USA > Michigan > Ionia County > History of Ionia County, Michigan : her people, industries and institutions, Volume I > Part 8
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The first township meeting was directed to be held at the house of Marvil Church, and was so held on the first Monday in April. 1849. Amasa Nash was chosen moderator, Alexander H. Bushnell, clerk, and William Mercer and Marcus R. Nash, inspectors. It was voted that a bounty of four dollars should be paid for the killing of a wolf, that fifty dollars should be raised
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for highway purposes, seventy-five dollars for township expenses, and one dollar on each pupil for the support of the schools. The whole number of votes for township officers was fourteen, and the officers elected were as follow: Supervisor, William Mercer; clerk, A. H. Bushnell; treasurer, Amasa Nash; justices of the peace, Alvin Briggs. Amasa Nash and Jeremiah Campbell ; school inspectors, William Mercer and Marcus R. Nash ; highway commissioners, Joseph S. Whitney, Calvin Nash and Martin Campbell ; over- seers of the poor, Marvil Church and Joseph S. Whitney ; constables, Thomas Q. Frost and Henry Briggs ; overseer of highways, Edwin Nash.
Campbell township lying in the southwestern corner of Ionia county, is township 5 north, of range 8 west. It is bounded by Boston township on the north, Barry county on the south, Odessa township on the east, and Kent county on the west.
Campbell township comprises good farming country, although there are many mills and some swamps. There are several small streams, but no water- power worthy the name. Morrison lake reaches over from Boston and takes up a portion of section 2. Peddler lake, in the western part of the town- ship, is said to have taken its name from the circumstance of a peddler having been drowned therein at some time in the early days. The town boasts three postoffices and two hamlets, known respectively as Clarksville, and Campbell. It has no railroad facilities within its borders, but finds market towns and railway stations within easy distances at Hastings, Lowell and Saranac.
From 1840 to 1847. Campbell township contained but one family of settlers, and they were for some years what are commonly known as "squat- ters." Previous to 1840 no white man had penetrated the present six miles square called Campbell for the purpose of making a settlement therein. One reason for the delay in opening up that portion of the country may have been because settlers preferred to keep near the river, which, in the absence of roads, was the only fairly convenient method of communication with the outer world; and another reason may have been found in the fact that Camp- bell was somewhat rought and swampy. At all events, it is certain that the township was not occupied to any extent until the adjacent river townships were pretty well dotted with inhabitants.
The pioneers in Campbell's settlement appear to have been two brothers. Jeremiah and Martin Campbell, who came over from Ireland and set out late in 1840 for Michigan, where they proposed to become husbandmen. Martin had a wife and family, but Jeremiah was a bachelor. Between them.
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they had fourteen head of cattle, a few pigs, and a comfortable sum of money. the larger share of the possessions belonging to Jeremiah. Driving their stock before them, they came presently to the Clinton trail, which they fol- lowed until, on Christmas day, they reached section 2 in township 5 north, of range 8 west, where, concluding to "squat," they came to a permanent halt with their goods and chattels. They may have stopped there because they were tired, or they may have seen something about the lay of the land that . of a desirable place of settlement. But the fact that they squattd upon the land and failed to make a purchase of it until some years afterward indicates that they chose the locality because of the distance from human habitations, as well as for the promise apparent that they were not likely to be disturbed very soon. As to the general circumstances of the coming of the Campbells, their settlement, and their experiences after they did settle, the historian can give but vague information at best, since there is now in the town not one of their descendants. Martin moved to California in the days of the gold-hunting era, and Jeremiah, after living in Campbell a bachelor's life all his days, died in 1878, a very old man.
The Campbells were by no means energetic pioneers, but were rather content to maintain an easy existence, satisfied to gain a meager living with- out worrying themselves to clear land or weary themselves with arduous labors. They lived in a shanty, raised a few swine, tilled the soil sufficiently to supply their own wants, and for the rest deferred the exercise of more emphatic industry until the country should become populated and furnished with better conveniences for transporting agricultural products. For seven years they lived an isolated existence, far from civilization, and probably not at all solicitous to be any nearer. The only road they had, besides the Clinton trail, was a straggling, rough path to Saranac, whither they went once in a while to buy such necessaries as were absolutely imperative.
In 1847, or seven years after the advent of the Campbells, the town received its first healthful push forward in the way of pioneer development, for it was not until that year that it gained settlers who took hold with a will, as if they intended to do something towards conquering the forest wilds. Oliver Hess had come over from Boston in 1846 and put up a shanty on section 8, but he did not stop long enough or do enough to be regarded as a permanent settler then. He came back in after years and moved to the place he first improved.
The settlers of 1847 were Amasa Nash and Marvil Church. Church was a carpenter and came from New York state to Boston township in 1839.
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to build for James Hutchinson the first frame house put up in Boston. He lived in Boston and other localities until May, 1847, when he moved to sec- tion 10 in Campbell, where he had bought land. When he came to take pos- session, he found on section to the body of a log house that had been put up by Amasa Nash, who was then gone for his family. Two weeks after Church had moved. Nash came back with his family and moved into the roofless, doorless and windowless cabin.
As soon as Nash and Church got fairly domiciled they took measures for the construction of a decent road, that would let them out to some base of supplies. After the road matter was arranged, they turned towards the task of clearing the land. Mr. Nash, who had been pioneering in the state since 1836, had the assistance of his four sons, Calvin, Marcus, Charles and Edwin, each of whom became himself a settler in a short time.
Next in order after the Campbell. Nash and Church families, the settle- ment was increased during 1847 by Joseph Whitney, with whom came Wil- liam Mercer, his nephew. Mr. Mercer spent a year, 1842 to 1843. in Boston township, in the employ of James J. Hoag, at Waterville. In 1843 he returned to New York state, and did not come to Michigan again until he accompanied Mr. Whitney to Campbell in 1847.
A. H. Bushnell, who came from Oakland county in 1848 to section 2 in Campbell, found in the township the Campbells, Marvil Church, Amasa Nash. Alvin Briggs, Joseph Whitney and Mr. Nash's sons, Calvin, Marcus, Edwin and Charles. These settlers lived upon sections 2. 3. 10 and 15. South of section 15 there had been no attempt at settlement, and no commencement in the township except upon the four sections named.
In June. 1853, Maxwell Ludlow and his son. Horace. located upon sections 20, and Mr. Fish found them there when he arrived. Upon section 18, Darius Freeman settled in October, 1853. He came with his family by the way of Bowne, and on account of having to cut a road to his place from a point a half mile west of the county line, was a week in finishing the job, although liberally assisted by neighboring settlers. He was engaged six weeks in putting up a shanty. His family meanwhile stopped in Bowne, and when they did move into their cabin old blankets had to be hung in doors and windows, and it was surely a lonesome, dreary and about half-finished human habitation. Freeman's nearest neighbor at the period of his settle- ment was Mathew Hammond, one mile and a half eastward. Directly north and south there was not an inhabitant in the town. The only road in his vicinity was the one he cut out to get to his land. There had been, a half-mile to the westward. a road running off toward Hastings, but at that time it was
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washed out and choked up, and consequently was impassable. They had a pretty hard and lonesome time and the wolves used to howl about their shanty at night until it seemed as if living in the woods, away from human beings surrounded by wild beasts, and compelled to work like beavers for the sim- plest necessaries of life, was too much for flesh and blood to endure. They stood it, however, and when affairs began to brighten and the country began to fill up they were prepared to appreciate the more pleasant condition of things.
About the fall of 1854 the neighborhood grew more populous and saw the coming of W. G. Forman, followed by Leander Hooper, Mr. Hoover, D. C. Hooper. the Coons, Osborns, C. H. Curtiss, Edward Minard, Isaac Gibson and others. Mr. Freeman died in 1872, upon the first place he occu- pied. Over in the Fish neighborhood, the settlers in 1853 included Orrin Burleigh, in section 20, and, on Duck creek, Lyman Stillwell and Edward Hayes. In 1854, Nathan Todd came to section 16 for a settlement, and, finding no road leading to his place, made one as fast as he could. Over on the east township line, in section 24, John Ryder settled in 1859 upon the place occupied by Wallace Lovewell, whose father ranked among the earliest settlers in Woodland, Barry county. In 1853. Stephen White, with his three sons, William H., Amasa and Sanford, made settlements upon sections I and 2. Leroy A. Scoville located in 1854 upon land in section 3, first improved by Thomas Q. Frost. In the spring of 1854, Alva McCormick moved to the place in section 10 first settled by Marvil Church, who in that year made a change to section 5. In November, 1854, Elijah Trowbridge came to section 4 and, previous to Elijah's coming by a few months, his brother. Elisha, settled upon section 5, in which neighborhood also James Trowbridge, William Trowbridge, Jesse Drew and Jacob Baumgardner made settlements about the same time.
The first school in Campbell township was taught by Sarah Platt, in a log building erected by the Nash brothers and occupying a site on Marvil Church's land in section 10.
The first child born in Campbell township was John, son of Martin Campbell, whose birth was in 1843. The first death was that of John Calvin Church, son of Marvil Church. He died in 1851 and was buried upon his father's farm, whence his remains were subsequently removed to the Boston burying ground. The first mill was a saw-mill erected on Duck creek, on the site now known as Gifford's. The water-power never was of much value, and in dry seasons failed utterly.
Campbell's first physician resident in the town was one Doctor Lyon,
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who came before 1860 and departed after a brief residence. Nelson Wixon, living at Campbell postoffice, was an early settler in Boston, and in 1861 began to practice medicine in Campbell.
In 1868, Chauncey Townsend, living on the eastern township line, com- mitted suicide to escape what he was pleased to term, "a world of care." Domestic trouble was supposed to be at the bottom of the affair. While at Saranac one day he bought a dose of poison, and en route towards his home swallowed the fatal draught. By the time he reached his residence he was dying, and breathed his last shortly after.
The resident taxpayers in Campbell township in 1849 were: Amasa Nash, section 10, So acres; Calvin Nash, section 10, 120 acres: Marcus R. Nash, section 15, 80 acres; Marvil Church, section, 80 acres: Jeremiah Campbell, section 3. 80 acres; Martin Campbell, section 2, 40 acres; A. H. Bushnell, section 2, 80 acres ; C. M. Bushnell, section 11, 80 acres ; Thomas Q. Frost. section 9, 40 acres : Henry Briggs, section 9, 40 acres ; William Mercer, section 15, 80 acres: Joseph S. Whitney, section 15, 120 acres.
At the general election of November 6, 1849, the votes cast numbered nine, as follows: Amasa Nash, A. H. Bushnell. Jeremiah Campbell, William Mercer, Calvin Nash, Marcus R. Nash, Edwin Nash, Martin Campbell and Orson Hatch.
At the general election in 1850 the voters numbered sixteen. They were as follow: Alvin Briggs, Thomas Q. Frost, Calvin Nash. Edwin Nash, Charles Nash, Joseph S. Whitney, Jacob Brotherton, Judson Hilton, Morris J. Hammond, A. H. Bushnell, James G. Bushnell, Marvil Church, William Mercer, Jeremiah Campbell, Amasa Nash and Martin Campbell.
In 1854 there were forty-two voters, whose names were: James Dakin, R. D. Hudson, Chauncey Townsend, Hiram Kirby, John Niles, James G. Bushnell. David Demera, Abram Ketcham, A. S. White, O. W. Stover. George W. Groves, M. J. Hammond, Seth Whitney, M. R. Nash, D. S. Curdy. Charles Darby, Stephen White, Henry Groves, Robert Church, John V. Coon, Marvil Church, Orson Hatch, Edwin Doty, Joseph S. Whitney, T. W. Noyes, Maxwell Ludlow, C. C. Vantassel, A. 11. Bushnell, James F. Chambers, C. W. Bushnell, Avin McCormick, Trumen Darby, Martin Campbell, Jeremiah Campbell, James Bushnell, Mvin Briggs, Hiram K. Noyes, N. K. Noyes, Jesse Drew. masa Nash, 11. 1 .. Brown and David Stover
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SUPERVISORS.
1850-51, William Mercer ; 1852, O. Hatch ; 1853. W. Mercer: 1854. M. Ludlow ; 1855. J. Dakin : 1856, A. H. Bushnell: 1857, C. C. Vantassel ; 1858, A. A. Merrill; 1859, M. T. Merrill; 1860. H. R. Brown: 1861, E. D. Jen- mings : 1862, J. Sinclair : 1863-64, E. H. Whitney; 1865-66, W. Scott: 1867. N. Wixon: 1868-69, J. B. Post : 1870-72, E. II. Whitney; 1873-74, L. P. Townsend: 1875-76, J. M. Lawson: 1877, J. B. Post: 1878, C. Sullivan ; 1879, C. L. Howard; 1881-85. John Mick ; 1886-87. Christian Walters; 1888, John Mick : 1889. Thomas Parks ; 1890, John Mick ; 1891-93, Thomas Sparks ; 1894-95-96, John Mick : 1897, Isaiah Long, to the present time.
CLARKSVILLE.
In 1875. C. L. IFoward built a store at the corners between sections 3 and 10, where there was already a wagon shop, grange hall, etc., and, without delay, secured a postoffice for the place, and was christened "Clarksville" after Howard's christian name of Clark.
Mr. Howard was store-keeper and postmaster at Clarksville, which con- tained also a second store, owned by Otis S. Richards. There were also two physicians in that locality and in the second story of Mr. Howard's store building a Wesleyan Methodist class met regularly once in two weeks for public worship. There was a daily mail to and from Clarksville postoffice, which lay on the route between Hastings and Lowell.
It was in the neighborhood of Clarksville that the Campbells located in 1840, and near there also the Nash and Church families settled seven years later.
(六)
CHAPTER VI
DANBY TOWNSHIP
On May 19, 1845, township 5 north, in range 5 west, was detached from Portland and organized by Danby township. The name was bestowed by Charles G. Brooks in remembrance of Connecticut, whence he came. There was a desire to christen the township Brookstown, but there being another place in the state of that name, the idea was abandoned. The first township meeting was held at the house of Chancellor Barringer on the 7th of April, 1845. Abijah F. Scoff. Willard L. Brooks, William Cronkrite and Lorenzo Sears were chosen inspectors, and John Compton, clerk. Twenty-six votes were cast, and the following officials chosen: Treasurer. Charles G. Brooks; justices of the peace, Mathew Davenport, William Cronkrite. Henry Jones and Lorenzo Sears; highway commissioners. Oscar P. Schoff, Elkanah Drake; school inspectors, William Cronkrite and Oscar P. Schoff ; overseers of the poor, Alpha David, W. L. Brooks: constables, Elkanah Drake, Mpha David ; assistant assessor, Willard L. Brooks ; overseers of highways, George S. David, John D. Brown, Willard L. Brooks, Alpha David. John New- some, Mathew Davenport and George A. Kilburn.
Danby is bounded on the east by Clinton county, on the south by Eaton conuity, on the west by Sebewa township and on the north by Portland town- ship. The Grand river meanders through this township in very eccentric course. It divides the township into two nearly equal parts and touches seventeen of the thirty-six sections in the township, as follow: 24. 25. 26. 23, 27, 22, 15, 16, 21, 28, 20, 17. 18, 8, 9. 4 and 5. The Looking Glass river cuts across the northeast corner, and Sebewa creek runs through sections 30 and 31, to re-enter on section to and empty into the Grand river. Thus the township has an abundance of water and these streams afford excellent facilities not only for mill power, but also provide excellent means of drain- age for the farms.
The first settler in Danby township was probably Chancellor Barringer. who is said to have located as early as 1835 in section 5. upon a piece of land owned by A. S. Wadsworth.
In 1830 Asher Kilburn located in the bend of the Grand river on sec-
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tion 8, and worked a piece of land belonging to a Mr. Jones, of Detroit. In the same year the first settlement was made on the south side of the Grand river by William and John Cronkrite, who made purchases of considerable land along the river and in the summer of 1836 put up a cabin on section 21. In the fall the brothers Cronkrite returned eastward. and in the spring of 1837 William came back to Danby with his family for a permanent settle- ment. while John, his brother, concluding that he did not want to become a Michigan pioneer after all. went to Texas, where he was killed.
With William Cronkrite, besides his own family, came Chester Gleason, whom he brought as a farm-hand. with his family, and John Compton. Cronkrite's brother-in-law. Gleason became afterwards a settler himself, but in Portland township. Compton was out on a land-looking expedition and, while making a selection, lived in a rude shanty of Gleason's. Comp- ton selected land on section 33 and hired Benjamin Silsbee to convey his family and goods to Michigan. Daniel Hull, Compton's father-in-law, came with him and brought a bushel of apple seeds, which he planted and pro- duced the first orchard in the township. Compton clainis to have built the first frame barn in the township in 1839.
Mr. Compton grew to be a man of considerable consequence in the settlement, and, besides being the moving spirit in the pioneer religions organization, the first postmaster and a preacher and teacher among the Indians in Danby, was recognized among the whites as possessing consid- erable medical skill. During the fever and ague seasons he was besieged by night and by day with calls for medical help.
In the spring of 1837 the northern portion of the township received also further additions to its settlement in the families of Charles G. and Willard L. Brooks, who settled on section 3.
Isaiah G. Frost came to the town with his family on the 14th of July. 1837, and located a home on section 11. Mr. Frost found in that part of the township Abijah Schoff on section 1, Willard and Charles G. Brooks on section 3. and Asher Kilburn on seetion 8. Schoff came in 1837, the place he occupied later including the farm of R. G. Abbey, on the southeast quar- ter of section 1. Among Mr. Schoff's farm hands was A. C. Davis, a far- mer on section 3. and one of the early comers to Portland, where he took a hand in the pioneer saw-mill business.
In the Frost neighborhood the early settlers included Horace Peake and his brother. Chester Davenport, John Storm, A. J. Potter and the Barnards. For about ten years after the arrival of Mr. Frost there were but few addi-
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tions to the settlement where he lived, except from 1844 to 1848, when he was county treasurer.
Among the early settlers south of the river were John D. Brown. Nathan H. Wyman, James D. Norris, Elias Bailey, Benjamin Horner, Joshua Bailey, James Burns, J. R. David, P. R. Comfort, E. O. Miner, H. H. Allman, Loren Sears, Patrick Murtaugh and Isaac DeWitt. Caleb Fulker- son, who came with John Compton as a farm hand in 1837, settled in a little while on section 32.
Portland was the milling place for all of Danby's early settlers. Those living in the north were especially fortunate in being able to get to mill with- out intich trouble and. what made matters more agreeable in that direction. Willard Brooks and A. F. Bell laid a road about 1838 from Portland up by the Brooks settlement.
The first birth in Danby was that of Jane E., daughter of John Comp- ton. She was born on April 30, 1838. and lived later in Eaton county. The second birth was that of Charles Brooks, August 28, 1838.
It is alleged by some that the first death was that of the wife of Abijah Schoff, who died some time in 1838 and was buried on her husband's farm on section 1. It is, however, strongly probable that the first death was that of Martha, daughter of William Cronkrite. She was five years old and was burned to death in a flaming brush heap. William Cummings was the first man buried who was lowered into the grave by means of a halter.
The first postoffice established in Danby township was Danby post- office, in 1844. John Compton was appointed the first postmaster and remained in charge for about twenty years thereafter, except for the space of two years, when John T. Cahoon was the incumbent. Among Compton's other successors were Redding Sargent, J. R. David. John Hovey and Sam- nel F. David.
When the whites began to settle on the south side of the river in Danby they found on the river, in section 22, an Indian village of a hundred and fifty Ottawas and Chippewas. These Indians seemed to have chosen the place as a permanent habitation, or at all events as a locality where they remained steadily for some months each year.
The Indians cultivated quite a patch of land on the river side in sec- tion 22 and got along until about 1846, when Manasseh Hickey, a Methodist missionary, ventured among them in the hope that he might do something towards converting them to Christianity. He returned, leaving with them the interpreters he brought with him. They empowered Hickey to buy land
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for them, and he made at once a purchase, of Mr. Fitch, of Portland, of one hundred and eight acres in the bend of the river in section 21. The village took the name of Mishshiminecon, in remembrance of the old village on section 22. Shortly after locating in their new village, Hickey obtained some financial assistance from a benevolent lady in New York for the pur- pose of erecting a mission house. The house was divided into two apart- ments, one for school and church services, and the other the residence of the teacher. The Indians remained in Mishshiminecon and prospered until about 1856, when, under act of Congress, they were removed, along with other bands, to the reservations of northern Michigan.
The resident taxpayers of Danby in 1845 were: William L. Brooks. section 3, 160 acres ; Charles G. Brooks, sections 2, 3. 160 acres; John B. Brown, section 32, 80 acres; Chancellor Barringer, section 22, 97 acres: Elias Bailey, section 25, 80 acres ; Henry Cummings, section 35, 100 acres; William Conkrite, section 28, 200 acres; John Compton, sections 33, 34. 240 acres : George S. David. section 35, 60 acres; Alpha David, section 28, So acres: Elkanah Drake, section 30, 40 acres: Mathew Davenport, section II. 320 acres : George Davenport, section 12, 120 acres : Chester Davenport, section 12, 120 acres; John Evens. Personal, Reuben Hopkins, section 6, 40 acres ; Benjamin Horner, section 26, 160 acres: James N. Abrey, section 6, So acres : Henry Jones, section 31, 40 acres; Asher Kilburn, sections 8, 9, 17. 936 acres: Erastus P. Miner, section 29, 80 acres: James Nicholson, sections 1, 12, 20, 360 acres: \. F. Schoff, sections 1, 12, 240 acres; Lorenzo Sears, sections 30. 31, 200 acres: Charles Sutherland, section 12, 80 acres; Nathan Wyman, section 30, 80 acres ; James Burns, section 29, 40 acre.
Danby has only had one village within its limits. This was known as Cornell and was laid out in section 19 by Pierce G. Cook, an agent for Elizabeth Cornell, of New Jersey. It was platted April 11, 1867. and con- tained ninety-six lots. AAlthough Cornell village never attained any size itself and soon ceased to exist as an individual town, it gave rise in a short time to the creation of the village of Sebewa in the township of the same name. Sebewa has also been platted in Danby township.
SUPERVISORS.
1846, no record: 1847, William Cronkrite: 1848, no record; 1849-57. William Cronkrite: 1858-60. J. C. Smith: 1861. M. Baker: 1862-64. J. C. Smith: 1865. D. Taylor: 1866, T. Pryer: 1867. J. Storm: 1868-69, C. W.
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