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 8
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77
1
24
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
The Washtenaw trail was made the basis of a territorial road from Jack- sonburg (now the city of Jackson) via Spring Arbor, the north bend of the St. Joseph river, through Nottawa prairie and Centreville to White Pigeon, in April, 1833, and Edgar McCawly, Hiram Thompson and Milton Barn were the commissioners who laid it out. It is a beautiful avenue, and in Leonidas, from the village to Dry Prairie in Calhoun county, follows a " bee-line" for some seven miles.
A territorial road was laid out and surveyed through White Pigeon prai- rie, north to Grand Rapids, in June, 1832, John S. Barry, Isaac N. Hurd and E. B. Sherman being the commissioners; and at the same time one was laid out from the county-seat of Branch county, running west through the county-seats of St. Joseph and Cass counties, to the mouth of the St. Joseph, and Squire Thompson, C. K. Green and Alex. Redfield were the commis- sioners. The year following there was a territorial road laid out, running from the Indiana line, north through Sturgis and Nottawa prairies, Toland's and Gull prairies, in Kalamazoo county, to Grand Rapids ; and Rix Robin- son, H. L. Stewart and Stephen Vickery were the commissioners. The Chicago road was the main thoroughfare between the east and west, from the first influx of immigration into the county, until the railroads were built and completed in 1851, when travel on it ceased, except for local traffic. However, it still remains as originally laid out, and forms the main business street of every city and village through which it passes, from east to west. It is a grand avenue of one hundred feet in width, shaded in many places by the original forest trees left standing by the roadside when the adjoining farms were " cleared up."
Though roads are the lines of communication between the people, there is an instance on record in St. Joseph county of a road being a bar to judicial proceedings between the people of neighboring townships, which we here relate. When the Talbots, of Centreville, conducted their branch store in Burr Oak, they were sued by some party on account of a wood contract, the suit being brought before a magistrate in Burr Oak, under the statute giving justices of the peace jurisdiction over defendants residing in an adjoining town. The plaintiff engaged E. B. Turner to prosecute his suit, and the defendants employed Chas. Upson, Esq., to defend their interests, both of the attorneys living in Centreville at the time. When the return-day came around Mr. Upson could not go, and so engaged Esquire Chipman to go and get a continuance. It was good sleighing, and Turner and Chipman rode over together in a cutter. On arriving at the house of the magistrate, the suit was called, and Mr. Turner filed his declaration and moved for a hear- ing ; whereupon Esquire Chipman rose, and in his peculiar manner said he had a motion to make, and electrified the counsel for the plaintiff by moving for a non-suit. "What for ?" asked Turner. "For want of jurisdiction," responded "Chip." " I guess not! The towns of Burr Oak and Nottawa join," responded Turner. "Not much !" said Chipman, and addressing the court continued, " You see, judge, that when these towns were first laid out they did join, but afterwards the highway commissioners of the two towns came and laid a road on the town line, and now they don't join by four rods !" and exemplified the point by placing two books in a similar position. The argument and proof struck the magistrate (who was a great admirer of his brother magistrate, Esquire Chipman) very forcibly, and he pulled at his fore-top a moment, finally deciding that Chipman's position was cor- rect, that he had no jurisdiction in the case, and so non-suited the plaintiff, much to the disgust of his attorney at first, but who, as he took in the broad farce, laughed at his discomfiture as heartily as Upson did when Chipman reported the conduct of the case to him on his return to Centreville.
In the Michigan Statesman, published in White Pigeon in 1834, it is gravely stated that the trip from New York to Buffalo was then made in the unprecedented time of three days, and that one and a half days only are consumed between Buffalo and Detroit, while passengers can go from Detroit to Chicago in four days, and by daylight at that! Chicago and St. Louis were only six days apart. In July of that year, the trip from New York to White Pigeon was made in six and a half days-longer than it takes to go across the continent now. Traveling was sometimes as cheap in those days as it was devoid of pleasure, as witnessed by an instance recorded of a party who paid forty-five dollars for the conveyance of fourteen persons in a lum- ber wagon, without springs, from Detroit to Constantine.
In 1829 the first mail route was established on the Chicago trail from Te- cumseh to White Pigeon, the contractor being John Winchell, of the latter place, and by his contract he was required to carry the mail over the route once a week each way in the summer time, and once in two weeks in the winter. He performed his service on horseback.
In 1830 two-horse stages were run over the route to Niles, by Asahel Savery and the Stewarts, twice each week, increasing to tri-weekly trips in
1832, but the Black Hawk troubles stopped all immigration to the country, and for weeks the wagons ran over the road without a single passenger. This broke up Savery's business, but a new line was, immediately after the troubles ceased, put on by General Brown, of Tecumseh, and De Garmo Jones, of Detroit, who ran a fine outfit of horses and Concord coaches- four and six horses to each-between Detroit and Chicago. In 1836, when the tide of emigration was at its flood, the company ran extras every day, every one of them being literally jammed with passengers. The stage com- panies flourished and grew rich for several years, until the railroads began to creep along across the State, making the distances between points less and less, until, in 1851, the shriek of the engine drowned out the " toot " "toot" of the driver's horn, and the lumbering coach passed away from the Chicago trail forever. . Where once it " dragged its slow length along" over cor- duroy and marsh, or rattled noisily over the prairie with crowded inmates suffocated with dust and heat, or frozen with cold and snow, now heavily- laden trains, luxuriously upholstered and ventilated thoroughly, dash across the landscape at thirty miles an hour. Such magic has progress wrought !
The first hotel, or tavern as it was called then, opened in the county, was the " Old Diggins," on White Pigeon prairie, on the present site of the Union school-house, in the village of White Pigeon. It was a large and substan- tially built log house, erected in 1828 by A. Savery, for the purpose of a tavern, and kept by him as long as he lived in the county ; Dr. Rowley suc- ceeding him in 1835. The second tavern was opened the same year on Sturgis prairie, by John B. Clarke, in a double log house situated on the present site of the Elliott House, in Sturgis. Captain Henry Powers opened his log tavern on Nottawa prairie in 1830.
These primitive hotels were great places of resort for all purposes, politi- cal, educational or religious. Town-meetings were invariably held at the tavern until school-houses were built, which were conveniently located. They were well kept, too, considering the facilities for supplying the larder and the sleeping apartments. The route between Sturgis and White Pigeon, a distance of twelve miles, at one time had no less than six places of entertain- ment of all kinds and sizes, from the quiet home of the settler to the rough roistering grocery of the vender of bad whisky.
The first post-office was established on White Pigeon prairie in 1828, with John Winchell as postmaster; the second one was established on Sturgis prairie, on the eastern edge of the same, in 1829, and Samuel Stewart was the first postmaster. The postmasters were authorized to retain the re- ceipts of their offices, provided they supplied the postal matter at their own charges. For some years the mails received at White Pigeon and Sturgis, were kept in candle boxes. The business of the Sturgis post-office for the quarter ending December 31, 1876, was as follows : seven hundred dollars' worth of stamps were sold, four hundred letters were received and dis- patched daily, and one thousand five hundred papers distributed weekly ; seven mails per day were received and dispatched.
Although the Chicago road was the great artery along which beat the pulses of travel, the St. Joseph river was the channel by which the people brought their goods into the county in the early days, and by which they forwarded their produce until 1850. Merchandise was shipped from New York by the Erie canal to Buffalo, thence by sail or steam around the lakes to the mouth of the St. Joseph, where it was transferred to keel-boats, pi- rogues, flat-boats, and finally steamboats, and run up to Mottville, Constan- tine, and Three Rivers, as occasion required. No freight was forwarded until after 1837, as previously there were no mills of sufficient capacity to flour wheat suitable for the eastern markets. There was one exception, however, to the above statement, there being a single shipment of wheat made in 1834 from Three Rivers.
The first keel-boat ever launched on the St. Joseph river was one that was built on the banks of the Pigeon, creek, just opposite the present farm of White, in 1829, and was floated down the creek into the river. Previous to this, "pirogues" (large canoes cut through lengthwise and widened by in- serting boards and having a gunwale along the sides) had been used.
The navigation of the upper St. Joseph was first attempted in the spring of 1830, by John W. Fletcher and John Allen, the latter at work for Fletcher, who wanted seed potatoes and oats, and, with Allen, went to Allen's prairie, Hillsdale county, where he found and. purchased ten bushels of the first, and fifteen bushels of the last named article, and then went to work and built two white-wood canoes, launched them in Sand creek, loaded in their purchase, and floated down a few miles to the St. Joseph river, finding navigation very difficult by reason of shallows, ripples, dams of floodwood, and snags, until past the entrance of the Coldwater, after which the stream was clear and the water high. They slid their boats over the dams on peeled
25
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
basswood skids, cut off snags with axe and saw, and lightened over sand- bars and shallows. They missed the game they shot at, the motion of the canoe disturbing their aim, and lived on baked potatoes and wild honey, having found a bee-tree along the bank of the river. The return trip occu- pied ten days.
Washington Gascon built keel-boats at Three Rivers, beginning in 1835, and continuing the business for several years. His first one he named the " Kitty Kiddungo," which he sold, and next built the "Three Rivers," run- ning it himself. The Willards built a scow in 1838, and loaded it with flour, ran it down to the mouth of river, and pushed the "Three Rivers" back. In 1833 Burroughs Moore originated the idea of building what were after- wards called " arks," for the transportation of produce. After the first one was made and loaded, it was found that nothing but flour could be profita- bly or safely carried in them.
They were simply two cribs, forty by sixteen feet, made as follows : Bottom timbers, six to seven inches square, and posts at corners and along sides same dimensions, spiked firmly together, and the whole covered with the very best white-wood plank, two inches thick, and calked with tow and slippery elm bark. The first ones had sharp bows, but they were afterwards built with square fronts and were sometimes called " square-toed packets." They were brought to anchor by what was called in the river parlance "growlers," which were small stakes large enough when stuck down before the cribs to retard the motion, but not so strong as to break the bottom or cause the ark to swing around. The first ark which went down the river was loaded with wheat, and, of course, as no one knew the strength of the current or the condition of the channel, the voyage turned out disastrously. The first stopping place was made at Constantine, and the Knapps and James Smith, who were in command, cast the lines ashore and " snubbed " the craft so short that the tail- board was pulled off and some wheat ran out into the river. They refitted and went on, and at Elkhart met with the same misfortune again, and lower down the river they stove a hole through the bottom of one of the cribs, and had to unload and refit again, and then were finally wrecked totally on the "Granddad," a ripple at Niles, and the whole cargo was lost.
This ended arking until 1838, during which time, from 1834, the freight- ing was done by pirogues and keel-boats. The arks, however, when flour began to be shipped, became quite popular. The next ones were built in 1838, and officered by the Millards; Reuben Freeman and Isaiah Smalley being in the first crew. The Bolles family also were good pilots, and ran the river for years. The arks were coupled in two sections, and had rafting oars before and behind to guide them by. They were never brought back up the stream, but sold for whatever they would bring, or allowed to float out into the lake after being unloaded.
When the dams began to be constructed across the river, much trouble was experienced in passing the shutes or getting through the locks. Captain Elisha Millard relates an incident of getting a heavily-loaded ark through the lock at Mishawauka, by unloading the first section and putting it on the second, when the water lifted it through and then carried the load of the second forward to the first, when it passed partly through and stuck between the posts of the lock, but by considerable pushing it was finally safely float- ing in the river again. He once ran a very narrow chance for his life at the Elkhart bridge. The water was at a very high stage in the river, and a temporary bent was put in, leaving but a thirty-feet span over the main channel. Captain Millard saw it, but it was too late to stop in the swift current, and the craft struck the bent and knocked it out, and was caught by the rope guy supporting the derrick and nearly capsized, but slipping, cleared everything that lay on the top of the ark-the captain and his mate, James Thaus, jumping for their lives. Thaus said if he had been six inches taller he would have lost his head.
The navigation of the river was difficult when the water was low, and dangerous when it was high, and it was only by careful observation and ex- perience the arks could be safely delivered at their port of destination. Cap- tain Millard had a narrow escape from serious disaster in the harbor of St. Joseph. There was a stiff current in the bay or mouth of the river, and miscalculating the velocity of the craft, the lines parted when he tried to "snub" at the wharf, and the ark went on towards the lake. As it floated past a ship in the harbor, lines were thrown to the captain, which were made' fast, when a new and more serious difficulty arose; the momentum of the ark being stopped, the current began to act upon the square surface opposed to it, and the first section exhibited symptoms of going below the surface of the tide, and it was only by hastily unloading the first or front crib and transferring it to the rear section, that the cargo was saved, if not the men.
Captain Alvin Calhoun constructed a fleet of small arks which would carry about twenty barrels of flour each, and after unloading them brought
them back by land in wagons. An ordinary ark would carry from four hundred to six hundred barrels. The millers would ship their flour in the spring and fall of the year, and frequently would not get advices or returns from it for six months. The first arks that run from Colon were built in 1841 or 1842 by Captain Millard, and loaded by John H. Bowman at his mill on Swan creek. The very best white-wood timber in St. Joseph county was used up in building arks, and but little can now be cut in the county.
Steamboats were built to navigate the St. Joseph, and ran regularly from 1842 till 1850, as far as Constantine; but a few trips only were made to Three Rivers, owing to the shallow water on a certain ripple known as "Knapps." A steamboat was built in Union City, and floated down the river to Mishawauka, where the machinery was put into it, and it ran on the river until 1845, when, while owned by the Kelloggs of White Pigeon, it was broken up on the piers of the Mishawauka bridge, Mr. Charles Kellogg being drowned. The passengers, of whom there were a large number, were all on the bow of the boat, which lifted the stern out of water and the rudder could not act, and before the danger could be averted the boat swung broad- side on against one of the piers and broke in two. Mr. Kellogg fell into the water and could have saved himself, but thinking more of others' safety than his own, he devoted himself to a boy, whom he handed up out of the water, and as he was taken Mr. Kellogg disappeared, and when recovered was dead.
The first dam built across the St. Joseph in Michigan, was one constructed by Judge Cross, in Leonidas, in 1847, which was at first a great bugbear to navigators, but when completed was found to be no serious obstacle to arks in running the shute in any stage of water suitable for them to navigate the river with. The dam is not now in existence, but there are three others on the river in the county.
In 1833, the furore which seized the people of Michigan for internal im- provements found the citizens of St. Joseph county ready to cast themselves headlong upon the wave of popular sentiment, and they held conventions, wherein high-sounding resolutions were passed, portraying in vivid colors and in "words that burn " the advantages of St. Joseph county, and the appreciation of values when railroad or canal communication should be had with the rest of the world.
On the 13th of November, 1834, a convention was held at Niles to take action on the improvement of the St. Joseph river, and Congress was peti- tioned to aid in the matter. Captain Philip R. Toll was the delegate from St. Joseph county. On the 1st of January following, a convention was held at Savery's to devise ways and means to get a railroad connecting Lakes Erie and Michigan, of which body Neal McGaffey was chairman, and Joseph Jernegan secretary. There were delegates present from White Pigeon, Con- stantine, Mottville, Michigan City, Toledo, Lagrange and Bristol, who resolved that a railroad was absolutely necessary between the lakes above named, and appointed a committee to memorialize Congress, the Secretary of War, or anybody else who would be likely to give aid and comfort to the much-desired object. They petitioned Congress to order a survey via White Pigeon, "believing it to be the best route, and more advantageous, etc., than one already made."
On February 2, 1836, a meeting was held at Edwardsburg, Cass county, to deliberate on the project of a canal from Niles to Constantine. H. L. Stew- art, Duncan Clark and Dr. Watson Sumner were the delegates. The con- vention discouraged the canal project, but indorsed a similar proposition for a railroad between the same points. The crash of 1837, however, dissipated all the visions of the sanguine, enterprising people of St. Joseph county, as well as their neighbors in other parts of the State, and nothing further was done to build railroads until the State sold its interest in the Michigan Cen- tral and Southern, and those companies began to push their tracks westward, when the usual struggle for their passage through, or near, certain localities began, in 1849-the south part of the county getting the first prize.
A charter was granted in 1836 for a railroad or a canal, as might be deemed best by the stockholders, from Constantine to Niles, but the stock was never subscribed and the scheme failed.
The first railroad in the county was the Michigan Southern and Lake Shore, known then as the Michigan Southern, which was completed through Sturgis and White Pigeon in 1851. The terms of the charter of this road forbade the company going out of the State with their track, and also com- pelled the road to make the St. Joseph river a point on its line. This seemed to fix the line through the centre of St. Joseph county, touching the St. Joseph at Constantine, and the people of that place, not supposing any par- ticular effort necessary to induce the company to take this route, were caught "napping," White Pigeon being made a point, and the road run up to Con- stantine as a mere matter of form to comply with the provisions of the char-
26
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
ter. The road was afterwards, by township aid largely given, extended north to Grand Rapids, touching Three Rivers.
The Grand Rapids and Indiana road was built through the county from Sturgis, north through Nottawa and Mendon, in 1867; and the Michigan Air-Line-now the Michigan Central Air-Line-was built in 1871, passing through Colon, Centreville and Three Rivers, those towns giving heavy dona- tions in aid of the same. The Michigan Southern, by securing a charter of a new road from Three Rivers south, was enabled to make connections with Chicago, and subsequent legislation secured to it the present franchise. Hon. I. D. Toll was chiefly instrumental in preventing the deflection of the road south of Coldwater, while in the State Senate in 1847, he opposing the sale of it to Toledo parties, though they offered one hundred thousand dollars more to the State, which then owned it, than the Detroit parties offered. He favored Detroit from a feeling of State pride, and so vigor- ously advocated the sale of the same to her own people, that it was thus disposed of.
The business of the railroads in the year ending December 31, 1876, exhibits the following grand aggregate: There were one hundred and nine- teen millions and fifty thousand (119,050,000) pounds, or 59,525 tons of freight forwarded, and 104,640,000 pounds, or 52,320 tons of freight re- ceived at the several stations in the county ; and the ticket sales in the same time amounted to $100,000. The shipments were largely of wheat and other grain.
CHAPTER IX.
JUDICIAL SYSTEM-CONSTITUTION OF PRESENT COURTS-JUDGES-AB- STRACTS OF PROCEEDINGS IN PROBATE-CIRCUIT AND COUNTY TRIBU- NALS.
The judicial system under which the people of St. Joseph county are now living prosperously has reached its present excellence by and through a tor- tuous way, beginning with the " coutume de Paris," introduced by the French in their first settlement at Detroit, and running through the various systems of judication of France, England, the laws of the Congress of the United States, territorial enactments, constitutional provisions and State legislation, to the present time.
On the 27th day of April, 1827, the legislative council of the territory re- enacted the law previously passed, establishing the probate courts, and the day following re-enacted the law establishing the supreme and circuit courts, the territory now included in the limits of St. Joseph county being then at- tached to Lenawee county for judicial purposes. October 29, 1829, the coun- cil formed St. Joseph county and the territory attached thereto into the ninth judicial district, and on the 4th day of November following, ordered a circuit court to be held at the house of Asahel Savery, on White Pigeon prairie, on the third Tuesday of August following. The council also estab- lished a county court for the county under the act establishing such courts, and directed its session to be held on the first Tuesday of June and Decem- ber.
The county court was abolished in April, 1833, the " circuit courts of the territory of Michigan" taking their business and jurisdiction. The latter courts were held by one circuit judge and two associated judges, two of whom must be present in order to open and hold the court.
The constitution of 1835 vested the judicial powers of the State in one su- preme court and as many other courts as the legislature might establish, pro- viding, however, in that instrument, for the establishment of a probate court, and the election of four justices of the peace in each township. The legisla- ture provided for circuit courts to be held by the judges of the supreme court, and a chancery court with one chancellor, the latter being abolished in 1847, and its business transferred to the circuit courts. The county courts were the same year re-established with one county judge and a second judge, who officiated in the absence of the first one. The court was again abolished in 1853. St. Joseph county was in the third circuit, and third chancery district.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.