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 61 Through 70 month of September, for the purpose of assisting in the location of homes for his large family of boys. They met in Adrian according to appointment, and accompanied by Hiram Lucas, they proceeded to Canandaigua. There they obtained the services of Arthur Lucas and Calvin Pixley as guides through the wilderness. They at once proceeded to town eight south, one west, and selected lands on sections fifteen and twenty-two; and on his way home Samuel Coman stopped at Monroe and entered the land on the 7th day of October, 1835. The entire party, guides and all, must have been captivated by the beauty of the country, for on the same day Hiram Lucas, Calvin Pixley and Arthur Lucas all entered land in the township. Indeed, it was just the time of year when men would be captivated by a primeval American forest. The gigantic trees newly dressed in their autumn costumes of red, yellow, and purple leaves; large bunches of fox grapes pendant from clinging vine, the continual falling of mast loosened by the early frosts; the woods filled with the more valuable species of game, bounding, running, or flying away at the approach of the strange visitor, man, formed a scene likely to enamor more obdurate hearts. The two Comans, father and son, returned to their respective homes to prepare for emigration. Russell, immediately on reaching home, packed his goods, which he loaded in a Hoosier wagon with his wife and three children, the wagon drawn by two yoke of oxen, and started for Michigan. Mr. Russell Coman had left the parental home, in the State of New York, in the year 1825. He purchased a small boat, which he loaded onto a wagon, the boat serving as a box, and, accompanied by a young man, he conveyed to, and launched it upon, the head waters of the Ohio river. In this boat they dropped down the Ohio to the mouth of the Miami river. There he disembarked and found a home in Dearborn county, Indiana, where he lived until 1835. March 12th, 1829, he inter-married with Miss Ann McMath, and their union was blessed with three Indiana-born children, one of which was an infant at the breast when the journey to Michigan began. After their arrival at Adrian the youngest child died. Mr. Coman employed Hiram and Arthur Lucas to help him build a house, and meanwhile the family was left at Hiram's house, in Adrian. The house was so far completed that the family moved into it sometime between Christmas, 1835, and New Year's day, 1836. Russell Coman's family was the first, and until February the only family in town eight south, one west. The house thus built and occupied was built on section fifteen, where Samuel Coman, the elder, afterwards resided for many years, on the farm now owned by Jacob Shanour. THE TOLEDO WAR. The story of the settlement of the Valley of the Bean would be incomplete without some mention of an event which divided it between two States and robbed our Valley of the townships of Gorham and Chesterfield, and Lenawee of those, and also the townships of Royalton, Amboy and Richfield. On the sixth day of July, 1834, Governor Porter, who had succeeded Mr. Cass as Governor of the Territory, died, by which event Stevens T. Mason, of Virginia, Secretary of the Territory, became the acting Governor. January 26th, 1835, the Legislative Council passed an act for the election of delegates to a constitutional convention, and the convention convened on the 11th day of May following. This movement toward the organization of a State government for Michigan invested the territorial dispute with new interest. The territory in dispute was a strip along the line between the States, from the Indiana line to Lake Erie, five miles wide at the west end and eight miles wide at the east end. The southern line, claimed by Michigan to be the boundary, was known as the "Fulton line," and the northern line, claimed by Ohio to be the boundary, was called the "Harris line." This belt of territory contained some very valuable farming land, but its chief value in the eyes of the contestants was the port at the mouth of the Maumee river, known successively as Swan Creek, Port Lawrence, Vistula, and Toledo. Outside of Toledo the disputed country was a wilderness. The early settlers of the territory acknowledged their allegiance to the government of Michigan, asked for and received appropriations for the building of roads leading to their village, and some of them became corporators of the Erie and Kalamazoo railroad, under a charter from the Legislative Council of the Territory of Michigan. But when the Wabash and Erie canal became a possibility, and its eastern terminus at Toledo,probable, if that place should be found to be within the limits of Ohio, many of her citizens at once discovered that they were citizens of Ohio, whereas they had heretofore acted as citizens of Michigan. Some, however, still acknowledge the sovereignty of Michigan. Governor Mason, having been apprised of the proposed action of the authorities of Ohio, sent a special message to the Legislative Council, recommending immediate action to forestall that of the Ohio Legislature. On the l2th day of February the Legislative Council enacted "That if any person residing within the limits of this territory shall accept of any office of trust from any State or authority other than the Government of the United States or Territory of Michigan, every person so offending shall be fined not exceeding one thousand dollars, or be imprisoned five years, at the discretion of the court before which any conviction may be had." In the same month the Legislature of Ohio passed an act extending the jurisdiction of that State over the disputed territory, established townships and directed that township elections should be held in the April following, and also directed the remarking of the Harris line. March ninth, Gov. Mason wrote Gen. Brown, then in command of the Michigan militia, to hold himself in readiness to repel by force any attempt to carry out the provisions of the Ohio law; and later in the month Gov. Mason, and Gen. Brown and staff, with from eight hundred to twelve hundred men, encamped in and around Toledo. On the thirty-first day of March, Gov. Lucas and his commissioners arrived at Perrysburgh to find the enemy in possession of the bone of contention. Under his direction Gen. Bell, of the Ohio militia, mustered a force of about six hundred men and went in camp at Fort Miami. The delay was for the purpose of allowing the partisans of Ohio to hold their township elections. While the two armies were watching each other's movements, two commissioners appointed by the President arrived from Washington. President Jackson had taken the opinion of his Attorney General, who had advised him that the act of the Legislature of Ohio extending jurisdiction over a part of the territory of Michigan was repugnant to the act of Congress of the llth of January, 1805," and that the act of the Michigan Legislative Council was a valid law and could properly be enforced. The commissioners proposed: First--That the Harris line should be re-marked without hindrance. Second--As elections had then been held under the laws of Ohio, the people should be left to obey the laws of the one jurisdiction or the other without molestation until the close of the next session of Congress. Gov. Lucas affected to consider Gov. Mason as a minion of the President, and that the arrangement was to be made between himself and the President, and would be complete as soon as his acceptance should be signified; he therefore at once accepted the propositions and commenced disbanding his forces. On the other hand, Gov. Mason, considering himself at the head of a restricted sovereignty, refused to compromise the rights of his people by a surrender of possession and jurisdiction, and, therefore, while he allowed his forces to return home, held himself in readiness to repel by force any invasion of the territorial rights of Michigan. Notwithstanding the determined attitude of Gov. Mason, Gov. Lucas directed the commissioners to proceed to run the Harris line, commencing at the western end. Gen. Brown kept a line of scouts in the woods along the line to report the progress of the surveying party. As soon as the party came within the limits of Lenawee county the under-sheriff, armed with a warrant from a justice of the peace, and accompanied by a posse comitatus, went to arrest them. The force started on Sunday morning. The infantry, about one-half the force, were carried in wagons about ten miles out; from that point they had to march, about ten miles. They arrived a little after noon, the mounted men considerably in advance. The surveying party were occupying two cabins. As soon as the mounted men arrived, Gen. Brown, who accompanied the expedition, assumed command and ordered the surveyors to surrender, which they promptly refused to do. But when the infantry arrived, the occupants of one of the cabins, including the commissioners, became alarmed and broke for the woods, hastened by a volley of musketry. They dashed into Maumee nearly disrobed by the briars and thorns that beset their path through the wilderness. The occupants of the other cabin, including the engineer corps, were arrested by the officer and taken in triumph to the Lenawee county jail at Tecumseh. The civil authorities concluded to hold Col. Fletcher, the chief of the engineer corps, in nominal imprisonment to test by law the validity of the arrest. The others were permitted to return to their homes in Ohio. Col. Fletcher was allowed to be his own jailor. When he desired exercise he would carefully lock the door, and putting the key in his pocket, stroll through the village or drive out with the village belles. This first clash of arms in this singular affair occurred within the Valley of the Bean. The Ohio commissioners reported to Goy. Lucas that they had been attacked by an overwhelming force under command of Gen. Brown, and forced to retreat. The President, to whom the matter was referred, asked Gov. Mason for a statement of facts "by the officers engaged in the transactions complained of" The under sheriff reported that a civil force made the arrest of nine persons upon a warrant issued by a justice of the peace, and that there was no blood shed. Gov. Lucas immediately convened the Legislature in extra session. It met on the 8th day of June, and at once proceeded to enact a law "to prevent the forcible abduction of citizens of Ohio." Another act was passed to create the county of Lucas, making Toledo the county seat. A session of court was directed to be held on Monday, the seventh day of September, then next ensuing, at any convenient house in Toledo. Still another act was passed appropriating $600,000 to carry these laws into effect over the disputed territory. The authorities of Michigan were not idle. Prosecutions for holding office under the laws of Ohio were pressed with the greatest vigor. The people of Monroe county were kept busy assisting the sheriff in executing processes of the Monroe county courts in the disputed territory. Every inhabitant of the district was a spy for one or the other of the contestants, as inclination dictated, and was busily employed in reporting the movements of Monroe county or Wood county officials, as the case might be. The Ohio parties, when arrested, were incarcerated in the Monroe county jail. Major Stickney was arrested after a violent resistance by himself and family. He refused to mount a horse. He was put on by force, but would not sit there. For a long distance two men, one each side, held him on. At last, wearied by his resistance, they tied his feet under the horse, in which way they at last Page 64 reached Monroe. Gov. Lucas sent commissioners to Washington to confer with the President. After a lengthy correspondence between these commissioners and the Secretary of State, the President consented to cause an earnest recommendation to be made to Gov. Mason that no obstruction be made to the re-marking of the "Harris" line; that all prosecutions under the territorial act of February, 1835, be discontinued, and no further prosecutions be commenced until the next session of Congress. This "recommendation" was conveyed to Gov. Mason on the third day of July, but it had no effect on his action. Prosecutions went on as before. On the 15th of that month an attempt was made to arrest Two Stickney, a son of Major Stickney. In the scuffle the officer was stabbed with a knife; Stickney escaped and fled to Ohio. The wound was slight, although the blood flowed freely. Two was indicted by the grand jury of Monroe county, and a requisition made on Gov. Lucas for his surrender. The Governor refused to surrender the fugitive, and a report of the affair was sent to the President, with a sworn statement that Gov. Lucas was protecting him. This aroused the President to action; he at once removed Gov. Mason, and appointed Charles Shaler, of Pennsylvania, his successor. He also advised Gov. Lucas to refrain from any act of jurisdiction over the disputed territory pending the action of Congress. Mr. Shaler never entered upon the duties of the office, and soon after, John S. Horner, of Virginia, was appointed Secretary and acting Governor; but he did not enter upon the duties of his office until the twenty-first day of September. In the meanwhile Mason continued acting Governor. Gov. Lucas now felt sure that Old Hickory was aroused, and that he would tolerate no more show of force on his part; but he also felt it necessary to perform some act of jurisdiction, so it would not be said he had backed down. The Legislature had ordered a session of court to be held on the seventh day of September, in the village of Toledo. Gov. Mason was aware of the fact, and was on hand with Gen. Brown and the militia to prevent the consummation of the order. To actually hold this court in defiance of Gov. Mason and his military force, and also in defiance of the President's recommendation, looked to Gov. Lucas like a grand achievement; one that would burnish his tarnished honor, and maintain the dignity of the gubernatorial office of the great State of Ohio. He, through his Adjutant General, ordered out of regiment of troops to escort the judges to Toledo, and protect them in the performance of their duty. They were to march from Maumee on the morning of the seventh, but the evening previous a report was circulated that Gen. Brown was in Toledo with twelve hundred men, ready for any emergency. The report was untrue, but it served to test the valor of the judges; they hesitated and trembled at the prospect. The Colonel in command provided a forlorn hope, and taking the judges in charge, marched them into Toledo at three o'clock Monday morning, September 7th, 1835, proceeded to a school house, held court less than five minutes, and then hastily returned to Maumee. How easily was Ohio honor vindicated. Not a soul over whom they came to assert jurisdiction knew of their coming, doings, or retreat. September 2lst, acting Governor Horner assumed the duties of that office, and Gov. Mason retired to private life. While these events were transpiring the convention had been elected, met, formed a constitution, and adjourned. The constitution was submitted to the people on the fifth and sixth days of October, and was duly ratified. At the same election a full set of State officers were elected, Stevens T. Mason being elected Governor. Gov. Mason was at once inaugurated, the Legislature met on the ninth day of November, and the machinery of a State government set in motion. Michigan was not yet admitted as a State; the machinery of a Territorial government remained, which was recognized by the general government and the several State governments as the lawful government of Michigan; but it was totally ignored by the people, who yielded obedience to the Page 65 new State government. This state of things made it very unpleasant for Mr. Horner, and in May, 1836, he left the Territory to assume the duties of Secretary of the Territory of Wisconsin, created at that session of Congress. On the fifteenth day of June, 1836, Congress passed an act accepting the constitution and State government of Michigan, and admitting her into the Union, provided she should, by a convention of delegates chosen for that purpose, consent to the boundary line claimed by Ohio, and take in lieu thereof the territory now known as the Upper Peninsula. Gov. Mason called a special session of the Legislature, to meet on the eleventh day of July, 1836. On the twentieth day of that month, an act was passed providing for the election of delegates and the assembling of the convention on the 26th day of September, at Ann Arbor. The convention met, and after a four days session, rejected the proposition of Congress relating to the boundary. The people were unanimous in reference to the merits of the controversy, but a large party thought deferred admission would work greater injury than loss of territory. They were therefore dissatisfied with the rejection of the proposition, and they determined that another convention should be called without waiting for the assembling of the Legislature. Two large meetings of the dissatisfied citizens were held, one in Detroit, the other in Ann Arbor. These assemblies united in a request to the Governor to call a convention by proclamation. The Governor approved of a second convention, but as it was wholly unauthorized by law, he declined to issue the proclamation. On the fourteenth day of November, a circular was issued by the leaders of the assenting party, which recommended the qualified voters in the several townships to meet on the fifth and sixth days of December and elect delegates to attend a State convention to be held at Ann Arbor on the fourteenth day of the month. It further recommended that the number of delegates be twice the number elected to the popular branch of the Legislature, and that the election should be held at the proper places for holding elections, and should be conducted by the same officers and according to the forms of law governing other elections. The opposition to the second convention refrained from voting, deeming the whole proceeding void. As but one party voted, all the delegates were in favor of accepting the proposition of Congress. Therefore, on the fifteenth day of the month--the second day of its session--the convention unanimously resolved to accept the condition imposed by Congress, protesting, however, against the constitutional right of Congress to require this preliminary assent as a condition of admission into the Union. The action of this convention was submitted to Congress. A lengthy and spirited debate ensued, but on the 26th day of January, 1837, Congress passed an act which, reciting by way of preamble that the people of Michigan had consented to the proposed boundaries, admitted the State into the Union of American States. Since the ninth day of November, 1835, the people of Michigan had lived under a dual government. For all internal purposes the State government was supreme, but for the purpose of communion with the General and State governments, they had the machinery of a Territorial government. ORGANIZATION OF TOWNSHIPS The State Legislature, by an act approved March 23d, 1836, organized several townships in the Bean Creek Valley. Town five south, one east, was named Woodstock, and the first township meeting was ordered to be held at the house of Jesse Osborn. The reader will notice that the spelling of the surname here differs from its spelling in the first sections of this book, which is explained by the statement that when the family first came to Michigan they spelled their name Osburn, but in after years they changed it to Osborn. Town seven south, one east, was named Hudson, the first township meeting to be held at the dwelling house of Beriah H. Lane. Towns eight and nine and fractional ten south, ranges one and two east, were organized into a township, the first township meeting to be held at the house of Jacob Baker, in town eight south, two east, and was named Seneca. Seneca then included the present townships of Medina and Seneca in Michigan, and Gorham and Chesterfield in Ohio. The township of Wheatland was divided. Towns seven, eight and nine, and fractional ten south were organized into a township named Pittsford, and the first township meeting was directed to be held at the dwelling house of Alpheus Pratt. The people had petitioned to have it called Dover, but the committee on townships having already named town seven south two east, Dover, they named this Pittsford upon the suggestion of a man who had known Mr. Pratt in Pittsford, Monroe county, N. Y. The township as then organized comprised the present townships of Pittsford and Wright in Michigan, and Mill Creek in Ohio. Towns five and six south, one east, retained the name of Wheatland. Towns six, seven, eight, nine and fractional ten south, two east, were organized into a township named Adams, and the first township meeting was directed to be held at the southeast corner of section sixteen in said town six south. The township of Adams then included the present townships of Adams, Jefferson and Ransom, the east half of Amboy in Michigan, and Madison, in Ohio. 4. HUDSON On the fourth day of April, 1836, the first township meeting of the township of Hudson was held at the house of Beriah H. lane. Officers were elected) as follows: Simeon VanAkin, supervisor; George Saulsbury, township clerk; Beriah H. Lane and Henry Ames, justices of the peace; Thomas Kealey, John Davenport and John Colwell, commissioners of highways; John Carleton, assessor; and Noah Cressey, treasurer. It was voted to raise fifty dollars for contingent expenses. On the 28th day of April, Beriah H. Lane, esq., was called upon to perform a part of the duties of his office. Word was brought to the newly elected justice that Dexter Smith and Mrs. Elvira Stearns desired to unite their destinies; therefore, following an Indian trail, he wended his way to the farm of Smith, near where the village of Tiffin now is, and performed the marriage ceremony. In May a post office was established and named Lanesville. Mr. Lane was postmaster. His commission bore date May 19th, and was signed by Amos Kendall , postmaster general. In June the Rev. David Pratt came, and for two years was pastor of the Presbyterian church. He bought the piece of land known as Pratt's block, and built a house, where his widow, the sole survivor of that family, still resides. During the summer, H. P. Oakley came and bought out George Salisbury's grocery and notion trade, and David Stuck commenced blacksmithing. In the fall Harvey Cobb came and occupied the house prepared for him by Alexander Findley. Augustus Finney came some time during the season, but did not purchase property until the next year. Miss Adelia Champlin taught the Lanesville school in the summer of 1836. A log school house was built during the autumn. It stood on a piece of ground a little way south of the highway, on the section line, near the brow of a hill. Its position is now marked by the low, long building on east side of Church street, owned by J. K. Boies & Co., it being the second south of their store building. There then were no other buildings south of Main street between Church and Market streets. The long, low building spoken of, or rather the west end of it, was the school house of 1841, of which much has been said. It was formerly adorned with a cupola or steeple, and was used for the double purpose of a school house and church. In the fall of 1836, the Messrs. VanAkin harvested about one hundred and fifty bushels of wheat. It grew on the square of ground bounded west by High street, north by Main street, east by Wood street, and south by the hill on which Dr. J. C. Dickinson, Mr. Webster and Thomas Bate live. It was nice wheat land, except the lots afterwards owned by Dr. R. A. Beach, which were mostly frog pond. It was in this summer that several men associated themselves together in what was called the Great Bend Company. The project was to create a vast water power by digging a race across the neck of the bend. Immediately after crossing the section line, between sections nineteen and thirty, the creek bends to the westward, crosses into Hillsdale county about forty rods south of the north line of section thirty, bends again to the eastward on section twenty-five in Pittsford, leaves that township at the corner of section thirty-six, crosses the east line of section thirty-one, Hudson, about forty rods north of its south line; turning northward, it crosses the north line of section thirty-two, not more than forty rods east of the northwest corner of that section; it then runs northeasterly across the southeast corner of section twenty-nine, and southeasterly across the southwest corner of section twenty-eight, and thence in nearly a direct southeasterly course to the village of Medina. By constructing a race from the point near where the creek crosses the south line of section nineteen, to the point on the east line of section twenty-nine, where the creek takes its south-easterly course, a distance of less than two miles, a large fall would be obtained; sufficient, indeed, to propel all the machinery it were possible to build on the route. In order to accomplish the project, it was necessary to procure the right to turn the water of the Bean from its natural channel, and the right to do so must be purchased, the company buying water rights where they could, and where they could not buying the land right out. The first purchases made in the furtherance of the project were made by Isaac French on the 18th day of July, 1836. On that day he bought the Samuel Davis farm and about the same time purchased the farm of Horace Hitchcock. The two farms here spoken of are now owned, the first by Joseph Fletcher, and the second by Henry Carmichael. In September following, David Tucker came on, as the purchasing agent of the company. The first purchase he made was the undivided one-half of the Lanesville mill and mill property. It was deeded to him September second by Beriah H. Lane. There must have been some private arrangement between Simeon and William H. H. VanAkin and Mr. Lane, for at that time Mr. Lane had no title to the property, as shown by the record. In July of 1835 he had deeded a one-fourth interest to William H. H. VanAkin, and in December of the same year had sold the remainder of his interest--one-fourth part--to Simeon VanAkin. The other one-half interest was owned by Erastus Lane until February 16th, 1837, when he deeded It to Augustus Finney. On the 20th day of July, 1837, William H. H. VanAkin re-deeded a one-half interest in the mill to Beriah H. Lane, but he does not appear to have taken any possessory right, as that half of the property continued to be owned by various members of the Great Bend Company until it was abandoned in 1842. Tucker bought the following lands: Of John Davenport, the south half of the middle subdivision of the southwest fractional quarter of section nineteen; of Joseph Reynolds, the west half of the southwest quarter of section twenty; of William Woods, the south half of the northeast quarter of section twenty-nine; of Elisha Brown, the southeast quarter of the southwest quarter and the northeast quarter of the southwest quarter of section twenty-nine; of Harmon Whitbeck, Jr., the east half of the southwest fractional quarter of section thirty; of William Chapman, the northwest quarter of the southwest quarter of section thirty-four; of Frederick Corey, the east half of the southwest quarter and the southwest quarter of the southwest quarter of section thirty-four: of Nicholas Fratts, the east half of the southeast quarter of section eighteen; and of Harvey Cobb, the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of section eighteen. He also bargained for the land of Simeon VanAkin, for which he was to pay $4,750. He paid $1,500 down, and took a contract for a deed on the payment of the remainder of the purchase money, which was to be paid within ninety days from the date of the contract. The remainder never was paid, but Tucker assigned his interest in the contract of Joel McCollum, of Rochester, N. Y., and subsequent to the expiration of the contract McCollum came to Lanesville and offered to pay $400 on the contract. McCollum says VanAkin accepted it, and it was indorsed on the contract, and that, McCollum says, renewed it for all time. Such was the foundation of the McCollum claim, which our older readers will remember to have heard so much about. Tucker also purchased of Sylvester Kenyon and William Frazee the right to divert the water from its channel. The description in Kenyon's deed reads as follows: "The full and free privilege, right and authority to alter or change the course of the waters of Bean creek, so as entirely forever to direct and control its waters, or any part or portion thereof, from its present channel or bed, where it now runs (except so much as is necessary for farming purposes)" The description in Frazee's deed is the same, except that the exception in regard to water for farm purposes is omitted. Tucker bought other lands in this township, and also some in the township of Pittsford. These lands, rights and privileges Tucker deeded over to the members of the Great Bend Company, the larger part of them to Benjamin F. Southworth, of Monroe county. Thus the lands purchased during the months of September and October he deeded to Benjamin F. Southworth on the 29th day of October, except the land purchased of Elisha Brown. This land he deeded, part to Elisha Brown, and the remainder to Lorenzo L. Brown. This Great Bend project was much talked of during this and the following year, but the financial panic of 1837 bankrupted its projectors, and put an end to the venture. Before this, however, Tucker had to leave the country. He had left a wife and family at the east when he came to Michigan, but at Adrian, which was his headquarters, he passed as an unmarried man. At length, however, yielding to the fascinations of an Adrian lady, he put his head into the matrimonial noose. Mrs. Tucker No. 1, having been apprised of his doings, threatened to make it warm for him, and he left the country. A son of the first Mrs. Tucker has twice visited the country and threatened to press his mother's claim for dower, but beyond scaring a few men into settlement, he has done nothing. As a great deal has been said about the ancient saw mill of Lanesville, it may be well to stop here and give the history of that pioneer institution. The land--the middle subdivision of the southwest fractional quarter of section eighteen--was purchased of the government by Reuben Davis in March, 1834. On the twenty-third day of July, 1834, Reuben Davis deeded the land to Erastus and Beriah H. Lane, except one-half acre on the brow of the hill east of the creek. Davis afterwards sold this half acre to John Davenport, but it was, later still, absorbed by the rairoad. Erastus and Beriah H. Lane built the mill in the summer and fall of 1834. On the eighth day of July, 1835, Beriah H. Lane deeded an undivided one-fourth interest to William H. H. VanAkin, and on the first day of December he sold an undivided one-fourth interest to Simeon VanAkin. September 2d, 1836, Beriah H. Lane deeded a one-half interest in the mill land and fixtures to David Tucker, and October 29th Tucker deeded the same interest to Benj. F. Southworth. February 16th Erastus Lane deeded the other undivided one-half interest in the mill, land and flowage to Augustus Finney. On the 20th day of July William H. H. VanAkin deeded an undivided one-half of the mill property to Beriah H. Lane. This transfer perfected the title of Tucker and his assigns in a one-half interest in the mill property. February 28th, 1838, Benjamin F. Southworth conveyed an undivided one-half of the mill property to William L. Riggs. April 18th William L. Riggs conveyed it to Philo C. Fuller, and by another deed, made the same day, deeded it to Isaac French. January 27th, 1840, Isaac French deeded it to William V. Studdeford, and July llth William V. Studdeford deeded it to Augustus Finney, who then became the owner of the entire mill property. On the 12th day of September, 1842, Augustus Finney deeded the mill property to Ed H. Winans. Soon afterward Winans deeded the land to Isaac French, but in that deed no mention was made of the mill or race. The old mill race took the water from the creek a little way above the railway embankment, west side, and discharged it between the railroad and Main street bridges. The depression in which Bean's pump factory, Benjamin Wright's, Nathaniel Lane's and George W. Carter's shops are built is the old tail race. The mill was situated on the hill beside the race, a little south of the railroad ground, perhaps just in rear of the house occupied by Mr. Homer Rawson. But to return to the incidents of 1836. On the 24th day of December Harvey Anderson purchased a half interest in the Kidder mill. In January, 1837, the Legislature of the State passed the Internal Improvement Act, providing for three lines of railroad across the State, the southern to span the State from Monroe to New Buffalo; and in pursuance of that act commissioners were appointed to locate the routes. Of course the people of this part of the Valley were excited. Upon the location of the Southern road depended, in a great measure, their future welfare. The commissioners at once determined the principal points on the route, viz: Adrian, Hillsdale Center, as it was then called, Coldwater, Constantine, etc. As we shall not have occasion to refer to this matter again, it may as will be remarked in passing that Constantine was not finally made a point on the road, in consequence of the road being turned into Northern Indiana. The causes of its deflection do not come within the purview of this work. The direct route between Adrian and Hillsdale Center lay through or near the village of Rollin. The inhabitants of the twin villages, Lenawee and Keene, desired to deflect the road two miles from a straight line to accommodate them, and the Lanesvillans desired to deflect it three miles to accommodate them. Of the three proposed routes the Lanesville route was the most unlikely to be adopted. The Lenawee and Keene folks had a better route to offer in place of the shorter Rollin route, but the Lanesville route was the longest and most difficult of the three, and if a company had been locating the road it would have taken a mint of eagles to buy it from its proper course. The result proved the correctness of the old saw, "Where there is a will there is a way." In the person of Augustus Finney, Lanesville possessed a valuable agent for the accomplishment of her purposes. Gentlemanly in appearance and pleasant in address, and having an eloquent and persuasive tongue, he was just the man to make "the worse appear the better reason." Added to the above qualifications were these: He had a perfect knowledge of human nature, could read character like an open book, and was not over scrupulous in the use of means. He was put together for a diplomat, but the times being out of joint, he never graced the station for which he was intended. Mr. Finney also possessed a personal interest in the location of the road. He had purchased a half interest in the saw mill, and five acres of land with a frontage extending from Market to Church street. In the spring of 1837, a few weeks after the appointment of the commissioners--Levi S. Humphrey, of Monroe, being one--Mr. Finney appeared at Monroe to advocate the claims of the Lanesville route. A public meeting was convened in the Court House to listen to the statements and arguments of the Lanesville orator. It did not take much to arouse the enthusiasm of Monroe city people then. The Toledo was was but just closed, and the State but three months admitted under the hated compromise that robbed them of a harbor. The State had just borrowed five millions of dollars, and was going to build them a railroad across the State. Monroe was to become the metropolis of Michigan, while the ague-shaken denizens of Toledo would hover over the swamps that environ the place, until their bloodless bodies should find a sepulcher in her miry soil. Under such a state of feeling the Court House was easily filled with the business men of Monroe. Mr. John C. Hogaboam, then a citizen of Monroe, was present and heard the address of Mr. Finney. He spoke of the beautiful country around Lanesville, and of the fertility of the soil; but principally of the mammoth water power about to be created near by, by the famous Great Bend race; the power would be estimated by the thousand horse power, and the machinery driven would not equal, but would surpass the greatest manufacturing cities of the world. Then he