USA > Michigan > Clinton County > History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan > Part 31
USA > Michigan > Shiawassee County > History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan > Part 31
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119
CIVIL CHANGES.
Shiawassee County, except a small portion (about one-sixth of its area) in the northwest corner.
An executive proclamation, dated Jan. 15, 1818, erected the new county of Macomb, with boundaries described as follows : " Beginning at the southwest corner of township No. 1, north of the base-line (so-called); thence along the Indian boundary-line, north, to the angle formned by the intersection of the line running to White Rock, upon Lake Huron; thence with the last-mentioned line to the boundary-line between the United States and the British Province of Upper Canada; thence on said line south- wardly to a point in Lake St. Clair due east from the place of beginning; thence due west to the eastern extremity of the said base-line, and with the same to the place of begin- ning." This embraced all the lands north of the base-line which had previously been included in the county of Wayne. But in the Governor's subsequent definition and establishment of the boundaries of the new county, it was made to extend westward only as far as the line between the eleventh and twelfth ranges east of the meridian, so that the territory between that line and the meridian was not included in Macomb County proper, but was attached to it in the same manner that Shiawassee County was afterwards attached successively to Oakland and Genesee.
One year after the erection of Macomb a large part of the territory which had been attached to that county was set off to form the new county of Oakland, which was erected by proclamation of Governor Cass, Jan. 12, 1819, its boundaries being described as follows: "Beginning at the southeast corner of township No. 1, in range No. 11, north of the base-line; thence north to the northeastern corner of township No. 6 in the same range; thence west to the Indian boundary-line [the principal meridian]; thence south to the base-line; thence east to the place of beginning," thus including the south half of the present county of Shiawassee. It is shown in the preamble to the Governor's proclamation that this erection of Oakland County was considered to be in advance of the require- ments of its people, but in view of a probable increase of population sufficient to demand it in the near future. The proclamation was not, therefore, made immediately oper- ative, but was to take effect and be in force from and after Dec. 31, 1822. Nearly three years before that time, how- ever, the people of Oakland petitioned the Governor, re- questing that their county should be organized, and this was accordingly done by executive proclamation dated March 28, 1820. At that time, and for some two years afterwards, the lands which now form the south half of Shiawassee County were included as a part of Oakland ; about two-thirds of the north half still remained attached to Macomb, and a fraction in the northwest corner-being included in the lands then recently ceded by the Indians in the treaty of Saginaw-were not within the limits of any county.
Shiawassee was erected a separate county by proclamation of Governor Cass, dated Sept. 10, 1822, its boundaries, as defined in that document, being as follows : " Beginning on the principal meridian, where the line between the eighth and ninth townships north of the base-line inter- sects the same, and running thence south to the line
between the second and third townships north of the base- line; thence east to the line between the sixth and seventh ranges east of the principal meridian ; thence north to the line between townships numbered eight and nine north of the base-line ; thence west to the place of beginning." The same proclamation which thus erected the county of Shia- wassee provided also for the erection of Saginaw, Sanilac, and Lapeer, and attached all these four counties to Oak- land, from which a large proportion of their territory had been taken. This attachment of Shiawassee to Oakland continued in force for nearly fourteen years.
At its erection, in 1822, Shiawassee County embraced, in addition to its present area, the northeast quarter (four townships) of Ingham County, the north half (eight town- ships) of Livingston County, and eight townships (the same which are now Argentine, Fenton, Mundy; Gaines, Clayton, Flint, Mount Morris, and Flushing) in the county of Genesee. The erection of Ingham County (Oet. 29, 1829), of Livingston County (March 21, 1833), and of Genesee County (March 28, 1835), cut off those portions of the original territory of Shiawassee (in all, a strip of two townships in width from its entire eastern and southern bor- ders), and reduced the county to its present limits. The organization of the county of Genesee was effected by act of the Legislature, approved March 8, 1836; and it was by the same act provided " that the county of Shiawassee be and the same is hereby attached to the county of Gene- see, for judicial purposes, until otherwise directed by the Legislature." The act took effect on the first Monday in April of the same year, and from that time until Shiawassee was organized as a county-in 1837-it remained so attached to Genesee. It had also been made a part of the town- ship of Grand Blane, Genesee Co., by the operation of an act approved March 26, 1835, which provided " that the county of Shiawassee shall be attached to and comprise a part of the township of Grand Blanc, for the purposes of township government." This township jurisdiction cou- tinued until March 23, 1836, when the Governor approved an act which provided " that the county of Shiawassee be and the same is hereby set off and organized into a separate township by the name of Shiawassee. . . This town- ship continued to embrace all the territory of the county until March 11, 1837, when an act was approved providing that " all that portion of the county of Shiawassee known as townships 7 and 8 north, of ranges 1, 2, 3, and 4 east, be and the same is hereby set off and organized into a separate township by the name of Owosso." And by other sections of the same act, township No. 5 north in range 4 east, was erected as the township of Burns; and township No. 6 north, in the same range, was set off, to be organized as the township of Vernon. These were the only townships erected in the county prior to its organiza- tion, so that at that time its territory was subdivided as follows : Owosso township comprehended within its limits the entire north half of the county ; the townships of Burus and Vernon embraced, respectively, the same terri- tory as at present ; and the remainder of the county-that part which is now included in the townships of Antrim, Shiawassee, Bennington, Sciota, Woodhull, and Perry- formed the township of Shiawassee, which had been re-
120
HISTORY OF SIHAWASSEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
duced to three-eighths of its original dimensions by the laying out of Owosso, Burns, and Vernon.
The above account exhibits the changes of jurisdiction through which the territory of Shiawassee' County had passed prior to its separate organization, in 1837, as also the several township subdivisions which existed within it at that time.
EARLY SETTLEMENTS.
The settlements which had been made in the county prior to its organization were numerous, but had been made chiefly during the last year of the period under considera- tion. The first white settlers within the county were the brothers Alfred L. and Benjamin O. Williams; for although Whitmore Knaggs had located here about 1820, Mr. Grant a few years later, and Richard Godfroy in 1828, yet these were in no sense settlers, but merely transient traders, who eame to deal with the Indians so long-and only so long- as the traffic continued to prosper. But the ease was dif- ferent with the brothers Williams, who came from their home in Oakland County in April, 1829, to prospect in Shiawassee, with the full intention of becoming settlers here. " We concluded," says Mr. B. O. Williams,* " when we became of age we would settle in this new and beautiful virgin forest;" and they carried out this intention in August, 1831, when they came to the county, and located on lands entered by Alfred L. Williams (Benjamin O. being then still a minor) on the Shiawassee, adjoining the north line of the Kechewondaugoning reservation. And although they were at first traders, they soon began to cultivate land, and becoming in every sense settlers, remained for nearly a half century the seniors among the residents of Shiawassee County, as Mr. B. O. Williams is at the present time.t
About two years after the Williams brothers eame, the second settlement in Shiawassee was made by John 1. Tin- kelpaugh, who brought his family and located on seetion 24, of township 6 north, of range 3 east, in May, 1833. Ile had previously cleared a small part of his land on the river-bottom and planted it, this being the first land plowed in the county. Mr. Tinkelpaugh afterwards became a resi- deut of Greenbush township, Clinton Co., and died there in the fall of 1879. He was a brother of Captain Edward Tinkelpaugh, of New York, the commander at different times of the " North Star," "South America," and other ocean steamers running from that port.
Other settlers who came in the same year were Hosca Baker, his son, Ambrose Baker, and his son-in-law, Aaron Swain, all of whom settled in the same township, and Henry Leach and Jacob Wilkinson, in township 6, of range 4.
The settlements made in the county in 1834 were but few, though entries of land and preparations for permanent occupaney were numerous. In 1835, however, the number of actual settlers was considerably increased, and their set- tlements were extended northward and westward into the township which is now Caledonia, and to the Big Rapids of the Shiawassee, now Owosso. Among those who came in and made permanent location in the two years named were
Isaac M. Banks (in town 6, range 3), John Swain (in Caledonia), Samuel N. Whiteomb, Josiah Pierce, and James Rutan (in Vernon), Zachariah R. Webb (in the township now Venice), and Louis Findley, Kilburn Bedell, David Van Wormer, John D. Overton, and Henry S. Smith, at the Rapids. Overton and Van Wormer came as tenants of Judge Elias Comstock, who had purchased land at the Rapids, and had made some improvements in 1835, in preparation for permanent settlement there. In the same manner, Henry S. Smith (who had previously made a temporary halt near Shiawasseetown) moved to the new settlement at the Rapids, and occupied a log house erected for A. L. and B. O. Williams.
In this year (1835) the first settlement in the southeast corner township (now Burns) was made by Dyer Rathburn, from New York State. Naturally it would seem that this part of the county should have been the first settled, for not only was it nearest to the older settlements in the counties south and east, and was traversed by the old thoroughfare from Pontiae to the Grand River, but it con- tained the county-site (as then established), and the region contiguous to the confluence of the cast and south branches of the Shiawassee was one of great natural advantages. The reason why these eauses did not indnee the first set- tlers in the county to locate in this township was undoubt- edly because the lands in the most favored localities had been secured many years before by Judge Dexter, and were held by him for purposes of speculation.
The year 1836 saw the greatest influx of immigrants into Shiawassee, as was also the case in most other counties of the lower peninsula. In that year settlements spread through the county with great rapidity, particularly along the line of the Grand River road (or trail) and contiguous country. The list of those who came in as settlers during that season is too numerous to be given at length, but men- tion may be made of a few in several of the townships em- bracing different sections of the county. Iu the southeast corner township there came among the settlers of that year Maj. Franeis J. Prevost, Robert Crawford, John Burgess, Wallace Goodin, John B. Barnum, P. L. Smith, and S. S. Derby, several of whom were members of the Byron Com- pany. Passing westward in the townships of the same tier, there were among the settlers of 1836, Allen Beard, Lyman Melvin, Peter Cook, Alanson Alling, and others (in Antrim) ; Josiah Purdy (in Perry) and Josephus and Jolin Woodhull, in the township which was afterwards named for them. Peter Laing eame in the same year, and founded the village of Laingsburg, in what is now the township of Seiota, and Samuel Carpenter, Mason Phelps, and Milton Phelps also made settlements in the same township. Ben- nington received its first settlers in the persons of Samnel Nichols and his unmarried brother James, who had entered their lands in the previous year, and eame to locate perma- nently in the spring of 1836. In the fall of that year Jordan Holcomb and Aaron Hutchins came to the same township, and Lemuel Castle and several others came there on prospecting tours, and made preparation for settlement in the following spring. In 1836, William Newberry, Ephraim Wright, William M. Warren, and many others located in what is now the township of Shiawassee. John
* Michigan Pioneer Collections, vol. ii. p. 477.
t Mr. A. L. Williams, after a residence of many years in Owosso, removed to Virginia, where he is now living.
121
ORGANIZATION OF TIIE COUNTY.
Smedley, Noah Bovier, William K. Reed, and Joseph Par- menter were among the immigrants of this year in Vernon, Capt. John Davids in Caledonia (on the present site of the city of Corunna), and Judge Comstock at Owosso. Settlements were also made in the same year in Middle- bury, on the west border of the county, by Obed Hatha- way, George W. Sloeum, and some others, and in New Haven by Ilorace Hart and Richard Freeman. The other townships of the northern tier remained unsettled until a later date.
The above brief mention of a very few of the pioneers of Shiawassee is made here merely for the purpose of' showing the manner in which the settlements spread from the point where they commenced, on the Shiawassee River, to other points of the county. More extended and detailed accounts of the early settlements and settlers will be given in the separate histories of the several townships.
The rapid immigration of 1836 brought with it a fever of speculation in wild lands. It was not long before hun- dreds of speculators from the East were swarming here, eager to select and purchase the best traets of government land, and this, of course, resulted unfavorably for the prog- ress of the county. Numerous projeets of "improvement" were conceived and villages were started, which apparently prospered for a time, but some of which afterwards decayed, and went down as rapidly as they had sprung into existence, and by the close of the year 1837 the prospect of material progress in Shiawassee County began to assume a less rose- ate hue than it had worn only a short time before. The situation of affairs at that time at some of the principal points in the county, was noticed by Bela Hubbard, Esq. (who made a tour through this section in the fall of 1837, as an assistant of Dr. Douglass Houghton in his geological explorations), as follows :
" Byron, in the southeast corner of Shiawassee County, was the termination of our wagon journey., The name had long ocenpied a prominent place on all the old maps of Michigan,-at that time a decade was antiquity,-and held out to the new comer the promise of a large and thriving village. The reality was disappointing. It possessed, all told, but a mill and two houses. At Byron we exchanged our wagon for a canoe, and commenced a descent of Shia- wassee River.
" From Byron to Owosso, about twenty miles direct (but many more by the course of the stream), our way lay mostly through lands more heavily timbered, but varied with open- ings and occasional plains. Through this part of the eoun- try roads had been opened and settlements had made rapid progress. . . . Shiawasseetown at this time contained a dozen log cabins and as many frames unfinished. One of these was of quite a superior construction, and indicative of the era of speculation through which the country had passed. It was three stories in height and designed for a hotel. The whole village was under mortgage and was advertised to be sold at public vendue.
" Corunna, the county-seat, we found to consist of one log house, situated on the bank of the river, and occupied by a Mr. Davids, who a year before, and soon after the organ- ization of the county, had made an entry herc. A steam- mill was in process of erection. About twenty acres of land
had been eleared and planted, and never did crystal stream lave a more fertile soil.
" Three miles below was ' located' the village of Owosso, already a thriving settlement, containing a dozen log build- ings, one frame one, and a saw-mill. With the exception of a few scattered settlers upon the plains south of the line of the present Detroit and Milwaukee Railway, such consti- tuted the entire white population of Shiawassee County."
The real and personal valuation of the several townships of the county, at a period ten years later (1847), is given below, as showing the progress which had been made in Shi- a wassee County during that time by settlement and improve- ment, viz. :
Antrim township
$31,739
Burns township ..
39,254
Bennington township
33,91t
Caledonia township ..
51,748
Middlebury township
18,810
New Haven township (two survey townships).
27,768.50
Owosso township (two survey townships).
46,598
Perry township
32,003
Sciota township
19,747
Shiawassee township
46,304
Venice township.
20,169
Vernon township.
31,322
Woodhull township ...
20,402
Total of county. $419,755.50
CHAPTER XXIII.
ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY-COURTS AND OTHER MATTERS.
Shiawassee organized by Act of Legislature-First Election-Subdi- vision of the County into Townships-The Board of Supervisors- Wolf Record-Establishment of Courts in Shiawassee County and their Early Proceedings.
THE organization of the county was effected under au- thority of an act of the Legislature, approved March 13, 1837, which provided " That the county of Shiawassee be, and the same is, hereby organized for county purposes ; and the inhabitants thereof shall be entitled to all the rights and privileges to which, by law, the inhabitants of other connties of this State, organized since the adoption of the constitution, are entitled." Under this act a special elcetion was held in May, 1837, resulting in the election of Levi Rowe as Sheriff, Andrew Parsons as County Clerk, Josiah Pierce as Treasurer, James Rutan and Alfred L. Wil- liams as Associate Judges, Elias Comstock as Judge of Probate, and Daniel Gould as County Surveyor. Sanford M. Green was made proseenting attorney by appointment. By this election the organization of Shiawassee County was made complete.
At that time the county embraced the townships of Shiawassee, Owosso, Burns, and Vernon, as has already been mentioned. The next subdivision was made by an act approved March 6, 1838, which erected survey-township No. 5 north, of range 3 east, into the township of Antrim (its territory being the same then as at present), and sur- vey-townships Nos. 5 and 6 north, of range No. 2 east, into the township of Beunington, which thus ineluded, in addition to its own present territory, that of the town- ship of Perry.
16
122
HISTORY OF SHIAWASSEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
By act approved April 2, 1838, the township of Wood- hull was erceted, to comprise " all that portion of the county of Shiawassee designated by the United States sur- vey as townships Nos. 5 and 6 north, of range No. 1 east," so including the present towns of Woodhull and Sciota. By the ereetion of Woodhull the territory of the old township of Shiawassee was diminished to its present size.
The first reduction of the original area of Owosso town- ship was made by an act (approved March 21, 1839) which erected survey-townships Nos. 7 and S north, of range No. 1 east, into the separate township of Middlebury. The same act also took from the territory of Owosso sur- vey-township 7 north, of range 4 east (the same which is now Venice), and attached it to the township of Vernon. On the following day (March 22, 1839) the Governor approved an aet in which it was provided that " All that part of the county of Shiawassee designated by the United States survey as township No. 7 north, of range No. 3 east, which lies east of the west line of sections Nos. 5, 8, 17, 20, 29, and 31,* in said township, be, and the same is, hereby set off and organized into a township by the name of Caledonia; and the first township-meeting shall be held at the house of Alexander MeArthur in said town- ship."
The reduction of Bennington township to its present size was effected by the passage of an aet (approved March 15, 1841) which provided that " all that part of the county of Shiawassee designated by the United States survey as town- ship No. 5 north, of range No. 2 east, be, and the same is, hereby set off and organized as a separate township by the name of Perry." The size of this town has remained un- changed to the present time.
New Haven township was erected by aet of March 20, 1841, to comprise survey-townships numbered 8, in ranges 3 and 4 east. These were taken from Owosso township, and are the same which now form the towns of New Haven and Hazelton.
The township of Sciota was formed by aet approved Feb. 16, 1842, to include survey-township 6 north, of range 1 east. This being taken from the original territory of Woodhull reduced the latter township to its present size.
An act of the Legislature approved March 9, 1843, pro- vided that " All that part of the county of Shiawassee desig- nated by the United States survey as township No. 7 north, of range No. 4 east, formerly belonging to the township of Owosso, but now to the township of Vernon, be, and the same is, hereby set off and organized as a separate township by the name of Venice, and the first township-meeting thereof shall be held at the house of Neely Sawtell." This was the same territory which, by act of March 21, 1839, had been taken from Owosso and attached to Vernon, which latter township was consequently redneed to its orig- inal and present size by the erection of Vernon, as above mentioned.
Hazelton township, embracing town No. 8 north, in range 4 east, of the United States survey, was ereeted by act of March 25, 1850. It was taken from New Haven, and its ereetion left the latter township with its present boundaries.
The last township taken from the territory of Owosso was that of Rush, which was laid out and organized under the provisions of an aet approved March 28, 1850. By the erection of Rush (comprising survey-township 8 north, of range 2 east) the area of Owosso was redneed to a single one of the eight survey-townships which it originally em- braeed.
The youngest township in the county is that of Fair- field, which was erected with its present territory by action of the Board of Supervisors on the 4th of January, 1854.
BOARD OF SUPERVISORS-COUNTY COMMIS- SIONERS.
The township of Shiawassee, organized on the 23d of March, 1836, comprised the entire territory of Shiawassee County, as before noticed. The first township-meeting was held at the house of Hosea Baker, who was elected super- visor for that year, and represented the township in the Board of Supervisors of Genesee County, to which this county was attached. The townships entitled to a repre- sentation at the time of the organization of the county, in 1837, were Shiawassee, Owosso, Burns, and Vernon, and De Witt and Watertown, of Clinton County, which was then attached to, and composed a part of, Shiawassee.
No record is preserved of a meeting of the board in the fall of 1837, but the fact that such meeting was held is proved by the action of the board at the session of October, 1838, when that body reseinded a resolution " passed in October last," in reference to wolf-bounties. At that session, which commeneed on Tuesday, Oct. 2, 1838, at the place known as the Shiawassee Exchange, situated on the Shiawassee River, Lemuel Castle was chosen ehair- man, and Franeis J. Prevost elerk pro tem. At the elose of that meeting the board adjourned to meet the next day at the hotel at Shiawasseetown, kept by Lucius W. Beach. The supervisors present were Lemuel Castle, of Benning- ton ; Elias Comstock, of Owosso; II. B. Flint, of Antrim ; Franeis J. Prevost, of Burns; Thomas Beal, of Shiawas- see ; James Rutan, of Vernon; Jonathan Woodhull, of Woodhull, Shiawassee Co. ; and Iliram Benedict, of Wan- daugon, Calvin Marvin, of Watertown, and Welcome J. Partelo, of De Witt, Clinton Co .; The first business was the examination of wolf-certificates, and twenty-five of these were andited, covering an amount of three hundred and seventy-five dollars, without names attached, but designated by numbers.
The townships of Owosso, Burns, Shiawassee, Water- town, and the village of Mapleton (the last two in Clinton County) had made requests to the supervisors for money to build bridges. After considerable discussion it was de- eided to levy the tax for the erection of the bridges, upon the county instead of the several townships. The amount
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