USA > Michigan > Ionia County > History of Ionia County, Michigan : her people, industries and institutions, Volume I > Part 9
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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
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IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Ingalls: 1870-71. W. T. Triphagen: 1872, J. K. Barnard: 1873-75. W. Hixson: 1876. J. L. Fishell: 1877. G. W. Peake; 1878-80, W. Hixson: 1881. J. Warren Peake: 1882-84. Roland G. Abbey: 1885, Thomas Boughner ; 1886-87-88, Fred W. Erdman; 1889-90-91. George Culver ; 1892-93-94-95. Thomas J. Boughner : 1896. Roland G. AAbbey: 1897-98. William H. Pryor ; 1899, R. G. Abbey : 1900, William H. Pryor ; 1901-02-03-04-05. D. G. Guil- ford: 1906-07-09-10-11-12-13, C. W. Peake.
CHAPTER VH.
EASTON TOWNSHIP.
All of that portion of township 7 north, in range 7 west, lying north of the Grand river, was detached from the township of Tonia by legislative act approved March o. 1843, and organized as a township named Easton. The first meeting therein was ordered to be held at the house of Joseph Richard- son, and on the 3rd of April the electors met and chose Erastus Yeomans. moderator : Daniel S. Brownell, Stephen Dexter, Isaac Finch and Malcolm MeLaughlin, inspectors, and B. F. Pew, clerk. On motion, Thomas Cor- nell was chosen clerk of the proceedings of this meeting. Twenty-eight votes appear to have been cast at this first election for town officers, and as there was but one ticket in the field, there was probably no difficulty in ascertaining the will of the majority. The persons chosen as officials were as follow: Supervisor. Thomas Cornell : clerk. Sanford A. Yeomans; treas- urer, Erastus Yeomans: justices of the peace, Malcolm McLaughlin, Thomas Cornell, David S. Brownell, William Fleming: school inspectors, Erastus Yeomans, George Fleming: commissioners or highways, Granville Madi- son, Calvin M. Rice. Ben. G. Barber ; constables, Joseph H. Richardson. Thomas H. Conner: pathmasters, Daniel S. Brownell in district No. I. Thomas H. Conner in the district that Stephen Dexter served the previous year, and Joseph H. Richardson in the district that William Dumper served the previous year.
Some of the officials chosen above failed to qualify and on June 15, 1833. a special election was held, at which Daniel S. Brownell, George W. Dexter and Malcomb MeLaughlin were chosen justices of the peace: Sereno Rood, commissioner of highways, and Thomas H. Conner, constable.
Soon after the settlement of lonia by the Dexter colony, Easton town- ship received a handful of pioneers. These were the Cornells, who, on November 9. 1893, landed in the Dexter colony, upon section 24, in Easton. In the Cornell family were Alfred Cornell, Sr., his wife, Thomas Cornell (a son ), with wife and two children, and two grown sons, Alfred, Jr., and Daniel A. Thomas Cornell, living in Madison county, New York, had decided to accompany the Dexter colony, but remained until the following
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. spring. Alfred Cornell, Sr., and his son, Thomas, went out to Ionia in July, 1833, on a tour, but were not impressed with the land and returned to New York in the fall. But in November they again set out for the Dexter settle- ment.
Erastus Yeomans, who had come in May, 1833, had some knowledge of surveying and, after the colony got settled, Mr. Yeomans was importuned to get a compass and run roads for the people. He sold to Mr. Cornell, who became surveyor and made his first practical effort in 1836.
Following close upon the Cornells, came George W. Case in the win- ter of 1833-34, who made the second settlement in Easton. Case effected a location upon the bank of the Grand river, in section 26. His brother, Hor- ace, a cooper and a bachelor, came in the summer of 1835 and built a cooper's shop.
In February, 1834, Jared Conner and Thomas Harrison Conner, broth- ers, came to Ionia, accompanied by James Crawford. The Conners bought the Case place on section 26 in Easton and joined the small army of settlers. James Crawford, who came with the Conners, stopped in Ionia awhile. ferried across the Grand river and in 1840 settled upon section 18. George W. set out the first fruit trees planted in that part of the Grand River valley.
In the spring of 1835 William Winslow entered Ionia, and in 1836 settled on section 14. In 1837 he was joined by his father, Ezra, who settled upon the same section, and died in 1842. In 1836 the settlement received numerous accessions. Richard Dye and Simon Welch were among the comers that year. They located on section 19, whence Dye soon removed to Ionia.
It was on Mill creek that Samuel Dexter built a saw-mill in 1833, and to it added a small run of stone in 1834. The first saw-mill was a great boon, but the grist-mill was a greater one. A coffee-mill at Dexter's house had, however, been the grist-mill for the Dexter colony previously.
Among those who came to the town in 1836 were also Elisha Doty, Dexter Arnold. B. G. Barber, Calvin M. Rice and Chauncey M. Stebbins. Richard M. Bishop, who came in 1841, lived on section 8, and met his death in 1857, when he was taken for a deer by a hunter and accidentally shot.
In 1837 the settlement was augmented by the coming of William Mus- selman, Joseph Barker, William Kitson and George W. Dexter. Mr. Mus- selman tried to make his home on section 7. near the township line, but his attempt was a lamentable failure.
George W. Dexter had a family of eight children and located on sec-
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tion 20. Ile died in the township in 1848. Within the short period of three years he lost six children by death, two of them being drowned. George W. Dexter's brother. Stephen, settled upon section 20 in September, 1838. About that same time William Fleming came, with whose family, as a boy, lived William Currie. Isaac Finch appeared in the autumn of 1839. and upon section 28 made a vigorous commencement. He succeeded in acquiring a handsome property and abided on the place of his first settlement until his death, thirty-five years afterwards, at the ripe age of eighty-two.
In 1841 Granville Madison came to Fonia county, he settling in Easton, on section 7. Among his neighbors were Malcom and Joseph Mclaughlin, the latter being a blacksmith, on sections 17 and 18, where they had been since 1839, and on section 17 also John Delaney. Subsequent settlers in the neighborhood were James Bradford, George W. Guernsey, S. T. Snell, Shiverick Kellogg, Charles Kellogg, his father, George Corking, J. G. Bush and a Mr. Shute.
In 1843 William Dildine and his brother-in-law. Charles W. Reynolds, came to section 10. They were fron Elmira, New York, and occupied thirteen days in completing the journey to Easton township. Dilding bought his place of Erastus Yeomans, who had effected a clearing of a few acres thereon. The year of the arrival of the Dildings a school was established near them in the just-formed district No. 3, and in the shanty that served as the temple of learning Betsy Webster was the first teacher; Margaret Foote. the second, and Mrs. Dildine the third. In 1841 Sanford A. Yeo- mans settled in this township. He had previously been associated with the Dexter settlement in lonia township. AAmong other early settlers in that part of the town were the Halls, Jacksons. Holcombs, McPhersons, Mar- quettes and Haynors.
Easton's first postoffice was called Avon and was located at the home of Silas Sprague. The office was discontinued after a time and home mail accommodations were not restored there after until 1861, when Easton post- office was established and William Dildine given charge. In 1866 Mr. Dildine was succeeded by A. C. Sprague, who was, in turn, succeeded by George Corkins, the last incumbent. The office was discontinued in 1872.
SUPERVISORS.
1844. George W. Dexter: 1845, Thomas Cornell: 1846. D. S. Brownell; 1847, E. Yeomans ; 1848, J. York: 1849, A. V. Berry; 1850, J. York; 1851, D. S. Brownell: 1852, S. Kellogg: 1853-54. A. Cornell, Jr. ; 1855, S. Kel-
IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
logg: 1856, C. O. Thompson; 1857-60, S. Kellogg: 1861, A. Cornell; 1862. S. Sprague: 1803. S. Kellogg: 1804-65. S. M. Stebbins: 1866-69. L. 11. Colton : 1870-75, W. D. Arnold: 1876-77. O. S. Cook: 1878. A. C. Smith: 1870. O. S. Cook: 1880-83, Thomas Thomas: 1884-87, Emory F. Strong> 1888-80-90. James B. Drake; 1801-02-93-04-95-96, Steven T. Minard: 1867- 08-00-1900-01. Thomas Thomas: 1902-03-04. Walter Yeomans: 1905-06- 07-08-09, Eugene L. Vohlers: 1910-11-12-13, Ervin C. Stebbins: 1914-16. Bert Arnold.
CHAPTER VIIL.
IONIA TOWNSHIP.
lonia township's political existence dates from 1835, when the entire ยท county, as lonia township, was attached to Kalamazoo county for judicial purposes. The county was organized in 1837 and on March 11, of that year, was divided into two townships, fonia and Maple. lonia township embraced all that portion of the county of fonia lying west of the sectional lines running north and south through the center of townships 5. 6, 7 and 8 north, of range 6 west. The first election under the organization was ordered to be held at the house of Samuel Dexter.
On December 30, 1837. townships 5 and 6 north, range 8 west, were detached from lonia and organized as Boston. On March 6, 1838, town- ships 7 and 8 north, range 8 west, were set off and organized as Otisco. At the same time townships 5 and 6 north. range 7 west, the west halves of townships 5 and 6 north, range 6 west, and all of the west halves of town- ship 7 north. range 6 west, and township 7 north, range 7 west, lying south of the Grand river, were organized as the township of Cass. On March 25, 1840, the township of Orleans was formed of township 8 north, range 7 west. On March 9. 1843, all of township 7 north, range 7 west, lying north of the Grand river, was organized as Easton. On March 19, 1845, the town- ship of Ronald was organized and took in the west half of township 8 north, range 6 west. On March 22, 1848, sections 22, 27 and 34. in town- ship 7 north, range 6 west, and also so much of that township as lay north of the center of the Grand river, then belonging to the township of Lyons. was attached to the township of fonia, as was so much of township ; north, range 6 west, as was then attached to Berlin. On March 13. 1867, so much of the territory of township 7 north, range 6 west, as was then a portion of Lyons, was set off to fonia. The result of these additions and subtractions left to fonia the territory of six square miles.
The first township meeting and election is thus recorded :
"Record of the township of fonia, of Kalamazoo County, M. T. At the first township meeting of the town and county, as above mentioned held at the house of Antoine Campan & Co., on Monday the 6th day of April in
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the Year of our Lord 1835, Mr. Alfred Cornell was chosen moderator and W. B. Lincoln, clerk. After the moderator and clerk were sworn by Sam- uel Dexter, Esquire, the electors present proceeded to the election of town- ship officers by ballot, which were elected as follows: For Supervisor, Eras- tus Yeomans; for township clerk, W. B. Lincoln; for assessors, Franklin Chubb, Gilbert Caswell, Henry W. Libhard; for commissioners of highways, Philo Bogue, J. E. Morrison. Nathan Benjamin : directors of the poor, Sam- uel Dexter, John McKelvey : constable and collector. Asa Spencer ; constable. Daniel MeKelvey.
"A division of the electors being called for, it was decided that the next township meeting or that of 1836, should be held at the house later occu- pied by A. Campau & Co., in the said township of lonia and county of Kalamazoo, M. T."
A special township meeting was held, May 12, 1835, at the house of A. Campau & Company, on the application of twelve electors, for the pur- pose of electing commissioners and inspectors of common schools. Alfred Cornell, George Case and Jolm McKelvey were chosen school commission- ers; William D. Moore. Alfred Cornell, Jr., Erastus Yeomans, Nathaniel Soules and William B. Lincoln, inspectors of common schools. At the sec- ond meeting, April 4, 1836, Joshua Boyer was chosen moderator. Officials were elected as follow: Supervisor, J. C. Abell; clerk, J. E. Morrison; assessors, Joshua Boyer, Asa Bunnell and Erastus Yeomans; highway com- missioners, Franklin Chubb, Lyman Webster and Daniel C. Moore; justices of the peace, Joshua Boyer. William D. Moore, Samuel Dexter and Thomas Cornell: constable and collector, Nathaniel Soules; constables, Warren S. Bogue and Lorenzo Dexter ; overseers of the poor, Samuel Dexter and John MeKelvey.
It was voted, by the unlifted hand, to raise one hundred dollars for the support of the poor and, by the uplifted hand, the following officers were chosen : School inspectors, W. B. Lincoln, Joshua Boyer, Erastus Yeomans. AAsa Bunnell and Thomas Shepard: pathmasters, district No. 1. Asa Spencer ; district No. 2, Chancellor Barringer ; district No. 3. Philo Bogue; district No. 4. Daniel Brown; district No. 5. 1. Thompson; district No. 6. Nathan Benjamin.
Upon the organization of Kent county, in 1836, lonia county was attached thereto as a township. In 1837 lonia county was given a separate political organization and divided into two townships. The first township meeting of Ionia under the new organization was held at the house of Sam-
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IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
uel Dexter, April 3, 1837. Cyrus Lovell was chosen moderator, and Sam- uel Dexter, Thomas Cornell and John E. Morrison, inspectors of election. After organizing, the electors adjourned to the school house in lonia village. Mason Hearsey, Cyrus Lovell. A. H. Barney and Calvin Rice were elected school inspectors by the uplifted hand; Samuel Dexter and Alonzo Sessions. overseers of the highways for districts No. 1 and 7. respectively, by viva voce vote, and, similarly, Warren S. Boyge, Gilbert Caswell and Samuel Dexter were chosen fence viewers.
Officials were chosen by ballot as follow: Supervisor, Cyrus Lovell : clerk, Erastus Yeomans; justices of the peace, Philo Bates, W. S. Bogue and John Lloyd: school commissioners, Stephen Dexter and A. II. Barney: directors of the poor. Erastus Yeomans and William Babcock: assessors, Mason Hearsey, Lawson S. Warner and Alonzo Sessions; collector, John B. Welch; constables, John B. Welch, Amos B. Bliss and James B. Ryan.
GENEREAUXVILLE.
As early, perhaps, as 1830, or before, Louis Genereaux, assisted by his son, Louis, Jr., established an Indian trading post in Ionia township, on the Grand river, about one mile west of the present village of Lyons. The place was commonly spoken of as Genereauxville, and was well known far and near. Louis, the son, got himself into the state prison through roasting an Indian to death, and left the old man to carry on the business, which did not, however, last very long after that.
There was a bridge over the Grand river at Genereauxville at an early day, as a connecting link on the stage route between Detroit and lonia via Lansing, and an attempt was likewise made by the Campaus ( who came into possession after the departure of the Genereaux), who found there the vil- lage of Genereauxville. but the scheme came to nothing.
EARLY SETTLEMENT-PIONEER SAW-MILL.
It is pretty certain that the first saw-mill built in the county was the one erected by II. V. Libhart, on Libbart creek, about two miles west of Lyons village, in 1833. Mr. Libhart visited the country in the spring of 1833, in company with William and Russell Libhart and William Delap, and selected the mill site, besides a considerable tract of land in the same vicin- ity. He returned at once to New York state and, shipping appliances for the erection of a mill, started with his wife and child for the scene of his
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IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
future operations. At Detroit he hired seven teams to carry his supplies westward, and accompanying them as far as where Leingsburg is now. where he left the party and, with his wife and child, pushed on through the woods for the mouth of the Maple, following Indian trails and fording streams. They reached the present site of the village of Lyons at sunset on the 4th of July, 1833, and so exhausted was Mrs. Libhart by the toils of her trip that she had to be carried across the river by Indians to the trading post of Ilunt & Belcher. The arrival of the Libharts was attended by demon- strations of eager welcome on the part of the Indians there, as well as of Hunt and Belcher.
Libhart and his wife enjoyed the hospitality of Hunt's cabin a few days while awaiting the coming of the teams, and when these reached the place. after a tedious twenty days' passage from Detroit, all hands moved ont to the mill site. The first work was the construction of a log cabin, and the second, the building of a saw-mill. History appears to have insisted that Libhart was the first settler in Lyons, when the fact is that he did not locate in Lyons until Lyons had received a score or more of inhabitants. lle carried on the saw-mill until 1837. when he sold the property to Judge Isaac Thompson and removed to Lyons village.
Mr. Libhart was a man of considerable local importance, and enjoyed the distinction of having delivered one of the first Independence Day ora- tions heard west of Pontiac. The year was 1834, and the locale of the pioneer Fourth of July demonstration, the hill on which later stood the resi- dence of Henry Hitchcock, of Lyons.
The infant child brought by Mr. and Mrs. Libhart to the Michigan wil- derness in 1833 lived to womanhood, and became Mrs. E. B. Armstrong, of Saranac. The first birth in what is now the township of lonia, outside of the city of lonia, was a son of Mr. Libhart, and, as the child lived but a few days, his was also the first death.
John McKelvey came from Oakland county, Michigan, in May, 183-1. and located on Libhart creek, in section 24, where he had a tract of three hundred acres, in which was the mill site now occupied by a grist-mill. Lib- hart was then carrying on a saw-mill on the same creek, but westward to lonia village there was no settler. A Mr. Soules, who came in with Mekel- ver as a farm hand, bought a place a mile west of MeKelvey's in 1835, and that year began to clear it Ile cleared two farms in Ionia in the course of time and removed subsequently to Oregon, where he died. John MeKeley died on his farm in section 24 in 1847. The mill site he himself did not improve, but sold it to Aaron Pratt, who erected a grist-mill there in 1844.
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IONLA COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
James, son of John Mekeley, was born on June 28, 1835, doubtless the first birth in the township outside the village of Ionia, except Mrs. Libhart's child.
In 1835 William Moore, Jr., son of William Moore, of Moore's Island, in Lyons township, lived in Ionia, one mile west of Lyons village, but moved . from there in 1837 to Portland. William Moore, Jr., was a justice of the peace, and married several couples at his house, including the first couple married in the township beyond the limits of the village : but who the couple were cannot be remembered.
Gad Bunnell came to fonia township with Libhart, but in 1835 settled in Lyons township. Eliza Bunnell, a sister, came to the settlement in Janu- ary. 1836. Cynthia, a second sister, was a school teacher, and in 1835 or 1836 taught school in John Mckelvey's house.
John McKelvey put in a crop of wheat in 1835, and when he harvested it people came from far and near to get sved wheat of him.
In the Mekelvey neighborhood settlements were slow, and for some years that part of the town, rough and uninviting, was an almost trackless forest.
SUPERVISORS.
1838, Asa Spnecer: 1839. (. Lovell; 1840, E. Yeomans; 1841, G. W. Dexter: 1842, M. Hearscy: 1843-44, H. Rich; 1845, M. Hearsey: 1846, J. P. Place: 1847-48. C. M. Moseman: 1840. A. F. Bell; 1850, B. Harter; 1851. W. C. Clark: 1852. J. B. Welch: 1853. H. Borden: 1854. C. Lovell: 1855. D. Irish: 1850, T. Merritt: 1857-58. F. Hall; 1859-60, J. C. Dester; 1801. L. Kelsey: 1802, 0. Tower: 1863-64, William Kitts: 1805-66, E. S. Johnson: 1807. P. D. Cutler: 1868, B. R. Covert; 1860. E. S. Johnson ; 1870-72. R. R. Covert: 1873, E. P. Kelsey: 1874, T. E. Smith; 1875-76. William Kitts: 1877-78. T. E. Smith: 1879. J. B. Welch: 1880, William Kitts: 1881, George Wurster: 1882-83, Monza Rice: 1884-85. William D). Place: 1886-87-88, Arthur V. Hall; 1880-90, Albert E. Jackson: 1801-02. 93-94-95. Frank Taft: 1806-07-08-09-1900-01-02, James Ml. Chase; 1903. Lee P. Spaulding: 1904-05-06-07, Dick K. Taylor ; 1908-00-10-11-12-13. .I. N. Hall: 1914. E. Vollers: 1915-16.
PRAIRIE CREEK.
The neighborhood known as Prairie Creek, lying on the stream of the same name, was purchased in 1835 by Nathaniel Brown, whose idea was
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that the water power at that point would found a village. Indeed. he went so far as to say that his town at P'rairie Creek would outstrip Dexter's vil- lage, farther west, and that he would have the county seat fixed there. At all events, he platted a village, which he called lonia, set about the con- struction of a saw-mill, and hired J. C. Abell, a Grand Rapids lawyer, to look after affairs, Brown himself not remaining permanently on the ground. Abell got tired after a while of looking after village lots and a saw-mill and notified Brown to get somebody else.
Brown was in Chicago, and some time in 1836 encountered John P. Place, who was then looking for a chance to invest in Michigan and grow up with the country. Place purchased a half interest in Brown's Michigan village, and left at once to take charge of the enterprise.
When Place reached the scene of operations he found that Abell had got the saw-mill frame up and was living in a log house. As soon as Place appeared. Abell put off and took no further part in local history. Place went on to finish the mill, and engaged a tailor by the name of Perry to occupy the log house and board the saw-mill hands. In the fall of 1836 the mill was finished and began to saw lumber, and in that year Place built a store (the first in the township ) and stocked it with goods brought up the river from Grand Haven by pole boats. Inhabitants were scarce and trade was chiefly bestowed upon Place's store by Indians.
Although Brown and Place sold a few village lots, settlers fought shy of the place. A man by the name of Bogue, whose wife had received from Brown the gift of a lot, built a log shanty on the village site and lived in it a little while, but beyond that faint indication of progress the new town never gave any vigorous signs.
By the close of the year 1837 Place made up his mind that the village enterprise was a failure and, selling the stock of goods to Judge Brown, of "Tonia County Seat," closed his store, which was the first and only temple of trade vouchsafed to Nathaniel Brown's embryo city. By that time Bogue and Perry had moved away, and William Lyon was boarding Place and the mill people. Place eventually purchased Brown's interest in the land and devoted himself to farming and milling. He was a man of some mark and occupied the office of sheriff with considerable credit. After a few years the saw-mill was burned and from that time forward Place confined himself to farming. He died in 1869.
The nearest approach the village ever made to having a tavern was when the Perrys built a large framed house in which they proposed keeping
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tavern; but the undertaking was too much for them, and financial collapse precipitated their departure for other scenes.
After the burning of Place's mill, the mill site was not occupied until Blanchard & Beatty built upon it, in 1861, the fine grist-mill carried on by Hoag & Mansfield.
In 1872 Laura Place platted Prairie Creek as an addition to the village of Ionia, but it did not reach a very wide-spreading dignity. William D. Place, son of John P. Place, managed the old farm and carried on a large dairy business, the place being stocked with forty cows.
SOUTHI JONIA.
Opposite the city of lonia, on the south side of the Grand river, there is a small hamlet which G. W. Arnold surveyed and mapped in 1876 and designated as South lonia. In that locality Oliver Arnold (a comer to Ionia with Samuel Dexter and others in 1833) set up the first blacksmith shop in the county the same year, and there he worked as a blacksmith more or less regularly until his death, in 1856. The Arnolds occupied the place until his death, and then G. W. Arnold carried on an agricultural implement factory there. Near at hand E. A. Chubb had a foundry that Jenks & Arnold started in 1866.
South of the river. along the western line, no settlers followed Oliver Arnold, the blacksmith, until March. 1836, when Philo Bates and William Babcock came on with laborers to commence the improvement of a large tract of land they had purchased in 1835. This tract, which Bates and Babcock bought in common, comprised fully four thousand acres, and lay in the townships of Ionia. Berlin and Orange. When they came, in March, 1836, they brought the families of Moses Marsh and Benjamin Brand to assist them, and by the fall of 1836 Bates and Babcock, having got up their cabins and made a fair start, brought out their own families. Moses Marsh became a settler in Ionia, and Benjamin Brand in Orange. In 1836 the state road, called the Bellevue road, extending from Marshall to Ionia, was opened along the township line between Berlin and Ionia. and it was on both sides of that road that Bates' and Babcock's lands lay.
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