USA > Michigan > Ottawa County > History of Ottawa County, Michigan with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 5
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In that year Butts & Hathaway built the first saw mill in the county at Grand Haven, about the present site of the D. G. H. & M. R. R. depot. Hon. I. V. Harris located in the east part of the county in 1836.
Clark B. Albee came from Vermont to Chicagoin 1835, and to Grand Haven in 1836. He was an agent of David Carver, a trader and capitalist, and after Rev. Mr. Ferry, perhaps the most promi- nently connected with the early history of Grand Haven.
Wm. Hathaway (afterwards Judge Hathaway for 12 years) ar -. rived in 1836, but located in the old town of Norton, near Spoonville station, in 1839. He was a much respected man and intimately connected with the early county history.
OTTAWA IN 1846.
Ten years have elapsed since the settlement began in the valley. The excitement of speculation in the new Eldorado had brought thousands into the valley. The crash that followed the specie cir- cular of President Jackson had driven many of them away. Specu- lation had been rife, and land and corner lots had lost their fanciful value. Immigration was at a standstill; everything was stationary. In 1846 was the time when hope had nearly died out, and when real estate was. scarcely property. Improvements on a large scale had been made, in almost every case to the ruin of the projectors. There had been a throwing away of capital in advance of the demand. Discouraged, some of the leading spirits had withdrawn, and capital seeking investment was not to be found. Those who had tried to do business had been ruined. If remaining, they were struggling to place themselves again on their feet. In the few following years hope revived; business improved; immigration and settlement in- creased, and the dark days were over.
Michigan, a State for only eleven years previously, had ruined her credit at the east. She was decried and passed by, by those who had money to invest or wished for new homes in the West. But of late the State had been taking judicious measures to revive her credit. The wild-cat banks had been succeeded by others on a better basis. The"East had been disabused as to the worthlessness of Michigan lands, and immigration was taking that direction. The Grand River Valley had its full share in this prosperity. At this time several of the towns in Ottawa and in Muskegon were organ- ized. In the former we find 1200 people; in the latter but 217. But there was absolutely nothing that could be done at a living profit. Lumber would as frequently fail to pay expenses as to produce a profit. It was often sent off because the lumberman must have money. Sent down to Grand Haven it often brought less than $5 per M.
Lumbering was poor business, and those who were in, stayed in
it only because they could not get out. In 1847, Prof. Everett, of Grand Rapids, and formerly of Grand Haven, passed a gang of men putting a large pile of lumber into scows. The owner was super- intending the work, and while doing so has curses were loud and deep. The professor offered with his blandest smile to take the "cursed pile" off his hands. He said,"I will give you $3,000 to take it with all its responsibilities." The professor did not invest.
Wheat was 50 cents a bushel, flour under $3 a barrel, pork and beef from $2.75 to $3.00 per hundred. Neither farmer nor lum- berer could make money. It was easy enough to get sufficient to eat, but to get money for taxes or groceries was hard. Wood had to be sold, to get money, at $1 a cord for good hickory or maple.
One of the first things the settlers did was to secure schools. They were two removes from New England; their fathers moved to Western New York, and the sons to Michigan. The first thing thought of in Massachusetts was to build a "meeting-house," settle a minister, and employ a humble dependent on him to teach their children reading, writing, arithmetic, and the cate- chism. All was secondary to the church, just as our Sabbath schools are now. New York secularized these New Englanders, and the schools became not an appendage to the church, but a part of the public. There the churches, instead of being the basis of so- ciety, were an outgrowth from the wants and desires of the people. The people of Michigan have adopted the New York idea, and even in the early days of 1846 had schools of which they had every reason to be proud. Nowhere are finer temples of learning than in Hol- land, Grand Haven, Muskegon, Whitehall and Montague, towering over their respective cities like the temple on Zion. These four centers have reason to be proud of their schools.
GEOGRAPHICAL.
Ottawa County, as it exists to-day, shorn of its northern terri- tory in 1860, is bounded on the north by Muskegon County, on the east by Kent, on the south by Allegan, and on the west by Lake Michigan. It consists of four tiers of townships, somewhat cut into by the lake on the west, so that the average width is 22 miles, while the distance from north to south is 24. Above these, on the north- east corner, is an additional township, Chester. The townships are taking them in order by tiers from west to east, and commencing at the south: Holland, in which is Holland City, Zeeland, Jamestown; Olive, Blendon, Georgetown; Grand Haven, in which is Grand Haven city, Robinson, Allendale, Talmadge; Spring Lake, with the village of Spring Lake, Crockery, Polkton, with Cooperville village, and Wright; and north of Wright, Chester. There are thus fifteen townships, two cities, and two incorporated villages, besides quite a number of unincorporated villages and hamlets. Of the towns very few are regular in form, there being only Jamestown, Blendon, Wright and Chester that are not cut up by rivers or the lake. Hol- land and Olive are one-and-a-half townships wide, and the center towns are cut irregularly by the Grand River, which has been made the boundary line. By this Spring Lake loses and Grand Haven gains; Robinson gains but little from Crockery. Polkton has about eight sections that formerly belonged to Allendale.
The county takes all of west ranges 13, 14, 15, and all of 16 not eaten away by the lake, which lie between towns 5, 6, 7 and 8 north, and Chester, which is town 9 north, range 13 west.
The chief rivers are the Black and the Grand, which latter stream enters the county at Jenisonville, where it suddenly turns from a southwesterly course to a northeasterly, and its having but a slight fall causes it to be sluggish and branch out into bayous, which in turn receive smaller streams. On its north side it receives Sand Creek, through Chester, Wright and Talmadge. It is well named
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HISTORY OF OTTAWA COUNTY.
Sand Creek, as along its course sand can always be found, which is not the case a little distance from its banks. Deer Creek, passing Cooperville, and entering the river on the north bank, over a mile below Lamont, is the next little branch. Then from the south, across the north of Blendon to the west, through Allendale and East Robinson, and again back to Allendale, enters on the south the Bass river. Crockery creek, over 20 miles long, rising in Muskegon, runs south across the east of Crockery, and enters the Grand River above Spoonville. The largest bayou is that of Spring Lake, in the north- west of the county, a fine, placid body of water, 6 miles long and from one-fourth to three-fourths of a mile wide. It is a favorite resort for pleasure parties, and fine orchards are planted on its banks.
Black River rises in the southeast corner of the county, and flows in a direction generally westward for eighteen or twenty miles, and falls into Black Lake at the city of Holland. This is the most important stream south of the Grand River, but is far too sluggish to be of much value as a mill stream.
Black Lake is the most important body of water wholly within the county. It is of irregular shape, and from one-fourth of a mile to near two miles wide, and about six miles in length. It has been extensively improved by the General Government, and furnishes a commodious and safe harbor for lake craft of large size.
SURFACE, SOIL, ETC.
No beds of metal or quarries of stone of great value have as yet been extensively worked in the county, although valuable beds of marble have been found in many places, and large quantities of bog iron ore are known to exist in several of the townships. A min- eral paint of an ocherous character, has for some years, been used in a small way in Robinson township. Within a few miles of Holland City, sandstone of a quality very suitable for some kinds of building purposes is being quarried. Valuable clay for brick-making may be had in almost all parts of the county, although in the west part of the county it can only be found beneath the surface sand, and gen- erally below the lake level. Excellent clay for the manufacture of what are known as the Milwaukee brick is obtained by dredging in one of the bayous connected with the Grand River.
SURVEYS.
In the case of Ottawa County the U. S. Survey seems to have been made, on the south side of the river at least, in advance of any public demand, as townships 5, 6, and a part of 7 in range 13, which constitute Jamestown and Georgetown and a small portion of Talmadge, were surveyed in the year 1831 by Lucius B. Lyon, when, with the exception perhaps of Rix Robinson, there was not a white man within the boundary of the county for three years at least. Zeeland, Allendale, Grand Haven, and the west portion of Olive and Holland townships were surveyed in 1832, and Blendon in 1833, while range 15, south of the river, comprising the town of Robin- son and the east part of Olive and Holland, was not surveyed until 1837, or five years after the range next to the lake shore, and the range immediately east had been laid off. The lands north of the river were not ceded by the Indians until 1835 or 1836, and were not commenced to be surveyed until 1837, when Crockery and Polk- ton were surveyed. Spring Lake township was not reached till 1838, and in the same year Talmadge, Wright and Chester were laid off into sections and fractions.
The U. S. Surveyor was not always looked upon by the Indians with a friendly eye, and when followed soon after by claimants in advance of the land sale, the red man naturally regarded them as intruders, though we were unable to learn of any serious difficulties with these original proprietors.
CLIMATE.
The climate of the eastern shore of Lake Michigan is an im- portant factor in reckoning the value of Muskegon and Ottawa counties as fruit-growing regions; and as the subject has been ably handled in an address by that experienced fruit-grower, S. B. Peck, of Muskegon, we cannot do better than to summarize from it. The address was delivered in February, 1872, before the No.thwestern Fruit-grower's Association. Mr. Peck claims that it is not any pecul- iarity of soil, nor any hygrometric condition of our atmosphere, nor any lack or excess of rainfall that give us the superiority we claim to possess. It is simply a climate genial to the tender fruits-the peach, the nectarine, and the apricot. The presence of a great body of water like Lake Michigan operates to prevent extremes of heat and cold, as the water loses during the night less of the heat that it has acquired from the sun during the day than the land. Water while freezing throws off heat to the surrounding air, and while thawing absorbs heat. It is well known that while Lake Michigan never freezes, much of the snow that falls on the shallow waters of its shores is carried to its border, the spray from the lake thrown upon it, and the whole mass is congealed during the fore part of the win- ter, while the inland bays or lakes that border its eastern side freeze to the depth of one or two feet. These, by throwing out heat while freezing, lengthen the autumn, giving time for fruits to ripen, and in some measure preventing the early, killing frosts of the interior. In spring, or whenever these masses of ice begin to thaw, they cool the air by absorbing a portion of its heat, preventing in a measure the sudden occurrence of warm, almost summer heat, that occurs in the interior, rousing the peach buds, and putting them in the condition to be destroyed by the sudden cold which follows. It is not so much the cold of the interior that destroys the buds as it is the effect of the untimely heat of a thaw in winter or early spring. Peaches have borne on the hills of the Grand River Valley, where the previous January the mercury was down to 35 degrees below zero.
All know that the western winds are by far the most prevalent here. The trees of our forests, and of our orchards, the bluffs on our east shore, the flatness of our west shore, the smoke of our furnac- es, all furnish evidence of this. . True, we sometimes have a wind from the east or northeast, but that is an "ill-wind that blows no- body good," as it is from the east that our killing frosts come, for the winds from the west, having passed over 70 miles of a surface of water, cannot possibly carry frosts on to our shore. This accounts for the lake having so much greater effect on its east than its west shore, and being so much more extensive in its effects than Erie or Ontario, the length of which runs in an opposite direction. Again, if the lower we descend into the bowels of the earth, the heat in- creases, it is probable that the water on the bottom of the lake is warmed and rises to the surface like the water in a kettle on a fire, and thus heat is continually evolved
Another source of heat is that it is fed by streams coming from the interior, where the waters are shallow, and a greater proportion is exposed to the sun. Lake Superior lying so much farther north, and fed by streams still farther north, and mingling its cold waters with those of Lake Michigan at Mackinaw, will account for the fact that Michigan is the warmest of the great lakes.
To sum up, the great capacity of water for holding heat, the freezing and thawing of the inland bays and the borders of the great lake, the prevalence of the winds from the west, the great depth of our water, reaching down to the heat from the internal fires, the heat supplied through the summer from the shallow waters of the interior and stored up in this great storehouse of heat to be given off to us in mid-winter, all conspire to make this a favored region. All this we find ready to our hands by the Great Architect of the Uni-
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HISTORY OF OTTAWA COUNTY.
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verse, and man cannot alter or control it; he can only avail himself of these blessings and reap the benefits.
The atmosphere receives its heat only by reflection or radiation from the earth's surface, We have been taught that as we go up- wards the air grows cooler, yet we must get up high if we wish to avoid frosts and yet if we get too high we and our plants will freeze together. It is on the principle of radiation that a board only a foot wide over a grape trellis often saves the whole vine from frost as it retains the ascending heat. Every night, heat climbs up the mountain sides. Therefore sloping lands are better than level plains, and valleys enclosed on all sides by hills are extremely un- safe. In the spring of 1865 Mr. Peck witnessed the destruction of 100 peach trees in a slightly depressed basin while on ground not more than 20 inches higher the trees were spared. Ravines run- ning through level grounds are of service as they enable the cold air to descend.
In planting peach trees one should select a site where the wa- ter would all run off, for the cold air of the night, like the water, seeks the lowest ground.
Few ever think of Michigan as a tropical state, the common im- pression being that it is one of the coldest in the Union, but the nar- row strip along the west coast is famous for its mildness of temper- ature, which gives it a semi-tropical climate. In 1881 the ship- ments from this belt amounted to 2,500,000 bushels, and in one year 806,000 bushels of peaches were shipped.
It is somewhat anomalous that while the cities are filled with idlers so much land in Ottawa and more especially in Muskegon County and the adjoining counties on the lake shore should be lying unutilized. In the first place, fuel, one of the necessaries of life, may be found in abundance; lumber for building purposes is plentiful and cheap, and labor finds a ready market in the lumbering business, which makes money plentiful; and no better tract can be found for the cultivation of peaches, grapes and small fruits. The drift in most parts of the lower peninsula abounds in calcareous pebbles and large boulders, whose constant slow solution affords an unfailing and inexhaustible supply of calcareous matter, which is most abundant in the regions underlaid by limestone outcroppings, and in the dis- tricts south of there. These great drift agencies have a wide-spread distribution over a great part of lower Michigan, in which we con- sequently find many silicious soils. Even those composed of (ap- parently) pure sands, are made up largely of comminuted limestone. Hence we witness the anomaly of luxuriant farm crops and orchards upon soils which an ordinary observer would pronounce sterile.
The county has also a proportion of marsh and savannah lands, consisting in general of a mucky loam, over a sandy subsoil, which when drained is the most valuable land to the farmer, capable of raising good grass and various other crops, where now but marsh hay is obtained.
As one of the burning questions of both Ottawa and Muskegon Counties is the question of utilizing the sand soils which cover so large an area, we have induced Mr. A. T. Linderman, of Whitehall, formerly secretary of the State Pomological Society, and who has successfully treated a sand farm of 640 acres in Cedar Creek, to give his views as follows:
HOW TO MANAGE SANDY SOILS.
The great staples of this class are wheat and clover, which should be kept firmly in mind, and as a regular system is needed to bring this land up to the required standpoint, the cultivation of these staples should not be departed from without very good rea- sons indeed. The reasons why it is necessary to adhere to these specialties are that this soil must have a regular annual dressing of green manure. Wheat and clover are the preferable crops on new
land. On old, worn out soils, however, the production of clover is attended with so much risk, owing to the liability of the spring clover to be scalded out by the heat of the sun on the bare sand, or the ravages of the cut worm, that, as a rule, it is not best to make the attempt until the soil has had a sufficient amount of green manure added to it to render it heavy, in which condition it is not liable to sun scald; it is here and for this purpose that the potato crop becomes valuable-plant early sorts, and as soon as dug scat- ter over the land a plentiful seeding of winter rye; the land need not be plowed, a thorough harrowing being sufficient for the rye. The next spring, when planting time comes, turn under the rye and plant to potatoes again, and repeat the operation, until in three or four years the land can be sown to winter wheat and seeded to clo- ver with little risk of not getting a "catch" of the clover seed. Once this is accomplished, you are ready for the clover and wheat relation, which is a much desired object. The next season after the wheat is taken off, cut the clover early, so that the second crop shall have time to ripen its seed thoroughly before time to plow for winter wheat again. Turn this second crop with its ripe seed under, and have no fear but that when you turn it up again two years later every seed will grow. It will be necessary to seed with this crop of wheat also, so as to have a crop of clover to turn under the second year again. This with its seed will give you clover on both sides of the sod, and no further sowing of clover seed will ever . be necessary.
It is advisable to divide your farm into two nearly equal parts, and arrange it so as to have one-half to clover and the other half to wheat each year.
A succession of these two crops will not only be profitable, but will annually improve the soil, and after a few years fruit can be grown from the trees, plants or vines you may desire to plant on this land that will astonish the natives.
Properly managed this sandy land will make the best and most easily cultivated farms in the State. When brought to condition it stands drought much better than clay, is never too wet to work, and while not at present adapted to general farming, will produce most happy and profitable results in the special way described.
SUPERVISORS' RECORDS.
We cull from the county records and other sources a few of the most salient points in the history of the county:
This county was organized by act of Legislature approved December 31, 1837, and at the ensuing township meeting of the three townships of Ottawa, Muskegon and Talmadge, that composed the county, the following officers were elected :
Timothy Eastman, Clerk; Clark B. Albee, Register of Deeds; Edmund H. Badger, Judge of Probate; Henry Pennoyer, Sheriff; Supervisors-Bethuel Church, Talmadge; William Hathaway, Ot- tawa; Erastus Wilcox, Muskegon.
The first meeting of the supervisors was held at the house of Nathan Troop on the 11th day of April, 1838. Present-Erastus Wilcox and Wm. Hathaway. Organized by appointing E. Wilcox Chairman and Timothy Eastman Clerk.
Resolved, That the courts of the county be held at the village of Grand Haven until further ordered.
The board of two supervisors then adjourned.
The next meeting was held at Troop's house on the 8th of May.
Business -Extending the time for making up the assessment roll, and appointing Timothy Eastman to locate a quarter-section of land for the use of the county, in accordance with the provisions
6
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HISTORY OF OTTAWA COUNTY.
of the act of the Territorial Legislature, approved July 25th, 1836. He was to be accompanied by one or more of the supervisors.
The Register of Deeds was directed to procure suitable books. At the annual meeting of the supervisors, held at the house of Wm. Hathaway on the first Tuesday in October, there were present Church and Hathaway, Church in the chair.
Adjourned two weeks. At the adjourned meeting, October 16th, present, Church and Hathaway.
Permission was given Ed H. Macy to keep a ferry across Black River Lake two years.
Accounts were allowed to the amount of $423.16, and the Board assessed for the town and expenses: Talmadge, $48.50; Ottawa, $631.34; Muskegon, $59.09.
At this time a new order of things was inaugurated-the Board of Supervisors being superseded by County Commissioners.
The commissioners elected were Bethuel Church and Saunders Coates. They held their first meeting December 6th, 1838, W. Hathaway, Secretary.
[It may here be stated that an important part of the business of the county was either not recorded or the record has been lost. No record of the election is found, and what is here given is either from the records of the Supervisors and Commissioners, or from the memory of individuals.]
Timothy Eastman is mentioned as being Judge of Probate, No- vember 16th, 1839.
March 24th, 1840, provision is made for a more formal record of the proceedings of the Board of Supervisors, and the succeeding Board of County Commissioners.
On the assessment rolls appeared the towns of Ottawa, George- town, Talmadge, Norton and Muskegon-five towns.
Assessed value of the county, $352,372.57.
In 1842 George L. Norton, Benjamin Hopkins and C. B. Albee were County Commissioners.
April 1st, 1842, the Board of Commissioners adjourned sine die; that is, forever.
The record of the first meeting of the re-instated Board of Supervisors bears date July 4th, 1842. They organized by appoint- ing Benjamin Hopkins Chairman. But there is no record who were the supervisors. The same five towns were represented.
In 1845 six towns are represented, Polkton then appearing.
In 1846, at a not full board, C. B. Albee was directed to build a jail, and to draw on the county for $50, and contingently for $50 more; that is, if the absent supervisors approved in writing, and $100 was subscribed. The absent supervisors approved.
In 1847 Wright appears, making seven towns.
In 1848, White River and Chester, nine towns.
In 1849, Holland, Jamestown, Crockery, Allendale, Spring Lake and Ravenna (White River disappears), fourteen towns.
In 1851 White River reappears.
In 1852, Casnovia; 1854, Blendon; 1856, Robinson; 1857, Olive.
In June, 1851, by the supervisors, the township of Zeeland is set off from Holland, and the first township meeting directed to be held at the church in the village of Zeeland July 14th, 1851.
At the same meeting the S. } of T., 5 N. 15 W., was attached to Spring Lake.
Valuation, $666,869.09.
October 12th, 1852, Casnovia was set off from Chester as a separate township; the first meeting to be held at the house of Alexander Burdick the first Monday in the following April.
Ottawa county had jurisdiction over all territory north of it. In 1853 the counties of Oceana, Mason and Manistee are complained of as not paying taxes, and a petition for proper powers to assess
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