USA > Michigan > St Joseph County > History of St. Joseph County, Michigan; Volume I > Part 8
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In 1823 the Detroit land district had been divided, and an office established at Monroe, in the county of that name, near Lake Erie. Up to 1831, all land entries west of the principal meridian were made at this office; then a land office was opened at White Pigeon, which was moved to Kalamazoo (Bronson) in 1834.
TOWNSHIP OF ST. JOSEPH.
Another advance in civil government was made on November 20, 1826, when the legislative council of the territory of Michigan attached to Lenawee county all of the territory to which the Indian title had been extinguished by the treaty of 1821, and on the following 12th of April created the township of St. Joseph, with boundaries including the area thus cleared of Indian claims.
The first town meeting of the new civil division was ordered to be held at the house of Timothy S. Smith, situated on the site of the present town of Niles, Berrien county. On September 22,
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
1828, the lands ceded by the treaty at Cary's mission, the same year, were attached to Lenawee county and made a part of St. Joseph township, and on October 29th, of the following year the council of Michigan constituted the territory within the lines of townships 5, 6 and 7, and fractional 8, south of the base line in ranges 9, 10, 11 and 12, west of the principal meridian, into the county of St. Joseph.
COUNTY GOVERNMENT INAUGURATED.
On November 4, 1829, actual government was inaugurated within the present limits of St. Joseph county by an order which also issued from the territorial council for the holding of a circuit court at the house of Asahel Savery, on White Pigeon prairie, and also for the establishment of a county court with the usual juris- diction and functions. The following day witnessed the attach- ment of the following territory to the county: The counties of Kalamazoo, Barry, Branch, Eaton and Calhoun and all the country lying north of the townships numbered 4, west of the principal meridian, and south of the county of Michilimackinac and east of the lines between ranges 12 and 13 and Lake Michigan where said line intersects the lake.
THE ORIGINAL TOWNSHIPS.
This great civil division of Michigan, the original St. Joseph county, was divided into five townships. White Pigeon township embraced the present townships of Lockport, Florence, Fabius, Constantine, Mottville and White Pigeon; Sherman township in- cluded the township by that name, as well as Colon, Nottawa, Burr Oak, Fawn River and Sturgis; the Flowerfield of 1829 in- cluded the townships (as they are now known) of Leonidas, Mendon, Park and Flowerfield; Brady township embraced the counties of Kalamazoo and Barry; and Greene township, the counties of Branch, Calhoun and Eaton and the country north of Eaton. Elections were ordered held in the three original town- ships of the present St. Joseph county at the following places : White Pigeon, at the house of Asahel Savery; Sherman, at the house of John B. Clark, and for Flowerfield township, at the house of John Sturgis.
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
FIRST ELECTION IN COUNTY PROPER.
On the 4th of November, 1829, when the civil courts came into being, the temporary seat of justice for St. Joseph county was located at White Pigeon. The first election ever held in St. Joseph county proper was the town meeting of April, 1830, con- ducted in the townships of White Pigeon and Sherman, in pur- suance of the organizing acts passed by the territorial council. Besides the township officers, John Winchell was elected county treasurer, and during this and the preceding year Governor Cass appointed Dr. Hubbel Loomis, probate judge; John W. Anderson, register of probate; John Sturgis and Luther Newton, county judges and E. Taylor, sheriff.
The first meeting of the board of supervisors of St. Joseph county was held at Savery's house, at White Pigeon, on the 19th of April, 1830. Luther Newton, the representative of White Pigeon, and Henry Powers, of Sherman, gathered together, but not being sure whether two would be considered a working major- ity of the board agreed to adjourn until the 23rd. On that day they were joined by William Duncan, supervisor of Brady town- ship (Kalamazoo county), organized, and appointed Neal Mc- Gaffey, clerk. Afterward they proceeded to assert their rights as free-born American citizens by levying a tax of one hundred and eighty dollars for county and township purposes-fifty for the former; fifty for White Pigeon township, thirty-five for Sherman, thirty for Brady and fifteen for Greene. They also instructed the assessors in the several townships for the year 1830 to return horses at thirty dollars each, oxen at forty dollars per yoke and cows at ten dollars, all animals taxed being over three years of age. Land was valued at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre.
Thus were the courts and the finances of St. Joseph county put in motion, and the county seat had a statutory location at least; pretty good start for any western county.
Before proceeding further with the history of events in the development of St. Joseph county as a civil body, it is thought best and logical to briefly note the changes in her system of govern- ment.
CHANGES IN COUNTY GOVERNMENT.
In April, 1825, the territorial council gave the people the right to elect the county commissioners, treasurers, coroners and con-
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
stables. During the continuance of the territorial form of govern- ment, the governor had the power to appoint the judges and the clerks of the several courts of record, and sheriffs and justices of the peace, but under the constitution of 1835 the people were given the power of electing all county officials, with the exception of the circuit, or chief judges of the circuit court and the prosecut- ing attorneys. Under the first state constitution the county offi- cials were associate judges of the circuit court, judges of the county court, judge of probate, sheriff, two or more coroners, county clerk (ex-officio, clerk of both the circuit and county courts), register of deeds, surveyor, treasurer and three county commissioners, who afterward gave place to the board of super- visors.
Under the constitution of 1850 the same officers were provided for except the associate judges of the circuit court, judges of the county court and county commissioners, and prosecuting attorneys were made elective.
The official term of all was fixed at two years, with the excep- tion of the judge of probate, whose term was four years, with the privilege of an indefinite extension based on popular demands as expressed through the ballot.
Under the territory, the township government was vested in a supervisor, clerk, collector of taxes, from three to five assessors, three commissioners of highways, two overseers of the poor, and constables, overseers of highways, fence viewers and pound mas- ters, according to the necessities of the case.
The first state constitution provided for a supervisor for each township, clerk, treasurer, three assessors, one collector, three school inspectors, two directors of the poor, three commissioners of highways, not to exceed four justices of the peace and con- stables, and as many overseers of highways and pound masters as were necessary to keep the roads in repair and four-legged ani- mals within reasonable bounds.
Under the second constitution, the town clerk and one in- spector were made to do the work of the former three school in- spectors, and only one commissioner of highways was allowed the people. Otherwise, there was virtually no change in the com- position of the officials.
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
SUBDIVISION OF ORIGINAL TOWNSHIPS.
Taking up the subdivision of the original three townships which embraced what is now known as St. Joseph county, it is learned that the first to be added was Nottawa, which was created July 28, 1830, and constituted the present townships of Colon and Nottawa.
On March 3, 1831, the council of the territory attached to the county all that part of Cass county lying east of the St. Joseph river and west of the township line, and made it a part of White Pigeon. This addition included a portion of the Mott- ville township of today.
Colon came into civil existence March 21, 1833, but then included the present towns of Leonidas and Colon, and Mendon, as it is now known, was added to Nottawa. The territory in-, cluded in Fabius and Lockport was taken from White Pigeon and formed into Buck's township, reducing Flowerfield to the area now included in Flowerfield and Park.
FIRST TOWN MEETINGS.
The first town meetings in the new sovereignties were ordered to be held at the house of Robert Shellhouse, in Colon; at the cabin of George Buck, in Buck's township, and at Joshua Barnum's, in Flowerfield.
In 1841, the year after the organization of Lockport town- ship, Buck's was changed in name to Fabius township, with its present dimensions. Leonidas became a township in 1836, and Constantine, Mottville and Florence in 1837. Constantine and Florence were unchanged in territory, but with Mottville it was different; she gave to White Pigeon the eastern tier of sections of township 8 south, range 12 west, and received the triangle of the same township east of the St. Joseph river, originally part of Cass county.
Mottville and Constantine held their first town meetings at the school houses in the villages by those names, and Florence, at the house of Giles Thompson.
Burr Oak, Park and Fawn River were created as townships, in 1838, and in April of that year organized their governments in the house of Julius A. Thompson, for Burr Oak, at the resi- dence of James Hutchinson, for Park, and at the home of Free- man A. Tisdel, for Fawn River.
Vol. 1-6
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
Lockport came into the sisterhood of organized townships in 1840, and Solomon Cummings threw open his house to its first legislators, while in the following year Alfred Poes made his home the headquarters for the first town meeting of Fabius (old Buck's).
In 1843 Wakeman township appeared on the county map, but the name did not please her people, who changed it to Men- don in 1844. In 1845 Sturgis township straggled along, as the last of the sixteen in St. Joseph county. Thereafter, there were no changes in the territory of the townships, with the exception of Lockport and Florence; in 1856 the former relinquished the east halves of sections 25 and 36 to Nottawa, and the latter. sections 34, 35 and 36 to White Pigeon.
WHITE PIGEON, TEMPORARY COUNTY SEAT.
White Pigeon was selected as the temporary seat of justice of St. Joseph county, for the very good reason that it was the only settlement worthy of the name which had thus far appeared on the landscape. It was recorded as a village plat, May 7, 1830 -the first in the county; Mottville being the second to assume this formal dignity on the 31st of the same month.
But as the settlements spread northward, there was a de- mand for a more central location. The commissioners appointed by the governor to locate the county seat had made a report, in 1830, favoring Lockport, or George Buck's village, but the territorial council wisely set aside the report and appointed a new commission, consisting of Thomas Rowland, Henry Desbrow and George A. O'Keefe. The report of the first commission had been set aside by the council's decree, March 4, 1831, and in November of that year Centerville was platted as a forecast of the prevailing sentiment which demanded that the county seat should be located near the geographical center. Its proprietors offered more liberal inducements, chiefly in the shape of land donations, than came from the owners of White Pigeon or Buck's village, and the territorial commissioners therefore made their recommendations to the governor accordingly.
CENTERVILLE, PERMANENT COUNTY SEAT.
On the 22nd of November, 1831, the governor of Michigan issued his proclamation locating the county seat at Centerville;
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
but the proclamation had resulted in no court house, or other provision for the conduct of the county government, by the fol- lowing spring. The legislative council thereupon ordered the courts to be held at the academy in White Pigeon, or such other suitable place as could be procured by the sheriff, pending the time when Centerville should really come to the front as the county seat.
JAIL, FIRST COUNTY BUILDING.
At the meeting held by the board of supervisors, at White Pigeon, in May, 1832, it was voted to build a county jail at Cen- terville. In July, 1833, it was completed by A. H. Murray, and was the first building erected by the county. The jail was built of hewn timber, a foot square, and consisted of two square blocks, with a space of eight feet between; two stories, fourteen feet high, the entire structure covered with a shingle roof. The lower floors were of the same thickness as the framework (a foot), the second floor eight inches, and the third, six inches. The doors were of four inch plank and the windows grated. It was a good, solid building, and evidently hard to get out of, through the walls or floor; but Contractor Murray overlooked the fastenings on the doors and windows, and the county refused to settle with him in full until he had made the jail more tight.
OFFERED BRIBE TO BE RE-JAILED.
It appears that the first man incarcerated in the jail com- mitted his offense when neither warrants for his arrest nor justices of the peace were convenient to send him there, by "due process of law." He had assaulted Thomas W. Langley, the land- lord, and was "collared" by Sheriff Taylor. This first offender against the peace and dignity of Centerville, after she had her jail, was thrust into one of the two "squares," or cells, above mentioned, and the door was closed but not locked after him. Being decidedly tipsy and finding a nice pile of shavings on the floor, he found everything so much to his liking that he was soon snoring like a contented pig. Sheriff Taylor had informed Jailer Walter G. Stevens that he had his first boarder, but the latter forgot all about it until noon the next day. Stevens then went over to the log jail to investigate, but found his prisoner
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gone. At night the offender against the law routed up the jailer and offered him a quarter of a dollar to let him sleep in the county strong-hold again.
The old log jail did service for twenty-one years, when it was condemned. The supervisors refused to repair it, and on August 14, 1854, it was burned, with one of the three prisoners (DeForest), who is supposed to have set it afire.
A TERRIFYING LOCK.
It is said that the most remarkable thing about the first jail accredited to St. Joseph county was the lock by which its front door was secured for so many years. It was a most intri- cate and ingenious combination of wards and bolts, made by E. C. White, the gunsmith of the village, and none but the most expert locksmith could pick it, even with the key. The mechan- ism weighed twenty-five pounds and was proof against either rapid entrance or exit; this fact may have accounted for the death of Prisoner DeForest. That old lock is believed to have terrified more criminals in the early days of the county than its best sheriff or constable. It disappeared after the fire, and years afterward was fished out of the St. Joseph river by some boys at Mendon, who sold it to Orlando J. Fast, prosecuting attorney in the late seventies.
NEW JAIL ERECTED.
In 1853, the year before the burning of the old jail, the board of supervisors appointed a committee to draft plans and specifi- cations for a suitable building; but the brick jail opposite the court house on the east was not completed until 1856-7. The building committee-Mark Wakeman, Edward S. Moore, George W. Beisel and Judge Connor-was limited to an expenditure of $4,000 or $5,000, either way. As finally completed, it cost the greater sum ; the main building, two stories in height, was thirty-two by forty- five feet, and there was an extension to the south, one story, twenty by forty-eight feet; the jail proper had ten cells and the family residence of the sheriff, nine rooms.
TEMPORARY COURT HOUSE.
But in the midst of the interest which attaches to the old jail, the writer has lost sight of the court house of the county, which
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
is the outward evidence of its government. On January 23, 1833, Governor Porter issued a proclamation directing the courts to be held at the "court house at the county seat." As Centerville had provided no court house, the gubernatorial order stirred the county authorities to brisk action, and, as stated in the chapter on the "Bench and Bar," the board of supervisors soon leased an upper room in the first and only frame building in town-the two story affair built by Thomas W. Langley in the fall of 1832, located on the corner of Main and Clark streets. This served the courts and the county officials until the first court house erected by the county was completed in 1842, especially as the entire building was purchased and utilized by the county.
TWO "PERMANENT" COURT HOUSES.
On February 22, 1841, the county commissioners resolved to build a wooden court house in the center of the public square of the village plat, the limit of whose completion was to be three years. Judge Connor was appointed to draft plans and specifica- tions and furnish a bill of materials for the proposed structure, and on the basis of his report, made March 12th, the commissioners ordered contracts to be made for one hundred thousand feet of lumber. The expense was to be met by the appropriation of all money on hand from the sale of lots, the balance to be raised by direct taxation. Judge Connor was appointed superintendent of the work and Judge Bryan was awarded the contract for the build- ing of the superstructure at $43,200. The materials which went into this first court house were generally purchased by the county and the labor done by contract.
The building was completed and accepted in the fall of 1842, cost altogether about seven thousand dollars, and, with some alter- ations, served the county until the erection of the substantial court house now occupied. The corner-stone of the latter was laid by the grand lodge of Masons of the state of Michigan, September 7, 1899, and it was completed in the following year, while William E. McKee was chairman of the board of supervisors.
PROTECTING THE COUNTY RECORDS.
Previous to the erection of the present-century court house, the principal improvements on the old accommodations were made for
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
OLD COURT HOUSE (1842)
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
the purpose of protecting the records and other valuable official papers. As early as April, 1846, the people voted against a propo- sition to raise $41,000 for the erection of fire proof buildings for the county offices, but in December, 1859, the supervisors voted to erect brick offices for the county on the north side of the square. They were built by William Laffey and Isaac R. Belote, under the supervision of a committee consisting of Supervisors William All- man, Comfort Tyler and William H. Cross. They cost $3,200, covered forty-four by twenty-four feet, and were considered secure enough until the famous robbery of the records from the register's office in 1872. After that, a fire-proof vault was added to the quarters of that official-a case of locking the door after the steal- ing of the horse.
FAMOUS ROBBERY OF RECORDS.
The case to which reference has been made is so remarkable that it forms an inalienable portion of the official history of St. Joseph county. The robbery was committed on the night of June 28, 1872, twenty-two volumes of deeds, twenty-two of mortgages, three index books, and about one hundred deeds and mortgages not recorded having mysteriously disappeared. The board of supervisors were called together July 1st, and they promptly took measures to bring the guilty parties to justice and recover the records and papers. The result of their investigations and efforts was the arrest of Anthony P. Fonda (a member of Captain B. C. Yates' private detective agency, Chicago) and his brother, John Fonda, of Three Rivers. They were examined by Samuel W. Platt, of Centerville, and Anthony Fonda was held for trial before the circuit in two thousand dollars bail.
The next important move in the case was made by the indicted Fonda, who had the notorious Dick Lane arrested in Chicago, under a fictitious name, for the robbery, but he was discharged under a writ of habeas corpus. . But as Lane still claimed to know all about the robbery, Sheriff Elva F. Peirce ran him down, re- arrested him and in February, 1873, brought him to St. Joseph county for trial. Soon afterward Fonda had his trial before Judge Cooley and was acquitted. In March, Lane was tried before Judge Brown, convicted and sentenced to five years in the penitentiary. Fonda was defended by Allen, of Chicago, Sadler of Centerville, and Judge Upson of Coldwater. Lane was defended by T. C.
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
Carpenter, of Sturgis, and prosecuted by Hon. E. W. Keightly, prosecuting attorney, and Hon. H. H. Riley, of Constantine.
The story of the regaining of the records is thus told : " About the 15th of August, 1872, Sheriff Peirce was informed that a party had received a letter from Chicago saying the books would be turned over for $5,000. The sheriff sent a person to Chicago to ascertain what reliance could be placed on the representation, with directions to telegraph the result of the conference. On receipt of the telegram, Sheriff Peirce and William W. Watkins, one of the supervisors, went to Chicago and to Eldredge & Tourtelotte's law office, where the information originated. Five thousand dollars were demanded for the surrender of the books, and it was agreed to lay the matter before the board of supervisors. This was done, and the board offered three thousand dollars for the re- turn of the books, and privately instructed the sheriff to act on his own discretion, but to get the records at all hazards.
"About the first of September, Sheriff Peirce went to Chicago, where he met Mancel Talcott and made arrangements with El- dredge & Tourtelotte for the delivery of the records for three thou- sand five hundred dollars, and on the 5th of September the sheriff (Peirce), County Treasurer James Hill and Supervisor W. W. Watkins, in behalf of the county, and Eldredge & Tourtelotte, for the thieves, entered into an agreement for the delivery of the rec- ords, and deposited with the law firm named the sum specified $3,500), Mancel Talcott being surety for the attorneys.
"The records were to be delivered by the 12th inst. They were dug from the earth, where they had been buried since the 28th of June, on the night of the 6th of September, in a badly-damaged con- dition, and Winslow Hatch notified at 11 o'clock P. M. The sheriff and Mr. Watkins were at the Hatch house in Three Rivers, on their return from Chicago. Mr. Hatch immediately informed them of the exhumation of the records and the sheriff ordered the books taken to the court house. This was done at 2 o'clock A. M. and when the sheriff discovered the terrible condition the records were in, he at once telegraphed to the attorneys, and took the cars at four o'clock for Chicago. On his arrival there, at ten o'clock, he immediately notified Eldredge & Tourtelotte of the damaged con- dition in which the records had been delivered, and demanded a return of the money deposited; but the attorneys claimed it had already been paid over.
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
"Suit was then commenced against the attorneys for the re- covery of the money deposited, Tourtelotte coming to Centerville November 22, 1872, and registering as Tuttle. Sheriff Peirce happened to see him about 4 o'clock P. M., drove to Sturgis, saw General Stoughton, the county's attorney, came back to Center- ville and procured a writ, and then driving to Three Rivers pro- cured the services of the same by Under-Sheriff C. E. Peirce, who had been to that place from Centerville with Tourtelotte. During the drive the Chicago lawyer had had great sport with Peirce about the old sheriff and the records.
"The writ was served about 12 o'clock at night. Tourtelotte asked gruffly 'Who the h-l are you ?'
"Peirce replied 'I was your hostler coming over ; I am under- sheriff now.' "'
The suit was transferred to the district court of the United States, Grand Rapids, March 19, 1873, tried in September, 1874, and judgment was rendered for the county for the $3,500 with in- terest. General Stoughton and Hon. H. H. Riley were the at- torneys for the county and Eldredge & Tourtelotte appeared in person, assisted by J. B. Church of Grand Rapids. A motion for a new trial was argued and overruled, and an appeal taken to the United States supreme court, which, however, reversed the de- cision of the lower court.
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