USA > Michigan > Washtenaw County > Past and present of Washtenaw County, Michigan > Part 104
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"This Baptist society never had a church edi- fice, and the life of the church and society was of rather short duration, continuing only about five years. The leading members who were residents of Webster were Deacon Nathan Thomas and his brother David Thomas, with their families. Those who resided in Northfield were Mr. Ben- nett, Mr. Cole, Samuel Terry, M. Kellogg and L. T. Waldron.
"The Methodist Episcopal society maintained an organization in the town from its early set- tlement until about the year 1843-holding their meetings in private dwellings at first, and sub- sequently in schoolhouses-when a schism oc- curred, the result of which was the entire dis- memberment of all Methodist organizations in the town. Most of those in the east went to Northfield. Of those in the south, some went to Dexter, and some joined a class of Wesleyans in Delhi. This state of affairs continued until 1862 or '63, when a young man by the name of Van- dozer (at that time a student at the university) gave his energetic soul and body to the work of
collecting and utilizing the still existing, though sadly scattered and almost latent Methodist ele- ment. Mr. Vandozer held a series of meetings in the old town schoolhouse. These efforts on the part of Mr. Vandozer and those who were co- workers with him, were crowned with marked success, and resulted in a new organization and the erection of a church edifice-a respectable building, located about a mile and a quarter north of the Congregational church. With some few exceptions religious services have been main- tained in this church since its erection. Of the leading men in the Methodist denomination at an early day I recall the names of Israel Arms, Charles Starks, Mr. Shepard, Frederick Parsons, William Laston. Gideon Pease, William Stead- man, Moses Gleason, who was an exhorter, and Robert M. Snyder."
In 1837 Webster had a larger population than it has to-day. Its population then was 832, but neither the agricultural products nor the stock of the farmers was anywhere near as great as it is now. In that year there were 82 horses, 552 sheep. 941 hogs and 683 head of neat stock within the township ; and there had been produced dur- ing the previous year 9,260 bushels of wheat, 4,138 bushels of corn, 6,346 bushels of oats and 426 bushels of buckwheat.
On August 31, 1887, William Yeager, of Dex- ter. was found by John Dolan lying on his water tank with which he was drawing water for threshing in Webster. He was taken home and died the next day. An examination of his body gave evidence of his having fallen from his wagon and being run over by the wheels. He was unable to give the particulars of the accident, and how he was able after his injury to get back on the wagon was always a mystery to his friends.
The supervisors of the township have been : John Williams . 1833
Sturms Kimberly 1834-5
John Williams 1836-8
Munnis Kenny 1839-40
William W. Todd 1841
James Ball, jr 1842-3
Stephen Cogswell 1844
Samuel H. Ball 1845
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PAST AND PRESENT OF WASHTENAW COUNTY.
James Ball, Jr. 1846
Sturms Kimberly 1847-8
Jeremiah D. Williams 1849
Sturms Kimberly 1850-I
J. D. Williams 1852
W. R. Waldron 1853-4
Marvin Cadwell 1855
Sturms Kimberly 1856-7
Gabriel Conklin
1858
Robert McColl
1859-63
Robert McColl
1864-6
Thomas G. Haight 1867-8
George C. Arms
1869-71
Richard Walsh 1872
Pomeroy Van Riper 1873-4
L. D. Ball 1875-9
Alonzo Olsaver 1880
William H. Weston 1882-3
Alonzo Olsaver 1884-5
William H. Weston 1886-7
Edwin Ball 1888-96
Bert Kenny 1897-02
Frank H. Wheeler 1903
YORK.
York township was originally a part of Ypsi- lanti township. It was set aside as a township by itself, March 7. 1834, and the new township was named York at the suggestion of Hon. William Moore, then a resident of the township. and who was afterwards a state senator in 1837 and 1838 and a member of the house in 1843. The first township meeting was held in Paril. 1834. at the house of Noah Wolcott and was presided over by Boaz Lamson. The first ballot was cast by William Marvin, whose son, James Marvin, was a member of the legislature from Ypsilanti in 1851. William Moore was elected the first supervisor and also a justice of the peace. and Othniel Gooding was elected as the first clerk. David Berdan has left a description of the town- ship of York in 1833:
"I came to this country in 1833. As my finances were rather limited, I could not settle in Plymouth with my friends; therefore, I had to go back, as it was called, and seek a home at first cost. I came from Plymouth to this
place by way of Ypsilanti, which was a very in- ferior little hamlet, and Saline was next to no place. Mr. Risdon kept a tavern where Mr. Davenport now lives, and his sign stood out in the commons. Mr. Mckinnon's store and a few others comprised Saline. As 'Squire Moore came from the part of the country I did, I wended my way to Mooreville. The way I went I found Mooreville before I found its father, who was 'Squire Moore. Mooreville, all told, was one log house, which stood about where the Methodist church now stands. Well. I found the 'Squire. and inquired of him if he knew of any govern- ment land. He said there had been a nice ridge discovered the winter before, and it was being taken up very rapidly. He showed me my place. and I bought it, and have been there most of the time since, four miles from Mooreville. Besides 'Squire Moore, who lived near Mooreville, were Isaac and David Hathaway, Dr. Bowers and Mr. Walcott, who were there before I came.
"I must relate a little incident that occurred the first winter I lived up in the woods. 'Squire Moore and Mr. Hathaway came to visit me and see how I got along. The 'Squire remarked to me that I should have a pig, as every family should, to eat the crumbs from the table. Well. I bargained with him for one, but the question was, how to get it home. Not a very long time after that I had a friend come to see me from Clinton, with a yoke of oxen : and how do you think I fed the oxen? We unhitched them from the wagon and turned them into a brush heap. I guess they were satisfied, for they didn't find any fault. The next morning was Sunday. My visitor and I took the oxen from the brush heap. and started for 'Squire Moore's ( four miles) for some hay for the oxen. We arrived there after a while and got our hay, and were about ready to start back when I happened to think of the pig I had bargained for. The 'Squire being a good old Baptist. I felt a little delicate about asking him for it on Sunday. But the opportunity was so good (I didn't know as I'd ever have an- other chance to get the pig) that I mustered up courage to speak to him in regard to it. The 'Squire hesitated a little, but finally, said he : ‘I guess there will be no harm in it; you may catch
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PAST AND PRESENT OF WASHTENAW COUNTY.
it, but don't let it squeal.' I took the pig, the first live animal I ever owned in Michigan.
"Before I had a house on my place, I put up with 'Squire Moore considerably ; and I must say that he and his wife were as kind as any people I ever met. He was quite a useful man in mat- ters of State . was justice of the peace, went to the state legislature, etc. He was also instru- mental in founding the Baptist church at Moore- ville. As I was the first settler up there, the newcomers naturally came to me to get ac- quainted and know the lay of the land, etc. ; and soon there were quite a number of settlers in there, and as friendly as can be imagined.
" 'Squire Moore left a family which a President might be proud of-six sons and one daughter- among which were one minister and two lawyers. The minister, Lyman, died at Marshall. One lawyer, Oliver, died in the employ of the govern- ment at Washington. The other lawyer is no less a personage than William A. Moore, of Detroit."
The first schoolhouse in the township was built in 1831, and in it Washington Morton opened up the first school in November, 1831. The school- house was built by Burtis Hoag, who furnished all the materials and the labor, and who was paid $50. Later, Goodman, a Baptist clergyman, held meetings in this schoolhouse once a week, and there read to his neighbors who had assembled from the history of England, or talked on re- ligious subjects.
The first sawmill in the township was built at Mooreville in the year 1832 by Isaac Hathaway. Soon afterwards Aaron R. Wheeler built another sawmill on Honey creek, and a little later a third sawmill was built by Baughman & Co. on Mill creek. A mill was erected about a mile south of Mooreville in 1836 by Moses Rider, who shortly afterwards sold it to Ezekiel J. Moore, who transferred it to Ralph and Edwin Mead. About 1870 an addition was built to the mill and steam power put in. The mill had three run of stone. In 1878 a stave and heading factory was started in connection with the mill.
The first marriage in York was that of Arby Lamson to Esther Bonner in 1830. Rev. John Walworth officiating. and the first child of Mr.
and Mrs. Lamson, born in the fall of 1831, was the first white birth in York township. The first death was that of Aretus Belding, which occurred in the fall of 1831. The first sermon in the township was preached by the Rev. John Wal- worth in the house of Stephen Bonner.
The first store in the township was built about 1835 by Elijah Ellis at Milan. Although the first store was located here in 1835. it was not until the building of the Ann Arbor and the Wabash railroads that Milan began to assume much pro- portions as a village. It was established as a post- office about 1855, and the first postmaster was D. A. Woodward. The first settlement at Milan was made by William Marvin, who cast the first vote in the township.
Mooreville was named by John Moore, its founder, who came from New York among the early settlers in the township. Its importance as a village has been overshadowed in later days by the near proximity of Milan, which has two rail- roads, while Mooreville has none.
The Baptist church at Mooreville was the first church in the township. The few Baptists settled in the town in 1831 held meetings on Sunday for about a year when Rev. Bradbury Clay arrived in the township and called upon William Moore, who was an earnest Baptist. Mr. Moore per- suaded Mr. Clay to remain in the township, and a meeting was held August 10, 1832, to see about forming a church, which was accordingly formed on August 31, 1832, as the First Baptist Church of Mooreville. Mr. L. Moore was chosen deacon and the membership consisted of ten people. In 1834 a number of Baptists settled in the eastern part of York township and meetings were held alternately at Mooreville and in the eastern part of the township, the number of members increas- ing to about thirty. In 1834 Rev. Mr. Brigham had charge of the little church and in 1835 the Rev. G. D. Simmons took charge; and a log church was erected in that year which served as a church for twelve years.
In 1860 the Episcopal Church of Mooreville was organized with Asahel Edson, Thomas J. Alcott, Richard Alchin, Alexander McMullen and William McMullen as vestrymen and a cor-
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PAST AND PRESENT OF WASHTENAW COUNTY.
nerstone of a new church was laid, but the con- gregation proved to be too small to support the church, and since 1863 only occasional services have been held.
A Universalist church, which was erected at a cost of $3,000, was dedicated in 1880. The first pastor of this church was the Rev. J. G. Gilman and he was succeeded by the Rev. G. A. Sexton.
In 1837 York township had a population of I,197. and contained a grist mill and three saw- mills.
The building of the Ann Arbor road in 1878 and the Wabash in 1880 gave Milan a great im- petus and the number of business places rapidly increased. Numerous small factories located here and some fair-sized ones ; a bank was started and its older rival, Mooreville, was quickly dis- tanced. Milan was incorporated in 1885 and is now ( 1906) the second largest village in the county.
Milan has been several times visited by large fires. Among these was the fire of December 4, 1893, which started in the saloon of Edward Doersam at 10:15 p. m. It was confined to the three stores owned by O. A. Kelly, Jacob R. Ver- scelius and Mrs. Phoebe Kelly. Hard work with a hand engine saved other buildings. The Ann Arbor fire department reached Milan before the flames were extinguished. The loss was $16,000. Milan had a $11,000 fire on October 30. 1891.
Lightning killed two men in York township August 29, 1836, in a fearful manner. The un- fortunate men were Allen Burnham and his hired man, Dennis Kelly. The only eye witness was Burnham's twelve-year-old son. He saw a ball of fire descend and his father fall. The men were unloading hay and were standing on the barn floor. six feet from the door. As the father fell his cap blew out the barn door, past the boy who stood in the door. So little could the boy realize what had happened that he turned and ran after the hat. When he came back he saw Kelly bleeding on the floor and the barn afire. Before the bodies of the men could be gotten out: Mr. Burnham's head was burned off, as were Mr. Kelly's feet. Every bone in Kelly's body was broken, his side torn open and the thigh bone split so that the marrow dropped out.
Three section men, Tim Lane, Harry Twiggs, and John Skinner, who were on a hand car, were killed by the Pan-American fast train on the Wabash on the morning of October 24, 1901.
Milan has had the natural gas fever and wells have been unsuccessfully bored by those who be- lieve Milan to be within the natural gas region. Gas has been discovered but not in paying quan- tities.
The electric sugar case, in 1888, was among the greatest cases of the country. To it the New York city papers devoted pages daily. It was especially interesting in this county as the de- fendants in the cases actually lived in Milan in this county. William E. Howard, the father-in- law of Prof. Friend, was convicted and served time in Sing Sing. His wife and Mrs. Olive E. Friend and two other Milan defendants were never convicted.
Electric sugar was a stupendous fraud and there is no doubt that Prof. Friend was one of the principals in it. The parties actually charged with the fraud probably never were guilty of more than knowledge that it was going on. There were other parties undoubtedly as deeply impli- cated as Friend, but they sought cover when Friend killed himself and were never brought to trial. English investors were defrauded out of about $3.000,000. The mode of working the fraud was simple. Prof. Friend pretended to have discovered a process by which he could treat raw sugar with electricity and so turn out the finest grade of refined sugar. If he could do what he claimed. there was millions in it. for the main cost of refined sugar is incurred in remov- ing the impurities from the raw sugar. Friend had no process. His mode of operating was at first to secure a house near the river with a sewer leading directly into the river so that the im- purities in the sugar could be carried out into New York bay and the ocean. His fellow con- spirators were on the lookout for English in- vestors. When they were got in tow a committee would come to New York to see the wonderful process, which was to revolutionize sugar man- facturing. They would go to Friend's house and after listening to a lecture on the process were requested to thoroughly search the house and
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PAST AND PRESENT OF WASHTENAW COUNTY.
everything about it, excepting the machine by which the sugar was made. That stood in the center of the room on legs, elevated from the floor, so that it could be seen that nothing could be brought into the house by way of the floor. This machine was covered over ; to see it would be to discover the process, as Friend insisted that the machinery was simple. That constituted the secret. The bags of raw sugar would be setting in the room, but nowhere any sign of refined sugar. Then the committee would be requested to leave the room and lock and guard all doors. This done Friend would set to work. First the raw sugar would be emptied into the sewer and water turned in until it was washed out into the briny deep. Then the wonderful machine would be opened, filled with loaf sugar of the finest grade that could be bought and Friend would set to work to grind it up. Then the committee would be invited in. There would lay Friend, covered with perspiration apparently overcome by the hard work and in the bags which had con- tained the raw sugar would be the purest or re- fined sugar some very fine and the rest of it in lumps of varying size. The committee would go back over the water with samples of this sugar manufactured while they waited and highly satis- fied with the precautions taken to secure the genuineness of the secret process.
Stock in the wonderful invention sold for fancy prices. For a long time nothing would be done until the price got away down where it would be brought up and exploited again. Finally a big factory, seven or eight stories high, fitted up with machinery from top to bottom and with work- men on every floor, none of whom knew what was being done on the floor above them, so carefully was the secret guarded. The chief secret was in the top floor. Here refined sugar would be put in the hoppers, instead of the refined sugar taken up in sight of the committees of investors, and which would be washed out to sea in the sewer designed to carry off impurities. The committees would be allowed to see raw sugar going up and then to see the refined sugar coming out into the bags in the lower floor each grade of fineness into separate bags.
It was a great fraud, and as has been said, English investors were mulcted out of $3,000,000 before the bubble burst and Friend killed himself and his fellow conspirators joined in the hue and cry against Friend's family, who were not enough in his secrets to point them out.
The following have been supervisors of York since its organization :
Noah Wolcott 1834
William Moore 1835-6
Lyman Carver 1837
Jacob Cook 1838-9
Uzziel Kanouse .1840
Joun Kanouse 1841-2
Lyman Carver 1843-8
Caleb Moore 1849
James M. Kelsey . 1850
Caleb Moore 1851-2
James M. Kelsey 1853
Caleb Moore 1854-6
H. H. Brinkerhoff 1857-8
Thomas Gray 1859-64
Peter Cook 1865-72
Jesse Warner 1873-6
John W. Blakeslee 1877-8
Jesse Warner 1879
John W. Blakeslee 1880-2
Alfred Davenport 1883-07
Archibald D. McIntyre. 1898-01
Edward P. Warner
1902
YPSILANTI TOWNSHIP.
The history of Ypsilanti township is largely bound up in the history of Ypsilanti city and is told elsewhere. The supervisors of this town- ship since 1853 have been :
John W. Van Cleve. 1853-54
Eratus Morton 1855
Delos Showerman 1856
H. Compton 1857
John W. Van Cleve 1858
E. D. Lay 1859
Charles Shier 1860
E. D. Lay
1861-5
George Jarvis 1866
E. D. Lay
1867-8
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PAST AND PRESENT OF WASHTENAW COUNTY.
W. Irving Yeckley 1869-78
Albert R. Graves 1879-89
John L. Hunter 1890-99
Edgar D. Holmes 1900
CHAPTER XXII.
STATISTICS OF THE COUNTY TO-DAY.
A picture of Washtenaw county to-day can, perhaps, be most accurately drawn from a study of the United States census returns of 1900. which are the latest accurate statistics attainable. In 1900 Washtenaw had 47.761 people, a gain of 5.551 in ten years. This gain was entirely in the cities and villages, for Ann Arbor city alone had gained 5.078, Ypsilanti city had gained 1,249, Chelsea village had gained 279, that part of Milan in Washtenaw county had gained 136, while the other villages had remained about stationary, the county outside of the cities and villages men- tioned showing a loss in the ten years of 1, 181. The city of Ann Arbor had grown to have a population of 14,509. A city census taken in 1904 shows the population of the city of that date to have been 17,149. In 1900 Ypsilanti had a popu- lation of 7.378: Chelsea village had 1,635: Man- chester, 1,209: Milan, 1,141: Dexter, 900; and that part of Saline village in Saline township. 584. The various townships of the county had populations as follows: Ann Arbor, 1,036; Au- gusta, 1.739: Bridgewater, I,O11; Dexter, 696; Freedom, 1,013: Lima, 961; Lodi, 1,121; Lyn- don, 665; Manchester, 2,146; Northfield, 1.266; Pittsfield. 1,050; Salem, 1,158; Saline, 1,668; Scio, 1,893 ; Sharon, 984; Superior, 1,039; Syl- van, 2,496 ; Webster, 747 : York, 1.952 ; and Ypsi- lanti town, 1.233.
There was a slight excess of the females over the males in 1900, there being 24.010 females in the county and 23.751 males. Of the population, 40,940 were native born, and 6,821 were born in foreign countries. There had been a gradual de- crease in the number of foreign born inhabitants of the county, for in 1880 there were 7.945 of foreign birth, in 1890 there were 7.739, and in
1900 there were only 6,821 ; and the prospects are that this decrease in foreign born inhabitants will continue at an even accelerated rate, for emigra- tion from foreign countries to this county, once so popular, seems to have largely ended. Of the population, 46,503 were white and 1.240 were colored. There were no Indians in the county in 1900, although in 1800 there had been four. In Ann Arbor city there were 1,107 males of foreign birth and 1,221 females. Of the native born whites 7.059 had native born parents and 4.798 had foreign born parents. There were 359 negroes and 371 colored. In Ypsilanti there were 800 foreign born inhabitants, 4,239 native whites whose parents were natives, 1,680 native whites whose parents were foreign born, 608 negroes and 614 colored.
The foreign born population of Washtenaw were born in the following countries: Asia, ex- cept China, 7: Australia, 1; Austria, 25 ; Bel- gium, 6: Bohemia, 18: Canada (English ) 1.353: Canada ( French). 54: China, 9: Denmark. 11 : England, 849: France, 24: Germany, 3.592: Greece, 4 : Holland, 6; Hungary, I : Ireland, 576; Italy, 19; Norway, 9; Poland, 19; Russia, 44; Scotland, 94: Sweden, 26; Switzerland, 32: Wales, 12: other countries, 27 : and born at sea, 3.
There were 14.788 males in the county of twenty-one years of age and over. Of these, 11,163 were native whites who could read, 99 were native whites who were illiterate, 276 were literate native negroes, and 52 were illiterate na- tive negroes. Of the naturalized citizens of for- eign birth of 21 years and over, 2,103 were put down as literate and 85 as illiterate. Of those who had taken out their first papers, 52 were literate and 4 were illiterate. Of those who were aliens, that is, had not become citizens of the United States or declared their intention to do so, 104 were literate and 27 illiterate; and of the foreign born whom the census enumerators could not tell whether they were naturalized or had taken out first papers or were still aliens, 678 were literate and 49 were illiterate.
Of those of school age within the county, that is, who were from five to twenty years old, the native white males numbered 6,638, the native white females 6,470, the foreign white males 229,
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PAST AND PRESENT OF WASHTENAW COUNTY.
the foreign white females 246, and the negroes 391. The male population between eighteen and forty-four years of age who were subject to draft in the militia on occasion was 9,204 native white, 1,334 foreign white and 278 negroes. The total illiterate population ten years old and over was placed at 607, although it must be owned that the census enumerators in all cases of doubt solved it in favor of the literacy of the person concern- ing whom information was being taken.
There were 10,440 buildings in the county which contained 10,916 families. In Ann Arbor city there were 2.791 dwellings and 3.033 families. In Ypsilanti there were 1,598 dwellings and 1,734 families. In the county there were 4,163 family homes. Of this number 1.792 were free of debt. 1,451 were encumbered, 61 the enumerator did not know whether they were incumbered or not. 82 were rented, and 27 unknown. Of the 6,606 other homes in the county, 2,391 were free of debt and resided in by the owner, 1,079 were in- cumbered and resided in by the owner and 96 homes where the owners resided the ennmerators were unable to say whether or not they were in- cumbered. Two thousand seven hundred and forty homes were rented and there were 300 cases where it was not known whether the home was rented or not.
In 1901 there were 3,469 farmers in the county, of whom 1,684 owned 81,336 sheep, an average of 48 sheep to the owner and 23 to the farmers reported. In the year 1900 48,669 acres of wheat had been harvested in the county, and the yield was only 250.394 bushels. The preceding year, 1899, 64,494 acres of wheat had been harvested and the yield was 625 .- 656 bushels, while previously 1,296.757 bush- els had been harvested from 59,909 acres. The 3,469 farmers had an average of 108 acres in each farm. Of the acreage, 214,065 was im- proved land and 60,902 unimproved. There were 155 farms in Ann Arbor township averaging 89 acres ; 291 farms in Augusta averaging 67 acres ; 206 farms in Bridgewater averaging 100 acres ; 114 farms in York averaging 94 acres ; and 185 farms in Ypsilanti averaging 87 acres. In 1900. 41,213 acres had been planted to corn, and the yield was 1,669.544 bushels of shelled corn.
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