Past and present of Washtenaw County, Michigan, Part 67

Author: Beakes, Samuel W. (Samuel Willard), 1861-; S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago : The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 886

USA > Michigan > Washtenaw County > Past and present of Washtenaw County, Michigan > Part 67

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ship that the value of its lands for agricultural purposes came fully to be appreciated.

Col. Daniel Hixon was the first settler in Bridgewater in 1829. He had first located at Tecumseh when that village contained only two houses. Bridgewater at this time was part of the township of Dexter but in 1832 when Bridge- water and Manchester were set apart from Dex- ter they were organized into one township called Hixon, after Daniel Hixon, the first settler of Bridgewater. Hixon did not remain in Bridge- water long but moved a few miles south to Clin- ton, Lenawee county. He was a member of the state constitutional conventions of 1850 and 1867: and also a representative and later a sen- ator in the state legislature. The second settler was George Lazelle, who was born in Massa- chusetts and who lived in Bridgewater from 1829 until his death, September 24, 1887. He first purchased land in Ann Arbor and went back to New York, returning in 1829, when he purchased his farm in southern Bridgewater on May 29th of that year. When he left Ann Arbor for his new home in Bridgewater he started out with two companions in a southerly direction through the county which he described as little more than a wilderness, and arrived at a house about a mile south of Saline for dinner. From there, there was no road and the men had to make their way as best they could. After considerable difficulty they found the house of Daniel Hixon, the first settler, and the next day Lazelle and Hixon went to Tecumseh and planted corn on ground where Tecumseh now stands. For twenty-four terms Lazelle taught Clinton school. For nine years he was supervisor of Bridgewater and he saw service in the Black Hawk war. George La- zelle's two companions on the trip to Bridge- water were T. Lazelle and E. Wheelock. The next year came B. H. Felton, Jacob Gilbert, James Crampton, and Thomas Pickett. Then came C. W. Sargent, B. Way, Harvey Ephraim and Esther Platt, Thomas, Elizabeth and Anna Gilbert, Daniel Porter, John Haynes, John Valentine, Norman L. Conklin, Daniel Brooks, John Scott, H. A. Katner, M. Dewey, Stephen and Lawrence Walters, Geo. Howe, Shove Minor, Lewis Ingersoll, M. Mitchell, Jonathan Mitchell,

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Bennager and Benjamin Lockerby, M. Darby, John Lynch, Russell M. Randall, William Ruck- man, Lyman and Reuben Downs, George L. Calhoun, John Wilson, Washington Hewitt, W. H. Arells. W. W. Plummer, Henry Bird, Jacob Dubois, E. Graves, M. Evans, Charles Brush, J. T. Calhoun and Norman Calhoun. The first birth in the township was that of Henrietta Hixon who married the Rev. D. Kedzie, of Three Rivers. The first marriage was that of Dennis Lancaster to Harriet Frederick. The first death was that of Mrs. Thomas Bouldin, who was buried on the farm afterwards owned by Emanuel Feldkamp. In 1830 Jacob Gilbert and James Crampton started out on the Pottawatomie trail, which ran through Bridgewater, one Sunday morning to see the country, of course taking their firearms with them. The sight of some game lured them from the trail and they lost their way. They did not see a sign of habitation until about midnight when they came upon a small cabin in which a man was keeping bachelor's hall. They stayed over night and took breakfast and started for home which they expected to reach in an hour. After traveling hard all day, nightfall found them within sight of the same cabin. They started again the next morning and the next night did not have the good luck of finding shel- ter. It was not until Thursday noon that they reached home from their short walk. Such were some of the difficulties experienced in a county which had no roads. John Haynes, an early Bridgewater settler, has the reputation of hav- ing shot five wolves with one bullet.

The town of Sylvan was not settled until 1830 when Cyrus Beckwith located on section 14. He brought his family with him. Previous to his settlement he had explored the township accompa- nied by William A. Begole who had assisted him in erecting a log house. Mr. Begole had come to Ann Arbor in 1829. He worked for Mr. Beck- with until 1831, when he located a farm on section 26 of Sylvan, and the following year married Abigail Nowland, of Scio. In 1831 Jesse Smith located and built his house. Elias H. Kelly lo- cated in 1831 but did not finish his house until the following year. In 1832 Henry Depew settled on a farm on section 13 on which he died in 1875.

These settlers had come from New York. In 1832 a number of families from Sharon, Addison county, Vermont, settled in the western part of Washtenaw. Among them were Warren A. Da- vis. Truman Lawrence and Arlo Il. Fenn. Mr. Davis lived on his farm where he located, until 1879. Mr. Fenn resided on his farm until he died July 1. 1876. He was a charter member of the first Baptist church in Sylvan, organized July I, 1833, and for over twenty years was a deacon in this church. In 1832 Stephen J. Chase and Na- than Pierce came from Ontario county, New York. Nathan Pierce had been born in Massa- chusetts, had served in the War of 1812, and was taken prisoner in the battle of Queenstown. The settlement he made in Sylvan afterwards became known as Pierceville. Mr. Pierce represented Washtenaw county in the house of representatives for three terms, and afterwards represented Cal- houn county, to which he moved in 1844. in the house two and in the senate three terms. and was a member of the constitutional convention of 1850. He was a man of gigantic stature and an old-line whig of strong will, and subsequently a strong republican. He died in 1862. His son, Hiram, who came with him from New York, was supervisor of Sylvan for a number of years. Da- rias Pierce, a brother, represented Washtenaw in the legislature in 1846 and 1847, and died near Chelsea May 19, 1887. Edwin E. Conklin, who had married Miss Euphronia Hickox the year previous, settled in 1832. Mrs. Conklin has the honor of having named the township Sylvan. Cal- vin Hickox, Joseph Peter Riggs and Ira Spauld- ing settled about 1832 and the following year came Daniel Fenn. Tully Fenn, Amos W. Davis and Dennis Warner. In quick succession Mahlon Wines, Joel B. Boyington, John M. Cummings, Elisha Congdon, Thomas H. Godfrey, Isaac Godfrey, Adonijah Godfrey. Azel Backus, Mahlon Beakes, Dr. Sears, Hugh Davidson, Al- fred Holt, and Arnold S. Bell. At this date the territorial road ran through the township just as it exists to-day. The road from Chelsea to Man- chester was built in 1832 and at this time there was a road to Bingham's sawmill in Lima town- ship where the early settlers had their lumber cut.

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PAST AND PRESENT OF WASHTENAW COUNTY.

In 1832 all the mail for Sylvan came to Dexter. The township of Sylvan was organized in 1834.

It was not until June, 1831, that James W. Hill, following the Indian trail towards what is now Manchester, made the first settlement in Freedom. He built a house on the farm after- wards owned by John Alber. He plowed and sowed five acres of wheat that season. He was a great believer in education and established the first school in the township in his own house. It was his influence which carried the measure for the first district school in the township, which he taught. That fall came Hugh Campbell, Jason Gillett, Robert Myers, Matthew Myers and Jacob Haas. In 1832 came Roswell Preston, Sr., Ros- well Preston, Jr., Eben Boyden, Levi Rodgers, Lyman Williams, Reuben Williams, Anthony Rouse, Elisha Adams and D. Haas. There was a rush of settlers into the township in 1833 and it will be noticed that many of them bore English names, in striking contrast with the names now common in Freedom. Still many of these settlers were of German descent. Among the emigants of 1833 were Levi Thomas, Obadiah Force, Cyrus Pearson, Daniel Kent, James W. Tyler, H. M. Griffin, William Douglas, Archer Crane, Edward Litchfield, Reuben Wellman, Sr., Noah Smalley, Henry Smalley, Jacob Preston, Henry Smith, John Schneeburger, James Fellows, Festus A. Fellows, Cornelius Polhemus, David C., James G. and David Raymond, Sam S. Peekins, John Faulkner, William Ossius, Jacob Koch, John Haap, Henry and George Lindensmith, Thomas Roth, William Preston, Alexander Peekins, George Hoenberger, Manasseh B. Wellman, Amos Koypendall, Bernard Listz, Samuel Wood, John Dowd and Alexander Danielson. The first death in Freedom was accidental, and occurred in October, 1831, when Jacob Haas, a young man of twenty, was killed while cutting logs with his father, a heavy oak falling upon his body. A year later David Cook and William Campbell assisted in raising Bingham's sawmill in Lima, and started for their home in Freedom, but owing to a poor pocket compass they soon lost their way. They pressed on, however, until finally Campbell be- came so exhausted that he could go no further Cook finally succeeded in reaching home and a

relief party scoured the woods for Campbell who was nearly dead when discovered.

Sharon was first settled in the same year that Freedom was. Lewis C. Kellam bought the first land of the government on June 22, 1830, and Daniel F. Luce purchased the second farm from the government on October 1, 1830. These lands were located in opposite ends of the township. Moses Poole purchased lands in the spring of 1831, and early in that year land was bought by David I. Sloat who built the first house in Sharon. In 1831 there was considerable excitement about the fine lands in Sharon and by the end of that year the greater part of the land had been taken. Among those who came in this year were Ira, Anabil and Amos Bullard, John Bessey, M. Burk, David Cook, Edward Campbell, James Harlow Fellows, R. L. Fellows, Joseph O. Gilbert, Francis A. Gillett, Henry Row, Gilbert Row, J. R. Sloat. Dr. Ebenezer H. Conklin, Conrad Row, Wait Peck, Nicholas Row, John Cobb, Sidney W. Dewey, Sabin Johnson, Oliver Kellogg, Henry Gilbert, Lewis Allen, Nicholas Becker, Abijah Marvin, Marvin Burke, William Campbell and George C. Lathrop. Some of these men did not build their houses until the following year. Most of these men came from the east by way of Erie canal, crossing Lake Erie from Buffalo to De- troit ; and loading up the household effects for two or three families upon a lumber wagon drawn by oxen they started for Washtenaw, the men walking. They saw the rude cabins at Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor, laughed at them, and a few days later used them as models. The first house in the township was built by David I. Sloat, had elm bark for a roof and was finished in a week, the family moving in in May, 1831. Joseph O. Gil- bert plowed the first land in Sharon in June, 1831, on the farm which became known later as David G. Rose's farm. He was afterwards the first postmaster and carried the mail himself from Lodi Plains to his house. The winter of 1831-2 was a very severe one and provisions gave out. Edward Campbell and David Cook went to Detroit for provisions with an ox team. On their way home they were forced to abandon their team and attempt to reach home on foot through the driving snow. They were soon

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lost, and when found by searching parties after two or three days, Mr. Campbell was so badly frozen that he died within a week. Mr. Cook, however, ultimately recovered from his terrible exposure. In June, 1832, the first church society was organized in the log house of Gilbert Row. with nine members-Mr. and Mrs. Henry Row, Mr. and Mrs. Conrad Row, Mrs. Gil- bert Row, Mr. and Mrs. Lathrop, Anthony Yerkes and Joseph O. Gilbert. This church so- ciety was organized by Rev. E. H. Pilcher, then only nineteen years of age. It subsequently built a church at Rose Corners.

Manchester township was settled about the same time as were Freedom and Sharon, and by 1837, when the first township meeting was held, it had seventy-nine voters. Emanuel Case built the first hotel and the first saw-mill at Manches- ter in 1832. and shortly afterward the first grist mill was erected through the efforts of John Gil- bert who patented the land upon which Manches- ter village now stands, and desired to build up the town. The lumber used in this grist mill was prepared by Emanuel Case, Harry Gilbert, W. S. Carr and Elijah Carr. Lewis Allen built the first schoolhouse in 1834. William S. Carr, who lo- cated in the town in 1833, opened the first store in Manchester, which he gave up in 1834. Mr. Carr was in the legislature of 1840 and in 1850 was elected to the constitutional convention. He served his town in various capacities and lived to a good old age. The first postoffice was estab- lished in a little hamlet called Noble, in 1833, with Harvey Squires as the first postmaster. About the same time, or a few weeks later, a postoffice was established at the village of Man- chester, with Harry Gilbert as first postmaster. The bridge crossing the Raisin was built in 1833.

Three brothers were the pioneers of Lyndon township. B., Josiah H. and Harrison W. Col- lins arrived in the township in August. 1833. and proceeded to build the first log house, the frame of which was raised in November, 1833; but it was not until January 1, 1834. that S. B. Collins moved into it with his newly wedded wife, Par- melia Green. This settlement was made on what has since been called Collins Plains. During 1834-5 many settlers located in the township, in-

cluding Abner Bruen, John Green, Henry G. Holmes, Michael Gilman, Samuel Boyce, Nathan Rose, Dr. John Cooper, Abraham Burgitt, John Twamley, Alfred Bruce, Jasper Moore, William Watts, John Coleman, David Coleman, Hugh Wade, James Stryker, William Wilcox and George Sellers. On January 1, 1836, Josiah H. Collins settled in the township and as soon as the weather would permit set out the first orchard ever planted in Lyndon. Among the other set- tlers were Owen McIntee, Orman Clark, Horace Leek, Eli Rockwell, Jesse Rose, John Cassidy, Joseph Yocum, John and Ira Gifford, John Dav- idson, Joseph Webster, Stephen Dow, Patrick Haggerty, William Bott and Washington Beer- man. Owen McIntee lived to be one hundred and four years old and died in 1880. A good description has been left of the emigration to this county of Orman Clark, who came from Genesee county. New York, and who, in 1886. celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of his settle- ment, with five children, thirty-two grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. This description illustrates many of the hardships endured by the early settlers of Lyndon, and is as follows :

"On the 19th day of October, 1836, Orman Clark, with his wife and three children, started from the home of their youth in Orangeville. Genesee county, New York, for the then territory of Michigan. Their locomotive was two yoke of cattle : their palace car, a farm wagon made com- fortable for its occupants by a cover of cotton cloth supported by strong hoops. With this out- fit, and a cow led by a rope behind the wagon, they made their way through Canada, and arrived at the cabin home of Joseph Whitcomb, in the town of Dexter, on the 9th of November, having performed in twenty-two days a journey that can be made now in just half that number of hours. Their land was taken up from the government in September preceding, and Mr. Clark proceeded immediately to put up a log cabin into which he moved his family on the 31st day of December, 1836. There were about ten inches of snow on the ground, the temperature was in the neighbor- hood of zero, the house was chinked between the logs only about half way to the beams on which the attic floor was afterward laid, the roof was

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finished on the same day but after the family ar- rived, only about half of the floor was laid, there being no chimney the fire was built on the ground against the green logs that formed one side of the cabin, and the chances for comfort were few and small. On the day before, Mr. Clark dug a hole in the ground within the walls of the house to store a few potatoes, and with the mud made from the dirt thrown out, thawed by the sunshine, he danbed the chinking around the corner, where the bed would be put up.

"Their first bedsteads were made of tamarack poles ; a table was constructed of a whitewood board, the legs being held in place by holes bored in the corners. A stick chimney was built as soon as possible, the walls chinked and daubed throughout. In other respects, the house re- mained in the same condition until the next au- tumn. It should be mentioned that four weeks and a half later, on the second day of February, 1837, their fourth child was born. Their nearest neighbors were Jasper Moore, the father of John R. Moore, on the east, and John Sumner on the southwest, each nearly two miles distant. Dur- ing the winter Mr. Clark made rails and fenced in fourteen acres of oak openings, carrying his right hand in a sling fully six weeks of the time on account of a felon, and using his ax with the left. Soon after his arrival he sold one yoke of his cattle to obtain the means of wintering the other yoke. Their food this winter consisted of a little pork they brought with them, venison fur- nished by Calvin Hallock, who paid for his board with game, and a little flour made from wheat obtained from a neighbor. Mr. Clark was no hunter. He could work but had neither taste nor time for hunting. When spring came only one dollar was left in the treasury; this he paid for a bushel of potatoes from which they cut the seeds for planting and reserved the remainder for the table. That summer he broke up the ground he had enclosed during the winter, raised some po- tatoes and buckwheat on a part of it, and sowed some six or seven acres of wheat in the fall, seed which he earned by working for his neighbors during the harvest. It should be mentioned that wheat from which their bread was made during the summer was bought on trust of Nathan Pierce, who, it appears, dealt very generously

with the emigrant in those days, refusing to sell his wheat at $2.50 a bushel to those who would pay money for it, and furnishing it to Mr. Clark and others in like circumstances for $2.00 charged on book account, to be paid for at some uncertain time in the future.

"The second winter was spent living on buck- wheat cakes and potatoes and a pig that cost $5.00 and was carried eighty rods under Mr. Clark's arm.

"The second summer, though attended by many hardships, found the family in compara- tively comfortable circumstances. It required most of the first crop of wheat to liquidate debts, unavoidably contracted, but fortune smiled, they enjoyed good health most of the time, and in a few years hardships were exchanged for com- forts, and even luxuries were added."

We have thus seen that every township in Washtenaw was settled by 1833, exactly ten years after the first settlement was made in Ypsilanti.

CHAPTER III.

ORIGIN OF NAMES.

HOW THE COUNTY, RIVERS, LAKES, CITIES, VIL- LAGES AND TOWNSHIPS GOT THEIR NAMES.

Washtenaw county receives its name from the Indian name of the Grand river, the larg- est river in Michigan, which rises in Sharon township, and flows through Jackson, Ingham, Eaton, Clinton, Ionia, Kent and Ottawa counties to Lake Michigan. The Indian name of this river was Washtenong. There was in some years past quite a dispute as to the derivation of the name. But, as Schoolcraft gives the Indian name of the Grand river as Washtenong, as well as other writers of an early date, and as this river ran through three townships of the county as orig- inally laid out, it is fair to presume that this is the derivation of the name. Investigation seems to indicate that it means simply "grand," and is derived from the Indian conception of the char- acter of Washington, although it may mean the

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PAST AND PRESENT OF WASHTENAW COUNTY.

"Land Beyond." The following correspondence may prove of interest on this point :

"Owosso, July 24, 1874.

"J. J. Parshall, Esq., Ann Arbor.

"Dear Sir : Major John Todd handed me your favor to him yesterday, with a request that I should answer it, as his advanced age renders it very difficult for him to write, and also because I more perfectly understand and speak the In- dian tongue,-or rather the Chippewa language. I therefore give you the information sought. The word "Washtenaw" is anglicized from the In- dian word Wushtenong, or Wushte-nong, mean- ing, literally, The Further District or Land Be- yond,-Further Country,-Wushte, further, be- yond, further on, and nong, country, district, place of. The word used in connection with the subject spoken of conveys somewhat different meanings.

"How the name came to be applied to the ter- ritory comprising Washtenaw county, I am un- able to say, although I spoke the Indian language nearly as well as the natives, before the land was surveyed by the government. It was never so known or called hy the Chippewas (or Ojibwas, as Schoolcraft has it). Washtenaw was the country or district of territory watered by the Grand river,-what was known as the Washte- naw Seebe, or Sepca. I remain,

Respectfully yours, R. V. Williams." ( To William M. Gregory.) "Elbridge, Oceana Co., Michigan. May 28, 1877.

"Sir :- I have the pleasure to answer your let- ter dated May 18th. You must excuse me for not answering your note before. I was absent. You wish to know of me what is the meaning of the word "Washtenaw." Well, sir, I have had chance to learn and interpret all these words. Well, sir, that means a large stream or a large river. That was the name of an Indian who lived near the mouth and had a village, and that was his hunting and fishing ground. Did not allow anyone to hunt except his relatives and friends. The Indians used to go back and forth and stop with Washtenaw, and by and by they called the river by that name, "Washtenaw sebey." This

was a good many years before the War of 1812. I have an old Indian in my care and he is over one hundred years old, and he was acquainted with Washtenaw. This is all at present.

Respectfully yours,

Louis Genereau."

A copy of Genereau's letter was sent to Rev. S. G. Wright, who had been a teacher among the Ojibwa Indians, who replied as follows :

"Leech Lake, Minn., June 18, 1877. "Dear Sir :--

"Yours of the oth instant is just received. I have no doubt now but I have the full sense of the word Washtenaw. The name came, no doubt. in this way. An Indian of the Pottawatamie tribe, who may have resided in early times as far east as Pittsburg, had a son whom he named "Washington," from the great general he may have seen or heard of. As white settlements ad- vanced that tribe was bushed westward and set- tled in Michigan and the west of that state. This boy, now a man, settled on this river and called it after his name, or which may be more likely, it was so called by others, as that is common in the Indian country. Now the terminations, ong, aug, etc., always signify the place of a thing, and so the place of living, or residence of this man, was called Washtenaug. Washtenong, etc. The river Washtenaw sebey and the place would come to have the same name that Washington now has among these Indians, namely, Washte- nong, or the place of Washington. I am glad to have got these facts myself and you are welcome to what light I may have added to your stock of knowledge of the question. I remain,

Very truly yours,

S. G. Wright."

NAMING OF RIVERS.

The HURON river, which rises in the lakes of Livingston county and flows through Dexter, Webster, Scio, Ann Arbor, Superior and Ypsi- lanti townships, Wayne and Monroe counties, into Lake Erie, a distance of ninety miles as the river winds, was called by the Indians the Burnt District river, having reference to the oak open- ings along its banks. By the northern Indians it

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PAST AND PRESENT OF WASHTENAW COUNTY. ..

was called the Giwitatigweiasibi. Its name, ish clay in the bottom of the creek, a kind of oily substance which it was at first thought would make paint. The Indian name was Wejinigan- sibi.

Huron, comes from the fact that the Wyandottes, or Hurons, as the French called them, had a vil- lage on its banks near its mouth, shortly after the French settled Detroit, and hence it came to be called the river of the Hurons. Lake Huron had received its name in the same way. When the Iroquois drove the Hurons from Montreal they first settled on the Canadian banks of the lake, which came to be called the Lake of the Hurons. After being driven from this settlement, and being driven back from Minnesota by the Sioux, they came to Michilimackinac, from which, a branch of them on invitation came to Detroit and established themselves below that city on the banks of the Huron.

The River RAISIN, which rises in Wheatland township, Hillsdale county, and flows one hun- dred and thirty miles through Jackson county, Sharon, Manchester and Bridgewater townships, Lenawee and Monroe counties, into Lake Erie two and a half miles below Monroe, was called by the Indians Showaccaemette, or River of the Grapes, from the great quantity of wild grapes which grew on its banks. The French word for grapes is "raisin," hence the French called it River Raisin.

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Past and present of Washtenaw County, Michigan, Part 67

Author: Beakes, Samuel W. (Samuel Willard), 1861-; S.J. Clarke Publishing Company Publication date: 1906 Publisher: Chicago : The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 886

Author: Beakes, Samuel W. (Samuel Willard), 1861-; S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago : The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 886