USA > Michigan > St Joseph County > History of St. Joseph County, Michigan; Volume I > Part 16
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The first school-house in the township was built of logs, in 1833, and stood on the edge of the woods on the south line of section 35, on the site of the farm owned long afterward by Lewis K. Brodie. After being used for several years as a meet- ing house and a Sunday-school, as well as for public school pur- poses, it was destroyed by fire. William F. Arnold taught the second school built by the township on section 34, his experience therein commencing in the winter of 1843-4 and his pay being fifty cents per day.
The first saw-mill in the township was erected by Michael Beadle, in the spring of 1835, and was located near the mouth of
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Lake run about one mile from Three Rivers. The second saw- mill was built by Jasper and Barnabas Eddy, on the same stream, in the fall of 1837.
James Valentine erected the first frame house in the town- ship, on the farm afterward owned by William Hartman, and the lumber used in its construction was sawed at the Beadle mill. This historic structure was completed in the spring of 1836.
The first mower and reaper (an old Kirby) was brought into the township, in 1842, by Garrett Sickles (great self-control re- quired to prevent a play upon the name).
Vol. 1-12
CHAPTER IX.
OLD SHERMAN TOWNSHIP.
THE TOWNSHIP AS NOW-EARLY SETTLERS-LANDS, TAXES AND PRODUCTS-CULTIVATION OF MINT-OFFICIAL ROSTERS-ROADS AND POSTOFFICES-SCHOOLS AND ATTENDANCE-POPULATION- POLITICAL RECORD-FAWN RIVER TOWNSHIP-JUDGE STURGIS- OTHER EARLY LOCATIONS-FIRST POSTMASTERS-RISE OF MANUFACTURES-PIONEER ELECTION AND ROADS-PROPERTY AND VALUATIONS-EX-VILLAGE OF FREEDOM-WARFARE AND MURDER-CAPT. TOLL AND FAWN RIVER VILLAGE-FRANCIS FLANDERS, FATHER AND SON-TINY TOWNSHIP-STURGIS, LAST TOWNSHIP-SAD COMING OF A PIONEER-GEORGE BUCK'S DEATH-FIRST HOTELS-NOTTAWA TOWNSHIP-JUDGES CON- NOR AND STURGIS-INTRODUCTION OF FRUITS, ETC .- CENTER- VILLE PLATTED-TOWNSHIP OF COLON-SHELLHOUSE BROTHERS -COLON VILLAGE-BURR OAK TOWNSHIP-HASLET AND SNOW -FIRST FRAME RESIDENCE-TOWNSHIP IN GENERAL.
Sherman was one of the original three townships which constituted the county of St. Joseph as it is known today, and when organized November 5, 1829, included the area of the pres- ent townships of Sherman, Sturgis, Fawn River, Burr Oak, Colon and Nottawa. The last township to be taken from the orig- onal territory, reducing Sherman to its present dimensions, was Sturgis, in 1845.
THE TOWNSHIP AS NOW.
Sherman is now a full government township; that is, thirty- six square miles, or 23,040 acres, and is known to the United States survey as township 7, south of range 10 west.
The township has five well known lakes, all of which con- tain a good assortment of fine fish. They are as follows: Chapin
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
lake, named after David Chapin, an old settler living on its banks; Cross lake, named after Abel Crossman, who settled on a farm in its vicinity about 1840; Thompson lake, named after Elijah Thompson, who settled near it at an early date; Johnson lake, thus named from Mr. Johnson's settlement near it at an early day; Fish lake, so named from the fact of its abounding in the different varieties of fine fish; Crotch lake, from its pe- culiar crotch-like shape; Middle lake, so named from the fact that it lies between Klinger's lake, in White Pigeon township, and Thompson's lake, in Sherman.
Sherman township is generally rolling; some parts, quite hilly. The soil is a rich clay loam, intermixed with sand and sandy loam. It was originally covered with timber, known as white oak openings. There is a small per cent of prairie land mixed throughout the township. The soil is well adapted to wheat, corn, oats, clover and fruits, especially apples, peaches and the various kinds of small fruit. Peppermint and other materials for essential oils are grown and manufactured in the township.
EARLY SETTLERS.
Most of the first settlers of the Sherman were of English extraction and from the eastern states. But at the present writ- ing three-fourths are German and of German extraction and their honesty, frugality and quick assimilation of American progressive methods mark them as a most valuable and enter- prising element in the population of St. Joseph county.
The first white settler who took up his permanent habitation within the present limits of Sherman township was Thomas Cade, Sr., a native of Yorkshire, England, born at Wellington, near the city of Hull. He selected for his future home five eight- acre lots on section 36 and having an abundance of the best of timber to select from, he built perhaps the largest and best log house ever erected in the county, costing him one hundred dol- lars in gold, which sum in those days was regarded as quite an outlay. He broke up the first land in the months of August and September, 1830, and sowed twenty acres of wheat. Mr. Cade's family, when he arrived in the new settlement, consisted of his wife, four sons, Thomas, Joseph, Samuel and Stephen W., and one daughter, Mary. Charles E. Cade and grandson now own the old homestead and live upon it.
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
Among those who came soon after Mr. Cade were David Petty and wife, who also settled on section 36, early in the year 1831, and a man by the name of Johnson-an old bachelor who settled on section 35 the same year. Another of the early set- tlers was Mrs. John Gifford, who came from Lenawee county in 1836. She afterward moved to Sand Lake, Nottawa.
LANDS, TAXES AND PRODUCTS.
The first farm in the township was that of Thomas Cade, Sr., established in 1830-31.
The first lands were entered at the general land office in 1830 and were as follows: The southeast quarter of section 35, by William Johnson, of Scotland, June 7th; the southeast quarter of section 36, by Robert Storr, of England, July 15th; the south- west quarter of section 36, by Thomas Cade, of England, July 15th; the west half of the northwest quarter of section 36, by David Petty, of England, September 27, 1830.
There were but four entries made the succeeding year.
The taxes for township purposes in 1830 amounted to thirty- five dollars; in 1852, three hundred and twenty-eight dollars and fifteen cents; in 1876, including schools, three thousand nine hundred and seventeen dollars and four cents.
In 1873 there was harvested in the township nearly thirty- seven thousand bushels of wheat. There were also grown fifty- two thousand six hundred bushels of corn, and upward of five thousand bushels of other grain, and nearly twelve thousand bushels of potatoes and nine hundred tons of hay, as well as five thousand pounds of wool, eighty-five thousand pounds of pork, fifty thousand pounds of butter and cheese and six thousand pounds of dried fruit. Four hundred and thirty-six acres of orchard produced twelve thousand bushels of apples, valued at four thousand one hundred dollars. In 1873 there were owned in the township four hundred and ninety horses, fifteen mules, upward of seven hundred head of cattle, eight hundred hogs and one thousand sheep.
The taxes paid by the citizens of Sherman for the year 1908 were: State tax, one thousand four hundred and ninety-seven dollars; county tax, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-two dollars; township tax, seven hundred dollars; highway tax, nine
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
hundred and twenty-one dollars; school tax, six hundred and ninety-six dollars.
CULTIVATION OF MINT.
The cultivation of mint was first introduced into Sherman township by Mero Jones, who settled in the township in 1838. This first mint crop was planted in 1846. The roots of pepper- mint were brought from a farm owned at that time by William Jones, of Centerville, now deceased. The crop of 1876 was about five thousand pounds. Mero Jones and his son Charles were the largest mint growers and distillers for a number of years. For the past year there has been grown by Charles Johnson and others in the township about ten thousand pounds of peppermint, tansy, wormwood and spearmint oils.
OFFICIAL ROSTERS.
The first township meeting was held at the house of John B. Clark, in the village of Sherman (now Sturgis) in April, 1830, Amos Howe being moderator. It is impossible to give names of officers elected and other data, on account of the records being burned on the night of May 7, 1841.
The supervisors have been as follows: John Sturgis, 1830; Jason Thurston, 1831-33; John Parker, 1834-41; Phillip H. Buck, William Henry, Harry H. Brezee, Levi E. Thompson, Salathial C. Coffinbury, George Buck, George Keech, George W. Warren, David Oakes, Stephen M. Cade, seven years; Samuel Tyler and H. C. Hopkins, five years; Caston Everett, John Kasdorf and Fred Kruger (present incumbent).
Township clerks: William Fletcher, 1830; John Parker, 1831- 33; Phillip N. Buck, 1834-36; Levi Holmes, 1841; J. C. Waite, Jeremiah H. Jones, Theodore Jones, Erastus Chapin; S. W. P. Hadden, George Taylor, George W. Warren, Thomas Wing, George W. Richards, A. C. Van Vleck, N. H. Gurney, Henry W. Pearsall, James Douglass, Thomas Perrin, Josiah Metzger, John A. Bancker, James H. Fonda, Gaston Everett, J. A. P. Mason, John Farrow, Joseph Farrow, John I. Taylor and Henry Yabel (present incumbent).
John Sturgis, Amos Howe and William Hazzard were the first highway commissioners, in 1830.
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
Justices of the peace : James Rolfe, 1836 (six years) ; Andrew Perrin, Harry H. Brezee (twelve years); Levi E. Thompson, Wilson D. Oviatt, Nathan H. Gurney (eight years) ; S. S. John- son, George Keech (fourteen years) ; George Buck, Erastus Chapin, S. C. Coffinbury, David Oakes, Stephen W. Cade, A. C. Van Vleck (six years) ; John H. Millard, Joseph A. Millard, Daniel N. Thompson, Darius Gee (eight years) ; Gilson Everton. Harvey Avery, Thomas Wing, Floris Bancker, Warren Palmer, Joseph Weber, Julius E. Fenn, William T. North, James M. White, Josiah Metzger, Theron Wilson (three years) ; John A. Bancker, Beers Wilson, Reuben J. Miller, John Kasdorf, Joseph Sweetland (three years) ; Thomas Sturgis, Christian Yelt, Frank Stuba, Christian Walter, Christian Yabel and Charles Frays.
Phillip Buck was elected justice of the peace in 1837. He held his office in the village of Sturgis until that township was set off in 1845, and was the leading justice of his day in the township. In 1838 he had two hundred and sixty-three cases on his docket. His first suit dated November 10, 1837, was one of Isaac Tyler vs. Elisha Bennett, which was called for trial November 20th, and judgment entered by confession for thirty-four dollars and forty cents damage and one dollar seventy-seven cents costs.
Oliver Raymond and Hiram Humphrey were appointed jus- tices by Governor Porter on April 17, 1833.
ROADS AND POSTOFFICE.
The first road laid out was ordered by the highway commis- sioners in 1830, from the Indiana line running north through Ox- bow and Sturgis prairies, to the north line of township 6, range 10, now Nottawa. The route was subsequently adopted by the com- missioners for the territorial road from the same point to Grand Rapids, which was surveyed in 1833. The road was surveyed by Robert Clark, Jr., who received six dollars therefor, the road being over fifteen miles in length. Benjamin Sherman was granted a li- cense to keep a tavern on this road.
A postoffice was established in the northeast part of the town- ship in 1837, A. Thompson being postmaster, but there has been no postoffice for a good many years.
A United States signal station was erected on section 22 and for a number of years Old Prob. sent prognostications to the Weather Bureau.
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
The Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad, running through the township from north to south, was constructed in 1870. The Goshen and Battle Creek Railroad runs through section 36 from north to south. It was constructed some time in the "eighties."
OTHER FIRST THINGS.
The first frame house was erected in Sherman township and was built by Thomas Cade on the present site of the residence of his grandson, Charles Cade.
A saw-mill was built by D. P. Robinson in 1860, but permanent saw-mills are not now needed.
The first marriage in Sherman township was that of William Stewart, Jr., to Mary Cade, in the fall of 1831. They removed to Madison, Wisconsin, immediately after getting married and after- ward to Chicago, where Mrs. Stewart died in 1838.
The first birth was that of William, son of David and Fanny Petty, in 1833. He died quite young.
According to best obtainable information the first death was that of William Leonard, who died in 1838.
The first burying ground was the one now in Sturgis. It was used as a family burying ground as early as 1833, although not sur- veyed and laid out as a cemetery until 1839. It was surveyed by John Kums. The first interment in it was a Mr. Johnson, an early settler who lived on the banks of the lake which bears his name.
The first preaching in the township was held in private houses by Rev. Christopher Carey, a Presbyterian minister. Meetings were frequently held at the residence of George Buck. A large brick church was erected by the Lutherans in the eighties, which is at present used and well attended.
TOWNSHIP SCHOOLS AND ATTENDANCE.
The first school-house erected in Sherman was in the present district No. 1. It was first taught by Harriet Foote in 1843, she having thirteen scholars and receiving thirteen dollars for her work.
The first division of the township into school districts took place on the 29th of May, 1841, as follows:
District No. 1, to contain sections 17, 18, 7, 8, 6, 5 and the west half of sections 4, 9 and 16, township 8, south of range 10,
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
west; also the southeast quarter of southeast quarter and the north half of the southeast quarter and the east half of the southwest quarter of section 32.
District No. 2: Sections 2, 3, 10 and 11, and the north half of section 15, the east half of sections 4 and 9, and the northeast quar- ter of section 16.
District No. 3: Sections 1 and 12, township 8 south, range 10 west, and also the west half of section 6, township 8, south of range 9 west.
District No. 4: Sections 13 and 14, the south half of section 15, the southeast quarter of section 16, the northeast quarter of section 21 and the north half of sections 22, 23 and 24.
District No. 5: Sections 24, 25 and 36 and the northeast quar- ter of section 26, township 7, south of 10 west ; also sections 19, 20, 29, 30 and 31 and the north half of the northeast quarter of section 32, township of Burr Oak.
In 1876 there were four hundred and fifteen children of school age between five and twenty years, three hundred and twenty of whom attended the different schools in the township. The schools were session an average of eight months during the year. There were eight school-houses, six of wood and two of brick, valued at six thousand dollars.
There were three hundred and thirty children of school age in the year 1894, one hundred and eighty-three male and one hundred and fifty-two females, accommodated by eight school buildings. In 1909 there were two hundred and twenty-one children of school age who drew primary money.
TRAGEDIES.
Suicidal mania in Sherman township first appeared in 1846, since which year several have died by their own hands. Babe Wells hung himself in a barn on the banks of Thompson lake in the above year, and in 1872 John Carl committed suicide by the same means on section 21.
Floris Bancker, an old and respected farmer, committed suicide by poisoning, in 1871.
John Dice was found dead near a stump September 30, 1859; death caused by hemorrhage of the lungs.
In August, 1895, a Mr. Fieblekorn hung himself in his barn.
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
POPULATION.
In 1838 the population of Sherman, which then included Sturgis, only numbered one thousand and forty. In 1850, when the township had its present area, there were three hundred and sixty-four people. In 1860, there were eight hundred and sixty- seven inhabitants, two of them American citizens of African descent. The population had increased in 1870 to one thousand one hundred and sixty. The state census of 1874 showed a popu- lation of one thousand two hundred and fifteen, of whom six hundred and six were males and six hundred and nine females.
The census of 1894 showed that the population had decreased to nine hundred and fifty-one, five hundred and nine males and four hundred and forty-two females.
The census of 1904 shows a population of only seven hundred and fifty-five.
The census of 1874 showed the population to be the most numerous in the history of the township, and at the present writ- ing the population perhaps does not exceed seven hundred, which shows a falling off of five hundred and fifteen. This is partly ac- counted for by the selling out and moving away of the small land holders. In 1874 there were nearly three hundred farms; at present there are two hundred.
POLITICAL RECORD.
In 1840 the tally lists for presidential electors in the township showed forty-eight majority for the Whigs, "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" leading Van Buren that much.
In 1844 the Whig party gave Henry Clay one hundred and three votes ; the Democrats gave Polk and Dallas fifty-eight, and the Liberty men numbered five in 1848, when Sherman was left to herself. She gave "Old Zach" twenty-five votes, Governor Cass thirty-one, and Van Buren, "the Free Soiler," nine.
In 1852 the voters paired on the leading candidates, giving thirty-two to each, the Abolitionists holding the balance of power with ten votes.
In 1856 the Republicans gave their candidate, John C. Fre- mont, one hundred and three votes, while the sage of Wheatland had but thirty-three followers.
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
In 1860 the Republicans gave Old Abe one hundred and twenty-nine votes, Douglas receiving only fifty-three votes.
In 1864 the Republican votes stood one hundred and thirteen; Democratic, forty-four.
In 1868 the Republicans cast one hundred and fifty-five votes; Democrats, ninety-five.
In 1872 Republican vote stood one hundred and sixty-four; Democratic, sixty-seven.
In 1876 Mr. Hayes received one hundred votes; Tilden one hundred and forty-two, and Peter Cooper twelve.
From 1876 until the last election, the voters have cast a majority of their ballots invariably for the Democratic candi- date; from one hundred to one hundred and twenty-five majority.
Sherman, in the Rebellion, in proportion to her population, bore as conspicuous and honorable a part as any of her sister towns. Her quotas were filled promptly and with good material, and she has just cause for pride in the conduct of her heroic citi- zens. For details regarding the part the township took in the Civil war, as well as the participation of other townships in the county, reference is made to the military chapter.
FAWN RIVER TOWNSHIP-JUDGE STURGIS.
Fawn River township did not attain its present area until it was organized from the old township of Sherman in 1838, Burr Oak being set apart in the same year.
Judge John Sturgis was the first settler within its limits as they are recognized today. In August, 1828, he reached the prairie which bears his name, in company with a young man named George Thurston. Together they broke ten acres on the southwest quarter of section 6, which is now east of the line be- tween Fawn River and Sturgis townships, and on the eastern edge of the prairie. After sowing the land to wheat, they returned to Brownsville, on the Detroit river, for the winter. In the fol- lowing spring, the judge brought his family with him, built on his tract the first house erected on Sturgis prairie, broke up an- other thirty acres, and on October 22, 1828, appeared at the land-office at Monroe to enter his claim in legal form. This was a year before the organization of St. Joseph county, when the country south of the Grand river, and west of the principal meridian (which was the western boundary of the present Lenawee
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
. county extended north to Sault Ste. Marie), was all the township of St. Joseph.
OTHER EARLY LOCATIONS.
On December 18th of the same year, Alanson C. Stewart, of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, entered one hundred and sixty acres in the section south of the Sturgis tract. These were the only entries made in 1828, and were the first in the township. In 1829 Judge Sturgis sold his interest in his property to Richard Hopkins and moved to Nottawa prairie.
Thomas Hall, Lemuel Graham and Samuel Stewart came in 1829. Mr. Hall lived on the Hopkins place until he secured a location for himself; Samuel Stewart settled on the land entered by Alanson C. Stewart, and Mr. Graham entered a tract after- ward included in the well known farm of Sheldon Williams.
George Thurston, who came with Judge Sturgis, located a quarter adjoining the original Sturgis land, in 1833, and occupied it as a homestead for over half a century.
From 1833 to 1836 came Captain Charles Moe, a soldier of the war of 1812; Joseph Bartholomew, who built the first house on the river; Ebenezer Sweet, who erected the first tavern; F. A. Tisdel, who laid out the little village of Freedom; Moses Roberts, William Amidon and James McKerlie; and Captain Philip R. Toll, who built the saw- and flouring-mills at Fawn River village, and brought his family to reside there in 1838. Later came W. F. Lee, who bought the lower mill, and Francis Flanders, who located about 1840, and was in after years (sixteen) the most popular justice of peace in the township.
Jacob Knox located in 1830, as did James Johnson.
FIRST POSTMASTERS.
Samuel Stewart was the first postmaster of Fawn River town- ship, the postoffice being located in his cabin in 1829. He had a contract for carrying the mails between Niles and Detroit, and was also carrying passengers in his "democrat wagon" before the stages commenced to run on the Chicago road. Isaac D. Toll was appointed postmaster of the office established at Fawn River Mills in 1844.
The first white child born in St. Joseph county was David Sturgis, son of Judge John Sturgis, who was born February 11, 1830, in the log cabin on the southwest quarter of section 6.
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
The first marriage in the township was that of John W. Fletcher and Sarah Knox, daughter of Jacob Knox, the ceremony being performed by Samuel Stewart, justice of the peace, on the 18th of September, 1831. This was also the first marriage in the county of actual residents.
The first tavern in Fawn River township (which corresponded to Avery's "Old Diggins" at White Pigeon) was built by Eben- ezer Sweet, in 1835, and was situated on the south bank of the lake to which the landlord gave his name. It was on the Chicago road, and a favorite social, as well as official resort. Viewed in its latter capacity, it accommodated many justices' courts and town meetings both before and after 1840.
The first school in Fawn River township was taught by Jane Moe, daughter of Captain Moe, who afterward married James Johnson. In 1836 the first school house was erected at Freedom, in what is now District No. 1; the second, a frame building, com- pleted in 1839, at Fawn River village (District No. 3).
RISE OF MANUFACTURES.
The first manufacturing done in the town was the burning of lime by James Johnson, in 1835. There is a small lake in the southeast quarter of section 8, rich in the marl beds for which the county is somewhat famous, and it was on its eastern banks that Mr. Johnson built his kiln. His process was to cut the excavated marl into oblongs, brick-shape, sun-dry them and then place them in his lime kiln for the burning. For many years- almost until the advent of railroads-he enjoyed a flourishing business in this line.
Thomas Cade had a brewery on Cade's lake, in 1836, the old malt house standing on the shores of Sweet's lake. The brewery afterward became a distillery.
In 1840 a Mr. Freeman built a small flour mill and distillery on Fawn river, in section 16, east of Williams lake, and afterward sold it to the Lee brothers.
PIONEER ELECTION AND ROADS.
The township of Fawn River was organized in 1838, and in pursuance of legislative enactment, the first meeting was held at the tavern of F. A. Tisdel, at Freedom, on April 2nd. Edward
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
Swan was the judge and Benjamin D. Goodrich, the clerk. At this meeting the following officials were chosen to put the town- ship government in operation : Edward Swan, John P. Van Pat- ten, James McKerlie and Freeman A. Tisdel, justices of the peace ; James McKerlie, supervisor; Isaac Sweet, clerk; Nicholas Good- rich, W. W. Plumb and Horace W. Fields, constables; Jonas Waters, John O. Swan and George McKerlie, assessors; Horace W. Fields, collector; Charles Moe, Jonas Waters and John P. Van Patten, commissioners of highways; F. A. Tisdel, Isaiah Sweet and Jonas Waters, school inspectors; Charles Moe and Att Wood, overseers of the poor; Ebenezer Sweet and Isaac Culver, fence-viewers, and John O. Swan, Archer Matthews and John Houstin, overseers of highways.
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