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Hull Sherwood 1769 - 1837 Allegan County Pioneer Pine Creek, Otsego Courtesy of "Allegan Journal" September 6 & 13, 1873. |
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------------------- ALLEGAN COUNTY. HULL SHERWOOD.--Mr. Sherwood came with his family and four families of married sons and daughters into the township in 1831. He visited the State, as we stated in a former article, in 1829, selected a location on Pine Creek, at and above the mouth, and accompanied his son-in-law 'Giles Scott' and family in their emigration to the spot in 1830, returning home in the fall; so that he may be regarded as the pioneer and patriarch of the settlement. Mr. Sherwood emigrated from Brighton near Rochester, N.Y., and had previously resided in Otsego county in that State. He had been engaged in manufacturing lumber at the east, and could not live (as one of his children said to us) without a saw-mill, and therefore selected the Pine Creek locality, on account of the pine timber on its banks, and in the vicinity. The choice was not a bad one, in respect to the quality of the land, as the most of it is good, and that on the west side some of the best in the county. Mr. Sherwood's family that came with him consisted of his wife, and, of unmarried children, one son, Edmund, and two daughters, afterwards Mrs. Oka Town, and Mrs. Jackson, (subsequently Mrs. Burlingame). Of married children, there were Mrs. Caswell with her husband and some children; Eber Sherwood, wife and four children, Luther, Clara, William, and Austin; Hull Sherwood and wife. Another son, Lebbeus Sherwood and family, remained at the east, and emigrated about two years afterward, also settling at Pine Creek, and Mary Sherwood came the year before with Mr. Scott's family. There were also Mr. Sherwood's company Sophronia and Chauncey Scott, (children of Giles & Olive Scott), James McCormick, and adopted son of Hull Sherwood, Jr. (now residing in Otsego), and Harriet Cannon afterwards Mrs. Smith, (mother of Miss Mary Smith), an adopted daughter of Eber Sherwood. The company was enlivened by the presence of an infant, Austin Sherwood, a lad of six months. They came by the usual route of canal to Buffalo, and lake Erie to Detroit. In those early years of steamboating on the lakes the boats were not what they were years afterwards, but were, comparatively, uncomfortable concerns. At Detroit they purchased ox teams, and a horse for a leader, as occasion might require. Royal Sherwood and wife, traveled in the style of more advanced luxury, with a horse and buggy--or "pleasure wagon" as that kind of vehicle used to be called in those days. There was, by the way, a slight difference between the prices of cattle in those times and present prices. Luther Sherwood tells us that his father bought two yoke of oxen and the chain between them for $60. The road from Detroit to the Kalamazoo river was only an Indian trail, and along it here and there were the smallest beginnings of some of the towns that are now large villages and cities. At the point where Marshall now stands they found a man named Crane trying to get up a log house. He had just got a barrel of flour, and proposed to the men of the company to stop and help him raise his house, while the woman cooked up the flour They gladly accepted his offer, as they were nearly out of bread. At the Battle Creek balting place the woman and children had the pleasant little variation of a scare about bears, seen or supposd to have been seen. That early and constant companion of the Michigan emigrants, the ague, met them at the outset, paying his respects to the elder Mrs. Sherwood. How would her gentle woman descendants fancy having chills on a lumber wagon, traveling in the woods? Occasionally, they halted and built a fire to make the shakes more comfortable for the sufferer. A slight accident also occurred to Wm. Sherwood, then a fellow three or four years old, by falling off of a wagon among the wheels. But as it almost always happens when little boys get under wagon wheels, Providence seeming at such times to have a special care of them, he was not hurt. The river ford at Kalamazoo (which, by the way, was in those days, or soon after, called Bronson) was a mile or two below the present bridge, near the old iron works. The emigrants arrived a Pine Creek in June, having been three weeks and two days on the way. Mrs. Eber Sherwood informs us that Mr. Sherwood and herself, with their children, found a snug harbor in a little shingle shanty, which some French traders had built. There was no floor, but they laid down some bark in a part of it, and gave it a kind of human appearance. A dam and saw-mill were completed in a few months. Eber Sherwood was made the express man of the settlement, going to mill at Prairie Ronde, and to Detroit and St. Joseph for goods. It required three weeks to go to Detroit and back, and ten or twelve days to mill. Exposure to the hardships of teaming in the wilderness prepared the way for that other Michigan ailment rheumatism, from which he suffered in after years. Even in the openings the traveler was obliged to walk throught the tall, wet grass in the morning, as we are told, it grew waist high in those days. Goods were at that time, in many cases shipped around the lakes and up the St. Joseph river to Niles, Three Rivers and other points along its course. In the fall after their arrival, Eber and Hull Sherwood, Jrs., having pre-empted land up the river, at and near where the village now stands, built houses on it and moved into them. The houses stood on the flat below the present road, opposite the Eber Sherwood orchard where the road ran for several years. The country not having been surveyed, they guessed us near as they could at the line between their lands, hitting within a rod or two of it, and then built their shanties as near each other as practicle, to have the greatest possible amount of sociability; for, in addition to the men being brothers, their wives were sisters. Those ladies, we may remark in passing, are nieces of the late Timothy Crittenden of Gun Plain, and descended from the old and large family of Crittendens in central New York. These houses they occupied a number of years, and afterwards built respectively those now the possession of A.D. Botsford and Mrs. Dr. Hopkins. Mrs. Eber Sherwood tells us that she and her sister were accustomed occasionaly to relieve the loneliness of their situation by going down the river, and fishing. The demands of fashion did not, in those days, keep a woman closely in the house, and deprive her of the pleasure of rural amusements. As winter approached, and the settlers began to be anxious about fodder for their stock, they were providentially informed by an Indian of the world of grass growing on Gun marsh, six or eight miles up Gun river, who guided them to it, and they cut and stacked an abundance of hay for the winter. Eber Sherwood, his son Luther informs us, cut the first clip of grass ever mowed in the county. Providence took equal good care to freeze the river over that winter with a good thick covering of ice for three months (as we have it upon the authority of Luther Sherwood) upon which they drew their hay across. It would seem from this that they had some as cold winters in those years as we had last winter. Mr. James McCormick (spoken of above), informs us there were large numbers of Indians in this vicinity at that time. There were at times as many as thirty lodges on the ground, on the west side of the river, that was afterwards a part of A.L. Cotton's farm. He once saw 500 Indians holding a drinking festival on the south bank of the river, a little below the saw-mill in the village. They laid away their weapons before they commenced drinking, in the shallow water, and in other places, to avoid any breach of their skins, and set a guard of a few of their number around them. They were wiser in this thing, than civilized revellers now-a-days. When the main body had got sober, the guard took their turn with whisky that had been saved out and hid. The whisky, by the way, was furnished, not by the settlers, but by the French traders that frequented the river. The Indians were useful to the settlers in furnishing them with venison, berries, maple sugar, and exchange for flour, pork and other things. They were friendly, never giving trouble, only when in liquor. There was a chief among them named Ring Nose, so called on account of his wearing a ring in his nose. He was a tall Indian, a great hunter, and somewhat emitent as a talker. Mr. McCormick once heard him make an address at the funeral of an Indian near Saugatuck, where the Indians had a burial place. The address was to the dead Indian, who was placed in a sitting posture in a shallow grave, with his weapons, and other things around him, for his life in the spirit land, after the address the brave was covered with brush, poles, and dirt. In the Black Hawk war in 1832, the settlement was greatly disturbed by rumors that the Illinois Indians were coming across the lake to spread death and desolation in the villages. They buried many of their goods, and packed up, ready to start for some place of safety, when they were happily informed by a friend, Mr. Taft, from Grand Prairie, that peace had been made. A half-breed, named Prickett, who had a cabin near the mouth of Gun river, gave them much trouble by bringing them false, or illfounded rumors in regard to the war. He told the whites that the Indians in this region were going to join the Black Hawk Indians against them, and told the Indians that the whites were going to make war upon them. (We called, in a former communication, one tribe of the Indians Kawas--the printer got it Kiowas--but should have been Tawas, which we are informed was the short for Ottawas). Messrs. Sherwood and sons, in addition to furnishing lumber for building Otsego and vicinity, shipped considerable in rafts down the river to W.G. Butler, which went to Chicago. It is claimed that they sent the first raft, although this is disputed by some, who say that the first was shipped from Aldrich's mill. Their grist-mill was built in 1834, and is still in operation, a descendent of Mr. Sherwood, Chauncy Scott, being one of the proprietors. It was the first built in the county, and was for some years the mill for a large extent of country around. Mr. Sherwood had hopes, on locating at Pine Creek, that there would be the village of the township; but the fates were against it, the capital was to be at the rapids on the river, two miles above. Pine Creek now consists, in the line of business, of a grist-mill, a saw-mill, a blacksmith shop, a cider-mill, and two groceries; the railroad has ruined even the tavern--till within a few years, a stand of large business. Mr. Sherwood died March 4th, 1837, aged 66 years. We find this inscription on his tombstone: "He died a he lived, a firm believer in the full and complete redemption of the human family." From this it would seem that he was a member of the Universalist denomination, and he seems to have adorned his profession, as he is represented to hve been a straight-for-ward, honest, upright man. His numerous descendants compare favorably in morality with other large families. Mr. Sherwood is spoken of as a positive, decided man in his ways, and he was a man of remarkble enterprise and energy, as is evident from the fat of his emigrating at the age of 60 so far in the depths of the wilderness, under the difficulties of emigration that existed at that time. His wife, Mrs. Ann Sherwood, survived him two years, dying July 2nd, 1839, at the age of 66. Her tombstone has this pleasing inscription: "Blessed are the pure in heart." As we read it there was suggested to our mind the image of a loving and amiable woman, for love is the first element of a pure heart. Upon inquiry we found that we were not mistaken. Her daughter-in-law, Mrs. Eber Sherwood, informs us that she was a truly good woman, mentioning as an illustration of her good character, that she never saw her mother indulge in anger. Mr. Sherwood was a man of whom the words of the Bible were true--"He maketh him families like a flock," as there is a numerous posterity of his living. As near as we can learn, there are about 130, almost all in this State, and the most of them in this vicinity. His oldest son, Lebbeus, who came to Pine Creek in 1833, died in 1835, and his wife in 1856. Of their children, there are living, Giles and Noble Sherwood in Gun Plain, Hulbert in Cooper, George in Saugatuck, Deacon Seeley in Gun Plain, and Mrs. Elija Blackman in Trowbridge, Mrs. Caswell (who with her husband located near Gun marsh) the oldest daughter is yet living somewhere in the vicinity of Grand Rapids. Of her family we have not been able to get much information--one son is living in Alamo. Of Mrs. Scott and family we have spoken in a former communication. Mr. Eber Sherwood died in December, 1868 at the age of 69. He was an active business man to the close of his life, and had much to do with the business of the town in his day. He was at one time an associate judge, under the old system of side judges. His widow yet remains among us in a healthy old age, residing on the old homestead with her son-in-law, A.D. Botsford, enjoying the respect and affection of her kindred and acquaintances. Their children are Luther, Mrs. Botsford, and William, of this town, Austin, Elasco and Mrs. Irving Clapp of Allegan, and Mrs. Hiram Reese of Alamo. Royal Sherwood died in 1860, leaving no family. Mrs. Oka Town died in 1843, leaving one daughter, Mrs. Henry Ashley, of Trowbridge. Mr. Town is still one of the leading citizens of the township. Mrs. Jackson, (afterwards Mrs. Burlingame) did some years since, and three of her children survive her, Mrs. Alonzo Squiers of Cooper, and Mrs. Ed Rice, and Mrs. Stafford Johnson of this town. Mr. Burlingame is still living near Pine Creek, one of our most respected citizens. Hull Sherwood Jr., died about the year 1848 at Rochester, N.Y. Mrs. Sherwood is yet living, residing at the east. Of their family, Marion Sherwood resides at Allegan, and Nathan and Mrs. Chas. Crittenden at, or near Rochester. A.L Cotton died in 1863, and her husband in 1866, leaving no family. Mr. Cotton was connected with the party that surveyed the public lands in this county, and held at times various offices in the town. (He was the author of the much-quoted saying, "Cotton can wait," but what was the particular occasion of his originating this saying we have never heard.) Edmund, the youngest, and only surviving son of Hull Sherwood, is living in Plainwell, and has three children, a married daughter in Kentucky, a son in this State, and a daughter, Mrs. Lorenzo Ballou, residing at Clam Lake. (Since writing the article in regard to Giles Scott and family, we have learned that no member of Wm. Butler's family is living in the county, so that, (as we thought possible) Mrs. Rachel Scott Carter has been longer than any other person a resident of the century.) |
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