USA > Michigan > Muskegon County > History of Muskegon County, Michigan: with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 28
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SOLOMON CULVER was born in Madison Co., N. Y., in 1805, and in 1844 went to Wisconsin, where he remained until about 1863, when he moved to Kent, Mich., and the following year settled on a farm in section 3 of the then known White River. He was mar- ried to Miss Maria Tost, of Madison, Co., N. Y., by whom he had six children. His son, Mr. John F. Culver, was born in Madison, N. Y., in 1841, and moved with his parents to Mich. In 1861 he en- listed in the Union army and served three years. He owns a forty acre farm, and is engaged to some extent in fruit growing. He is unmarried.
DAVID T. DEPUE was born in Chenango Co., N. Y., in 1818. In 1850 he moved to Indiana and in 1862 he moved his family to Dalton, now Fruitland, settling on a farm in section 11, he had purchased some years previously. At that time there was only one house in what is now Fruitland, and Mr. Ferry had a store at the mouth. Mr. DePue had to cut a road four miles in order to get to market. In 1839 he married Miss Elizabeth Myers, of Herk- imer County, N. Y., by whom he has eight sons and two daughters. Five were born in New York, and five in In- diana. One incident of the privations of early days related by him,
is that for two weeks his family had to live on potatoes, pork and beans, as bread, etc., could not be had for money.
JOHN DEPUE, a brother of David T. DePue, was an early set- tler in Fruitland. He relates that at the first funeral there were only four persons, beside the mourners, and a Mr. Todd read a chapter and prayed. Mr. DePew owns 240 acres of as good land as is in the State, and has prospered in his business.
OLE E. GORDON was born in Norway in 1829. Emigrated in 1849, coming directly to what is now Fruitland, and took up land in Sec. 13, T. 11, R. 17. He married, in 1859, Hannah Brady, of Oceana Co., and in 1863 he married Miss Emily Halverson, of Muskegon, by whom he had four children, three of whom are liv- ing. He has 215 acres of the best fruit or grain land in the county. He was treasurer and collector for 13 years and supervi- sor for two.
JOSEPH HAGREEN was born in the county of Suffolk, England, in 1881, and emigrated to America in 1845. He came first to Roch- ester, N. Y., but after a few day's stay went to Toronto, Canada. After staying alternately in Toronto, Rochester and Milwaukee, he came to Muskegon county and pre-empted a part of the three hun- dred acre farm which he now lives on,' Sec. 6, T. 11, R. 17, West. In 1856 he married Miss Margaret Hope, by whom he has one daughter. Mr. Hagreen had to make his own roads in early times, 'and his only market for some time was the solitary shore at the mouth of White Lake.
FRANK JONES was born in Schleswig, Germany, in 1847, and emigrated to Wisconsin in 1867, and came to Muskegon the follow- ing year. He married Miss Elizabeth F. Todd, of Fruitland, in 1872, by whom he had five children, four of whom are living. Mrs. Jones was a co-heiress of the farm on which they now live, which is Section 13.
CHARLES C. JOHNSON was born in Sweden in 1844, and emigrated direct to Whitehall in 1867. After working at various employments in 1879, he purchased a farm in Section 15, Fruitland, and now owns 200 acres of heavy, sandy loam. In 1878 he married Miss Flora- bell Stockwell, of Van Buren Co., and has two children.
JAMES W. KRUPP, born near Coblentz, Germany, 1819, and was a nephew of the famous manufacturer of Krupp guns. After living in France, working as a gardener, he emigrated to America in 1853. After working as a gardener, dry goods clerk, and farmer in various places in the state, he finally, in 1879, came to Fruitland and pur- chased a farm of 128 acres in sections 1 and 2. In 1857 he mar- ried Miss Mary Deist, from near Hesse Cassel, Germany, who was born in 1834, and who is the mother of six children, one of whom is dead. Mr. K. was a skilful gardener and had a fine farm. He was instantly killed January 11, 1882, at Whitehall, by being thrown from his sleigh on the occasion of his team running away.
JAS. A. McMILLAN, born in York, Livingston Co., N. Y., 1823; came to Mich. when 23 years old. After some years spent in lumber- ing and milling in Indiana he returned to Michigan, engaging in the manufacture of woollen goods in Branch county. In 1871 he moved to Fruitland, taking up a farm in section 25. In 1876 he married Miss Hannah J. Belote. He is superintendent of schools for the town of Fruitland.
JOHN McNEIL came to Muskegon in 1857, when he was about 25; bought a farm in sections 7 and 1, Fruitland, well adapted for fruit- growing. In 1859 he married Miss Elizabeth Robinson, by whom he has one daughter, who was the second white child born in Fruit- land.
HENRY R. NEWLUN, born in Guernsey Co., O., 1837; settled in Fruitland 1856; in 1865 married Miss Lily J. McMahon, of Monroe county, Ohio, by whom he has five children. He has been a justice of the peace and school inspector and holds the office of town clerk.
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HISTORY OF MUSKEGON COUNTY.
OLE A, OLSON, born in Norway in 1840; emigrated in 1855. After living some years in Wisconsin he took a homestead in 1861 in section 31, Fruitland. In 1869 he married Miss Matilda John- son, of Whitehall, by whom he has two children.
JOHN SHUEY was born in Harris Tp., Center Co., Pa., Sept. 7, 1823, and worked as a laborer until the spring of 1850. In 1847 he married Miss Jane Yamell, who was born in 1827. She is the mother of six children, two of whom are living. He went to Ohio in 1850 and Iowa in 1852, and then came to Fruitland in 1863, taking up a homestead in section 15. The land was perfectly wild at this time.
MRS. MARY PAULSON whose maiden name was Depue, was born in Broome Co., N. Y., in 1846, and after living in Indiana thirteen years came to Fruitland in 1863. In 1866 she married N. Paulson by whom she had four children, who are living. Since the death of her husband she has carried on the farm, which is in Section 23. Her late husband was born in Norway in 1840, and emigrated to
America in 1855. In 1862 he enlisted in the 82nd Illinois Volun- teers, and served to the close of the war, when he was honorably discharged, when he returned to Muskegon Co., and was married.
EZRA STEARNS was born in Covington, Mass., but lived with his parents in Pittsfield, Mass., until he was 18 years old. In 1855 he came to Jackson county, Michigan, and in 1861 enlisted in the 1st Michigan Engineers and Mechanics, and served three years. He married Miss Allan, of Lenawee county, by whom he has three children. In 1867 he purchased a farm and moved his family to Muskegon county.
GEORGE H. WILSON was born in Schuylkill Co., Pa., in 1835, and came with his parents to Michigan when quite young, settling in St. Joseph county. After some years spent in Iowa and Nebraska, in which latter place he experienced the grasshopper plague of 1873-76. In the spring of 1877 he settled on section 2, Fruitland, where he owns 120 acres of good land. In 1858 he married Miss Clara C. Hughes, of St. Joseph county, by whom he had eight children.
WHITE RIVER TOWNSHIP.
This little gore about six miles long with an average width of two miles, is but a fragment of what was White River, which once extended far and wide but was successively denuded of portions of its territory until now less than half a regular township is left. It is in the Northwest corner of the County, range XVIII West, Town- ship XII North, and is bounded on the North by Clay Banks in Oceana Co., on the East by Montague, South by White Lake, West by Lake Michigan. The earliest settlement was at the mouth, and the first settler was Charles Mears, who, however, found certain men holding a claim for Hiram Pearson of Chicago, afterwards abandoned. Mears came in 1836, entering the White Lake by the old mouth which is to the North of the present channel and entered the lakes by sailing nearly a mile South. The Southern half of the town is drained by a creek which runs into the lake through a bayou and thence by the old channel. The Northeast by Flower Creek which crosses into Claybanks. There are a good many German farmers settled in the North.
In the North of White River there is considerable black muck, with some clay. To the North is the township now named Clay- banks, where the Indians had cleared large tracts and planted corn.
We find it impossible to get an authentic municpal history of this township, owing to the township board in 1859 solemnly burn- ing up the books, because of some tangle in the funds. This was certainly a new way to pay old debts. They thought they would start life anew with a clear balance sheet. What a simple way of cut- ting the Gordian knot this was, and how often many a puzzled book- keeper would like to adopt this primitive method of settling accounts.
White River township at first extended from Manistee to Grand Haven and ever so far inland. The first white child born at White River was probably the son of John Hanson, a Swede, now of Clay-
banks. The first preacher was Deacon Bennett, the good old col- ored man. The first sawmill was Ferry's. The first hotel was that of A. A. Cain and Chas. P. Cushway. There is still pointed out to this day an old dead tree in front of Bruce's store, where in 1858, a sailor who had committed some petty crime, was taken by the crowd and hanged on a limb until he was nearly dead. They would then take him down and have a drink and hang him again. They got so drunk at last that they forgot to cut him down and he would have perished had it not been for Mrs. Storms.
SUPERVISORS.
Among the early representatives of this town were the Daltons, I. E. Carleton, and Jesse D. Pullman.
In 1859 when the county was set apart from Ottawa, G. W Rathbone, a sawmill owner, was supervisor for White River, Peter Dalton for Dalton, and I. E. Carleton for Oceana. All these were opposed to the union with Muskegon, and wished to be a portion of Oceana County, or at least of a new County, with a part of Oceana in it. In 1860, N. H. Ferry was supervisor of White River, and was elected chairman. He was re-elected in 1861. In 1863 Dr. J. A. Wheeler took the office, and in 1864 J. B. Watson was elected, fol- lowed by Dr. Wheeler in 1865. In 1866 John Welch took the office, in 1868 P. W. Sumner, in 1859 Jas. H. Deming, in 1870- 1-2-3-4 S. J. B. Watson again, in 1875-6-7 Jas. Whelan, since 1878 A. Rowe has been supervisor.
FIRST VESSEL.
The first sailing vessel that passed through the mouth up to White River was the schooner Telegram owned by the Ferrys, and with one, McConnell as captain. Capacity, 80,000 feet of lumber, but it could not pass the bar at the mouth with a full load and was
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filled by lighters. She came through on the first of August, 1865, drawing three and one-half feet of water, and scraping on the bar. Nothing was done in the way of
PIERS
until 1855, when the Ferrys made slab piers in the old or natural channel a short distance to the north of the present harbor. Jesse Pullman took the first poles about eight inches in diameter, and put slabs across to hold them, making a crib three feet wide and eighty feet long, loaded so as to draw eighteen inches of water. This was done at the mill and there accompanied this a lighter loaded with slabs to sink the raft when in position. The raft, however, grounded before reaching the proper place, and had to be unloaded and pried into position. This was added to until a permanent structure was secured. Before this, large rafts of logs had to be towed by oxen along the shore, or poled in rafts, or carried by sail vessels, taken out by lighters to schooners in deep water outside on Lake Michi- gan, about 5,000 feet at a time, and thence to Grand Haven.
There was a bed of white marl at the mouth, whence some sup- pose the Indians called the water White Lake. This was dredged by Noah Ferry and washed away by the current.
The first shipwreck after this was I. E. Carleton's schooner, North Yuba, loaded with supplies, which were all lost with one man. This was in December, 1855.
The schooners Abigail, Kent and Magic, wintered on the beach in 1856-7. The first was overhauled and rebuilt by Capt. Sims, her owner. The schooner, G. Barber, wintered on the beach in 1857-8 but was repaired in the Spring.
In the Spring of 1858 there was a tidal wave which rose six feet, washed over the docks, and "played hob" generally. The peo- ple thought the judgment day had come. The wave set a lighter on end thirty feet above its level, put out fires of the mills at Muske- gon, and extended below Grand Haven.
In 1860 when Joseph Heald came in there was but one horse team in Newaygo Co., and he brought in a horse and buckboard, which was the first carriage seen in the White River region. There was but a weekly mail to the Mouth.
Charley Cushway who came to the mouth in 1849, says the only white family when he arrived was the Laffertys who were get- ting out shingles, that C. Mears' first schooner was the Honest John, and the sloop Ranger, John Hanson, Captain, carried fifteen cords of shingle bolts. Cushway returned in 1851, found Joseph Stebbins running Ferry's mill, P. Hobler getting out shingle bolts, and he and A. A. Cain rented a hotel of Hobler, half log and half frame. There was no farming then except in a small way by Alex. Williams and Deacon Bennett.
EARLY REMINISCENCES OF WHITE RIVER.
Through the kindness of Mr. I. M. Weston we are permitted to give the following letter from an old friend of his now in Chi- cago. We omit the name, but many will know the writer from the incidents he mentions:
" I left Chicago on the schooner Levant, Capt. Connell, in the Spring of 1859 for White Lake, and after a rough passage of forty- eight hours we came to anchor off White Lake, and with our yawl went ashore, thus for the first time setting foot on White River, taking the place vacated by our old friend, George E. Dowling, who had left for California. At the Mouth was the old Ferry mill and store. On the opposite side of the bayou was Cain's and Hobbs' hotels. The Ferry store, in which I was duly installed as chief and only clerk, was the only one on White River, the store of the Carle- ton's having been given up or sold out. The Long Point mill started up during the season, and a few goods were brought in by
Luscomb & Pierce, our old friend, Col. Monyhan, officiating as general superintendent, &c. The old 'Jewell' mill was lying idle. On the site where Montague now stands was the old Sargeant house and barn. On the site where Whitehall now stands the old Covell & Thompson mill and boarding house constituted about all the buildings. The Mears store was built during the season. The Rogers mill -was bought by Rathbone & Co., and Governor Rathbone went there that season, and near it Carleton & Dalton ran the steamer Oceana. During the season N. H. Ferry bought the steamer Croton, and brought her to White River. There she was com- manded two seasons by Capt. Sims. The school was taught by Phoebe Clark, Mrs. Mary McLaughlin teaching in the ' Naske' dis- trict, and Miss Nettie G. Hubbard taught in the Sargeant district. Saturdays the teachers in the out-of-town districts came to town to stay over Sundays. During the Fall of 1859 Rev. Mr. Chapin was sent to White River by the M. E. Conference, and preached once in two weeks at the school house, and succeeded in awakening consid- erable religious enthusiasm. In the Spring of 1860, as the result of his labors, a Sabbath School was organized, with W. H. Wood- bury, Superintendent; Geo. E. Dowling, Assistant Superintendent; Miss Emily Burrows (now Mrs. Capt. Dalton), Librarian. Money was raised and books bought, and the school progressed finely. My failure as a chorister was made painfully apparent during the early part of Mr. Chapin's ministrations. The ' Young America' portion of the congregation looked to me as leader, while the older and more conservative part looked up to Bro. Bennett, with his good old plantation tunes, or Bro. Friday, with his self-adjusting, telescopic tune that would, under his manipulation, suit any metre. On one occasion Bro. Chapin gave out a short metre hymn at the close of which your humble servant struck up a familiar tune, in which all joined, but found to our sorrow that at the end of the first line there was tune left. Nothing daunted, we tried again with the same result, when Bro. Friday came to the rescue with his self- adjusting, &c., tune, and carried it through in ample form, since which time I have never essayed to be chorister. -
" We had weekly mails, and when we saw old man Brittain, or his son Ralph, with their two ponies loaded down with mail bags, all hands would go to the post office to wait until the worthy P. M., S. J. B. Watson, would distribute the mail to us."
Capt. James Dalton states that the first Fourth of July cele- bration in White River was in 1848, in the presence of about fifty Indians and twenty whites. The Captain was the orator of the day, and after a sumptuous repast of pork and beans, the whites hurrahed and the Indians, who felt quite patriotic, joined in the shout. The schooner Mitchell hoisted the flag. There were about half a dozen of the fair sex in White River then.
" THE MOUTH,"
as the entrance to White River is called, is a beautiful and romantic spot, and it will probably soon be a fashionable summer resort for those who love pleasant rural scenery, pure lake breezes, and splen- did bathing and boating. The shore of the lake here is, as usual, a range of sand extending for about one hundred yards, and then high sand bluffs abruptly rising from the sandy plain and covered with forests of pine, maple and other beautiful foliage. To the south of the Mouth is the beautiful and extensive pleasure grove of I. M. Weston, Esq., who is fully alive to the æsthetic and finan- cial qualities of such a location, and generously allows the public to use it to the fullest extent. There is already, overlooking the inland lake, a covered pavilion for dancers and picnickers, and it is probable that a summer hotel will be built on the bluff on the Lake Michigan side. The grove lies like an isthmus between the broad and breezy waters of Lake Michigan, almost the largest fresh water sheet in
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HISTORY OF MUSKEGON COUNTY.
the world, and the bright little inland White Lake, and constant communication can be had by steam ferries or private boats with the pleasant and hospitable villages of Whitehall and Montague, about five miles off at the head of the lake. In summer the grounds are daily used by parties of pleasure-seekers, who drink in renewed strength in these halcyon days.
The light house and Government piers are substantial struc- tures and are on an artificial channel. Still farther to the north winds the old channel on its tortuous route, the old Mouth being closed up and the waters running up to the northeast in a long bayou. At the old Mouth is the first historical spot of White Lake history. Here were enacted the stirring scenes of pioneer days. All now is ruinous and decayed-a ruined saw mill here, a tumble-down boarding-house there, a few fishermen's huts, with nets drying on the sand, and the reader has a true picture of the old Mouth in 1882. The route of trade has taken another channel, and nature has closed up what once was the only entrance into a rich lumbering region. The new Mouth is well chosen and a great deal of time is saved by getting direct to and from the lake.
LIGHT HOUSE.
The light house is situated on south side of the channel, and shows a white light varied every minute by a red flash. The illu- minator is catadioptric of the fourth order, lighting 180 degrees of horizon. Local plane 38 feet above ground, and 57 above mean lake level. The light in clear weather, on a vessel's deck 10 feet above water, can be seen fourteen miles. Structure is brick, one and a half stories high, with a square tower on N. W. corner, of yellow un- painted brick. The location is latitude 43 degrees, 22 minutes N., longitude 86 deg. 25 minutes West.
WRECKS.
Several wrecks have occurred at the Mouth of White Lake, in one of which a large number of men, in 1837, were cast on the al- most desolate shore late in the Fall, and so frozen that their limbs were amputated by Dr. Charles Shepherd, of Grand Rapids, who had to come all the way, over fifty miles, through the wilderness to perform the operations, which he did with great skill and success.
Moses Valois, fisherman, describes the memorable wreck of the Woodruff, in September, 1877, in rescuing the crew of which he took an active part. The Woodruff had lost most of her canvas and also her anchor off Big Point Sauble, and with the few remain- ing rags she made her way to the mouth, where a portion of her crew came ashore to telegraph for a tug to tow her to Grand Haven. Upon returning to the vessel the heavy wind had increased to a ter- rible gale, the boat was dragging her small anchor which she had retained, and the crew awaited in suspense the rapidly approaching moment when she would strike the beach. Their fears were soon realized and instantly the small boat was lowered away, but the moment it touched the raging breakers it filled with water, and breaking the painter it was tossed like an eggshell far out of reach of the despairing crew, while the rapidly gathering crowd on the beach stood powerless before the ill-fated vessel unable to lend a helping hand or suggest a thought toward rescue. A dispatch was sent to Grand Haven for a life-boat, and this fact conveyed to the crew by means of large letters, inspired them with a gleam of hope, while the miserable hours dragged by before the coming of the boat. But they were doomed to disappointment, for upon the arrival of the boat the line which was shot out to them got caught on the bot- tom, and all efforts to remove it were unavailing. In despair the crew then took to the water, and as the waves threw them upon the beach with all signs of life apparently extinct, they were seized by the friends and everything that lay within the power of willing hands and kindly hearts was done in the work of resuscitation.
Gradually the groans of anguish told of the success of these efforts, and the crew passed from apparent death to life again, excepting two who were beyond the reach of human effort.
BIOGRAPHICAL.
DEACON BENNETT. One of the " whitest men " at White River, according to the testimony of all the old settlers, was Deacon Abner Bennet, a colored man, and one of the earliest settlers in the town- ship. The Forum of September, 1879, says: "Mr. Abner Bennett, of White River Township, was 80 years, 2 months and some days old. Mr. Bennett had been a resident of this vicinity for 31 years, was a member of the M. E. Church, and for many years the only preacher in this section, often going from fifteen to twenty-five miles up White River to assist in the last sad rites of some early settler, having been a licensed exhorter for 39 years in the M. E. Church; was the first person to establish religious services in this vicinity, and has always given freely to all benevolent enterprises. The first Sabbath school ever held in this vicinity was started by Mr. and Mrs. B., and for fifteen years they gave the use of their house for this purpose. Mrs. Bennett has been an extensive traveler in her younger days, having been a ladies' maid for the wife of the Captain of a Merchant Trader on the Atlantic for five years, visiting nearly all the European ports in this time. Mr. B. leaves a host of warm personal friends.
WILLIAM F. BRUCE. Among those who were destined to meet the inevitable hardships incident to pioneer life may be mentioned Wm. F. Bruce. His parents are of Prussian origin, his father, John Bruce, being a soldier in the Seven Years War between Prus- sia and Austria. His mother, formerly Charlotte Marks, was born in Berlin in the year 1816, but being desirous of securing the ad- vantage which America has ever offered the citizens of other coun- tries they emigrated' thitherward and located for some time in the State of Ohio, at which place Wm. F. was born on the 5th day of July, 1842. In 1843 his parents moved to Milwaukee. At the age of fourteen years he shipped on board the schooner America, Capt. Hanson, and started on his first experience "before the mast." The vessel was stranded a short distance below Pigeon Hill on the Muskegon shore, where it remained until Spring before being taken off. The crew, however, was rescued, and Mr. B. landed near Whitehall in this county, where he has resided mostly up to the pres- ent time. This vicinity was but a wilderness without improvements of any nature or facility of travel save in so far as the beach of the lake could be utilized as a highway. With his native pluck he went to work in a sawmill, but the company becoming involved went into bankruptcy, and Mr. Bruce's "settlement" consisted of one pound of tobacco on a basis of $7 per month, which was the salary for which he was laboring. Not discouraged, however, he repaired to the clay banks about nine miles north, where he worked two years and nine months, after which he engaged in mercantile business for himself at "The Mouth" of White River. About this time he was appointed Postmaster for that locality, which office he conducted in a faithful manner for five years. He was married in the year 1861 to a very estimable lady, Miss Mary Harty, born on the 18th day of February, 1845. This union lasted thirteen years, when consump- tion removed the wife on the 13th day of September, 1874, leaving four children; Nellie, born Aug. 19, 1865; Willie B., April 13, 1869; Albert B., April 1, 1871, and Emma B., Oct. 5, 1872. About this time Mr. Bruce sold out his store and engaged in buying and selling farm stock. He became very much depressed during the illness of his wife, both mentally and financially, as he had employed the most noted physicians from Milwaukee, Chicago and other prominent places. Mrs. Bruce was buried by the Order of Odd Fellows of
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