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 26
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FIRST SETTLERS.
On August 20, 1827, the first ripple of civilization broke upon Sturgis prairie, and left its impression on that beautiful gem of nature. Judge John Sturgis and George Thurston were the advance of the host that was to fol-
low. They broke up ten acres on the eastern edge of the prairie (which is now included in the limits of Fawn River township,) and sowed it to wheat ; then returned to Monroe, Michigan, whither Sturgis came, in 1818, from Canada. In the spring of 1828 Mr. Sturgis and his family and Mr. Thurs- ton, who was an unmarried man accompanied by his father's family, arrived on Sturgis prairie, with ox teams, having been twenty days on the road from Brownstown. The weather was rainy, roads bad, and the Hog creek marshes were terrible. They were all of one day in getting a mile through the mire to hard ground, having to unload their goods frequently and carry them to a little dryer-or, more correctly speaking, a little less moist-spot, and reload. Mr. Thurston's family located on Oxbow prairie, a few miles south of Sturgis, in Indiana.
Mr. Sturgis at once proceeded to put up a house on his location, which was the first human habitation for white people built on the prairie. He broke up thirty acres more that summer, and sowed it to wheat. Thus the settlement of Sturgis prairie began. The first settler on the territory included in the present limits of Sturgis township, was George Buck, who, with his family, came to the present site of the village of Sturgis in the summer of 1828. He was a native of New York State, but removed to Canada in 1812, and from thence to Michigan in 1828, traveling with horses to Detroit, and from Brownstown with oxen. They tented in the Hog creek woods for six weeks while building their house, which was located on the east side of Nottawa street, and north of the Chicago road, (now Chicago ** street in Sturgis.) Their house was made of rough logs, and had no windows.
The next settlers were : John B. Clarke, Truman Bearss and Jacob Hop- kins and their families-all of whom came, in the order named, in 1828. David Petty came in 1829, and settled on the prairie, and Ephraim Bearss came in the same year. John Parker came in 1830.
PROMINENT SETTLERS.
Beside those already named, among the first settlers were Hiram Jacobs, who came in 1831; John S. Newhall and David Knox, in 1832; Oliver Raymond, in 1830; J. G. Wait, in 1834 ; Major Isaac J. Ulmann, in 1830;
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Luther Douglass, 1833; Rev. J. E. Parker, 1830, now at Washington, D. C. His father, John Parker, and family came in the same time, meeting with a terrible loss of three children by the explosion of the boiler of the steam- boat on which they were embarked for Detroit. On arrival at Sturgis the family of Mr. Parker were admitted into the house of Ephraim Bearss, and in the single room which it contained the two families resided until the fol- lowing spring.
Jacob Pearsoll came in 1831. He and Jacobs, Nathaniel Rathbun, Aaron Gilham, Parker, Washington and Edw. Osborn, Philip Aurner, Michael Welliver, the Newhalls, and Ransom and Henry Mumford, all came from Livingston county, New York-of whom Mr. Parker was the pioneer, he having walked from that county and back on his visit to St. Joseph county.
THE PRIVATIONS
of the pioneers were such as were incident to the lives of those who are brave enough to tempt the dangers of the wilderness and the loss of the luxury and ease of the older settlements in the eastern States, where their homes mostly were. As a general thing the early settlers were young people, seek- ing to build a home, with little or no surplus means, and must, perforce, wrest the same from nature with steady and vigorous strokes. The bor- der was no place for laggards or cowards, and none but brave, persistent natures would and did succeed in gaining their hearts' desires-a home of their own, around whose hearth-stones have gathered their children in many happy days after the toils and struggles of earlier life were over. The worst trials and most severe sufferings were such as were consequent upon sickness, which could not be avoided in the early days, with any knowledge or skill the people then possessed. John S. Newhall says he had thirty-two ague " shakes" in as many days, and many times has lain down in the fur- row, while plowing, until the paroxysm passed its climax, and then resumed his work. In 1837 he helped to bury fourteen persons on the prairie. When the father of Rev. Gersham Day died, the son preached the sermon or con- ducted the exercises, Mr. Newhall and his hired man being the only per- sons, besides the son, present. So many people were sick, Newhall could not get a single meal of victuals on a journey from Lima to Coldwater, in September of that year. J. G. Wait also bears testimony to the distress occasioned by the terrible sickness which pervaded the whole country in those years. The convalescent ministered to those less fortunate, while those who escaped the sickness altogether were angels of mercy, untiring in their efforts to ameliorate the condition of their neighbors.
FIRST LAND ENTRIES.
The first entry of public lands in St. Joseph county was made within the present limits of the township of Sturgis by Ezekiel Metcalf, of Cattarau- gus county, New York, June 14, 1828, and was the tract known as the east half of the northeast quarter of section one, township eight south, range ten west. Metcalf sold the tract subsequently to De Garmo Jones, of De- troit, who still owns it. On November 28, in the same year, George Buck entered the west half of the southeast quarter of section one, and on the 18th of December, Ruth A. Clarke, of Fairfield, Conn., entered the east half of the southwest quarter, and Hart L. Stewart, of Pennsylvania, the west half of the southwest quarter of same section. The above named were all the entries made in 1828, and there were but four the year following. The Stewarts came and settled in the county in 1829.
THE FIRST FARMING OPERATIONS
in Sturgis were those begun by George Buck and Ephraim Bearss, who, in 1829, broke up and fenced a field of seventy-five acres in the eastern part of the town. The plows in those days were run with from four to ten yoke of oxen. Newhall operated one on his farm with four yoke, with a wooden mould-board four feet long. Corn was dropped in the furrow, or chopped through the sod with an axe, and a good crop secured if the season was not too dry.
THE FIRST HOUSE
in Sturgis was built in 1828 by George Buck, and was made of rough unhewed logs, without doors or windows.
This was afterwards succeeded by a double log house, built by Philip H. Buck, son of George Buck, in 1830, after the latter's death. The upper room of this house was used for some years for church-meetings and schools.
THE FIRST FRAME HOUSE
was built by Oliver Raymond in 1831, and used by him for a hotel. Clarke's log house was the third house and first hotel on Sturgis prairie.
THE FIRST MARRIAGE
on Sturgis prairie was that of William Stewart and Mary Cade, in the fall of 1831.
THE FIRST BIRTH
in the township was that of a little daughter of John B. Clarke, in May, 1830.
The first male child born on the prairie, was David Sturgis, on February 11, 1830; but the farm on which he was cradled is now included in Fawn River township.
THE FIRST DEATH
which occurred in the township, and which, too, was the first in the county, was a dual one, two victims being taken at once, and suddenly, without pre- vious warning.
On the 9th of August, 1829, about a year after his location on the prairie, George Buck was killed, together with a man named Levi Waterman, by the caving in of a well in which they were at work. The alarm was given, and the people from White Pigeon and Sturgis came to the rescue, but it was too late, death had intervened before they could be extricated. The funeral obsequies of these men were probably the first religious meeting held on the Sturgis prairie.
THE FIRST SCHOOL
taught in the township, held its session in the upper room of Philip H. Buck's house, in the village, in the fall of 1830. Dr. Henry, who was the first physician on the prairie, was the first teacher, and had for his pupils a large number of young men and women from the region around. The
FIRST SCHOOL-HOUSE
was built in the village, on the east side of Nottawa and south of Chi- cago street, as now laid out, in 1833, and was a small log building. This was replaced by a frame building in 1838. The full history of district No. three, in which these school-houses were built, will be found in the history of the village of Sturgis.
THE FIRST CHURCH
built in the township, was the Methodist Episcopal church, in 1843, a full and complete history of that society, and all others, appearing elsewhere.
THE FIRST CEMETERY
laid out was the old one in the rear of the Lutheran Church, and west of the railroad. The ground was given to the town by the proprietor of the land, Hiram Jacobs, and the first burial in it was that of a stranger who died suddenly in the summer of 1833. . The grave was dug with the head of it to the north, and the party having the burial in charge insisted on having the direction changed to east and west, which was done. The old cemetery is not used at present, the new one being substituted therefor, a description of which will appear elsewhere.
THE FIRST IMPROVED FARM MACHINERY
was introduced on Sturgis prairie in 1843-4, by Judge Sturgis, the same being a McCormick reaper, which he brought from Hillsdale. Separator threshers were introduced a little later, open-cylinder threshers being brought in in 1833; previous to which date the farmers trampled out their grain with horses, and winnowed it in the wind.
In 1831 the seed-corn in the country was not good, and seed was obtained in Ohio, for which one shilling per quart was paid. The crop was planted three times, the last time in June, but nevertheless a good crop was har- vested. Nails that year were worth twenty cents per pound, and salt twenty dollars per barrel, and its equivalent in corn was eighty bushels of the latter. The neighbors "clubbed" and obtained a barrel or two, and divided it up.
IMPROVED LIVE STOCK.
The stock of horses began to be improved about 1840, though the efforts in that direction were confined to good working material, fast "steppers" not receiving much attention for some years later. The interest was general, and no one person can claim particular priority in the first advance. Cattle did not receive much attention until after 1860. Isaac Runyan introduced thoroughbred short-horns from some noted herds in the Eastern States, in 1870. Mr. Runyan has a fine herd now of that stock, and has disposed of several very fine specimens.
THE FIRST ROAD
surveyed through the township was the great national military road from Detroit to Chicago, described in the general history of the county.
The second one was the territorial road surveyed from the Indiana line
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
north through the county to Grand Rapids, which was laid out in 1833, Rix Robinson, H. L. Stewart and Stephen Vickery being the commissioners. The Chicago road was worked through Sturgis in 1834, James Johnson, a heavy business man now in Sturgis, being the contractor.
CIVIL ORGANIZATION.
In 1845 the legislature of the State, at its winter session, set off the township numbered eight of range ten west, hitherto included in Sherman township, and called it Sturgis, it being bounded on the north by Sherman, on the west by White Pigeon, on the east by Fawn River, townships, and on the south by the State of Indiana. The first town-meeting was held at the school-house in the village, and John Parker was elected the first supervisor; J. G. Wait, town clerk ; William Morris, justice of the peace, and Dr. J. M. Teft, school inspector. The town records previous to 1860 were burned in one of several conflagrations which have devastated the business portion of the village, and a full list of the first officials who set the wheels of the gov- ernment in motion cannot be given.
The supervisors of the township since then have been as follows : Philip H. Buck, 1846-8 and 1851; William Allman, 1847, 1853, 1855, 1859, 1860-2, and 1866; William K. Haynes, 1849, 1856 and 1858; A. T. Drake, 1850; D. Knox, 1852; William Henry, 1854; Hiram Jacobs, 1863-4; Bracey Tobey, 1865; S. B. Follett, 1867-8, 1870-2; J. G. Wait, 1869; Frank S. Packard, 1873-4; L. E. White, 1875-6.
Among the town clerks, William Allman has held the position two years; Benjamin Fairchild, two years; William L. Stoughton, one year; Henry Leavett, one year ; M. Vandusen, one year ; Homer Packard, four years ; J. B. Jacobs, two years ; C. Jacobs, two years; Bracey Tobey, six years; L. E. White, five years; Henry L. Anthony, the present incumbent, two years.
Among the justices of the peace the following have held more than one term of four years: David Knox from 1866 to 1876, inclusive; Bracey Tobey from 1867 to 1877. A. F. Patch is at present holding the position. .
The town superintendents of schools since the creation of the office, have been F. S. Packard, 1875, and G. D. G. Thurston, 1876.
THE FIRST ASSESSMENT
of property for taxation in the new township was made in 1845, the same being placed at fifty-five thousand two hundred and sixty-eight dollars on real- estate, which the county board of equalization reduced ten per cent., the total assessment standing at sixty-nine thousand one hundred and fifty dol- lars, on which State and county taxes were levied and paid amounting to six hundred and fifty-six dollars and eighty-eight cents.
THE LAST ASSESSMENT,
that of 1876, as returned by the supervisor was five hundred and eighteen thousand one hundred and fifty dollars, which was reduced by the county board to five hundred and four thousand four hundred and eighty-eight dol- lars on real-estate ; the personal assessment amounted to one hundred and seventy-seven thousand one hundred and forty-five dollars, the whole aggre- gating the sum of six hundred and eighty-one thousand six hundred and thirty-three dollars. The State and county levy of taxes amounted to one thousand seven hundred and forty-one dollars and four cents each, and the town taxes, including schools, to eleven thousand and seventeen dollars and ninety-two cents, the whole aggregating fourteen thousand five hundred dollars.
THE COST OF SCHOOLS
for the year ending September 1, 1876, including the fine union school of the village, will be seen by the following exhibit: There were four schools taught in the township, averaging nine months in each session, which seven hundred and sixteen scholars attended. Five male teachers were employed and paid two thousand two hundred and sixty dollars, and fourteen females who were paid three thousand one hundred and sixty-eight dollars. The total expenses, including eight thousand dollars paid on bonded indebtedness, amounted to fifteen thousand three hundred and fourteen dollars and seventy- eight cents, the total resources of the districts being fifteen thousand seven hundred and thirty dollars and sixteen cents, including tuition received from foreign scholars. The township has four school houses-three brick and one of wood-valued at forty-five thousand dollars, capable of seating nine hun- dred and fifty pupils, and has eight hundred and one children of suitable age to attend school.
THE CENSUS OF 1874
shows a population of two thousand two hundred and forty-eight, one thou- sand and seventy-two being males, and one thousand one hundred and seventy-six females. Three hundred and eighty-four males were of the military age-between twenty-one and forty-five years, and two hundred
and twenty-six were beyond the fear of a draft in case of war, being under seventy-five years of age; twelve males were between seventy-five and ninety years. Four hundred and eighteen females were of marriagable age-between eighteen and forty years, and two hundred and sixty were past the heydey of life, and under seventy-five years, while nineteen were in the "sere and yellow leaf," beyond the three-quarter stake of the century.
Ninety-two farms contained twelve thousand eight hundred and twenty- three acres, three thousand two hundred and sixty of which were sown to wheat, and one thousand one hundred and ninety-six planted to corn. The season of 1873 produced twenty-three thousand nine hundred and eighty bushels of wheat, and thirty-four thousand three hundred and nineteen bushels of corn; other grain, six thousand and forty bushels; potatoes, eleven thousand six hundred bushels ; hay, eight hundred and forty-three tons; wool, one thousand nine hundred and nine pounds; pork, seventy- eight thousand six hundred and thirty pounds ; butter, twenty-five thousand five hundred and sixty-five pounds ; dried fruit, two thousand one hundred and twenty-five pounds ; cider, six hundred and seventy barrels. One hun- dred and eighty-nine acres in orchards produced nine thousand and thirty bushels of apples, and twenty-three and a half acres produced one thousand five hundred and fifty-five bushels of other fruits and vegetables.
There were owned by the people of the township in 1874 three hundred and fifty-nine horses, a single mule, one pair and a half of oxen, three hundred and six cows, one hundred and eighty-seven other cattle, four hundred and fifty-four hogs, and three hundred and ninety-three sheep, against four hun- dred and twenty-four of the latter in 1873.
Two planing-mills, one foundry or machine-shop, three carriage-factories, two chair and furniture factories, one broom factory, one pump factory, two churn and barrel factories, two trunk and harness-shops, one canning estab- lishment, two boot and shoe factories, and two stone-yards, employed one hundred and twenty-two persons, with a capital of sixty-three thousand dol- lars, and the value of their productions were one hundred and twenty-two thousand and two hundred dollars.
THE POLITICAL BIAS
of the township on the national issues may be seen by the manner in which the people have cast their votes for presidential candidates. In 1848 the Whig candidate received eighty-one, the Democratic fifty-nine, and the Free Soil candidate twenty-six votes. In 1852 the Whigs polled one hundred and thirty-four votes, the Democrats ninety-five, and the Abolitionists nine, there being just enough of the "Old Guards " to make a single tailor. Four years later they grew to a majority of one hundred and thirty-three, the Re- publicans polling two hundred and thirty-four, and the Democrats one hundred and one votes. In 1860 the Republicans gained twenty votes, and the Democrats seven on the vote of four years before. In 1864 there was a falling off in the Democratic vote, and a corresponding gain in the Repub- lican, the former casting but eighty-one, and the latter two hundred and eighty votes. In 1868 both parties gained heavily, the Republicans polling three hundred and seventy-four, and their opponents one hundred and fifty- five. In 1872 the Republicans polled three hundred and one, and the Demo- crats one hundred and thirty-six votes; Charles O'Connor received fif- teen straight votes, and Jeremiah Black a single one. In 1876 Hayes re- ceived three hundred and sixty-seven, Tilden two hundred and forty-six, and Peter Cooper fifty.
This last vote, allowing seven persons to each vote cast, would give a population in Sturgis at the present time of four thousand six hundred and forty-one, or at five persons to each voter, would give three thousand three hundred and fifteen.
THE LEADING AGRICULTURISTS
in the township have been and are as follows : Judge John Sturgis owned at the time of his death, which occurred in 1874, one thousand four hundred and fifty acres, lying in a body partially in Sturgis and Sherman. His sons, Amos, Thomas and David, succeeded to the greater portion of the estate, and are residents thereon at the present time. David Knox has been for over forty years a leading farmer on Sturgis prairie. John S. Newhall owns a fine farm, on which he located in 1832. Hiram Jacobs, Rice Pearsoll, John Lanrick and Isaac Runyan are all representative men among the farmers, and well-to-do in that line. Mrs. Sturgis, the venerable widow of Judge Sturgis, resides on the old homestead, now in her eightieth year, with Amos her son, who was but a few weeks old when he came to the prairie.
AMUSEMENTS.
The good folks of Sturgis prairie enjoyed life in the early days despite the sorrow, afflictions and trials incident thereto, and entered into the pleasures
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
of festive occasions with a freedom that gave zest to the humdrum of every- day toil for days to come. "Tommy" Jones, an artistic fiddler, contributed largely to the enjoyment of the gatherings in the settlement, and his own house was a resort for the old and young for an evening's entertainment. His worthy and hospitable wife always gave a party for the young people on Christmas, and " Tommy"-a brother of Hon. De Garmo Jones, of Detroit- followed suit on New Years with an assembly of the older people. Roast turkey and " chicken fixins" were plentiful and free on those occasions. At one of the first gatherings Judge Sturgis and his daughter led off the first dance, and soon the old people were tripping the "light fantastic " to Tom- my's merry measures in full glee. This was before 1832.
The first celebration of the Fourth of July of any note was held in 1835, and Elias Boulton Smith, M. D., was the orator of the day. Among the toasts drank on the occasion was the following: "Sturgis prairie-her farmers grow wealthy by their industry, and her pure air preserves the red cheeks of her fair daughters."
In 1839 the day was celebrated with great eclat, fifteen hundred persons being present. The States were represented by young ladies dressed in the national colors. Hon. John S. Chipman delivered an eloquent oration ; Hon. J. G. Wait was the president, Dr. John F. Packard, vice-president ; Mr. Holmes, reader; Horace Vesey, marshal; Captain Harry McArthur, aid, and Elder Day, chorister. A Mr. Webb had his arm blown off by the prema- ture discharge of a cannon.
The celebration of the day in 1852 was noted for the distinguished officers and guests of the occasion, and the number of people (two thousand ) in attendance. General Isaac D. Toll was marshal of the day, Hon. William L. Stoughton, orator. The drummer was Tommy Jones before named. Several soldiers of the war of 1812 were present, among them Edward Evans, a Baptist clergyman, then eighty-nine years of age, who declined to ride to Jacob's grove where the oration was delivered, preferring to walk, though the mercury stood ninety-three degrees at 5 o'clock P. M. Two Revolutionary soldiers were present-Araunah Hibbard, grandfather of Frank Hibbard, druggist in Sturgis at the present writing ; and another one whose name is not remembered. Mr. Evans' grandfather lived to the age of one hundred and ten years.
An incident in the pioneer-life of John S. Newhall, worth preserving, is the fact that when he came to Michigan in 1832 to find a location, he left his horse at the Maumee, and traveled two thousand miles on foot that summer, from May to July, before he was satisfied that his present location was the best one he could find. He went from Ullmann's to Bronson's for breakfast, shooting a turkey on the way, which was served up for a wedding- supper at Benson's, on the Kalamazoo. Mr. Newhall once owned two thou- sand acres of land in Nebraska, and broke up one season seven hundred and fifty acres.
Dr. Packard used to take wheat of his patients in payment for his ser- vices, haul it to Monroe and sell it for cash to buy medicine with. He once floured one hundred and sixty barrels of best white wheat, and sold the same to R. & J. Williams for two dollars and sixty-two cents per barrel, which was the first money he received from sales in the county. The military parades, musters and courts-martial were a never-failing fund for amuse- ment while they lasted-Captain Harry McArthur being the inspiring genius of those occasions.
THE VILLAGE OF STURGIS.
The first beginning of the present village of Sturgis was the house of George Buck, built on the north side of the Chicago road, which was then surveyed and staked-out across the prairie, in the summer of 1828. He was followed the same season by John B. Clark, who built a log house of some- what more generous dimensions, and put out his sign for entertainment of travelers, and the village was au fait accompli. It had, however, no name but Sturgis prairie until 1832, when Philip H. Buck surveyed and platted forty lots, sixty by one hundred and sixty-five feet, equally disposed on either side of the Chicago road, on the east half of the southeast quarter of section one, township eight, south range of ten west, and named it the village of Sherman-the same being the name of the township at the time, and until 1845. These lots were all east of the present Nottawa street. In April, 1834, Mr. Buck laid out an addition, on the south side of the same road, of forty lots, and in May following, Andrew Backus, who had suc- ceeded to the ownership of the original purchase of Clarke, laid off a plat on the west side of the present Nottawa street, embracing the tract bounded west by the line of the present Grand Rapids and Indiana railroad, on both sides of the Chicago road, and called his village (in deference to his daugh- ters' wishes), Ivanhoe. The young ladies were admirers of the "Black Knight," as immortalized by Sir Walter, and to their poetic feelings Sher-
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