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 15
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"In the science of agriculture we know little or nothing. The most pro- found inquirer is superficial. The earth is a vast chemical laboratory, few of whose operations we comprehend. Every time we tread the grass be- neath our feet, we trample on an operation of nature as wonderful and more inexplicable than that of the magnetic telegraph. After the surface of the earth has been for months sealed up and congealed, the genial influences of the same sun whose power in impressing the Daguerrean plate we deem so potent and magical, entices from the dreary waste-not pictures-but reali- ties of wonderful beauty and variety, and causes to thrive and flourish and mature, the sustenance for hundreds of millions of men, and the countless swarms of animal life. To cause the growth of a single spire of grass, ele- ments far more numerous are called into requisition-chemical action far more inscrutable is going on. Do you understand the occult attractions, affinities, combinations, which enter into the germination and growth of a single seed or plant of tiniest shoot of vegetation ? Do you understand the delicate, yet potent, influences of light, heat, water and electricity ? 'Cans't thou measure the sweet influences of the pleiades ?' No! you are as ignorant of most of the influences which affect your crops as the clod you tread upon ! Of some of the appliances which stimulate, of some of the acts which de- stroy, you know something, but know little. Yet, strange as it may appear, we hear men often exclaim, 'I understand my business well enough ; I want none of the instructions of your books!'
" When the world had not yet recovered from astonishment at the discov- eries of Newton, he declared that he felt like a man picking up pebbles on the sea-shore, while the great ocean of truth lay unexplored before him. If you understand farming ' well enough,' I mean as a science, you have fath- omed all the processes encased and hidden beneath the surface of the earth.
You are a wiser, if not a humbler man than Newton, and to the question so' significantly asked, 'Canst thou, by searching, find out God?' you can tri- umphantly answer 'yes.'"
Mr. Williams exhibited some little crabbed, wrinkled apples, grown on a seedling, stunted in its growth by neglect, which he labelled "Good enough," and alongside of them fine specimens of grafted fruit, as a practical illustra- tion of the theme of his eloquent oration.
At the next fair, held October 14, 1852, Hon. Isaac D. Crary delivered the address to the largest assemblage of people ever before convened in the county. One hundred and forty dollars was distributed in premiums, George Carman taking the first one on farms, T. B. Millard the second. The society has held twenty-six annual fairs, besides two sheep-shearing festivals in 1865 and 1866, and spring exhibitions in 1874 and 1876. The society has paid in premiums since its first organization over seventeen thousand dollars in cash, besides valuable prizes distributed in silver-ware and other articles. The report of the committee on farms in 1857 is exhaustive and interesting.' Michael Kline carried off the first prize, and William Major the second. Mr.' Major's farm of two hundred and forty acres produced in 1856 one thousand five hundred and sixteen dollars, and Mr. Kline's, of two hundred acres; produced two thousand one hundred and fifty-four dollars.
The fair in 1863 was said to be the best one that had then been held. Professor Tenney, of Williams College, Massachusetts, was the orator. The exhibition of 1876 was noticeable for the eminent speakers present, who were M. M. (Brick) Pomeroy, who delivered a practical address of "How to make money, and how to spend it;" General H. C. Carey, candi- date for vice-president on the "Greenback" ticket, and ex-Postmaster Gene- ral J. A. J. Cresswell-these two gentlemen discussing the finance question ; and H. H. Chamberlain, candidate for Congress from the St. Joseph district on the combined Democratic and Greenback ticket, and a prominent lawyer of the district of the Republican party-the two latter speakers discussing. the general political issue. The receipts at the gates were over three thou- sand dollars, and one thousand, two hundred and twenty-two dollars and seventy-five cents were paid in premiums.
The society own some eighteen acres of land joining the village of Centre- ville, eligibly located, on which they have erected commodious buildings and sheds, the whole valued at several thousand dollars.
The present officers of the society are David D. Antes, president; James Hill, secretary ; John C. Joss, treasurer; O. P. Brush, H. K. Farrand, James Hutchinson, Isaac Runyan, Nelson Spalsbury and Thomas Cuddy, directors.
THE ST. JOSEPH COUNTY MUTUAL PROTECTION ASSOCIATION
was organized March 28, 1854, for protection against the depredations of horse-thieves, and the whole power of the society is pledged and exerted to recover the property and catch the thief, whenever a member of the asso- ciation has a horse stolen. The first officers were P. M. Smith, president ; John Hull, secretary ; C. H. Starr, treasurer ; and Joseph Horton and Jehial B. Dimmick, directors. There are now five hundred members in the society, all residents of the county, to whom the membership is confined. There are two thousand dollars now at interest of the available funds of the society, but no assessments have been made for several years. The entrance fee is now five dollars, having been steadily increased since the first organization of the society, when it was but one dollar. This associa- tion has, in its practical operation, proven to be the most perfect insurance company ever organized, as it has been for several years an absolute pre- ventive of crime. Not a horse has been molested, belonging to members, for years, and instances have been frequently known where horses have been stolen just alongside of others belonging to members, which much more val- uable, were left untouched. The society issue each year a list of the members thereof, which is printed on cloth and posted up in the barns of the mem- bers, or other public places, and criminals have been captured in other parts of the country with these lists on their persons. There has been but one horse taken, since the society was organized, from a member, and that was turned loose, by reason of the sharp pursuit that was at once organized and most vigorously pushed forward. The present officers are William B. Langley, president ; Edmund Stears, secretary ; J. H. Gardner, treasurer ; and A. M. Leland and Joseph Stadden, directors.
THE ST. JOSEPH COUNTY VILLAGE FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY
was organized in 1863, under the mutual plan of insurance against loss by fire in the villages of the county, as provided for by the general insurance law of the State. The incorporators were scattered all through this and adjacent counties, among whom were William Allison, D. F. Wolf, C. H.
42
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Starr, John W. Talbot, J. W. Spitzer, of Centreville, J. W. Flanders and Bracy Tobey, of Sturgis. The capital is represented by the policies issued, and has amounted to eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The legisla- ture in 1873 confined the business exclusively to dwellings and buildings connected therewith, cutting off the business risks the company had thereto- fore taken, and the income of the company is consequently much less than formerly. The first officers were C. H. Starr, president ; William Allison, secretary, and D. F. Wolf, treasurer. The present officers are J. W. Spitzer, president ; Charles Cummings, treasurer ; J. Eastman Johnson, secretary. Directors : John Hutchinson, E. B. Thomas, J. W. Lovett, S. P. Davis, T. E. Clapp and John Dice.
THE FARMERS' MUTUAL FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY
of St. Joseph county, was organized March 10, 1863, with A. R. Metcalf, president, and A. W. Parkhurst, secretary. Its risks are confined to farm- buildings and stock only. There are now one thousand and sixty-two mem- bers in the company, and the capital liable to assessment-which is the property insured-amounts to two million three hundred and eighty-one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five dollars. The present officers of the company are Daniel Shurtz, president and treasurer ; L. A. Clapp, secre- tary. Directors : Andrew Perrin, H. K. Farrand, Isaac Runyan, Thomas Stears and John W. Fletcher.
THE PIONEER SOCIETY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
was organized October 16, 1873, at Centreville, of citizens of the county who had settled therein previous to 1840. Its first officers, with the dates of their settlement, and their location, were as follows: President, Asahel Savery, 1828, White Pigeon, and who was, at the time of his election, the earliest living settler in the county. Vice-presidents: William M. Watkins, 1833, Leonidas ; Ransom Schellhous, 1830, Colon ; Samuel Needham, Burr Oak ; I. D. Toll, 1834, Centreville (now of Fawn River); P. Maran- tette, 1833, Mendon ; Amos Howe, Sr., 1829, Nottawa ; Stephen Cade, 1830, Sherman ; Hiram Jacobs, 1831, Sturgis ; E. H. Lothrop, Lockport ; I. F. Ulrich, 1834, Park ; Alvin Calhoon, 1829, Florence ; George W. Beisel, 1832, White Pigeon ; Challenge S. Wheeler, 1831, Flowerfield ; William Arney, 1833, Fabius ; William Hamilton, 1832, Constantine, and James Barnes, 1830, Mottville. Hon. J. Eastman Johnson, treasurer, 1836, White Pigeon, but now of Centreville; and Hon. William H. Cross, secretary-the latter a pioneer in Lenawee county in 1826, and a settler in St. Joseph county in 1846, in Leonidas, and in Centreville in 1872.
Messrs. A. R. Metcalf, who came to Constantine in 1836-7, John Hull who came to Florence in 1837, and Judge Johnson, as a committee for the purpose, reported a constitution defining the objects of the association, and providing for its government and future usefulness, which was adopted and signed by one hundred and fifty pioneers.
This society has done much to awaken an interest in the pioneer history of the county, which is fast passing into forgetfulness, and its honored sec- retary, the Hon. William H. Cross, has been indefatigable in recovering the lost threads of the old story of the past, and placing them on record; and to him we owe much for the able and generous assistance he has most cheer- fully rendered us in the prosecution of our present work.
The society adopted a rule to make the oldest living resident of the county the President of the society for a year, and its second one was Amos Howe, Senior, of Nottawa, for the year 1874 ; Captain Alvin Calhoon, of Florence, was the third president, in 1875, and at the annual meeting in 1876, John W. Fletcher, who came to Nottawa in 1829, was elected.
At the last annual meeting, June 17, 1876, Hon. Isaac D. Toll delivered an able and eloquent address before the society, which we have taken the liberty of quoting largely from in other parts of our work.
In dropping the tear of remembrance for those of the society who had passed away from earth since the organization of the society, he pays them this tribute : " A Leland, a Lothrop, Tyler, Mrs. Douglass, Talbot, Parker, Hutchinson, Mrs. McKinlay, Daniel Stewart and Amos Howe, our lamented president, among the earliest pioneers, not only of St. Joseph, but also in the State in 1818. The latter was borne to the tomb on the 26th day of last August, by the friendly hands of his fellow pioneers, leaving a memory with- out reproach; around which, with those of others who had preceded, and some who have followed, cling many pleasing recollections."
The orator paid the following justly merited tribute to the secretary of the society, which was greeted with rapturous applause : " Thrice fortunate are we, Mr. President, that the pioneer in this State, of fifty years, then in Monroe, now Lenawee county, is with us to-day, the man to whom, more than any other, (I might add, than all others,) we are indebted for the incep-
tion, advancement and flourishing condition of our society. Truant though he was, for a time, coquetting with the El Dorado of the west, he has found that St. Joseph was the better land. Ireland, the land of Emmett, Curran, Burke and Moore, gave him birth ; California could not hold him ; St. Joseph claims him ! I mean, Sir, the Hon. William H. Cross, our secre- tary." He urged the society to gather the records preparatory to the com- pilation of a history, commemorating by name the dead and living pioneers of the county, and added : " We look with feelings akin to veneration upon the birth-places of conquerors. We make pilgrimages to the shrines of poets and philosophers ; and we might well be deemed insensible, nay, ungrate- ful,-more, unfilial-did we not record in lines that immortally save, the toils, the sacrifices, the virtues of our fathers.
"By gradual growth of centuries the character of our founders had been formed. From the throes of civil war in England, from Runnymede, from which came Magna Charta, to the abnegation of divine right, for which Hampden bled ; through the heroic struggle of the Hollanders against Spain, developing almost the grandest character in history-William the Silent,- to Washington,-' the tyrant tamer,' and his coadjutors,
'The stoic Franklin's energetic shade, Calming the lightnings which his soul hath made. And Henry-forest-born Demosthenes- Whose thunders shook the Philip of the seas.'
"Nor have I forgotten the pilgrims of Maryland, who, under Calvert, founded their colony to enjoy religious freedom. From precedent to prece- dent, by sure steps, adding strength to strength for the great work : the hardy middle class, with muscles of steel, and will of adamant, mostly of the yoemanry, were our fathers fitted for the subjugation of wild nature and wilder men, and their descendants, our pioneers were acting up to the laws of blood, of race, they could not shame, and would not if they could.
" In this Centennial of the Republic, ambassadors of the old world have come hither to view the power, the progress, the arts and productions of the young giant of the new continent, the off-shoot of their own loins. Let them come hither to the amoenam peninsulam, made so by your strong arms. Let them visit our schools, the hope and pride of our young State ; our asy- lums for the unfortunate ; if a bigot to aristocratic institutions-to the law of force-we will point to the decoratod graves of our dead patriots, illus- trating that the citizen-the maker and executor of the laws-while living the peer of any, dead, is crowned by the affections of his countrymen, and a candidate for Heaven's nobility, the owly recognized divine right."
The address was closed with an earnest appeal to the sons of the pioneers to make good use of the examples set before them ; and especially to re- member their duty to their country, in view of what the fathers had suffered and sacrificed for them and those who should follow; and the orator then added, " Your patriotism can have no doubtful ring with a charity as broad as the heavens ; your whole country, your Mecca and the precious legacy so dearly bought, will be worthily bestowed. To you is left the guardianship of 'Time's last and noblest empire.' Ever cherish the love of the fathers, and may yours be as unselfish."
THE ST. JOSEPH COUNTY TEMPERANCE SOCIETY
was the outgrowth of the first agitation of the temperance-reform movement in St. Joseph county. It was organized March 25, 1835. Erastus Kellogg was the chairman of the convention, which proceeded to the election of officers as follows : Digby V. Bell, president; Dr. W. N. Elliott, James Cowen, Elias True and Marlin Hazzard, vice presidents; Dr. Cyrus Inger- son, secretary. Executive Committee : Otis Preston, S. A. Chapin, J. W. Fletcher; William Simpson, Erastus Thurber, Guy H. Leonard, Isaac G. Bailey and Martin Watkins. Committee to organize township societies: Neal McGaffey and Duncan Clark, of White Pigeon; Jonn Bryan and Elias True, of Constantine; Dr. S. W. Truesdell and Ingerson, of Centreville, and Messrs. Cowen and Bailey, of Leonidas.
The society flourished for a time and went down, its place being occupied in after years by Washingtonians, Sons of Temperance, Good Templars, and lastly, in this present year of grace the " Red Ribbon League" have begun the agitation of the question of teetotalism.
Apropos of the early times in the temperance movement is a story of one of the McCoy missionary Indians, who had, despite his teaching, been led astray, and was reeling towards the mission, when he was met by one of his friends who expressed his sorrow at seeing him in his present condition, and inquired how it was he had so far forgotten himself as to get drunk. The young man looked up at his interrogator with a drunken leer, and said, "Me only half missionary and half Injun, and Injun good deal biggest. half," and staggered on.
43
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
THE ST. JOSEPH MEDICAL SOCIETY
was an association of the physicians of the county for mutual benefit, and was organized July 27, 1835, with the following officers: Dr. Hubbel Loomis, president; Dr. Watson Sumner, vice president ; Dr. S. W. Trues- dell, secretary ; Dr. W. N. Elliott, treasurer, and Drs. Sumner, Elliott and Ingerson, censors.
The society held annual meetings until 1845 or thereabouts, when it was abandoned, and afterwards succeeded by the St. Joseph Valley Medical So- ciety, including a large area' of territory in its membership. Dr. Edwin Stewart, of Mendon, was the president, and Dr. C. H. Backus, of Three Rivers, secretary, in 1876. The county society, as well as the present one, represented the regular school of practice, commonly called the " allopathic."
THE ST. JOSEPH COUNTY TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION
was organized in 1860 at Constantine, where, in February, a session was held for three days, at which the best methods of teaching were discussed and illustrated by actual class-work, which is the business the association was organized to perform. It meets annually in the different towns of the county where there are union schools, the members being nearly, if not quite, exclusively confined to teachers in those schools. The present officers are: Professor S. B. Kingsbury, of the Constantine high-school, president; and Professor L. B. Autisdale, of the Centreville Union school, secretary.
SECRET SOCIETIES.
FREE-MASONS .- Mt. Hermon lodge, No. 24, A. F. and A. M., at Centre- ville, was the first Masonic lodge instituted in the county. It worked under a dispensation during the year 1848, and was chartered January 10, 1849, with the following members : Benjamin Osgood, W. M .; Ezra Cole, .S. W .; S. C. Coffinberry, J. W .; Charles Thoms, treasurer ; J. Eastman Johnson, secretary ; John R. Belote, Dr. Sol. Cummings, Glover Laird, John Carr, Francis Flanders, Benjamin Sherman, John H. Clewes, John Gascon and Joel Redway. Hon. S. C. Coffinberry, now of Constantine, filled the office of Grand Master of the State of Michigan, during the years 1866-7-8, and during the first year of his incumbency assisted in the burial obsequies of Governor Cass, upon which topic he dwelt most eloquently in his annual ad- dress in 1867. There are, at the present time, ten subordinate or " blue" lodges in the county, numbering nine hundred members. There are also five chapters of Royal-arch Masons, the first one of which, established in the county, was Centreville chapter, No. 11, under dispensation in 1852 and chartered in 1853, the history of which, in detail, will be found in the his- tory of Centreville. There are about four hundred members of the chapter in the county. There is also a council of Royal and Select Masters in Constantine, and two commanderies of Knights Templar, the latter num- hering some two hundred rank and file. There are also two Eastern Star lodges in the county.
ODD FELLOWS .- There was at an early day, as early at least as 1845, an Odd Fellows' lodge instituted in Centreville, which was known as the St. Joseph County lodge, but which ceased work some years ago. There is one there at present whose history will be found elsewhere.
An Odd Fellows' lodge was instituted at Constantine, February 17, 1847, called Constantine lodge, No. 22, but it suspended work for several years, until 1870, when it was revived, and is still in good working order. The old charter-members were W. C. Pease, William Savier, Dr. Elliott, L. C. Laird, George Brown and Elisha Stevens. There are about five hundred members of the subordinate lodges in the county, which number ten. There are also five encampments of Patriarchs in the county, and three Rebekah degree lodges.
PATRONS OF HUSBANDRY .- The St. Joseph County Grange, No. 4, was organized July 29, 1875, with thirty-seven members, Richard Dougherty of Park, being the first master, and J. H. Gardner of Lockport, the first sec- retary. The county grange meets at Centreville annually on the first Thurs- day in January, and quarterly thereafter. The present officers (1876) are as follows : W. G. Leland, master; W. B. Langley, overseer; H. Collins, lecturer ; S. G. Leland, steward ; J. Freeman, assistant steward ; Richard Dougherty, chaplain ; G. Schoch, treasurer ; J. H. Gardner, secretary ; C. Schellhart, gatekeeper ; Mrs. W. B. Langley, Pomona; Mrs. W. G. Leland, Ceres ; Mrs. L. Schellhart, Flora ; Mrs. S. Leland, stewardess. The present membership is sixty-six.
J. H. Gardner has been for the past two years the purchasing agent for the State grange, and his contracts, for the time he has served as such, for dif- ferent materials used by the members of the grange, have amounted to one hundred thousand dollars-all of which purchases have been made either
directly with the manufacturer and producer or the wholesale jobber, at first figures.
ABSTRACTS OF TITLE.
An institution of importance to the people of St. Joseph is abstracts of title to the real-estate in St. Joseph county, compiled and issued by Leverett A. Clapp, Esq., of Centreville, formerly land commissioner of Michigan for four years. He has thirty-two books devoted to the title to farm property, and eight volumes devoted to the title to village property, all of which have been compiled under Mr. Clapp's personal supervision, who has had twenty years' experience in the titles of St. Joseph county. The books were begun by Edmund Stears in 1853, who compiled the farm titles from the original entries, up to 1855, when Mr. Clapp succeeded to the proprietorship of the business, and completed the work as it now stands. The abstracts are reliable, and of great convenience to the people.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE PRESS OF ST. JOSEPH, PAST AND PRESENT-MICHIGAN STATESMAN .. EARLY "ADS"-CENSUS OF CHICAGO, 1836-OLDEST EDITOR.
"- Take away the sword ; States can be preserved without it. The pen is mightier than the sword."
The power of the press of the United States is almost unlimited. It " makes or it mars " politicians and their schemes, and leads a community forward in the march of progress, or follows, cur-like, in the rear, as its standard of morality, ability and intelligence, is high or low, aggressive or defensive. The press of St. Joseph county compares favorably, both past and present, with that of the sister interior counties of the State in point of ability, dignity of character and influnce ; and its history is not an uninter- esting or an unprofitable one.
The first newspaper published in St. Joseph county was called the Michi- gan Statesman and St. Joseph Chronicle, and was edited and owned by John D. Defrees, now public printer of the government at Washington, which position he has held for many years. The first number was issued about December 10, 1833, and was the first paper published between Detroit and Chicago, and the third in the territory of Michigan. It was a twenty-four column sheet, radically Democratic, supporting President Jackson ably, and as ardently afterwards, in 1836, Martin Van Buren for the same office. Mr. Defrees published the paper but a few months, selling out his interest , therein, in June, 1834, to Henry Gilbert, who issued his first number (twenty- eight) June 28.
Mr. Gilbert, who has been a resident of Kalamazoo for many years, since September, 1835, and latterly the warden of the State penitentiary, very kindly has placed the files of the paper, from June 28, 1834, to Decem- ber, 1836, in our hands, which act we greatly appreciate, as it has enabled us to get exact and reliable data for our work, which it would have been im- possible to have otherwise secured. The Statesman was a fearless and un- compromising advocate of the Democratic party and its principles, and Mr. Gilbert, wielding a trenchant pen, handled his Whig opponents without mercy or favor. Its columns, too, were devoted to the prosperity and advancement of the county, and White Pigeon particularly. The temperance movement, and all moral and religious works, found in the paper an able and willing assistant. It was quite liberally patronized, as its advertising columns fully show, and was the recognized organ for the publication of the government contracts and congressional laws-the column being headed with a spread eagle and the national blazonry. In the first number issued by Mr. Gilbert, a Fourth-of-July celebration at White Pigeon was advertised, and the pro- gramme of exercises given, John D. Defrees being the orator. John Carlin advertised his brewery on the Chicago road for sale, and Mishawaka adver- tised for proposals for building a dam, with a canal one hundred feet long and a lock. M. Seydle, first hatter in the county, gave notice to the people of the county that he could fit their craniums with the latest styles of New York, on short notice, at his manufactory, in Lockport. Elias S. Swan offered one cent reward for Nathan T. Lucas, a bound boy, who had run away from him. John W. Anderson offered his hotel for sale, in White Pigeon, and Ezekiel Case posted his wife, Olive, for having deserted him. In the num- ber of September 10, Wallace & Stewart advertised for one hundred laborers to work on the Wabash and Erie canal, the firm being located at Mottville. Three prisoners escaped from the county jail, at Centreville, August 15, and two more September 22, and fifty dollars reward was offered for their recap-
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