History of Livingston County, Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 29

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An important and most interesting event, occur- ring in the year 1835, at Howell (or Livingston Centre, as the place was still called), was the com- mencement of religious worship,-the first public religious observance, not only in the village, but

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in the township. It was brought about by the efforts of Deacon Israel Branch, a pious man, who had settled on the northeast quarter of section 2, in Marion, on the town line, about half a mile south of the centre. The story of that first gathering for divine worship is thus told by the Rev. A. L. Crittenden :

" Deacon Branch thought he could not live without religious meetings, even in the wilderness, and hence he took it upon him- self to commence them. He went to Esquire Adams, our noble landlord, who kept the hotel in the village,-for by this time the house was nearly finished, and Amos Adams occupied it for a hotel,-and obtained consent to have religious meetings held in the sitting-room, the only building in the village. Notice was ac- cordingly given, and on Sabbath morning (I cannot give the date, but I think it was in the month of December, 1835) the people assembled, some coming four or five miles, and the sitting-room was pretty well filled. Deacon Branch conducted the meeting, read- ing one of Dr. Payson's sermons. At the close of the services, he called for a volunteer to close by prayer. No one came to his help, but the deacon was not discouraged. He gave notice for a meeting the next Sabbath. On the second Sabbath I volunteered to close the meeting with prayer. Thus it happened that I was the second person who took a part in a religious meeting in Howell. After that, if the deacon had to be away from the meeting any Sabbath, he brought to me a volume of Dr. Payson's sermons, with a request that I should conduct the services, which I did several times that year."

And so the close of that year saw Howell vil- lage established at Livingston Centre, with defined streets, a public square, a hotel, and a number of settlers enjoying the privilege of religious worship ; the observance of which has been continued from that time without interruption.

PROGRESS IN 1836.

The spring of 1836 opened auspiciously for the village of Howell. Its dignity was greatly aug- mented by the establishment, on the 15th of Jan- uary in that year, of the Howell post-office, with Flavius J. B. Crane as its first postmaster, who located the office in the tavern of Amos Adams. About the 20th of March a mail-route was estab- lished between this village and Kensington, on the west border of Oakland County, and soon after the route was extended westward from Howell to Grand Rapids. The mail-contractor for the former route was Lewis Thompson, who carried the mails on horseback. The first mail-carrier between Howell and Grand Rapids was James R. Sage, then a youth of about seventeen years, who on his first trip lost his way (there being only a bridle- path or trail to guide him), and was compelled to pass the night in the woods. The mail-service between Howell and Kensington was weekly ; that over the western route was bi-weekly; but even this was a vast improvement on the transient and. uncertain manner in which the settlers had pre- viously received and forwarded their letters.

Nearly simultaneously with the establishment of the post-office and the mail-routes the Legislature had passed (March 24th) an act to organize the county of Livingston, and there could be no rea- sonable doubt that the county-site would be per- manently located at Howell, though the claim to its location was vigorously advanced by the people of Brighton, and was never wholly relinquished by them until the county buildings had been actually erected in this village, twelve years later. But not- withstanding all opposing claims, Howell at once assumed the dignity of the county-seat. The elec- tion of county officers was held in May, 1836, and resulted in the choice of Justus J. Bennett for sheriff, F. J. B. Crane for county clerk, Ely Bar- nard for register of deeds, and Amos Adams treas- urer and surveyor. Of these offices, three were held by residents of the village, and Mr. Barnard, the newly-elected register of deeds, immediately became a citizen of Howell by removal here from Genoa. The election of township officers was also held at the same time, and, although Howell then comprised three-eighths of the territory of the county, a majority of the officers elected were residents within the present corporation limits.

The erection of the first mill and the opening of the first store and the first blacksmith-shop in Howell, in 1836, were events of no small conse- quence to the settlers at the county-seat and in its vicinity. A saw-mill, to supply building lumber, was an indispensable adjunct to the projected vil- lage, and a store is considered almost a necessity in such places, while the first blacksmith-shop- always an important establishment in new settle- ments-proved doubly so in this place, from the fact that one of the two blacksmiths who opened the shop in that year (and who may properly be termed the first of the trade in the town, because he was the first who permanently located here) became a leading citizen of Howell,-one who, during a subsequent honorable career of forty-three years in this place, has benefited the village in a hundred ways, and placed himself at the head of her wealthiest and most respected men. This pio- neer blacksmith of Howell was William McPher- son, a native of Scotland, who emigrated to America in 1836, and soon after his arrival in the country came to Howell, with his wife, their daughter, Isabella (now Mrs. H. H. Mills), and their two sons, William and Alexander, these being all of his family at that time. They arrived on the 17th of September, and boarded with the family of James Sage, while Mr. McPherson and his sons built a dwelling for their use. This house (a log structure) was built on a lot in the west part of the village plat, where William Cooper

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now resides, and was finished and occupied by the family before the closing of winter.

On the same lot and adjoining Mr. McPherson's house, the blacksmith-shop before alluded to had been built, during the summer of the same year, by Andrew Riddle, who was also a Scotchman and a blacksmith, and was the father of Mrs. Mc- Pherson. After having settled his family in their new house, Mr. McPherson commenced work in this shop with his father-in-law, and continued to do so until the following spring, when Mr. Riddle removed from Howell to settle upon lands which he had purchased in Byron (now Oceola). His son, William, remained in Howell, being em- ployed in the Register's office. He was after- wards one of the principal merchants of Howell, and is now a merchant in Detroit. After the removal of Andrew Riddle and family, Mr. Mc- Pherson occupied the shop alone and carried on the blacksmithing business for a time; but his health became poor, and he removed temporarily to Oceola, but soon after returned to Howell. In 1841 he, in partnership with Josiah Turner, opened a small mercantile business, and continued in it for nearly a year. After this he carried on black- smithing for a short time, and again embarked in merchandising,-this time in partnership with Enos B. Taylor. At the end of about two years Taylor withdrew, and Mr. McPherson, alone at first,- afterwards with Mr. Riddle, for four years under the style of McPherson & Riddle, and lastly in partnership with his sons,-has continued in the business until the present time, the firm being now known as William McPherson & Sons. He has been uniformly successful, and as uniformly honest, honorable, liberal, and public spirited. Howell has every reason to be proud of her pioneer blacksmith.

The store referred to above as having been opened in Howell in this year was hardly entitled to be called such. Mr. F. J. B. Crane had brought in a small lot of goods and opened them in a room of Mr. Adams' tavern, but the business was too small to support itself, and after two or three months it was closed, and the remnant of the " stock" was stored in the attic.

The saw-mill above mentioned as having been put in operation in 1836 was built by Moses Thompson, on the northwest quarter of the south- east quarter of section 25, on the stream which forms the outlet of that body of water which is now called Thompson Lake in his honor. Originally here were three small lakes or ponds, connected by a marsh and stream, but the building of the dam across the outlet by Mr. Thompson raised the water, submerged the marsh, and formed the

present lake. He had purchased the adjacent land with the intention of building a mill here, and having that object in view, had brought with him the necessary mill-irons and gearing when he came from Herkimer Co., N. Y., in the previous year. He dug the raceway and finished the dam during the spring and summer, but the mill was not com- pleted until some months later. The millwright employed was Joseph Porter, who had entered lands in section 7, Howell township, in July, 1834, and came into Livingston from Washtenaw County. He received from Mr. Thompson for his services as millwright the sum of $3 per day, which in those times was regarded as a very large if not an extravagant price. He finished the mill and put it in successful operation about the beginning of winter, and the very first boards sawed were pur- chased by Mr. William McPherson for the purpose of laying a floor in his new log house. Mr. Thompson, when entering his lands in 1834, had the foresight to secure not only a mill-seat, but also a considerable quantity of lands in section 34, which were covered with pine-timber of excellent quality. He well understood that when he should get his saw-mill in operation, these tracts, being the only pine-lands in this region, and located near the county-seat, must prove convenient and valu- able. The result showed the soundness of his calculations; the pine-lands, besides being profit- able to their owners, facilitated building operations in Howell village, by furnishing large quantities of lumber of a kind and quality which before the days of railroads was an exceedingly scarce article in nearly all parts of Livingston County.

An event of some interest, if not of any great importance, to the few inhabitants of Howell at that time, was a wedding,-the first which occurred in the village or township. This was the marriage of Merritt S. Havens to Sally T. Austin, daughter of David Austin, which took place at the house of Mr. Austin, in the evening of the 15th of January, 1836; the ceremony being performed by Kinsley S. Bingham, J.P., afterwards Governor of Michigan. It will be noticed that this wedding was not cele- brated in what was then known as the village of Howell; and it is proper to mention here that this history of the village is intended to be a narrative of past events within all the territory now embraced in the corporation limits, and not merely to apply to the compactly-settled portion of it.

Among the immigrants of 1836, besides those already named, were Enos B. Taylor, Sherburn Crane, Joseph H. Steel, Peter B. Johnson (located on village lot No. 116), John Russell, Watson G. Thomas, Oliver Reed (section 35), Simon P. Shope, Gottlieb Schraft, Jacob Schraft, Giles Tucker, and

( OLD HOME 1848. )

RESIDENCE OF SOLOMON HILDEBRANT, HOWELL, LIVINGSTON CO., MICH.

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RESIDENCE OF WM MC PHERSON, JR, HOWELL, MICHIGAN.

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· VILLAGE OF HOWELL.

Joseph Tucker. The last two here named were carpenters by trade, and on that account were very useful accessions to the village population. Giles Tucker afterwards became a merchant in Howell, and sheriff of the county of Livingston. He is now (or was recently) living in Eaton Co., Mich. Joseph Tucker died in 1862. Simon P. Shope located on section 36, on land purchased from Alexander Fraser, and lived in the house which Mr. Fraser had built for his own use. The two Schrafts were unfortunate Germans who paid to Shope their small savings in the expectation of becoming proprietors of lots in an imaginary vil- lage which the latter pretended to be about to lay out in the southeast corner of the section. They soon became objects of charity, and were assisted by Moses Thompson and others until they were able to leave the place. W. G. Thomas contracted for village lots, but did not become a permanent settler, and is said to have left the village in a dis- creditable manner soon after. Mr. Steel made per- manent settlement here, and in the following year became proprietor of the hotel built by Crane and Brooks. He was afterwards landlord of one or more of the other public-houses of the village. He died here more than a quarter of a century after his first arrival, having been constantly a resident of Howell, excepting some five or six years, during which he lived in Oceola. E. B. Taylor married Abigail, daughter of Amos Adams, and became a merchant and somewhat prominent man in the village. Afterwards he removed to California, and died there.

David H. Austin, who had come into the town- ship in 1835, and made some preparation to settle on section 20, removed to the village in 1836, and took a small tract of land on section 35. He was not a relative of David and Jonathan Austin, near whom he located. He remained here for several years, held some public offices, and was quite a prominent man in early school matters. From Howell he afterwards removed to Farmington, Oakland Co. His son, George Austin, lives in the southwest part of Howell township.

SETTLEMENTS AND OTHER MATTERS, 1837 TO 1840.

By the township assessment roll of 1837 the tax-payers then resident within the present bound- aries of the corporation are shown to have been the following :

David Austin, 60 acres on section 35.

Jonathan Austin, 140 acres on sections 35, 26, and 27; residence on section 35.

David H. Austin, 30 acres on section 35; valuation, $120; value of personal property, $20.

Amos Adams, lot and tavern-house in village plat, $550.

F. J. B. Crane, various parcels of land amounting to 380 acres, $1200.

Benjamin Babbitt's heirs, 80 acres on section 35.

Alexander Fraser, village lots Nos. 117 and 121.

Peter B. Johnson, village lot No. 116.

William McPherson, village lot No. 129.

James Sage, 112 acres on sections 35 and 23, $516; residence on section 35.

George T. Sage, 200 acres on section 35.

Simon W. Shope, 412 acres in townships of Howell, Oceola, and Marion ; residence on section 36, Howell.

Moses Thompson, 1280 acres on sections 25, 26, 36, 12, and 13; residence on south part of section 25.

Morris Thompson, 120 acres on sections 34 and 36; residence on south part of section 25.

Watson G. Thomas, village lots Nos. 17, 31, 32, 33, and 49.

Besides these there were 137 village lots as- sessed to non-residents, showing that at least that number, in addition to those held by residents, had been sold by the proprietors of the plat. These lots were assessed at a uniform price of $25 each. The other lands included in the above list were assessed at $4 per acre, where not otherwise specified. The list above given, having been made in the spring of 1837, does not, of course, include the immigrants who settled here during that year.

Mr. Edward F. Gay, a native of Connecticut, who had emigrated thence to Michigan, and set- tled at Ann Arbor in 1831, left the latter place early in the spring of 1837, and on the Ist of April, in that year, arrived and located with his family on a farm which he had purchased of the heirs of Deacon Israel Branch, then recently de- ceased ; this farm being about half a mile south of the Crane and Brooks settlement. It was the same property which was afterwards known as the " Isbell farm," and located south of the Howell line, in the township of Marion; but as Mr. Gay was from the first entirely identified with Howell, and afterwards removed here, and lived and died in the village, it seems proper to include him in the mention of the early settlers of the place. How he came here on his first prospecting tour in the previous autumn, and what and who he found here, when he removed with his family, was narrated by him in an address before the Pioneer Society in 1872, in these words :

" I entered the county at Hamburg. From thence I was to pro- ceed on horseback upon the ' Strawberry Point Trail' to Howell. But I soon lost the trail, and after wandering for some time among the bluffs, I brought up at Brighton. After spending the night with mine host, Ben. Cushing, at his log hotel, situated on the hill, I again started for Livingston Centre, on a plainer path. The old adage ' there is no great loss without some small gain' was here verified ; for I soon came upon two former residents of Ann Arbor, who had left there in my debt. To their honor I would say that each paid me; one being the venerable Robert Bigham, the other, Dr. Fisher, who had studied medicine with Dr. Denton, and wish- ing to get married, I had trusted him for a wedding-suit, but had not till now learned his location.

" But one house now intervened between Uncle Robert's and

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my destination, to wit, ' Peet's Log Hotel' in Genoa, some seven miles east of Howell. At sundown I had arrived within three miles of that place. . . . About dark I approached a log house, situated on the plain some distance east of the Wilber residence, towards the lake, and inquired for the renowned Livingston Cen- tre. This house was occupied by John Pinckney, and was owned by old Mr. Fraser (then recently from New York), together with the farm known as the Fraser farm, alias the Shope farm, after- wards the Wilber farm.

"Though now becoming anxious to reach the 'Centre' I was doomed still to wander on the verge. I was on the trail, though among brush, and meandering the lake. Beholding a light, hope revived, but to be again extinguished, for before it was reached, the light disappeared, for the very good reason that Mr. Moses Thompson and family had retired to bed. Not being willing to be thwarted in this, my second day's attempt to reach Livingston Centre, I hallooed for light under difficulties. The old gentleman soon put me upon the right trail again, saying that after crossing a ravine and again rising the bluff I would behold the light at the Centre, which had so often guided the lost and weary traveler. I found it as he had said, and soon beheld Livingston Centre, in the person of that noble landlord and life-long hotel-keeper, Amos Adams. One single frame building as a hotel, without a barn, together with three or four log houses, constituted Livingston Cen- tre. My horse was fastened to a small oak-tree, against which a log was lying, with troughs cut in the side to feed the grain. . . . The only families which I now recollect, then residing in Howell or vicinity, besides the Adams family, were Mr. McPherson, Wat- son G. Thomas, Mr. Sage and son, David Austin and son, Mr. Fraser, Mr. Pinckney, David H. Austin, Sardis Davis, Huram Bristol, and Moses Thompson. The single men were Lewis, Morris, and Edward Thompson, Mr. Crittenden, Mr. Frisbee, Ely Barnard, John Russell, and Conrad Woll."

Some of these, mentioned by Mr. Gay, although living within what might be termed the neighbor- hood, were outside the limits of the present village; as, for instance, Huram Bristol, who lived on sec- tion 34, Sardis Davis, whose location was across the township line in Marion, and Conrad Woll, who also lived on the south side of the Marion town line. Ely Barnard first settled in the town- ship of Genoa, but having been elected register of deeds at the first election of county officers (1836) had removed to the county-seat imme- diately afterwards. While residing in Howell he purchased village lots, and on one of these (at the northwest corner of Grand River and East Streets) built a small house. Afterwards he returned to his farm in Genoa.

Mr. Gay had been a merchant in Ann Arbor from the time of his settlement there until 1836. He commenced in the same business in Howell in 1837, immediately after his arrival here, and his was the pioneer store of the village, though he did not bring in the first lot of goods. In the address, before referred to, he said,-

" It has been believed that I opened the first goods at Howell, and that I had the honor of being the first merchant here. This is not so. I found $300 or $400 worth of dry-goods in the garret, at the tavern, brought here by Mr. F. J. B. Crane. I afterwards pur- chased these, together with $1600 worth more of Messrs. Ward & Jewett, making a stock of $2000 worth, fresh from New York, inasmuch as they had not been opened since they were packed,

as their remnant, in Western New York. I found it easy, with such an ample stock, to take frequently $100 a day, but I was not so easily sure that the [' wild cat'] money would be worth one dollar the next morning, and was quite sure it would not be when Lewis Thompson arrived with our weekly horseback mail from Detroit. The store I built was the second frame building put up in Howell, and is now [1872] standing, and occupied by Mr. Samuel Bal- com as a dwelling. It has done good service, having served at one time as store, lawyer's office, post-office, and shoe-shop, and at another time as store, minister's residence, place for holding reli- gious meetings, etc. ; no school-house being yet built."

This first store in Howell, referred to as having been built by Mr. Gay, stood (and still stands in a changed form) on the south side of Sibley Street, a little west of Centre Street, and nearly opposite -diagonally-to the southwest corner of the old "public square." John T. Watson, who was one of the settlers who came to Howell in that year, was employed by Mr. Gay as clerk in the estab- lishment. He was a good citizen and a resident of this village for some years. He afterwards moved to Hartland and died there.

Richard Fishbeck, a shoemaker by trade, came to Howell in 1837, and was the first to establish that business in the village. James White, a cabinet-maker, also came in that year, and built a shop in which he worked at his trade. He built the dwelling-house on Clinton Street, which was afterwards owned by Abram Rorabacher, and is now the property of Mrs. Margaret Pinckney.

Orrin J. Field and Josiah P. Jewett were among the settlers who came to the village in 1837, as was also George W. Jewett, who became one of the leading citizens of Howell. Mr. Jewett was a native of Durham, Conn. The family, whom he brought with him to Michigan, were his wife and three children, one of whom died at Ann Arbor before reaching their place of destination. The two who survived and came with their father to Howell were Sarah (now Mrs. Z. F. Crosman) and William B. Jewett, both of whom are still residing in the village. Mr. George W. Jewett was elected to the office of county treasurer in 1838, and to that of register of deeds in 1840, and filled other positions of honor and trust in county and town- ship. He died in Howell, Feb. 12, 1851, at the age of fifty years.

Ebenezer West and Matthew West were among those who came to Howell in 1837, they settling on the southeast quarter of section 26, now the place of Mr. A. V. Holt. The name of Matthew West is found frequently among the township and school district officers of Howell,-particularly among the latter. He died Jan. 9, 1849. Ebenezer West died a few months later in the same year.

Howell's first school-house was built, and first district school opened, in 1837. The school-house

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was erected on a lot (No. 36 of the plat) which had been donated by Mr. Crane for the purpose. In this school was opened in the summer of that year by Amos Adams' daughter, Abigail. She was succeeded in the teacher's office by Justin Durfee. It is not, however, improbable that Miss Adams had taught a few scholars in her father's house before the building of the school-house.

The first term of the court in Howell was held in the new school-house of the village on the 8th of November in the same year. This was re- garded as quite an important event, and a step towards the firm establishment of Howell as the county-seat of Livingston. The school-house be- came not only the usual place for the holding of the courts, but also for the religious services of all denominations, and for elections and other public meetings of every kind.

After 1837 the settlers became too numerous for all to be mentioned here individually and in detail, especially as many of them were transient persons, not heads of families, and did not remain here permanently.

In the early part of 1838 two church organi- zations-the Presbyterian and the Baptist-were formed, in addition to the one (Methodist) which had been formed in the spring or summer of 1836. All these small congregations held their worship in the frame school-house built in the preceding year.

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History of Livingston County, Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 29

Author: Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages: 617

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 617