History of Jackson County, Michigan, Part 11

Author:
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago [Ill.] : Inter-state Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1166

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MICHIGAN STATE PRISON AT JACKSON.

HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY

INTRODUCTION.

Historiography is one of the most important arts, even as his- tory itself ranks with the primary sciences. Whether the writer is rough or polished in his style, is a matter to be considered apart from his art or science. Provided an account of Le origin and the rise or fall of the people with whom his chronicle connects itself is given impartially and correctly, the excesses of refinement or roughness may be overlooked and the subject studied with pleasure. Experience teaches that history is one of the most effective elements in the promotion of good, and one of the most neces- sary in building up man to acquire a knowledge of what human power and wisdom really are; and since it is impossible for any one man to walk in all the paths of life, or receive a true con- ception of past events from what is legendary or fabulous, the science of history comes forward to his aid, telling him how cities were built up, fortunes made, and battles won. Through this means the past lives in the present, and a careful study of its story cannot fail to endow the mind of the student with a knowledge of men and events.

Chronology and geography are the two eyes of history. Events must be observed through the locality in which they happened, and the time when they ocenrred, if men would judge justly. The massa- cres of Glencoe, Island Magee and St. Barthlomew were justifiable in the minds of the ruffian actors, with whom Christianity had as little to do as the fallen Lucifer has now with heaven. The rude policy of the time directed those human sacrifices. If the massacre of Wy- oming were to be repeated to-day by a troop of disguised Britishers, what a howl of scorn would arise from the centers of civilization! Yet, during the Revolution, the enemy seemed to be convinced of their justification, and the royal and loyal (? ) citi- zens gloried in the success of military strategy.

Now history brings forth all such events; it inquires into then, criticises, paints the barbarity of the agents in such transac- tions, holds them up to obloquy, and thus leads on the mind to holier deeds, worthy of our civilization. History contributed its share in making a soldier such as Washington, or a philosopher

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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.

such as Franklin. Its work is silent and slow, but sure and perfect. Nothing on this broad earth is so solemnly interesting as an impartial historical work. It admonishes as well as directs. It relates the fate of brilliant enterprises, and shows where the cause of failure existed. It directs other actions of great mo- ment, approves of them, and points out where the capital may be placed on success. It places examples before statesmen which, if examined closely, may have a tendency to lead them away from a vicious policy, and so benefit the people whose destinies are in their hands. History, pure and simple, enters the paths of peace, and snatches a hidden name from its hiding place. The American people of to-day are, and generations to come will be, more concerned about the war of the Revolution than were the colonists of that period. So is it in other cases; the inheritors of these beautiful farms and dwellings which decorate the county will search for an account of their forefathers, and find it only in history. The science is the Alpha and Omega of all valuable information regarding men and events, and should always take a prominent place in the book-case or on the table of every man who holds not his manhood cheap.

In this history of Jackson county much space is devoted to the philosophical and descriptive papers prepared by Jackson citi- zens. This was made incumbent on the writer, since many of these articles are of rare excellence, while others possess a com- mendable peculiarity. Each contribution is intimately connected with the county, and is on that account, also, of great value and interest. Combined, they will form for the historian of the fut- ure a great subject, and one that will remind him of men who did their duty to themselves, to posterity and to their Republic.

CHAPTER I.

TOPOGRAPHICAL, ETC

BOUNDARIES, AREA AND POPULATION.

The boundaries of Jackson county, as defined in the introduc- tion to the chapter on the "Transaction of the Supervisors," and remaining since unchanged, are Ingham and Eaton on the north, Hillsdale and Lenawee on the south, Washtenaw on the east and Calhoun on the west. Its area is set down at about 720 square miles, containing a population, according to the census of 1880, of 42,031 souls, by townships and wards as follows:

Blackman.

1,505

Parma.

.1,418 | 2d ward, Jackson city 1,659

Columbia.

1,606

Pulaski.

.1,168 3d

66 1,006

Concord

1,583.

Rives. 1,338

4th .

3,779

Grass Lake,.

. 1,896

Sandstone. 1,572

5th

2,322

Hanover.

1,732

Spring Arbor

1,264

6th “

2.230

Henrietta

1,135

Springport

.1.468

7th' "

2,557

Leoni

1,557

Summit.

1,000

8th 46

66 2,107

Liberty

1,065

Tompkins 1,370

Napoleon

1,180

Waterloo

1,263

Total

.42,031

Norvell

908 1st ward, Jackson city 1,537

Of these, 21,831 are males, 20,200 females; 36,429 natives, 5,602 foreigners; 41,513 white, 518 colored, 3 Chinese and 3 Indians.

The principal villages are: Springport, Tompkins, Berryville, Rives Junction, Henrietta, Waterloo, Devereaux Station, Parma, Sandstone, Van Horn's Crossing, Puddle Ford, Woodville, Leoni, Michigan Center, Grass Lake, Franciscoville, Concord, Spring Arbor, Spring Arbor Station, Napoleon, Norvell, Jefferson, Brook- lyn, Baldwin, Hanover, Stony Point, Pulaski.

LAKES AND STREAMS.

The lakes and ponds of the county are Montague, Garley and Cooper's lakes in Springport; an expansion of Sandstone creek in Tompkins; Berry, Trumbull, Mud, and Allen lakes in Rives; Pleasant, Twin, White's, Mud, Baptiste, and Portage lakes in Henrietta; Big Portage, Little Portage, Clear, Merkle, Pond Lily, in Waterloo; Chase's pond in Parma; Heart's lake in Sand- stone; Gillett's, Brill's, Goose, Eagle, Mud, and Grove lakes, and Mill pond in Leoni; Grass, Tims, Rielly's and Little Pleasant lakes in Grass Lake; expansion of Kalamazoo river in Concord; expansions of Sandstone creek in Spring Arbor; Sharp's, Vander-

11:

HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.

cook's, Brown's and Cone lakes in Summit; AAckerman's, Cran- berry, Stony, Wolf, in Napoleon; Sweeney, South. Wampler's. Mnd, Vineyard, Tamarack, and Bessy lakes, with expansion and Mill pond on Goose creek in Norvell; Clarke's, Vineyard (ex- tension of) and Mill pond in Columbia; Skiff, Grand. Round, Mnd, and ('rispell lakes in Liberty; Farewell, Mnd, Bibbins and other ponds in Hanover; Swain's, Wilbur, Long, and Goose lakes in Pulaski.

Jackson county forms the basin from which springs a large number of important rivers, and several creeks or streams. Grand river may be said to have its source in the extreme southern portion of Liberty township, in a marsh and pond southwest of Grand lake. Its course is northeast, toward Clarke lake, in Columbia; thence north by west through a series of windings, umtil it enters Jackson city at the southeast angle. Flowing north it meets the waters of the An Foin, or Portage branch, at Puddle Ford, in Blackman township, and flowing northwest forms a jnetion with Sandstone creek in Tompkins, north of the village. It flows north from see. 4, R. 2 W., in Tompkins, and pursuing a northwesterly conrse, enters the lake at Grand Haven.

The Kalamazoo takes its rise a little sonthi of Lake Farewell, in Hanover. Flowing through this township it enters Spring Arbor. courses northwest throngh Concord, and leaves the county at the southwest angle of Parma, entering the lake near the village of Saugatuck.

The Raisin river may be said to have its origin in Norvell township, where its main feeder flows from the mill-pond, and thus is it made a continuation of Goose creek, the sonrce of which is found in Columbia, the adjoining township. The second feeder rises in Grass lake, and flowing sonth, forms a junction with the main branch, sonth of Sweeney lake, follows a south- easterly course, and enters Lake Erie at Monroe.

The ereeks are numerons, comprising among others Wilbur. Swain. Stony, Goose, Marsh brook, Wolf, Rielly's, Baptiste, Or- chard, Stowell, White's, Spring brook, Portage creek, Mackay brook, Sandstone and Raisin creeks.

Artesian water bursts forth at intervals, and courses down its bed to mingle with that of the creeks, lakes or rivers.

PRE-EMINENCE.

The "height of land" occurs in the township of Summit, immedi- ately south of Jackson city. Here may be seen the effect of such an eminence on the waters of the locality, the waters of the Kala- mazoo and Grand rivers flowing to the great Western lake, and those of the Raisin into Lake Erie, at Monroe. Summit has proba- bly never been visited by the hydrographer. In all the reports at hand there is no mention made of it; yet that it exercises a very important influence on the streams originating in the immediate vicinity, cannot be questioned. Let the altitudes of a few principal

119

HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.

eminenees in the State be taken. The computed elevation of Fran- ciscoville is 446 feet above Lake Huron and 1,024 feet above the sea; that of Grass Lake reaches within 35 feet of the foregoing figures, and Leoni is 10 feet lower than Grass Lake. Jackson is only 400 feet above the lake, or 978 feet above the sea; Michigan Center. 363 feet; Barry, 362; Sandstone creek, 347 feet; Gillett's lake, 354 feet, and Grass lake, 377. This measurement would entitle Franciscoville to the name of Summit. The fact that it is the highest point arrived at by one man does not constitute it the highest eminence of the Lower Penisula or even of the county; nor do the people generally believe it to be; for they named the Summit under the conviction that it was fully 1,098 feet above the sea, or 520 feet above the level of Lake Huron.

The marsh lands of the county extend over 4, 881 acres. Those stretching along the eastern branch of Grand river, and forming one of its feeders, are very extensive. All this land, if drained, is capable of the highest cultivation; and the wonder is that snch an intelligent people have permitted it to lie waste so long. The surface of this county is generally undulating, and a very small portion may be said to be hilly. The soil is that known under the ap- pellation of plains and openings. The west and southwest portion, constituting, perhaps, one-fourth of the county, is burr-oak plains; the greater portion of the rest of the county is oak openings and timbered land. There is no dry prairie. Small tracts of wet prairie are interspersed throughout the county, which are easily drained. This county is generally well timbered and watered, and has a large portion of superior farming land. The soil is mostly of a rich, sandy loam. The plains, much resembling orchards, are covered with a sparse growth of burr-oak, white and red oak and hickory trees, generally free from underbrush, and in the summer months with a succession of wild flowers. Wheat, oats, corn, barley and potatoes succeed admirably, and the magnificent orchards generally viell a rich harvest.

GEOLOGV.

The report of State Geologist Alex. Winchell, printed in 1861, deals briefly with the subject so far as it is connected with this county. From it, however, an idea of the formation of the dis- triet may be gleaned. He does not assert that outerops of rock are unknown here, but rather is he inclined to think that from the arenaceous character of the Drift materials throughout the conn- ties of Oakland and Lapeer, an arenaceous stratum may be found underlying the district known as Jackson county. Good exposures .. of the formation may be seen in the quarries at Jonesville and ITills- dale, and at many other points. In Jackson county the formation extends up into Liberty and Hanover, and has been pierced nearly through at the depth of 105 feet in the well of S. Jacobs, Jr., in the township of Pulaski.

120

HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.

Napoleon Group .- The report, in a direct reference to the county, says : "The next outcrop of these rocks is found at Napoleon, near Jackson, where they are quarried over an area of 88 acres, and expose a section of about 75 feet. The rock is for the most part of a grayish color, inclining to buff. The beds are generally of sufficient thickness and perfection to answer either for flagging or building. The following is the stratification :

4. Sandstone, buff and bluish-gray, composed of transparent and colored grains of quartz, thick bedded.

40 feet.

3. Sandstone, yellowish, thick bedded .. 4 .

2. Sandstone, pale greenish, thick bedded .. 20 4

1. Sandstone, greenish-buff, composed of minute rounded grains of colored quartz, pretty firmly cemented with a very perceptible quantity of white calcareous matter 11 .

The higher beds are worked on the grounds into excellent win- dow-sills and water tables. The compiler of the report saw some fine floated and molded stone steps and door-sills. The quarries at this place furnished the cut stone for the Union school buildings, and the city hall at Monroe, the Union school-house at Tecum- seh, and for several public, private and commercial buildings in the vicinity. Some beds of this stone are sufficiently clean and sharp to answer the requisites of a coarse grindstone, and some years ago this manufacture attained here a considerable degree of importance.

The Napoleon sandstone onterops at other places in the south part of Jackson county and further northwest. Being entirely free from fossils, it is not easily distinguished from the sandstones above and the unfossiliferons portions of the rock below. The sandstone of Napoleon bears a considerable resemblance to the conglomerate of Ohio, as seen at the gorge of the Cuyahoga at the falls ; but it contains no pebbles, and occupies a position, more- over, below the carboniferous limestone. As a distinct formation, therefore, it has no satisfactory equivalent in the surrounding States, and there is no reason, except its negative paleontological characters, for separating it from the Marshall group.

Salt Group .- The Salt group thins out toward the southern portion of the State, and nearly disappears through Lapeer, Oak- land. Washtenaw, Jackson and Eaton counties, thus forming an- other illustration of the thickening of our formations toward the north. The salt springs at Saline, in Washtenaw county, and at several points in Jackson, may possibly issue from the attenuated representative of the group; but I am more inclined to think that these waters, like similar ones in Branch, Oakland and the north- ern part of Huron counties, are supplied by the various formations outcropping at these localities. Borings for salt have shown the Napoleon and Marshall sandstones to be saliferous, while at Sagi- naw, water from the Coal Measures stood at one degree of the salome- ter in the upper part, and increased to 14 degrees before reaching the Parma sandstone. It is important to bear in mind that the occur-

121

HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.

rence of a brine spring proves nothing more than that there is salt somewhere in the State.

Parma Sandstone .- In the townships of Parma, Springport and Sandstone is found a white or yellowish quartzose glistening sand- stone containing occasional traces of terrestrial vegetation. On the line between sections 18 and 19, in Sandstone township, this rock is seen succeeding upward to the ferruginous bed of the carboniferous limestone. On the N. W. ¿ ofN. W. } of section 29 the rock presents a characteristic exposure. It is light colored, thick bedded, firmly cemented, and furnishes an excellent stone for building purposes. It presents the remarkable dip of 45 ° S. S. W., with vertical divisional planes running parallel with the strike. The rock is occasionally stained with iron, is of medium firm- ness, and glistens in the sun, owing to the glassy appearance of its quartzose grains. For eaps and sills it is apparently superior to the Napoleon sandstone. This quarry occurs upon a ridge, ele- vated about 35 feet above the limestone. It has every appearance of a violent uplift, but the undisturbed position of the under- lying limestone seems incompatible with this supposition, and we + are forced to conelude that the apparent dip of the formation is nothing more than a very illusory example of oblique lamina- tion. In the same township, near where the highway crosses Rice creek, this sandstone affords a calamite. The rock is nearly white, sometimes varying to a light straw color, and in some places is quite full of small, white quartzose pebbles. A portion of the Albion Hlouring mill was built of stone from this section. At Boyn- ton's quarry, half a mile northwest of the Barry coal mines, is a fine exposure of massive sandstone, which, though ocenpying a higher geographical position than the coal, is believed to belong geologically below it. It is found above the limestone, in the vi- cinity of Chester Wall's quarry, and seems to be the highest rock in the interval between the Barry and Woodville coal mines. South of Woodville it may be recognized by its glistening charac- ter. to the vieinity of Hayden's coal mine, and thence to the region south of Jackson. It is separated in this part of the State by so short an interval from the Napoleon sandstone below and the Woodville sandstone above, that the geographical distribution of this formation has not been very accurately determined. This sandstone was pierced in the boring for salt at East Saginaw, and its thickness was found to be 105 feet. It cannot be one-third of this on the southern border of the basin. No fossils, except im- perfect calamites and vegetable traces, have been detected in the Parma rock, but accompanying its outerop are found angular fragments of flinty or cherty sandstone, abounding in impressions of sigillaria. Unlike the Ohio conglomerate, it is separated from the U'pper Devonian rocks by a considerable thickness of calcareous and arenaceous stratum.

The "Times" Building .- W. F. Storey, when meditating the building of the magnificent office in which his journal is printed and published. at Chicago, could not see where the

122

HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.

Joliet and Lemont quarries equaled those of Stony Point or Sandstone. He dispatched a Mr. Wilder hither to examine and report on the stone. The report was necessarily favor- able. Subsequently the rock, of which the Chicago Times block is built, was transported from Sandstone to Chicago, where it met the approval of all building contractors not concerned in the Lemont ring. This stone, though impregnable to the effects of the most biting frosts, is not entirely impervious to water. Now the rain fall at Chicago is so very limited that no fears may be en- tertained for the bnikling, while the piercing frosts, the only canse for anxiety there, cannot affect the huge pile of Jackson rock, worked into the beautiful building at the northwest corner of Wash- ington street and 5th avenne.

Carboniferous Limestone .- From Grand Rapids the formation has been traced north through Ada, in Kent county, to the rapids of the Muskegon. South of Grand Rapids it is followed through Walker, Paris and Gaines, in Kent county, to Bellevne, in Eaton county, and thence by numerons outerops to Parma, Sandstone, Spring Arbor, Summit, and Leoni. The S. W. Į of S. E. } of section 13, Summit, is believed to be the most southern well + characterized exposure of this formation. It occurs in a quarry belonging to Michael Shoemaker. The section exposed here is about 14 feet, and resembles the rock at Spring Arbor. It is as follows:

I). Sandstone, red, calcareous, highly shattered. .5 feet

C. Limestone, highly ferruginous. 4

B. Limestone, quite arenaceous, shattered. 2

A. Limestone, compact, crystalline. 3 99

The characters of this bed are exceedingly uniform at all the out- erops on the south and west sides of the geological basin.

Coal Measures .- The coal measures, with the overlying Wood- ville sandstone, occupy the whole central area of the Lower Pen- insula. The territory covered embraces the counties of Jackson, Saginaw, Shiawassee, Clinton, Ionia, Montcalm, Gratiot, Isabella, Midland, Tuscola, Genesee, Ingham. Eaton and Bay. The whole area underlaid is about 6,700 square miles, embracing 187 town- ships. Coal was discovered at Spring Arbor in 1835, while digging the foundations for the mill of the village. The opening occurs on Sandstone creek, where it is crossed by the highway, on the 3-sec- tion line running south through the S. E. }. The outlier seems to be embraced in a gentle elevation, covering, perhaps, 40 aeres to the west of the opening. Some distance up the hill-slope, a boring was made with the following results:

E. Drift materials. 8 feet

D. Shale 22

(. Coal 4

B. Under elay 14

A. Parma sandstone.

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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.

In the Drift, which has been carried into the hill, the coal found is only three feet thick, and contains a seam of iron pyrites one foot from the top. Fragments of black band iron ore are brought out which contain impressions of fishes. The sandstone comes to the surface a few rods to the north, and a boring for coal was executed in it, of course without success. The boring, however. became an artesian well. One mile north of Hayden's mine, in Spring Arbor township, occurs the Woodville mine. The section passed in the shaft of this mine is as follows:

E. Superficial materials. 12 feet

D. Woodville sandstone. 30

C. Shales, dark, bituminous 43

B. Bituminous coal. 4

A. Under clays. 3

The coal is bituminous, solid, generally free from foreign matters, but is intersected by a thin belt of iron pyrites. It furnishes a glistening coke. The coal found in the Jackson City Coal Com- pany's mine, near the village of Barry, possesses similar qualities to that of the Woodville mine, and appeared to equal any in the State. An outcrop of coal is said to oeeur about half a mile west of the village of Barry. Another outerop occurs at the mill-dam in the city of Jackson, and indications of its approach to the surface are seen in the neighborhood. In the shaft which was sunk by the coal company above mentioned, the following section was passed, according to the statement of Wm. Walker:

G Superficial materials. 8 feet

F. Sandstone, white. 26

E. Black, bituminous shale with Lingula 14

D. Black-band iron ore 3

C. Cannel coal.

B. Bituminous coal 2

A. Arenaceous fire clay -

In the boring close by, the section continues downward through 30 feet of arenaceous materials, probably representing the Parma sandstone. Numerous explorations have been made in the vicinity of the city of Jackson, but it would occupy too much space to detail the results.

Depression over Coal Fields. - The settling of the earth, and with it an occasional dwelling in the vicinity of the coal mines north of the prison, not only presents no very alarming phases, but is nothing new, recent or particularly consequential. The coal veins of that locality vary from two to three feet in thickness, and after the mineral is removed and the supports taken out it is nat- ural that the ground above should settle into the nnoccupied space. But the coal is 65 feet below, and many times the earth sinks so gradually and so little that the change is hardly observable on the surface. Throughout this entire distance, as a result of the sub- terranean excavations, the face of the land is undulating in places,

124

HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.

but it is not marked by abrupt depressions, or sharply defined eav- ities or hollows.

In several instances buildings standing on places which have thus settled of course settled with their foundations, but were car- ried down so gradually and gently that little notiee was taken of it. And in no case has a building sunk independent of a contiguons area more or less extensive, so that as a general thing the appear- ance of the premises underwent little observable change. Near the Emerson mine, some time ago, a small orehard sank a couple of feet, but its relation to the adjacent territory is such that it would hardly be suspected that any such event had befallen it. Over a year since the house of Howell T. Howells, 18 Cooper , street, sank a little, and three months ago a barn in that neighbor- hood belonging to John Tremellings settled, but nothing was thought of it. Recently, just north of the Emerson mine, near David Price's dwelling, the earth was found to be sinking and it is not improbable that the dwelling will be involved, as coal of the thickness of two or three feet has been taken from beneath it. Allusion has been made to the sinking of the small brick house of Louis Reinholdt, florist, 37 Cooper street, but aside from two or three small fissures in the cellar walls the building seems to be in- taet and in no danger of additional injury or of collapse. As a rule, however, the buildings in this district are frame, and there is little or no danger of their falling in ease the ground beneath them set- tles as already explained.

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History of Jackson County, Michigan, Part 11

Author: Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago [Ill.] : Inter-state Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1166

Author:
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago [Ill.] : Inter-state Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1166