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 37
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The present officers are W. M. Antes, W. M .; J. B. Quivey, S. W .; George Frankish, J. W .; Charles Cummings, treasurer ; William Frankish, secretary ; H. W. Hayes, S. D .; C. F. Yauney, J. D .; Rev. A. H. Van Vrauken, chaplain ; James Yauney and John F. Wolf, stewards; H. D. Westcott, tyler. There are seventy-six members on the roll of craftsmen, in good standing. The lodge is the oldest one in the county, and was the first one instituted. It meets in its own hall, in Wolf's block, and which has been neatly furnished and prettily adorned with portraits of the presiding officers of the lodge.
CENTREVILLE CHAPTER, NO. 11, R. A. M.,
was instituted under dispensation, July, 1852, and received its charter Feb- ruary 1, 1853,-Solomon Cummings being the first H. P., Benjamin Sherman the first scribe, and John Belote the first king. The other charter-members were Nathan Gurney, John Richards, Edwin Perry, Samuel Tyler, Benja- min Osgood, Asahel Huntley, James L. Bishop and F. A. Kent. Hon. J. Eastman Johnson, Hon. S. C. Coffinberry and Louis A. Leland, Esq., were the first "team" to receive the R. A. degree in the chapter. Judge Coffinberry was elected G. H. P. in 1857, and re-elected for the next two succeeding terms. His address before the annual convocation of the G. C., in January, 1858, was a very able and exhaustive document on Masonic jurisprudence.
Another of the members of this chapter has reflected honor upon it,- Hon. J. Eastman Johnson, who was appointed grand secretary by G. H. P. Coffinberry in 1859, to fill a vacancy, and was elected to the same position every year thereafter up to 1874.
In 1856 the chapter was removed to Constantine, where it remained until 1858, when it was returned to its original location.
The office of H. P. has been filled as follows : S. C. Coffinberry, 1854-6 ; John Belote, 1857-8; B. F. Doughty, 1859-60; Hiram Lindsley, 1861-6; J. E. Johnson, 1867; Peter M. Gray, 1868-9; L. A. Clapp, 1870-71; Charles A. Palmer, 1872-5. The officers of 1876 are: William Fitzsim- mons, H. P .; William L. Antes, K .; John F. Wolf, S .; William Frankish, P. S .; J. B. Quivey, C. H .; Charles Yauney, R. A. C .; H. D. Westcott, J. O. Childs and J. P. Dockstader, M. of V .; George Yauney, sentinel; J. W. Spitzer, secretary ; James Yauney, treasurer; Rev. A. H. Van Vrauken, chaplain. The roll numbers ninety-three craftsmen.
ODD-FELLOWS.
There was a lodge of Odd-Fellows instituted at one time in Centreville (one of the first, if not the first in the county), but it ceased working several years ago. It was known as the St. Joseph County Lodge, No. - , I. O. O. F.
PATRONS OF HUSBANDRY.
Centreville Grange, No. 76, was organized September 23, 1873, with thirty members, William Hazzard being the first master, and John C. Joss the first secretary. The officers of 1876 were as follows: William Hull, master; James Yauney, overseer ; J. Mosher, lecturer ; Samuel Blair, secre- tary ; George Hazzard, treasurer; Mrs. Benjamin, Pomona; Mrs. M. A. Kline, Ceres ; Mrs. James Yauney, Flora. There are, at present, seventy-one members in the grange, which meets in the old court-house, which has been the scene of the organization of nearly every church and society in the village.
THE MUNICIPALITY.
Centreville was first incorporated as a village in 1837, and, at an election held May 1, in that year, the following trustees were elected to manage the corporation : Captain Philip R. Toll, J. W. Coffinberry, Alexander V. Sill, Cyrus Ingerson, Edmund White, E. J. VanBuren and John Graham. The first action of the board was to express their gratitude to their constituents, and invite them to partake of a collation at the Centreville Hotel on the Monday evening following.
This government was sustained but a short time,-not later than 1840,- and the village was not again incorporated until February 23, 1877, when the citizens voted to re-incorporate under the general statute for such purposes.
The election for trustees and officers was held March 13, and resulted in the choice of William Sadler, president; Alfred A. Key, clerk; Giles F. Dockstader, treasurer ; William Fitzsimmons, marshal; Daniel F. Wolf, street commissioner ; Edward Talbot, assessor; William Fitzsimmons, con- stable. Trustees, Marden Sabin, Henry C. Campbell and Israel B. Quivey, one year ; J. W. Spitzer, John C. Joss and D. D. Antes, two years.
AMUSEMENTS AND INCIDENTS.
The first party of young people gathered in Centreville for a dance assem- bled under the leadership of Hon. Isaac D. Toll, in 1836, at the Centreville Hotel, kept then by A. V. Sill.
In 1840 a dancing-school was taught at the " Exchange " by Griswold and Arnold, during Knox's administration, at which, besides dancing, there was considerable good manners taught, the conductors of the assemblies being thorough masters of their business. So their old pupils say.
The national birthday was celebrated in 1837 in grand style. Harvey Cady built the drums, both bass and snare, with which, and a fife, key-bugle and fiddle, the procession marched through the streets to the ground pre- pared for their exercises. The drums and fife would play until out of wind, and then the bugle and fiddle would take up the strain, and prolong the harmony until the bugler was red in the face and the fiddler's arm was wearied, and then the martial music would relieve the orchestral part of the arrangement, and thus the melody was continuous through the entire route. The committee of arrangements, consisting of Philip R. Toll, D. H. Johnson, Dr. Mottram, Oliver Raymond, and ten others of the early citizens, issued an announcement of the programme, which read as follows: "Sixty-first An- niversary; Independence Day, 1837;" and a huge spread-eagle overshadowed what followed; star-spangled banner hoisted in the public square, and a salute of thirteen guns fired; procession, oration at the court-house, and dinner at the Centreville Hotel, kept by A. V. Sill; balloon ascension in afternoon, and fire-works and ball in the evening. Officers of the day : E. J. Vanburen, marshal; J. W. Coffinberry, reader; Dr. Mottram, orator; Revs. W. W. Brown and I. S. Ketchum, chaplains; Rev. G. S. Day, chorister.
Mrs. Charles Henry Stewart's home was a resort of the citizens for pleas- ant and agreeable entertainment, and the hostess being an excellent pianist, dancing was always in order, and much enjoyed.
In later days the private theatricals of amateur comedy and tragedy have claimed attention somewhat, and some very creditable presentations have been made by the young people of the village.
One day an Irishman named R. B. Osborn came to Philip R. Toll and asked for a job of work, and was set to chopping timber in the woods. After a day or two the chopper came into Mr. Toll's store, and showed young Isaac D., then a clerk for his father, a sketch of a landscape, which, on inquiry, was found to be the work of the wood-chopper himself. It was well executed, and a faithful representation. The young man immediately set about rais-
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
ing a class for instruction in the art, and soon got up one, and Osborn quit chopping ; and after a while he and his companion, also a fine sketcher, found work in civil engineering in Chicago, from whence they returned to Ireland, from which they had been sent to " tone " them down somewhat in their ways.
The first juries, after leaving their business for a week, would be called up and thanked by the judge for their labors, and then allowed, graciously, to pay their hotel bills and go home. There were no fees allowed jurors for some years. One of the St. Joseph juries were somewhat tenacious on what they considered their rights, and once upon a time, when a judge from another circuit was holding the court in St. Joseph, a jury brought in a ver- diet directly contrary to the instructions of the court, and, when afterwards questioned why they so acted, the foreman replied : "Do you suppose we were going to have a foreigner come in here and tell us what we shall and what we shan't do? No, sir ; not much!"
NOTTAWA STATION,
on the Grand Rapids and Indiana railroad, occupies the former site of the village of Oporto, which once boasted of an existence among the villages of St. Joseph county. Its proprietor, Whitney, who settled early on Sand lake, sold a few village lots which were taxed as such,-which act of oppression was too burdensome upon the embryo city, and it incontinently relapsed into its original element of farming lands. A store was kept by one Thomp- son for a time, and a post-office was established thereat, of which W. D. Ovid was postmaster for a while, and then R. A. Cutler for fifteen years, a part of the time the office being at his place. The office was removed to Hop- per's corners, where it remained for a few years. The present hamlet rose when the railroad was built through the township.
The business of the village is conducted by J. W. Schermerhorn, who is the station and U. S. Express agent, and deals in produce and lumber ; Drake and Todd, dealers in general merchandise; Albert M. Todd, dealer in essential oils ; C. E. Sabin, in general merchandise ; William Willington, hardware ; J. W. Hagelgans, furniture ; T. D. Atkinson, manufacturer of carriages and wagons, and blacksmithing; and J. B. Howard, lessee of the hotel. The post-office was re-established when the station was located, Sam- uel Klady being the postmaster, who was succeeded by the present incum- bent, C. E. Sabin, in 1870. Robert Schermerhorn has a mint-oil distillery near the village. There were shipped from the station during the year 1876, sixty-seven thousand seven hundred and one bushels of grain, and three hundred and sixty-six thousand two hundred and seventy-six pounds of other merchandise.
WASEPI
has a recorded existence on the surveys of St. Joseph, the plat of the village having been recorded in December, 1874. Messrs. Barnard, Gee, Connor et al. were the original proprietors. They located their city at the crossing of the Michigan Central Air Line Railroad and Grand Rapids and Indiana road. It contains a post-office, which accommodates about thirty families ; C. A. Ensign is the present postmaster,-Frank M. Tuttle, as deputy, doing the business. D. C. Gee was the first postmaster. The business is done at the station principally.
Messrs. Connor & Ensign have a fruit-drying factory (Jones' process), and about one hundred and fifty barrels of apples, twenty-five barrels of dried apples and one hundred barrels of cider were shipped from the station dur- ing the fall. Mark Connor is the station agent, but Mr. Tuttle does all of the business connected with the station.
PATRIOTISM OF NOTTAWA.
Nottawa prairie bore a conspicuous part in the troublous times of Black Hawk, by reason of its proximity to the Nottawa-seepe reservation, occu- pied by some hundreds of supposed implacable warriors. A company of one hundred men was organized, officered by Captain Henry Powers, Lieu- tenant Jonathan Engle, Jr., Hiram Gates, ensign, and Frank McMillan, orderly sergeant. The company, composed of boys and gray-headed men, turned out to a man, but were detailed as a corps of observation on the line of the reservation, and began the erection of Fort Hogan, as described else- where. A draft of twenty men started for the west, but went as far as White Pigeon only, the war having ended before proceeding farther. The organization of the company was kept up for a time, but no further call was made upon the citizens until the great war of the rebellion, except such as might have volunteered in the Mexican war. During the war for the Union (1861-5) Nottawa filled her quotas with commendable alacrity, and her citizens covered themselves with undying glory on the field as well as at home, in helping forward the cause of freedom and nationality. The old
flag had no braver or more able defenders than those Nottawa sent to the front, and the record they made for her is imperishable.
The following is a list of the men who sustained her honor untarnished amid gloom and defeat, as well as when flushed with victorious suc- cess. If any names are missing from the roll of honor, the reader may find them recorded elsewhere in the other township histories, where they may have been erroneously located :
FOURTH MICHIGAN INFANTRY.
Sergeant Eli Starr, Company C; killed at Malvern Hill, Va., July 1, 1862. Private George Ackers, Company C; discharged for disability.
FIFTH MICHIGAN INFANTRY.
Private John E. Culbertson, Company H; mustered out at close of war.
SIXTH INFANTRY.
Wagoner Mortimer J. Barkman, Company C; discharged.
Private Isaac Gince, Company C; re-enlisted; mustered-out.
Private Albert A. Jones, Company C; enlisted in regular service.
Private Andrew W. Morrison, Company C; died in Michigan, March 1, 1864.
Private William E. Morrison, Company C; re-enlisted ; died in Centre- ville.
Private Jason B. Taylor, Company C; discharged for disability.
Private Henry C. Walters, Company C; re-enlisted ; mustered-out.
Private George W. Walters, Company C; died in regimental hospital, October 3, 1862.
Musician Nelson Wells, Company C; discharged for disability.
Private Hiram Hill, Company C; mustered-out.
Private Joseph W. Rolfe, Company C; mustered-out.
Private Francis Douglass, Company C; mustered-out.
SEVENTH INFANTRY.
Private W. R. Gifford, Company I.
TENTH INFANTRY.
Private William A. Knapp, Company K; mustered-out.
ELEVENTH INFANTRY.
Commissary Sergeant Elva F. Peirce ; veteran reserve corps. Musician George D. Clarke; mustered out August 22, 1862.
Captain David Oakes, Jr., Company A ; died at Murfreesboro, January, 1862.
Sergeant Walter A. Johnson, Company A; died at Centreville, January 12, 1862.
Sergeant James F. Lovett, Company A; killed at Chickamauga.
Sergeant Hiram G. Platt, Company A; discharged at expiration of ser- vice.
Corporal John W. Hall, Company A; discharged for disability.
Corporal Abner V. Wilcox, Company A; killed at Chattanooga, October 24, 1863.
Musician George W. Kent, Company A; discharged for disability.
Musician W. H. H. Platt, Company A, sergeant-major; discharged at expiration of service.
Private Robert Baker, Company A; discharged for disability.
Private George W. Dickinson, Company A; discharged at expiration of service.
Private Charles W. Donkin, Company A ; discharged at expiration of service.
Private Rollin O. Eaton, Company A; discharged at expiration of service. Private Charles Fisher, Company A ; discharged at expiration of service. Private Henry Hall, Company A; discharged at expiration of service.
First Lieutenant Henry S. Fisher, Company A; captain, January 30, 1863; resigned.
Private William C. Iddings, Company A; discharged at expiration of service.
Private Francisco Klady, Company A; discharged at expiration of ser- vice.
Private Cyrus E. Peirce, Company A; discharged for disability.
Private William R. Thrasher; discharged for disability.
Private James A. Todd ; discharged for disability.
Private Martin V. Wilcox ; promoted and mustered-out.
Private Hiram D. Westcott; discharged at expiration of service.
Private Jay Dickinson ; died at Louisville, Ky.
Private Festus E. Eaton ; mustered-out.
Private James Ennis ; mustered-out.
,
WILLIAM HAZZARD
MRS.WILLIAM HAZZARD.
OLD HOMESTEAD OF WILLIAM HAZZARD, SEN. (BUILT IN 1837.) NOTTAWA TP, ST JOSEPH CO., MICH
107
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Corporal Melvin D. Hazzard, Company C; discharged at expiration of service.
Private Cyrus A. Bowers, Company C; discharged at expiration of service. Private James Findlay, Company C; enlisted in the regular army and never heard from.
Private John Fisher, Company C; discharged at expiration of service. Private David Shafer, Company C; mustered out at close of war.
Private George L. Clark, Company E; discharged at expiration of ser- vice.
Private William Frankish, Company E; promoted and mustered-out. Private Andrew Knapp, Company E; discharged at expiration of service. Private Duncan Stewart, Company E; died at Columbia, Tenn., June 30, 1862.
Private John Dickinson, Company E; mustered-out.
Private Almerna O. Currier, Company G; discharged at expiration of service.
Private John Savage, Company G; discharged at expiration of service. Private George Savage, Company G; discharged at expiration of service. Private Robert D. Ennis, Company G ; died of wounds before Atlanta.
Private Jacob Gruber, Company G; mustered-out.
Private Aristus O. Bishop, Company G; discharged for disability.
Private John Salmon, Company G; mustered-out.
Ephraim A. Austin, Company G; died at Nashville, Tenn.
Private Edward Smith, Company G; mustered-out. TWELFTH INFANTRY.
Private Eugene Bacon, Company F; died at Little Rock, Arkansas.
THIRTEENTH INFANTRY.
Private Lewis West, Company D; mustered-out. FIFTEENTH INFANTRY.
Private Orlando B. Boughton, Company A; re-enlisted.
Private John E. Butler, Company A; re-enlisted and mustered-out. SEVENTEENTH INFANTRY.
Private W. H. Baker, Company C; mustered-out.
Private Francis M. Wright, Company I; mustered-out. NINETEENTH INFANTRY.
Assistant Surgeon John Bennett ; surgeon July 18, 1863, and mustered- out. Sergeant Ira S. Carpenter, Company D; mustered-out. Sergeant E. E. E. Bacon, Company D; mustered-out. Corporal Henry Vivian, Company D; mustered-out.
Corporal Charles H. Connor, Company D; mustered-out.
Wagoner William B. English, Company D ; mustered-out. Private George W. Adams, Company D; died at Annapolis, July 22, 1863.
Private Charles Adams, Company D; mustered-out.
Private Pembroke S. Beckwith, Company D; mustered-out.
Private Oliver Craft, Company D; mustered-out.
Private Joseph Goodwin, Company D ; mustered-out.
Private Chauncey Rose, Company D; died at Danville, Kentucky, Jan- uary 22, 1863.
Private John A. Sutton, Company D; died at McMinnville, Tennessee. Private Andrew Shaver, Company D; mustered-out. Private John L. Thomas, Company D; mustered-out.
Private Frederick A. Thieabeaud, Company D; mustered-out. Private William R. Washburne, Company D; discharged.
Private George W. Wynkoop, Company D; mustered-out.
Private John C. Whitaker, Company D; mustered-out.
Private George Grubber, Company G; transferred to Tenth, and mus- tered-out.
Private George Henry Clark, Company H; mustered-out. TWENTY-FIFTH INFANTRY.
Private Jason Sayler, Company D; discharged for disability.
Private Francis Bell, Company G ; mustered-out.
TWENTY-EIGHTH INFANTRY.
Private Wilbur F. Hazzard, Company H; mustered-out.
FOURTH MICHIGAN CAVALRY.
Private Irwin H. Emory, Company E; at capture of Jeff. Davis ; mus- tered-out. EIGHTH CAVALRY.
Private H. B. Brown, Company A ; mustered-out.
Private Alva J. Carson, Company G; mustered-out.
NINTH CAVALRY.
Private George W. Fletcher, Company E; mustered-out.
FIRST REGIMENT LIGHT ARTILLERY.
Wagoner David Hazzard, Battery D; mustered-out.
Sergeant Frederick C. Knox, Battery D; mustered-out.
Private Samuel Cady, Battery D; mustered-out.
Private Justin Sinclair, Battery D; mustered-out.
Private Andrew Shafer, Battery D; discharged at White Pigeon, Decem- ber 6. Private Elias B. Shummel, Battery D; died at Gallatin, Tennessee.
Private Burton S. Howe, Battery D; discharged for disability.
Private Chauncey Veder, Battery D; mustered-out.
Private Daniel W. Williams, Battery D; mustered-out.
Private Nathan Adams, Battery D; mustered-out.
Private Horatio Allen, Battery D ; mustered-out. Private Samuel Mansfield, Battery D; mustered-out.
Private Abel L. Russell, Battery D; mustered-out. Private William Waters, Battery D; mustered-out.
Private Daniel Williams, Battery D; mustered-out.
Private Joshua C. Goodrich, Battery G; discharged for disability.
Private Julius A. Goodrich, Battery G; mustered-out.
Private Robert M. Hazzard, Battery L; mustered-out.
PROVOST-GUARD.
Augustus Kahn ; mustered-out. Joseph E. Thrasher ; mustered-out.
David W. Eaton ; mustered-out.
FORTY-FOURTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY. Private Abner M. Tuttle, Company B; mustered-out.
The publishers hereby tender their acknowledgments to John W. Fletcher, W. B. Langley, C. H. Starr, H. C. Campbell, H. A. Hecox, Harvey Cady, Edmund Stears, Daniel T. Wolf, George Keech, Jr., Hon. J. Eastman Johnson, William Sadler, Esq., Mrs. Isaac S. Ketchum, and Cyrus Buel, for information given us in compiling the history of Nottawa.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
WILLIAM HAZZARD.
James Hazzard, the father of our subject, was born in Massachusetts in 1769; was married in 1791 to Miss Sally Andrus of the same State. The fruits of this union were five sons and five daughters. William, the fourth child, was born February 10, 1798, at Berkshire, Massachusetts. When he was thirteen years of age his father died. The family were at that time liv- ing in the State of New York. After the death of his father the family re- moved to Vermont, where they remained a short time, and then removed to Oneida county, N. Y., and from thence, in 1817, to the territory of Michigan. They settled on the Huron river, near Detroit, where they remained until 1829. In the spring of that year Mr. William Hazzard penetrated the wil- derness as far as the present town of Centreville, in St. Joseph county, in quest of a location for a home. He selected a government lot about two miles east of the county-seat, which has ever since been the home of himself and family. He made a little improvement and put in some crops on his new purchase, and returned in the fall to the family in Wayne county, and in the month of December, in company with the Fletchers and others,
came out to St. Joseph county. They arrived on Christmas day, 1829. He was married at the age of twenty-five to Miss Cassandra Coan, of Monroe, Michigan, by whom he became the father of fourteen children, named respectively James, Augustus, David, William, Melvin, Electa, Emily, Huldah, Sarah, George, Elvira, Lovilley, and two infants not named. Eleven of these children are now living, and all married. Mrs. Hazzard, the mother, died at the old homestead in 1871, aged sixty-four years, universally regretted and mourned by her husband and friends.
The old gentleman, having all his life enjoyed the loving care of a wife and companion, felt his loss keenly, and finding an opportunity of repairing his loss, he married a second time. This was consummated in 1875. His second wife was a worthy widow lady of Mendon, with whom he leads a peaceful, happy life in his old age.
Mr. Hazzard is to-day the only surviving member of the first Methodist class formed in St. Joseph county in 1830, and has been all his life an hon- ored member and a zealous advocate of the claims of the Methodist Episco- pal church. The children were all educated in the tenets of that church, and two of the sons became ministers, and another is an exhorter and licensed preacher.
We present in this work a fine view of the old homestead, and portraits of the old pioneer and his deceased wife.
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
LONCADRE-CO.
JUDGE WM. H. CROSS.
MRS. WM. H. CROSS.
JUDGE WILLIAM H. CROSS.
On the banks of the upper Delaware, in the hilly country of Sullivan county, New York, in the town of Bethel, on the 6th day of March, 1807, William Hanna Cross was born. His father, John Cross, was an only son of Joseph Cross, of county Londonderry, Ireland, who, soon after the birth of John, left his wife and child and came to America. The Revolution of the colonies soon after commenced, and the wife never again met her hus- band, nor heard from him but a few times, but learned that he had joined the armies of the colonies, and was wounded at Charleston, South Carolina, and so concluded that he died from this cause. Left alone, the mother struggled to provide for herself and child, and soon after he arrived at an age sufficient to do somewhat for his own support, she too left him, then, alone in the world. By dint of hard work and self-denial the lad obtained a limited education, and before he attained his majority became a convert to Methodism, and was licensed as one of Wesley's earliest itinerants in his native land. In his travels he met Margaret, the young widow of Bernard Connolly, of Armagh, a daughter of the aristocratic Hannas, of Newry, and, contrary to their wishes, the young itinerant and the blooming widow were married. The opposition of the wife's family continuing, the young couple removed to Sligo, where they resided for several years, and until after the Emmett rebellion in 1798.
Mr. Cross protected some of the implicated parties, and in consequence fell under the suspicion of the government as being in sympathy with the rebels ; and his business as a grocer, which he had taken up some time after his re- moval to Sligo, was so much disturbed, that in 1803 he determined to remove to America. Fearing annoyance and possible arrest, the mother took the family and crossed the Atlantic alone with the children, leaving the father to close up his business and follow her two months later-when they were again united in New York city, and, after a short stay, settled in Newburg, Orange county, New York, where Robert J., the brother of the subject of this sketch, was born, in 1804. In 1806 the family removed to Bethel, Sul- livan county, where Mr. Cross engaged in the mercantile business. Here, in the rude school-houses of that day, under the government of the birch- rod and maple-ruler, the ideas of school education instilled into the youthful minds of Robert J. and William H. were wrought out.
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