Allegan County, Michigan - Chapter 2: The County from 1830 to the Close of the Civil War, 1907

The decade of the thirties was the foundation period of Allegan county. Not only is this true of the county, but this ten years, during which the territory became a state of the Union, marks the actual period of the making of Michigan. For, as another writer has stated, "the real builders of the commonwealth of which we are so proud, were not the French explorers, post traders and missionaries; they were not the British soldiers and adventurers who followed them ; they were not even the mixed population of Canadian habitants, American fishermen and fur merchants who occupied the territory under the American flag during the first quarter of the century; but the true founders of Michigan were the men who came within its, limits during the half dozen years preceding the admission of Michigan into the Union."

The census of 1837, the first census compiled after the admission of the state, and the first census, either territorial or federal, whose returns apply to Allegan county, showed that 1,469 persons were living in the county at that date. The federal census of 1840 increased this number to 1,783. Nearly fifteen hundred people had come into the county during the first seven years of its settlement. If we interpret the word "pioneers" strictly as those who located in the county before 1840, so as to be included in the census of that year, the "founders of Allegan county" would be less than two thousand inhabitants included within its limits at that time. This population has since increased to nearly forty thousand, and there have been correspondingly many developments and phases of the life, institutions and industries of the people. But it may truthfully be said that the foundations of the county were laid, and well laid, by the pioneers of the thirties.

Many interesting queries might be made concerning the early population of the county. What influences directed them hither? From what parts of the Union did they come chiefly and how did their previous environment affect their relations and work in this county? By what routes did they come, overland or bv water? Where were the first settlements made, and what were the conditions that favored the grouping of poplation and enterprise at one point at the expense of another? How did the pioneers live during the period of semi -isolation from the comforts and usages to which they had been accustomed ? These and many other questions must be answered if we hope to get a true picture of Allegan county during its formative period. Tlicn it will be an easy passage from the primitive to those stages of gradual development, first along one line and then another, by which the county and its people have reached their twentieth century culmination of progress and civilization.

In 1825 the Erie canal, after eight years in building, was opened to traffic, and the waters of Lake Erie flowed across the state of New York into the Hudson river. The dream of Henry Hudson in seeking a northwest passage up the river that bears his name was realized after more than two centuries. Only instead of the spice-laden orient, the new way led to the far more desirable and potentially richer American west. The landbound commerce of the Atlantic seaboard found, in this direction, outlet to the eager west, and, borne along the same channel, the grain harvests of the inland were brought to the markets of the world. It was no uncommon thing for fifty ark-Hke boats, loaded with passengers and freight, to depart from the eastern terminus of the Erie canal in a single day, passing to the west at the rate of four miles an hour. Before the waters were turned into the "Big Ditch" the toilsome urging of creaking wagon had not carried a fraction of the commerce that passed along this waterway.

The Erie cana! not only gave a tremendous impetus to western expansion and development, but it changed its direction. Herein lies the significance of the canal in the history of southern Michigan, including Allegan county.

Before 1825 the trend of westward emigration had been down the Ohio valley. The great water courses were fringed with settlements, when the inland countrv was still an unbroken wilderness. The regions bordering the riverways and great lakes were populous before a tree had been felled for a settler's cabin on the fertile prairies and woodland of northern Indiana and southern Michigan. In proof of this witness the admission of Indiana to statehood ten years before the first settler came to her northern tier of counties. Southern Michigan was aside from the current of emigration, and its settlement was delayed while settlers were nverrunning the country to the south and the prairies of Illinois.

There were no roads in southern Michigan even for several years after the completion of the Erie canal. A map of the highways of traffic of the United States in the year 1825 shows a network of routes along the Ohio valley, but none north of the watershed into the great lakes, which would bring emigrants within many miles of Allegan and its adjacent counties.

The homeseekers who travelecl across Lake Erie to its western end would on their arrival at Detroit find one generally used road to the west That led southwest to Monroe, up the valley of the Maumee, past Defiance, Ohio, through Fort Wayne. Indiana, thence northwesterly around the lower end of Lake Michigan to Chicago or farther west. Fort Wayne was the converging point for several other roads leading from different points along the Ohio river. The great bulk of the pioneers who settled the northern

Indiana and extreme southwest Michigan counties came by way of Fort Wayne. This accounts for the more cosmopolitan character of the population of that region than is found in most other counties of southern Michigan. Through Fort Wayne passed streams of emigrants not only from the New England states and New York and Pennsylvania, but also from Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas and Kentucky.

Railroads at that time had not become a factor in directing and assisting emigrants. In 1830 only 36 miles of railroad were in operation in all the United States. Only two years before had the first mile of the Baltimore & Ohio been built. The decade of the twenties was prolific of railroad charters and plans, but only the beginnings were made of the railroad building which soon absorbed the energies of the nation. In fact, the part of the railroad in southern Michigan was that of development rather than settlement. When the first railroad penetrated Allegan county, its population was nearly twenty thousand. The lands had been taken up and the pioneer period was practically over.

It should also be mentioned that a large number of emigrants, instead of debarking at Detroit and taking the Fort Wayne route, made the entire circuit of the lakes by way of Mackinac. This route was long, exposed to many risks, and blocked by ice a considerable portion of the year, hence not so feasible as would seem on first thought. In fact, it can be stated, after an examination of the records of early settlement in this county, that the presence of a large body of navigable water on its western limits played only a minor part in the pioneer settlement of the county. Lake Michigan even during the twenties offered its broad area to a considerable commerce between the east and the west, but carried on its bosom only a small share of homeseekers who penetrated tlie wilderness of Allegan county. And inasmuch as the first necessities and purposes of the pioneers were homemaking and preparation of the country for industry and enterprise, it was not for severaf years after the first settler came that the river and lake traffic began to develop.

But, with few exceptions, so far as an investigation of the early records prove, the first settlers of this county came overland. For those who crossed Lake Erie by boat, Detroit was the point of departure for the inland. During the decade preceding the settlement of Allegan county, roads were being constructed, as one writer describes it, in fan-shaped direction from Detroit, into the coimtry lying north, west and southwest from that city. Along these highways, each year extended further into the wilderness, passed the caravans whose members were the makers of Michigan. Some of these roads were cut from one settlement to another by the parties immediately interested. Many more were orderd laid out by the Territorial authorities, many pages of the territorial laws being taken up by these road acts. Foremost in importance of all the roads of southern Michigan, forming the backbone of overland communication, was the Detroit-Chicago road, a military and post road constructed by the national government. Most of the other roads of the southern portion of Michigan were constructed with reference to this "trunk line," intersecting it and starting from it as an initial point.

This famous thoroughfare, while it did not touch Allegan county, was of such importance to the settlement of southern Michigan that it calls for some description. The "Chicago Road," by which name it is best known, was essentially an overland extension of the Erie canal. It was a national highway built to connect two important strategic points, to afford rapid transportation of military supplies and armies from the western teniiinus of the waterways at Detroit to Fort Dearborn on Lake Michigan. It was one of the fruits of the Fort Dearborn massacre of i8i2, which convinced the authorities that the territory about southern Lake Michigan could no longer be left exposed on an isolated frontier, and that the two lakes must be tied together by a highway across the Michigan peninsula. Empowered by the constitution to establish post roads, the general government designed this road as an important section of the postal route between the east and the west, and for the twenty years before the railroad came the New York -Chicago mail was carried by stage over this road. But its character as a government highway was almost lost sight of in the importance it attained as an emigrant route. The coming of the mail coach never lost its novelty or ceased to be the event of the day for the people dwelling along the road, but the almost continual line of settlers' wagons became one of the commonplaces of life at that time and attracted little attention.

In accordance with congressional legislation for the construction of a military and post road between Detroit and Chicago, in 1825 the president was authorized to appoint commissioners to survey and mark the route. In 1827 congress appropriated twenty thousand dollars for the construction of the road. It was originally intended that the road should be built in a straight line between the designated termini, but the commissioners soon found that with the money at hand they could hardly make a beginning of the undertaking on that basis. So they were forced to follow a more historic, and more devious, route.

Long before the surveyor with his transit and the contractors with their axmen, bridgebuilders and teamsters had begim a single highway in Michigan, the animals and the Indians had worn practicable trails through all parts of the country. Some of these were short and some extended for many miles. Of the latter was the trail extending around the southern end of Lake Michigan as far east as Detroit. Since the war of 1812 the Indians dwelling in Illinois had been accustomed to make their annual pilgrimages along this route to Canada, where the British government paid them their annuity earned by loyalty to that government in its war against the Americans. The Detroit-Chicago Indian trail, therefore, had historic importance long before any marks of civilization had been impres.sed along its course.

Accordingly, when the government surveyors foimd the appropriation inadequate, they determined to follow this old Indian trail, straightening some of its windings whenever they could, but in general marking the route by its long used paths. The engineers who began the work of marking this road in 1825 did not "make" the road: they merely designated its course by clearing a roadway through the trees. As late as 1829 the pioneers along its middle sections called the road little better than an Indian trail.

From Ypsilanti this road bent south and passed through the southern tier of counties. It was, from that point, not a direct route to Allegan county. But its historical importance lies in the fact already indicated, that it was the first continuous overland route planned across the peninsula, and shortly after it was surveyed the territory followed the example of the general government by ordering the survey of numerous other highways into every portion of the territory that was being taken up by settlers. Tap roads reached from the Chicago road in all directions. Many of the earliest settlers of Kalamazoo county came along the Chicago road as far as Branch county, thence turning to the northwest along an old Indian trail made into a highway. But beginning with the thirties roads were marked from Ypsilanti and that vicinity in a due west line, through Jackson, Marshall, Battle Creek, and it was along this route that most of the early settlers reached Allegan county. In 1832, as an example, the legislature ordered commissioners to lay out a road from the mouth of the Battle Creek, via Gull prairie in Kalamazoo county, along the Kalamazoo river to its mouth. The acts of the legislature for the laying out of such roads cannot be taken as authority that they were actually laid out. In some cases the funds were not sufficient, or the commissioners did not begin their work within the specified time, and for other reasons only those roads for which there was a real necessity and active demand were marked. But it is known that a road existed from the early thirties from Ypsilanti westward through the points above named. From this highway, often called the ''territorial road," branched several trails traversed by emigrant wagons in reaching Gull prairie and Allegan county.

The Foster family, one of the most prominent of the pioneer names at Otsego, furnish an interesting example of travel at that time. Their home was originally in \^ermont state. After Dr, Foster had investigated this portion of Michigan and made preparations for removal, he and his family went overland and by water to Troy, New York, where they transferred to a boat on the Erie canal, which conveyed them to Buffalo. Thence a steamer took them across the lake to Detroit, where their journey through the wilderness began. With their goods loaded on a wagon, they drove along the Chicago road through Dearborn to Ypsilanti, and thence followed the territorial road to Battle Creek. They were two weeks in passing over the first stage of their route, 142 miles. At Battle Creek Dr. Foster and his party built two log cabins, which were the first houses in that place. After remaining there a short time, they came through the wilderness by way of Gull prairie, and arrived at Otsego in the spring of 1832, being the first family to settle on the site of the present village of Otsego.

No settlements had been made along the roads west of Detroit further than Ypsilanti in 1825 (always excepting the settlement about Niles. resulting from the establishment of the Carey Mission). But by 1835, along the territorial road west of Ypsilanti, were the villages of Ann Arbor. Lima, Grass Lake. Jacksonburg, Sandstone, Marshall, Battle Creek, Cornstock, Kalamazoo, St. Joseph on the lake ; while away from the main route were numerous other little hamlets springing up under the rapid progress of immigration.

The question has been asked, what caused the quick settlement of southern Michigan during the early thirties, and what influences directed the population to the confines of Allegan county. The question involves the entire subject of "western expansion," which, beginning shortly after the close of the war of 1812, was the most remarkable epoch in the coun- try's history during the first half of the nineteenth century. It was a national movement, due to the awakening of the people to their broad opportunities. The restless energy and enterprise of America could no longer be contained within the narrow limits of the thirteen colonies, and henceforth flowed through all the gateways of the eastern slope to the broad areas of the west.

As already indicated, improved transportation was perhaps the greatest impulse to this westward movement. During the decade of the thirties more than seven hundred miles of canals had been opened to navigation in New York, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, and nearly fifteen hundred miles were nearing completion in these and other middle states and Ohio. Canals were in greater favor than railroads, and every state west of the Alleghanies was bending its efforts to the opening of navigable waterways between all important centers.

This war must be mentioned in a history of Allegan county although the hostilities took place several hundred miles away, and so far as known no one from this county participated actively in the war. But the important result, so far as the development of Allegan and other Michigan counties was concerned, is set forth in the following extract from the Detroit Journal of August 29, 1832:

"The Indian disturbances on our frontier have no doubt operated extensively in retarding emigration to this territory. Though emigrants might have come here at any time during the present season without any possible danger from liostile Indians, we are happy to say that there is now no cause of alarm from the depredations of those deluded people, even in the most distant parts of our territory, where their ravages have been confined. That portion of Michigan which is settled, and to which emigration is chiefly directed, has not been molested. The settlements are quiet and prosperous, and the same inducements to those who wish to better their circumstances, bv locating on the fertile plains and prairies of the west, are still held out."

The presence of bands of Pottawatomies and Ottawas in Allegan and surrounding counties gave the principal cause of anxiety to Michigan settlers and caused a check of migration among those who feared to leave security in the east and cast their lot with a country whose Indian inhabitants might be aroused to outrage and war. These conditions are well outlined in a letter from one of the militia leaders to the commanding general, written at White Pigeon in St. Joseph county :

"The injury done to this part of the territory by the exaggerated reports of danger from hostile bands of Indians will not be cured for two years to come, and the unnecessary movements of our militia is calculated to spread far and near this alarm. I will venture to assert, and in making this assertion I am supported by the best of evidence, that there has not been a band of hostile Sacs within one hundred miles of our western boundary, and that the Rock river swamp to which the main body of the hostile force has fled for security is more than two hundred miles. The stories that are told of suspicious movements amongst the Pottawatomies and that a Sac chief has lately been to some of their villages is tndy ridiculous, and I trust you are too well acquainted witli the situation of the Indians here to turn a listening ear to such idle trash. The Indians are like ourselves, they see an unusual movement amongst us and like other idlers they flock together to talk the matter over. The fact is, two years since the small parties of Indians scattered over this part of the territory were directed by me, as agent, to collect themselves on their reservations out of the way of the white people. This they are now doing, being frightened bv our movements, and this is the cause of all the suspicion towards them."'

The first permanent settlement mouth of the Kalamazoo river. Wi some of the pioneers of western Michigan followed, making the entire journey by water instead of coming from Detroit overland. If the settlement of the counties bordering on the lake shore had been generally effected in this manner, we should find the bulk of the pioneers located along the shore and gradually extending inland aiong the river and most eligible sites. Actual history shows the reverse to be true, population having pushed its way down the river from the southeast.

However, the motives that brought William G. Butler and family around the lakes and induced him to build his cabin on the site of Saugatuck village in the spring of 1830, makes his location an exception that only proves the general rule of the direction of settlement in the county. Mr. Butler was a Connecticut Yankee, and his first object in locating at the mouth of the river was not permanent settlement, but the Indian trade. In this he was merely the successor of various other American and French traders who had carried on their business with the Natives at this location for the previous ten years.

The mouth of the Kalamazoo river was doubtless known to explorers during the eighteenth century, and it is possible that Marquette and La- Salle and the Jesuit priests who followed them may have noted the river at that point. Hunters and traders passed over all the Michigan country from an early date, and there were several posts in Allegan county during the twenties. Louis Campau. a Frenchman, had a post at the mouth of Rabbit river, east of New Richmond. The American Fur Co. established a post at Peach Orchard on the Kalamazoo about 1825, this location later being known as McCormick's landing, about four miles above Saugatuck. The trade with the Indians was quite profitable, and the trading post remained a feature of the county's early history until the Indians were removed.

When Mr. Butler came he established a store in his log cabin, which stood about the center of the present village, at the intersection of Mason and Butler streets. Being the only white settler in the neighborhood, he was engaged for several years in trading with the Indians. But it seems that Mr. Butler was more than a trader, and perhaps from the first had entertained hopes of founding a village at this point, since it clearly possessed many 'advantages that would give it importance as a commercial and industrial center when the country should be settled. Though he may have located here for the temporary purposes of other traders, who usually moved on as soon as the tide of civilization caught up with them, he soon resolved upon permanent settlement, and for this reason is to- he regarded as the earliest of Allegan county's pioneers. His isolation from all society except the Indians during the first years was almost complete, and it is said that on one occasion he journeyed as far as Elkhart, Indiana, to get a supply of flour.

Originating in an Indian trading post, the settlement at Saugatuck grew and reached a permanent basis of prosperity, first, as a warehouse and shipping point for river and lake traffic; second, as the location of several early mills, and tanneries; and later as a lumber and shipbuilding center. During the period that we are now considering the importance of Saugatuck was based on these enterprises.

Edward Johonnett and E. R, Crosby are mentioned as the next settlers after Butler. They established the first industry, a tannery on the banks of the river, and from this time for over half a century tanning was one of the leading industries of the west portion of the county. With the establishment of the tannery in 1834, other settlers came to the place. Daniel Plummet was a carpenter whose services were naturally much in demand in a new community. He put up a house on Hoffman street that stood for many years.

The tannery and three dweUing houses stood on the low shore on the east side of the river in July, 1834, when Stephen D. Nichols and H. H. Comstock came up the river on a prospecting trip from St. Joseph, Mich., having come up the lake by boat. These two men realized the advantages of the location, especially since settlers had begun arriving at the mouth of the river mi their way to the inland settlements. Nichols, besides taking up a quarter section of land in section -17, made a contract with his partner to erect a warehout^e and pier at the mouth of the river. After deciding on his location and plans Nicbois brought his family from the east and in the same year made settlement on the north bank of the river near its mouth. The construction of the warehouse and dock was begun at once. It is an interesting fact that all the sawed lumber for this and the other structures at Saugatuck and the mouth of the river up to this time were brought down the river from the sawmill at the mouth of Pine creek, a settlement that must attract our attention next after that at Saugatuck.

The establishment of a warehouse and dock at the mouth of the river was an event of great consequence to that portion of the county, and is furthermore interesting for the light it throws on the causes of the settlers not coming into the county by this route in greater numbers. The voyage around the lakes was at any time dangerous, as already indicated, but previous to the building of dockage facilities only a few boats would venture into the river to land passengers and freight. Had the same inducements been held out to the lake traffic at the beginning of the county's history as were at a later period, it is likely that a much greater per cent of settlers would have entered the county by this route and also would have increased the prestige of the settlements along the lower course of the river at the expense of those further up. The building of Nichols' warehouse was the beginning of the river and lake traffic, and from that date Saugatuck and vicinity came into prominence as an intermediate shipping depot where the traffic from the river and that from the lake converged. As soon as grist and lumber mills began producing more than a local supply along the upper courses of the river, the surplus product was sent down the river and here was embarked for transportation around the lakes.

Nichols also built a store near his warehouse, and his location took on a commercial aspect that excited some jealous fears in Butler and his associates up the river, who feared the rivalry of the enterprise at the mouth. Hoping to secure a share in the proceeds of the warehouse business, Butler first established a dock and a warehouse about two miles from the mouth of the river, and when that failed because of its unfavorable location, he put up a similar establishment on the south side of the river opposite that of Nichols. This was in 1842, and but for unforseen developments during the next few years the locality at the river's mouth might have become an emporium of no small importance. The river traffic was then at its height, and the products of much of the inland country as far as Otsego found their way to market by the river and lake transportation. Then in 1846 the railroad reached Kalamazoo, from which point it pushed on to Chicago within the next four years, and from that time the trade of the eastern half of the county was directed over the roads south to this new trunk line of transportation. The river traffic, while it still maintained a great volume for many years, originated mainly along the lower course of the river, and no longer had the peculiar importance of the early years.

While this portion of the history is devoted to a general survey of early settlement and growth, leaving the detailed history of the villages for later consideration, one result of this period of commercial enterprise at the mouth of the river was so peculiarly the outgrowth of the time that some facts relating thereto will aptly 'illustrate the very matter just referred to.

The lost and forgotten village of Singapore seems to have originated and experienced its chief phase of prosperity during the thriving days when the settlements at the mouth of the river were the depot and shipping center for the greater portion of the county. Oshea Wilder and sons, of New York, were the promoters of the village. They built a saw mill, induced a number of settlers to come and buy lots, and, in the flush of local and general prosperity of the time, went so far as to found a bank, which belongs among the wild-cat enterprises of the time, though no stigma attached to its conduct. But it failed in the general crash of the late thirties, and the other enterprises of Wilder and sons went with it. All village activity and life was soon snuffed out, but the mill remained until the supply of timber for any profitable business was exhausted, and in 1875 it too was removed. James G. Carter Co. had succeeded the original firm of Wilders and conducted the chief interests of the place.

The plat of the village of Singapore was laid on the north bank of the river at the horseshoe bend in section 4, and only a short distance north of the new government cut into the lake. It extended north to the section line, and was half a mile wide. The physical map acompanying the plat indicates the "sand hills 80 to 100 feet high" south of the village on the peninsula, and also "sand hills 50 to 60 feet high" between the river and the lake.

It is unnecessary to describe the usual features of such a plat. But block 27, located on the bank of the river where it bends south, was desig-

The plat is dated "Singapore, February, 1838, surveyed by O. Wilder," This quotation is also of interest: "This map adopted by the subscribers, trustees of Singapore City Co., April 16, 1838. (Signed) Sam Hubbard. Witness: Edmund S. Munroe, Pliny Cutler, Franklin Brown." The map was recorded in Allegan February 5, 1839.

Singapore was not the only village laid out in this vicinity during those thriving days. A navigable river, expanding into a spacious lake harbor, facilities for what then seemed an ever increasing trade, magnificent ship-building timber and lumber: besides a copious supply of tan bark - these were the most promising bases of wealth production and natnrally attracted commercial enterprise. Moreover, it was in the spirit of the times, so buoyantly active and trustful of the future, to found banks on paper currency, to lay out village plats in the wilderness and depict them on paper as a coming metropolis, and to engage in all enterprises as though there was no limit to their possibilities. It is merely an interesting item of antiquity that such villages as Kalamazoo Harbor, near the river's mouth ; Naples, near Singapore ; City of Breese, probably near Breese Point landing, several miles above Saiigatuck, were once platted, but never had either enterprise or inhabitants. Rightly studied, it appears that all these village speculations were but phases of the national and peculiarly Michigan frenzy of promotion and speculation, which collapsed into the calamitous panic of 1837.

Leaving aside these village speculations, there was and always has been substantial industry at the mouth of the river. Even with the opening of the new government channel and the improvement of the harbor the shipping industry has not attained the importance it had in the years following the building of Nichols' warehouse. Lake boats then began making regular stops and carried away the flour, the hides, lumber and other products. Flat boats were poled up and down the river, even as far south as Kalamazoo, Rafts of lumber were floated on to the lake and towed away to the larger centers. But the otitside ship-owners did not long have a monopoly on the lake traffic. Lake boats were built at Saugatuck, beginning with the lumber vessel Crook, constructed by James McLaughlin, a ship carpenter, who settled at the village about 1837. After the failure of the Wilders, Carter & Co. built the Octavia at Singapore, and at the same place Porter & Co, constructed the C. C. Trowbridge in 1842. a flat-bottomed steamboat, intended for river navigation, but soon found too large for that purpose and transferred to the lake trade. It is not difficult to conceive the magnitude of the shipping industrv at the mouth of the river when there were no railroads anywhere in this part of the state, when the market-stuffs from Wayland. Otsego. Allegan and intermediate points were hauled overland or brought by river to this port.

The government early recognized this as a lake port by the erection, in 1838, of a stone lighthouse on the south side of the entrance, Stephen D. Nichols being the first keeper. It was replaced in 1859 by a brick structure, and in 1875 a wooden tower was buiU on the end of the south pier.

hemlock bark. The opportunities for tanning brought to Saiigatuck one of its most prominent citizens. Stephen A. Morrison came here from Vermont in 1837 to start a tannery, but instead bought the Johonnett & Crosby plant, and later moving it to the south side of the village on the lake, continued its operation for forty or more years. This was the only tannery in the vicinity for some years. A tannery northeast of Saugatuck, in section 3, was established in 1844 by A. S. Wells and O. R. Johnson, who conducted it until 1854. The Wallins, C. C. Wallin and F. B. Wallin, who came here during the fifties, bought this tannery in section 3, at the little place afterwards called Wallinville, and later bought the tannery established in the early sixties at Douglas by Daniel Gerber.

Allegan county resources of pine and hardwood timber were its greatest asset during the pioneer era. These great forests in this and other counties proved a serious obstacle to the development of agricultural interests so long as the fertile timberless prairies west of Lake Michigan remained unoccupied. In this we see one chief reason why Illinois was settled and developed in advance of Michigan. But in a few years the people of Illinois and other prairie regions began to import lumber, and then the lumber industry of Michigan became a source of wealth, continuing as long as the forests lasted. Until the railroads were built the practicable means of transporting lumber to market was by water. The Grand, the Kalamazoo and the St. Joseph, with their tributaries, penetrated far inland over southwestern Michigan, rendering a vast timber area accessible to market. The creeks and small streams were available for carrying timber only during the high-water season, but the Kalamazoo and other rivers had enough volume for use nearly all the year round. Hence all along the Kalamazoo we find the lumber industry developed into a leading activity.

The vicinity of Saugatuck, while not the iirst in the county to produce lumber, soon became a center of the industry, both as a producer and as a lumber shipping point. In 1836 Benjamin Plummer built a dam across the little outlet of Goshorn lake, in section 3 of Saugatuck township, and put up a sawmill, which he and Edward Johonnett began operating the next year. This doubtless cut lumber only for local supply at first. Mr. Plummer, who abandoned the mill in 1846, was long afterward a resident of Ganges.

In 1846 M. B. Spencer built a steam sawmill in Saugatuck village. He also had a lumber yard at the mouth of the river, evidently for the easy transfer of lumber to lake vessels. Wells & Johnson succeeded to his business in 1850. In 1856 H. D. Moore invested capital at Saugatuck and for twenty years was an extensive lumber manufacturer and dealer, his plant being located on the north side of the village along the river. Another mill was built in Saugatuck in 1852 by Dunning & Hopkins.

The sawmill at Singapore has been mentioned. A mill was built about 1851 by Jonathan Wade as the nucleus of the village whicb he was then promoting on the south side of Kalamazoo lake. William F. Dutcher later bought this mill and the site has ever since been covered by milling interests, the Douglas basket factory being on the ground at present. This mill, together with one built on the east side of the village plat about i86r, and the tannery were the nucleus of Douglas' early industrial activity.

course of the river while the lumbering industry remained supreme, and a large proportion of the mill products of the interior villages were transported to market via Saugatuck. The first such mill in Sauagtuck was built by George P. Heath in 1866 and was burned in 1879. It was situated on the river between Hoffman and Main streets and was the only grist mill in the village. During the sixties a grist mill was also added to Douglas' industries, Crawford McDonald being its first proprietor. In 1892 a roller mill was built at the south end of the village, and it was operated as such for about seven years, when the machinery was moved to Allegan, now being used in the Chaffee building. The mill building was then converted into the Butler House by Capt. Phelps, a veteran of the lake marine, its present proprietor.

Saugatuck has many objects and persons associated with the lake transportation service. The business no longer retains the importance it once held. A loaded lumber schooner passing down the river now would attract attention from all sides, though forty years ago that was an everyday occurrence. The himber business has gone, and though fruit has taken its place, the transportation of the latter is not concentrated at this point, Holland, New Richmond, Fennville, Glenn and other railroad stations and lake ports each taking a share in the business.

The lumber carrying trade ceased about 1878, and since then shipping has been confined to fruit and farm products. In this business Saugatuck has a rival in Glenn Pier, in this county, which, it is claimed, is as important a shipping point for fruit as South Haven, and draws to it much of the product of Casco and Ganges townships.

One of the veterans of the lake service still living at Saugatuck and vicinity is W. G. Phelps, proprietor of the Butler House at Saugatuck, and who came to the village in 1868. At that time the two steamers, Helen Marr and Aunt Betsy, were still running on the river between Saugatuck and Allegan, and the river traffic was of considerable importance. Some of the vessel owners and masters and their boats as recalled by Mr. Phelps are as follows :

Capt. Ed. Castain, who died in Chicago last year, was a son-in-law of Ira Chaffee of Allegan, and owned and operated the "Ira Chaffee." Another well known figure was Dr. L. B. Coates, a nephew of the doctor of the same name of Otsego. He owned the La Vinda, Hattie Earle, and, in partnership with Stockbridge & Johnson, the O, R. Johnson, which was built in 1868, The latter firm during the seventies built some of the largest vessels on the lakes. Their shipyard was located near the south end of Butler street in Saugatuck.

Others who should be mentioned were Ami Coates, owner and master ; Charles and Thomas McVea, and Capt. Robert Reed, who died last summer. Of those veterans of the service still living in the county, mention should be made of Capt. Richard Ames^ who lives near the interurban road ; Capt. Johnson, a resident of Ganges, formerly a prominent owner and master.

who is one of the best informed men in the county on matters relative to this subject; Capt. Alex. Gibson, living southeast of Douglas, and with him Thomas Snow, a typical sailor, on whose water and weather-worn constitution age seemingly makes no impression.

Of the other interests about the mouth of the river during the period under consideration little need here be said, since the disappearance of the timber supply and other developments were productive of changes that are properly considered under what we have denominated the Kailroad era. The fruit business had not assumed any commercial importance until the seventies, although peaches and other friiits were grown for home consumption at an early date in this part of the county. Purely agricultural pursuits were not followed to any large extent. The beautiful country along the lake shore and away from the river in the south part of the township was owned in large blocks as late as 1870. Of the adjacent county on the north, especially in southern Laketown, hardly any settlement was made until the sixties, and it is more properly considered with the Hollanders' colony. And the settlement further up the river about New Richmond will be described on later pages.

An account of the settlement and early development of that portion of Allegan county lying within a radius of a few miles of the villages of Plainwell and Otsego presents many different features from those adorning the early historj' of the Saugatuck region. Containing the bulk of the pioneer population, whose activities found a varied scope in transforming the new country into an abode of civilization, southeastern Allegan is most characteristic in those processes and events by which southern Michigan became a rich and populous part of the commonwealth.

If the limits of this history were not defined by the artificial boundaries fixed by the government surveyors and by the legislature in blocking off the county area, it would be very logical to describe the settlement of this portion of the county along with the settlement of the country immediately to the south, especially Gull Prairie, in Kalamazoo county. In fact, there is a very close connection subsisting between these localities. Most of the early settlers came to the Gun Plains and Pine Creek neighborhoods by way of Gull Prairie, and more than that, some of them had been settlers on Gull Prairie before transferring their residence to Allegan county. The accounts that have been handed down of the early settlement of Gun Plains and Otsego townships tend to bear out the statement that the first settlement of those localities was an extension of the Kalamazoo county settlements. The vast tide of immigration that flowed across southern Michigan during the thirties, having occupied the most available portions of Kalamazoo county, was protruded across the southern border of this county, and within two or three years an enterprising population was located about the junction of the Gun and Kalamazoo rivers. The first settlements were made on the prairies of Kalamazoo county in 1829. Two years later the first settlers reached Allegan county.

This explanation of the movement of population into southeastern Allegan leads us to repeat the question, What influences directed the settlers to this region? If the movement of population in this state depended on overcrowding and the pressure of famine - instances of which have been numerous in older countries - it would be easy to affirm that the first settlers came to Allegan county because they wore crowded from other localities and were undergoing a sort of exile in seeking homes in the wilderness in this manner. But the remarkable movement of popidation into southern Michigan was an entirely voluntary movement. Most of the settlers came from comfortable homes in the east, where with less toil than was meted out to them in the west they could have continued to enjoy a fair degree of material prosperity and the advantages of a more advanced social state. But the spirit of Western expansion, the desire to take part in the building up of a new country, was a mightier and more intelligent force than that which actuates the famine-stricken hordes whose migrations have changed the history of other portions of the world. Independent, self-reliant, thrifty and enterprising, the pioneers of Michigan selected their homes according as the advantages of the locality attracted them, and when not satisfied they passed on to exercise their choice elsewhere.

The bulk of the pioneers were seeking agricultural lands. A much smaller proportion, especially during the thirties, gave particular attention to the manufacturing and the commercial possibilities of the country. This is, indeed, but a restatement of the well known fact that. trade and industry always follow the pastoral or agricultural activities. With the tilting of the soil as their chief aim, the settlers of southern Michigan naturallv chose those regions where they could plant their crops with the least difficulty and reap their harvests with least delay. No lands were more attractive for this end than the so-called "prairies" and the "oak openings" for which southern Michigan is famous. Cooper, in his romance, "Oak Openings." whose scenes are laid along the Kalamazoo river, has made tho.se features of the landscape familiar to a world of readers.

Kalamazoo county has a number of these prairie and oak opening areas. Prairie Ronde, Grand. Gourdneck. Gull and others were eagerly sought by the first settlers. Gull prairie, lying between Kalamazoo and the county line on the north, received a considerable quota of settlers during the first years of the thirties. The advantage of settling on these spots is evident. It required little clearing to make them tillable, and if the settler arrived in the spring he could make a crop the same year and have time for other labors besides.

So, likewise, when homeseckers began exploring the country now contained in Allegan county, they very quicklv picked out the lands which might be described as prairies or openings. Topograohy. therefore, played no small part in the first settlement of the county. When we recollect that the western part of Allegan coimty was to a large extent pine and other heavy timbered lands, with a light sandy or clay soil, and that the same was true to an only less extent of much of the eastern half of the coimtv, it will be understood how favorably impressed were the pioneers with the few prairie and oak opening areas in the southeastern part of the coimty.

Lying in the angle made by the junction of the Gun and Kalamazoo rivers was the most extensive and fertile clearing in the coimtv. Gun Plains-, as it has always been called, was a bnrr-oak opening of the finest quality and prairie-like in its appearance. Frequently but two or three trees were found standing upon an acre. Its soil, rich and friable in nature, yielded readily to cultivation when once broken. On the south side of the Kalamazoo, east of the present Otsego village, were other small areas of oak openings, and the southwest corner of Martin township was also characterized by similar areas. An examination of the original land entries shows that these places were the first to be purchased. With these facts in mind, it is easy to understand the first groupings of population in the county.

The area of Allegan county, with the relatively few exceptions noted above, has not easily been reduced to tillage. It has been a stupendous task to clear the land of its forest covering and make it agriculturally profitable. The small holdings of many of the agricultural settlers indicate that they realized the difficulties confronting them. While the fruits of the soil have been foremost among the resources of the county since the decline of lumbering, this condition is in itself the highest praise of the industry and thrift of the farming population, who through years of labor have wrought out homesteads and contributed to their own and the general prosperity.

These facts caused the other resources of the county to appear, by contrast, relatively important to the early settlers, and it is not strange, therefore, to find industrial activities assuming a large share of their enterprise. While in such counties as Kalamazoo and others to the south the farming class comprised nearly the entire pioneer population, in Allegan county we find a relatively large number who were interested in milling, in the lumber business, in the promotion of villages and in trade. A great deal of money came from the east for investment in various enteqjrises in Allegan county, and the results may be seen in various centers of the county.

No more interesting document - and it is the earliest important historical record concerning the county - illustrating very concisely some of the observations just made, can be found than the notes appended to the original field-notes of Otsego township by Lucius Lyon, after completing the survey in January, 1831. A transcription of these notes may be found in the county surveyor's records.

"The township of which the foregoing are the field notes," says Mr. Lyon, "is a fine tract of land for a new settlement. Three families have already located themselves within it. and more are coming in the spring. So that before the close of next summer this township will probably contain thirty families.

"A Mr. Turner Aidrich is now erecting a sawmill on Pine creek, in the northwest quarter of section 28, and it is understood is designing to cut off most of the pine before the land comes into market. In this, however, the inhabitants about here feel an interest in preventing the waste of this timber and hope he will be disappointed by the early sale of the land.

"There is also a mill site on Gun river, in section 24, and the south part of section 13: and another good one on the grand rapids of the Kalamazoo

"Water power is abundant. The soil of the land is generally good, the surface rolling, and in some places hilly. The timber is beech, sugar, maple, oak, ash, linn, black walnut, with iroiiwood, and in some places briars and vines. Everything considered, this township may well be designated first rate.

"Of its geology and mineralogy little can be said. No rock appears in sight in this township, though in many places there are deep ravines and favorable places for observation. A deep stratum of earth covers the whole. But if an opinion may be formed from the configuration of the surface and the character of the pebbles seen, the underlying rock ts probably calcareous sand rock. No metals are found, but several springs indicate the existence of iron ore. "

These notes of Mr. Lyon place us very close to the beginning of civilization in Allegan county. Except W. G. Butler at the mouth of the river, there was no other permanent white settlement in the county when he wrote. Who were the men he mentions, and where did the next pioneers settle and what were their first steps in the development of this wilderness?

The Sherwood family have been intimately identified with the history of Allegan county for more than three-quarters of a century. They came from Rochester, Monroe county, N. Y., as did many other pioneers, and took the lead in introducing here the spirit of enterprise and industry so typical of their home locality. Being acquainted with ni ami factu ring and mil! enterprises, they were attracted to this coimty largely by reason of the opportunities in that direction. Hull Sherwood was the senior member of the family. There were live sons. Eber. Hull, Royal, Lebbeus, and Edmund, all married except the last two, and one of his daughters was the wife of Giles Scott, who is accorded a place of prominence among the pioneers because he was the first actual settler in this part of the county.

Turner Aldrich, Jr., mentioned by the surveyor, was from Erie county. N. Y. Having been a practical lumhennan from youth, he came to this county, as Mr. Lyon states, to establish a sawmill.

The coming of the Foster family to Otsego has been described in another connection. Dr. Samuel Foster, the head of the family, was a physician, but also a thorough business man, and after coming to this county gave most of his attention to farming and the development of the material interests, besides taking a foremost part in civil affairs. His family consisted of himself and wife, sons Samuel D., Gould C., Benjamin W., George H., and three daughters.

Members from each of these three families had explored Allegan county in 1829-30, each one seeking the advantages of location most favorable to his purposes. The mill sites mentioned by the surveyor attracted the Sherwoods and Mr. Aldrich, while it is probable that Dr. Foster took note of the excellent farming land of the vicinity as well as the milling possibilities, and doubtless looked forward to the time when development would make tliis a rich and populous region.

Giles Scott, who was the first to arrive with his famih-. located on the southeast corner of section 21 in Otsego township. The date of his arrival was in.the early fall of 1830. A few days later Turner Aldrich came, seiect- ing as the site for his mill and residence a spot on the banks of Pine creek in the northwest comer of section 28, Jess than a mile from Scott's. Some of the Sherwootls mnst have come about the same time, though it is said most of the family came in the fall of 1831. They located about the mouth of Pine creek. Mr. Aldrich was accompanied by several other persons, among whom was Uri Baker, later of Martin township. Thus, at the beginning of 1831. there was a settlement aJong Pine creek of not less than fifteen persons, a nucleus of population with great possibilities of enterprise and growth.

Arriving in a wilderness, at the end of the year's harvest season, with limited supplies such as could be transported overland, confronted with the necessity of providing home shelter and preparing for a period of productive labor with the beginning of spring, this pioneer community faced conditions and undertakings which it is difficult at this time to realize in accurate detail. Here, as in other parts of the county, the daily, usual life was a constant exertion against the forces of wikliiess, requiring fortitude and strength of a kind that the modern life knows little. Improvement was in many respects very gradual. It was a toilsome and slow process to transplant civilization to the wilderness of Allegan county- The contrasts between the present and the past of seventy-five years ago are striking and even wonderful : none the less, we dare not suppose for that reason that the transformation was of fairy-like swiftness and ease of accomplishment.

The first thing, of course, after the newly arrived settler had made his family as comfortable as possible temporarily, was to build the traditional log cabin. In obtaining material for his house the builder must select trees which were not too large, or they could not be handled convenientlv : not too small, or the cabin would be a house of saplings. The process of felling the trees, splitting the logs, hewing them so as to have flat walls inside, notching them- at the ends so as to let them down on each other, slanting the gables, riving out lapboards or shingles, putting on roof poles, binding the shingles to them, sawing out doors and windows, making the fireplace, and manv other things necessary in building a log cabin - this process is yet familiar to the oldest settlers.

After the settlers had housed their families they made a shelter for their stock, which was often done by setting poles in the ground, with crotches at the upper end; poles were laid from crotch to crotch, other poles laid across, and the roof covered with marsh hay until it was thick enough to shed water. Poles were slanted against the sides, and hay piled on them in the same manner. The door could be left open or closed bv any means convenient. This made an exceedingly warm shelter, though it was so dark that the animals' eyes sometimes suffered from it. Swine could he left to shelter themselves, and they usually found some sheltered nook in the groves and forests or among the thick grass, where thev made themselves comfortable, though some of them ran wild.

After the primitive log cabin came the frame building. It was the sawmill which marked the first move away from pioneer life. For as soon as the sawmill was accessible to any community frame buildings were practicable. Yet, with all the wealth of lumber woods and the numerous sawmills constructed in the county, the log cabin was almost as familiar a dwelling in Allegan county as in other counties of southern Michigan. Log buildings are by no means an nncomnioii sight at this day, although most of them are iimised and merely decaying landmarks of a more primitive time. As late as twenty-five years ago there was at least one log schoolhouse in use in the county, so that many now in the prime of life can bespeak a more than passing acquaintance with the log-cabin epoch.

The sawmill brought comforts and conveniences into the pioneer existence, but it also heralded the beginning of the lumber industry, which for half a century was the chief source of wealth in the county.

Turner Aldrich's sawmill, which was completed in the spring of 1831. was the first in the county. Situated on Pine creek, from which it obtained its water power, it drew its supply of timber from the pine woods described by Mr. Lyon as lying in sections 28, 31 and 33. This was a primitive mill, as were all the early ones in the county, but its sawed product went into many of the first dwelling houses in various parts of the count;-. The first mill was burned in July, 1832, but was at once rebuilt by Mr. Aldrich. Cyrenius Thompson and Charles Miles were operating it at the time it burned, and Orlando Weed, another pioneer, leased the reconstructed mill.

The establishment of a mill in a remote settlement was no light undertaking. The special machinery had to be transported for long distances, since only the woodwork could be made on the spot. Aldrich brought his saw and mill irons with him when he came. The construction of a dam and race, the hewing out and setting up of the mill timbers and installing the machinery was a task requiring time, skill and labor. While Mr. Aldrich was building his mil! the Sherwoods were planning the erection of both a saw and grist mill at the mouth of Pine creek. The sawmill was ready for operation during the winter of 1831-32. and was the second mill in the county. The construction of a grist mill was a more difficiUt matter. The various processes in the manufacture of flour required several .sets of machinery, all of which had to be brought overland from Detroit. Oka Town, the county's first probate judge, and three other men, with wagons and four ox teams, drove to Detroit for this machinery, and it required tliree weeks to make the entire joiirnev. The mill was put in operation in 1834, and at once began a large custom business, supplying with breadstuffs a territory whose residents up to this time had been obliged to make long journeys to mill their humble grist. This first mill was on the west side of Pine creek, and remained there till moved to the east side about thirty-five years ago.

The account of the settlement of southeastern Allegan county has so far been concerned with the Pine creek neighborhood. It is in harmony with the mutations of human affairs that this settlement, once the lat^est of the county in population and industries, has now little to distinguish it from the surrounding agricultural district. It was nbt only the first place of settlement in this part of the county, but for several years quite overshadowed in importance the Otsego and Gun Plains settlements. It was the evident intention/ especiallv on the part of the Sherwoods. to promote a thriving village here. Hull Sherwood in fact laid out a plat at the mouth of Pine creek and gave it the name of New Rochester. Born of a time when the enthusiasm for the founding of villages and for development enterprises of all kinds reigned supreme. New Rochester held a commanding position until the severe economic conditions following the panic of 1837 reduced every enterprise to a struggle for mere existence. It seems tliat in a new country, where opportunities are everywhere equal and the onljdiscriminations are those exercised by natural conditions, the efforts of men would be tested and proved by the merit of usefulness, and that the individuals and institutions that survived would really be the fittest. If this holds true with regard to the settlements now in discussion, it is evident that either men of greater foresight and enterprise applied themselves to the development of Otsego, or that New Rochester was placed at some disadvantage by reason of location and soon arrived at the point of "arrested development," thence declining as its rival advanced.

Anticipating the regular order of events somewhat in order to afford a brief resume of New Rochester's history, the village on section 21 vied almost equally with Otsego throughout the decade of the thirties. Giles Scott had a tavern on his place, there were the niilis already mentioned, there was a store, the first schoolhouse was located in that vicinity. In 1840 there were about a dozen families residing on the village plat, while the adjacent country was quite well settled.

When Dr. Foster and family arrived in the county in the fall of 1831. he pre-empted a large part of section 23 in Otsego township and built his log house on the south bank of the river, his being the first habitation on the site of the present village. That house, as the gathering place for the pioneers at the first town meeting held in the county, as the first postoffice in the county, and the home of a man of great influence in affairs, was the nucleus around which much history was formed.

The year 1832 was marked by two important events, though for a time neutralizing in their effects. One was the Black Hawk war scare, elsewhere described, which checked immigration from the east to Michigan Territory and resulted- in little progress being made for a time by the settlements. The other was the placing of lands of Allegan county on the market through the general land office. We have used the word "pre-empt" to designate the occupation of land by those who settled previous to this time. That word literally means a taking possession before buying, and that was what the first settlers had to do. At a later date, especially when the country west of the Missouri river was being settled, such settlers were called "squatters." Previous to 1832 those who came to Allegan county "squatted" on the land which they selected for a homestead, and owned it by "squatters' rights" only, not being able to obtain legal title until the opening of the general land sales. Gun Plains township, however, its section lines having been run in March, 1831, was subject to entry in that year. Sylvester Sibley, the surveyor of the section lines, made the first purchase of land in tlie county in June of that year, his choice being on section 30. The only other purchasers of this year were S. C. Wells, in section t8. and Hull Sherwood. in section 15. None of these became actual settlers on their purchases.

Of all the transactions with which the early settlers were concerned none were more important than the government land sales. The first public lands in Michigan disposed of under government regulations were sold at Detroit in 1818. In 1823 the Detroit land office was divided and a land office established at Monroe, at which all entries of land west of the principal meridian were made up to 1831. Lands could not be placed on sale until after the completion of the official survey, and since, as we have seen, Lucius

Lyon did not complete the survey of Otsego township until January, 1831, and other parts of the county were not finished until after that date, it is probable that no Jand in Allegan was sold at the Monroe land office. From 1831 to 1834 the land office for southwest Michigan was located at White Pigeon, in St. Joseph county, to which point all those buying lands during those years had to go to make their payments and obtain legal title to their pre-emptions. After 1834 the Allegan county settlers entered their lands at Kalamazoo, where the land office for this part of the state was continued until 1858. The United States law required that every piece of land should be put up at auction, after which, if not bid off. it was subject to private entry at one dollar and a quarter per acre. It was an unwritten law among the settlers that each pre-emptor should have the privilege of making the only bid on his land. This right was universally respected among the settlers, no one bidding on another's claim. It occasionalh' happened, however, that an eastern man, unaccustomed to the ways of the west, essayed to bid on the home of a settler, but was soon convinced, in frontier fashion, that such action was a distinct contravention of western custom. The land speculator, in particular, was persona non grata with the settlers, and in .some parts of the country associations known as "squatters' unions" were formed to protect the settler in his claims and when necessary to use force in compelling the speculator to desist from his sharp practices. It was owing to the fact that the public auction of land enabled the speculator to bid in as virgin soil and at the usual price of a dollar and a quarter an acre lands that had been settled and improved by an industrious pioneer, that the system of public sales was finally abolished.

Since so much importance has been ascribed to the events of the year 1832. it will he a matter of interest to know who were in southeastern Allegan at that time and had manifested a substantial interest in the county by entering land. An examination of the original entries reveals many familiar names, both those who have taken part in the developments describe<l on the preceding |)ages and others who pla_\' large parts in the subsequent narrative.

It is important to remember that the early settlers located within easy distance of the river. This is proved not only bv the land entries, but also finds interesting proof in the school districts. When, late in 1836. Otsego township was divided into three districts, their territory consisted of sections 7. S, 9, 13 to 26. and the north half of 27, 28, 29 - all of which lies within a mile and a half of the river.

So we find all the land entries of 1832 close to the Kalamazoo river. Following up the course of the river from the west, we find on section 17 Abijah Chichester, whose name appears often in the annals of this part of the county. Next comes the name of Hull Sherwood, who in the fall of T832 had entered land on section 20. as well as in several other sections adjoining. Of the land entrants of 1832 the Sherwood family figure most prominently. At the Pine creek settlement in section 2t were Giles Scott, Warren Caswell, Henry L. Ellsworth. Horace H. Comstock. there being five different names among the land entries of that vear in that section. Hull Sherwood, Jr.. E. P. Hastings and Erastus A, Jackson had land in section 22. Horace H. Comstock entered, in Seotember of that vear. the entire section 23. except the island in the river. These were all the entries of that year along the Kalamazoo river. But it is of interest to note how the land-seekers were attracted by the pine groves and other advantages along Pine creek. Sections 28, 29, 31, 32 and 33 all touch this stream. Turner Aldrich, Charles Miles, John H. Smith and John Gibbs had entered land in section 28. On section 29 was an entry by Hull Sherwood, on section 31 were Royal Sherwood and Thomas W. Barnard, in section 33 were Horace H. Comstock and Eber Sherwood, and in section 33 was John Yeomans, who had come to the county with Turner Aldrich

Since we are not regarding the artificial limits of townships in this discussion of early settlement, we may proceed up the river, crossing the town line into Gun Plains township, and discover who have located land and made settlement in that vicinity in the year 1832. We have referred to the first land purchases having been made here in 1831, and in 1832 there were these additional entries: C. C. White in section 17, Norman Davis in section 19, Orlando Weed in section 20, and Hull Sherwood in section 31. All but the last of these locations were on the fertile Gun Plains.

The settlement on Gun Plains was very small in 1832, and the interests of the settlers were very closely interwoven with those of the pioneers farther down the river in Otsego township. Dr. Cyrenius Thompson, whose name is given first place in the pioneer history of Gun Plains township, was one of the first purchasers of land in this township in addition to those already named as making entries in 1831 and 1832. Dr. Thompson, who was a native of Ohio and a graduate of a medical college in Vermont, had come to Gull prairie in Kalamazoo county in 1830, but becoming dissatisfied with his prairie farm, moved to Allegan county during the winter of 1831-32 and bought a part of the northwest quarter of section 20 in Gun Plains. But at first, as elsewhere mentioned, he turned his attention to milling, he and Charles Miles leasing the Aldrich sawmill on Pine creek in March, 1832, and operating it until its destruction by fire in the following July, He had lived in a cabin near the mill, and after the fire he hauled the boards and timbers with which the shanty had been constructed to his land on Gun Plains and, reconstructing his house, gave the township its first residence. The house was a rude story and a half affair, the boards running up and down and fastened with wooden pins in lieu of nails. The floor was of loose boards laid on the beaten earth. But makeshift of a dwelling though it may seem to this generation, it soon became as important a center to the settlers of this neighborhood as Dr. Foster's house in Otsego. When Calvin C. White and John H. Adams came to improve their land purchases in this vicinity, they boarded at Dr. Thompson's, and when the postoffice was established in 1833 Dr. Thompson was the first postmaster and kept the office in his house.

Most of the settlers came to this neighborhood from Gull prairie, where they had lived a short time. This was true of C. C. White and also of Jonathan Russell, who came from Connecticut to Gull prairie in 1830, but in 1832 sold his land and improvements there and bought land in section 19 of Gun Plains. He cultivated the first land in the township during that summer, and in the fall his and Dr. Thompson's were the only dwellings in the township.

Excepting W. G. Butler in his solitude at the mouth of the river, there were no other settlements in the county at the time. In continuing; the narrative of subsequent developments, the first figure to come prominently into the arena of affairs is Gen. Horace H. Comstock, whose land entries have been mentioned, and who for a number of years played an influential part in the upbuilding of Kalamazoo and Allegan counties.

To quote from his biographer, A. D. P. Van Buren, General Comstock came to Kalamazoo county "from Cooperstown, Otsego county. New York, in 1831, an ambitious young man with plenty of money. * * f^p fu^, nished money to build the flour mill at Comstock; associated Jiidge Eldred with him, who furnished the millstones; made the millwright a partner and set him to building the mill ; built a schoolhouse and gave it to the people, who in turn named the township after him. From the first, Comstock's highest ambition was to make the village he had founded a county seat. And although he soon learned that it had been established at Kalamazoo, he directed his best efforts to have that decision changed. * * * He pushed forward his work. Soon a landing was stretched along the river's bank opposite the town and up sprang a commodious warehouse hard by it; a hotel and flour mill were built at Otsego, while down at the mouth of the Kalamazoo arose a large storehouse for use in receiving goods shipped to and from the busy marts of the new city." The principal object of all these efforts failed and Kalamazoo remained the county seat. He was thrice elected senator from Kalamazoo county, and during a few years' residence at Otsego he was elected in 1849 to the house of representatives from Allegan county.

Comstock's career concerns us especially in the part he played to promote business enterprises, and as the capitalist who furnished the money for others to carry out his plans. His visit to Saugatuck with S. D. Nichols in 1834, resulting in the building of the warehouse at the mouth of the river, has been alluded to in this narrative. But the principal field of his enterprise in this county was about Otsego, where, according to the statement just quoted, he erected a mill and hotel, and we have already mentioned his extensive land entries in this vicinity, Comstock was a type of the pioneer capitalists who at different places did very much to develop Allegan county's industrial interests. The pioneer farmer, who improves his virgin acres with his individual labor, seldom has the backing of capital. Through the united labors of many such self-reliant and sturdy tillers of the soil the wilderness in time blossoms and a fair and prosperous community is given to civilization. But in Allegan county capital was needed to convert the forest resources into wealth and develop the manufacturing possibilities. So that those who opened their money chests and laid the plans share in the total achievement with those who actually did the work and bore tiie burdens of pioneering.

It has been stated that Dr. Foster pre-empted section 23 of Otsego and built the first house on the site of the village. But the land was entered in the name of H. H. Comstock, who no doubt furnished the money for its purchase and entered actively into the work of developing the water power and promoting a village at the rapids of the Kalamazoo. He had a postoffice established, with Dr. Foster as postmaster. The New Rochester settlement, however, for several years held the leading position in population, business and industry. Some well known men had settled in that vicinity. Orsannis Eaton established a store on the village plat in 1834, and in the fall of 1836 John Hawks added a grocery store to the mercantile enterprise of the place. The manufacture of lumber continued along Pine creek. In 1835 J. S. Higgin.s built a .sawmill in section 31, on a branch of the creek, and it is said that the first lumber to construct a frame house in Battle Creek was sawed at this mill. Willard Higgins (see sketch), who owns the land where the mill stood, hauled this lumber to Battle Creek and returned with a supply of provisions. The importance of New Rochester was furthered by the building of the first bridge across the Kalamazoo river at that point.

In the meantime there was even greater progress in the vicinity of Dr. Foster's residence, and Comstock money and enterprise was making a village center there. After Dr. Foster the next influential settler there was Dr. Lintsford B. Coats, whose name is connected with the professional, the educational, the business and the political affairs of the county, and in a way to suggest that the doctor was a man of solid ability and a leader among his fellows. Since Dr. Foster and Dr. Thompson did not regularly engage in their profession after coming to this county. Dr. Coats is to be considered the first active practitioner of the county. He had a big circuit, riding all over the county. Coming to the site of Otsego village in the fall of 1833, he erected there the first framed house. In the following year three men came to this portion of the township, though they did not settle on the village site, who deserve r^p-'-iti for their long residence and worthy citizenship. One of them was Oka iOwn, whose name is already familiar to the reader, settling on land a mile east of Otsego on the Plainwell road, and the other two were Albert Eldred. from Vermont, and Jeremy Lindsley. of New York, who settled on sections 25 and 26, respectively.

The first store on the site of Otsego was opened in 1835 by Chester and Lester Buckley. Besides the postoffice. Dr. Foster kept a tavern called "Otsego Hal!," which was later enlarged and long known as the Lutkins House, on Allegan street near Farmer street, and is still standing, though not used as hotel for forty years. But the enterprise which undoubtedly formed the basis for village growth originated with the fertile brain of General Comstock and found sanction among the last acts of the territorial legislature. An act approved March 28, 1835, authorized "H. H, Comstock and his heirs and assigns" to construct a dam across the Kalamazoo river at Otsego. It was provided that it should contain a lock not less than 75 feet long and 14 feet wide, and that all craft should have passage toll free. This provision was very necessary at that time when the river was the principal transportation route for its entire navigable length, hardly less for Kalamazoo county than for Allegan. The dam and race were constructed and the power was first used in sawing lumber in 1836. Three years later Mr. Comstock built the flour mill already mentioned by his biographer.

The development of the water power resulted almost immediately in the grouping of population and community affairs about this point. J. S. Higgins, the proprietor of the sawmill on Pine creek, built a tavern near the corner of Farmer and Orleans streets. District No. 2 built its schoolhouse only a few blocks away from the river, and with these enterprises the village of Otsego was fairly started. All that remained was to block off the land into lots and streets, which was done in the latter part of 1836, and another village was born, the subsequent fortunes of which will be described in detail in a succeeding chapter. The second bridge over the Kalamazoo was built at Otsego about 1837.

Having considered the history of beginnings along the Kalamazoo river and Pine creek in Otsego township up to a time when village life had begun and civilization may be said to have been established on a iinn basis, it is now time to turn our attention again to the triangular region east of and along the courses of the Kalamazoo and Gun rivers above their junction. Here, as already explained, was situated the real agricultural Eden of the entire county, and there are some marked points of difference between the settlements here and those at Otsego and Pine creek. Though a postoffice was established in Dr. Thompson's house only shortly after the opening of the office at Otsego, village life and manufacturing industry for many years held a relatively unimportant place as against agriculture, which flourished on the fertile "plains." Barring the extensive tracts of marsh land along the course of Gun river, it appears that the tillable area of this township was entered and developed by settlers sooner than was true of any other township. The pioneer farmers had many advantages. Of course, even there the clearing of the brush and the breaking of the soil which had been undisturbed for centuries were heavy tasks, but hardly greater than those that confronted all the settlers of southern Michigan. But with a navigable river for transportation of their products, with the sawmills a few miles away to furnish them lumber in quantity, and in the same locality grist mills to grind their wheat and corn, the farmers on Gun Plains had a much shorter road to substantial prosperity than the settlers in other parts of the county. Even the marshes were turned into account, and for a long time furnished the year's supply of marsh hay with only the expense of time and labor to cut and store it.

Among the pioneers who took advantage of these resources and opportunities were some men who not alone prospered in the tilling of the soil, but were of the sturdy character and native ability that gave them influence and position in the community. The Ives family, members of which are still prominent residents of this section of the comity, was represented by Friend Ives, who entered land in sections 20 and 21 in 1833, and whose name is found in the early records of civil affairs in his township. John Anderson, who was one of the first justices erf the peace and long the postmaster of Plainwell. located near the site of Plainwell village in the summer of 1834. The Forbes family has been represented in the township since 1834, William and John Forbes being the first residents. They were among the first of the sons of Scotland to settle in AUegau county, and that race still fonns a sturdy element in several parts of the county. William Forbes was a surveyor by profession, doing much work in the county in an official and private capacity. He had first settled on Gull prairie, but in the fall of 1833 purchased part of the land in section 18 previously entered by Lucius Lyon. In the following year he welcomed as neighbor a fellow countryman, James Flockhart, who settled on section 19, and also his brother, John Forbes, who bought a farm in section 18. To William Forbes must be ascribed the first attempt to found a village in Gun Plains township. In 1837 he platted some land in the southwest corner of section 18 and named it Plainfield. Several lots were sold, hut nothing ever came of the village, which seems to have had less cause for existence than some other village enterprises that failed. He also built a sawmill on the site, getting power from Gun river. WiUard Higgins ran it during the forties, shortly before it was removed.

On the sections bordering the Kalamazoo river in the southern portion of the township were a number of settlers who deserve mention. It was natural that settlers in passing along the road leading north from Gull prairie would fix upon the desirable locations along the route. This road passed through what was known as the Silver creek settlement, in the vicinity of the present railroad station of Argenta. This was one of the most populous parts of the township during the thirties. This was the place of settlement and subsequent residence till the death of John Murphy, who bought eighty acres of land in section 34 in 1835. For forty years he was prominent politically and a successful farmer. He was the first supervisor of his township and the first elected sheriff of the county, and later served one term in the legislature. While building his own house, he and his family lived in the house of Elisha B. Seeley, in section 33. It is related in Mr. Murphy's biography that Mrs. Murphy, while sitting at her spinning wheel, taught her own and the Seeley children their first lessons after reaching this county, and it is claimed that this was the first formal instruction given in Gun Plains township.

About this time, on Silver creek, was built the first sawmill in the township, by Nathaniel Weed. A mile or so up the road from the Murphys, Dan Arnold, of Vermont state, setded in 1833, and on a little farther, in the same year. Silas Dunham built a house on section 32, not far from the present village of Plainwell, and opened one of those pioneer taverns which were found indispensable to the homeseekers. To give the name "hotel" to one of these houses would convey an erroneous comparison to the modern reader. The pioneer tavern had distinctions of its own that must class it with the period of which it was the outgrowth, and both passed away together. Silas Dunham took part in early township affairs and his house was often used as a meeting place for the settlers.

Another early tavern in the township, and the one at which was held the first Plainfield town meeting, was Isaac Aldrich's. who lived in section 35. A neighbor of his, on the same section and near the river, was Justus B. Sutherland, who brought his family from New York by way of the Erie canal and Lake Erie steamer, and during the summer of 1834, while building a log house on his land, lived in Dunham's tavern. Near by lived William Still, also a well known name.

Of the many who came on the high tide of immigration in 1835 and 1836, no personal mention can be made in this general sketch. Yet some of them have continued as honored residents to the present day. among whom might be named the Gilkey family, John F. and William Y. Gilkey

The settlement at Silver creek from almost the beginning was distinguished by community sentiment. The formation of School District No. i and the building of a schoolhouse, which was the focal point of the neighborhood, did much to create common ties among the people, and from that time to this Silver Creek, or Argenta, as the railroad station is known, has been a definite locality in the county. Archibald James, an active citizen from his settlement in the township in 1835, moved his residence to this point in 1861 and for a number of years was a mercliant and postmaster of Silver Creek.

The settlements in southeastern Allegan did not extend far away from the main water courses imtil the pioneer period was well gone. The oak openings of southwestern Martin township have been described as likely to attract some of the early settlers. Yet it was not untii the early months of 1836 that Mumford Eldred bought and settled upon land in the northwest corner of section 29. Other early comers to that neighborhood were Dr. Calvin White, more of a fanner than active practitioner, whose land was on sections 28 and 33, and his home was the first postoffice in the township; Cotton M. Kimball, who also came in 1836 and built a house near a mill site in section 15, and three years later was elected the first supervisor of the township.

Best known of the early residents were the Monteith family, from whom Monteith station derived its name. Thomas Monteith, Sr., and his sons, William T., Walter and Thomas, moved from New York state to the middle west in the fall of 1835, and the following spring the father purchased the entire section 32 and William T, about half of section 29 in Martin township. The sons settled here and began the work of improvement in the next >ear. Members of the family have been conspicuous as land owners and citizens in that portion of the township ever since.

Having given the main facts in the history of early .settlement in southeastern Allegan, this sketch may be concluded with some figures as to population. Of the three townships considered, Otsego led in population from the first. There were thirty-four taxpayers in June, 1836, and at the close of the decade there were about fifty families. By 1850 the population had increased to 818, and there were 158 dwelling houses in the township. This was a sixth of the total population of the county at the time. During the decade preceding the Civil war the number of inhabitants almost doubled in the township, while in the county at large population increased threefold. Gun Plains township, being more of an agricidtural district and with no villages until after 1850, in that year had 587 inhabitants, which had increased to 1,068 by i86o. In 1850 Martin township still had a limited population, 329, a very small proportion of the 5,125 inhabitants then living in the county. Sixty-four families were enumerated in that year. In 1844 there were forty-four names on the assessment roll as taxpayers. Population increased to 794 in i860. In 1850 the three townships, or the area which we have called southeastern Allegan, contained 1,734 inhabitants, or slightly over one-third of the entire population of the county at the time. Ten years later, while the enumeration of the three townships showed 3,291. the number in the county rose to 16,087. showing a relatively greater increase in other portions of the county than in the southeast corner.

Dutch Colonization. In 1850 there were fifteen organized townships. The most populous of these were Otsego, Allegan and Gun Plains, the three oldest centers of settlement, and Fillmore township, in the northwest corner of the county, comprising the present area of Fillmore and Overisel. Each of these had more than five hundred inhabitants. Wayland, Trowbridge, Watson and Martin were in about the same class so far as population was concerned.

The large figures for Fillmore township's population in 1850 call for explanation. Until the middle forties this part of the county was hardly settled at all, while five years later more than five hundred people were living in the territory now known as Overisel and Fillmore. The history of this movement holds an important place in the annals of Michigan.

In 1846 a colony of Hollanders, members of the Dutch Reformed church, and led by their ministers, although their immigration could not be termed a strictly religious movement, left their fatherland and came to America, Rev. A. C. Van Raalte. one of their ministers, had visited this country in advance and on the advice of men owning land in western Michigan had examined the country about the month of the Kalamazoo and around Black lake in Ottawa county. When he returned with the first colony of about a hundred immigrants in 1846, the center of their settlement was located on Black lake, the site of the city of Holland, and their colony was the origin of that place. Holland has always remained a center of Dutch influence and enterprise in Michigan and its growth and prosperity are in largest measure dependent on this people's presence and activity.

One of the few survivors of the original Van Raalte colony is Mr. Henry Cook, of Allegan, who accompanied his father. Harm Cook, on the migration to Michigan in 1846. In the personal history of Mr. Cook, as also in the sketches of several other residents of the nortnwestern portion of the county, will be found some interesting details of this settlement.

The first colony was followed by others and soon a large scope of comitry about Holland as the village center was occupied by the Dutch people. Within a year or so they were buying land and beginning the process of home making in the northern portion of Allegan county, and thus it is that we find a population of over five hundred settled there in 1850.