USA > Michigan > Ionia County > Memorials of the Grand River Valley > Part 6
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Then again, those who came in 1836 were not pioneers. Others had opened the way, and built saw-mills, a grist-mill: had raised crops, and "the poor had the Gospel preached unto them " by Monett.
But it is a noticeable fact that the men who have since been looked up to, were the men of '36, or the years preceding. gentleman who was present at the raising of Alonzo Sessions' house, and saw the group of young men who had come to- gether, was forcibly struck by the impression that he had never seen so fine a lot of young men together on such an occasion. In fact, a disproportional part of the earliest settlers of Ionia
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county were young men of talent and character. They made an impression which has not been obliterated. This remark is measurably true of most of the towns in the county, strikingly so of Ionia; no town anywhere. for intellect and moral worth has stood higher; the moral atmosphere has always been good, and the dominant influence on the side of virtue. No place has done more for education or religion than Ionia; and there is no place where it is easier to rally the people in a good canse. For this, bless the early settlers. The time had come when New England was not, as when she settled " New Con- netient " or northern Ohio, cleansing herself of the worthless part of her inhabitants. The time had come when the best and most enterprising of her sons were looking to the West.
An Ohio man. some years ago, proposed as a toast, " Ohio and Kentucky-the former settled by the offscouring of New England: the latter by the elite of Virginia. See what free- dom has done for the one, and slavery for the other." If, as is true, Ohio was settled by those whom New England could well spare, and its high civilization is a growth of an age, it is not true of the Grand River Valley. The time had come when the flower of New England and Western New York were going to the West, as was deeply felt by those who were left behind. Probably no Western State was settled by so good a class of people as Michigan. Young as she is, her institutions are being copied by the older States: and for civilization, re- finement and culture she need not blush in the presence of old Massachusetts, which is the pioneer of American civiliza- tion. Massachusetts is still fettered by some of her old ideas, which the freer genius of Michigan has discarded; and there- fore the strides of the young Michigan will be the more rapid. But God bless the old " Mother of States." A little conserv- ative, as old people always are, she is a good, old motherly State, and her children call her blessed.
But where are we? In Ionia. in 1836. This year, in imita- tion of older places, the 4th of July was celebrated; Alonzo Sessions, orator, and Thomas Cornell, caterer, on the occasion. Doubtless, the oration was good. for Mr. Sessions is not in the habit of speaking unless he has something to say. But tradi-
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tion speaks not of his oration, except that he orated. But to show that the ancients were not very different from the moderns, while the intellectual feast is forgotten, the dinner and the dance are still held in cherished remembrance. By that dinner Mr. Cornell established his reputation, and the danec is the one to which the grey veterans now look back as a season when youth and beauty beguiled the hours in such a way that the remembrance of it is a pleasure. They had not a band of music, for all they could muster for the day's pa- rade was a fife and drum. In the morning's divertisement they had the strains of a backwoods Paganini-John Smith-and we will suppose that "soft eyes looked love to eyes that spoke again," for that is nature. But, while the season was one of social jollity, it was one where self-respect was preserved; they were not dependent on artificial excitement; they were too self-respecting to need or tolerate intoxicating drinks. When the small hours of morning bade them seek their homes, all were sober, all were happy.
That dance is one of the sweet remembrances of the " good old times " when social intercourse had a soul in it.
Passing 1836, the history of Ionia, for a series of years, is a history of her losses of territory. Divided in 1837, by a north and south line, into Ionia and Maple, and then shorn of one township after another, we find her a simple town with a snug little village-the county scat-with a slow but steady growtil, until the completion of the D. & M. railroad; then, instead of being herself a tributary of Grand Rapids, she became the central and market town of Ionia county.
Ionia has no natural advantages; it owes its existence, even as a village, to the fact that on the arrival of the first settlers, the Indians had a clearing, which they obtained; and that being nearly central, it was by the infant county made the county scat, and to the location of the U. S. Land Office there. The two last gave it a precedence over Lyons, which had some nat- ural advantages. The prestige which it obtained by being the center of public business, it has kept up; and business enter- prise has not been lacking. She had the start of Lyons before the railroad came, and the railroad left Lyons in the lurch.
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From the time that Ionia cut loose from her dependence on Grand Rapids her progress has been steadily onward. Trade received an impulse, some manufactories were started, and wealth sought investment there. Beautiful residences began to adorn the hill-side and the plain; fine churches arose; and a noble school house - the pride of the place -crowned her hill-top; and Ionia became a city. She is not, and cannot be a great city; but it is, and will be, a place where people will delight to locate for a pleasant, home-like vicinity. Ionia prides itself on the good order, moral worth and respectability of the people. It is not a favorable place for the bands of " bogus niggers " to exhibit; they are a little too self-respect- ing for such. Temperance has a strong hold on the people; though it must be confessed, some few people do drink on the sly, or have some infirmity that calls for medicine. 1 few boys walk the streets with a cigar in their months; for it must not be supposed that in a place as large as Ionia all will know what belongs to a gentleman, or that all the boys have been well brought up.
Ionia was incorporated as a village in 1855; as a city in 1873.
TRADITIONS OF IONIA.
In 1842, a man got drunk at a tavern, and on his way home fell from his wagon and broke his neck. He was carried back to the tavern; and his funeral held in the bar-room, in view of all the display of what steals one's brains, and makes man a brute. The Rev. Mr. Overheiser conducted the services.
As Mr. A. F. Bell has repented of all his vices, and reformed. as we sincerely hope, we may be excused if we tell a story or two of him in that time of his life, when, to use his own lan- guage, "he had a fine chance for improvement."
There lived in the town, a Dr. Beckwith; quite a character in his way, as may be seen from his feasting the Lyonese. Bell had mortally offended the Doctor; and in his wrath the Doctor challenged him to settle the the affair "according to the code of honor." Bell accepted the challenge; chose pota- toes for the weapons; the place, the bridge across the Grand River, the parties standing at opposite ends and discharging
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their missiles until honor was satisfied. With ineffable dis- gust, Beckwith refused to have anything to do with one, who could show so blood-thirsty a spirit; and insist on such ungentlemanly terms.
This same irrepressible Bell and another were once crossing the Looking Glass River on a log, when a deer was floated against it by the current. They seized the deer, held his head under water, and drowned him. Having taken off his skin, they car- ried it on a pole between them to Lyons. On the way they met a man, who was surprised to see them with a fresh deer skin, as they had no gun. IIe asked them how they killed it. Bell told him the facts in the case, but the man said, " Tell that to some green-horn that don't know anything." "That's just what I did," was the cool answer.
In 1856, a beautiful little girl, seven years old, the daugh- ter of -- Page, went out riding on her pony, accompanied by an older girl. In the principal street the saddle turned. and the child hung by her foot in the stirrup. Frightened, she screamed, which startled the pony, which, after dodging about a moment, ran for the stable. The child's head was struck against the side of the stable door, and she was killed. What renders this peculiarly aggravating is, when the saddle turned, and the pony was shying here and there, a dozen men were near, yet no one had the presence of mind or courage to fly to the rescue and seize the beast .. Comment is needless.
The first wheat exported from Ionia was sent down the river by Giles Isham, in 1839-2,254 bushels.
The first birth in Ionia county was that of Eugene Winsor, son of Darius Winsor, which happened in 1833.
Winsor has the credit of being the first born of white pa- rents in the Grand River Valley, but Emily Slater got the start of him by eight or nine years.
The following article is from the pen of one who knows whereof he wrote, the IIon. Alonzo Sessions:
" No adequate idea can be formed of the difficulties and dangers attending the first settlement of Ionia county, with- out taking into account the condition at the time. It was a
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vast wilderness, a hundred miles distant from other settle- ments, with no roads for communication in any direction, and no possible channel for supplies but the circuitons, hazardons and expensive water communication around the lakes and up the Grand River. The whole country was in the possession of a strange and savage people, who would naturally regard the new-comers as not entitled to a friendly welcome; with abundant leisure, always armed, and with sagacity enough to know that the incomers were at their mercy.
With scanty supplies; with continued uncertainty as to ob- taining more; with no shelter, except the poor wigwams pro- vided by the Indians; with everything to make and build anew; with all the hazards of toil, exposure, sickness, suffer- ing. starvation and death, they boldly took the risk, and con- quered every obstacle. By kind treatment and honest dealing, the Indians soon became friends, and often supplied the mate- rial most in need when hunger came and famine threatened. With a kindness or prodigality unknown among thrifty. cau- tions people, they would divide their food, or part with all of it. by turns, if the inducements were satisfactory. They often became useful allies in navigating streams, and in other pur- suits; and when the early settlers got in a condition to produce a surplus of food, for a time after pay-day they were very good enstomers; and a limited commerce with them was con- stant, and beneficial on both sides.
Under such circumstances, of course it was impossible for a weak colony to make rapid progress. But men who had the courage to make the attempt, were not the men to fail, and the work progressed steadily from the ontset. Fields were made and planted; houses, mills and barns were built, and the work went gradually, but surely on: gathering numbers, tone. strength and power to the present time.
The first settlers, like all pioneers, had a village, perhaps city, in imagination in the immediate future, on their purchase. and the location of the county-seat for some time became a very interesting matter to them, and resulted in their favor. A stake was stuck in the ground and named "Ionia Center," though not very near the center of the county.
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Very soon after the location of the county seat, the U. S. Land Office was also moved there; and was the occasion of great rejoicing, but it proved a very unfortunate thing for the county. At the very time when the mania for speculating in wild lands was raging, and the fever at its extreme height, the Land Office was opened in the midst of an extensive tract of the most valuable lands, just thrown upon the market, by offi- cers so void of all sense of honor, as to practice daily, in open daylight, the most bare-faced frauds upon poor men, that lesired small tracts to live on; and a criminal favoritism in the interest of those who had money to bribe them, and to secure large acres, to hold wild and waste.
Just at that time President Jackson's "Specie Circular " came in force; and that enabled greedy officials to swindle honest purchasers, in detail, and in bulk. It would require too much space to describe all the methods of fraud and swindling that were practiced, but a few of them will be given, to-wit: The law required that each parcel of land should be first offered at auction. The bids were required to be in writ- ing, and placed in a box, previous to the day of sale. When the time for final decision came. all bids were missing, except the one put in by the favored one. Again, only gold or silver. or the bills of a few favored banks were receivable for lands. This was a surprise, sprung by the "specie circular;" and many-in fact most poor men-came nnprepared. The nearest banks were at Detroit, 140 miles distant; and no road. A broker's office, across the street from the Land Office, was a good thing to have, for gold and silver was in demand at 10 per cent. premium. The broker's office sold specie while the supply lasted; but gave out before noon and night. At night and at noon boxes were seen to pass from the Land Office to the broker's; and the specie, used to buy land was used twice each day, and somebody pocketed 20 cents on each dollar of it every day, and the money was taken from the pockets of those that had no money to spare.
The result is soon told. Those who come to bny land to make themselves homes, soon became disgusted, and left. It may be wondered why they did not tear down the Land Office,
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and the office of the broker. But General Jackson was Presi- dent. and " by the Eternal " it might not have been safe. They left peaceably. and the speculators, as they are called, took the land and held it from settlement and improvement. Some paid taxes upon it and others let it be sold for taxes; and the titles became mixed and doubtful, and careful men shun it. Much remaining uncultivated and wild to-day.
The men who interfered to retard the settlement and improve- ment of the county, probably had no such purpose. Most of them are punished. But the fact remains-if they had kept away, and left the land for those who needed it, and would have made a good use of it, Ionia county would to-day be worth double what it is, and would be second to no merely agricultu- ral county in the State."
BAPTIST CHURCH IN IONLA.
The settlers in Ionia were not unmindful of their spiritual needs, and as early as June, 1836. took the initiatory steps to organize a church. Under the guidance of Elder E. Loomis, agent of the American Home Mission Society, the prelim- inary steps were taken to effect a church organization; steps which resulted in the establishment of the "First Baptist Church of Ionia; " which church is the " pioneer church " of Ionia county, and, with the exception of the Mission Church at Grand Rapids, the first in the Grand River Valley.
An interesting and extended history of this church has been written and published by Dr. Lincoln, one of those who founded the church, and who still lives as one of its venerated mem- bers. From this history of the church by Lincoln, we con- dense and select, to bring it within the province of this work, the following particulars :
The first banded members of the preliminary organization were:
Samuel Dexter, Erastus Yeomans, Alfred Cornell, and their wives. June 24th, 1834.
At a meeting on the 23rd of August, Benjamin Barber was received by letter, and W. B. Lincoln was received as a candi- date for baptism. At this meeting the church was organized.
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The next meeting Lincoln was baptized, and was elected church clerk.
On the 1Sth of Feb., 1837, the church met at the school house in Dist. No. 1. and adopted articles of faith and cove- nant, and received by letter-
Geo. Dexter and wife, Win. Wood and wife, Jeremiah Eaton, Candis Dexter, Justus Barber, Mercy Smith, Delilah Clap- saddle.
There also appear as members of the church. J. Eaton and Robert S. Parks. At this date the membership was twenty. In May, 1837, Elder Sangster, his wife and daughter united with the church, and he became its pastor, in which relation he continued until Ang., 1840, when he was succeeded by Rev. H. D. Buttolph, who continued pastor until the close of 1844. In 1845, Elder Alfred Cornell became pastor, and con- tinned in that relation seventeen years. During his time, a house of worship was erected; the church recruited, and from detachments from it, other churches were formed.
Since 1863 the church has been ministered to by J. II. Morrison, two years; Elder Cornell, two years; Leri Parmely, four years, during which time the new brick church was built; J. Rowley, one year: Elder Deland (as supply for a time).
Present pastor, 1875, Rev. E. O. Taylor. Membership, 250.
Other churches may complain at the comparatively large space given to the Baptist Church in Ionia. The reasons are. it is the pioneer church, and a warm-hearted member of it, con amore, has furnished abundant material. A great major- ity of the churches have failed to make any report at all ; and of many, all that is said, is the gleaning of a sinner, who made arrangements with some leading member of every church for the particulars of its history. If any churches are not noticed, it is from their own failure to interest themselves in it.
LYONS.
It will be recollected that for a time Ionia connty was all one town, and attached to Kent county. In 1837, this big
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town was divided, and a tier and a half of townships on the east were set off from Ionia, and organized as Maple. Maple. in turn, was shorn of her fair proportions by the organization of towns, set off. What was left, in 1840, dropping the name of Maple, assumed that of Lyons, in compliment to the Hon. Imeins Lyon, who figured prominently in the Grand River Valley in the earlier years of its history.
Those a cant couriers of civilization, the Indian Traders, had located there about 1830. These were Lonis Generan, -- Brown, and Win. Hunt ; the two last withont their families. Generan had identified himself with the Indians by taking an Indian wife. He and Brown soon disappear from the scene. IInnt. in 1834, brought on his family, and lived and died at Lyons.
There was also located there a lawyer by the name of Belcher, with several men in his employ or gang, ostensibly trading with the Indians, but in reality carrying on the manufacture of " bogus." Belcher soon disappears, and they say that, hav- ing commenced life in a way that gave him a fine chance to improve, he has made good the opportunity; that he is not the Belcher that headed a " bogus " gang at Lyons. No, no; that was another fellow; no relation of his, and he knows nothing of him. Wishing to encourage all laudable efforts for amend- ment, we will not tell the name or whereabouts of that Belcher.
The first who, by bringing his family, gave evidence that he meant to stay, was Henry B. Lebhart. Mr. Hunt had been there some time making up his mind whether to settle or not, and did afterwards take up his permanent residence, but not until a year after Lebhart's appearance. Therefore, by com- mon consent, Mr. L. was the pioneer settler. It will not be withone interest to follow him in his track.
Lebhart then (1833) was a young man of talent, with a wife and young family. He came on in April, selected his lands, went back to Naples, Ontario county, N. Y., and came with his family, prepared to build a saw-mill, and was accompanied by teams, bringing his traps in general and the machinery of his mill. IIe meant business. Some things he sent round the lakes. They had to make their roads, and were over 20
5
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days coming from Detroit. At what is now Lansingburg, Shiawassee county, Lebhart left his teams, and with two of his horses, his wife and child, pushed on, following Indian trails, and arrived at his chosen site, where Lyons now is, July 4th. 1833 (a little more than two months after the arrival of the first settlers at Ionia). Mrs. Lebhart, at the time of their arrival, was in the last stage of exhaustion from fatigue. She could not stand. She and her child were carried by the Indi- ans to their settlement on the left bank of the river, and put in the quarters of Belcher and his band. There she was laid on a pile of bear-skins. Mrs. L. had before a slight acquaint- ance with Belcher and his wife, and he acted a gentleman's part in befriending her and hers while temporarily an inmate of his house. The gang acted suspiciously, evidently feeling that she was a spy on their conduct; and Belcher seemed de- termined to protect her at all hazards, never leaving her a moment unprotected. "Give the devil his due," is an old proverb. Let Belcher be what he might, he was chivalrously honorable in the excention of the charge he had undertaken. There were wranglings between him and his men on her ac- count. She believed they wanted to kill her, especially after they knew that she had found out their business. He never left her and her child for five days, or until another shelter was provided for them, and the teams had come in with their provisions. They were supplied by the Indians.
While she, in her feeble, exhausted state, was lying in Belcher's cabin, she was a great object of curiosity to the In- dians, who were continually coming to see the " White Squaw." At one time she awoke, to be frightened by the sight of a big Indian standing over her with a knife in his hand drawn back behind him, as if ready to plunge it into her, he fixing his eyes intently upon her; she screamed and fainted. Belcher rushed to her side, and told her that he was a good Indian, and that he was simply gazing at her with curiosity, and that he merely happened to have his knife in his hand to cut some tobacco. This afterwards she well knew was true-that he was a good Indian-and a good friend he proved to be to the "White Squaw."
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The journey from Detroit was one of fearful hardships-cut- ting roads, fording streams, building bridges, etc. The "mos- (muitoes were awful," bloodthirsty and unrelenting. Lebhart, fearing his wife and child could not endure much longer, left. as before said. and pushed on, leaving the rest of the men to endure the hardships of the journey, and to fight the irrelig- ions, uncircumcised mosquitoes as best they could. But they got through in a few days-a set of as tired sinners as ever welcomed an Indian camp, or launched their curses at "skeeters."
The child spoken of above is now Mrs. Ed. B. Armstrong, of Saranac.
The first birth at Lyons was in 1834-a son of Mrs. Lebhart, which died in a few days.
Lebhart and family lived in a tent until he had got up the saw-inill, and sawed boards for a house. The Indians were very kind, bringing provisions, etc. They had only scant clothing ; bringing only what they wore, sending the rest around the lakes. Such clothes as they wore they got of the Indians; their own did not come for two years, and then all spoiled. Their other goods came all right.
During the first year, Mrs. L. was chased by a big gray wolf.
Mr. Lebhart was always a prominent man at Lyons. He was the pioneer Fourth of July orator of the West ; at least west of Pontiac. How the historian's pen would delight to linger over the scenes of that day. From the woods and clearings the settlers had come in, in their, best array, with their wives and lassies, drawn by ox teams. The Indians, knowing that the white people were going to have their big " pow-wow," came out in all their paint and feathers to wit- ness the scene. And, if we may credit mythology, the gods of the sky and regions below were looking on in gaping expec- tancy. Jupiter, in form of a big owl, was perched in the top of a tree. PInto, as an Indian, sat on a log near by; Nep- tune, in the form of a big bull-frog. was in the edge of the meadow, peeping out of a bog ; and anon he would lift his voice and say " big thing !" Mercury, in guise of a pigeon.
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sat on a tree, ready to carry the report to the assembled coun- cil on Olympus. Venus, as a young squaw, was squatted on the ground, with Cupid, her fat pappoose on her back ; and Mars, as a red-headed wood-pecker, was lazily clinging to the side of a tree. The day wore on ; and this is (from memory), the report of the next Olympian Chroniele: "The morning sun was auspicious of a beautiful day for the celebration of the anniversary of a nation's birth. Coineident with the first glaneing of the beams of the rising sun on the trees in the east, the booming of an extemporized cannon (a bellows nose) announced the sunrise of the glorious morning. The flag (six bandanna handkerchiefs) was floating in the wind. A barrel of whisky was rolled out on the green. At ten o'clock the meadow was alive with the denizens of the forest, who had come to do honor to the occasion and the day. At eleven, the procession was formed, marshaled by Bell, and headed by the pioneer band-a fife and a jews-harp. Arrived at the stand, the orator took up his glowing theme. Report, if you please, the chain-lightning. It is reported by the crashing thunder. But on this occasion the celestial reporter was obliged to throw down his pen, and, with the rest, join in the hand-clapping, and the shouting, " Bully!" Then followed the feast and the social hilarity, when men and gods forgot all distinction, and on equal terms commingled. Jupiter, an owl no longer, but an Indian chief, tripped lightly in the dance with Mrs. Lebhart on the green; Mercury, in the form of A. F. Bell, cavorted with the young Indians, to the infinite delight of Venus, who at the time was playing the agreeable to Coeoosh. But why partic- ularize? When all were jovial, who was the jolliest? As the sun, which, cloudless during the day, had admiringly looked on the scene, was slowly and reluctantly descending to the west, the crowd dispersed to their several homes. They mounted their ox-wagons, cracked their whips, and shouted "Ge-lang!" while the bellows-nose exploded in a farewell peal, which seemed to be liberty's shout, "Long live America! long live Lyons!" The accuracy of the above cannot be attested. Old Mercury, the reporter, was given to story-telling, and had no more truth in him than a modern reporter. This report is to be taken, as
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