that Mr. Torrey and his friend were the discoverers of the prairie is not in accordance with the fact that George W. Barnes made the first location of land here in 1832, a year before the proceedings mentioned occurred. And very early in 1833, Mr. Barnes asked that commissioners might be appointed to locate the seat of jus- tice for Eaton County, offering special inducements if they should choose the prairie, a part of which he owned. Mr. Rice and Joseph Torrey (not George, although the latter was no doubt here) made their entries in 1833, as is shown by the tract-book in the office of the county register. Mr. Barnes' efforts to have the county-seat located here were successful, as will be seen by reference to documents quoted in a general chapter.

On the 6th of July, 1835, Mr. Barnes sold to Edmund B. Bostwick the equal undivided half of the west half of the northwest quarter of section 18, in town 2 north, range 4 west, and east half of the northeast quarter section 13, town 2 north, range 5 west, the whole containing about 150 acres. This deed was acknowledged before Ira Burdick, a justice of the peace in Kalamazoo County, and was recorded in Calhoun County, July 9, 1835. A similar deed was ex- ecuted Dec. 5, 1835, and Mr. Bostwick thus became owner of the entire 150 acres, and on this the original village of Charlotte was platted, as elsewhere given.

The first settler near the beautiful prairie where now stands the city of Charlotte was Jonathan Searls, a vet- eran volunteer of the war of 1812. He was wounded near Kingston, Canada, and carried the rifle-ball in his body until his death. He settled, with his family, on the south- east corner of the prairie, in November, 1836, and built a block-house, in which the family lived until 1874.+ On the morning of Dec. 18, 1841, Mr. Searls left his house, apparently in good health, but was soon after found dead. Ile was buried on his own farm, as it was before a ceme- tery existed in the vicinity. His wife, Mrs. Sally Searls, a na- tive of Massachusetts, survived him until March 30, 1877, when her death occurred. She was nearly eighty years of age, and the mother of eleven children, nine of whom grew to maturity. With no other family on the prairie when they came, and with all the trials of pioneer life to contend against, their lot was not an casy one, yet Mrs. Searls was never heard to complain. The first meeting, and for a long time the only religious service, was held in her

* Werk was begun on this road in the fall of 1865, but track-laying was not commenced until the suininer of 1868. The track was com- pleted to Charlotte on Saturday, Aug. 15, 1868, a number of the citi- zens of the place aiding in laying the last rails. The completion of the road to Charlotte was the occasion of a general jubilee, for the days of staging over rough and muddy roads were ended, and mer- chants would mert with no more trying delays in getting their goods.

This account is from an obituary notice of Mrs. Searls, and differs slightly from the one which follows. The latter was prepared care- fully by Mr. Foote, who vouches for its authenticity.

380

RESIDENCE OF EDWARD A. FOOTE ESQ. 452 WEST LAWRENCE ST. CHARLOTTE, MICH.

381

CITY OF CHARLOTTE.

house, where a sermon was preached by Rev. Mr. Bennett, some years since superannuated. Her house consisted of one room, plainly furnished, which was made to accommo- date the thirteen members of the family. It answered also for post-office, conrt-house, church and tavern, and truly the pioneer family of Charlotte was not without occupation at all times.

The following account of the settlement of the Messrs. Searls was read by E. A. Foote, Esq., at the meeting of the Eaton County Pioneer Society, in 1877:

" Jonathan and Samuel Searls# fouod their way through from Belle- vue in October, 1835. They left Mrs. Samuel Searls at Bellevue until they could cut a track through for a tenin. They worked five days eut- ling this Track, and then hired a team to bring Mrs. Searls and the house- hold goods through. This track followed the Indian trail from Belle- vue to the Indian village iu Walton, and then followed the ridge along the south side of Battle Creek until it reached the north-and-sooth section-line road running south from Charlotte. This was for a long time the only passable route between here and Bellevue.

"Jonathan and Samuel had no team to work with for one year after they came. By their own unaided strength they had to cut and move to the spot the logs for Samuel Searls' house, and then raise those logs to their places on the building. When those two men rolled up those logs alone there was not another house or family within eight miles of here. In this house which they built twelve or fifteen persons lived at one time after people began to come in. But these two men worked alone, bare-handed, laying the foundation of our eity, until the first day of February, 1837, when Japhet Fisher came in by the way of Bellevue, leaving his trunk there, and hired out to Unele Samuel and Jonathan, and went to chopping for them. He was there at Uncle Samuel's in June, when Ruth Searls, the wife of Uncle Samuel, died, with the quick consumption, leaving an infant eight or nine months old. But hy that time another family had come,-there was one more woman here,-Stephen Kinne and his wife, and Amos, his brother, who had come through on the first day of Jnonary, 1837, from Gull Prairie, by the way of Bellevue, following the track cut out in 1835 by the two Searls. The nearest house then to this place was Mr. Shumway's, in Walton, two miles southwest of where Olivet is now built. Stephen and Amnos Kinne huilt a log house sixteen by sixteen about a mile south of here.

" Mrs. Ruth Searls died about sundown. No one was in the house when she breathed her last. Japhet Fisher, little Isaac Parish (an adopted child), Unele Jonathan Searls, and Unele Samuel, the hus- hand, were all out at work. They came in and found that her spirit had left them. Stephen Kinne and wife, crossing Battle Creek upon a fallen tree, and going northeast aeross what is now the fair-ground, renched the house of moorning about dark and remained there all night. As co coffin was to be had here, she had to be taken to Belle- vue for a decent hurial, sixteen or eighteen miles away. Before dny- light, Japhet Fisher started for Bellevue to prepare for the funeral. They put bedding into the box of the lumber-wagon, upon which they laid the lifeless form and fixed it as well as they could, and Samuel and Jonathan, with their oxen drawing the wagont along the

* From Mrs. L. II. Donton, daughter of Jonathan Searls, we have as- certained the following facts : Jonathan and Samuel Searls came to Michigan in 1834, and visited various points in the southern and west- ern part of the State, remaining during the following winter at Allegao. George W. Barnes, of Gull Prairie, Kalamazoo Co., who owned the site of Charlotte, induced the Searls brothers to come here, and accom- panied them, and showed them the land they afterwards purchased. Jonathan Senrls died in 1841, and Samuel about 1867-68. Allen Searls, a half-brother to the above, has in recent years returned to Syracuse, N. Y., where he is now living. Stephen Scarls, the other brother, is now a resident of St. Joseph, Berrien Co., Mich., and is in the eighty-ninth year of his age. His daughter became the wife of Damon A. Winslow, a former prominent lawyer of Charlotte.

+ Sinee he penned this account of the death and burial of Mrs. Searls, Mr. Foote has been informed by various old settlers that they recollect distinctly of seeing the remains brought to Bellevue in a sled, drawn over the hare ground, and thinks perhaps this latter version is the correct one, although some have stated that it was a wagon. But

rough roads, and fording erceks, went on to Bellevue, while Stephen Kinne and wife remained to take care of the children.

" Uncle Samuel was very badly dressed for such an occasion. Hte had worn out all of his clothes working hard to build a home for that woman. Ilis corduroy paots were in tatters elear to his knees. ilis 'wa'mus' was very ragged. A fragment of au old woolen cap was on his hend. But Japhet Fisher sent his trunk of clothes by David Kinne, then on his route here, to meet Samuel on the way. They met at the Indian village in Walton, and Uncle Samuel dressed in a becoming manner for the funeral. The hearts of the Bellevue people quickly responded to the call of Japhet Fisher. They turned out to meet the ox-team. The women took hold and laid her tenderly in a coffin, and the next day the last sad rites were performed.

" Although Uncle Samuel had to take the young babe back to New York, though his home and hopes were blasted, he did not give up. Hle brought back his sister Julia to keep house for him. They had built a house for Unele Jooathan farther west, on Searles Street [as the Eaton Rapids road, on which the Searls brothers lived, was known]. Jonathan went East, and brought back his wife, Aont Sally Searls. This was in November, 1837; ou their way from Bellevue here they stayed overnight at Capt. Hickok's, in Walton.

" It was this log house of Unele Jonathan's that became for a time the headquarters of the county. They held eaucuses and conventions and county canvasses there. They most always stayed overnight. Aunt Sally had them all to wait upon. She did the county cooking for years. 'We had a great deal of men's company in those days, said she, ' but we seldom saw a woman.'"

The oldest building now standing in Charlotte, and the first fratue house ereeted in the place, is one which was built in 1840, by Simeon Harding, then county treasurer. It is at present the wing of William Piper's house, on Law- rance Avenue, next west of the new Congregational church. In 1837 or 1838 a log house was built on the south side of the same avenue, east of the site of the Methodist church, where Charles Piper's residence now stands. This was the first building erected properly on the prairie, the house of Jonathan Scarls having been built in the edge of the tim- ber, at the southeast corner of the prairie. The logs were eut by Samuel Searls, David Kinne, and Stephen Kinne. Jonathan drew the logs, with his brindle oxen, and the Messrs. Searls roofed the dwelling with shakes. It is re- marked that none of the settlers eould compete with Jona- than Searls in splitting those necessary articles for roofing, and as hewers of wood the Searls brothers and David Kinne were unapproachable. Mr. Foote says :

" The Eagle, when laid up and its corders dove-tailed, looked like cabinet-work. With their broad-axes they would roll off broad shav- ings as thin as paper, leaving the surface perfectly true and finished, without ao axe-mark to be seen. The puncheon-floors which they hewed were as level and smooth as floors of sawed lumber. You would not know them from plank. Those men did the work of saw- mills for the early settlers. Uncle Stephen Searls, who built and set- tled on Searls Street in 1838, was really a valuable accession. In Erie Co., N. Y., he stood as a master millwright. Among 300 me- chanies, who worked on Kingman & Murphy's grist-mill at Black Rock, then considered the best built mill in the State of New York, Unele Stephen Searls was the master workman in wood. Here, among the settlers, he was ready to apply his great skill to the humblest work to give them shelter and homes. Unele Jonathan was nearly his equal with the broad-axe, but not such a complete mechanic, and David Kinne, now ealled the best hewer in California, was elose upon the heels of either of them."

The first log house, previously mentioned, was occupied, soon after its completion as a dwelling, by Stephen Davist

whatever the vehicle used may have been, the journey was a sad aod solemn one, and the fireside of Samuel Searls was made desolate.

¿ Mrs. Nathan Johnson, of Charlotte, who is a daughter of Stephen

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IHISTORY OF EATON COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

and family. Simcon Harding's frame house was built for him by Allen Searls, a half-brother of Jonathan, Stephen, and Samuel, who moved here with his wife in September, 1838, coming with a horse-team ria Jackson and Eaton Rapids. A road was eut out from the Rapids to a point west of William Southworth's in Eaton township, and was passable for teams. From Charlotte a road was ent cast as far as the Holeomb place. No one was then living between the Wall settlement and the Messrs. Searls.

When Allen Searls arrived he contraeted with H. I. Lawranee to finish the tavern, or the " court-house" as it was called. The building was then partly up and ready for the plates. Mr. Searls was unable to finish the build- ing ready for the spring term of court in 1839, and the first court could not be held here in consequence until the next year. Hannibal G. Rice, who was then living on the Dunton place, soon after built a house of tamarack logs at the cast end of Lawrance Avenue, and occupied it a short time. He subsequently built one of white-wood logs, which he moved into. The tamarack house was known as " Rice's briek," and was afterwards occupied in succession by Hiram Shepherd and Henry Robinson ; the latter came originally from Bennington, Vt., and settled at Vermontville in 1844, removing to Charlotte in 1852. He also at one time lived in Mr. Rice's white-wood log house.

Hannibal G. Rice was a well-known character, and amassed considerable wealth. He wore a drab overcoat, by which everybody recognized him. He finally removed to Battle Creek, where he died. His daughter, Mrs. Mc- Cammon, is now living in Charlotte.

When Allen Searls came here, in the fall of 1838, Amos Kinney and Erastus Whitcomb were living south of Battle Creek. Harvey Williams, who owned the first frame house as successor to Simeon Ilarding, established the first store in the place. A block building, which stood on a lot be- tween the pre-ent sites of the Sherwood House and the Methodist church, was built for Mr. Bostwick, and was afterwards occupied by Mr. Le Cont, the young lawyer, who is elsewhere mentioned, and whose fate was to meet his death, at an early age, in the place which he had fondly hoped to see grow to importanec. His enterprise was most worthy, and his memory is cherished by those who knew him. Ilad he lived, it is doubtless a fact that Charlotte would have owed him much as a projector of improvements and an earnest and enterprising citizen. The few fine shade- trees that are left of his planting are appropriate monu- ments to his memory.

Charlotte was blessed with a generally excellent class of citizens in its earlier years, and to this fact is due, in a great measure, its present prosperity. Without pioneer enterprise its growth would have been slower, and its im- portance as a centre of business and culture much less.

Davis, makes the following statement, which is, of course, reliable : " Eleazer Ftorna and wife (newly married) were the first white people who ever settled on the prairie where Charlotte is now located. They came from the State of New York to Gognac Prairie, from there in March, 1858, and remained until September of the same year, when they returned to New York State. Stephen Davis came here with Sterna, returning in June after his family, bringing them here, and has lived here ever since."

From the records of the County Pioneer Society, and files of newspapers, the following facts are gathered :

Edward A. Foote,* a native of Burlington, Chittenden Co., Vt., settled in Michigan in October, 1840, and on the 15th of August, 1848, located in Eaton County, of which he was elected clerk in 1856. In January, 1855, he es- tablished the Eaton Republican (now the Charlotte Repub- lican), and was its first editor. He was prominent in the preliminary steps towards organizing the Republican party in the county and State.

John F. Tirrill, born in Bristol, Grafton Co., N. IF., set- tled in lonia Co., Mich., in 1837, and came to Eaton County in 1847. Maria Tirrill came to the county with her parents in November, 1841, remaining through the winter at Belle- vue; the following March they moved to Charlotte, then containing but five families. They started from Bellevue before sunrise, and, after numerous accidents and the ex- perience of being lost in the woods, arrived at dark at the house of Amos Kinney.

Evits H. Dunton, a native of Jericho, Chittenden Co., Vt., settled in Michigan in 1838. Mrs. Weltha A. Dunton had come to Charlotte in 1835 or 1836, with the family of her father, Mr. Searls, the first settler, the nearest neigh- bors at that time being six miles away.

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History of Ingham and Eaton counties, Michigan, Part 94

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