USA > Michigan > Clinton County > History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan > Part 98
USA > Michigan > Shiawassee County > History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan > Part 98
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120 | Part 121 | Part 122 | Part 123 | Part 124 | Part 125
George F. Dutton owned one of the few pairs of horses boasted by the neighborhood, and the business of hauling goods from Detroit to Lyons and other places, which he entered upon soon after his settlement at Lyons, he con- tinued after he located in Dallas. The road now known as the State road follows essentially the path marked by Dexter, Ionia's first settler, when he passed on to his destination and cut out his road as he traveled (wherefore it was known for a long time as the Dexter road) over that highway. Dutton made many a trip as freighter between Detroit and points in Clinton and loma Counties. There was another early road through the town, passing between east and west, upon a line about one mile south of the present line of the Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee Railroad. It was originally intended for the Northern Railroad, the bed of which was constructed in 1837 or thereabouts, but never came to any further conclusion. The line of that road, straightened so as to pass along section-lines, is now a town- ship road.
Off at the north, Andrew R. Vance, one of the Vance families whose members made an important settlement in the locality known as the Plains, came in about the time of Dutton's advent and located on section 4, close to the Vanees of the Plains. He was a bachelor and lived for several years alone in his primitive shanty. His was the first set- tlement in the northern portion of Dallas.
The entrance of the Parks families and the numerical strength of the various branches thereof who became pio- neers in the township marked an event of some conse- quenec in the early history of Dallas. Smith Parks, with a family of seventeen children, led the Parks' advance into Dallas close upon the appearance of the Duttons. Smith Parks and his wife were married at the respective ages of sixteen and fifteen, and, as has been seen, boasted at the time of their settlement in Dallas the possession of a small army of descendants. It is further worthy of remark that of these seventeen children all lived to become men and women. Parks' location was on section 27, upon a portion of the four hundred acres owned by Giles Isham, of Lyons, who in 1837 had sent Simeon McCoy over to make a elearing upon it. Davis Parks, now living in the village of
Fowler at the age of eighty-six, and the oldest living male settler in the town, was the next to follow his brother Smith, and settled likewise upon section 27, on Stony Creek, where there was a mill-site, and where in 1840 he and Smith Parks, Jr., built the first saw-mill in the township. The lumber for the mill they got at Miles Mansfield's mill, on the Looking-Glass in Eagle township, whenee they hauled it over a rough and roadless country. Davis Parks had a considerable lot of supplies to bring in when he settled, and before he could get his goods to his elearing made no less than five trips over the State road, with an ox-team, between Dallas and Oakland County, his former home.
As before mentioned, that State road was much trav- eled. It was chopped out four rods wide, but cleared only two rods, and was for a long time at best a pretty wild and stumpy track. On Smith Parks' place a fine black-walnut, measuring twenty-eight feet in circumference, bordered the highway, and at its foot a flowing spring eheerily in- vited passing travelers to halt. This spot was a favorite one for night encampments, and the spring and walnut-tree came to be gratefully known by many a tired - traveler. Although every man's house was a " house of entertain- ment," there were no licensed inns on the road in Dallas. Those who chose to " keep people" for pay obtained excel- lent financial returns, for entertainment was in demand and the entertained were usually quite willing to pay whatever was asked. Ben Welsh used to keep people very often, and charged them good round prices. When he got a chance to keep a man over night with a pair of oxen, he put up his bill to a couple of dollars or so for the man and an extra dollar for cornstalks enough to fodder the cattle. Some- times he kept parties conveying wagon-loads of money be- tween the Ionia land-office and Detroit, and then he rolled up an account for lodging and subsistence that leaped fairly into the atmosphere of the bonanza world. At a later period stages ran over the road between Portland and points eastward, and the mail was also carried over it, but neither the stage nor the mail-route era lasted very long.
The first child born in Dallas was l'hobe, daughter of . Benjamin Welch, her birth occurring in the spring of 1837. She is now the wife of a Mr. Ballard, of Jackson, Mich., where at last accounts her father, Benjamin Weleh (Dallas' first settler), was also living. The pioneer marriage was celebrated in 1839, at Benjamin Welch's house, on which occasion the bride was Lydia Ann Ayers and the groom Nelson D. Long,-both bride and groom being in the employ of Mr. Welch. The ceremony was performed by 'Squire Cortland Hill, of Bengal. The first death in the town was the tragic taking off of Amasa Dorn, brother- in-law to Smith Parks, with whom he came to the town and made a settlement. Dorn was somewhat noted as a hunter, and for being moreover chronically despondent, but whether for good reason or not cannot be said. He was at all events much disposed to rail at fortune and make him- self desperately unhappy by reflections upon what he was pleased to term " his hard lot." One day, while more than ordinarily depressed, he called one of his children to him, patted her on the head, told her he had made up his mind
416
HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
.
to kill himself, placed the muzzle of his gun against his head, pulled the trigger with his toe, and blew his head to pieces. The incident was of course a sensation in the in- fant settlement, and rather supplanted for a time the prac- tieal considerations of everyday life, for the course of' com- mon events in that neighborhood was naturally simple and even in its flow, and thus roughly disturbed did not soon regain its customary placidity. Dorn was buried upon Cortland Hill's farm in Bengal, where his bones still lic, although the traces of his grave have been swept away by the plowshare.
Davis Parks relates an instance of starvation diet in- flicted upon the Parks families during the absence, in De- troit, of Davis and his brother Smith. They went over to Ionia to sell a cow, and took in part exchange a little bar- ley flour. This happened to be all the flour they could secure, and so leaving it at home they hurried away to De- troit for a larger supply ; but hasten as they would they were six days making the trip, and meanwhile the band of little ones at home had eaten of the barley flour, and were endeavoring to sustain life on roasted leeks, which were not the most palatable food in the world. The struggle was a tough one, and promised to end in disaster, but finally the wanderers appeared with the long-expected flour, and star- vation was averted.
The widow of George F. Dutton, in dwelling upon the ex- periences that assailed the pioneers of Dallas, remarks that hardships were not exceedingly rigorous among those who sturdily and bravely pushed their energies to the tasks be- l'ore them,-that those who tried to do so got along well enough,-and that there were, of course, a sufficiency of those who sought to shirk the serious issues of bread- winning, and found themselves, accordingly, the subjects of privations and suffering, which, instead of rightly charging to their own improvidence and love of ease, they imposed as a complaint against the country and circumstances over which they had no control.
'The earliest school taught in the township was one over which one Sheldon Sherman presided. Sherman was a resident of Oakland County, where Smith Parks had been his neighbor. The latter induced him to come out to Dal- las and open a school, but the recollection of that school by Stephen Parks, one of the pupils, is to the effect that Sher- man was so full of mischief and play that keeping school was a farce that encouraged the scholars in their fondness for sport rather than for book-learning. The school-house was the abandoned cabin of Amasa Dorn, on section 36,- the building in which Dorn killed himself,-and the pupils not more than a half-dozen in number. Smith Parks and Benjamin Welch agreed to pay the school-master and get what they could of other parents to reimburse themselves. Sherman was famous as the man with the club-foot and a most extraordinary taste for dancing and cutting up all sorts of " shines." Just as school was over he would hurry the boys and girls to the school-house green and start himself and them upou a dancing-campaign that endured just as long as the physical forces could bear the burden. IFe was, moreover, inclined to romp with the children during school-hours, and as a consequence they learned very little. Charles Maynard, the second teacher, taught in a school-
house on the State road just east of the Parks saw-mill, and was accounted a pedagogue of much worth. In 1849 a log school-house was built on section 22, and in that house the first teacher was Christina Hutchinson, of Ionia.
Early religious services in the settlement were held by Methodist exhorters, among whom the most prominent were Mr. Deitz and James Moore, of Maple Rapids, and " Bible- back" Reynolds, of the Reynolds settlement in Fonia County. Reynolds was a good deal of a character in those days, and devoted himself earnestly and steadily to the work of furthering publie religious worship wherever it appeared to be in demand.
Among the early settlers in Dallas were some Germans, who drifted into the town by way of Westphalia, and located chiefly south of Stony Creek, where the residents of to-day are ucarly all of German extraction. Among the German pioneers alluded to were John Shaffer, who bought land on section 31, originally improved by Mr. Chamberlain ; Henry Bartow, on section 31; John A. Fedewa, who kept a store at an early date on the southern town line in section 32; the Sniders, Hafners, Dunne- backers, Millers, Lehmans, and others. Richard Welling was an early settler on seetion 25, and the Sargents like- wise, on section 23. Upon section 22, in May, 1847, Ze- bina Rice, of Oakland County, became a settler upon a traet of which George F. Dutton had cleared ten aeres. He used to find a road out of town over the old Northern Railroad bed, and when he did not wish to travel that way he had to manufacture a road of his own. Three miles west of him was ITiram Willis, who had moved into the town in the fall of 1844, at which time also Marcellus Vangeison made a location on the State road, in section 25. South of Vangeison's, on section 35, William Hayes was living in 1845, as was Israel Smith, while on section 36 Samuel Sterns was one of the new comers.
RESIDENT TAX-PAYERS OF DALLAS IN 1845.
Acres. 30
Isane Fifield, section 3
Samuel Fifield .. Personal.
Andrew R. Vanco, section 4.
99
Hiram Dean, section 6. .
162
Orrin Parks, sections 26, 27.
120
Vincent Parks, sections 15, 26. 18C
190
Smith Parks, Jr., section 26.
William tlayes, seetion 35.
Personal.
Marcellus Vangeison, section 25
80
Nathan Bigelow, sections 23, 36 160
Uriah Drake .. Personal.
Samuel Sterns, section 36. 160
Samuel HI. Parks, section 35
80
William Bartow, section 34. 160
Constance Shaw, section 33. 80
Israel Smith, section 35. 80
Henry Bartow, section 31
IGO
l'eter Shaffer, section 32 40
J. A. Fedewa, section 32 20
240 Richard Welling, sections 15-26
Hiram F. Willis, sections 18-17
120
George F. Dutton, section 22
240
Davis Parks, section 27 80
Sidney Parks, section 25
80
Smith Parks, section 26 ...
Alexander Parks
Frederick Myers, living now on section 16, was a farm hand with George F. Dutton in 1852, and remained in Mr. Dutton's employ upwards of ten and a half years. In 1869 he took possession of the farmu he now owns on sections 16
417
DALLAS TOWNSHIP.
and 21, which was at that time an untouched forest. Wil- liam Ilayes, who penetrated the township of Riley as a set- tler as early as 1837, beeame subsequently a moderately early settler in Dallas, and lives now therein upon a place previously settled by Alexander Parks.
THE NORTHERN PORTION OF THE TOWNSHIP.
North of the centre of the township, settlements pro- gressed much more slowly than elsewhere until about 1856, when the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad line traversed that quarter, and ealled settlers to its vicinity in rapidly swelling volume. Andrew R. Vance, who opened bachelor's hall on section 4, was the first settler in that quarter, and on sections 3 and 6 Isaac Fifield and Hiram Dean were early on the ground. One Sever made a begin- ning in 1845 on seetion 17, where J. W. Shumway now lives, and in 1852 Josephus Mundell came to section 14, then a wild tract. Mr. Mundell occupied, with his family, temporary quarters in an abandoned lumberman's shanty that he found hard by on section 11, where somebody had ehopped a five-acre tract. Upon section 14, southward, Sidney Parks and Stephen Parks, with their families, were living at the period of Mr. Mundell's arrival. North of them Peter Strickland was living, on the old Andrew Vance place. Their nearest neighbors on the west were the Severs, on seetion 17, three miles away.
In 1853, P. T. Jolley, now living on section 11, made a location on the south town line of Lebanon, north of where he now lives. James McRoberts, a settler in Westphalia, as early as 1839, had moved to seetion 4 in Dallas before Jolley got in, and a man, by name Seaton, was on the place now occupied by William N. Upson, who came in during 1853. Jolley was a cooper, and made pork-barrels, which he carried over south into the Parks settlement for sale. The road he traveled was a trail he eut out himself, and as he passed straight southward on that line, the first house he encountered was that of a Mr. Smith, just three miles distant from the north town-line. Mr. Jolley says that when he made his settlement in 1853 the neighborhood in which he now lives was but little better than a swamp, and he ventured then the remark that he really would not live there if he could get a farm for nothing. In 1864 he did move there, however, and then found that time had vastly im- proved matters. Following close upon Mr. Jolley, in 1854 and afterwards, came the Mankeys,-Charles and Frederick, -James Pierce, Thomas and James Long, Samuel Sage (April, 1854), G. N. Clark (where Mr. Hyams had made some improvement), the Krugers, Samuel Green, the Wrights, Teiters, Millers, Kincaid, Salisbury, Nowland, and others.
The soil of Michigan gave birth in the pioneer days to many a counterfeiters' den, and although Dallas never cut a very important figure as a bogus neighborhood, there was, nevertheless, a trifling bit of business done on Stony Creek in the matter of manufacturing spurious coin. The coun- terfeiters were a shrewd lot, and kept themselves so shady that despite earnest efforts to unearth them they avoided detection a long time, and turned out counterfeit Mexi- can dollars upon an unsuspecting and innocent publie.
When the search grew so hot that they could remain hidden no longer they made off,-that is, some of them made off, while some less fortunate were captured and eventually eon- veyed to prison. For some reason, however, their punish- ment was light, and as a net result of their operations it is likely they gained mueh profit.
TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION AND LIST OF OFFICERS.
A legislative aet, approved March 19, 1845, detached township 7 north, in range 4 west, from the township of Lebanon and named it Dallas. Davis Parks says that the naming of the town was left to him and George F. Dutton ; that he wished to call it Dallas, in honor of the Viee- President-elect, while Dutton chose Polk, in honor of the newly-elected President ; and that deciding the point by lot he (Parks) won, and thus christened the new township. The widow of George F. Dutton says that her husband upon being asked to circulate a petition for organization, requested the privilege of naming the town, and the privi- lege being accorded him, he chose Dallas, through his admiration for the statesman of that name.
The first township-meeting was held April 23, 1845, at the house of George F. Dutton. The inspeetors of elec- tion were Davis Parks, Vineent Parks, Smith. Parks, Jr., Smith Parks; the moderator George F. Dutton; and the clerk Zebina Riee. The votes cast numbered twenty-seven. The result of the elcetion was as follows :
SUPERVISOR. Votes.
#Davis Parks
Andrew R. Vance ... ... ... 17
10
CLERK.
#Davis Parks
16
Uriah Drake.
10
Orrin Parks.
TREASURER.
*George F. Dutton 17
William Bartow
10
JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.
*George F. Dutton
17
*Smith Parks, Jr
18
*Vincent Parks ..
17
Marcellus Vangeison 10
iliram Dean 10
Uriah Drake.
9
HIGHWAY COMMISSIONERS.
*Morris Parks
27
$Smith Parks, Jr. 17
*Vincent Parks, 17
Isaac Fifield
Israel D. Smith 10
SCHOOL INSPECTORS.
#Georgo F. Dutton ...
17
*Smith Parks, Jr.
William Bartow
Andrew R. Vance.
CONSTABLES.
$Orrin Parks.
24
# William Hayes
17
* Uriah Drake.
Morris Parks 10
# Elected.
53
418
HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
POORMASTERS.
#Smith Parks 25 #George F. Dutton 17 Hiram Dean 10
Richard Welling. 1
HIGHWAY OVERSEERS.
#Hiram Dean. District No. ]
*George F. Dutton
2
#Smith Parks, Jr ..
3
#William Hayes. 66
6€
POUNDMASTER.
#Samuel Sterns ..
Following is a list of persons chosen annually between 1846 and 1880 to be supervisors, clerks, treasurers, and justiees of the peace :
SUPERVISORS.
1846. A. R. Vance.
1860. W. S. Green.
1847. D. Parks.
ISG1-63. G. F. Dutton.
1848. G. F. Dutton.
1864. W. N. Upson.
1849-50. A. R. Vance.
1865. P. Ulrich.
1851. A. Parks.
1866. O. R. Rice.
1852-53. G. F. Dutton.
1867-68. A. Cook.
1854-56. A. Parks. 1869. O. R. Rice.
1857-59. A. Cook. 1870-80. L. W. Baldwin.
CLERKS.
1846. George F. Dutton.
1860-61. J. Parks.
1847. S. Parks, Jr. 1862-63. W. N. Upson.
1848. D. Parks.
1864. M. Vangeison.
1849. G. B. Tripp. 1865. S. W. B. Temple.
1850. D. Parks.
1866. J. Shraft.
1851-53. M. Vangeison. 1867-74. J. F. Shraft.
1851. M. Sargent.
1875. N. H. Geller.
1855-56. A. Cook. 1876. T. B. Mundell.
1857-59. M. Vangeison.
1877-80. J. F. Shraft.
TREASURERS.
1846-47. William Bartow. 1862. C. Gruler.
1848. A. Bentley.
1863. P. Simmons.
1849. J. Parks.
1864. J. P. Fox.
1850. S. Parks, Jr.
1865. J. Miller.
1851. G. F. Dutton.
1866. George Ott.
1852. IT. Sturges.
1867. F. A. Rademacher.
1853. M. Doll.
1868. W. B. Rice.
1851. H. Sturges.
1869-70. J. P. Miller.
1855. M. Vangeison.
1871-73. N. Smith.
1856. W. N. Upson.
1874. M. Schafer.
1857. J. Fedewa.
1875. N. Smith.
1858. 11. Sturges.
1876-77. B. Simmons.
1859. A. Martin.
1878-79. William Luttig.
1860. J. Lance.
1880. James Lance.
1861. J. F. Shraft.
JUSTICES.
1846. 11. Dean.
1859. J. Parks.
1847. D. Parks. 1860. D. Richards.
1848. No record.
1861. T. J. Schonover.
1849. A. R. Vance.
1862. G. W. Parks.
1850. J. Parks.
1863. James Lance.
1851. Iliram Dean.
1864. W. N. Upson.
1852. G. F. Dutton.
1865. S. W. B. Temple.
1853. T. W. Sever.
1866. G. W. Parks.
1854. M. Sargent.
1867. W. N. Upson.
1855. A. Parks. 1868. J. Ludwig.
1856. G. Salisbury.
1869. D. Dutton.
1857. A. Couk. 1870. W. W. Lewis.
1858. G. W. Parks.
1871. G. W. Parks.
1872. J. F. Shraft. 1877. W. N. Upson.
1873. J. D. Burns. 1878. G. Cuddeback.
1874. G. W. Parks. 1879. G. W. Parks.
IS75. J. Bullard. 1880. J. Bullard.
IS76. J. P. Miller.
JURORS FOR 1846.
Grand .- Fayette Bartow, Samuel Sterns, Hiram Dean, William Hayes.
Petit .- Vincent Parks, Jesse Fifield, Israel D. Smith, William Bartow.
THE TREASURER'S REPORT FOR 1846.
William Bartow, town treasurer, presented his annual report March 30, 1847, which shows as follows :
Received from the provious treasurer (contingent funds). ... $13.67
Amount of town orders received from Bartow. 10.50
Collections by the treasurer for contingent funds. 134.97 Collections by the treasurer for school funds. 24.38
Collections hy the treasurer for highway funds .. 128.69
Amount of town orders received of treasurer as collector. 84.87
Amount returned to county
15.57
Amount of school funds returned to county .... 18.43
Amount of highway funds returned to county 122.13
THIE POLL-LIST FOR 1855.
There has been preserved no poll-list antedating the year 1855, when at the annual township-meeting the voters num- bered eighty-five, as follows: James Clark, Jr., Anthony Cook, Alanson Parks, Smith Parks, Orrin Parks, Isaae Sage, Jesse M. Perry, Alanson Eddy, Conrad Martin, George Sargent, Frederick Mires, Richard Smith, Jackson Smith, Thomas Ferris, Mathias Doll, Richard Welling, John Fitzmire, Sinbad Hall, John White, Jr., Samuel H. Parks, Smith Parks, Jr., Philip Cock, Thomas W. Sever, Loren Day, Sidney W. Parks, George Parks, A. B. Horton, Patrick Kelly, N. R. Catlin, W. N. Upson, John Parks, A. W. Williams, P. Mills, T. W. Robinson, Stephen Parks, Mathias Taber, Peter Shafer, Lewis Feldpausch, Jacob Cook, Joseph Fox, John P. Smith, John Shafer, John P. Fox, Peter Fox, Alexander Parks, John George, John Dunlap, Daniel Pierce, Benjamin Snyder, David Richards, Mathias Weber, Mathias Simmons, Joseph Hiller, Garner Salisbury, G. B. Tripp, William Smith, Charles Smith, Frederick Shelhamer, Jacob Abfalter, Joseph Abfalter, Andrew Shuler, Anthony George, John Fedewa, Samuel Green, Miron Sargent, R. C. Whitney, Peter Holfinan, Hiram Briggs, W. R. Rice, S. B. Evans, William Miller, Henry Sturges, George F. Dutton, Mareellus Vangeison, Peter Whitmire, Levi Drake, Peter Strickland, W. G. Green, Joseph Dinerbacher, Henry Hover, Hiram M. Mil- lis, Morris Parks, Anthony Martin, Nathan Bigelow, John Whitmire.
SCHOOLS.
Allusion has already been made to a few of the incidents attendant upon the introduction of schools into the town- ship. The town records containing the history of the pub- lic schools sinee their foundation have disappeared, and all that can be added in the premises follows :
The school inspectors' annual report for 1857 gave the following :
Number of districts (whole, 6; fractional 1) ..... 7
Number of scholars of school age. 252
Average attendance. 140
Teachers' wages. $288.35
* Elected.
419
DALLAS TOWNSHIP.
The books in use in the township schools in 1857 were the Elementary Spelling Book, Saunders' Reader, Smith's Arithmetic, Mitchell's Geography, Smith's Grammar.
The report for 1879 contained the subjoined details :
Number of districts 8
Number of scholars of school age. 579
Average attendance ... 422
Value of school property
$3465.00
Teachers' wages 1748.25
The school directors for 1879 were William Luttig, P. T. Jolley, John Luttig, George Dutton, J. P. Miller, David Douglass, and F. Schemer.
TOWNSHIP ROADS.
The first township road recorded in the Dallas highway- book was recorded May 24, 1846. It was laid by A. R. Vance and Fayette Bartow, commenced at the southwest corner of section 6 and extended thence east on section-line six miles. The road was laid upon the application of Isaac Fifield, Hiram Dean, and James Hall. May 22, 1847, a road was laid out, commencing at the northeast corner of section 27 and running thence one mile on section-line to the northwest corner of section 27. This road was laid out upon the application of Davis Parks, Vincent Parks, Smith Parks, Jr. June 4, 1847, a road was laid on the quarter- line of section 35, running east and west one mile.
Dec. 26, 1842, a road was laid out in town 7, commencing at the northeast corner of section 26, running thence north to the northwest corner of section 1. A second road was laid out the same day, commencing at the northeast corner of sec- tion 16 and extending north on the said line to the road running up between towns 7 and 8.
June 23, 1843, A. R. Vanee and William Barton, high- way commissioners, laid out a road commencing at the State road between sections 27 and 28, and extending south to the town-line between sections 33 and 34. Aug. 7, 1841, the highway commissioners of Lebanon and Westphalia divided the road on the town-line between said townships, and agreed that Lebanon should take three miles of the east end and Westphalia three miles of the west end.
June 10, 1848, J. W. Turner, special commissioner, no- tified the town clerk of Dallas that the portion of the De Witt and Lyons road lying in the township of Dallas com- menced eighty links cast of the southeast corner of section 31, and extended thence north 89 degrees, west 309,10. rods to the southwest corner of said scetion, The annual highway fund of 1854 was divided as follows :
District No. 1
$10
2
25
46
3
19
4
12
"
5
20
6
35
7.
15
8
19
9
20
10
25
$200
THE VILLAGE OF DALLAS.
Late in 1856, or early in 1857, Robert Higham (chief engineer of the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad, then push- ing westward) and E. A. Wales, of Detroit, contracted for the purchase of oue hundred and sixty acres of land lying
on the line of the road, three-quarters of a mile castward of the station now called Fowler, their purpose being to found a village there, as Higham had already settled upon the site as a place for a railway-station which he was to designate as Dallas. The tract was therefore laid out into village lots, and in 1857, when the construction of the rail- way reached that point, Hiram Marsh was appointed station agent, and the Dallas post-office, then in charge of Alanson Parks on Stony Creek, was transferred to the new town. Meanwhile, with an eye single to the rise and progress of the embryo city, E. A. Wales had erceted a hotel and Hi- ram Marsh a store building, while other people, enthused with the prospect of a village, bought a few lots and began to make improvements. Nelson Kuhn opened a small grocery, and a Mr. Branswick, keeping abreast of the spirit of the times, set up in business as a shoemaker. Despite these efforts to trundle the village of Dallas into public favor, the affair was a dismal failure from the first. The surrounding country was so swampy that travel to and from the village, except in the dryest of weather or in the winter season, was a task of difficult accomplishment. As a conse- quence, the inhabitants of the outlying region came in to trade only under pressure of strongest necessity, and Dallas appeared to drag out a wearisome existence under protest.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.