USA > Michigan > Montcalm County > History of Montcalm County, Michigan its people, industries and institutions...with biographical sketches of representative citizens and genealogical records of many of the old families Volume I > Part 24
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The first meeting held in 1910 met in Neff's hall on January 21 and 22. George Arnold was the president, O. J. Houghton the secretary and Jason Woodman of Paw Paw the conductor. The Woman's Congress was held in the Methodist Episcopal church on January 20. Mrs. Nellie Sackett was president, Mrs. O. J. Houghton the secretary, and Mrs. Creyts the conductor. Every one of these meetings was well attended.
The next meeting was held on February 8 and 9, 1911, in Neff's hall. with the following speakers in attendance: W. T. Taylor, of Shelby. Michigan ; A. B. Cook, of Owosso, Michigan; E. J. Creyts, of Lansing, and George Arnold. The next meeting was held at Stanton where the next financial statement was submitted. It showed the balance on hand to be $38.45, and the expenses to be $17.63. George Arnold was the president at the meeting in Stanton; O. J. Houghton, secretary; L. R. Taft, state superintendent ; J. N. McBride, conductor ; C. A. Tyler, assistant conductor. A mid-winter fair was held in connection with this institute. One hundred dollars was paid out at this time, which was contributed by the people of Stanton. The next meeting was held at Sheridan on January 16, 17, 1913.
One-day institutes were held at Howard City on February II, at Lake- view on February 12, at Vestaburg on February 13, at Crystal on February
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14 and at Butternut on February 15, 1913. These meetings were all well attended and were made very interesting by special music provided for the occasion and the speeches were of interest to all.
In 1914 F. L. Dean was again the president, R. J. Thompson the secre- tary and treasurer and Charles B. Scully was the conductor. The first meet- ing was held in the Woodmans' hall at Vestaburg, January 13, 1914. Very interesting subjects were discussed and all pronounced it a good institute. The second meeting was held at Crystal and while the weather was very cold, the attendance was very good. The Silver family furnished fine music which was enjoyed by all present. Thirty-one members were secured at this meeting. Carson City was next visited. Eben Mumford of the United States department of agriculture gave a very fine address, and at this meet- ing sixty members were received. The next meeting was held in the court house at Stanton, January 16. A very fine address was delivered on the "Construction and Value of a Silo," during the morning session by Charles B. Scully. a state speaker. Governor Ferris also gave an interesting address on "Education" in the afternoon. Trufant was the next place on the list but the secretary was absent at this meeting so not much can be said regard- ing it. However, forty-four members were secured at this meeting. Green- ville came next and the meeting was held there on January 20. C. E. Holmes of Lansing took up the subject "Our Boys and Girls" and delivered a splendid address. Charles B. Scully talked on "Our Opportunities" and several local speakers gave very good addresses. Eighty-eight members were secured at this time. The institute was held at Howard City on Janu- ary 21. A. R. Brown and John 1. Gibson were present at this meeting and to them was due much of the success attained at this time. A free dinner was furnished by the Board of Trade and ladies to 578 people that day.
The final meeting or "round up" of the Montcalm County Farmers' Institute was held at Sheridan on January 22 and 23. 1914. Doctor Hansen of Greenville talked on "Bovine Tuberculosis" and gave many helpful and interesting points. Charles B. Scully, C. H. Bramble and G. N. Outwell were other important speakers. It was decided that the next "round up" should be held at Stanton. F. I. Dean and R. J. Thompson were re-elected as president and secretary. respectively. The financial statement submitted at the end of the period showed a balance of $20 and expenses amounting to $299.05.
In 1915. the officers in charge of the farmers' institutes were F. L. Dean, president : R. J. Thompson, secretary and treasurer; L. R. Taft. of Lansing. superintendent. Mrs. Dora Stockman, of Lansing, was the con-
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ductor of women's congress at Howard City. The "round up" was held at Stanton on January 29 and 30, E. C. Martindale, of Wilkinson, Indiana, being the conductor. R. B. Bailey, of Gaylord, Michigan, and Hon. James N. McBride, of Burton, Michigan, were the state speakers this year. The institutes held at the various places were better than ever and each com- munity took their part in making them a success. The financial statement rendered for 1915 showed a balance on hand of $27.25, the expenses amount- ing to $86.
CONDITIONS IN PIONEER DAYS.
In these days when Montcalm county is producing nearly 2,500,000 bushels of potatoes, and more than 300.000 bushels of rye; when the enor- mous toll taken from the pineries of Montcalm county in bygone years is remembered, it is interesting to recount the experiences of the first settlers when the county was wholly undeveloped. One of these first settlers, the venerable Joseph II. Tishue, now of Stanton but formerly of Ferris town- ship, has told an interesting story of "agriculture" in the carly days. Per- haps it is best to let Mr. Tishue tell his own story :
"We came to Ferris on the 14th of August, 1853, to build a house on the west half of the southwest quarter of section 32, town 1I north, range 5 west. We returned to near Portland, Michigan, to our family and remained there until the 28th of December, of the same year. Then we moved in on the said described property. Our nearest neighbor was one mile away, and the next nearest, three and one-half miles. We had plenty of red men for neighbors but there were no other whites at that time. There were ten children in my father's family, I being the eldest boy. We lived in a log house, all the family living in one room and had a fireplace with which to heat the house and to cook. There was not a nail in the house except in the door and no window nor door when we moved into the house. There was two and one-half feet of snow on the ground at that time. My father and I could have carried on our backs all our household goods when we came. Our meat we got from the animals of the forest. We had one cow that we brought with us, and a yoke of two-year-old steers which we afterward broke for oxen. We built a little stable within thirty feet of the house in which we wintered the cow and oxen. It quite frequently occurred that we had to go out nights with a torch made of a pine knot and drive the wolves away from the cow and the oxen. This usually was my work as my father worked away most of the time.
"When spring came we had about two acres of the timber chopped off
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and the brush burned. My mother and I did this, making a fire and draw- ing the brush and burning it all on the same ground because the snow was deep that year. We raised a very few potatoes, say twenty bushels, that were about the size of walnuts. My mother used to count them out to us when we went to dinner and we were allowed three apiece for breakfast and three for dinner but none for supper. In the fall of 1854 we sowed about three acres of wheat and two of rye on the ground. The next year, on the 14th of June, we had a frost that killed the wheat, so we never got any of it, but we got about a half crop of rye, no corn and scarcely any- thing else. Our practice was that when father worked out, I stayed at home. When he stayed at home I worked out, usually going as far south as Portland and sometimes farther to find work. We usually worked a week or two, and then took what we could carry on our back home to feed the family. After we crossed Maple river at Muir, we had to ford every stream we came to as there were no bridges. Many a time we came home to find the family gone to bed without supper because they had nothing to cat until mother cooked something we brought home.
"We lived on that farm more than five years, and did not have five pounds of sugar, tea nor coffee in the house during that time. I have often come home and found my mother weeping like a child because she was deprived of the necessary things of life and wishing herself back in Ohio. but I always said to her. "Mother. the sun will shine again for us." and it did later on. It was a common thing for me to take my dog and drive the deer from the wheat field in the winter because they were digging up the wheat and I have shot from the house many a deer in the barnyard, which was not more than six rods from the house. We had to watch our cattle when we fed them to keep the deer from eating their feed. The first winter we were there we 'bronsed' thein. The next year we went to the marshes and cut marsh grass with which to winter our stock. We also fed 'bagas' and so got through until we raised corn and millet.
"There was neither a school house in Ferris when we came here. nor even a church building. The first school house was erected near our place. It was a little log building about twelve by sixteen feet, which had no floor in it, and but two little windows. Our seats were made of logs split in two and then legs put in them. The one that we wrote on was a little higher so it came up in front of us. The school teacher sat on a bench and had the same kind of bench for her material. It was quite common in those days for people to go to church carrying their rifles for protection from the bears
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and wolves. I have known men to be treed by the wolves and kept up all night. We thought nothing of seeing a man come to church with a gun. We did not have the free school system in those days. The school was sup- ported by a rate bill and the teacher boarded around among the patrons. My father had the largest number of children in the district and practically paid the teacher's wages.
"When we began clearing our farm we were poor and so girdled the oak timber. Then we let it stand until it got dry. We cut down the other timber. felled it all over the ground and when it got dry we burned it and logged it in heaps to make room for the crops. We did this to the first seventy acres of our farm. Later on, we bought another eighty acres in Crystal township. about a half mile from the homestead, which we also cleared. It was a common thing in those days as the settlers came in and began to build their houses, not to wait for an invitation to go to the rais- ing. I used to go around later on with the oxen and gather up the girls for five or six miles around and dance all night. We also used to have many logging bees. When men got ready to log. everybody gathered up the logs. logged them into heaps, and then we had a dance that lasted nearly all night. I was one of the fortunate young men of Montcalm county. My father never bought me a pair of boots and I never had but two pairs of shoes that he bought me. I killed many a deer and made moccasins out of the hide and wore them, when I wore anything, winter and summer, until I was sixteen or more years of age.
"We had three means by which we could take goverment land when we came to Montcahn county, namely : A pre-emption right which we had to settle; second, a graduation right, paying seventy-five cents per acre for the land and in which the claimant was compelled to settle on it within six months; third, by paying the government price-ten shillings per acre. We took land under the graduation act. We came on it in the winter, because our time was nearly up after taking it in the spring. During the smoky fall of 1856 one incident occurred which I do not wish to omit. We had a small tract east of our house inclosed with a brush fence. Our cow and oxen were in this inclosure. We kept them there so as to have the oxen to use when we wanted them. My father was a very early riser. One morning when he got up it was quite smoky and he said that I should go and get the oxen. I could not find them nor the cow because the smoke was so dense. Finally we got hold of the fence and followed it around until we got to the bars by the house. It was within twenty feet of the
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house and we had to leave the cattle in there. There were many days dur- ing the twenty days in which the smoke was so dense that we were com- pelled to peel bark and stretch a line from the house to the well and from the well to the barn to find our way there. We surely thought we were all doomed. Finally the smoke cleared away.
"We saw, one day, coming over the hill east of the house, three wagons filled with women and children, namely, the Bailey people. They moved to an adjoining farm and we knew then that we were not entirely alone. The same year my uncle, Christopher Hare, moved in and soon many others came, and we began to know that we were living in good old America. We brought with us a very vicious dog. Many nights I got up, scolded the dog and let in the red man who lay down by the fire. We used to trade flour or corn meal to the red man. He would take the flour sacks with him to the wigwam and tell us he would bring it back in so many moons. We never lost any sacks through the red men. In later years, I owned land where they used to camp --- a large company of them, sometimes two or three hundred, every winter.
"I remained with my father until he had about sixty acres of improved land. At the breaking out of the Civil War I left my home on the morn- ing of the 17th of April. 1861. and paid my own fare to the city of Buffalo where I enlisted in the United States navy. I served my time-one year -- started home and came as near as Detroit. There I enlisted in the Union army and went back to the South."
CHAPTER XXIV.
HIGHWAYS AND TRANSPORTATION.
In the days before the first white explorers and settlers had set foot in Montcalm county, Nature's highways, consisting of streams and rivers. together with pathways or trails through the dense forest, furnished the only avenues of travel. These not only were sufficient for all the purposes of the Indians who roamed over the country but they likewise served all the needs of the early French explorers and fur traders.
Many of these uncertain pathways through the forest traversed the territory of Jonia and Montcalm county, the principal ones following the valleys of the Grand. Maple, the Looking Glass and the Flat rivers. There were others also of less importance which crossed the country in various directions and connected the broader ones, but all of them converged towards. the villages of the red men and their crossings of the large streams. The Indians displayed considerable engineering ability in choice of ground for their routes of travel. for though rugged surfaces, swamps, lakes and over- flowed bottom lands were avoided. still their courses were pretty direct. and the crossings of creeks and rivers were made at the most favorable places.
The first settlers in the various counties in Michigan soon learned these facts, and many of their early highways were so laid as to follow the routes. taken by the trails.
INDIAN TRAILS.
Maps made by the United States deputy surveyors in 1830 and 1831 show that at that date the principal Indian settlement and points where all the trails in lonia county converged was the village of Cocoosh (old hog), or, Moctiquaquash, near the mouth of Maple river, or the vicinity of the present villages of Lyons and Muir. From that place the "broad Indian trail to Detroit" passed eastward across sections 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24 in- Lyons township. The same trail in its course westward crossed the Grand river at Genereau's trading post, and thence continued along the valley and on the north side of that stream, through the present townships of Ionia,
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Easton. Keene and Boston, into Kent county, the route now pursued very nearly by the wagon road. Another trail ran parallel with Grand river on its left bank, but from Lyons westward. it was not so much used as the one on the opposite side of the stream. From Cocoosh village this trail passed up the left bank of the same river to near the southeast corner of section 8, in Dandy township. Here it crossed the river and led on southeasterly, via the Indian village of Peshinnecon (apple-tree place ) towards Detroit. The surveyors in their field notes mentioned this as the "trail to Chiga- maskin" (soft-maple place ), which was an Indian village near Shiawassee- town in Shiawassee county.
The Saginaw and Grand river trail left the latter stream at Generan's trading post, and. thence passing up the valley of Maple river to the great bend in Gratiot county, crossed to the headwaters of Bad river and followed down its course and that of Saginaw river to the great Chippewa camping ground at Saginaw.
Besides those already mentioned, two trails converging at Cocoosh vil- lage bore off to the northwest, through Ionia and Ronald townships, into . Montcahn county. Another left the Grand river trail on the site of the present city of lonia, and. taking a northwest course across the townships of Easton and Orleans, intersected in the vicinity of Kiddville the main Flat river trail, which followed the course of that stream from its mouth away northward into the pine forests of Montcalm county.
STORY OF THE EARLY ROADS AND TRAILS.
Hon. E. Hl. Jones, at one time probate judge of Montcalm county, but now a resident of Denver, Colorado, came to Greenville in 1862 when there were only nine houses between the north end of Washington street and the Russell mill, now the village of Langston. Mr. Jones has a vivid recollec- tion of the early roads or rather paths through Montcalm county and in the Greenville Independent of September 20. 1911, wrote an extended account of these early roads and trails.
"The track leading from Greenville to the Russell mill." says Mr. Jones, "wound through the pine woods, sometimes circling huge pines. but oftener passing over gnarled roots lying far enough above the ground to give the vehicle in which one was riding a severe jolt.
"A logging road." he continued, "leaving the line of the present state road at the point where now stands the Monroe school house, led west to what was then known as the Gregory Mills, now Gowen. On this road
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there was neither house, shack nor shanty ; the pine woods, untouched by the lumberman's ax, bordered this road on either side. Besides the mills there were a few weather-beaten houses and shanties at Gowen, but aside from a blacksmith shop and the mills there was nothing which bore any semblance to business, nearly all the wants of the people of the village being sup- plied from Greenville.
"From the Gregory mills there were several logging roads leading in a northerly direction. one of which led to the Dane settlement. From the Dane settlement another woods road led to a settlement on the Tamarack. This road was traveled also by the early settlers of Maple Valley, who found it the most feasible one to their base of supplies at Greenville.
"From the Bellamy corners, five miles north of Greenville, another road branched off from the line of the state road toward the east. This road was mostly traveled by those having business at the county seat, which had, on the first of January. 1862, been removed from Greenville. But there were other roads in the vicinity of Greenville which were often traveled. roads which had never been worked, but became better as the amount of travel upon them increased. No man knows when they were laid out. It is certain, however, that were traveled long before the office of highway commissioner was established in the United States. These roads were the Indian trails.
"One trail led up the river. on the east side, striking the south line of the city not far from the old brick vard. From this point. running nearly parallel with the general course of the stream, it crossed Washington street near the present locality of the Catholic church. then continuing in nearly a straight course to the top of the high bank, northeasterly from the Pere Marquette depot. thence northwesterly across the bend in the river. strik- ing the stream again about half a mile above the north boundary of the city. From this last point. after many turns, sometimes near the river and some- times at quite a distance from it's nearest bank. it led to Turk lake, where in early pioneer days. the Indians had one of their favorite camping grounds. This trail continued around the south side of Turk lake and thence in a northeasterly direction to the Dickerson lakes in Sidney and Douglass town- ships.
"This up-river trail was crossed very near the Catholic church by the Saginaw and Pentwater trail, the most conspicnous and interesting of the North Michigan Indian roads. Nearly fifty years ago this trail was quite distinct nearly all the way from Greenville to Bushnell township. It con- nected the waters of the Saginaw with streams flowing into Lake Michigan.
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"This trail crossed Flat river a few rods above the Washington street bridge at the foot of the Baldwin rapids, thence following a sag between Washington and ( ass streets, passing in its course about midway between the Watson house and barn, thence across the ground occupied by the Cole store. Crossing Lafayette streets. it passed near the north side of the Eureka block. The Eureka block stands on the trail. Thence it took in its course points near the Methodist church and the residence of the late David Eliot, continuing in the same general direction until it struck the river, the bank of which it followed to the site of the Indian village located about a quarter of a mile above the site of the old Merritt mill. Its course was then northwesterly to Bass lake. in Spencer township, and thence in a course which is pretty direct, but far from being an air line, to the point where Pentwater now stands on the shore of Lake Michigan.
"That portion of this last trail from Greenville to Woolverton Plains was not only the most direct but by far the best footpath leading north and west from Greenville. It was not strange. therefore, that it was the route taken by nearly all who were going or coming between the Underhill mills and Woolverton Plains to and from Greenville. From the Indian village another trail led to the Ziengenfuss lake.
"In those days if one wished to go to any point north of Greenville. the best thing to be done was to go on foot: if, however, one had plenty of time or had more baggage than could be carried. one might go to Seaman's livery stable in Greenville and for the sun of five dollars a day charter the only wheeled vehicle of the establishment, an old buckboard with old 'Jim' and 'Charley' as the propelling power."
Mr. Jones found that. among the trails he examined. none seemed near as old as the one leading from Saginaw bay to Pentwater. It was this trail that he urged should be marked by some enduring monuments.
FIRST STATE ROAD.
By an act of the state Legislature, approved on March 27, 1848, the first state road was anthorized in the county of Montcalm. Its route was to extend from the north line of section 17, township 9 north, range 8 west (Eureka), thence to the village of Grand Rapids, via Parker's ferry in the township of Plainfield. Kent county, and Thomas Addison, George Miller and Ethan Satterlee were appointed commissioners. On the 3rd of April. 1848, George Gibson, Rufus K. Moore and George Loucks were chosen commissioners to lay out and establish a state road from "the quarter post
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on the north line of section 17, in township 9 north, of range 8 west, thence to Mathew Van Vleck's, in Rolland, Ionia county."
A state road from Hastings, Barry county, via Tupper's mill to the village of lonia, was established by an act approved on March 25, 1850, and J. W. T. Orr, John B. Welch and George Richmond were appointed commissioners. An act approved on February 10, 1857, named Rosecrans K. Divine, of Montcalm county: Abner Wright, of Ionia county, and Eph- raim J. Booth, of Kent county, commissioners to law out a state road from Greenville, via Brosse's rapids, to Lowell. Kent county. A state road from St. Louis, Gratiot county, via Alma and the geographical center of Mont- calm county, to the Greenville and Big Rapids road, was authorized by an act approved on February 15, 1859.
An act of March 13, 186r. ordered a state road established from Ionia to Houghton lake, in Roscommon county. Two days later an act was approved providing for the establishment of a road from Big Rapids, in Mecosta county, southerly to intersect a road from Greenville to Grand Rapids, known as the Big Rapids and Grand Rapids road, also the Green- ville and Big Rapids road, and a road from Ionia to Vermontville. It pro- vided also that no appropriation be made on the first eight miles south from Ionia.
A road from the east center line of Bloomer township, via Follett's and Shoemaker's mill, in Fairplain, to the village of Greenville, in Mont- calm county, was established by an act approved on March 18, 1863. On the 20th of the same month George Davenport was appointed a commis- sioner to superintend the lay out of a road from the village of Portland. in Ionia county, to the Grand river, in Clinton county. The Ionia and Smyrna state road was established by an act approved on February 5. 1864. and to aid in its construction four sections of swamp lands were granted. Roger W. Griswold and Joseph N. Babcock were appointed commissioners of the Bellevue and Tonia state road by an act approved on March 10, 1865.
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