USA > Michigan > Ionia County > History of Ionia County, Michigan : her people, industries and institutions, Volume I > Part 46
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It was found out in February, 1916. that the ancestry of Dr. W. B. Lincoln and Abraham Lincoln, the revered President of the United States. was the same up to a certain generation, when one son of a family went south from Hingham, Massachusetts, this being the branch to which Abraham Lincoln belonged.
The scales that were used by Doctor Lincoln to measure medicine are now the prized possession of his grandson, William Lincoln Nellis.
PIONEERS.
By Mrs. L. P. Brock.
"Iwere fit a monument be raised to these.
Such as a monarch for his tomb decrees; They did not perish in a patriot war With glory leading onward like a star;
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Nor for some cause, pre-eminent alone, Die, and their fame in human hearts enthrone. No. bin upon their bones our cities rise. That. towering, take the morning from the skies. I'mtold. unknown. mmnumerous brotherhood. They have cemented empires with their blood ! They have gone down with roaring in their ears To dedicate with death our outflung piers, And when great breasted ships now sail the sand They cleave a path asunder through the land With a thousand flashing pieks, while, as with fire Their bones were racked with aches and fevers dire. They hewed the forest down and cleared the ground Where now the wheels of industry resound. Beneath the crashing tree 'oft times they fell. And knew no funeral train nor passing bell: Deep in the dim, wide washing seas they sleep, Having sowed their bones that luxury might reap. They knew the mad machine: the Moloch mill, Voriferons, has slain, and slays them still ; And where the hot blast lights the sky with flame They perish day and night unknown to fame. Then should be songht the noblest spot on earth.
And Eiffel-like in height, of Pyramid girth.
Rear up, tremendous, to salute the sun. Some witness to the perished million
Who went down unto death with none to cheer. And with their lives, bought all we prize so dear This wonder, and this glory and almost shame. C'alled "Civilization." when tongues name the nanie.
IONIA'S FIRSTS.
The first bank was that of Winsor & Macy, established in 1836, and it lived a year, being a banking and exchange office.
Cyrus Lovell was the first lawyer, coming to lonia in 1836.
The first postoffice was established in 1836 and Erastus Yeomans was the postmaster.
The first paper was the fonia Journal, published first in February, 1840. by Tra W. Robinson.
Dr. W. B. Lincoln -whose three daughters are living today: Mrs. Eastman, of Rochester. New York: Mrs. II. B. Barnes, of lonia, and Mrs. Nellis, of Muskegon -- was the first bridegroom in the county of lonia, marry- ing Anthy, daughter of Oliver Arnold. on July 5. 1835. the ceremony being performed by Squire Dexter. Doctor Lincoln was also the first physician in a large territory and also the first teacher.
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The first death was that of a daughter of Darius Winsor, her death taking place in August, 1833, and the first birth took place that same month, a son. Eugene E .. being born to the same family.
The first grown person to die was Mrs. Susan Arnold, her death taking place a few months after the arrival of the colony.
The first church to be established was the Baptist, in 1834.
The first fire engine was a Peasley named "the Fountain" and was followed by "The Young America" and a uniformed department.
Mrs. Samuel Dexter was sister to Mrs. Cyrus Lovell, whose husband was the first lawyer of lonia, and they were aunts to Mr. Daniel T. Fargo. for many years a prominent business man of lonia.
The first white child born in lonia county and quite possibly in western Michigan, was Engene E., born in August, 1833, to Mr. and Mrs. Darius Winsor, one family of the Dexter colony, who moved to Grand Rapids about 1853. Mr. Winsor kindly sent a photograph taken of himself in the fall of 1915. when a little over eighty-two years of age. Mr. Winsor is a resident of Grand Rapids, and is still doing business, having an insurance office in the Michigan Trust Buikling.
INTERESTING NOTES.
Samuel Dexter's father used to say: "Treat an honest man as you would a rogue and you keep him an honest man."
The especial pet and care of Mr Dexter's mother was his daughter, Prudence, who because of weak eyes could never attend school after she was thirteen. On the way from Detroit they two would sit in a wagon and the grandmother would hold an umbrella to shade the girl's eyes from the sun. After they arrived at lonia and were living in the bark wigwam. southeast of where the armory now is, a fire would have to be built on chilly days, and the smoke that came from the fire built in the pit in the center would not go out through the hole in the roof and hurt the girl's eyes, so the grandmother would have her sit in a corner, then stretch a blanket cor- nerwise in front of her to keep the smoke out. and then, seated outside, would read to her hours at a time. Prudence grew to be an exceedingly well informed person, largely because of her grandmother's kindly service.
From a letter written by Prudence ( Dexter) Tower it is learned that after the United States land office was established at lonia Mr. Dexter was to carry over $200.000 to Detroit, and his son-in-law. Jonathan Tibbitts, assisted him. They put the money in kegs and carried it on a wagon drawn
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by an ox-team. The oxen waded and swam Grand river, the wagon was floated over on canoes, and the kegs also were carried across in canoes. One canoe load of kegs tipped over in the river but was finally all recovered.
In early histories it is said that the maple sugar made by the Indians did not find a very ready sale among the whites. This caused wonder, which was cleared away when one of the daughters of Doctor Lincoln, now living in lonia, said she "had seen the Indian papooses swimming in the sap-trough many a time." Also, one time an Indian brought some especially nice looking maple sugar to her mother's door to sell and Mrs. Lincom turned to a lady who was with her at the time and said. "Do you suppose it is clean?" And the Indian said, "Clean? umph, me strain here," and pulled out the back fap of his shirt to convince her.
ALONZO SESSIONS.
About 1850. Alonzo Sessions, who had married Celia, second daughter of Samuel Dexter, in August. 1837, built a home on the large farm which he owned until his death, that well deserves a mention. When lonia county purchased the farm for a county home for its unfortunate poor, the new structure was placed just north of the old house, which was soon torn down. It was a great pity that in some way it was not saved, as such old fashioned distinctive homes in the East are scarce-some being two hundred and fifty years old or more, and grow more and more interesting each year, showing as they do old methods of living. It was built of cobblestones, with which the surrounding fields abound, and was the finest house in the county at the time it was built. Mr. and Mrs. Sessions lived there many years, and out from its door both were taken to their last resting place. A description of the log house, the first home they had, and also of the one built of cobble stone, in the words of Henry (. Sessions, their son, now of Sioux Fall. South Dakota, cannot fail to be interesting :
"I was born in a log house on the east bank of Stoney Creek, lonia county, which was the first house owned and occupied by my father and mother. In this house all the cooking was done in the fire-place, and the baking in an old-style oven built on the outside of the house-no stoves, no lamps. The well-to-do and thrifty had tallow candles for light. My recol- lection of the log house begins about 1848. In 1849 or 1850, my father built a new house, the main part of stone. This at the time was the largest and most extensive house in the county. It contained two fireplaces, one in the basement for cooking, and one in the dining room for the purpose
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of heating the house. In connection with the fireplace in the basement, and built alongside of it, was situated a brick oven for baking, where all the bread, pies and cakes (if any ) were baked for the family. This may be of interest to the young folks of this generation, who in order to bake turn on the gas, and then think the domestic work very hard.
"In those days in order to do the baking the Dutch oven had to be filled with wood, and then more wood, until full of live coals, and the walls of the oven sufficiently hot to do the baking after the coals were removed, which required hours of preparation, generally a good half day. All candles were made by my mother, as well as all soap, sugar, vinegar and molasses which was used by the family. The yarn for stockings and mittens was spun by hand and stockings and mittens knit at home. In time the wood stove came in, which was used for cooking but no oven for baking. Then followed a stove with an oven some years later. The next innovation was the kerosene lamp.
"In my younger days the hay was cut with a scythe; wheat, oats and other small grains were ent with a cradle. raked and bound by hand. In time came mowing machines and rakes hauled by horses for handling the hay, also a machine for cutting the grain called a "dropper." This latter would cut the grain and the driver would drop it unbound, while men would follow up and bind it by hand. These were soon superseded by the binder of the days which were a very crude affair compared with the modern machines of today.
"Indians were more frequent visitors to my father's house than white men, except the immediate neighbors, striking awe to my timid heart, and I always had the sensation that mother rested casier when the Indians moved on. Chief Cobmoosa was a frequent visitor to our home, he and my father being great friends. I recollect father trading to him wheat for a double-barreled shotgun, with which I used to hunt turkeys and other game." "
Mrs. A. P. Loomis, the youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Sessions. says that after the Indians gave up their village at lonia. Chief Cobmoosa went to what after became her father's farm and lived some years, his wig- wam being placed in the bend of the creek south of the barn, situated where it is today, and that he possessed two wives.
Mrs. G. W. Nellis, youngest daughter of Dr. W. B. Lincoln, says that never but once did the Indians frighten the settlement of whites, and then they had no intention of doing so. The men of the colony had put up a large bell for the women to ring in case they needed the men while they
EUGENE E. WINSOR. First white person born in lonia County, and probably in Western Michigan.
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were away at work in the fields or woods. One forenoon, the next year after they came here, the men were all busily engaged away from home, and the Indians were noticed approaching in numbers by river and trail from all directions, which so alarmed the women of the colony that by means of the bell the men hastily returned home-when it transpired that the Indians had agreed upon this place to meet and go together to Detroit for their treaty money.
Erastus Yeomans, grandson and namesake of Judge Yeomans, is the possessor of two interesting relics. One, a "secretary" (bookcase and writing desk combined ), which belonged to his grandfather and was brought from the East with the colony and went around the streets of Mackinac to the mouth of Grand river: and the other is a large iron anchor, which was found years ago by some boys swimming in Grand river southwest of the reformatory and had been lost either from a French trading boat or one of the boats early used on Grand river for transportation.
Many persons living in lonia have often wondered who was buried in the old brick vault built in the hill-side at the southeast corner of Oak Hill cemetery on Yeoman street. In May. 1856, Rev. R. W. Landis became the pastor of the Presbyterian church at fonia. He had then been mar- ried but a short time to a beautiful young lady belonging to a fine family in Philadelphia. He and his young wife came to Ionia on the little steam- boat which landed at the dock near the southeast corner of Riverside park. They made their home in the Thomas House (since burned and rebuilt ). directly opposite the Hampton E. Rich house, now owned by Burt Lampkin. There a little child was born to them, which was always frail, as was the mother. The babe died when about nine months old and the mother's dleath followed in a few hours. They were to be buried together and Mr. Landis, disliking to place them in the ground, caused the vault to be built. Mr. Landis left lonia in 1859. and at his death, in the late eighties, was president of a college in Kentucky.
A furniture manufacturing firm of Boston, Massachusetts, puts out a large amount of pieces copied from furniture in possession of the old his- toric families in the East. and included among these is the "Dexter table" and "Windsor chairs."
WHITE PIGEON.
U'ntil a land office was established at lonia all settlers were obliged to go to White Pigeon, in the very south part of the state, to enter their (32)
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land, and a short account of how the place came to be named is of interest. "White Pigeon" was the name chosen by the incorporators of the town as a tribute to the brave young chief who gave his life to save the handful of whites in the then isolated border settlement. White Pigeon, called Wah- be-meme, in the Indian tongue, was a Pottawatomie chief who lived in his village a short distance away from the homes of the whites gathered around the government land office. He spent much of his time with them and was very popular with young and old, and was consulted on many questions. He was tall and sturdy, a born woodsman and athlete, and also one of the swiftest runners in a nation of Indians celebrated for their ability to cover great distances.
It was somewhere about 1800 when, upon a journey to Detroit, he heard whisperings of a plan to massacre the little settlement destined to bear his name. The wily young warrior, knowing the trend of the times, began investigating. This was during the period prior to the War of 1812, when the British were using every means to inspire the Indians to the butch- ery of the settlers on the border. He learned enough to inspire his great fear and immediately started overland for the settlement. It was early spring, the ground was snow covered, ice was broken in the streams and rivers so swollen that fords were useless. He knew that every moment was precious in giving time to prepare for the attack and knew also that runners had been sent ahead of him to muster the hostiles and proceed with the massacre. It was about one hundred and fifty miles away in direct line. but about one hundred and sixty-five miles as it had to be traveled, and he dared not follow the trails too closely for fear of attracting attention. All of his training he put into this race to save his white friends, and not once did he pause for rest. Heated from super-human exertion on the trail he plunged into the cold stream and often dragged himself out more dead than alive. Twenty-nine hours after he left Detroit. White Pigeon staggered among his friends and dropped unconscious from exhaustion. His mocca- sins were torn to shreds and his feet were cut and bruised and his clothing was in tatters. Perhaps an hour the settlers worked over him, when he revived and with an effort forced his brain to do its work, and in a hoarse whisper he detailed the contemplated massacre and briefly outlined his own plan to meet and repulse the attack. Then he reached and shook hands, sank back and died. They buried him as became a hero, and men felt unashamed as they broke down and wept over what he had done for their sake, and it was voted that the village should bear his name, that pos- terity should know the sacrificing love of this noble red man. One mile
.
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west of the town he lies buried, and upon the spot, overlooking a beautiful stretch of the old Chicago trail he often trod, is a granite monument, erected by the members of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
A SON OF BLACK BIRD, THE INDIAN GUIDE.
When the Dexter colony left Detroit for their destination at what is now lonia, they traveled by the route, poor though it was, that was used through Oakland county. They made but seven miles the first day, the roads were so poor and they stayed one night at Pontiac. They arrived at what was known as the Grand Saline, about the middle of May, and there Mr. Dexter asked a Mr. Beaubien, who had a trading post, to pilot them through to Grand river. but. as he refused to undertake it, the judge then applied to Benjamin O. Williams, of the trading firm located below on the Shiwassee river. He was unwilling to leave his spring farming, but finally was persuaded to do by Mr. Dexter, and started out to guide the party on the way through the wilderness from the Shiwassce to the Grand river. Mr. Williams, never having been further west than De Witt. induced Mack- a-te-nace ( Black Bird ), a son of Kish-kau-ko, to pilot the party past Musk- rat creek.
In September. 1908, the writer saved a copy of the Detroit Sunday Vores-Tribune- which contained a good article on Lewis Cass, by Lawton Hemans, historian, and another article telling of the life of Andrew Black- bird-because it was interesting and contained extracts of his writings, never once thinking he had any connection with Ionia history, but now has it all but proven that it was the father of Andrew Blackbird who assisted the Dexter colony through the marshes west of De Witt. Andrew Black- bird died in 1908, at Harbor Springs, but his wife says her husband's peo- ple originally came from the Saginaw valley, and Andrew Blackbird is known to have lived in the section of the state around De Witt at the time the Dexter colony came through, and of course lived with his band, and his father was Mack-a-te-pe-nace, whose father was Kish-kau-ko, chief of the Saginaw valley Indians. The Indians. upon the coming of whites into the southern part of the state, went to the reservation in the north, and Mack- a-te-pe-nace lived for many years around Harbor Springs. One of his sons was educated for the church, but was assassinated by an unknown hand as he was planning to return home to protect his people against the encroach- ments of the whites. His sister, Margaret, was educated in Cincinnati and was for many years a teacher in the Catholic schools of Detroit.
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Andrew J. Blackbird was the youngest son and last member of his generation, and the story of his life would fill a book. He renounced Catholicism, embraced Protestant religion, was a worker but always a thinker and a dreamer. By means of being a blacksmith he attended a school in Ohio, but had to go back to take care of his aged father. He worked hard to have the Indian school appropriations taken from the sectarian mis- sions and applied directly to more advanced education for ambitions stu- dents. Finally he went to Detroit and made a personal appeal to Governor Cass. Governor Cass told him he was going to Washington next day, and for him to go to Ypsilanti and wait, and see what he could do for him. He walked to that place, got work on a farm, and one day letters came for him and it was all he could do to muster up courage to open them, but great was his surprise and joy when told that his entire expense at the normal would be paid by the Indian agent. He returned finally to his home and ever worked for the uplift of his race. He was made the first postmaster of Harbor Springs a little while after the Civil War and continued in that position with credit for twelve years, and his widow occupies the home beside the postoffice that he built fifty years ago.
lle, always feeling that the Indian must be educated, and made acquainted with arts and sciences, says this in one of his writings: "If my plan could have been adopted, even as late as forty years ago, we should have had by this time many well-educated Indians in this state, and probably some good farmers, and perhaps some noted professors of sciences would have been developed; and consequently happiness, blessings and pros- perity would have been everywhere among the aborigines of the state of Michigan."
Perhaps if Andrew Blackbird ever put his own broken heart into words it was when he composed "The Indian's Lament." from which the following is quoted : "O, my father, thou hast taught me from my infancy to love the land of my birth, thou hast even taught me to say 'It is the gitt of the Great Spirit.' O, my father, our happiest days are gone into lasting oblivion, and never again shall we enjoy our forest home. The eagle's eye could not discover where once was thy wigwam, and thy peaceful council fires. Wh, could we but once more return to our forest glade and tread as formerly upon the soil with proud and happy heart. On the hills, with bended bow, while nature's flowers bloomed all around the habitation of nature's child, our brothers once abounded. free as the mountain air, and their glad shouts resounded from vale to vale as they chased o'er the hills
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the red deer, and followed in the otter's track. O, return, return! Ah, never again shall this time return. It is gone, and gone forever, like a spirit passed. The red man will never live happy nor die happy here any more. When the white man took my inheritance, he thought to make me a slave. I am an Indian, and that can never be. Ah, never, never! I would sooner plunge the dagger into my beating heart, and follow in the footsteps of my forefathers than be a slave to the white man."
ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION.
The eightieth anniversary of the arrival of the Dexter colony at Ionia, the morning of May 28, 1833, about ten o'clock, was celebrated in a fitting manner in three different ways, and was attended by six grandchildren of Mr. and Mrs. Dexter from different points, namely: Arthur Tibbitts, of Lansing, and his sister, Mrs. T. M. Benedict, of Grand Rapids, children of Mary ( Dexter ) Tibbitts: John E Dallas, of San Francisco, California, and Daniel W. and Isabelle M. Tower, of Grand Rapids, children of Prudence ( Dexter ) Tower, and Mrs. Arthur P. Loomis, of Ionia, youngest child of Celia ( Dexter ) Sessions, and the nearest kin left of Mr. and Mrs. Dexter in Ionia.
The first celebration of the event was on Sautrday afternoon, May 24. 1913, at the last regular meeting of the Woman's Literary Club, preceding lonia's eightieth birthday, which was to occur the next Wednesday. The club meeting was hekl in the Baptist church, as that was the first church organized in lonia, Mr. and Mrs. Dexter being two of its first six mem- bers, and the church lot was given to the society by them for the purpose of erecting the church. That meeting was attended by a large andience, the church was prettily decorated and Mrs. L. P. Brock presented to the city a picture of Mr. and Mrs. Dexter. to be hung in the historical room of the public library. This picture was enlarged from two old pictures of Mr. and Mrs. Dexter. the only ones in existence, and the picture was given by the Ladies' Thimble Club. Mrs. Brock then gave an address on "The Life of Samuel Dexter," which brought ont many unknown facts, as little had been known before this about him or his ancestry. There was also a poem read by Lucy Cull. with a musical accompaniment, by Gertrude Brock, with the title "The Beautiful River Grand." This poem first appeared in the Grand Rapids Daily Democrat in 1866 ( author unknown ) and a copy first came to lonia the evening of May 25. 1913:
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THE BEAUTIFUL RIVER GRAND.
Flow gently, flow swiftly, bright river ; Flow onward, forever and ever; While thy elm tree stands as a lover, And reaches his green branches over : Near, the Judas in purple is bending. And the grasses are waving unending;
And thy rapids are swift in their flowing, Through the years that are coming and going.
The elm tree could murmur a story Of chiefs, who walked here in their glory. By thy margin, and ask, "Could she chide bim For loving the maiden beside him?" How the chiefs and their sons and their daughters Were "washed and made clean" in thy waters;
But the days of the wigwam forever Have passed from the life of the river.
Then the Indian in silence forever, Passed on from the beautiful river; And bells tolled the hour of devotion
For priests who had crossed the wide ocean ; And the cross in the forest they planted, And hymns in the forest they chanted. And the stream caught the music in flowing Through the years that kept coming and going.
Seas creep to the foot of the mountains; Earth thrills at the music of fountains: Clouds float over lake and green meadow Fulfilling sweet duty in shadow : And the earth. at sunrise, at moon-light, At sunset, at midnight, at moon-light. Stands peaceful in thanking the giver Who glorifies duty forever.
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