History of Kalamazoo county, Michigan, Part 56

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

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which the village is situated, and this is subject more or less to annual overflow. These bottoms were formerly, in places, particularly along the Portage Creek, too wet and swampy for cultivation, or even pasturage, but under in- telligent and judicious treatment are rapidly becoming valu- able ; some of the finest gardens of this region can now be seen to the southward of the built-up portions of the town.

There is considerable evidence that quite a lake formerly existed in the valley lying south and southeast of the town. The soil is a black muck, underlaid by a stratum of tena- cious marl, almost invariably found at the bottom of fresh- water ponds and lakes. The detritus from the surrounding bluffs has been gradually transported thither, until the gen- eral level has been raised above low-water mark, while at the same time the river below has been steadily cutting its channel deeper in the soil, and thus draining the whole valley.

The bluffs which form the background of this enchant- ing valley are occupied by fine suburban residences, and covered with gardens, lawns, and fruit-orchards. There is perhaps no better situation in Michigan for the growth of fruit, and particularly pears, than upon the terraced escarp- ment of the plateau along the western margin of the vil- lage; and the ground has been carefully utilized. The prolific harvest of the autumn of 1879 fully establishes the fact that this finely-comminuted soil, which is a light,

WOODWARD AVE. SCHOOL BUILDING.

MICHIGAN FEMALE SEMINARY.

LOWER BUILDING.

KALAMAZOO COLLEGE EDUCATIONAL : INTERESTS OF KALAMAZOO.

UPPER BUILDING.

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VILLAGE OF KALAMAZOO.

sandy loam, resting upon alternations of clay and almost pure sand, is unsurpassed for the production of finely- flavored fruit.

The timber growth in and around the village consists largely of several varieties of oak and hickory, intermixed with elm, bass-wood, and several minor varieties. The bottom lands, where not cleared, are covered with a heavy growth of elm, black ash, soft maple, sycamore, etc.

The valley bears marks of the ancient drift in the shape of gravel and bowlders, though the latter are not so plenti- ful as to be any impediment to the cultivation of the soil. On the whole nature has exhibited no " 'prentice hand" in the arrangement and composition of this region, and it is not to be wondered at that the hardy pioneers from New England and New York thought they had made a most excellent exchange when they left the rocky and sterile regions of the East and settled on the prairies and amid the " oak openings" of Kalamazoo County.

Four very necessary conditions exist in the lower penin- sula of Michigan, which are the main factors in explaining the extraordinary growth and prosperity of the State. These are a good soil, plenty of timber, excellent and abundant water, and a favorable climate. That the first three exist in an almost superlative degree, no one pretends to dispute. The last proposition may possibly be questioned by those not familiar with the climate of Michigan.

The geographical and meteorological conditions peculiar to the lower peninsula are among the most remarkable in the world. These are the direct results of the relations it bears to the largest bodies of fresh water on the globe. The three great lakes enveloping Michigan on the east, west, and north, have an average depth of one thousand feet, extending about four hundred feet below the sea level. They are fed, to a greater or less extent, by subterranean waters, and on these accounts vary but little in temperature throughout the year,-the mean summer and winter tem- perature of Lake Michigan showing, through an average of many years, only eight degrees variation. The conditions of Lakes Superior and Huron are similar. This fact ac- counts for the even temperature of the climate of the lower peninsula, it being neither as warm in summer nor as cold in winter as in regions lying to the west and even to the south of it. It is a well-known fact that peaches are almost a certain crop as far north as the Grand Traverse Bay region, when they are frequently killed by excessive cold in Southern Illinois and Missouri. They are almost unknown as a native product, in recent years, in Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin, while they grow in great profusion, and of splendid quality, from St. Joseph to Tra- verse Bay, on the north. The winter atmospheric currents are generally from points north of an east-and-west line, and in their passage over these vast lakes are toned down to a temperature nearly corresponding with that of the water. In summer, at times, hot, southerly winds prevail in the interior; but in the vicinity of the lakes the atmosphere is generally genial, both in summer and winter. The prox- imity of the lakes is also a sure guaranty against excessive droughts, such as sometimes prevail in the regions lying between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, the evaporations from these " inland oceans" and the con-

sequent condensation and precipitation being comparatively steady and uniform.

The meteorological tables prepared by Prof. Alexander Winchell, of the University, several years since, are ex- ceedingly interesting and suggestive upon these subjects. The mercury seldom falls below 10°- or rises above 90°. The average temperature for the summer months is about 69°, and for the winter months about 22º. Mean annual temperature (1879), 47º 76'. Average amount of pre- cipitation (rain and snow), 37 inches.

EARLY SETTLEMENT.

The site of Kalamazoo village was occupied in past ages by a comparatively cultivated people, as their mounds and garden-beds are sufficient evidence ; and, immediately pre- ceding the European race, by the red race, known as Indi- ans,* the latter of whom had several villages in the vicinity. It was a prominent centre of attraction to them, and here nearly a score of trails converged from all points of the compass.

What white man first saw the valley of the Kalamazoo, in this region, it is now impossible to determine; but that it was some wandering hunter or trapper, some adventur- ous coureur des bois, or zealous missionary of the Cross, there can be no reasonable doubt. During the war with Great Britain, from 1812 to 1815, there was a blacksmith- ing establishment kept up in this vicinity for the benefit of the Indians, and it is said to have been established and sup- ported by the British military authorities. The party prob- ably came from Canada or Mackinac, around the lakes and up the Kalamazoo River, in canoes or bateaux, bringing the necessary equipments and tools with them. It was near the centre of the country occupied by the Pottawattomies east of Lake Michigan, and altogether safe from any attack by American forces, unless by an expedition fitted up ex- pressly for the purpose; and as the existence of the shop was probably unknown to the American authorities, such a movement was quite unlikely to occur.

A trading-house, or station, was established here at an early date, but the best authorities differ materially as to the exact time. Louis Campau, himself an early trader at Grand Rapids, says there were trading-posts established at intervals along the great Territorial road leading from Detroit west soon after the war of 1812, and mentions Kalamazoo as one of the points so occupied, but does not fix any date. He thinks the first trader's name was Lu- maiville, or Numaiville. Rix Robinson, another promi- nent trader, for a long time in the employ of the American Fur Company, states distinctly that Numaiville erected the first trading-post here in the fall of 1823, and that he (Robinson) enlarged and improved it in 1824. Gurdon S. Hubbard, another early trader, and still living a promi- nent citizen of the city of Chicago, states that he passed the winter of 1820-21 at the Kalamazoo post, and that he succeeded Robinson. A variety of matter concerning this question will be found in Chapter XIV., to which the reader is referred.

The first actual white settler upon the site of the village is conceded upon all sides to have been Titus Bronson, an ec-

# See general chapters.

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HISTORY OF KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

centric pioneer, originally from Talmadge, Summit Co., Ohio, a few miles east of Akron .* So far as can be ascertained,- from reliable information furnished by John Geddes, an early settler of Washtenaw Co., Mich.,-Bronson removed from Ohio, and settled in the western part of Wayne Co., Mich., near the east line of Washtenaw County, at a point now called Rawsonville, where Mr. Geddes saw him at work in a potato-field in July, 1824. He does not seem to have remained there long, and very probably was working a piece of leased land; for on the 5th of May, 1824, preced- ing the date when Mr. Geddes first saw him, he entered the west half of the northeast quarter and the east half of the northwest quarter of section 32, town 2 south, range 6 east, adjoining the village of Ann Arbor, in Washtenaw County, which was laid out on the southeast quarter of sec- tion 29.

This purchase does not seem to have fully satisfied him, for in the fall of 1824, or spring of 1825, he exchanged the two lots, containing 160 acres, with John Allen, one of the proprietors of Ann Arbor, for the northwest quarter of sec- tion 17, in town 3 south (no range given). He received some " boot" money, but, as he afterwards thought, not enough.' This last purchase, which was a fine one, he kept until the fall of 1826, and returned to Ohio. He came back to Ann Arbor in 1827, but did not make it his resi- dence, though he was often there .; He seems to have been wandering around the county a good deal; and Mr. Geddes thinks he never had his wife with him in Washte- naw County. It was understood, in Ann Arbor, that he married a widow.

According to Mr. Henry Little, Bronson visited the site of Kalamazoo in 1827, in consequence of information re- ceived from Col. Isaac Barnes, who had also been here. Col. Barnes was from Medina Co., Ohio, which adjoins Summit County on the west, and he was probably ac- quainted with Bronson in that State.t The fact that Bronson was in Ann Arbor in 1827 would seem to make Mr. Little's statement a very probable one. There is little doubt that Bronson, after disposing of his lands in Wash- tenaw County, was still inclined to settle in Michigan, and he was quite likely to have visited the region of Kalamazoo County, even had he not been induced to do so by informa- tion from Col. Barnes or any one else.

Mr. Geddes says he came to Ann Arbor in 1827, with a covered wagon, and he thinks that at that time he was on his way to Kalamazoo. This was probably his first visit to the region.

It seems to be well established that he arrived upon the site of Kalamazoo village in the month of June, 1829, prepared to make a permanent settlement, and he probably erected a log cabin immediately.§

There was already a considerable settlement on Prairie Ronde, it having been begun the previous year; and from those settlers, and a French trader named Leiphart, located at the crossing of the Kalamazoo River, Bronson obtained needed supplies for his family and help to raise his log cabin. According to Mr. George Torrey's " History of Kalamazoo," published in 1867, this unpretentious mansion stood upon a knoll near what is now the corner of Church and Water Streets, which is near the centre of the west half of the southwest quarter of section 15, on the east side of the west eighty. | He seems not to have continued long in his new abode. The Indians who were occupying the Matchebenashewish reservation were somewhat inclined to consider him an intruder, and his presence was evidently not desirable. There was another reason for his removal : his potato mania continued, and there was beautiful land on the prairies to the south of him, where he could at once break up a small tract and raise a crop of his favorite vege- table, a supply of which he had evidently brought with him. Whether he attempted any cultivation of the soil at Kalamazoo the first year is extremely doubtful. At all events he removed his family to Prairie Ronde, where they passed the winter of 1829-30.

But he never lost sight of the beautiful burr-oak plain by the Kalamazoo. He doubtless had it in his mind to lay out a village on the spot as soon as the Indians were out of the way and he could get a title from the government. According to the record, we find that he and Stephen H.

May, 1829; stayed at Detroit a day or two, and reached Ann Arbor the same month, but cannot give the precise day. On my arrival I learned that Titus Bronson, commonly called ' Potato Bronson,' had some two or three weeks before iny arrival left Ann Arbor with his family (wife and child Eliza), with Johnnie Enos and Jonathan Strat- ton, surveyor, for the west, or rather, perhaps, the southwest, of Michi- gan. I became well acquainted with Enos and Stratton on their return to Ann Arbor. From my conversation with them and others, I feel perfectly satisfied that Titus Bronson had never before visited Kala- mazoo. As I am informed by Enos, Bronson had some idea of pitching his tent on Toland Prairie. He liked it pretty well, but finally made up his mind that it was not exactly the place for a county-seat, and the party pushed on to Kalamazoo. Here Bronson was satisfied. Here was the county-seat. . .

" He was left alone, after Enos and Stratton departed, with his wife and only child, in his tamarack hut, of which you spoke at Vicksburg. But they, in the fall of 1829, went to Prairie Ronde, and wintered there in 1829-30, and most likely in the winter of 1830-31.

"I was at Bronson in company with Cyrus Beckwith, register of deeds of Washtenaw County, in May, 1830,-saw the tamarack hut and a few acres fenced in with a low fence, north of where his double log house afterwards stood. Beckwith and myself left Bronson (not a man, woman, or child there) for Bronson's home on Prairie Ronde. We found him,-stayed overnight with him, saw his wife and child, and had a good time. Aunt Sally was up and dressed, and enter- tained us most sumptuously considering all the circumstances."

From this it appears certain that he brought his family to Bronson in May or June, 1829, and resided here for several months in his tama- rack shanty, and was consequently the first man to bring his family here by at least a year.

| Another account, published in the county directory for 1869, locates his first cabin on Kalamazoo Avenue, a little west of West Street, which is in the southeast quarter of section 16. This seems improbable. We cannot reconcile the statements.

This same writer says the cabin was built of logs 12 by 14 feet in dimensions, " roofed with rails (?) and covered with grass."

Mr. Henry Little states that he only built a temporary cabin of tamarack poles, a " claim shanty," merely as a sign that the land was claimed, not for the purposes of a residence.

* It has been stated by some writer that Bronson was a " Connec- ticut Yankee."

t Some accounts would indicate that he was the owner of lands in Washtenaw County as late as 1835.

# We have not seen Mr. Little's statement verified, but it is a prob- able one.

¿ Cyrus Lovell, the first resident attorney in Kalamazoo, gives some interesting information concerning Titus Bronson in a letter to A. D. P. Van Buren, Esq., written at Ionia, Mich., Aug. 25, 1875. He says : "I arrived in Detroit in the steamer ' Henry Clay' on the 24th of

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VILLAGE OF KALAMAZOO.

Richardson, a brother-in-law, who had followed him to Michigan, entered the southwest quarter of section 15, in township 2 south, and range 11 west, on the first day of November, 1830; Bronson taking the east half of the quarter (eighty acres) and Richardson the west half, the dividing line being in the centre of what is now Rose Street. The land-office for the southwestern part of Michi- gan was then located at Monroe.

According to reliable data, Bronson purchased land on Prairie Ronde, which he afterwards (between 1831 and 1834) exchanged with his brother-in-law, Richardson, for the latter's eighty acres on the site of Kalamazoo .*

The two men probably had in view the possibility of their claims being chosen as the site of the county-seat; at all events, the commissioners appointed by Governor Cass to locate it finally, in January, 1831, settled upon this place, which then first received the name of " Bronson," as the most convenient and proper point for the seat of justice for the new county. (For original ownership of land, see under heading " Land Entries," history of township.)

FIRST VILLAGE PLAT.

In liber A, page 8, of the records in the county regis- ter's office we find the original plat of the " Village of Bronson," entered of record on the 12th day of March, 1831, by Titus Bronson and Stephen H. Richardson. It was acknowledged before William Duncan, a justice of the peace, on the same day. This plat included about twenty squares, and covered substantially the southwest quarter of section 15.

On the 27th of August, 1832, there seems to have been a new plat made, covering about the same ground. This was recorded on the 7th of March, 1834, but is accompa- nied by no acknowledgment, and shows no names of pro- prietors. It is called a plat of the "Village of Bronson."

On the 14th of August, 1834, appears of record a third plat of the " Village of Bronson," covering the west half of the southwest quarter of section 15, and acknowledged by Titus Bronson and Sally Bronson. It shows consider- able changes from the two preceding ones, and designates a "school lot," No. 56, eight rods square. The second plat is recorded in liber B, page 500, and the third in same book, page 504.

According to the report of the commissioners appointed to locate the county-seat, it appears that Mr. Bronson prom- ised, in the event of its being located on his land, that he would lay out a village, and place upon the records a map of the same, and would donate ample lands for county pur- poses; also for the use of the common schools and an academy, for a public burial-ground,t and for the use of

the first four Christian denominations which should erect houses of worship. These donations included what is now called " Bronson Park."

The agreement was faithfully observed, and to Titus Bronson the village is indebted for its beautiful public grounds and broad and liberal streets and squares, which are the pride of its citizens, and the wonder and admiration of strangers.

These peculiar and pleasant features really give the " Big Village" its prominence abroad, and make it one of the most charming towns in the Union. The subsequent treatment of its liberal founder was by no means justified by any act or misdemeanor of his, and he finally abandoned the beautiful spot so wisely chosen for a home, a disap- pointed and sorrowful man, to wander a few years, and then return to his former home in Ohio to die in poverty and obscurity.

The county jail, as mentioned elsewhere, was at first erected upon what is now the west part of the park, and the old building occupied by the " Branch" of the State University stood on the east end of the same. Church Street originally extended through the park to Lovell Street, and what is now Park Street was first named Jail Street.

The jail was torn away upon the erection of a new one on the court-house square, in 1845 ; } and the old " Acad- emy," or branch school building, was removed from the east end of the park in 1854, upon the leasing of the park to the village authorities. It now stands a little back from Willard Street, near Cooley Street, on Block XXXI.§ Upon the vacation of the two squares constituting the park, the interest of the heirs of Stephen H. Richardson in the property was conveyed to the county ; and in 1854 the vil- lage leased the grounds thus vacated for the period of ten years, which was renewed in 1864 for ninety-nine years, for the purpose of converting them into a public park. Church Street was vacated between Academy and South Streets by an act of the Legislature, approved Feb. 13, 1847.

Authorities differ as to who was the second settler upon the site of Kalamazoo. It is stated in the county directory, - published in 1867, that Nathan Harrison followed Bron- son early in the summer of 1830. He came from Prairie Ronde, and built a log dwelling at the foot of Main Street, near the river, and established a ferry at that point.|| Ac- cording to this account, William Harris and William Mead next arrived in the latter part of the summer, and a little later came Elisha Hall. The history published in the directory of 1869 says that William Harris was the next settler after Bronson, and the first to bring his family here, which would indicate that Bronson did not bring his wife

# The records show that both Bronson and Richardson entered land on section 14, Prairie Ronde, in 1830. See history of Prairie Ronde township. This land (the north half of the southwest quarter of section 14, township 4, range 12) Bronson sold to Richardson, Feb. 20, 1832. Consideration, $1000. Richardson deeded to Sally Bronson, Jan. 5, 1833, the west half of the southwest quarter of section 15, township 2, range 11. Consideration, $1000. (See deed records.)

t This burial-place, which is shown on the original plat by Bronson and Richardson, was 16 by 20 rods in extent, and covered the ground now occupied by the Jewish church, and sufficient besides to make up two acres of land. It was probably never used for burial purposes, but

the first school building in the place was built upon it in 1832 or 1833. The building was also used for holding courts and for religious meet- ings.

# This was the second jail. The new brick one was erected in 1868.

¿ See history of Baptist College and branch of University in Chapter XXI.

| The ferry is supposed to have been established in the spring of 1832, and was continued until 1835, when the first bridge was built across the stream. Other accounts say that Harrison started his ferry in 1833, and continued it until 1835. He was wont to enjoy himself catching fish while his spouse managed the ferrying business. He used a large scow for teams, and a canoe for foot-passengers.

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HISTORY OF KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

when he located here in 1829. Some accounts say that the latter brought his wife first to Prairie Ronde in 1830.

William Harris built a cabin in the spring of 1830, on the trail leading from Kalamazoo to Grand Prairie, in the valley, very near what is now the corner of West and Water Streets. Here he was visited, late in the season (September), by Rodney Seymour,* Lot M. and Noah North, who had been at work making brick at Ypsilanti during the summer. Mrs. D. S. Dillie, then living on Gull Prairie, was a sister of Mr. Seymour, and he came partly to visit her. He and his companions had made a short stop on Gull Prairie, and then proceeded to the crossing of the Kalamazoo, near the site of the future village. They crossed the river, possibly by Harrison's Ferry, and follow- ing up the little stream, now dignified by the name of Arcadia Creek, finally found their friend Harris and his rude domicile. It would be deemed a sorry affair in these days of invention and luxury, but as it was (with the exception of Bronson's claim shanty, unoccupied, and the trading-house across the river) the only building in all the broad valley, it might well put on airs.

It was built in the true pioneer style, and was about as primitive a structure as has been seen since the days when " prehistoric man" disputed his rights with the cave bear and the gigantic hyena of " ancient days." It was built of logs, laid flat upon the ground, and carried high enough to allow the dwellers to stand upright under its " shed roof," which slanted all one way, and was composed of poles covered with marsh-grass, making a very humid shelter in " falling" weather. Its floor was the earth, leveled and packed down solid and smooth, and it had as yet only openings for door and windows, against which were hung some of the family blankets or shawls in case of cold or damp weather. The luxury of a chimney was considered too enervating for this bracing climate, and a fire was kindled outside in pleasant weather, and in stormy days in the centre of the wigwam, from which the smoke escaped through a square hole in the roof, à la Pottawattomie.

The furniture was by no means luxurious, but such as became the primitive dwelling. It consisted of a camp- kettle, a frying-pan, a few knives and forks and iron spoons, a couple of three-legged stools, a few tin plates, a table, made by splitting a basswood log, hewing it down with a common axe, and putting three legs into it, and a bedstead, made by inserting the ends of two poles into the wall of the cabin, and supporting the other ends by crotched sticks driven in the ground ; over this frame were laid small poles, or were stretched strips of elm- or basswood-bark, and these were covered with the scanty bedding of the family. A few wooden pegs driven in the logs served for a ward- robe, and a shelf made of a split pole laid upon other wooden pins answered the purposes of a cupboard and pantry. The children slept upon the " cold, cold ground," and the household guardian, the brave old watch-dog, fared as well as the best.

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History of Kalamazoo county, Michigan, Part 56

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