USA > Michigan > Muskegon County > History of Muskegon County, Michigan: with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 22
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JOSEPH HOUSTON, born in Burr Oak, St. Joseph Co., in 1837. In 1861 he enlisted in the 25th Ohio Infantry, and served until July, 1864, when he was discharged. In 1866 he married Miss Mary S. Clemons, and bought a farm in Section 1. In September, 1868 his wife died, leaving two children.
G. S. KING was born in Crawford Co., Penn., in 1844. In 1861 he enlisted in the army, and was wounded at the battle of Ce- dar Mountain, and again at Hatche's Run. He was present when Grant and Lee met at Appomattox Court House, when Lee sur- rendered. At the close of the war, in July, 1865, he was discharged. In 1866 he moved to Kalamazoo, and in 1871 to Muskegon. In 1878 took up a farm in Section 6, Laketon, where he is commenc- ing fruit growing with hopes of success. In 1872 he was married to Miss Emmeline Cowles, by whom he has two children.
A. MARTINDALE, born in Milton, Province of Quebec, Canada, in 1833, and after working in various places as a cabinet maker, he came to Camden in 1853, where he was married. He has had five children, one of whom survives and is married. He owns a good farm in Section 4, Laketon.
GEORGE W. MINICK, born in Tuscarawas Co., Ohio, in 1843; moved to Indiana in 1863; married in 1865 Miss Elizabeth Story, by whom he has four children. He moved into Michigan, and set- tled in Laketon Township in 1880, where he is engaged in farming and fruit growing.
JOSEPH E. PLEWES was born in Ridgeway, Lenawee Co., Mich. In 1861 he enlisted in the 7th Infantry, and served to the end of the war, when he was discharged and returned home; then went to Europe where he stayed all Winter. In 1866 he took up a farm in Section 5, Laketon. In 1869 he married Miss Ellen A. Holden, of Ridgeway, by whom he has three children.
JAMES M. ROBINSON was born in Broome Co., N. Y., in 1832, and lived there until 1860, when he came to St. Joseph Co., and worked at harness making for four years. He then took a home- stead in Section 12. In 1854 he married Miss A. E. Waterman, of Broome County.
JOHN LYNDER was born in Germany in 1838, and emigrated to America in 1851. He bought a farm in Section 6, Laketon, in 1871, with a few improvements on it, which is now well adapted for fruit culture. He was married to Miss Libby Benjamin, by whom he has two children.
CHARLES WILLIAMS was born in Sweden in 1834, and emigrated to America in 1857. He stopped in Illinois until 1866, when he set- tled on Section 9. He was married in 1869, and has six children.
A. R. WILLIAMS was born in Northfield, Summit Co., O., in 1826, where he lived until he was 20 years of age. He then moved to Ashland County, where he married Miss Amelia Chamberlain. About 1854 he moved to Lansing, Mich., where he gave up his trade of wagon maker, and engaged in the drug business. In 1856 he went to Charlotte, where he carried on a grocery, and afterwards a dry goods business. After nineteen years, on account of failing health he went to Iowa, but returned in about eighteen months, and traded his property in Charlotte for a farm in Section 15, Laketon. His wife having died in 1872, leaving one child, he married Harriet Mills, by whom he has one child. He was under sheriff in Char- lotte for eight years, and town clerk and justice of the peace in the town where he resides. His farm is one of the best for either grain or fruit.
NAPOLEON WILSON was born in Scott Co., Iowa, in 1838. In 1858 he went to Missouri, and from there in 1860 to Rocky Moun- tains, where he engaged in mining and farming for about eighteen
HISTORY OF MUSKEGON COUNTY.
91
months. He then went to Illinois, and in 1862 settled in Michigan. In 1862 he enlisted in the army, and after serving over two years, was discharged for disability. In 1866 he settled on a farm in Sec- tion 6, Laketon, where he still resides, and is largely engaged in fruit growing. In 1872 he married Miss M. H. Benjamin, by whom he had six children, two of whom are living.
CHARLES YOUNG was born in Sweden in 1843, and came to America in 1871, settling in Muskegon Co. at the Bay Mill. In 1877 he bought a farm in Laketon. He married in Sweden Miss C. Anderson, and three children were born to them in Sweden, and one in this country.
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NORTON TOWNSHIP.
This township which formerly included Fruitport was organ- ized in 1855. The first settler was Ben. Brist, a German, living near Mono Lake, and his children were probably the first white children born here.
The first regular road was laid out in 1860. Prior to this there were only Indian trails. The mail had to be carried along the beach and round the end of the pier at Lake Harbor, and the trail can still be traced.
The first teacher in District No. 1 was Martha Rowe, now Mrs. A. B. Palmer, of Muskegon, who taught in 1860.
THE HARBOR
of Black Lake has been neglected by the authorities and nothing has been done except by Senator Ferry, whose object has been to secure a passage for his logs to the saw mill at the mouth. He has made some slab piers and dredged so as to allow vessels drawing four to five feet of water to enter. With an expenditure of $5,000, a depth of six or seven feet could be secured. The channel for about half a mile is narrow and tortuous, and generally nearly filled with logs. The banks are steep especially to the north. At the upper end of the channel it expands at Black Lake, and at this point there is a swing bridge. The banks become low and flat and on both sides are fine fruit farms. It is difficult to conceive of a more beau- tiful pastoral scene than from this point, and it is not to be won- dered at that in summer this locality is visited by many tourists from Chicago and elsewhere, that every house is full of guests, and there is a prospect of a summer hotel here. The whole lake, has been called Black Lake, while of late the upper end has been named Mono Lake, from the name of the daughter of Col. May, late Su- perintendent of the railway. The railway station at the upper end is called Mono Lake Station, where there are bathing houses and fishing boats, and hundreds of pleasure seekers resort to it from Mus- kegon, Grand Haven and other cities. Lake Harbor is applied as a name for the western end of Black Lake, but it is more properly the name of the post office, which was kept by Daniel Upton, J. P., who is also store keeper and book keeper for Ferry & Bro., and came from Jackson County, where he had been a representative in the legislature, settled eleven years in Muskegon and dispensed justice for years. He has his residence and fine grapery on the north side of the lake. The post office in Jan. 1, 1882, was trans- ferred to Miss Nettie Martin, who resides about half a mile south of the bridge. At the present the most prominent question in the township is the project of building a floating or pontoon bridge across the lake from opposite Rowe's Point to Cobb's Factory. The project has many warm advocates.
The Lake Harbor Union Society was organized Jan. 2, 1882, under the statute provided for that purpose, to erect a building for religious and benevolent purposes. The first Trustees are: Daniel Upton, Sr., Milo Rowe, Edward Hendrick, J. O. Antisdale, Frank Dorn, Jas. Dean, W. L. Bartholomew. This board of Trustees elected D, Upton, chairman; J. O. Antisdale, Treasurer; Frank
Dorn, Secretary. The building of the society is on the Muskegon and Ferrysburg road on the land of Mr. Antisdale, and is 34x60 feet, with 20 feet ceiling. It is finished with a spire and will cost about $2,000.
FRUIT GROWING.
Since 'the lumbering interests of Black Lake which first in- duced settlement in that region have passed away, the inhabitants have found a new and more permanent and profitable occupation in the raising of fruit, especially of the smaller varieties. This beautiful little lake is about four miles long by half a mile wide, and on its banks is one of the finest fruit regions in the fruit belt, and this arises not only from the superior soil, elevation and posi- tion in regard to Lake Michigan, but to the entire devotion of the people to the one idea of fruit raising.
The soil is chiefly a sandy loam with here and there patches of clay with no stone but a small amount of gravel. The west side of the township contains a line of sandy bluffs from one to one and a half miles wide. These are generally covered with pine, hemlock, oak, hard maple, white ash, butternut and beach, and the bluffs must be of considerable age to have such a growth of timber upon them.
The lands were supposed to be almost valueless and little would have been done with them had not that enterprising, public-spirited citizen, the late Ira Porter, planted an orchard on what is now Milo Rowe's place, on Section 12, and thus revolutionized the fortunes of the county by demonstrating the fact that Muskegon sand would bear fruit.
HON. IRA PORTER.
In this connection it may not be inappropriate to give a brief notice of the man who did so much to develop this region He came from New York State to Illinois and thence to Black Lake in 1850, operating a saw mill and planting an orchard which still re- mains. He never craved official honors, and is said to have been a man of fine presence and unusual intelligence. He died suddenly in 1874. After stripping off the pine the land was being abandoned and sold for taxes, when his experiment sent the price of land up. We should honor the man who makes two blades of grass grow where but one grew before. He was by profession a lawyer, and repre- sented St. Clair County in the Michigan legislature, and was also register of the land office in Ionia four years. His nephew, James Porter, the present supervisor, land surveyor, and who laid out many of the early roads and still resides near the mouth of Lake Harbor, came in in 1854.
Fletcher Fowler, who died in 1871, was a supervisor and early settler, was one of the first to plant a peach orchard in the northwest of the town.
Mr. John Parks was also an early settler and fruit grower near Mono Lake. John Kettel, a German settler, near the mouth of Lake Harbor, came about 1854, and had a large farm and orchard. Among the prominent fruit growers are Messrs. Rowe, O'Hara,
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HISTORY OF MUSKEGON COUNTY.
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Jas. Whitney, at the head of the lake; Ellis, Antisdale, H. L. Rood, Tomlinson and Newkirk, Bartholomew and Roussell.
The fruit is shipped partly by team to Muskegon, partly by railroad from Mono Station at head of lake, and the bulk of it by water. In one day in 1881 a vessel took 700 bushels of strawber- ries, and it is probable that there were by all channels shipped that day 32,000 quarts. Grapes are also largely cultivated as well as peaches and small fruits.
Among the farms beautifully and romantically situated we may particularize that of J. O. Antisdale, a native of Ohio, who purchased in 1869 the property of Jos. Stocking, the farm on the south side of Lake Harbor near the mouth. He has a shipping wharf near the bridge. There are seventy-five acres of apple orchards, chiefly Red Canada, Greenings, Baldwins, Russets and King of Tompkins County; but there are in all fifty varieties. There are 4,000 peach trees and about twenty-five acres of small fruits, largely strawber- ries, of which Wilson's Albany gives the best yield, bears transporta- tion and markets the best. Hale's early peach will not stand ship- ping as well, but its being early is an advantage. His strawberries last year yielded him $150 to $200 an acre, and as to how peach raising will pay he says that peach trees in full bearing will yield four bushels each, and this at ten cents a bushel and one hundred and sixty trees to the acre, will be $64 an acre. In 1881 the price of one-fifth of a bushel basket was sixty-five cents.
Mr. Antisdale's old residence, to the east of his present resi- dence, is the oldest house in this region and was formerly Ira Porter's.
The second school house was in the Kittel district, Section No. 17. The first saw mill was built about 1847, the Robinson mill, an old water mill, at the head of the lake.
The first steam saw mill was erected by a German, Jos. Ackem, on section 13, who sold to W. M. Ferry, and he to Ira Porter, when it was burned, in 1850, and rebuilt and sold to Rowe, who sold to Swartout, when it was burned and never rebuilt.
There is a saw mill still being run by Mr. Peter Jeannot, for Senator Ferry, which cuts 50,000 feet per day.
Benjamin Brist, Jacob Winhofer, John Klein and Elijah Porter were all in the town previous to 1860.
Michael O'Hara is perhaps the largest and most successful fruit grower-in grapes especially, his Concords and Delawares being the varieties that give the best yield.
There was a new school house built on section 18, in January, 1881, at a cost of $500, in which a teacher is engaged at $30 per month.
Mr. Bartholomew has a very fine fuit farm.
THE BOX FACTORY.
G. N. Cobb & Son, originally from Connecticut, but who came from Missouri, in July, 1869, started a factory for the manufacture of fruit packages, boxes, &c., in 1871; the factory was burned down in two or three years after, but has since been rebuilt on a larger scale. The building is 20x40 feet, two stories, and the machinery is propelled by a twelve-horse power engine, furnishing employment to from three to six men, and the same number of girls. They have also a planing mill in connection and the factory serves a useful purpose. They have also a fruit farm with twenty acres im- proved.
BIOGRAPHICAL.
WM. L. BARTHOLOMEW was born in Kirkland, Oneida Co., N. Y., in December, 1831, and was brought up on a farm until 19 years
of age, when he learned the carpenter trade. From 1859 to 1869 he carried on a planing mili and sash and door factory. In 1861 he recruited a company for the 8th N. Y. Cavalry, and on May 13th, 1862, he was discharged on account of the consolidation of com- panies. In August, 1862, he recruited a company for the 117th N. Y. Vol. Infantry, and in 1862-63 was in the defense of Washing- ton. In April, 1863, he was ordered to Suffolk, and until August 10th was engaged at the siege of that place. He then helped to build fortifications at Norfolk, and stayed all winter at Folly Island, off Charleston, and assisted in building the famous " Swamp Angel" fortifications near Ft. Wagner. In the Spring of 1864 he was pro- moted to be First Lieutenant and ordered to Gloster Point, General Butler in command. They went up the James River, built fortifi- cations across the Appomattox to the James, and on May 16th his regiment was engaged at Drury's Bluff. On the 1st of June he was ordered to White House Landing to form a junction with Grant's army, and on the 3d was at the battle of Cold Harbor, and for the ten following days was engaged fighting. They were then ordered back to City Point, and stormed the fortifications around Petersburg on the 15th, and for the rest of the summer he was engaged in front of Petersburg and Richmond. On the 29th of September they stormed Fort Gilmore, his company losing 18, killed and wounded, out of 27 men in all. On Oct. 3d he was promoted to the captaincy; on the 7th he fought at Chappin's farm, and on the 17th was at his last battle in Virginia. He then went on the Ft. Fisher expedition, at which Mr. Bartholomew opened the battle with eighty sharp-shooters, and ended as commander of his brigade. For bravery on the battle field he was promoted to the rank of Major.
After the war he was engaged in farming in New York until 1877, when he came to Norton, where he still resides, extensively engaged in fruit farming. In 1860 he married Marian E. Page, of Marshall, Oneida Co., N. Y., by whom he has four children.
BENJAMIN BRIST was born in Reinsheim in Baden, Germany, in 1820, and when fourteen years of age landed in New York, and set- tled first in Berne, Albany Co., N. Y., and after twenty-two months he removed to Lewis County. In 1843 he came to Kalamazoo, Mich., and after remaining there four years came to Ottawa County, and in 1853 purchased his present farm on section 21, town of Norton, where he has ever since resided. In 1845 be married Miss Angeline Harlan, of Kalamazoo, by whom he has three children.
FRANCIS BOUTELL was born in Essex Co.," England, in 1843, and, his father having died when he was four years old, he was left in the care of his mother's brother, who lived near Newcastle, where he worked two years in a cotton factory. At fourteen years of age he went to East Oxford, Ontario, and worked for seven years among the farmers, when he married Miss Sarah Jane Ranger, of Oxford, by whom he had six children. She died Nov. 25th, 1877, and in September, 1880, he married Miss Harriet Southworth, of Van Buren Co., Mich. In 1873 he bought land in section 19, of Norton, where he has a good farm with some fruit on it, and bids fair to become a wealthy man.
L. R. COSTON, fruit grower on Black Lake, below Cobb's fac- tory, was born in Philadelphia in 1842, and came to Lake Harbor in July, 1878, having previously been in Chicago from 1857 to 1878. On July 27th, 1864, at Chicago, he married Emma I. Holmes, by whom he has two daughters and one son. He enlisted in DeKalb Co., Ill., in 1861, in Co. R, 42d Ill., Regt., and served for eight months, when he was obliged to resign through illness. He has a fine fruit farm of 22 acres, of which about eight acres are cleared, and mainly in orchard, with two acres in grapes.
WM. CHURCHILL, fruit grower on section 18, Norton, was born in New York State in the fall of 1827, came to this State in the Fall of 1866, and to Norton in the Spring of 1872. He first settled
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HISTORY OF MUSKEGON COUNTY.
in section 24, on a farm of eighty acres, which he sold in 1881 to John Davis, Jr., of Ohio, and in June, 1882, bought his present place of seventy-three acres. He intends to devote it to grapes, peaches, &c. He was Supervisor in 1877.
JOHN B. DUPUIS, the engineer of the Ferry mill, was born near Montreal in 1846; came to Illinois in 1850; to Lake Harbor in 1865; was also several years on Muskegon tugs. He married, in 1869, Olive Gates, by whom he has one son, Alfred, born in 1874. After her death he married, in 1876, Dell Thebault.
JOHN GEIGER was born in Wurtemburg in 1840, and came to America in 1867, settling first in Wyandotte. In 1869 he settled in section 21, Norton. In 1871 he married Miss Ariadne Brist, of Nor- ton, by whom he had five children.
GEORGE HANVILL, saw filer of the Ferry mill 'at Lake Harbor, was born in New York State in 1814, came to Grand Haven in 1869 and has resided in Lake Harbor since 1876. He is a veteran of the late war, having enlisted in 1862, in Co. H, 21st Wisconsin Volun- teers. He was discharged on account of two severe wounds received at Perryville, Ky. He married in 1872, Elizabeth Ryan, of New York State, and they have one daughter, May, born July 12, 1879.
WILLIAM HILE was born in Northumberland County, Pa., April 18, 1840, and at 6 years of age he moved with his parents to St. Joseph County, Michigan. In 1864 he enlisted in the 15th Michi- gan Infantry, Co. C., served until the close of hostilities, and al- though in a number of engagements, escaped unhurt. In 1864 he married Miss Margaret A. Reed, of St. Joseph County, by whom he has six children. In 1867 he purchased land in section 24, Norton, where he has ever since resided, being very successfully engaged in fruit growing.
PETER JEANNOT was born near Montreal, Canada, in the year 1829. His parents were in very limited circumstances, with a large family of children, and at the age of 16 years, with scanty clothing and only sixteen cents in his pocket, without the knowledge of his parents, but with resolute and determined mind, Peter and some other boys about the same age, left their parental roof for the city of Chicago, at which place he arrived in the fall of 1845. For three days of the time after leaving home he did not taste of food. He had an acquaintance in Chicago with whom he stayed for two weeks. From there he went in the lumber region of Northern Green Bay, remaining there engaged in saw mills until the fall of 1855. From Green Bay he went to Manistee, Michigan. Since 1864 he has been superintendent and general manager for Ferry's mill at Lake Harbor, and has also been for years postmaster. Mr. Jeannot was married in the month of June, 1859, at Bourbonnaise Grove, Ill., to Mary Lambert, daughter of Lewis and Mary Lambert, and has had thirteen children, nine of whom are living. The eldest son William is graduating at Notre Dame College, Indiana.
S. B. MARSTILLER was born in Randolph County, W. Va., in 1833, worked with his father until he was twenty-two years of age, when he went into the carpenter trade, which he has ever since fol- lowed. In May, 1862, he went to Marion Co., W. Va., where, after residing nine years, he went to Belmont, Ohio; after remaining there seven years he came to Norton, purchasing land in section 13, where he still resides. In 1857 he married Miss Anna Ryan, of his native county, by whom he has five children. Although he still works at his trade, he intends to make fruit growing his chief busi- ness. In February, 1864 he enlisted in Co. H, 12th W. Va., Regi- ment, and served till the close of the war. He was in five general engagements, was wounded, and draws a pension.
ELIZUR PORTER, was born in New Haven county, Ct., June 9, 1815, and resided in his native place until 23 years of age, following the cooper business. He then went to New York State, remaining six years. In 1844 he settled in Monroe county, Mich. In 1855
he went for one year to Minnesota, returning he settled on section 12, Norton Township, where he still resides. In 1844 he married Delia Town, of Burgess, Genesee county, N. Y., who died after having borne him three children. In 1852 he married Miranda Nokes, of Monroe county, Mich., by whom he has six children. Mr. Porter settled in Norton when it was nearly all in a wild state and there was but one store in Muskegon.
STEPHEN PORTER, who has a fruit farm of 26 acres on Black Lake a short distance above Milo Rowe's, was born in Courtland county, N. Y., 1819, came to Norton in 1877, his family following two years after. He has a fine place, with seven acres of grapes and small fruits, about one acre each of black caps, blackberries and red raspberries, 240 crab apple trees, 400 cherries, etc. His grapes in 1881 weighed about 4} tons, averaging six cents per pound.
JOSEPH EDWARD RANDALL, fruit grower on Black Lake below Coston's, has also an 18 acre fruit farm, of which 14 acres are im- proved, containing 3,000 grape vines, 1,000 peach trees, 100 apple, 50 pear, with four acres of strawberries and an equal quantity of raspberries. As an instance of the fertility of his place, he reports 150 bushels of strawberries from 14 acres, sold so as to bring a net profit of $400, and from 150 grape vines 600 pounds at six cents per pound, brought $36. Mr. Randall was born in England in 1845, came to Chicago in 1867, and to Norton first in 1873, re- maining only one summer. In the spring of 1880 he returned from Chicago and bought his present place. He married Oct. 10, 1868, Sarah Knight, and has one surviving daughter, Frances Louise.
JAMES REED was born in Columbia county, Pa., March 3, 1808, and when 22 years of age went to Jefferson county, Pa., where in 1830 he married Miss Margaret Millson. In 1844 he removed to Park, St. Joseph county, Mich., where he farmed until 1865. In 1850 his wife died, leaving six children. In 1851 he married Miss Barbara Millen, by whom he has two children. In 1865 he removed to Norton, purchasing land in section 24, on which he successfully raises fruit.
OSCAR C. ROY was born in La Grange county, Ind., and in 1839, at ten years of age came with his father to St. Joseph county, Mich., but after a two years' sojourn there he returned to Indiana for ten years. For a few following years Mr. Roy alternated, the summers in St. Joseph and the winters in Indiana. In 1864 he removed to Iowa, remaining there until the fall of 1872, since which time he has made his home in Norton. In 1873 he married Louisa M. Fisher, of Cedar Falls, Iowa.
MILO ROWE, one of the oldest and most respected residents of the town, was born in Broome county, N. Y., in 1813; at eleven moved to Pennsylvania, and to this State in 1856, first coming to Lamont. He settled in Norton in 1864, and two years after on his present beautiful fruit farm on the north of Black Lake, where he has 600 peach trees, 25 acres of apple orchard, eight acres of straw- berries and other small fruit, and a vineyard of about an acre and a half. He married June 3, 1835, Orpha Beals, of Pennsylvania, and has two children, Mrs. A. B. Palmer, and Captain H. N. Rowe. He has held nearly every municipal office from Supervisor to Treas- urer, which latter office he still holds.
CAPT. H. N. ROWE was born in Pennsylvania, May 25, 1836; came in 1854 to Grandville, Kent county; in 1856 to Lamont, Ot- tawa county. In 1860 he went to Illinois and the following year he enlisted in the 59th Ill. Reg., and was one of fifty chosen to go on the "Ram" fleet and fight the naval battle near Memphis; he was also at the siege of Vicksburg. After serving two years and rising to be 2nd Lieut., he resigned on account of disability. He then went into lumbering on Black Lake, and ran vessels for eight years, the tugs "Hattie May," "Croton," and "Emma" which was
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