History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan, Part 69

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 69
USA > Michigan > Shiawassee County > History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan > Part 69

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SHIAWASSEETOWN.

The village of Shiawasseetown may be said to have been originated by Charles Bacon, an adventurer who emanated from Iluron Co., Ohio, and succeeded so far in inspiring confidence in the minds of several of his acquaintances as to induce them to embark in the purchase of lands in Shiawassee township. A company was formed, embracing the following individuals : Simeon B. Sturgis, William D. Calvin, Charles Bacon, Moses Kimball, Thaddeus B. Sturgis, and A. R. Hart. Mr. Bacon was clothed with power for the purchase of nearly six hundred acres of land in behalf

of the company, whose acknowledged agent he was, and for which land he averred the sum of seventeen thousand dollars was paid. As the largest shareholder he took the lead in the preliminary labor of surveying, building, and improving, and the dense forests soon yielded to the pro- gressive spirit evinced by the founders of the prospective city. The survey of the land was made in 1836, and re- corded in Oakland County, with which Shiawassee was early associated for judicial purposes, and an extensive town was marked out, having two public squares and many broad streets, named after the leading cities of the Union.

Marcus Bump, Joseph Jackson, and William. Newberry came from Ohio in 1836, and engaged in the erection of a saw-mill, which was managed in the company's behalf by several parties in succession. A building was next erected, forty feet square and two stories high, to be used as a store. It was converted, however, in response to the popular need of the time, into a tavern, and Lucius Beach became the popular landlord, though Dr. W. Z. Blanchard had been its proprietor for a brief time at an earlier date. A card- ing-mill was soon after built, many smaller dwellings sprang up, and a store, which controlled an extensive trade, was opened in a log building erected for the purpose, and its business interests managed by Mr. Bacon. Elisha Brew- ster, the second sheriff elected in the county, became in- terested in the enterprise and took up his residence in the hamlet. The early courts were held on two occasions at Shiawasseetown, and justice was dispensed in the halls of Lucius Beach's tavern. Mr. Bacon was prodigal in his patronage, the town seemed destined to a rapid growth, especially with the chances for the removal of the State capital in its favor, and the stockholders were sanguine of the success of their enterprise when Mr. Brewster deemed it proper to summon Mr. Moses Kimball, one of the in- terested parties, to the scene of action. A subsequent in- vestigation of the company's books revealed the fact that Mr. Bacon had paid but seven thousand dollars for the lands on which the plat was located. Mr. Kimball re- mained to settle the affairs of the company, and after a varied and sad experience found himself a landed pro- prietor and owner of the village and adjoining lands, with the exception of eighty acres later known as the Drum farm and forty acres now in possession of William New- berry, formerly held by Mark Bump and Matthews re- spectively.

Mr. Kimball with his family took up his residence in the village, and his business talent was devoted to the restoration of confidence among the townspeople and the development of future enterprise at the place. In 1837, however, death eut short his labors, and with his departure ended the advancement of the attractive village of Shia- wasseetown. The beautiful maples along its streets are the only remaining landmarks of its spasmodie growth and untimely decadence.

NEWBURG.

llosea Baker having come to the township in 1833, and purchased the larger portion of the land between Shiawas- sectown and Newburg, may be regarded as the founder of the hamlet of that name. He erected the carliest log house

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SHIAWASSEE TOWNSHIP.

and likewise the first frame house, and in 1836 built a saw-mill, which was the pioneer mill of the county. To the raising of this mill, settlers came for a distance of twenty miles, and were obliged to remain for the night to complete the labor. A melancholy accident occurred on this occasion in the death of an individual who volunteered his assistance: one of the heavy timbers having fallen upon him. Ilis name is not remembered, though this death is reealled as the first in the township.

The first store in Newburg was ereeted by Ambrose Baker, and later a flouring-mill was built which was subse- quently burned.

Benjamin Lemon soon after built a store and became one of the merchants of the place, and a tavern was opened by Mr. Sheers. Henry Smith was a very early blacksmith, and for a long period monopolized that business in the vil- lage.

A post-office was established at the hamlet, with John Grumley as postmaster, though the mail was not so volumi- nous as to render his labors arduous. The present official is C. P. Devereaux.

The church under the auspices of the Methodist Episco- pal Conference was built in 1865, in which services are regularly maintained. Newburg seems to have shared the fate of its neighbor Shiawasseetown in the decay of its business enterprise. Though not projected with the same pomp and circumstance, its present condition is but a rem- iniscence of the former early prosperity which it enjoyed.

FREMONT.

The hamlet of Fremont, originally platted as the village of Florence, was surveyed Nov. 24, 1841, by Nelson Ferry for John W. Gilbert and Isaac M. Banks, and the plat re- eorded Jan. 6, 1842. It may be briefly described as situa- ted on the Grand River road, on sections 26 and 27. It embraced sixteen blocks, which contained one hundred and twenty lots four rods by eight rods in dimensions, the streets having been four rods wide excepting outside streets, which were two rods wide.

Mercantile enterprise was commenced soon after by the advent of two peddlers, whose names are not now recalled. Thay erected a large store and for two years conducted an extensive business which proved very lucrative. At the expiration of that time, having desired to seek a fresh field for their enterprise, the business was sold to John Gilbert, who became purehaser of their stoek and the leading mer- chant of the place. Stores were opened successively by Jeptha Gorham and Henry Hart, who were also among the active business men of the place.

The prospects of the village were so flattering that very soon three taverns were erected by John W. Gilbert, Jotham Goodspeed, and Isaac M. Banks respectively, each one of whom became landlord of his own house. William Herrick, Charles Sidway, and George B. Whitney were blacksmiths, Mr. Sidway combining also the business of a wagon-maker.

The Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad was opened in 1856, and with its completion and the consequent diversion of the business of Fremont to other channels, the advanee- ment and further development of the hamlet was ended. The village post-office, with the venerable Isaac M. Banks

as postmaster, is now the only centre of life and activity in this onee promising locality.

VILLAGE OF BANCROFT.

The land upon which the village of Bancroft stands was originally owned by N. G. Phillips and W. M. Warren, the first plat having been made by G. W. Warren, A. G. Warren, aud N. G. Phillips. This plat was never recorded, and Mr. Phillips subsequently purchased the interest of the remaining parties, and employed Andrew Huggins to make a second plat, which was accomplished April 28, 1877, and recorded May 8th of the same year. A subdivision of a portion of this plat was made March, 1880, and recorded on the 18th day of the same month.

The Hemenway addition to the village of Bancroft was surveyed Mareh, 1878, by Andrew Huggins for Hiram F. Hemenway, and recorded June 24, 1878. It may be de- scribed as embracing about ten acres lying south of the railroad and west of the original plat.

The Chicago and Lake Huron Railroad, which had been previously projected and gave an impetus to the growth and development of the village, was completed in January, 1877, and a depot established at Bancroft ; but no agent was at first appointed to transact its business. N. S. Van Tuyl came in April of the same year, and erected a frame dwelling, the first on the plat (excepting, perhaps, two or three log huts). He embarked in lumbering interests, and was seriously inconvenienced by the absence of a railroad agent, which necessitated the payment of freight charges at Flint or Durand. Later, H. M. Billings acted as station agent, and is now also the village postmaster. Simeon Kent very soon after engaged in building, and J. L. Simon- son and - Sweet each erected a store, having engaged in mercantile pursuits. At the same time N. G. Phillips and J. L. Roberts advanced the interests of the village by the erection of buildings. Mr. Phillips also, in 1878, con- structed of brick a spacious and very completely appointed hotel, which is one of the most imposing edifices in the place. The fall of 1877 witnessed the erection of a saw- mill, which was followed by two planing-mills, and later a flouring-mill. A school-house of extended proportions was erected in 1879, in which Philo Dexter and Miss Josie Purdy are the instructors.

The physicians of the place are Drs. N. B. Knapp, W. B. Fox, Harvey, and Gates.

Flouring-Mills .- The present building was originally con- structed by Thomas Copeland as an elevator in 1879, and by him converted in 1880 into a flouring-mill. A steam- engine of thirty-horse power is employed, which enables the mill to grind twelve bushels of wheat and thirty bushels of feed per hour. Two run of' stones are used, which are principally engaged with custom-work, though a fair patron- age is extended to the mill by the merchants of the village.

Elevator of J. L. Roberts .- This enterprise was begun in 1877, and the building erected with special reference to loading grain. A side-track has been extended which connects with the main line of the Chicago and North- eastern Railroad, enabling the proprietor to avail himself of superior advantages in the shipment of grain. The

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HISTORY OF SHIAWASSEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

power is furnished by horses, and affords a capacity of two thousand bushels per day. Wool as well as grain is exten- sively dealt in, and both commodities are largely shipped.

Planing-Mills .- The mill at present owned by Messrs. Jackson & Tyler was originally constructed by John Lat- son, and by him sold to J. Atherton, the present firm hav- ing become owners in 1880. The motive-power is supplied by an engine of fifteen-horse power, whichi affords the mill a capacity of twenty-five thousand feet of planing per day, and one thousand feet of moulding can be done per hour. The mill, which does custom-work almost exclusively, depends largely upon the adjacent country for its patronage. Messrs. Johnson & Symes also carry on an extensive saw- ing, planing, and moulding business, and find both material and market near.

Elevator of Watson, Obert & Co .- This firm erected in 1879 an extensive warehouse and elevator, which has a capacity of ten thousand bushels of grain, and is operated by horse-power. They are also large dealers in wool, lum- ber, flour, and country produce.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

WILLIAM NEWBERRY.

Mr. Newberry may be regarded as a conspicuous example of the successful and self-made man. Having been left entirely dependent upon his own industry, he has by saga- city, prudence, and application established himself as a strong influence in the community of farmers resident in Shiawassee County, and one of the most successful and independent of their number. His father, John New- berry, was a farmer in Warwick, Orange Co., N. Y., and married, in 1811, Miss Sallie Fancher, who was a native of the State of Connecticut. Their son William, the eldest in a family of seven children, was born April 4, 1812, in Warwick, N. Y., where the family remained until 1827, when Ohio presented attractions and indeed their removal. to Lorain County, a portion of the State familiarly known as the Western Reserve, where Mr. Newberry, the father, died in 1852, at the age of sixty-three years. The death of Mrs. Newberry occurred in 1876, at the advanced age of eighty-six years.

Their son William availed himself of the limited advan- tages a district school afforded in his early youth, and later, when a respite from labor permitted, continued his studies. In the spring of 1863, at the age of twenty-one years, he acquired the trade of carpenter and joiner at the village of Huron, Ohio. Here he was sought by the agent of the Shiawassee County-Seat Company and induced to repair to Michigan to assist in the building of the prospective city to be located at Shiawasseetown. Mr. Newberry continued to follow his trade for a period of fifteen years, in which thorough knowledge combined with practice had made him skillful, meanwhile having purchased eighty acres of land in Shiawassee township and obtained credit for the larger portion of it. This land, which was unimproved, has by

his energy been brought to a high state of cultivation. A careful system of drainage, many miles in extent, has ren- dered it very fruitful, while the annual yield is much in advance of that of other lands in the county, and thereby proves the wisdom of his judicious system of tillage. During the period that Mr. Newberry pursued his trade he was for a time a resident of Owosso, and assisted in the construction of the earliest buildings in that city.

After erecting a frame dwelling on his land, he was in 1839 united in marriage to Miss Mary Parmenter, of Ver- non, whose birth occurred in Vernon, Vt., July 24, 1814. Seven children were born to them, as follows : Sarah, now Mrs. John Wilkinson ; Harriet, now Mrs. C. S. Pratt, whose husband was killed by a painful accident ; Elizabeth, now Mrs. William S. Wilkinson ; Rebecca A., now Mrs. C. A. Whelan ; James, who died Sept. 3, 1876, aged twenty- five years ; John and David, who both reside at home.

Mr. Newberry's farm now embraces two hundred and thirty-seven aeres, which is cultivated under his immediate supervision. He is in politics a strong Republican, and regards his allegiance as belonging to the party with which he affiliates. ITis vote, as a matter of principle, is there- fore always Republican. Both Mr. and Mrs. Newberry are worshipers with the Baptist congregation of their town- ship, the latter being an active member of the church.

JOHN WHALEY.

The subject of this brief sketch is a native of the old historie county of Saratoga, where he was born in Day township, Aug. 30, 1814, his father, Ebenezer Whaley, being a resident of that county and a millwright by trade.

In 1838, Mr. Whaley moved to Michigan, purchasing eighty acres of land in Perry township. lle remained there two years, and then removed to Shiawassee, pur- chasing the farm upon which he now resides for one shilling per acre. It consists of one hundred and twenty acres, in a high state of cultivation. Mr. Whaley, being very much interested in the improvement of his neighbor- hood and township, gives much time and money to public improvements; and was the first man to set on foot the making of roads and draining of lands in his section of the county.

Nov. 30, 1845, he was united in marriage to Miss Clarissa Tenyberry, also a native of the State of New York, where she was born Sept. 12, 1826. Their family consists of the following-named children : Jerry, born Jan. 11, 1847 ; died in the hospital at Knoxville, Teun., Feb. 20, 1865; Ca- milla, born Aug. 30, 1848; John, born April 20, 1850; Mason, born June 3, 1854 ; Isabella, born March 15, 1857; Esther, born May 9, 1860 ; Abraham, born Dec. 22, 1863 ; and R. T., born March 11, 1867.

WM NEWBERRY

MAS WMNEWBERRY.

RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM NEWBERRY, SHIAWASSEE TP. SHIAWASSEE CO. MICH.

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SCIOTA TOWNSHIP.

CHAPTER XLI.

SCIOTA TOWNSHIP .*

Description, and Settlement of the Township-Organization and List of Officers - Early Township Roads-Schools - The Village of Laingsburg-Village Incorporation and Officers-Churches-Post- Offices-Bank -- Secret Orders-Tragic Incidents.

SCIOTA township, numbered town G north, in range 1 east, lies upon the western border of Shiawassee Couuty, and has upon the north the town of Middlebury, upou the south the town of Woodhull, upon the east Bennington, and upon the west the Clinton County line.

Sciota is a prosperous and productive agricultural town. It contains many fine farms and handsome residenees, and is a regiou of much natural beauty. There is on the Jack- son, Lansing and Saginaw Railroad, which crosses the town- ship, a lively village called Laingsburg, containing about eight hundred people, and transaeting a good deal of busi- ness with a wide traet of outlying country. Churches and schools are abundant, roads are more than ordinarily excel- lent, and township affairs generally are in a healthful con- dition.

SETTLEMENT OF THE TOWNSHIP.

The first settler in Sciota did not live in the town long enough to make any extensive improvement or leave much of a mark as a pioneer. This was Samuel Carpenter, who came to the township in the spring of 1836, and upon sec- tion 26 put up a rnde shanty in which he lived alone a few weeks while making a small clearing. During the summer he went to Detroit to get three pairs of oxen, preparatory to entering upon a vigorous campaign as a pioneer in Sciota. Ou the return journey he fell from his wagon, ten miles or so east of his clearing, the wheels passed over him, and he was found dead upon the spot the next day. This was the brief experience in the township, of Sciota's first settler. His place in Sciota is now occupied by M. S. Beardslee, whose father, Henry, located in Bennington in 1839, and lived there until his death, and who himself settled upon the Carpenter farm in 1850. Just before Carpenter's death, Dr. Peter Laing, William Laing, and Mason Phelps came to the town and founded Laingsburg village. Touch- ing that portion of Sciota's history the reader is referred to the history of Laingsburg, on suceceding pages. Mason Phelps and his twin brother, Milton A., had lived in Wash- tenaw County since 1832,-in which year their father, James Phelps, located there,-and in 1835 they located one hundred and twenty acres upon seetion 26, in Sciota, on the Grand River trail. Mason Phelps was a son-in-law of Dr. Laing, and after assisting the latter to start the tavern at Laingsburg, moved to his place upou section 26 in De- cember, 1836. llis widow resides.now in Laingsburg. His brother Milton lives upon the place which the two brothers entered in 1835.

Cornelius Putnam located eighty aeres in section 3 in the summer of 1836, and with Ephraim Pixley came to look at the land. They found also Henry Leach looking at some land he had bought in the same locality. Putnam and

Pixley went back, but Leach remained behind and rolled up the body of a log cabin on section 9, with the assistance of Gideon M. Cross, at that time himself on a land-looking tour. Having put up the house, Leach and Cross returned to Shiawasseetown, whence they had come, and where Leach had been located some little time.

Meanwhile, Cornelius Putnam, having gathered his family and effects, was moving westward, and in October, 1836, landed in Seiota with a wife and five children. He started with an ox-team from New York State, sailed from Buffalo to Detroit in the steamer " North America," and at Detroit, resuming the ox-team, reached the place of his expected settlement three weeks and two days after the start from his New York home. The trip from Buffalo to Detroit was a hazardous one. The steamer had about five hundred people aboard, was crowded with wagons and Western sup- plies, and by reason of rough weather put three times into port for safety. After a tedious passage of eight days they reached Detroit. Barnet Putnam, then a lad of ten, and now living on the old farm, made the entire journey from New York to Sciota (except from Buffalo to Detroit) on foot.

From Detroit, Cornelius Putnam followed the Grand River trail to a point within about six miles of his place, and then struck northward by a blazed-tree path to the Leach place. There he found the eabin which Leach and Cross had rolled up, and into it he placed his family. That done, he took an inventory of his worldly possessions, and found that he was ready to begin his pioneer life in Michigan with an ox-team and wagou, a wagon-load of household goods, one peck of potatoes, and six cents in money. His oldest child was Barnet, aged ten, and that he had got to face the stern reality of his position with all the courage and earnestness he owned was a proposition too plain to be mistaken. For three weeks his family lived iu the Leach cabin without roof, floor, door, or window, and then having completed a bark shanty on his own place in section 3, Putnam moved them into that. Young Bar- net took upon himself what portion he could of the pioneer- ing labors, but he could not call to his aid the philosophy that gave his parents courage, and full many a time and oft shed buruing tears of bitter regret and sorrow over the loss of the comforts of the old home in New York State. More than once, in searching for the cows, would he come upon wolf-tracks, and tremble with fear lest the beasts should devour him before he could get home. For nine weeks Mrs. Putnam saw the face of no white woman after she came to Sciota, and during a week that her husband was absent at Elijah Carpenter's, where he was earning provisions which he had no money to buy, she lived with her children twenty-four hours on nothing but rutabaga soup.

The year 1839 was a year of fever and ague infliction, and many people coming to the Western settlements to locate were frightened back by the deplorable condition of things caused by the disorder. Cornelius Putnam was ill and helpless with ague for nine months, and during that time Mrs. Putnam, besides the care of her household, un- dertook with her sou Barnet (then in his fourteenth year)

* By David Schwartz.

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HISTORY OF SHIAWASSEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

the cultivation of their farm, she driving the oxen and he holding the plow. During that time, for a period of six weeks, they had no other provisions in the house, and all lived on simply potatoes and honey. During the winter of 1836-37, Putnam set ont for Washtenaw County to proeure some wheat and meat, and left his family in a cabiu with blankets in the places of doors and windows. The wolves howled around that lonesome mother and little ones like demons, and brought the climax of misery to them when they bade good-by to their protector. After he began to raise erops Putnam used to go to market either to De- troit, where he could get seventy-five cents in cash for his wheat, or to Owosso, where he had to take half " trade," but most frequently he went to Detroit. For a time he had to go to Pontiae, a distance of seventy miles, to mill, and took a week or more for the trip.

A few weeks after Cornelius Putnam had got domiciled upon his own place Henry Leach came with his family. Leach, as already observed, had been farming in Shiawassee- town, and when he came to Seiota he came well supplied with provisions and abundant conveniences for prosecuting his work. Indeed he not only made matters easy and moderately comfortable for himself, but out of his abundance was enabled to reach out a helping hand to his neighbors, and thus materially lightened their trials and privations. Ilis settlement was made upon seetion 10, where S. N. Pierce now lives, and before his place passed what was known as the Colony road, reaching from the Grand River road to the Rochester Colony. There was considerable travel on that thoroughfare, and Leach entertained such travelers as chose to ask for entertainment, but his favorite patrons were Indians, to whom he dispeused whisky as often as they could furnish an equivalent in trade; and from this source of revenue his profit was no trifle, although the whisky-drinking redskins did get villainously drunk and howl by night and by day while the influence of intexica- tion remained upon them. Even in their drunken orgies, however, they refrained from aggressions, and confined their mischief to frightening women and children. Leach moved to California about 1851, and became a ranehman. One day he was knocked from his horse by the limb of a tree and killed.

Simultaneously with Leach eame also Gideon M. Cross, who made his home on section 9, in the spring of 1837, after living until that time with Henry Leach. Cross was by trade a shoemaker, and without delay prosecuted his shoemaking labors whenever occasion offered. Itis location was on the Colony road, and he kept a house of entertain- ment as well as a shoemaker's shop, by reason of which two departments of industry he was enabled to gain money enough to keep his family from starving while he cleared his land and awaited his first crop.

The summer of 1837 saw the marsh on the Looking- Glass flats abundant with hay, and, like others, Leach and Cross went over there for a supply. They stopped there four weeks consecutively, and during that period Mrs. Cross spent an unhappy, lonesome time. Her cabin was furnished with blankets in the stead of doors and windows, and wolves howled about the place most ferociously. For four weeks

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History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan, Part 69

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