USA > Michigan > Ionia County > History of Ionia County, Michigan : her people, industries and institutions, Volume I > Part 18
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48
In section 2 of what is now Ronald township John Van Vleck saw a tract of land that pleased him, and so he wrote at once to his father, Mathew. While waiting to hear from his father he went over to Samuel Yates's in fonia and engaged to work for him. In the winter of 1837 and 1838. Mathew Van Vleck came out and, fancying the prospect, bought three hundred and twenty acres on sections [ and 2 in Ronald township. After assisting his son John to start the construction of a cabin, he departed for the East to bring on his family, having meanwhile engaged men to break one hundred acres for him, and, in charge of these men and their work. John was left behind.
Mathew Van Vleck lost no time in transporting his family and effects
198
IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
from New York to Michigan. He reached Detroit without much trouble, but thenceforth his path was beset with difficulties and vexations, just as were the paths of many who went before him and many who came after him. He traveled with three pairs of oxen and a lumber-wagon and, pass- ing via Lainsburg and De Witt, reached his destination in July, 1838, after having been two weeks en route from Detroit. The family he brought with him included his wife and four children, Peter, Albert, Catharine and Sarah. Mathew Van Vleck died in April, 1880, aged eighty-six, and late in the summer of the same year his son John died.
John T. Van Vleck, the land-agent, himself bought land on section 2 in 1838, and, although his business called him abroad frequently, he made Ronald his place of residence more or less from 1838 until his death in 1844. In 1838 he hired John James Foote to work the place and in 1839 Melvin B. Allen took charge of it. Allen remained on it about three years, when he bought some land on Long Plain.
In the fall of 1838, Alanson Snow located on section 21. Mr. Snow, as well as his wife, belonged to a historic family. His mother was slain in Ohio by the Indians, her death being conspicuously chronicled as an illustration of Indian atrocities. His father-in-law. Mr. Pangborn, who came to Ronald township with him, was a survivor of the Revolutionary War and lived to be near one hundred years old.
In 1838, Lafayette Church became a settler, but soon passed to Gratiot county, and in the same year Calvin Woodard, a bachelor, located on sec- tion 18, at the foot of the lake that bears his name, and to which land Chauncey Conkey succeeded not long afterward.
In 1839 the additions included Stephen and Wellington Page, George D. Tasker, James Jennings and his brother's widow, Minerca Jennings. with whom also came her two sons, Julius and William, and daughter. Mary. Mrs. Jennings settled on section 24 and south of her, James Jen- nings made his home.
The Crossetts settled in 1840 upon section 23 and Eli Soule, the same year on section 26. Neither the Crossets nor the Soules have any repre- sentatives in Ronald township now.
11. F. Hull, on section 15. was among the early comers, and in 1843 Joseph L. Freeman and David Dodge came. Loren Sprague moved with his father, Elijah Sprague, to Keene township in 1839. but directly after- ward devoted his time to the pursuit of his trade, which was carpentering. chiefly at lonia. In 184t he married the daughter of Guy Webster, of
199
IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Orleans, and moved to a place he had bought of Guy Webster some time before that. lle worked on it from time to time and by 1845 had effected a considerable clearing. His neighbors in Ronald township were Deacon Price, just north : Alonzo Hubbell, on section 31, and Henry Hubbell, on the east. At this time Calvin Woodard was eking out a lonely existence on section 18 and having his washing and baking done at Guy Webster's.
In May. 1846, William Brooks settled on section 32, upon the town- ship line, and the same year Alpheus C. Hawley, a famous hunter, trapper and fur-trader, made a beginning on section 9.
In 1848 L. J. Mosher pitched his tent upon section 14. His father, William Mosher, had settled in Watertown, Clinton county, in 1836, but. meeting with misfortunes, lost his property, and thereupon L. J. Mosher, the eldest son, assuming the charge and maintenance of the family, became, as stated, a pioneer in Ronald in 1848. He took great pride in the reflection that he had owned and cleared in Michigan five farms, and that upon the two hundred and fifty acres cleared he did nearly all the work himself. Ile was, moreover, a noted hunter in his day, and, first and last, killed eight bears and more than a hundred deer.
For some reason, a mystery even to the children, William Mosher bestowed upon each of his eight children a given name commencing with the letter 1. The names of the eight were Lucy, Laura, Loisa, Loren J .. Lanson B., Lyman D., Lock V. and Lawrence.
At the time of Mosher's settlement on section 14, he found Joseph Freeman living on Long Plain east of him: south of Freeman, the Jen- nings families, Alexander Runyon and Melvin Allen; west, his neighbor was Manson Snow, two miles and a half distant. Long Plain occupied a tract on the eastern side of the township, measuring two miles in length and one in width. Indeed. that side of the township is pretty much all a plain or prairie. from the north line southward to the center of section 24.
George Sessions, Phineas Hutchins and Leander Millard became set- tlers in Ronald in 1845. and later there were Benjamin Pew. Stephen Ackles. Mr. Laverty. Daniel G. Smith, to the old Wood place; David Wilder. M. C. Wikdler, W. Hall, who bought out Mr. Veeder: Americus Smith, William M. Steere, J. L. Fowle. J. P. Powell, William Penny, Doctor George Pray, one of the earliest physicians resident in the town- ship: Samuel Loomis, the Mattisons, Cobbs, and so on.
As to going to the mill, the pioneers of Ronald township were not as badly off as they might have been. When the advance-guard penetrated
200
IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
the township there was already a grist-mill at lonia, and, as a trip there and back from the Van Vleck settlement was usually made in twenty-four hours, the hardship in that particular was not very great, although some of the early ones did find a hardship in not being able to procure at all times material for a grist.
The road to Ionia from Van Vleck's was the one Van Vleck had cut out when he came in with his family, via the Yates and Shepard places. The first road laid in the Van Vleck settlement was the one through l'alo. north and south. It was opened in 1839.
Matthew Van Vleck brought a horse with him when he came to the town and kept him about a year. For his first crop of wheat he got forty- four cents a bushel at lonia, and had to take half of the purchase money in store-pay. John T. Van Vleck built a saw-mill in 1841 on Prairie creek in Ionia township, just over the Ronald line, and in that year George D. Tasker got his lumber there and built on section 2 the first frame house put up in the settlement, which was later occupied as a residence by James Dennis.
John Van Vleck put out an apple orchard in 1839 and, in 1840 or 1841. what he claimed to be the second peach orchard in the county, E. Le Valley of Ionia having been given credit for planting the first.
The first marriage in the town was that of George D. Tasker and Catharine Van Vleck at Mathew Van Vleck's house on December 31. 1840. The officiating minister was the Reverend Mr. Staples, a Methodist Epis- copal preacher, who came up from Lyons in company with a party of fifteen or more wedding guests, among whom were Doctor W. Z. Blanch- ard, his son, John C., and Ann Eager, later Mrs. Frederick Hall, of lonia. after whom Peter Van Vleck went on a special mission. There were no notably demonstrative festivities, but there was, of course, a wedding din- ner, of which the feature was an immense wild turkey, shot by Peter Van Vleck especially for the occasion. On the following day the wedding party, including the bride and groom, went down to Lyons and at Doctor Blanchard's house, after another jolly dinner. supplemented that perform- ance in the evening with a glorious dance.
As to the first birth and death in Ronald township nothing definite can now be spoken. The first death was probably that of Joshua Shepard. The first death in the Van Vleck settlement is said to have been that of an infant daughter of Jeremiah Mabie. She was the first one buried in the originally selected burial place at Palo, and when the location was aban- doned. her remains were transferred to a village cemetery.
201
JONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
The resident taxpayers of Ronald township in 1845 were M. B. Allen, sections 13. 14. 133 acres; James Bentley, section 27, 200 acres ; Sanford Buskirk, personal; William A. Clark, section 28, 320 acres, David Dodge, sections 13, 14. 265 acres; Volney Eaton, section 32, 160 acres ; James L. Freeman, section 32, 266 acres; Freedom Gates, Sr., section 10. 41 acres: Freedom Gates, Jr., section 19, 81 acres; Chauncey Goodwin. sections 33. 34, 280 acres; Royal Howell, section 35, 123 acres; P. C. Hutchins, section 22, 80 acres: James L. Jennings, section 24, 160 acres ; William Jennings, sections 13. 14. 24, 373 acres; Stephen and Welling- ton Page, section 30, 83 acres; Lawrence Pierce, section 30, 83 acres ; Benjamin F. Pew, section 1, 40 acres: John Ransom, section 20, 160 acres ; AAlanson Snow, sections 20, 21, 400 acres; John Snow, section 20, 120 acres; William Snow, section 21, 120 acres: Joel Smith, section 19, 40 acres ; Chauncey E. Shepard. section 33, 120 acres; Eli L. Soule, sections 26. 27, 240 acres; George D. Tasker. sections 1, 2, 70 acres; Mathew Van Vleck and M. Van Vleck, agent, sections 1, 2, 11, 35. 635 acres; John Van Vleck, section 2, 70 acres: Lamber Van Valkenberg, sections 4, 24, 205 acres ; William Wood, section 19, 80 acres; Joseph Wood. section 19, 80 acres ; Calvin Woodard, section 18, 104 acres, and George Younger. section 33. 80 acres.
SUPERVISORS.
1846, R. Howell: 1847, S. F. Page: 1848-50, M. Van Vleck; 1851. E. Kellogg: 1852, M. Van Vleck: 1853-54, B. H. Preston: 1855-56, W. Jennings: 1857. D. G. Smith: 1858, William Jennings: 1859-63, George Pray: 1864, B. H. Preston: 1856-66, W. H. Freeman: 1867-68, W. M. Steere: 1860-70, George Pray: 1871, William H. Freeman; 1872, William Jennings: 1873-78. George Pray: 1879-80, J. L. Fowle: 1881-87, Charles F. Kellogg: 1888-95. William H. Mattison; 1896-99, William P. Smith ; 1000-03. William H. Mattison: 1903-07, Byron Yeomans; 1908-12, Rector Van Vleck : 1913-16. H. L. Smith.
PALO.
The village of Palo, which occupies land originally owned by Mathew and John Van Vleck, was first established as a trading-post about 1849. by John Van Vleck, who sold goods in his house. Before that a little while, there had been a slight move toward concentrating a population at that locality, and when, in 1846, John Van Vleck suggested that the place be
202
IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
called Palo, in honor of General Taylor's victory at l'alo Alto, in that year, the common voice acquiesced, and the name passed into popular acceptation.
John Van Vleck carried on business in a small way a few years, and then gave it up. His brother, Albert, succeeded him as the village mer- chant, and by and by John Van Vleck and Charles C. Randall built a store on the site of Mathew Millard's present fine brick block, and pushed local trading interests forward upon a more liberal scale than had previously been reached.
Meanwhile people had come in and erected additional residences upon the spot. Leander Millard opened a tavern and Curtis Brooks set up a smithy, a blacksmith shop having previously been started in 1850 by a Mr. Rogers, about two miles south of Palo, on the lonia road. Van Vleck and Randall sold out to Albert Van Vleck, after continuing in business about a year, and he sold to Leander Millard in 1866.
On March 12, 1867, the village was platted by William H. Freeman, commencing at a point fifty-two and one-half rods west of the center of section 2, running east one hundred and five rods. On December 15, 1870. Van Vleck, Swarthout and Freeman platted an addition.
In 1867 Ross Starkweather built a steam saw-mill at the village, and in 1868 a Toledo firm put up a steam grist-mill, consequent upon a donation to them of two thousand dollars from the residents of the village and vicinity. The Toledo men did not, however, do what was esteemed the fair thing in the premises, for they provided old and worn-out machinery, which failed to do satisfactory work and fell far short of fulfilling the expectations awak- ened at the beginning. About 1868, too, R. & II. Miller added to the list of local industries a foundry, to which they added later on a planing-mill. In 1875 Albert Van Vleck built a grist- and saw-mill.
The village has striven earnestly for supremacy and recognition, but its efforts have failed in a great measure. Palo of today is only a small village, which is maintained by the country trade for the several stores which exist there.
CHAPTER XVIII.
SEBEWA TOWNSHIP.
It is vaguely asserted that the first white settler resident in the present township of Sebewa bore the name of Jones, but whether John, James, Thomas or Peter, cannot be clearly ascertained, nor is it, perhaps, especially important as an inquiry, since Jones tarried but a short time before striking his tent. It is known that he and his wife came to town some time during the year 1836, carrying on their backs the few traps they owned, and settled on section 1. They were poor, and thought that by some hook or crook they might earn a living in the woods, and shortly raise a crop, for which they could get something before being called upon to vacate the premises. However that might have been, they did not apparently recognize the full force of the undertaking upon which they had entered, for it seems that they sickened of the work in a little while, packed up, and were off to more congenial climes. It must have been pretty lonesome for them, deep in the woods, the solitary settlers in a dreary stretch of country, hemmed in on all sides by howling wolves, and, to cap the climax, so poor that they had to make a meal on herbs and roots or starve. No wonder, therefore, that they did not care to stay very long. They may not have done much better by making a change, but it seems to have been agreed on all sides that they could not have done much worse. Jones may be dismissed early in the history as no very important factor therein, except as relates to the circumstances of his having been the pioneer of his race in the settlement of Sebewa.
The first attempt at a permanent settlement, and the one from which the history of the town properly dates, concerns the coming, in 1838, of John F. Terrill. Charles W. Ingalls and John Brown. Terrill located on section 25, and Brown and Ingalls on section 36, not far away. All three were pushing Vermont Yankees and laid hold with a will to the heavy task before them. Slowly, but surely, the forest-wild gave way before the sturdy blows of their ringing axes, and where formerly stretched a wilderness soon spread a pleasant prospect of comfortable, if not elegant, homes and fruitful farms.
In due time, John F. Terrill conchided to utilize the handsome water-
204
IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
power of Sebewa creek, and so, in 1843, in conjunction with Anson W. Halbert, he built a saw-mill just west of where "The Corners" engaged the notice of the traveler. Halbert came to the town in 1841 and in that year he married one of Terrill's daughters. In the log house he had built at the Corners, he ventured into mercantile trade with a few goods, but, few as they were, they evidently sufficed, and more too, for Halbert did not feel encouraged to pursue the subject of trade beyond of disposing of his first stock. Strictly speaking, he was perhaps the first merchant at the Corners, but his effort was so fruitless that it has not been mentioned in the history of trade at the Corners.
Jacob Showerman and Eleazer Brown, with their families, joined the Sebewa settlement in 1839. Showerman had come into the town three years before (in 1836) on a land-hunting expedition, and found then but one settler in the town-Jones, on section 1, of whom mention has already been made. Showerman selected one hundred and sixty acres on section 22 and. after a fortnight's waiting at the lonia land office for his "turn," entered his land and returned at once to New York.
When the Brown and Showerman families came, some time in the fall of 1839, they found that there were already on the ground. John Ter- rill, William Hogle, his son-in-law, John Brown; John Maxim, Joseph Munn and Charles W. Ingalls. Brown and Showerman arranged to lodge their families at John Terrill's until such a time as they could cut out a road in section 22 and put up habitable quarters there. To accomplish these under- takings required the labors of four weeks, and meanwhile the families of Terrill, Hogle, Showerman and Brown lodged and lived in Terrill's little log cabin of but one room. There were twenty persons in the four families and if those accustomed to plenty of space and modern conveniences can begin to imagine the worrying and wearying those twenty people endured during the four weeks they passed in that one room, they will be doing some pretty good work in the way of mind-pictures. Mr. Showerman settled in section 22, upon the purchase he made in 1836, and Brown, on section 26. As to the Grst birth in the town. Mrs. Brown said it was that of her daugh- ter, Luriette, who was born in 1841.
In the fall of 1837. Rufus Goddard, coming westward from Livingston county, New York, tarried a while in Lenawee county, Michigan, and then. leaving his family there, pushed on alone in search of a location. He found one in Sebewa that suited him, and back he went to Lenawee county for his family. Benjamin D. Weld was to come out with Goddard to settle and
.
205
IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
to give Goddard some assistance toward paying for his land, but Weld was not ready just then, and so all hands decided to stop in Lenawee a while longer.
In 1843 Mr. Weld came out with his family and settled in the south- western part of the town. Goddard followed in 1844 and, settling on a government forty in section 23, went to work for Mr. Weld, from whom he had previously borrowed money, and in the way of labor proposed to repay him. It took him a year and a half to earn money enough to pay Mr. Weld and to buy a piece of land for himself, but he got around it at last and, buy- ing an eighty on section 32, made a permanent settlement. On that place his son Daniel W .. later lived.
Daniel W. Goddard was quite a character in the settlement, even when but a lad of fifteen or thereabouts. It was upon him the neighborhood depended for mill-service, that is to say. Daniel went to the mill for every- body, although the condition of the roads was so horrible that it was as much as he could do to haul ten bushels to Newman's mill, at Portland, and back again in two days. In one sense Daniel was a public benefactor, for the want of flour was sometimes a sore one and the procuring of it was most assuredly a trouble. Young Goddard would usually set out early in the morn- ing with his ten-bushel load, drawn by a pair of oxen, and, by dint of much urging of his beasts, he would manage to reach the mill by ten o'clock that night. While his grist was being ground he would bunk in his wagon. wrapped in his blanket, and by daylight the next morning was off again for home. The time of his arrival at home was always pretty well along in the night, and to help and cheer him on the last few miles of his journey some member of the settlement would go out and meet him, bearing a lantern to show the way and himself abounding in social pleasantry to cheer the tired Daniel until he reached his destination.
Among the settlers of 1843 or thereabouts were also John F. Olry, Elkanah Carpenter. Andrew Estes, William Reeder, Major Brown (the widow of the latter marrying Weston Briggs). John Waddell, John Estep. Thomas Waddell. Stephen Pilkinton, Moses Hogle, John C. Smith and Anson W. Halbert.
In the northwestern corner of the town the attraction for the carly settler was less positive than appeared to be the case elsewhere, for there was some marsh over there. Nevertheless, ventures were made in that direc- tion about 1850, or perhaps before. Among the earliest settlers in that region were Pierce G. Cook, Nathan Stewart, Frank Brown and Solomon
206
IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Hess, all of whom A. M. Ralston found there when, in 1852, he made a settlement on sections 8 and 17. Later there came, among others, J. C. Clark, George Snyder, John Waring and John Johnson.
In 1852 there was a road on the line between Odessa and Sebewa townships, known as the State road, but, state road as it was, it was never- theless a poor apology for a highway.
To the names of the settlers already mentioned, may be added like- wise those of such later ones as Orrin Merchant, Edward Sanborn, Peter Mapes, David Griffin, William Estep. Chauncey Lott, Jacob Greene, I. Bretz, E. Probasco, T. J. Allen, A. Garlock, O. Stebbins and P. Griner.
The resident taxpayers of Sebewa in 1845 were: John Waddell, sec- tion 14, 80 acres: Edward Sanborn, section 1, 38 acres; Orrin Merchant. sections 1, 6, 60 acres; John Maxim, section 1, 38 acres; Peter Mapes, section 2, 80 acres ; Joseph Munn, section 1, 38 acres ; George W. Dickinson. sections 13, 24, 320 acres; A. W. Halbert, sections 24, 25, 240 acres : John F. Terrill, section 25, 70 acres ; William Hogle, section 25, 50 acres ; Richard Fleetham, section 25, 80 acres; Moses Ilogle, section 36, 160 acres; Charles W. Ingalls, personal; John Terrill, personal; Eleazer Brown, sections 26, 27. 120 acres; Jacob Showerman, section 22, 160 acres; B. D. Weld, sec- tions 5. 32, 33, 400 acres.
Although no record of the transactions at the first township meeting, in 1845, is in existence, the names of the nineteen persons who voted at that election may be here given, as follow : Joseph Munn, Paul Steel, Benjamin D. Weld, Edward Sanborn. A. W. Halbert, John C. Smith, William Hogle. John M. Terrill, Jacob Showerman, Orrin Merchant. Richard Fleetham, Moses llogle, Walter Harmon. Eleazer Brown, John Maxim, George W. Dickinson, Elkanah Drake. Rufus Goddard and John Waddell.
Elkanah Carpenter. Richard O. McWorter. Cyril Carpenter. John Maxim, Oliver Brailey, John Waddell, Jr., Daniel W. Goddard, William Reeder. Moses Hogle, B. D. Weld. John Waddell, William Dunn, Orrin Merchant, John Cooper, David Griffin, Stephen Rider. Peter Mapes, Will- iam Waters, Major Brown, Apollos Halladay, Francis Brown, Albert Thompson, Perry Trim, Lucius Showerman. William Estep, Elihn Halladay, J. A. Whelpley, Daniel Halladay, Jacob C. High, Charles Derby, Jacob Green, Richard Fleetham, John Estep. Charles W. Ingalls. Charles Ham- mond, John F. Olry, Hiram Trim, P. G. Cook. Jacob Collingham. D. W. Rose, Jacob Showerman and Chauncey Lott were voters at the elections held in Sebewa township in 1853.
207
IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Township 5 north. range 6 west, now called Sebewa, was divided between Berlin and Portland townships until March 19, 1845, when, by act of Legislature, it was created a township with exclusive organization. The names first proposed for it were Charlestown, in honor of Charles W. Ingalls, and Liberia, but. Rufus Goddard suggesting Sebewa, after Sebewa creek. and meaning. "little river." public fancy was suited and "Sebewa" met with popular approval. The first township meeting was held at the house of Jacob Showerman, but no record of the meeting is in existence.
The following have served as supervisors of Sebewa township : 1847-48. B. D. Well: 1849-50. R. Goddard: 1851, William Packard: 1852. H. Trim; 1853-54. B. D. Weld; 1855-56, C. W. Ingalls; 1857, C. C. Carpenter : 1858. A. Howland: 1859-63. L. Bretz; 1864-66, D. W. Goddard; 1867-69, I. Bretz: 1870, G. W. Goddard; 1871-72, L. E. Showerman: 1873, J. War- ing: 1874-75, L. E. Showerman; 1876-77, A. M. Ralston; 1878-79, L. E. Showerman: 1880, D. W. Goddard: 1881-89. Watson Merchant: 1800, Riley N. Wilson: 1891-92, Watson Merchant: 1893. O. V. Showerman; 1894. C. I .. Halladay; 1806. J. M. Bradley; 1897-16, Adam Fender.
SEBEW.1.
The village commonly known as Sebewa Corner lies on both sides of the line between Sebewa and Danby townships and takes in the platted village of Cornell in Danby. Properly speaking, the name "Cornell" belongs now to the entire village, although it is of such recent bestowal, consequent upon the similar change of the postoffice name from Sebewa, that the aver- age villager has not yet become sufficiently familiar with it to give it ready voice.
The first attempt at establishing a trading point at that locality was made in 1851, by a Mr. Hulse, who brought a few goods in a trunk and sold them out to Aretas Howland. There were a grist-mill and saw-mill in that locality when Hulse set up his store, and because they were there he thought, of course, a store was likely to meet with some support. These mills were on Sebewa creek, just west of the township-line road. The saw- mill, the first in the town. had been built by John Terrill and A. W. Halbert : the grist-mill. by Chauncey Lott and Jacob Green, in 1849. or thereabouts.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.