History of Kalamazoo county, Michigan, Part 98

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

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John C. and William A. Blake came from Livingston Co., N. Y., the former in 1848, the latter three years later. They have improved large portions of wild lands, and are among our largest and most enterprising farmers. The former has a beautiful farm residence, with very con- venient farm buildings. He has of late years, alone or in conjunction with his brother, William A., been largely en- gaged in buying and shipping stock. They are men of thought and careful reading, and what they gather from books or experience they put to practical use in their voca tion.

William A. Blake has a grove of ornamental trees, ever- greens, and shrubs on his grounds in Galesburg that would delight a Shenstone. The grounds front Main Street, and on them Mr. Blake intends to rear a fine residence.

John T. Allerton, who owns the "old Lyman Tubbs" homestead, came a little later than the above ; is an enter- prising man and good farmer.

Capt. Burnard Vosburg came from Columbia Co., N. Y., in 1853, and settled where he now lives, on the southeast quarter of section 2, in this township, a large portion of which he has reclaimed from a wild state. He is a thorough- going farmer, takes a lively interest in all that pertains to agriculture, to good schools, and to matters of interest in the community where he lives.

H. Dale Adams, the son of Jarvis D. Adams, a promi- nent farmer in Climax, settled on the south half of the northwest quarter of section 15, in 1856, where he now resides. Mr. Adams has not only become well versed as a farmer, but the farm has been his agricultural school, in which he has not only won degrees high up in the grade of merit, but he has won diplomas in horticulture and pomol- ogy that have more value in them than those conferred by the Agricultural College at Lansing, because he has earned them unaided by learned professors. What he has ob- tained is his own ; a self-educated man is the best educated. Mr. Adams has for a number of years been prominent as an officer and writer in connection with the agricultural and pomological societies of this State, and in that connection has done much to promote the interests of those societies.

Mr. Adams raises almost every kind of fruit that thrives in this region, from the strawberry to the apple. His pleas- ant farm-house is embowered in the shade of fruit and ornamental trees.

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TOWNSHIP OF COMSTOCK.

P. S. Carmer came here in the fall of 1852, from Gen- esee Co., N. Y., and for over seventeen years worked at harness-making in Galesburg. He then became superin- tendent of the county poor, on the county farm. He is the right man in the right place. Under his management, aided by his excellent wife, everything about the home of the poor evinces care and good order, and everything about the farm thrift and order.

Amos Wilson came from Oakland Co., Mich., to Pavilion in 1844.

Thomas C. Ford came from Seneca Co., N. Y., to Michi- gan in 1844, settling on the farm in Comstock, two and one-half miles southwest of Galesburg, where he died on the 10th of April, 1879, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. The wild lands first bought he converted into a finely- cultivated farm. His good and commodious buildings, the large orchard, the well-tilled fields, from the sale of whose products he had yearly saved enough to have made com- fortable the declining years of his old age and that of his faithful wife,-all these attest the industry, thrift, and the requited toil of his life. In politics Esquire Ford was a conservative Republican. In 1869 he was elected justice of the peace, and was re-elected for the next four years. He gave his best abilities to the conscientious and faithful discharge of the duties of that office, and if he did not bring the amount of learning and legal acumen that some may command in the position, he brought the highest sense of justice and the best legal light that he could command in every case.

David S. Bronson came from Franklin Co., N. Y., in 1846, and settled a short time afterwards on section 35, where he now lives.

Marius O. Streator, of Portage Co., Ohio, settled in 1848 on the southeast quarter of section 27, then mostly unim- proved. It is now one of the fine farms of the township. Mr. Streator has served as supervisor of Comstock some seven terms with marked ability.

Marcus Simmons and Andrew Caywood came from Mon- roe Co., N. Y., in 1851, and settled on the lands they now own. James Jackson came a year later, and began on the farm where he now lives. Mrs. A. W. Wolcott, the daughter of Amasa Parker, one of the early settlers of Gull Prairie, has, since the death of her husband a few years ago, managed her fine farm.

Among the later settlers in the northwest part of the town are Gardiner Hunt, who settled upon the south half of the northwest quarter of section 5 in the early part of the " fifties." He soon turned publican, and "Gardiner Hunt's tavern" has since been well known in his part of the country. Mr. Hunt died in 1878.

Frank T. Bingham came from Ohio in 1853, settling on the north half of northeast quarter of section 4, where he now lives. He is a good and successful farmer. The same is true of John Chenery, who came in 1854 from Man- chester, N. H. He is among our large farmers and worthy townsmen.

John P. Campbell, one of the largest farmers in the township, came from Caledonia, N. Y., in or about 1855. He has what was once known as the " Caldwell farm."

Robert Jickling, on the southeast quarter of section 6,

has contributed to the interests of good farming in his part of the township.

H. C. Rowland, another of the later settlers, came here in 1858. He owns the Caleb Smart lands, and has added to them, making a farm of some 200 acres.

E. J. Roe is on the lands his father bought some thirty years ago. Mr. Roe owns the island in the Kalamazoo River, of some 40 acres in extent, on which was a mound from fifteen to twenty feet high and about one acre in area, and originally diamond shape. On this mound stood, in 1833, a maple-tree two and one half feet in diameter. A man by the name of Gidley, in 1833 or 1834 (relative of Mr. Gidley, at Gidley's Station, near Jackson), settled on the island, built a log house on the top of the mound, and began making betterments. He and his wife and two or three children lived here a sort of hermit life. He spent much of his time hunting and fishing. In 1848 about half of the island was cleared. The family seldom went out into the settlement around them, and few settlers visited the island. They lived here a self-isolated, Crusoe existence for a number of years, and then made their exit, going nobody knew where.

The following are the names of prominent farmers in Comstock to-day : John C. Blake, E. M. Clapp, G. R. C. Adams, J. R. Comings, Wm. A. Blake, Joseph Flanders, M. O. Streator, Goodrich Brothers, Walter Coe, A. L. Runney, T. C. Ford (estate), Frank Whitbeck, Burnard Vosburg, Edward Chadwick, John P. Campbell, Orrin Patterson, Caleb Patterson, Luther Burroughs, H. Dale Adams, Marcus Jickling, Leverett Crooks, Walter Hun- tington, John Chenery, Enoch S. Knapp (estate), T. B. Lord, Wm. H. Rice, H. C. Rowland, Mrs. Mary B. Wol- cott, J. T. Allerton, and others.

THE FIRST HOUSE AND ITS FURNITURE.

The first architecture arose from the simplest needs of men. The earliest inhabitants of the earth dwelt in the woods or in caves for shelter. Their rude types were the forest savage called Troglodyte, or the dwellers in caverns. The next step was the tent of the simplest shepherd, or the rude hut of logs and boughs.

In the place of the latter the early settler found here an- other type, the Indian, who belonged to the Ganowanian, or bow-and-arrow family of men, or the dwellers in wig- wams. Improving somewhat on the latter style of architec- ture, the pioneer reared his log cabin in sight of his dusky neighbor's wigwam or bark lodge. He reared a log cabin when he could, but he was often compelled to hut it for a year or more in the primitive Pottawattomie style.

The first chairs were blocks of round logs; the first table the rude work of the settler; the first bedstead, posts and rails or small poles, traversed from head to foot and side to side with hickory withes. On this was placed a straw bed.

THE POLITICAL PHASE OF COMSTOCK.

By the earliest records, under the head of politics, we find that Comstock had strong Democratic proclivities. She gave in 1835 Stevens T. Mason, the Democratic " Boy Governor," 96 votes, and William Woodbridge, the Whig Governor, 1 vote. At the same election Isaac E. Crary, the

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HISTORY OF KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

Democratic nominee for Congress, received 98 votes, while Lewis F. Toby, Whig candidate for the same office, got 2 votes.

It was entirely Democratic in 1836. In 1837 the vote for H. G. Wells, Whig nominee for Congress, was 113, and for Isaac E. Crary, Democratic nominee for the same office, 105. The Whigs gained this year a complete victory. There were more Whig settlers in Comstock on the start than Democratic, but they had not bestirred themselves in politics until the annual township election of 1837. The caucus system was not in existence then. They nominated the candidate at the polls, and then went to work to elect him. At this election, in 1837, the Democrats had nominated for supervisor Samuel Percival, and the Whigs followed up by proclaiming Nathaniel Cothren, knowing that he was a Democrat, their nominee for the office. The east part of the township had pitted Cothren against Percival. At this stage in the affairs H. H. Comstock came upon the field, and decided at once what action to take. He called Cothren aside and held a private conference with him for a few minutes, and then announced that Cothren had withdrawn as candidate. After this, Cothren, who was one of the "board of election," retired from the polls, and was not seen again about the election precincts that day .* The Whigs, seeing that Comstock's movement in getting Cothren to withdraw from the contest would lead to their total de- feat, grew indignant, and soon arrayed themselves in op- position to this Democratic stratagem. Dr. James Harris, a redoubtable old Whig, discerning the trick, mounted a high stand, and proclaimed, in a loud voice, "Lyman Tubbs as the Whig candidate for supervisor," and called on every Whig in the township to vote for him. The change worked like magic. The Whigs were aroused, and went to work with a determination to beat Percival and elect their man. And this they did by a large majority. I get these facts from E. M. Clapp, Sr., the well-known pioneer of 1832, who added, as he closed the narration, " We Whigs never exulted so much over a political victory in our lives as we did in that town-meeting in 1837, when we defeated the Democrats and made Lyman Tubbs supervisor of Com- stock." The Democrats in the township met their " Water- loo" at the hands of their old Whig foes on that memorable day, and have never been in the ascendancy since. The Whig " foot was on its native heath" here, and he was the " McGregor" that held his old foe under ban. 'Tis useless to give figures, or to mention facts or incidents about the political phase of Comstock after that time. In 1840 they had only to meet their enemy to discomfit him.t In 1852 they gave Scott 139 votes to 97 Democratic votes for Pierce. They gave Zachariah Chandler the same number of votes for Governor, while 44 Free-Soilers voted for Jabez Fits for Governor.

At the formation of the Republican party, in 1854, the township gave a majority in favor of that movement, and it has been Republican, save in supervisor once or twice, to the present time.

THE FIRST ROAD.

The "old Territorial road," running nearly midway through the township from east to west, was the first road laid out in Comstock.

The first record we have of a road is the one laid out as follows :

" Running from Paragon Prairie to Gull Prairie ; commencing at the quarter stake, on section 14, town 2 south, of range 10 west, and running northerly three miles one hundred and fifty-seven chains and fifty links to the north town line between Comstock and Richland. " Dated March 7, 1836.

"EDWIN M. CLAPP, Clerk."

POSTMASTERS.

Mail carrying has passed through several eras since the pioneer period. It was first carried by a man on foot, then came the post-boy, the stage-coach, and then the railway train. The first paper used was the foolscap, then the small business sheet, and then the small note-paper. The letter was at first folded, one side of the paper being left blank, so as to form its own envelope, and was sealed with wax or wafer. Then came the patent envelope, which was sealed the same way, then the self-sealing envelope, and last the self-sealing and stamped envelope. The pen for writing has been the goose-quill, and the steel and gold pen.

The first post-office was a very primitive thing. It was only used where there was no settler's house central enough to accommodate the inhabitants. It consisted of a small box, with two parts inside and lid on top, nailed to a tree located as stated above. In this box the post-boy left the mail and took the letters to be sent away as he passed by on his route, and, as an evidence of the good character of the people, I never heard of a person stealing letters from or interfering with this box thus exposed to the public.

The following is the list of postmasters in Galesburg, commencing in 1835 with Nathan Cothren, the first post- office being called " Morton :"

James W. Cothren, who removed West in 1854; John M. Lay, for short time; John C. Blake, William A. Blake, Manajah Aldrich ; J. F. Warren, in 1861, for short time; J. D. Batchelder, in 1861; R. G. Smith, 1866 ; J. D. Batchelder, 1867 ; H. D. Roger, 1868; O. F. Bur- roughs, 1875; A. H. Rogers, 1877; S. N. Crissey, 1879.

The number of pieces mailed quarterly is about 11,000, with a much larger number received. Amount received for stamps sold annually, $1200 ; money-orders paid annually, about $7000 ; money-orders issued annually, about $5500 ; number of boxes and drawers, about 350. The box rent is 7 cents per quarter,-the cheapest in the United States.

FIRST EVENTS.

The First Fruit-trees and Orchard .- There is an apple- tree on James H. Hopkins' farm, section 23, that was found here by the first settlers, and hence has always been called " the Indian apple-tree." Hugh M. Shafter and his cousin, George Lovell, in 1833, dug up and removed this tree from where it then stood, near the Kalamazoo River, and trans- planted it in the spot where it now is, hard by the " old Territorial road." One fact concerning the removal of this tree is worth mentioning. The time was in January, the ground frozen hard. They dug some four feet square about the tree, then pried it up with the frozen earth, holding its roots together, put it on a sleigh, and hauled it to its new

* Gen. Comstock had brought to the polls a barrel of whisky in his wagon, to be used in the election of the Democratic nominees.

t The township favored H. H. Comstock, a Democrat, by electing him supervisor ; but it was usually Whig, as stated.

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TOWNSHIP OF COMSTOCK.

locality. It was then some six inches in diameter. The removal never affected its growth. It put forth the next spring as full and healthy as ever, and bore its usual crop of apples ; and for the forty-six years ensuing it has pro- duced its annual supply of fruit. It awoke so gently, in the spring, from its " winter nap," that it did not discover it had been transplanted. So well known had it become that people going by would stop and pick an apple from its boughs, that they might say, " I have eaten fruit from the ' old Indian apple-tree.'" It is to-day some fifteen inches in diameter. The north side of the trunk decayed. The days of the old tree, like the poor race who first planted it, are numbered. But, before departing, it has left a scion of the old stock to represent it; as a young tree, a few feet from it, has sprung up from its roots, and is now vigorously growing. A freak of nature appears in this tree's producing two kinds of fruit. When the tree stood near the river it bore a greenish-yellow apple, sour in taste, and water-cored. The tree in its new place bore a red apple, sweet in taste, not water-cored, but alike all through.

James Burnett planted the first orchard in this town- ship, in 1832. The old farm and orchard are now owned by Gilbert Cranner.

First Marriages .- The first marriage in this township was that of Ruel Starr to Phebe Eldred, Dec. 29, 1833, at Comstock, Rev. T. W. Merrill performing the cere- mony.

The next marriage was that of Alva Earl to Betsey O. Comings, Jan. 3, 1834. And the third marriage was on the 2d day of July, 1834, when Charles Whitcomb was united in wedlock to Catharine Earl. All married by the old pioneer minister, T. W. Merrill.

The First Birth .- Charles. B. Ellison, the son of Linus Ellison, was the first child born in the township. The date of his birth is Nov. 23, 1831. He now lives in Minne- sota. The second birth was that of Elizabeth F. Ransom, daughter of Roswell Ransom, on the 3d of September, 1832. She is now Mrs. J. J. Sutton, and lives in Cali- fornia.

The First Lawsuit .- The first litigation, of which we got merely an inkling from Sherman Comings' old account- book, was between two of the first settlers,-Isaac Toland and N. E. Mathews. What the cause of the suit was or who the lawyers were, we do not know .* Mr. Comings' account-book states that he got $5 as witness fees in attend- ing a lawsuit between the above parties, and that Ralph Tuttle paid him the money for his fees in going to Prairie Ronde, where the case was tried.

MECHANICS.

In regard to work, the settlers of the first decade were all members of the same manual-labor school; Necessity was their teacher, and most rigidly enforced the perform- ance of every task allotted to her pupils. There were very few mechanics here, and those that were here naturally sought the embryo village for their field of labor. Hence each settler was put to the test of developing all the me- chanical skill there was in him. Consequently, for the first

few years he made all the tools he used in making the im- provements on his lands. It was the period that developed the Tubal Cains, the carpenter, cooper, wagon-maker, shoe- maker, tailor, and all other trades needed. Rev. Veron D. Taylor, pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Galesburg, not only made the sermons for his little flock on Sundays, but the shoes for his wife and children, the harness for his horse, and repaired the wagon they rode in. It is the only time I ever knew when that nondescript genius-Jack-of- all-trades-was fully appreciated. Here he went at a pre- mium. " His foot was on his native heath and his name was" popular. He proved the old proverb false, for he was good at many things.

'Tis true that this genius sometimes got off his feet and far from his legitimate trade; that he tired of the " smoky clearing," and tried his hand at "doctoring ;" that he "pettyfogged" when he couldn't preach; taught singing- school when he couldn't teach the " three r's;" and ran for constable when he couldn't run for the Legislature. But often much of this was from necessity, as the same class of men who made the betterments must ply the mechanic's trade, attempt the professional man's art, fill all the public offices necessary to carry on township, county, and State business.

Good mechanics came in with the little colony at Com- stock village in 1831. Leland Lane, the cooper, Andrew McCurty, Samuel Percival, and others, a little later. In 1833, Jesse W. and Martin Turner and Charles Whitcomb, three good mechanics, came to this township. The Turners built a carpenter-shop on the south bank of the Kalamazoo River, nearly opposite Galesburg. From this they went out to attend to calls in the building line. They had in their employ Charles Whitcomb, Wilbur and John Stetson, and a carpenter by the name of Newman. They built the tavern at Comstock-or partly finished it-in 1834; it was completed in 1835. Mr. Whitcomb's first work here was the finishing of a log house for N. E. Mathews, the first house built in Galesburg. This was in 1833. It stood near where H. D. Rogers' dwelling house now is. The Turners and their men worked in Kalamazoo, built a saw- mill in Bellevue, and erected public buildings in other places. Charles Whitcomb helped build the tavern in Galesburg in 1837, and did the frame-work on the brick tavern erected in the same village by Frank Clark in 1849, and has built or helped build most of the public structures in the township, besides the numerous dwelling-houses he has erected here and in other parts of the country. During a life of forty-six years in this township he has helped others largely,-the public a great deal,-as his works are here and testify for themselves. He and his faithful wife -the first couple married in the east part of the township -are yet living near where they first made their home forty-six years ago.

MANUFACTURES.

" Human nature repeats itself in invention." The early settlers who came to this region years ago laid their wheat- sheaves on a floor made of the smooth earth, then drove their oxen over it to trample out the grain, just as the Ju- dean shepherds did three thousand years ago. The oxen

* Mr. Ralph Tuttle informed us that the difficulty grew out of a misunderstanding about the "betterments."

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HISTORY OF KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

may have bent to their work in a different yoke, and have answered the Hebrew instead of the Yankee " Gee-whoa- haw," yet it was repeating in this new country a custom three thousand years old. The ox was from necessity the pioneer's horse, being a cheaper beast of burden. Those who had horses used them in treading out their grain. The old grain-cradle was brought into the new country with the few other implements the emigrant could pack on his wagon. That and the sickle were used to cut the grain. Those who had neither cattle nor horses, and sometimes those who had, threshed their grain with the flail.

For separating the grain from the chaff the old hand-fan was first used, and if there was no breeze some would take a sheet or blanket, a man at each end, and raise the wind by flapping that.

The pioneer's wife made bread from wheat sown by hand, on land plowed by a hand-made plow, cut by a hand- made cradle, threshed by hand, fanned by a hand-fan, car- ried to mill and ground into flour unbolted by machinery made by hand ; the bread was made by the housewife's hand with salt-rising, baked in a hand-made oven, and eaten on a hand-made table, from non-patented dishes. But nowadays even so simple a thing as a loaf of bread pays tribute to twenty-one classes of patents : " The plow-share, point, handles and tackle, the harrow, the seed-sower, culti- vator, the harvester, the thresher, the separator, the bag, the holder of the bag, and the strap or string with which it is tied, the bolts, the hopper, the stones, the gearing of the mill, the yeast or baking-powder, the oven, the extension- table, and the dishes, are each subject to patents to which tribute is paid."

The first machine used in threshing in this township was termed the " English Beater," introduced by Ziba Smith. This was similar to the "beater" in the cotton-factory, though its cross-bars were made of wood instead of iron. They beat the grain as it came through the rollers in the ma- chine. It threshed the wheat slowly, not a great deal faster than the oxen tread it out. Alpha Tubbs brought the first modern threshing-machine into this region. He was brother of Lyman Tubbs of this township, and settled in Charleston. Selling his farm, he went West. A few years ago he returned to this place, and died not far from here.

Saw-Mills .- The first saw-mill in this county was built by Judge Caleb Eldred, on the bank of the stream running through what was afterwards the village of Comstock, in the summer of 1831, and set in operation the early part of the fall. This mill was of great service to the settlement and the entire region about it.

Hiram Moore and E. A. Jackson, in the spring of 1832, built another saw-mill at Comstock, near where the "Nov- elty Works" now stand. The same year Jesse Earl built a saw-mill on his lands, as we have previously noticed.

In 1836 what was called the " upper saw-mill," at Com- stock, was built. This was not in use many years. In 1838, James Burnett erected a saw-mill on the north bank of the Kalamazoo River, by Roe's Island. This proved to be a poor investment. David Ford and Ira Bacon erected a saw-mill in Galesburg in 1843. The " Moore & Jack- son" mill, at Comstock, was in use till within a few years,

when it was abandoned. Jesse Earl's saw-mill is now the only one in the township.

Grist- and Flouring-Mills .- Horace H. Comstock, Sam- uel Percival, and Judge Caleb Eldred erected the first grist- mill in the township of Comstock, in the fall of 1832. Previous to the building of this mill the settlers got their grinding done at the Flowerfield mill, or, a little later, at the " Pepper Mill" at Vicksburg. But, in the fall of 1832, they came from far and near to the Comstock grist-mill,- from Calhoun and Barry, and the region west of Comstock. Samuel Percival in a few years became owner of this mill, and in 1840 rebuilt it. In 1844, Enoch S. Kellogg, of Kalamazoo, had a one-third interest in the mill, and about this time John M. Lay became part owner. Mr. Lay sold his interest to David Ford. In 1846, Mr. Percival sold his entire interest and removed to Galesburg. The mill, after passing through several hands, was bought by its present owners, Fisher & Loveland, the former buying his interest in 1852, the latter some years later. They, in 1856, rebuilt the mill, and since it came into their hands have floured a great deal of wheat for the Eastern and West- ern markets, besides doing a large custom work.

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History of Kalamazoo county, Michigan, Part 98

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