Brief History of CITY OF MARSHALL

The History Of Marshall Township

Marshall Township was formed in 1832. It originally included in its limits all of the entire territory of Calhoun County, and was a constituent of Kalamazoo County. It was named after the then chief justice of the Supreme Court, John Marshall. No election was ever held under the law for representation in the county of Kalamazoo so it was reorganized in 1833, when it became one of the three constituent townships in the formation of Calhoun County. In 1859 an area two miles square including sections 25 and 26, south half of sections 23 and 24 and north half of sections 35 and 36 were set off and included in the formation of the city of Marshall.

The land is generally level and was originally covered with native hardwood trees such as white and burr oak. It is well drained by the Kalamazoo River. The Kalamazoo River flows westward where its source for water power helped to create the village of Ceresco. In 1838 a man named Munson built the first sawmill in Ceresco. It 1839 a flour mill was built by John Pierce, Jos. Frink and S.S. Alcott. They laid out a village naming it Ceresco from the name Ceres (goddess of harvest).

One of the early settlers to the township was a man named Fuller. Others were: John Bertram, Thomas Burland, Thomas Knight, Stephen Kimball, Henry Frailing, Daniel Woolsey, B.F. Curtis, Cyrus Hubbard, Allen Miner, Freeman Hotchkiss, Isaac Lockwood, James Connolly, George and Joseph Bentley and D.H. Godfrey. The first farms were started by John Bertam and Stephen Kimball in 1832 with crops of corn and wheat. John Bertram built the first frame house in 1832 and also the first frame barn to be built in the county.

Source: History of Calhoun County, L.H. Everts & Co. 1877.

Brief History MARSHALL TOWNSHIP

In 1830, Sidney Ketchum (b. 1797) from Peru, Clinton Co, NY decided to build a settlement here and returned a year later with seven others. The town was named "Marshall" after Chief Justice John Marshall. It was also designated the county seat in 1831.

Many politicians favored making Marshall the state capitol to succeed Detroit. However these hopes were not rewarded.

In 1834, Isaac Crary and Rev John D. Pierce developed the concept for a public school system which was later adopted in many other places.

In 1846, an escaped slave named Adam Crosswhite, who was living in Marshall, was tracked down by his owners. Many town citizens had strong abolitionist views and rather than allow Crosswhite to return to slavery, they had the slave hunters arrested and ordered them to return to Kentucky without their slave. Crosswhite and his family were freed and given safe passage to Canada. These events and other similar episodes resulted in the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850.

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, the oldest union in the United States was founded here in 1863.

Marshall is know for its distinctive architecture and many structures have been designated historic places.

Early officers of the village of Marshall were Sidney S. Alcott, mayor, Cyrus Hewitt, clerk, C.M. Brewer (b. 1814, Otsego Co, NY), treasurer, A.S. Hays, trustee, Charles T. Gorham (b. 1812, Danbury, CT), trustee, John Hutchinson, trustee, and Marvin Preston, assessor. Early officers of Marshall township were Henry Cook (supervisor), Marvin Preston (clerk and justice of the peace), Thomas J. Hurlbut (treasurer), Isaac E. Crary (justice of the peace), Benjamin Dwinnell (justice of the peace), and Calvin Smith (justice of the peace) .

Crosswhite  Affair
Link to John C. Sherwood's "One Flame in the Inferno," a study of Marshall's "Crosswhite Affair."  This paper provides an interesting look at the events surrounding the attempted retrieval of the escaped slave Adam Crosswhite and his family from their home in Marshall.