Barry County, Michigan - The whole text, 1912 (part 1 of 4)

Preface

TT is not claimed that the following is a complete history of Barry County. It is only intended to sketch the most prominent points of county history as distinguished from the history of the several townships and individual biography. The biographical sketches of prominent men which follow, fill out and amplify the outline of county history which is here presented, and when these are considered in connection with the brief history which follows, they give a fairly accurate account of Barry county.

William W. Potter

It is difficult to segregate local events from those of wider influence. The history of Barry County, though replete with happenings of special interest to her people, is intimately interwoven with that of the state and nation.

Michigan, in common with all the region of the lakes, has been the scene of events of mighty significance in the fate of nations. It was here that the current of English colonization, flowing from Jamestown and Plymouth Rock, met that of France starting from Quebec, Montreal and Ottawa. The region of the lakes was at once the Keystone in the arch of French influence radiating from Louisiana and Quebec, and the link sought to be forged to connect the chain of British posts along the Atlantic seaboard, with those of the Hudson's Bay Company. For a hundred years through Indian feuds and colonial wars the struggle for control continued; but it was not until after Montcalm surrendered to Wolfe that the British exercised a dominant influence on the affairs of the two peninsulas.

The surface of Barry County is covered with glacial drift of varying depth, so that while many fossils are found but few of them are where they were formed. As the icy masses of the glacial period moved southward the moraines left their traces behind in the lines of granite boulders. It is due, perhaps, to the fact that these great masses were breaking up when they reached this region that the surface of the county is so broken. Post glacial evidences of great antiquity are abundant in the bogs and marshes, and in the beds of peat and marl may be read the open book of later geological periods. Here roamed the elk, the moose, the mastodon, and with them primeval man with rude implements of stone struggled for the mastery.

longs to the valley of the Kalamazoo. Its undulating surface of hills and dales is dotted by more than a hundred small lakes of varying sizes. The southern portion was originally covered with oak openings^ for centuries kept clear of underbrush by the forest fires of the natives ; the northern^ central and eastern portions were covered with beech and maple^ plentifully besprinkled with ash and basswood and giant elms^ while here and there a loneh^ pine raised its head above the surrounding forest. Swamps and marshes abounded^ and from their stagnant waters arose swarms of mosquitoes now unknown. No other portion of Michigan of like size is more diversified in soil. Alexander Winchell called the height of land between the Kalamazoo and the Thornapple^ "Barry Summit." It reaches an elevation of more than two hundred and fifty feet above Lake Michigan. Its highest elevation is said to be just south of Pine lake in Hope township^ at a point designated on the early maps as '*Mt. Hope."

The First White Men When the region now known as Barry County was first visited by white men is not certainly known. No sooner was New France settled than the fur trade excited the cupidity of the sons of sunny France^ and hundreds of young men, tired of the tales of undiscovered Eldorados^ which still lured on Spanish chivalry^ embarked in the fur trade. Through their influence the savages were first prevailed upon to bring their furs to market on the St. Lawrence. Competition^ born of greedy drove them on relentlessly. Soon they were not content to wait the action of the shiftless savages. They plunged into the wilderness and visited the Indian in his native haunts. Every river in the whole northwest echoed with the wild chansons of these runners of the woods^ as bending with each glittering paddle stroke, they drove forward their frail crafts, upon the water highways of the north. They learned the Indian language, courted the dusky maidens beneath the forest's shade, formed with their family, ties which bound the tribes to them, and shared the rude life and reckless abandon of the savages, but plied industriously their avocation with their friends. The French fur trader left no records. It is probable that the streams and Indian villages of Barry County were familiar to fur traders nearly, if not quite, a century before the American revolution.

Soon after the fleur de lis of France was supplanted by the Cross of St. George we find authentic records showing a familiar knowledge with the interior of Michigan. In 1772 the Indian department of the British at Detroit made a record of the estimated distance to various places in the Indian country toward the Mississippi^ and in it is given the distance **to one of the branches of the Grand River or Washtanong that falls into Lake Michigan^" the distance **to Reccanamazoo river/' and the distance '*to the Prairie Ronde/' showing a familiarity with the location of the Thornapple.

In 1778 Louis Chabollier^ one of the proprietors of the general store at Mackinac^ was granted a license to trade with two canoes on the Grand river. Barthe^ Lefevre and Bouropa are also named as traders on the Grand.

In 1779 Charles Langlade^, who is frequently mentioned in Henry's travels^ was sent by Major DePeyster, then in command at Mackinac^ as an emissary to incite the Grand River Indians to assist Capt. Hamilton in his expedition against Vincennes. After this place had been recaptured by Col. Clark in the spring of 1779^ in a manner so graphically depicted by Maurice Thompson in "Alice of Old Vincennes/' DePeyster speaks of the Virginians having sent belts to the Ottawas and Chippeways of the Grand River inviting them to stay at home^, and of the Grand River traders being on their way to Mackinac. Lieutenant Bennett, sent from Mackinac to St. Joseph to intercept an expedition from Colonel Clark's army, expected to pass that way, on its route to Detroit, was at the mouth of the Kekalamazoo river fifteen leagues north of St. Joseph.

In 1795, when General Wayne was in command of the forces of the United States sent against the Indians of the Northwest, Alexander McKenzie, employed by the Indian department of the British at Detroit, reported that starting from Detroit to St.* Joseph on February fifth, 1795, he arrived on the ninth at the house of *'a trader named Pepan on the Kekalamazoo river who is furnished goods by George McDougall, merch't of Detroit," and February eleventh, of arriving at Kekalamazoo and going to the house of Mr. Burrill, where he ascertained that persons whom he met there were on their way to Muskegon to invite the Indians there to a council to be held at Fort Wayne the following spring.

During the War of 1812^ Messrs. Joseph Bailey ;, E. Lamorandie, McBurnett^ Bourasse and Coursalle were all traders on the Grand and vicinity. In March^ 1815^ Joseph Cadotte^, probably a relative of the family of the same name mentioned by Henry and made by Mrs. Catherwood to play an important part in "The White Islander/' was sent to the Grand River to bring in from eighty to one hundred Indian warriors to be used in the defense of Fort Mackinac. The Grand River Indians^, under the leadership of the British^ played an important part in the War of 1812.

Competition in the fur trade^ after the organization of the American Fur Company^ of which John Jacob Astor was the moving spirit and financial head^ grew more keen. That institution sought to stifle individual initiative in the fur trade^ to bring under the control of its posts all of the fur business not only of Michigan but of what is now the neighboring states^ to stretch its line of influence even to the Pacific^ to establish and perpetuate a great monopoly ;, in what was then the source of the forests* greatest wealthy much as the Hudson's Bay Company did for two hundred years in Canada. To that end trading posts were established on all of the important streams which flowed from the interior of the state, at such points as would be most sure to intercept trade with the Indians in that vicinity.

In 1796 one LaFramboise established a post at the junction of the Grand and the Thornapple rivers. He was killed by the Indians in 1809, and from his death until 1821 the post was continued under the control of Madame LaFramboise, his widow. In 1821 Rix Robinson assumed control of this important post together with those of the American Fur Company on the Kalamazoo.

The United States acquired title to the territory of which Michigan forms a part by the treaty of Paris in 1783, but the British did not surrender the military posts in Michigan until after the Western Indians beaten by **Mad Anthony" Wayne concluded the treaty of Greenville in 1795 and the British had ratified Jay's treaty in 1796. When these were surrendered, the British surrendered little else, for they still controlled to a great extent the savage denizens of the wilds.

portion of Barry County to the United States by the treaty of Saginaw in 1819, and the combined tribes of the Chippeways, Pottawatamies and Ottawas gave up their claims to the north- western part of the county by the treaty of Chicago in 1821. As soon as the Indian title was extinguished active preparations were made to open it to settlement. Barry County was surveyed in

In 1827 James Moreau established^ and for nearly a decade maintained^ a trading post on the Thornapple^ near what was later known as Bull's Prairie. Close at hand were the wigwams of the savages^ and not far away the burying-ground where the deceased members of the tribe were buried. Near this place the first government surveyors designated upon their plats "Indian Cornfields." Another enterprising trader^ tradition points to Chabollier, at a time believed to have been considerable earlier than that at which Moreau's post was established^ erected a block house on Scales Prairie in Thornapple township. This post was near "to one of the branches of the Grand river" mentioned in the British Narrative of 1772^ where "there is another village of Pottawatamies of eight large cabins^" and this village was the middle village^ the Pottawatamie village midway between tliat on the Kekalamazoo and that upon the Washtanong or Grand. When Grand Rapids was first settled the fruit trees^ then in bearings from Scales Prairie were removed to the banks of the Grand. We may ask who built this block house^ and seek the date which saw it raised. The only answer from the forest's gloom of long ago is^ we do not know.

Barry Ideal Indian Ground Barry County was ideal Indian ground. Here the red man held sway in barbarous majesty^ or crouched cold and shivering in his rude bark wigwam drenched with rain and sleet. Here he danced the weird dance^ recounted his valorous deeds in war and performed that sacred rite of sacrifice, the burning of a snow white dog to appease the Manitou. The dense timber sheltered his wigwam^ generally put up near some bubbling springs from the severity of nature's storms. Wild grapes^ plums^ berries and pawpaws in season were abundant. The walnut, the hickory and the beech furnished nuts in profusion. Maize and potatoes were native on this continent. Harriet Martineau after a visit to Michigan declared her belief that Milton must have been familiar with this region before he penned the garden scenes of Paradise Lost. The broad sheets of bark from the massive elm seemed designed for wigwam covering; the whitewood, tall, soft and light, seemed to grow especially to be fashioned into pirogues, adapted to navigate the rocky rapids of the inland streams. The myriad small lakes^ scintillating like diamonds against a background of forest green, teemed with all varieties of fresh water fish, and even now at tlie call of ''back to nature" these self same lakes are peopled in the summer time by cottagers who on their verdant shores seek respite from the heated city's throng. Deer were plentiful, and here also lived the black bear^ the plague of settlers' pig pens^ and an object of totemism among the Ottawas. When the early white settlers came to occupy with homes the lands of Barry County ;, tlie beaver had already disappeared before tlie fierce onslauglits of the fur traders, wlio for more than a century had plied their trade assiduously in all the forest wilds of Michigan. The otter, mink, raccoon, and fox, have either disappeared like the wild pigeons which once darkened the skies, or their number have been decimated by the keen rapacity of modern industrialism. Wild turkeys roamed the timbered lands and oak openings, and ducks and geese sought homes in all the lakes and streams. In a region possessing such a wealth of resources it was but natural that the Indian should live in great numbers.

In 1835 when Joseph S. Blaisdell, the first settler of Assyria, located there, he found Indian villages on both sections twentyfour and twenty-five of that township, the one of about thirty lodges and the other of twenty or slightly fewer. Rude fences of brush protected their patches of corn from the nightly visits of the deer. Close by was the graveyard and a part of the Indian council house was still standing, until 1850 Capt. C. D. Morris built his residence upon its site.

During the winter season many of these villagers left the Wanondaga and encamped near the head waters of the Basquon. On the shores of Bristol lake there was a village of about twenty wigwams presided over by a chief whose very name has been forgotten.

There were many red men near Thornapple lake, the home of fish and fur^ and not far from what is now known as Indian Landing were Indian cornfields, and at an early day there was erected near the bubbling spring, a short distance from the lake, a lodge, used as a school house and church by the Indians, many of whom when the Federal government ordered the removal of the

The late Mrs. Willard Hayes^, who with her father, Daniel McLellan^ came to Hastings township in 1837^ speaks of there being about a hundred Indian families encamped along the north side of the river near the Michigan avenue bridge in Hastings^ and tells of an Indian medicine dance near their liome^ probably at the village near Indian Landings at which two thousand Indians were present. As late as 1855 school district number five of Hastings township was organized on the petition of seven Indians who held lands on section twenty-five in tliat township.

Gun lake was near the border line between the Pottawatamies^ the Chippeways and the Ottawas, all however branches of the Algonquin family. Under the provisional treaty of Wasliington in 1836^ it was agreed tliat at a council to be held for that purpose^, the chiefs of the tribes should designate three classes of half breeds^ or persons of partial Indian origin, who sliould be entitled to share in the sum of one hundred fifty thousand dollars set apart by the treaty, "as a fund for said half breeds." Tlie classes of persons entitled to share in this fund were determined by their relative influence in the tribe. Classes one and two were made up of chiefs; class three was not made up of chiefs, but included in class three is Penasee or Gun Lake. Perhaps the most prominent and most important band of Indians in Barry County was the mixed band of Ottawas, Chippeways and Pottawatamies, who in 1838 numbered about one hundred fifty souls, and who then lived upon the peninsula jutting far into Gun Lake from the eastern shore and now occupied by the Hastings Gun Lake Association, and who also lived and raised tlieir corn near the land now platted as the **Wigwams." Sagimaw, said by the early historians to have been a man of strict integrity, noble bearing, of great good sense and a distinguislied gentleman, was the acknowledged chieftain. This band was removed by Rev. James Selkirk in 1838 to Wayland township, Allegan county. Many of their descendants now live near Bradley. Sagimaw was killed, distinguished gentleman though he may have been, in 1845 by his son-in-law, in a drunken brawl. Penasee, Gun Lake, or the "Bird," the half breed mentioned in connection with the treaty of 1836, followed him as chief, and upon his death he was succeeded by She-pe-quonk, or Big Thunder, more commonly known among the whites as Moses Foster. One McKnight^ who in 1836 or 1837 lived upon section nine in Orangeville township^ and Joseph Coffin^ who prior to 1840 lived upon section three of the same township^, kept up a brisk trade with the Gun Lake Indians in furs and ''fire water/' The Indians of the Middle village on Scales Prairie^ as long as they lived in Michigan, returned each year. In the summer of 1840 more than one hundred families of Indians encamped about this, the home of their fathers. There were many families among the oak openings on the south bank of the Coldwater; and in the northeastern part of the county, in the vicinity of Jordan and Sobby lakes dwelt many tribesmen under the leadership of Chief Sawba, who was regarded by the early pioneers as a bad Indian and who had the disagreeable habit of going to the shanties of the early settlers, intimidating the women and children, ransacking tlie cupboards and carrying off whatever pleased liis fancy.

Slater ^s Mission and Noonday- Rev. Leonard Slater, who in 1826 had founded a mission at the rapids of the Grand, fearful that the degrading influences of civilization would counteract his efforts to Christianize these worsliippers of Pagan deities, resolved in 1836 to remove his mission to Prairieville, and in 1836 and 1837 he brought to sections twenty-six and twenty-seven of that township perhaps three hundred Indians. Here he erected a church and a school house and here the Indians dwelt until 1852, when they were removed beyond the "Fatlier of Waters." Easily the most distinguished of tlie Slater Indians were Chief Noonday, a man over six feet in height, broad shouldered and well proportioned; a man of wonderful muscular power, he easily maintained his leadership among the savage tribes of the Grand River valley, whose legions he had led against the Americans during the War of 1812. It is claimed that lie was present at the burning of Buffalo, took part in the battle of the Thames, and personally witnessed the death of Tecumseh, then a brigadier general in the British army. He became attached to Rev. Slater and when the mission was removed from Grand Rapids to Prairieville, Noonday came to this county, where he died and is buried. The late Henry Little of Richland thus describes Mrs. Noonday: ing lady of the old school. Nature had not seen fit to make her very attractive by the bewitching fascinating charms of personal beauty ;, but what little there might have been of feminine comeliness in her features had been sadly marred by an ugly scar on the left side of her face/'

Whatever may be said of the treatment of the settlers elsewhere by the Indians^ there was never any serious cause for complaint here. The two races intermarried to some extent and in

The Indians tliroughout the west were invited to join the uprising of Black-hawk. A grand council of the savages was held at Gull Lake to determine whether the savages of this locality would join the insurrection or not. This council is thus described by Mr. Frank Little in the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society collections:

Gull Lake. This was to ascertain the temper of the Indians of the locality in reference to the Black-Hawk insurrection. The chiefs in full dress were seated in a great circle upon valuable robes^ mats and skins of animals spread upon the ground. A more grave^ imposing body of men I never saw. The calumet or pipe of peace^ of elaborate workmanship^ was slowly passed around the circle and each took a whiff in silence. Then speeches began in regular order of age and rank. It was found that the young men were for war but the older, experienced sachems counselled peace."

Indian Traits and Habits The Indian seldom had a permanent residence. He generally lived where he could live the easiest, prompted but slightly by a desire to provide for the future. During the spring he went where tlie fishing was best; during tlie summer he raised his tee-pee near some swamp or berry patch. In the later winter and early spring many of them went to tlie timbered lands to make maple sugar. After making an incision in the tree they fixed under it a wooden spile along which tlie sap flowed to drop in a birch bark bucket, constructed by binding together the four corners of a piece of birch bark. The sap thus collected at the time the early settlers came to this country was boiled down in brass kettles, procured by the savages from Mackinac traders. When the sugar season was over the sugar was packed in mococks or birch bark hampers for convenience in carrying, and the birch bark buckets were unlaced and stretched out and dried and then piled one on top of the other; after being well dried the buckets and kettles were cached until the following spring, when they were dug up again and used for sugar making.

Barry County was formed by act of the Territorial legislature of April 29, 1829, along with a number of other counties in the state, taking their names from men prominent in national affairs at the time, - Jackson, Berrien, Cass, Calhoun, Van Buren^ Barry, Eaton, Ingham and Livingston. Barry County taking its name from William T. Barry, Postmaster General of the United States under President Jackson.

By act of November 4, 1829, the counties of Kalamazoo, Calhoun, Branch, Barry and Eaton, and much of the country north of the base line and west of the principal meridian south of the county of Michillmackinac, was attached to and formed a part of St. Joseph County. The next day, November 5, 1829, an act was passed which provided that the counties of Kalamazoo and Barry and all of the country lying north of the same which was attached to and formed a part of St. Joseph County by the previous act, should form the township of Brady, and that the first township meeting was to be held at the house of Abram J. Shaver in said township. This house was on the west side of Prairie Ronde. When Kalamazoo County was organized, July 30th, 1830, Calhoun, Barry and Eaton counties were attached to it for judicial purposes. The first court was held at the house of Abraham J. Shaver on Prairie Ronde. Over this court presided as one of the county Associate Judges, Bazil Harrison, said to liave been the hero of Cooper's "Bee Hunter."

Early Settlers Barry County was not on the direct line of travel toward the west, but in 1831 Amasa S. Parker, a native of Connecticut, and the first white settler who took title to land in Barry County, built a house in Prairieville township. Orville Barnes, in 1833, settled in the same township. In 1831 Rev. Moses Lawrence, a local Methodist preacher, came into what is known as Barry township and located lands on sections twenty-seven and twentyeight. His nearest neighbor was Amasa S. Parker, mentioned above. The same year Charles W. Spaulding located lands on section twenty-three in Prairieville township. Calvin G. Hill settled in Thornapple township in 1831, and the next year Henry Leonard came to the same township. Joseph Blaisdell came to Assyria in 1836, and the same year Samuel Wickham settled in Carlton township; Slocum H. Bunker in Hastings township; George Brown in Orangeville; Lorenzo Cooley and Estes Rich in Rutland; Calvin Lewis in Yankee Springs; Albert E. Bull in Irving, and Harlow Merrill and William P. Bristol in Johnstown.

The Township of Barry- It was provided by the Ordinance of 1787 that as soon as any of the states to be formed out of the Northwest Territory should have a population of sixty thousand free inhabitants, it should be admitted by its delegates into the Congress of the United States. In 1832 the people of Michigan voted in favor of statehood, but the Black Hawk war and the ravages of the cholera compelled postponement of action. According to a census of the state taken in 1834 the state had a population of eighty-seven thousand two hundred seventy-eight. A constitutional convention was convened, the constitution of 1835 prepared, submitted to the people, and ratified by them at an election held for its adoption or rejection. A general election was held and a governor and state legislature chosen, and a complete state government organized, although the state was not recognized by Congress as being admitted into the Union until 1837. In the meantime the state Legislature was busy. March 23, 1836, it passed an act providing for the organization of the township of Barry, with boundaries co-extensive with the County of Barry, and the first township meeting of the township so organized was to be held at the house of Nicholas Campbell in said township (in what is now Prairieville township) on April 4, 1836.

At this, the first township meeting in the new township of Barry, it was necessary to organize the voters before holding a township meeting, and Charles W. Spaulding was chosen Moderator and Orville Barnes was cliosen Clerk of tlie meeting. After the organization of the townsliip meeting the voters proceeded to an election of township officers. At this, the first township election, there seems to have been plenty of oflSces in Barry township. Calvin G. Hill, who then lived in what is now Thornapple, was chosen Supervisor; Orville Barnes, who had come from Gull Prairie to wliat is now tlie townsliip of Prairieville, was chosen Townsliip Clerk; Benjamin Hoff, who resided in the township of Barry and who died of cholera in 1838; Henry Leonard, who resided in what is now the township of Thornapple, and Charles W. Spaulding, were elected Assessors. Amasa S. Parker^ the first settler in Barry County; Nicholas Campbell, at whose house the first township meeting was held, and Calvin G. Hill, were elected Commissioners of Highways. Orville Barnes, Charles W. Spaulding, Benjamin Hoff and Calvin Hill were elected Justices of the Peace. William Campbell, a brother of Nicholas Campbell, was elected Collector; Charles W. Spaulding, Benjamin Hoff, and Luther Hill^ a brother of Calvin G. Hill^ were elected School Commissioners. Linus Ellison, who was one of the first settlers in what is now Prairieville township and who sold his farm to Isaac Otis and removed to what is now Barry townsliip, and Moses Lawrence, the pioneer preacher of Barry township, were elected Commissioners of the Poor. Lewis Moreau and William Campbell were elected Constables. It seems that Calvin G. Hill must have discovered that he had too many offices, because he resigned the office of Supervisor, and at a special township meeting held later, Isaac Otis was elected Supervisor to fill the vacancy. At this time Barry County was attached for governmental purposes to Kalamazoo County, and the Supervisors of tlie township of Barry were members of the Board of Supervisors of Kalamazoo County. The tide of emigration toward the west was now in full swing and during the years 1836 and 1837 the population of Barry County rapidly increased. It reached 512 in 1837. Internal improvements, wildcat banks and paper cities everywhere sprang up during this period of reckless speculation ; then came the financial panic of 1837; the collapse of these inflated schemes, and most of those who came west to find homes in Barry County were too poor to get away, even had they been so inclined.

At the second annual township meeting of the township of Barry held at the house of Charles W. Spaulding in 1837, Isaac Otis was elected Supervisor of the township of Barry and Ambrose Mills was chosen as County Clerk; Duty Benson, wlio lived in what is now Thornapple township; Thomas Bunker, who lived in what is now the city of Hastings, and Charles W. Spaulding, were chosen Assessors ; Ephraim Block, Eli Waite, and William Lewis, afterward famous as the proprietor of the Mansion House of Yankee Springs and prominent in the early political history of this county, were chosen as Commissioners of Highways. George Brown, who then lived in what is now the township of Orangeville, near Pine Lake; Henry Leonard, and Isaac Otis were elected as Justices of tlie Peace. Ambrose ^Nlills, who died of cholera in 1838, was elected Collector, and Benjamin S. Dibble, who kept the first postoffice at Middleville near wliat is now Gates Corners, was elected School Commissioner; and Timothy G. Johnson, Isaac Messer and Ambrose G. Mills were chosen as Constables.

In the Michigan Gazetteer, published under date of 1837, speaking of Barry County it is said: "Tlie county is new and not yet extensively settled, though it is said to be rapidly increasing in population. The principal settlements are ^liddle Village,. Bulls Prairie^ Hastings upon the Thornapple, Yankee Springs upon the road leading from Grand Rapids in Kent to Gull Prairie in Kalamazoo."

In 1838 Barry County was divided by an act of the Legislature into four townsJiips; the northeast quarter of the county was called Hastings township; the northwest quarter of the county was called Thornapple ; the soutlieast quarter of the county was called Johnstown and the soutliwest quarter of the county was called Barry. The first township meeting in Hastings townsnip as then organized, was held at i lie house of Slocum H. Bunker; tlie first meeting in the township of Thornapple was held at tlie house of Benjamin E. Dibble; tlie first tow^nship meeting in the townsliip of Johnstown was held at the liouse of William P. Bristol, and tlie first townshij) meeting after this division in the township of Barry, was lield at the liouse of John Mills. After these townships in Barry County were organized it continued to be for all government purposes a part of Kalamazoo County until after the passage of the act of March 15, 1839.

Barry Still Attached to Kalamazoo At the first township meeting of the township of Barry, after the division of the county into four townships, held in the spring of 1838;, Ambrose Mills was chosen Supervisor and Peter Falk was chosen Township Clerk. At the first township meeting in the township of Thornapple, Calvin G. Hill was chosen Supervisor and Henry Leonard, Clerk. At the first township meeting lield in the township of Hastings, after the township of Barry was subdivided into four townships, Thomas H. Bunker was chosen as Supervisor; Willard Hayes, Clerk, and Slocum H. Bunker^ Commissioner of Highways.

At the first township meeting held in the township of Johnstown, S. V. R. Rork was chosen Supervisor; Harlow Merrill, Clerk, and Cleveland Ellis, who lived in what is now the township of Assyria, was chosen as Treasurer.

Kalamazoo County for all governmental purposes and tlie several Supervisors above named were members of the Board of Supervisors of Kalamazoo County until the provision was made for the organization of Barry County in 1839.

The ^^Sickly Season^' Among the early settlers of Barry County the ''sickly season'* of 1838 was long referred to as the distinct epoch from which they marked time, just as in later years they marked it from the ''cold New Year's" and the "smoky fall." Physicians disagree as to what the disease then prevalent was. It is doubtful whether it was cholera or not. At any event the epidemic swept over the northern states, and it was particularly fatal in this county, where notwithstanding the sparse population during the summer of 1838, in the township of Barry alone more than twenty people died. Among them were Ambrose Mills, then the Supervisor of the township of Barry, and Benjamin Hoff, one of the early pioneers, who had been prominent in local affairs. Tlie visitation of the disease was looked upon by the superstitious as the curse of God, but witli the coming of the cold weather the disease subsided, but not until many families had been wiped out.

After the passage of the act of March 15, 1839, entitled "An act to organize the County of Barry," and on the first Monday in April, 1839, a general election was held in Barry County to elect all the several county officers to which by law the county was entitled.

The following were the first county officers of Barry County after its organization in April, 1839: Probate Judge, Stephen V. R. Rork; Associate Judges, Nathan Barlow and Isaac Otis; Sheriff, Willard Hayes; County Clerk, Thomas B. Bunker; Register of Deeds, Abner C. Parmelee; Treasurer, Charles W. Spaulding, and the three County Commissioners liereinafter named.

On April 13, 1839, the County Commissioners of Barry County, three in number, in whom was then vested powers substantially similar to those vested in the Board of Supervisors at the present time, met in the village of Hastings and organized. Calvin G. Hill of Thornapple, John Bowne of Barry (afterward

Prairieville)^ and Nelson Barnum of Hastings^ were tlie three Commissioners. Calvin G. Hill was chosen Chairman of the Board. At this meeting John J. Nichols of Barry^ John W. Bradley of Yankee Springs and William P. Bristol of Johnstown were chosen Superintendents of the Poor^ and after authorizing the payment of a few bounties for wolves the board adjourned.

In the proceedings of the Board of Commissioners for July 17, 1839;, there is an abstract of the first assessment rolls of the various townships in Barry County then organized^ as follows:

The south half of Thornapple township, as originally organized, now forming the townships of Rutland and Yankee Springs was, by act of the Legislature of March 22, 1839, set off from the townsliip of Tliornapple and organized as the township of Yankee Springs; the first township meeting was held at the "Mansion House" of ''Yankee Bill" Lewis. Rutland did not long remain a part of Yankee Springs, for on April 17, 1839, the east half of the township of Thornapple, as originally organized, including what is now the townships of Rutland and Irv^ing, was by an act of the Legislature, set off and organized into the township of Irving; the first township meeting in the new townsliip so created was lield at tlie house of Albert E. Bull. In 1841 the township of Barry was divided and the two west townships^ which are now Prairieville and Orangeville^ were organized as the township of Spaulding^ and the place for the first township meeting of the new township was the house of Pliram Lewis^ and the place of meeting of the next annual township meeting of the township was fixed at the *Vhite school house" in district number thirteen of the present township of Barry^ at Hickory Corners.

Townships Organized In 1842 Hastings township^ as originally organized^ was divided by act of the Legislature into the present townships of Carlton, Castleton, Woodland and Hastings. The first township meeting in Woodland was held at the house of Alonzo Barnum, the first township meeting in the township of Castleton was held at the house of William A. Ware, and the first township meeting in the township of Carlton was held at the house of William Mc- Cauley. The name of the township of Yankee Springs was un- doubtedly changed to Gates^ but when this was done we have been unable to find; but^, in any events in 1848 the Legislature passed an act changing the name of the township again from Gates to Yankee Springs, and by that name the township is still known. In 1843 the name of the townsliip of Spaulding was changed to that of Prairieville. By act of the Legislature of February 29, 1844, the two eastern townships of Johnstown, as originally organized, were set off and organized as the township of Assyria, and the first township meeting in that township was held at the house of Cleveland Ellis. In 1846 the townsliip of Maple Grove was set off from Assyria and the first township meeting was held at the house of Henry Deens. In 1847 the township of Rutland was set off from Irving and tlie first township meeting was held at the house of David Rork. The present township of Baltimore was set off from Johnstown, as originally organized, by act of the Legislature of March 15, 1849, and the first township meeting was held at the house of Bardsley S. Blanchard in said township. And finally in 1850 the townsliip of Hope was set off from Barry and the first township meeting was held in the house of Alvah Mott.

With the admission of the state into the Union the Legislature under the constitutional power to encourage internal improvements, began laying out and establishing state roads.

Early Road Making Long before Michigan became a state it was apparent that better roads were necessary to accommodate the incoming settlers seeking homes in Michigan. Prairie Ronde in Kalamazoo County was settled in 1828; Gull Prairie in 1830. Many of the settlers from both of these places afterward came over the line into Barry County. In 1833 the Territorial Legislature established a road beginning at the Middlevillage (so-called) in Barry County and running through Gun river plain to the territorial road near the forks of the Pawpaw (so-called). William Duncan of Prairie Ronde, Cornelius Northrup and Carlos Barnes, better known as Captain Barnes of Black Hawk war fame, from the same place, were named as commissioners to lay out this road. The same year another highway, leading from Marshall to the rapids of the Grand River, was established. Lewis Campbell, Jr., Joseph W. Brown, founder of the village of Tecumseh, and Brigadier

General in the Toledo War, and O. Wilder, one of the founders of the village of Allegan, were appointed as commissioners to lay out this road.

After the admission of the state into the Union, and with the rapid settlement of this section of the state, roads were still more essential. In 1837 the state road was established from Kalamazoo to the county seat of Barry Couny, and Lloyd Jones, Sherman Cummings of Comstock, Kalamazoo County, Michigan, and Mumford Eldred, who was one of the original settlers of Gull Prairie, were named as commissioners. During the same session of the Legislature another state road was established to run from Marshall via. Verona, now absorbed as a part of the city of Battle Creek, and Gun Plains to Allegan, and Charles W. Spaulding, Silas F. Littlejohn, who located in Allegan in 1836, and Cephas A. Smith, the first Prosecuting Attorney of Calhoun County, elected in 1833, were named as commissioners.

Another road was established, leading from Bellevue to Hastings, and Andrew L. Hayes, who came to Calhoun County in 1831; Reuben Fitzgerald, who had come to Bellevue in 1833, and was one of its influential business men, and Levi P. Woodbury, were chosen as commissioners to lay out this road.

Another state highway was to be laid out from Allegan to Howell. Guy C. Lee and Flavins J. B. Crane, who the same year was elected Representative in the State Legislature from Oakland County, were appointed commissioners for that purpose.

In 1838 a state road was established to run from Battle Creek via. Hutchinson's Mills to Hastings, and Steplien V. R. Rork of Johnstown, Rustin Angel of Battle Creek and John Meachem of Bedford were named as commissioners for that purpose.

Another state road was established from Battle Creek via. Gull Prairie to Grand Rapids, and Isaac Barnes; George Torrey, afterward editor of the Kalamazoo Telegraph, and Roswell Britain, were named as commissioners. Another road was established from Kalamazoo to Hastings. Mumford Eldred, Isaac Otis and John Mills were named as commissioners to lay it out. Another was established from Galesburg to Hastings and Nathaniel Cathern, Hugh Shafter, father of the late General Wm. Shafter, prominent in the Spanish War, and Reuben H. Sutton were chosen as commissioners.

In 1840 a state road was established from Vermontville to Grand Rapids, and William Stoddard, one of the first settlers of Charlotte; Levi Wheaton, of Chester, Eaton County, at whose home it is claimed the first county convention in Eaton County was held; Wait J. Squire, of Eaton County; Abner C. Parmelee, who was the first Register of Deeds in Barry County, and afterward County Treasurer, and William G. Henry, who formerly operated a store in Grand Rapids on the present site of the Morton House, were named as commissioners.

Another road was established from Hastings to Grand Rapids, and Wait J. Squire, W^illiam G. Henry and Abner C. Parmelee were named as commissioners; another from Battle Creek to Grand Rapids, of wliicli George Torrey, Isaac Barnes and Roswell Britian were commissioners.

In 1841 new commissioners were appointed to establish the highway from the county seat of Eaton County, through Vermontville to Hastings, and from Hastings to continue said road to Grand Rapids. In 1841 William B. Thorne, Calvin Hill of Yankee Springs township and Henry H. Broth of the township of Allegan were appointed commissioners to lay out a road commencing on the Thornapple river road in Yankee Springs, thence via. Long Lake to Allegan.

In 1844 Aaron Ellis of Hastings, Isaac Barnes of Gull Prairie, and James Pelton, one of the pioneers of the Grand River Valley, and for many years Supervisor of the township of Gaines in Kent County, were named as commissioners to lay out and establish a road from where the road from Gull Prairie, via. Yankee Springs to Grand Rapids crosses the base line, thence in the most eligible route near the foot of Gun Lake and Lake Alone to the county line in Kent County.

In 1845 Jolin Ball, wlio was prominent in tlie early history of Grand Rapids; Albert E. Bull, first settler in Irving, and Calvin G. Hill, were appointed as commissioners to lay out the highway from tlie village of Middleville to Grand Rapids.

In 1848, Willard Davis of Eaton County, Nathan Barlow, Jr., of Barry County, and Ezra Southworth of Grand Rapids, were appointed as commissioners to establish and lay out a highway commencing at the township of Michigan in Ingham County,

In 1849, Nicholas Campbell, Hiram Tillotson and Seth Demie were appointed as commissioners to lay out and establish a state road from Richland, in Kalamazoo County, to the village of Hastings.

In 1850 a state road was established from Hastings to Ionia, and J. W. T. Orr, who was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1850 from Barry County; John B. Welch of Ionia County and George Richmond of the same county, were appointed as commissioners to lay out and open it.

And as late as 1859 Cyprian L. Hooper and N. G. Chase of Ionia County, and John W. Stebbins of Hastings were appointed as commissioners to lay out and establish a road commencing on section 34, township 9 north, range 8 west, and running thence by way of Cook's Corners, Smyrna, Fallasburg and Lowell, to the village of Hastings, in Barry County.

All of these roads whicli were actually laid out and opened were made passable when conditions were favorable. Bridges were crude log affairs and frequently washed out during freshets. The roads were generally ungraded and the yielding soil in rainy seasons and in the spring became a quagmire through which the settlers were compelled to wallow with their ox teams and old linch pin wagons. The marshes and swampy places were covered with corduroy and this was fully exposed on top, being for the most part free from dirt. These roads followed the line of easiest travel, veering around lakes, hills and marshes, so as to reach their destination with the least resistance. Many of them have been relaid on section lines; some have been discontinued altogether, but many of them are still in actual use as thoroughfares.

In the early settlement of the county the pioneers in the selection of land for settlement took that which was easiest available. They first picked that which would yield most quickly and abundantly with the least labor. There were various small prairies in the county. In Assyria, where Cleveland Ellis in 1837 selected one as the nucleus of his extensive farming operations; Bull's Prairie in Irving, where A. E. Bull settled in 1836; Scales Prairie in Thornapple^ the location of what was probably the first white occupation of the county. Next to these bits of prairie land, wholly or partially cleared, the oak openings of the western and southern part of the county wliere the timber was without underbrusli, and the soil a sandy and gravelly loam, easily broken up and subdued and capable of producing all varieties of cereal crops, attracted the incoming settlers, and we find that Prairieville, Barry, Orangeville and Yankee Springs were, in the early history of the county, much more rapidly settled and developed than the more heavily timbered lands of Woodland, Maple Grove and Baltimore, where the dense underbrush in many places kept the soil damp and cold during nearly the entire season. These timbered lands were very mucli more difficult to subdue, more difficult to clear.

As the settlers came into the oak openings tliey at once proceeded to break tlie soil and put in crops without stopping to clear the lands of timber, and then througli the fall and winter months they put in the spare time girdling the forest giants, to destroy the foliage, and frequently these girdlings were not removed from the land for years, though in the meantime the soil was cultivated and produced bountiful crops witli little labor. This system of farming could not be carried on in tlie timbered lands, where the settler had to fell the timber before he could successfully break up the soil. The prairies and oak openings developed much more early and were settled more extensively than the timbered lands.

In 18i0, when the county contained nearly twelve liundred inliabitants, the township of Yankee Springs contained more inhabitants than Hastings, Baltimore, Hope, Rutland and Irving combined. Gradually the settlers grew to realize that although it required increased labor to subdue, tlie timbered lands were rich and productive, and during the thirty years from 18iO to 1870 the timber of this county wliich was practically worthless as a merchantable commodity was windrowed and burned in order that the settlers might get it out of the way and clear the land for cultivation. During all this time in the slashings the high brush piles, log heaps and giant bull thistles were matters of course, and through the autumn months the light of the fire in the burnings reflected in every direction from the sky. Many times the smoke was so thick it was difficult to see the highway fence, and the set-

The settlers' houses for the most part were log cabins, one story high, with two doors set opposite each other, with a shake roof, with either a puncheon floor, or one made of sawed lumber, which was regarded as an advance and a mark of aristocracy. The furniture was of the crudest sort, generally hand made, and the bed-steads rough wooden bunks with split pole bottoms and marsh hay ticks. Corded bed-steads were regarded as a great advance over this earlier furniture, and a first step toward modern luxury. Tables and chairs were hand made; oil lamps were yet undiscovered; gasoline an unheard of product, and their cabins were lighted by the blazing embers of the open fire-place. Later some of the more prosperous and progressive settlers essayed the luxury of the tallow candle. Cook stoves were not yet in use. There never was a practical one until the old fashioned elevated oven stoves came on the market. Cooking was done over the open fire-place in kettles swinging on a crane, and the family baking was taken care of in a bake kettle which seemed to produce as satisfactory results as a modern electric oven. Sanitary precautions were laughed at and were generally unnecessary on account of the absence of many people, and the fact that many of them lived out of doors. Sleeping accommodations were meagre and generally in the loft beneath the rafters, from which was hung the season's seed corn and a variety of medicinal herbs for winter use. This was generally reached by hand made ladders or a crude wooden stairway; doors were hand made and in the winter time the settlers as they sat before the fire frequently complained that they toasted their shins while they froze their backs.

The pioneers brought to the new county the ideas of their former home, and among those most quickly acted upon was that of a primary school. Probably the first school taught in Barry County was taught by Sarah Paul, at Middleville in 1835.

A school was kept by Theoda Spaulding in a room in her father's house in what was afterward the township of Prairieville, in 1836. It was, however, prior to 1837, for in that year the

**white school house/' the first frame building in Hickory Corners, mentioned in the statute as the place of the first township meeting in Barry township after Spaulding was set off and organized, was erected ;and Theoda Spaulding was the first school teacher in it and in the township of Barry, as now organized. There was a mission school at the Slater mission in Prairieville in 1836. In 1837 Mrs. Isaac Messer taught the first school in the Brown neighborhood in the township of Orangeville, at her house on section thirty-two, and during the same year Harriet Hoyt held school in Prairieville township. In 1839 Elizabeth Carpenter opened a school in George Fuller's house in Carlton, and in 1840 Emma and Marie Mott opened a private school at their liome in the township of Maple Grove. Mary, a daugliter of Judge Nathan Barlow, taught the first scliool in the township of Yankee Springs, in a house built for a dwelling near the ^'Mansion House" of William Lewis at Yankee Springs. Prior to that time Sarah Curtis liad kept school in the township of Johnstown in the house of W. P. Bristol, receiving therefor the sum of one dollar and fifty cents a week, and in that year the first school house in the township was erected. Hattie Bidwell of Battle Creek was the first "wielder of the birch" in the township of Woodland, having taught there in 1841. There was a school taught in Hastings at the house of Slocum H. Bunker by Miss McArthur in 1839, at which there were four pupils. In 1841 the first school house in Hastings was made ready and Sophia Spaulding, a daughter of C. W. Spaulding of Prairieville, was the first teacher. A school was taught in Castleton in the Mudge district in 1842, but before that time Mrs. Olive Racey had taught school at her house on section thirteen. In 1843 Lydia Warren of Verona taught the first school in Assyria township, at the house of Cleveland Ellis, and there was also a school held in the township of Rutland by Chloe Benson in 1844, at Bull's Prairie. The Mott school in Hope township was first opened in 1848 and Julia Woodward was the first teacher. The pioneer school teacher of Baltimore was Sarah Blanchard, daughter of the pioneer, Bardsley S. Blanchard. She afterward married George Sheffield, whom she outlived, and she is now the last of the pioneer school teachers of the townships of Barry County.

broken up into small school district organizations. From the first the state seemed destined to have free schools. The constitution of 1850 provided for them. Free schools were not established until 1869. Prior to that time they were maintained by a rate bill and unless the parents or guardian paid the child could not attend school. Compulsory attendance was unknown ; highschools had not yet been thought of. Academies^, embryo colleges^ and seminaries, generally private institutions, but some of them endowed by religious denominations ; rural primary schools, and the branches of the University of Michigan, and different select scliools, that is, private schools maintained by individual teachers, satisfied as best they could the craving of the youthful mind for broader learning. Tlie primitive primary school houses with their hand made benches; small blackboards; floors, of course, of unplaned lumber; open fire-places, or high box stoves generally set upon a brick foundation, and tlie pupil was lucky if he had a piece of slate and a pencil, instead of a tablet and pencil, as a part of his equipment. Thirty years ago the child in the rural schools wlio had during tlie entire winter half a dozen sheets of paper for the practice of penmanship was looked upon as getting much more than he was entitled to by the other pupils. Goose quill pens were the principal implements for penmanship and these had to be sharpened each day by the teacher or the bigger boys. Examinations and grades were then unknown. A pupil who possessed push, quick perception and energy was not cast into a system of grades and his pace measured by that of the slower pupils, but he could go forward as rapidly as his ability warranted, but on the other hand those who were duller in many cases under the primitive school system in force in Michigan, obtained no education worthy of consideration. Under the rate bill system the opportunities of the children of poor men were not equal to those of the better class and many children grew disgusted with the schools and quit them early for the more immediate productive fields of agricultural development. Music was no part of the school curriculum. Discipline was severe and physical strength was fully as important as educational qualifications to the teacher. Singing schools, spelling schools and writing schools were frequently held in the various district school houses, evenings, but these were quite generally considered as much places of amuse- ment and as affording a place of sparking rather than as a part of the educational system. They were patronized and tolerated not as educational institutions^ but as social meeting places.

Among the early settlers malarial fever or ague was a common complaint, and prior to 1870 very few of the inhabitants escaped its ravages, especially during the summer months. Ague cures were favorite quack nostrums, but with the clearing up of the country, the drainage of stagnant pools and cat-holes and the disappearance of the swamps, both ague and the omnipresent mosquito of pioneer days have to a great extent disappeared.

There was then as now a demand for better transportation facilities, and through a heavily wooded country, where standing timber was valueless, plank roads seemed the best temporary solution of tlie highway problem, and we find not only in Barry County, but throughout the state many plank road companies organized for the construction of plank toll roads. In 1848 fortysix companies were chartered. In 1849 thirty-nine companies were chartered and in 1850 more than sixty plank road companies were chartered, so that the period from 1845 to 1855 may well be called the plank road era in the state of Michigan.

In 1849 the Legislature incorporated the Battle Creek & Hastings Plank Road Company with an authorized capital of forty thousand dollars, to build a plank road from Battle Creek to Hastings. Alonzo Noble, Jonathan Hart, Reuben Pew and E. K. Ward of Battle Creek and Henry A. Goodyear, Nathan Barlow, Jr., Alvin W. Bailey, Salmon C. Hall and William P. Bristol of Barry County, were named as the directors. A part of this road was constructed and for many years it was the main thoroughfare between Battle Creek and Hastings.

In 1850 tlie Legislature chartered the Hastings & Yankee Springs Plank Road Company to construct a plank road from Hastings, through the township of Yankee Springs, with the privilege of connecting with the plank road of any other plank road company. Philip Leonard, who had come to Thornapple in 1836; David Rork, at whose house the first township meeting in the township of Rutland was held; Heman I. Knappen, prominent in the early history not only of Gull Prairie, but of Hastings, were the directors. This road had an authorized capital of thirty thousand dollars, but I cannot find that the plank were ever laid upon any part of it. The same year the charter of the Battle Creek & Hastings Plank Road Company was amended so as to authorize that company to continue their road from Hastings to the mouth of the Thornapple river and thence to the village of Grand Rapids, and the authorized capital was increased from forty thousand dollars to sixty thousand dollars.

In the meantime progressive men were looking forward to the development of railroad facilities in this state, and the Grand River Valley Railroad Company was incorporated as early as 1846 to build a railroad from Jackson to Grand Rapids, although construction was not commenced until after the Civil War.

The first Circuit Court ever held in Barry County was said to have been held in a building which then stood wliere the Hastings City Bank now stands. May 6, 1840. The first jail is said to have been back of where Isaac Hendershott's residence now is, and this jail has been described as a square log house, set in a hole in the ground, without windows and doors, the logs being hewn smooth on the inside; the prisoners were lowered into this jail from the top by ladder and then the ladder was withdrawn and there was no way that the prisoner could get out. This jail was used but a short time and most of the prisoners who were incarcerated therein were let out each day by the Sheriff on their "parole of honor." The grand jury room which was the first used in the city of Hastings is said to have been in the log tavern of Levi Chase, situated just west of the south end of the Michigan Avenue bridge. At a meeting of the County Commissioners, who then exercised the duties now performed by the Board of Supervisors, on January 13, 1842, the building of a jail was considered. Drafts and estimates seem to have been already furnished to tlie Board of Commissioners and these were taken up for action. The first action of the Board of Commissioners was the passage of a resolution declaring that it was expedient for the county to erect a jail together with a room suitable for holding courts, and there- upon it was further resolved that the Board of Commissioners adopt a plan as soon as may be and receive proposals and let the job for erecting the building to the lowest bidder. At a meeting of the Commissioners held on July 4^ 1842^ they allowed Hiram J. Kenfield of Hastings two hundred dollars toward compensating him for building the courthouse and jail. This courthouse was built upon substantially the same site that the present one occupies. These were strenuous times on the Board of Supervisors^ which about this time succeeded the Board of Commissioners. On October 14^ 1844^ we find the Board of Supervisors adjourning to meet at five o'clock the following mornings and there are many adjournments of record in the Supervisors' proceedings during the period from 1840 to 1850^ to six o'clock in the morning. Tliis courthouse and jail which was erected by Hiram J. Kenfield was undoubtedly completed by 1844^ because at the October session of 1844 Frederick Ingram was appointed as the agent of the county to procure stoves for the courthouse. This, tlie first courthouse in Barry County, was burned in 1846. Abner C. Parmelee, who liad been tlie Treasurer of the county from 1839 to 1845, undoubtedly did not account satisfactorily for the county funds, because in 184i he together with the sureties ui)on his bond were requested to confess judgment in the Circuit Court for the County of Barry for the amount of his alleged defalcation as Treasurer, and in 184e5 the county procured a judgment against both Parmelee and the sureties upon his bond as Treasurer. At the October session of the ]3oard of Supervisors of 1846 the issuance of an execution against Parmelee and the sureties on liis bond was postponed pending negotiations to rebuild the courthouse then recently burned, for the reason that the Board of Supervisors of the county contemplated swapping the judgment which they obtained against Parmelee and the sureties upon his bond toward the contract price of rebuilding the courthouse.

The County Well The county well was a source of much annoyance to the early residents of Hastings. When Hiram J. Kenfield built the first court house and jail it was claimed that he was to put down a county well and that he failed to do so. At the September meeting of the Board of Supervisors in 1845 the Prosecuting Attorney of the county was directed to proceed against Mr. Kenfield for his failure to dig the county well at the court house. We do not find any record that proceedings were actually commenced. We think that Kenfield dug the well, but just how deep lie sunk it is conjectural; in any event, at the October session of the Board in 1845 we find that Mr. Hayes was authorized to employ Peter Cobb to take up and sink the county well of sufficient depth so that three feet or over of water could be obtained, and the proceedings show that Cobb later received his pay for so doing. Rebuilding the Coutt House At a meeting of the Board of Supervisors on J/muary 6, 18i7, it was resolved to let the job of rebuilding the court house, and the plans of John Lewis prepared for the same, were accepted and the contract for its erection awarded to Alvin W. Bailey of Hastings, who was to receive therefor as the first payment of fifteen hundred dollars upon the contract price of the court house, the judgment which had been rendered in favor of the county against Abner C. Parmelee and the sureties upon his bond, Cleveland Ellis of Assyria, George Brown of Orangeville, and Calvin G. Hill of Thornapple. Bailey was undoubtedly slow in fulfilling his contract, for on March 16, 1848, he was asked by the Board of Supervisors to show cause why he had not carried out and fulfilled his contract for the erection of the building. He undoubtedly came before the Board and explained the situation to their satisfaction, for on the next day a new contract was made with him for the completion of the job and he then went on and finished the building. On October 9th, 1848, the proceedings of the Board of Supervisors showed that it was resolved that E. D. Alden of Hastings be employed to furnish seven sets of Windsor chairs for the Court House, said chairs to be made of two inch stuff in bottoms and proportioned accordingly, otherwise well painted, and lettered on the back with the word "County," and that he receive twenty-four dollars in county orders therefor.

A New Jail After the first jail and court house was burned in 1846 nothing was done for several years toward the erection of a new jail; the prisoners of Barry County being in the meantime confined in the county jail at Kalamazoo. At the October session of the Board in 1853 Cleveland Ellis, John Miles and E. R. Carpenter were appointed by the Board as a committee to investigate the ing of the Callioun County jail at Marshall^ and recommended that a committee of three be appointed to make an estimate of the probable cost and report at the next session of the Board of Super- visors. They also recommended that the county purchase lots 583 and 584 of the city of Hastings as a site. The report made by the committee to the Board of Supervisors was adopted and it was voted to raise one thousand dollars for the construction of a new jail. Nathan Barlow, Jr., George K. Beamer and E. R. Carpenter were appointed as a committee to take over the title to the land and provide for the construction of the jail. This committee was discharged at the January session of 1854 and Nathan Barlow, Jr., Cleveland Ellis and George K. Beamer were appointed as a committee to purchase the site and to supervise the erection of the building. This jail was built by Ferris & Edgcomb, contractors, and was on the site now occupied by the residence of Philo A. Sheldon.

The county buildings erected in 1847 were repaired from time to time, but after forty years of use they were somewhat antiquated. There was considerable agitation in Barry County in favor of the erection of more modern county buildings. At the January, 1889, session of the Board of Supervisors a committee, consisting of Albert G. Kent, Supervisor of Assyria; Edward F. Nye, Supervisor of the townsliip of Johnstown, and Charles A. Brown, Supervisor of Rutland, was appointed, to visit the court house at Charlotte with a view of gaining information in order to submit to the qualified voters of Barry County the question of building a new court house. They reported at the same session and a resolution was passed submitting the question of raising the sum of sixty thousand dollars for the purpose of erecting a new court house to the voters of the county at the April, 1889, township meeting. This proposal was opposed somewhat strongly by many of the Supervisors wlio believed that the county should get along with the old court house and erect some sort of a safety vault for the protection of the county records, and the proposition was decisively defeated at the polls. Things went along for a number of years. The county needed a jail. On January 20, 1891, Circuit Judge Frank A. Hooker sent a communication to the Board of Supervisors of Barry County in which he stated that after a personal examination he liad found that the jail was not a secure one, that the Sheriff's duties were rendered exceedingly hazardous by reason of the construction of the jail; that its sani- tary condition rendered it unfit for habitation; that it was a fire trap; that should a fire occur the prisoners therein would almost certainly perish; that it was unsafe for the detention of prisoners and that it was an outrage upon justice to confine prisoners therein, and directed that the Board of Supervisors designate some other place for the detention of prisoners. At the same session the Board of Supervisors made arrangements to detain prisoners thereafter in the jail of Eaton County. At the January, 1892, session of the Board of Supervisors the question of submitting to the qualified voters of the county at the spring election of 1892 the question of raising fifty-four thousand dollars for building a court house was passed and the Clerk authorized to give notice of the submission of the question. At the spring election of 1892 the proposition to build a new court house and jail was carried by a vote of 2,772 for and 1,667 against tlie proposition. At the April, 1892, session of the Board of Supervisors a building committee was appointed to have charge of the erection of the county buildings, consisting of John G. Nagler, Supervisor of Irving; Orson Swift, Supervisor of Maple Grove, and Oscar Matthews, tlie Supervisor of Hastings. A committee was also appointed to investigate the plans adopted by different counties for their court houses and tliis committee consisted of Orson Swift, James H. ^NIcKevitt, Supervisor of Thornapple; John G. Nagler and Thomas S. Brice, the County Clerk. This committee after visiting and examining the court houses in Allegan, Muskegon, Mecosta, Isabella, Livingston, Branch and Ionia counties, reported that they were unanimous in the opinion that the court house at Howell, in Livingston county, was the best, considering the cost of construction, of any that they had visited, and they recommended that the building committee adopt a plan for a court house in the city of Hastings substantially similar to that of the court house in Livingston county. This was done and the present buildings were erected and completed ready for occupancy on the first of January, 1891.

The Court House square in Hastings is regarded as one of the most beautiful in the state of Michigan. After the first court house was burned in 1846 and before the second court house was erected the Board of Supervisors let Nathan Barlow, Jr., occupy the court house square during the spring and summer of 1847 for the purpose of sowing said ground to oats and seeding it down with clover seed, and the resolution of the Board of Supervisors provided that Barlow was to have the avails of said crop in consideration of his sowing and seeding the same in a good and workmanlike manner, and as late as October 10, 1849, the Board of Supervisors voted that Nathan Barlow, Jr., be allowed to go on agreeable to the old contract and grub the stumps out of the court house yard; and on January 4, 1855, the Sheriff of the county was instructed to keep the fence around the court house square in repair and to keep the gate locked except when court was in session, so as to exclude therefrom all cattle, hogs and other domestic animals which in those days roamed not only over the county but the city as well.

The Barry County Agricultural Society was organized December 29th, 1851. The second annual fair of the society was held at the Court House in the city of Hastings, the Court House square being used for tlie purpose of exhibiting stock, the lower part of tlie court house being used as a place for exliibiting different products, the upper part of the court house being used for speaking. The county fair was held for two years at Prairieville. In 1859 it was decided to liold the fair on Market Square, the same being now a part of tlie fair ground claimed by the Barry County Agricultural Society, and the fair has been held on substantially the same site continuously since. At this, the second annual meeting of the society, Hiram Lewis of Prairieville was elected President, and James W. Bradley of Yankee Springs was elected Secretary. An executive committee was appointed consisting of seven members of the society. At the election of the society on July 12, 1858, it was decided that in addition to the president, secretary and treasurer, there should be a vice-president elected from each township, and the following were the first vicepresidents of the Barry County Agricultural Society under this arrangement:

Since that time substantially the same sort of an organization has been maintained and fairs liave been held each year at the Market Square, which now constitutes a part of the fair ground of the Agricultural Society and which has been enlarged from time to time by the purchase of additional grounds.

Superintendents of the Poor were elected by the County Commissioners at tlie first meeting in 1839. Tlie poor liad generally been supported by contract. There were no insane asylums in the state and during the early forties insane patients of this county were cared for at the insane asylum in Chicago, 111., until after the opening of tlie Michigan Asylum for the Insane at Kalamazoo, Michigan. Li December, 1849, the Board of Supervisors resolved that the Superintendents of the Poor should be instructed to solicit terms of purchase and gatlier information preparatory to purcliasing a county farm and building a building for the care of the poor, and this committee so appointed seems to have made a report. In 1853 the Superintendents of the Poor earnestly recommended to the Board of Supervisors that steps be taken for the purchase of a proper poor farm and the erection of county poor buildings, and W. W. Ralph was appointed by the Board of Supervisors as agent to open correspondence and elicit information in regard to the cost and advisability of so doing. At the October session of the Board of Supervisors in 1854 a tax of eight hundred dollars was directed to be levied upon the taxable property of the county and this sum w^hen raised was to be applied toward the purchase of a poor farm and erection of county buildings. R. W.

Hanna of Irving, D. G. Robinson of Hastings, and Hiram Lewis were appointed as a committee to select a proper location for the poor farm. On January 22, 1855, this committee reported to the Board of Supervisors. Much opposition to the purchase of the present poor farm was apparent, and the Board of Supervisors voted not to purchase the farm recommended by the committee. On the next day, however, they rescinded that resolution and appointed a committee consisting of John Miles, O. B. Sheldon and Silas Bowker, who were to purchase a poor farm as soon as practicable and who were to use their own judgment as they might think proper in the situation in its purchase, and to draw the money from the county treasury for the payment of the same. Shortly afterward this committee purchased for thirtyfive liundred dollars tlie west half of tlie southeast quarter and the east twenty acres of the southwest quarter of section 27 in the township of Hastings, now constituing the Poor Farm. There were already buildings upon this farm, but a frame building near the site of the present county poor liouse was erected for tlie care of the poor, and this was repaired from time to time until 1877, when a committee of the Board of Supervisors reported that the county poor house was entirely unfit for tlie comfortable keeping of the inmates and recommended that the county build a new brick poor house containing at least one room for the care of insane patients. David G. Robinson, Samuel J. Bidelman of Hastings, and Lewis Durkee of Castleton were named as a building committee to look after the erection of the same, and the present poor house was constructed and turned over by the committee to the Superintendents of the Poor as completed in January, 1879. In 1898 a brick hospital building was erected by the Superintendents of the Poor and later a building for the care of tubercular patients was established.

No other county in the state of ^lichigan contributed more liberally to the Civil War than did Barry County. During the Civil War the population of Barry County was at all times less than fifteen thousand inhabitants, yet the county furnished 1,632 men for the Union army, an average of 102 from each township in the county. More than forty of these became commissioned officers ; eleven per cent of the entire population of the county was enrolled as soldiers in the Union army. Not only did the county contribute liberally in men but it contributed liberally in money. At no time during the Civil War did the assessed valuation of Barry County reach two million dollars^ yet from 1861 to 1867 Barry County raised and paid out for the support of the families of volunteers who were at the front in the Civil War $86,598.00;, and the expenses to the several townships occasioned by the war aggregated $186,641.00, a total expense to the people of the county of $267,239.00, or more than fifteen per cent of the total assessed valuation of all of the real and personal property in the county when the war broke out.

Josepli S. Blaisdell, who came to what is now the township of Assyria as the first pioneer in 1836, was a Freewill Baptist minister and it is said that he held public worship in that township shortly after he came tliere. Whether he did so or not it is certain that he organized a Freewill Baptist church in the township of Assyria, which after his death in 1848 was dissolved. Perhaps the mission church, established by the Rev. Leonard Slater in the township of Prairieville, was the first church in Barry County. It is claimed that religious services were held at the ''Mansion House'' of William Lewis in Yankee Springs by Rev. Calvin Clark in 1837. Rev. William Daubney, who seems to have been familiarly known to the early pioneers as ''Father Daubney," in 1839 held religious services in the house of Charles W. Bassett in the township of Yankee Springs. In 1839 or early in 1840, a Methodist class was organized at North Pine Lake in tlie townships of Prairieville and Orangeville. Fatlier Daubney was an itinerant minister and he travelled horseback, visiting all of the settlers. As early as 1840, it is said he lield services in Woodland. In Hastings undoubtedly the first religious service of any kind was at the funeral of Mr. DeGroat, one of tlie pioneers in Rutland who died in 1836, and he was the first person buried in the newly laid out cemetery in Hastings then immediately south of the public school buildings in the Fourth ward. Rev. Calvin Clark preached this funeral sermon. In 1839 Father Daubney held services at the house of Slocum H. Bunker, located near where the Hotel Barry is situated at the present time. It is said in 1840 Isaac Messer came to Hastings, and stopping at the tavern of Levi Chase, situated immediately west of the south end of the ^Michigan Avenue bridge, across the river, held religious services there. In the fall of 18i0 or in the spring of 1811 Rev. John Ercanbrach, who was tlien tlie Presiding Elder of the Kalamazoo district, held a quarterly meeting in Hastings. As early as 1838 P'lder Emory Cherry and Elder York held services in the township of Johnstown. The Congregational disciples of Thorna})])le, now maintaining a church at Middleville, claimed to have held services as early as 1835. In any event, Calvin G. Hill and Henry Leonard, who came to that township from Monroe, New York, in 1835, belonged to the Congregational denomination. In 1813 the Congregational church of Middleville was organized; in 1840 the Carlton Methodist class was organized, and the same year the Rev. Daniel Bush came to Hastings as a missionary, and was the first resident preacher who had regular charge of any church in Barry County.

ence, were Protestant. There was in the community about Yankee Springs a large number of Catholics and about 1850 they bought the Lewis McCloud house in the townsliip and converted it into a church or place of public worship, and for a considerable period after that time they had occasional religious services tliere. A cemetery was laid out by tliis denomination in the township of Yankee Springs, and this cemetery still remains. With the removal of the families from the neighborliood the organization fell apart and Catholic services liave long since been discontinued at that place^ thougli there are prosperous cliurches of this denomination in both Hastings and Nasliville.

Barry Cottnty Newspapers The Barry County Pioneer, a weekly Democratic paper^ was the first newspaper printed or published in Barry County. It was first issued January 21-^ 1851^ Mr. G. A. Smith being the editor and proprietor. In the fall of 1851 he sold this paper to A. A. Knappen_, who for some time continued to publish the same weekly except when circumstances were such that he was unable to get the print paper in time for publication. In 1853 Mr. Smith again embarked in the newspaper business in Hastings, publisliing the Barry County Review. In June, 1854^ Smith bought out the Pioneer of Mr. Knappen and consolidated the two papers under the name of the Barry County Pioneer; Henry A. Goodyear of the city of Hastings became associate editor of the same. The Republican Banner was the first published in 1856 by a syndicate of men interested in Barry County politics, Norman E. Bailey being tlie first editor. In the fall of 1856 George W. Mills became the editor of the Republican Banner and remained so until the paper was sold to James M. Nevins in July, 1857. About this time the Barry County Pioneer suspended publication, but during tlie political campaign of 1860 the Pioneer was resurrected and it strongly supported tlie election of Stephen A. Douglas as President of the Cnited States and opposed the election of Lincoln. Throughout the Civil War it was most bitter in its attacks upon tlie administration. It supported ^IcClellan for President in 1864, and the issue of tlie Pioneer that announced tlie assassination of President Lincoln also gave notice of the suspension of the publication of the Barry County Pioneer. In the spring of 1867 W. Roscoe Young took over the material in the printing office of the Pioneer and started the Independent. In 1868 Young's printing office burned and a subscription was circulated and a fund raised for the establishment of a newspaper^ of which Mr. Young was the editor. This paper was called the Democrat^ a name which was afterward changed to the Hastings Home Journal and later to the Journal. This paper after a publication of about forty years was consolidated in 1911 with the Hastings Herald under the name of the Journal-Herald. Since the establishment of tliese papers there liave been many newspapers publislied in the county ; at the present time there being weekly papers published in Nashville^, Freeport;, Woodland^ Prairieville^ ^liddleville and Delton, in addition to those published in Hastings.

Postoffices and the Mails When Amasa S. Parker first came to what is now the townsliip of Prairieville in 1831 tliere had already been established a postoffice at Gull Prairie. The postoffice at Bronson or Kalamazoo was not established until 1832. For some time the postoffice at Kalamazoo and the one at Gull Prairie were the places from whicli most of the pioneer residents of Barry County received their mail. There was no postoffice within the county until 1837^ when the first postoffice was established at Yankee Springs^ and William Lewis^ the proprietor of the Mansion House^ was the first postmaster. Prior to 1839 the residents of Hastings received their mail at Yankee Springs, Gull Prairie, or Kalamazoo, but in that year a postoffice was established in Hastings on a mail route running from Coldwater to Grand Rapids, and Willard Hayes was appointed the first Postmaster. The same year another postoffice was opened called Middleville, on the stage route running from Kalamazoo to Grand Rapids, and Benjamin S. Dibble was appointed the first Postmaster. This postoffice was erected at what is now known as Gates Corners, about two and one-half or three miles from the present village of Middleville. In 1841 or 1812 a postoffice was established in the township of Assyria at the house of Cleveland Ellis, who was the first Postmaster. The postoffice at Carlton was established in 1844 and J. S. Rogers was appointed as the first Postmaster. A postoffice was established at Irving, on the stage route from Battle Creek via. Flastings to Grand Rapids, in 1846. Albert E. Bull, from whom Bull's Prairie was named.

was the first Postmaster. No postoffice was established in Woodland until in 1849^ when Nehemiah Lovewell was named as Postmaster. With the steady increase in population in the county the postoffices increased in great number^ and twenty years ago, and immediately before the establishment of rural free delivery, there was in the county probably three times as many postoffices as exist today. This system of rural free delivery has dispensed with the necessity of these local offices and a great number of minor offices liave been discontinued.

Tlie early mail carriers wlio came to Hastings generally travelled on horseback, carrying the mails in saddlebags. There was onl}^ rarely published in this country a magazine in those days; newspapers were few and tlie correspondence of the early settlers was not very extensive.

Prior to 1869 there was no railroad in operation that reached the city of Hastings; there was a stage line established in 1846 running from Battle Creek via Hastings to Grand Rapids and which afforded fairly rapid transit, making the trip in one day eitlier way. Another stage line was operated from Hastings via Yankee Springs to Kalamazoo. Another stage line left the Rathbone House in Grand Rapids and ran via Yankee Springs, Hastings, Cliarlotte and Eaton Rapids to Jackson. There was also another stage line running from Kalamazoo via Yankee Springs to Grand Rapids. These stage lines were the only means for passenger travel outside of private conveyances, until the opening of the Grand River Valley Railroad in 1869.

Freight to all of the interior of the county was handled by tote teams. The main line of the Michigan Central had been in operation for many years and freight was hauled into the interior from Grand Rapids, to whicli point it was shipped by boat; and from Battle Creek, Kalamazoo, Jackson and Marshall on the Michigan Central Railroad. Marketing was an important item in farming. It meant to all of tlie people living in the county a trip covering one day and most of two nights. Many of the roads were unsafe and ungraded. Frequently the pioneers had to unload in order to get their wagons out of the mud. Halfway houses, local stopping places on the stage roads for the accommodation of passengers and those hauling freight to the interior, were common. It is now difficult to conceive tliat until 1869 all of the merchandise distributed at Hastings came overland from Battle Creek^ Kalamazoo and Jackson, or from Grand Rapids^ and tliat a large number of men were engaged in the freiglit business alone. Stages and freighters were steady patrons of tliese early taverns and they flourishd at Assyria, wliere the Tamarack was celebrated; at Bristol's in Jolmstown^ and at Yankee Si)rings. wliere the Mansion House of William Lewis was probably the best known of any iiotel west of Detroit. With the coming of the railroads^ the discontinuance of the stage lines and freighters, these early taverns gradually disai)peared.

After the original organization of the Grand River Valley Railroad there was considerable agitation periodically for many years for the establishment of a railroad running through Hastings. These various projects received considerable check during tlie Civil W/ir, but immediately after the Civil War the Battle Creek & Cirand Rapids Railroad Company was organized^ Henry \\illis of ]5attle Creek being its principal promotor; Henry A. Goodyear of the city of Hastings was one of its directors. During the agitation for the building of this road frequent meetings were held by the promoters in v.arious parts of the state^ and the townshi]) of Hastings at one time voted bonds for the aid of the construction of such railroad. In 1866 agitation was taken up for the construction of the (irand River Valley Railroad. Meetings were held in Hastiugs and at other j)laces along the line and funds were solicited from various individuals and the several townships in B;irry C ounty, as well as in the adjoining counties^ were asked to vote funds under the Railway Aid Acts. This road was surveyed in 1866 and construction work was commenced in 1867. The road was com])leted from Jackson to Nashville so that regular service was establislied January 26, 1869. Regular railway service was established from Jackson to Hastings on February 22 of the same year, and in 1870 the road was completed to Grand Rapids. Afterward the Grand River Valley Railroad Company leased the same on a long term lease to the ^lichigan Central Railroad Compan3% who com[)leted its equipment and who have since operated it. The Cincinnati, Jackson & Mackinaw Railroad was built from Dundee to Allegan, crossing the southwestern part of the county^ and opened November 29^ 1883. The Chicago^ Kalamazoo & Saginaw Railroad was built from Kalamazoo to Hastings in 1888^ and the Grand Rapids^ Lansing & Northern, afterward the Detroit^ Lansing & Northern, and later consolidated with the Pere Marquette, which runs across the northern part of the county, was open for use between Grand Ledge and Grand Rapids in August, 1881.

The people of Barry County have quite generally been opposed to the liquor traffic. In 1853, when the vote was first taken upon the old local option law, 642 votes were cast in favor of tlie law and 348 against it. In 1887, when the amendment to the constitution of the state prohibiting the liquor traffic was submitted to the people for approval, the vote in Barry County stood 3,099 for the amendment and 1,933 against it. In 1908, when the present local option law was submitted to the people for a vote it resulted in 3,498 for the prohibitory law and 2,093 against it, and in 1910, when it was resubmitted the vote stood 3,280 for continuing the law in force and 2,316 against it.

In the Constitutional Convention of 1835 Barry County, not then being separately organized, had no representative but was represented by the delegate from Kalamazoo County. In 1850, when the question was submitted as to whether or not we should have a general revision of the constitution of the state, the vote in Barry County was unanimous for a revision, standing 745 yeas and no nays.

J. W. T. Orr, who for some time was Supervisor of Irving townsliip, was elected the delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1850, and this constitution when submitted to the people was ratified and approved and continued in force until 1909, although in 1867 the people voted for a constitutional revision and a Constitutional Convention was held, Harvey Wright of Middleville and Adam Elliott of Hickory Corners being delegates, but upon the constitution of 1867 being submitted to the people for approval it was rejected, and therefore the constitution of 1850 continued in force.

constitution and Charles H. Thomas represented Barry County in the convention, and this constitution was adopted by a majority when it was submitted and is now in force.

The population of Barry County, which was 512 in 1837, had more than doubled by 1840; according to the Federal census it was 1,078. In the next ten years it increased from 1,078 to 5,072, and in the ten years from 1850 to 1860 it increased from 5,072 in 1850 to 13,858 in 1860. Notwithstanding the enormous drain upon the county in men during the Civil War the population from 1860 to 1864 increased from 13,858 to 14,441. By 1870 the population had reached 22,199, and 25,317 in 1880, since which time the population has varied somewhat from 22,000 upward, but has never reached at any Federal census so high a point in numbers as in 1880.

The land occupied by tlie original plat of the city of Hastings was sold by Eurotas P. Hastings to a syndicate of men in Marshall on July 26, 1836, and the purchasers immediately began the organization of the Hastings Village Company and the surveying and platting of the land. The original founders of Hastings saw at once that it would be necessary to erect a saw mill in order to furnish lumber for the proposed town on what was called the "County Seat Purchased" of Barry County. Slocum H. Bunker came to Hastings probably not as the first white person who came here, but as the first to build a home in the future city. This family did not come here with the intention of permanently residing in Hastings, but only for the purpose of boarding the hands who were sent forward by the Hastings Company to erect their saw mill on Fall Creek. The Hastings Company started out pretentiously and platted the entire of the original village, but with the financial stringency of 1837 and the years immediately succeeding it went upon the rocks; was in the hands of a receiver and its affairs were wound up by the Chancellor of Michigan through the Court of Chancery at Ann Arbor. Practically all of tlie deeds in the city of Hastings trace title back to the trustee of tlie Hastings Company, appointed by the Michigan Chancery Court for the purpose of winding up its affairs and disposing of its assets.

In 1810 Henry A. Goodyear came to Hastings as its pioneer merchant and at once engaged in business. In 1811 Alvin W. Bailey opened a store here and the next year William Upjohn engaged in the mercantile business in Hastings^ and in 1813 Will- iam S. Goodyear came here; and in 1811 Ves})asian Young located in Hastings and engaged in business and thenceforward merchants have come and gone substantially in the same manner as they liave in the otlier cities and villages of similar size in tliis state.

The first hotel was occupied by Levi Chase, south of Thornapple river and west of the Michigan Avenue bridge. Chase died in service during the Mexican War. Nathan Barlow, Jr., who had come to Hastings from Yankee Springs as County Clerk of the county in 1843, built a hotel on the present site of the Hastings House.

David M. Dake, who located here in 1838, was the first resident physician. Dr. Upjohn came in 1841 and Dr. John Roberts m 1815, and they were followed in 1851 by Dr. Charles S. Burton and A. P. Drake. Probably the first lawyer to take up his residence in Hastings was Marsh Giddings, who came here from Kalamazoo in 1812. He was afterward elected Representative in the State Legislature, was Judge of Probate of Kalamazoo County, member of the Constitutional Convention in 1867 and at the time of his deatli the governor of the Territory of New Mexico. In 1813 Isaac A. Holbrook located here and for nearly half a century he was prominently identified with the progress of the city.

Hastings was incorporated as a village by act of the legislature February 13, 1855. Alvin W. Bailey was elected as its first President. On March 11, 1871, it was incorporated as a city; Henry A. Goodyear being the first Mayor.

Second to Hastings in size and importance is Nashville, located on the eastern border of the county, on the Thornapple river and the Grand River Valley Railroad. It lies partly in Maple Grove township, but mostly in Castleton. it was platted by Robert Gregg in 1865 and was incorporated March 26, 1869, Lemuel Smith being the first President.