History of Kalamazoo county, Michigan, Part 96

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

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Lyman Tubbs, April, 1833 ... 160

John Wily Tyrell, Ontario Co., N. Y., May, 1833 160

Wm. Foster, Ontario Co., N. Y., August, 1833 80

Joseph W. Lee, Orleans Co., N. Y., August, 1834 13.67

SECTION 28.

Jesse W. Turner, May, 1833. 40

Solomon Cuykendall, Niagara Co., N. Y., May, 1833. 80 Erastus A. Jackson, Windsor Co., Vt., December, 1833 40

Joseph W. Lee, Orleans Co., N. Y., August, 1834. 40

Samuel Carney, Niagara Co., N. Y., October, 1834. 80 Jesse W. Turner, Niagara Co., N. Y., December, 1834 80

Win. Hook, Scotland, December, 1834. 40

John Coats, Niagara Co., N. Y., June, 1835 40

Alvan Hood, Chautauqua Co., N. Y., July, 1835 80

H. H. Comstock, May, 1836 80

Jesse W. Turner, December, 1836 .. 40

SECTION 29.

Stephen Eldred, Vermont, January, 1833. 80

Marquis F. Lee, Orleans Co., N. Y., July, 1833. 40

Erastus A. Jackson, December, 1833 40

Ezekiel Lee, Orleans Co., N. Y., May, 1834. 40

Alford Mason, May, 1834 40 Jas. C. Haile, July, 1834. 40

Epaphroditus Ransom, January, 1835 80

Marquis F. Lee, Orleans Co., N. Y., April, 1835.

Joseph W. Lee, July, 1835.

Francis Fitts, December, 1835. 40

Henry Sheldon, December, 1836. 40

Alvan Hood, January, 1839. 40

Justus Burdick, January, 1839. 40 State swamp lands, in May, 1850. 40

SECTION 30.

Samuel Percival, March, 1834 80 Joseph Merrill, May, 1834

Epaphroditus Ransom, December, 1834. 70.56 Samuel Percival, January, 1835. 71

Edward Willard, February, 1835 80

James Dixon, Cayuga Co., N. Y., July, 1835 80

Charles Andrews, Niagara Co., N. Y., October, 1835. 120

State swamp lands, in September, 1850. 40

SECTION 31

Acres.

Joseph Whitford, November, 1833. 80

Wolcott Botsford, Kalamazoo County, December, 1833 .. 80 Salmon King, Oxford, U. C., June, 1834. 80 Warren Beckwith, Genesee Co., N. Y., June, 1835 70,48 James R. Jackson, Genesee Co., N. Y., September, 1835. 70.72 Julin Kean, New York City, September, 1835. 160

Jacob B. Smith, Livingston Co., N. Y., September, 1835. 80

SECTION 32.

George C. Lee, December, 1834. 200

Cicero Hounsom, January, 1835. 40

Epaphroditus Ransom, January, 1835 40

Theodore P. Sheldon, August, 1835 40

Thomas C. Sheldon, September, 1835. 80

Daniel Pomeroy and Daniel Alvord, Jr., Niagara Co., N. Y., September, 1835. 240

SECTION 33.

Thomas S. Day, Green Co., N. Y., May, 1834. 80 Elizabeth Tyrell, June, 1835 ... 80 John Coats, Niagara Co., N. Y., June, 1835 .. 160 Daniel Pomeroy and Daniel Alvord, Jr., Niagara Co., N. Y., September, 1835 320

SECTION 34. Benjamin and Benjamin F., William, and Harvey Cummins, December, 1832. 160 Lyman Tubbs, Yates Co., N. Y., April, 1833 .. 320 William Wheaton, Steuben Co., N. Y., May, 1835. 160

SECTION 35.

Lyman Tubbs, April, 1833.

320

Thompson Beadle, Genesee Co., N. Y., October, 1833. 40

Lyman Bishop, Michigan. October, 1833 120 Martin Turner, April and May, 1835. 120

Lyman Tubbs, May, 1835. 40

SECTION 36.

Thompson Beadle, Genesee Co . N. Y., October. 1833. 40 Edwin M. Clapp, Niagara Co., N . Y., June and November, 1834 120 Martin Turner, Niagara Co., N. Y., May, 1835 40

Thomas C. Sheldon, July, 1835. 80

Luke Keith, Genesee Co., N. Y., March and April, 1836. 120 Thomas W. Durkee, December, 1836. 80

Andrew Baxter, December, 1836. 160

EARLY SETTLERS.

The year 1831 brought many new settlers to this town- ship. In June of this year came Roswell Ransom and Cyrus Lovell from Townhsend, Windham Co., Vt., although Mr. Lovell had come to Ann Arbor from Vermont some year or two before. They bought Isaac Toland's prairie lands and betterments. They then returned, Mr. Lovell to Ann Arbor and Mr. Ransom to Vermont. Late in the fall of 1831 they, with their young wives, came back to take possession of their new homes. Mr. Lovell was the first lawyer in this township and in Kalamazoo. After residing here and at Kalamazoo a few years he removed to Ionia, where he now lives. Roswell Ransom was the third son of Maj. Ezekiel Ransom, and brother of Epaphroditus Ransom, the eighth State Governor of Michigan. He married Miss W. L. Shafter, of Vermont, sister of Justice H. M. Shafter, of Galesburg. Roswell Ransom was one of the earliest and most active pioneers in this county. From the time of his arrival to his death, in 1877, he identified himself with the interests of his township. He was appointed justice of the peace by Stevens T. Mason, Governor of the then Territory of Michigan, making him the first justice in this township, while his jurisdiction extended over all Arcadia, then including the north part of the county. He was a man of large views, earnest purpose, and varied abili- ties. In politics he began life in the school of Democracy, and yet, paradox as it may seem, he was always an anti- slavery man. When the Republican party was organized

356

HISTORY OF KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

he joined it, and was ever one of its most zealous supporters. On matters of general home interests he was a ready and effective public speaker, and his influence was ever exerted in forming correct public opinion on temperance, education, and other reforms of the day. He was a steadfast, reliable friend, and his natural courtesy and suave manners were in marked contrast to the cold indifference of the business life of these times, or the roughness that passes so current among people who would be offended if they were called impolite. Mr. Ransom's conversation was instructive, and to those interested in the pioneer life of this region he was an unfailing source of historic information. He was unques- tionably the fullest and most reliable authority on the his- tory of Kalamazoo County that we had in this locality. He died in the full faith of the Christian religion,-a member of the Congregational Church of Galesburg. He left a wife and seven children. The daughters are Mrs. J. J. Sutton, of California ; Mrs. E. T. Mills, of Kalamazoo ; Mrs. A. J. Burdick, of Galesburg; Mrs. John S. Van Doren, of Cali- fornia. The sons are James N., of Texas, and Albert E., of Kansas.

A staunch and true man came to this township from Gaines, Orleans Co., N. Y., in the summer of 1831, in the person of Samuel Percival. On arriving at the " Creek," as the locality where the little company who had preceded him was called, he had only fifty cents with which to start life in the woods and among strangers. But he was an ex- cellent millwright ; was well stocked with courage and the natural resources of an energetic man, and, casting about him, he soon saw power running idly by in that babbling stream that could be turned to the use of driving a mill for the little expectant colony. His practical eye had already found the place for a dam, and a race to conduct the water to the mill which had mentally sprung into being by the side of the dam, and was grinding the scant grists of the needy settlers. In his mind he had already planned and erected a grist-mill; and " he builded better than he knew." For he soon meets here Gen. H. H. Com- stock, from Otsego Co., N. Y., a brisk, courteous young man with a practical turn, who, on looking over the site, immediately sees a valuable water-privilege, and proffers the money to Mr. Percival to erect a mill. Judge Caleb Eldred, who had first been induced to locate here on ac- count of the fine mill-privilege he saw by this stream, now joins the other two, goes to Detroit, and on an ox-sled hauls the mill-stones from the " City of the Straits" through the almost interminable distance around and over marshes, across rivers, and on to their little embryo settlement at the creek. There were so few settlers at the "Creek" that the settlement here and the one on Gull Prairie were solicited to aid in building the dam. They came, and Orlando Weed and Dauphin Brown, of Gull, "broke ground" in this work ; they threw the first shovelful of dirt in the construction of this dam. But the work, once begun, was soon completed. In the fall of 1832 the Com- stock Mill was in operation, and Samuel Percival was the presiding genius inside the mill, as he had been in building it. He had been largely instrumental in establishing a good grist-mill for the inhabitants of this entire region.

Some men came here, merely good farmers, mechanics, or

doctors. Samuel Percival came to this new country not only a first-class millwright, zealous and diligent in his business, but he brought just as much zeal for building school-houses, starting prayer-meetings, establishing churches, which con- stitute the soul of good society, as he did for improving a water privilege and building a mill. He sold his full interest in the mill in 1846, and removed to Galesburg, where he purchased what is known as the Cothren farm. He also engaged in the dry goods trade for a while, and, finally retiring from that, died at his residence in Galesburg in 1864. His devoted and excellent wife, the helpmate to him in all his trials, joys, and varied experiences in life, survived him a few years, dying in 1867. Mr. and Mrs. Percival were exemplary members of the Congregational Church, and died in the full faith of their religion.

The Rev. Thomas W. Merrill, whose death by apoplexy occurred at his son's residence in Lansing, Monday evening, April 8, 1878, was the son of a clergyman, and was born in Sedgwick, Me., in 1802. He graduated at Waterville College, now Colby University, in 1825, and at Newton Theological Seminary in 1828. He was a classmate of Dr. Barnes Sears, formerly president at Newton and at Brown University, and now superintendent of the Peabody Southern Educational Fund. Mr. Merrill came to Michigan soon after graduating from Newton, and was ordained to the Baptist ministry in this State. He began almost immedi- ately to give his attention to the founding of a school. This was not an easy matter, for the policy of State support for advanced education was not popular, and there was much difficulty in getting a charter from the Legislature. This was finally obtained, however, after an effort of about three years, while Michigan was still a Territory. The charter of the school, which afterwards became Kalamazoo College, was the first of the kind granted by the State.

Father Merrill lived in Kalamazoo from an early day. but removed from there to become a permanent resident of Lansing nearly twenty years ago. He was always deeply interested in the endowment of the college, and his own gifts to the institution have been equaled by few if any in- stances of educational beneficence in Michigan. In addition to a professorship, he founded scholarships to the extent of $15,000 for the benefit of candidates for the Baptist min- istry among the students of the institution.

Mr. Merrill has been married three times. His three children, who were all by his first wife, and are all living, are Thomas G. Merrill, of Lansing ; Daniel D. Merrill, of St. Paul, the school-book contractor of Minnesota; and one daughter.

The following letter from the veteran pioneer missionary and evangelist, Rev. T. W. Merrill, was written to A. D. P. Van Buren, and dated at Lansing several weeks since :

"In reply to your inquiries, I may say I came to Michigan from Sedgwick, State of Maine, May 23, 1829, at my own charges as an evangelist, and preached in the various settlements of the then Territory of 29,000 inhabitants. In November, 1829, I opened a clas- sical school at Ann Arbor, which was patronized by Governor Wood- bridge, Judge Chipman, of Detroit, and many others. Having pros- ecuted the school successfully for one year, in company with my brother, Moses Merrill, by request of friends in Ohio, I attended an educational meeting at Zanesville, in October, 1830, which resulted in the establishment of Granville College, or Denison University, at Granville.

357

TOWNSHIP OF COMSTOCK.

"On my return, in November, 1830, I visited Kalamazoo County. At that time on the Washtenaw trail, passing through Jackson to Kalamazoo, it was forty miles from house to house, so I took the Chicago trail to White Pigeon, and found houses within ten or fifteen miles of each other. At that time the inhabitants were few and far between. The principal settlement was on Prairie Ronde, on the border of the prairie, on the west side. I found no meetings or school. I held meetings in private houses, and after long and varied success I induced the men to unite with me in building a house of split logs 20 by 26 feet, having a stick chimney, shake roof, and puncheon floor. We paid $5 a share, thus raising some $50. William Duncan, Esq., was one of our most enterprising, intelligent, benevolent, and worthy citizens, and he took the lead in building the house. For some months I kept school, and on the Lord's Day I preached to the people and had a Bible-class and Sunday-school. Amongst my scholars were Mr. Fellows, lately one of our representatives, and W. Bair, a trustee of Kalamazoo College. This was the first meeting-house and school- house in the county. Delamore Duncan, Daniel Wilmarth, E. Lakin Brown, Col. Fellows, as well as S. Hoyt, Titus Bronson, and Bazel Har- rison, were amongst our prominent men. Though Titus Bronson was an intelligent man and a thrifty farmer, neither of the last three ever sat on the bench as judges of Kalamazoo County to my knowledge .* In 1830-31, I traveled and preached the gospel in the county in vari- ous directions, my expenses being more than my receipts. I was on Prairie Ronde when the county-seat was located, and at Kalamazoo when there were only two houses, one of which was occupied by Titus Bronson. While in Ann Arbor I drew and circulated a petition for a literary and theological institution, and presented it to the Territo- rial Council at Detroit, which resulted in the location of the Kala- mazoo College. (See Historical Sketch of Kalamazoo College, School Laws and Reports for 1863, page 145.) As a voluntary agent I visited New York in its behalf, and obtained some pledges to carry it forward. I might state some of the privations, toils, and exposures in erecting the first house for a school and meetings in the county, as well as in teaching the new settlers in the way of salvation, but iny impressions and experience may be those of many others. I think that you will find that Bronson and Hoyt had no claim to judgeship, and what Judge Harrison had he obtained before he saw Michigan. He was regarded as a good citizen, but his education was very limited. At this time the names of 'Squire W. Duncan, Mr. Stanley, Mrs. Wil- marth, Mrs. Williams, and others might be mentioned as standing out prominently as the friends of virtue as well as of good morals. As I am on the last of life, in my seventy-fifth year, and feeble, you must take the will for the deed in contributing anything in favor of your enterprise.

"Yours truly, "T. W. MERRILL."

The old house that Elder Merrill built when he first set- tled, in 1831, on the east half of the northwest quarter of section 22, in this township, is yet standing. The coat of red paint he then gave it-and it was never painted after- wards-has long since faded out, leaving nothing but the weather-stained boards enclosing a one-and-a-half frame structure with its end to the road. La Fayette Dunn is now owner of the lands, and lives in the old farm-house.

Joseph W. Merrill, brother of the above, who came here in 1834, was one of the earliest settlers in this township. He did his part of the pioneer work here in reclaiming his wild lands, now an excellent farm, owned by Deacon Jesse Havens. Mr. Merrill was a most worthy townsman, and an influential and useful member of the Baptist Church of Galesburg. He returned to the East many years ago, and is now dead.

Another most excellent man, James Burnett, from Niagara Co., N. Y., has left a good record of the work he performed in the early settlement of this township. Gilbert Cranmer now owns the lands Mr. Burnett reclaimed. Mr. Cranmer was also a pioneer in the country west of this. Caleb

Smart, from New Hampshire, in 1834, first settled on the land now owned by H. C. Rowland. . Mr. Smart was a supervisor of Comstock, and held the office of justice of the peace; was an intelligent, worthy man. He died many years ago.

David A. McCollum located lands in this township in 1831. Came here from Ann Arbor, with his family, in 1852. He cleared a large farm, which he left some time in 1868, and removed to Galesburg, where he died in 1871. He was an intelligent, exemplary man. His wife, a most estimable woman, now resides with her granddaughter in Nebraska. His sons David and Frank still live on the old farm.

The year 1832 brought some good men to this region. From Cambria, Niagara Co., N. Y., came, in the spring of that year, Wm. Earl and his sons Jesse and Lyman. Mr. Earl was a stirring, influential man, and had considerable money to begin and carry out many improvements in the township. He began here on the east half of the northeast quarter of section 23. Some years after he bought lands in Charleston, erected good buildings, and made fine im- provements. In this year, from the same place, came Edwin M. Clapp and his brother Rufus S. They settled in Charles- ton. Edwin, years after, settled in this township, on sec- tion 35, where he now lives. Mr. E. M. Clapp has filled the most important offices in the township, and has ever been one of its most prominent and useful men. He and his brother-in-law, Jesse Earl, are two of the oldest and best types of pioneers in this part of the country. Rufus S. Clapp was one of the early school-teachers and surveyors, and a student of the branch university at Kalamazoo. He taught the first select school in Galesburg. A spirit of adven- ture many years ago took him to the far West, even to the Golden State. He finally settled at Pioche, Nev., where he got into favor with the people, and was elected to the Terri- torial Senate, and with all his gettings has secured a com- petency for life.

Hugh M. Shafter came to this township from Windham Co., Vt., in May, 1833. He located the west half of the west half and the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section 13-200 acres. He built a house and plowed some 40 acres of his land, and went back to Vermont, returning in the fall of 1834 with his young wife. Esquire Shafter has done his part in making this township what it is to-day. His life here embraces the complete history of Comstock from its township organization to the present day. Among the first who engaged in subduing the savage wilderness, he was just as diligent in attendance at township-meetings ; there has not been a school-meeting in his district from 1834 to 1879, when he could go, but what he has attended ; and he has always had the moral courage to avow his sen- timents on all occasions ; whether the majority went with him or whether the whole township opposed him, it made no difference. He did what he thought his duty. He has served his township in various offices, and for the last eight years has been one of its magistrates. His wife died in 1864. He comes of a family of vigorous intellect, some of whom have arisen to eminence in public life. Oscar L. Shafter was chief justice of the Supreme Court of Cali- fornia at the time of his death, a few years ago. James

* Harrison and Hoyt most certainly did .- ED.

358

HISTORY OF KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

McM. Shafter, another brother, is a distinguished lawyer in the same State. Oscar has received $20,000 in gold as a retainer's fee. James, in a " will case," received $30,000 for two days' work in his practice in the Golden State.

Esquire Shafter is yet as social and lively in spirit as in his younger days, full of pioneer lore, and an active partici- pant in the practical affairs of the present time.

Joseph Flanders came from Cambria, Niagara Co., in 1833, and made his first attempt at farming in this new country in Charleston, on the land now owned by Mr. Staf- ford. From Charleston he removed to his present farm in 1844. Mr. Flanders is one of the old pioneer class who yet enjoy the fruits of labor bestowed on the land he re- claimed from a wilderness. He is one of our most intelli- gent farmers. His pleasant farm-home, his orchard of the best varieties of fruits, and his well-tilled fields evince the enterprising farmer. As the labors and cares of a busy life begin to tell on him, his son, Edwin P. Flanders, one of our sterling and best-informed young men, assumes com- mand.

Lyman Tubbs came from Benton, Yates Co., N. Y., in the year 1833, with his sons-in-law, C. P. Galligan, George Wheeler, and their wives. Mr. Tubbs came into this new country with ample means, and generously provided for his relatives. He gave each of his sons-in-law and their wives a lot of land. His landed possessions amounted to 1300 acres. His own home was the east part of the northwest quarter of section 26, now owned by J. T. Allerton. He had been a school-teacher in New York, and was fond of relating incidents in his early life. He was a noble-hearted, generous man,-a man full of good hard sense and practical wisdom,-and was held in high esteem by his neighbors and townsmen, who were accustomed to consult him on matters of dispute, as their just and wise friend and able counselor. " Uncle Lyman Tubbs" was a name familiar to all. He was widely known. He always drove a fine team, and had the money to defray his expenses ; and a trip to Detroit, where he had many acquaintances, was not an un- usual thing for him. He was an able and popular super- visor, an honest and useful man to the township. He died many years ago.

His son-in-law, C. P. Galligan, settled on the southwest quarter of section 35, now the Ayers Raymond farm. George Wheeler, the other son-in-law, began pioneer life on the lands now owned by his widow. Jacob Ziegler, who married Mr. Tubbs' niece, made the first improvements on the farm now owned by George Ralph. Mr. Ralph, who came from Cayuga Co., N. Y., in 1836, first settled in Charleston, on the lands now known as the " Nelson Bliss farm."

Jesse W. Turner, from Niagara Co., N. Y., was one of the resolute men who came here in 1832. He made the first clearing on the land now owned by Andrew Caywood and Augustus Smith. Edward Hodges, now of Galesburg, at a later day settled upon the latter place, on which he lived many years, Guzion Fisher, now of Comstock, buying the Caywood farm of Mr. Turner.

Solomon Cuykendall, also from Niagara Co., N. Y., located, in 1833, the west half of the southeast quarter of section 28, where he lived till some time in 1862, when

he removed to Kent Co., Mich. He is now dead. He was a son-in-law of John C. Pawlison, a good man, and a worthy member of the old pioneer band. G. W. Sumner is now in possession of this place. Jesse Springstead, from Yates Co., N. Y., another of the settlers of 1833, first pitched his tent on land now belonging to the T. C. Ford estate.

Ethan Bradley, son-in-law of Lyman Tubbs, came in 1833, and made the first improvements on the James Spier farm, on section 25.

Philip Goodrich came from Western New York in 1832, and first settled in the township of Portage, Kalamazoo County, on the farm now owned by John Milham. He removed to this township about 1841, and reclaimed a large portion of the heavy-timbered lands on the northwest quarter of section 32. He early conceived the idea of converting the ashes from burned log-heaps into "pearlash," and finally into saleratus, by the sale of which he largely increased his landed possessions. He bought ashes from various parts of the county, so lucrative had he found the business. His son-in-law, Richard Milham, was with him in this work.

In later years he gave much attention to raising horses, and, having a natural love for sports of the turf, he in 1872 bought the full interest of the Galesburg Driving Park, and removed to that place, where he engaged in the livery busi- ness. He died in 1879

From Orleans Co., N. Y., in 1833, came Ezekiel Lee, and in 1834 came his brothers, Charles, Joseph W., and Clinton. The Lees helped reclaim many acres of land on sections 28 and 29, and set out orchards. Ezekiel and family, in 1847 or 1848, became converts to Mormonism, and removed to Salt Lake City. Clinton died in 1858, Charles in 1876, Joseph in 1878.

Among the pioneers who came to this township in 1834 was Jonathan Babcock. Although born in Rensselaer Co., N. Y., his residence, on coming to Michigan, was Williams- town, Mass. Solomon Prindle, his wife's father, came here with him. Mr. Prindle died soon after they settled in this township. Mr. Babcock and family lived the first week at the White Cottage, on Toland Prairie, kept by John Moore. The only neighbor he had was a Scotchman by the name of William Hook, who owned over 500 acres on section 6. Southwest, on section 8, in 1834, came Andrew Baxter, and in 1835, Solomon Kingsley, James Jacobs, and Daniel Plumley, settling on the same section.

Mr. Babcock is truly a pioneer, and lives now in his fine farm-home, enjoying the fruits of long years of toil and industry. The Caldwells, from Philadelphia, settled on the land now owned by J. P. Campbell. Solomon Kingsley came from Orleans Co., N. Y., and lived many years on his lands,-east half of the northeast quarter of section 8,-which he converted into a good farm. His son, Samuel F., living on section 11, is one of our thrifty farmers.

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History of Kalamazoo county, Michigan, Part 96

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