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 17
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At Constantine the twelfth regular toast was this : " John Quincy Adams- the able and eloquent advocate of justice ; he fearlessly raised his voice in defence of the friendless ; Michigan owes him a debt of gratitude." Three cheers and music ' Logan Water '.
At Sturgis the orator's toast was the following sentiment : Michigan-des- tined by Nature to excel all her sisters in wealth and importance, her fair lakes, fanned by the breezes of pure freedom, break into dimples and laugh in the sunshine of inimitable prosperity."
At Constantine a celebration of the Fourth was held in 1833, the festivities closing with a grand ball; the dancing commencing before night and lasting till daylight the next morning. The music was a fiddle and a clarionet, principally the latter, which was manipulated by the fingers of Daniel Arnold. The fiddler was from Elkhart, and could play but two tunes, and Arnold had to play without relief all night. The costumes were more varied than elegant, and would bring a Parisian modiste to dispair, so mal apropos would they seem to her. The ladies, and they were ladies, wore their winter and summer dresses of every pattern and shade, which to be appreciated must needs have been seen. The gentlemen wore home-spun pants, heavy boots, high shirt-collars, and danced in their shirt-sleeves, the weather being too warm for coats.
In 1836, at a celebration of the national day, in Constantine, the follow- ing toasts were drank, among others, with uproarous applause. By Daniel Munger-" Michigan: though oppressed in her infancy, she will soon be- come the tallest toad in the puddle." By John A. Appleton (now a member of the great publishing house of Appleton Bros.)-" Uncle Sam's youngest child : fat, ragged and saucy."
The Christmas and New Year's festivities were not forgotten, but the presents of a whole community would not, oftentimes, equal those of a single petted darling of to-day ; but the happinesss was unbounded, and hilarity and fun pervaded the entire settlement. Wild turkies, browned to a turn ; venison saddles, juicy and savory ; mallards and canvas-backs, dripping in fatness, graced the boards of the hospitable pioneer, around which the whole neighborhood gathered, and, after some patriarch of the settlement had of- fered hearty thanks for the bounties given to their hands by the Giver of all good, fell to and discussed the good things with a relish that was aught else than spiritual.
Were we to record all the interesting and noteworthy incidents with which the lives of the early pioneers abounded, volumes would be required to show forth the entertaining story, and, therefore, from the reliable data we cull a few of the more striking and prominent, to illustrate somewhat the life we are endeavoring to picture.
There were no aristocrats in those days, who looked down from a higher plane upon lower beings of their race, trudging along in common dust, but all were equal, or at least considered themselves so, and any attempt to show superiority or "lord it" over another, was sure to meet with condign and im- mediate consequences.
One O'Brien was among the first tailors of White Pigeon, and a great lover of shooting ; he had his shot-gun always by his board in his shop, which fronted on the main street of that village, and near by the entrance to the hotel. One day a covey of prairie chickens flew over the village, which, being espied by O'Brien, that worthy grasped his gun, and rushing to the door of his shop "Iet fly" at the birds, missing them but most severely startling Governor Porter, who had just arrived in town and was at that moment entering the hotel. The magisterial dignity of his excellency
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
was considerably ruffled, and when O'Brien came in to look at the distin- guished arrivals, he was taken to task by the governor and lectured roundly, which O'Brien resented, whereupon the chief magistrate, to impress his au- ditor with the importance of more care, said, "I would have you know, sir, that I am the Governor of Michigan !" to which O'Brien tartly replied, "and I would have you know that I am the tailor of White Pigeon !" and walked off to his shop.
In 1838-9 immigration ceased to a great extent, and the surplus crops were worth little or nothing in the market, wheat being sold at thirty-one cents per bushel. During that winter, a mother wanting some flannel for her baby, asked the father what they should do in the emergency. After studying a while over the situation, he quietly took his knife and ripped the lining from a camlet cloak he had, and gave it to his wife to make the needed garment of.
When William H. Cross built the Leonidas dam across the St. Joseph, he announced that he should furnish no whisky, and in consequence thereof it was confidently predicted and asserted by the men themselves that there would be a "strike" before forty-eight hours after the timbers were ready to put into the water. But, contrary to the prediction and expecta- tion, the work was accomplished after many vexatious and expensive obsta- cles, delays were overcome and passed, and not a penny had been spent by the proprietor for whisky. After the hard work was done, Mr. Cross asked one of the most talkative men of crowd, who had said the most against the course adopted, how it was he had not kept his word and refused to work in the water without liquor. The man replied, " Well, I did not mean to do so, because I supposed you would stand on the bank in dry clothes and ' boss' the job, but when I saw you jump into the water the first of all, and stay there till all the rest were out, I was ashamed, and said I would not be beat by a little fellow like you, and now I don't care for whisky. Besides, you gave us good coffee five times a day, and treated us like gentlemen."
Dr. Hanchett, who was located at Coldwater, but practiced somewhat in St. Joseph county, getting out of medicine, went to Detroit, one hundred and ten miles, on horseback, to get a new supply-having but ten dollars in his purse, four dollars of which he used up for his expenses. He went to old Dr. Chapin's drug store and stated his needs, and was urged to take all he wanted, but declined to take more than his cash-six dollars-would buy, which was put up, and it is fair to presume there was a very small margin of profit charged in the bill for the same. Dr. Chapin said to Dr. Hanchett as he tied the little package up, "When this is gone send for more, money or no money !"
An incident in the lives of George Mathews. and his estimable wife Mar- garetha, of Leonidas, will not be amiss here to show of what stuff some of the pioneers were made. One day, soon after Mathews had built his cabin on his location which joined the reservation, some Indians, who were drunk, rode up and wanted to see him, but he was sick on the bed and would not go out ; but finally, they made so much noise and disturbance about the house, he did get up and went out doors, pulled one of the Indians off his horse and slapped his face smartly, whereupon the rioters went off. A few days afterwards the Indian whom Mathews had thus treated, came back and said to him, " You abused me the other day when I was drunk, and now you must fight me when I sober." Mathews was a tall, broad-shouldered fellow, lithe as a panther, and brave as courage itself, and he at once assented to the proposition ; he accompanied the Indian to the woods, followed by Mrs. Mathews, who, fearing treachery, carried an enormous butcher-knife under her apron. Arriving at a little open space, a short distance from the house, Mathews found several Indians and their squaws sitting on the ground in a circle, silent and moody.
The Indian told his story, and Mathews related his version of the affair, and said he was ready to fight, and asked what the manner of the contest should be. The Indian chose rifles, and Mathews sent his wife back to the house for his gun, sitting down on the log beside his antagonist the mean- while. Mrs. Mathews returned with the rifle, and then the challenger wanted to substitute knives, and Mrs. Mathews was desired to go for a knife, whereupon she took from beneath her apron the huge, glittering carver of her kitchen, at sight of which, in the hands of the tall borderer, the brag- gart showed the white feather, and, at the repeated demands of Mathews to "come on," stood silent, with downcast head. Mathews stepped to one side, and cutting a stout hickory whip, laid it unsparingly over the bare shoulders of the coward, amid the grunts of satisfaction of the other Indi- ans, who called the man a squaw, which was resented also by the squaws, who cut switches and whipped the fellow back to camp. Mathews and his wife were ever after regarded as friends by their tawny neighbors.
When the " big payment," as it is called, was made to the Indians for the Nottawa reservation, in the fall of 1833, or rather early winter (the same being in December), and the weather quite cold, there were depredations committed upon the Indians, after they had received the goods, by citizens of St. Joseph county and others, that ought, if the perpetrators thereof are still living, cause the blush of shame to mantle their brows with crimson, for it was nothing short of downright robbery. Not content with selling them whisky, and taking heavy pay therefor in silver, the miscreants, after the Indians were made drunk, began and executed a system of robbery that should condemn them for all time to infamy and contempt.
An eye-witness thus describes the theft: The Indians, having received their blankets and cloths, would take their cash at once to the venders of whisky, buy a bottle or jug full, and then, seating themselves upon their blankets in a circle, and putting the bottle in the centre of the ring, would begin to drink, passing it round from mouth to mouth. By the time the jug had passed twice around the circle, the drinker would begin to "hitch" along, and soon after, as he made another hitch, the blanket would begin to disappear from beneath his person, and finally would be withdrawn entirely, by some one who held one corner of the same, as the occupant changed his position; and so the robbery was completed. When the Indians were in their drunken sleep, they would be unceremoniously rolled out of their blankets, and then left unprotected by anything but their scant wardrobe. It is but justice to say that this treatment of the Indians was frowned upon and condemned by the majority of the people of St. Joseph, and the most of the thievery was done by renegades from other parts, but there were a few outcasts who were ulcers on society in St. Joseph, who were in after years sloughed off, as in all other new settlements.
CRIMINAL RECORD.
A gang of counterfeiters infested the southern border of the county, from 1850 to 1857, where they could conveniently slip across the State line into Indiana, when the officers of the law in Michigan came after them, and vice versa. E. W. Pendleton, of Sturgis, then and now, followed their trail like a sleuth-hound, in season and out of season, despite of warnings of personal danger and the loss of property, he having twelve horses poisoned by the. gang or their accomplices, and finally ran the game to earth and captured three of them-" old man" Latta, N. B. Latta, his son, and one McDougall, and twenty-five thousand dollars of the "queer," and the paraphrenalia for manufacturing and printing, except the dies, which one of them, another McDougall, took and ran across the border with, and into the arms of the Indiana regulators, who gave him a short shrift and a shorter rope.
Through the confessions of McDougall, when closeted in Pendleton's hotel, the latter was enabled to make the seizure, which was done in broad day- light at Latta's hotel, on the Chicago road in the little village of Freedom. Latta, senior, had caused the several parts of the press to be made at dif- ferent blacksmith-shops about the country-in Lima, Sturgis, Freedom, Burr Oak and White Pigeon -- to avoid suspicion, but this very precaution worked his ruin, and Pendleton's procuring the identification of every part of the work, and Latta's connection with the same. The latter gave his fine farm as security, and was allowed his liberty on bail. N. B. Latta was dis- charged by the examining magistrate, on representations being made and substantiated to that official's satisfaction that he (Latta) was one of Pink- erton's detectives, and had been working up the case when arrested. The jail was broken open, and McDougall escaped, and when the old man saw the array of testimony piling up against him, he decamped, and left his bondsmen to pay the forfeiture of the recognizance, which they did by turn- ing over to the county Latta's farm of two hundred and forty acres in Fawn River, which the board of supervisors immediately proceeded to utilize by selling the farm the county then owned, and transferring the indigent thereon to the new acquisition, where they are now cared for. The farm- property belongs, however, to the school-fund of the county under the law of forfeitures and fines. Mr. Pendleton "bluffed " the gang for five years by putting several insurance-plates on his house, the Exchange hotel, though he carried no insurance whatever for the time.
In 1846-47 Gamaliel Fanning was murdered by a horse-thief, whom he was endeavoring to arrest near Latta's, an account of which in full, from the pen of Hon. I. D. Toll, who afterwards captured the murderer, will be found in the history of Fawn River.
On June 10, 1854, Amos White and Samuel Ulum were arrested for the murder of Thomas B. Esterbrook on the 13th day of November, 1853. They were indicted, tried, convicted and sentenced to penitentiary for life- White dying soon after their incarceration. The testimony was circum- stantial, except that given by witness Giles Harding, an accomplice, who
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
was impeached by the defence, but a part of whose testimony was corrobor- ated by other witnesses. He, though a proven villian, gave the thread of the story which, being skilfully followed, unraveled the tale of blood, and fastened the crime, to the entire satisfaction of the jury, upon the prisoners. The testimony, though voluminous, was consistent, and the case was most ably prepared for trial by Hon. Charles Upson, then prosecuting attorney of the county, assisted and seconded efficiently by John Hull, then sheriff of the county. Hon. Nathaniel Balch, of Kalamazoo, assisted in the prose- cution, and complimented the two officials highly for their conduct of the case. The murdered man was last seen at the Leonidas hotel. on Sunday, the day of the murder, and his presence there was fixed by a train of cir- cumstances that did not speak very highly of the respect for that day by several of the residents of that hamlet.
Harding testified he was there and saw Esterbrook, and Harding's pres- ence was proven by several other witnesses who testified what they were doing, thus corroborating Harding's testimony. Such circumstances as these, and there were many of them testified to by Harding, being cor- roborated, gave his direct testimony, bearing on the alleged details of the murder, more weight than it otherwise would have received, and though the prisoners denied all participation in the crime, and averred their innocence, yet the fact that they were the last persons seen in his (Ester- brook's) company, gave further weight to Harding's statement, and although the body of the unfortunate man was never found, the verdict of the jury was murder in the first degree.
Harding testified that the prisoners were overheard by him planning the murder, and being discovered by them, they threatened to kill him if he did not join them ; and if he would do so, they would share the plunder to- gether ; and Harding consenting, was posted as a spy on the movements of Esterbrook, who was supposed to possess considerable ready money, which he carried about his person, and was expected to be in Leonidas soon, on a matrimonial quest.
Esterbrook appeared in the village on the fatal Sunday, and White was immediately notified by Harding, who notified Ulum, and during the after- noon, or early evening, was taken in charge by White, who proposed to con- duct him to the house of his intended, on the road to Mendon, which was the last ever seen of him by any person in the village.
Harding testified further that on arriving near the Cowen mill, the party met Ulum in a wagon, or were overtaken by him, and were asked to get in and ride, as he was going directly past the house they wished to reach. The invitation was accepted, and soon after the wagon turned abruptly to the right, which being observed by Esterbrook, he asked why they were taking that course, and was quieted by an explanation that it was a nearer route.
Soon after, while riding along in the shade of the woods, White struck Esterbrook with a wagon-stake, felling him to the bottom of the wagon-box, and then finished his horrible work by beating his victim on the head till life was extinct. The two men, White and Ulum, then rifled the pockets of the murdered man, not finding what they expected-the money, as it appeared afterwards, being found by the supposed dead man's relatives in a tin trunk, which was forwarded to the lady whom he came to marry.
The murderers then, as Harding testified, buried the body of Esterbrook in the woods, where it remained until after the search, which was instituted for it afterwards, was over, they joining in the same with evident alacrity and zeal ; and then they removed the remains and disposed of them else- where, unbeknown to Harding.
Harding was arrested for some offence in the spring of 1854, and con- fined in the county jail; from some words and hints dropped in the hearing of Sheriff Hull, he was suspected of knowing something about the affair, and was placed under a judicious, but searching examination ; he finally confessed to what has been detailed above, and gave dates, names and circumstances which enabled the officers to ferret out the facts testified to on the trial.
It is but just to say that there are some worthy citizens of the county who are very skeptical regarding the whole thing, and do not believe the man was ever killed, but went away at once from the country.
One of the remarkable crimes recorded in the criminal history of the country was committed in St. Joseph county in the year 1872, the same being a successful theft of several of the records of deeds and original doc- uments of title from the register's office at Centreville. Captain Benedict was register at the time, and Elva F. Peirce the sheriff of the county. One A. P. Fonda and Richard Lane were indicted for the offence, and Lane con- victed and sent to the penitentiary for five years, Fonda being acquitted.
The robbery was committed on the night of the 28th of June, 1872, forty-four volumes, twenty-two of deeds, and as many of mortgages, three index books,
and about one hundred deeds and mortgages not recorded, being taken away. The board of supervisors were called together July 1, who took measures to bring the guilty parties to justice and recover the records, if possible. An- thony P. Fonda (a member of Captain B. C. Yates' private detective force, of Chicago) and his brother, John Fonda, of Three Rivers, were arrested, and on the examination held by Samuel W. Platt, Esq., of Centreville, John was discharged, and Anthony held to bail under two thousand dollars' bonds to appear before the circuit court. The notorious Charles C. Hildebrand put in appearance, and was shadowed by under-sheriff C. E. Peirce to In- dianapolis, and was there arrested, brought back and held in durance two . months, and then discharged.
A P. Fonda had the notorious Dick Lane arrested in Chicago, under a fictitious name, for the robbery, and by a writ of habeas corpus issued by Judge Williams, of Chicago, he was discharged. Lane claimed to know all about the robbery, and was subsequently arrested and brought to St. Joseph county for trial in February, 1873, by Sheriff Peirce. Soon after this Fonda had his trial, and was acquitted before Judge Cooley, presiding. In March Lane was tried before Judge Brown, and convicted and sentenced, as pre- viously stated. Fonda was defended by Allen of Chicago, Sadler of Cen- treville, and Judge Upson of Coldwater. Lane was defended by T. C. Car- penter of Sturgis, and prosecuted by E. W. Keightley, prosecuting attorney, and Hon. H. H. Riley of Constantine.
HOW THE RECORDS WERE REGAINED.
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 five thousand dollars. The sheriff sent a person to Chicago to ascertain what reliance could be placed on the representation, with directions to tele- graph the result of the conference. On receipt of the telegram, Sheriff Peirce and William M. Watkins, Esq., one of the supervisors, went to Chi- cago, and to Eldredge & Tourtellotte's law-office, where the information came from. 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 return of the books, and privately instructed the sheriff to act on his own discretion, but to get the records at all hazards.
About the 1st of September, Sheriff Peirce went to Chicago, where he met Mancel Talcott, and made an arrangement with Eldredge & Tourtellotte for the delivery of the records for three thousand five hundred dollars, and on the 5th of September the sheriff, James Hill, county treasurer, and William M. Watkins, in behalf of the county, and Eldredge & Tourtellotte, attorneys for the thieves, entered into an agreement for the delivery of the records, and deposited with Eldredge & Tourtellotte three thousand five hundred" dollars, Mancel Talcott being surety for the attorneys. The records were to be delivered by the 12th instant. They were dug from the earth, where they had been buried since the 28th of June, on the 6th of September, at night, in a badly-damaged condition, 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 at once 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 4 o'clock for Chicago, where, on his arrival at 10 o'clock, he immediately notified Eldredge & Tourtellotte of the damaged state 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. Suit was commenced against the attorneys for the recovery of the money deposited, and Tourtellotte came to Centreville, November 22, 1872, and registered as Tuttle. Sheriff Peirce happened to see him about 4 o'clock P. M., and drove to Sturgis, saw General Stoughton, the county's attorney, came back to Centreville and procured a writ, drove to Three Rivers, and procured the services of the same by under-sheriff C. E. Peirce, who had been to that place from Centreville with Tourtellotte, the latter having lots of sport with him about the old sheriff and the records. The writ was served about 12 o'clock at night, Tourtellotte querying, " 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, at Grand Rapids, March 19, 1873, and tried in September, 1874, judgment being rendered for three thousand five hundred dollars and interest, by a jury before the United States Judge, Withey presiding. General Stoughton and Hon. H. H. Riley were the attorneys for the county, and Eldredge & Tourtel- lotte appeared in person, and also by J. B. Church of Grand Rapids. A
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
motion for a new trial was argued and over-ruled, and an appeal taken to the United State Supreme Court, where it has as yet been undisposed of.
The total cost of the nefarious transaction to the county thus far is as fol- lows :
Paid for the recovery of the records,- - $3,500
Cost of new records, and copying and comparing same, 3,500
Paid for attorneys' fees, 1,000
Paid for incidental expenses,
1,500
Total,
$9,500
CHAPTER XVIII.
TOPOGRAPHY-FLORA -FAUNA-GEOGRAPHY-CLIMATOLOGY -THERMO- METRIC REGISTER-GEOLOGY-SOIL -PRODUCTS-BOULDER DRIFT -- FOSSIL DEPOSITS-DRAINAGE AND WATER SYSTEM-HEALTH.
Never did a palm-shaded oasis, cooled and refreshed by its bubbling spring of pure cold water in the midst of a parched and scorching Sahara, look more inviting to the weary, dust-begrimed Arab, than did the flower bedecked prairies and openings from St. Joseph, when in the full glory of their summer foliage, to the pilgrims from the heavy-timbered and mountainous regions of New York and Pennsylvania, in the pioneer days of the county. Sturgis, White Pigeon and Nottawa prairies were gems of beauty wrought by that incomparable artist and limner, Nature, into a multitude of forms of loveliness. The oak openings of Florence, Burr Oak and Flowerfield were parks of unsurpassed extent and wondrous elegance. All undergrowth obliterated as though a gardener had passed through with axe, spade and rake; the view in the openings was unobstructed for miles, and the whole surface was carpeted with a rank growth of rich grasses and beautified with myriads of flowers of various hues and forms. Lakes glittered in the open- ings, rivulets meandered through the woods, and a noble river, entering the county in the northeast, wound its serpentine way through the entire length and width of its territory, passing out at its extreme southwestern corner. Its surface was a general level, in some parts rolling, running up into knobs in Fabius and Sherman. The prairies and openings were gently undulating, but in many places as level, apparently, as a house floor.
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