History of Kalamazoo county, Michigan, Part 119

Author: Durant, Samuel W. comp
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia. Everts & Abbott
Number of Pages: 761

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"Judge Harrison, so the story runs, having been interviewed by Mr. Cooper, after the introduction remarked, 'So you got me into your book, Mr. Cooper ?'

"' Yes,' replied Mr. Cooper, ' I had to have some one, judge, and you seemed to be about the right sort of a person to make my bee- hunter out of.'

"'Well, Mr. Cooper, you are a smart man, or at least they say you are, but you ought to know better than to make a bee light on clover. They are too smart for that; they don't fool away with red clover when there's sweeter flowers easier to get at."

""" Oh, I meant white clover,' interrupted Mr. Cooper.

"' Well,' responded the judge, 'you are a smart man, Mr. Cooper, at any rate they say you are, but you ought to know that there wasn't any white clover here at the time you speak of. White clover don't come till after settlers come.'

" The judge is also represented as tripping up Mr. Cooper on other alleged inaccuracies. It seems curious that such a story should have been started twenty-four years ago and been repeated constantly ever since if there were no foundation for it. It was well known, too, that Judge Harrison was an inveterate bee-hunter. His oldest son tells us that after his father saw a bee he was never satisfied until he found the honey, and often would leave his work to follow up the bee and secure its store of sweets. Thinking that some of Mr. Cooper's notes might be in existence that would throw light on the subject, we ad- dressed a note to his son, Paul F. Cooper, Esq., an attorney-at-law in Albany, and he promised to make search. Afterwards, when in Albany, the writer called on Mr. Cooper, who then told us that he had made search and talked with other members of the family,.but was unable to learn or find anything that would aid us in our search. We are forced to the conclusion, however, that Mr. Cooper must have had

Judge Harrison in his mind when he drew the picture of ' Buzzing Ben,' the bee-hunter, though of course his portraiture may have in- cluded characteristics found in Towner Savage or other settlers."

The following poem, entitled " In Memoriam," was writ- ten by Mrs. Lydia B. Fletcher after the death of Judge Harrison :

" At last the silver cord is loosed, The golden bowl a broken thing ; The aloe through the century nursed Has reached at last its blossoming.

" The pilgrim form is gone that bent So long above death's sullen tide,

And now the white folds of his tent Are gleaming on the other side.

" Long paths his feet were left to make Through weary deserts, sere and brown,

Before the angel came to take His earthly tabernacle down.

" What changes fell to harm or bless Our bounded vision cannot see, Our few short years can only guess The hidings of a century.

" What friendships blossomed to decay ; What joyous smiles dissolved in tears ;

What graves were left along the way Of him who reached a hundred years.

" But if those short lives blessings are, Whose course is fraught with deeds of good,

Then his was one most blest and rare Of all our later brotherhood.

" For, while the number of his days Was double that of common life,

A grand uprightness marked his ways, With friendly acts his hands were rife.

"So free his life had been from blame, So manly through the world his tread,

A fragrance lingered round his name, His white locks honor o'er him shed.

" And strangers, passing, paid the meed Of reverence to his life's long span ; But honored less, by word and deed, The aged pilgrim than the man.

"Thank God! for such grand waves that break Sometimes along the shores of time, For such sweet lives, that help to make The lives that follow them sublime."

Erastus Guilford,¿ a native of Northampton, Mass., re- moved, when twenty-one years of age, to a locality near Cleveland, Ohio, and there became acquainted with Dela- more Duncan, the Doanes, Daniel Wilmarth, and others. About three years later he removed with his father's family to Michigan, and settled at Ypsilanti, Washtenaw Co. For two years and a half he was engaged in distilling at that place, at the end of which time he failed in business, and returned to Lyme, Ohio, in the summer of 1828. In com- pany with Daniel Wilmarth he started for Michigan to seek some favorable location for founding a colony. At Monroe they stopped a couple of days, and there found an orchard; Guilford procured some apple-seeds, which he tied up in his handkerchief. About the latter part of October or first of November, 1828, the two resumed their journey

* Kalamazoo.

t See history of Cooper township.

# These items are contributed by Mr. Guilford's son, George N. Guilford.

441

TOWNSHIP OF PRAIRIE RONDE.

westward, Guilford's funds consisting of two silver half- dollars. They reached Prairie Ronde in the latter part of November, arriving at the " Buck-horn Tavern," on the southeast side of the prairie, after sundown. Several miles off they perceived a bright light, and pushing on arrived at the house of Mr. Whipple, west of Schoolcraft, on the " Island." They were cordially welcomed to Mr. Whip- ple's domicile, which was formed by turning over his wagon- box, resting it on high logs, and curtaining the sides with blankets. The day following all went over to the Harrison dwelling, on the shore of Harrison's Lake, where they remained several days. Messrs. Guilford and Wilmarth se- lected land for future purchase, lying in the southwest part of the prairie, on a small branch of the St. Joseph. Guilford finally settled one mile above Flowerfield, St. Joseph Co., and Wilmarth on what is known as the Insley farm: A small cabin was built on Wilmarth's place, and Mr. Wilmarth returned to Ohio to report to his friends. After arriving home he was married, and in March, 1829, a party started for Prairie Ronde, consisting of Mr. Wilmarth and wife, William Duncan, the Doanes, and Erastus Guilford's sister Pamelia, a girl of fourteen. Mr. Duncan's progress was slower than that of the others, as he drove along a number of swine. About the middle of April, 1829, the party arrived at Guilford's cabin, on the west side of Prairie Ronde. Mr. Guilford planted the first garden on the prairie which was cultivated by a white man, and was very proud of it. Col. Abiel Fellows, upon his arrival, compli- mented it highly. Mr. Guilford's apple-trees were just peeping from the ground, their growth being from the seeds he had procured at Monroe. He had no cabin yet on his own claim, and in order to hold it, walked to Harrison's in the latter part of May, 1829, borrowed his team, and plowed enough on his own land to enable him to keep others from claiming it. The plow used was a rude wooden implement, but answered the purpose. At the same time, being directed by Col. Fellows, he plowed "straight up across" the latter's claim, and thereby enabled him also to show proof of proprietorship. This was the first furrow plowed in the township .*

The first marriage in Prairie Ronde occurred July 4, 1829, on which occasion Greer McElvain and Mahala Hanson were wedded. Erastus Guilford and his sister Pamelia were among the guests, and all the friends of the married couple were present, some coming from a distance of five or six miles, on foot. The parents of the bride- groom arrived in town in the following September.

The first transfer of the settler's claim, or pre-emption right, made in the township, occurred in the latter part of October, 1829, when Greer McElvain sold his claim to Abram I. Shaver, reserving, however, his crops, which con- sisted of five acres of corn, pumpkins, and turnips. The next transfer was from Mr. Hanson to Abner Calhoun. The McElvains removed finally to Gourd-Neck Prairie, in Schoolcraft, being its first settlers.

In March, 1830, Erastus Guilford was married to Miss Elizabeth Ford, of Gourd-Neck Prairie, upon which he set-

tled and spent the remaining years of his life. He raised a family of five sons, none of whom ever spent a dollar for whisky or tobacco. Mr. Guilford was employed in 1833- 34 by Smith, Huston & Co., at Schoolcraft, to transport their goods, and his services in the two years amounted to $600. Mr. Guilford, with the other settlers, endured all the hardships and battled with all the difficulties incident to frontier life at that date, and like most others triumphed over them all.

Prominent among the settlers of this township was Abram I. Shaver, who was well known to all who made their homes in this region at an early day, and whose peculiarities have been commented upon by writers and speakers before the gatherings of the pioneers, and marveled at by those of a later generation. Mr. Shaver was extremely fond of relating his pioneer experiences, and some of his stories have been preserved in print. Regarding his settlement in the town- ship, he gave substantially the following account at one of the meetings of the pioneers : He came from the State of New York, having left the old home in a very quiet way, after sundown, and settled with his wife on a farm in Prairie Ronde, upon which his remains are now at rest .; He "liked Prairie Ronde the first time he ever saw it,-always liked it, and never thought of leaving it but once, and then only because some of his neighbors had become so uncom- mon bad that he couldn't live in the same clearin' with 'em ;" and besides, if he should leave, he knew not where to go, for he had " run away from almost every other place." He had at first a " mighty mean idea of the oak openings ;" thought the soil poor and of no account to raise food for man or beast,-only made to hold the earth together ; " would not have given a cent for as many acres of it as the moon could shine on in an entire clear night." He said that poverty and ambition were what drove him to this re- gion, for, having enough of the former and been cured of the latter by " rubbing against the politicians of the coun- try,-they were a mighty hard set of cases,"-he concluded to try and retrieve his fortune in the West. The politicians, he said, "promised anything, never performed, and when elected sot down in the county offices, or in their chairs in the Legislature or Congress, and looked as though they be- lieved themselves honest." Mr. Shaver built his house on the prairie, 14 feet wide by 28 feet long, with a fireplace in each end, in order to be sure of a good draught by changing from one to the other as the wind shifted. " Made our first beds of brush, covered with such rushes and hay as we could collect. Managed to browse through the winter,-only two or three families within thirty miles of us; came out in the spring as poor as a schoolmaster in the early times who had been boarding 'round. The Indians were very kind to us, furnishing venison, berries, and sugar ; in using the Indian sugar, whenever we found the bones of a skunk or a musk- rat, we laid them aside and never swallowed them. I think there is more style and putting on airs now than in the former times, but I don't think fashionable people can eat as much as the pioneers did ; with the women, it is because they are too much pinched up about the waist." He

* See note in account of Abram I. Shaver, from information by other parties.

t He settled on the place Dec. 25, 1828, according to his own state- ment. Other accounts state that it was in January, 1829.

442

HISTORY OF KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

claimed to have turned, in April, 1829, the first furrow plowed in the county,* with a wooden mould-board plow, which " didn't scour much." He held the plow that season to turn over-for himself and neighbors-82 acres. He said his first crop of wheat yielded over 42 bushels to the acre. As he had no barn, and no floor to thrash it out upon with a flail, it was tramped out on the prairie by his oxen and winnowed in the wind. The following is one of Mr. Shaver's best "yarns :"

"Finding myself," said he, " getting short of the necessities of life, I hitched up my horses and drove down to the mouth of the St. Jo for a barrel of salt and a barrel of whisky. I got back to the west side just at dusk; I rolled the barrel of salt into my cabin, and when I got back to the wagon for the whisky noticed a couple of Indians standing by it, and as soon as I had rolled the barrel down the plank they grabbed hold and begun to roll it off towards their camp, down at the edge of the woods. If it had been the salt I might have stood it, but I expected too much of that whisky to stand still and see it lugged off by a couple o' red cusses who wouldn't know how to make good use of it. So I took the iron rod out of the tail-board of my wagon and followed after 'em. When I caught up with the barrel they were stooping over and rolling it the best they knew. I fetched each feller just one lick with the quarter-inch rod, bringing it down with both hands along their shoulders and backs, which had nothing onto 'em but a calico shirt. They let right up on the whisky, and, giving a yell apiece, were out o' sight before I could stop the barrel. I rolled it back, got it inside, barred the door, pulled to the plank shutters, took down my rifle, and set there till morning, expecting the whole camp down on me, for if there is anything that will put fight into an Indian it is the idea of whisky. They didn't come though, but three days after, when I went to Schoolcraft, Ham Scott told me an Indian had been in the store showing a long, deep cut on his back, made down on the west side, he said, by the strongest man in the world, ' for,' said he, 'he did all this at once with a stick not bigger than my little finger.'"

Mr. Shaver always claimed to be the father of the first white child born in Kalamazoo County, the birth of his daughter, Calista (or Celesta) Shaver, having occurred July 28, 1829 .; She is now Mrs. Hicks, still residing on the prairie. This matter, however, like other important ones, is a subject of dispute among the settlers. Before Mr. and Mrs. Shaver furnished the documents giving the date of their child's birth, it had been conceded that the honor was due to Eliza J. Wilmarth, who was born in Prairie Ronde, Dec. 29, 1829, her parents having come into the township on the 10th of March preceding. Now, however, appear other witnesses, who state that Mrs. Shaver acknowledged to them (they being fully cognizant of the fact) that her child was born on White Pigeon Prairie, in St. Joseph County, whither she had gone to obtain the necessary help. And it is also asserted that while Titus Bronson was living in this township, on the same farm where Mr. Hicks now resides, a daughter was born in his (Bronson's) family two months before the birth of Wil- marth's daughter. It is not for the historian to say which of these claims is based on actual fact, and any opinion ex-

pressed on the subject would doubtless not change the minds of those interested, or of those positive of the cor- rectness of their views of the case, and it is, therefore, left for the reader to decide-with whatever aid the statements here given may furnish-who really was the first child born among the white settlers of the township and county, for the first settlers were undoubtedly here.

# Through the courtesy of A. J. Shakespeare, publisher of the Kalamazoo Gazette, we are enabled to place before the reader some interesting documents, furnished by members of the Shaver family, and from their nature it appears absurd to doubt that Mr. Shaver's daughter was the first white child born in Kalamazoo County. The first evidence is the following, from the record of births in the family : "Calista Shaver was born July 28, 1829; the first white born in Kalamazoo Co."

It is also stated, positively, that Abram I. Shaver and his brother- in-law, William A. Bishop, came to Prairie Ronde Dec. 25, 1828; that a house was built by Mr. Shaver, and the family moved into it Jan. 12, 1829, from White Pigeon, where they had been since the fall of 1828, and that Mrs. Shaver did not visit White Pigeon again for any purpose until about the winter of 1874. So much discussion has arisen over this matter that the following affidavits are given a place here, as having a direct and indisputable bearing on the case in point :

"STATE OF MINNESOTA,

COUNTIES OF WABASHA AND GOODMAN.

"John Kelly, James M. and Worlender Fellows, of said counties, being each by me duly sworn, depose and say, that in the year A.D. 1829 they were residents of the township of Prairie Ronde, Kalama- zoo County, State of Michigan ; that they became residents of Prairie Ronde township, county and State aforesaid, in the fall of 1828 and spring A.D. 1829; that while they were residents of said township they were personally acquainted with the family of Abram I. Shaver, deceased; and further depose and say, that they remember the time and place of the birth of Calista Shaver, daughter of Abram I. Shaver, and that the said Calista Shaver was born in Prairie Ronde town- ship, Kalamazoo County and State of Michigan, on the 27th day of July, A.D. 1829; and affiants further depose and swear that Cynthia Whipple is dead,-that she died the 15th day of April, A.D. 1876; further affiants say not.

"JOHN KELLY, "JAMES M. FELLOWS. " WORLENDER S. FELLOWS.

"Sworn to and subscribed before me this day by the above-named affiants; and I certify that I read said affidavit to said affiants and acquainted them with its contents before they executed the same. "Witness my hand and official seal this 4th day of May, 1876. "JOHN McBRIDE, Notary Public.

[SEAL]

" Wabasha Co., Minnesota."

"STATE OF WISCONSIN, COUNTY OF GREEN LAKE. } 8.

" William A. Bishop, of said county, being by me duly sworn, de- poses and says that in the year A.D. 1829 he was a resident of the township of Prairie Ronde, Kalamazoo County, State of Michigan ; that he became a resident of Prairie Ronde township, county and State aforesaid, in the fall and spring of the years of A.D. 1828 and 1829; that while he was a resident of said township he was personally acquainted with the family of Abram I. Shaver, deceased; and further deposes and says that he remembers the time of the birth of Calista Shaver, daughter of Abram I. Shaver, and that the said Calista Shaver was born in the township of Prairie Ronde, Kalamazoo County and State of Michigan, on or about the 27th day of July, A.D. 1829; and further deponent saith not.

"W. A. BISHOP. "Subscribed and sworn to before me this 3d day of May, 1876. [SEAL] " GEORGE W. DART, " Notary Public."

No less interesting than the foregoing is the following affidavit from Mrs. Shaver herself, mother of the child in question, who certainly should be accorded what is due her on her personal testimony :

* This claim of Mr. Shaver's is somewhat modified by the following : Erastus Guilford, who boarded that spring with Judge Harrison, had a piece of land where O. H. Fellows now lives. Harrison's sons were preparing to plow, but some delay occurred, and Guilford took their plow to his own place, turned over a small plat, helped the Harrisons with their plowing the next day, and on the third day went over to help Shaver, and found him hitching his team to a plow for the first time. Shaver had been a sailor, but had considerable knowledge of farm work, and could harness and hitch up a team and handle it very well. t Other authority says July 27th.

MRS. ABRAM I. SHAVER.

ABRAM I. SHAVER.

ABRAM I. SHAVER,

whose name so often appears in Territorial laws, was one of the first settlers in the county, and was prom- inently associated with many of the initial events in its history. He was born in New Jersey March 2, 1796. But little is known of his history prior to his emigration to Kalamazoo County. He married, in Crawford Co., Ohio, in 1823, Miss Sarah Bishop, mother of the first white child born in the county,- Mrs. Calista Hicks, of Prairie Ronde. He settled in Prairie Ronde on Christmas day, 1828, and erected a log cabin fourteen by twenty-eight feet, with a fireplace in each end, as he said, to " hit the wind by a change from one to the other." He turned the first furrow plowed in the county, in April, 1829, with a plow which had a wooden mould-board, and, during the season, he plowed for himself and others eighty-two acres. The meeting for the organization of the town of Brady, which comprised the entire county of Kalamazoo, and all the country north at- tached to the county, was held at his house. In 1830 he was elected one of the first school commis- sioners in the county, and he always manifested a lively interest in educational matters.

Mr. Shaver was an eccentric man, and possessed of a broad and peculiar humor. He employed a

dialect of his own, and always succeeded in interest- ing those who listened to his stories and caricatures. But whatever eccentricities or foibles he may have possessed, he had certainly bluff and hearty ways, not without generosity and hospitality, which ren- dered him an acceptable neighbor and friend. In all the early trials incident to the settlement of a new country, none took a more active part than he ; and no name will stand out more conspicuously in the history of Prairie Ronde than his.

Henry Bishop speaks of Mrs. Shaver "as the best pattern of a pioneer woman he ever became acquainted with. She spun, wove, and made the clothing for both the male and female portions of the family ; always at home and always at work, ever ready and willing to share what she had with her more needy neighbor, and one who seemed contented with what women nowadays would look upon as a great hardship." They reared a family of eight children,-Mary B., wife of G. G. Crose; Calista, now Mrs. Hicks, of Prairie Ronde; Bruce; Robert E .; Uretta, wife of Henry Zetter; Ulysses; Marion, wife of James Pomeroy ; and Josephine, wife of Wm. Fields. (See history of Prairie Ronde Township.)

443

TOWNSHIP OF PRAIRIE RONDE.

Some time in the year 1830, John Vickers, who had come to the prairie, built on Rocky Creek the first grist- mill in Kalamazoo County. "The stones he used for grinding in that mill were made from a granite bowlder found near the spot where the mill was built. The building was made of logs and everything about it looked rough, and many had doubts and fears as to the results. They greatly desired to have a mill where they could get their grinding done. The day being fixed to try the experiment, quite a number of prominent men in the vicinity gathered to see the first operation of the new mill in this new country. The time came, the water was turned upon the water-wheel and corn put into the hopper, and as it commenced to drop and the meal, well ground, to run out from between the stones, they were convinced that it was a success, and in their heart- felt joy swung their hats and gave expressions of their grati- tude in loud hurrahs for Vickers' success. During that sea- son this mill was kept in operation on this site, doing what grinding of corn was done for those pioneers."* A descrip- tion of the mill will give some idea of its strictly pioneer construction. William Bair assisted Vickers to fell a large elm-tree across the creek, and by filling in above it a dam was soon ready, giving a fall of about three feet. The mill was about fourteen feet square, and built of round logs. In- side was rigged what was known as a " flutter wheel," made of slabs, the gudgeons running in wooden boxes. Ransford C. Hoyt aided in prying out and preparing the stones, and they were set so as to run perpendicular, a box underneath receiving the meal as it fell. Corn only was ground in this mill. Mr. Vickers operated it but a short time, selling out to Col. Abiel Fellows in the fall of 1830 and going to what is now Vicksburg, where he erected another mill, with im- provements which would have been too costly at the original site. During the winter after Col. Fellows purchased the property he erected a saw-mill.

Col. Abiel Fellows was a native of Canaan, Litchfield Co., Conn., where he was born in 1762. At an early day he went to the State of Pennsylvania, where he remained

"STATE OF MICHIGAN,

88. COUNTY OF KALAMAZOO.

"Sarah Shaver, of said county, being by me first duly sworn, de- poses and says that she is the wife of Abram I. Shaver, deceased, and mother of Calista Hicks, formerly Calista Shaver; and that she, with Abram I. Shaver, removed from Crawford County, Ohio, to White Pigeon, St. Joseph County, Michigan, the 8th day of November, A.D. 1828, where they resided until the 12th day of January, A.D. 1829, and at that time removed from thence to Prairie Ronde township, Kala- mazoo County, Michigan, where deponent has since resided; that Calista Hicks, daughter of this deponent, was born in Prairie Ronde township, county and State aforesaid, July 27th, A.D. 1829, and that deponent did not revisit White Pigeon after her removal from there, January 12th, A.D. 1829, until some time during the winter of 1874. And further deponent says not.

"SARAH SHAVER.

"Subscribed and sworn to before me this 28th day of August, A.D. 1876.

"S. D. PERRY, Notary Public, "Cass County, Michigan."

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History of Kalamazoo county, Michigan, Part 119

Author: Durant, Samuel W. comp Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia. Everts & Abbott Number of Pages: 761

Author: Durant, Samuel W. comp
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia. Everts & Abbott
Number of Pages: 761