History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan, Part 123

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, D.W. Ensign & co.
Number of Pages: 716

USA > Michigan > Clinton County > History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan > Part 123
USA > Michigan > Shiawassee County > History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan > Part 123

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WATERTOWN TOWNSHIP.

529

N. Y., Nov. 22, 1840. Her people were early settlers in Orange township, Ionia Co., Mich., where her father cleared a new farm. He is still living in Dallas, Clinton Co. The death of her mother when she was nine years old made it necessary for her to work out by the week, which she did for years. Mr. Gall now owns one hundred and twenty

acres of fine land under good improvement, with good house and out-buildings, the result of hard labor and good management. Their children were Hannah L., born Oct. 12, 1864, died March 28, 1865; Ida M., April 4, 1866 ; Elizabeth J., Sept. 4, 1868; Thomas E., July 2, 1871 ; George II., Nov. 13, 1873; and Linna C., April 6, 1877.

LITTLE

MRS. ELIEL INGERSOLL.

ELtEL INGERSOLL.

ELIEL INGERSOLL.

In the latter part of the sixteenth century three brothers, of whom one was William Ingersoll, emigrated from Eng- land and settled in the town of Lee, in what afterwards became the celebrated county of Berkshire, Mass. At the first election held in the town he was elected towu elerk, magistrate, and selectman. When the Congregational Church of the town of Lee was organized his name headed the list. Ile had five sous-Aaron, Jared, Seth, David, and William-and two daughters, names unknown. David Ingersoll, of whose family we shall write, married a Miss Sally Parsons. She was a granddaughter of the celebrated Jonathan Edwards. They had thirteen chil- dren, all of whom grew to maturity, and all of whom became members of the Congregational branch of the Christian Church. David was for forty-five years a dea- con in the Congregational Church in Lee. lle died there, as did also his wife. Erastus, the oldest of the family, lived in Lee until early manhood, when he emigrated to the town of Victor, Ontario Co., N. Y. In March, 1806, he was married to Miss Sally Smith, daughter of Nicholas Smith, who emigrated from Stockbridge, Mass., to the Genesee country about the year 1789. Erastus remained in Victor until 1825, when, having lost his prop-

erty in building the locks on the Erie Canal at Rochester, he with his family came to Oakland Co., Mich., and settled in the town of Farmington, where there were but a few families then settled. They came from Buffalo to Detroit by schooner, and were nine days on the lake. In Detroit, Mr. Ingersoll bought a yoke of oxen and drove by way of Birmingham to the new home in the wilderness. There were no roads, and for three miles from his home no houses. llis nearest neighbor was a Mr. Powers, who was then building a mill where the village of Farmington now stands. He bought of the government one hundred and sixty acres, which he cleared and improved. In 1834 he came to Clin- ton County, where he bought five lots of wild land, and four lots in Eaton County. He located in the town of Delta, where he built mills. The first school taught in his town was in his mill, and by his brother, the Rev. E. P. Inger- soll. Ile was a soldier in the war of 1812, and a pioneer of whom any new country may be proud. He died in Farmington, January, 1850.

Eliel, the fifth child of Erastus, was born in Vietor, Ontario Co., N. Y., April 10, 1816. lle was married, Jan. 30, 1839, to Miss Diantha M. McRobert, daughter of James and Rachel (Covill) MeRobert. She was born

530

HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

in Greenfield, Saratoga Co., N. Y., May 30, 1817. Her father was born in the lowlands of Scotland, from whenee his mother emigrated to America when he was four years old. In 1840, Eliel, with his wife and one child, moved from Oakland County to Watertown, going with a team and by the way of Howell, and then following a road his father had cut through to his lands in Clinton and Eaton Counties. He reached his father's place in midwinter, bnt a house of tamaraek logs was soon built, and they at once moved in. Their house and furniture were of the most primitive kind. Their table was plain boards, their bed- stead made of poles driven into the logs, and their stairs a log with notehes eut in it for steps. Yet it was home, and their settlement the foundation for a fine farm. Prior to this he had bought one hundred and twenty aeres of gov- ernment land in Delta, eighty aeres of which he traded for a team, and the balance was sold to improve his farm in Watertown. There was nothing cleared on their farm and no roads. Wild game of every kind was abundant, as was also nearly every species of snake, from the deadly rattle- snake to the harmless streaked snake, all of which were a terror to Mrs. Ingersoll, who often found them uninvited guests in her home. After loeating on his farm they went to Delta to help rebuild the dams, which had been washed away, and to help erect new mills. This kept them from their farm five years, when they returned, and the work of clearing and improving went on. The result is a well-im- proved farm of over one hundred acres, the result of years of toil and economy. Mr. Ingersoll also owns a fine resi- deuee in North Lansing. In polities he is a Republican ; though he has never sought or wanted offee, still he has held some of the minor offices in his township. Mr. and Mrs. Ingersoll have been for many years members of the Congregational Church, and are strong sympathizers in the cause of temperanee. Their union has been blessed with the following children: Luey E., born Nov. 18, 1839 ; John N., Jan. 15, 1844; Elihu B., Nov. 1, 1849; Eliel B., Nov. 1, 1852; Augusta L., Nov. 20, 1854; Dwight C., March 3, 1856; and Carter W., Nov. 19, 1862.

WILLIAM F. DUTTON.

William F. Dutton was born in Chenango Co., N. Y., June 23, 1812, and is a true specimen of the American pioneer. A man of iron constitution, with nerves and sinews of steel, he never knew the meaning of the words " fatigue" and " fail." With him to will was to do. Before his never-tiring arm the forests disappeared from farm after farm, until but few men can say they have eleared as much land as he. His father and mother, Robert and Sarah (Fowler) Dutton, were early settlers in Chenango County, having settled on their farm when it was entirely new. When William was fifteen years old he engaged with the Merchant line as a driver on the Erie Canal. Until he was twenty-two we find him each summer on the eanal in the different rôles of driver, deek-hand, steersman, and captain, while in the winter he worked in the lumber-woods of Steuben County getting out ship-timber.

On the 18th day of August, 1836, he was joined in marriage to Miss Mary Young, daughter of Joseph and Ellen (Pray) Young, who was born Sept. 5, 1819. Her parents were Massachusetts people and emigrated to Cayuga Co., N. Y., when that county was new, and where for years her father was a drover. He died in Brutus township, same county. In August, 1836, Mr. and Mrs. Dutton started for Michigan, going to Buffalo, where they shipped them- selves and team for Toledo, from whence they drove to Cass County, following the Chicago road. For a time he worked land on shares on Prairie Ronde. Prior to this Mr. Dutton had been to Michigan and had made a pedes- trian trip over a good deal of the southern part of the - State. He walked from Detroit to White Pigeon in three days ; thenee to Kalamazoo, where he worked on the first bridge across the Kalamazoo River; thenee by Indian trail and wagon-road to Grand Rapids, making sixty-five miles in one day. Near the Rapids he entered one hundred and twenty acres of land, which he sold without going on to it.

After working land in Cass County three years he came to Westphalia and bought one hundred and sixty acres of wild land, to which there was no road of any description, and on which he in ten days built a log house, into which they moved when there were no doors or windows, and but a portion being floored. Their fire was built against the logs in one corner of the room, the smoke escaping throngh a hole in the roof. This was their first home, and they have never enjoyed life better than in those days. On this farm they remained six years, elearing forty aeres, setting out an orehard, and putting up a frame barn. They then traded for one hundred and sixty aeres of wild land in Cass County. They reached the new farm with but five dollars in money, and a house to build and winter before them. But nothing ever daunted Mr. Dutton, and we soon find him with a comfortable log house, a frame barn, young orehard, and forty aeres eleared. After four years spent on the Cass County farin, suffering repeated attaeks of the ague, he again sold out, and in the township of Riley, Clinton Co., he bought one hundred and sixty acres of wild land, which under his labor and management became one of the fine farms of Clinton County, with fine build- ings, orchards, and highly cultivated fields.

In 1874 he again sold out and then came to Watertown, and bought one hundred and fifty-five acres of land, mostly eleared, and on which he has built fine buildings (a view of which appears on another page of this history), and where he intends to spend the remainder of his days, be- lieving that he has done his share as a pioneer.

In politics Mr. Dutton is an ardent Republican ; was one term supervisor in Westphalia, and has held other minor offiees.

Their children are as follows: Ella N., born Jan. 8, 1837; deceased. Harriet, born Dec. 31, 1838; married to George Green, and now living near Detroit. Ann Eliza, born Oct. 23, 1842. William Abner, born June 22, 1845; enlisted in Company B, Eighth Michigan In- fautry, and killed June 2, 1864, at Cold Harbor, falling thus early in life a sacrifice upon the altar of his country's liberty. Jane, born May 2, 1849 ; died Aug. 18, 1852.

WN.F.DUTTON:

MRS W. F DUTTON.

RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM F. DUTTON. WATERTOWN TP. CLINTON CO. MICH.

WATERTOWN TOWNSHIP.

531

CITTLE

GEORGE W. KINNEY.

Among the leading self-made men of Watertown we find the name of George W. Kinney, who was born in the town of Franklin, New London Co., Conn., Nov. 28, 1828. He is of Scoteh descent, his ancestors having emigrated from Scotland to America prior to the Revolution and settled in Connecticut. When George was nine years old his parents moved into Monroe Co, N. Y., where they remained until 1835, when they emigrated to Livingston Co., Mich., and settled on a new farm in the town of Hartland. On this farmu they remained five years, elearing and improving part of it. George then sold out and came to Clinton County, where he had previously bought the northeast quarter of section 8, in Watertown. The farm was partly improved, and under his management and industry became a well-in- proved farm. In the spring of 1852, becoming impregnated with the gold fever, Mr. Kinney joined a train which was organizing at De Witt, and with it made the overland jour- ney to California. The trip, which was made in six months, was attended by the interests, hardships, and dangers of an overland trip to California at that time. Arrived in the El Dorado of the West, he at once went into the mines, and most of the time for two years and nine months fol- lowed mining, meeting with fair suecess. He then returned to the States, coming back by water. Soon after his return Mr. Kinney sold his farm on section 8 and bought the east three quarters of section 3 in the same town. It was

all new at that time, but is now mostly improved, and the work of his own hands, while on it he has erected a fine honse, surrounded by large and commodious out-buildings. For his first wife Mr. Kinney married Hannah J. Gue in the spring of 1845. To them was born one child, Ade- laide, born March 2, 1846; died in September, 1850. Mrs. Kinney died in June, 1846. In September, 1848, he was again married, his bride being Mrs. Emily H. Phillips, who died in February, 1871. For his third wife Mr. Kinney married Miss Achsah Reed, who was born in Jackson, Mich., Dec. 31, 1836. She is daughter of Alson H. and Dolly (Jackson) Reed. Their union has been blessed with two children, viz. : A. Carl, born Aug. 6, 1872 (died Feb. 3, 1877), and Emily F., born Aug. 20, 1875. Mr. Kinney is and has been for years a member of the Repub- lican party, believing it to be the exponent of advanced ideas and the champion of the rights of all men under the law. Hle has been the standard-bearer of his party in his town- ship for years, having been for nine years supervisor, and two years chairman of the board, making, as testified to by his neighbors and fellow-townsmen, an efficient officer. He has also been highway commissioner six years, justice of the peace eight years, and has held other minor offices. Ile is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and one of its trustees, while he stands high as a man of integrity and business qualifications.

532

HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

STEPHEN HILL.

The oldest settler now living in the town of Watertown is Stephen Hill, who bought of the government the north- east quarter of section 15, in 1836. There were then but few settlers in the town, all of whom have either moved away, or have gone to that " bourne from whence no trav- eler returns."

Mr. Hill is of English origin, his ancestors having emi- grated from the mother-country in the infancy of the colony. His father, Enoch Hill, was born in New Bruns- wick, where his parents resided a few years, and from whence they again returned to Maine, while Enoch was still a boy, and settled on a piece of wild land in the town of Whiting, Washington Co. On this farm Enoch grew to manhood. He married Miss Hepzibeth Gardner, and still remained on the old homestead, which he owned after his father's death, and on which Stephen was born Jan. 21, 1809. He too grew to manhood on the old farm, receiving a good common-school education, better than the majority of his associates obtained. Becoming desirous of getting a home of his own and having no means, he, in 1834, came to Michigan, where land of the best quality was awaiting the axe of the pioneer, and could be had at a mere nominal sum. He first stopped in Plymouth, in Wayne County, where for two years he worked his father-in-law's farm on shares. He then, as above set forth, bought land in Water- town, on which he made a permanent settlement in 1837. On his farm, to which there were no roads or even a trail, he built a log shanty, its floor of split logs, with but one window and two doors; it was still home, and within it hunger and want were never felt, though its occupants saw

many hardships and privations, as they were then very poor. With energy and perseverance he at onee commenced to elear and improve his land, which was covered with heavy timber. But not all of the time could he work on his own land. He had no surplus means, and had to work for others to earn means with which to keep the wolf from the door. He has cleared fifty acres on his own farm and a good deal on the farms of others. In those early days deer and other game were plenty, while the wolves had their nest- ing-places near his home, often making the forest ring with their howling. But Mr. Hill was not much of a Nimrod, as he never shot either wolf, deer, or turkey. Years have passed, and the then forests are now well-improved farms, homes of intelligent and industrious people, all of which Mr. Hill has lived to see, and now in the seventy-first year of his age, surrounded by the comforts his life of toil has brought him, respected and esteemed by those who know him best, he is passing away the even-time of life. In politics he was in early life a Whig, then a Republican, of which party he is a stalwart member. He has been town clerk, highway commissioner, and for years a justice of the peace. He has also taken a lively interest in schools, and has been more or less a member of the school-board. Mr. Hill was married May 7, 1835, to Miss Olive Gooch, daughter of Benjamin and Lucy (Boynton) Gooch. She was born in Machias township, Washington Co., Mc., Feb. 19, 1816. To them have been born Lucy H., Feb. 2, 1836; Warren II., Nov. 24, 1840 ; Bartlett B., Jan. 22, 1843,- he enlisted in Co. G, Twenty-third Regiment Michigan Infantry, aud died in hospital at or near Strawberry Plain ;

533

WESTPHALIA TOWNSHIP.

Ellery B., Oet. 17, 1845 ; Chrissie, March 17, 1848 ; Amos B., June 8, 1850; Frank, Jan. 18, 1854, died Sept. 30, 1858; and Jessie F., Oet. 14, 1856, died Oct. 6, 1858. Amos B., who is now owner of part of the home-farm, and with whom Mr. and Mrs. Hill now reside, was married March 2, 1873, to Miss Luey Webster, who was born March 2, 1856. Their children are May, boru May 12, 1874, and Pearl, born June 11, 1878.

CHAPTER LXVI.

WESTPHALIA TOWNSHIP .*

General Description-Settlement of the Township-Early Township Roads-Township Organization and Civil List-Schools-Village of Westphalia-Religious Ilistory.

WESTPHALIA is the sixth town north of the base-line in range 4 west of the meridian, and has for its boundaries, Dallas on the north, Eagle on the south, Riley on the east, and the Ionia County line on the west. The township, originally settled by Germans, is populated now almost ex- elusively by representatives of that race; indeed, it would be difficult to find more than a dozen families in the town other than those of Germans. Among these latter, Catholi- cism is the universal religion, and at the village of West- phalia the people of that faith gather weekly in great numbers for worship in one of the costliest as well as one of the most commodious religious temples in the State of Michigan. In keeping with the characteristics of their countrymen, the Germans of Westphalia are a thrifty peo- ple, and, as a class, are exceedingly prosperous and com- fortably circumstanced. The spirit of Democracy prevails as the ruling political mainspring, and from the beginning of the town's existence Democracy has held undisputed sway. Although Westphalia has no railway conveniences within its borders, easy access is found to Portland, in Ionia County, and Fowler, in Dallas township,-both railway stations, and both desirable markets. The Westphalia, Hubbardston and Northern Railroad was projected through the town in 1869, and Jan. 20, 1870, the inhabitants voted by one hundred and ninety-nine ayes to seventy-three Days to donate eighteen thousand dollars in aid of the enterprise, but the aet incorporating the railway company was declared unconstitutional, and there was no railway.

Westphalia, having now a population of seventeen hun- dred and thirty-eight (last United States census), shows an inercase since 1874 of two hundred and forty. There is still opportunity for advancement in that direction, for there is in the southern portion of the town a good deal of lowland now unoccupied, which must be in the nature of things reclaimed for the purposes of agriculture, and thus will add accordingly in a material way to the development of the town's resources and wealth.

SETTLEMENT OF THE TOWNSHIP.

Eminently a German settlement, the township of West- phalia has been so from the hour it received its pioneer

settlers. Germans first penetrated its forest recesses, first peopled it, and first turned its soil to receive the seed of the sower. Its inhabitants compose what may be aptly termed a colony, for they are bound by the common sympathy of a spirit which has its origin in a common reverence for the Fatherland, and professing one common religious belief; while they meet each Sabbath in one common temple of worship, they are banded together by a fraternal bond that makes them more like members of one family than of a community. They find a cause for much pride in this fraternal feeling, and they are proud, moreover, of the hardy and heroic band whose feeble numbers led the way to the wilderness forty-four years ago, and set up the cor- ner-stone of what is now a massive and substantial social fabric.

The sturdy ones who thus advanced to the work when pioneering meant their lonely isolation in the forest-wilds from those of their kind were three in number, John Hauses, Anthony Cordes, and Joseph Platte, of whom but John Hauses still lives. He abides yet upon the place which in 1836 he chose as his future home, and which he has seen seen blossom from a dreary stretch of dense wood into a smiling and fruitful landscape.

In the autumn of 1836, John Hauses, Joseph Platte, Anthony .Cordes, William Theilman, and a Mr. Salter, na- tives of Westphalia, and recently arrived from Germany in search of landed homes in America's Far West, met in Detroit and took counsel together as to where they would be best suited with a location. They talked with a Catho- lie priest in Detroit, and he advising them to seek a loca- cation in the Grand River country, they lost no time iu setting out. They traveled on foot and reached Lyons by way of the Dexter road. At Lyons they learned that the major part of the desirable land tracts in that region had been taken up by speculators, and that they could be best accommodated with government land in the town 6 north, in range 4 west, now called Westphalia. As they were es- pecially in search of government lands, since they felt they could not afford to pay speculators' prices, they decided to go over into town 6, and accordingly engaged a Mr. Ilunt, of Lyons, to guide them thither. The lands in that town were not deemed by speculators as worthy their attention, inasmuch as there was much undesirable swamp country, and to that fact is due the circumstance that Hauses and his friends found there cheap government lands to suit them. Indeed, F. J. Snider, now a resident in the town, recalls that he visited the place in 1842, and found it so much of a "mud-hole" that he determined to get out of it as fast as he could, and to stay out of it, for to his way of thinking it was a poor kind of a place for a man to live in.

After looking about, the party of Germans decided to locate on section 5, where they made their first appearance Sept. 8, 1836, and where they entered seven lots of eighty acres cach, or the entire section save one lot. Hauses, Cordes, I'latte, and Theilman remained on the ground and entered at once upon the work of clearing the land, while Selter, declining to become a practical pioneer just then, returned to Detroit, soon afterwards sold his land, and ended his connection with Westphalia. Theilman remained

* By David Schwartz.

534

HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

about two months, absented himself for about six months, and then returning for a permanent stay, settled on sec- tion 7.

John Hanses was the only one of the pioneer company unmarried, but he put up a cabin on his place and kept bachelor's hall alone, after his companions brought their families out from Detroit towards the beginning of Feb- ruary, 1837. Early in 1837 the settlers were joined by Anthony Kopp, a Catholic priest, who, as will be presently shown, was a man of much energy and force of character, and who was an important factor during his brief stay in the conduct of religious and secular affairs in the little community. Hauses, who spent the first eighteen months of his sojourn between clearing his place and working at Lyons for others, was upon his return to his bachelor's hall for a permanent stay stricken down with fever and ague, and lay thus helpless for the space of six months. He was then taken in hand by the family of Nicholas Martin, his neighbor, and set upon his feet. His marriage to Martin's daughter, Elizabeth, Feb. 1, 1840, was the pioneer wedding. It took place at Martin's house, Anthony Kopp, the priest, performing the ceremony. There was an humble wedding feast, and then the bride and groom took for their wedding tour a walk from Father Martin's house to the groom's eabin. Bride and groom still live in the enjoyment of a hearty old age, after journeying in company more than forty years.

These first settlers were very poor, and after paying for their lands had but little left. Such luxuries as doors or windows for their homes they did not aspire to, but were glad to depend upon blankets and sheets, albeit it did cause the hearts of the women folks to quake with terror when at night they heard the howls of wolves and expected to see the beasts dash at any time through the ill-protected cabin openings and wage a war of slaughter. Poor as they were they had to pay dearly for what they needed, and many's the story that's told about the struggles and priva- tions they were called upon to endure by reason of their poverty and inability to supply themselves with the common necessaries of life while waiting for the earth to yield them of its fruits. As an instance, it cost Anthony Cordes fifty dollars, about all the money he had in the world, for bringing a load of household goods from Detroit to his Westphalia clearing. In the summer of 1837 flour was held at twenty-one dollars a barrel at Lyons, and even at that was hard to get. Mr. Hauses says the timber about them was so thick that when they wanted to see the sky they had to chop down a tree.

Following the first comers to Westphalia in 1837 and 1838, Everhard Platte, Michael Thoma, Peter Platte, Anton Platte, Bernard Rademacher, Michael Thomen, Lorenz Nasman, and Nicholas Martin joined the settlement. 'They came from the same neighborhood in Germany that had owned the members of the pioneer advanee guard, were in many cases friends of long standing, and had naturally turned their faces towards new Western homes where they would meet their old companions.

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History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan, Part 123

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885 Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia, D.W. Ensign & co. Number of Pages: 716

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, D.W. Ensign & co.
Number of Pages: 716