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 69
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In 1852 the assessment was as follows: real-estate, forty thousand four hundred and sixty-three dollars ; personal property, eight thousand four hundred and nineteen dollars ; total, forty-eight thousand eight hundred and eighty-two dollars. Total taxes levied seven hundred and seventy-one dollars and thirty-five cents.
In 1860 the property was assessed thus: real-estate, one hundred and forty-four thousand three hundred and thirty-eight dollars ; personal prop- erty, fifteen thousand five hundred and ninety-five dollars ; total, one hundred and fifty-nine thousand nine hundred and thirty-three dollars. Total taxes levied, eight hundred and forty-one dollars and thirty-nine cents.
In 1870 the assessment of real-estate was three hundred and six thousand three hundred and sixty-eight dollars, and personal property, thirty-three thousand six hundred and thirty dollars, making a total of three hundred and thirty-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight dollars, on which the taxes levied amounted to two thousand nine hundred and sixty dollars and eighteen cents.
In 1876 the property was assessed as follows : Real-estate, twelve thousand nine hundred and eighty-four acres, one hundred and sixty-eight thousand two hundred and thirty-three dollars; personal property, thirty thousand five hundred and fifty dollars ; total, one hundred and ninety-eight thousand seven hundred and eighty-three dollars. On this amount taxes were levied as follows : State and county, one thousand and twenty-seven dollars and eighty-six cents; township, two hundred and fifteen dollars; schools, one thousand seven hundred and fifty-six dollars and sixty-one cents, making a total of two thousand nine hundred and eighty-nine dollars and forty-seven cents. The valuation for taxation in 1876 is scarcely one-fourth, probably, of the real value of property, which would place the actual value at about four hundred thousand dollars.
PRODUCTIONS.
The census of 1874 shows that in 1873 there were sown two thousand four hundred and forty-three acres of wheat, which produced twenty-two thousand four hundred and seven bushels ; one thousand three hundred and ninety acres of corn produced forty-seven thousand four hundred and twenty- three bushels, and there were grown of other grain nine thousand six hun- dred and seventy bushels ; of potatoes, nine thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine bushels; of hay, nine hundred and seventy-four tons; of wool, ten thousand seven hundred and thirteen pounds ; of pork, one hundred and sixty-four thousand five hundred and fifteen pounds. Thirty-three thousand two hundred and eighty pounds of butter were made, five thousand six hundred and eighty-four pounds of fruit dried, and four hundred and seventy barrels of cider made. One hundred and eighty-one acres in orchards, pro- duced nine thousand eight hundred and seventy-five bushels of apples, and
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
the gardens of the farmers' wives produced nearly three thousand dollars' worth of "sass." There were of live stock owned in the township, in 1874, three hundred and fourteen horses ; mules and oxen, four each ; two hundred and eighty-nine cows; two hundred and fifty-seven head of other horned cattle; six hundred and eleven hogs, and two thousand and seventy-three sheep. The two flouring-mills in town, with a capital of twenty-eight thou- sand dollars and six run of stones, made in 1873 twenty-three-thousand one hundred dollars' worth of flour.
POPULATION.
In 1840 there were forty-six votes cast at the annual town-meeting, indi- cating about two hundred and fifty inhabitants. In 1852 they had increased to four hundred and seventy-two, and in 1860 there were five hundred and seventy, comprising one hundred and twelve families. In 1870 there were six hundred and eighty inhabitants, three hundred and sixty-two of whom were males and three hundred and eighteen females. In 1874 there were six hundred and forty-seven inhabitants, three hundred and fifty-two being males and two hundred and ninety-five females. There were eight persons between the ages of seventy-five and ninety years, and eighty boys and seventy girls under ten years. Of the male population one hundred and nineteen of them were happy benedicts, and forty-seven lone bachelors ; while of the opposite sex one hundred and eighteen had eschewed single blessedness, and thirty-six of age suitable for wifehood continued to tread life's path alone. Death and the courts had separated thirteen husbands and fourteen wives from their lawful mates.
THE POLITICAL BIAS
of a majority of the inhabitants of the township has ever been Democratic since its organization. In 1840 the vote on the presidential question stood thus: For Harrison, twenty-three; Van Buren, twenty-three. In 1844 the vote was forty-nine for Polk and thirty for Henry Clay. In 1848 they voted Cass, sixty-three; Taylor, forty-two; Free Soil, four. In 1852 the Democrats polled sixty-five and the Whigs forty-nine votes. In 1856, the first year of the Republican party's history, there were sixty-three votes for Buchanan and thirty-nine for Fremont. In 1864 Lincoln received forty-five votes and McClellan sixty-one. In 1868 Seymour had seventy-six and Grant sixty- five votes. In 1872 Grant received seventy-two and Greeley seventy -six votes. In 1876 Tilden received ninety-five, Hayes sixty-nine and Cooper eight votes.
THE LEADING FARMERS
in the township have been, and are, James Johnson, the pioneer of 1832, who still lives in the township which he has seen change, under the steady persistent strokes and combined effort of himself and neighbors, from its wild beauty of flower-bedecked parks to perhaps a less beautiful though a vastly more valuable area of cultivated farms. Charles Moe, by whose judi- cious and intelligent culture of the soil, ably seconded by his sons Otho and Albert (the former of whom still lives on the old homestead), a most excel- lent farm has been made. James McKerlie and his son John, who has suc- ceeded to the pioneer, and to the broad acres of the father has added fine herds of thoroughbred cattle, horses and sheep; Joseph Bartholomew, who came to the river in 1835; Sheldon Williams, who pitched his tent on the prairie in 1839, and his sons, Elias, Rawson, Miles and Spencer, who occupy splendid farms carved out of a magnificent stretch of prairie and opening owned by the father at his death ; Richard Hopkins, in 1829, and for many years after ; George Harrison and Peter A. Baker, comers here in 1840; Daniel Shaeffer, who owns an extensive and valuable tract of land in the southwest part of the township; A. C. Zimmer, whose fine commodious barn is the admiration of all who examine it, and Leonard Butz, who owns three hundred acres of the P. R. Toll tract of one thousand three hundred acres on the river. John McKerlie has the only notable herd of blooded cattle, and he began to gather it together and improve his stock in 1858.
THE FIRST IMPROVED FARM-MACHINERY
was introduced on Sturgis prairie about 1844, when the McCormick reaper was brought there first. The separators were introduced later. Captain P. R. Toll had improved, previous to his removal to Monroe, several hundred acres of his large tract, besides carrying on his extensive manufacturing business.
FAWN RIVER IN THE REBELLION.
Fawn River furnished many men for the support of the old flag from her own citizens, besides recruits which were obtained outside of the county to fill the quota of the township under the several calls for troops made by the President for the support of the national honor and authority. The township paid in bounties, in aid of enlistments, four thousand five hundred
dollars, besides the relief granted the families of soldiers during their service. The names of citizens of Fawn River who went forward to the defense of a common country, are as follows :
FIRST INFANTRY.
Private W. H. Marble, Company G ; enlisted in 1861; three months' men ; mustered-out, August 7, 1861.
Private John Annis, Company B; enlisted in 1861 ; transferred to United States Second Cavalry.
Private Edward Dutcher, Company B; enlisted in 1861; died in hospital. Private Daniel J. Gates, Company B; enlisted in 1864; mustered out at close of war. .
Private Henry Seals, Company K ; enlisted in 1861; discharged at expira- tion of service.
SEVENTH INFANTRY.
Private Martin V. Bowman, Company K; enlisted in 1861; died at Newark, October 12, 1862.
Private Benjamin E. Sanborn, Company K; mustered out at close of war. Private Charles B. Wheeler, Company B; enlisted in regular service.
Private H. Harrison Harding, Company K; mustered out at close of war.
TENTH INFANTRY.
Private James Anderson, Company A; mustered out at close of war. Private Philip E. Arver, Company B; mustered out at close of war. Private George W. Atwood, Company B; mustered out at close of war.
Private Ashford D. Mankin, Company B; mustered out at close of war.
ELEVENTH INFANTRY.
Second Lieutenant Loren H. Howard, Company C; promoted to first lieutenant and captain, and mustered out at close of war.
Sergeant Smith A. Benedict, Company C; discharged.
Sergeant Alonzo H. Merrick, Company C; killed at Chattanooga.
Sergeant Harrison Graves, Company C; enlisted in 1862; mustered out at close of war.
Corporal Samuel L. Graves, Company C; enlisted in 1862; discharged for disability.
Private Lewis Wheeler, Company C; discharged at expiration of service, and died at home from disease incurred while in service.
Private Andrew Kershner. Company G; discharged at expiration of service.
TWELFTH INFANTRY.
Private Calvin Marble, Company A; enlisted in 1864; mustered out at close of war.
Private George A. Morgan, Company C; mustered out at close of war.
Private Willard A. Morgan, Company C; mustered out at close of war.
Private Harrison Moore, Company D; enlisted in 1864; mustered out at close of war.
Private Irwin Tisdel, Company D; mustered out at close of war.
Private Edward C. Graves, Company D; enlisted in 1864; died at Duvall's Bluff.
THIRTEENTH INFANTRY.
Private Lewis Carls, Company B; re-enlisted and mustered out at close of war.
SEVENTEENTH INFANTRY.
Private Andrew E. Bresee, Company D; discharged for disability.
NINETEENTH INFANTRY.
Private John C. Benedict, Company D; died at Danville, Kentucky, December 7, 1863.
Private Joseph D. Anderson, Company E; mustered out at close of war.
Private Hollis S. Hewes, Company E; mustered out at close of war.
Private Martin E. Sanburn, Company E; discharged.
Private Samuel A. Wilson, Company E; mustered out at close of war.
Private Charles F. Dewater, Company E; mustered out at close of war.
TWENTY-SIXTH INFANTRY.
Private E. Henry Searls, Company D; died February 12, 1864.
SIXTH CAVALRY.
Private Levi H. Roberts, Company D; mustered out at close of war. NINTH CAVALRY.
Private Edwin Cummins, Company E; mustered out at close of war.
Private Willard W. Morgan, Company E; discharged for disability. Private Edmund A. Finn, Company K ; mustered out at close of war, and afterwards surgeon in Tennessee cavalry, and died in Nebraska.
Private George Sellick, Company E; mustered out at close of war.
Private Sala Seymour, Company M ; mustered out at New River, Ten- nessee, September 6, 1863.
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Private Charles P. Donaldson, Company E; died at Coldwater, Michigan, April 6, 1863.
Private Robert Denman ; died in service. Private Albert S. Marble. Private David Sidener.
Private Samuel Wheeler.
ELEVENTH CAVALRY.
Private O. C. Marble, Company I; mustered out at close of war.
ONE HUNDRED AND SECOND U. S. COLORED INFANTRY.
Private Frank Hatchell, Company K; mustered out at close of war. Private Horace Roberts; mustered out at expiration of service. Private James Baza ; died in service.
Private Andrew Baza ; mustered out at close of war.
Private Cornelius D. Kensey, died in service.
VILLAGE OF FAWN RIVER.
The first location on the land afterwards laid out as the village of Fawn River, was made by Captain Philip R. Toll, in 1836. He put up a house, which is now standing on the north side of the river, which was first used as a boarding-house for the men employed by Captain Toll in building his mill-dam, race, etc. A saw-mill was completed the same year, and a flour- ing-mill the year following. The second dwelling-house was built a few months later by John P. Van Patten, who, with William Schermerhorn, both carpenters, were the first residents in the village. They did the wood-work on the mill.
In April, 1837, Captain Toll surveyed and laid out a village-plat on his location, covering a portion of sections number ten and fifteen, on the south side of the river, John Kromer being the surveyor; but the plat was not acknowledged or recorded until May 1, 1852. There were six full and two fractional blocks included in the plat, and the streets were named Tompkins, Indiana, Centre, Cass, Water, Mohawk, and Jackson. This point was for many years a prominent one by reason of the scarcity of mills, and the most excellent reputation the Fawn River mills ever maintained, as well as for the mechanical and mercantile facilities afforded to the country round.
SCHOOLS.
The district which includes the village in its boundaries was organized first as district number seven of Sherman township, June 7, 1837, at the house of Captain P. R. Toll. Benjamin D. Goodrich was chosen the first mod- erator, John P. Van Patten, director, and Nicholas Goodrich assessor for the new district. June 21st following, the people met again, and voted to raise four hundred dollars to build a school-house; and July 5th the same authority located the site for the house at the "southwest end of Fawn River village," and where the same building now stands-Captain Toll giving the site to the district. October 16, 1838, the district had become known as number three of Fawn River, and the people voted eighty dollars for school purposes. May 22, 1839, the school-board accepted the school-house from the contractor, Mr. John P. Van Patten, provided he would lath the same, and retained ten dollars to secure such provision. In December of that year the contractor was released from his contract, and the building finally accepted, and the next September one hundred dollars was voted to paint it and buy a stove. The first school taught in the house was in the year 1840 by Harriet Starr. She is now Mrs. Edward Montross, of Iowa. Brinkerhoff, Charles Belden, August M. Kinley, and his sister Catherine, and R. T. Cortright succeeded her. Jonathan W. Flanders taught the school in the winters of 1844-6.
CHURCHES.
Reverend Gershom B. Day, a Baptist divine, preached in the Fawn River school-house as early as 1839. He was succeeded by Rev. John Skelly, of the Scotch Presbyterian church, who formed an organization,-Robert Hume, and several of his family, James MeKerlie, John Grove, William Rippey, and others, uniting with the church at the time. In the winter of 1843-4 Reverend Benjamin Ogden took charge of the society, uniting La Grange, Indiana, with it, and preaching alternately in each place. Mr. and Mrs. P. R. Toll, though formerly of the Dutch Reformed church, united with the organization at that time. Rev. Sauvin E. Lane, of Lima, a son-in-law of Captain Toll (preaching there at the same time), and Rev. A. D. White succeeded Mr. Ogden. Rev. Aaron H. Kerr preached from 1848 to 1852, when he was succeeded by Rev. William Cathcart, who labored until 1861. Mr. Cathcart, with his wife and child, escaped from the burning steamer "Northern Indiana," on Lake Erie, through his own almost superhuman
exertions, in which he was badly burned. After 1861 to the present time, Methodist services have been for the most part held, but without any regular organization. There is at present, and has been for many years, a Sunday- school, which has its sessions every Sunday morning in the school-house (where all meetings are held), which is quite interesting in its exercises, and numbers sixty scholars. The good seed of practical living embodied in the golden rule is being sown there unsparingly by the son of the pioneer of the village, as well as encouragement given to obtain useful general knowledge of nature and her laws.
The house of Captain P. R. Toll was always the home of the clergymen who came that way, and to them he dispensed a lavish hospitality, no matter what their creeds or doctrines might have been. Though with his wife a member of the Dutch Reformed church, he was liberal towards all orthodox or evangelical denominations, and, desirous of preaching of some kind or other in the community, he actually paid the first preacher for his labors, out of his own pocket. There never was any church-edifice built in the township, the school-houses at Fawn River mills and Freedom being used for religious purposes.
NO LAWYER
ever gained a "local habitation and a name" in this village, the neighbor- ing villages of White Pigeon, Sturgis, Lima, and La Grange furnishing the legal exponents for those of its citizens who were litigiously inclined.
GALEN AND ESCULAPIUS
had disciples who ministered to the ills of the bodies of the people, in the persons of Dr. Holbrook, who was the first to settle there, and who is now in California; Dr. Richardson, who came next, and then Dr. Bradley, who married a daughter of Esquire Flanders, and died while yet a young man, in the village; Dr. D. L. I. Flanders, a son of the old Squire, who diagnosed symptoms and prescribed for the cure of their causes, and went thence to Cass county, subsequently returning to Sturgis, where he is still located; and Edmund A. Finn, who went into the army, was a surgeon in a Tennes- see regiment of cavalry, and on his return went to Nebraska, where he died a year or more ago. There is no resident physician in the village now- Colonel Toll gratuitously acting in emergencies.
THE CEMETERY
(disclaiming any intention of being suggestive, by reason of following the record of the doctors) was laid off by Captain Toll in 1838, and is a beau- tiful little plat of about three acres, lying contiguous to the school-house site, and alongside of the highway, sloping easily down to the river and sheltered by large overspreading oaks, yet open to the free, bright sunlight from the west and south. The land was finally bought by the town author- ities in 1847, when Captain Toll conveyed it to them and built a fence around it for the sum of thirty-six dollars and sixty cents.
The first burial in it, as far as is now known, was that of Mrs. Louisa R. Morse, wife of Amos Morse, the millwright of Fawn River mills. She died August 27, 1839, and a neat slab has been erected at her grave by Hon. I. D. Toll, as a mark of respect to her memory and the work of her husband. John P. Van Patten, the first carpenter of the village, was also buried here in 1840, or thereabouts.
A little daughter of I. D. Toll lies sleeping here, with the babbling of the water, the rustling of the leaves, and the singing of the birds making music, -a fit lullaby for little lives like hers, that shed their fragrance upon those who are left behind.
Here, too, just at the north end of the little plat, are lying the remains of the indigent who have died in the care of the county authorities; whose humanity is attested by neat headstones at each grave, bearing the name, age, and date of decease of the occupant. This, too, is the work of the broad-minded son and successor of the old proprietor of Fawn River village.
MANUFACTURES.
The first manufacturing establishment in the village was the saw-mill built by P. R. Toll in 1836, which was followed the next year by a grist- and flouring-mill by the same party. The saw-mill has fallen into ruins, and the flouring-mill, after a busy existence of nearly forty years, was burned to the ground January 1, 1873, the work of an incendiary, and was rebuilt the same year by the present owners, Daniel Himebaugh & Sons, who com- menced operations again October 28, 1874. The present building is thirty- eight by forty-four feet on the ground, three stories in height, and is fur- nished with three run of stones, and most completely equipped with all of the more modern improvements necessary to a first-class mill. The mill has always had a most excellent reputation, and during the early years of its
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
history, the merchants of Lima and La Grange, and other points farther off even, sent large quantities of wheat to it to be floured for the purpose of remitting eastward, flour being a better medium of exchange than wheat in bulk. It still maintains its reputation, but does custom work almost exclu- sively. The mill-property was sold by the Tolls in 1865 to Stewart & Alex- ander, and they to Daniel Himebaugh. Captain Toll put up a blacksmith- shop and fitted it up with a set of tools soon after he began to build his flouring-mill, and the first regular smith who worked in it was George G. Gilbert, of Burr Oak, in 1839, who had a shop of his own at the same time on his farm in the latter place. Captain Toll also had a cooper-shop, and employed men for the manufacture of barrels, among them the following : William Smith, James Fuller, Roswell and David Cooper, James Hayes, Joseph Smith and Charles Bowman. Henry Sanders, E. H. Pride, J. Ter- williger, Albert Norton and Asa Hoard, all carried on blacksmithing on their own account from time to time ; Pride extensively so in 1847 and later. A. D. Cross was a wheelwright there, and William Christian a tailor in 1846. John P. Van Patten and William Schermerhorn were the first car- penters, and did the work on the mills. Robert and Andrew Nelson suc- ceeded them, and were in turn succeeded by L. Eckerson, T. W. Selover and James McLauchlin, which latter trio are still residents of the village. The artist who labored for the benefit of the soles of the people, to keep them in good condition for their understanding, was Charles McCue, who came in 1840, worked for several years, and was an excellent man. His successors were Henry Sweet and John Courtwright.
Francis Flanders, in the winter of 1841-2, rented the saw-mill of Captain Toll, and, engaging Doctor Isham Flanders, then a boy of seventeen years, to run it, went himself to getting out logs. Out of the lumber and timber made that winter the old fulling-mill and carding-factory was built the fol- lowing summer, and the first work was done June 10, 1842. The old mill and its equipment cost two thousand dollars. There was no cloth made in it, wool being carded and cloth dressed only. A new woolen-mill was built in 1851 by the same proprietor, costing, completed, ten thousand five hun- dred dollars. There were in it one hundred and twenty spindles, two broad and.two narrow looms, three double carding-machines, one condenser, two sets of finishing machinery, and the fulling-mill apparatus complete. In this last mill all kinds of cloths, except broadcloth were made, and a large cus- tom work done. Six men and five women were employed to operate its ma- chinery. Mr. Flanders sold out his interest in 1858 to A. H. Johnson, and he disposed of it in 1861 to Daniel Stewart. Bristol Parham now owns it, but it is not in operation.
THE MERCANTILE BUSINESS
of the village has been conducted by Captain P. R. Toll, the first merchant, the firm changing to Alfred Toll, and then to Toll & Brewster ; Flanders & Sons, A. Toll & Co., F. Moore & Co., Derrick S. Buck and George Carr, the latter two being resident in the village now, Mr. Buck on the south side of the river and Mr. Carr in the old Toll store. They carry fair stocks of general merchandise, and are doing a good legitimate trade.
THE ONLY SECRET SOCIETY
in the village is the Fawn River Grange, No. 56, Patrons of Husbandry, which was organized February 16, 1875, and now has forty-eight members. The present officers are Henry Driesbach, master ; J. A. McLauchlin, sec- retary, and Lucy McLauchlin, assistant stewardess. The regular meetings of the grange are on the second and last Saturdays of each month, at the hall over the old Toll store.'
AN EXCITEMENT
rippled the usually placid surface of Fawn River society, in 1850, occasioned by the discovery of a floating corpse in the mill-pond by some fishermen. Esquire Flanders was notified, and a coroner's jury impaneled, who sat and solemnly viewed the "damp and unpleasant body," and returned a verdict, "Found drowned." The only property found on the person of the deceased man was an old pocket-knife and thirty-eight dollars in cash, and the latter was turned over to a man to make a box in which the body was buried.
As a story never travels without gaining some additions, so the news of this " crowner's quest " went abroad, and gathered to the original relations thereof a multitude of surmises, which grew into absolute statements, and murder and robbery were directly charged, and a coroner, accompanied by one hundred and fifty citizens of Sturgis and the surrounding country, one day invaded the peaceful precincts of the village, and impaneled another jury, exhumed the body, and reviewed it again officially. No further devel- opments were made, however, and the body was again buried, but not so with
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