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 30
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ing the site of a manufacturing city on the Kennebec, in the State of Maine. While engaged in the survey of the Company's possessions within the present limits of the State of Maine, he was murdered and robbed.
He was the father of seven children, of whom Benjamin Packard, the father of Dr. Ira F. Packard, was the youngest son, and who was born in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, June 7, 1760. At the age of fifteen years, Benjamin rallied with the minute-men of the colony to the defense of Lexington, and behind the stone walls, hedges and fences that lined the road, hung upon the retreating red-coats, pouring into their dis- ordered ranks charge after charge of buck-shot, from the tube of an old "queen's arm " he carried. At the end of that bloody day he entered the ranks of the colonial army, and never returned to his home until after the long and sanguinary war was gloriously ended for the colonies, by the sur- render of Cornwallis, at Yorktown, and the Republic was born. He was at
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Bunker Hill, and in most of the important battles of the Revolution. He received four wounds, but fortunately none of them were very serious. He was promoted to a lieutenancy for gallantry and meritorious action on the field. He was married in 1784, to Mehitable Fobes, of Bridgewater, Massa- chusetts, and removed from thence to Royalton, Vermont, where he died September 19, 1823. Like his fathers before him, his family also consisted of seven children, of whom Dr. Ira F. Packard was also the youngest son, and who was born on the forty-eighth anniversary of his father's birthday, June 7, 1808, in Royalton, Vermont, where the son went to school for nine years, until he was fifteen years of age, when, the father dying, the lad was thrown upon his own resources for his maintenance and education. In 1824, Ira went to Boston and entered the service of Kittredge & Wyman, as a clerk in their mercantile establishment, where he remained until the follow- ing winter, when he returned to Vermont to attend school. The next year he shipped for a whaling voyage, sailing from Newburyport, in the ship " Alexander," September, 1826, which voyage was completed successfully by filling the ship with oil and bone, and returning safely to port in July following. He made several other shorter voyages, bringing up at last in Philadelphia, in the fall of 1828, when he engaged to assist in drifting coal for Adam Burr, in Pottsville, the work being managed by a nephew- George Burr. In February, 1829, he went to Pike, Allegheny county, New York, where his brother Benjamin resided, and from thence to Yorkshire, Catasauqua county, in the same State, where he engaged in the mercantile business; but the same not proving successful, he closed it out and removed to Erie, Pennsylvania, in the spring of 1832, and began the business of a merchant again in the grocery and provision line; but disappointment again overtook him. The cholera broke out that summer, and all business was temporarily suspended, and he therefore sold out his interests in Erie, and returned to Yorkshire and engaged as a clerk for Messrs. A. & W. Hibbard, merchants. In the spring of 1836, he commenced the study of medicine and surgery with Dr. Bela H. Colegrove, of Sardinia, Erie county, New York, and continued his readings for three years, attending lectures at the Western College of Physicians and Surgeons at Fairfield, Herkimer county, New York. In 1839 he made a tour in the west, seeking a location to settle for the practice of his profession, and selecting Sturgis prairie, in the then village of Sherman, returned and brought his family to his new home in St. Joseph county, Michigan, in the fall of the same year, where he has ever since resided. He was elected to the honorary degree of doctor of medicine in the Western College of Physicians and Surgeons, of Laporte, Indiana, a short time after he took up his residence in the county. He fol- lowed his profession until the spring of 1850, when his health failed, and he made a tour to California, returning the spring following, since which time he has not practiced except in emergencies.
On the 27th day of April, 1829, he was united in marriage to Miss Emily M., a daughter of Colonel Araunah Hibbard, a lieutenant in the war of 1812,
who was at Lundy's Lane with General Scott, and was severely wounded at Queenstown Heights. Colonel Hibbard was one of the earliest settlers on the Holland purchase, in the vicinity of the present site of Clarence, Niagara county, New York, where Emily was born April 23, 1811. She is said to have been the first white female born in that township, when it was a wilderness, with neighbors no nearer than three miles, and but very few at that. She was the daughter of a pioneer, and fitted for the trials and deprivations of the pioneer-life to which she succeeded in Michigan.
Dr. and Mrs. Packard have never lost a member of their family by death, though three sons and two daughters have gone out from their fireside to make firesides of their own, around which now cluster the fifth generation since the stout old dissenter sacrificed his property and fled from his native land, rather than relinquish his faith and his right to proclaim it. These sons and daughters are Dr. Nelson I. Packard, who succeeded to his father's extensive practice in 1850, and still pursues it; Homer H., who now resides in Ashland, Nebraska ; Emily N., now the wife of Henry S. Church, of Sturgis ; Franklin S., a member of the firm of Johnson, Packard & Co., heavy lumber dealers of Sturgis, and formerly a member of the legislature from St. Joseph county ; and Lucina M., now Mrs. Thomas J. Acheson, of Emporia, Kansas.
Dr. Packard was for many years connected with the official relations of schools in Sherman, and afterwards Sturgis village, and has been a firm and zealous advocate for the maintenance and support of the public schools and their advancement to the highest grade of excellence possible. In public improvements and expenditures for the common good of all her citizens, Sturgis has had no wiser head or more liberal hand than his. Prudent and well regulated in his habits, his example has been such as to bring him the esteem of his fellow-citizens, and the regard of all who have the pleasure of his acquaintance, and the Packard homestead is a place at which every comer is made welcome by its master and mistress, with an unstinted hospitality.
Dr. Packard was originally a Whig in politics, and cordially embraced the principles of the Republican party at its organization, and has been an active supporter of its general policy up to the present time. In religious sentiment Dr. and Mrs. Packard are liberal, broad and catholic, and while holding to their own convictions, accord the same liberty to others without comment or reflection ; and at an age when the silver which crowns their heads admonishes them of the inevitable change that must ere many years come to them, are serenely awaiting the summons, with naught of fear or dread to becloud or dim the vision of the future that slowly unfolds before them.
Dr. Packard was one of the original members of Sturgis Prairie Lodge, I. O. O. F., and erected the hall of the same. He is also a member of the Masonic bodies in Sturgis, from the blue lodge to the commandery of Knights Templar.
JOHN R. HARRIS.
This gentleman was born in Livingston county, New York, December 28, 1817. His parents were in moderate circumstances, and having a family of. ten children, it was necessary that the sons should commence at an early age to contribute to the support of the family ; hence the advantages of education were poor. The subject of our sketch bought his time of his father by giving him all he earned, except enough to buy his every-day clothes. In 1836 he had a chance of emigrating to Michigan, which he embraced, coming with a man by the name of Abel Crossman, who agreed to give him fourteen dollars a month for a year, paying him in advance, out of which he bought of his father the balance of the time remaining before his majority. He arrived in Michigan, and purchased eighty acres of land. He fulfilled his contract with Mr. Crossman, and then went to work on his own land.
He had no experience and no education, procuring what knowledge he now possesses after his marriage. His capital was his health, his industry and his ambition. He was industrious and temperate, having been brought up to work, and having joined the Washingtonian society when but twelve years of age. These characteristics were just what were required in a new country, and by their practical application his success was insured. He first settled on section twenty-four in Sherman township, St. Joseph county, Mich- igan, and afterwards, in 1846, removed to his present home on section four- teen, in Sturgis township.
On the 3d of April, 1842, he married Sarah Parker, a native of Pennsyl- vania, by whom he had six children, namely :
HENRIETTA E., born April 26, 1844. ALBERT E., born June 23, 1846; died March 28, 1848.
WILLIAM E., born May 12, 1848. ELLEN R., born August 22, 1850.
CLAYTON J., born January 19, 1854.
CARRIE A., born December 24, 1855.
Mr. Harris has always devoted his attention to agriculture, and is generally considered a sound, practical farmer. In politics he is a Republican. In religious sentiment he is liberal, never having affiliated with any particular religious denomination. He adheres to the grand principle of human justice, unbiassed by religious prejudice and unharassed by dogmatic theology. In his every-day life he is actuated by strict integrity, has comported himself with rectitude, has been an affectionate husband, a fond parent, a good neigh- bor and a firm friend,-in manners genial and courteous, in disposition affable and kind, and in public career an honest and upright citizen. Hav- ing thus lived, a retrospection of his past has no conscientious defects, and his future no disagreeable apprehensions.
JOHN R. HARRIS.
MRS. JOHN R. HARRIS.
RESIDENCE OF JOHN R. HARRIS, STURGIS TP. ST JOSEPH CO., MICH.
85
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
LONGIGRE-CO
T. Charpentier
Among the self-made men of St. Joseph county, Talcott C. Carpenter, one of the foremost members of the St. Joseph bar, stands eminently. Thrown upon his own unaided efforts at the early age of seventeen years, he gained an education at the common-schools of the county and the Uni- versity at Ann Arbor, undergoing the severest privations in order to fit him- self for his profession without incurring pecuniary obligations to any person, asking and receiving no assistance from a single individual, and paying his way by the labor of his own hands, performed after the hours of the day devoted to study had passed by. Such self-denial and determination have been amply rewarded in the success which has followed Mr. Carpenter thus far in his honorable career. He was born in Delhi, Delaware county, New York, February 19, 1835. His parents, Younglove C. and Rhoda (Sabin) Carpenter, were natives of Connecticut and Massachusetts respectively, and with them he migrated to Mendon, St. Joseph county, when but two years of age. Here, on a farm, in the log-house of the pioneer, the boy lived until the father died in 1852. The hardships endured by the family can scarcely be appreciated by the present rising generation, but a slight idea may be gained of them when it is stated that until the subject of our sketch had attained the age of fourteen years he had never enjoyed the luxury of a pair of shoes for his feet, but had worn cloth moccasins made by his mother. The cabin, like others in those days, scarcely kept out the snow, which sifted in under the shakes, upon the beds and over the floor, through which the children, of whom there were seven,-five girls and two boys,-left their tracks when they rose in the winter mornings, and went to the big fire-place to perform their toilets.
Upon the death of the father, Talcott told his brother that if he would stay on the farm and take care of the family, he (Talcott) would give him his (Talcott's) interest in the estate, and, upon arrival at his majority, Talcott quitclaimed his interest accordingly. From that date (1852) onward, the boy took up the thread of life for himself. He attended the dis- trict school at Centreville for two terms, and was also two terms at the nor- mal school at Ypsilanti, after which he spent two years at the Michigan University at Ann Arbor, in the literary department, supporting himself by sawing wood after school-hours, cutting and splitting one hundred cords of the same during his stay in Ann Arbor. His needs were so pressing and his determination so great to finish his two years' course with honor, that he lived for four months on nineteen cents per week, and when he arrived at Kala- mazoo at the end of his term, he had but a quarter of a dollar in his pocket,
and a journey to Three Rivers before him. But a friend, who heard the young man's story, furnished him a breakfast and paid his fare to the latter place. He then went to Fulton county, Illinois, where he taught school for three years, accumulating during the time eight hundred dollars in gold. In the fall of 1860 Mr. Carpenter entered the law department of the Michi- gan University, where he remained for the fall and winter terms, and was admitted to the bar of St. Joseph county in the spring of 1861, entering the law-office of Henry Severns, of Three Rivers (now of Kalamazoo), where he remained until August of that year, and then removed to Sturgis, where he entered the law-office of Hon. William L. Stoughton, and, upon that gen- tleman's entering the army, succeeded to his practice, and has ever since been located there.
Mr. Carpenter has an extensive and lucrative practice, which he conducts with success to himself and his clients. He is courteous and affable, and the amenities of the legal profession suffer no diminution at his hands, or by his manner. In the fall of 1862 he was elected to the position of circuit court commissioner of St. Joseph county, which position he held for six years. In 1868 he was chosen , prosecuting attorney for the county, and held the office four years. In politics he is a Republican.
On the 3d of January, 1863, he was united in marriage with Miss Helen M. Whitney, a daughter of Nathan B. Whitney, of Fulton county, Illinois, but a native of Massachusetts. Three children have blessed this union,- John H., Ella L. and Carrie L., all now living with their parents in the beautiful and cozy cottage erected by Mr. Carpenter, in Sturgis.
The mother of Mr. Carpenter died at his residence in Sturgis, in Decem- ber, 1864.
DAVID KNOX, SR., STURGIS.
David Knox was born in Cayuga county, New York, August 30, 1806, and in the spring of 1822 came with his father and mother, Jacob and Rachel Knox, to Michigan, locating in Wayne county, near Detroit. Ten years later, in 1832, he removed to St. Joseph county, and settled at Sturgis. Here his life has been spent principally in the occupation of farming, and having endured the hardships of pioneer-life and the labor incident to the development of a new country, he is one of the few early settlers who yet remain strong and vigorous to enjoy the harvest of their toil.
Mr. Knox has raised a family of eight children, all but one being the children of his second wife, Thirza Knox, who was the daughter of Benjamin Jacobs, one of the early settlers on Sturgis prairie, to whom he was married in 1835, and who died in 1871. Of his children only five are now living, being Henry, David, Charles, Mary and Jennie.
His sons Henry and Charles are farmers. David is in business at Three Rivers, as a lawyer. In political belief and action Mr. Knox is Republican, being one of the original Abolitionists of that party. His religious tenden- cies led him early to connect himself with the Methodist church, and he has been one of its strongest and most faithful supporters from the first organi- zation in this county to the present time. A man physically strong, with a. liberal, cultivated mind, and an earnest, true nature, he has always been prominently identified with every good work about him, and the whole influ- ence of his life has been on the right side
86
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
MOTTVILLE.
AMONG the earliest settlements in the county of St. Joseph we find Mott- ville takes its place. Originally a portion of White Pigeon township, of which it remained an integral community until 1837, its history is intimately connected with that of the latter township. Its present area includes thirteen thousand and eighteen acres of land surface, of which sixteen hundred acres were of the original White Pigeon prairie, the rest of the area being covered with burr and white oak, principally the " openings" of the country. The soil possesses the usual characteristics of that of the openings, and is, as else- elsewhere in the county, very fertile and productive.
The township is well drained by the St. Joseph and Pigeon rivers, the former entering the township on sections five and six, and, passing to the southwest quarter of the section, forms from thence the western boundary of the township and county as well. The Pigeon enters the township on the east line of the northeast quarter of section eleven, and runs westwardly and southwest to the St. Joseph, which it enters on the northeast quarter of section twenty-three, township eight, range thirteen. The township is known on the maps of the United States surveys as township eight, range twelve, and a fraction of township eight, range thirteen, which lies east of the St. Joseph river, which was formerly a portion of Cass county. The eastern tier of sec- tions in the township were retained by White Pigeon in its limits when Mottville was constituted a separate township. The surface is a general level.
THE FIRST SETTLER
within the present limits of the township, other than Quimby, who located on the present site of the village, was Levi Beckwith, who, with his family of wife and four children, came to the west end of White Pigeon prairie in August, 1828, at which time there were but three families living in houses at that end of the prairie-Winchell, Page and Paine; and Beckwith's and another family lived in their wagons for a time, until they could build houses. Henry E. Root, of Constantine, and a large land-owner in White Pigeon, married one of Mr. Beckwith's daughters. The next settler was John Bear, who came in late the same year and built a cabin, and subse- quently sold his location and moved into Constantine, and from thence to the lake in Cass county, to which he gave his name.
OTHER EARLY SETTLERS
were Aaron Brooks, of Ohio, who came with his family in 1829, and located on his present farm on section twenty-four, and was accompanied by Nathan, Thomas and James Odell. Solomon Hartman and his family came in from Ohio in August of the same year. Thomas Burns, of Pennsylvania, settled in the township in 1830, on the farm now occupied by Jonathan Hartzler, on section twelve. Benjamin Carr came in 1831, and located on section thirteen, and Andrew Thompson located in 1832 on section thirteen, where he still resides. He came from Ohio. William Cook came in from New York, and located on a farm two and a half miles east of the village, and now resides in the village. Elizabeth Rathbone, an English lady, came into the township and settled in 1831. In 1834 C. P. May came in from New York and located, and in the spring of 1835 a man by the name of Adams came in, and died the following August. The sickness of 1835 in this locality was quite as severe as in 1838. A family of Davidsons came in and settled in 1830.
THE FIRST FARM
was opened in the present-limited township by Levi Beckwith, in the year 1829. Aaron Brooks, however, opened one the same year, and raised the first wheat cultivated in the township, harvesting the same in 1830. Elias Taylor, the oldest Indian trader at the crossing of the St. Joseph, planted the first nursery from which the first orchard grew in 1829.
THE FIRST ENTRIES OF PUBLIC LANDS
in the government township were made in 1829, and numbered fifty-one, of which the first three were as follows:
East half of the southeast quarter of section one, Robert Clark, Jr .; west half of the southeast quarter of section two, Daniel Reed, of Tompkins county, N. Y .; and east half of the southeast quarter of section three, John Winchell, all on January 15, 1829. Seventeen entries were made June 15. The three first-named entries are now included in White Pigeon township. In 1876 there were twelve thousand and sixty-one acres assessed for taxa-
tion, and valued by the supervisor at two hundred and seventy-seven thou- sand two hundred and twenty dollars,-about one-quarter to one-third of its actual value.
THE ASSESSMENT OF THE PROPERTY
in the township in 1837 for taxation was fixed at one hundred and fifty-four thousand five hundred and forty-six dollars, and the taxes amounted to five hundred and fifty dollars. In 1876 the total assessment of property was fixed by the board of supervisors at two hundred and sixty-seven thousand three hundred and eight dollars on real estate, and fifty-four thousand one hundred and sixty dollars on personal property ; and the tax levied thereon amounted to one thousand six hundred and forty-two dollars and twenty cents for State and county purposes-one-half to each-and one thousand three hundred and sixty-three dollars and six cents for township purposes, including schools, making an aggregate of three thousand and five dollars and twenty-six cents.
THE CROP STATISTICS
of 1874 show that the harvest of 1873 produced seventeen thousand six hun- dred and fifty-seven bushels of wheat from two thousand five hundred and twenty-one acres sown, thirty-eight thousand four hundred and sixty-five bushels of corn from one thousand four hundred and fifty-five acres planted, and two thousand eight hundred and eighty-two bushels of other grain, three thousand five hundred and thirty-two bushels potatoes, nine hundred and ' seventy-three tons of hay, seven thousand seven hundred and fifty-three pounds of wool, one hundred and seven thousand eight hundred and seventy pounds of pork, twenty-two thousand six hundred and fifty pounds of butter, four thousand eight hundred and thirty-four pounds of dried fruit, four hun- dred and eighty-seven barrels of cider, eight thousand six hundred and eleven bushels of apples, and seven hundred and eighteen bushels of other fruit and vegetables. There were owned in the township in 1874 three hundred and three horses, two mules, five hundred and twenty one cows, two hundred and fifty-five other cattle, nine hundred and eleven hogs, and one thousand two . hundred and ninety-seven sheep.
THE FIRST HOUSE
built in the township on territory now included within its borders, was the cabin of Levi Beckwith in the early fall of 1828, and the second one was that of John Bear, both of which were primitive log-cabins. The first frame and brick houses were built in the village subsequently.
THE FIRST WHITE CHILD
born in the township was Selinda Rickart, who was a babe-in-arms when Solomon Hartman came to the township on August 10, 1829, and was some two or three months old then. The second one was a son of Leonard Rickart, and was born in the fall of the same year. A daughter of James Odell was born the same year also, and Sophronia Burns was born October 30, 1830.
THE FIRST MARRIAGE
of white persons in the township was that of Valentine Shultz and Susan Hartman, in October, 1829. They first settled on a farm on section five, and then removed to Coldwater, and finally to Iowa, where Mr. Shultz died in 1870. Benjamin Montgomery and Rebecca Davidson were married in 1830.
THE FIRST DEATH
which occurred in the township was that of the child of Leonard Rickart before named, which lived but a few months. The first adult who died was Solomon Hartman, his death occurring August 4, 1830. His coffin was made of the side-boards of a wagon with which he had come into the coun- try. He was the first person buried in
THE CEMETERY
which was laid out in the village of Mottville, in 1830, being donated by the proprietors of the plat. . Baum died in 1831, and was buried therein also.
THE FIRST PREACHERS
were the Methodist missionaries, Felton and Gurley, in 1829 and 1830, and Elder Holmes, a Free-will Baptist, who came to the settlement in 1831, Judge Winchell building him and his wife a snug cabin on his, Winchell's, farm. He continued his labors for some years, preaching in the settlers' cabins and under the trees as occasion offered or weather permitted.
RESIDENCE OF ISAAC RUNYAN, STURGIS TP, ST JOSEPH CO, MICH.
RESIDENCE OF JOHN WALTHAM, MOTTVILLE TP., ST JOSEPH Co., MICH.
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87
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
MANUFACTURES.
Jonas Hartman built a brewery in an early day, 1833-34, and ran it a year, by which time Jacob Lintz had fathomed the mysteries of beer-making, and operated for some time, and was said to have made a most excellent article of " home-brewed " ale. Peter Burgett built a tannery near Mott- ville village, and finished his leather as often as he killed a 'coon which was fat and juicy. This tannery was built before 1836. Isaac Benham, of Con- stantine, bought his first stock of leather of Burgett, trading a rifle for the same, for which Burgett was to allow seventeen dollars, provided Benham could hit Burgett's hat at fifteen rods with it. Burgett rolled his head cov- ering up into as small a compass as possible and stuck it up on a stump, much to the chagrin of Benham, who thought anybody could hit as big an object as Burgett's " slouch ;" still by a lucky shot Benham hit the mark, and then it was his turn to laugh, for he had ventilated the sombrero hand- somely, the ball perforating every fold. John Carlin operated a brewery in 1834, on the Chicago road, in the township. In August, 1829, Samuel Pratt and P. A. Paine made brick in the township-burnt forty thousand.
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