USA > Michigan > St Joseph County > History of St. Joseph County, Michigan; Volume I > Part 14
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Glover, Thomas Welborn, Richard Welborn, Robert Welborn, George Ketcham, Rev. Steele, Henry Steele, William Catton, John Catton, James Shurtz, Charles Cooper, Peter Robinson, Ben Franklin, William Rowan, Matthew Rowan, John J. Davis, Corne- lius Newkirk, Salmon P. Wallace, Cornelius Cooper, Robert Clark, Mrs. Robert Clark, Daniel Shurtz, Thomas Shurtz and Fred Shurtz.
William Glover was the first man to engage in peppermint culture in White Pigeon township, and still had a mill in operation on White Pigeon prairie in 1837. Robert Clark was the govern- ment surveyor who surveyed all of St. Joseph county and much of southern Michigan.
John Hotchin, harnessmaker; J. W. Cloys, furniture and un- dertaker; John Bowers, William Broadley and William Bycroft, pioneer blacksmiths, and W. O. Austin, druggist and postmaster for many years, all came in the thirties.
Here are a few more of the old settlers: Selden and Almon Martin, Alanson and Hart L. Stewart, John and George Hawkins and Almeron Markham.
ROBERT CLARK, THE SURVEYOR.
The survey of all this part of Michigan was made by Robert Clark, now buried in the cemetery at White Pigeon. The ceme- tery was originally located on his farm, and his residence was on the Chicago road, near where the old Presbyterian church was located previous to its removal and destruction by fire. Mr. Clark's house was erected about 1837, about the time the first sugar-beet factory in the United States was built, on White Pigeon river, at White Pigeon.
In 1849, after Mr. Clark's death, his wife and two sons re- moved to Chicago and purchased a dairy farm near the city, which afterward became a part of Clark street, and made them immensely wealthy. One of the sons, John M. Clark, is living there yet; for years a leading merchant, capitalist and public man.
CHIEF WHITE PIGEON AND INDIAN PRAIRIE.
White Pigeon was named for the noted Indian chief, White Pigeon, who ran from Detroit to White Pigeon to warn the white settlers of the impending danger of the massacre and war to be
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made on the whites by the noted Pottawatomie chief, Black Hawk. The vigorous effort cost him his life, and he was buried one mile west of White Pigeon, on the Chicago road at Red Ferns Four Corners, on the southeast corner. A monument has been erected there, made of the native rock and of large proportions, bearing an appropriate inscription. It was dedicated in August, 1909, with
{BEYEME
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WHITE PIGEON'S GRAVE
very imposing ceremonies, many of the Indians being present who comprise the remnant of the tribes remaining in Michigan. A large procession marched to the grave, with bands of music and many decorated four-horse wagons loaded with ladies of the Alba Columba Club, who claimed the distinction of causing the monu- ment to be erected and gathering the people for such a great ova- tion. Many in the procession were mounted on fine horses, dressed and equipped in full Indian costumes, with war-paint on their
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faces. Excellent addresses were made by ladies of the club and citizens, and responded to by the Indians in their native language, who also rendered native songs suitable to the occasion. This was one of the greatest days White Pigeon ever witnessed.
As stated, Indian prairie, one mile south of White Pigeon vil- lage, was the great camping ground and village of the Pottawa- tomie Indians. There they had permanent wigwams, where they always stopped in their migrations from north to south; forward and back two or three times annually. They were under the guid- ance of White Pigeon and others, and William Naggs, a white man, as interpretor; for he could speak the Indian language fluently. His was the first white child buried in White Pigeon cemetery.
ITEMS BY WILLIAM BAIR.
The Indian name of White Pigeon was Katakee-qui-nawk, and means "White Pigeon." The name for Prairie Ronde was Wau- ash-quitak, meaning "round fire." Nottawa-seepe means "in comes the river." All names for prairie end in a word which means "fire" (Squetak), the Indians having seen them on fire. Gull Prairie, "Am-sam-quitak."
St. Joseph river was named "Saw-gau-seepe." An old Indian told me that two squaw twins were drowned in this river, from which circumstances the river received its name.
Judge Bazil Harrison was the first settler on the Prairie Ronde, where he located in November, 1828.
J. Fennimore Cooper took, as some state, the brother of Mr. Bair (John Bair), as the "Bee Hunter" in his "Oak Openings." The author and Mr. Bair, at an early date, ate ripe cherries to- gether in Kalamazoo. Mr. Harrison was one of the characters in this same book.
The next settler after Mr. Harrison was Henry Whipple, a son-in-law of Mr. Harrison. The fourth man was Christopher Bair, and then came Delamore Duncan, Erastus Gilford, Daniel Wil- mouth and Abraham S. Schaffer, a very eccentric man and a great story-teller and joker. One of his stories seems worth relating : "There came, in this early day, a company of people from Caven- dish, somewhat more intelligent than the rest of the community. There lived a man, Jim Smith, an intelligent grocer and general storekeeper, who died. The wife of Abraham Schaffer was Sally. When Abraham came back from the funeral his wife said, 'Well,
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Abraham, what did they do at the funeral?' Abraham described the letting down of the old man-shaped coffin (not like the modern casket) and said: 'All Cavendish walked around the grave and each deposited a letter in the open coffin.' 'What in the world did they do that for ?' asked Sally. 'Well, I presume they thought that Jim would go back to Cavendish, and could take the letters back without postage.' " They used to pay 25 cents a letter.
William Bair was an early resident of White Pigeon, his father having taken up the claim on which now stands the village of White Pigeon. The claim was taken up by staking it out, in the summer of 1828, the first year of Jackson's administration. His father was a very patriotic man, who could not forbear getting down from the load drawn by oxen, and from time to time, shout- ing "hurrah! for Jackson." They spent the winter just east of this place, on Crooked creek, near what is now the Chicago road.
WEBSTER'S VISIT TO WHITE PIGEON. BY MRS. A. E. KELLOGG.
The old Presbyterian church was erected and built the summer of 1834, and completed, ready for the dedication services, on Janu- ary 1, 1835. The Rev. P. W. Warriner, of Monroe, accepted a call to fill the pulpit and became their pastor; it was a New Year's gift to the people. The house was completed, and it was commodious and comfortable. It was topped out with an old-fashioned steeple, the dome of which, being covered with bright tin, flashed back the sunlight, while the fish, somewhat out of its element at the top of the spire, served as a weather-vane. My father put them up, as the mechanics did not dare to go "before the mast." A look-out, made safe by a railing, was constructed on four sides under the belfry. This was a favorite resort for those who wished to get a view of White Pigeon and its surroundings. A pleasant little inci- dent in this connection may not be without interest.
It was July, 1836, Independence day had come and gone, wit- nessing a patriotic demonstration in the lively little village. The afternoon of the fifth found the hotel, then kept by Samuel Pratt, on the corner of Main and Kalamazoo streets, still in confusion and crowded, when a hackney coach halted in front of the house, and the landlord was electrified by the announcement that Daniel Web- ster (then at the zenith of his fame) was without, desiring accom-
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modation. Not a room in his house was in order and he was at his wits' end. In his perplexity he rushed across the street to the store of H. and C. Kellogg and asked what he should do. Mr. H. Kellogg solved the problem shortly by walking over to the hotel and, after an introduction, mounting the seat beside the driver di- rected him to his own gate, where he left them while he entered to inform me of the honor which awaited me.
I had seen the coach drive up from my chamber window, but did not dream of such an august party as it contained. So it was with much trepidation that I descended to receive Hon. Daniel Webster, his wife and daughter. Horses and coach were soon housed in the ample barn, which has since disappeared, and the travelers after a little rest, came down to the parlor where we en- joyed a delightful afternoon. After an early tea we all went out for a walk, and I must confess to a feeling of pride, just a little tempered with dread, when the great statesman offered me his arm, while my husband took his place beside Mrs. Webster; Miss Julia being accompanied by Miss Ranger (afterwards Mrs. Edwin Kellogg), who was with me at the time as a companion. After looking about the town, we came to the church, and mounting the stairs, found ourselves on the landing, with a view of the broad acres which, under the skillful cultivation of their owners, made a picture of beauty and thrift not often equaled. My husband seemed as proud as if they had been all his own when Mr. Webster exclaimed: "How beautiful! Never before have I seen such a garden as this."
1
CHAPTER VIII.
OLD WHITE PIGEON CONTINUED.
MOTTVILLE TOWNSHIP OF TO-DAY-QUIMBY AT THE GRAND TRAV- ERSE-FIRST FARMS OPENED-MOTTVILLE VILLAGE PLATTED- FIRST BRIDGE A GOOD ADVERTISER-ONCE A GREAT SHIPPING POINT-LOCKPORT TOWNSHIP-JACOB MCINTERFER, FIRST SET- TLER-GEORGE BUCK AND HOTEL-"ECHOL'S" RISE AND FALL -EARLY MILL ENTERPRISES-FIRST FARMS-MOAB AND ST. JOSEPH VILLAGES-THREE RIVERS PLATTED-FIRST TOWN MEETING AND OFFICERS-BEGINNING OF THINGS-LOCKPORT BOAT BUILDING AND BOATING-TOWNSHIP OF CONSTANTINE- MEEK'S MILLS OR CONSTANTINE-JUDGE MEEK SURVEYS CON- STANTINE-THE CITY'S EARLY MANUFACTURES-FIRST TOWN MEETING-NATURAL FEATURES-FLORENCE TOWNSHIP-EAR- LIEST SETTLEMENTS-ALVIN CALHOON-BANNER MINT AND OIL TOWNSHIP-FABIUS TOWNSHIP-STUDDED WITH SPARKLING LAKES-FIRST PERMANENT SETTLER-FIRST ELECTIONS AND OFFICERS.
The topics covered in this chapter are the present townships of St. Joseph county, other than that of White Pigeon, which were included in the territory of the original township by that name, viz .- Mottville, Lockport, Florence, Constantine and Fabius, men- tioned in the chronological order of their first settlement.
MOTTVILLE TOWNSHIP OF TO-DAY.
In 1833 Buck's township was set off from old White Pigeon township, its territory covering the present area of Fabius and Lockport, and in 1837 the balance of the original township was erected into Mottville, Constantine, Florence and White Pigeon.
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Its present area includes 13,018 acres of land surface, of which 1,600 acres were of the original White Pigeon prairie, the balance being occupied by the burr and white oak openings. The town- ship is drained by the White Pigeon and St. Joseph rivers. The Pigeon enters section 15 from the east, and pursues a tortuous, but generally westwardly course, through the eastern, central and southwestern portions of the township, joining the St. Joseph river in section 28. The latter forms nearly the entire western boundary of the township, cutting across the northwestern quar- ter of section six, north of the former village of Mottville. There is only one body of water in the township which can by any stretch of the imagination be dignified by the name of lake, occupying a portion of the southwest quarter of section 11.
QUIMBY AT THE GRAND TRAVERSE.
The commencement of settlement in Mottville township came about from the fact that the Grand Traverse of the St. Joseph river-the point where the Chicago trail crossed that stream-was so well known by travelers for years before they considered the country a safe abiding place for the white man. Joseph Quimby was the first to permanently reside on the site of what was for ten years a growing and promising village. For some months of 1828 he remained the only white settler of the locality, but in August of that year was joined by Levi Beckwith, with his wife and four children. The third settler was John Bear, who came late in the same year and built a cabin, but subsequently sold his location and moved into Constantine, and thence to the lake in Cass county to which he gave his name.
In the spring of 1829 Joel Stevenson and Elias Taylor added themselves to the little settlement at the Grand Traverse, and in the same year Aaron Brooks and the Odells-Nathan, Thomas and James-came from Ohio and made locations in section 24, in the extreme southewestern portion of the township, east of the White Pigeon. Mr. Brooks brought his family with him.
FIRST FARMS OPENED.
The first farm in Mottville township was opened by Levi Beckwith in 1829. A little later, in the same year, Aaron Brooks broke ground for the second farm, and harvested the first crop
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of wheat in 1830. Elias Taylor, the oldest Indian trader at the Traverse, planted the first nursery from which an orchard commenced to bear in 1829.
In August, 1829, Solomon Hartman and his family arrived in the western part of White Pigeon prairie and located in the present township of Mottville. They came from Ohio. In the following year, Thomas Burns, of Pennsylvania, located in sec- tion 12; in 1832, Andrew Thomas, a Buckeye state man, opened a farm in section 13, and in the same year William Cook, of New York, located two and a half miles east of the village.
MOTTVILLE VILLAGE PLATTED.
The plat of Mottville village was first surveyed May 31, 1830, by Orange Risdon and John R. Williams, proprietors of section 6. At the time, the site contained as its sole building the log hut built by Quimby immediately after his arrival. Soon after the platting of the village, Elias Taylor, the old Indian agent (also first sheriff of the county) built a frame house, and as it was not followed by another structure until 1833 it poses in local history as the first store, the first tavern and the first postoffice of Mottville village.
FIRST BRIDGE A GOOD ADVERTISER.
Hart L. Stewart built a more pretentious tavern, in 1833, as well as a good bridge spanning the St. Joseph river. The latter gave Mottville its first real start as a village, as the bridge was one of the most substantial in southern Michigan. The sixteen thousand feet of timber built into it were furnished by Solomon and John Hartman; some of the pieces were "sixty feet in length and eighteen inches square," and the entire cost was about $5,000! From the first, it was a regular Brooklyn bridge for Mottville, and stood well until its displacement in 1845 by a still more elaborate affair. The third bridge was finished in 1867.
John R. Williams and Hart L. Stewart were the chief pro- prietors of the original site of Mottville village. The former was a Detroit gentleman and, as is quite likely to be the case with for- eign land owners, he retarded the early growth of the town by holding his interest at an exorbitant price, especially when he found that the local proprietor, Mr. Stewart, was anxious to buy.
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
ONCE A GREAT SHIPPING POINT.
Despite these early drawbacks, Mottville was a flourishing place from 1840 to 1850; soon afterward came the railroad (which branched away from it, both north and south), which gave it the cold shoulder and froze it to death.
The leading feature of the former prosperity of the village was its facilities for transportation, it being the great freight depot of southern Michigan for water traffic. The keel-boats ran up to the village from the mouth of the St. Joseph river, propelled by man-worked poles. These were followed by steam- boats, which landed their freight at the Mottville docks, where it was taken over by the stages which tapped the place either for Detroit or Chicago. Bulky freight, of course, was handled entirely by water transportation, and at one time it is stated that fourteen thousand barrels of flour were lying at Mottville await- ing the opening of spring navigation.
One of the earliest enterprises in the village was a distillery, which was established by Henry Heywood in 1829, and conducted by him for about fifteen years. The Stewarts built the first warehouse in the village and the second store, and brought in the second stock of goods. Kellogg & Paine also were in trade in the flush days before 1835, and Stewart kept the hotel in 1835 and John Newells after 1840.
In 1830, when the village was first platted, Hart L. Stewart was appointed postmaster. Now, with the co-operation of rural free delivery, the few who are left on the old site of Mottville are accommodated by the Constantine and White Pigeon post- offices.
Rev. Erastus Felton, the Methodist missionary, provided the first preaching to Mottvillites, in 1829, services being held in Conrad Cook's dwelling house and at Stewart's hotel. Rev. Thomas Odell came from Ohio, in the spring of that year, and settled in Mottville, where he continued the good work for some time. Finally, he moved to Fort Scott, Kansas, where he died in 1872.
LOCKPORT TOWNSHIP.
On March 29, 1833, the area now included in the townships of Lockport and Fabius was constituted a separate township under the name of Buck's, in honor of George Buck, the first Vol. I-11
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and only hotel keeper in the township, as well as its first justice of the peace appointed by Governor Porter, April 3rd of that year. In 1840 Lockport was erected into a separate body, with its present area of 22,897 acres, of which only 120 are water sur- face, consisting almost entirely of the St. Joseph river with its branches, the Portage, Rocky and Hog creek, or (more euphoni- ously) Prairie river. The union of the Portage and' Rocky rivers with the St. Joseph at Three Rivers gives the city its name.
The St. Joseph river takes a diagonal course through the township in a general direction from southwest to northeast, entering section 30 from Fabius and departing through section 1 toward Mendon. The Rocky comes into the township from the west, within the corporate limits of Three Rivers, and also joins the St. Joseph within the city limits. The Portage comes from the north, its two branches draining Park township before they unite in the northwest quarter of section 4, Lockport township, flowing in a united stream southwest to the St. Joseph at Three Rivers, just above the junction of the Portage. Prairie river, but still known to the old settlers by the more homely name of Hog creek, comes in from the east, just north of Centerville, or section 24, Lockport township, and flows southwest and west through the two southern tiers of sections, and forms a junction with the St. Joseph in the southwest quarter of section 30. A portion of Fisher's lake also lies in the northern part of the township.
JACOB MCINTERFER, FIRST SETTLER.
The first settlement made within the present limits of Lock- port township was by Jacob McInterfer and family, who, in the spring of 1829, selected a square mile of land on the west side of Rocky river, within which is now included a portion of the Third ward of Three Rivers. Returning, then, to his home in Wayne county, in the following spring he brought his wife and several daughters to the locality, drew up his wagons on his claim and fixed them as comfortably as he could, while he proceeded to build a shanty between two trees for cooking and a substantial hewn log house for the accommodation of the family. Mr. Mc- Interfer died in 1831.
GEORGE BUCK AND HOTEL.
George Buck and family were the next to locate permanently, coming in the spring of 1830 and to make their homestead upon
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
land which is now a portion of the Second ward of Three Rivers. Mr. Buck erected a double log house, so large that he used a part of it as the pioneer hotel of the township. His tavern was long a popular resort of the sociably and politically inclined. The first convention held in the county convened at Buck's hotel, and it is still a matter of pleasant record that Mrs. Buck pre- pared a bountiful dinner for seventy-five guests.
"ESCHOL'S" RISE AND FALL.
Charles B. Fitch, afterward county judge, came from White Pigeon prairie in 1831 and entered two hundred acres in sec- tion 31, lying in the extreme southwestern part of the township and including a valuable mill privilege on Hog creek. Here the judge completed a saw-mill in 1832, afterward adding a small set of stones for grinding purposes. R. M. Welch set a carding machine in operation in 1838, as well as a shingle mill, and for several years the village of "Eschol" represented the most promising industrial hamlet outside of Three Rivers. But trade and population seemed to set irresistibly toward the point at the junction of the Three Rivers which enjoyed the greater nat- ural water power, and the final blow which spelled ruin for Eschol was the going out of its dam in 1840.
EARLY MILL ENTERPRISES.
Soon after the death of Mr. McInterfer, Michael Beadle bought the mill privilege of the deceased on the west side of Rocky river, and completed the unfinished saw-mill in 1832. In 1833 John H. Bowman made an examination of the mill priv- ileges at the junction of the rivers, entered lands on the present site of the city, and brought his family to reside thereon in 1834. In September, 1833, Phillip H. Hoffman, with his family of seven children, located in what would now be the First ward of Three Rivers. Both Mr. Bowman and Mr. Hoffman came from Pennsylvania and were large and successful farmers in the early years.
John M. Leland was an arrival of 1833, also, making his location in sections 2 and 11, on either side of the St. Joseph river and in the northeastern part of the township.
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
FIRST FARMS.
When Jacob McInterfer put in a crop of corn and potatoes, in the spring of 1829, he opened the first farm in Lockport town- ship. George Buck followed with a crop in 1830. In 1833 Mr. Hoffman cleared and broke up five acres of his farm and ten during the following year, planting to corn, potatoes and buck- wheat.
MOAB AND ST. JOSEPH VILLAGES.
The village of Three Rivers came into being about the same time as the first farms of the township. On July 28, 1830, while the territorial commissioners were trying to decide upon a fitting location for the county seat, one Christopher Shinnaman laid out a village plat on the northwest quarter of section 19, which he called Moab. The location was near the center of the county, at the meeting of its chief waterways; and on the 30th of June, 1831, George Buck and Jacob McInterfer, prompted by the manifest ad- vantages of the location for both an industrial town and a county seat, laid out the village plat of St. Joseph on the northeast quarter of the same section which included Moab. In the fall of that year, when the governor issued his proclamation announcing Center- ville as the county seat, Moab was turned into a corn field, and, although St. Joseph was disappointed, it continued in the running, with good men behind it.
THREE RIVERS PLATTED.
On November 25, 1836, John H. Bowman platted the village of Three Rivers on section 18, and in the following month George Buck, Jonathan Brown, Benjamin Sherman, Edward Pierson and L. B. Brown laid out the new plat known as Lockport village. The proprietors of the latter projected a canal and an immense water power. Bowman's Three Rivers embraced the present First ward, between the Portage and Rocky rivers, and Lockport be- came the Second ward of the future city. "Canada," or the Third ward, was included in the old McInterfer tract, on the west side of the Rocky river.
FIRST TOWN MEETING AND OFFICERS.
On the 11th of April, 1833, while Lockport township, as it is now known, was still a corporate part of Buck's township, the first
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town meeting within the present limits was held at Buck's tavern, which was known as the Half Way House, between White Pigeon and Prairie Ronde. Mr. Buck himself, the newly-appointed justice of the peace, conducted the election, and the seventeen votes cast, resulted in the choice of the following officers: Michael Beadle, supervisor ; Heman Harvey, clerk; C. B. Fitch, James Whited and Alanson C. Stewart, assessors; David Beadle, Jr., constable and collector; Eleazur Lancaster, constable; Garrett Sickles, James Whited and Thomas H. Fitch, commissioners of highways; C. B. Fitch, poormaster; Thomas Knall and George Buck, fence-viewers; and Gideon Ball, Hiram Harwood, Levi Griswold and J. W. Coffin- bury, path-masters.
As fifteen officers were elected at this first meeting by seven- teen voters, it is evident that two worthy citizens were crowded out from the office-holding list.
In 1840, when Buck's township was divided and Lockport came into being, the following officers were in service : C. B. Fitch, supervisor ; B. Osgood, clerk; and George Buck, Cyrus Ingerson, B. Osgood and Ezra Cole, justices of the peace.
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