History of Kalamazoo county, Michigan, Part 64

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

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But the terraced chariot bearing Miss Frances Little, as " The God- dess of. Liberty," around whom were gracefully grouped 37 young ladies, representing the States, was the finest thing of the kind ever seen in Kalamazoo, and elicited admiration and applause at all points along the line of march.

Fourth Division .- The trades and industries represented in the fourth division admirably illustrated the agricultural, mechanical, manufacturing, and mercantile interests of both town and county, and strikingly exemplified the progress of the century.

The fine appearance of the military and civic societies in the first division, of the Knights Templar and Odd Fellows in the second di- vision, and especially of our gallant fire department and its guests in the third division, was universally noticed and deserves especial mention.

At the grand stand, which was erected on the west side of the court-house, under the noble trees that grace the square, Col. F. W. Curtenius officiated as president of the day, and announced the order of exercises :

Music, by Crossett's Silver Cornet Band.

Prayer, by Rev. H. F. Spencer.

"America," by grand chorus of 100 voices, led by W. F. Leavitt :

"My country, 'tis of thec, Sweet land of Liberty,- Of thee I sing ! Land where my fathers died ; Land of the Pilgrims' pride,- From every mountain side Let Freedom ring !

"My native Country ! thee- Land of the noble Frec- Thy name I love!

I love thy rocks and rills, Thy woods and templed hills ;

My heart with rapture thrills Like that above !

" Let music swell the breeze, And ring from all the trees Sweet Freedom's song !

Let mortal tongues awake, Let all that breathe partake,

Let rocks their silence break,- The sound prolong !

"Our fathers' God ! To Thee- Author of Liberty- To Thee we sing ! Long may our Land be bright With Freedom's holy light ! Protect us by Thy might ! Great God, our King !"

Reading of the Declaration of Independence, by Hon. Germain H. Mason.

Music, by Peninsular Cornet Band.

Centennial Poem, by Asa H. Stoddard. Whittier's Centennial Hymn, sung by grand chorus.

Oration, by Gen. Isaac R. Sherwood.

We have space for only a few paragraphs from this valu- able and scholarly address, which we select from the closing portions :

" What hopes for the future! The great days of the Republic are not all in the past; the great men of the Republic are not all con- signed to the eternal shades. Statesmen and heroes are wrought by the chisels and hammers of emergency. The heroic spirit is not dead ; when needed, the future will produce in still larger measure. We are not degenerating as a nation. The powerful head-lights of thousands of presses bring every hidden vice to view, but the great heart of the nation has never beat so strong as now. Bad men are but swallows, twittering on the eagle's back. Let the thundering presses roll and boom. Let them hurl the swift lightnings of criticism and the splint- ering shafts of wholesome truth. The more agitation the better, be

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it prompted by honest endeavor and rugged virtue. But in the midst of all let no weeping Jeremiah hang his harp on the willows, lament- ing the death of honesty and purity in the land.

"THE PRICE OF LIBERTY IS BLOOD.

" There is an oft-quoted assertion that the pen is mightier than the sword. I do not believe it. It is a cheap sentimentalism that belies the logic of history. Every conquest of value, since God made man. has been through heroic sacrifice and the blood of martyrs. It was not the blossoming rod of Moses, but the swift sword of Joshua that gave the Promised Land to Israel. It was not the Declaration of Inde- pendence that secured our independence, so much as the Continental army. Lincoln's Proclamation of Emancipation was the sentiment of the nation, quickened into life by the mad havoc of war, and in- tensified in its expression by the desperation of the conflict. Not all the ink-jugs in the land, preaching emancipation through a million pens, could have created such an outburst of patriotic emotion as that crash of cannon-shot against the walls of Sumter. When cannon speak, nations think ; and amid the clash of great arinies they think great thoughts. John Brown wrote the Emancipation Proclamation on the mountains of Virginia before Lincoln dreamed, or dreaming, would have dared to utter it; but he wrote it with his blood. It was not Lincoln's pen, nor the great-hearted spirit that inspired it, that gave liberty to the slave, but the tramping hosts of Freedom's army with their lines of steel. It was not the philippics of Sumner in the Senate, magnificent and classic and bold, that destroyed slavery and rescued our nationality. It was Grant in the front of Lee, Thomas in Tennessee, and Sherman and his boys thundering to the sea.

" It is Mazzini who says the angel of martyrdom and the angel of victory are brothers. The one looks up from earth and the other looks down from heaven, and it is only from epoch to epoch that their eyes meet between earth and heaven, that creation is embellished with a new life, and a people arises, evangelist or prophet, from the cradle to the tomb.

" Was not this the grandest epoch for us, and for all humanity, when the war-clouds lifted above the last crimson battle-field of the great Rebellion, and the Angel of Peace, serenely grand in the bright aurora of a redeemed nation, came forth to greet the Angel of Mar- tyrdom and the Angel of Victory ? It is said that the vocal statue of Memnon, at Thebes, emitted a musical sound when touched by the rays of the morning sun. But in the light of that civilization, even now in its dawn, every soldier's grave, whether adorned with marble slabs or covered with God's kindly grasses, will be vocal with a grander song,-the song of a heroic nation, cemented by common trials, inspired by a kindred faithyand blessed with the bright trinity of Liberty, Union, and Love."

Music, by the Kalamazoo Cornet Band.

"Old Hundred," by a grand chorus. Benediction.

The afternoon exercises commenced at four o'clock P.M., at the grand stand, by an open-air concert by the different bands. "Home, Sweet Home," by a grand chorus. These exercises were followed by an historical address by Foster Pratt, M.D. This was a characteristic and able effort, in which the doctor went over the entire historical field of Michigan in a general way, and more elaborately, the history of the county and of Kalamazoo village.

We give a single extract from the address, which treats of things unknown to the younger generation of to-day, picturing the early life and surroundings of the pioneers with a truthfulness to facts which only comes of a knowl- edge

" To the manor born,"

and in a style to interest and instruct every reader :

" FROM THE LOG CABIN TO THE PALACE.

" As to-day we look around on our thousand homes, made elegant by wealth and still inore elegant by taste,-fitting caskets of social refinement and domestic happiness,-how natural to turn our eyes and thoughts back to the log-cabin days of less than forty years ago. So natural is this retrospect it is not surprising that, on the grounds of

the World's Exposition at Philadelphia, a sample log cabin should stand in contrast with the elegant and luxurious house of modern days. Let us enter. Instinctively the head is uncovered in token of reverence to this symbol of ancestral beginnings and early struggles. To the left is the deep, wide fireplace, in whose commodious space a group of children may sit by the fire and, up through the chimney, may count the stars, while ghostly stories of witches and giants, and still more thrilling stories of Indians and wild beasts, are whisper- ingly told and shudderingly heard. From the great crane, suspended by ' pot-hooks' and ' hangers,' hang the old tea-kettle and the great iron pot. The huge iron shovel and tongs stand sentinel in either corner, while the great andirons patiently wait for the huge back-log. Over the fireplace, on wooden hooks, hang the trusty rifle, the powder- horn, and bullet-pouch. On the right side of the fireplace stands the spinning-wheel, and near it the flax-wheel, the reel and the ' swifts,' while in the farther end of the room the loom ' looms up' with a dig- nity peculiarly its own. Opposite the door by which you enter stands a huge deal table, with a drawer for knives, forks, and spoons; and by its side the dresser, whose 'pewter plates' and 'shining delf' catch and reflect ' the fireplace flame, as shields of armies do the sun- shine.'

" From the corners of its shelves coyly peep out the well-saved relics of former china, while on its top we see the well-worn but carefully- saved book and newspaper. In a curtained corner, and modestly hid from casual sight, we find the mother's bed, while near it a ladder indicates the loft where the children sleep. To the left of the fire- place, and in the corner opposite the spinning-wheel, is the mother's work-stand, its drawer well stored with thread and needles, buttons and scissors, and wads of string that must have come from her boy's pockets. Upon it lies the ' Holy Bible,' evidently much used and not too fine for use; its family record telling of parents and friends a long way off, and telling, too, of children

"'Scattered like roses in bloom, Some at the bridal and some at the tomb.'

" Her spectacles, as if but just used, are inserted between the leaves of her Bible, and tell of her purpose to return to its comforts when cares permit and duty is done. A stool, a bench, well notched and whittled and carved, and a few chairs complete the furniture of the room, and all stand on a coarse but well-scoured floor.

"Now watch the visitors. The city bride, innocent but thought- less, and ignorant of labor and care, asks her dapper husband, ' Pray, what savages set this up?' Honestly and manfully confessing his ignorance, he replies, ' I do not know, my dear.' But see that West- ern pair, on whom age sits ' frosty but kindly.' First, as they enter, they give a rapid glance about the cabin-home, and then a mutual glance of eye to eye. Why do tears start and fill their eyes? Why do lips quiver? Why are they so silent? Many hear me to-day who know why. But who that has not learned in the school of experience the full meaning of all these symbols of trial and privation, of loneli- ness and danger, can comprehend the story which they tell to the pioneer ? Within this chinked and mud-daubed cabin we read the first pages of the history of our national century, and as we retire through its low doorway and note the heavy battened door, its wooden hinges and its welcoming latch-string, is it strange that the scene without-its gorgeous temples of art, of science, and of skill, and the gathered nations of the earth -- should seem to be a dream ? But thus the beginning and the close of our century are fitly symbolized. The rude hut and the grand Memorial Hall, side by side in vivid contrast, impressively tell the story of the first century of American progress ; they are a history and a prophecy in one."

The exercises closed with " Auld Lang Syne" by the grand chorus.

In the evening there was the finest display of fire-works ever seen in Kalamazoo, which closed at ten P.M., and the " Centennial" was over.

"HOW KALAMAZOO APPEARS TO A SOUTHERNER.#

" The following letter we find in a late number of the Raleigh, N. C., Observer. It was written by Mrs. Mary Bayard Clark, a lady whose poetical contributions to the literature of the country have been frequent and highly esteemed. Mrs. C. was here a few weeks

# From the Telegraph, 1877.

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HISTORY OF KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

ago, the guest of Mrs. Alexis Ransom, and was greatly delighted with Kalamazoo. The letter is dated September 4th :

"'MESSRS. EDITORS,-I left Chicago at half past five in the after- noon, and about quarter-past ten found myself in this pretty village, one hundred and forty miles from the Lake City. Though going at such a rapid rate the motion was so smooth that supper was served in the dining-room cars attached to the train easily, as if in a stationary restaurant; each table seated four persons, and was ornamented with fruit and flowers. The country generally was too flat to be interest- ing, though the vivid green of the meadowsend the occasional sparkle of a lakelet, after we left the crowning glory of Lake Michigan, often gave pretty bits of scenery.

"' Michigan abounds in lakes. I have heard the number variously stated at from six to fourteen hundred,# and there are numerous de- pressions in the surface that appear to be the beds of what were once large bodies of water. Kalamazoo is situated in one of these natural bowls, being entirely surrounded with hills that encircle it on every side. The name in the Indian language signifies "boiling pot," and the significance of it is easily seen by one standing on the hills in the morning and looking down into the circular valley, the surface of which is sometimes entirely concealed by the heavy mist that rises from the Kalamazoo River. The whole of this country was evidently once submerged, and it presents most interesting features to the geol- ogist and antiquarian, being covered with ancient earthworks, mounds, and garden-beds, remnants of the mysterious mound-builders, who, according to the best authorities, were contemporary with the race who constructed the Pyramids. These garden-beds show the mound- builders to have been an agricultural people. They are about four or five feet long and from one to two feet apart, and are always placed diagonally to the cardinal points of the compass. The mounds have never been accounted for; some, when opened, are found to contain remnants of pottery and stone implements, and, in some cases, skele- tons of a race differing from the red man; but others seem simply earthworks, constructed for what purpose is not known, as the race left no other records. There is a small mound of this kind in the park of this town, and quite a large one at Cahokia, Ill., which rises fully ninety feet at the highest point, and is seven hundred feet long by five hundred broad.

"' My host, who is a brother of the late Governor Ransom, of Mich- igan, one of the first settlers of Kalamazoo, has seen the place grow from two to three houses to its present fair proportions. Forty years ago it did not exist, and now it numbers as many inhabitants as Ra- leigh. The inhabitants pride themselves on its being the largest vil- lage in the State, and will not hear of a municipal government. They are also very justly proud of its beauty and the neatness with which it is kept, as well as of its shade-trees. Here I think we excel them, for their burr-oaks are not as large and stately as our white- and red- oaks, though they are very numerons and the whole town is embow- ered in shade. But in grass they have decidedly the advantage of us, for their lawns are the most beautiful I ever saw, and generally kept close cut, resembling a piece of green velvet where they can be kept well watered. But even when not cut and watered the grass is green and luxuriant, and the brilliant flower- beds that sometimes break the surface show to very great advantage. There is a premium offered by the State Fair for the best-contrived and prettiest dwelling-house and ornamented grounds in the State, and Kalamazoo will probably obtain it. A committee is sent around to look at the places entered, and the award will be made on their report.

"" Twenty-five years ago the ladies of this place formed a library association and began collecting a library. They met first one evening in the week at each others' houses, and read the books as they pur- chased them; now they have two handsomely furnished rooms, with a library of three thousand volumes, and numerous beautiful works of art in the shape of pictures and plaster casts of the most celebrated statues of the world.

"' Here they meet once a week, and once a month they read papers on different subjects prepared by some of their number. All the young girls attend these meetings, or classes, and grow up in an at- mosphere of progressive thought, in which they seem to imbibe liter- ary and scientific information, and become insensibly well-read and well-informed women. Among the pictures I noticed Raphael's " For-

narina," Vandyke's "Charles and Henrietta," "The Last Judgment," and several beautiful frescoes from Pompeii, among which was the celebrated " Dancing Girl." In the casts are the " Venus de Milo," " Antinous," and the exquisite remnants of the " Psyche." Both arms and the top of the head are wanting, but the face is, in every sense, perfect. When I saw all these beauties I felt envious, and sighed for wealth, for I supposed, of course, they were presented to the associa- tion by some rich member or admirer, and was astonished to hear they had never had a donation, and had never raised their subscription beyond a dollar a year; occasionally they gave entertainments, the proceeds of which go to improving the library and adorning the rooms. Besides this there is a public library, kept up by the town, which is free to all tax-payers, who grumble as much at high taxes as we do, but, unlike us, have something to show for the money. There are several large schools here, two of which, a male and female, are kept up by the Baptists of Michigan. As I am driven around I often wonder where the poor people live, for I have seen none but comfort- able and few but pretty residences, and there are no people from whom a supply of domestic service can be drawn; the consequence is, that many, even wealthy, ladies keep no servants, but do their own work, and prepare all the meals of the family in the nicest and cosiest of kitchens, many of which are really elegant in their appointments. How they can do this and yet find time not only to visit and receive company, but also to read and prepare papers on history, science, and art, to be read at their club, is mysterious to me.

"'Sometimes, like all Southern ladies since the war, I have been for a few days servantless, and I groan in spirit when I recall the weary days when I burnt my fingers and my face over the cooking-stove, and gave myself the backache and the faceache sweeping and dusting, and had an ever-present and abiding sense of looking cloudy, fagged, and smutty, and feeling cross and snappish. My Southern sisters can appreciate my feelings of relief at the arrival of the poorest servant, and will not be surprised at my astonishment on hearing an elegant and refined lady say she did not care to be troubled with servants, that they made more work than they accomplished, and she preferred to do her own work.

"'Theoretically I admire the domestic arrangement here, but prac- tically I am still "joined to my idols," and would rather put up with the trials of a Southern household than assume the difficulties of a Western one. But then I own to being lazy about some things. In this climate, with these surroundings, I might possibly come in time to doing as others do, but in Carolina amn content to follow the old way.'"

We have brought the history of Kalamazoo village down to the centennial year, and there is only to add a general summary of its situation, population, business, and future prospects.

A history of the various institutions follows, which in itself is both historical and statistical, and gives a good idea of the commercial, manufacturing, religious, literary, and social standing of what its people delight to call " The Big Village."

Its situation is among the finest in the State or country, and its surroundings are worthy a great city, which it prom- ises some day to become.

It has for nearly fifty years been a remarkable political and educational centre, as well as a point around which cluster important interests of the legal and medical profes- sion,-second only to the city of Detroit. It is the seat of important colleges, seminaries, and schools, and of one of the great State charities, the Michigan Asylum for the Insane.

Its founders were liberal in giving it broad streets and a beautiful park, and it has grown, in the lapse of fifty years, into all the habiliments of a modern city, except the name and those extravagances which too often accompany titles of nobility.

It has its great railway lines, diverging to the cardinal

* The visitor was misinformed upon this subject; there are at least five thousand lakes in the lower peninsula. Oakland County alone contains four hundred and fifty .- ED.

RES. OF MARY A. TROWBRIDGE, KALAMAZOO.

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VILLAGE OF KALAMAZOO.

points of the compass, and more : its messengers, " woven of the lightning's wing;" its telephonic communications ; its water-works; its brilliant gas-lights ; its public build- ings ; its opera-house ; its police and fire departments ; its great libraries ; its smoking manufactories ; its extensive wholesale houses ; its ample caravanseries ; its paved streets ; its beautiful rural cemeteries ; its palatial private dwellings ; its famous fair-grounds and trotting-parks; its fountains and statuary ; its score of churches ; its crowded schools ; and its flourishing weekly and daily newspapers.

Kalamazoo is a place of very extensive trade. Its situ- ation, midway between Detroit and Chicago, is favorable to its mercantile interests, and the rich agricultural region surrounding it pours into its warehouses and marts a great volume of the products for which Michigan is so famous,- grain, fruit, and stock.

The names in its business directory reach a grand total of about 2000, and its regular business firms probably number over 200. It has about 100 named streets, whose aggregate length approximates 40 miles, and nearly all have substantial stone or plank sidewalks. The appearance of the town, when embowered in the shade of " leafy June," with its stately churches, schools, and dwellings; its fine business blocks of stone, brick, and marble; its broad streets, and general air of thrift and cultivation, make an exceedingly favorable impression upon the stranger and traveler ; and its desirableness as a place of residence, with all its accompaniments of civilization and luxury, is hardly surpassed by any place of a similar population in the Union.

With the addition of street railways, solid sidewalks in place of wood, and a new court-house worthy its surround- ings, Kalamazoo village would be as near perfection as any provincial town in the West. " May its shadow never be less !"

SCHOOLS.#

The first step to establish schools in Kalamazoo (then Bronson) appears to have been taken on the first day of September, 1833, when the commissioners of common schools for the township of Arcadia divided it into five school districts, No. 1 being the village of Bronson. The township of Arcadia then included the present townships of Kalamazoo, Cooper, Oshtemo, and Alamo. Richland had been set off from it in 1832.

The village district was at once organized, and a building constructed of slabs for temporary use, until a better one could be erected. The first school in this rude apology for a school-house, and which was undoubtedly the first in the village, it is generally agreed upon all hands was taught by Miss Eliza Coleman, now Mrs. Rodney Seymour, and the lady tells us that, according to her recollection, she first taught in the spring of 1834 ; other authorities think it was in the summer or fall of 1833.+

This primitive building not only served the purposes of a school, but was also used for sessions of the courts, and Mrs. Seymour distinctly remembers that her school was twice dismissed to accommodate the dignitaries of the law. It was also used for religious purposes. It stood near where the Jewish synagogue now stands, on the south side of South Street, near the corner of Henrietta Street.

In the autumn of 1834 a frame building was erected a little west of the slab structure, and completed in season for the winter school of 1834-35. Previous to the opening of the school it was utilized for a session of the Circuit Court, at which Judge William A. Fletcher, of Ann Arbor, presided. This second building was used for school purposes, with oc- casional intermissions, so late as the summer of 1866,-a period of thirty-two years. In the last-named year it was removed to the north part of the village, the district having sold the lot in 1865. For a number of years succeeding its erection it was the only public building, save taverns, in the place, and was used indiscriminately for schools, town- meetings, courts, and religious meetings ; no less than three denominations holding services within its walls.

In 1837 a second district was organized out of the east half of district No. 1, the dividing line running north on Henrietta Street to South Street, west on South Street to the alley running through to Main Street, opposite the Kalamazoo House, thence northwest to Burdick Street, on a continuation of Portage Street, and thence north to the bounds of the village on Burdick Street. It was particu- larly specified that the Kalamazoo House should be in the new district. At the time of the division the new district was designated as No. 2, but this was soon changed to No. 8, in order not to have duplicate numbers in the township.

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History of Kalamazoo county, Michigan, Part 64

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