Past and present of Shiawassee County, Michigan, historically; with biographical sketches, Part 16

Author:
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Lansing, Mich. : Hist. Pub.
Number of Pages: 580

USA > Michigan > Shiawassee County > Past and present of Shiawassee County, Michigan, historically; with biographical sketches > Part 16

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The cemetery near the center of section 19 was purchased by Allen Beard in the summer of 1842. The first interment within it was that of Mr. Lake, who was killed while helping to raise a building for Lewis Ward, in Perry.

Antrim sent six men to the Mexican war, and of the number but two returned. For the war of the Rebellion this township fur- nished about one hundred and twenty-five soldiers. Some were killed in battle, some were wounded, some died miserably in rebel prisons, and many died of disease and the hardships incident to a soldier's life.

BENNINGTON TOWNSHIP

Bennington, which is township 6 north, of range 2 east, has a beautiful undulating sur- face and all the varieties of soil common to Michigan townships, but particularly the sorts well adapted to the culture of fruits and cereals.

Originally, timbered openings, about one mile in width, extended from east to west through its center. To the north and south of these openings were heavy forests . of beech, maple, oak, ash, elm and other varie-

ties of deciduous trees. The township is drained by the Maple and Looking Glass rivers, the former intersecting sections 1, 2 and 3, and the latter crossing the southern part.

The people are chiefly engaged in agricul- tural pursuits, there being in the township but one village, which is also named Ben- nington, and at which there is a station of the Saginaw branch of the Michigan Cen- tral Railroad.

The official survey of the township was completed in April, 1826, but the first pur- chase of public land was not made until 1835. On June 25th of that year Samuel Nichols, Israel Parsons, and Benjamin L. Powers, of New York state, all located on section 24. It was not until two or three years later that anything like a general transfer was made from the government to individuals. Al- though a few of the original purchasers be- came settlers, a large majority were merely speculators.

Among the earliest purchasers Samuel Nichols was the only one to settle on his land. He built a log cabin and first occu- pied it with his family and his brother, James Nichols, in the spring of 1836. In May of that year Aaron Hutchings and Jor- dan Holcomb bought lands on section 28 and occupied the same in the early fall, Mr. Hutchings soon afterward purchasing more land, on section 21.

During the year 1837 a number of fam- ilies from Vermont and New York, and some from the older counties of this state, came into the township. Among them were James Bugbee; Joseph Skinner, who settled on sec- tion 21; Samuel Kellogg, the first black- smith ; the Howards,-Ira B., Smith, Jerry, William and John A.,-all of whom came

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from Washtenaw county and settled on sec- tion 36; Samuel Moses ; John Pitts, Jr., from whose family the little village of Pittsburg received its name; and David Johnson, from Oakland county, who located lands on sec- tions 4 and 5.

In May, 1837, Samuel B. and Harrison S. Bugbee, brothers, came to Michigan from New York. From Flint they proceeded on foot westward along the blazed line of the proposed Northern Railroad to township 6 north of range 2 east. 'After choosing loca- tions they returned to Flint only to find someone had preceded them; the lands of their first choice were already entered. In June they made a second journey, which re- sulted in the purchase of the fine farms they occupied for many years afterward. When they made these trips into the interior not a house or an acre of cleared land was to be seen between Flint and Corunna, and the place where the court house stands was a swamp. Returning to the state of New York, final preparations were made for re- moval to Michigan, and in October, accom- panied by their father, Solomon Bugbee, their two sisters, and the wife and son of Samuel, they became permanent residents of Bennington.

The early settlers must have wished for the powers of St. Patrick, for Mr. S. B. Bugbee related that while taking a short stroll over his newly acquired premises he killed forty snakes, most of which were "rattlers." Bears, too, came close up to the settlers' dwellings and wolves extended at- tention upon frequent occasions.

Before the spring of 1838 others after- ward prominent in the history of the town- ship became residents. One of them was

Lemuel Castle. He settled in Oakland in 1821, and in Bennington in 1837. He be- came the first supervisor of Bennington, in April, 1838, and served in the same capacity five subsequent years. He was also the first treasurer and one of the first justices of peace. He was then the largest land owner of the township and a highly respected citi- zen. Several of his descendants still live in the county.

Nelson Waugh came from Oakland county and settled on land purchased from the gov- ernment. He voted at the first township election. Marcellus Harris, Peter Harder, and Hiram Davis also were present at that meeting.

Archibald Purdy, from Washtenaw county, settled on section 12, having purchased a large portion of the section. He was an early and efficient township officer and en- joyed the esteem and confidence of his towns- men. Abner Rice, from Ohio, settled on section 17; William Colf, from New York, on section 15; and John Terrebury, from Washtenaw county, in the southwest part of the township.

Jonathan M. Hartwell, a former resident of Norwich, New York, came to Bennington in June, 1838, traveling by way of the Erie Canal and Lake Erie. Purchasing a yoke of steers at Huron, Ohio, he shipped them to Detroit, where upon his arrival, he loaded the wagon with provisions and resumed the journey toward Bennington. He cleared ten acres on the Grand River trail, partly con- structed a log house and returned to New York. Accompanied by his wife and five children, and traveling the same route, he again arrived at his new home November 20, 1838.

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A large portion of Mr. Hartwell's land be- ing in the timber openings, he was enabled to place many acres under cultivation from the beginning. In 1839 he broke and sowed to wheat forty acres, using three yokes of oxen. During the same year he opened his house to the traveling public, the small tav- erns of Nichols and Phillips hardly meeting the demands of those who journeyed over the Grand River road. He became post- master of the Hartwellville postoffice, estab- lished about 1844, and it remained under the control of members of his family until it was supplanted by the rural delivery system.

Honorable Isaac Gale, a native of Albany, New York, came to Washtenaw county in 1830. Later he exchanged his property there for land in the southern part of Ben- nington, where he settled in 1840, becoming one of the most prominent citizens of the township. He served four years as county judge, sixteen years as supervisor, and thirty-five years as justice of the peace. He was vice-president of the railroad company which constructed the line between Flint and Lansing, now a part of the Grand Trunk system. Mr. Gale was called the founder of Morrice and spent the last years of his life a resident of the village. Mrs. Gale died at the same place February 17, 1906.

Ezekiel Cook, better known as "Deacon Cook," settled on section 1, about 1839. His name heads a list of jurors drawn in that year. He is credited with having built the first frame house in the township, at the place now occupied by the residence of his grandson, Senator A. B. Cook. Deacon Cook was a highly respected citizen of the township, where he remained until the later years of his life, which he spent in the home

of his son, Mr. E. J. Cook, of Shiawassee, which place, however, was just across the township line and only a few rods from the old family home.

The civil organization of Bennington took place in the spring of 1838; at which time it included Perry. It was named for the city of Bennington, Vermont, which was the native state of several of its early settlers. The first election was held April 2, 1838, at the house of Samuel Nichols. There were thirty-one electors present, and Lemuel Cas- tle was chosen supervisor. In 1839 the electors voted to raise by tax fifty dollars , for the support of primary schools.

In the village of Bennington the First Methodist Episcopal church was organized about 1869. The early meetings were held in the school house, but a church edifice was soon erected, at a cost of two thousand eight hundred dollars, and dedicated in February, 1871. The first pastor was Rev. John Maywood, and in a long list of his suc- cessors appears the name of Rev. Frederick Strong, now of Owosso, who was pastor of the church about 1880, having the churches of Newberg and Pittsburg also in his charge at the time.

Emanuel church, of the Evangelical As- sociation, erected a house of worship in the village in 1875, and the society was incor- porated June 26, 1876. The church then belonged to the district which included also churches at Owosso, New Haven, and Ches- aning, Rev. John M. Hauk being the pre- siding elder.

About 1879 a church building was erected in the little hamlet of Pittsburg, which was occupied by two religious societies at that place.

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BURNS TOWNSHIP

Burns, described as town 5 north, of range 4 east, is the southeast corner township of the county. Its surface is generally un- dulating and is well drained by the Shiawas- see and its branches, as well as by several large artificial waterways. The stream known as the East Branch unites with the Shia- wassee river at Byron, forming an excellent waterpower at that village. The soil is very fertile and the township considered one of the best in Shiawassee county. Until Sep- tember, 1850, parts of section 5, 7 and 8 and all of section 6 were included in the Keche- wondaugoning reservation, but at that time it was opened for settlement.

Although Whitmore Knaggs opened his trading station here as early as the year 1820 and was succeeded by other traders, the settlement of the township by farmers in- tending to become permanent residents did not begin until 1835. In July of that year Dyer Rathburn, with his wife and seven children, located on the southeast quarter of section 20, where he built a log house. He brought two yokes of oxen, a span of horses, and a good supply of farming implements and household goods. For nearly a year the family lived in solitude, with no neigh- bors but Indians, many hundreds of whom at times passed along the trail near the cabin. The trail ran from Detroit to their hunting grounds in the northwest.

In the spring of 1836 some members of the Rathburn family, while in the woods a considerable distance from home, heard the cackling of chickens on the north side of the Shiawassee river. On investigating they found the family of Robert Crawford living in a cabin near the river, on section 15.

The first white child in the township was Adelaide Crawford, a daughter in this fam- ily, the date of her birth being November 2, 1836.

The next two settlers were John Burgess, who located the southwest quarter of section 23, and John B. Barnum who, in June, 1836, settled on section 28. Peter Kanouse came to Burns with his family in the summer of 1836. He settled on the south line of sec- tion 27, built a cabin and set up the first blacksmith shop in the township. Ezra D. Barnes settled on the same section about the same time.

Peter Euler was among the settlers of 1836 in the southwestern part of the town- ship. He was a native of Germany and while a young man came to Michigan from that country, in 1833. With his wife and two small children, he came directly to the new and almost uninhabited region, settling first in the township of Genoa, in Living- ston county. About two years later he re- moved to section 29, Burns township, where he purchased a farm, which became the per- manent home of his family, he and his wife residing there the remainder of their lives. Both died at the venerable age of eighty- one, Mrs. Euler surviving her husband two years.

The hardships of frontier life were in a way the natural heritage of Americans. "Going west" was the experience of one generation after another, and many family histories are but a repetition of one tale, --- that of growing up with a new country. To such settlers the experience was not alto- gether new, but to the foreigner who had come from a land where new settlements were unknown, where there was no fron-

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tier of civilization, where a dozen generations of his ancestors had walked the same streets in the shadow of the same church spires, it was new and altogether strange. His family had not cleared new land and built log cabins for a hundred years, and one wonders at the facility with which he learned the language and adopted the ways of an alien people, and made them his own. And the children of this class of immigrants can- not be distinguished from the descendants of families who have lived in the United States since the battle of Bunker Hill.

Several members of the Euler family are still living in the county. Theodore M. Euler, now a resident of Owosso, occupied the homestead, in Burns, a number of years after his father's death, and was elected supervisor of the township when barely past his majority. Later, while living at Ban- croft, he filled the same office a number of years for Shiawassee township.

Among the other settlers of that year were Thomas P. Green, who helped locate many of the first roads in the southern part of the county ; Bright L. Clement; Amos Fos- ter, who built a log cabin on section 22, in which Andrew Huggins is supposed to have taught the first school in the township in the winter of 1838-39, while Mr. and Mrs. Foster were absent on a trip to the east; Aaron Wellman; and Nicholas Braden, who deserves honorable mention among the pioneers of the county. He was born in Germany. While a mere youth, he went to England and then decided to try his for- tunes in a new country, reaching New York at the age of nineteen, without money or friends. After living there nine years, in which he had accumulated some property,

he came to Burns and settled in the woods, purchasing the northwest quarter of sec- tion 32.

Among those who came in 1837 were Ramah Cole, Gideon Drake, Oliver Wolcott and Daniel Kitson. The southeast quarter of section 2 was entered by Roger Haviland in 1838, but he did not settle permanently in the township until 1840. He lived the re- mainder of his life in Burns and became one of the best known business men of the county. J. J. Gaylord was the first settler on the Indian reservation.

The first wedding in the township is be- lieved to have been a double wedding that took place December 17, 1840, at which time Elder Brigham united in marriage Joseph Kanouse to Miss Mabel Drake, and John P. Drake to Miss Agnes Kanouse.

Burns was set off from the old territory of Shiawassee township with its present name and limits in March, 1837. The first "town meeting" was held at the office of the Byron Company on the 30th of April of that year, on which occasion ten electors were present, all of whom received one or more offices.

In 1838 the township expended fifty dol- lars for a bridge across the Shiawassee river, near the cabin of John Knaggs, and in 1843 voted to raise one hundred dollars to bridge the river at Byron on the road leading west from the village.

In the summer of 1837 five roads through the township were laid out, the first being the road from Genesee county, entering Burns just south of the east branch of the Shiawassee. In 1840 the state road from Byron to Owosso was established.

The first school, as has been mentioned,

CORUNNA JOURNAL

MAIN STREET, BYRON

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was taught in the winter of 1838-9. During the following summer several schools were taught in the township, but no school dis- trict was regularly organized until 1843.

VILLAGE OF BYRON

The village of Byron was incorporated April 1, 1873. Its first officers were: Presi- dent, Charles H. Lemon; clerk, James Sleeth ; assessor, Jazeb Close; marshal, David M. Tillman ; trustees, Chauncey Wells, William F. Close, Orlando Lee; Elijah B. Welch, Adam Betterly, and Isaac Barnum. The present village officers are: Fred S. Ruggles, president ; Richard O'Hern, clerk; Elmer L. Haviland, treasurer; Frank R. Lawrie, assessor; and John Davidson, Ray Chaffee, Charles Anderson, and Floyd Down- ing, trustees.

The corporation of the village comprises the adjacent greater sections of 13, 14, 23 and 24, which territory was located by Judge Samuel W. Dexter, July 13, 1824. The patent conveying the same to him is dated October 20, of that year. June 21, 1836, Judge Dexter transferred the lands to Major F. J. Prevost, C. Smith, P. L. Smith and S. S. Derby, who formed an asso- ciation known as the Byron Company.

The village is situated at the junction of two branches of the Shiawassee river and · as soon as the Byron Company was fairly organized, work was started to build a dam across the east branch of the stream, the first dam being completed late in the fall of 1836. The company also built a log house for a boarding house for their employes. This building, which was completed in Sep- tember, 1836, was the first building erected in the village. The energy of the promoters

of the company induced other settlers to cast in their lot with them, and a thriving trading post sprung up, which gave rise to the hope that the village might eventually become the county seat. When the county was organized, however, Byron was too much to one side, and its aspirations could not be realized.

In 1840 Byron contained five families, and a postoffice was established with Major Prevost as postmaster. Prior to that time mail was brought from Holly, but soon thereafter a stage line was established from Pontiac to Ionia, which brought mail to Byron until the completion of the railroad from Ionia. Holden White succeeded Major Prevost as postmaster in 1842, and started the first general store in the village.

Dr. Abner Sears was the first physician locating in Byron, in 1838. The first at- torney was Corydon Lee. The first flouring mill was completed in 1843, the proprietors being Bowman W. Dennis and Sullivan R. Kelsey. They also opened a store, the sec- ond one in the village. The first hotel was the log cabin referred to, intended for a boarding house for mill hands. A' Mr. Sad- ler took possession of it and hung out the sign "Cottage Inn" which continued to be the name until 1847. The Byron Hotel was built about 1841.

The first regularly organized religious so- ciety in Byron was that of the Christian church, Rev. John Cameron being the first minister, in 1840, though several families had united for worship for two years prior to his coming. The Methodist church was organized in 1853, but ministers of that de- nomination had preached in Byron since 1836. Rev. Riley C. Crawford, who is still

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living here, was one of the preachers prior to 1850. The Presbyterian church was or- ganized by Rev. Seth Hardy June 24, 1845. A Baptist church was organized at an early date, but declined and was reorganized October 6, 1866, as the "Baptist Conference of Byron and Cohoctah." The church edifice was constructed in 1873, and remodelled in 1899. The first pastor was Rev. Thomas H. Cary.

Byron Lodge No. 80 Free and Accepted Masons was organized in 1856 and has a present membership of one hundred and forty-three. Its officers are as follows: Guy Braden, worshipful master; Herbert White- head, secretary; Clark M. Buell, treasurer.

Byron Lodge No. 349 Knights of the Maccabees was organized in 1890 and its first officers were: Jay D. Royce, com- mander ; Fred Carpenter, lieutenant comman- der ; Thomas A. Lawrie, record keeper, and Albert F. Hunt, finance keeper. The present officers are Fred A. Lewis, commander ; Asher Hyatt, lieutenant commander; Lyle Downing, record keeper; Elmer Haviland, finance keeper.

D. G. Royce Post No. 117, Grand Army of the Republic, was organized in 1883, its first commander being Solomon S. Tower. The present commander is Luther C. Kan- ouse. There are also the Woman's Relief Corps, Order of the Eastern Star and Ladies of the Maccabees, besides various clubs and societies organized for educational and other purposes.

The first school was taught about the year 1840, and the first school meeting was held in 1843. The first school house was built in Byron in 1845. The union school build- ing was constructed in 1865 at a cost of

two thousand dollars and used until the present brick building was erected, in 1899, at a cost of six thousand dollars. Among the former superintendents may be men- tioned Samuel W. Baker, Edwin M. Plunkett, Devere Hall and George R. Brandt. The present teachers are O. D. Hoag, Kath- ryn Bowen, Minnie Winans and Berenice Phipps. The members of the school board are A. L. Bramack, moderator; Clark M. Buell, director; Myron H. Redmond, treas- urer ; William Dyer and Herman J. Meier.

The first store in Byron was opened by Holden White, in 1842, in the building op- posite the Byron Hotel. Nicholas Gulick, who came to Byron in 1843, was for a time a clerk in the store of Holden White and afterward, buying a small stock of goods at the start, he continued in business for many years. Mr. Gulick was school director for a long time, held various offices in the vil- lage and township and was a representative in the state legislature in 1852-4.

Following the advent of the Toledo, Ann Arbor & Northern Michigan Railroad, in 1885, a number of brick stores were con- structed, all of which are occupied by dealers in various articles of merchandise, who are ' doing a profitable business in their respective lines.

Byron is surrounded by a prosperous farming community, but has no large manu- facturing interest. The illegal bonus with its accompanying benefits, has not been em- ployed unless we may except the private donations of a large amount of money and land for right of way given to aid in the construction of the Ann Arbor Railroad.

The State Bank of Byron, which, in 1905, succeeded the Exchange Bank, that had been

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conducted for a number of years by Albert F. Hunt, is capitalized at twenty thousand dollars and is doing a deservedly large busi- ness. The president is Luther C. Kanouse, and the cashier F. William Nothnagel.

The Byron Herald established about 1895, by the late James Sleeth, is now conducted by William McDonald and enjoys a large advertising patronage.

Byron now has a population of four hun- dred and fifty and is an excellent trading point. Its officers are : President, Dr. A. L. Brannack; clerk, Richard O'Hearn; treas- urer, John Fritz; assessor, F. R. Lawrie; trustees, Herman C. Walker, John Davidson, G. W. Downing, D. R. Benton.

CALEDONIA TOWNSHIP

Caledonia may justly be regarded as one of the two most important townships in the county, because it includes within its boun- daries the city of Corunna, which is the county-seat of Shiawassee. On section 32 is also the site of the county farm, which has been described elsewhere in this work.

The surface of the township is gently un- dulating, though in some parts nearly level. The soil is generally of good quality, being somewhat mixed with clay in the northern portion, but becoming more sandy toward the southern boundary. A rich muck is found along the river and this is very pro- ductive. The timber found growing in the township was beech, elm, maple, basswood and hickory.

Very few facts of a reliable character have been obtainable regarding the town- ship's early history. The earliest settler was John Swain, who came from Chenango County, New York, and located thirty-two

acres on section 25. He entered this land in 1834 and built a log house upon it. Mr. Swain had for a while lived at the Williams trading post. He was by occupation a car- penter, and also filled the sacred office of preacher at a very early date. The first re- ligious services in the township were con- ducted by him and the latter years of his life were devoted to the duties of an evangelist. Mrs. Swain's death, in 1836, was the first which occurred in the township. The farm which had been partially cleared by Swain was afterward purchased by Captain John Davids, the earliest agent of the Shiawassee County Seat Company, who, after relin- quishing his official duties in Corunna, re- moved to the farm and engaged in agricul- ture.

The next settler was Philip Rockwell, who, in 1835, entered one hundred and sixty acres of land on section 36, but did not im- prove or occupy the land until 1837. A few others came in that year, but Caledonia was settled slowly and for many years much of the land remained uncleared.

William H. Jewett located eighty acres on section 4 as early as 1838, and lived upon it many years, but ultimately removed to New Haven, where he died. In the same year Robert McBride purchased a farm on section 36, where he lived more than forty years and where he died in 1879.

W. R. Seymour and his two sons, George and Walter, were pioneers in 1839, and Thomas R. Young in the same year entered a tract of land on sections 1, 2, 11 and 12, embracing six hundred and forty acres, part of which he afterward sold. William Lemon, Gerry Tuttle, Auburn Stuart, Don C. Griswold, and Ninion Clark were also

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Past and present of Shiawassee County, Michigan, historically; with biographical sketches, Part 16

Author: Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Lansing, Mich. : Hist. Pub. Number of Pages: 580

Author:
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Lansing, Mich. : Hist. Pub.
Number of Pages: 580