USA > Michigan > Kalamazoo County > Kalamazoo County, Michigan city directory 1869-70 > Part 4
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ing served in this State, on his return to Ohio, described the beautiful prairies of Michigan, especially Prairie Ronde, over which he had passed. Hays moved his family into a house he had built during the winter and spring, near the corner of Main and Pitcher street. A little way south of this house was an In- dian corn field, evidently not used for several years, yet mellow and rich, and this made Mr. Hays a most productive garden.
The settlers would sometimes drive a few cattle, sheep and hogs in to the country, and occasionally the voice of some pioneer rooster would ring out, in the depths of the forest gloom, his hymns of lofty cheer, as the old covered wagon, taking an extra jolt over an obtruding root or fallen log, shook him and his wives rudely about in the box that held them. Horses were more abundant. Cattle and pigs were, however, plentifully supplied by drovers, and the first supply by this means was in the spring of 1833, when John F. Gilkey and Mumford Eldred drove in a flock of cattle, mostly cows, from Illinois. They remained here two weeks pasturing their cattle on the big marsh. Cows were sold then for $50 and $80 ; oxen from $50 to $100 a pair. Gil- key drove cattle for a number of years. Hogs were not, in droves, brought in so early.
Robert McIntosh opened a store a few rods below what is now the site of the Humphrey Block, and kept a very miscella- neous supply of goods. Nathan Harrison put his ferry in opera- tion early in the spring, and carried passengers and teams across the river at remunerative rates. Pretty good crops were raised here, and the grist mill at Comstock was kept quite busy. For luxuries, Indian sugar, wild honey, and wild fruits and berries, were relied upon. One of Mr. Hays' daughters, now Mrs. Chas. Gibbs, was one of a small party who went to a place on the south part of what is now the James Taylor farm, that had been an Indian corn field and village, and, in a short time, gathered three great tubs full of large and most delicious strawberries ! An ox team was sent to bring home this load of fruit. The In- dians would often furnish venison, and other game. Fish were abundant in all the streams.
Silas Trowbridge, Rollin Wood, James and Wm. E. White, Deacon Hydenburk, Roswell.Crane and Edmund LaGrave, also
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came here during 1833. Mr. Trowbridge lived with Bronson, and he gave the latter 120 acres which he had taken up, about three miles north of the village, for 42 acres on Bronson's plat, on a portion of which Mr. Trowbridge now resides. Harrison and James Coleman, Wm. Martin and one or two others, settled in the south part of the town. Ira Burdick, Russo King, and Abraham and Daniel Cahill came during the summer. Burdick became a partner with Cyren in the hostship of the Kalamazoo House, A. Cahill soon after established the first tannery ( near the river ), and D. Cahill kept a furniture shop on the corner now occupied by Perrin & Co.'s. hardware store.
But one death occurred here in 1833, that of Joseph Wood, father of Smith L. Wood. His was the first burial in the old (then new ) burying-ground on West street. Rev. Mr. Meek officiated at the funeral.
The Land Office was removed here, from White Pigeon, in 1834. With it came Major Abraham Edwards, Register, and family ; Thomas C. Sheldon, Receiver; Theodore P. Sheldon, the chief clerk in the office; Lawrence Vandewalker and Isaac W. Willard ( the latter had been in trade with John S. Barry at White Pigeon since 1831), also came about the time the offices were established here ( May). In March, 1834, the Legislative Council provided for the establishment of a Branch of the State Bank of Michigan at Bronson, and in April it was opened here, Huston's building having been purchased for the Bank, the goods being removed to a barn nearly in the rear of McIntosh's store. where Huston sold goods till his new store was ready for him. About the same time the Kalamazoo Mutual Insurance Compa- ny was incorporated, with James Smith, Jr., Cyren Burdick, Thaddeus Smith, Jr., E. L. Brown, Wm. Duncan, Lyman. J. Daniels, Albert E. Bull, Johnson Patrick, T. D. Hoxy, R. McIn- tosh, Thos. C. Sheldon and Jonathan G. Abbott first directors. Maj. Edwards purchased a house built by Nathaniel Foster, and moved into it soon after his arrival here-and in the same house he lived until his death in 1860. The opening of the land office was the beginning of a new era for Bronson's village.
The building of the River House was commenced in 1834,
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by Nathan Harrison, and was opened the next year, by a Mr. Wilder. It was a very popular hostelry. In excavating for the cellar of this hotel, a great number of Indian skeletons and loose bones were met with, which were thrown into the river-at the same time many kettles (mostly brass ) and other domestic arti- cles of the departed aborigines were found; the latter relics were carried away as curiosities, and some of the kettles, after their resurrection, were again pressed into kitchen service! The first bridge was built across the river the same year, and the new school house on South street was erected.
Those who comfort themselves with the thought that hur- ricanes are unknown in Michigan will read the following with interest : In the afternoon of the 18th of October, 1834, the western sky suddenly assumed a strange and awful appearance, a reddening shadow mantled the earth, a warm gust of wind swept over the valley, and then a peculiar whistling sound was heard, while above the contorted clouds put on more awful shapes. Presently, the moaning of the wind, the sudden shak- ing and swaying of the trees, the glistening of the leaves abrupt- ly smitten and upturned against the darkened sky, in the narrow valley of the Arcadia, west of the village, gave the first evi- dences of the wild rush of the swooping tornado. Down it swept across the plain, gathering strength and velocity as it sped onward. Its movement, swifter than the flight of swiftest bird, was singular and hideously sportive in its character. In width it was hardly more than a hundred feet, yet it would rise and fall, now turn to the right then to the left, here skim- ming over house or tree, there sweeping impediments as though they were gossamer. ' The first building struck was one owned by Dr. H. Starkweather, which stood near the east end of the Burdick House block-a low dwelling-house, within which a sick woman was lying upon a bed; the roof was taken, the wo- man was left, uninjured. The corner of the Kalamazoo House barn was its next object point, and the position carried, with a great crash and flying of boards and shingles. Next, it charged furiously upon Major Edward's kitchen, and only the stove with several white and swelling loaves then preparing for the oven,
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were left to mark its former abiding place. Then striding across -
Main street, the tornado snapped away the tops of the great oaks there, and, turning, rushed upon the house of Mr. Hays, utterly demolished and wiped out the rear building, toppled the chimneys of the main part, the falling'bricks severely injur- ing two of the daughters who had not, like the other inmates, fled to the cellar. Articles of furniture and bedding from this house were found away east of the river. The roof of Mr. Nor- throp's heavy block house some twenty rods east was lifted and moved around at right angles from its proper place. Thence the blast proceeded to Nathan Harrison's, lifted and carried some distance a wagon ( without box ), performed other queer antics, and then, all at once, died away on the hill east of the river. All this was the work of a moment. It was followed immediately by a severe snow storm.
After the storm, Mr. Hays was obliged to find a place of shel- ter for his family, until his own house, twisted and torn by the storm, could be made habitable again. The only refuge that could be found was the new school-house on South street, then not wholly finished. The family used the back part of the school house to live in, and Judge Fletcher occupied the front part for holding a session of the Circuit Court-the partition walls being nothing more than suspended sheets and blankets. Several weeks elapsed before their own house was made ready again. Mr. David Hubbard and family, at the same time, occu- pied the old slab school house, adjoining, and the scenes and incidents of those days are by no means the least pleasant ones in the memories of the survivors of those two families.
Among those who came here in the fall of 1834. we find the name of Epaphroditus Ransom, who, from the high positions he was, soon after his arrival, called upon to fill, both in county and State affairs, deserves more than a passing notice. It was the good fortune of Michigan that the management of its affairs from its earliest history as a State was entrusted to men alike distinguished for their integrity and their sound common sense. It will ever be a source of pride to the citizens of the Peninsular State to refer to the names of Cass, Mason, Woodbridge Lyon,
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Barry, Felch, Farnsworth, Manning, Ransom, the Wings, and many others, identified with the so building up its fortunes and shaping its destinies, as to place it at once on a basis of substan- tial prosperity, from which it has risen to a position of pre emi- nence for intelligence, virtue, and wealth.
But few of us who live in these days of railroads, telegraphs, and other improvements by which civilization makes such giant strides, in so short a space of time, can appreciate the sacrifices made by those who, in the early days of Michigan, gave up the substantial comforts of an Eastern home to settle in the almost boundless wilderness of the West. Buffalo, in 1834, was a small town almost upon the outer edge of civiliza- tion, while Detroit, containing less than two thousand inhabi- tants, scarcely overreached the dignity of a trading post on a remote frontier. The subjoined sketch of the journey from the East at that early day will prove interesting and will describe the experience of many other pioneers.
It was a cold October morning, in 1834, that, bidding adieu to the friends and mountains of old Vermont, our afterwards Judge and Governor, with a few personal effects, and his little family set out on his journey to the wilds of western Michigan, an undertaking then requiring at least a month, but now easily accomplished in forty-eight hours. Arriving at Troy he trans- ferred himself, family and effects, to the keeping of a line boat, and in due time-ten days made the passage of the wonder- ful Erie Canal-and at Buffalo risked the perils of the deep Lake Erie on board the good steamer Henry Clay. Five days landed the party at Detroit, where the Mansion House, long since torn down to make room for a more pretentious structure, but then ranking as no common hostelry, afforded accommoda- tions to man and beast. To gear up wagons, and transfer load- ing, was the work of a few hours, and the first day's halt was made at Ten Eyck's old stand. Three days more brought our travelers to Ypsilanti, then a mere hamlet, Grecian in nothing but name, and noted chiefly as the point where those who sur- vived the Chicago turnpike from Detroit thence, once more set their feet upon dry land. Ann Arbor, now of classic renown,
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was next passed, a small cluster of cabins in the brush by the side of the trail, then dignified with the pretentious title of "ter- ritorial road," the exact location of which could only be deter- mined by the "H" which those who had gone before blazed on the trees to guide those who should come after on their weary way. Jackson, like Ann Arbor, was a mere nick in the woods, where " Blackman's Inn" startled the Anglo-Saxons from their propriety lest they should find "mine host" of the sable hue in- dicated by his sign. From Jackson to Marshall-and, in 1834, few corners presented less attractions than the latter place. In reality it was named after the Chief Justice, but most people supposed it to be a transposition of all marsh. The cholera, in 1832, had handled the people there quite roughly, and those who had escaped the pestilence, seemed likely to shake to pieces with ague generated by the deadly vapors from Rice creek. Battle Creek came next, and but a day or two before our pil- grims arrived there, the first child, born in that town, had put in an appearance, and was named " Michigan." At last, on the morning of the eleventh day, our pioneer "carpet-bagger" reached the right bank of the Kalamazoo, where uncle Nate Harrison was waiting to ferry the family and moveables over ( the bridge not being completed ) ; and, in a few minutes, Frederick Booher, the new landlord of the Kalamazoo House, was show- ing the party into the " sitting room," an apartment not then plastered, and furnished with rude benches instead of chairs.
The appearance of Kalamazoo at the time of Mr. Ransom's arrival is vividly remembered. The great tornado had passed through only some ten days before, and the marks of its visi- tation were most plainly to be seen; but most prominently, however, on the west end of what was afterwards known as the "American," where a pan of batter from the kitchen bench of Major Edward's culinary establishment had been widely bespattered. Three framed houses, besides the Kalamazoo House, and a dozen log shanties, made up the village of Kalamazoo. Trees and brush covered most of the present site, with paths leading to and from the houses of the worthy burghers. The population were a motley crew of Yankees, Hosiers, Canucks,
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speculators, dogs and Indians-the latter greatly predominating. While Uncle Titus and Aunt Sally Bronson were finishing their new house ( the one still occupied by Widow Barrett), Mr. Ransom's family found their way to the north side of Grand Prairie, where the hospitable home of John P. Marsh gave them shelter. Grand Prairie at that time was a perfect Eden. Two or three improvements around its edge, marked by " the smoke that so gracefully curled," were all the inroads that civilization had made upon that garden spot of nature-which now has its hardy, prosperous husbandman to every quarter section. Upon the removal of Titus and Sally to their new home, Mr. Ransom took possession of their two story log castle, situated where the house of Shubael A. Lincoln now stands, on the southeast cor- ner of Water and Church streets. There the family passed their first winter in Kalamazoo, and it was no unusual thing for the wolves to come under their windows and howl through the dreary night. But a merry winter it was, diversified by wolf- fights, dances, and merry-makings of various kinds. To these festivities people came from every quarter, and well does the writer remember the different ones that graced the boards with their presence. There was Stephen Vickery, resplendent in blue coat and brass buttons; Lawrence Vandewalker, with unexcep- tionable pumps; Col. Huston, with wolf-skin coat; Lora. J. Rosencrantz, of Prairie Ronde, the gayest buck of them all; while Tom Sheldon, General Burdick, Attorney Ransom and Isaac W. Willard ( him of the hundred hounds) did not hesitate to trip it with the rest to the inspiring tones of the Whitlock fiddles, none the less inspiring because two of them were scraped by rosy girls. On these festive occasions, Johnson Pat- rick, Ira Burdick and Lot North were not far off, while Dr. Stark- weather and Sam. Ransom were watching opportunities to practice some sly joke on those of the " light fantastic toe." Glorious old days were those, full of joy and hilarity, and thrice happy he who could "cast his lines in such pleasant places." But we wander from our theme.
For the purpose of erecting a permanent home, Judge Ran- som purchased the entire front on Main street, extending from 7
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Thomas S. Cobb's queensware establishment up to the brick block, corner of Main and Burdick streets, and extending back to Water street, for which ground he paid six hundred dollars. The following season he erected the plain house now standing just east of the boarding stables; it was then considered one of the most stately residences in Western Michigan.
At the organization of the State Government, Mr. Ransom was appointed Judge of the Western Circuit, and Associate Jus- tice of the Supreme Court. The Circuit then comprised the entire western portion of the State, at that time sparsely settled, and for the most part a howling wilderness. Ionia, Eaton, Cal- houn, Branch, Kalamazoo, Cass, Allegan, Kent, Berrien, St. Joseph and Van Buren counties were in Judge Ransom's Cir- cuit, and twice each year did he make his way to the remote county seats ( generally on horseback ) to dispense justice and dispose of such rogues as did not have the log jails of that period in healthy consideration-before their eyes.
The first term of the Kalamazoo Circuit Court ( under the State) was held in the school house on South street, heretofore spoken of. The Grand Jury held their deliberations under the trees contiguous. The first "true bills" found against violators of the "peace and dignity of the State" we need not here recite. The sessions of the Circuit Court were the occasions of the year. People flocked in to be present at the trial of the State cases, or as suitors and witnesses in every conceivable kind of litiga- tion, from a dog suit up to the more dignified issue over a pair of steers. The felons of that day were hog and horse thieves; with a liberal sprinkling of those aristocratic rogues who sought to inflate the currency by "shoving the queer."
The bar of Kalamazoo county, if not equal, in all respects, to that of the Queen's Bench, was nevertheless, as " wise in its own conceit," and regarded as up to any emergency by their numer- ous clients. The Hon. Charles E. Stuart occupied a prominent position as an attorney. Elisha Belcher was also considered a formidable pleader at the bar, rising with the intensity of the occasion until he could be heard for a mile. Judge Hinsdale figured in the Courts; and, now and then, Horace H. Comstock,
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him of the lithe form and faultless ruffled shirt, essayed an effort in the intricacies of legal lore. Zephaniah Platt, "recently from Albany," for a time let the lustre of his brilliant attain- ments astonish the natives ) while Walter Clark, Joseph Miller, and other young lawyers in embryo, packed formidable piles of books into Court for their preceptors, cocked their heels high on the table, and looked knowing and wise towards the crowd outside who were not permitted a place inside the bar.
Nor were the Associate Judges to be overlooked; Judge Ransom in the centre flanked by farmers Rix and Ramsdell, made a full bench. It is not recorded, however, that, as much of dignity as these judicial adjuncts might have lent to the Court, the presiding Judge was accustomed to lean upon them over heavily for their legal opinions.
The magistrates' courts of that early day were by no means devoid of character. Being the courts of first, as well as of last resort in a majority of cases, their sessions were generally crowded, while such able advocates as Edwin H. Lothrop, John Hascall, Cyrus Lovell, and many others, who thought it no reproach to bear the rank of "ye pettifogger," represented the interests of their numerous clients.
In 1842, Judge Ransom was commissioned Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, which distinguished position he continued to hold until elected Governor, by the vote of every county in the State, in 1847. It was during his administration that the agitation of those political questions commenced which has since so distinctly changed the institutions of our country. Gov. Ransom's views not being in consonance with those of a majority of his party, at the end of his gubernatorial career he retired to private life upon his beautiful estate, now comprising the Bleycker addition to Kalamazoo, which he had purchased several years previous from Lucius Lyon. Here he remained, engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1851, when he sold his magnificent property to Paulus den Bleyker, and designed pass- ing the remainder of his days in quiet enjoyment of the society of his family and friends. Reverses in fortune, however, defeat- ed his cherished plans; and, in the winter of 1856, bidding fare-
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well to the spot where had been passed the happiest days of his active life, he again became a pioneer to the then distant Terri- tory of Kansas, where, among strangers and strange scenes, in November, 1859, death closed his honorable career. A few months subsequently, his remains were brought back to Kala- mazoo, and now mingle with their kindred dust in that quiet city of the dead which crowns the hill, from whose summit he had so often looked upon the beautiful village below. Not without those failings incident to poor humanity in its best estate, Judge Ransom was endowed with many virtues that endeared him to his numerous friends, shedding lustre upon a life without dishonor, and upon a death without reproach.
Dr. Horace Starkweather, one of our earliest and most esteemed pioneer physicians, came here in May, 1834. He had left Massachusetts with the intention of settling in Berrien ; but arriving at the Kalamazoo House he found Dr. Porter very ill, and was besought to remain and attend him, and also to look after Dr. Porter's patient's. When Dr. Porter died, a short time after, the people of the village determined to have Dr. Starkweather remain here instead of going to the place he had started for, and he was induced to stay. The next year his fam- ily came; and, for a time, he lived in a part of Dr. Abbott's house, the owner and another family occupying at the same time . other parts of the house. Next year Dr. Starkweather built a large dwelling on ground about in the centre of the Burdick House site. Here he remained nine years, when he moved into the house he erected on the southwest corner of Main and West streets, where he lived until his death in 1851. He enjoyed a very large practice in the early years of our village, and few of our pioneers were more identified with its history, or are remembered with more regard and affection.
The proprietors of the village of Bronson, in the year 1834, according to a great number of printed plats-now very rare- were Messrs. Bronson, Lyons, Burdick & Sheldon ( Thos. C.) In the original plans of the village the streets are laid regularly, and cross each other at right angles, and "Portage" was the name of South street, no street being laid out south from the
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Kalamazoo House. In the new plat, of 1834, the straight line is abandoned on Main, and on the new Portage, streets, and both of these avenues make a divergence of about 30 degrees, the line of deviation in the former is to the north, and the latter to the east. It is said that the new ( angling ) street was opened by Sheldon to make a central point at the Kalamazoo House, ( his property ) and to open certain lots that he owned on the line of that street. Certain it is however, that, whatever the cause, the result has been to permanently mar the beauty of our Main street. Kalamazoo avenue, soon after, laid out, and running due west from the river, was made six rods wide, and, it was sup- posed by its projectors, would become the main, central and business thoroughfare. Willard street, next north of it, which was also planned in 1836, was a wide street, but its destiny has been far more brilliant than its projectors ever had any idea of, for over its sloping surface stretches the gleaming bars that guide the course of the iron-nerved, smoking steeds of Com- merce, with their richly freighted trains-making the rude street a grand pathway of the nation.
In point of enterprise and business, 1834 was far more active in improving Bronson than any of its predecessors. Besides the enterprises we have spoken of, Mr. Willard commenced a num- ber of buildings, among which were his store ( he was already in trade ) on Main street-now G. W. Fish's-and two dwelling houses, both apparently alike; one of these, in the grove back from Portage street was for Thos. C. Sheldon, and was, for many years, the residence of the late Bissel IIumphrey; the other was the dwelling-house for so many years the residence of Caleb Sweetland, Esq., below the Kalamazoo House. Lewis R. Davis, tailor, and John H. Everard, harness-maker, came here from Schoolcraft, and began business; Rollin Wood was another of the first, if not the very first of our tailors, occupying a place in Stephen Vickery's office near Pitcher street. The village black- smith was Andrew B. Gray, and his sounding anvil was on the south side lower of Main street. Mr. Alexander Cameron ( came in 1333) and Dwight C. Grimes did carpenter-work that season on the new buildings; John and Algernon Hays, had just com-
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