USA > Michigan > Ionia County > History of Ionia County, Michigan : her people, industries and institutions, Volume I > Part 7
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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
It was voted by the electors that "the fences be five feet high in this town, and holes not to exceed four inches, two and a half feet from the ground."
A Frenchman named Jacob Francisco and his son-in-law, fra A. Dane. were the first to break ground in Boston, and, although they did not remain long enough to be classed as permanent settlers, yet they were settlers while they remained and made not only the first improvement in the town, but put in the first erop of wheat, which was harvested by others, who came
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afterwards. It was in the spring of 1836 that Francisco and Dane came to the town, in pursuance of an engagement with Robert Hilton, of Grand Rapids, who owned considerable land in the Grand River valley and who hired Francisco to work some of his land in township 6. The latter and Dane, accompanied by their families, made a location on section 17, their home being destitute of either window, door or fireplace.
Francisco and Dane sowed two acres of wheat later owned by J. H. Allen in section 22. They also cleared three sections on section 17, where they later lived. Early in the next year they bought land near Lowell, and in March, 1837, moved away with their families to better lands.
The first permanent settlement in the township was effected in that portion known as South Boston township. It was in the spring of 1836 that Timothy White, James B. Tallant, Worcester English and Jesse Will- iams came west from Vermont with their families and stopped at Kalamazoo. They settled in Boston township and Worcester English, being earliest pre- pared to migrate, set out for his new home in January, 1837. He settled on section 21, where his son-in-law later lived. White, Tallant and Williams had come from Kalamazoo the previous summer and rolled up a log cabin on the place where he went to housekeeping.
The next after English as a settler was Timothy White, whose advent was made in March, 1837. He settled on section 20, where he lived until his death in 1878. Tallent and Williams followed in May. Tallent located on section 29 and Williams next to him on the east. All of the five early settlers were married the following year.
Becket Chapman, of Tunbridge, Vermont, came to Kalamazoo in the fall of 1836 to join English, Tallent, White and Williams, who were from the same town, and, learning that they had already secured land in Boston, he concluded to make a purchase there himself. He walked over with Alber Clement to prospect, and as a result of their explorations Chapman secured one hundred and sixty acres on section 28 and Clement eighty acres on section 22. Both Chapman and Clement were unmarried men and. camping out with some settler, chopped on their lands during the summer of 1837. Clement was a surveyor and divided his time between surveying and land-clearing, as it happened.
On June 3. 1837. Jeremiah Stannard, his wife and three children. accompanied by Moses M. Gould, his wife and one child, settled in Boston township to make their future homes. Stannard had bought, before he came on to settle, two hundred and eighty acres of land on sections 29 and 32.
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Stannard and Gould each brought a pair of horses upon their arrival, in 1837, and turned them out with bells on their necks. Stannard's horse was not found until in the fall, and he then exchanged it for horned cattle. The cattle were not satisfied with their new home on account of August flies and finally fled to their old home in Detroit. After a week's searching they were returned to their owners.
When the Stannards and Goulds came to the town they found, besides the dwellers in the English settlement, Albert Clement, on section 22; Becket Chapman, on the southeast quarter of section 28, and David Whitney, on the southwest quarter of section 27. all of whom were bachelors. Ormand Hunt, who bought his land at the time Jeremiah Stannard bought his, settled in 1838 upon section 32, where C. C. Winegar later lived, and on May 30 of that year Riley and Diocletian Hess moved into a shanty that had served David Whitney as a residence, while Riley settled next east of Ormand Hunt. Diocletian located upon the southwest quarter of section 28. Shortly after their coming, Oliver Hess settled on section 33, previously occupied by Levi Nelson, and soon afterward James Norris located upon section 34.
Some time during 1837, James Hutchinson came to Boston township and settled in the English settlement. After a brief stay he returned to search for a carpenter, and returned with Marvil Church, who built for Hutchinson the first frame dwelling put up in Boston. Hutchinson could not persuade his family to undertake the rigors of pioneering, and, abandon- ing his place, sold it in 1840 to Edson English and Sylvester Train, who in that year joined the settlement.
The first birth in Boston was that of Betsey Ann, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Moses M. Gould ; she was born on October 20, 1837, being later known as Mrs. J. A. Aldrich, of Boston township. The second birth and the first of a male child, was that of Henry, son of Diocletian and Lydia Hess. Mr. and Mrs. Hess were living temporarily in a tent made of quilts, and in that the child was born in September, 1838.
The first marriage was that of Sarah Alden, the first school teacher in Boston. to a Mr. Morton, of Lyons, in 1838, at Timothy White's house, Miss Alden being Mrs. White's sister. The second wedding was that of E. G. Williams and Susan Ann Church, who were married in the spring of 1841, on the day that Jeremiah Stannard set out the twelve handsome maples that later embellished the front of his son Abiel's residence.
The first death was that of Timothy. the four-year-old son of Riley
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Hess, in July, 1838. The father, a Baptist preacher, although overwhelmed with grief at the loss of his son, preached the funeral sermon. Jesse Will- iams, who bore the coffin to the grave, was the next person to die, his death occurring on August 5. 1838. Their remains were laid away in family lots, and, later, transferred to the South Boston township cemetery.
The laying out and clearing of the South Boston township burying- ground and the ground at Saranac were let on June 1. 1844, to Henry B. Alden for twenty-nine dollars each.
In the autumn of 1836 Joseph H. Allen, of New York, bought of the government a tract of one hundred and sixty acres of land on section 26 in Boston. For nine years he spent the winters working upon the place and the summers in farm-work at his home in New York. Occasionally he brought a stock of clocks west with him, and these he peddled to the neigh- bors, taking his pay in chopping; and in that way he managed to get con- siderable land cleared by 1845, when, having married, he brought his wife, commencing as a settler in earnest. With them were Enoch Hinman and wife, coming by ox-teams from Detroit.
Hinman rented of Jedediah Brown, a bachelor, the place later owned and occupied by J. H. Allen, and there the Allens and Hinmans were enter- tained by Brown the first night after their arrival in town. At first but two horse teams were in the town, and one of them was owned by Wor- cester English, to whom almost universal application was made when a horse was needed for a hasty journey to fonia for Doctor Lincoln on behalf of a sick settler. The third horse team was brought in by David Gilbert. who came shortly after the Allens and who settled on section 18. When- ever there was a funeral the teams of English and Gilbert were always wanted. In 1845 the Allens' nearest neighbor on the west was Stephen Nute, one mile distant ; northeast, the nearest was James Hoag, at Water- ville : east was a Mr. Peck, on the township line; and on the south the Olm- steads, on the bank of Morrison lake.
The banks of Morrison were frequented by wandering Indians as places of resort, and from time to time they gathered there in considerable nun- bers to camp, fish and hunt, but made no attempt to establish villages there.
In 1846 Levi H. Nelson came to Boston from New York and settled on land in sections 28 and 33, on which Oliver Hess had girdled about twelve acres. Hess moved to a place near by, when Nelson came, and lived later in Campbell township. West of Nelson were Reverend Riley Hess and Diocletian, his brother, and Ormand Hunt beyond the latter. Becket Chap-
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man and Arba Benson were on the east. North, there was an unbroken forest to the English settlement, and south, the only structure north of the township line was a log house owned by the father of Oliver Hess, At a later date there came to that neighborhood C. C. Winegar, William Post, William Rogers, William Dunn and George Walter.
Cyrus Peasley, George Ellsworth and Benjamin Ellsworth entered the town as settlers in 1847. Benjamin Ellsworth, who located near Saranac. was one of the early postmasters there and died in 1859. Cyrus Peasley's home was made on section 15. and George Ellsworth's, on section 15. Before Ellsworth's arrival, Nathaniel Tallant had dug a well and put up a shanty on the place, but beyond these the improvements were nothing. Mrs. Ellsworth said that for six months after she came she saw no one but Indians except when she went home. Their neighbors were Thomas Mosher. on section 22, where Mr. Mosher had quite a clearing: Edward Carvath, Elijah Pratt, at Saranac, and a man named MeCausland, two and a half miles westward.
Stephen Nute, already mentioned, settled on section 27 in May, 1840, and in that year Richard Vosper. Edson English. Sylvester Train and Edward Carvath came. Two years before that, Moses Gould, James M. Tallant. Timothy White and Jeremiah Stannard harvested their first crops of wheat, and that summer. Moses Gould carried to Dexter's mill at lonia with his ox-team the first grist taken from Boston. There were fourteen bushels in the grist-ten belonging to Gould and four to Stannard. The first wheat Gould sold in lonia he disposed of for three shillings per bushel. and for his pay had to take store-trade and blacksmithing. Money for produce was then out of the question.
J. F. Gilley and G. W. Tucker, on section 28, were among the mod- erately early settlers, as were David Lewis, George Story and T. F. Wood- bridge. Reverend Elbridge Gilley, brother to J. F. Gilley, was for many years a Baptist preacher of most excellent repute in Boston and neighbor- ing townships. Ile settled in Boston on a place improved by Ara Benson.
Robert Hilton, of Grand Rapids, made large land purchases in the Grand River valley in 1836. and in his possessions was included a mill-site in section 24. on Lake creek, in Boston township. The mill-site was, more- over, on the line of the highway, known as the Grand River turnpike, at that time nothing more than a path through Boston.
Hilton was convinced that the turnpike must of necessity become a high- way of popular travel, and he proceeded to lay out a town at his mill-site.
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and christened it. appropriately. Waterville. Having laid out his town, he must, of course, give it some sort of a start. and in pursuance of the project he donated the mill-site and some adjoining land to one J. J. Hoag, of Oakland county, conditioned upon Hoag's erecting a saw-mill at that point. Like Hilton, Hoag thought the Grand river turnpike would be a great affair, and, promising for Waterville an important place in the history of events, gladly availed himself of Hilton's offer. In 1837 he put up the mill, which he set in motion the following year. In 1838 he followed up his mill enterprise with the opening of a store, and calmly, but confidently, awaited the surging tide of travel which he knew would flow over the pike and as a natural consequence push Waterville forward into a valley of pros- perity.
Fate was against Waterville, for, although the surging tide did flow to some extent over the turnpike, it did not get as far west as Waterville, and. beyond the store and mill, that once promising town never boasted the pos- session of industrial or mercantile enterprises, while its population could at any time be counted upon the fingers of one's hands. Being there. Hoag remained there, despite the failure of his hopes, and eked out an uncertain existence with his mill, although he was a man of considerable energy and an industrious worker. He lived at Waterville until his death, in 1851, when he was killed by a falling tree.
Among the earliest settlers in the vicinity of Waterville were Richard Vosper and Edward Carvath, on sections 24 and 25: Lyman Smith, Jonah E. Turner, the latter a stepbrother to Hoag: Isaac Leary and Thomas Barber. who, in 1847. set up a blacksmith shop on the line of the pike, half a mile or so west of Waterville. About 1854. Peck & Page built a second saw-mill on Lake creek, in section 14. In 1864 the property passed into the posses- sion of A. J. Moffett, and had in connection a small machine-shop. He sawed hard and soft wood, and also did planing-work. In that neighborhood, besides the Pecks and Pages, the early-comers included the Bargers. Transals and A. J. Smith.
The resident tax-payers of Boston in 1844 were: Albert Clement, sec- tion 22, 26, 160 acres: Stephen Nute, sections 26, 27. 160 acres; Alfred Austin, sections 24, 25. 115 acres ; Edward Carvath, Jeremiah Peck, house lot on section 24: Hiram Benjamin, sections 15, 23. 24. 120 acres: George Miner, section 22, 66 acres ; N. A. Tallant, section 15, 80 acres ; Nason Brant, section II, 160 acres; Daniel G. Abbott, section I, So acres ; Jares Stocking, .saw-mill: William R. Rose, section 18. 80 acres : Cyprian S. Hooker. section
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II, 30 acres ; Richard Vosper, sections 12, 25, 200 acres; William Rossiter, personal : Jacob Pratt, sections 11, 12, 160 acres ; Jedeliah and Rufus Brown, section 22, 80 acres; D). Hess, section 28, 160 acres; H. H. English, section 21. 160 acres : D. E. English, personal ; Edson English, sections 8, 21, 20, 238 acres ; Timothy White, section 20, 140 acres; Harley B. Church, section 30, 77 acres ; Harvey Hatch, section 20, 100 acres; E. G. Williams, section 23, 40 acres; Clarissa Williams, James M. Tallent, section 23, 120 acres; Oel Train, personal; Sylvester Train, section 30, 347 acres; Marvil Church, sec- tion 20, 80 acres : Norman Kimball, section 10, 80 acres; Jeremiah Stannard, sections 23, 32, 280 acres ; Ormand Hunt, section 32, 160 acres ; Riley J. Hess, section 32, 80 acres : Arba Benson, section 3, 40 acres ; O. J. Patterson, sec- tion 33, 80 acres; Becket Chapman, section 28, 160 acres; James Norris, section 34. 40 acres: Moses M. Gould, section 21, 22, 154 acres; Oliver Hess, section 33, 80 acres ; Lemuel Train, section 34, 160 acres ; Martin Camp- bell, section 2, 40 acres; Jeremiah Campbell, personal; Patrick Campbell, personal: P. D. Sneathen, personal.
SUPERVISORS.
1839, W. English ; 1840, J. J. Hoag; 1841, M. Church; 1842, Edson English : 1844. M. M. Gould: 1845. Edson English : 1846, Timothy White; 1847. L. H. Nelson ; 1848, R. Vosper : 1849, II. H. English : 1850, A. Clem- ent : 1851, T. White; 1852, A. N. Stannard; 1853-54, L. II. Nelson ; 1855, G. Ellsworth: 1856, L. H. Nelson: 1857-59. G. Ellsworth; 1860. W. S. Story: 1861, Stephen Nute; 1862, G. Ellsworthi; 1863-64, C. H. Warren; 1865-67. A. S. Stannard: 1868-1871, E. Spencer; 1872-74. O. A. Page ; 1875, A. B. Pardee: 1881, Edson P. Gifford; 1882-83. A. B. Pardec; 1884-85, Nathan F. Gould : 1886-87-88-89-90-91-92-93. Henry Frace: 1894, Charles E. Huhn: 1895-96, Henry Frace : 1897, Charles E. Huhn; 1898-99, Henry Frace; 1900-01-02-03, George Gould; 1904-05-06-07-08-09-10-11-12, Louis C. David.
SARANAC IN 1849.
The following article was taken from the Saranac Advertiser of April 16-23, 1914, and was contributed by J. F. Proctor, one of the early settlers of Boston township :
My father bought and moved onto what is now known as the Stevens place, two and one-half miles north of Saranac, in the fall of 1849. I was then a boy of fifteen years old.
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Some time in November of that year my cousin, Joe Monks, son of James Monks, and I visited Saranac. We had to cross the river in a canoe, as there was no bridge there at that time. There were only a few buiklings there then. Ammon Wilson kept a few goods and Indian trinkets in a little wooden shack, about fifty rods down the river from what is now known as Bridge street, and Sam Wilson kept a tavern in a wood-colored building on the northeast corner of Bridge and Main streets. There were only a few buiklings east of these, one of which was occupied by the Chipman family.
The first bridge across Grand river at that place was built in 1850. It was a wooden bridge, and the road from the north came down the hill on the place now occupied by okl Mr. Green and his son-in-law. Bence Kimble, and then followed the bank of the river to the bridge. At times when the water was high it was impossible to get to the bridge. Footmen could get over by climbing logs, and sometimes that was risky business. At the time the bridge was built, the bridge crew would sometimes make things lively, for by that time one or two saloons had got started besides the bar in Wilson's tavern. I remember on the Fourth of July they had a big time and "painted the town red." They would go from one drinking place to another and make every man in the room sing a song or tell a story : they were a happy lot.
About this time Barnum & Armstrong put in a large stock of goods into a new building on the southwest corner of Bridge and Main streets. This was the first trading place of any importance in Saranac and was appreciated by all who lived in that part of the country.
Aminon Wilson built a fine hotel on the northwest corner of Bridge and Main streets in 1853 or 1854. It was a great place for the young people to gather, for he had the best room for dancing in that part of lonia county ; he put in a spring floor in the dance hall, which was noted for its easy move- ment. 1, being something of a fiddler in those days, will be remembered by a few of the old gray heads left as giving them music at those dances.
There are but few left of my companions of that time, nearly all having gone. Many were left on the battlefiells of the Civil War. I was there and saw the Saranac boys under command of M. B. Houghton, take the cars for the South and heard the parting address given by Richard Vosper while they stood in line beside the railroad track.
At the time I left the town of Keene in 1855 there were but few frame buildings, nearly all being built of logs. Nearly the first frame house in Keene was built by John Butterfield on the Aaron Pratt farm, two and one- half miles north of Saranac. What happy gatherings we used to have at
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his home and in his sugar bush in the spring, going there to eat sugar and hear him sing songs. His father was the first settler in Keene. I remember being at Sam Wilson's tavern one time when Post Place, of lonia, and a com- panion, both riding Indian ponies, came and rode right into the bar room and called for drinks without getting off their horses. After getting their drinks, they continued on their way to Lowell, called Flat River at that time.
I was married in the fall of 1855 to the eldest daughter of A. C. Smith, a well-known farmer of Keene, and moved that winter to Crystal Lake in the eastern part of Montcalm county, where my brother and I took up some state land, where the village of Crystal now is located. We had to cut a road to our land, and suffered all the trials of new settlers. Our trading place was Ionia and our only team, oxen. It took us four days to make a round trip. We went to my wife's father's place, eight miles west of Ionia, and stayed over night. I remember one time when driving to father Smith's place, when about a mile west of Ionia ( it was all woods there and covered with oak grubs ), I heard someone singing at the top of his voice, making the woods ring: "Wait for the wagon, the old lumber wagon, the squeaking lumber wagon, and we'll all take a ride." On looking up, the singer I found to be my old friend, Ben Covert, who was picking up a load of wood, poles, limbs, etc., and to think this was the one-time-to-be mayor of the city of lonia. Yes, it was good, genial old Ben, always happy. We had a good chat and I drove on. The place where I found Ben was very near where the state house of correction now stands. It was a wild looking spot then.
It would be hardly proper to close this account of early life without some references to the Indians, who were numerous at that time. It was customary for them to leave their reservation at Lowell to make sugar in different localities One of their favorite sugar places was on the river bot- toms where the little creek empties into Grand river near what is now known as Cucumber Bend, a fine forest of maple trees covering the flats here. This was the favorite sugar camp for old Col-mo-sa, chief of the Flat River Indians. Every spring he and his family would come here to make sugar. One Sunday several of us concluded we wanted some warm sugar to eat, so we started for the Indian camps. One of the camps was occupied by Bad Manitou, better known as "Col-mo-sa's devil." When in sight of the boiling place back of the wigwams, we saw three or four little papooses bathing in the big trough where the sap was stored. It was a warm day near the clos- ing the season, and they were having a big time. We didn't want any warm sugar then. Another time when my cousin, Phil Monks, and I, visited them
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in one of their wigwams, a young squaw came to get help to cut down a 'coon tree. Our young Indian friends asked us to go with them, knowing we were good choppers. It was not far to go and we soon had the tree down. It was a big elm and hollow. Four 'coons sprang from the top. The young Indian and I followed one, the old Indian another, and the dog another. Phil and the young squaw got a good start on the fourth, the squaw in the lead. She had not gone far when her foot caught in a limb and down she went, Phil on top of her. She was the first up and soon had the 'coon treed. but the young Indian and I lost ours, for we had to stop and laugh at Phil and the squaw. The old Indian shot his and the dog treed his, so they got three of the four. This was the kind of pastime we youngsters had in those days, but it was as good as attending a theater.
Speaking of "Col-mo-sa's devil." put me in mind of an incident that hap- pened a year or two before we came to Keene. My uncle, Jim Monks, lived on the place where Albert Wells lived when I last visited Keen, in a log house near the center of the forty which he owned at that time. It was quite a camping ground for the Indians then. One day a lot of them were camped there and old "Col's devil" was among them, full of whisky. He was always ugly when in liquor. He came to the house and asked my Aunt Mariah to give him some bread. She told him she had none but would let him have some when it was baked; he asked again and when she refused again he walked up and kicked her. Old Grandfather Monks, Uncle Jim's father, was there. He was over seventy-five years old and lame, but when the Indian kicked her he jumped and grabbed him and. the door being open, threw him out, but as they passed through the door the Indian struck at him with his knife, but missed him, the point going into the door jamb.
CHAPTER V.
CAMPBELL TOWNSHIP.
Campbell was a portion of Boston township until March 15, 1849, when it was detached by act of Legislature and called by its present name in response to a general desire that such honor be paid to Martin and Jeremiah Campbell, the town's first settlers. At the meeting in Marvil Church's house for the purpose of fixing upon a name for the proposed township, Mr. Church put forward the name of Winnifred. in remembrance of Martin Campbell's wife, Winnifred. the first white woman to make her home in the township. Mr. Church, reconsidering the suggestion, replaced it with a proposition to call the town Wanford, as less likely to intrude upon Mrs. Campbell's distaste for notoriety, and yet enough like her name to preserve its recollection; for, said he, "Wanford is the next thing to Winnifred." To this, William Mer- cer replied, "Oh, no, the next thing to Winnifred is Campbell," and it was thereupon generally supported as the name. Some person had previously urged "Nashville" as a means of extending a tribute to Amasa Nash, but the influence of Campbell was too strong to be overcome.
Pending the first township meeting. Amasa Nash, who was looking after the supervisorship, called on Joseph Whitney, who he found with William Mercer. building fences. "Friend Whitney," remarked Nash, "you are just the man for a justice of the peace, and I guess we'll have to put you in." "Well." replied Whitney. "I don't want to be either justice of the peace, or a holder of any other office." "That's a pity." was Nash's response, "for you ought to be willing to serve your town. Now. I'm not like you, for I do want an office; I want to be supervisor." William Mercer, then but a young man, assured Nash they would do all they could for him, but, unknown to Mercer himself, the townsfolk had decided to make him their supervisor, and. as will be seen, elected him.
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