History of Kalamazoo county, Michigan, Part 94

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

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348

HISTORY OF KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

tunities for education were limited, yet he obtained enough to fit him for the successful business life he has led. He re- mained with the family, working for the general good, until he was twenty years old, when his father divided his land among the sons. The west half of the northeast quarter and the northeast quarter of the northeast quarter of sec .. tion 10 in Climax fell to his share. Mr. Eldred after the division remained with his father, but worked on his own account. He drove team one season between Climax and Detroit. He then with his brother Daniel invested in Ohio cattle, buying them for the Michigan markets, and losing in the investment what was then a large sum of money. The next season he went to Illinois, and in the cattle trade retrieved part of what he lost the previous season. In 1840, Mr. Eldred built a frame house and barn on the north half of the northwest quarter of section 2, Climax, where he and his newly-married wife commenced house- keeping. This eighty acres he finally traded to his brother for part of what is now the home-farm. In 1847 he built on the one hundred and twenty acres which fell to his share the first brick dwelling in the town; considered a very fine one, and now surrounded by large and commodi- ous outbuildings, while on every side can be seen cleared fields and all the indications of thrift and prosperity. The farm of one hundred and twenty acres has increased until Mr. Eldred is the owner of one thousand acres of land. He has traveled a good deal, and, being a close observer, acquired a knowledge of the world. He has been for many years a Royal Arch Mason, and is a strong believer in the principles of Masonry. In politics Mr. Eldred has always been a Democrat. He has several times been elected justice in a strong Republican township. The Eldred family have always been Baptists, Mrs. Thomas B. having been a member over half a century. Mr. Eldred married, Sept. 24, 1840, Miss Eliza A. Bonney, daughter of Walter and Chloe (Bates) Bonney, who was born March 2, 1818. Their unionf has been blessed with ten children, viz , Lewis S., born Dec. 3, 1841 ; Estella L., April 3, 1843 ; Thomas D., Oct. 31, 1844 ; Thomas B., Jr., Jan. 1, 1845, died April 5, 1847 ; Ann E., March 8, 1848, died July 26, 1849 ; Julia M., Feb. 26, 1850; Leoda P., May 18, 1852, died May 14, 1877 ; May C., Sept. 9, 1854, died Jan. 31, 1875 ; Caleb, May 15, 1857; and Nellie E., July 22, 1859.

ISAAC DAVIS

was born in Gorham, Cumberland Co., Me., June 11, 1793. As soon as he arrived at a suitable age he turned his atten- tion to the forge and learned the blacksmith's trade. The glowing accounts that came to him of the golden oppor- tunities which the great West held for men of energy and perseverance took strong hold on his mind, and led him at the age of twenty-one to turn his face and footsteps west- ward. With staff in hand he plodded along sturdily on foot till he reached the western part of New York, where he stopped and worked at his trade. In 1816 he pur- chased a tract of land of the Holland Company, and thence- forward worked alternately at the forge and in the fallow. In 1823 he married Priscilla Rummery. Their union was

blessed with five children,-three girls and two boys. In 1834 he sold out and moved to Michigan, arriving at Climax about Christmas of that year. The journey was made in about three weeks. Two yoke of oxen drew the family and the household goods. Houses were not plenty then, but an empty building stood on the prairie from which a settler named Farnsworth had moved the spring before. It had since been used for a stable, but it was Hobson's choice, that or none, so Davis put it in order and made it his temporary abiding-place. He had purchased the south- east quarter of section 1, and as soon as he had made his family as comfortable as the circumstances would allow, he set about preparing them a home. He soon had a neat and comfortable log house, 22 feet square, with three rooms, cellar, and chamber, ready to receive them. As soon as spring opened they were " out of the old house into the new," and it made them a comfortable, happy home for many years. His skill as a blacksmith soon became noised abroad, and the people used to come from ten or fifteen miles away to avail themselves of it.

He was a great reader, possessed of a retentive memory, and took deep interest in all public questions. He was a strong Whig and a stronger Abolitionist. Although of quiet habits and retiring disposition, his love of liberty and equal rights for all was something more than a barren idealty,-with him it was a vitalizing, moving principle. Accordingly, we find him, in 1840, the passenger agent and general manager of the portion of the " underground railroad" between Climax and Marshall. Heman Baker and Lorenzo Taylor were his assistants, or sub-agents. Ope- rations were successfully carried on for many years, and many a poor fugitive slave was helped by them to gain the land of liberty and promise. Refugees over this route from Schoolcraft, whence they were forwarded by Dr. Thomas, the road-master at that place.

The first fugitives who arrived at Climax were five men and two women from Kentucky. When they fled from their old masters they had heard of such a place as Canada, but did not know where or how far it was, only that it was somewhere in the far North. So they set out with no guide but the North star, and no assistance till they had crossed the Ohio River. There they met with the agents of the underground railroad, who assisted them on their way as they passed along from station to station on the road to Canada. When they got to Climax the neighbors of Davis flocked in to see the curiosity,-which few of them had seen before,-of negroes in Michigan. The fugitives told the story of their flight,-how they traveled by night and slept by day, living on raw corn and a little tallow, which one of their number had secured, which, they said, made the corn swallow more easily. They told many an- ecdotes of Southern life, and seemed happy in the pros. pect of freedom. One old lady begged a lock of their hair, and, supposing she wanted it for a memento, each one gave her a lock. It afterwards turned out that she wanted it to use for the ear-ache, as she had great faith in its curative properties. Davis assisted a large number of refugees on their way. They came in companies of from two to four- teen at a time. The men traveled on foot, while the women and children were forwarded by teams. Among those who

HOLLAND GILSON.

N. ELWELL.

MR$ N. ELWELL.

PHOTO'S BY PACKARD.

349

TOWNSHIP OF CLIMAX.

lent their assistance was Isaac Pierce, who sometimes fur- nished teams to take them on to the next station. Among those who received assistance was a mulatto woman named Kirkwood, with two little girls, who came along in the fall of 1842. She said the girls were her children by her for- mer master, Kirkwood. According to her story, Kirkwood became encumbered by debts, and herself and children were about to be sold on an execution. He, wishing to save his children from perpetual slavery, ran them and the mother off to the Ohio River, closely followed by the Southern chivalry. He secured a boat and started to cross the river, but was ordered back. His only response was a more vigor- ous pull at the oar, when the crack of a rifle was heard, and Kirkwood fell dead in the boat. She succeeded, however, in reaching the Ohio shore, where she was secreted and passed along over the road. Her story was doubted at first, but was soon proved to be correct.

During Davis' connection with the underground railroad -which was as long as it existed-he assisted on their way to freedom seventy-five men and from eighty to ninety women and children, worth, according to the Southern es- timate, from seventy-five thousand to one hundred thousand dollars. Messrs. Fitch and Gorham, of Marshall, were de- tected in aiding the fugitives. Suit was bought, and a judgment of two thousand dollars obtained against them. A considerable portion of this was made up to them by friends of the cause. Zach. Chandler gave one hundred dollars, and Isaac Davis twenty-five dollars. Several people in Climax gave smaller sums.

Mr. Davis lived a quiet, peaceful life on his farm, gradu- ally increasing its size till it reached three hundred and eighty acres. He assisted in the formation of the first Congregational Church, the earlier meetings being held at his house. Later in life, when the weight of increasing years began to tell upon him, he turned over his farm to his youngest son and took up his residence with a daughter in Ingham County, where he and his wife still live, in the enjoyment of excellent health for persons of their great age. During a long and active life he has lived at peace with all, and can now say that he never had a lawsuit in his life.

PARVIS C. PEARCE.

Among the successful and well-to-do farmers of Climax township is Parvis C. Pearce, who was born in the town of Geneseo, Livingston Co., N. Y., May 23, 1817. When thirteen years old his family moved into Niagara Co., N. Y., where he grew to manhood, receiving but a limited educa- tion. Mr. Pearce can hardly remember when he was not his own master. At an early age he had to work at what-' ever he could get to do,-his earnings helping to support his mother and grandmother,-clearing land, splitting rails, and logging, when other farmers' boys of his age were either in school or doing the light work on the farm. In 1842 he married, after which he commenced for himself. He worked by the month and day, and also worked land on shares. In 1848 he determined to emigrate to Michigan, where land was rich and cheap. He came with his wife and two chil- dren to Climax, and worked by the month, while his wife

worked for her own and her children's board. The follow- ing winter he took up an eighty-acre lot, paying one quarter of the price down. He then worked a farm in Charleston, and in the following year built a small log house, doing the work, save making the doors, himself. He commenced im- proving his land summers, and in the winter split rails, sell- ing them for one dollar per hundred. In this way hunger was kept at a distance, and year by year saw new improve- ments. To the farm of eighty acres he has added from time to time, until he owns three hundred and twenty-seven acres of land, two hundred improved, mostly by himself, while the log house and barns have been replaced by a fine house and outbuildings, together with orchards and all that goes to make a fine farm. He has also helped his children in life. In politics Mr. Pearce is a Republican He mar- ried, Sept. 28, 1842, Miss Eliza Kelly, daughter of Hugh and Anne (Logan) Kelly, who was born Dec. 12, 1823, in Geneseo, N. Y. There have been born to them ten chil- dren, as follows : Jane, born Oct. 13, 1843; Lucy, July 15, 1846; Jennings, April 10, 1849 ; Sayda, May 16, 1851 ; Perry, May 29, 1854; Ida, April 18, 1857, died Aug. 28, 1859 ; Nora, March 8, 1860, died March 31, 1860; Nora, July 28, 1861, died in infancy ; Abraham L., Dec. 13, 1864; and Dolly, June 28, 1866.

NEHEMIAH ELWELL.

Nehemiah Elwell, Sr., was born in Danbury, Conn. From Danbury he went, prior to his marriage, to Albany Co., N. Y., where he married a Miss Martha Babcock. Mr. Elwell was a shoemaker, and worked at his trade until the infirmities of age compelled him to quit the bench. After his marriage he moved into Schoharie County, and from there to Monroe Co., N. Y., where he owned a farm. He remained in Monroe County a few years, when he sold, and purchased a new farm in Niagara Co., N. Y., which he cleared and improved with the assistance of his sons. In 1830 he again sold and came with his son to Climax, and again settled on a farm of wild land, the east half of the northwest quarter of section 15, which Nehemiah, Jr., had entered for him the year previous. The town was organ- ized, and he was elected highway commissioner and fence- viewer. On this farm he lived, and died at the age of sixty-two years. Nehemiah Elwell, Jr., was born in the town of Berne, Albany Co., N. Y., Oct. 31, 1811. He lived with his father until he was of age, when he com- menced business on his own account. He had always worked at farming, and we find him working at whatever he could find to do that would earn him an honest penny. In the fall of 1835 he came to Detroit by steamer, and thence on foot to Climax, in Kalamazoo County. He bought for himself the west half of the northwest quarter of section 15, in Climax, and the balance of the quarter- section for his father. He then returned to New York, and the following year came with his father's family to the new home. They came through Canada with a team and wagon. On his father's land they built a log shanty; where they all lived in common until 1840, young Nehemiah clearing and improving the land, which he has lived to see in a fine state of cultivation, while cleared farms, school-houses,

350

HISTORY OF KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

churches, and villages have taken the place of the forest. After his marriage, in 1840, he went on his own lot, living in a log house he had previously built, and which did good service for many a year, but which has been replaced by a handsome new house, built in 1876. The farm he has cleared and improved, and on it he intends to pass the remainder of his days.

In politics Mr. Elwell was first a Whig, then an Aboli- tionist and Free-Soiler, and is now a Republican. At the first township-meeting he was elected constable and col- lector, and has since been highway commissioner. Mr. Elwell is a man whom to know is to esteem and respect,- a man with many friends and no enemies. He married, Sept. 17, 1840, Ruth Whitford, daughter of Eli and Nancy (Sims) Whitford, who was born March 14, 1818. There have been born to them the following children : Homer N., born May 10, 1842; Martha M., May 2, 1845 ; Byron E., July 25, 1848, died in infancy ; Warren, March 19, 1851; Louisa P., Sept. 27, 1853; and Hubert, Aug. 26, 1855.

Homer N. Elwell enlisted, Aug. 6, 1862, in Company E, 25th Michigan Infantry, as a private; was promoted to second sergeant Sept. 14, 1863; acted as orderly during the campaign of 1864; was in the battles of Tubb's Bend, Ky .; Kingston, Tenn. ; Mossy Creek, Tenn .; Rocky Face; Resaca; Dallas ; Culp's Farm ; Atlanta ; Utoy Creek ; and Nashville, Tenn., and was mustered out June 26, 1865, at Salisbury, N. C.

HOLLAND GILSON.

Among the early settlers of Kalamazoo County there are none who better deserve the name of pioneers, or who have seen more of the hardships and privations of pioneer life, than Mr. and Mrs. Holland Gilson. He was born in the town of Putney, Windham Co., Vt., Dec. 4, 1800. When Holland was five years old his father, Oliver Gilson, moved to the town of Grafton, in the same county, and went upon a farm for which he had traded with his brother Solomon. Another brother served in the war for inde- pendence. On this farm Oliver and his wife (formerly Miss Mary Leonard) lived and died. Growing to manhood among the rugged hills of the Green Mountain State, Hol- land early learned the lessons of industry which have re- sulted in a home and competency for his old age. He was early set at work, making his opportunities for an educa- tion limited. When he was seventeen years old his father hired him to an elder brother, who crossed the mountains

and took jobs at building stone fence. At the age of eighteen years he bought his time and a yoke of oxen of his father, for which he was to pay one hundred dollars and help in haying three years. He then went to Rutland Co., Vt., and for three years followed stone-wall laying. He then carried on his father's farm a few years. Having married, he bought a small farm, from which he made a scanty living. In 1834, having sold his farm, he came to Michigan and stopped in Kalamazoo, working on the Ter- ritorial road for Crane & Burdick. The following Sep- tember his wife and family came on with Maj. Lovell's family, who came from the same township. In that spring he put out crops for Mr. Lovell on his Climax farm. After the arrival of his wife he hired a shanty and began life anew. Mr. Gilson worked out by the day and month, while Mrs. Gilson, who has been a true pioneer wife and mother, nobly did her share. She often left her four little children in the care of the eight-year-old daughter and went a mile or more to wash and clean house for others. During the winter of 1835-36, Mr. Gilson ran a saw-mill in Otsego. In the spring of 1836 he bought a yoke of oxen, borrowing the money to part pay for the same. Again he worked in a saw-mill, buying with his earnings some stock, and began to think of a home of his own. In 1836 he bought of Thomas P. Sheldon the quarter-section he now owns, borrowing fifty dollars of the purchase-money. His land was entirely new, and there were but one or two log huts between his farm and the prairie. The next win- ter (1836) he built a shanty of boards, the ends on the ground and leaning against a tree, keeping a fire all night for warmth. They built a log house with only a lower floor of boards and no windows, and with few conveniences or comforts. In this house the winter was passed, suffer- ing with cold, and having little but potatoes and coarse flour. In this way several years were passed, each work- ing hard to keep the wolf from the door, at times selling wheat for twenty-five cents per bushel, and being hardly able to pay their taxes. But industry and economy such as theirs must have its reward, and now they are in pos- session of all that is needed to make life comfortable ; with their farm grown to two hundred acres, besides eighty acres given to their son. They are passing the evening of life respected and esteemed by all. In 1826 he married Miss Mehitable Beckwith, daughter of Asa and Sarah (Reding) Beckwith, born Sept. 1, 1806, in Alstead, N. H. They have had six children,-Sarah, born Feb. 20, 1827 ; Mary, March 13, 1828; Hollis, Oct. 3, 1830 ; Holland, Feb. 11, 1835 ; Alice, July 31, 1840; and Annie, Feb. 10, 1846.

Photo. by Packard, Kalamazoo.

JOHN SLEEPER.

The life of Judge Sleeper was comparatively uneventful, and marked by few incidents save such as occur in the lives of most successful men. He was emphatically a " man of affairs,"-industrious, sagacious, enterprising, and public- spirited,-early developing those qualities which contributed to his success in after-life.

The family from which he sprang is one whose history in the United States dates back to 1607 .* In that year two brothers came from England, and settled in Hampton, N. H. Four of their grandchildren went to New Chester, N. H., now Bristol, where they became prominently identified with the history of that locality, and reared large families; and, according to genealogical record, Judge Sleeper's descent is traced to one of these branches. He was born in Bristol, N. H., Nov. 4, 1805. His father was the eldest in a family of twenty children, -eighteen sons and two daughters,-and died when John was eight years of age. He was a successful farmer, and his estate included a portion of what is now the village of Bristol. Upon his decease an elder brother (Walter Sleeper) moved on to the farm, and with him John resided until he was fourteen years of age, at which time he was apprenticed to a woolen manu- facturer, with whom he remained seven years ; but the avoca- tion proved uncongenial to his tastes, and he abandoned it as a means of obtaining & livelihood, and in 1828 entered the employ of Philip Winegar, a prominent business man of Union Springs, N. Y. In 1835 he formed a copartnership with Winegar & Son, in the dry goods and grocery business.

The following year (1886) he was married to Miss Sarah, the eldest daughter of the senior member of the firm.

During Mr. Sleeper's residence in Union Springs (a period of fourteen years) he became prominently identified with its interests, and filled many positions of trust and responsi- bility. He was elected supervisor of the town of Springport, and officiated as clerk, inspector, and justice of the peace.

In 1839 he and his father-in-law came West to look at some

land owned by the firm. He was favorably impressed with the location and natural advantages of a tract in the town of Comstock, and concluded to turn his attention to farm- ing, and in May, 1842, started for his future home with his family, which consisted of his wife and three children,- Lewis, Henry, and Eliza. Arriving upon his farm, he im- mediately commenced to clear and break up land, and in October began the erection of a house upon his land, into which the family moved in December of that year. The town at this time was sparsely settled. Galesburg had not reached the distinction of a village, and the family endured many privations and hardships incident to a life in a new country. Mr. Sleeper at once took a leading position among the citizens of Comstock. He was elected supervisor of the town, besides filling many other minor offices. In 1848 he was elected probate judge, and changed his residence to Kalamazoo, where he lived until the spring of 1860, when he returned to the farm. During his residence in Kalamazoo he was trustee of the village, and took a prominent part in the organization of the County Agricultural Society, and was its treasurer for several years. After his return to Comstock he held the position of county superintendent of the poor, county drain commissioner, and, in 1865, was again elected supervisor. While engaged in the duties of his office he contracted a cold, which caused his death on the afternoon of May 19, 1865.

Mr. Sleeper was emphatically a self-made man. He early es- tablished methodical business habits, and his energy and perse- verance, coupled with integrity of character, rendered his life a success. Politically he was a Republican, and an able exponent of the principles of that organization. He was a man of large experience in the affairs of the world, of decided abilities, and of marked industry. In social life he was refined, unselfish, and courteous, attracting to himself the warm friendship of the intelligent and cultivated. In his business life he was just and honorable in all his dealings, and had the respect and confidence of those with whom he was brought in contact.

* This statement is erroneous. The first settlement in New Hampshire was made at Portsmouth in 1623. The year 1627 would be more nearly correct.

COMSTOCK .*

NATURAL FEATURES.

First Views .- As the early emigrant approached this region his step was not only arrested by its beauty, but its varied attractions soon induced him to select a home in so favored a locality. He had passed through different portions of this wild territory, but had seen no spot that combined so many desirable natural features. Here was heavy timber land, a rich heritage in itself; here were the oak-opening and burr-oak lands, almost ready for the plow ; here was a matchless prairie, that only needed to be fenced and cabined for fine farm-homes ; and, furthermore, this inviting region was traversed midway by a beautiful valley, with a stream of bright water flowing through it. No wonder the sturdy emigrant paused in admiration ; he had found a region that had won him at first sight.

John Mullet, in December of 1825, ran the exterior lines of this township, and traced it down in his field notes as "town 2 south, of range 10 west." The sub- division lines were run by Robert Clark, Jr., in February of 1827.

It has the following surroundings: Richland on the north, Charleston on the east, Pavilion on the south, and Kalamazoo on the west. The Michigan Central Railway runs east and west through the centre of the township.

The Kalamazoo River enters Comstock just below the centre of the eastern line. It here bends to the south, then, turning, winds in a tortuous course some three miles west- erly, where it turns northward, and flows out of the town- ship near the middle of its western line. Its banks are low, as a strip of bottom-land, varying in width from a quarter to one-half of a mile in width, lies on each side of it. " Every river has its channel for the dry season, and its flood-plain, which it covers in times of overflowing." The waters of the Kalamazoo are usually clear, and the alluvial deposits have not, of late years, been abundant or frequent enough to have added to or enriched these bot- toms. In the eastern and western part, on south side of the river, they have been cultivated, and the soil has become harder and more productive. Much of the rest is yet too soft and wet for tillage. The soil is a dark mould on top, with a whitish sand below. What the fertility of these flats will be when they are fully reclaimed,-and that they can be is conceded,-time and cultivation will tell. They were once, except some 30 acres of marsh in the eastern part, heavily wooded with such trees as usually grow on bottom-lands in this latitude.

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History of Kalamazoo county, Michigan, Part 94

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