USA > Michigan > Kalamazoo County > Kalamazoo County, Michigan city directory 1869-70 > Part 7
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The Indian name of Prairie Ronde was Wa-we-os-co-tang-sco- tah, which may perhaps be rendered- The round fire-plain, or, as the French had it- Prairie Ronde.
Perhaps the eye of man has rarely rested on a more beautiful natural landscape than was presented by Prairie Ronde-
" Before the white man marred It with his plow."
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Ascending slightly from the circumference to the centre, yet so as to seem full rather than elevated; surrounded with a noble forest, whose sharp cut and perfect line was no where so distant as to be indistinct, yet so remote that the beams of the rising and setting sun seemed to blend in a mist of gold and purple. The whole plain was covered, from Spring to Autumn, with a gorgeous array of flowers, whose differing colors followed each other in due succession; until, at last, faded and gone, in the Autumn winds-
"The tall, rank spike-grass waved its bristly head "
It was such a scene of unrivalled beauty that opened to the view of the first white settler of Prairie Ronde.
Bazel Harrison came with his family from Clark County, Ohio, and located on section 2, on the shore of the little lake, since called Harrison's Lake, in the present township of Prairie Ronde, November 6th, 1828 ( where he still resides with his son, John S. Harrison ), now-November, 1868-a venerable old man of 96 years. With him came Henry Whipple, his son-in- law, and a man named Davidson; and the following winter came Abram I. Shaver and Erastus Guilford; and to the new set- tle ment were soon added William Duncan, Christopher Bair, George Brown, Abner Calhoon, and others; so that, by the spring of 1830, there was a circle of settlers about the border of the prairie, and at " the Island," numbering some sixty families.
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HISTORY OF KALAMAZOO COUNTY.
The first township meeting was held on the 14th of December, 1830, pursuant to a voluntary call of citizens, of which the fol- lowing is a copy : .
"To the electors of the township of Brady, in Kalamazoo County :
"The undersigned persons, citizens and freeholders in said township, deeming it necessary as well as interesting to com- munity that a speedy election of the township officers should take place for the promotion of our social relations, in establishing roads and dividing the township into school districts, do hereby give notice to the inhabitants of said township to meet for the purpose of holding a special meeting, on Tuesday, the 14th day of December, inst., at two of the clock P. M., at the dwelling- house of Abner Calhoon, on Prairie Ronde, to act on the follow- ing articles, viz. :
"1. To choose a moderator to preside in said meeting;
"2. To make choice of a township clerk ;
"3. To elect three commissioners of highways ;
"4. To elect five commissioners of common schools.
" Brady township, Dec. 6th, 1830."
Signed, William Duncan, Daniel Bacon, Delamore Duncan, John Insley, Franklin Howard, George Brown, David Beadle, free holders.
The meeting was held accordingly, and resulted in the elec- tion of, township clerk, Christopher Bair; commissioners of highways, Stephen Hoyt, Bazel Harrison, and William Bishop; school commissioners, Joel Clark, Stephen Hoyt, Abiel Fellows and Abram I. Shaver.
On the 4th day of April, 1831, what is called a "legal meeting," was held at the house of Abner Calhoon, at which Edwin H. Lothrop was elected supervisor; Hosea B. Huston, township clerk; and all the other offices were filled with the familiar names of the early settlers. A committee was appointed "te select a site for a public burying-ground," and it was voted "to raise a bounty on wolf scalps."
In October, 1831, Lucius Lyon, surveyor of public lands, hav- ing laid what were called " floating claims" upon the south-
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west quarter of section 18, and the east half of the north-west quarter of section 19, in township four south of range eleven west, now the township of Schoolcraft, proceeded, by his agent, Dr. David E. Brown, to lay out the whole of the east half of the said south-west quarter of section 18, and the north part of the east half of the north-west quarter of section 19 into a village plat, which he named Schoolcraft, in honor of his friend, Henry R. Schoolcraft, a somewhat noted Indian agent and explorer. Hence it happened that when the township in which the village was located received its separate organization as a township, it, also, was called Schoolcraft. But this did not occur until the Spring of 1842, while the territory which now constitutes that township, as well as that of the present townships of Climax, Pavillion, Portage, Texas, Prairie Ronde, Brady and Wakeshma, the entire south half of the county, were included in the town- ship of Brady, whose organization we have already noted.
These several townships were separately organized, from time to time, until the final separation and organization of the present townships of Brady and Schoolcraft in April, 1842. For this rea- son the history of Schoolcraft, previous to that year, necessarily embraces more or less of the history of all these townships, but more especially that of Prairie Ronde township, since School- craft and Prairie Ronde embrace nearly the whole of the prairie so called, and Gourd Neck Prairie; and, because of this similar- ity of physical geography, their contiguity, and the consequent unity in time and character of their settlement, became closely affiliated in interest and intercourse.
By the fall of 1831, when the writer of this sketch arrived at the new village of Schoolcraft, the following named persons had settled on and about the prairie, whose names became identified with the history and fortunes of the new settlement :
Dr. Nathan M. Thomas came from Jefferson County, Ohio, in June, 1830, and began the practice of his profession, being the first practising physician in the county. He lived on "the West-side," until 1832, when he removed to the village of Schoolcraft, where he has since resided, having, for a long time, an extensive practice, always taking an active part in the poli-
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ies of the day, and widely known as a zealous advocate of the anti-slavery cause. His house was one of the stations of the "underground railroad " when the sable fugitives from bondage were accustomed to travel that important thoroughfare. Steph- en Vickery, who afterwards repeatedly represented the county in the Legislature of the Territory and the State, taught a school at " Insley's Corners" in the winter of 1831-2, where a school had been taught the previous winter by the Rev. T. W. Merrill. On "the West-side" were also William Duncan, prominent in good works while he lived; Delamore Duncan, then Sheriff of the county ; Col. Abiel Fellows and sons; Erastus Guilford, John Insley, Samuel Hackett, John and James Knight, Christopher Bair, Stephen Hoyt and sons, Isaac Sumner ( then Register of Deeds by appointment of Gov. Cass ), Abner Calhoon, John Kelly, the Nesbitts, the Barbers, Josiah Rosecrantz, Joel Clark and sons, Erastus Williams, Towner Savage, P. J. McCreery, Bazel Harrison and sons.
On the north end and at "Virginia Corners," were Stephen Leverich, Richard Holmes, Aaron Burson and sons, Nathan Cobb, John Brown and Dr. David E. Brown, for many years a practising physician.
On the east side and Gonrd Neck, were James Armstrong, Elias Rawson, Henry and Peleg Stevens, Rev. Benjamin Taylor, James Noyes, Joseph Bair, John McComNy, Robert Frakes and sons, William Robinson and the McIlvains.
At the south end were E. H. Lothrop, since well known throughout the State, many times Representative and once Speaker of the House; Franklin Howard, Elisha Doane, Harry Smith, Russell Peck and Stephen Barnaby.
At the village of Schoolcraft and near it, several persons had made claims and settlements, sold out and disappeared. Messrs. Smith, Huston & Co .- that is, James Smith, Jr., H. B. Huston and Thaddeus Smith, from Windsor Co., Vt., having in the sum- mer of 1830, brought the first stock of goods that came into the county, occupying for store and dwelling a part of the log cabin of Abner Calhoon, on the west side, had now, in the spring of 1831, built a log store and dwelling east of the Big Island, and
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added to their stock. Joseph A. Smith had also become an additional partner in the firm. They also this summer erected the first frame building at Kalamazoo, afterwards occupied by the Branch Bank, and still later as a music store. This they stocked with goods under the care of H. B. Huston. In the winter following Thaddeus Smith left the firm and E. L. Brown took his place. James Smith, Jr., was not a resident till the spring of 1833, when he arrived with his family.
In the winter of 1831-2 Smith, Huston & Co. and Johnson Patrick, began to build the public house long known as the " Big Island Hotel," kept some two years by Patrick, and after- wards by John Dix. The framing of this building by Mr. Nathan- iel Foster, was the latest instance I am aware of, of the applica- tion of the old " scribe rule," or the " cut and try" principle.
The township of Brady being fairly launched on its civil and political career, let us now take a look at the character and con- dition of its inhabitants. Previous to the spring of 1831 the set- tlers held their lands exclusively by the right of pre-emption; that is, by original " squatters' claim " or by " floating claim," the land not having yet come in market.
What were called " floating claims" arose in this way :- Every settler upon government lands, by complying with cer- tain conditions, obtained the right of pre-emption at one dollar and a quarter per acre, to one-quarter section of land.
The settlements were frequently made before the surveys, and it consequently often happened that two claimants would be found to have settled upon the same quarter section.
ยท When this happened, from whatever cause, each settler was entitled to one 80 acre lot of the occupied quarter section, and also the right to lay claim to and pre-empt any other unoccupied half quarter section. These claims were transferable, and be- came the foundation to the title to much valuable property.
In May, 1831, the lands in Kalamazoo Co. were open to entry and sale at the Land Office at Monroe, and of all the large quan- tity of government land on Prairie Ronde and Gourd Neck prai- mes, not a single 80 acre lot remained unsold at the close of the public sale in that month. Considerable land, however, for dif-
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ferent causes, was withheld from sale. An Indian reservation of ten miles square embraced the east two tiers of sections in the present township of Schoolcraft, the whole of Brady, and the west two miles of Wakeshma. This embraced nearly one- half of Gourd Neck prairie, and during its ownership by the In- dians, the settlers thereon were in the habit of conciliating them by various means; sometimes cultivating a field for their benefit. The Indian title was extinguished and the Indians removed west of the Mississippi in the year 1842.
Several sections and parts of sections on Prairie Ronde had also been selected by the commissioners appointed to select the University Lands. It was subsequently decided that the Uni- versity could not hold the "broken sections," but it had the ef- fect to keep them from market a few years.
The settlers having now, with these exceptions, become own- ers in fee of their rich and beautiful farms, a more independent, jovial and hilarious company never congregated than used to meet at the "Smith store," or the "Big Island Hotel." A large part of the settlers were from the newer settlements of Ohio and Pennsylvania, a few from Kentucky, and a goodly colony from Virginia, with habits and characteristics, and to a certain extent a dialect, quite distinct from those of the Vermonters and emi- grants from other New England States. The doings and con- versation of a company of these settlers at their occasional mer- ry-makings was matter of curious and novel interest to a newly arrived New Englander. Schoolcraft became at once the busi- ness centre and gathering place of the whole settlement. Eve- ry Saturday was a gala-day at the Big Island Hotel. Then came the Frakeses, the McIlvains, the Stevenses, the Hoyts, the Harri sons, and a host of companions and backers, each with the fastest mag, ready for a quarter race or a fight, and the fun was fast and furious for that day; while mine host's liquor circulated with- out stint or measure. Many an amusing anecdote might be related of the doings of these hilarious merry-makers. On one occasion, Col. Lyman I. Daniels, who came to the prairie in 1831, and soon after married and settled at Schoolcraft, brought out a tame bear to be baited by all the dogs. While the battle
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and the excitement was at the highest, the owner of one of the dogs (now a wealthy citizen of Kalamazoo ), in his eagerness to cheer on his dog, approached too near the erect and defiant Bruin, who, with one sweep of his paw, denuded him of much the greater part of his pantaloons; in which, being new broadcloth, he had come out that morning with no little pride and satisfac- tion. With all this rough sport there was little tendency to crime. The traveler might pass secure with any sum of money upon his person, and the doors of dwellings were habitually without bars or bolts, although known to be the depositories of such sums as the owners from time to time possessed.
As Prairie Ronde was the granary of the whole country for many miles about, its trade rapidly increased, and Smith, Huston & Co., counted among their regular customers, not only per- sons from every new settlement in the county, but also from Three Rivers, from Paw Paw, from Otsego and Allegan, and even from Battle Creek and Marshall, the great grain-producing prairie occasionally drew customers for both wheat and store goods.
The commercial facilities of the country as compared with those of the present day, were of the most tedious, expensive and discouraging character. Goods were shipped by sail ves- sels by way of Mackinac to St. Joseph, and thence boated up the St. Joseph, or, at a little later date, the narrow and tortuous Pawpaw river, and landed at some convenient place on the bank, without shelter or guard, till they could be hauled in by wagons. Wheat, the only exportable product, was, in like man- ner, hauled to some temporary store-house on these rivers, and sent down in boats or on arks,-these last could be used only on the St. Joseph. They were simply plank boxes, some 10 or 12 feet wide by about 60 feet long; and when the cargo was landed at St. Joseph, they were abandoned or sold for a trifle, and the crew returned on foot.
To illustrate some of the contingencies to which this mode of transportation was subject, I will relate what occurred to a car- go of wheat shipped from Three Rivers in one of these arks in
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1834; by J. & J. A. Smith & Co., the name which the School- craft division of the firm of Smith, Huston & Co. had taken.
The ark had been duly loaded with some eight or ten hun- dred bushels of wheat, provisioned for the voyage, with a hardy crew under the command of Capt. Mishael Beadle, and started off with favoring omens, and every prospect of a safe and speedy arrival at the destined port. But the gods willed it otherwise. Capt. Beadle and his crew had provided themselves with a bar- rel of whiskey with which to alleviate the toil and privations of the voyage, and had it placed at a convenient point on the shore at the head of what was called McIntaffer's Riffles, which now make the Lockport water-power, just below Three Rivers. Ar- riving near the place of deposit, the ark was laid alongside the shore, and while under full headway, and beginning to feel the increasing force of the current, a line made fast to the stern was thrown ashore and cast about a tree on the bank ; but so far from stopping to take on board the barrel of whiskey, the willful Argo passed on unchecked, leaving the entire stern end tied up to the tree; and the good ship and cargo were speedily overflowed by the rapid water of McIntaffer's Riffles, which then had nothing better to do.
New buildings were now constantly springing up at School- craft. The Post-Office was removed from "Shirland," a now forgotten village, that had been laid out at Insley's Cor- ners, and J. A. Smith appointed postmaster in the Spring of 1832. This year the prospect seemed fair for a rapid growth to the new village, when two events occurred that almost entirely stopped emigration for that season.
On one of the last days of April, about ten at night, an express arrived from White Pigeon with dispatches to the effect that the Indians under Black Hawk had fought and defeated the Uni- ted States troops in Illinois; that the fort at Chicago was prob- ably taken, and that all the white settlements in the West were in great danger, and calling on the militia of Kalamazoo county to muster forthwith and march to Niles, the point of rendezvous for the Michigan troops. Dr. David E. Brown had previously been commissioned Colonel; Isaac Barnes, of Gull Prairie, Lieut.
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Colonel, and H. B. Huston, Major, of a regiment of militia. Col. Brown, and as many of the settlers as could be got together, were hastily convened in the new tavern then just erected, under an excitement that at this time seems rather amusing. E. L. Brown volunteered to take the dispatches to Kalamazoo and Gull Prairie, where he arrived about daylight in the morning. The regiment of three or four companies of about 60 men each, Capt. James Noyes and Capt. Ephraim Harrison commanding two companies of the prairie men, speedily mustered at School- craft, and in a few days marched for the seat of war, camping at night of the second day near the village of Niles. In the morn- ing orders arrived for the return and disbanding of the regiment, as there were no provisions for them, and they would probably not be wanted. On this expedition the venerable John How- ard, of Dry Prairie, who was presentat the taking of Cornwallis, drove one of the baggage-wagons.
So ended the part of Kalamazoo County in the Black Hawk war. But it had the effect to stop all emigration for that spring; and in the following summer came that new and terrible scourge, the Asiatic Cholera. It had no victims in Kalamazoo County, but in all the large towns in the Territory numbers died of it, as did some of the best citizens of Marshall and Nottaway Prairie, and the whole country was full of gloom.
In the summer of 1834, the Branch Bank of Michigan was es- tablished at Kalamazoo; and the removal of the Land Office from White Pigeon to Kalamazoo the same year gave an im- mense impetus to the advance of that village, while Schoolcraft remained for years nearly stationary. Several of her mechanics removed to Kalamazoo, some even taking their shops with them.
In 1834, the first survey of the Detroit and St. Joseph Rail- road was made through the Village of Schoolcraft, and hope was high again. But its final location through Kalamazoo made that village the nearest market for the immense agricultural products of Prairie Ronde, and, of course, turned its trade almost entirely in that direction. No small share of the prosperity of that beautiful town is due to its trade with the farmers of that wonderfully productive prairie.
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Still another impediment to the growth of the village of Schoolcraft is the fact that, although it occupies nearly the geo- graphical centre of the prairie, and has always been the main centre of business for both Prairie Ronde and Schoolcraft town- ships, its situation is not central in regard to its own township. Situated near the township line on the extreme west side, it has to some extent a rival in the village of Brady, occupying a simi- lar position on the extreme east side of the township; which, having the advantage of a very good water-power, has become a place of considerable business.
This water-power was first improved by one John Vickars (hence the sobriquet of Vicksburg, by which the place is gener- . ally known ) who, in 1831, constructed on the Portage creek, a little mill for grinding grain, the stones for which he brought from Ohio, in a pair of saddle-bags, on horseback. In this mill the unbolted wheat meal was made which supplied the family with whom the writer hereof boarded in the winter of 1831-2. Subsequently Vickars added a diminutive distillery to his mill of which no good ever came. The village of Brady has for many years had the benefit of a saw-mill and a custom and flouring mill. It has also several stores, a blacksmith shop, tavern, &c.
Previous to the year 1836, all the business of Schoolcraft had centered about the corners of Center and Eliza streets ; a large hotel and well built stores occupying all the corners. But in that year, the "University lot " lying contiguous to Schoolcraft on the east, having reverted to Government, and been sold, an addition was made to the village of the south half of said lot, known as " Bull's Addition; " a public house was erected on Grand street where the Prairie Ronde House now stands; and the business of the town gradually drew that way. The high- way running south from the termination of Center street was closed after much litigation, in which the whole township be- came involved; and in the course of which a jury rendered a verdict of $2,720 damages by the highway which, years before, the complaining proprietor, Lucius Lyon, had himself designat- ted and opened, through land, the whole body of which, at the
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time of the verdict, could not have been sold for one-half that sum. The consequence was to render nearly valueless all that had been done by the pioneers of the village, and to transfer the business, and even the buildings, from their old location, to Grand Street.
In 1837, Schoolcraft was seized with that mania for banking by those who had no money to lend, but who wished to bor- row, which prevailed so extensively under the system created by the General Banking Law, and which produced that delecta- ble brood known as " Wild.Cat Banks." A company was organ- ized, called the "Farmers' Bank of Prairie Ronde," the amount of . specie required by law paid in, the bills engraved, books and fur- niture procured, and all was in readiness to let out the "cats; " but the whole system beginning rapidly to fall to pieces, the officers wisely refrained; not a bill was signed; and so School- craft was saved the reproach that fell upon so many towns of the new State of Michigan.
A long interval of dullness and stagnation now succeeded. The trade of the prairie was more than ever diverted to Kala- mazoo, and the village wore that dilapidated and unthrifty ap- pearance which always attends a state of stagnation in business.
For nearly twenty years few events worthy of note occurred. A few dwellings were added from time to time, and each of the religious denominations, Baptist, Presbyterian and Methodist, erected moderately convenient houses of worship. Rev. Wm. Taylor, also, about the year 1846, erected a building and opened the public school called "The Cedar Park Female Seminary," designed for the education of females only, but to which both sexes have always been admitted, and in which a school, varying much in character and usefulness, has generally been taught up to the present time. Previous to his death, which occurred, in 1852, Mr. Taylor conveyed the Seminary property to the Trustees of Kalamazoo College, under whose auspices it has since been conducted: but during the present year it has been purchased by School District No. 4, of Schoolcraft, and the building is about to be enlarged and used as a Union or graded school-house.
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An event of no little interest at the time to the farmers of Prairie Ronde was the invention, and operation, by Hiram Moore, Esq., of Climax, of a harvesting machine, known as "Moore and Hascall's Harvester." Several of these machines were built at Schoolcraft between the years 1835, when the first rude attempt was made, and 1848, when the invention had be- come perfected. They were somewhat extensively used in har- vesting, almost exclusively on Prairie Ronde, but were super- seded by the cheaper and less cumbrous Reapers, then just com- ing into use. These harvesters performed the work of cutting, threshing, cleaning and bagging the grain at one operation; delivering it ready to be hauled to the granary. They were ope- rated by 16 horses requiring four drivers, and three attendents on the machines. Altogether they were most ingeniously con- structed and effective machines, attracting crowds of people, even from other States, to witness their work. One machine could harvest about twenty acres in a day; and the writer of this had 600 bushels of wheat cut, threshed, and bagged, by one machine in a day. The inventor removed to Wisconsin, where he has since operated one of the machines on his exten- sive farm; and one was taken many years ago to California. None of them have been operated on Prairie Ronde since 1850.
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