History of Washtenaw County, Michigan : together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships...and biographies of representative citizens : history of Michigan, Part 93

Author: Chas. C. Chapman & Co
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : Chas. C. Chapman & Co.
Number of Pages: 1457

USA > Michigan > Washtenaw County > History of Washtenaw County, Michigan : together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships...and biographies of representative citizens : history of Michigan > Part 93

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John Allen was postmaster at Ann Arbor; my brother, Hiram Thompson, postmaster at Jackson. I carried the first United States mail from Ann Arbor to Jackson. The mail was small then, con- sisting of about six letters, which I carried in my hat. What kind of a hat would it take to carry Ann Arbor's mail now? The postage was 25 cents per letter. I went once a week with the mail, for three months, always on foot, and following the Indian trail. The journey took four days, for which I received 50 cents per day. There were no bridges then, and I was obliged to ford the creeks the best way I could. The walk was a long 40 miles, some parts of it pleasant to recall; not so much so, however, the howling of the wolves near by, and I a long mile from a tavern. I used to see

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HISTORY OF WASHTENAW COUNTY.

a great many deer, roaming at their will over the oak openings. After a while the mail was carried in a lumber wagon.

My brother, Wm. R. Thompson, went into the Washtenaw House, Lower Town, in 1833. He was one of the commissioners of the first railroad from Detroit to Marshall, and one of five of the pioneers who gave 40 acres of land to our Michigan University. The names of those men were: Judge Rumsey, Charles Thayer, Gov. Mundy, Wm. S. Maynard and Wm. R. Thompson.

My mother, Elizabeth Thompson, came with my family to Ann Arbor in 1831, and died in November, 1833. Mr. Anson Brown gave a plat of ground (which is still in use) on the hill just back of Washtenaw House, for a resting place for our dead; and as my mother was the first person who was buried in that ground, it was bounded by her grave.

I was drafted for the Toledo war. Judge Crane, of Dexter, was appointed captain, and Peter Slingerland, colonel. I have lived through the Toledo and Black Hawk wars.

REMINISCENCES OF LORRIN MILLS.

My first visit to Ann Arbor was in June, 1826, to visit several brothers who lived two miles east of the town. Messrs. John Allen and Walker Rumsey, the proprietors of the town, had been here then about two years and a half. As I was then living in Buffalo, I saw Mr. Allen there before he ever came here. He was from Vir- ginia. He got acquainted with the man I was living with, and told him he was going West to find a place to start a town, and when he got located he would let him know where he was. On his way up the lake he stopped at Cleveland and there for the first time he saw Mr. Rumsey. He found that Mr. R. was going on the same business, and they agreed to go on together.

They came to Detroit, and from there came to a place called Woodruff's Grove, one mile east of Ypsilanti, but I believe it is now included in the corporation. From there they came to this place, it being 10 miles beyond the last house. This I think was in February, 1824. Mr. Rumsey had his wife with him, so she was the first white woman here. They took their boxes and blankets and made a kind of a tent on the ground now owned by Weil brothers, between Huron and Washington streets, near Allen's creek, as they called it. There they found a good spring. They soon put up a log house just east of their tent on a little higher ground. Where the main part of the town now stands was a beautiful burr-oak plain. As Mrs. Allen's name was Ann and Mrs. Rumsey's name was Mary Ann, they agreed to take the Ann from their wife's name and put the Arbor to it and make the very pretty name of Ann Arbor; and I believe there is not another town in all the world by that name. As I was well acquainted with both these men and their wives, I have often heard them tell how the name was born.

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ANN ARBOR TOWNSHIP.

When I first came here from Buffalo in 1826, it took a steamboat three days to get from Buffalo to Detroit. Upon landing there I found the only way to get to Ann Arbor was by stage, which was a lumber wagon, driven by Deacon Bethuel Farrand, who also carried the mail. We started from Detroit early in the morning and traveled all day, and at night we had got as far as Swartsburg, a few miles east of Plymouth. As we had got through the timbered land and the roads were better the rest of the way, we arrived in Ann Arbor the next day about 4 p. M. Where the lower town now is, was then all woods, what was called timbered openings.

We forded the river as there was no bridge; I think there had never been a bridge then across the river anywhere. There was a small grist-mill on the river just above where Swathel's mill now stands, and a race running from there to a point below Hooper's brewery, where there was a saw-mill. My first stopping place was at Mr. Allen's hotel, which was a two-story log house, logs hewed, and clapboarded on the outside, and stood where the Gregory House now stands.

The first Sabbath I spent here I attended meeting in a logshouse used as a school-house, which stood where Edward Duffy' store now stands. As there was no minister the sermon was read"and a Sabbath-school of about 30 scholars was held immediately after- ward. There was no Church organized in the place at that time. The first Church organization was that of the Presbyterian Church, which was effected in August, 1826. I think that of the 16 original members there are still two living; Mrs. Deacon Farrand, of Detroit, and Mrs. Camp, in Grand Rapids, Mich. While making my visit here I made up my mind to make this my home; I re- turned to Buffalo and remained until October, and then came here and opened the first tailor shop west of Detroit, so that between my visit here in June and my return in the fall the Presbyterian Church was organized. The first Sabbath-school that gathered west of Detroit, was in the summer of 1825, by Miss H. G. Parsons (af. terward my wife). She had just come from Connecticut. It was held in the woods about half way between Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. For seats they put slabs on some logs. She gathered about 12 scholars.

When I came to Ann Arbor there was one house at Dexter. That was the jumping-off place, for a wagon had never been beyond that place. The next winter I saw three men start with a one- horse wagon to go where Jackson now is, to stick the stake for the next county seat west of this. The name of two of these men was Blackman: I do not remember the name of the other. The next year another company started for the next county seat, Marshall, and so emigration has gone on west until it has reached the Pacific Ocean. I put up the first brick house that was built in Ann Arbor, my brother making the brick about two miles east of the town. It was on the corner of Main and Liberty streets, where it still stands; it was built in 1830. I have a good picture of the house, which I

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HISTORY OF WASHTENAW COUNTY.

will present to the Pioneer Society when I get through with it. Where the University now stands and 40 acres west of it was en- closed for a farm, with a small house on it. But a small part of it was under cultivation. It was owned by Judge Henry Rumsey, brother of Walker Rumsey.

REMINISCENCES OF REV. THOMAS HOLMES.

Among the earliest settlers of Ann Arbor was Asa L. Smith, with his wife and one child. Asa L. Smith was born at Boston, Mass., May 12, 1792.

Sarah Syrena Irons was born Oct. 22, 1798, at Unadilla, N. Y.

These were married July 12, 1822, at Gates, N. Y. The fruit of this marriage was seven children, five daughters and two sons, only two of whom will need particular mention in this work. The oldest child, Lettice, was born May 8, 1823, at Rochester, N. Y. The second, E. W. Rumsey, was born November 24, 1825, and died April 5, 1827, at Ann Arbor, Mich.

THE EMIGRATION.

Respecting Mr. Smith's emigration to Ann Arbor, the following facts are well authenticated. On the 8th day of May, 1824, the day Lettice was one year old, he left Rochester, with his family, for Michigan, at that time the objective point of northwestern emigra- tion, not knowing definitely where he would locate. A man, whose legitimate (?) business was smuggling goods from Canada into the States, furnished them means of transportation from Rochester to Buffalo. From Buffalo they made the passage up Lake Erie on a sail boat, whose name is forgotten, that had been down the lake with a cargo of fish. After a few days' delay at Detroit, where they fell in with Messrs. Rumsey and Allen, the founders of the new settlement of Ann Arbor, persuaded by their glowing descrip- tions of its advantages and prospects, they shipped their goods on a flat-boat up the Huron, and left Detroit on foot, about 2 o'clock, P. M. of the 27th of May. That night was spent at Ten Eyck's. The next day brought them to Ypsilanti, and the third, May 29th, to Ann Arbor.

LIFE IN THE NEW SETTLEMENT.

Previous to the arrival of Mr. Smith, no white woman, except Mrs. Rumsey, had set foot in the new settlement; hence, on their arrival, Mr. Smith's family was immediately taken into Mr. Rum- sey's house that Mrs. Smith might do the cooking for several men employed in building a mill. Here they spent about three weeks, within which time several others arrived. The first shelter Mr. Smith constructed for his own accommodation was made by support- ing an inverted wagon-box on poles driven into the ground, and

J.D. Williams

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ANN ARBOR TOWNSHIP.

suspending blankets to its edge. This rude covering protected it partially from the chilly night air, though they did not shut out the music of the wolves that frequently serenaded the settlers with notes of questionable welcome. "This kind of tabernacle soon gave place, as civilization advanced, to a hut constructed of poles and covered with bark pealed from the forest trees; which was, in its turn exchanged, about the first of October, for a log house, which Mr. Smith had erected on Main street, north of court-house square, on the spot now occupied by a small, ancient frame, owned by J. & P. Donnelly. A dispute arising respecting the lot, Mr. Smith sold this house and built another on the south side of Huron street, corner of First, now owned by Weil Brothers. This was the house of the family for several years, and two of his children were born there. In the summer of 1828, as nearly as I have been able to determine, Mr. Smith erected a frame house on the spot now occupied by the shoe shop west of the postoffice, and moved his family into it.

During these early years of enterprise, toil and hardship, Mr. Smith, being a mechanic, built many of the residences of the in- coming settlers, frequently selling the one in which he was living and building another for himself. In this way, within seven years, from 1824 to 1831, the family exchanged one home for another 13 times. Among the buildings erected by him was the first school-house, standing on the site now occupied by Zion's Lutheran Church. This school-house was also the place where the first public religious assemblies were convened. It was the cradle of both the Presbyterian and Episcopal Churches that now bless the city. While spending his days thus in building houses, many of his evenings, and some whole nights, were spent in manufacturing bedsteads, which he sold at $2.50.

In 1831, a settlement having been made on the north side of the Huron, it being the prevailing opinion with some that business would tend in that direction, Mr. Smith purchased the lot and erected that portion of the Huron block, now known as the estate of G. Ludholtz, and, while the family occupied one part, opened a store of dry goods and groceries in another, and a cabinet shop above. These comfortable quarters were sold in 1836 to Ingalls and Morgan, and a two-story frame standing a few rods north of the Washtenaw House, and owned, at the present time, by A. Herz, was purchased of John Evarts. This building was used as both store and residence until 1837, when the house standing on the corner of Brown and Travers streets, now owned by Mrs. Irish, was purchased of E. W. Morgan for a residence, where he spent the remainder of his life, and died Feb. 13, 1844.

Four years after the death of Mr. Smith his widow removed to Augusta, Kalamazoo county, where she married Mr. C. Mckay, with whom she lived until his decease in 1860, since which time she has resided with her youngest daughter, Martha Ann Hickman, wife of George Hickman, in Battle Creek. Mrs. McKay is now in

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HISTORY OF WASHTENAW COUNTY.

her 79th year. Her memory of the events of her pioneer life is still perfect. and, though sight and hearing are somewhat impaired, both mental and physical powers are still vigorous and active. She has been able to walk about a quarter of a mile to church nearly every Sabbath during the past winter. Unless some one knows that an earlier pioneer than she is still alive, we claim for her that her advent in Ann Arbor antedates that of any other person now living.

ANN ARBOR'S FIRST BABY.

One of the interesting questions respecting the early history of an American town is: Who was the first child born there ? For many years this question, as it regards the town of Ann Arbor, has received no satisfactory answer. Into these lists, confident of an easy victory, we bring the name of Elisha Walker Rumsey Smith, son of Asa L. and Syrena Smith, born Nov. 24, 1825. This dis- tinction, I am informed, has been claimed for Mr. John L. Now- land, but Mr. Nowland was born, as I learned from his own lips, June 13, 1826, and in such a case the family record must decide. Respecting the claim that Mrs. Rumsey had a son "born in the early part of the year 1824, and named in honor of Territorial Gov- ernor Lewis Cass Rumsey," as is stated in Evarts & Stewart's Historical Atlas of Washtenaw county, I have only to say that it is unfortunate that no family record can be found of such an event, that might lift it from the uncertainty of mere rumor by establish- ing for it a definite date. Mrs. McKay has no recollection of it, though she does remember that Mrs. Rumsey had a son a short time subsequent to the birth of her own. Moreover, this son of Mrs. Smith was named after Mr. Rumsey by his request, and he prom- ised him also a village lot, as a token of the distinction that he was the first child born in the town. These facts have never been brought forward before, because the mother of the favored boy was never aware until about a year ago that any question respecting this priority of birth had ever been raised. When informed of the fact of such a dispute, she made the above statements without hesi- tation or reserve; and we have no doubt of their reliability.

THAT LITTLE GIRL.

It would not be fitting to close this paper without some allusion to the little one-year-old girl he brought in his arms from Detroit on foot over the Pottawatomie trail. For some time after their arrival, she was the only child, " the bright particular star," of the settlement. The incidents of her childhood, though full of interest to her and appropriate in the family circle, must, of course, be omitted on an occasion like this. One, at least, must suffice. Be- ing one day, with other children, on Hiscock's hill gathering strawberries, some wolves were seen approaching them, from which

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they escaped only by the nimbleness of their feet, to which their fright seemed to contribute not a little. The graver events of later years that served to fit her for a field of great usefulness and honor, and make her worthy to-day of the University City of the State, were, briefly, the following: Spurred on by a lofty and noble ambi- tion, at a time when the ability of woman to cope with men in classic strife was doubted, and under circumstances superlatively adverse and discouraging, in 1847 she took the degree of Bachelor of Arts from Oberlin College, Ohio; and, in 1850, the second degree, Master of Arts, from the same institution. In 1856, having taught Latin one year with masterly success in the preparatory depart- ment of Antioch College, Ohio, she joined her husband (the writer of this paper, to whom she was married in 1847) in Europe, from which foreign tour she did not return until 1861, having spent five years and a half in the pursuit of modern languages, painting, his- tory, etc., under circumstances advantageous and encouraging. After her return, her eminent qualifications would not permit her to remain long simply a pastor's wife; and, in 1865, after much per- suasion, she was induced to take the professorship of modern lan- guages in the Union Christian College, a new institution, founded six years before, in Indiana. The next year, means for endowing professorships being scarce, by her own request, Latin was added to her department, and for nine years she taught from five to seven hours a day, with such dignity, efficiency, and success as to place her among the best teachers in this country. I have never seen her surpassed in the professor's chair.

OLD OKEMOS.

In May, 1859, Old Okemos, nephew of Pontiac, the Chief of the Pottawatomies, passed to the Indian heaven. He is remembered by the early settlers of Ann Arbor by his regular visits to town, his fine horsemanship, and the long train of squaws and ponies in single file following at his horse's tail, laden with the fruits of the chase, and the endless mocock of Indian sugar, ready for a trade for all sorts of traps and edibles. Even the females of the early settlers were quite willing to allow the old Chief, with his numer- ous progeny, a quiet smoke by the fireside, or a wabunk upon the kitchen floor, as an offset for the convenience of this traveling market of suceasee and pokamin (venison and cranberries), the staple article of his trade, for the Chief was merchant, as well as the governor, judge, jury, and general depository of the secrets of his tribe.

Old Okemos, though terrible in battle-as his cloven skull and numerous scars are proof positive that he had seen service-was gentle as a child when off duty. He made himself extremely in- teresting to the Chomokoman papooses who always gathered around him, and lost no opportunity of initiating them into the mysteries of the pure aboriginal language.

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The evidences of aboriginal universal knowledge are extremely rare, because such knowledge is deemed among them a tribal secret which is felony to disclose. These evidences are, however, much more numerous than the publicare aware of, from the fact that Amer- ican archaeologists have grouped the various evidences of Indian skill, labor, or ingenuity, and upon these evidences have founded the visionary theory that the American continent was inhabited by a semi-civilized race, long since extinct.

Old Okemos was never known to forfeit his word or betray his friends but once, and then only when gratitude for numerous fa- vors had induced him to betray his tribal secrets.

In the fall of 1827, Brown & Co. established at Ann Arbor a store for the sale of general merchandise. Old Okemos, after having be- stowed upon the senior Brown the Indian christening of Tichisquie (Long-legs) became a regular customer. By virtue of being the principal trader, the Chief received numerous presents, and was al- lowed to spread his blanket and pass the night upon the store floor, while N. I. Brown, the clerk, slept near by. Upon one of these oc- casions, when the village had retired to rest, Okemos called up young Brown and informed him that he had a great secret to tell him. Holding to the light a silver half dollar. and pointing to the northwest, he proceeded to state that away in that direction, six days' travel, there was plenty of silver in the earth. Brown listened to him and agreed, upon his next visit, to purchase of him a horse and accompany him to the place of silver in the earth. Some two weeks after, Okemos came down alone, leading an extra horse. Necessary preparations were made during the night, and at day-light, next morning, Brown with blankets and provisions, and the Chief with an extra keg of fire-water, were on their way to the silver mine.

Taking their route to the northwest, toward the copper region, where silver has been found in small quantities, nothing of interest occurred until the third day, when the old Chief became moody and cross. Just before sunset he seemed to awake from a deep reflec- tion-making the woods ring with his yells, and putting his horse to the top of his speed, was soon out of sight. Brown pursned until night, when dismounting, leading his horse and keeping the trail with his feet, he kept on his course. Late in the evening he came upon an Indian camp with Okemos in the center, and all of them intoxicated. Brown passed on a short distance, and, holding his horse by the bridle, passed the night. Going to the camp in the morning, he found the Indians in a sulky mood taunting Okemos with his treachery, and calling him a bad Indian. The old Chief, with numerous threats and flourishes with his scalping knife, ordered the "papoose " to wachee wigwam.

Brown, aware that the game was up, mounted his horse and made a long reach for home. At night, after holding his horse in the grass for a feed, he made him fast to a sapling, and testing the quality of his salt provisions, and rolling himself in his blanket, was soon in a sound sleep. Worn down with his long ride and vigils

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of the previous night, he did not wake the next morning until the sun was high in the heavens, when his horse, unused to be kept from the herd, had broken his fastenings and left. A slight meal of raw pork and crackers answered Brown's purpose, as he figured on his position-two days out from any settlement and without a horse. There was, however, no time to be lost. Throwing his provisions over one shoulder and his blanket over the other, he took his horse's track and started in search. A few hours of eager pur- suit brought him up with the horse, which he succeeded in captur- ing. Finding it impossible to follow, on horseback, his back trail, he gave up the attempt and was soon lost in the woods, but traveled at the top of his horse's speed, not knowing whether he was in the right direction or not.

In the early settlement of Ann Arbor, widow Stratton, with her family, occupied the farm one mile south of the city. Her second son, Samuel Stratton, then some 20 years of age, was subject to occasional fits ofinsanity. When the fit was upon him, he would take to the woods, and, subsisting only on berries and roots, in one or two weeks starve it out and return entirely sane.

At the time of young Brown's hunt for the silver mine, Stratton had been absent about two weeks, his friends supposing he had wandered off a great distance and probably starved. Stratton says that in the afternoon he saw Brown riding in an opening, in a circle, at full speed, and knowing, from his actions, he was lost, took his station behind a tree to give him a good scare; so, as the horse came round, he broke out after him, yelling a million murders. He then left the circle and made a straight break for the woods. The pony, equally frightened with the rider, ran into a swamp, and sinking down, stuck fast. Brown gave it up; there was the devil, for he had seen him. Turning in his saddle to take a fair look, Stratton, nude as he was born, and out-grimacing the arch-fiend of evil, was standing at his horse's tail, and with a hoarse laugh roared out: "Brown, don't you know me?"

Stratton says, that as soon as Brown was able to speak, he quietly remarked:

" Look here, Mister, do you know the way out of these woods?"

" Of course," replied Stratton.

" Well, then," said Brown, " do yon just take me home, and you shall have the best suit of clothes in the store."

"Done," said Stratton. How's the provisions?"

Stratton swept the pile, at least four pounds of pork and crackers to match, and throwing Brown's blanket over his shoulders, they took a bee-line for home. Coming to a settlement the next day, Stratton staid out, holding Brown's horse, while Brown went in, and after purchasing a suit of half worn clothes, ordered dinner for four.

" Why, do you think I'm so stingy ?" said the old lady.

"Never mind," said Brown, " set on the victuals."

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Afterward, when the old lady was looking on and observing the destruction of her winter stores, she exclaimed, "I shall charge for four ! "

Finishing their meal they arrived in town late in the evening. Brown resumed the duties of his clerkship, and Stratton appeared the best dressed man in the streets.

Brown never abandoned his ideal silver mine, but sought it after- ward above the surface. A few years after, he bought several of the most valuable locations in the Grand river valley, including the grindstone ledge in Eaton county, and the first stone coal discov- ered in the State; also a valuable tract of fine timber with water power upon Buck creek, Kent county, upon which he immediately erected mills, and ran the first raft of lumber on Grand river, thus commencing the Michigan and Chicago lumber trade, which has since increased to hundreds of millions.

Okemos, ashamed of his perfidy never after recognized acquaint- ance, or entered the store of Brown & Co., but took his netos and bartered his furs at the rival store of General Clark.

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History of Washtenaw County, Michigan : together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships...and biographies of representative citizens : history of Michigan, Part 93

Author: Chas. C. Chapman & Co Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago : Chas. C. Chapman & Co. Number of Pages: 1457

Author: Chas. C. Chapman & Co
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : Chas. C. Chapman & Co.
Number of Pages: 1457