USA > Michigan > St Joseph County > History of St. Joseph County, Michigan; Volume I > Part 7
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
"One other incident of pioneer life seldom mentioned, yet, as far as I know, ever present was the bed bugs. Only by boiling water and eternal vigilance were they subdued. It is said they were found on the bark of forests and even on fence rails. Fleas also kept humanity lively in those earlier days.
"One more scourge I will mention. One season the country was invaded by the army worm; a worm as large as your little fin- ger, reddish brown in color which came in such hordes, that enter- ing a field would strip it of every vestage of green. It was found before the season ended that by plowing a trench around the field the worms would tumble into it and be killed.
"But we will leave the disagreeable things outside and step inside. Would you look at the bed? If in the rooms that had to be passed through, they were surrounded by curtains, the lower part below the bed by valances, or little curtains, falling to the floor fastened to the bedstead with tacks. There were holes bored through the bedstead at equal distances and a rope passed back and forth, securely fastened. This supported a straw tick which was to be filled twice a year, making it fragrant, sweet and clean. Above this, a feather bed of the lightest kind of feathers, sufficient for many pillows. The patchwork quilts and woven comforters with sheets, etc., and perhaps, some of you remember, too high for children to clamber on.
"For our tables, it was steel knives, forks and dinner plates. No individual sauce dishes or butter plates, or any of the dainty conveniences of the present day. The white sugar came in a shaped loaf and was kept on an upper shelf, only to be taken down and Vol. I-5
66
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
chipped off for extra occasions. Dried fruit and preserves served for our sauce, the preserves being made by cooking slowly on the back of a stove for hours, then placed in a jar covered by a paper tightly tied over and closely watched lest fementation take place when they would have to be scalded. They were delicious and my mouth waters at the thought of them. Pie was used three times a day on the table. They had cake, I know and for teasing for it when callers were present, my mother took me across her knee and I, being at a tender age, such a glowing impression was made upon me that it was never forgotten.
"They used pearl ash, a cruder article than our baking soda, and sour milk for baking; failing many times to be dissolved, our biscuit would be specked with it and many times too yellow. It is said when out of pearl ash, cob ashes would be used, but of this I do not know. They had only candles for lights, either run in molds or dipped by placing a number of wicks on sticks, dipping one lot while cooling another. Spermaceti candles could be pro- cured for extra occasions. At the very first months or years there were no matches, and to light these candles, a coal of fire held up by the tongs and blowed upon until the wick would ignite was the only recourse. The supper fire needed to be left with beds of live coals or brands of fire to be carefully covered up with ashes to keep for the coming day. For years after matches were produced, no matter how stifling the heat of the summer day, the old custom of burying the fire was adhered to by many. The most of the thread was bought in a skein, doubled and twisted at home, if I am not mistaken. One woman, after cloth was donated to clothe and make her children comfortable whined because the thread was not made ready for her use as she had no wheel. Nearly if not all stockings were knit at home. These were fastened two or three inches below the knee. If well dressed a pantalet was worn over them about eight or ten inches wide, with embroidery at the bottom, both held in place by a green worsted garter some wider than the modern dress binding; long enough to wind around numberless times, with the end skillfully tucked under made it always secure.
"As to dress, I will tell a little incident that will show that fashion had its arbiters even then. At a party of the elite the ques- tion arose as to the suitability of a calico dress being worn to church after it was washed. It was decided in the negative. My mother denounced such extravagance and said a calico dress unless faded was good enough to be worn anywhere.
67
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
"In many of the intervening years, up to the time of the Civil war, the Fourth of July, when celebrated was a great event. Ush- ered in by the firing of cannons, bringing crowds of people from every direction, the grand feature of all, was that the young ladies of the community were invited to march with the procession and to represent the different states of the Union, with the name to designate printed on ribbons pinned to the shoulder. We were dressed in pure white, with a green wreath upon our heads. Our dignity was only surpassed by the marshal, who, erect upon his steed, put even royalty in the shade, or by the home talent em- ployed in reading the Declaration of Independence before the ora- tion of the day. With the music and the marching and the boom- ing of the cannon and the oratory, the day was spent, after which came the ball.
"Invitations for this were always printed on good paper in this form: 'A Fourth of July ball will be held at the Assembly room of McArthur & Ellis. Yourself and lady are respectfully invited to attend.' Mangers were chosen from White Pigeon, Center- ville, Lima and the country around. With room managers this invitation would sometimes have the name of the lady written on the back; oftener not. This was handed to her when the invitation was given.
"From the time of my remembrance, square dances were the rule, like cotillions. The floors would be cleared sometime in the evening for the benefit of the older people, when they would form on for 'Money Musk,' or 'Opera Reel,' with others ac- quainted with the dance; while the younger ones would move with a gliding motion, those older with a springing step and with the spirit with which they entered into it, give animation to the scene. The best of music was provided, and perfect order maintained.
"Fearing that I have exhausted your patience, I will close by saying that over it all, scenes past and gone, there rests a halo, its skies were clearer and its sunshine brighter, and I say with the poet :
" 'We are better and stronger, Under manhood's sterner reign, Yet we feel that something sweet, Followed youth with flying feet, And it never comes again.
68
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
" 'Something beautiful has vanished, And we sigh for it in vain, We behold it everywhere On the earth and in the air, But it never comes again.' "
MAPLE SUGAR MAKING.
This is still the sugar camp, with the shivering woods around it, Where the eager, early alders loosen first their kerchiefed curls,
By the distant, russet ranks of the dripping maple bounded; Hither, in the April weather, come the country boys and girls.
Out across the olive down, still the lagging feet are guided To the fire of shattered branches, lightning-riven long ago; By the narrow bubbling brook, field and forest stand divided,
With the scarlet maple blossoms whirling in the pool below.
Here they feed the open blaze; here they build the shelter lightly ; Here they swing the gypsy kettle-merry-hearted Jack and Sue;
Here they follow one another through the dusky forest nightly, While the silver April crescent drops to westward in the blue.
Still the buckets back and forth to the heavy kettles bringing, i
Fain to hear the squirrel's warning, or the sparrow's note of war,
Treading to the broken pulses of a robin's careless singing- Such a rhythm, such a measure, never dancer listened for.
Soft and sultry are the days that the watchers spend together, With the stolen sweets of April-month of promise and delay ; And the searching winds of night touch with frost the ardent weather,
Ere the little play is ended, with the coming of the May. -St. Joseph County Republican, June 16, 1883.
CHAPTER V.
THE CIVIL BODY.
SOUTHERN MICHIGAN A MILITARY KEY-BRITISH LOTH TO WITH- DRAW-BRITISH-AMERICAN LAND COMBINE-CONGRESSIONAL INTRIGUE-DOWNFALL OF CONSPIRACY-NARROW ESCAPE FOR SOUTHERN MICHIGAN-AMERICAN CIVIL JURISDICTION-WAYNE COUNTY ORGANIZED-FIRST LAND TITLES AND SURVEYS- TOWNSHIP OF ST. JOSEPH-COUNTY GOVERNMENT INAUGU- RATED-THE ORIGINAL TOWNSHIPS-FIRST ELECTION IN COUNTY PROPER-CHANGES IN COUNTY GOVERNMENT-SUBDIVISION OF ORIGINAL TOWNSHIPS-FIRST TOWN MEETINGS-WHITE PIG- EON, TEMPORARY COUNTY SEAT-CENTERVILLE, PERMANENT COUNTY SEAT-JAIL, FIRST COUNTY BUILDING-OFFERED BRIBE TO BE RE-JAILED-A TERRIFYING LOCK-NEW JAIL ERECTED-TEMPORARY COURT HOUSE-TWO "PERMANENT" COURT HOUSES-PROTECTING THE COUNTY RECORDS-FA- MOUS ROBBERY OF RECORDS-CARE OF THE COUNTY'S POOR- COUNTY OFFICIALS (1830-1910)-EDUCATION IN THE COUNTY -BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF PIONEER SETTLEMENT.
By the treaty of 1753, the territory now included in. St Joseph county passed from France to England, and thirty years later the fortunes of war transferred it from England to the United States. In the meantime several of the colonies had ob- tained certain vested rights from the mother country for the lands northwest of the Ohio river, and the last of these so-called "crown lands" did not pass from the state owners to the general govern- ment until 1787. Two years before the government had com- menced to treat with the Indians for the extinguishment of their title to lands northwest of the Ohio, and in acknowledgment of the justice of their claim, that the United States could obtain a
69
70
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
valid claim to this section of its domain only after their rights had been alienated. Congress and the state of Michigan continued its negotiations for half a century with the tribes which laid claim to the southern peninsula and St. Joseph county.
SOUTHERN MICHIGAN, A MILITARY KEY.
Southern Michigan was the theater of some of the most im- portant of these conferences and treaties, and as it was also so important as a military vantage ground, proved to be the prize of a great plot on the part of British schemers who, even after the close of the Revolutionary war, were loth to relinquish it. The Wayne treaty of 1795 was hardly signed before they commenced to lay their plans for this master move against the territorial in- tegrity of the United States.
This historical chapter, which includes St. Joseph county in its scope, has been so well written by a contributor to the "Michi- gan Pioneer Collections" (J. V. Campbell), that it is reproduced. It is worthy of note that little reference is ever made to the inci- dent in histories of Michigan, and none whatever in any history of St. Joseph county, which has come to the attention of the author.
It is not generally known that Michigan was at a very early day the theater of some of the most extensive land speculations ever known in this country. One which was brought to the at- tention of congress in 1795, was so remarkable in some of its features that it is singular it should be so generally unknown.
BRITISH LOTH TO WITHDRAW.
When General Wayne brought his Indiana campaign to a successful termination, he appointed a time for the tribes to meet him at Greenville, to conclude a definite treaty. This council opened in June, 1795, and continued into August. It is well known that the hostilities were kept alive by the covert inter- ference of the British, and that Detroit was the source whence this. influence was exerted most powerfully. In spite of the treaty of peace at the close of the Revolution, the British, on one pretext or another, kept possession of the country; and it was not until Jay's treaty provided definitely for its cession, that any steps were taken towards its possession. The British merchants, who were largely interested in the fur business, were very reluctant to see the American dominion established; and there is no doubt
71
HISTORY OF. ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
that, by this means, disaffection was long kept up among the Indians.
Immediately upon the conclusion of Wayne's treaty (which put an end to all private dealings with the Indians for the pur- chase of land), an agreement was made between several prominent inhabitants of Detroit and several persons from Vermont and Pennsylvania, which, if it had proved successful, would have made an entire change in the destiny of this region.
BRITISH-AMERICAN LAND COMBINE.
Ebenezer Allen and Charles Whitney, of Vermont, and Robert Randall, of Philadelphia, who were professedly American citizens, entered into a contract with John Askin, Jonathan Schifflin (Schieffelin), William Robertson, John Askin, Jr., David Robert- son, Robert Jones and Richard Patterson (Pattinson), all of De- troit, and all attached to Great Britain, the terms of which were in effect as follows: They proposed to obtain from the United States the title to all the land within the limits of the present peninsula of Michigan, then estimated at from eighteen to twenty millions of acres (excepting such parts as were appropriated along the settlements), upon the understanding that they would them- selves extinguish the Indian title. They meant to secure the pur- chase from congress at a half a million dollars (or a million at the outside), by inducing that body to believe that the Indians had not really been pacified by Wayne; and nothing but the influence of the Canadian merchants could bring them to terms or render the important interests of the fur trade safe under the American rule.
But they relied upon a more potent method of persuasion in secret. Their enterprise was to take the form of a joint stock company, divided into forty-one shares. Five shares were allotted to the Detroit partners, twelve to the others and the remaining . twenty-four were to be divided among members of congress to secure their votes. The connection of the Canadian proprietors with the scheme does not appear to have been made public; and it was probable they were not intended to appear until the scheme was consummated.
CONGRESSIONAL INTRIGUE.
Immediately after the plan was concocted, the three American partners set about operating upon the members of the next con-
72
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
gress. They associated with them Colonel Pepune and others; Jones, of Massachusetts, aiding them in their honorable work. Whitney first applied to Daniel Buck, a member from Vermont, and was indiscreet enough not only to inform him pretty plainly of the plan proposed, but also to show him the articles of agree- ment. He also applied to Theodore Sedgwick, more cautiously, but allowed enough to be drawn from him to expose the true character of the plot. Mr. Sedgwick quietly put himself in com- munication with the Vermont members to promote its progress.
In the meantime, Randall approached the southern members and laid open his views to William Smith of South Carolina, Will- iam B. Giles of Virginia, and Mr. Murray of Maryland. These gentlemen, after consulting with the president and many other persons of character and standing, determined to throw no ob- stacle in the way of a presentation of a memorial to congress, desiring to fix the parties where they would be sure of exposure.
DOWNFALL OF CONSPIRACY.
The confederates, blindly imagining that they were on the highway to success, put into the hands of the members whom they approached the fullest information concerning all but the names of their Detroit associates, and assured Mr. Giles that they had secured a majority of the votes in the senate and lacked only three of a majority in the house.
On the 28th of December, 1795, Messrs. Smith, Murray, and Giles announced to the house of representatives that Randall had made proposals to them to obtain their support to his memorial, for which support they were to receive a consideration in lands or money. Mr. Buck also stated that Whitney had made similar pro- posals to him and he supposed him to be an associate of Randall. Randall and Whitney were at once taken into custody, and an investigation was had, in the course of which, several other mem- bers came forward and testified to similar facts. Whitney made a full disclosure and produced the written agreement. Randall made no confession, but contented himself with questioning the witnesses. He was detained in arrest, but Whitney, who appears to have been less guilty, was discharged very soon after the in- vestigation closed. The memorial never made its appearance. The partners at Detroit had not been inactive. They, or most of them, had already, from time to time, obtained from the Indians
73
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
large grants of land, in the hope, doubtless, that the purchase might be ratified by the authorities. Schifflin (Schieffelin) in particular had acquired enormous grants in this way. There is, however, much reason to believe that these grants were not all obtained from the recognized Indian rulers.
An examination of the records shows that one of the largest was made under very peculiar circumstances. We have seen that the council in Greenville was in session from June till sometime in August. While this treaty of Greenville was in progress and the tribes were represented there by their chiefs and head men, a private council was held in Detroit on the first day of July, 1795, by the Chippewas, Ottawas, and Pottawattomies, as high con- tracting parties on the one side, there being present as witnesses, the Askins, Henry Hay, the oldest son of Governor Hay, and him- self a British officer, and some others of the principal British residents.
The purpose of the council was private in its nature, and under the treaties then existing, the British authorities could not well have acted as principals on such an occasion. Certain chiefs, purporting to act for their tribes, there named, granted to Jona- than Schifflin (Schieffelin), Jacobus Visgar, Richard Pattinson and Robert Jones a large tract of land, embracing thirteen or fourteen of the oldest and best counties in the present state, for the expressed consideration of twenty-five pounds sterling.
We can readily imagine that if their plan had succeeded in congress they would have had little difficulty in buying up the Indian claim to the whole peninsula.
It may not be out of place to state that, in spite of their ill success, the four gentlemen named sold their Indian title, just mentioned, in 1797, for two hundred thousand pounds of York currency, amounting to half a million dollars. Whether the pur- chaser expected to claim against the treaty of Greenville, we are not informed.
This formidable title has never turned up since. Whether disgusted with the experience of republics, or some other cause, the Detroit partners in the joint stock company all elected, under Jay's treaty, to become British subjects. The annals of our country have never shown a more extensive or audacious plan of bribery, and the public suffered no great detriment by their defection.
74
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
NARROW ESCAPE FOR SOUTHERN MICHIGAN.
Had the plan of these confederates received the aid of con- gress it is difficult to imagine the importance of such an event in its bearing on the future of the peninsula. The circumstances render it highly probable that it was intended to retain a foot- ing for the advancement of the British interests, in the north- west. Be this as it may, the evil effect of having so large a proprietary monopoly, covering the whole country, cannot well be estimated. Neither the United States nor the future state would have owned any lands in the lower peninsula of Michigan; while we should have been subjected to all the evils which abound when the tillers of the soil are mere tenants, and not free- holders. Such a domain would have been a powerful barrier against the increase of the union in this direction, and would have kept up a border population of a character by no means to be admired.
The important and singular facts referred to should not be lost sight of by the historian who may narrate the annals of our state .- J. V. Campbell, August 11, 1857.
AMERICAN CIVIL JURISDICTION.
While these British schemes were falling flat, southern Michigan and St. Joseph county were first being brought under the domain of civil government; for in 1796 the acting governor of the northwest territory proclaimed the bounds of Wayne county as embracing a considerable section of northwestern Ohio, west of Cleveland, quite a slice of northeastern Indiana and the entire southern peninsula of Michigan.
WAYNE COUNTY ORGANIZED.
The document by which Wayne county was brought into civil existence was to this effect :
PROCLAMATION BY WINTHROP SARGENT, ACTING AS GOVERNOR OF THE TERRITORY OF THE UNITED STATES NORTHWEST OF THE RIVER OHIO-To all persons to whom these presents shall come, Greeting :
Whereas, By an ordinance of congress of the 13th of July, 1787, for the settlement of the territory of the United States northwest
75
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
of the River Ohio, it is directed that for the due execution of proc- ess, civil and criminal, the Governours shall make proper divisions of the said territory and proceed from time to time as circum- stances may require, to lay out the same into counties and town- ships; and, Whereas, it appearing to me expedient that a new county should immediately be erected to include the settlement of Detroit, &c., I do hereby ordain and order that all and singular the lands lying and being within the following boundaries, viz .: beginning
At the mouth of the Cuyahoga River upon Lake Erie, and with the said River to the portage between it and the Tuscarawa branch of the Muskingum-thence down the said branch to the forks at the carrying place above Fort Lawrence-thence by a West line to the Eastern boundary of Hamilton county (which is a due North line from the lower Shawonese Town upon the Sciota River)-thence by a line West-northerly to the southern part of the portage between the Miamis of the Ohio and the St. Mary's River-thence by a line also west-northerly to the south- western part of the portage between the Wabash and the Miamis of Lake Erie, where Fort Wayne now stands-thence by a line west-northerly to the most southern part of Lake Michigan- thence along the western shores of the same to the northwest part thereof (including the lands upon the streams emptying into the said Lake)-thence by a due north line to the territorial boundary in Lake Superior, and with the said boundary through lakes Huron, St. Clair and Erie, to the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, the place of beginning
Shall be a county, named and henceforth to be styled the County of Wayne-which said County shall have and enjoy all and singular the jurisdiction, rights, liberties, privileges, and im- munities whatsoever to a county appertaining and which any other county that now is or hereafter may be erected and laid out, shall or ought to enjoy conformable to the ordinance of Congress before mentioned.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal of the territory this fifteenth day of August, in the twenty-first year of the Independence of the United States, A. D. one thousand seven hundred and ninety-six.
WINTHROP SARGENT.
FIRST LAND TITLES AND SURVEYS.
In the "American State Papers," Vol. I, under the title "Public Lands," it is stated in the report of a commission on land claims in Michigan, that there were but eight legal titles passed during the French and English occupation of the country. The Detroit land office was established in 1804, and the evidence in
76
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
LAKE SUPERIOR
CANADA
3
LAKE HURON
1 LAKE MICHIGAN 1803-1805
G
OR
1
ADA
2
CAN
Chicago
LAKE
ERIE
I
WAYNE COUNTY
77
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
support of the various land claims up to that time was gathered and submitted to congress, which subsequently vested the right to their lands in actual settlers who could show a reasonable color of title thereto. Thus early in the history of national legislation was the American principle promulgated that the best interests of the country were jeoparized by allowing land to get into the hands of speculators, instead of into the possession of those who wished to make them the basis of homes and industry.
The first survey of public lands in the state of Michigan was made in 1816, on the Detroit river and vicinity. The principal meridian followed the west line of the present Lenawee county, and was run due north to the Sault Ste. Marie; the base line com- menced on Lake St. Clair, between Macombe and Wayne counties, and was extended west to Lake Michigan. A portion only of the 1816 survey was brought into the market in 1818, all within the Detroit land district.
In 1821, by the treaty of Chicago with the Ottawas, Chippe- was, and Pottawatomies, all the country west of the principal meridian, south of the Grand river to the Indiana state line and west to Lake Michigan, with the exception of a few reservations, was ceded and confirmed to the general government. This tract included, of course, St. Joseph county, with the exception of the Nottawa-seepe reservation, which was cleared of its Indian title in 1833.
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.