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 9
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
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in and became part of the machinery of the camp and in a short time could not be distinguished from the older camp followers.
The third and last class which is distinguishable is a city class. They came into camp and wanted to speak to everyone and get acquainted with all the employes in the camp in as short a time as possible. They were very free to talk, tell of their fun and experience in the city and generally let their ego get the best of them. These men were blustery and if given a job very seldom ever made good. This was the class which really did not deserve a place in the lumber camps of those days. They, as a rule, had no good reason for taking up this life. They did not like it and consequently did not profit by it, or the company did not profit by them.
VILLAGE OF LAKEVIEW.
The village of Lakeview occupies the site of an Indian village on the shore of Tamarack lake, in the southwest quarter of section 9. The Indian village referred to, when first visited by white men, consisted of perhaps fifty lodges, and contained a population of several hundred. The wigwams were arranged in two rows. which formed a street, the outlines of which corresponded with those of the main street in the present village. It was the scene of the exciting games of the Indian youth as they strove for tribal popularity. Here also the children engaged in their milder sports, while the elderly members of the tribe smoked their pipes in stolid indif- ference. It was the scene of public festivities, and here they conducted their ancient and revered ceremonies.
This pecularity of the Indian disposition-their rigid adherence to ancient customs-is illustrated in the burial of one of their number, a hunter of considerable renown, in the winter of 1855-56. The weather being extremely cold, and several days elapsing before the corpse was removed, it became rigidly frozen. When the appointed time came the dead warrior was bound tightly with bark ropes to the back of a pony and a party num- bering at least one hundred proceeded to the Indian cemetery north of Greenville.
The trail led through the forest, underbrush and trees closely border- ing it all the way. The almost impossibility of fastening the frozen body to the pony rendered many stops and rearrangements necessary, but Indian custom demanded that it be interred precisely at noon and in order that this custom be observed, great haste was necessary. As they passed rapidly on their way the feet would strike a tree or bush and the head would swing
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forward; next the head would come in contact, while now and then, as the way became narrow and both extremities struck, a helping hand was neces- sary before the journey could be resumed. The warrior's journey to the tomb was doubtless not the smoothest through which he had passed during his earthly career.
In 1858 Albert S. French cut the first tree and built the first dwelling house on the bank of Tamarack lake in what is now the village of Lake- view, and for some years he, with his family, lived in their new home with only wolves and deer for near neighbors and stately trees for churches and schools. But a field so rich in material for industry could not long remain unclaimed, and Allen Macomber, seeing the opportunities, erected a saw- mill and commenced to convert the dense forest into lumber. Meanwhile, Mr. French, having visions of the future, had plotted the land into blocks and lots; gradually a few more families took up the burden of pioneer life in the wilds of the future village.
The first postmaster was Frank French; the mail was brought, once cach week, by Mr. Wise on horseback.
'Philander Stevens built the first hotel, and as the nearest railroad was then at lonia and all the freight bound for Big Rapids was transferred by teams by way of Greenville and Lakeview, it was no uncommon occurrence to see upwards of fifteen freight-encumbered vehicles drawn up to Mr. Stevens' place to find comfortable quarters for the night for tired teams and drivers.
Greenville was the nearest place of replenishment, and it being twenty miles distance, imagine the joy of the early citizens, when, in January, 1868, Henry Seaman and L. L. Bissell erected a building on lot 4, block 1, which was to serve as a truly general store and postoffice. About this time a stage line was established between Greenville and what was then known as Big creek, so the mail and possibly a passenger came by stage as it passed the village once each week.
By this time lumbering in this vicinity was carried on quite extensively, and the several camps furnished a brisk trade for the new store. Soon the sharp eye of the home-seeker espied the fertility of the lands in the country surrounding the little town, the little log houses sprang up, the sound of the woodsman's axe "that spared not the tree" and the "whoa Duke and haw Dime" of the plowman was heard on every side, and hand in hand the primi- tive farm and the wee town advanced until at present the farming country is recognized as one of the most productive agricultural localities in Mont- calm county, it being adapted to the successful growth of nearly every crop
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that can be raised in Michigan, and this town has become a village, which though not large, has won many words of worthy praise from visitors who admire its broad streets, spacious sidewalks, neat, well-kept homes and places of business.
In July, 1879, the first train came into Lakeview. The road was then known as the Chicago, Saginaw & Canada railroad. With the coming of this train the old stage coach passed, just as has the log house and the tallow candle.
Several times has the fierce monster, fire, threatened to destroy all that energy and application had accomplished, and in August, 1894, practically every business place was wiped out, only heaps of ruins and ashes remained; but nothing, daunted. the business men soon replaced the lost by structures much in advance of the old. Thus has the village withstood the many diffi- culties and drawbacks until at present it is a prosperous little place of about eleven hundred population, having two good hotels, one restaurant, one bak- ery, three meat markets, eight grocery stores, three dry-goods and clothing stores, two tailor shops, two millinery stores, two jewelers, two bazaars, two book stores, two drug stores, two doctors, two dentists, one veterinary, three furniture stores, three banks, one of the best printing offices in the county, one photograph gallery, two tonsorial parlors, three hardware stores, two agricultural implement establishments, four blacksmith shops, one automo- bile hospital, two tin shops, two shoe shops, one harness shop, two livery stables, one flour-mill, one saw-mill, one planing-mill, one sash and door factory, one table factory, one electric light plant, two grain elevators, a large potato and general produce market, one pickle salting station, one sugar beet weighing station, one stock yard, two telephone lines, six rural free delivery mail routes from the postoffice, five churches, and last, but not least, the school, which is one of the best in the county, eight teachers being employed. The school has been placed on the accredited lists of four of the foremost colleges in the state.
There are also some nice places for pleasure and amusement about the village. The grove just to the south is an attractive place in summer, where picnics and camp meetings are often held, and the lake is no small factor in making the village pleasant and beautiful. In winter it furnishes sport for the skater and fisherman; in summer for the fisherman and boat lover, besides, the clear blue water is fair to look upon and the pretty islands, one consisting of five acres.
All in all this village is one of which all her citizens may feel proud,
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and nothing goes farther to make it such than the harmony of fellowship which abounds.
Lakeview is one of the many commercial centers which are located in different parts of the county. The industries consist of the Michigan Chair and Table Company, which at present is managed by Leroy Stebbins. The Lakeview creamery is managed by Mr. Bettys. J. J. Bale has a lumber and electric plant. W. R. Roach has the vining station at Lakeview. Beans. peas and sweet corn are made ready for commercial use in this plant. Alart & McGuire's salting station is located here. The Lakeview Elevator Com- pany, which is managed by W. T. Coverdale, is one of the largest in this section of the county. Lakeview Milling Company, which is managed by 1. W. Finch, also has a great volume of business. . W. M. Lentz owns an ice house, which annually stores from five to six thousand tons of ice taken from the lake. Lakeview has an excellent potato market, with four to six buyers. Lakeview has two good banks, two good hotels. and business houses which rank in the foremost of any in the county. During the summer this village is visited by scores of people seeking pleasant summers. The different business and professional men of the village always have the better interests of the town at heart. and are ever striving towards its increase and up-building, in order to establish it among the foremost towns of the county. The present officials are: John J. Bale president : Benjamin F. Butler, clerk : Scott Swarthout, treasurer ; John II. Jensen, assessor.
BASS BEACH.
Bass Beach, which is located in the northeastern corner of Cato town- ship, on Town Line lake, was platted on August 1, 1889, for George Whit- comb and wife and a Mr. Bateman.
It evidently was the desire of the proprietors to make this a resort, but so far. their wishes have not materialized.
CHAPTER VII.
CRYSTAL TOWNSHIP.
At the regular session of the board of supervisors, held on March 4, 1856, a petition was presented signed by the following persons: Edward Robinson, George Robinson. William Case, Chauncey Case, John L. Smith, John Vaughan, A. A. Proctor, J. F. Proctor, Enos Drake, George Fox, John White. Judge Stilson, Artemus Taylor, Henry Parker, Eli Davis, Ira Stuart, G. Watt, Barney McGlotay, Charles Howard, D. A. Cornell, John Linkey and James Beck.
This petition was dated on January 15, 1856, and stated that the per- sons whose names appeared as given above were freeholders of the town- ship of Bloomer and that they desired to have town 10 north, range 5 west, detached from the township of Bloomer and organized into a separate town- ship. They further prayed that the name of this township be fixed by the board of supervisors as Crystal Lake. The petitioners also asked that the house of Eli Davis be appointed as the place for holding the first town meeting; and the judges be' Eli Davis, John L. Smith and Henry Parker. The notice for this petition was printed in the Montcalm Reflector, which was a weekly newspaper published at Greenville and at that time edited by Milo Blair. The notice of this petition stated that the petitioners asked that the township be given the name of Crystal Lake. but on examining the ori- ginal petition it is found that they asked that the name of Crystal be applied.
Crystal lies on the eastern side of the county and is bounded on the north by Ferris township, on the east by Gratiot county, on the south by Bloomer township and on the west by Evergreen.
This township was originally covered by forests of beech and maple timber, and after these were cleared of their trees the fertility of the soil was discovered and that fertile belt which lies in the east part of Bushnell township, and comprises the greater part of Bloomer, extends also into Crystal, reaching to and bounded generally by Fish creek, although the tim- ber to the north and east of this creek was of a mixed variety. This tract. which lies in the basin of Fish creek, as was mentioned above, is the most productive and best-tilled part of the township, and comprises the more
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wealthy portion of its inhabitants. The township, on the whole, has a great number of good farms and the farming is done on an extensive scale and compares very favorably with any other township in the county.
Fish creek, the largest stream, enters from Evregreen, flows in general in a southerly direction, and enters Bloomer from section 35. It receives a number of small tributaries, the most important of which is the outlet of Mud and Crystal lakes, which are properly a part of a small system extend- ing southeast to Evergreen township. There is a great contrast between these two lakes, as their names indicate. The waters of the one are turbid and filled with floating particles from the muck and decaying mould beneath. Its shores, low and level, are lined for the greater part with sedge and rushes. It is indeed a mud lake. Its name, however, is not more appropriate than that of its fair sister, originally known as Silver lake. But even in an carly day, owing to one of those mysterious changes which can be accounted for only by the general consent of all parties, it received the name by which it is now known-namely, Crystal lake. Its waters are clear and beautiful. Its shores, usually firm, in some places rise to elevations of considerable height, covered with oak and pine. A small island, accessible from the shore next to the village of Crystal, furnishes grounds often resorted to by picnic parties and excursionists. Crystal lake covers about eight hundred acres, and is about one and one-half miles in length.
ORIGINAL LAND ENTRIES.
Following are names of those who purchased from the general govern- ment and state of Michigan lands situated in their township, showing also the sections upon which they located their purchases :
Section 1-Aaron W. Roby, John D. Trowbridge, Martin Baer, Rob- ert Brown, Joseph Rounds, Philip Krain, Samuel Burtch, John W. Oster- house. Section 2-Harvey Westfall, Valentine Williams, Samuel Spencer, Benjamin McCloskey, Hiram C. Buck, Henry Parker, Jacob Houseman. Section 3-John White, Edward Hogan, James J. Belden, Darius Bogart, Charles Richardson, Jesse Stewart, Emma Ripley. Section 4-A. L. Soule, George Fox, Elmore Burrows, Henry Burrows, Bartlett Clark, Francis Hawkens. Section 5-Chauncey Stebbins, Thomas Cornell, James Culver, Levi Harrod, Daniel S. West, H. Davis, Andrew J. Tissue. Section 6- Mary and George Edick, Patrick Fox, Levi Harrod, Samuel Kemp, George Gideon. Section 7 -- James R. Langdon, Patrick M. Fox, Erastus Wilcox. Section 8-James R. Langdon, Mathew H. Fox, John Fowler, Henry
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Kemp. Section 9-Michael Lane, E. Drake, Eli Davis, Daniel A. Cornell, James J. Belden, Franklin S. Ferris. Section 10-James R. Langdon, W. S. Coon, Daniel A. Cornell, James J. Belden, Franklin S. Ferris. Section TI-Eli Drushell, John C. Blanchard. Section 12-John F. Gilkey, Myron Kendall, William W. St. Clair, W. Gingery, Joseph Rounds, John C. Blanchard, Bezaleel Lock, J. B. Taylor, William Erey. Section 13-John F. Gilkey, Myron Kendall, Michael Fry, Oliver Cunningham, Floyd Palmer, Joshua Bogart, John C. Blanchard, Barber Dickinson. Section 14-Zim- merman Watts, Solomon Drushell, Peter Snyder, Francis H. Brown, Rich- ard Sinkey. Section 15-James R. Langdon, Joel Parker, Adam Hosteter, Ira Stewart, Ezra Stewart. Section 16-Augusta Bean, Alfred A. Proctor, Joseph F. Proctor, Benjamin F. Proctor, Augusta Proctor, Anson Sher- wood, Richard L. Robinson, Henry Morgan, Aaron Brown, Henry F. Brown, John F. Steffey, Samuel Burtch, H. H. Steffey. Section 17- James R. Langdon, John N. Fowler, Peter B. Stiven, Jud Hall. Section 18 -James R. Langdon, Daniel Harter, Stephen F. Page, May J. Hill, John N. Fowler, Asa Ward. Section 19 James R. Langdon, Frederick Hall, John N. Fowler, Daniel Hill, Asa Ward, Hiram Bowen, Thomas S. Pew. Section 20-James R. Langdon, Jonas Ashley, William R. Page. Section 21-James R. Langdon. Section 22-James R. Langdon, Jesse Tenney, Solomon Drushell, John C. Blanchard, Frederick Hall, Warren Sherwood, Francis Brown, Peter Burke, B. F. Fuller. Section 23-John M. Gordon, Sally M. Cornell, Simon D. Defuy, Martin Eckart, Joseph Kneer, John A. Stout, V. F. Casper, V. B. Luce, Emma A. Ripley. Section 24-John M. Gordon, F. Smith, Zadock Heath, John McIlwain, David Tryon, J. B. Tay- lor, William Erey. Section 25-S. L. Stone, Sylvester Bronson, F. Smith, David Alverson, G. Wilmarth, John C. Blanchard. Section 26-John M. Gordon, James L. Shinabarger, Jesse Tenny. Section 27-James R. Lang- don, John M. Gordon, Harvey Westfall, Isaac Morse, William Hatfield, Jacob Huffman. Section 28-Don C. Hawley, David B. Webster, Sally Fish, Lucius B. Irish, Harvey Westfall, F. Hall, James Kennedy. Section 29-James R. Langdon, Harvey Westfall, Fred Hall, Stephen Page, Jonas Ashley, William S. Goff, Harvey W. Rice. Section 30-Harvey W. Rice, Alonzo Rice, William Goff, W. R. Page, Warren Brown, William Case, John Vaughn, John L. Smith, Chauncey Case, John N. Fowler, David Hill. Section 31-Abel C. Ross, T. R. Butler, Thomas Coulson, John Bancroft, Parmenio Long, Edward Murray, John N. Fowler, George Bogart, John Bancroft. Section 32-James Forman, Edward and George Robinson, Jos- eph Green, Abel Ross, Jonas Ashley. Section 33-James L. Glenn, Daniel
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Falk, Henry Gettman, Dennis Wolverton. Thomas H. Arnold, Jonas Ashley. Richard Sinkey, David Hoffman, Hannah Slanker. Section 34 -- Clifford S. Phillips. M. W. Alvord, Jesse M. Beck, William Hatfield, Philander Wood, John Sinkey, Thomas S. Pew. Section 35-W. H. Smith, Sylvester Bronson, Langdon Bentley, James L. Shinabarger, D. Alverson. Section 36-Epaphroditus Ransom, William H. Smith, S. L. Sone, Sylvester Bron- son, James R. Langdon, Thomas Hubbard, Jr., John C. Blanchard.
SETTLEMENT OF CRYSTAL TOWNSHIP.
In the month of June. 1852, John Smith and his brother, Humphrey, came to Montcalm county in the employment of A. Rust & Company, who at the time were engaged in the lumber trade in Marine City, and for whom they were looking up pine lands. The brothers traveled through the castern part of Montcalm county, and coming to the shore of Crystal lake, were delighted with the beautiful sheet of water, and camped and remained here from Saturday until the following Monday.
This journey led John W. Smith to return and take up his permanent abode in the township the following year. His life previous to this time had been somewhat checkered. He was born in Onondaga county, New York, whence he came to Michigan in 1840. He stopped in the town of Superior, Lenawee county five years, and then moved to Grand Rapids. The first time he visited Jackson it consisted of but one house. Grand Rapids had one frame house completed and two in the course of construction on the east side of the river, and on the opposite side the Indians, who were afterwards removed under their missionary to Prairieville, in Barry county, had a little village, built for them by the government. Mr. Smith remained but two years in Grand Rapids, and then moved to Easton, Ionia county, where he subsequently married the widow of George Case, who had settled there in 1834. Mr. Case had already begun to lay out a village on his land border- ing Grand river, when in endeavoring to ford the river to go to Grand Rapids, he was drowned. Mr. Smith remained in Easton until he came to Crystal, as before stated, in 1853. He built a log house on the west half of the northwest quarter of section 28. This was the first house in the town- ship.
About the same time George and Edwin Robinson, brothers, came in and built a cabin on the southwest quarter of section 32. It is asserted ยท that these young men, not being accustomed to the howling of wolves and the other accompaniments of frontier life, made neither door nor window
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in their cabin, but covered the roof partly with shakes, leaving an opening in one end which served as both, and through which they passed by means of a ladder.
During the spring of 1853 John W. Smith cleared up about an acre of land and planted it to potatoes and other small crops. All but the potatoes were a failure, these yielding one hundred bushels, which, considering the ground planted and their importance the following winter, was a valuable crop. On the 27th of September his wife and her three sons came to the township. The sons were young men, and each located eighty acres of land. side by side, on section 20. Mrs. Smith was the first resident white woman in the township of Crystal.
Chauncey Case settled upon the east half of the northwest quarter, and on adjoining farms west his brothers, William and James, settled. This first land was entered in exchange for the farm settled by George Case, in lonia county.
Late in the fall of 1853 the family of John Bancroft and a man named Colton came to the township. They entered three forty-acre lots on section 31. Colton remained but a short time, and then returned with his family to Jackson county. John Bancroft remained until his death. Robert Ban- croft, who was born in January. 1855, was the first white male child born in the township. The same day a daughter was born to Mr. and Mrs. Judge Stillson, which was the first girl born in the township.
Judge Stillson and James Beck had reached the township in the early spring of 1854. Stillson settled on the east half of the southeast quarter of section 23, but he subsequently returned with his family to Jackson county. James Beck entered the southeast quarter of section 34, by means of a land warrant received by his father for services in the Mexican War. He divided the land with his sister, who was the wife of William Swarthout, and who remained in the township but one year, and then returned to Jack- son county. Mr. Stillson and Mr. Beck together built a temporary shelter on the latter's farm into which the two families moved until Mr. Stillson's house, which was the second in the township, was completed.
George Fox and his son-in-law, John White, arrived in 1855. The former entered the south half of the southeast quarter of section 4 and the north half of the southeast quarter of the same section. He died in the village of Crystal in 1879. John White took up corresponding parts of section 3.
Hiram C. Stewart, a native of New York, but a resident of the southern part of Michigan for a number of years, came to Crystal in the fall of 1855
.
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and completed a log house commenced by Chauncey Case, into which he moved and lived until he could build one for himself. He was the first town clerk of Crystal, and held the office until his death, which occurred in 1859. He purchased a farm on section 28 from a Mrs. Bunnell, of Lyons. Mr. Stewart had a wife and seven children, John Sinkey was one of the first settlers in the south part of the township. H. L. Parker, later a resi- dent of Roscommon county, was among the first to settle in the northeast part.
John Burke, from Wayne county, Michigan, to which place his parents moved in 1826, and where he lived until his twenty-seventh year, came to Crystal in July, 1856, and bought the northeast quarter of section 34. of W. C. Oliver, of Ronald. He was accompanied by his parents, who lived with him until their death. The tract upon which he settled was entirely new and without any improvements, and in order to reach the land he was obliged to make a road from the center of Bloomer, about three miles dis- tant, there being at this time only a trail leading north from this place.
Barber Dickinson was among the early settlers in the northeast part. He was born in New York, whence he came to Eaton county, Michigan, in 1853, and afterwards lived successively in Bushnell and Bloomer, coming to Crystal in 1856. He entered forty acres of government land and con- tinued to reside in the township until his death which occurred in 1869.
INCIDENTS.
In 1854 the people of Crystal made preparations to celebrate the Fourth of July, and at the appointed time assembled with baskets filled more with substantials than with delicacies, and crossed over to the island in Crystal lake in an Indian's skiff. The fame of this lake had already been carried far by hunters and land seekers, and the people of Bloomer not infrequently visited it for pleasure. Upon this occasion two men equipped to fish entered a boat, and upon nearing the island were hailed and invited to share the hospitalities of the occasion. Upon landing, Asa Ward, of Bloomer, one of the men, introduced his companion as Elder William Evarts. The people thought it in keeping with the occasion to dedicate the beautiful island by an oration, and Elder Evarts was prevailed upon to mount a plat- form of sticks and bark and speak, which he did to the satisfaction of the entire company. Mr. Ward soon after became a resident of Crystal, and at the time of his death was treasurer of the township.
. The oration of Elder Evarts on the Fourth of July led to the first
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