USA > Michigan > Kalamazoo County > History of Kalamazoo county, Michigan > Part 57
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. . A small "patch" of ground had been stirred up and planted with a little corn and a few vegetables. Here was the home of father, mother, and three children. These " betterments" were a fair sample of those at first construc- ted throughout the region, save that occasionally a settler would indulge in the luxury of a " loft" and a " puncheon" floor, and may be a stick-and-mud chimney, built up on the end of the cabin, outside,-" turned out o' doors," as the boys used to say of the chimneys of the Southern people during the war.
The visitors did not remain long at Harris', but soon de- parted towards the south on their way to visit the " Big Prairie," which had then been settled nearly two years.
The following interesting letter, from one who was among the very earliest settlers of Kalamazoo County, was pub- lished in the Telegraph of Dec. 31, 1879. It refers to the year 1830 :
"CHICAGO, Dec. 21, 1879.
"Yours of the 18th just received. I will answer some of your last questions first. After leaving Ann Arbor, there was one house, that of Mr. Dexter, at Dexter, one at Grass Lake, three at Jackson, one at Sandstone, at Marshall none. The Ketchums, Camp, and others were just cutting logs for a house at Marshall. A Mr. Barney had a house at Battle Creek ; there was another cabin on Tolland Prairie, just built by Mr. Williamn Tolland; two at Kalamazoo. Nate Harrison lived where the old river house formerly stood, at the junction of the Portage Creek and Kalamazoo River; it was of him father obtained the oxen to help pull our wagon out of its place in the mud at the old ford. That night we stayed overnight at the house of William Harris, upon the Arcadia. The house stood a little northwest of the court-house and directly back of the house built by Walter Clark, on Main Street. The same Wm. Harris afterwards lived in the town of Texas a good many years ; he was not at home at the time, and I do not recollect about the children. On leaving there we passed through a large Indian camp and wound our way through the ravine north- west to Grand Prairie; Benjamin Drake lived there at the time. We then struck across Genesee Prairie, where Enoch Harris had just put up a house. We arrived the same evening on the north end of Prairie Ronde, and stayed at the house of Ambrose Fitzgerald, October 7th. The next day we drove down to the west side and went into the house with Titus Bronson's family, where we stayed about a week ; next to a vacant house about half a mile northeast, owned by a Mr. Bliss, and stayed there till we moved up into our own house.
" Any information I can give you will be cheerfully furnished. If desirable, can give you the names of most of the heads of families and the location at that time. Mr. William Blair can do the same just as well.
" MERRITT D. COBB."
In the same year that witnessed the arrival of the last- named parties, Col. Huston, who already had a store on Prairie Ronde, built a " store" on what is now the corner of Main and Rose Streets, and filled it with goods for the settlers' accommodation ; no doubt, " taking the wind out of the sails," to a greater or less extent, of the French trader across the river.
According to the directory history of 1869, Nathan Har- rison erected a cabin on the site of what was afterwards the old River House, on " Harrison's half-acre," at the conflu- ence of the Portage Creek and the river, which was then only a few rods above the site of the present bridge on Main Street. Mead took up his abode with Harris, who was his brother-in-law, and Hall erected a dwelling on Arcadia Creek, near the river, below the present railway bridge of the Michigan Central Railroad Company.
These pioneers no doubt depended for meat upon wild game, which everywhere abounded, including deer, bear,
* Mr. Seymour, who is still living in Kalamazoo, distinctly remem- bers that Harris was the first man to settle with his family on the site of Kalamazoo. He says that in September, 1830, Titus Bronson was at Prairie Ronde, and Harris' was the only cabin on the site of Kala- mazoo.
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VILLAGE OF KALAMAZOO.
wild turkeys, etc., and the excellent fish which crowded the clear waters of the Kalamazoo at certain seasons of the year, and which were plenty at all times. The settlements on Prairie Ronde and Gull Prairie afforded them " corn" and vegetables until after their first harvest, when they in turn became independent, having "enough and to spare."
The beginning of the year 1831 was most propitious for the new settlement at the " great bend of the Ke-Kanamazoo." On the 15th of January the commissioners appointed to locate the county-seat reported in favor of the " village of Bronson," and on the 2d of April, Governor Cass set his official seal to an approval of their choice .* From this time dates the beginning of a long and prosperous career for one of the finest villages in the land. Had the county- seat been fixed at Comstock, Portage, or any other point, it is altogether problematical whether there would have been any considerable point of trade where Kalamazoo now stands. The generous donations made by Mr. Bronson most probably had great influence in inducing the com- missioners to fix upon the place. At all events, the fact accomplished made the future of the pioneer village bright with promise, and eventually concentrated here the greatest accumulation of wealth and population in Southwestern Michigan.
In the early part of the year 1831, Bronson returned to his new village from Prairie Ronde, and on the 12th of March he and Richardson placed upon record their plat of the village of Bronson, as before stated. The descriptive portions of the plat read as follows :
" KALAMAZOO COUNTY, ! 88. MICHIGAN TERRITORY,
"The courses of the squares, lots, and streets in the above plat are parallel to the section lines ; each square contains two hundred and fifty-six square rods ; each lot in a square is four rods by eight, or thirty-two square rods, except the school lot, which is eight rods square. All the streets on this plat are four rods wide, except main streets, t which are six rods. The public square, jail square, and academy square are each sixteen rods square. The above streets and squares are appropriated for the use and benefit of the county. The church square is sixteen rods square, and is appropriated to the first four religious denominations who may form societies in the foregoing town and erect buildings thereon,-one-fourth to the benefit of each society. The school lot is eight rods square, and is appropriated to the use of the district for the purpose of erecting a school-house thereon. The burial-ground contains two acres, and is sixteen rods by twenty, and is appropriated for the use and benefit of the town."}
This plat was drawn by " Phineas Hunt, mathematician ;" but if his knowledge of mathematics is indicated by his handiwork it was not quite up to the standard of later times. The county had been organized in July, 1830, and now the county-seat being fixed in a well-laid-out village, the latter began to realize the influence of its title in the increasing influx of settlers.
The knowledge of the action of the Governor and the platting of the village was soon spread far and wide, and the settlement increased quite rapidly. Among the perma-
nent settlers of 1831 were Dr. J. G. Abbott, David S. Dillie (who had been temporarily a resident of Gull Prairie), Elias and John Mead, Hosea B. Huston (who had established the first store), and Rodney Seymour, the visitor of the year before at Wm. Harris'. Huston was a member of the firm of Smith, Huston & Co., of Schoolcraft, the heaviest mercantile firm in the county. He built the store (occupied as a branch of the above firm) which stood for many years on the northeast corner of Main and Rose Streets. Dillie settled on a 40-acre tract lying south and west of College and West Streets, on which now stands the Central Union school building. He built a log house on the land.
Bronson and Harrison kept open house for new-comers until they could provide themselves habitations.
Dr. Abbott and family occupied the upper story of Huston's new store building as soon as it was finished.
Other notable arrivals in the fall of 1831 were Cyrus Lovell, the first attorney to locate at the county-seat, and who had been a temporary resident on Toland's Prairie, and E. Lakin Brown, who was a partner in the mercantile firm at Schoolcraft, before spoken of, a resident of the latter place, but often at Bronson for weeks at a time.
It is related of Mr. Lovell that he had a fixed disin- clination to hard manual labor, but desiring to build a house wherein to dwell, and labor being exceedingly scarce, he was forced to strip off his coat and dig a cellar where he designed to place his dwelling, on the corner of what is now Rose and Water Streets. He had originally designed an ample one, but necessity being the mother of invention, he was enabled to reduce its fair proportions to accommodate his physical constitution.
Prominent also among the arrivals of this year was that of Gen. Justus Burdick. The general had been acquainted in his early days with Elon Farnsworth, afterwards attorney- general of Michigan, when the latter was pursuing his studies in Woodstock, Vt. Mr. Farnsworth advised the general to go West, assuring him that it would be to his advantage. Farnsworth himself soon after came to Mich- igan and settled at Detroit. Gen. Burdick subsequently removed from Woodstock to Burlington, where he engaged in trade, which did not prove satisfactory. At that time Farnsworth wrote him to remove to the West, and succeeded in persuading him to do so. The general came to Detroit, where he made the acquaintance, among others, of Lucius Lyon, who was sanguine in the belief that Bronson village would some day be an important point. By his advice, Gen. Burdick came here, as stated, in the fall of 1831. He was so well pleased with the place and surrounding country that he soon after purchased of Titus Bronson the east half of the southwest quarter of section 15, with the exception of four lots which Bronson had sold to Smith & Huston and Chauncey Merwin, paying for the same $850.§ The
* The official proclamation finally fixing the county-seat was issued on the 12th of May following, by Stevens T. Mason, Secretary and acting Governor of the Territory of Michigan.
# On the old plat there were two main streets,-the present one and the one now designated as Rose Street.
į The burial lot was near the present intersection of South and Henrietta Streets.
¿ The statement has been made that possibly Titus Bronson never actually owned land in his own name in Kalamazoo. The records show that he owned, by deed from government, the east half of the southwest quarter of section 15, and his wife subsequently owned, by deed from S. H. Richardson, the west half of the same quarter section. Bronson owned several hundred acres altogether in various parts of the county, as shown by the records. In 1835 he was assessed for 390 acres in Arcadia township, at a value of $1320.
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HISTORY OF KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
deed was executed in Detroit, at the office of Elon Farns- worth, on the 24th of October, 1831.
Subsequent to this transaction the general returned to Burlington, Vt., and late in the same year sent his brother, Cyren Burdick, to look after his interests in Bronson. He soon after, probably in the spring of 1832, commenced the erection of a hotel, which was christened the " Kalamazoo House," on the spot now occupied by its modern name- sake .*
1
The sale made by Bronson to Burdick closed out his in- terest in the village, until January 5, 1833, when his wife became owner, by deed from Richardson, of the west half of the southwest quarter of section 15, immediately adjoining the tract sold to Burdick. In the year following, Titus and Sally Bronson placed on record the third " Plat of the Vil- lage of Bronson," with some alterations from former ones, and embracing the west half of the southwest quarter of section 15. The date of record is Aug. 14, 1834. Liber B, p. 504. This portion of the village plat owned by his wife was mostly conveyed by Titus and Sally Bronson to parties, in lots, during the two or three following years. Bronson must have left Kalamazoo early in 1836, soon after the name of the village was changed.
While upon the subject of village plats, it may be well to insert the following list, showing the original plats and all subsequent additions, with dates and names of propri- etors, as shown by the records :
ORIGINAL PLATS OF, AND ADDITIONS TO, THE VIL- LAGE OF KALAMAZOO.
First Plat, by Bronson & Richardson, March 12, 1831.
Second Plat (no proprietors given), evidently a re-plat of the first, March 7, 1834.
Third Plat, by Titus and Sally Bronson, July 2, 1834, recorded Aug. 14, 1834. A new plat, covering both the former ones, substan- tially .; These three are all called on the record plats of the " Village of Bronson."
Additions .- On the 25th of December, 1839, John D. Pierce, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, made, or caused to be made, a plat of the school land, section 16, which lies within the present limits of the corporation. It was recorded in Kalamazoo, on the 4th of January, 1856.
Plat of Kalamazoo .- In liber J, page 640, is recorded what is called a " Plat of the Town of Kalamazoo, the County-Seat of Kala- mazoo County." It was acknowledged before Epaphroditus Ransom, on the 26th of December, 1844, by Justus Burdick, Thomas C. Shel- don, and Anthony Cooley, and recorded Dec. 29, 1845. This is the first time the place is called Kalamazoo on the plat record. The place had been organized as the village of Kalamazoo in the spring of 1843.
This last-named plat includes all previous ones, and extends, east and west, from West Street to the river, and, north and south, from Lovell Street to North Street.#
On the 23d of April, 1846, was recorded an addition, made by Amos Brownson, Wm. E. Sill (by his attorney), and Caleb Eldred, presi- dent of the board of trustees of the Baptist Institute, and known as the " Institute Addition."
Wm. E. Sill, by George F. Porter, his attorney, made an addition June 13, 1846.
An addition was made by A. V. Prouty, May 31, 1847.
Thomas C. Sheldon made an addition June 24, 1847.
George D. Rice, on the 5th of December, 1851.
The University addition was made Dec. 7, 1852. The parties in-
# See account on another page.
+ There is also a plat in liber E, page 336, recorded by order of court March 23, 1834, showing the southwest quarter of section 15, township 2, range 11.
# This plat is said by Mr. L. H. Trask to have been made in 1836.
terested were James Taylor, Wm. L. Eaton, J. A. B. Stone, Samuel Graves, and S. W. Dunning.
Addition by Parsons, Potter, Dewing, and Gibbs, Dec. 13, 1852.
An addition by Amos Brownson, Feb. 24, 1854.
One by D. S. Walbridge, May 10, 1854.
Additions by Paulus Den Blyker, Jan. 21, 1856; platted March 14,
1851. Revised addition, Jan. 22, 1856; platted March 29, 1853. Two additions by the same, Jan. 25, 1856.
One by Silas Trowbridge, Jan. 27, 1856.
One by George W. Rice and Lawrence Vandewalker, May 1, 1856. One by P. Den Blyker, May 27, 1857.
One by A. Taylor (no date) about this time.
By John Hoedemaker, April 8, 1857.
By C. E. Stuart, June 13, 1859.
By P. Den Blyker; Feb. 28, 1860.
By T. P. Sheldon and George D. Rice, June 28, 1860. College addition, by Thomas R. Jones and H. Stanwood, July 9, 1861. Addition by J. D. Rice, April 17, 1866.
By John A. Newell, April 30, 1866.
By William G. Wheaton, Oct. 17, 1866.
By John Dudgeon and Charles L. Cobb, Nov. 17, 1866.
By D. B. Merrill and William H. McCourtie, May 17, 1867.
By C. E. Stuart, May 20, 1867.
By Harriet A. J. Seely, May 29, 1867.
By Hiram Arnold, Aug. 31, 1867.
By James Taylor, Dec. 2, 1867.
By Jonathan Parsons, Dec. 5, 1867.
By Thomas Richardson and Myrtle Wattles, March 26, 1868. By Arad C. Balch, June 23, 1868.
By H. O. Hitchcock and J. W. Fish, Nov. 9, 1868.
By Thomas Richardson and Myrtle Wattles, Nov. 20, 1868.
By C. W. Hall, April 3, 1869; platted November, 1857.
By F. Bush and Thomas Paterson, June 18, 1869.
By H. G. Wells and John Parker, May 17, 1870.
By P. Den Blyker, July 1, 1870.
By Jonathan Parsons, Oct. 3, 1870.
By Gillis Wabeka, May 20, 1871.
By P. Den Blyker, Oct. 21, 1871.
By Andrew Krom and Lucien A. Hascall, Nov. 20, 1871.
By Leendert Molhoek, Jan. 12, 1872.
By John Dudgeon and Charles L. Cobb, April 5, 1872.
By William Fletcher, May 22, 1872.
By George Thomas Clark, May 28, 1872.
By Theodore P. Sheldon, June 3, 1872.
By Abner D. Doubleday, June 28, 1872.
By L. H. Trask, July 1, 1872.
By W. C. Dewey, Oct. 15, 1872.
By Julia E. Stuart and William F. Potts, April 14, 1873.
By Frederick Bush and Thomas Paterson, Aug. 13, 1873.
By the same, Sept. 4, 1873.
By William Fletcher, Sept. 9, 1873.
By Benjamin M. Austin and William A. Tomlinson, May 18, 1874. By H. J. H. Edwards, Oct. 12, 1874.
By John Dudgeon and Charles L. Cobb, subdivision, Nov. 25, 1874. By Peyton Ranney, July 3, 1877.
Of the new-comers, Elisha Hall was a carpenter by trade, and soon began to make himself useful by introducing a better class of work into the settlement. David S. Dillie built a temporary shanty near the terminus of the present Kalamazoo Avenue, and commenced the manufacture of brick. At the close of 1831 the hamlet was supplied with a general store (exclusive of the trading-post), a resident physician (Dr. Jonathan G. Abbott), several mechanics, an attorney (Cyrus Lovell), and about fifteen heads of fami- lies, all white people.
Quite a number of new buildings were erected, includ- ing several dwellings. A mail-route was established which passed through Bronson, and accommodated the settlers with letters, though there was no post-office in the village until July, 1832.
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VILLAGE OF KALAMAZOO.
The first event of importance in 1832 was the first town- ship election, which was held at the house of Titus Bron- son, not his original claim shanty, but a newer and improved domicile .* This meeting was for the township of Arcadia, which had been set off and organized in July, 1830. An account of this meeting will be found in the history of the township proper.
During this year several prominent men became owners of land in and around the village ; among these, Lucius Lyon and Thomas C. Sheldon, the latter of whom (and perhaps the former) afterwards became one of the village proprietors.
Among the arrivals of 1832 were Anthony Cooley, the painter, who immortalized on canvas the first court scene in Bronson, and who occupied a house on Edwards Street ; James Parker and family, who came here from Cassopolis, and who located on Water Street ; Henry Mower, Nathaniel Foster, and Stephen Vickery, the first treasurer of the county, and long a prominent public officer.t
The first death in the village occurred at the Kalamazoo House, soon after it was opened, probably in September or October of this year. The person was a man whose name has not been preserved. He was buried on the lot where Charles Gibbs lived in 1869.1
Curious as it may seem, the famous " Black Hawk war" seriously affected this far-away country. Soon after the ridiculous fiasco of Maj. Stillman near Rock River, in what is now Marion township, Ogle Co., Ill., in the latter part of May, 1832, the news spread rapidly that the United States army had been cut to pieces in Illinois, Fort Dear- born, at Chicago, captured, the garrison massacred, the set- tlers in Northern Illinois all tomahawked and scalped, and the bloody and victorious Sac chief, at the head of 5000 fierce warriors, was making fast time on the war-path straight for the flourishing settlements in Kalamazoo County ! The excitement was intense; the military were at once called out, and preparations made to " pile a new Thermopyla," or beat back the horde of advancing savages. Col. H. B. Hus- ton, the first merchant in Kalamazoo, left his desk and, ably seconded by Capt. Harrison, who came of a fighting family, mustered all the men who could be spared, and hurried, with brief leave-takings, to the general rendezvous at Schoolcraft, then the largest and best business point in the county. Here, under leaders full of "martial fire," a heterogeneous battalion of some two hundred men, mounted on every variety of farm-horse, and promiscuously armed with the flint-lock musket of Bunker Hill, rifles that had caused many a fallow deer and gobbling turkey-cock to bite the dust, uncertain shot-guns and old holster-pistols, sabres that had seen bloody service under " Mad Anthony" in the
" stirring days of old," and powder-horns that would be a fortune to Barnum's Museum, set themselves in battle array and disappeared in smoke and dust towards the southwest, where lowered the ominous war-cloud, ready to burst in flame and blood over a devoted land.
As the gallant cavalcade swept on,
"'Twere worth ten years of peaceful life, One glance at their array."
After a long and weary ride, during which a number of jaded steeds and toil-worn warriors gave out and lingered by the way, the command reached the embryo city of Niles,
" Where the Norman encamped him of old,"?
and sought a brief respite from the " horrors of war" in a sylvan camp a mile out of the frightened village, for, surely, as the thundering tramp of the valorous legion shook the ground, they might exclaim,
" The voice of the battle's on the breeze, March forward one and all !"
The village of Niles was filled to overflowing with the chivalry of Michigan, which had assembled from far and near ready to do battle à l'outrance for wives and children tremb- ling " in their log-cabin homes."
In this pleasant camp the men of Kalamazoo County remained for two whole days, fighting mosquitoes and cursing the long delay of Black Hawk and his whooping braves, whom they expected to see
" Come pouring forward with impetuous speed,"
in all the horrid panoply of Indian war. But they came not ; in fact, they were then fugitives, swiftly fleeing from the legions of Uncle Sam and the ravenous militia of Illi- nois, who came forth under Ford, and Lincoln, || and Dement to sweep the red-skinned devils from the fair prairies of the West.
At the close of the second day "in camp" "general orders" announced that the peninsula was safe, and the battalion would countermarch for home. Strict discipline and soldierly bearing were enjoined, and as night fell upon the darkening landscape, the guard was set and the soldiers "sunk on the ground overpowered, the weary to sleep and the-" "Shade of the mighty Pontiac, what do I behold ?"
And the heroic sentinel discharged his piece and fled for camp, shrieking " Indians ! Indians ! Black Hawk and all his band are upon us ! The foe, he comes !"
From the shadows of the surrounding forest
" At once there rose so wild a yell, As all the fiends from heaven that fell Had pealed the banner cry of hell."
The host awoke, and, springing to its feet, with one long cry of abject despair, prepared for immolation. The dread sounds ceased, and all became still as a summer's eve. Whence came that fierce alarum cry ?. Where are the bloody foemen ? No man could tell, but it soon turned out that one_portion of the command had played "Indian" upon the balance to perfection.
* It would appear that Bronson built at least two dwellings for him- self in the village. The first regular dwelling was a sort of two-story affair, built of logs, on the southeast corner of Water and Church Streets. The second was a frame building of still greater pretensions, occupied a few years ago by Mrs. Barrett. The first was built in 1831, and the second in 1834.
t See civil list of the county, Chapter XVIII.
# In another connection it is stated that the first death was that of Joseph Wood, father of Smith L. Wood, aged seventy-two, and that he was buried in the new cemetery on West Street. This death is also said to have occurred in 1833. Rev. Richard Meek preached the funeral sermon.
¿ Robert Cavelier de La Salle, who visited this very ground in December, 1679, was a native of Rouen, in Normandy.
| Abraham Lincoln was a captain in the State militia, and marched his company to Rock River.
1
216
HISTORY OF KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
The joke was soon understood and hugely enjoyed as the " army" leisurely wended its way homeward, like the val- orous King of France, who,
" With forty thousand men, Marched up the hill, and then- Marched down again."
It is said that the boys took to the woods on the home- ward march, and that scarcely a " corporal's guard" reported at the rendezvous at Schoolcraft .*
As a fitting finale of the " Black Hawk war," the Rev. James T. Robe, a Methodist itinerant missionary, is said to have preached a sermon, the first in the history of Bronson, and it may be presumed that he chose an appropriate text, which ran something in this wise: " And two shall put ten thousand to flight." The sermon was preached at the house of Titus Bronson.t
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