USA > Michigan > Lapeer County > History of Lapeer County, Michigan : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 15
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56
WILLIAM BROOKS was born in Canada in 1838, and in 1861 came to Burnside and purchased a farm, where he resided until 1870, when he came to Lapeer and bought a farm on section 11, where he now resides. He was married in 1866 to Miss Caroline Gage, daughter of George Gage, one of the first settlers of Lapeer, They have a family of four children. She was born on the farm where she now resides.
C. T. DEAN was born in Hamilton, Northumberland County, Ontario, in 1849, and came to Pontiac, Mich., in 1861; thence to the village of Lapeer in May, 1862. He resided there until 1865 when he located in the township on section 4, where he has since been engaged in farming, with the exception of one year he was in the Lapeer express office, and one year traveling for a Cincinnati safe company. He was married in February, 1875, to Miss Delia Owen, who was born in New York, and has four children.
FRANCIS FOWLER, deceased, was born in Onondaga County, N. Y., October 12, 1805, and came to Lapeer in 1836. He settled on section 14, where he cleared up a farm, and also worked at the stone mason trade. He was married May 12, 1839, to Miss Laura Woodard, who was born in New York. Mr. Fowler's death
occurred September 6, 1871, and Mrs. Fowler's March 9, 1874. They left six children.
F. E. FOWLER was born in the township of Lapeer, May 15, 1842. He worked at the carpenter's trade until the death of his father in 1871, since which time he and his brother have worked the homestead. He was married in 1874, and has two children.
A. C. RUSSELL was born in Huntington, Vt., April 14, 1810. Moved to St. Lawrence County with his parents in 1816, where he remained until 1871. He then came to Lapeer and purchased a farm on section 14, where he now resides. February 25, 1831, he was married to Miss Eliza Higley who died November 15, 1873. They raised a family of eight children, losing two sons in the late war.
L. J. RUSSELL was born in St. Lawrence County, N. Y., in 1847, remaining there until 1868, when he came to Lapeer, and has since been engaged in farming and lumbering. Since 1872 he has resided on his farm on section 14. He was married in 1876 to Miss Mary Norley, and has three children.
FRANCIS RUBY was born in Hume, Allegany County, N. Y., in 1828, and came to Shelby, Macomb County, Mich., with his parents, in 1835. He remained there until 1868, when he came to Lapeer City, where he was the proprietor and owner of a liquor store till 1877. He then purchased a farm and saw-mill on section 22, which he has since owned and conducted. In 1846 he married Miss Elizabeth Casler, and has three children.
IRA PECK, deceased, was born in Connecticut December 5, 1805, and when a child moved to Cortland County with his parents. He came to Oakland County, Mich., in 1835, and the following year to Lapeer, where he settled on section 11, remaining there several years, when he removed to section 24, where he resided until his death March 14, 1865. Was killed by being caught in the belt of a saw mill. He was married September 10, 1832, to Miss Sarah Ann Simmons, who was born in Steventown, Rensselaer County, N. Y., April 17, 1818. They had six children, George S., who died May 11, 1856, Miles G., Jerome T., who died May 31, 1849, Sarah A., William J., and John S.
MILES G. PECK was born in Cortland County, N. Y., February 8, 1835, and came to Lapeer in 1836. He has since been a resident of the township, and has a farm on section 24. He was married in 1862 to Miss Mary Harris, and has four children.
CHARLES HARRIS, deceased, was born in Liverpool, England, in 1792, and came to Hudson, N. Y., in 1822. He came to Lapeer in 1841, and settled on section 26, where he remained until his death in 1856. Twenty-one years of his life he was captain of a vessel on the ocean. In 1832 he married Miss Sophia Gardner, by whom he had six children.
GARDNER J. HARRIS, son of Charles Harris, was born in Hud- son, N. Y., in February, 1839, and came to Lapeer with his parents in 1841. He managed the farm after his father's death until his own, which occurred February 4, 1882. He was married in 1861 to Miss Hulda A. Brooks, a native of Canada, by whom he had two children. David Brooks, her father, came to Lapeer from Canada in 1843, and settled on section 24, residing there until 1860, when he went to Missouri, where he remained until his death in 1872.
GEORGE P. CHAPMAN was born in Canada in 1834, and came to Lapeer, September, 1861, remaining a year, when he engaged in lumbering near Saginaw. In 1869 he purchased a farm on section 14, where he now resides. Since coming to the State has been en- gaged in lumbering and farming, and now owns a fine farm upon which there are excellent buildings. He was married in 1866 to Miss Julia E. Higley, and has seven children.
5
G. P. CHAPMAN.
MRS. G. P. CHAPMAN .
6
HISTORY OF LAPEER COUNTY.,
57
7
CITY OF LAPEER.
The history of Lapeer City properly begins with the location of the county seat in 1830, as already narrated in the opening chapter. Two years previous a settlement had been made in the present town of Almont, and a few families had made little clearings and were contending for a scanty subsistence by making shingles.
A chapter of early history is contributed by Miss Nettie A. Con- stock, secretary of the County Pioneer Society, which is given as follows:
Early in the summer of 1831, Messrs. A. N. and O. B. Hart and J. B. Morse came to Michigan with a view of purchasing land, and making homes in what was then the far West. Mr. O. B. Hart had his mind made upon Oakland County, Mr. Morse upon what was then known as the Grand River country, just opened to settlement by the survey of a wagon road from Detroit to Chicago. Mr. A. N. Hart was ready to go to the place that seemed to hold out the greatest inducements to the settler. Meeting in Utica, N. Y., Messrs. A. N. Hart and Morse agreed to a companionship in the search for lands, and came to Pontiac, and while here, by the repre- sentations of Judge Leroy, they visited the wilderness site of the future county of Lapeer. They were charmed with the location, but wishing to see more of the country before purchasing, they returned and started for the distant Grand River country. The journey was most tiresome and they saw nothing in their travels that pleased them as well as the place they first visited. So they agreed to return to Lapeer, and this time they were accompanied by a Mr. Pratt, and Mr. O. B. Hart. Mr. Hart was as much pleased with the location as his brother and Mr. Morse had been, and they at once decided to cast their lot here; Mr. Pratt would look farther.
On this visit the party encamped under a large elm, and also had the misfortune to melt the bottom from their coffee-pot. The Harts and Morse, who had decided to return and bring their fami- lies with them, very naturally wished to mark the spot. A roguish son of Mr. Morse, who had accompanied them on this expedition, and in whom Mr. A. N. Hart, who was much younger than his companions, and not at all averse to a good joke, found a most con- genial companion, proposed that they should bury the useless tin at the foot of the tree with appropriate ceremonies, and this was accordingly done by himself and Mr. A. N. Hart. They raised as high a mound about it as they well could that they might know the spot when they returned. This tree is still standing on the Hart property, carefully guarded as an ancient landmark.
Messrs. O. B. Hart and Morse, who had large families, and several small children, decided to postpone their removal until spring, as it was so late it would be impossible to provide the neces- saries of life for them that season. Mr. A. N. Hart, whose family consisted of himself, a wife and one child, concluded to remove at once. In November, 1831, the family, accompanied by Mr. J. M. Palmer, reached Lapeer. Messrs. Hart and Palmer cut the road through from the Whittemore Plains, in Oakland County, using for that purpose an old-fashioned, two-bitted ax, which was carefully preserved by Mr. Palmer as long as he lived.
This was the era of wild speculation in Western lands. Imag- inary cities and towns were platted on paper, often in most impos- sible locations, as the middle of lakes and morasses, and literally in the howling wilderness, and these plats were often sold at immense figures. But the speculators were obliged to enter into some bona fide transactions, in order to keep the ball moving; so every induce- ment was held out to emigrants to settle and so open the country. Judge Leroy had purchased a portion of the present city of Lapeer, hence his efforts to induce immigration. At this time Lapeer, though one of the counties laid out and named in 1822, had no
population whatever save a few isolated families in the township of Almont. As might have been expected this bubble soon burst.
Soon after the return of Mr. A. N. Hart to Utica, N. Y., for his family, the Pontiac Mill Co. began to build a saw-mill on Farmers Creek, a little above where Muir's flouring-mill stood, and put up a boarding shanty for the hands. This rude boarding-house was managed by a Mrs. Potter, who was probably the first white woman to visit Lapeer. About the first of November, 1831, Mr. J. R. White came to Lapeer and bought an interest in the mill then building. This done, he returned to New York for his wife and reached Lapeer with her in December, 1831, about a month after the arrival of the Harts and Palmer. Some time during the winter, Dr. M. Y. Turrill came with his wife and aged father and mother. In March, 1832, Mr. O. B. Hart arrived-Mr. Morse in May following, and about the same time Mr. Alvin McMaster and wife. . These first families were not long here alone. In a short time J. R. White was followed by his mother, brothers and sisters; Dr. Turrill by his sisters, and their families; and the Roods, who came soon after, by a goodly number of their kindred and friends. These were all of Puritan, New England stock, and had inherited the grim resolution of their forefathers, but brought up in widely sepa- rated communities, and of opposite views in politics. Very soon dis- agreements arose. Interests clashed, political animosities were aroused, and these were carried to such a pitch that the prosperity of the new commonwealth was seriously compromised. Some of these quarrels were concerning what would be, in this age of the world, most trifling matters. Others were of more real consequence, as men have always shown more or less a disposition to overreach each other.
Perhaps the first disagreements among the early settlers here grew out of cutting and drawing the hay from a large marsh on the town line four miles south of the embryo city. This belonged to the government and supplied an article of prime necessity to the settlers, a coarse article of hay for their teams and cows. Every man who had need cut as much hay as he could, and stacked it on the marsh to await a hard frost, which would enable him to draw it home. When it came, the first man on the ground, not more honest perhaps than he should be, took as much hay as he could, without regard to the rights of his neighbors, who would very natu- rally resent such proceedings. Mr. L. D. Morse relates a circum- stance of this kind affecting his father and himself :
In December, 1833, Alonzo, the oldest son of J. B. Morse, a promising young man about nineteen years of age, suddenly died, the first death in the settlement. The father was at Detroit work- ing at his trade (a carpenter and joiner) when his son sickened and died, and he was obliged to return to his work immediately after the funeral to win bread for his family. Like their neighbors they had cut hay on the marsh the preceding summer, but by reason of the sickness and death of the son and brother, had been unable to secure their share of the hay as soon as they should, when a neigh- bor, taking advantage of Mr. Morse's absence, on finding that Lorenzo, who was now the oldest son and head of the family, the father being away, was about to draw off their share of the hay, for- bade him to touch it at his peril, claiming it as his own. Young Morse felt the situation keenly. Everything now depended upon his exertions, and being determined not to see their two cows starve before his eyes, he went to J. M. Palmer for aid and advice. Mr. Palmer advised him to go at once and draw off the hay, and prom- ised him all the assistance in his power. Morse and Palmer im- mediately started for the fodder, each with an ox team, closely fol- lowed by the neighbor, who threatened them with all the terrors of the law if they touched as much as a spear of the hay.
Nothing daunted by these menaces, on arriving at the marsh
.
58
HISTORY OF LAPEER COUNTY.
they began the work of loading the hay upon their wagons at once. Palmer, who was a stalwart specimen of manhood, holding their antagonist completely at bay, and thus they secured the fodder. So many combats grew out of such transactions, that the marsh received the name of Squabble Meadow, which it bears to this day. Some few years later, about 1839, or 1840, two men named McLel- lan and Smith, one very hot day in July, entered into a contest to see which could cut the most hay, with terrible and fatal results, Smith dying the next day, and Mclellan two days after from heat and over-exertion.
Soon after the first settlement of Lapeer, a Congregational Church was formed to which the Rev. Messrs. Wells and Ruggles, pioneer preachers of Oakland County, preached occasionally, Mr. Ruggles generally walking to his appointments, of which he had as many as any Methodist Episcopal circuit rider of that day. Mr. Wells is said to have held the first service in the new town.
This was followed by the organization of Methodist and Pres- byterian Churches, and in time the Presbyterian Church absorbed the Congregational. The Presbyterian and Methodist Churches, with all the changes of time, have steadily grown with the growth of the town. Deacon Aaron Rood, whose praise is still in the church, was one of the leading members of the Presbyterian Church, his son, Orvis Rood, and others, of the Methodist Episcopal Church. We believe the first Methodist quarterly meeting held in Lapeer County was called some time in 1835 by Rev. E. H. Pilcher, presiding elder.
There was a wonderful increase of population in those days, and county and village were consequently elated. Business houses were formed, lumbering began on a large scale for those days. ' Mr. J. R. White soon bought the whole of the saw-mill, owned by him- self and the Pontiac Mill Co., and Mr. Alvin McMaster built another soon after, on the southeast quarter of section 8, Lapeer Township. The era of speculation was not yet over, and great railroad lines were being surveyed all over the State, and one of these prospective lines, the " Northern," was to pass through Lapeer. This was sur- veyed in 1837, but six years after Messrs. Hart and Palmer cut that fourteen miles of road through an unbroken wilderness, and only five years after a road had been authorized by the territorial govern- ment from Lapeer to Rochester (1832). Wildcat money was plenty with a bank of circulation in every hamlet, and every one felt rich. It was not long before the collapse of the wildcat banks but lumbering still went on, and at one time lumber and shingles supplied to some extent the place of money, and became almost as much a legal tender in the payment of debts as specie. So lumber and shingles became known in the adjoining counties as "Lapeer currency."
Lapeer at that time consisted of two hamlets separated by a tamarack swamp, where the wolves were wont to convene of winter nights, and make the woods ring with their dismal howlings. Below this swamp was built the first court-house, which was burnt before its entire completion, and the jail, A. N. Hart's store, the present Watkins building, and on the site of Hart's block, O. B. Hart had put a hotel of a hundred feet front. Next was a small store building, and directly on the corner O. M. Evans, a prominent business man of those times, had put up a store, a really beautiful wooden building, and finished it ready for plastering. The Evans family occupied rooms over the store. In the spring of 1840 Evans had gone to New York for goods, his wife accompanying him, leav- ing Miss Caroline Wheeler in charge of their rooms, and a little girl they had adopted. While matters were in this state, one Sun- day morning Miss Wheeler was suddenly awakened from her slum- bers by the cry of fire. She sprang from her bed to find the building in flames, and arousing the sleeping child she managed with much
difficulty to get her down the stairs and out of the building. This disaster was the financial ruin of Evans, who soon after left Lapeer, returned to the East and afterward emigrated to California. The cause of the fire was supposed to be a spark from the stove pipe catching in a heap of shavings carelessly left in an unoccupied 100m in too close proximity to the stove pipe; not by any means the first or last building consumed by similar carelessness. This fire, though by no means the first that had visited the new town, was a terrible blow to its prosperity, and from this and the collapse of the wildcat banks and land speculation Lapeer did not recover for many years. The first mill built by the Pontiac Mill Co., was burned in 1833, but another was soon after put up a little below the former site, and some little time after this, the double log house built by O. B. Hart had been burnt, and almost everything in it had been consumed. O. B. Hart had kept a hotel almost from his first settlement in Lapeer, but after this conflagration he settled down to farming in which he was very successful until his death in 1844. Another prominent man of the early times was Frank Fowler, who afterwards removed from the village to a farm about five miles southeast where he amassed a large property, and died in 1871. Above this tamarack swamp, and west and south of it, was a store built on the corner near the former site of the Opera House Block, by Butts and Shafer, the houses of J. R. and Phineas White, Dr. Turrill and others, the mill and the school-house. Indeed, while the lower part of the town has always clung to the court- house and jail, and dispensed law and justice to the commonwealth, the upper town has always held the school-house.
In the early times here as in all new settlements the school- house served also as church and town hall. Some time after the great fire, and about the time of the Mormon establishment at Nauvoo, a Mormon preacher named VanDusen, disguised as a Methodist minister, introduced himself into a series of meetings the Methodists were holding in the school-house. This wolf in sheep's clothing did not dare to throw off his mask until he had wrought the minds of his hearers up to such a pitch of excitement that they were prepared to accept him as an oracle acting under the direct inspiration of the Almighty, and as such, any excesses he might commit would not only be tolerated but approved by his deluded followers; and to such a pitch did he carry these excesses, that it is said it was not unusual for him to alarm everybody with the cry of fire late at night, and on being questioned as to the locality, to answer, "In hell for lost sinners." Of course the more sober por- tion of the community were intensely disgusted, and the irre- pressible mischief-making spirit of Young America fully aroused. One evening, some time after the congregation had assembled the candles all went out one after another, each with a slight ex- plosion, and a suspicious odor of brimstone. The meeting was broken up for that night, an investigation had, and the mystery ex- plained. During the previous day the house had been entered and a part of each candle cut off and the candlestick filled with wet and dry powder wrapped in paper to imitate the candles, and a piece of candle carefully placed over it so that as soon as the candle had burned down to the candlestick an explosion followed. Encouraged by this success, the boys contrived to bore a hole in the floor and send paper wads filled with powder among the congregation by means of an infernal machine, rigged under and outside the house, and operated from without. On another occasion one of the young mischief makers dressed up as an old woman and came to the meet- ing, seating himself by the side of Miss Jane Vosburgh. Miss V., not recognizing her companion, began an investigation in which she was joined by several other young ladies sitting near. At last, becoming weary of playing at propriety, he assumed a very mas- culine position, and in so doing, displayed a good sized pair of stoga
2
59
HISTORY OF LAPEER COUNTY.
boots. This was followed by an attempt on the part of one of the young ladies to raise the old lady's veil, when he fled, jumping over seats and benches, no doubt, in his hasty retreat to the door, presenting a similar appearance to Jeff. Davis in his last ditch. Although the reliable portion of the community frowned upon the pranks of young America, they were not disposed to favor the ex- travagance of Van Dusen and his followers, and when he threw off the mask and began to publish the dogmas of Joe Smith, many who at first had confided in him withdrew in disgust. Still he retained many followers, a few of whom followed him to Nauvoo. Van Dusen did not remain with the Mormons long, however; he withdrew and published an exposition of the iniquities of Mormon- ism which obtained a large circulation. The Mormon Church he organized at Lapeer soon fell to pieces, its members becoming utterly disgusted with the whole system of imposture. This was, we believe, the last appearance of Mormonism in Lapeer.
In these early times, the Indians were often extremely abusive to the wives of the settlers. They seldom came to the houses except to trade when the men were at home, but they would come in their absence, and terrify the women and children if they could. They seemed really afraid of a courageous and resolute woman, and reserved their taunts and abuse only for the timid and irreso- lute.
In 1832 a Methodist preacher named Frazie paid a few visits to Lapeer, but his delineations of hell fire were so extremely vivid, and his denunciations of that terrible punishment were so unusual and personal that it gave great offense to the young men, and they treated him so rudely that he left them. He afterward went to Kentucky.
BIOGRAPHICAL REMINISCENCES.
Alvin N. Hart was born in Cornwall, Conn., February 11, 1804. He resided with his parents on the farm until he was fifteen years of age. He received his education in the academy of Sharon, Connecticut, and at the college in Amherst, Mass., finishing it in the latter institution. He was married in Utica, N. Y., July 8, 1828, to Miss Charlotte F. Ball, daughter of the late Dr. Benjamin Ball, of Wendell, Franklin County, Mass. Residing at Utica for three years, he then removed to the Territory of Michigan.
Mr. Hart cut his way fourteen miles through the forest to his point of destination, locating and beginning his pioneer life where the city of Lapeer now stands. He camped under a large elm tree, which is still standing, a respected landmark. His son, R. G. Hart, has placed upon it a lightning-rod to protect it from further destruction by lightning. He built the first building (a log cabin) in that vicinity, and moved into it November 11, 1831, with his family, consisting of his wife and child, the present B. E. Hart, of Lansing, and Joel M. Palmer, now dead.
In the spring of 1832 Mr. Hart was appointed sheriff of Lapeer County, and at the election in the fall of 1835, in , which the con- stitution of the new State was submitted and adopted, he was elected a representative to the State legislature. In 1842 he was elected supervisor of Lapeer Township, and held the office for the succeed- ing seven years. In 1843 Mr. Hart was elected State senator from the sixth senatorial district, which then comprised the counties of Lapeer, Oakland, Genesee, Shiawassee, Tuscola, Saginaw and the Upper Peninsula. In 1846 he was elected the first judge of the Lapeer County court for a term of four years, and in 1847 he was again elected to the State senate to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Senator Witherbee, and re-elected in 1848 for the regular term. He buried his wife in August, 1850, having pre- viously buried three daughters while young, and afterward one son, Danforth A. Hart, who died April 21, 1853, at the age of twenty- one. His surviving children are B. E. Hart, of Lansing; R. G.
Hart, of Lapeer; Mrs. Bell Hamilton and Arthur N. Hart, of Lansing. In 1856 he was again elected a justice of the peace. In 1860 he removed to the city of Lansing, and in 1863 was elected member of the common council, a position which he held at the time of his death. In 1870 he was elected a representative from Ingham County to the State legislature, and materially aided in securing the appropriation which was made for the erection of the new State capitol now almost completed. He was a man of great energy, earnest in all his purposes, a clear and careful politician, ever holding the public interest as a sacred duty. He always took a lively interest in all matters pertaining to the development and growth of his city and county. His advice and opinions were much sought in the councils of both, and he contributed freely and generously to every enterprise tending to their prosperity and wel- fare. He was one of the projectors of that portion of the Amboy, Lansing & Traverse Bay Railroad, running from Lansing to Owosso, and was a director in the Detroit & Bay City Railroad. He was a consistent member of the Presbyterian denomination, being one of the founders of the flourishing church of that sect in Lapeer, and also of the one in North Lansing. His death occurred August 22, 1874.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.