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 56
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I. O. O. F.
Dennis Lodge, No. 96, so named in honor of Grand Master Dennis, of Michigan, was instituted by charter January, 1867, having been previously organized by dispensation April 10, 1866. The lodge met in Seminary Hall until 1867, when they removed to their hall in the post-office building, where they remained nine years, and removed to their old quarters at the incoming of the new year, 1877. The first principal officers were: Dr. Isaac Sides, N. G .; E. C. Wellesley, V. G .. E. Bathrick, R. S .; E. C. Bathrick, P. S; W. Whitmore, treasurer.
In 1870 Dr. Sides was elected D. G. M. in the Grand Lodge; and 1871, grand master ; and in 1872 representative to the G. L. U. S. Since its or-
ganization there have been initiated into the lodge one hundred members and five admitted by card. Eleven have withdrawn to assist in the formation of other lodges, and four have died. The lodge has now not far from thirty members ; is out of debt; has a handsome little " widows' and orphans' fund " of two hundred dollars, at interest; a well-furnished hall, and has held several social and literary entertainments. Dr. Sides, when grand master, officiated at the laying of the corner-stone of the odd fellows' temple in the city of Jackson, and that of the Odd Fellows' Institute at. Lansing. E. C. Wellesley is at present a member of the Board of Com- missioners of the Odd Fellows' Institute, and has served nine years as Rep- resentative of Dennis Lodge in the Grand Lodge of the State.
The present officers are O. Cline, N. G .; H. Snook, V. G .; M. Yeatter, R. S .; W. Whitmore, P. S .; G. Deno, treasurer ; M. Yeatter, representative to G. L. W. Whitmore has held the office of permanent secretary and treasurer, alternately, since the organization of the lodge, continuously. Dr. Sides is an old veteran in the order, having joined it in Pennsylvania, November 29, 1843.
Elsie Lodge, No. 3, Daughters of Rebekah, was instituted May 18, 1869, by P. G. M. Sides, with fifty-two charter-members,-thirty males and twenty- two females-the lodge being named in honor of the wife of Grand Master Jay S. Curtis, who issued the dispensation for the organization thereof. The first officers were Dr. I. Sides, N. G .; Mrs. Kate Whitmore, V. G .; Mrs. Fanny Hill, R. S .; Mrs. E. Sides, F. S .; Mrs. E. Mellen, treasurer ; W. Mellen, W .; and Mrs. M. E. Rogers, C. The past officers are E. F. Doty, J. W. Wynant, R. W. Hafer, I. Sides, and E. C. Wellesley. The present officers are I. Sides, N. G .; Mrs. M. Deno, V. G .; W. Whitmore, R. S .; Mrs. Nellie Hill, F. S .; Mrs. Kate Whitmore, treasurer ; Mrs. M. E. Rogers, C .; G. F. King, W.
The lodge has been an able auxiliary in the work of the order, and has been distinguished for its works of charity and true beneficence in the com- munity in and outside of the lodge. There are thirty-five members in the lodge.
GOOD TEMPLARS.
Riverside Lodge, No. 828, I. O. G. T., was organized February 5, 1875, by C. P. Russell, of Detroit, the organization being effected mainly through the earnest efforts of Mrs. M. J. Bowman and Mrs. M. E. Rogers. The first officers were C. B. Hoffman, W. C. T .; Mrs. Mary J. Bowman, W. V. T .; Isaac Sides, R. S. ; Jesse Castle, T. S .; Mrs. Permelia Hill, treasurer. There were forty-eight charter-members. They meet at present in Wanzey's Hall. The lodge membership is an active and zealous one, and much good has been effected by the organization.
Much credit for the success of the lodge is due to W. H. Castle, who has been untiring in his efforts to promote the efficiency of the same, and in which he has been ably seconded by St. Joseph Leland, G. Hill, Lamartine A. Leland, Mrs. Permelia Hill, Mrs. M. E. Rogers, Miss E. Bower, and many others. The present membership is fifty-five.
Several years ago Colon Lodge, No. 123, I. O. G. T., was organized with a large membership, Professor E. Cooley being the most active worker, and numbered at one time two hundred and twenty-five members. It flourished for a number of years, but finally became extinct.
PATRONS OF HUSBANDRY.
Colon Grange, No. 215, was organized in December, 1873, H. K. Far- rand, master, and O. Tomlinson, secretary. Mr. Farrand held the position of master during 1874, and W. H. Castle in 1875 and '76. There were fifty- six members in the grange, which is now suspended.
THE MILITARY RECORD.
of Colon began to be written early in its history, George F. Schellhous and the millwright (Kirk) being drafted in the Black Hawk war. Cyrus Schell- hous and Martin G. Schellhous were a bulwark between the Nottawa Indians and the settlers, and by their coolness and knowledge kept the hands of each off the throat of the other, as is fully shown in the general history of the county. Fort Hogan was commenced and ingloriously abandoned within the precints of the present township of Colon, and the visions of glory faded as rapidly as they gathered about the unfinished ramparts and incomplete bastions. But when the tocsin of war sounded in 1861, and rebellious and bloody hands struck at the throat of the nation and fired upon its flag, the men of Colon, realizing it was to be no boy's play, but a struggle for supremacy between the forces of slavery and freedom, that would be like the fight of Roderick Dhu and James Fitz James,-a war to the death of one or the other,-rallied from the plow and shop, and filled the quotas of the township as often as they were called for during the long, weary, bitter strife.
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RESIDENCE OF GEORGE W. TELLER, COLON TP, ST JOSEPH Co., MICH.
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163
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
We give a list of those who went to the front, as they are recorded in the official records of the State :
SECOND MICHIGAN INFANTRY.
Private John Q. A. Thornton, Company F; mustered-out.
FOURTH INFANTRY.
Private James Burr, Company C; discharged at expiration of service.
Private Epaminondas P. Thurston, Company C; discharged at expira- tion of service.
Private John W. Wyant, Company C; killed at Chancellorsville.
Private Eugene Vaughn, Company C; discharged at expiration of service.
Private John W. Mosher, Company E; mustered-out.
SEVENTH INFANTRY.
Private Jonathan Shook, Company B; mustered-out.
Private Charles H. Trumbull, Company I; discharged, December, 1862.
First Lieutenant John P. Everhard, Company K; killed at Antietam, September 17, 1862.
Second Lieutenant George H. Laird, Company K; resigned, April, 1862. Second Lieutenant Charles Hamilton, Company K ; wounded at Fair Oaks; resigned, July 8, 1862.
Private Daniel D. Bennett, Company K; wounded at Spottsylvania ; re-enlisted and promoted to lieutenant, captain, and major ; mustered-out, 1865.
Private Lewis Frey, Company K ; re-enlisted and mustered-out.
Private Elbert S. Schermerhorn, Company K ; re-enlisted and mustered- out as sergeant.
Private Myron Howard, Company K; killed at Deep Bottom, Virginia, August 10, 1864.
Private William E. Romine, Company K; veteran reserve corps.
Private Orville Wood, Company K; wounded at Coal Harbor and mus- tered-out.
Private Philip Hofield, Company K ; wounded in Wilderness severely and mustered-out.
Private Ezra Bell, Company K ; mustered-out.
Private Truman E. Mason, Company K ; transferred to United States cavalry.
TENTH INFANTRY.
Private W. C. Thornton, Company G ; wounded in hand ; mustered-out.
ELEVENTH REGIMENT INFANTRY.
Chaplain Holmes A. Pattison ; mustered-out with regiment.
Corporal Philo Hoit, Company A ; died at Nashville, December 24, 1862. Private William Davis. Company A; discharged at expiration of service. Private Bert Knickerbocker, Company A; discharged at expiration of service.
Private Hugh McCormick, Company A; discharged for disability.
Private Robert Renner, Company A; discharged at expiration of service.
Private Dudley C. Marvin, Company A ; died at Murfreesboro, March 4, 1863.
Private Jared M. Taylor, Company A ; missing at Chickamauga ; died in Andersonville.
Private William T. Renner, Company A; discharged at expiration of service.
Private Wallace Washburn, Company A; died at Bardstown, Kentucky. Private Charles E. Powers, Company A; wounded at Dallas ; mustered- out.
Private Isaac Knapp, Company A ; wounded and mustered-out.
Private Solomon Burchard, Company C; died of small-pox, February 6, 1862.
Sergeant Edwin P. Wellesley, Company D; discharged.
Sergeant John H. Montgomery, Company D; discharged.
Corporal Simeon D. Long, Company D; discharged at expiration of service.
Corporal Homer F. Romine, Company D; discharged for disability.
Corporal Marcenus A. Bronson, Company D; discharged for disability. Private Daniel B. Adams, Company D; discharged for disability.
Private Ira R. Adams, Company D; lost arm at Lookout Mountain ; dis- charged.
Private Byron C. Brunsen, Company D; died May 16, 1862.
Private Stephen W. Chapman, Company D; discharged at Louisville, August 19, 1862.
Private James Everhard, Company D; discharged for disability.
Private George S. Gillett, Company D; killed at Chattanooga, November 25, 1863.
Private Byron I. Liddle, Company D; re-enlisted, and killed near Mari- etta, Georgia.
Private Martin V. Lytle, Company D; died January 13, 1862. Private Stillman Robinson, Company D ; died January 2, 1862.
Private Thomas Smith, Company D; discharged at expiration of service. Private John H. Spittler, Company D; discharged at expiration of service. Private William M. Wyant, Company D; discharged at Nashville. Private Abram H. Wyant, Company D; discharged for disability.
Private Joseph Wixon, Company D; discharged at expiration of service. Private Thomas A. White, Company D; discharged at expiration of service.
Private Charles A. White, Company D; died April 20, 1862. Private William E. Thornton, Company D; mustered-out.
Private Isaac Lowder, Company D; mustered-out.
Private Isaac Kriberlin, Company D ; mustered-out.
Private Joseph P. Farrand, Company D; mustered-out.
John Downey, Non-commissioned Staff; mustered-out.
Private Jacob Bower, Company E; died at Bardstown, Kentucky, Feb- ruary 22, 1862.
Private George L. Bower, Company E; discharged at expiration of service. Private Benjamin Clubine, Company E; discharged at expiration of service.
Private Henry M. Davis, Company F; died June 22, 1864.
Private John S. Taylor, Company F; mustered-out.
Private William H. Howard, Company F; mustered-out.
Private John Long, Company F; mustered-out.
Private James Kammerling, Company F; mustered-out.
Sergeant Thomas H. Smith, Company G; discharged at expiration of service.
Private Cyrus Gilbert, Company G ; killed at Stone River, December 31, 1862.
Private Isaac B. Lyon, Company G; discharged at expiration of service. Private William L. Thornton, Company I; mustered-out.
Private Emanuel Smith, Company D; discharged at expiration of service.
TWELFTH INFANTRY.
Private Charles Burbridge, Company F; died at Little Rock, Arkansas. Private Ebenezer Decker, Company K; mustered-out.
THIRTEENTH INFANTRY.
Private George Voorhis, Company C; mustered-out.
Private William Yeatter, Company D; re-enlisted and mustered-out.
FIFTEENTH INFANTRY.
Second Lieutenant Jona. Snook, Company A; resigned.
Private Daniel E. Decker, Company A; discharged for disability. Private Joseph Lepley, Company A; re-enlisted and mustered-out.
Private Abram Snook, Company A ; died at Camp Sherman, August 25, 1863.
Private Charles Sixbury, Company A; veteran reserve corps, and mus- tered-out.
Private George B. Wilkinson, Company A; discharged for disability.
Private Edward E. Decker, Company A; discharged for disability.
Private Reuben Everhard, Company A; discharged at expiration of service.
SIXTEENTH INFANTRY.
Private Archie Wilkie, Company F ; re-enlisted and mustered-out.
SEVENTEENTH INFANTRY.
First Lieutenant George H. Laird, Company C; captain, February 1, 1863; lieutenant-colonel of United States colored troops, One Hundred and Sixteenth regiment.
Wagoner William I. Calvert, Company C; died before Petersburg, Vir- ginia.
Private Joseph Brandle, Company C; discharged for disability.
Private Myron H. Howard, Company C; discharged for disability.
Private Peter Moore, Company C; discharged for disability.
Private William C. Rumsey, Company C; discharged for disability.
Private Benjamin Vaughn, Company C; mustered-out.
Private John White, Company H; mustered-out.
NINETEENTH INFANTRY.
Private Arthur Belote, Company D; discharged.
Private Marshall Marvin, Company D; mustered-out.
Private James L. Belote, Company D; died at Nashville, April 28, 1863.
164
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
TWENTY-FIFTH INFANTRY.
Sergeant Warren E. Greene, Company D; discharged. Corporal Horace Keys, Company D; mustered-out. Wagoner Calvin J. Root, Company D; mustered-out. Private Charles G. Liddle, Company D; mustered-out. Private Henry M. Liddle, Company D; died at Bowling Green, Ken- tucky, March 1, 1863.
Private Frank Young, Company D; mustered-out. Private Lester Taggart, Company D; veteran reserve corps. Private Emory Blossom, Company D; mustered-out. Private William Ward, Company E; mustered-out.
TWENTY-EIGHTH INFANTRY.
Private Abraham Crawford, Company C; mustered-out. Private Peter G. Dehn, Company C; mustered-out.
FIFTH CAVALRY.
Private Leonard Leland, Company L; died at Frederick, Maryland, September 10, 1864. FIRST LIGHT ARTILLERY.
Private Milton Ormsby, Battery B.
Private Edwin Negus, Battery E; mustered-out.
Private John J. Van Vorst, Battery F; discharged for disability.
Private John B. Winchell, Battery F; mustered-out.
Private Abner J. Van Vorst, Battery F; discharged for disability.
Nathan W. Doty, in an Iowa regiment, killed.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
LONCACHE-CO
HENRY K. FARRAND.
Since society was first formed on the earth, the public burdens of a com- munity have ever been borne by a few of its individual members. Is there a school-house to be built, a church to be erected, a railroad to be secured, or even a cemetery to be surveyed and laid off for the burial of the dead, the few free-hearted, unselfish, enterprising citizens of the community to be benefited must perform all the labor and sustain the greater portion of the financial responsibility.
The little village of Colon, though possessing as much enterprise among . her citizens as many of her more pretentious sisters, is yet no exception to the general rule.
Foremost among the "bearers of burdens" for the public benefit stands Henry Kitchell Farrand, whose finely cultivated farm of eight hundred acres lies near the village. Thrown early upon his own resources he became thoroughly self-reliant, and with his native energy of character, disciplined by the trying ordeals of pioneer-life in Michigan, he was well fitted for the honorable position he occupied in his later years, and which has given him his well-earned title of a public benefactor. Though not an actual resident of the village of Colon, his residence being about a mile and a half distant therefrom, yet none of the residents have done more, and but a meagre few as much, for the prosperity of the village and to build up for it a good repu- tation than has Mr. Farrand.
Not one of her public institutions or conveniences but has felt the impetus of his energy and spirit, and drawn largely from his ever-open purse, from its inception to its accomplishment and successful operation, and it is the de- light of the historian to do honor to such a truly representative man, and .adorn the pages of this work with the records of his life.
Mr. Farrand was born in Mentz, Cayuga county, New York, on the 19th day of June, 1812, where he resided with his parents, Joseph and Julia Farrand, until 1834, attending the district-school in the neighborhood in his younger days, and assisting his father, on the the farm of the latter, later on in life.
In the spring of the last-named year Mr. Farrand made the first venture for himself in business, renting a farm near by his father's homestead for a cash rental higher than any tenant had ever paid before for it, every one of whom had made a losing operation of its management. His father, to test the young man, declined to assist him as he had his brothers before him, but this course, instead of discouraging the new beginner, served only as a stimulus for steady exertion on his part. His aunt, Maria Farrand, who was visiting at his father's at the time, admiring the spirit of her nephew, proposed to go to the farm with him and become his housekeeper, which proposition was quickly accepted, and on the 1st of April, 1834, young Far- rand, with two good teams and one assistant, began his farming operations. He worked long and laboriously, taking no time or money for recreation or pleasure, but steadily pursued his business, and at the end of his first wheat- harvest, contrary to the expectations of his friends, freely expressed, he paid from the proceeds of his labor all of his rent, living expenses, the cost of his stock and implements, and had three or four hundred dollars to loan his prophetic friends whose predictions of failure had signally failed.
In the spring of 1836 the farm he had rented for a term of years having been sold, he surrendered his lease, to take effect after his next harvest, and went to Michigan to seek for a location of his own, and finding none that suited him so well as his present homestead, that he could buy at the govern- ment price, he bought two hundred acres on the east half of section fifteen in Colon, and which was the very last tract in that township subject to entry in the general land-office.
He then returned to Mentz to harvest his wheat, which being done and disposed of, he, accompanied by his faithful aunt and judicious adviser, re- turned to his purchase in St. Joseph county, coming with a single pair of horses and wagon through Canada, a portion of the way with his brother Charles, whom he overtook on the road, and who settled near Burr Oak, but in Branch county.
Mr. Farrand arrived at Lorausi Schellhous' on the 12th day of October, where he and his aunt were provided for most kindly until a log-house was put up and made comfortable, into which the new-comers moved and passed the winter as .pleasantly as circumstances would allow. This pioneer cabin was the home of Mr. Farrand for seventeen years, when it gave place to the present spacious mansion in 1854.
In the spring, when farming operations actively began again, Mr. Farrand found his means exhausted, but his will to do was as fixed and steadfast as ever, and so he began a steady march for a competency, which, despite sick-
RESIDENCE OF HENRY K. FARRAND, COLON TP., ST JOSEPH CO., MICH.
165
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
ness and embarrassments incident to life in a new country, he has obtained, and has used no niggardly policy in his efforts therefor.
He has added to his original purchase some six hundred acres, having about four hundred acres under cultivation. His large and commodious barns and sheds are tenanted with some of the best blooded-stock in the country, both of cattle, sheep, horses and swine, to the breeding of which he has paid con- siderable attention for some years, buying his first sheep at public sale of Roswell Schellhous, in the spring of 1838. This small flock of sheep were the especial care of "Aunt Maria," who brought them home every night in the grazing season for some years.
Among the many schemes for the public good that Mr. Farrand has been engaged in since his first coming to Colon, none is more gratifying to him, by reason of the good results accomplished, than that of the Colon seminary, which was projected by himself, Dr. A. J. Kinne and some few others, a de- tailed account of which will be found elsewhere in our work.
In securing the passage of the railroad through the village, and thereby making it a point on the same, Mr. Farrand's efforts were most persistently put forth; both in time and money, and it was largely due to his labors and zeal that the road was not diverted from Colon entirely. When the railroad company failed to fulfil their obligations under the contract for the township bonds voted in aid of the construction, Mr. Farrand, as supervisor, insti- tuted and pushed the suit for the recovery of the bonds so vigorously that the whole amount, twenty-five thousand dollars and accrued interest, was cancelled and returned to the town authorities, and at a most insignificant expense.
Mr. Farrand has, for the most part of his busy life, pursued the quiet path of a private citizen, but during the years 1872-73-75 he held the office of supervisor of the township. In politics he was originally a Whig, and joined the ranks of the Republican party at its formation, being an active member thereof to the present.
He is an independent thinker on religion, and liberally inclined towards all creeds. He acknowledges with gratefulness the kind offices of his aunt, Maria Farrand, who was his housekeeper and adviser in the first business years of his life and until his marriage, and who, also, when death robbed him of a companion and his children of a mother, again assumed charge of his household, and gave herself unstintingly to the care thereof. He feels that to her, in a large measure, is due his early success in life, on which is based the prosperity of his later years. She died in the old homestead, February 2, 1869.
On the 7th day of December, 1837, Mr. Farrand was united in marriage with Maria, daughter of Levi and Eunice Mathews, and a sister of L. C. Mathews, of Colon. She was born in Plymouth, Litchfield county, Con- necticut, on the 23d day of November, 1817. By this marriage Mr. and Mrs. Farrand had born to them the following-named children: ANN ELIZA, now Mrs. M. W. Price; HENRIETTA M., who died at the age of four years ; MARGARET S., JULIA ELIZABETH, now Mrs. Oliver H. Todd; FRANCES EUGENIA, and CHARLES H., the latter married, and with his wife and little boy and two sisters, "Maggie" and "Frank," living on the old homestead. Mrs. Farrand was an estimable woman and a helpmeet indeed for a pioneer. She was a member of the Protestant Episcopal church for several years previous to her death, which occurred on the 1st day of July, 1855. Mr. Farrand was again united in marriage on the 14th day of September, 1865, to Phebe M., daughter of Leonard and Mercy Blanchard, who was born in Marcellus, Onondaga county, New York, on the 26th day of November, 1827. A little girl, whom they called Louisa Kitchell, came to gladden their hearts for a few brief years only, and then her prattling tongue was stilled, and her active, winsome ways vanished from their sight. Mrs. Farrand is a woman of most amiable disposition, and has the love and respect of her household, among whom she moves quietly and trustingly. She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church of Colon.
WILLIAM R. ECK.
Not only have many of the citizens of St. Joseph county left honorable names to descend upon those who follow them, but many of them also can trace back their lineage to honorable names left by their ancestors for their inheritance. Such an individual is the subject of our article,-William Rittenhouse Eck, who, though he can as yet trace no descendants from him-
self, can and does go back in the line of his maternal ancestors to the first paper-makers of America,-the Rittenhouses of Philadelphia,-in the " good old colony times when we lived under the King."
Mr. Eck is the oldest son of Joseph and Mary (Rittenhouse) Eck, and was born in the township of Briar Creek, Columbia county, Pennsylvania, August 31, 1809, where he resided with his father, and obtained such an education as was imparted in the public-schools of that day. He assisted his father on the farm and in the clover and oil-mill until April 13, 1833, when he came west and located at what was then called the village of North Bend, but is now known as the second ward of Three Rivers. When he arrived at Buck's hotel he had only a French five-franc piece left in his pocket. He worked for Philip H. Hoffman and Christian B. Bowman two weeks, then for George Tuck for six weeks, after which he husked corn on Prairie Ronde, and put in the balance of the fall shaking with the ague. In the winter he split rails for Mr. Hoffman, and helped to raise the first frame-house in Three Rivers,-the store-house that stood near the site of the present bridge over the St. Joseph river. In the spring of 1834 he began
CONCACHEECO
: Fr REck
to learn the carpenter trade, and worked at it till May 31, when his master left the country, and the apprentice took his "kit" and knowledge (both very limited) and went into the service of John H. Bowman at farming, carpenter-work and milling, indifferently, and never left him until 1845. That year (on October 20) he came to Colon and bought an interest in the Colon mill,-the first stones of which he dressed,-and ground the first grist therein, in 1839. He operated the mill in company with John H. Bowman until 1848, and then with W. F. Bowman for three years longer, when he disposed of his interest to Joseph B. Millard, and in the summer of 1851, together with L. C. Mathews and S. S. Riley, built the saw-mill known as the Riley mill, and operated it two years, when he retired from the firm, and has not been engaged in any active business since.
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