History of Livingston County, Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 59

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SECTION 13 .- 1834, George J. Grisson ; 1835, Alonzo Gunn, Da- vid Parker; 1836, Miner Kellogg; 1837, Jacob C. Haner, John Pickard; 1838, Benjamin F. Foster; 1842, David Par- ker ; 1854, Russell S. Haner, George E. Hall ; 1859, Jean Louis Fasquelle.

SECTION 14 .- 1835, Conrad Haner, Sophronia Perry ; 1836, Sophronia Perry, Emory Richardson, N. Kellogg; 1837, Levi Townsend ; 1842, David Wilkie; 1851, George Gallo- way, Thomas Featherly, Deborah Ann Cole; 1854, Russell S. Haner.

SECTION 15 .- 1834, George Galloway, Susan Galloway ; 1835, Adonijah Harmon ; 1836, Eleanor Collyer, George Galloway, Timothy H. Pettit, Jacob C. Haner, Edward Bishop, Marga- ret Peacock, B. B. Kercheval ; 1855, Thaddeus S. Mapes. SECTION 16 (school lands) .- 1842, Seth A. Petteys ; 1845, L. M. Rollison ; 1847, George Howard, Seth A. Petteys, E. S. Whit- lock, D. M. Rollison, Eliza Hess ; 1850, William Crowe, John Conner; 1851, Mary Mercer, George Mercer; 1852, William Mercer; 1853, Robert Conner.

SECTION 17. - 1835, Zebulon M. Drew, Gideon Cross ; 1836, Elizabeth.C. Cross, Daniel Bennett ; 1837, Henry R. Wheeler, Jerusha Payne; 1838, Tamma Butts, Norman A. Allen; 1854, Cephas Dunning, Joseph Quinn ; 1853, John Dunn. SECTION 18 .- 1835, William H. Bennett, Aaron Vance; 1836, Daniel S. Bennett, Reuben H. Bennett, David Bennett, Timothy R. Bennett, William H. Bennett; 1837, Mansell Hurlbut; 1838, Samuel S. Fitch, Hezekiah Allen; 1850, John H. Forth; 1847, Joseph Quinn.

SECTION 19 .- 1835, Samuel Cole, Elijah Whipple, John Marsh ; 1836, Ransom C. Robinson, Israel C. Trembley, Joseph Quinn, Henry P. Rosebeck ; 1837, Ephraim Harger, John Wallace, Thomas Burns.

SECTION 20 .- 1835, Matthew C. O'Brien; 1836, Enoch Jones, James D. W. Palmer, Erasmus D. Whitlock, Joseph Quinn. SECTION 21 .- 1836, Daniel W. Kellogg, Daniel Larkins; 1837, John Larkins; 1848, Reuben R. Decker, John F. Oliver ; 1853, William Placeway, R. R. Decker; 1858, R. R. Decker; 1866, John C. Shaw.

SECTION 22 .- 1833, Christopher L. Culver; 1836, Edward Bishop; 1837, James G. Crane, Dennis Shehan ; 1838, Francis Mackie ; 1843, Edwin M. Cust; 1853, Edward Bishop, George Gal- loway ; 1854, Edward Bishop.

SECTION 23 .- 1833, John Henry, Asenath Burnet ; 1835, Edward Mundy ; 1836, Christopher L. Culver, Miner Kellogg, Edward Mundy ; 1837, James Gillmore; 1845, Stoddard W. Twichell. SECTION 24 .- 1833, Thomas Schoonhoven, Asenath Burnet ; 1834, George G. Grisson ; 1836, George Butler, Horace Barnum; 1837, George Butler, George G. Grisson.

SECTION 25 .- 1831, Calvin Jackson, Jesse Hall; 1832, Lester Burnet ; 1833, James Burnet, Jason G. De Wolf; 1834, Eben- ezer Bishop.

SECTION 26 .- 1832, Daniel Hall; 1833, George Sessions, Chris- topher L. Culver, David B. Power.

SECTION 27 .- 1832, Benjamin Lewitt; 1833, David B. Power,

Christopher L. Culver; 1837, B. B. Kercheval; 1840, Anson L. Power.

SECTION 28 .- 1836, Cyrus Pierce, Daniel Sullivan ; 1837, Patrick Gallagher, John Courtney, James Gallagher, B. B. Ker- cheval.

SECTION 29 .- 1835, James Cordley, Robert Finch, Andrew Shanahan, Cornelius O'Brien, Robert Crooks; 1836, Ann Cordley ; 1837, James Gallagher, Robert Marsh.

SECTION 30 .- 1835, William W. Edminster, Cornelius O'Brien, Aaron Vance; 1836, Jonathan Stone, Jr. ; 1837, Thomas Daly, Olney Butts, Nathaniel Teachworth, Bryan Farley, Owen Farley, James Fagan, Ephraim Harger; 1854, George W. Brown.

SECTION 31 .- 1832, Cyrus Pierce ; 1834, James W. McGrath; 1835, William W. Edminster, Thomas Burns, Matthew Burns, Elias B. Root, John Youmans, Asahel Smith, Corne- lius O'Brien ; 1836, Patience Newton; 1837, Luceba Pierce, Asahel Smith.

SECTION 32 .- 1831, Felix Dunlevy; 1832, Patrick Gallagher ; 1835, Matthew C. O'Brien, Felix Donely, William W. Ed- minster, Palmer Force ; 1837, Patrick Gallagher, Matthew C. O'Brien.

SECTION 33 .- 1832, Patrick Gallagher, James Gallagher; 1833, Cornelius Morrow ; 1834, John Ryan ; 1835, Cornelius Mor- row, Patrick Conner; 1836, Patrick Conner, Patrick Galla- gher, James Gallagher, Cornelius O'Mara.

SECTION 34 .- 1833, Stoddard W. Twichell, Abner Butterfield; 1834, Willis Hale; 1835, Daniel Larkin, S. W. Twichell; 1836, Jacob Vandewalker, Levi Knight, Daniel Sullivan, Calvin Swift.

SECTION 35 .- 1831, Heman Lake; 1833, Abner Butterfield, Cor- nelius Olsaver; 1834, Hiram Mason, William H. Twichell ; 1836, George W. Case, John A. Bothwell, Samuel Vander- ford, Elizabeth Hall; 1837, Richard E. Butler.

SECTION 36 .- 1831, Cornelius W. Miller, Heman Lake; 1832, Augustus Hall ; 1833, Jesse Hall, Philemon H. Hills; 1836, Thomas J. Rice, Samuel Gardner; 1838, Thomas J. Rice.

From this list it is seen that the first entries were made in the southern portion of the township as early as 1831, many of them being south of the river. The reasons why this was the case are two- fold. First, the region farther south, in Washte- naw County, was settled first, and as the population increased it pushed northward into Livingston. Second, a glance at the farming region south and north of the Huron, in Hamburg, leads the ob- server to choose the southern portion on account of its superior adaptability to the uses of agricul- ture. However, after passing the immediate vicin- ity of the Huron, with its lakes, swamps, and gravel-ridges, an excellent farming country opens before the husbandman,-and as soon as this fact was known, and conveniences for reaching it were established, it became the abiding-place of many of the most influential settlers in the township, and at present bears evidence, by its improvements and general air of prosperity, to the wise choice of its pioneers in locating there.

EARLY SETTLEMENTS-PIONEER INCIDENTS.

The following "Leaf of Hamburg's Dry Early History" was furnished to the Pioneer Association in January, 1878, by Thomas J. Rice: Hosted by toogle

280

HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

" During the interval between the years 1830 and 1836 the southern portion of our beautiful peninsula, which was then com- paratively unoccupied territory, was not only being very much talked about, but actually being settled upon with a rapidity never before exampled in American history; and, as a legitimate conse- quence of this unprecedented rush of immigrants thereto in search of new homes, I found, when I first entered Hamburg as a resi- dent,-which was on the first day of May, 1836, and only four and a half years from the day on which the first white settler therein planted himself and family upon its soil,-instead of a few dis- couraged, half-starved settlers, widely separated from each other, in a state of isolated loneliness, a regularly organized town, with its governmental machinery in good running order, and contain- ing fully one-third as many inhabitants as it does to-day. . . . It will therefore be obvious that it is but little, very little, that I know from my own observation or experience about the toils, pri- vations, and hardships of actual pioneer life; and consequently it will readily be seen that for the correctness of most of the state- ments which I am about to make I am compelled to rely upon traditional evidence and such other testimony as I have been able to glean from individuals who, from their weight of years, are liable to be somewhat confused in their recollection not only as to days and dates, but also in reference to events and circumstances long since past.

" According to the best light I have, then, upon the subject, it was on or a little before the middle of Octobor, 1831, that Jesse Hall, Esq., the first actual white settler in Hamburg, first sat him- self down with his wife and children within his rude cabin, erected on the west half of the northeast quarter of section 25, and near the edge of the bank of what is now known as Hall's Creek. And on or about the Ist of November of that year, Mr. Heman Lake, who followed close after Mr. Hall, planted himself and family upon the east half of the southeast quarter of section 35. At the time when these first two hardy pioneers established them- selves in Hamburg, there were not to exceed a dozen actual settlers, including themselves, in all four of the towns bordering upon the south side of the county, and not one in any of the twelve towns lying north of these, and which constituted the balance of the county. Thus it will be seen that these two men, both of whom are now gone to their rest, were not only pioneer settlers in our beloved town of Hamburg, but also in our beloved county of Livingston. Of course everybody understands that the mere fact that some certain pieces of land were purchased from government at an earlier day than were those purchased by Mr. Hall and Mr. Lake, and on which they almost immediately settled, is no proof that such certain pieces, thus earlier purchased, were also more early settled upon, nor, in fact, that they have ever been actually settled upon, either by the original purchasers or anybody else.

" That Elizabeth Lake, daughter of Heman Lake, born some time in the summer of 1832 (the exact date I cannot give), was the first white child born in Hamburg, admits not of a doubt, but whether or not she was the first one born in the county I am not prepared to say ..

" That Mr. Cornelius W. Miller raised, in 1834, on the place where I now reside, the first apples that were grown within the limits of this now famous apple-producing town of Hamburg, it is confidently believed; and I think I am not mistaken when I say they were also the first that were ever grown within the limits of Livingston County upon trees of white man's setting.

" The first large frame, hay, and grain barn erected in Ham- burg was built by Mr. Martin Olsaver in 1836, on the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of section 35.

" The first persistent and well-directed effort made in Hamburg to improve the breed of horned cattle, and also of sheep, was made by Mr. David B. Power, now dead; and it is also deemed worthy of remark that the noble example in that direction, by that good man thus early set, is still being followed up with increased vigor and success by his enterprising son-in-law, the Hon. William Ball.

"The first supervisor elected in Hamburg was Mr. Christopher

L. Culver, who, the noble man that he was, came to an untimely death many years ago by being crushed at a barn raising.

".The first county officer selected from Hamburg was Mr. Justus J. Bennett, sheriff, and the first State officer selected therefrom was the Hon. Edwin M. Cust, senator, who for many long years has been lying in his grave.

" In conclusion I will merely add that, in addition to the first two pioneer settlers in Hamburg, spoken of, and the several other gentlemen of whom honorable mention has already been made, there were many other good and worthy men who planted them- selves in the town at quite an early day. A few of the more ac- tive and prominent among the number, I will here beg leave just to name Stoddard W. Twichell, Esq., Mr. Anson L. Power, James Burnett, Esq., dead; Mr. George G. Grisson, Ferdinand Grisson, Esq., Mr. George Galloway, dead, and Mr. Bradford Campbell, also dead. These few individuals have been named because I cannot for one moment doubt but that these men, aided by their respected wives, did much, very much, by the noble ex- ample which they set of minding their own business and letting that of others alone, not only towards making the town that quiet, orderly, and thrifty one which, when I came into it in 1836, I found it to be, but also towards causing it to be and remain, until this day, a town in which there are but few crimes committed, few lawsuits prosecuted, and few neighborhood quarrels or other disturbances of any kind. And long therein may the effects of the influence of their noble example continue to live."

At the meeting of the Livingston County Pio- neer Society, held June 18, 1879, the following facts relating to the history of the township of Hamburg were given by Hon. Edwin B. Winans :

" My first acquaintance and recollections of the township of Hamburg date from the fall of 1843. I then came from the town- ship of Unadilla, to live with my sister, Mrs. Leland Walker, and to attend the winter term of school taught by Horace Griffith, in the Bennett School-house, in District No. 2. Griffith was a married man, and lived on the farm now owned by Orville Sexton, in the same school district. At that time Hamburg had been long set- tled, comparatively speaking, and offered educational facilities of which I desired to avail myself. I cannot, therefore, relate any pioneer experiences of my own, but only such recollections of the actual pioneers of the town as were then upon the active stage of life. My first impressions then as a stranger were that Hamburg people were mostly Bennetts, Cases, and Halls,-and it seemed to me in about equal proportions,-and some of the Halls struck me as being very beautiful and attractive. Of course I was young and my experience very limited ; but though many years and some travel have enlarged my experience, I still shall insist that the elegantly furnished Halls of to-day have not the fascination and attraction or charm for me as had those young and beautiful Hall girls of Hamburg, in those days of my early manhood.

" At the head of the Bennett family I may place Justus J. Ben- nett, a veritable Nestor, who lived to see three generations of his children, who, together with his brothers, John, Joseph, and Abram Bennett, and their families of stalwart sons and daughters, gave him quite a patriarchal position with the clan Bennett. He was the first sheriff of Livingston County, and at that time owned a large farm on section nine, and lived in a story-and-a-half farm- house with a wing on each side; and it seemed to me to be a veri- table mansion, such as I had read of in the old romance of ' Thad- deus of Warsaw,' and the ' Scottish Chiefs.' It stood on the hill, as you cross Mill Creek going south, and was known far and wide as the ' Big White House.' I well remember the first time I was invited to the house,-it was to a social party, given by the younger members of the family,-and how I was bewildered by the many rooms, and the brilliant tallow dips glimmering in the far recesses, and the many nooks, angles, and corners of the house, I was more than ever impressed with the superiority of Hamburg style

HAMBURG TOWNSHIP.

28 [

over the one-room log house of my father in Unadilla, in the chamber of which I had been used to sleep and listen to the sing- ing of the woodland birds or the patter of the soft rain upon the roof, with no ceiling or plastering between me and it to dull the soothing sounds. Bennett was surrounded by a large family of grown children, some married and settled on good farms in the near vicinity, others still under the paternal roof. The married sons, William Reuben, Justus J. Jr., and Royal, were men in the heyday and prime of life, with children of their own growing up about their own hearth-stones ; while Sherman, Joseph, and Charles were then single; and life, bright, fair and wide, was all before them. The old man, full of years, was gathered to his fathers about a year ago, and now lies buried in the church-yard of the little Union Church round the corner from his old farm in Ham- burg. Of his brothers, John, Joseph, and Abram, I was best acquainted with the family of John Bennett. He owned a splen- did farm on section twenty-four, on the banks of the beautiful Huron River, one mile north of Hamburg village,-the farm now owned by his son John W. Bennett and Stephen Galloway. He was a mighty hunter and trapper in those days, and none knew better how to supply his larder with the spoils of lake and forest than Uncle John Bennett. He lived to a good old age, and died about four years ago, and is buried in the cemetery at Hamburg village, where many of the early pioneers rest by his side. His son's, six in number,-Isaac, Helem, Alfred, Henry, John, and Horace,-all married, and to them were born children who per- petuate the name and family traditions in Hamburg. The family may be said to be long lived ; for Abram, John, and Justus J. each lived to be upwards of ninety years.

" The Case family was nearly as numerous in Hamburg in those days as the Bennett. Samuel Case, the patriarch, had a large family of sons and daughters. Elisha, Joseph, Rodman, Spauld- ing, Crandall, Ira, Jonathan, Norman, and Rufus Case at that time were all young or middle-aged men. Elisha, Joseph, Rod- man, and Crandall were married, and had farms on sections four and five, which they or their children own to-day. The Cases were active, thrifty men,-good farmers, mechanics, and business men. I think Spaulding or Ira, or both, kept store at the old homestead. I know there was a Case's store kept there for the country trade, but about that time it was removed to Brighton, where Ira still does business. The Case family had something to say in those days about how matters went in town, for they were active, ener- getic men, who had their own opinions about matters, and were not at all diffident about expressing them. The father was then an old man, and he has been dead these many years ; but the sons, I think, are all living except Spaulding, Joseph, and Norman.

" The Hall brothers, Jesse, James, Augustus, and Daniel, settled near Hamburg village, in the south part of the town. Jesse was among the earliest settlers in town. He took up a large tract of land, on which he lived till his death, and where his widow and youngest daughter still reside. He had a large and interesting family of sons and daughters, as also had his brother Daniel, who was located on a farm just west of Hamburg village, now a part of Hon. William Ball's farm. Jesse Hall being wealthy for a pioneer, and being of a social, hospitable disposition, many of the early settlers made his house their home till they had time to build a house of their own, and I have heard Mrs. Galloway, my wife's mother, say, that two, and sometimes three families at a time found shelter and a temporary home at his house. She and her husband, George Galloway,* being of those who shared his hospitality in those early days, and till they had built for themselves a house on the farm where I now reside. The Hall families were important factors in Hamburg society in those days. The boys were stal- wart and the girls were beautiful, and I was so favorably impressed with the condition of affairs that I determined to attend the next winter term in the same school district, which I did; and I liked the place so well that I made the town my home from that time, settling with my mother (my father having died the previous year)

in the present village of Petteysville, I having engaged with Seth A. Petteys to work in his woolen-mill for the term of three years, from April, 1845, to April, 1848, which contract I fulfilled. A longer and wider acquaintance showed me that, though numerous and important, the Bennetts, Cases, and Halls were not all the people in Hamburg worth knowing. At that time George Gallo- way held a prominent position in the town, both socially, politi- cally, and in enterprise and wealth. An early settler, he soon became somewhat of a leader in public affairs. He was treasurer of the township for eleven successive years, and he was known far and wide for his open handed hospitality. His judgment was re- lied upon, and his advice and opinion valued by his neighbors and townsmen, and no man stood better or had a fairer prospect of success in life than George Galloway ; but he died in the prime of life, suddenly, with the cholera, in the year 1854, while on a busi- ness trip to New York. He left a wife and six children, all now living.

" In the same school district, and joining farms with Galloway on the south, lived Col. Edward Bishop, a man well known to the people of this county, from having held the office of sheriff for two terms. The colonel was a man of remarkable memory, and with the faculty of relating the events of his life with wonderful minuteness. He could make the story as interesting as an Arabian Nights' tale, and I have often been a delighted listener as he nar- rated the many incidents of his varied life. He was a wagon- maker by trade, and had a shop on his farm, where he and his son, Edward, made and repaired wagons. I well remember the sign, nailed to a tree in the woods at the forks of the road as you came west from Hamburg village, ' E. Bishop & Son, Wagon-Makers.' He also raised a family of ten children,-five boys and five girls,- all bright, witty, and promising children. I taught school in that district in the winter of 1846 and 1847, and the Bishop, Galloway, Hendrick, and John Bennett families could send twenty children to school. Theirs were about average families in those days. That is how the country had men to fight her battles. In these degenerate days of luxury and refinement, a family of two or three, or four at most, is considered about the respectable thing. Well, the colonel and his wife are now both at rest in the little cemetery at Hamburg village, where we laid them quite recently, after more than fifty years of wedded life. They were separated for a little while only, he going before, a pioneer into the unknown land.

" Another of my early Hamburg acquaintances was George Mercer and his family, consisting of Mrs. Mercer and four sons and one daughter. He was a cultured English gentleman, who had located on section seventeen, near the present village of Pet- teysville. He was a man better fitted by birth and education to move in the older and more cultivated walks of life than to be a pioneer. But somehow he had been caught in the tide of emi- gration and had drifted away out West, and had pitched his tent in the wilderness. But the great West was omnivorous, and all was fish that was gathered in its net, and so the accomplishments and qualifications of Mercer were of use in building up and de- veloping this country. He was for years the book-keeper and confidential clerk of William S. Maynard, of Ann Arbor. But his family never quitted the farm; and after he left Maynard's he was almost continuously kept in town office up to within a few years of his death. He died at a ripe old age a few years ago, respected and mourned by all who knew him. His wife and children, who still survive him, reside in the same vicinity. His sons, William, Alexander, and Robert, are enterprising, wealthy farmers; and the Mercer family has taken deep root and developed all the sterling qualities of the old English race.

"Speaking of Petteysville, its founder, builder, and prime mover is Seth A. Petteys, who is still at the helm, and guides and gov- erns affairs, notwithstanding his threescore years and ten. He first settled in Putnam, on the farm now owned by Hon. George Crofoot ; but being a millwright, he was engaged by the Grissons, of Hamburg, to build their mill, and in going from his farm in Putnam to Hamburg village he noticed the water-power, and bought the school land on which his mill now stands, He first Low stands Hecho

* George Galloway settled in 1834.

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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

put in machinery for wool-carding and cloth-dressing, and for ten or twelve years did a thriving business in that line. That is where your humble servant put in four years of his youthful days. I hired to him for three years at ten dollars per month, to learn the business, and I to live in his family ; but after one year my mother came to me, and we lived in our own house (a log one), and he paid me four dollars per month additional, and I board myself. Many a sack of wool I carded for the wives and daughters of this county, to spin and weave into cloth for men and women's wear, and many yards of flannel I have dyed and pressed for dresses, fulled and dressed for suits for the boys to go courting in. I took especial care to have the cards clean and in order to make the rolls for the girls of my acquaintance to spin, because if they were knotty, and did not run free, I was sure to hear from them in such a way as was not at all flattering to my vanity. Petteys has extended and improved his business till now through his efforts and enterprise a little hamlet has grown up around his mill; there is now a grist- and flouring-mill, a cider-mill, with all the im- provements, a blacksmith- and carriage-shop, two stores, a post- office, shoe-shop, school, and church facilities for the fifteen or twenty families who live in the village. He has raised a family of four sons and daughters. Three of his boys went at their coun- try's call in the great civil war, but only one returned at the close, and one daughter has died since. The remaining children are settled in and around the little village that bears the family name. Long may he be spared to see and to enjoy the fruits of his toil.

" Going east from Petteysville, over the rolling country into the valley of the Huron, past the homes of George Galloway and Col. Bishop, at the foot of Pleasant Lake, in those days lived Peter S. Hendrick, another of the Hamburg pioneers; but he too has ' joined the innumerable throng who assemble around the Throne.' His widow and his youngest son now live in the old home at the foot of the lake. Hendrick was a mechanic as well as farmer, and many of the late houses, and more of the earlier barns, were planned and built by him. Such men in those days were indis- pensable, and his services were in constant demand. He raised and educated a family of eight children, all now living, and by his industry he left, at his death, for their inheritance, a good farm, a good name, and a record for liberality in all matters of public interest. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, and Mrs. Hendrick now receives from the government a late recognition of her hus- band's services.

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History of Livingston County, Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 59

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

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