History of Livingston County, Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 4

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In the central part of Livingston, settlements were made in 1834, by Sardis Davis, on the north line of Marion; by James Sage, George T. Sage, David Austin, and Jonathan Austin, in Howell

township, in June; by John D. Pinckney, in the same township, late in the fall.

In Oceola, H. H. Graves settled in August, 1834, and Harry Neff came to the same town in the fall of that year. They were without neighbors in the township until the following June, when Thomas V. Parshall became a settler there, and two or three others came later in the season.

In Genoa, Thomas Pinckney, Pardon Barnard, and Ely Barnard (these last two being bachelors) settled in the summer of 1835. In the same season Deacon Israel Branch settled in Marion, on the Howell town line.

Settlements were made in Handy, in June, 1836, by Calvin Handy and Charles P. Bush, the former being the first arrival by a week or two.

losco was settled in the summer of the same year, by George C. Wood, Richard M. Guggins, and Asel Stow, father of the Hon. Isaac Stow, of that township.

In Conway, Julius F. Parsons, Levi Parsons, the Strong and Fay families, Timothy Wait, and Robert Coborn made settlements in 1837. Mr. Coborn, coming in by way of Shiawassee County, settled on or near the north line of the township.

The above is intended merely as a notice of the very earliest settlements, and the dates at which they were made in the different portions of the county. Detailed accounts of settlements and settlers form the most important part of the history of townships; and such accounts will be found in subsequent pages, and in their proper connection.

The experience of pioneers in all new countries is of necessity largely made up of privation and often of actual suffering; these varying in degree according to the character, location, and capabili- ties of the region in which they settle, and to va- rious contingent circumstances. And this universal rule held good with the early settlers of Livingston County. Nearly all of them were farmers, or the sons of farmers, and most of them had left good and comfortable surroundings in the old and highly cultivated State of New York, ambitious and eager to resume their calling on the virgin lands of Mich- igan, where they hoped in time to make as good homes as those in which their earlier years had been passed, and to become owners of farms as well cultivated, and far more extensive than they could have hoped to possess in the East. Their wives-in most instances the daughters of well to- do or wealthy parents-cheerfully left their early associations and the civilization of the old State, and came,-sometimes as newly-made brides,- braving the then formidable perils of Lake Erie, and the worse horrors of the land passage west of Detroit, to perform their part as pioneer women in

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SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTY.

the wilderness of Livingston County; but many a one of these has felt her heart fail and her eyes grow dim with tears as she sat within the single, ill-lighted room of her floorless and mud-chinked log cabin, and mentally contrasted it with the com- modious farm-house, or, may be, the home of ease and elegance which she had left. And at night, when the silence of the hours was only broken by the wolf-howl, which had not yet become fa- miliar to her ears, she thought of cheery visits by friends and neighbors, of sleighing, of social gath- erings, and of the many comforts and delights which she had known in that far-away land of her youth, which she might, perhaps, never see again.

The isolation of the settlers was almost com- plete during the first few years. So widely apart were they, that neighborship really did not exist in Livingston until after 1836. By the great in- flux of settlers in that year the population of the county was more than quintupled, and after that time social intercourse to some extent became possible, and was highly appreciated, especially by the female part of the community, on whom the deprivation had borne most heavily. The men endured it better, not only because differently con- stituted by nature, but because they were com- pelled occasionally to intermit the severe labor on their lands to make trips to Ann Arbor, or Salem, or Detroit to procure a few necessaries of life, which they purchased at exorbitant prices, and often brought back to their cabins on their own strong shoulders. These trips were no less labo- rious than the work of clearing and grubbing, but they served to break an almost insupportable mo- notony, and to renew hope and courage by contact with their fellow-men. The journeys to mill were also, to most of the settlers, very long and tedious, and, to many of them, involved an absence of two or three days. But this inconvenience, too, was greatly ameliorated, after 1836, by the erection of additional mills at more accessible points.

But although the settlers in Livingston County were called on to endure-and did endure hero- ically-many hardships and privations which are inseparable from the life of the pioneer in any new country, they were yet exempt from many others which fall upon those who make the first settle- ments in less favored regions. One of the principal reasons which the early inhabitants of Livingston had for gratitude in this particular was their immu- nity from all danger of Indian barbarity. In the old settlements of Pennsylvania, New England, Eastern New York, and Michigan in the earlier times, the pioneer never slept free from danger of attack and massacre; he never left his home with- out the consciousness that his cabin might be

burned and his family butchered or carried into captivity before his return, and he never worked in his clearing but with his rifle in reach. But here the first comers braved no such danger. The settler might build his cabin in any spot, however isolated, miles away from neighbors or any possible assistance, and yet sleep in peace at night and work unarmed in his fields by day, without fear of harm from the hands of the red man, for the spirit of the Chippewa and the Pottawattamie was cowed, their ancient ferocity gone, and they kept the promise to live in peace with the pale-face.

There were, as has before been mentioned, a large number of Indians in Livingston County when the first settlers came in, and for a number of years afterwards. They roamed through the county in all directions,-principally on the trails and along the borders of the lakes and streams,- and were frequent callers at the dwellings of the pioneers. Settlers, and particularly settlers' wives, for a time after their arrival were often somewhat alarmed at the sudden appearance of a dark-faced crowd around their cabin, and the fearful stories of Wyoming and Cherry Valley would flash to their minds and blanch their cheeks ; but the hearty and good-humored laugh, in which the Indian always indulged on perceiving that his presence inspired fear, would dispel the alarm, and after a short time an Indian was hardly more dreaded than a grazing deer. Mr. William C. Rumsey, now of Howell, relates his first meeting with Indians in the sum- mer of 1833 at his farm, on Green Oak Plains, as follows : " In the winter of 1832-33, while making my home at Ann Arbor, it being the winter after the Black Hawk war, I heard a good many Indian stories, which were well calculated to startle a new- comer. I did not have the privilege of seeing one until the month of June, 1833, while peaceably at work on my place alone, -- the nearest house a half- mile distant, and the next two miles off. The first thing I knew was a couple of Indians came up behind me and saluted me. Looking up and be- holding some three hundred or more men, women, and children soon surrounding me, I thought my time had come. Concealing my fright as much as possible, all I could understand of their talk was 'whisky.' I shook my head to all their talk. After examining my jug near by, and satisfying them- selves that it contained no whisky, they left me and went on their way, some of them laughing, I suppose, at my fright. They came upon me so suddenly and unexpectedly that I was not pre- pared for that kind of a show. I left soon after for my boarding-place, giving my nervous system time to recuperate."

As in their interview with Mr. Rumsey, so the Hosted by

HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

red men were always on the lookout for and anx- ious to obtain whisky; and they would always become intoxicated when they were able to pro- cure it in sufficient quantities. But it is the testi- mony of an old settler, that even when under the influence of the poison, "they were less to be dreaded than the same number of whites in the same condition."

Besides being inoffensive and friendly, the In- dians were really useful to the settlers in a small way, by furnishing them with articles of food and utility. They brought game, fish, honey, sugar, beeswax, dressed deer-skins, baskets, and some other articles, and were always desirous to sell these, or to barter for other commodities. Fine saddles of venison, or wild turkeys, were sometimes sold by them for two cents per pound, at a time when pork was worth twenty-five dollars a barrel in Detroit, and flour brought twelve dollars per barrel. An instance is mentioned where a turkey of twenty-five pounds weight was given by an Indian in exchange for a quart of whisky cost- ing twenty-five cents per gallon; and a bushel of berries for the same equivalent. Any article pos- sessed by an Indian could be purchased from him for a small amount of whisky ; but the idea is not intended to be conveyed that the settlers, or many of them, practiced that kind of barter for the sake of profit to themselves. Other articles than whisky were desired by the Indians, such as flour, meal, and salt. The first two of these, however, were too scarce (previous to the harvest of 1838) to be bartered by the settlers, who found it ex- tremely difficult to obtain them in sufficient quan- tities for their own necessities. Deer-skins, nicely dressed by the Indian method, were plenty among them, and were freely bartered or sold to the whites. "I have seen," says Mr. Isaac Stow, " whole suits of clothing made from Indian-tanned buckskin worn by white men, and pants made of this material were very common." The price of a good dressed deer-skin was three or four shil- lings; if purchased, and a corresponding amount of other articles (according to the ideas of the Indian owner) in barter. A large proportion of the early male settlers wore articles of clothing made from these skins. But it was principally in the fur- nishing of game and fish as articles of food that the Indian trade was most advantageous to the people, and it is said that supplies from this source have often been received with gratitude by families who were temporarily destitute of other provisions.

The abundance of fish and game in this county in the early years of its settlement is spoken of as having been almost marvelous. Mr. Daniel Case, of Howell, mentioned that he saw twenty-two deer

in one day, while looking for land with James Sage, and hundreds of wild turkeys were often seen in a day's travel. The Hon. Ralph Fowler says he has seen from his own door eight or ten deer browsing in the timber near by (but he also says lynxes and bears were more plenty than was desirable, and that in the first season of his resi- dence here he killed one hundred and twenty-five massasaugers). The Hon. Isaac Stow, of Iosco, says, "Wild game was abundant, and contributed largely to the supplies of the early pioneer, espec- ially the deer and wild turkey; the former being so common that, though they furnished the red man with food and clothing, they might almost daily be seen leisurely feeding or gamboling in the forests." Mrs. C. W. Burwell, of Genoa, in her pioneer reminiscences of that town, said, "The winter (1836-37) was very mild, with only snow enough to be pleasant, as were many of the suc- ceeding winters. The deer were very numerous, would come almost to the door, and if we went only a little distance from the house we were almost sure to see two or more of the graceful creatures. Once, and once only, we were sur- rounded by wolves; we did not seek for nor admire them as we did the deer. Game of all kinds was very plenty, also fish in great abund- ance in our numerous lakes; a great help and luxury to new-comers."

To be located in a region thus teeming with Nature's gifts was an advantage seldom enjoyed by settlers in new countries. Besides the partial supplies of game and fish furnished by their friendly Indian neighbors, the settlers themselves (most of whom were adepts with the rifle and fish- ing-gear) could easily gain from the forests and streams sufficient store of food at least to keep the wolf of hunger away from their cabins ; and many did supplement their slender supplies in this man- ner during the period of scarcity and ruinous prices of food which preceded the abundant har- vest of 1838. Notwithstanding these resources, however, actual suffering for lack of food did occur among the settlers in Livingston in those years, as appears from the following extract from an address of the Hon. W. A. Clark, before the Pioneer Society, in 1876. He said, "Families, to my knowledge, in 1837-38 lived for days, through necessity, on boiled acorns, with fish cooked and eaten without salt or fat of any kind. Provisions were then often held at fabulous prices; . . . beef, pork, and flour had to be brought from Detroit, at a cost of from one to two dollars per hundred, to Brighton, forty miles. It was not so very high, either, for the round trip, with an ener- getic teamster and anstenterprising team, usually

SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTY.

took three to four days, if not longer." But even when mentioning the straits to which some fami- lies were brought for food in those trying times, Mr. Clark also shows that fish was a principal article of their scanty diet, and that without this aid, furnished from the prolific waters of Living- ston, their fare must have been still more meagre.

After the harvest of 1838 all this was changed, and whereas, before that time, wheat had sold at two dollars per bushel, with flour, of course, in proportion, and other provisions at an equally ex- orbitant rate, after that time wheat was so abun- dant that it sometimes sold at less than three shillings .* Thenceforth, scarcity was unknown; and the opposite condition-that of too great abun- dance-was complained of by many as a calamity. And it was such, in so far as the exceedingly low prices prevented farmers from realizing a money profit from their agriculture. But the calamity of seeing their granaries bursting with stores of un- salable bread-stuffs was a light one to the settlers compared with that of seeing their families in danger of suffering for lack of provisions.

It was an advantage of no little importance pos- sessed by the early settlers in Livingston over pioneers in many other and less favored regions, that they found here a country ready for immediate use in the processes of agriculture. Instead of a dense and unbroken forest, extending over all the county, they found a large proportion of the lands to consist of beautiful oak-openings, occasionally interspersed with old Indian fields. In most of these the soil was comparatively easily worked, and friable, and crops could be put in here with a very small proportion of the delay and laborious preparation which is necessary to bring heavily timbered lands into fit condition for cultivation.

Another and a very decided advantage was found in the unsightly marshes, which had been so contemptuously mentioned by the government surveyors. On these marshes there grew a heavy burden of tall coarse grasses, which, in the absence of timothy, clover, or other cultivated fodder, fur- nished very good food for cattle. Plain grass was also found in abundance in the openings (probably brought in by the annual fires kindled there by the Indians during many previous years), and this was equally good and nutritious. The existence of

these, enabled the settlers here (who were nearly all men of sufficient means to purchase stock) to bring cattle with them at the time of their settle- ment, without fear that the animals would die for lack of subsistence during the first or succeeding winters. Many of the first settlers in Livingston did so bring cattle with them, and they derived great benefit from being able to do so, as well as from the ease and facility with which they were able to start their crops in the openings, thus avoiding much of the usual preliminary work of clearing, hand labor without the aid of teams, weary waiting until lands are made ready, seeds planted, and harvests finally secured,-a period in which the pioneer in general, experiences more of hardship and suffering than he is ever again called on to endure.

Taken as a whole, with all attending circum- stances, the settlement and development of Living- ston County was accomplished with less of priva- tion than usually occurs in the settlement of an equal extent of territory. The pioneers here un- questionably saw much of hardship and some- thing of suffering, but more than one of those who still remain have said to the writer of this, that those pioneering days were, with all their depriva- tions, the pleasantest days of their lives; and there is little doubt that of all the present survivors, by far the greater portion will say at least, that they enjoyed life quite as well in their log cabins of forty years ago as they do now in their well-ap- pointed farm-houses, or in the town residences to which some of them have retired. Referring to this, Judge Josiah Turner-himself a pioneer of Livingston-has expressed himself before the Pioneer Association of the county as follows :

" No matter what our fortunes in life may have been; no matter that we cleared up broad acres; no matter that we have pulled down our log · houses, and filled our larger barns; no matter what wealth or fortune may have given us; no matter what honors our fellow-citizens may have show- ered upon us, there never has arisen on us so serene a day as that wherein we labored here in the wilderness. Let me appeal to the conscious- ness of every old settler. How is it now that the forests are cleared ? How is it that your children are grown up and you yourselves are able to live without labor in well-settled districts, where you have all the appliances and refinements of life within your reach? Has your modern pump in your kitchen brought you more delight than your ' old oaken bucket,' or your spring, a mile away ? Is the roar of the grist-mill near your door any sweeter than the silence of a journey of ten, twenty, or thirty miles to mill? Does the face of a

* Mr. Ralph Fowler, in speaking of times in Livingston County in 1844-45, says at that time he hauled his wheat to Detroit, and there sold it at forty-four cents a bushel, receiving his pay in bills of the St. Clair Bank, which failed before he left the city, and he sold the money at fifty per cent. of its face. "You could not," says Mr. Fowler, " sell the best fat cow in town for five dollars in money." People became discouraged at the very abundance, and some returned to their old homes in New York State, though probably most of them came back to Michigan afterwards.

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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

neighbor doctor look more cheery to you than it did when you could only see it by traversing townships ? Is the quiet more satisfactory at evening, with your 'white kine' glimmering in the open field, than when you could count the wild deer lying in your door-yard ? Experience an- swers all these questions, No!"

REGARD OF THE SETTLERS FOR EDUCATION AND RELIGIOUS WORSHIP.

Among the earliest settlers of the county were found persons from every division of the British Isles, and from Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Canada ; but more than three-fourths of all were from the State of New York, and there were also a few from the more eastern States. The New York and New England immigrants brought with them (as it was natural they should) the advanced ideas of the favored communities from which they came upon the subjects of education and religious observance. After they had secured for their families shelter, and the means of present subsistence, they allowed very little time to elapse before they also provided for the education of their children ; though as the means at their command were limited, so, of course, the methods were far more rude, and the results obtained were more meagre, than those of the present day ; but, though the schools were often taught in the cramped cabin of the settler, and sel- dom in any edifice more pretentious than the single- roomed log school-house, reared in a day by the combined labor of a few earnest heads of families, yet in these rude institutions of learning there have been laid the foundations of many an honor- able and useful career. "I think I may affirm," says Judge Turner, "that the county has from the earliest times felt the deepest practical interest in schools, and this feeling has not been without its results. We have furnished a president for one of the first colleges in the land, as also the head of. another educational institution of no small reputa- tion."

The case was the same among these pioneers from New York and New England with regard to religious observance. They recognized it as being among the necessaries of life equally with food, raiment, and shelter ; and so, as soon as they had secured these in the most primitive form (and fre- quently, indeed, before they had secured them at all), they set about the finding or creating of oppor- tunities for divine worship, and neglected no chance of attending religious services whenever held at an accessible point, even if many miles distant. Liv- ingston County was a missionary field at a very early day, and ministers of different denominations came here to preach to the settlers years before

any church edifices were built, and before the formation of church organizations. Among the early pioneer preachers in the county were the Rev. Jonathan Post and Elder Ansel Clark (Bap- tists), the former of whom came here from Allegany County, New York, as early as, or before, 1835, and the latter of whom was here about the same time. He was ordained an elder by an ecclesiasti- cal council, held "at the school-house near Samuel G. Hathaway's," in Solon, New York, October 13, 1830. Several Presbyterian ministers preached at different places through the county as early as the time of its organization, or earlier. One of these was the Rev. Mr. Kanouse, who came from Lodi Plains, in Washtenaw County, and preached at sev- eral places in Livingston, but principally in the southern part. Another was the Rev. William Page, of Ann Arbor (who afterwards came to live in Oceola township): and another, the Rev. Isaac W. Ruggles, of Oakland County, who preached a few times in the east part of Liv- ingston. The Rev. Father Kelly (Catholic), from Northfield, held services in the southeast part of Livingston nearly as early as any preacher was here, and it has been said that the old church building of that denomination was the first erected in the county.

The preachers of the Methodist denomination were among the earliest laborers in this field. Of these, perhaps the Rev. Moses Gleason, who preached in Green Oak in 1831, was the earliest ; but next to him probably the Revs. John Cosart, Elijah Crane, and Washington Jackson were as early as any. Mr. Jackson labored very faithfully in the north part of the county, particularly in the formation of classes and establishing worship where none had been held before. Joseph Atwood, who was made an elder in the Methodist Church by Bishop Elijah Hedding, at Palmyra, New York, June II, 1826, was an early laborer here; and Elder John Sayre preached in the west part of the county in 1836, as did also the Rev. Mr. Breckin- ridge. Of the few early preachers here named, there was probably none more widely known through the county than the Rev. John Cosart, who was set apart for the office of elder in the Methodist Church by Bishop Enoch George, at Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, June 17, 1827.

In Livingston County at that day-as elsewhere among new settlements-the opportunity of re- ligious worship was always gladly embraced, re- gardless of denominational differences; and whether a preacher was of the Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, or other Christian form of belief, his ser- vices were always welcomed by the pioneers, who fully appreciated the value of the church privileges

ERECTION OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.

they had left behind when they emigrated from their old homes in the East.

In the above brief mention it is not intended to do more than to give the names of a few out of the many early preachers of the county, and to glance at the first rude but earnest attempts of the settlers at religious and educational advancement. These subjects will be resumed, and a full account of churches and schools will be given in the sepa- rate histories of the several townships of the county.

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History of Livingston County, Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 4

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

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