History of Kalamazoo county, Michigan, Part 137

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

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Mr. Cobb and his family, who had reached the prairie on the 7th of October, 1830, stayed three days with Bron- son, and then moved into a log dwelling half a mile distant, which had been built, occupied for a time, and finally vacated, by a man named Bliss. Here they stayed two or three weeks, during which time Mr. Cobb built a log house on his own place. He was a carpenter, as well as a manu- facturer of woolens, although he had never worked much at the trade. Before the floor was laid or the roof-made of " shakes"-completed, they moved into their new habi- tation in the wilderness. Mrs. Cobb, who was sick at the time, was placed on a bed in one corner of the room, and despite all difficulties they managed, as J. T. Cobb remarks, " to get along somehow." The house was first occupied in the latter part of the month of October, and the succeeding winter is recollected as having been very severe. In the spring following, or soon after, Mr. Cobb and " Uncle" Aaron Burson started to look out a different route for a road to Kalamazoo, the old one via Genesee Prairie leading them three or four miles out of the way. Mr. Burson, on their return, remarked he had " seen a great deal of poor land that day ;" and said he to Mr. Cobb, " When I die I shall will you all the country north of the Portage that we have

* Mr. Cobb was married in Goshen, Litchfield Co., Conn. 64

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HISTORY OF KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

been over to-day." That was his opinion of the oak open- ings and sandy land in Portage, which are now very valu- able. Mr. Cobb, in company with two others, blazed the route of a highway to Paw Paw, being gone three days.

Nathan Cobb lived but a little while after his removal here, his death occurring Aug. 14, 1833; yet in the time he had made many friends, and his untimely death was sincerely mourned. He had become prominent also in township matters, and his opinions were of much weight with the settlers. He was the first coroner elected in the county. His first case was that of a man named Hendricks, who was found dead near Lost Island, he having been away on a hunting expedition. His oldest daughter, Mary Ann, survived her father but a short time, her death occurring on the 7th of November in the same year. Both were buried on the northeast corner of the farm, which was also the resting-place of eleven others. They were subsequently removed to the cemetery at Schoolcraft. Of Mr. Cobb's family, six children are now living : Jerome T. resides in Schoolcraft, is secretary of the State Grange and deputy oil inspector ; a daughter, now Mrs. Hathaway, also lives in the township ; two daughters are residents of the State of Texas, one is married, and lives in the northern part of the State, the other, still unmarried, is now owner and manager of a ranche in Southern Texas including 5000 acres (these ladies were teachers in the Galveston Seminary before the war, but the building was destroyed by the fire of the Union fleet during the bombardment of the city) ; another, who never moved West, lives in Massachusetts; and one son, Merritt D. Cobb, who was long a resident of Kala- mazoo County, in which he was quite prominent, has lived for ten or eleven years in Chicago. A young son died in 1836, aged thirteen years .*

On J. T. Cobb's farm in Schoolcraft were some fine specimens of the ancient "garden-beds,"-so called for want of a better name,f-and he had taken great pains to have them preserved. About 1864-65, however, the roots of the grass were eaten off by " white grubs," and the hogs, in search of the mischief-makers, caused the utter destruc- tion of the beds by rooting them up, and no traces of their shape now remain.

Godfrey Knight, a native of Ireland, whose father and brothers had emigrated to America about 1828, followed them soon after, and after remaining in Ontario Co., N. Y., a short time, came to Schoolcraft township in June, 1832. His cousins, John and James Knight, had arrived previ- ously, the former locating in Prairie Ronde, and the latter near Godfrey Knight's, in Schoolcraft, and it was through their efforts that the latter was finally induced to come. He settled on the farm he still occupies, and now lives with his son, William G. Knight. His wife and two oldest children accompanied him, and four other children were born after their settlement. One son, James Kendrick Knight, resided in St. Louis twenty-five years, and was

judge of the courts in that city for six years. He is now deceased. Godfrey Knight is now in his ninety-fifth year, and comes of a family of long-lived people.

Peter Kniss, a native of Pennsylvania, and for three years a resident of Williams Co., Ohio, came to what is now Prairie Ronde township, Oct. 7, 1830, and settled on the place which his father, Peter Kniss, Sr., had located upon in June of the same year. The younger gentleman was then unmarried. Two years later, after the death of his father, which occurred Oct. 7, 1832, he moved to School- craft village and entered the employ of Smith, Huston & Co., remaining two years, during which time he was mar- ried. In 1834 he lived on the place now owned by J. T. Cobb. In 1835 he located on section 20, where he remained until 1838, when he moved to the place he now occupies on section 30. Mrs. Kniss was the daughter of William Smith, who settled in 1832 on the farm east of Schoolcraft now owned by William, son of J. T. Cobb. Mr. Smith is de- ceased.

Settlers on Gourd-Neck Prairie and elsewhere .- Prob- ably the first settler on Gourd-Neck Prairie was Jerry McElvain, who was living upon it in the early spring of 1830, and had possibly located the preceding fall. He was half-brother to Greer, Thomas, William, and Robert Mc- Elvain, and the oldest of them all. Their father came about the same time. There were three daughters in the family, one of whom became the wife of Erastus Guilford, of Prairie Ronde township, and is still living. .

Erastus Tisdale, from the north western part of the State of Vermont, settled on Gourd-Neck Prairie in 1830 or 1831, and purchased land of Jerry McElvain. His family fol- lowed him in 1832. His daughter Louisa, born on the place in 1836 (one of a family of six girls), is now the wife of John Long, of Vicksburg.

John McComsey also lived on the prairie in the spring of 1830, and William Huntt was another early settler. Joseph Frakes, who settled in the spring of the year named, thinks that McComsey and the McElvains were then the only ones living on the prairie.

Joseph Frakes, from Fairfield Co., Ohio (a neighborhood twelve miles east of Dayton), and a resident also for some time of Logan County, in the same State, came to Cass Co., Mich., in March, 1827, and settled on Young's Prairie. That county had at the time but one or two settlers. A family had been in before, and lived in the vicinity of Mr. Frakes' abiding-place, but the Indians had frightened them away. Mr. Frakes was a young man, unmarried, and knew naught of fear. On his way he stopped at Fort Wayne, Ind., and purchased a jug of whisky, thinking it might prove a friend in need on some future occasion. The sequel proved the correctness of his surmises, for the Indians looked upon him with suspicion, and their glances were not the most friendly. A Frenchman and a chief, accom- panied by 10 or 12 warriors, came to him and expressed their wrath at his invasion of their domain. The whisky, however, proved the friend he had expected, and under its influence they gave him the privilege of remaining. Mr.

* A few years after the death of Mr. Cobb his widow became the wife of his brother Amos B. Cobb, and one daughter was born, who is now the wife of Milton S. Burson, of Schoolcraft township. . Mrs. Cobb's death occurred Feb. 4, 1864, she having reached the age of seventy-two years. Her christened name was Sally.

t See Chapter XII.

į Hunt and his father-in-law, Robert Frakes, removed in after- years to the State of Missouri. Another son-in-law of the latter named Robinson, who was a later settler, went with them.

JOHN FRASER.

The Fraser family are of Scotch extraction, their ancestors having been born and reared among the highlands of Scotland, a land which boasts a Robert Bruce and William Wallace.

William Fraser was born in Inverness-shire, Scotland, in 1775. Reared among the rugged hills, he learned from his childhood the lessons of industry and integrity, which he carried with him across the sea, and which made him a useful pioneer. He grew to manhood in the home of his birth, receiving a fair education in English, although of Gaelic origin, and speaking its language, as did all of his family,-some of whom to this day cannot speak English. His occupation was farming, and becoming de- sirous of having a home of his own in a free country, he, in 1804, in company with a party of his neighbors, came to America. They settled in what was then the wilderness of Livingston Co., N. Y., naming their town Caledonia. Mr. Fraser entered by article fifty acres of land, which he cleared and improved. In 1814 he sold his farm in Caledonia, and again went to a new country, this time locating in Wheatland, Monroe Co., N. Y., and buying one hundred and five acres of land. This farm he cleared up, improved, and occupied until his death, on the 16th day of July, 1843. In 1807, Mr. Fraser married Miss Jennette Christie, who was born in Perthshire, Scotland. There were born to them five children. Mr. Fraser was a Scotch Presbyterian, and very strict in all that pertained to his religion, as his son John well remembers. As a business man he was excelled by few, and at his death left a fine property.

John Fraser, the second child of William, was born in the town of Caledonia, Livingston Co., N. Y., March 28, 1811. He grew to manhood on the farm of his father in Monroe County. He was early taught that the Scriptures said " man must earn his living by the sweat of his brow." His education was ob- tained in the district school.

He remained with bis father until he was twenty-eight years

old, when he commenced life for himself, working at farming. After his marriage, in 1838, he bought a small farm in the town of Covington, Wyoming Co., N. Y., which he owned three years, when he sold it and took up one hundred and twenty acres of wild land in Branch Co., Mich .; and then for a few years worked by the day and month. In 1836, Mr. Fraser came to Michigan and bought of the government three hundred and twenty acres of land, which he owned but a few years. Iu 1843, with his family, he located in Schoolcraft, Kalamazoo Co., buying of the government one hundred and twenty acres of land on section 36. This was nearly all unimproved, and was part of the Indian Reservation. The farm then bought has all been improved by Mr. Fraser, and he has added until he now owns two hundred and eighty acres, while a fine house, with large and well-arranged barns, has taken the place of the log house and stables first built. Mr. Fraser is not a politician, and has never desired or sought office. He is a Republican, believing that party to be in favor of free thought and speech, and the advocate of progression. He has always taken an active interest in school matters, having in early life seen the want of school privileges. He is liberal in his religious views. As a citizen and neighbor, Mr. Fraser stands high in the respect and esteem of all who know him, as is testified by many.

On the 25th day of October, 1838, Mr. Fraser was joined in wedlock to Miss Edy Estes, who was born in Marshfield, Mass., Feb. 28, 1810. Her parents, Benjamin and Sarah (Kirby) Estes, were members of the society of Friends, and the mar- riage was strongly opposed by Mr. Fraser's father, who could see naught that was good in the religious belief of that society. To Mr. and Mrs. Fraser there have been born four children, as follows : John C., born Dec. 31, 1839, died April 18, 1875; William F., Dec. 11, 1840; Simon D., June 2, 1849, died Aug. 29, 1849; and Jennette, Feb. 26, 1851.

TOWNSHIP OF SCHOOLCRAFT.

507

Frakes went back to Ohio in 1829, and "took unto him- self a wife," returning with her soon after to his home in Cass County. In the spring of 1830 he moved with her to his present location in the fringe of timber bordering the east side of Gourd-Neck Prairie, and there he has since remained. The day after their arrival, Mr. Frakes cut the trees and prepared the logs for his house ; the following day was spent in drawing them to the chosen building-site ; on the next, with the aid of his wife, he raised them ; split the roof-board's the next day ; and the fifth placed them in position, and the house was ready for occupancy. The ad- joining forest was filled with game, and it was not uncom- mon to see 50 or 60 deer crossing the marsh at one time. A bear was occasionally killed, and if one was started by the hounds kept by Mr. Frakes it was sure to meet its fate in a short time. The Indians were usually peaceable, although occasionally it became necessary to administer some kind of a reprimand to them. Mr. Frakes, in lan- guage as forcible as the means he used, says he " had to warm some of 'em once in a while to make 'em be- have," and relates that on one occasion he gave one of them a sound rating with his ox-whip. Mr. Frakes, in common with all the early settlers, testifies to the wondrous beauty of the prairies when he first came to them. His father, Robert Frakes, had visited the country before the son came, but did not settle until 1831 .* He was twice married, and was the father of 14 or 15 children, of whom Joseph was the youngest by his first wife.

The elder Frakes was a remarkably strong man, and a great lover of out-of-door sports. Many interesting anec- dotes are related of him, of which some will be found in- cluded in this history.

Stephen Vickery, a surveyor by profession, located on the west side of Prairie Ronde, in the Shaver neighborhood, in the fall of 1829, and taught school the following winter.t He was the first clerk of Kalamazoo County, and while holding that office lived in Bronson (now Kalamazoo). He afterwards removed to a farm in Schoolcraft township, on Gourd-Neck Prairie, the same which is now occupied by his son, Wallace Vickery. He did much surveying in the western part of the State, and was a prominent Whig politi- cian. He represented the county several times in the Legis- tature, and was once a candidate for Governor, but was de- feated owing to the hopeless minority of the Whig party in the State. He was twice married, his children being the fruit of his second union. In the spring of 1857 he re- moved to Schoolcraft village, which he had surveyed for the proprietor, Lucius Lyon, in the fall of 1831. His death occurred at Schoolcraft, Dec. 12, 1857. Mrs. Vickery, who still owns the place in the village, and resides there a por- tion of the time, recollects that the first time she ever saw him was on an occasion when he was starting on a surveying trip, and had his limbs encased in a pair of pants faced with

buckskin. He was possessed of a remarkable memory, and his mind was stored with the treasures of many works which he had read. Mrs. Vickery is a sister to Merwin Stanley, who settled early in the Shaver neighborhood, in Prairie Ronde. She had come with her father, Elisha Stanley, to the State, when twenty-two years of age, and lived with him on White Pigeon Prairie. They had moved from Chenango Co., N. Y., to Le Roy, Genesee Co., N. Y., and thence to Michigan, after a residence of sixteen years in the last-named county.

William Bair, the son of Christopher Bair,t who was one of the earliest settlers in the township of Prairie Ronde, purchased the place he now occupies (southwest quarter of section 12) in the latter part of 1843, and removed to it April 16, 1844.

Russell Bishop, from Canandaigua, Ontario Co., N. Y., came to Michigan in 1842, and in 1844 settled on the place he now occupies on Gourd-Neck Prairie. For one and a half years after his arrival in the county he lived in Brady township.

Asa Briggs, Sr., with his son, Isaac Austin Briggs, came from Williamstown, Vt., twelve miles south of Montpelier, in 1832, and settled in the northwest part of Gourd-Neck Prairie. Isaac A. Briggs is now living in Wisconsin. Silas C. Briggs, whose widow lives in Vicksburg, was a later ar- rival, as was also his brother, Edmund L. Briggs ; they set- tled on Gourd-Neck Prairie on the 19th of February, 1837. The former was accompanied by his wife and five children and the latter by his wife. The two brothers settled on adjoining farms, now owned by James Wright and Mr. Dra- per. Asa Briggs, brother of Silas C. and Edmund L. Briggs, came five or six years after they had located.

In the fall of 1831 the following persons were living in what is now the township of Schoolcraft :

" On the north end and at Virginia Corners were Richard Holmes, Aaron Burson and sons, Nathan Cobb, John Brown, and Dr. David E. Brown, for many years a practicing physician.

"On the east side (of Prairie Ronde) and on Gourd-Neck were James Armstrong, Elias Rawson, Henry and Peleg Stevens, Rev. Benjamin Taylor, James Noyes, William Hunt, Joseph Bair, John McComsey, Robert Frakes and sons, William Robinson, and the Mc- Elvains.

" At the south end were E. H. Lothrop,-since well known through- out the States, many times representative and once Speaker of the House,-Franklin Howard, Elisha Doane, Harry Smith,¿ Russell Peck, and Stephen Barnaby."

These names are taken from Hon. E. L. Brown's histor- ical sketch of the township, as published in the Kalamazoo County directory for 1869-70, and do not include the set- tlers at Schoolcraft village, who will be found mentioned in their proper places. As the year mentioned, (1831) was before Vicksburg had appeared on the scene as a village, it cannot, of course, be mentioned although the same year witnessed its inception, inasmuch as " honest John Vickers" moved from the " west side" of Prairie Ronde and built his much-talked-about mill on the Portage.

Among early settlers were the following :

Hugh Finley, || from Vermont, and now deceased, settled

* According to the recollection of Dr. Thomas, who visited Gourd- Neck Prairie and stayed with John McComsey on the night of the 10th of May, 1830, Robert Frakes, as well as his son, was then living on the prairie. The doctor had come that day from Young's Prairie, and returned the next.

t Information by Mr. Vickery's widow. Mr. Vickery taught at Insley's Corners in the winter of 1831-32, and it is possible he did not settle before 1830 or 1831.

# See history of Prairie Ronde. .

¿ A pettifogger, known by the sobriquet of "Lawyer Dipper."

| Spelled also Finlay and Findlay on the township records.

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HISTORY OF KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

in 1834 on the northeast quarter of section 29, and mem- bers of his family yet reside in the township.

Elias Rawson, now deceased, was also a New Englander, coming from near Boston, Mass. He settled on section 21 in 1830, and purchased his land from the government. " Rawson's Lake," near the old farm, is named for him.

John Earl, now of the village of Schoolcraft, came from Yates Co., N. Y., in 1838, and settled on section 34, in the township of Comstock. Some years later he moved to Schoolcraft, where he is now engaged in business.

John Frazer, from Monroe Co., N. Y., located on section 36 in 1843, and there still resides.

William Judson, from Ulster Co., N. Y., settled in 1837 on the southeast quarter of section 20. His sons Albert and Willis still reside in the town.

Elijah Barton was among the later pioneers of the county. He came from Canada and settled in Kalamazoo township in 1844, and is still living, at the age of seventy-three.

George Stuart, another representative of the Empire State, came to Schoolcraft township in the year 1837, and settled on the southwest quarter of section 10.

Reminiscences and Incidents .- The following article was read by Dr. N. M. Thomas,* of Schoolcraft, before the meeting of the Pioneer Society at Vicksburg, in 1875 :

"It is but few remarks I have to make, and those remarks will be mainly confined to such facts as came under my observation during the early settlement of the country.

" The first settlement of the country began previous to the period of railroads, and this great country was lying undeveloped, presenting attractions to emigrants from the East and South, and its development could not be delayed. So the steamboat of Lake Erie, the stage-coach, and the emigrant wagon were the modes of travel resorted to by the pio- neer in pushing his way to the frontier settlements. I caught the spirit of emigration that prevailed in certain portions of Ohio, and without hearing of Prairie Ronde, and with no particular place of destination in view, I started for the West, and was nine days, exclusive of delays, in reaching Western Michigan on horseback, a journey that would now be performed at ordinary speed on railroads in a single day. The set- tlements of St. Joseph and Cass Counties were principally confined to the prairies. White Pigeon was a small village and the centre of business for Western Michigan. It contained two or three stores and a tavern. Dr. Loomis was the only practicing physician at that time in Western Michigan, and was located at that place. In Southwestern Michigan the land in the southern tier of counties came into market between one and two years previous to Big Prairie Ronde, consequently the settlement of those counties was that much in advance of Kala- mazoo. On the 10th day of May, 1830, I trod the soil of Prairie Ronde for the first time. On the morning of that day I left Diamond Lake, Cass Co., and following an Indian trail from Young's Prairie twenty miles without a habitation, I came to Flowerfield, at the south- west part of Prairie Ronde, and thence to Big Island, where School- craft is now located. It was then without an inhabitant, and nearly all of Prairie Ronde, except the west and south sides, was unoccupied. I followed an Indian trail east to Gourd-Neck Prairie, formed the ac- quaintance of Robert and Joseph Frakes, and called upon William Hunt, with whom I had been previously acquainted. He was located on the south side of that prairie, near the wigwams of Sagamaw and Tauwaw, both of whom within a few years thereafter came to tragical ends. The former fell by the hand of an Indian assassin, and the latter, in 1833, under the influence of liquor, fell into a roasting fire. I called to see him, at the request of Derosia, the Frenchman, but he died within a few hours. I spent the night of the 10th and 11th with John McComsey. On the morning of the 11th he was engaged in. putting in a corn crop, in accordance with the custom adopted at that early day of planting corn with an axe, between the furrows of re- cently turned prairie sod. The 11th of May I left Prairie Ronde and

pursued my journey further west, around the south shore of Lake Michigan, through an almost uninhabited country, with an occasional new settler's shanty dotting my pathway. I arrived on the evening of the 13th of May at a French trader's by the name of Buy, forty- five miles from Chicago, who had a squaw for his wife, where I put up for the night. Upon inquiry of the Frenchman in regard to the road to Chicago, he replied, 'You had better go with the express,' which I found consisted of two men on horseback, who carried the mail from Niles to Chicago. I accordingly made my arrangements to go with the express, and before dawn of the next morning we started, and after traveling several miles we reached the mouth of the Calumet, and as it was too deep for fording, and there were no facilities for crossing it, we struck out into Lake Michigan, and passed around the mouth of the Calumet on the bar, until we could reach the shore on the opposite side of the stream. I arrived at Chicago on the 14th. Two or three old houses and the fort, with a few United States soldiers, were all that then occupied the ground whereon now stands the city, without a parallel, that has become the wonder of the world; and though "prostrated by the great conflagration of 1871, and another of more recent date, yet, phoenix-like, she rises again.

"Northern Illinois then contained but a few scattered inhabitants, and the whole country north and west of Chicago, where savage man had roamed unmolested from time immemorial, was in an uncultivated state. After an excursion of a few weeks in Illinois and Indiana, I returned to Prairie Ronde, and made the acquaintance of Isaac Sumn- ner, who was located near the middle of the west side of the prairie. I engaged boarding with him and commenced the practice of medi- cine. About sixty families were then located on the prairie and in its immediate vicinity. The villages of Kalamazoo and Schoolcraft were not in existence. There was not a shingle-roof house in the county, and no government land had been sold. Near that time the county of Kalamazoo, to which Calhoun County was attached for judicial purposes, was organized,t and county officers chosen and lo- cated on the west side of Prairie Ronde, and the deeds of the land and the plat of the village of Marshall were brought in 1831, by George Ketchum, one of the proprietors of that place, to Isaac Sum- ner, and recorded while he was register of deeds. In the balance of the county, except Prairie Ronde, there were at that time but six or seven families located. Toland's Prairie had two or three, Kalama- zoo, Gull, Grand, and Genesee Prairies had each one family. Titus Bronson had been at Kalamazoo and made a squatter's claim, but was then residing on Prairie Ronde, where he remained until the opening of the spring of 1831, when he erected a log house,¿ which he occu- pied, across the street north of the court-house square. I visited Mr. Bronson soon after he removed to Kalamazoo. Mrs. Bronson stated that snow had blown in through the cracks in the house from the storm of the previous night. But few persons were then located at Kalamazoo, and improvements were just commencing. When I arrived, in June, 1830, the crops presented a fine appearance. Some of them yielded very heavily, and the wheat crop of that year was well remembered by many of the old settlers as being the first har- vested on the prairie. The first mill was built by John Vickers, about a half-mile west of Insley's Corners, and propelled by the water of the stream at that point ; it was in running condition when I came to the prairie ; the stones were dressed by Ransford Hoyt, out of a granite bowlder obtained near the spot ; it ground eorn only, and no other mill was running at that time, but it was abandoned in 1831, and John Vickers erected a mill on the Portage during the spring or summer of that year.

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History of Kalamazoo county, Michigan, Part 137

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