USA > Michigan > St Joseph County > History of St. Joseph County, Michigan; Volume I > Part 18
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Judge Sturgis entered his land in June, 1829, as did Henry Powers the west half of the southeast quarter of section 10 and the west half of the northeast quarter of section 15, and Henry Post, the west half of the southwest quarter of section 10. Sec- tion 10 was north of section 15, near the Prairie river.
A LAND-OFFICE BUSINESS.
On August 28, 1829, John W. Fletcher, one of the trio who first viewed the prairie in 1826, entered the land which had then so taken his fancy-the west half of the northeast quarter and the west half of the southeast quarter of section 17, which also abutted on Prairie river. On October 10th, William Hazzard en- tered the other half of the same quarter sections, and the land- office business of the year 1829 was closed on December 15th by the entry of Russell Post of the east half of the southwest quar- ter and the east half of the northwest quarter of section 10.
Judge Sturgis finished his cabin first, and it stood for over fifty years on its originial site in section 4; Connor's log house on Spring creek, or Prairie river, was ready for occupancy soon after, and Mr. Connor's cabin had a hole cut in it, but it is said
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he took his time to provide it with a door. Mr. Fletcher also finished his before Christmas of 1829.
COMING OF THE FLETCHERS.
In October, after having entered his land at Monroe, Mr. Fletcher returned to his location on section 17 to cut and stack a crop of marsh hay. He then returned to his home in Wayne county and proceeded to move his father's family (he was unmarried) to the new home on the banks of the beautiful Prairie river. The Fletcher household consisted of the young man, his parents and two sisters, who, with all the family goods, were loaded upon a big wagon drawn by oxen. Accompanying them to Nottawa prairie were William Hazzard and family and Hiram A. Hecox and family, with all their cattle and hogs.
The weather was cold and for eighteen days the brave pio- neers forded icy streams, lumbered over rough roads and the men and boys of the party drove the livestock and had to keep a wary eye upon this valuable item of their outfit. On the even- ing of Christmas Mr. Fletcher's rough looking, but welcome log cabin, came into view, which completed the hardest chapter in the history of the Fletchers.
Henry Powers built a cabin on his claim in section 15, dur- ing the following winter, and Amos Howe also brought his fam- ily to the prairie in 1830.
JOHN W. FLETCHER.
In the year 1829, away out in the wilderness, could have been seen a few sturdy young men engaged in cutting logs and build- ing a house on the spot afterward occupied by the Fletcher family, of Nottawa township. Three years before, John W. Fletcher, in company with Captain Allen and George Hubbard, had made a trip through the wilderness as far as the present town of Niles, and again in 1829, in company with his brother, he made another trip into the wilds of southern Michigan-this time in quest of a desirable location for a home for himself and his father's family. He selected a quarter section of government land near the present county seat, on which he resided until his death.
After entering his land at Monroe, Mr. Fletcher returned to the home of the family at Flat Rock, Wayne county, near Detroit,
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and procuring a yoke of oxen, wagon, tools and provisions, re- turned to his recent purchase, following the Indian trail all the way. After building a log-house and cutting a stack of hay, he returned, with his oxen and wagon, to bring the family to their new home. A number of families came in company with them, thus forming the nucleus of quite a settlement. As stated, the lit- tle colony was eighteen days on their tedious journey. The Fletcher family all lived together for the first few years, and the parents continued to live with John W. until the day of their death-Mr. Fletcher, the elder, dying in 1832, and his widow in 1860.
On the 18th of September, 1831, John W. Fletcher and Miss Sarah Knox, the daughter of a settler on Sturgis prairie, were united in marriage, and it is conceded that this was the first mar- riage of a couple who became permanent residents of the county. The products of the farm for the first few years were floated down the St. Joseph river in the arks to its mouth in Lake Michigan, and there found a market, and in after years Hillsdale and Kala- mazoo became their market towns.
Mr. Fletcher came of the good old Revolutionary stock, being the son of William Fletcher, who fought as a soldier all through the struggle for independence. He was born at Otsego, New York, in the year 1806, and was one of a family of six children. When he was ten years old his father emigrated to Ohio, where they re- mained until 1824, when they made Michigan their home, settling on the Huron river, near Detroit, whence, as has been mentioned, they made a permanent settlement in St. Joseph.
Mr. Fletcher became the father of ten children. He was an Episcopalian and a Democrat, and is also remembered by early settlers as President of the Pioneers' Society, in which he took a deep interest.
DR. McMILLAN AND OTHERS.
Among the other early settlers were Dr. A. McMillan and his family, who came late in the year 1829 and lived the following winter in wagons. The good doctor, unlike most of the rough and ready pioneers of the prairie, was one of the most precise characters who ever settled in the locality. He also had a most mechanical eye; the evident result was that it took him about a dozen times as long to complete his house as it did his neighbors.
About the same time that Dr. McMillan came, the colony of Nottawa prairie was increased by the addition of Russell and
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Henry Post, John and Samuel Cuddy, Samuel McKee and James and Adney Hecox. Most of them were New Englanders who had come west and settled some years before at and near Smooth Rock, Michigan, which was Judge Connor's former school dis- trict.
In the spring or early part of 1830 the new comers included : Benjamin Sherman, Jonathan Engle, Sr., and Jr., George W. Dille, John Foreman, Glover L. Gardner, Hiram Gates and Henry Powers.
INTRODUCTION OF FRUITS.
Nottawa was an exception to every other township in the county, its first settlers coming in colonies, rather than singly. Mr. Fletcher, the advance guard from Wayne county, appears also to have been the Moses of the prairie in leading the pio- neers toward the promised land of horticultural and agricultural prosperity. In the fall of 1829 he brought thirteen hundred small apple trees, as well as currant and grape cuttings, from Wayne county, preserved them during the winter in a buried bee- hive, and in the following spring transplanted them into a nurs- ery. About this time, Benjamin Sherman introduced larger apple trees from his old Ohio home, which bore the first fruit on the prai- rie, and in the same year (1830) Judge Connor and H. A. Hecox also planted orchards.
WENT FOR SEED POTATOES AND OATS.
In the spring of 1830, Mr. Fletcher saw the need of the prairie settlers for seed potatoes and oats-potatoes for man and oats for beasts. Through John Allen, who was in his employ, he learned that they could be obtained at Allen's prairie, Hillsdale county. The trip thither was accomplished overland, but in their return journey of ten days they proved to be the first white men, so far as known, to navigate the upper St. Joseph.
After Messrs. Fletcher and Allen had purchased ten bushels of seed potatoes and fifteen bushels of oats, they built two white wood canoes, loaded them with their purchase, and floated down Sand creek to the St. Joseph river. This part of their journey was very difficult by reason of shallows, ripples, dams of float- wood, and snags, until past the entrance of the Coldwater, after which the stream was clear and the water high. They slid their
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boats over the dams on peeled basswood skids, cut off snags with axe and saw and lightened over sandbars and shallows. As the motion of the boat disturbed their aim, they missed the game at which they shot, and were therefore obliged to live on baked potatoes and wild honey, finding the latter in a tree along the river bank.
Potatoes, oats and corn were all grown and harvested in Not- tawa township in 1830, wheat being sown in the fall of that year and harvested in 1831. At that time Judge Connor had the largest area under cultivation of anyone on the prairie.
FIRST THEFT.
The first theft committed in the settlement was at the expense of the judge. In 1830, when he was about to enter his second lot of land at Monroe, it was generally known that his purchase money had been sent from the east. The day before he was to start he left his cabin alone for several hours, and when he returned he found that his trunk had been broken open and twenty dollars, all his ready money, taken. Fortunately, this was not his land money, which had been sent to Ypsilanti; but it was every cent he had, and its loss represented an appalling theft for those days. His good friend, John W. Fletcher, helped him out of his dilemma, as he was going to Monroe himself. The judge's nearest neighbor was Lane, half a mile away; and after the burglary Lane's character turned from "shady" to dense black.
Nottawa township was originally included in the township of Sherman, whose organization, October 29, 1829, was coincident with that of St. Joseph county. It was first set off into a separate town- ship July 28, 1830, and included the present township of Colon, which was detached from it in 1833.
NEW TOWNSHIP ORGANIZED.
The first movement for a new township was made in June, 1830, when all the adult male settlers of the prairie met at Judge Connor's cabin and petitioned the legislature to erect a new body politic and call it Nottawa, recommending Amos Howe to Governor Cass as a proper person to be appointed as justice of the peace. Through Judge Connor and Asahel Savery, a special committee, the needed legislation was effected in the following session of the legis-
.
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lature, and the first town meeting was held April 4, 1831. It was organized by Justice of the Peace Howe, and Benjamin Sherman was chosen moderator and William Connor, clerk. The balloting for town officers resulted as follows: William Connor, supervisor; William Fletcher, clerk; Benjamin Sherman, George W. Dille and William Hazzard, assessors; Henry Powers, J. W. Fletcher and William Connor, commissioners of highways; Hiram A. Hecox, con- stable and collector; Russell Post, Amos Howe, J. W. Fletcher, William Connor and Samuel McKee, directors of the poor; Will- iam Fletcher, treasurer; William Connor, Henry Powers, Benjamin Newman, William Fletcher, Amos Howe and Alex McMillan, school commissioners and inspectors; Russell Post, pathmaster; Russell Post, William Hazzard and John Foreman, fence-viewers ; William Hazzard, pound-master, and Jonathan Engle, overseer of highways.
CENTERVILLE PLATTED.
The next important happening for the township of Nottawa was the platting of Centerville on the east half of the northeast quarter of section 25 and the east half of the southeast quarter of section 24. The plat was recorded by the proprietors, Robert Clark, Jr. (government surveyor), Electra W. Deane, Daniel B. Miller and Charles Noble, on the 7th of November, 1831, and on the 22d of the month the governor issued his proclamation establishing it as the county seat. In consideration of this location, the proprietors donated to the county for the erection of its buildings fifty-six lots and the public square-the court house, when built, to be on the latter.
LANCASTER AND LANGLEY.
It appears that Columbia Lancaster assisted in some way in the laying out of the town, as he received a lot just north of the public square for "services rendered." Upon this he built a hut of rough oak logs, without doors, windows or floor-simply a crude shelter for him while out on his frequent hunting expeditions. It has, however, a place in this history as the first house which ap- peared upon the site of Centerville. Lancaster, who was a man of some education, saw nothing then to bind him to the county seat, and during the following spring engaged in teaching at White Pigeon. There, in June, 1832, he met Thomas W. Langley, a Phila- delphia manufacturer who was health-seeking and sight-seeing in the west.
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Mr. Langley had joined a party from Detroit, who were pros- pecting through southern Michigan, and hearing of the location of the county seat at Centerville made inquiries about its location of Lancaster. The latter agreed to pilot him to it, at the end of his school week. The Philadelphia man viewed the site of Centerville, return to White Pigeon, thought he would look it over again, re- examined the budding county seat and finally thought so well of its prospects that he went to Monroe and bought not only the interests of Clark and Deane, but the location of H. W. Foster, who was putting up a saw-mill half a mile east. Mr. Langley's entire pur- chase covered three-fourths of section 30.
CENTERVILLE FOUNDED.
Making arrangements for the continuance of the mill work, Mr. Langley returned to Philadelphia for his family, consisting of his wife, five sons, a daughter, a nephew and two colored servants- the last named being the pioneers of their race in St. Joseph county. Buying a stock of general goods in New York, Mr. Langley shipped them ahead of the family to the mouth of the St. Joseph. From Troy, New York, to Buffalo, he brought his household, his household goods and a set of mill irons; the entire outfit being transported from the latter point to Detroit by steamer. The mill irons, the nephew and the colored servants were thence sent to Centerville direct, Mr. Langley and the rest of the family coming through to White Pigeon in one of Forsyth's coaches chartered expressly for the purpose. The roads had to be cleared in many places, the limbs of trees cut off and Hog creek made fordable, to let the coach through the woods and marshes to White Pigeon, where it arrived September 25, 1832. The party reached Centerville, October 3rd, and proceeded to find the Lancaster cabin in the tall prairie grass. Having been located, the ladies were told to make themselves at home, and the men and boys mowed down the grass and camped for the time being under the oaks.
The next day's business began in earnest in this village of a single household; a door was hung in the cabin and frame buildings begun for a court-house and a blacksmith shop. On the 4th of Oc- tober a double log house, with seven rooms, was begun, and finished on the 13th. The blacksmith shop was completed with even more remarkable celerity. On Tuesday morning its building material
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was in the trees of the neighboring woods, and by Thursday night the shop had been shingled and a horse stood shod before its forge.
Thus Centerville came into being, its standing and growth as the county seat-the seat of justice of St. Joseph county-being set forth in detail in the chapters on "Civil Organization" and "Bench and Bar."
TOWNSHIP OF COLON.
Colon township acquired its present territory by various ex- changes with Nottawa and Leonidas. In 1830 it was constituted as the eastern half of Nottawa township; in 1833 it was detached and consolidated with Leonidas into a separate township, and in 1836 obtained its freedom and its present territory.
Colon township is a full government township of thirty-six square miles, and takes its name from the town between Sturgeon and Palmer's lakes. Here the surface is somewhat broken, although generally so level that a hill which rises one hundred and twenty feet is not infrequently called Colon "mountain." The land was originally of the oak openings, which comprise the main feature of Burr Oak to the south, but Nottawa prairie abuts into its northeastern portion, in section 1, and there is also a small prairie on section 4.
Within the limits of Colon are one thousand five hundred and seventy-five acres of water surface, so that it is one of the town- ships which was a most copious drainage. Its main channel of drainage is through Swan creek, which comes from the south, takes a bold northwestern sweep through the northeastern corner of Burr Oak township, and enters Colon through section 33. Thence its direction is generally northeast, through Long and Palmer's lakes, and it enters Sturgeon lake near the south line of section 2, a short distance below the entrance of the St. Joseph river. The main stream flows through Sturgeon lake from the east, diagonally across the northeast corner of the township, and makes its exit in the northeastern quarter of section 3. Palmer lake, so named from the pioneer who settled on its banks, and Sturgeon lake, from the fish which formerly so abounded in its waters, are the largest bodies of water in the township, having an area of about four hundred acres each. Beaver lake, which had a large beaver dam when it first became known to pioneers, lies on section 28 and contains one hundred and sixty acres. Lepley's lake, forty acres, is in the southeast corner of section 27.
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The ancient mounds and fortifications which are numerously scattered throughout Colon township are fully described in the general history.
THE SCHELLHOUS BROTHERS.
The first things and the pioneer happenings pertaining to the history of Colon township are largely connected with the various Schellhous families. Roswell, the first of the colony, came from Ohio in 1829 and located on section 6 which is in the extreme northwestern corner of the township. He built a log house of two rooms, which he kept as a hotel, mainly for the
AN END OF STURGEON LAKE
accommodation of prospectors. In 1838 Mr. Schellhous located near Nauvoo, Illinois, and afterward moved into Missouri where he is said to have spent quite an uncomfortable time on account of his anti-slavery sentiments, freely and boldly expressed.
In 1830 Roswell's three brothers, Lorensie, George F. and Martin G., bought land in sections 6 and 3, the first named also purchasing mill privileges on Swan creek on the present site of the village. During the winter of 1830-1 Lorensie busied himself making mill-irons and breaking-plow irons. In April, 1831, the three brothers, with their families, and George Brooks and family -altogether thirty-one persons-commenced their journey for
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the northeastern corner of old Sherman township, and on the 16th of May arrived at their destination, the log hut which had been built by Roswell Schellhous.
WORKS OF LORENSIE SCHELLHOUS.
There the party stopped over night and the next day (Sun- day) Lorensie Schellhous took up his journey to the southeast, and coming to his mill-site on Swan creek, cut some poles along the marsh which he made into a tent-like frame and covered it with bark. He slept in the shack that night, preferring it to the crowded cabin of his brother. Monday he commenced the erec- tion of a log cabin, which was ready for occupancy by the next Saturday night, its door being made of one of his wagon boxes. His family were all installed in their new house within a week from the time of their arrival, and his two wagons, five yoke of oxen, three cows, nine hogs, a sow and eight shoats, were also under his protecting care.
The next week Mr. Schellhous made a breaking plow, select- ing a winding tree for the mould-board. He then broke up a garden at his own house and six acres on the prairie homestead of his brother, Roswell. In the latter he planted corn, and from this first garden and first farm in Colon township were harvested in a few months good crops of corn, vegetables and melons. Mr. Schellhous's livestock also throve, his hogs fattening finely on the mast that had lain on the ground through the previous winter.
Further, Lorensie built his saw-mill and commenced to ope- rate it in 1832, bringing his lumber from Bronson, Branch county. After the mill had sawed about twelve hundred feet of lumber, the water undermined the dam, which went out twice that year. Then Lorensie sold his location to his brother, Martin G., in order to raise funds to rebuild his dam, and so well did he perform the work finally that the foundation remained for more than half a century. It was during this same year (1832) that Cyrus Schell- hous, the fifth brother, arrived. Lorensie was in partnership with his brother George, in the running of the mill until 1835, when he retired to his farm, built a blacksmith shop, in which he put a turning lathe and made chairs, spinning wheels, flax wheels and reels.
By turning over the above facts, it is evident how nearly various members of the Schellhous families accomplished most Vol. 1-14
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of the first things in the township history; and to the above must be added that the first white child born in the township was a son of Roswell Schellhous, who came into this world in the summer of 1830, and that in the passing away of the little one, not long afterward, occurred the first death. The first school house was boilt in 1833, and Martin G. Schellhous was installed therein dur- ing the winter of 1833-4, as the first teacher.
The pioneer school house was located on the Brooks farm, and the first religious meeting (a Methodist service) was held there in 1833.
Elder Alford, a Baptist minister, officiated at the funerals. . He came into the township in 1830 and had the reputation of being a very kind neighbor.
COLON VILLAGE PLATTED.
In 1832 George Schellhous and the Indian trader, Hatch, laid off the village plat of Colon, which is reported to have been named by Lorensie Schellhous, under the following circumstances: The proprietors were casting about for a name, and Lorensie opened a dictionary for inspiration. His eye fell upon the word "colon," and he turned to his brother and Mr. Hatch and said, "Call it Colon; for the lake and river form its lines." So it was named; and the name descended to the township. The village of Colon slept, however, for a number of years after it was platted; until the flour mill was built and other manufactories sprung up after 1840.
Lorensie Schellhous was the first postmaster of the village of Colon, appointed in 1835. The mail, which was kept in his house, was distributed once a week, between Colon, and Kent's, and Adams's mill, Branch county ; when Mr. Schellhous was too busy he entrusted it to Henry Goodwin, an eight-year old.
In 1837 Louis A. Leland carried the mail for two years, be- tween the county seats of Branch and Berrien counties, on either side of St. Joseph county. He made three trips a week in a two- horse wagon from Centerville to Berrien, via Three Rivers, Cass- opolis and Niles on horseback, there being nothing but a trail to follow between the latter points.
After Lorensie Schellhous, the next settler on the site of Colon village was Charles Palmer, who came with his family in the fall of 1831, lived during that winter with Mr. Schellhous, and in
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the spring moved into his own cabin which he had built on the shore of the lake which bears his name.
INDUSTRIES AND BUSINESS.
In 1836 Dr. Isaac S. Voorhis came into the township and bought the mill site and water power of the Shellhouses. In 1839 he completed the flour mill which was subsequently bought by John H. Bowman and continued to be a leading industry of the place for forty years or more. William E. Eck, then of Three Rivers, dressed its first three run of stones and ground the first grist.
John H. and William F. Bowman were very prominent in the formative period of Colon village, and in January, 1844, made the first survey which was thought worthy of record.
The first retail stock of goods in the village had been opened by Charles L. Miller. Until he completed his store, he displayed his wares in a cooper shop. For the succeeding twelve years Mr. Miller maintained his place as the leading merchant of Colon. In 1856 he was elected judge of probate for St. Joseph county, and was secretary of the committee on commerce of the United States senate from 1861 until his death.
Following the Voorhis flour mill, the next important addition to the village industries was the wagon shop of Erastus Mills, opened in 1846, and the foundry of Shuert & Duel, established in the following year.
It may be added that Dr. Voorhis, who located in 1836 as Colon's first physician, died in 1838.
Among the prominent settlers of Colon township not already mentioned may be instanced the following, who became resi- dents prior to 1840: Dr. A. J. Kline, 1831; Levi Matthews, Com- fort and Job Tyler and Alvin Hoyt, in 1832; Abel Belote, 1833; William H. Castle, 1835; Henry K. Farrand, 1836, and Phineas Farrand, 1838. The Tylers and the Farrands were long among the leading farmers of the township, the homestead of the latter being on the banks of Sturgeon lake-the original Brooks farm.
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