USA > Michigan > Lapeer County > History of Lapeer County, Michigan : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 16
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From the many tributes to his memory that appeared in the public journals at that time, we copy the following from the Detroit Free Press, which says, editorially :
" The telegraph brought news Saturday of the death of Judge Alvin N. Hart, of Lansing, a man well known in almost every section of the State. His disease was typhoid pneumonia, and he died within one week from the first active symptoms of the disease, though he had not been in good health for some time previous.
" The deceased was seventy years of age, and had resided in Lansing for nearly a score of years, coming there from Lapeer, where he had long been a resident. He was a pioneer in Lansing, and as such he did much. to hasten the growth of the city. No private character could be more blameless than his, and his public record gave satisfaction even to those who were his political op- ponents. He served two terms in the State senate many years ago, and two terms in the house, his last being in 1871. It was through his efforts more than any other person that Lansing was furnished with railroad communication, and his liberality in making local improvements has greatly benefited the capital city. He had been a member of the common council almost uninterruptedly since the organization of that body, and death could not have taken one who will be more missed in Lansing. He was a life-long Democrat, holding rigidly to his views without pressing them upon others, and he was well known to Michigan politicians. He leaves .two sons and a daughter at Lansing, and another son at Lapeer, and an estate worth half a million dollars."
From a Lapeer correspondent to the Free Press :
" The funeral of the late Judge A. N. Hart took place at Lapeer on Tuesday, and the high estimation in which the deceased stood in the community was manifested by the concourse that col- lected to see the last of this good man who had done so much for the city of Lapeer, where he was the first settler. His remains were brought from Lansing. The mayor and common council of Lansing and the Odd Fellows accompanied the remains to Lapeer, and a special car draped in mourning conveyed them through. They were met at Lapeer by the mayor and common council of the city, and numerous other friends of the deceased. The stores were all closed and draped in mourning. The court-house which the judge built, and the strong pillars by which it is supported, were entwined in mourners' garb. State Street was crowded to excess as the long procession moved to the Presbyterian Church, where the service was performed by Rev. Mr. Foster. The singing was
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most exceedingly touching, Mrs. Vincent being the organist, Miss Hicks, S. N. Vincent, Benjamin Loder and Mr. Phillips the vocal part. The lofty tree that overlooks the city, under which the judge pitched his tent, received its full share of crape. It was here where the bears and wolves howled around him in the wilderness, and he had no road to escape until the woodman's ax could make it. The judge has now gone to his last home, where he will be rewarded for the good he has done on earth."
At a meeting of the State Pioneer Society, Judge Albert Miller, of Bay City, paid the following tribute to the memory of Judge Hart:
"Although we see before us so many pioneers in the vigor of health and usefulness, we must remember that time is fast thinning our ranks; the frequent notices we see in the newspapers of our State of the death of some early settler of a particular locality is a verification of this statement, and the shaft of death has fallen very near to us by removing from our midst our worthy treasurer, the Hon. Alvin N. Hart.
"And here perhaps I may be indulged in relating a reminiscence of early days, referring to the time of my first acquaintance with our late treasurer. Mr. Hart settled at the county seat of Lapeer in the fall of 1831; I had previously settled in that portion of the same county which was afterward detached to help form Genesee County. Although we were neighbors (living only about thirty miles apart), I never met Mr. Hart till the spring of 1834. In the meantime I had removed to Saginaw, and the settlement of the country had progressed so that the county of Lapeer had been organized into a separate township. That portion of territory which afterward formed Genesee County had been organized into a township named Grand Blanc, and the township of Saginaw had been organized, all in Oakland County. The subject of forming a State government had been mooted, and in April, 1834, delegates were elected to form a State constitution. At that election the town of Saginaw cast about twenty votes, and I was appointed by the board of inspectors to return the votes to the county seat and to be one of the county canvassers. I started on a pony to perform the journey of seventy miles, over or through a road that had as much depth as width. From Flint I was accompanied by Judge Snow, who had the same appointment from the town of Grand Blanc.
"The board of canvassers, which met at Pontiac, consisted of seven members, who represented all the organized territory in northern Michigan (except the counties of Mackinac and Chippewa), and Alvin N. Hart was chosen chairman. I then formed an acquaintance with Mr. Hart which ripened into a friendship, and which lasted till time, with him, was no more. It is not necessary here to recount the many prominent positions of honor and trust which have been accorded to Mr. Hart by the citizens of Michigan, or his many acts which have served to develop the resources and promote the interests of the State, for the name of Alvin N. Hart is as familiar as household words to the pioneers of Michigan, especially those of the northern portion of the State.
"In taking a view of the past at the time when this whole region of country was a vast wilderness, inhabited only by wild beasts of the forest and the aborigines of the country, with here and there a hardy pioneer struggling to overcome the privations incident to a life in the wilderness, and then rapidly glancing to the present, seeing the same region rife with life and industry and all the appliances that conduce to the prosperity and happiness of mankind, it seems as if the whole scene had been transformed by magic; but upon taking a more detailed review of the past, I am constrained to believe that very much of the prosperity and happi- ness of the present is due to the foresight, energy, industry, and
good example of a class of pioneers of which the late Alvin N. Hart was a type."
EARLY INCIDENTS.
Noah H. Hart, speaking of early days in Lapeer, says: "The happiest days of our lives were our pioneer days in Lapeer. We were all patricians and all plebeians. The latch-string of every cabin was always out. If one had pork and beans, all had pork and beans. All strangers were greeted with a welcome and cordi- ality unknown at the present day. To the church or social gather- ings we all went in the same vehicle, and it mattered not whether drawn by oxen or horses. The fond anticipations of future im- provements, prosperity and grandeur overbalanced and made easy all hardships and privations. That they were necessarily incident to a pioneer life, cannot be told, and can only be understood by act- ual experience. I will try to give you one or two samples.
"The first battle between a pioneer and a pack of wolves was in this wise :- The name of the pioneer was the Hon. A. N. Hart, the names of the wolves I have forgotten. The Judge left Lapeer for Pontiac for supplies. Among other things he put on to his load a quarter of fresh beef. Having arrived within two and a half miles of home, although it was very dark and the road being only under- brushed out, and consequently very winding, he was flattering him- self that he would be with his family, enjoying a delicious beef- steak, when, to his utter horror, he had the strongest evidences in the world that a pack of wolves were after him or his beef. He urged his team with whip and yells a short distance, when he brought up against a tree. The enemy immediately surrounded him and demanded a surrender. Their eyes, like so many fire- balls, were anything but agreeable. The Judge comprehended the situation at once. He had sagacity enough to know that the wolves
would prefer the beef to himself, but the beef he determined he never would surrender, for in those days beef was more precious than gold. The Judge resolved to throw overboard flour, feed, in short, the whole load except the beef, and make one terrible effort to ex- tricate himself from the tree. Having discharged the load except the beef, with a crack of the whip, a yell and a haw, he broke loose and came through triumphantly. The wolves were so astonished and taken by surprise by the performance that they retired from the field in disgust. The Judge said to me, very confidentially, a few days after, 'If you ever undertake to bring fresh beef from Pontiac, make your arrangements so as to come through by daylight.'
"The necessary expenses in obtaining everything, even the nec- essaries of life, were tenfold greater than dreamed of by the pioneer when he left his Eastern home. For instance, I left Lapeer early one Monday morning with two pair of oxen and fifteen bushels of grain in my wagon to go to mill. I had my choice between Pon- tiac, Auburn and Rochester, where grinding could be done. I ar- rived at Pontiac about sundown the second day out, and was in- formed that my turn would come in about a week. I then pro- ceeded to Auburn and was informed that they might possibly reach my case in about four days. I then made for Rochester, and, on arriving there, received the gratifying intelligence that my grist should be ground within twenty-four hours, provided there was no break-down. I arrived home Saturday night and was rejoiced to learn that the family had not starved during my absence.
"Joel M. Palmer, at a very early day, put on a freight line be- tween here and Detroit. His charges were very reasonable -- only one dollar per 100 pounds, and a small commission for time and trouble in filling your order. My father sent by him for a barrel of one-hog pork. I say one-hog pork, for you must recollect that we could not afford, in those days, so great a luxury as mess pork. The pork was duly delivered and the bill accompanying the same read as follows:
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" 'O. B. HART, Dr. to one barrel one-hog pork, $32.00.'" On opening the barrel we discovered two heads, two tails, etc. My father very dryly remarked that he could plainly see why it cost so much; it was two-hog pork.
"Politics became an element of interest and excitement at an early day. And as another evidence of the great hardships of a pioneer life, permit me to inform you that the county of Lapeer was originally attached to Pontiac for judicial and representative pur- poses. For instance, soon after the county seat was established, it became necessary that a route should be selected and the trees blazed for a road from Pontiac here, and our worthy and venerable citizen, Isaac I. Voorheis, was one of the commissioners who per- formed that task.
"The first election I have any recollection of, was a township election held at Pontiac. Col. J. R. White, having been appointed justice of the peace by the territorial government, very naturally wanted a constable in order to make the office a paying institution. He went to Pontiac and secured the nomination of Asahel Hubbard, then a resident here, as one of the constables. I had friends there who, unbeknown to me, put my name upon their ticket and the re- sult was I was elected. The Colonel did not exactly like this, so he hastened to Lapeer and immediately called on my mother to ascer- tain how old I was. She frankly told him I was not yet twenty-one years of age. On being notified of my election I called on the Col- onel to qualify. He politely informed me that he could not do it; that I was ineligible to the office. Not willing to see the will of the people defeated, I mounted my pony and went to Pontiac to qualify. Judge LeRoy signed my bond. Gideon O. Williams, Esq., adminis- tered the oath of office and instructed me to go and file my papers with James A. Weeks, township clerk. I presented my papers to Mr. Weeks and asked him to approve and file them. He said he did not know whether he would or not; that he had received a letter from Col. White, of Lapeer; that I was a minor and not eligible to the office, and asked me how old I was. I told him to ask my constit- uents, and again asked him if he could file my papers. He replied : 'I suppose I will have to.' I discharged the duties of the office dur- ing the ensuing year, over a district of country including Oakland, Lapeer, Genesee and Shiawassee Counties and the Saginaw Valley.
The pioneers to this place brought with them their religious principles. They were not unmindful of their obligations to God, in whom they put their trust and relied for life, health and prosper- ity. The first religious services within my recollection took place in the open air near where the Abram House now stands. The church edifice was a pine tree. The congregation was seated on the fallen trees and a sermon was read by grandfather Turrill. The singing was conducted by Minor Y. Turrill and wife and Hon. A. N. Hart. The first sermon preached in Lapeer by a minister of the gospel, was by the Rev. Wells, of Troy, Oakland County, The singing the same as above mentioned with the addition of Asahel W. Abbott. A long metre hymn was given out, and they sang that good old fa- vorite tune called Wells. The second hymn was long metre too, and the minister remarked, 'I do not think we can do any better than to try Wells again.'"
RIVAL VILLAGES.
It is not frequent that a county is so fortunate as to have two court-houses built for it by private individuals, but such was the case in Lapeer, the circumstances of which have already been told. This contest did not concern the county at large so much as the interests of two rival village sites. The White interests centered in the southwest quarter of section 5, and here they platted a village and called it Whitesville. The Hart interest was in the northeast quarter of the same section. The contest between the two interests was most determined and more or less bitter. That it should be
determined was legitimate, and it was only natural that such a spirit of determination should become flavored with bitterness. It nowhere appears that the material interests of the public suffered by reason of this rivalry; on the contrary, a court-house was pro- vided by one party and a school building by the other, and so far the public derived material benefits. The final location of a court- house, however, decided the fates of the two aspirants to village honors, and Whitesville as an independent village ceased to be.
The village of Lapeer was platted in March, 1836, acknowledg- ment being made by Simeon B. Brown, Alvin N. Hart, John Shafer, Mason Butts and Jonathan R. White, platting of their sub- division of west half and northeast quarter of section 5, town 7 north, of range 10 east, except so much as had been subdivided as appeared by the plats of the villages of Lapeer and Whitesville so called on record at the office of the register of Oakland County. On the 14th of March, 1836, an acknowledgement was made by Phineas White and Louisa D. White of the platting of their sub- division of the same tract, with the same exception as in the afore- mentioned plat. Since that time eight different additions have been made.
PIONEER WOMEN.
Miss Nettie A. Comstock writes of pioneer women as follows:
"If the pioneer fathers exhibited the stern resolution and dogged perseverance of their sons in clearing up these fertile lands and laying the foundations broad and deep that underlie our free institutions, no less praise is due to those faithful wives who so nobly supported them in the trials of their lot. These women were ladies in every sense of the word, some of them had been tenderly reared, and were totally unused to any hardships, all were well educated and had left comfortable homes and all the advantages of good society, yet they accompanied their husbands here, exchang- ing luxury and comfort for the want of all things; they toiled and cared for their household as best they could; how well they ac- complished their task let the present generation declare. When their husbands were weary and desponding, forgetting their own hardships, they encouraged them to persevere in hope of better days. Had they yielded to discouragements as many have done, think you that the labors of their husbands would have been crowned with success? We know they would not, and this fact is so well understood at present, that whatever a man's faults may be, if he is unsuccessful in business and has a wife, the blame is invariably laid at her door; but, on the other hand, if a man is successful in business the wife seldom receives any credit for her labors. So we seldom hear anything of these pioneer ladies, and many of them are forgotten save in their own family circle. To show that the pioneer mothers were women of more than common stamp, we have taken pains to obtain slight sketches of some of these ladies, of whom, though their husbands have often been mentioned here, few of us have even heard the names.
"Mrs. Charlotte Hart, wife of A. N. Hart, was the daughter of Dr. B. F. Ball, of Litchfield, Conn. On her marriage she removed with her husband to Utica, N. Y., and three years later she ac- companied her husband with her babe to the wilds of Michigan. The last fourteen miles of the journey to their new home was through a pathless wilderness, and Messrs. Hart and Palmer were obliged to cut their own road. It was a toilsome route, and the men, weary with their long journey, were well nigh discouraged; but weary as she was, and though tenderly reared and totally un- used to labor or hardships, she was equal to the occasion, and as the spirits of her companions sunk she urged them to persevere, and seated in the wagon holding her babe she would drive until obliged to stop for a passage to be cut for the team, and by skillful repartee she cheered them in their difficult task, nor did she suc-
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HISTORY OF LAPEER COUNTY.
cumb when on nearing their new home the wagon stuck fast in the muddy bank of the river and it was found necessary to abandon the wagon as night had come and go on foot to the log cabin in the wilderness, nothing but a shelter, having no doors or windows, scarcely a protection from storms or the beasts of the forest. This was the spirit of the true pioneer woman, and this cheerful Christian courage a characteristic trait of Mrs. Hart.
"Mrs. Louisa Dexter White, wife of J. R. White, was a woman remarkable for courage and resolution. Her father was a ship builder of Boston, a nephew of Hon. Samuel Dexter, secretary of war under the administration of John Adams. By the death of her mother the family was broken up, and Louisa and a younger sister, Emeline, were adopted by a relative and removed to New York City, where they were brought up. Here Louisa married Mr. White, and her sister married a Mr. Cromar, a wealthy planter residing near Charleston, S. C., and removed there with him. He died soon after and about the time of the slave insurrection of 1831. Mrs. Cromar was unable to leave until this was over, and when she finally reached her friends in New York her mind was so ยท terribly shattered by the scenes she had passed through that it was found necessary to send her to an insane asylum for treatment. During her stay there Mrs. White emigrated with her husband to Lapeer, where she and Mrs. Charlotte Hart were for some time alone as regarded the society of their own sex. This was about the time of the Black Hawk war, and the Indians were quite insolent, especially to the women, who were generally afraid of them. This was not so with Mrs. White, who was so resolute in her refusals to their demands that they regarded her with a respect not unmixed with fear. This was before the days of the temperance reform, and the settlers thought it not wrong to sell the Indians the whisky they craved. Mrs. White had more than one combat with drunken Indians in which she invariably came off victorious. One day a drunken Indian came in and declared his intention of taking up his quarters among them, and had alarmed all the other ladies of the family by his demonstrations, when Mrs. White drew a hot frying pan from the fire and laid it about him with such vigor that he was glad to retreat; after this the Indians did not annoy Mrs. White or her family. Some time after Mrs. White's removal to Michigan she returned to New York and brought back with her her sister, Mrs. Cromar, who had in the meantime recovered her reason. In 1836 Mrs. Cromar married Morris Perry, a blacksmith, who worked at his trade while in Lapeer and then took up land in Elba, where he resided until his death in 1844. After this she returned to her friends in Lapeer, and in 1849 married a Mr. Parker; two years later she and her husband went to California. In those days this was a long and hazardous journey, and one which few women dare attempt. Here they resided for some years when they re- turned to Lapeer. After a time Mr. Parker visited California again, leaving his wife this time with Lapeer friends. He never returned home, dying a short time after his arrival there. His wife remained with her friends in Lapeer until her death about a year since. Her life was a most eventful one, and one of great changes, from New York City to a Southern plantation, then a log cabin in the wilderness, a long journey to California, a return to her friends, then a long period of suffering, and the 'weary heart at last grew still.' Mrs. White was remarkable for her courage in opposing all she deemed wrong and her hearty support for the right; she was a fast friend and a true Christian, and few were more heartily respected in life or more sincerely mourned in death than she.
"Of Mrs. Alantha Turrill we could learn little; she was a true daughter of New England, but had been delicately reared and possessed none of the cheerful courage of Mrs. Hart or the stern
resolution of Mrs. White; but she must have loved her early home, for although she and her husband had long since left Lapeer and formed in a new home associations more congenial to her taste, yet when death drew near their last request was to be laid near their father and mother at their early home.
"Mrs. Amanda Hart, wife of O. B. Hart, was one of those good motherly women revered by every one; she reared a large family, as was the style in those days, and was a faithful helpmeet to her husband; she always had a cheerful welcome for every one, but her world was in her husband and her home. During the sickly season of 1844 herself and her husband fell victims to the terrible malarious fever then prevalent. They sickened about the same time and fears were entertained for the result, and she only expressed the wish that if her husband must die to go with him. On his decease the family, half frantic with grief and anxiety, endeavored to conceal his death from her, but she seemed to under- stand what had occurred by intuition, and she sank away and died, and was buried in the same grave with her husband.
"Mrs. Betsey Look Morse was a native of Sangerfield, N. Y., a woman of intelligence and refinement, a most affectionate mother and an earnest Christian, and, though very quiet in her demeanor, was fully as resolute and courageous as the more demonstrative Mrs. Louisa White. The Indians feared her as they did Mrs. White, and for the same reason. One day a drunken Indian entered her house in the absence of her husband, and, as usual, was very abusive; Mrs. Morse quietly put the poker into the old-fashioned fireplace, and when well heated, drew it from the embers and drove the savage out of doors. After this she was known among them as a 'bad squaw,' and consequently respected.
"Mrs. White, mother of J. R., Phineas, E. J. and H. K. White, was one of those good Christian women whom 'none name but to praise.' A widow, she came in her old age to seek a home for her children and a grave for herself in the wilderness.
"These are but a few of the many noble women who left all behind to follow their husbands to a new home in the wilderness. We have specially mentioned these because they were the first here, but they were only types of the women of the early times who were the founders of our society, the mothers who made those homes and trained their children to habits of industry and thrift. Did not these women leave a far deeper impression upon the present generation than their more worldly husbands? Then all honor to the pioneer women of Lapeer County; but few of them remain with us, soon all will have passed over the river
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