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 71 Through 80 Page 71 recounted the names of the members of the Great Bend Company, emphasizing the names of their own townsmen interested in the venture, and dwelt on each branch of the subject, until the audience fancied they saw a great manufacturing town on the Bean, only fifty miles away, furnishing the food, the furniture, and the clothing for the hundred thousand inhabitants of the city of Monroe. Satisfying the people paved the way for labor with the commissioners. However well satisfied they might be of the growing importance of Lanesville, still they must be governed in a great measure by the reports of the surveyors who should run the preliminary lines, and these would not be run until the autumn. When the reports were in, the fullest consideration would be given each of the proposed routes, so said the commissioners. It was, therefore, necessary to attend to the surveyors from whom the report was expected. The preliminary surveys were made in the autumn of 1837, but the road was not established until the fall of 1838. During all that time the question was open, and argument, persuasion, and more substantial inducements were the order of the day. July 24th Levi N. Bowlsby, one of the surveyors, became the owner of six and eighty-three one-hundredths acres of land in Lanesville. The tract now known as the Bowlsby plat is a part of that purchase. The consideration mentioned in the deed is four hundred and twenty dollars. A member of the engineer corps, within a few years, speaking of the location of the road at Lanesville, said "there were visions of corner lots never realized." Whether he meant the citizens did not fulfill their promises, or that Bowlsby did not divide, is unknown. Whether the inhabitants of the other routes offered any substantial inducements is unknown, but the probability is they relied upon their superior route, and deemed it impossible that the road would be laid on the longest and hardest route, until its location was fixed, and then offers were useless. The inducements operating on the minds of surveyors and commissioners will probably never be known, but that they did locate the Michigan Southern Railroad between Adrian and Hillsdale on the most ineligible route is a fact that can never be obliterated. The State commenced to take conveyances of right of way between Adrian and Hudson in November, 1838. The release of Stephen Allen bears date November 28th. In the spring of 1838 Mr. Finney brought his wife to Lanesville, and lived in a house that then stood near where the Friend bakery now is. Here he kept tavern--the original Hudson tavern. HARD TIMES--CAUSES, ETC. It becomes necessary here to notice another series of events that had an important bearing upon the development of the Valley, as well as Michigan in general. At the beginning of 1837 there were sixteen chartered banks in the State; nine of them were chartered by the Territorial Legislative Council, and seven by the State Legislature of 1836. The following is a list of the banks, in the order of their organization: Michigan, Detroit; Monroe, Monroe; Pontiac, Pontiac; River Raisin, Monroe; Washtenaw, Ann Arbor; Erie and Kalamazoo, Adrian; Farmers. and Mechanics', Detroit; Michigan State, Detroit; Merchants. and Mechanics', Detroit; St. Clair, St. Clair; Clinton, Clinton; Calhoun, Marshall; Oakland County, Pontiac; Constantine, Constantine; Ypsilanti , Ypsilanti; and Manhattan at Manhattan, Monroe county. It would seem as though these sixteen banks ought to do the business of this then new State, but on the 15th day of March, 1837, the Legislature enacted a law providing for the incorporation of moneyed institutions. This law provided that any number of men might associate together, subscribe fifty thousand dollars for Page 72 a capital stock, and by filing articles of association with the county clerk, become incorporate. One-third of the capital must be owned in the county, ten per cent. be paid in before election of directors, and thirty per cent, before bank notes should be issued. The law also contained this restrictive clause: "It shall not be lawful for any such banking association to issue, or have outstanding or in circulation at any time, an amount of notes or bills loaned or put in circulation as money exceeding twice and a half the amount of its stock then paid in and actually possessed; nor shall its loans and discounts at any time exceed twice and a half the amount of its capital stock so paid in and possessed." This was bad enough, but a subsequent statute allowed them to deposit, instead of specie, a bond secured on real estate. Under the operation of this law hundreds of banks sprang into existence. Nearly every cross road had its bank, and it is indeed a wonder that the inhabitants of the Bean Creek Country could forego the luxury of a banking association. Every kind of property was quoted at inflated prices and wild land, valued at three or four times its actual value, became the security for the bank circulation of Michigan. These banks, on account of the character of their securities, were called wild cat banks, and the old banks were known as chartered banks. Banks of the wild cat species existed in Adrian, in Tecumseh, and in Palmyra, in Lenawee county. About the time these wild cats had got to work, the country experienced one of those financial panics which so frequently shake commercial communities to their very center. In order that the reader may understand the subject, it will be necessary briefly to trace the causes which produced this disaster. In December, 1816, a new United States bank was chartered for a term of twenty years. This institution, located at Philadelphia, became in the course of years the center of business interest. It was the custodian of the moneys of the government, and the government was the owner of a considerable amount of its stock; it could and did control the rates of discount; it could make or break private or State banks by a bestowal or withdrawal of its confidence, and as it controlled the pockets of the nation, so it began to also control its opinions and political action. President Jackson attacked the bank in his first annual message, ]829, and returned to the attack in the annual messages of 1830 and 1831. Notwithstanding the hostility of the President, Congress, in July, 1832, passed an act granting the bank a new charter. This act the President promptly vetoed, but its failure produced no immediate effect, as the old charter did not expire until December, 1836. The Presidential campaign of 1832 was then in progress. Jackson was nominated for re-election, and the re-chartering of the bank was one of the issues between parties at that election. Jackson was re-elected, and with him a House of Representatives sympathizing with his financial views. In h1s message of that year the president recommended the removal of the deposits and the sale of the bank stock belonging to the United States. So thoroughly entrenched was the bank in the business interests of the country that Congress dare not make the attack. But so soon as Congress had adjourned, the President directed the Secretary of the Treasury to remove the deposits. The Secretary, Mr. William J. Duane, hesitated. There were about $10,000,000 of government funds in the bank; the bank loans amounted to $60,000,000, and were so distributed as to effect almost every hamlet in the nation, and the Secretary had not sufficient courage to jostle the monster that might easily crush whole parties, and whose destruction, if accomplished, would bring ruin on almost every business house, and whose dying throes would be felt in every household in the land. The President at length made a peremptory order to remove the money, and to deposit it in certain State banks. The Secretary promptly refused, and the President as promptly removed him and appointed Roger B. Taney, of Maryland, Page 73 to the Secretary's office. The business community were startled, and prophecies of wide-spread disaster freely made, but an iron hand was at the helm of State, and nothing would stay its work or change its purpose. The new Secretary commenced the removal in October, 1833; the greater part was removed within four months, and the entire work was completed within nine months. The designated State banks received the deposits, and to relieve the threatened financial disaster discounted freely. Indeed, the deposit of the national funds among several rival banks stimulated reckless speculation. Each bank was anxious to do more business than its neighbor, and therefore in every possible way made money easily obtainable. They believed the money would remain until needed by the government for ordinary governmental purposes, and therefore treated it as so much capital, and increased their circulation in proportion to the deposit. Money was plenty, and business was unduly stimulated. The importation of foreign goods was largely increased, leaving large balances on the debtor side of the ledger. These balances had to be paid in gold, which was at a considerable premium. Internal improvements and all the industrial pursuits were inordinately stimulated, and reckless speculation, especially in real estate, was largely indulged in, which in 1836 amounted to a mania. Says Lossing, "A hundred cities and a thousand villages were laid out on broad sheets of paper, and made the basis of vast moneyed transactions." In December, 1835, the great New York conflagration occurred, by which five hundred and twenty-nine buildings and twenty millions of dollars worth of property were destroyed. If Jackson was an enemy of extravagance and its parent and promoter--a paper currency--he also was a firm believer in the doctrine of State rights, and during his administration the doctrine was strictly and severely enforced. He was not prepared, like Calhoun, to carry it to the length of nullification and secession; but so far as he believed in it, he unrelentingly applied it to the affairs of the general government. By that code all the receipts of the government, in excess of its expenditures on the narrowest basis, belonged to the States, and to them it should go. Accordingly, in January, 1836, Congress directed the Secretary of the Treasury to divide the money in excess of five millions among the several States, on the basis of their representation in the House of Representatives. Notwithstanding this portent of the gathering storm, it was unheeded, and reckless speculation continued and increased into madness. In the midst of this wide-spread financial dissipation, (July 11th, 1836,) the President caused a treasury order to be issued, directing that all duties should be paid in gold and silver coin. A deputation of New York merchants waited on him to secure its rescission. But he was inexorable. He told them hard times were produced by reckless expenditure and speculation, and any measure that would stop the flood-tide of extravagance, although productive of present distress, would eventually be of service to the country. At length the time fixed by Congress for the distribution of the money arrived. More than a year had elapsed since the passage of the act gave notice of the banks and the business community to prepare for the effects of shortened capital, but no preparation had been made. On the contrary, recklessness had increased in proportion as the time for preparation shortened. In proportion as the currency was converted into coin for payment to the Government, the amount available for business purposes was decreased. Discounts could not be obtained, and therefore business could not be continued. In the months of March and April, 1837, there were failures in the city of New York aggregating more than a hundred million of dollars. A deputation of merchants waited on Mr. Van Buren, then just seated (May, 1837,) in the Presidential chair, the asked him to defer the collection of duties on imports, to rescind the treasury order of July llth, 1836, and to call an extra session of Congress. He refused, and May lOth all the banks of New York suspended payment, and the banks of Page 74 the entire country followed their example. On the l6th day of May the Legislature of the State of New York authorized the suspension of specie payments for one year. It was in times such as these that Michigan launched her system of wildcat banks. They were but just organized when the crash came, and well would it have been for the State if they had been swept out of existence. But they were legal banking houses, and were entitled to any measure provided for the relief of honest bankers. On the 22d day of June the Legislature of Michigan passed an act to suspend specie payments until the 16th day of June, 1838. An act was also passed curtailing the bank circulation. Before that, chartered banks were authorized to issue their notes or bills for an amount not to exceed three times the amount of capital actually paid in, and the wildcat banks were authorized to issue their notes to the amount of two and one-half times the amount of paid in capital. By the act of June, 1837, the circulation was limited to once and a half the amount of paid in capital. Banks that had vested interests to protect, were careful in the extreme, discounted sparingly, and then only on undoubted paper. But the wildcats had no vested interests. Their capital existed largely in imagination, and the requirement of the law that thirty-hundredths of the capital should be coin in the vaults was almost wholly disregarded. As their own securities were to a great extent a myth, they ran no risk in accepting almost any security for their nearly worthless promises to pay. Therefore their notes were in everybody's hands, while those of the chartered banks were almost as scarce as gold. With two illustrations of the financial state of the times, we will dismiss this part of our subject. The bank commissioners were required to visit every bank once in three months to inquire into its condition. After visiting several of these banks the commissioners, Judge Felch, had his curiosity aroused by the seeming similarity in their piles of coin deposit. At each place the coin was counted, and although the amount varied a little, the pieces had a familiar look, and he was almost sure he had handled those pieces daily for a week or more. At last he determined to solve the mystery. On coming out of a bank vault the cashier was surprised to see the commissioner lock it and put the key in his pocket. He immediately retraced his steps and re-examined every bank, and found their vaults destitute of coin. So much illustrative of banking; the other will illustrate business interests. Mr. John C. Hogaboam at that time resided in Monroe. In the spring and summer of 1838 he built the Monroe City Mills for Frost & Burch. The proprietors had an abundance of money, but it was of the wildcat variety, and they were in no way particular about advancing any amount of it to their workmen. Each Saturday afternoon the contractor would ascertain just how much each man would take, and how much he needed for his own marketing, and then draw that amount and no more. One Saturday night, by some error of calculation, he had four dollars left over. Monday morning it was dead. When the mill was ready for raising, the contractor went to Detroit to procure the tackle. He was furnished chartered bank notes enough for that purpose, but Frost & Burch, who were merchants, had a lot of wildcat money they could not use. This they requested him to take along and buy exchange if possible, but at all events to trade it off for something. He tried to work it off for tackle or sell it for exchange at any rate of discount, all to no purpose. At last he wandered into a lumber yard. He told the proprietor he wanted to buy about eight hundred dollars worth of lumber if his money would pay for it. "From what bank is your money?" asked the proprietor. "The bank of Brest," was the reply. "Well," said he, "if I can use it to pay my debts we can trade." In half an hour he returned with the intelligence that he could use it. The lumber was measured and loaded on a vessel that day. It would not do to leave it in the yard over night. If the bank should fail to open its doors next morning the lumber would be reclaimed. Therefore no rest was taken until the lumber was on the lake. Page 75 The railroad having been established through Lanesville, some of the inhabitants of Keene and lenawee villages commenced preparations for moving their effects to the fortunate ville. January lst, 1839, Anderson & Colvin purchased of William H.H. VanAkin one acre of land south of the railroad track. On the twenty-second day of July they purchased land of Beriah H. lane on the west side of High street, and on the fifth day of August, 1839, they purchased the old Franklin lot, where Mrs. Hazlett's house now is. Dr. L. G. Hall came to Hudson in the spring, and Dr. S. M. Wirts in the fall. Franklin Smith opened a store on the west side of the creek, and William Baker came in, but was employed in railroad surveying. May the twenty-third, Mrs. Phebe P. Lane, wife of Beriah H. Lane, Esq., died. The railroad was partly graded, and the job of building the Hudson bridges was let to William Winans, of Adrian. In the winter of 1839-40, Anderson & Colvin removed a partly finished building from Keene, and incorporated it into the Franklin Hotel, then building. On the seventh day of February, 1840, Silas Eaton purchased his old residence lot, on the west side of High street, of Simeon Van Akin. It is said he moved his house from Keene, but Charles E. Ames is as sure he sold his house there to his father, Charles Ames. But be that as it may, he came to Hudson immediately after his purchase, and before mid-summer was living in his own house on his lot. Early in the spring of 1840, C. H. & H. M. Boies came to Hudson and opened a general store in a long, one story frame building which then stood on the site of the store new occupied by C. R. Beach. Augustus Finney had moved into his new house, which stood just in the rear of the block known as the Exchange Block; indeed, it afterwards formed a part of the old Exchange Hotel. At the time now under consideration, save the store occupied by Messrs. Boies, just alluded to, and the old hotel building, there was no other building north of Main street, between Market and Church streets. In the spring of 1840, the old hotel was kept by D. P. Hannahs. It was a miserable building and was abandoned as a hotel in the summer or fall of 1840. In July, Mr. John C. Hogaboam and family moved into Lanesville from Monroe. Mr. Hogaboam came to the Bean Creek Country in March of that year, but he did not remove his family until July. They arrived on the second day, and that summer occupied a little frame building which stood about where Mrs. Loomis' house now is, but the house faced the north. It was a balloon frame upright, with a lean-to of the same sort along the south side. It was a pretty good house in dry weather, and a fair strainer in wet weather. The family remained here until the latter part of October, when they moved onto their farm in Pittsford. The family consisted of the parents and three children, John S. Brownell (an apprentice,) and a maiden lady named Mudge. During the latter part of July and the months of August and September Miss Mudge was the only well person in the house. Mr. Hogaboam had the ague every day, Mrs. Hogaboam the chill fever, Brownell the billious fever, and the children the ague. Mr. Winans, the contractor for the Lanesville bridges, sub-let the contracts to Eaton, Lane and Childs. They built the bridge over Bean Creek in the summer of 1840, and that over the swamp west of the village in 1841. The bridge over Bean Creek was trestle or bent work from Tiffin street to the bank in front of James Cosgrovels house. There was a long string of bents, and when, several years afterwards, the embankment was made, the dirt was filled in around the timber, leaving the bents standing. The bridge over the swamp was likewise a series of bents, and were filled around in the same manner. Page 76 In the summer, Drs. Baldwin and Romyne settled in Hudson. Baldwin remained several years, but Romyne the next season went west and settled in the village of Colon, St. Joseph County, Michigan. William H. Johnson came to Hudson in 1839 or '40 and engaged in trade. For the next twenty years he was one of Hudson's busiest men. During the war he was quartermaster in the United States service, and made the march with Sherman to the sea. John M. Osborn came to Hudson in the fall of 1840. He taught the east side SChool that winter in the back room of W. H. Johnson's store. This was a year of great political excitement. The Whigs had been out of poWer for twenty years, and extraordinary efforts were made to regain it. Contrary to expectation, the times had not improved since 1837, but were constantly growing Worse. By this time the wildcat banks had run their CoUrse and died, and there was indeed no currency. In 1838, and even in 1839, men had been kept at work, and although paid in wildcat money, they were busy, and consequently had no time to grumble. But noW nearly the whole working class were out of employment, discontented and complaining. The Whigs believed the hard times were all chargeable to the destruction of the United States bank, and seemed to believe that with such an institution in the Country, extravagance and patent violation of the laws of trade would go unpunished. They had nominated Gen. Harrison for the Presidency, and adopting Coon skins, hard cider and 1og cabins as their insignia, crying "Corruption" at every breath, they made the campaign. on their banners was the inscription, "$2.00 a day and roast beef under Harrison; $0.06 1/4 a day and sheep's pluck under Van Buren." The idle, the dissolute, and the unthinking rushed after the banner that promised So much, and joined in the hue and cry against the administration. The material for large processions was at hand, for mechanics and laborers had little else to do. Those who could sing were employed in vociferating 1og cabin songs, and those Who could not sing halloed themselves hoarse in the praise of hard cider, Tippecanoe and Tyler too. The Van Buren administration was literally swept out of existence, and the Whig partisans retired to winter quarters to dream of the two dollars a day and the roast beef that awaited them under Harrison's administration. The year 1841 opened gloomily enough. The excitement of the previous year had died with the coming of the winter frosts, and noW even the most unthinking began to doubt the ability of the incoming administration to grant relief from the hard and still hardening times which oppressed them. The Whig State administration went into poWer on the first of January, and the Legislature convened. They literally did nothing--indeed, they could do nothing--for the relief of the people. Having cried corruption and promised reform, they found themselves in straightened circumstances. To abandon the public works would be to throw hundreds more oUt of employment; to continue them required money, for which they dared not resort to taxation, for that would seem to add to rather than lighten the burthens of the people. In this eilimma they resorted to the issue of State script, and with this they paid the laborers on the public works. The railroad appropriation bill was passed on the 12th day of March, 1841. It appropriated $200,000 for the construction of the Southern from Adrian to Hillsdale, but it had this restriction: "That the commissioners of internal improvement be directed in making contracts on the several works of internal improvement, to make them payable in drafts Upon the several installments of the five million loan yet due from the United States bank, as they become due, or from such funds as may Come into the treasury to the credit of the internal improVement fund derivable from the five million loan, the sinking fund, or the five per cent. fund; So that the State shall in no way be responsible for their payment, and So Page 77 that no claim for damages shall be made against the State in consequence of the delay or failure of the payment of said drafts; and if contracts at a reasonable price cannot be made under the above restriction, the commissioners are hereby directed to make no contracts." These drafts were issued in small denominations and were called script, and this was the kind of money laborers were paid with. Much of the time it was worth forty-seven cents on a dollar. The east side school district No.5, had been organized in the fall of 1840, and this spring (1841) both districts commenced new school houses. That on the east side was built by Mr. J. C. Hogaboam, and finished in time for the summer school. The building still exists, and is now used as a cooper shop, near the residence of Mr. Samuel C. Perkins, on north High street. When first built it was situated near the present residence of Dr. Thomas B. Minchin; it was afterwards removed to Hill street, just west of High street, and after its abandonment for school purposes it was removed to its present location. The west side school house was built by Messrs. Wade and Lane. The west part of the long building owned by J. K. Boies & Co., on the east side of South Church street, was that school house, except the porch and tower, which have been removed. These latter--the porch and tower--were added by a subscription taken among Congregationalists, to give the building something of a churchly appearance, for they contemplated holding their services there. The building was finished in time for the winter term. The Messrs. Boies were ardent Whigs, and seemed to believe all the campaign promises of better times. They projected the erection of a new store building, and commenced it early in the spring of 1841. The original Lanesville house was used as a shop for the preparation of the finish for the store. When well advanced, the shop and contents were destroyed by fire. Mr. H. M. Boies withdrew from the firm in May, but the building was raised and covered, and there work on it stopped for want of means. The building was finished in the winter of 1842-3. It occupied the site of the present Beardsell & Plympton store, and was destroyed by fire about 1852. Some time during this year William Baker opened a store in Hudson, east side, and for thirty years he was one of Hudson's foremost business men. Although he did not always make money in his ventures and sometimes was "hard Up" yet the producers loved him for his open, frank ways and evident desire to pay them all their products were worth. In the first paper printed in Hudson was one of Baker's manifestoes. It has the Baker ring: In the first paper published in this place I avail myself of the opportunity of tendering thanks to my friends for their liberal patronage for the last twelve years. If we refer back to our first settlement in this place, we will discover that the change has been wonderful,--truly astonishing. Then we had only half a dozen houses and a population equally as sparse. one of those pioneers used to invite the few to his house for public worship on the Sabbath. The scenes of those days are familiar to those only who passed through them and still survive. Peace to the ashes and honor to the memory of Goodrich, Lane, Pratt, Cobb, and Wells. These men labored not only for themselves, but for others; they were the worthiest of the worthy. Now we have three churches which will compare in size and finish with eastern houses, and a population sufficient to fill them on the Sabbath. Our business has increased, we are still acting as agents for the people, and the following gentlemen will exhibit a part of the articles which we have for sale: Mr. S. A. Eaton, 0. S. Ames, and R. Knapp. We will wait upon you with pleasure, and of our gratitude to you for your kindness, patronage and forbearance we will leave it with Him whose prerogative it is to judge. Hudson, July 4, 1853. WILLIAM BAKER, JR. The year 1842 was still more gloomy than the preceding, and yet the people had learned to accommodate themselves to the times, and were more contented. By the inexorable law of necessity, the country was being cleared up. In order to support any kind of existence something must be produced, and as crops could not be grown in the woods those woods must be cut down. There was no market for wood, but there was a market for ashes, and therefore the timber must be converted into ashes. The products to be disposed of brought merely nothing, for want of market facilities. From Adrian to Toledo and Monroe there was a sort of railway communication, but eastward to Buffalo there was none save by lake, and that was frozen up half of the year. Mr. Eldad Trumbull, of Pittsford, tells of selling pork for one dollar twelve and a half cents per hundred pounds, and paying one dollar and fifty cents a pound for tea,--about one hundred and thirty pounds of pork for a pound of tea,--and poor tea at that. But amongst farmers and mechanics an exchange trade had grown up. If a farmer wanted a barn built he would seek some person who wanted land cleared, or a yoke of oxen, or a cow, or something to eat, and an exchange of labor or commodities was effected. In this way the country was being cleared up, and substantial barns and some frame houses built. The greatest drawback on the prosperity of the country was the fact that it was bankrupt. Michigan merchants owed wholesale dealers more than the entire real and personal estate would sell for under the hammer, and in turn the people owed the Michigan merchants sufficient sums to make that ruinous aggregate. Under then existing laws every cent's worth of the debtor's property could be sold on execution. The Legislature of 1842 passed an act exempting personal property, to certain specified amounts, from sale on execution. They also passed an act forbidding the sale of real estate on execution. If personal property could not be found sufficient to satisfy the execution, the real estate was levied on, it was to be appraised by three disinterested persons at its fair cash value, and if more than enough, at two-thirds of its appraised value, to satisfy the debt, then the appraisers set off by metes and bounds enough of it to satisfy the debt, estimating it at two-thirds its appraised value. If the creditor signified his acceptance within ten days and the land was not redeemed within six months, then the recording of the execution, levy, appraisal and acceptance operated as a deed to the creditor. If the creditor did not accept within ten days, the officer discharged the levy. Before the enactment of these laws the knowledge that property accumulated might be sacrificed by forced sale operated to discourage accumulation, but these enactments encouraged farmers and others to strive to better their condition, and within a year or two their beneficial influence became apparent. The Legislature also, on the 17th day of February, 1842, by joint resolution, authorized the commissioners of internal improvement to pledge the net proceeds of the Southern road for a term not to exceed five years, to purchase iron to iron it, and for its completion from Adrian to Hillsdale. At the election held in the fall the Democrats were successful. The Whig administration having failed to perform its "two dollars a day and roast beef" promise, stepped down and out, quietly remarking that Gov. Barry would find only a bogus dollar and a ten-penny nail in the State treasury. And yet the country was gradually improving its condition and clearing the way for the dawn of a prosperous era. In the month of May, 1843, the locomotive Comet ran into the village of Hudson, and before the close of the season cars were running regularly to Hillsdale. It will be impossible from this point onward to give the history of Hudson in detail. It would require a volume to note every arrival and the business career of all her business men. We shall have to content ourselves, therefore, with a brief mention of the more important events in her history. Soon after the opening of the railroad to Hudson the two old warehouses were built,--one by W. L. and E. D. Larned (now the Rodney House), the other by H. M. Boies, who returned to Hudson in the winter of 1842-3. At first the railroad depot was on the west side of the creek, just west of Church street; but when the road was sold to the Michigan Southern Railroad Company, in 1846, they were dissatisfied with its location and surroundings, and the people of the east side offering better accommodations, the water-tub--there was little else to the station then--was removed to the vicinity of the Wood street crossing. The company was not satisfied yet; they had better water, but no ground for yard or buildings. The west side people felt the disgrace and inconvenience of losing the station, and resolved to regain it if possible. With this in view they bargained for the ground which is now included in the depot grounds, and offered to donate it to the company for depot purposes. The offer was accepted, and the depot found a resting place. Among the men who came to Hudson in 1843 were two who for years afterwards were identified with the business interests of the place,--Lorenzo Palmer and Joseph M. Johnson. Lorenzo Palmer came from Chautauqua county, New York. He was a middle-aged man, and brought with him a large family, two of whom were then young men. He at first engaged in teaching school, then in merc~nti le pursuits, and for many years held offices of trust in the township. He died in October, 1874. Joseph M. Johnson was a young man when he came to Hudson. He was born in Yorkshire, Eng., May 12th, 1819, and emigrated to the United States and settled in Wayne county, Mich., in 1831. He became a resident of Hudson in July, 1843, and engaged in the manufacture of furniture. On the 22d day of February, 1844, he was married to Harriet Newell, only daughter of Silas Eaton. From 1848 to 1852 he was engaged in mercantile business. He was burned out in the spring of 1852. In later years Mr. Johnson built one-half of the Arcade Block, and established the manufacturing establishment on the flats between Fayette and Mechanic streets. In 1876 he traded his Hudson property for property in Toledo, and removed thither about the first of June. FIRES Hudson has had her full share of fires, but we can only notice here her three great conflagrations. The first occurred in 1852, and although it burned only two buildings, was a considerable loss for the Hudson of that period. The second occurred in 1858, and by it all the buildings on the north side of Main street, from about where Beardsell & Plympton's store now stands to Market street, were destroyed. The third occurred on the night of Sunday, the third day of January, 1864, and destroyed the buildings on the south side of Main street from Eaton Bros. store to Market street. The buildings were all wood, but they were in good condition and afforded much needed business places. The loss was estimated at about $8,000. Temporary loss has been eventual gain, however, for in each instance a better class of buildings replaced those destroyed. During the was of the great rebellion Hudson did her whole duty, both as to men and money, to carry on the war. She gave her DeGolyer, her Preston, her Carleton, her Piper, her Edwards, and a score or more of others, as sacrifices on the altar of a common country. An attempt was made to procure a list of Hudson soldiers, but the difficufties to be overcome were so great it could not be accomplished in time for this work. Page 80 BUSINESS FIRMS AND VENTURES THE OLD CORNER STORE.--The business conducted by J. K. Boies & Co.-- general store--was established in early times, and with the exception of a single year, perhaps, has been continuous. The Hon. Henry M. Boies came to Lanesville in 1840, or thereabouts, and in the summer of 1840 was in trade with Curtis H. Boies. He sold out his interest in May, 1841, purchased a stock of goods, and opened trade in Troy, N. Y. He could do nothing there on account of the crushing times, and thinking he could do better in Jackson, Michigan, with the consent of his creditors he removed his stock thither. Hard times were there also, and in the winter of 1842-3 he again removed his stock, this time to Hudson, and again went in trade with Curtis H. Boies. The partners divided their business about 1845, and Henry M. started business for himself. He built the building on the northeast corner of Main and Market streets, lately used as a bowling alley, in the winter of 1846. About 1846 John K. Boies came to Hudson and commenced work for his brother. In the course of time the business took the name of H. M. Boies & Brother, under which style it was conducted many years. About 1854 they built the brick store at the corner of Main and Church streets, and about 1855 sold out their business to the stock-store people, but that institution going under soon after, sold in turn to the Boieses, and under their management it has continued ever since. Some years later, Henry M. withdrew to engage in the wholesale trade in New York, and then John K. took the helm. Its style has varied--once J. K. Boies, once James, Mosher & Co., and again J. K. Boies & Co.--but it has ever been under the same management. No one knows except the founder how many discouragements were met in the early d years of this business house. In 1847 it was really bankrupt, but, thanks to the pluck of the proprietor, the community never knew it, and subsequent prosperous years enabled the house to pay all its liabilities, and to-day its founders count their wealth by tens of thousands. About 1871 the Hon. Henry M. Boies closed up his business in New York and opened a business house in Chicago. So much for pluck, industry and skill, in the management of a business house. EXCHANGE BANK.--This institution was founded in 1855, by Henry M. Boies and Nathan Rude, but the entire control and management of it has been in the hands of our townsmen, Mr. Nathan Rude. That the management has been successful, every business man knows. Several years later, John K. Boies became interested in the bank, since which time the firm has been known as Boies, Rude & Co. Several months since Mr. Rude was compelled, by failing health, to give up the management of the bank, since which time its management has devolved upon the Hon. John K. Boies. ANOTHER GREAT MILL PROJECT.--In 1847 or '48 Hudson had her second mill excitement. About that time one Rollin, or Rolland, came to Hudson and proposed to put up a mammoth flouring mill. Immediately after the abandonment of the original saw mill, the new race was dug and a new saw mill built on the site of the present grist mill of Tucker & Wiggins. This mill property Rollin bought, or bargained for, and gave out a bill of timber for the new mill. His pretence was that he had just drawn a large prize in a lottery--$50,000 he said--and would realize his money in a short time, but it was important to push the mill right along, and he proposed to make a temporary loan, to be repaid as soon as his money was received. He 1oaned considerable money of Dr. S. M. Wirts, and W. H. Johnson, who was then in trade, honored his orders for the payment of his workmen. The timber was hauled on to the ground and the work of framing went busily on. The proprietor was a great stickler for nice work. A pattern was made for each sized mortise, and the mortise must be beaten so that the pattern would fit it perfectly, and the timber when finished 1ooked as if planed. Thus matters progressed until the frame was nearly ready for the raising, and then Rollin discovered he had no prize, but he took