USA > Michigan > St Joseph County > History of St. Joseph county, Michigan, with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, palatial residences, public buildings, fine blocks, and important manufactories > Part 10
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 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77
At the May meeting, 1832, of the board of supervisors in White Pigeon, they voted to build a county jail at Centreville, after the following plans and specifications : The said jail to be made of hewn or sawed timber one foot square and dovetailed at the corners, and laid close ; to be built in two square blocks, with a space of eight feet between-the whole to be covered with one shingle roof. The buildings to be of two stories of seven feet each in height, and the lower floors of the same thickness and materials as the framework ; the second floor eight inches thick, and the third floor six inches. The doors to be of four-inch plank, and grated windows.
In July, 1833, the jail was accepted from the contractor, A. H. Murray, upon his making the floors and windows more secure.
The first man incarcerated in this jail was committed without formality or warrant ; he had committed an assault on Mr. Langley, the landlord of
. the town at the time, and was "collared" by Sheriff Taylor and thrust into an apartment of the jail, and the door closed, but not locked, upon him. He was considerably more than "half seas over," and, finding a good supply of shavings on the floor, at once lay down and fell asleep. The jailor, Walter G. Stevens, forgot all about his boarder till nearly noon the next day, when he went over to the jail and found his tenant gone. At night the fellow came round and offered Stevens a quarter of a dollar to let him sleep there again.
This jail did service for twenty-one years, and when at last it was con- demned, and the supervisors absolutely refused to make any further repairs on it, one summer midnight, in 1854 (August 14), the old relic went heaven- ward in smoke, except such portions of it as had sufficient avoirdupois to remain on terra firma. There were three prisoners confined in it at the time, one of whom, named De Forest, set it on fire, as supposed, the incen- diary losing his life thereby, and the others escaping from the burning build- ing, but not from custody. The old lock, weighing some twenty-five pounds, is now in the possession of Orlando J. Fast, Esq., prosecuting attorney of the county, who bought it of some boys who had fished it out of the St. Joseph, near Mendon. How the relic came there is a question yet to be answered. The lock was a most ingeniously-wrought combination of wards and bolts, made by E. C. White, the gunsmith of the village, and none but an expert locksmith could pick it, even with the key, when the combination was once fully set, being as fully proof against a rapid entrance into, as a sudden exit from, the jail. White drew the plans and combination mostly, and, Judge Connor supervised the work. The jail was built by a few persons mostly, notwithstanding the order of the supervisors for its erection, and, when first occupied, would not keep prisoners inside of its walls only so long as they chose to stay. It was afterwards refitted thoroughly, and was a secure fortress for the keeping of criminals. A certain criminal who had broken out of every jail in the country in which he had been confined, and had been outlawed in Missouri, and came back to the county and was re- arrested, was safely kept after the old lock was put on the jail, and was con- victed and sent to the Jackson penitentiary, from which he soon afterwards made his escape. He kept clear of St. Joseph county after that.
29
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
In October, 1851, the first move was made for a new jail, when the super- visors refused to make further appropriations for repairs on the old building, but the people declining to second the motion, the subject was not broached again until 1853, when a committee was appointed to draft plans and speci- fications for a suitable building for jail purposes. In 1854, on the burning of the old jail, a temporary affair was ordered and built, but the present edifice was not completed until 1856-7. Mark Wakeman, Edward S. Moore, George W. Beisel and Judge Connor were appointed a building committee, and limited to an expenditure of not less than four thousand dol- lars, nor more than five thousand dollars. The jail is located opposite the court-house, on the east, and cost five thousand dollars. It is built of brick, and the main building is thirty-two by forty-five feet on the ground, two stories high, with an extension to the south, one story high, twenty by forty-eight feet. It has ten cells, and contains nine rooms for the use of the sheriff and his family, who usually reside in it.
On February 22, 1841, the county commissioners resolved to build a court-house, of wood (the present one), in the centre of the public square of the village plat of Centreville, which was to be completed in three years, or sooner, if practicable. Judge Connor was appointed to draft plans and specifications, and furnish a bill of materials for the proposed building. On March 12, Judge Connor having reported favorably on his work, the com- missioners ordered contracts for one hundred thousand feet of lumber, sold to the lowest bidder, and ordered notices posted about the county calling for sealed proposals. The expense was to be met by the appropriation of all money on hand from the sale of lots, and the balance to be raised by direct taxation on the taxable property of the people of the county. Judge Connor was appointed superintendent of the work, with liberal discretion- ary powers.
The materials were generally purchased by the county, and the labor done by contract. John Bryan was awarded the contract for the work on the superstructure, at three thousand two hundred dollars. The board of super- visors came into power again before the building was completed, and Judge Connor was continued in the superintendency of the work. The building was completed and accepted in the fall of 1842, and cost about seven thou- sand dollars. Some alterations have been made since, but substantially the building stands unchanged at the present time.
At the April town-meetings in 1846, a proposition to raise one thousand dollars for the erection of the fire-proof buildings for the county offices, and the preservation of the records, was submitted to the people, who voted against it. On December 28, 1859, the supervisors voted to build the pres- ent brick offices, standing on the north side of the public square, occupied for the purpose above named. They appointed William Allman, Comfort Tyler and William H. Cross, a building committee, who contracted with William Laffey and Isaac R. Belote to build offices, according to the plans and specifications adopted by the board, for three thousand two hundred dollars. They are forty-four by twenty-four feet on the ground, with walls fourteen and a half feet high and thirteen inches thick, with tin roof and stone foundations, with stone-and-brick floors. A fire-proof vault was added subsequently to the register's office after the robbery of the records, described more fully elsewhere.
On January 1, 1848, the board of supervisors ordered the superintendents of the county poor to purchase a farm of one hundred or one hundred and sixty acres for a county poor farm ; and one was bought the same year of Cyrus Schellhous for two thousand eight hundred dollars, in the township of Colon, which was subsequently sold, and another one, the old Latta farm and tavern-stand in Fawn River, obtained in 1857 by the forfeiture of Latta's recognizance under an indictment for counterfeiting, and which the county now owns. The farm consists of two hundred and forty acres or more, and is located on sections three in Fawn River and thirty-four in Burr Oak. The house on the premises is a large and comfortable building of about seventy by seventy feet on the ground, two stories in height, and will accommodate about fifty persons comfortably. The unfortunate poor are here cared for humanely while living, and when dead are buried in the Fawn River cemetery, and at their graves neat marble headstones, bearing inscrip- tions which give the name, age and demise of each, are erected by the county authorities. This last act of humanity is the result of Hon. Isaac D. Toll's efforts, while on the board of supervisors.
Under the ordinance of 1787, the governor and judges of the territory provided for the management of the fiscal concerns of the counties by courts of general quarter sessions, composed of the justices of the county courts and the justices of the peace, and gave them power to audit bills for the ex- penses of the county, and levy taxes to liquidate the same; to manage the pauper support, open and regulate roads, build bridges, divide their
counties into townships, and report their action to the governor for confir- mation. On May 30, 1818, the same authority abolished these courts, and constituted in their stead boards of commissioners, who succeeded to the same powers as held by the courts, which boards continued till April 12, 1827, when the legislative council, which had, on the 30th of March preceding, provided for the election, by the towns, of supervisors, authorized these latter officers to meet at the county-seats, as a county board, with substantially the same powers as the commissioners had, which latter body was abolished.
The legislature under the constitution did not seem to admire the operation of the supervisor system in the management of county affairs, and on Decem- ber 31, 1837,-the first opportunity that offered,-that body remanded the counties to the commissioners' rule, and re-invested them with the power per- taining to the board of supervisors. But three commissioners from a whole county, all of whom might be in adjoining townships, did not suit the ideas of the people of the several towns, after having tasted the sweets of joint participation in the government of the county and the levy of its taxes, and the pressure was renewed for a change, which the legislature granted.
February 10, 1842, by bidding, the commissioners surrendered their au- thority to the board of supervisors, which was reconstituted and re-invested with the charge of the strong chest of the treasury, and the replenishment and disbursement of the contents thereof. The legislature, under the new con- stitution, continued the regime, and it is still in force, with power sufficient to keep the wheels of government of the county well lubricated and in good repair, and therefore making satisfactory progress.
The first meeting of the board of supervisors of St. Joseph county was held at White Pigeon, on the 19th day of April, 1830. Luther Newton, supervisor of White Pigeon township, and Henry Powers, supervisor of Sherman township, met, but not being advised whether two members were a majority of the board, they agreed to meet on the 23d instant. On that day the two above named, and William Duncan, supervisor of Brady town- ship (Kalamazoo county), met at A. Savery's house and organized the board, and appointed Neal McGaffey clerk, to hold his office during the pleasure of the board. They proceeded at once to give the people a slight taste of the cost of independent government, by levying a tax of fifty dollars for county purposes ; fifty dollars in White Pigeon, thirty dollars in Brady, thirty- five in Sherman, and fifteen dollars in the township of Greene, for township pur- poses. They 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 of which animals should be over three years old. They valued land at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, and fixed the compensation of the clerk at one dollar per day, and adjourned after a single day's session.
On the 5th day of October, the same year, the board held its second meet- ing, at which supervisors Newton, Powers, and Seth Dunham, of Greene township, were present. They met at Savery's again, and allowed Dunham four dollars for his services, and, as the record says, " transacted sundry other business relative to the tax lists in pursuance to the statute," and adjourned without day.
On March 17, 1831, the board met again, with Newton and Powers only present, but they were equal to the task before them. Believing in just weights and measures, they directed the clerk to procure sundry measures of the bushel and its aliquot parts, of wood and tin, and divers weights, or sixty pounds and less, terminating with a half-ounce avoirdupois, and fur- nish the county sealer with the same, and also with a stamp marked M. T., and ordered the county treasurer to pay the clerk ten dollars to make the purchase with. The bills of Powers and Newton for services, ten dollars and forty cents and eight dollars and thirty-seven and a half cents, respect- ively, and six dollars and fifty cents for the clerk, were allowed, and the board adjourned.
On June 7, 1831, the new board elected at the previous April town-meet- ings met at Savery's, at which William Connor, of Nottawa, and Weston W. Bliss, of White Pigeon, were present. They directed the assessment of all lands in the county, with the improvements thereon-except houses not worth one hundred dollars, and school-houses-and horses and cattle over three years of age, to be made at their actual value.
In October of the same year the board met again, and supervisors Bliss, Connor, Dunham of Greene, and Jason Thurston, 2d, of Sherman, were present ; accounts to the amount of seventy-one dollars and thirty-six cents were audited, three-fourths of which were for attorneys' fees; showing that the privilege accorded the county of "suing and being sued, impleading and being impleaded," was not an unmixed blessing. They offered a bounty of one dollar for each wolf-scalp taken in the county, and elected Seth Dun-
30
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
ham chairman of the board, whose signature is appended to the record of that meeting.
On March 5, 1832, the board met, with supervisors Bliss, Connor and Dunham present. Robert Clark, Jr., was appointed the clerk for that meeting. The board audited the following accounts : Supervisors' services, thirty-two dollars and twenty-nine cents ; sheriff's accounts, twenty-four dollars and forty-six cents ; wolf-scalps, four dollars ; clerk, for stationery and services, four dollars and fifty cents, and three per cent. commission to the county treasurer on what he had received for the county, amounting to nine dollars, making a total audit of seventy-four dollars and ten cents. The treasurer had a balance on hand of one hundred and eighty-four dollars and sixty- nine and a half cents.
The next meeting was held at the academy, in White Pigeon, on May 12, 1832, with the same towns represented as at the last meeting, and Albert E. Ball acted as clerk. Values were increasing, or stock was getting better in quality, for stallions kept for stock purposes, were listed at one hundred dol- lars each ; first-rate team-horses sixty dollars, and second-rate ones at thirty dollars ; oxen, forty-five dollars per yoke, and cows, thirteen dollars. Im- proved lands were valued at two dollars and fifty cents per acre, and unim- proved at one dollar and twenty-five cents ; wagons at forty-five dollars ; carts, twenty-five dollars ; stage-coaches and pleasure wagons, and houses worth more than one hundred dollars, at their actual value.
At the October meeting the same year, the same members being present, the first allowance for a pauper was made-one hundred and seventy-one dollars and thirteen cents for the support of Tim Shields. The sheriff drew out of the county treasury two hundred and seventy dollars, and the super- visors and their clerk sixty-three dollars and ninety-seven cents more. Havoc had been made among the genus canis, twenty-five of the gaunt and hungry fellows having fallen victims to the price set on their heads.
The next meeting-the first one held at Centreville-was a special one, convened March 30, 1833, but no business of moment was done. At the June meeting following, John S. Barry, a justice of the peace, appears on record by a report of fines collected by the county court justices. The sale of six of the best lots in Centreville, belonging to the county, was ordered, and the clerk directed to advertise the sale by posting notices in every post- office in the county. Digby V. Bell was appointed clerk of the board at the May meeting, 1835, and S. W. Truesdell was elected in 1836-the first clerk elected in the county. At the October meeting, 1837, Columbia Lan- caster, county treasurer, having received "in the line of his duty " a coun- terfeit ten-dollar bank-note of some collector whom he could not designate, was allowed the amount in his account, and the worthless " rag " solemnly burned to prevent further mischief on its behalf.
The October meeting, 1838, is notable as being the last one before the re- entrance of the county commissioners, and also for being the first meeting to equalize the assessment of real-estate.
On December 28, 1838, the county commissioners met and organized the board, with John G. Cathcart, of Constantine, John Sturgis, of Sherman, and James Hutchinson, of Park, as members, and elected William Hutch- inson chairman, and adjourned until January 9, 1839, when they re-assem- bled and appointed Neal McGaffey, Edward S. Moore and Hiram Jacobs county superintendents of the poor, these being the first of those officers that appear on the record. In May, 1839, the board licensed Asher Bonham to cry his wares as an auctioneer, and gave Smith & Bowman the right to run a ferry across the St. Joe at Three Rivers. In September, 1839, the demand for wolf-scalps largely exceeded the supply, as would ap- pear by the price paid by the commissioners for them-thirty dollars for two, which probably were no better than those offered to the board of super- visors in early days for a dollar apiece. But the price fell off in October, and the board paid but ten dollars for two more. The first two were Sherman wolves, and the latter were White Pigeon stock. On April 9, 1842, the commissioners directed Judge Connor to continue his superintend- ency over the court-house, then in process of erection, until relieved by competent authority, and then gracefully bowed themselves off the stage, and the curtain fell upon the final act. It rose again as the new board of supervisors made their debut before a critical audience, amid the rejoicings of the anniversary of the natal day of the republic-July 4, 1842. George G. De Puy, of White Pigeon, was elected chairman of the new board, which was composed of fourteen members. The board appointed a committee to examine the county jail, who subsequently reported the same in a destitute condition, not a prisoner being then confined within its walls. The board, in 1844, abolished the distinction between county and township poor, and assumed them all as a county charge.
The following gentlemen officiated as chairmen of the board since the first one was chosen in 1831, the board of 1830 acting without any legal head : Seth Dunham served for the year 1831; Benjamin Sherman, 1832 ; W. W. Bliss, 1833-34; William Connor, 1835-37; Isaac G. Bailey, 1838; George G. De Puy, 1842; C. B. Fitch, 1843; James L. Bishop, 1844; A. E. Massey, 1845; William Savier, 1846-49; W. C. Pease, 1850; Hon. Isaac D. Toll, 1851; William McCormick, 1852; Comfort Tyler, 1853-59 and 1867; William G. Woodworth, 1860 and 1868; William H. Cross, 1861 and 1866; John Harrison, 1862-65; Hiram Lindsley, 1869; Norman Roys, 1870; William F. Arnold, 1871 and 1873; J. C. Bishop, 1872; S. M. Nash, 1874; G. W. Osborn, 1875.
The present board is composed of the following supervisors, to wit : Andrew Climie, chairman, Leonidas ; A. P. Emery, Mendon ; Daniel Pfleger, Park ; Ira Starkweather, Flowerfield; Henry Stoltz, Fabius ; William F. Arnold, Lockport; John C. McKercher, Nottawa; Ansel Tyler, Colon; J. C. Bishop, Burr Oak; H. C. Hopkins, Sherman ; Norman Roys, Florence ; Aaron Howard, Constantine; J. C. Hatzler, Mottville ; G. B. Markham, White Pigeon; L. E. White, Sturgis ; Isaac D. Toll, Fawn River.
A necessary and unavoidable concomitant of government is a system of taxation, by and through which revenues may be derived for the payment of the expenses incurred in the direction of the public affairs of a community ; and the more perfect and simple that system is, the less friction it involves in its exercise or administration. The system at present in vogue in Michi- gan is a very simple one, the townships being the fountains from whence all the streams of revenue flow. The machinery, too, is simple, and easily worked. The supervisor in each town lists the taxable property in the town- ship, and takes this list up with him to the board of supervisors, who, as an equalizing board between the several townships of the county, equalize the same, and once in five years the State board of equalization equalizes the as- sessments of the counties between the several counties in the State, for a basis whereon to levy each county's just proportion of the State taxes. After the equalization is made by the supervisors, the estimate of the county require- ments for the year is made, and the percentage necessary to be raised on the equalization assessment for State and county purposes determined, the amount for State purposes being reported from the auditor-general. The amount to be raised for town, school and road purposes, is regarded by the people in the towns and districts themselves, and the county authorities have no cog- nizance of it.
The supervisor casts and extends the taxes, makes up the tax-roll of his town, and certifies the same to the township treasurer, who proceeds to the collection of the taxes thereon, under penalty of double the amount thereof, making his returns to the county treasurer for the State and county taxes, and to the proper town official for the township and other taxes.
Sales of land for delinquent taxes are made by the county treasurer on the first Monday of October succeeding the return of the same to that offi- cial, the owner of the land retaining the right of redemption from such sale for one year thereafter, upon the payment of the amount for which the same was sold, together with an added penalty of twenty-five per cent., graduated into equal quarterly portions at the option of the redemptor. At the expi- ration of the year after the sale, the unredeemed lands are certified to the auditor-general, who executes all tax-deeds therefor.
The amount of the assessed valuation of property in the county is not shown by the records for the year 1830, but the amount of county taxes levied was $110.24, the county treasurer receiving the net amount of $95.05; $130.00 was raised for town purposes, each town having the privilege (?) of paying its respective amount on its own assessment. The assessment of 1831 is not given either, but the levy of one-fifth of one per cent. on the same, or- dered by the supervisors, produced $228.95, and therefore the assessment must have amounted to $114,475. In 1832 the assessment of the real and personal property in the county amounted to $119,228, and the county tax levied thereon at the rate of one-half of one per cent. produced $620.93, the county netting the sum of $516.70, the balance being swallowed up by the commissions of the collectors and the non-resident taxes. The latter, how- ever, were paid, or made, at the tax sale in 1840.
The foregoing assessments included the taxable property of Branch county. The first assessment in St. Joseph county, as at present limited, was made in 1833, and amounted to $290,173, and one-sixth of one per cent. was levied on it for county purposes, producing $478.44. $235.00 were levied for town- ship purposes. The assessment of 1834 amounted to $347,194, and the taxes charged against it, $1,455.56, for county use. There were $1,804 also raised in the different townships for their own use, $895 being for White Pigeon alone. The assessment of 1835 was returned at $386,085, with a county levy of $1,931.73, and a township tax of $528.19 additional.
31
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
In order that Colon might not be totally neglected in the township levy, it was assessed a single dollar only. In 1836 the county paid her first tribute to "the powers that be" over her, and her assigned quota of the State taxes amounted to "$1,529.18.10," as the record reads. The county needs amounted to $2,012.98, and therefore the sum of $3,542.16 was levied on the assessment that year, which amounted to $611,672.
The first equalization of the assessment of real estate between the town- ships of the county, was made by the board of supervisors in 1830. Im- proved lands in Florence were raised to fifteen dollars per acre, and unim- proved to five dollars. Unimproved lands in Park were valued at four dol- lars per acre, and twenty-five per cent. added to the valuation of real estate in Colon. Unimproved lands in Leonidas and Fawn River were placed at four dollars per acre, and the assessments of the other towns were unchanged from the valuation of the assessors.
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.