USA > Michigan > Shiawassee County > Past and present of Shiawassee County, Michigan, historically; with biographical sketches > Part 66
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I do not remember how long it took us to. reach Chatham, but I remember one day we made only twenty miles. I had then never seen such horrible roads. It was deep mud almost the entire distance. When we reached Chat- ham I met a Mr. Taylor, a Vermonter, with whom I was acquainted. He owned or con- trolled the stage line from there to Detroit.
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The roads were so bad just at that time that he did not run the stage and, I think, sent the mail through on horseback. He told me that if I would wait till some time the next week he thought the ice would be out and that a steamboat would run to Detroit. There seemed to be no other way unless we continued in the lumber wagon, so we remained at the hotel about a week. At the end of that time Lake St. Clair as far as could be seen from Chat- ham was clear of ice. A steamboat was fired up and with our three trunks we went on board and set sail for Detroit, rejoicing in the fact that we had escaped the terrible roads for the balance of the way. But in this we were soon disappointed. We had sailed only about twenty miles from Chatham when the boat ran into solid ice and- could not move either way. According to my best recollection there were about twenty persons on board, my friend Taylor among the rest. The place where we got fast in the ice was about one and a half miles from the shore and we all descended from the boat to the ice on a lad- der. A man helped me carry one of our trunks and other gentlemen were kind enough to take the other two. A gentleman by the name of Williams, from Detroit, took Jerome on his shoulder and we all walked ashore.
Mr. Taylor had a relay of horses on his stage line about one and a half miles from where we landed and suggested that we go on to that place and he would send us to De- troit the next day. So I hired a Frenchman, with his horse and cart, to carry us to the sta- tion where the horses were. He put the three trunks in the cart and your mother and Jerome sat on top of them and I walked. When we arrived at the station we found a log tavern, kept by another Frenchman, where we were to remain over night. When we came to go to bed we found calico pillow cases to lay our heads on. Of course, your mother could not stand that, and she went to one of our trunks and got some towels and spread over them.
The next morning the stage was brought around. It was a lumber wagon and one span of horses, but it was the only kind of vehicle safe to drive over such roads. After a tedi- ous ride, over a road that would now be thought impassable, we arrived in Detroit a little before dark on that day.
A gentleman in Brantford gave me a letter of introduction to a Mr. Graham, then a dry- goods merchant in Detroit. When I presented this letter I asked Mr. Graham's advice as to a place to locate and he seemed to think Marshall would be a desirable place. After re- maining in Detroit three or four days I con- cluded that Ann Arbor might do, so we took the Michigan Central cars and traveled to the' end of that road, whose terminus was Ann Arbor at that time. The night that we arrived there your mother was taken quite sick and remained so for some two weeks. During this time I formed the acquaintance of several of the lawyers and found that the little town was full of them, and I think at that time it was the most able bar in the state. Some of them suggested that they had been to Howell to attend court, that it was a new and small place but that the Clinton and Kalamazoo canal had been surveyed through there and was going to be built and that the prospects were good for a large town. Howell was then usually called Livingston Centre. So much was said about the place that I finally went to a livery stable and procured a horse and buggy to go and see it myself, and, in order to find the way, was told to inquire for Wetmore lake and after I had passed the lake to inquire next for Ore Creek, which is now Brighton. I had no difficulty in finding the lake but after I had passed it some two or three miles I met a man of whom I in- quired if I was on the right road to Howell and he informed me that he knew of no such place. I then drove on some distance further when I met another man of whom I made inquiry and he gave me the same answer. I then told him that I understood Howell to be
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the county seat of Livingston county. He then remarked that there was a "place up there called Livingston Centre" and I con- cluded that must be the place I was in search of and my conclusion proved to be correct. It was then better known as Livingston Cen- tre than Howell. When I got as far as Brigh- ton I obtained further information as to the route and arrived at Howell about dark. I had learned before I left Ann Arbor that there was then one lawyer at Howell. His name was Wellington A. Glover. On my ar- rival there I first paid my respects to him, in- forming him that I was an attorney-at-law and was visiting the place with a view to set- tling and going into practice. I found Mr. Glover in his office, which was a wooden building just twelve feet square built in the centre of a street. Of course, there was but one room in the building and through the cen- tre of that room ran a narrow counter behind which stood Mr. E. B. Taylor selling beer, cakes, nuts, etc. In the front of this counter stood Mr. Glover's office table. This table was not only occupied by Mr. Glover on which to do his office work but it was also occupied by Joseph Roe, a tailor, who sat upon it to do his sewing.
When I informed Mr. Glover of the object of my visit he remarked that he would be glad to have me come but that the business would not afford me a living-that he could not live there himself had he not some other business than that of the practice of law. He also informed me that his other business was an interest in the trade carried on behind that counter. I made up my mind that night that Mr. Glover was right and that I had bet- ter look for a different location.
The next morning before leaving I con- cluded that I would call on the county officers and did so and that act determined the whole course of my after life.
It will be remembered that this was in 1840 and during one of the hardest fought political campaigns that I have ever seen, 1860 and
1864 not excepted. Martin Van Buren was the Democratic candidate for president of the United States, and General William H. Har- rison was the Whig candidate. Party spirit ran high. I
was at that time identified with the Democratic party. Liv- ingston county was at that time, as it has generally been since, Democratic, and of course I found that the county officers were all Democrats and when I told them the object of my visit and answered their questions as to my politics they said "I was just the man they wanted;" that Glover was a Whig and that if I would come they would throw all the business possible into my hands. Upon that I made up my mind that I would report the facts to your mother and that if she thought best we would try the experiment.
I returned to Ann Arbor that day and de- scribed the place to her in no very flattering light but as a little settlement of fourteen families with woods on either side. But after talking the matter over we both concluded that we had gone far enough and the next day we started for Howell. We arrived there on the 6th day of April, 1840. We had left all the household goods we had in Vermont but if we had had them with us they would have done us no good at that time for there was not a vacant place in the place to put them in. There was but one tavern in the place and that was kept by Allen Weston, whose wife was then so sick that it was with difficulty that they could entertain travelers. Shubel B. Sliter kept a tavern in a log house three-fourths of a mile east of the village and we went there to board at five dollars a week for the three of us. Mrs. Sliter was an excellent woman and fine housekeeper. Mr. Sliter built a frame addition, one room, for our accommodation It was in this house that your sister Julia was born on the 7th day of May, a month after our arrival there. I secured a room in Weston's tavern for an office. At that time there were only three buildings on what is now Grand River street. They were the tavern, Ely
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Barnard's dwelling house and the county of- fice, a small, one-story building. There was then no protection against mosquitoes and the person who did not live in a new country at that day can form no idea of the quantity. The census was taken that year and I believe the population of the county was between seven and eight thousand.
We had not been there long before business began to come in some and fever and ague in great abundance. Your mother commenced having it in July, myself in September and Jerome about the same time. Neither of us had ever seen a case of the kind before and for two or three years after that it was no uncommon thing to go into a house in July and August and find every member of the family shaking with ague chills.
We had boarded with Mr. Sliter three or four months when there was a log house in the vil- lage which became vacant and as Mr. Weston was going out of the "tavern business" your mother desired me to rent the log house and rent a few articles of furniture of the West- ons so that we could go to housekeeping. I went and examined the house and found that it contained one room, a stick chimney and a ladder but no chamber floor. I went back to your mother and reported adverse to her prop- osition, informing her that she could not live in such a place, but my report was not ac- cepted. She desired to make a personal in- spection of the mansion, so I went with her and after a personal inspection of the same she said that if I could get some boards and lay them down for a chamber floor the house would do 'and she preferred to move into it and go to keeping house rather than board any longer. Lumber was then very scarce in Howell and no pine was to be had nearer than Flint. Finally I saw Mr. John Curtis, then the only merchant in town, and told him my wants. He informed me that he had some clap boards that he would not want to use until the next spring and that he would lend them to me until that time. There were no
drays and but little money in Howell at that time, so I carried the boards on my shoulder and laid them down for a chamber floor. I then loaned a few articles of Mr. Weston and moved them to the house in the same manner that I did the boards and we moved in and went to housekeeping quite happy. The owner of the house told me that I could have the use of it for a year by paying the taxes and when I came to pay them the amount was one dol- lar and fifty cents.
When the election came on that fall Almon Whipple (who then lived in the town of Handy) was elected county treasurer and Jesse Mapes, of Osceola, county clerk. They were to enter upon the duties of their respect- ive offices on the first day of the week in Janu- ary, but before that day arrived Mr. Mapes came to me and said it would not pay him to move to Howell for that office and that if I would allow him to appoint me deputy clerk and would manage the office he would give me half of the proceeds. Within a few days Mr. Whipple came to me and said that he could not afford to move to Howell at that time and that if I would take the office of deputy county treasurer he would give me half of his salary and I accepted both offers 'and on the first day of January, 1841, I took charge of the offices of county clerk and county treasurer.
The next April (1841) I was elected town- ship clerk. In the spring of 1841 the Rev. E. E. Gregory with his family went east to be gone, I think, for a year and I rented his house for an indefinite period and moved into it from the old log house. In the meantime we had purchased quite a number of articles of household goods and returned those we had rented. We lived in Mr. Gregory's house un- til the next February or March, 1842, when I purchased a small house and lot and paid for it at the time from money that I earned and saved. At that time the seat of the state gov- ernment was at Detroit and it was just at the time of the year when the list of land delin-
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quent for taxes had to be returned to the auditor general, and as I was still deputy coun- ty treasurer it was necessary for me to go to Detroit for that purpose. So I told your mother that as soon as I returned we would move into our new house. From what I learned afterwards I do not suppose that I had gone ten miles on my way to Detroit before she had a man with a yoke of oxen and a wagon and a girl and commenced moving, and on my return was nicely settled. When I asked her how she came to move before my return so I could not assist her she said, in substance, that "she did not propose to live in a rented house when she had one of her own." It was in this house that your sister Julia died on the 13th of May, 1842.
In April of 1842 I was elected justice of the peace. During these two years quite a number of houses had been built and several families had been added to the population of the vil- lage.
The first state convention that I ever at- tended was a Democratic one held at Marshall in 1841, at which time John S. Barry received the nomination for governor and was elected. George W. Peck, William McCauley, Charles P. Bush and myself were the delegates from Livingston county. Mr. Bush and I went in a buggy and got lost in the woods for an hour or two before we got as far as Jackson. The Michigan Central railroad had been built as far as Jackson at that time.
On the 3d of March, 1841, I was appointed master in chancery by J. Wright Gordon, then acting governor of the state, and subsequently I was twice appointed to that office by Gov- ernor John S. Barry. After Mr. Mapes had held the office of county clerk about one year he resigned the office and I was appointed by the court for the remainder of his term, and being elected justice of the peace the next spring I was county clerk, deputy county treas- urer, master in chancery and justice of the peace.
At the election in 1842 I was elected county
clerk and re-elected in 1844, so that I did the business of the office for six years. During the term I did what law business came in my way. Although Mr. Glover at first was not disposed to be friendly I treated him always very kindly, so that it was not long before we became friends. He died in 1843 and I was appointed administrator of his estate at the re- quest of his widow.
During the first few years of our residence in Howell there were few horses in the county, the farmers using oxen altogether in clearing up their farms. On several occasions I walked twenty miles to attend a law suit before a jus- tice of the peace. I frequently walked to Brighton, ten miles. There was in Howell, when we came, a Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist church. Neither the Methodists nor the Baptists had a church edifice of any sort, but used the little schoolhouse on alternate Sundays. The Presbyterians had commenced building a church and had it enclosed with sid- ing and two windows put in-the other places for windows were boarded up for want of funds. There was no pulpit and no seats ex- cept a few boards placed on blocks at the sides of the room. The gentlemen sat on one side and the ladies on the other. The people came from the country to church with their ox-teams. Within a year or two, however, we had the church very comfortably seated. We had two sermons on Sunday, one in the fore- noon and one in the afternoon and a prayer-meeting in the evening at "early candle light." In the fall of 1842 our Presbyterian minister, Rev. Henry Root, had a call to another church. He had built and owned really the best house in the village and of course he desired to sell it.
My friend Glover was somewhat anxious to purchase it, but Mr. Root seemed quite anx- ious to sell it to me and I finally bought it, mostly on credit, but my business was such that I had no difficulty in meeting the pay- ments as they became due. It was in that house that Emily, Lucia and Nellie were born.
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We had the first door bell and I built the first picket fence in town.
In the fall of 1849 F. C. Whipple and my- self went to Detroit to the first state fair ever held in the state; and each of us purchased a sofa, which were the first ever taken to How- ell.
In 1846 the legislature passed a law creating a court in each organized county in the state and provided that a county judge should be elected in each county on the first Tuesday of November of that year, who should hold the office for four years. I was elected to the of- fice. Hon. James W. Stansbury was the can- didate against me. I was re-elected to the same office in 1850. The county court was a court of record with a clerk and seal. The court went out of existence in 1852 when the present state constitution went into effect.
I have before stated that I was formerly identified with the Democratic party. In 1854 a paper was drawn up and circulated in differ- ent parts of the state for signatures, of which the following is a copy :
TO THE PEOPLE OF MICHIGAN, without dis- tinction or party :- In view of the recent action of congress in regard to the organization of Nebraska and Kansas territories and the evi- dent design of the slave power to attempt still further aggressions upon freedom, we invite all our fellow citizens without reference to for- mer political associations who think that the time has arrived for the union of the north to protect liberty from being overthrown and downtrodden, to assemble in mass convention on the 6th day of July next at one o'clock P. M. at Jackson, there to take such measures as shall be thought best to concen- trate the popular sentiment of the state against the encroachments of the slave power. Dated June, 1854.
This paper was signed by two hundred and forty-two persons and the mass convention was held at Jackson as requested and a Republican
party formed and a state ticket nominated and elected at the next general election. My ex- cellent friend, Kingsley S. Bingham, was elected governor.
I identified myself with the party from the date of its organization, and in the fall of that year was tendered the unanimous nomination for prosecuting attorney, which I declined.
As I remember it, this meeting at Jackson was the first commencement of the organiza- tion of the party in the United States.
The first Republican state convention, after the organization of the party was held at Marshall in 1856 and I had the honor of be- ing elected president of that convention. The same year (1856) I was nominated and elected judge of probate. F. C. Whipple was the can- didate on the Democratic ticket. On the 6th day of the next April (just seventeen years from the day that I settled in Howell) I was elected circuit judge. The late Hon. William N. Fenton, ex-lieutenant governor, was the Democratic candidate who ran against me. My majority was two hundred and seven.
It was in this year (1857) that Jerome was married to Martha Frances Gregory, daughter of Rev. Edward E. Gregory, of Howell.
My circuit then comprised the counties of Livingston, Shiawassee, Genesee, Lapeer, Sag- inaw, Tuscola and Midland. It was the largest circuit in the state. Under this election my term of service would not commence until the first day of January then next (1858). But soon after the election my predecessor resigned and I was appointed by the governor on the 9th day of May for the balance of his term, which would expire on the 31st day of December thereafter. Previous to the 1st. of January, 1858, the circuit judges were judges of the supreme court, so that while I acted under the appointment by the governor, I was not only circuit judge but judge of the supreme court also, and it may not be improper to state that I am the only man living who has held every judicial office in the state known to the con- stitution and only one other man in the state
-
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ever had that honor and that was the late Judge Witherall, of Detroit.
The term of service of the circuit judges is six years and when my first term expired I was re-elected, Hon. H. H. Harmon, of How- ell, then a member of the legislature, was the Democratic candidate. My majority was twelve hundred and eight. . Twice after that I was nominated and elected by both parties, so it will be seen that my service as circuit judge was twenty-four years and nearly eight months. I was exceedingly fond of my du- ties on the bench and my relations with the members of the bar were of the most friendly character. During my term of service I held the courts in forty different counties in the state.
On the 9th day of July, 1860, we moved from Howell to Owosso. The one great ob- ject in moving was to get nearer the center of my circuit and thereby save much travel. I purchased and we moved into the same house' in which we now live, and it was in this house that Lucia was married on the 14th day of October, 1863, to Henry M. Newcomb, and in which her son, Josiah Turner Newcomb, was born on the 19th day of June, 1868, and in which your blessed mother died on the 4th day of June, 1885.
In April, 1864, I was elected mayor of the city of Owosso and re-elected to the same office in April, 1865. I was the first Republican mayor that the city then had ever had.
On hearing of the assassination of President Lincoln, I issued the following proclamation :
"Whereas, The news has been received an- nouncing the death by assassination of Presi- dent Abraham Lincoln, who died twenty-two minutes past nine o'clock this morning, now, therefore, I do recommend and request
"That all places of business in the city le closed.
"That the church bells be tolled at twelve o'clock m, and
"That the flags of the city be draped in mourning and displayed at half-mast in recog- nition of the awful calamity which has fallen upon the nation.
"Dated Owosso, April 15,-1865. (Signed) "JOSIAH TURNER, Mayor."
This proclamation was no sooner out than it was complied with in every particular.
On the 18th day of the same month I is- sued the following proclamation :
PROCLAMATION.
MAYOR'S OFFICE, Owosso City, April 18, 1865.
To the Citizens of the City of Owosso :
In view of the great affliction which has fallen upon our nation by the death of Abra- ham Lincoln, late president of the United States, and of the announcement of the acting secretary of state, that the funeral services of the lamented chief magistrate will take place at the executive mansion in the city of Wash- ington at twelve o'clock noon, Wednesday, April 19th inst., and requesting the various re- ligious denominations throughout the country to meet at their respective places of worship for the purpose of solemnizing the occasion with appropriate ceremonies ; and the several churches of this city having appointed the hour of two o'clock P. M. for such observance, now, therefore, I do hereby recommend and request that all public and private places of business be closed on that day from the hour of eleven o'clock A. M. till four o'clock P. M. and that our people attend the public ceremon- ies at the several churches in humble acknowl- edgment of our great loss and the dealings of Almighty God with us in the crisis through which we are now passing.
(Signed) JOSIAH TURNER, Mayor.
In 1867 I was elected a member of the state constitutional convention. That convention was composed of one hundred members elect-
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ed by the different counties and was in session in the house of representatives at Lansing one hundred days.
On the 22d day of March, 1882, I was ap- pointed by President Arthur United States consul at Amherstburg, Canada, and held that office until September 13, 1891.
It has so happened that whenever I have been a candidate for office I have always been elected. So, of course, I do not know how a man feels when he runs for office and is de- feated. .
When I started in business I made up my mind that if I could not get a living by work- ing six days in the week, I could not by work- ing seven. In the sixty-one years that I have been a member of the bar, I have never once been in my office on Sunday to do any work, neither have I at home or elsewhere in all that time done one hour professional or official work on that day. I have been a member of the church since I was twenty years of age and you know that it has always been my habit to attend church regularly with your dear mother and yourselves, when you were at home. I do not believe that any man is bet- ter off on account of any work that he may have performed on Sunday. I never knew a man to gain anything in the end by violating any law, human or divine.
This, my children, is a brief history of my long and somewhat eventful life, and if you or my grandchildren see anything in it worthy of imitation, I shall feel amply repaid for writ- ing it.
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