Pioneers of Bean Creek Country, Lenawee Co, Michigan; James J. Hagaoam; published by Jas. M. Scarritt, Hudson, MI, 1876 Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Mary Teeter ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgenwebarchives.org *********************************************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm Pages 31 Through 40 Pennock proceeded to the settlement, where he arrived about the middle of the afternoon, sick and weary from the effects of travel and exposure. Pennock I afterwards became satisfied that the night he spent in the woods snow-bound, he staid somewhere in the vicinity of the present village of Rollin. Byan act of the Legislative Council, approved March 7th, 1834, several changes were made in the townships of Lenawee county, Towns seven south, in ranges one, two and three east (Madison, Dover and Hudson), were organized into a separate township and named Lenawee; towns eight, nine and fractional ten south, in ranges one, two and three east (Fairfield, Seneca and Medina in Michigan, and Royalton, Chesterfield and Gorham, now in Ohio), were organized into a township named Fdirfield; and "all that part of the township of Tecumseh comprised in townships six south, in ranges one, two and three east," (the north half of Rollin, Rome and Adrian,) "was attached to the township of Logan." In the month of March, 1834, Sylvenus Estes came to the Bean Creek Country, and the 15th day of that month entered land on section ten, twon seven south, one west (Pittsford), in the name of his wife, Ruth Estes. During the same month his brother, Rufus Estes, came in and assisted his brother in chopping a piece for spring crops. In the same month also, March. 1834, Reuben Davis located the middle sub-division of the southwest fractional quarter of section eighteen, town seven south, one east (Hudson) and commenced building a log house. That lot of land now forms a part of the village of Hudson, it being that portion lying north of Main street and between Church and High streets. The house he commenced stood in the vicinity of Market street, between Main street and the railroad. On the 7th day of April, 1834, the first township meeting of the township of Lenawee was held. Calvin Bradish was moderator, and N. D. Skeels was clerk of the election. Officers were elected as follows: Supervisor, Garrett Tenbrooke; Township Clerk, Isaac A. Colvin; Assessors, John Hitchins, Patrick Hamilton and Levi Shumway; Collector, /Ezra Washburn; Overseers of the Poor, Nehemiah Bassett and Elijah Johnson; Commissioners of Highways, Jacob Jackson, Samuel Bayless and Moses C. Baker; Constable, Ezra Washburn; Commissioners of Schools, Lyman Pease, Isaiah Sabens and John Power; School Inspectors, Curran Bradish, Thomas F. Dodge, William Edmunds and Isaac A. Colvin The township meeting voted to pay three dollars for every wolf slain within the township, and one dollar and fifty-cents for each wolf shelp. During the year Bart White was paid bounty on six wolves, and William Winslow a bounty on one wolf. In the latter part of April, Jesse Smith, accompanied by his family, --a wife and five children,--started for their possessions in the Bean Creek Country. At Buffalo they shipped on the steamboat William Penn for Monroe. The steamboats of that period were clumsy afairs. It was early in the season, and their progress was necessarily slow. At Monroe he hired two teams to bring his family and goods to Adrian. Here it became necessary to dispose of some boots and shoes, and a new wagon which he was bring into the country. From his sales he realized twenty-seven bushels of wheat and ten dollars in money. The wheat, except enough to feed the teams on the road, was left at the Adrian mill to be ground. With the money, Mrs. Smith having sold feathers to pay their tavern bill, Mr. Smith hired two more teams, and wish his wife and three children started for Kidder's. His two older boys and William Purchase, who was coming to his brother Oliver, had gone on foot in advance. The first day they traveled four miles. The next day one of the teams gave out about noon; the goods were unloaded and piled up by the roadside, and the team sent back. With the remaining team and load they toiled on through the afternoon, but at dark were compelled to camp in the woods, a little south of Posey Lake. Two of the children were put in bed in the wagon. Mrs. Smith sat up all night and held the babe in her arms. The next morning they resumed their journey, and soon after they were met by their sons, Lorenzo and William, who had been through to the settlement and reported the approach of the family. The boys were accompanied by Mr. Vangauder with a yoke of oxen, which enabled them to double teams. Vangauder and the boys managed the teams, while Mr. Smith, with the babe in his arms, trudged along on foot. They reached Kidder's about noon, where dinner was waiting for them. Here the Smith family were at last--in the Michigan woods, with but fifty cents in pocket. Messrs. Purchase and Vangauder were bachelors. The house they had built and wintered in was tendered to Mr. Smith, and here he sheltered his family until the 2Oth day of August, when they moved into a house of their own. Mr. Purchase had chopped the timber down on quite a large piece of ground around his house; this he offered to Smith for a corn-field. Mr. Smith and sons logged and burned it off, and planted it to corn and potatoes. These two articles were important factors in their next winter's subsistance. The lakes and streams were filled with fishes, there was an abundance of game in the woods, and stores of honey deposited in convenient hollows by the ever busy bee; these Mr. Smith knew how to capture and bring in, and with his corn and potatoes, sufficed for the sustenance of his family and numerous adventures, none of whom were ever turned from his door hungry. Mr. Smith was accounted-- and no doubt justly--a great hunter, as it is said he spent the greater part of his time at that business; but there are boys of that period who will not admit that he was a better shot than Rufus Estes; indeed, they called Mr. Estes the crack shot of the Bean Creek Valley. Both these worthy men are still living. For some years Mr. Smith has been blind, but Mr. Estes yet does six days' work in a week. Early in the spring Henry Ames returned to the Eastern States for his wife, who had been left behind on account of feeble health. Be returned to Michigan with his wife in September, reaching the Creek on the 3Oth. On the first day of May, Hiram Kidder commenced work on mill-race, and preparing timber for a saw mill. On the first day of June, Samuel 0. Coddington, mill-wright, of Geneva, New York, commenced work on the mill. In the month of May, Beriah H. Lane and his brother Erastus came to the Bean Creek Country. Beriah selected the first sub-division of the northwest fractional quarter of section nineteen. Upon going to the land office, he found it had already been entered by Harvey Cobb. He returned to the Bean Creek and selected the west and middle sub-divisions of the southwest fractional quarter of section nineteen, which he afterwards entered. Almost immediately after, he traded the south part of the tract to Reuben Davis for his land, and sold the north half to Sylvester Kenyon. The land he bought of Davis had a log house partly finished and about one and a half acres chopped. Mr. Lane also purchased of Jesse Kimball the south half of the west sub-division of the soutwest fractional quarter of section eighteen, or that part of the village of Hudson north of Main street and west of Church street. The Messrs. Lane determined to build up a village, and immediately set about building a saw-mill in order that they might be able to compete with the Kidder settlement, which was already putting on village airs. They hired a I mill-wright and helpers and set them at work. Reuben Davis remained in their house and boarded the men. Mr. Davis also drew the timber on to the ground and did such other work as the Lanes required. During the latter part of May, 1834, Robert Worden, Dudley Worden and Samuel Day arrived at the Creek. The two Wordens started from Fairport, Monroe county, New York, in a covered wagon, about the first of April 1834. The party consistted of Dudley Worden, wife and one child, and Robert Worden, wife and one child. On the way they fell in company with the family of Mr. Samuel Day, traveling in the same way and intending to settle in Ohio. The two parties traveled along together, and after a while Mr. Day concluded to come to Michigan with the Wordens. They arrived at the Creek, as before stated, in the latter part of May. Their lands were entered at the land office on the 29th day of the month. Their last day's journey was from Adrian to the creek, eighteen miles, twelve of which--from Bart White's, west--were in a dense wilderness. When night set in the party were about five miles from Kidder's, in the thick woods. To proceed farther with the wagons that night was impossible, and they could not encamp as they were unprovided with the means to start a fire. The horses were unhitched from the wagons and the party attempted to make their way on foot, but the horses were in constant trouble, running against trees and into the btrush. So the party formed themselves in single file. Mrs. Worden wore a white skirt and was placed in the rear to pilot the driver of the horses. In this manner they marched until they reached Kidder's house, late in the evening. The next day they found their land and commenced building a house. Mr. Robert Worden thus, describes the house he built: "I built me a house without a single board, except what was made with an ax. I split logs for a floor. The chamber floor was bark peeled from elm logs. Our roof was bark, as was also the gables or ends. Our door was plank made with an ax, two inches thick, pinned to wooden hinges and fastened to the logs so it would swing inside. With an auger a hole was made in the logs so it could be pinned on the inside to protect us from the bears and wolves, of which there were a plenty. We had a window hole cut out for a six-lighted window, but had no window to put in it. The principal light came down the chimney hole. One night the wolves commenced to howl. There were so many of them and so near I became frightened. We were sleeping on the floor, not having even a Michigan bedstead. We got up, went up the ladder with our bed, pulled the ladder after us, made our bed on the bark, and should have considered ourselves secure from the wolves only that we were fearful that the bark would give way and let us fall." And all this fear of the wolves within two miles of two villages. One village had double the number of houses the other had, and that had two." Of Mr. and Mrs. Day, a writer in the Hudson "Post", of March 26th 1874 wrote: "Mr. Samuel Day died in 1856. He was a man who made his mark in this new country, will be remembered as a stock man, and who could show tthe finest stock in the Valley of the Bean. Coming here when Hudson was a vast forest, with five boys at his command, much of the improvement in this vicinity was made through his influence. But he has laid by his armor and passed over the River with others who were his associates here, to be employed in higher and nobler spheres than earth can offer. "Mrs. Day is one of those noble women who first settled this Bean Creek Valley when in its native state. May 1834 found her coming down Bean Creek hill at ten o'clock at night, she having walked from Adrian the same day. She crossed the Bean upon a log, and came up to Mr. Kidder's log house, where the family stopped for the night, and until they could find some house to stop at or until they could build themselves. This they did in the month of May, having to cut a wagon road from Bush's Corners up to where their house now stands. The house was built without a single board; the roof was covered with bark, and the floor made of split logs. There was not a tree cut west of Bush's Corners; the wolf and deer were all that inhabited that region. Mrs. Day was a woman of strong constitution, always working with a will, having a large family of her own to provide for, in a new country, with all the settlers in like circumstances. But she worked on with her neighbors, every one feeling dependent upon each other for things to keep soul and body together. Mr. and Mrs. Day having lived in a dairy country East, and been brought up in that branch of farming, as soon as the country would warrant, commenced making butter and cheese in the Valley of the Bean, which, in addition to her other work, employed all the powers of body she possessed. She is now quite feeble, not able to go out, but with her cane can walk about the house. Her sight is good; she can sew without spectacles. She is very glad to have old friends come in and talk over the hardships gone through by the early settlers in opening up this tier of counties, which has far exceeded what she expected to see. She brought apple seeds from the East, and when they planted them she said, 'I shall never live to eat fruit of this orchards." In the early part of June, Hiram Kidder platted the village of Lenawee, and June 13th the plat was acknowledged by the proprietors, Daniel Hudson and Nathan B. Kidder, and recorded in the Register's office of Lenawee county. On the next day four village lots were sold. Sometime during the summer Dudley Worden, having built a house in the village of Lenawee, opened a little store, and, as was the custom of those days, a part of his stock consisted of whisky, --an article as necessary for Indian traffic as for home consumption. On the first day of July 1834, the mill irons for the Kidder mill were brought from Adrian by ox teams, and on the 14th day of the same month the frame was raised. The mill commenced sawing October 1st, and was completed the same month. The cost of the mill to its starting was $983.17; its total cost was $1,441.31. One of the boys of that period tells that the first board made at the mill was taken upon the shoulders of the men, carried to the grocery and the whisky "set up" on that notable occasion. About the first of July, Mr. Beriah H. Lane returned to Massachusetts for his family. On the 18th day of August he left Enfield to return to Bean Creek. He brought with him his wife and two children, his father and mother, and his widowed sister (Mrs. Mrs. M. K. Douglass) and her two children. They traveled by team to Troy, by canal "line boat" to Buffalo, steamboat to Cleveland, and team to Bean Creek. They were yet five miles out when darkness settled down, and would have had to camp in the woods, but his brother Erastus, having heard of their approach, met them with a lantern. He found the mill frame up and the work was progressing finely. They immediately commenced work on the dam, and completed the mill in December following; but a freshet carried the dam away, and it was not repaired until the following spring. In the fall of this year, Mr. Simeon Van Akin and family came to the settlement. He had visited the country in the month of November 1833, and located his land. He says that when coming in, November 9th, 1833, he met Mr. Pratt, with his ox team, going after another load of goods. According to Mr. Pratt's recollection, he was going for Mrs. Pratt and their boy, whom he had left at the house of Lyman Pease, one mile west of Adrian. Besides his own family Mr. Van Akin was accompanied by William H. H. Van Akin, then quite a young man. They at once commenced building themselves a house. Alpheus Pratt drew the logs together with his ox team, and Mr. Lane and his mill hands helped roll the logs up. That house was built on the east side of the creek, near the southwest corner of Main and High streets, about where the new engine house now stands. While excavating for the foundation walls of that building one of the logs of the old house was exhumed. In December of that year John Davenport and family settled in Lanesville. The house he built and occupied was built on or near the east bank of the Bean, and just north of Main Street, on a half acre of land reserved by Reuben Davis when he sold to the Lanes. In excavating for the railroad, the north part of the house was undermined, and soon afterwards was removed. Mrs. Davenport, in a letter written February 15th, 1875, describes the first bridge across Bean Creek at Lanesville. She says: "Forty years and two months have passed, cince I came with my husband and five little ones to the wilderness, now the thriving village of Hudson. On our arrival there we found the following names settlers: Mr. Simeon Van Akin (a widower) and his mother (Grandma Van Akin, as she was called by all until her death), two children (Margaret and Lydia Ann), and a younger brother (Harrison Van Akin). Also, Beriah H. Lane, his wive and his father (Nathaniel), two children (Anna and Nathaniel, Jr.), also a widowed sister (Mrs. Douglass) and her two children. These, with my own family, composed the population of Hudson proper. Mr. Davenport had the little log house built upon the east bank of Bean Creek, but on the arrival of the family we were met by Mr. Van Akin and taken to his mansion, which was of the same' style and finish as our own. We received such a welcome as pioneers know how to give. The following morning the wagons were unloaded and we commenced in earnest a pioneer life. The few that may be present well know what it means,--the toil, the privations and the hardships. "The first bridge built was by Grandma Van Akin and myself. The society of the three families was much sought after by each other, and finding that Bean Creek was a barrier to full social enjoyment,--Mrs. Lane, living on the west side was unable to cross on the sapling that had fallen across the creek some distance away,--we determined to have a better way of crossing; so, finding two benches that had been used to chink and daub the walls of Mr. Van Akin's house, Grandma and I carried them down and waded into the stream and placed them in position, then went to Mr. Davis' saw mill, carried planks and laid them from the bank to the bench, and so over to the opposite bank. This was in the spring of 1835, and it remained until the freshet of the following spring, when no trace of it longer remained." During the year 1834, besides those already named, John Rice, John Davenport, Sylvester Kenyon and Silas Eaton settled in town seven south, one east; and William Champlin, Lewis Gillett, Ozen Keith and Jesse Maxson, R. H. Whitehorn, Ruth Estes, Urias Treadwell and Lawrence Rheubottom settled in town seven south, range one west. The following named persons, not elsewhere mentioned, purchased land this year in this township (Hudson): Moses Bennett, Joseph Hagaman, William Chapman, Frederick Corey, Dexter Smith, Ruth Haines, John C. Emery, Peries Lincoln, Mary Newton, Erastus W. Starkweather, A. Sagar, Harman Whitbeck, Samuel F. Davis, Buckley Newton, Erastus Lane, Ira Jewett, Chauncey Whitney, Seba Murphy, Laban King, David E. Wiscott, Isaac Freeman, Daniel Featherly, John Rice, Harvey Cobb, Hiram Van Akin, M. Sherman, J. Kimball, Philo Tracey, Seth Fletcher, Robert Kinney, Randall Mills, Samuel Bayless, Eliza Bayless, Polly Potter, Abel Gibbs, John Beard, Samuel Skinner, William N. Stockwell, Truman Brown. In Pittsford, Lewis Gilbert, Curran White, James DeGraph, Hannah DeGraph, Lorenzo Church, David Fish, Peter Potter, William Purchase, Benjamin Bassett, Dolly Bassett, William Cular, Lewis Dillon, Walter Culver, Guiles Sage, Matthew Dillon, Aaron Aldrich, Asahel Dolbear, Marcus Hawley, Jesse Treadwell, Ira L. Mills, Joseph Barnhart, John Davenport, Dudley Worden, Merrit Sherman, James McLain, Levi Thompson, Buckley Newton, Nathan Birdsall, Nathaniel J. Redfield, Israel Loomis, Daniel Loomis Richard Britton, Eldad B. Trumbull, Jesse Kimball, William Burnham, Richard Butler, Nicholas Fratts, Samuel Cole, Horace P. Hitchcock, Warren Burnham, Jesse Maxson, Ezra A. Washburn, James B. Marry, Cyrus Robinson, N. Wood, John Munger, Truman Bishop. Some of these parties settled on their land that season and others in subsequent seasons, but some of them entered their land for speculative purposes only and never settled on it. Christmas day 1834, occurred the first wedding this part of the Valley. Mr. James Sprague and Miss Elizabeth Ames were united in marriage at the house of Mr. Alpheus Pratt, by the Rev. Mr. Willey, a Methodist clergyman of Adrian. The following named persons composed the wedding party: Alpheus Pratt, wife and son, Charles Ames, wife and two sons, Henry Ames, wife and son, Jesse Kimball, wife and daughter, and Miss Martha Redfield. Mr. Robert Worden, writing of this year's experience in a new country, said: "We were a community of many wants from the outside world. The article of currant-roots, or sprouts, were in great demand. The undersigned went out to the settlement to obtain some sprouts, and all I could get were ten pieces of sprouts about eight inches long each, and felt myself fortunate and thankful. I got them of Richard Kent, a little north of the city of Adrian, and from the sprouts I obtained at that time I have bushes on my farm now, and have supplied very many new beginners from them with roots. "The first settlers had an enemy in what is called the deer-mouse. They were numerous, would crawl through an incredible small hole, and were very destructive. Before: we were aware of it they had got into our trunks and seriously injured our clothing. We had no place of security for anything they wanted. My wife had brought with her some starch done up in a paper. One day, wanting to use some, she found the paper that contained the starch, but no starch. It had been carried off by the mice, and it could not be replenished short of a trip of twenty miles; but some time after we had occasion to use an empty bottle stowed away, and in the bottle we found our starch, put there by the mice; it was not possible for them to get into the bottle. We were in great want of a house-cat to destroy the mice, and they were very scarce in this section of the Territory. I took a bag and started for Adrian on foot to procure a cat, if possible. I could find none in Adrian, but heard of some kittens three miles south of Adrian, at Col. Bradishts. I went to Col. Bradish's, but was a little too late--they had let the last one go the day before. I then started for home, came about two miles this side of Adrian and stopped over night with a family of English people. I told the lady of the house of my unsuccessful efforts to find a cat. She sympathized with me, and said they had been similarly situated. When morning came and I was about to start for home the lady said: 'I have been thinking of your troubles through the night; I have but one cat, a great nice one, and I have concluded to lend it to you until I shall want it.' I took the cat in the bag and started for home--on foot, of course -- and before I got home with it I thought it a very heavy cat. We kept the cat but a few weeks; it was killed by the wild-cats, which were quite plenty at the time." But, hark! While the last paragraph was being written (August 21st, 1876) a church bell has begun to toll the departure of a pioneer of 1834. Silas Eaton has passed away; life's toils and pains, its joys and blessings are over. Mr. Eaton was born at Duanesburg, Montgomery county, New York, on the 22d of February, 1798. When he was twelve years old his father removed to the Genesee county and settled at Perrington, Monroe county. On the 18th day of November, 1819, he inter-married with Miss Eliza Sinnnons, of Victor, Ontario county. Mr. and Mrs. Eaton lived in various localities in the State of New York, until the year 1834. While residing in that State the happy couple had five children born unto them, one of whom had died. Those remaining were Harriet Newell (since the wife of Joseph M. Johnson), Stephen A., Constantine S. and Hervey U. In 1834 Mr. Eaton began seriously to think of making his home in the West. He came to Michigan in the month of June, that year, and entered the west half of the northwest quarter of section eight, town seven south, one west-- the farm now occupied by Silas L. Allen, Esq. He returned home, and in October of that year removed his family to Michigan and settled on his farm, where he remained nearly three years. In the year 1837 he removed to the village of Keene, where he had built himself a frame house; there he remained until the spring of 1840, laboring at his trade--that of a carpenter and joiner. While there he was appointed postmaster under Van Buren's administration. He held the office until his removal, when he was succeeded by Henry Ames. In the spring of 1840, the Southern Railroad having been located through Lanesville, Mr. Eaton removed to the latter place, moving not only his family and personal effects, but his house as well. In this village he resided all the rest of his life. He was Supervisor of the township in 1848 and 1849, and was postmaster eight years -during the administration of Pierce and Buchanan. Politically, Mr. Eaton was a Democrat of the straightest sect, and during his active life was held in high esteem in the councils of that party. In all his acts, social, business, political, and religious, Mr. Eaton was ever governed by strong conscientious convictions, and if he erred it was an error of judgment rather than affections. In early) life, the winter of 1821-2, Mr. Eaton was made a Free and Accepted Mason in a lodge at Pittsford, Ontario county, N. Y. He was a charter member of Morning Star lodge, Hudson, Michigan, at its organization on Monday, the 19th day of June, 1848; was the first senior warden, and for several years held official positions. He was also a charter member of Warren Lodge, organized September 24th, 1863, and was made an honorary member in 1871. He was made a Royal Arch Mason in Hudson chapter No. 28. His funeral on the 22d was largely attended by members of the craft, and his remains were consigned to the tomb with mystic rites. As a mark of respect and honor to the worthy dead--for one so early and so long identified with the moral and material progress of this community--places of business were generally closed during the moving of the procession and the funeral exercises, which were held in the M.E. church. The services consisted of the reading of portions of scripture by Rev. Mr. Roberts, of the Wesleyan Methodist church, prayer by the Rev. Mr. Frazer, of the Methodist Episcopal church, sermon by the Rev. Mr. Gibbs, of the Universalist church of Manchester and appropriate singing by the Congregational and Methodist choirs --the large auditorium being filled with sorrowing relatives and friends, brothers, neighbors, and citizens, "who a last tribute would pay to a good man passed away." The Hudson Post, a Republican newspaper, closed an appreciative obituary with these words: "Mr. Eaton leaves a widow (the companion of his youth), two sons and one daughter, many grandchildren, and a host of friends to mourn his departure: 'But why weep ye for him, who having won The bound of man's appointed years, at last, Life's blessings all enjoyed, Life's labors done, Serenely to his final rest has passed; While the soft memory of his virtues yet Lingers like twilight hues when the bright sun is set?; Warren Lodge, No. 147, Free and Accepted Masons, adopted the following resolutions: WHEREAS, Our esteemed brother, Silas Eaton, has, at the ripte age of seventy-eight years, been called to exchange an earthly for a spiritual state of existence; RESOLVED, That while we are thankful to our Supreme Grand Master for the many years of social intercourse we have been permitted to enjoy with our brother Eaton, we mourn his departure as a loss to ourselves and our noble craft, no less than to his family and relatives. RESOLVED, That we recognize in our departed brother a true type of the noble pioneers who converted the wilds of Michigan into fertile fields, and that we recognize it as our duty to cherish the memory of those departed, and by kindly offices light the pathway of those remaining, RESOLVED, That we commend our sister, the widow of our departed brother, to the active sympathy of the craft, and that we extend to our brothers (the sons of the deceased), and to his daughter, the hand of condolence in their sad bereavement; but as a source of comfort in such trying scenes, remind them that his work was fully done, and that he departed full of days, with earth's honors untarnished. RESOLVED, That these resolutions be published in the village papers, and that copies be furnished the widow and children of our departed brother. The settlement of Francis H. Hagaman and Gershom Bennett in the northwest corner of town eight south, two east (Seneca), in November, 1833, has already been noticed; also the purchase by Cavender of several parcels of land in the fall of the same year. Besides these, Ebenezer S. Carpenter, John F. Packard, Archibald Brown and Levi Sherman entered land in 1833; but aside from these purchases, the township was Government property in the beginning of 1834. On the first day of February 1834, Roswell J. Heyward purchased of the United States, land on section thirteen, and settled on it immediately after. Jacob Baker entered land on section thirty, on the tenth day of March, and soon after came with his family and commenced a settlement. Horace Garlick and Arnold H. Coomer accompanied Mr. Baker to the wilderness. Garlick was married, but Coomer was a single man. They proceeded at once to build a log house. Coomer had the bark to peel for the roof, and he pressed the Indians into the service to assist him. The house was the usual log cabin of the early settler--puncheon floor, bark roof and gables, small window holes, and panelless doors. The doors were of the kind called batten doors, but the batten was a piece of timber a little longer than the width of the door and larger at one end than at the other; the large end projected beyond the door, and was bored to serve as a part of the hinge. The boards were fastened to the battens by wooden pins or by nails, as the necessity or convenience of the builder required. In the early part of May 1834, Simon D. Wilson, James Wilson, Ephraim Whitman, Ephraim Baldwin and Samuel D. Baldwin came to the township, looking land. They were all young men, and, with the exception of Simon D. Wilson, unmarried. The first two were brothers. and the Baldwins were brothers-in-law of Simon D. Wilson. Charles Baldwin, another brother-in-law, was living in township eight south, three east,--or as then organized, the east end of the township of Fairfield.--and thither this party gathered, preparatory to their contemplated invasion of the wilderness. When the party was ready. Charles Baldwin piloted them to the creek. Simon D. Wilson selected land on section thirty, in town eight south. and on sections six, seven and eight, town nine south. Ephraim Baldwin selected land on section eight, town nine south. The land office at Monroe was their next objective point, which they made, and entered their land on the fifteenth and sixteenth days of May, 1834. Arnold H. Cooper had entered his land on section thirty-one. town eight south, on the eighth day of that month. Simon D. Wilson immediately commenced operations on his land by building the inevitable log cabin, but had not yet got settled when Dennis Wakefield came into the township. prospecting for land; he made his selection--a tract of four hundred and twenty acres--on Bean Creek. Which he entered June 14th, and returned to Connecticut. Mr. Wakefield returned to the Valley with his family in the month of August. During his absence several families had purchased homes in the township. On the twenty-ninth day of September Alvah Holt entered his land and commenced to build on it immediately. During the year 1834, besides those already named, the following persons purchased land in towns eight and nine south, two east: Section 1- G. W. Allen, Jan. 24th, Joseph Griffin, June 2d; David Price. Sept. 24th. Section 4-Ransom J. Crawford. Oct. 6. Section 7- Abner Griffith, Aug. 18th. Sections 8 and 9- William Yerks, June 2d. Section 10- Henry Hayward, Aug. 9th; Ephraim Hollister, Aug. 2Sth; Isaac N. Powell, Oct. 7th. Section 11- Zeriel Waterman, April 19th; Cornelius S. Randolph, May 27th; Ira Holloway, Sept. 20th; Henry Hayward. Oct. 6th. Section 12- John Camburn, Feb. 1st; William D. Page, March 19th; John Starkweather. Section 13- William Baker, April 4th. Section 14- David Meech, June 2d; John Adams. June l0th; George Packard, June 21st; Manly Smith, July 8th. Section l5- Cornelius Willett, July l5th; James W. Camburn, July 15th; Abel Randolph, Aug. 23d. Section 17- Amos A. Kinney, Sept.24th. Section 18- Thomas Hawley, Oct. 28th. Section 19- T. Carter, June 10th. Alvah Holt, Sept. 29th; Lucas Atwood, Sept. 29th; George Lee, 2d, Oct. 4th; Samuel Lammon, Oct 21st. Section 28- Paul Raymond. Franklin W. Walker. Nov. 11th. Section 29- Amos Franklin, July 4th; ---Barns, Oct. 1st. Section 30- Lydia Noyes, Moses Cole, July l0th. Section 31- Jonathan Saulsbury, June 2d; William Westfield, June 14th; Caleb C. Cooley, Oct. 8th; James H. Sweeney, Nov. 5th. Section 32- Nathan Saulsbury, June 9th; A. Brown, June 14th; John Franklin, July 4th; Herman Herrington, Oct. 28th; Daniel Sanborn, Nov. 20th. Section 33- Daniel Reed, June 27th. Town nine south: Section 5- Simon Westfield, June 14th. Section 6- Benjamin Hornbeck. June 14th. Section 7- Ephraim Baldwin,Jr., Joseph L. Royce, J. Calvin. Sections 9 and 10- Thomas Hawly. Oct. 28th. The old Indian trail from Jonesville to Maumee lay through this township, and just below where Morenci now is there was an old Indian burying ground. THE UPTON SETTLEMENT On the 21st day of May 1834, Dexter Smith, George W. Moore, Nathaniel Upton and _____Pierce started from Dean's tavern, Adrian, to locate land in the Bean Creek Country. Their outfit consisted of an ax, a rifle, ten pounds of crackers and an Ohio ham. Of this latter article Mr. Moore remarked: "It was as salt as Lot's wife and as hard as a regulation ball." They traveled on foot, and that day reached the house of Gershom Bennett, in the northwest corner of town eight south, two east, now known as Seneca. The next day they viewed land on sections three and four in town eight south, and on sections thirty-four and thirty-five in town seven south, one east. The land suited them, and on the following day they started on their return to Adrian by the Indian trail running from Defiance to Detroit. The trail crossed the Kidder road about three miles west of Adrian. Here they fell in with a man named Corey, who was also traveling Adrianwards. They learned from his talk that he intended to locate one hundred and sixty acres of the land their party had selected. A consultation was held in Dean's barn that night, and Moore and Smith were detailed to go on to Monroe in haste and locate the land before Corey could reach there. It was raining, but they at once set out and reached Blissfield, 11 miles distant, at one o'clock A.M. Here they laid themselves down on the bar-room floor and rested until daylight, then pursued their journey, reached Monroe that afternoon, and entered their land. Corey arrived the next morning. Smith and Upton returned at once to commence the new settlement. They arrived at the Creek May 28th. They built a log cabin,--or three sides of it were logs, the other was open-- and before it they built their fire. The roof was of elm bark. The bedstead was a fixture of the house. When the house was laid up, notches were cut in the logs at the proper height and poles laid in; the outer corners were supported by stakes or posts made of a section of young trees. Beech withes were woven across in place of cords, and on these elm bark was laid. It was called a Michigan bedstead, and was probably the first spring bed on record. In this cabin Smith and Upton lived during the summer, but in the fall they built themselves a comfortable log house, in which they kept bachelors' hall until the winter of 1836. The cabin and house occupied by these men was in the township now called Medina, but as Smith's land was situated in the township now called Hudson, Mr. Nathaniel W. Upton has been considered the first settler in Medina. On the 8th day of April 1834, Cook Hotchkiss and John Knapp purchased the northeast quarter and the east half of the southeast quarter of section two. They brought their families to Adrian on the second day of June. On the third day of June, William Walworth purchased the northeast quarter of the southwest quarter of section one, and on the sixth day of June, John R. Foster purchased the northeast quarter of section six. Knapp, Walworth and Fester each built houses and settled their families during the month of June, but Foster's family preceded the others a few days, and Mrs. Foster was therefore the first white woman resident of that township. Mr. Foster's house was built near the northeast corner of his farm, and was built after the model of the early log houses, only this had no chamber. The floor was of split and hewed basswood, the roof of bark, two small windows, and a stick and mud chimney. John Knapp built a somewhat better house--in fact, it smacked a little of aristocracy. It was twenty by twenty-six feet, one and a half stories high; the floors were of split and hewn basswood, and tthe roof was covered with shakes. Shakes were rived out of oak timber; they were about thirty inches long, all the way of a thickness, and as wide as could be made out of the quarter of an oak log. The shakes,- therefore, varied in width according as